The Royal Scandal *Book One*

The Poisoned Goblet S1 E4

💚 Edited-15.6.20. 💚

A few days had passed since the plague was chased out of Camelot and yet trouble still arrived.

This time the trouble came in the form of the leader of Mercia (another kingdom), who we had quarrelled with in the past, coming to Camelot to discuss their terms of peace.

As I'm sure they had also got quite a few guards with them in case things got out of hand, my Father had ordered that 75% of all our guards would be focused on this meeting for the next few days.

At the moment, Arthur and I were standing with Father and about a dozen other guards in an arrowhead formation in the great hall waiting for the king from Mercia to arrive.

And they did. They too were in an arrowhead formation and began walking towards us and so we mimicked their actions and paced towards them.

If this wasn't such a serious threat, I'd probably be highly amused by the sight of this.

Once we reached one another, my Father stopped us and spoke, "Camelot welcomes you, Lord Bayard of Mercia."

Silence. No one said a thing.

"This treaty we sign today marks an end to war and the beginning to a new friendship between our people." He held out his hand for Lord Bayard to shake. He cautiously swung his hand round and placed it in my Father's hand before giving it a firm shake.

This was a little surprising for many of us but we all none the less started clapping for the unity between the two kings.

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Third Person POV

"Why do I always get landed with the donkey work?" Merlin asked Gaius, slightly out of breath as he carried one of the foreign king's bags.

"You're a servant, Merlin, that's what you do," he told him with a small shrug.

"My arms'll be a foot longer by the time I get these inside."

"It's character building. And anyway, as the old proverb says, hard work breeds..." Gaius paused. Subconsciously, Merlin raised an eyebrow at him, just like the one he'd seen Chelsea do to people so often. Attempting to hide it from his guardian, Merlin bite down on his lip to hide his smile and it was luckily unnoticed by Gaius, who had finally come up with an ending. "A harder soul."

"There's no way that's a proverb. You just made that up," Merlin accused.

"I did not," Gaius denied, as one of Lord Bayard servants tripped in front of them, all of the items in her hands scattering across the floor.

"Sorry," she apologised quickly.

"That's alright," Merlin said to her, sending a glance over at Gaius.

"Excuse me," she muttered, trying to pick all of the things she was carrying up.

Knowing the effort of being a servant, guilt twisted in Merlin's stomach for her so he put down what he was holding and offered to help. "Let me give you a hand with that."

As Merlin bent down to pick up her things, she looked up at him, the eyes connecting for a split second but it was long enough for Merlin to notice one thing; Her eyes were so blue. It almost felt supernatural.

Realising he had been staring, Merlin quickly straightened up and said the first thing that came to mind.

"Hi." Hi? Oh my God, really? Was that the best he could do? "I'm Merlin," He said offering his hand to shake.

"Kara," she replied, shaking it. "You're Arthur's servant," she pointed out. "That must be such an honour."

"Uh, yeah, it is. Well, someone's got to keep the place running," Merlin said, ignoring the face that Gaius was making a face at him.