I Loved You Once in Silence

Lancelot

CHAPTER SUMMARY

The day of the royal wedding arrives.

BEGINNING NOTES

Chapter Rating: General Audiences
Word Count: 3958
Content Warning: violence (mild)

And all the characters are owned by Julian Jones and Shine Limited.

Credits at the end.

It was four days before the royal wedding, and at least a hundred nobles had arrived to attend. Merlin and Gwen were up at dawn to prepare the throne room, then forced to stand there as the herald introduced family after family to Uther, Arthur, and Morgana.

"Why do we have to do this when there's a banquet in three days?" Merlin whispered to Gwen.

Gwen shrugged. "At least we won't have so many people at our wedding."

They'd tried to secure time off to travel to the Lake of York--the halfway point between Ealdor and Camelot--to finally get married. But with so many moving parts in the royal wedding, that was impossible.

He had mixed feelings about the wedding. He hoped Arthur and Morgana would have a happy life together, but that was doubtful. They were repulsed by each other in a romantic sense. Still, it wouldn't be until the wedding that Merlin could move on. His feelings for Morgana wouldn't go away until the door was firmly shut on any sort of relationship, and that wouldn't happen until they were both married to other people.

It helped and hurt that Morgana hadn't spoken to him since they'd freed Gwen from prison. It kept his feelings at bay, but... well, he wanted to know why she was so distant. Yes, their friendship had been sudden, but she'd spoken to him here and there before their team-up. Now, she was silent.

"Morgana!" came a female voice, snapping Merlin from his thoughts.

Morgana's eyes lit up. "Elaine!" she cried. She ran from her spot by her throne, and the two women threw themselves into each other's arms.

"Lord Nentres of house Garlot and his wife, the Lady Elaine," the herald announced.

"That's Morgana's only sister," Gwen explained. "I don't think they've seen each other since Lord Gorlois's funeral. Lady Elaine's much older; she got married when Morgana was eight."

"I can see the resemblance," Merlin said. Elaine looked identical to Morgana, except she was slightly taller and had shorter hair. Uther spoke with Nentres, and Arthur joined the sisters chatting in the center of the throne room. "Quick, let's get out of here while they're distracted."

"Are you sure?" Gwen asked.

"Do you want to spend the rest of the day watching nobles bow to Uther?" Merlin asked. With a bit of a laugh, Gwen let Merlin take her hand and draw her away from the crowd.

An hour later, they were running through the woods together with a picnic basket in their hands. "Where are you taking me?" Merlin cried as he chased after Gwen.

"You'll have to see!" Gwen shouted back, and raced even faster with the basket, disappearing as she ran down a steep hill.

"Gwen! Wait for me!" Merlin called, stopping to catch his breath. There was no response. "Gwen...?" he called again, but there was no answer.

Merlin's heart pounded. This was a little too close to comfort for him. The last time he lost someone in the woods... "Gwen?!" Merlin shouted. He sprinted forward, but when he looked down the hill, she was nowhere to be seen.