Warning: English is not my first language. Read at your own peril.

Disclamer: Merlin is not mine

The repercussion of the wedding still lingered within Camelot, even two weeks later. The atmosphere of the city hummed with happiness for the King and recently crowned Queen: you could see it in the lower town where the trade didn't stop until there was no more light to see the products; it was obvious in the taverns where laughter and music never stop, even when people should be working and not drinking; it was in the laughter of the children while they played in the streets. But above all you could see it in the castle, more specifically in the chaos that was in it.

Merlin had thought that the weddings in Ealdor had been chaotic. Not even when he got himself drunk and nearly burnt half of the village and released (and lost) the farming animals had been such chaos as in the royal wedding. And this time they couldn't blame the disaster on him: he hadn't drunk anything (well, almost anything. But the point remains). No, this time the disaster was entirely Arthur's fault. He had wanted a grandiose party to celebrate the coronation in spite of Gwen's protest. Arthur had wanted to announce to the world who his wife was and damn it all if someone would stop him. So in the end not only the nobles had attended the ceremony, but the majority of the common people as well. Of course the nobles hadn't been too happy but for Merlin there couldn't have been a better way to begin Arthur's and Gwen's reign together. The common people and the nobles celebrating side by side, the People's Queen and the Once and Future King at last united. Merlin was happy.

He was happy as long as he could ignore the left overs of the dinner that he still have to clean up, the floors he needed to scrub, the broken furniture that he have to replace and not to mention his usual choirs. It seemed that Arthur didn't understand the magnitude of the disaster he created and even have the audacity to call him lazy for not being on time the past day… and the day before that one, and the one before. But still. Kneeling in the wet floor killing his back while he scrubed a particularly resilient stain was most definitely not the definition of "lazy".

To be fair with the king, Arthur hasn't been angry with him for his tardiness. He was angry, to nobody's surprise, with the Council. Apparently being just married to the love of your live only granted you so much of free days to enjoy. It hadn't been even the fifth day after the wedding that the most elderly of the members of the Council were pressing for a meeting. Arthur had convinced them to wait for another two days, but the mood of the recently wed couple have been ruined. Even more so when, already in the meeting, they have argued against Guinevere attending to it. The excuses went form the polite "it would be unfair to overwhelm our new Queen so soon in her reign", passing to lees polite "she needs time to adjust to the change of station", to the mean "she is a woman and a former commoner and she would know nothing". Of course, the last one wasn't said outright, but it was insinuated in the speech of almost every council member. Least to say Arthur was not happy. But before Arthur could began chopping heads Gwen sat on the left chair of the king's, strengthened her back and, looking every man in the room in their eyes, said with the most regal voice:

"I am the Queen. My duty is to my people; to protect them, to guide them and to see that they are not forgotten when meetings such as this are held. As each one of you know I myself was a commoner and therefore know how their lives are, how they suffer. And how to help them.

My husband, your King, has made quite obvious in his policies that he cares for the good of all the people of Camelot, nobles and common folk alike. To try to negate me my place at this Council would be negating the voice of the people, thus going against your King. By being here I am helping our King to build the Camelot he dreams of. The question is, gentlemen, if you too are going to help or if you will stand in our way."

The members of the Council sat there, gaping. Or they would have been gaping if that wouldn't have been so unbecoming of men of their position. It was close, though, and Arthur was happy with that. He sat next to his Queen, beaming with pride and smiling. The councilmen didn't make a peep.

That day. The following days for the past week they have been a thorn on the side of the royals. They never explicitly said anything of the Queen not going to the meetings, but they were making everything in their power to make her feel unwelcome.

"I should banish them!" said Arthur, pacing. He was in the King's Chambers, with Gwen sitting in a chair and Merlin trying to stay out of the king's way.

"You already said that like a million times"

"Yes, Merlin, I know. Thank you for your irreplaceable advice on such an obvious thing."

"At least I give you some useful advice… now and then" said Merlin, not at all offended for the venom in his friend's words. He knew it was not directed at him.

"What the world has come to if you of all people is a better counsellor than actual councilmen". Remembering that day and how those despicable men have acted made Arthur clench his teeth. He needed to throw something. Where were goblets when one needed them? "I should banish them!"

Unnoticed to him, Merlin rolled his eyes.

"You can't banish every man who speak against you, Arthur. Not if you want to be a fair king" Gwen's voice was soft but behind it there was exasperation. Not at his husband, although her patience war running thin with him too.

"They aren't speaking against me. They are speaking against you!" shouted Arthur. His little control over his rage finally snapping. "They wouldn't take anything you say as correct. They treat you like if you knew nothing. If you would say that the sky is blue they would argue that is light blue instead!"

"And don't you think I don't know that?!" hissed Gwen. "They won't take me seriously and I can't help you if they will undermine every decision that I suggest. I can't help the people. I'm useless" At that Gwen's voice broke and a sob escaped her lips.

Immediately Arthur stopped pacing and went to hug her in an attempt to console her. She hugged him back and tried to hide her face in his chest while Arthur run his hand softly in her hair, whispering reassuring words. She wasn't crying but light tremors born out of anger and sadness run down her body. They embraced each other fiercely and Merlin felt completely out of place; like he was intruding something he had no right to be a part of. He slowly and quietly went to the door, opened it and left the couple alone. He wasn't needed at the moment.

None of the royals noticed his absence.

"What am I going to do, Arthur?"

"We need them to accept you, but they will only do so if they consider you noble enough, whatever that means" scoff Arthur. "I should..."

"If you are going to say 'I should banish them' one more time so help me the Gods I will slap you" warned Gwen. She nodded to the chairs near the desk and they sat.

"I was most certainly not going to say that" said Arthur in a tone of mock offence. They look each other in the eyes and started laughing. "I will not banish them. But I could remove them from the Council. Bring young blood to the meetings"

"That would be disastrous, Arthur, you know it. I don't like them, but they are the Lords of our farming lands, our mines, our roads. They control our economy. If we offend them the repercussions would be great."

"And the councilmen aren't the only problem, either. For what Leon told me the knights aren't very happy to follow orders from a commoner, even if they are far better with the sword than them"

"Elyan told me about it. Some kind of fight within Gwaine and Sir Aston about honour and tradition."

"Yes. Sir Aston isn't comfortable with the idea of 'low born knights with no sense of knightly bounds and honours' to be my personal guard and therefore being in a higher rank than himself." The tone of Arthur indicated how he felt about that statement. "He says -not in this exact words, mind you, but the meaning was clear nonetheless - that I'm breaking too many traditions, that is bad enough that I'm allowing low borns to become knights and now I'm promoting them"

"No wonder Gwaine broke his nose"

"I'm surprise Gwaine didn't broke more than his nose" said Arhur with a smile "If Leon hadn't been there I'm sure I'll be short one knight. Not that Sir Aston doesn't deserve a broken leg or two, but that is not the picture I want my noble knights to make of the common born. I want them to work together, not apart"

"Isn't Sir Aston the nephew of Lord Clayton?"

"Indeed he is. They think I don't see it, but it isn't a coincidence that Lord Clayton rejects you on the council and his nephew rejects my knights. They have always been power hungry and I'm a fairly new king, very young and I'm making quite the changes that goes against the conventional order of things. They're testing the limits, see if they can gain more power by undermining my decisions. If I didn't know for certain that they don't have enough military power I would fear a coup."

Both royals went silent after that. All the changes they wanted to make for the good of all the people were blocked by a high and mighty wall of high born. And try as they might nor Arthur not Gwen were able to see a way to bring it down.

"What are we going to do, Arthur? Are the nobles really so close-minded that they cannot see the worth of anyone but their own kind? Sir Leon had never had these problems"

"That's because Leon grew up with you and Elyan as examples of the worthiness of common folk. He interacted with you two enough to see..." While he was speaking, an idea start forming in Arthur's mind. It was so simply, really. It was a wonder they hadn't thought of it sooner "That's it! Guinevere, I know what to do!"

"Do what?"

"We need for you to interact with the noble men to show them our point of view" said Arthur, grinning. He seemed happy and excited, but Gwen couldn't see why.

"I have tried to speak with de Councilmen but they don't want to hear me"

"Not them, Guinevere. At least not now. Speak with the noble women, befriend them and convince them to support you. Then they can convince their husbands to support me."

"Isn't that the problem? That no noble born want to hear me?"

"No noble man want to hear you" pointed Arthur with a finger on the table. Then he move it to another, identical, place in the table "But you are a new Queen and I'm sure there is some amount of ladies who want to be your Lady in Waiting"

"Arthur, we talk about it. I'm not going to surround myself with a group of gossiping harpies just because is tradition. I though we were going to break them." said Gwen. Her tone was firm and unyielding. She was not going to suffer the badly concealed insults that the so called ladies were sure to say to her. She didn't have time for gossip and petty things; she needed to help Arthur built his dream, to help the people to a better way of living. Sitting and eating pastries while knitting with spoiled women was not the mean to that end. And more importantly she wouldn't betray her kind like this. For in her heart Gwen was still a servant girl, she belonged with the common people and she always would.

"And we are going to break them. But first we need people to break them with. We need support"

"And what make you think the noble women want to be near me, not to mention my Lady in Waiting"

"Because they are as power hungry as their husbands. If they think they may be a chance, however small, to gain your favour they will do it"

At last Gwen began to see what Arthur wanted her to do.

"So if I said I wanted to, say, allow the women to have a voice in the council they would try to convince their husbands to accept it because they would expect a reward for their actions"

"Exaclty!" said Arhur and then laugh. Problem solved, right?

"That won't work for all the changes we want to made. Maybe one or two, but no more" There was no way this could work. It pained Gwen to think so, but it was the truth. They couldn't built a kingdom from manipulation.

"That is why I want you to befriend them. Among all those harpies there must be al least one woman honourable enough to be on your side not for personal favours but because she believes in you. I believe you can show them true honour and compassion; that you can win their loyalty by showing your true self: one of love and friendship"

Gwen just looked at her husband and thought about what he was asking of her. Could she really do that? Would she be able to withstand an onslaught of gossip, insults and disdain just for the hope that one of them could be her friend? That she could help her change the minds of the nobles? And if she indeed found such a person, would just one noble woman be able to produce such a change? Gwen could not answer any of these questions. Not without trying. When she married Arthur she knew she would have to do sacrifices, she knew it wasn't going to be an easy road. But she had done so all the same. If this was the way to begin to break the wall within nobles and common folk she would do it. For her people.

She looked at the King's eyes and nodded. She would play to be the proper Queen. All of it for her people.

Away from the King's Chambers, Merlin was returning to his own chambers. Well, his and Gaius. He wanted to help his mentor with some potions. In the past weeks the old Physician was becoming slower and slower while mixing herbs or walking to one end to the other of the room. Merlin had insisted that he rested, that he could make the potions (after all he has been his apprentice for over six years now. He had learned one or two things about healing), but Gaius wouldn't hear any of that. Once or twice Merlin had caught him coughing, hard, but when asked the old man had said it was just something in his throat. Merlin had said enough lies in his life to know when he was being lied to; he knew Gaius was becoming ill. He had wanted to ask Arthur for some time off to care for his mentor, but the king had his own problems. It always amazed how the councilmen could stand so tall and proud of themselves while at the same time denied the equality to the people that Arthur wanted to bring.

'Well, not all people, now, is it?' he thought, but immediately refused to acknowledge it. In time, people with magic would have the same rights that the other citizens of Camelot. '

What about some rights to begin with'. Merlin stopped in the middle of the hallway and shook his head. This bitter thoughts didn't help anyone, least of all himself.

Some days he wouldn't have problems to vanquish this kind of thinking, it would be easy to feel hope for the future and the dream he so wanted to become true. Other days, darker days, he could not find the strength to hope; and without hope he didn't dare to dream of a day he could be free. Those days were dangerous for him. In the Dark Days, as he has come to call them, he felt the shadows within his soul rise and consume him, pulling him down, down, the darkness for him to never see the light again. It was on those days that he needed Gaius to remind him how to hope, how to see the light.

Gaius, who now was ill and the stubborn man didn't want to recognize that. Merlin decided he was going to do what Gaius always did to him when he was being a cabbage-head: he was going to give him a sleeping draught in his porridge. A taste of his own medicine, quite literally. He smiled and enter the Physician Chambers. And froze. Collapsed on the floor with broken glass around him was his mentor and father figure.