Echo: So, I know I have another Merlin story, The Dragon Child, which requires updating but I've had this idea in my head for a long time and, after seeing 4x09, I just felt it was ready to come out.

Goldfish: Indeed.

Echo: Indeed. Well, you can do the disclaimer.

Goldfish: EchoGirl319 does not own Merlin, it belongs to the BBC.

Echo: Unfortunately...

Magic in Time

Chapter 1

~ A Spell Gone Wrong ~

Seren Pendragon, second child and only daughter of King Arthur and Queen Guinevere and princess of Camelot, sat on the cushioned stool at her vanity in her private chambers, wincing in pain as her maidservant, Ariana, forced her hair into an elaborate up-do.

"Ah," she gasped, digging her nails into the wood of the stool as the young girl standing behind her dragged the brush once more over her head, catching several knotted strands on the way. Her maidservant shot her an apologetic smile through the mirror.

"Sorry, my lady," she said, gathering the long curls in her coarse, pale hands and reaching for a band lying on the vanity to tie them with. Seren made a face; her hair was done far too tightly and it pulled at her scalp. She was going to be in agony by the end of the evening.

"Can't we go for something a little looser?" she pleaded, watching in the mirror as Ariana began to braid the golden locks. The slightly older girl smirked.

"You're the one that wanted this style," she reminded her, "now, your highness, please sit still and let me finish."

Seren sighed in defeat and resigned herself to a night of torture and headaches.

An hour and a half later and Ariana was finally finished. From her window, Seren could see the sky taking on an indigo hue and bright silver dots of starlight appearing as they took their places to decorate the heavens. It was a beautiful evening. Seren turned to face herself in the full-length mirror. She had to admit that Ariana had done a good job, despite how uncomfortable it was, her hair looked lovely: her blonde locks were gathered in a tight knot at the back of her head then separated and braided down to the small of her back; only two small sections of hair were left out to frame her face and they too were braided, both just brushing her collar bone. The whole thing was kept in place by diamond pins and tiny purple flowers had been slipped into the elaborate braids.

She was dressed in her finest, least worn gown, pale blue velvet with a short train and long, wide sleeves which parted in the torso and skirt to reveal a lilac layer underneath. Around her neck was a glittering diamond necklace from which dangled a small, golden dragon, her family emblem, which had been a gift from her parents for her thirteenth birthday three months passed. Smiling shyly, she ran her hands over the luxurious velvet of her gown, smoothing out the invisible creases.

"You look lovely, Seren," Ariana told her as she looked on, thoroughly pleased with the work. Seren spun round and embraced her.

"Thank you, Ari!" she exclaimed happily, releasing her maid. "You should take the evening off," she advised, "and go spend time with your family; I won't be needing you again tonight."

Ariana looked doubtful but Seren smiled, placing her hands on her hips: "I think I can undress myself. The feast won't be over 'til later anyway."

Ariana nodded gratefully, she was always busy working in the palace and didn't get to spend enough time with her parents and sisters, Seren appreciated this. "Thank you, your highness."

"I'm going to find my brothers," she announced before rolling her eyes, "they're probably not ready yet and the feast starts in half an hour."

She turned and headed for the door, leaving Ariana to tidy away the various hair products and the dress she had been wearing earlier.

Tonight was the anniversary of the union of Albion and all the leaders of the various territories were coming to Camelot to celebrate with a magnificent feast hosted by her father, King Arthur. There would be food, entertainment, magic displays; it was Seren's favourite celebration by far. Last year Merlin had made all the food fly about the great hall and her father had ended up with two carrots tap dancing on his head.

Laughing out loud as she remembered the look on the king's face, Seren passed by a group of gossiping noblewomen and approached her younger brother's room. She entered without knocking and saw that ten-year-old Amhar was already dressed, with their mother just smoothing down his hair. Of all the royal children, Amhar was the one that looked most like the queen, whilst Seren only had her mother's dark eyes and curls, Amhar and Guinevere shared nearly every feature: they have the same round, open faces, dark brown hair and eyes. He was slightly darker skinned than the rest of his siblings, who had mainly taken after their father but whose skin still retained an exotic, bronzy hue.

Both mother and son turned at the sound of the heavy wooden door creaking open. Seren entered.

"Mother," she acknowledged. Gwen smiled softly and approached her only daughter, taking her face in her hands. Seren had long grown used to the strange coarseness of her mother's hands, rough from her years working as a servant and a blacksmiths daughters, most noblewomen had smooth hands like Seren's own, proof of their easy and luxurious existence. Yet Seren liked her mother's hands, strangely enough, and even had some odd, far-fetched desire to also have rough hands, like her mother or father or the servants or like her brother's would have, proof that her life had had some meaning, a purpose. She dismissed her mental rambling and instead focused on the queen, who had bent down to kiss her forehead.

"You look beautiful," Gwen told her, "just wait a few years and you'll have all the young men of Albion chasing after you."

Seren grinned: "Father told me he'd pull Excalibur on them if they even tried."

Gwen laughed and stepped back just as Amhar came bounded forwards.

"I'll defend you too!" the boy exclaimed. "No man will dare bother my sister while I'm around."

Seren folded her arms and groaned. "Between you, Father and Llacheu, I'll end up an old maid."

"Just the way I like it," another voice sounded from the doorway. Seren turned to see her father entering the room, fully dressed in his chainmail and red cloak bearing the Pendragon emblem, crown atop his head. Seren rolled her eyes. Arthur walked forwards, offering her a teasing smile and ruffling her brother's hair before going to stand next to his wife.

"The dignitaries have all arrived," he told her, "they're waiting in the throne room."

"Then we should greet them," Gwen replied, linking her arm with his.

"Where are Llacheu and Gwydre?" Arthur asked, glancing about the room as if he were expecting his two remaining sons to be hiding in behind the bed or the screen. Not a foolish thought, Llacheu was notorious throughout the castle as prankster and made a habit of trying to corrupt his little brothers.

Gwen frowned, her face scrunching up slightly as she tried to remember. "I think Gwydre wanted to visit Merlin and Gaius and Llacheu went with him."

"I'll go check," Seren offered.

"Me too," Amhar added. Neither of them had seen Merlin at all that day.

"Alright," Arthur said, "we'll see you in the great hall when the feast begins, and remember to bring the idiot with you; I can't have him being late again."

Seren and Amhar nodded, remembering the last time Merlin had had to make a speech and he had kept everyone waiting twenty minutes because he had tripped in the courtyard and fallen into the well. The two siblings exited the room together and made their way down the stairs towards the physician's quarters.

Both knew why they hadn't seen much of Merlin lately. It was because of Gaius. He was an old man now, over ninety and it was amazing that he'd lived this long but his time was coming and the greatest warlock the world had ever seen was trying to do whatever he could to stop it. No one had the heart to tell him that it was pointless, everything had their time. Not even Merlin could stop death.

The main room was covered in open books and phials of strange concoctions that Seren didn't recognise. Gaius was sitting in his chair, half-asleep, whilst Gwydre, who at six years old was the youngest Pendragon, sat, dressed ready for the feast in a dark blue tunic, on the bed nearby, watching the old physician with wide, bright blue eyes. Merlin was standing over something in the middle of the room that was bubbling incessantly and releasing purple smoke at regular intervals. Llacheu was wearing his chainmail and leaning against the door, watching the strange substance with a vaguely concerned look in his eye.

"Father wants us to go to the great hall for the feast," Seren announced. Llacheu kicked off against the wall and ran a hand through his short chestnut coloured hair.

"What time is it?" he asked.

"After dusk," she informed him.

Llacheu was the eldest, closely followed by herself, there was only a year's age difference between them, and the heir to the throne of Camelot and all of Albion. He had already begun his knight's training and had gotten into the habit of constantly carrying his sword around with him. She glanced over at Amhar, he'd soon be starting his training as well and Gwydre had already shown great advancement in his own special abilities. Soon she'd be left alone, expected to do womanly stuff whilst her brothers protected the kingdom, whether it was with a sword or with magic.

Needless to say, it had been a great shock to the royal family when their youngest child had begun showing traces of magic, especially considering the firm stance her grandfather, Uther, and her father, early on in his reign, had taken on it. Of course, Merlin had been over the moon, and the magical community had definitely been more comfortable in Camelot after discovering the king's youngest son possessed magic. The only one not pleased by the news had been her estranged aunt, but the witch Morgana was not someone Seren wanted to think about.

Gwydre hopped eagerly down from the bed and ran over to his sister holding out his palm.

"Seren," he exclaimed gleefully, "look what I can do!"

For a second his eyes turned gold and a small flame flickered in the centre of his hand.

"Wow, cool!" Amhar murmured, leaning in to get a better look at it.

"Did Merlin show you that?" Seren asked and Gwydre nodded, grinning widely.

"So are we going to the feast?" he inquired, extinguishing the flame and grabbing the princess' hand.

"Yep," she replying, waiting for Llacheu to come over. He did. She looked over at Merlin who was still leaning over his mysterious concoction. She glanced at the old Gaius who was now fast asleep and felt a stab of pity.

"Merlin?" she said gently, "Father wants you at the feast too. He said he'd have your head otherwise."

Merlin smirked still not looking up from the bubbling substance.

"Oh, he can't afford to get rid of me."

"I don't think that would stop him putting you in the stocks, though," Llacheu piped up. At last Merlin looked up at the royal children and, for the first time in weeks, genuinely smiled. It seemed the sight of the four of them could always bring a happy expression to his face. They represented all he had fought so hard for: Albion was united, Arthur was king, Gwen was queen, magic was legal once more and Morgana and Mordred had been relatively quiet (something which he knew would not last, but it was nice to get some peace).

"Alright," he conceded, "just a moment." He looked over at Gaius. "I'm sure I've got it this time."

He leaned once more over his work and said something in the ancient, magical tongue, his eyes glowing golden as the purple smoke suddenly turned green and blew not towards Gaius but towards the four young Pendragons.

"What the-?" Llacheu exclaimed as they were suddenly surrounded in lime-coloured mist. Seren gasped loudly as her vision turned white and Merlin stared in wide-eyed horror as Arthur and Gwen's children vanished before his very eyes.

Echo: So: bad, good, what do you think? Should I keep going?

Goldfish: You could always crawl in a hole and die, at last allowing me to fulfill my ambitions of conquering the earth.

Echo: It's nice to know you care so much for my wellbeing.

Goldfish: Welcome. Now, REVIEW! Or die...

Echo: Manners, Goldfish.