Gold Coin • Arthur Pendragon

The Castle

Arthur hadn't meant to actually injure the knight, but he had almost forgotten that this was training and not an actual fight.

Now knowing that Merlin did indeed have magic, his distracted mindset had seemed to switch. Before, he had been distracted by the possibility, so much so that other tasks weren't done to his best ability. After the previous day's revelations, Arthur found himself desperately focusing on anything but Merlin.

Arthur knew that ignoring the situation was only making Merlin more nervous. That morning, Merlin had been the polite model of a servant instead of starting their usual banter.

Of course, this had meant that Arthur had been late to training because Merlin wasn't able to wake him in any normal way, but not one of the knights had dared to comment on his late appearance. Being the prince did have its perks.

Merlin's magic, and Arthur's pointless need to prove to himself, and to his knights, that he was as invulnerable as ever, had driven him to attacking a little more recklessly than usual. The swords they used in training were dull, but could still hurt pretty badly when someone was fighting as Arthur had been.

"Are you alright?" Arthur dropped the sword and crouched by the young knight seated in the grass. Sir Lucan, one of Arthur's newest knights, had a gash in his arm that definitely shouldn't have been there just from practice. I'm sorry, Arthur almost said.

But he didn't.

"You should go see Gaius for that."

Sir Lucan nodded and accepted the hand offered by one of the other knights. Arthur watched as the two walked back inside the castle.

Maybe Arthur shouldn't practice while this distracted. It wasn't fair to his knights.

"Are you feeling okay, sire?"

Leon. Of course it was him. Few of the other knights would have dared to ask a question unrelated to their training. Some of the older knights, the few that were left in service that had been around when Arthur was only just beginning his own training, might have asked. Leon had always been the closest to a friend Arthur had, though. Leon was a couple years older, but had often been a training partner in the early days.

He hadn't been one of the ones that laughed at his jokes and agreed with him no matter what, though. That's what made him Arthur's favorite now, and the reason why he had disliked Leon in the beginning. It was this quality, their willingness to refute Arthur's decisions, that made Merlin and Leon similar.

Maybe it wasn't unusual for most people, but Arthur had realized as he had aged that being prince meant that people often didn't tell you the truth. They told you what you wanted to hear. Leon and Merlin were honest despite that trend.

So Arthur had thought, anyway. What secret was Leon hiding, he wondered. He had to have something. Apparently everyone did. Maybe Merlin and Leon's honesty came from the guilt of keeping back something bigger.

"I'll be fine," Arthur said.

Leon nodded. "If you need anything, just let me know."

"Thank you, Sir Leon."

0o0o0

As usual, Merlin was present to serve Arthur's lunch.

"How was training, sire?" He asked politely.

There he was speaking formally again.

"A knight was injured," Arthur said. "But otherwise, it went well."

There were a few moments of silence while Arthur ate his food and Merlin watched. It was somewhat uncomfortable. Even though Arthur knew that servants watched people eat all the time in order to know when more servings were needed, Merlin just standing silently was a bit unnerving.