(A/N)

so...um...it's been a bit since i updated? oops.

i'm breaking my rule of finishing the next chapter before posting this one, it's been too long. that's why i made that rule for myself, so i'd have something to post in the middle of any writer's block / lack of motivation. i have about a third of the next chapter written. i got really busy with class registration (like INSANELY busy bc my college's system is awfully designed) and then i lost my momentum for this story. i'm going to do my best to finish this before college starts, though!

...anyways...

in this chapter i introduce prince fionn of marlin, aka Decent Fucking Human Being :)

enjoy!

"Such a beautiful day, isn't it, Gwen?" Morgana grinned at her faithful maid. The two rode their horses in the middle of a sea of guards, headed toward an actual sea. "It would be quite peaceful if I didn't feel like I was being defended against an oncoming army."

She smiled at the knights and guards escorting her to the Great Seas of Meredor, her tone light and playful so they knew she meant no harm. Uther wanted to protect her, after all, and he was paranoid after the incident where she and Gwen had been kidnapped. No number of guards could be enough.

These guards weren't supposed to all be for her, though. No matter how well Arthur could defend himself, she knew that some of them were meant to be watching him. Uther usually stepped up the protection when foreigners were involved. She didn't quite know why Arthur and Merlin hadn't departed with them, though she was sure it was something stupid. Probably Arthur's fault, if she had to guess.

She also guessed that Arthur had put the blame on Merlin.

Morgana shook her head at the thought of those two. Their bond was unlike any she had ever seen, and she knew that she and Gwen were close for a master and a servant. Sometimes she thought that they needed a whack to the head to see how they had bonded instead of pretending that they weren't friends. Ever since Merlin had come into Arthur's life, they had clicked; they just both acted as if they were deaf.

"You think Arthur finally killed Merlin?" Gwen chuckled and glanced over at Morgana with an exasperated look.

"Actually, I'm sure it was the other way around," Morgana jested as she rolled her eyes. She laughed as she continued, "Really, Arthur throws so many things at Merlin, I wouldn't blame him. Maybe Merlin's gotten sick of it."

"Oh, yes, of course," Gwen said. "After all, Merlin's his personal manservant; he has the best access to Arthur's chambers."

"Remind me to never give you a reason to abuse your position and kill me." Morgana smiled. "Now, enough about them. You know the welcome breakfast we're supposed to have with the Marlin delegation the morning after tomorrow?"

"Yes, of course," Gwen replied. "I'll do my best to impress them."

"I may have called upon some favors," Morgana said, watching Gwen's face for her reaction. "You won't have to work the breakfast, you can dine right alongside me."

Gwen's face broke out into a huge smile and she looked at Morgana graciously. "Oh, thank you, Morgana, that's lovely! I really do hope this isn't just to keep me from killing you."

"Of course not," Morgana assured her. Then she noticed the guards tensing around them and sighed in annoyance. "If any of you so much as think that she's actually threatening me, I'll tell Uther that you fell asleep on your watch. I trust Gwen with my life. She's more than a servant to me, she's my friend."

Morgana wished that Arthur and Merlin would see the same thing about themselves. But, instead, they pretended not to, and made themselves seriously late.

Morgana did her best to smile and distract the delegation as they disembarked from their ship, but even she couldn't explain why the future king of Camelot wasn't there. Foreign delegations were supposed to receive the utmost respect, top-notch treatment, and the prince couldn't even bother to be on time. She would need to be as diplomatic as possible to ensure that this insult wouldn't taint the upcoming negotiations.

So she laughed and made small talk with the members of the delegation as they passed, dancing around questions by dishing out compliments and distracting with connections. She told their visiting physician about Gaius, the group of knights about Sir Leon, and she would tell the royal family about Arthur and Uther. No need to worry the rest of the delegation before the people whom Arthur's tardiness would offend.

Off the ship came Queens Flanna and Deirdre, and then Prince Fionn. She took a deep breath and held her shoulders high, trying to hide how they were stiffening.

Morgana had yet to meet a truly respectful prince; most of them wanted to barter her for a strong relationship to Camelot. She knew how royal marriages often worked, but she didn't approve, and they could at least have the decency to talk to her instead of negotiating her future with Uther. She wanted to be treated like a person.

She had never met anyone from Marlin, and she knew nothing about the reputation of Prince Fionn. She could only hope that Fionn didn't think of her as some prize to aspire for during this visit; she certainly wouldn't parade herself around like one. At least Arthur had had the sense not to mention this to her; she knew it wasn't something that would change right now. She would simply have to do her best while Uther still ruled and hope that things would change someday.

"Queens Flanna and Deirdre, Prince Fionn," Morgana greeted, a smile gracing her face. She gave a small curtsy. "How lovely it is to meet you."

"You as well, Lady Morgana," Queen Deirdre replied. "I hope that your journey was well?"

"Yes, it was, and yours?" Morgana responded. She saw their eyes glance behind her for a moment; they were searching the escort for someone. Arthur.

"It was well, thank you," Queen Flanna said. "The storms always keep the trips interesting. If you don't mind my asking, where is Prince Arthur? We were under the impression that he would be meeting us here as part of the escort."

Morgana took a breath and gave one last glance back at the woods. There was no sign of Arthur or Merlin. They should have arrived by now; Camelot was just under a day's ride away, and Morgana and Gwen had left late yesterday morning. Even if the two were a few hours late in leaving, they would have arrived in time for the delegation's arrival.

"There was a delay in his departure," Morgana replied. "My sincerest apologies for that, I came over ahead of him so that you wouldn't be left alone. He should be here to escort us by the time we depart for Camelot tomorrow."

She had braced herself for an angry reaction that never came. Instead, the royal family only smiled back at her, Queen Deirdre taking her hand in what could only be understanding.

"We understand, Lady Morgana, it's quite alright," Queen Deirdre said, squeezing her hand before letting it go. "We are simply gracious that Uther has let us come to Camelot at all, it has been far too long."

Morgana scrunched her eyebrows at that for a moment before she caught herself and straightened her expression. She hadn't really been aware of any kind of rift between Marlin's royal family and Uther, though she supposed it made sense since they had never interacted before.

"What she means is that we haven't had the opportunity to see such beautiful lands in a long time," Prince Fionn said, sending a glance at Queen Deirdre. "Marlin doesn't have quite as many mountains or forests since it's made up of islands."

"Ah, yes, the islands sound lovely," Morgana replied, grateful for a change of subject. "I haven't actually been on a ship before, I simply must visit sometime."

She continued this conversation with Marlin's royal family as she led them over to their accommodations for the night, introducing them to Gwen, the other servants, and the escort of guards and knights. Morgana was lucky enough to have this time to figure out what to say if Arthur didn't show up soon; now she needed to use it.

Morgana yawned as she woke up, rolling her neck in an attempt to relieve the knot that had appeared overnight. She hadn't slept very well, partially in an attempt to listen for Arthur's arrival and partially because she had tried to figure out what to say when Arthur didn't arrive.

At this point, she knew something was wrong. There was absolutely no reason that they should be so late.

As Gwen dressed her and prepared her for the day, Morgana glanced outside her tent. Arthur's and Merlin's wasn't there.

"Ready for the breakfast, milady?" Gwen asked, pulling her from her thoughts. Morgana smiled back at her. There was no need to worry Gwen; besides, the maid was smart enough to know something was wrong on her own. Saying something about it would only cause the both of them to panic even more.

"Yes, Gwen, thank you," she replied as they walked out of the tent. "I hope you're excited, the locals are meant to have prepared a quite unique assortment of foods."

They made their way over to the communal tent which had been set up for the welcome breakfast. Before they went inside, Morgana eyed the knights standing outside and sent Gwen ahead into the tent.

"You two, can you work back along the official travel path and look for Arthur and Merlin?" Morgana asked, smiling apologetically at the two men. She knew everyone had been looking forward to this breakfast. "I'm sorry to send you away, but they should have arrived already. I will put in a good word for you with Uther and the Chef."

"Of course, milady," one of them, Sir Leon, replied. She felt confident that he would do his best; Leon was one of the most diligent knights they had. "We were already planning on asking you about it. We will leave at once."

"Thank you," Morgana said, and turned back toward the entrance to the breakfast tent. She peeked through the edges of the fabric to see a grand table set up, Gwen already seated at it. The queens of Marlin were already there, though she didn't spot Prince Fionn.

"Trying to figure out where to sit so you'll be next to me?" A voice murmured about a foot away from her ear. Morgana jumped and spun around, her hand over her heart in shock, to see Prince Fionn. He chuckled and shook his head. "Don't worry, I'm not here to flirt with you. I simply wish to get to know the royal noblewoman who has such a great reputation with the commoners here, they seem to really love you."

Morgana smiled back. Fionn hadn't actually invaded her space, after all, he had stayed a respectable distance away while getting her attention. And he wanted to talk to her about her role in the kingdom. This was already a vast improvement upon most of the royal interactions she had had.

The two of them sat next to each other, with Gwen on Morgana's other side. Fionn introduced himself to Gwen a second time, less formally than last night, and made sure to include her in their conversation. Morgana suddenly did not mind having no other purpose in this welcome other than socializing.

But she did have another purpose, and the world would not let her forget it. They had been dining for about half an hour when Sir Leon came rushing into the breakfast tent, his hair wild and his face red. And, Morgana noticed with a frown, multiple injuries.

Leon made his way straight over to Morgana and leaned in. "Lady Morgana, we need to discuss something with the Marlin royal family," he whispered.

Morgana scrunched her eyebrows in both confusion and worry, but continued on as if nothing were the matter. She sent out the servants and knights, leaving only the Marlin delegation, Leon, Gwen, and herself in the tent.

"What is it, Sir Leon?" Morgana prompted Leon, who had been waiting to speak.

"Sir Caridoc and I were just riding back towards Camelot to see why Prince Arthur had not yet arrived," Leon said, his expression darkening. "A bandit approached us and handed us a ransom letter for the Prince of Marlin, and he was on Prince Arthur's horse. Then...he ran Sir Caridoc through. Said they only needed one of us to deliver the message."

Morgana gasped in horror. She should have worried about Arthur sooner, he would never be so careless as to be late to something as important as this. Only one thought pierced through her clouding mind; why did the bandits think they had Prince Fionn?

"Well, that's simply preposterous." Queen Flanna motioned for the letter that Leon held. "Let us read this supposed ransom letter."

The two queens sat there reading the letter, Morgana and Fionn peering over their shoulders. It said that they had Fionn and Arthur, and were demanding gold and safe passage away from Camelot. Not signed, though.

"They clearly don't have Fionn," Queen Deirdre broke the silence, patting her son on his arm.

"But they must have Arthur," Morgana noted. She straightened up and began to pace back and forth around the table. "I am certain that they would have sent his insignia ring to Uther in Camelot. And they must have mistaken someone else for Fionn…"

"Merlin!" Gwen cried out, her hand flying to her mouth in shock. "They must have told the bandits that he was a prince to keep them from killing him."

"Who is this Merlin?" Prince Fionn asked, crossing his arms.

"Arthur's personal manservant," Morgana answered, her expression downcast. "They're closer than brothers, though they wouldn't admit that. And they have to keep this story up now…"

"We'll send some of our knights to Camelot to join Uther's to rescue Arthur," Queen Deirdre assured her, already giving an order to the one Marlin servant that had remained in the tent.

"Thank you." Morgana smiled in relief and sank back down into her chair. Gwen, though, didn't relax.

"What about the ransom?" Gwen spoke up. The Marlin delegation shot her a sharp look and Morgana shushed her, squeezing her hand in support. They couldn't anger the foreign delegation who had just committed to helping the rescue in goodwill.

"Well, we'll need to inform them that Prince Fionn is safe and that we will not negotiate with them," Queen Flanna replied. Morgana's heart sank. "We will not allow some lowly bandits to pretend they have our son, we cannot let them ruin our family's strong image here before we've even been officially introduced to the commoners."

"But they'll kill Merlin if you don't negotiate!" Morgana exclaimed, her body tense again. She searched the faces of the Marlin delegation for support. Queen Flanna wasn't swayed, and Queen Deirdre looked sympathetic, but there was too much pity in her eyes to expect her to take action. Fionn only looked down at the ground, unchallenging to his mothers. "Please, Camelot will funnel any payments from its treasury if necessary."

Not entirely true, but usually the rescue would succeed before actual payments were required. If it didn't, though, she would rather suffer Uther's wrath than see Merlin dead.

"I apologize, Lady Morgana, but the knights are all we can do," Queen Flanna said, already standing up and making to leave the tent. "Negotiating with these lowly bandits would insult our kingdom's honor, and we simply cannot allow our people or your people to believe that we would stoop so low when it is not even necessary for Fionn. The future relationship between our kingdoms is too important. I'm sure King Uther would agree."

"I'm sure he would," Morgana conceded as the Marlin delegation exited the tent. She turned to Gwen and began to panic. "Gwen, what are we going to do? We have to save Merlin, we can't let them kill him!"

"They won't," Fionn cut in from behind Morgana. She gasped; she thought he had left with the rest of the delegation. "I want to help you."

"Remind me why we're stuck doing this again?" Morgana muttered as she, Gwen, and Fionn knelt behind a fallen tree in the Valley of the Fallen Kings. "It would have been easier if your parents would act as if they were negotiating."

"I know, but I understand why they can't," Fionn sighed, looking at the two women sympathetically. "They had to fight hard to marry and rule together. Their marriage isn't exactly traditional, even if Marlin is a bit more accepting than what I've heard about Uther. They've only stayed in power by acting strong and unemotional. If they didn't do everything possible to keep their image away from emotional, incapable women, the men in the court would have their heads. It's awful, but change has to be slow. We can't send a different letter for them to help Merlin, it would only spread to commoners that they allowed me to be taken and to the court that they risked the knights at negotiations for a mere servant. But I am going to do everything I can to rescue him."

"Thank you." Morgana smiled at him gratefully, and then steeled her expression. "So we steal your parents' response from the bandit who picks it up, and then get them to lead us to wherever they're keeping Arthur and Merlin."

"It's the best I can do," Fionn replied before getting back into a prepared position. "With no response from Marlin, though, we'll have to be quick. We can't wait for the knights' rescue of Arthur, it will be too late for Merlin by then."

They remained silent for a few minutes until two men approached the clearing ahead from opposite directions: Sir Leon and one of the bandits. Sure enough, he rode Arthur's horse.

The three remained silent while Leon delivered the queens' letter to the bandit; it was a day after the breakfast, and they had claimed to have set out for Camelot early as an excuse for their absence as the Marlin delegation stayed at the coast until the kidnapping was figured out. They told the guards that had been with them to continue on to Camelot and that they had changed their minds so that no one knew where they were. Thankfully, Fionn's skills with a sword were enough to convince the guards that they could make it back to the coast unharmed. They couldn't give any indication that the queens' planned reply to the bandits was meddled with.

They waited a few minutes for Leon to clear the area, then slowly surrounded the bandit as he readied Arthur's horse to leave.

"Oh, thank god, I've been lost for hours, do you know how to get to Camelot from here?" Morgana suddenly stepped out to distract the bandit so he wouldn't take off. Gwen led Arthur's horse away since she had a vague familiarity with her and so wouldn't scare her. And Fionn silently drew his sword right behind the bandit.

The bandit sneered at Morgana. "You're quite a ways away, get someone else to help you. From the looks of it, you'll find someone easily." He turned around only to be met with Fionn. Morgana picked up her sword from where she had hidden it earlier.

"Going somewhere?" Fionn asked as he put his sword to the bandit's neck. "Give me the letter."

The bandit glanced between his three attackers and sighed, clearly recognizing that he was outnumbered. He begrudgingly handed over the envelope which Leon had given him.

"And now you are going to lead us to wherever you're keeping them," Fionn continued, tying the man's wrists together while Morgana kept him at swordpoint. "Maybe we'll spare you."

"Oh, please, you're no match for Thea and Alastor," the bandit snorted as he began walking. Fionn immediately stopped him.

"What did you just say?" Fionn growled, pressing his sword into the bandit's back. It seemed he had heard enough, though, as he swore and looked away.

"What? What is it?" Morgana asked, nervous about Fionn's behavior. Everything was going to plan, wasn't it?

"It's Thea and Alastor," Fionn sighed and looked straight into Morgana's eyes. His were filled with worry. "I know who they are."

It took them a day to reach the White Mountains and set up a camp to plan out their next move, a day during which Fionn told Morgana and Gwen about Thea and Alastor.

Supposedly, Queens Flanna and Deirdre had more problems with getting married than Fionn had said earlier. Flanna, who had been the Marlin family princess, had an older brother named Patrick. He was firstborn and male, so he should have gotten the throne, but then it came out that he had borne an illegitimate daughter, Thea, with another woman while he was engaged. He lashed out in anger at his serving boy, Alastor, because he suspected him of having revealed the secret to the court. Alastor was severely injured, and Patrick was disowned. So the throne went to Flanna, and Patrick and Thea were sent away to live in Odin's lands when Thea was only four.

The last that Marlin had heard of Patrick and Thea, she had been learning dark magic to take revenge on her father for harming Alastor, who she was close to. Alastor heard from her by letter and left Marlin to follow her. Neither had ever returned.

"If Thea has magic, how do we fight her?" Gwen asked. "I will do anything to save Merlin and Arthur, but we can't let her hurt them."

"Don't worry," Fionn said, warily glancing at Morgana. "Marlin's entire royal family has magic."

Morgana gasped. Uther had conditioned her to fear magic, to persecute those who had it. How could Fionn keep this from them? Well, of course he had; Uther would declare a war if he found out there was a kingdom run by sorcerers. But what would a kingdom run by sorcerers think of Camelot? Or do to King Uther's ward, alone in the woods?

No, she had to dispel her worries: Fionn had been the kindest prince she had ever met, and he genuinely wanted to save Arthur and Merlin. She herself had been having unexplained experiences the past few months; perhaps Fionn could help her figure them out.

"Gwen, it's alright," Morgana assured her maid, having noticed how Gwen stiffened. Gwen had grown up the same as she had in regards to the kingdom's beliefs about magic, just without her own suspicions of having magic herself. "He's here to help us, we have to let him. It's for Arthur and Merlin."

"Thank you," Prince Fionn said, relaxing his shoulders slightly. "I promise, I will save them."

"Don't even think about forcing me to stay back, I'll just follow you in," Morgana warned. She refused to sit down and do nothing to save her friends solely because she was a woman.

"As long as you can fight, which I'm sure you can, I want you with me," Fionn replied. "Lead the way."

When they got to the bandit's hideout, Fionn used his magic to take out the bandit guards. Morgana marveled at how they all just fell asleep; perhaps whatever she had didn't need to be so destructive.

They crept into the cave only to be met with a horrifying sight. Alastor with a dagger to Arthur's arm, Thea chanting over a screaming Merlin.

Morgana saw two simultaneous blasts of magic: one emanated from Fionn, knocking a large cage from the ceiling down and right on top of Thea, who had been blown into its path. The other, which had seconds before knocked everyone aside, looked like it had come from Merlin.

(A/N)

so imagine this chapter was the other storyline going alongside the whole kidnapping thing if this were an episode. ideally i would have placed these scenes throughout the story like an episode would, but this is the way i wrote it and this is the way it's gonna be. lol.

also this was the second to last chapter :( (maybe that's why i'm having trouble writing chapter 6, i don't wanna be done with it)

i really hope yall liked this!