- Ten -

Two days passed. Godwyn had survived those crucial first hours, and had begun to respond to Gaius' treatments. Being young and strong, he recovered well. Much better than expected. Gaius' potions and Alice's magic helped to repair as much of the damage as possible after such a heavy dose of poison, but his heart would always be weakened. To treat the new condition, Gaius prescribed digitalis, which considering the role that the herb played in the King's near death experience, raised a few eyebrows among the Gawant party.

It was on the second day, after Godwyn had come around and been told of his ordeal that Gaius deemed he could be returned to his own guest chambers where Sir Thomas would attend to his every need personally. Godwyn had been taken aback by the manner in which his party responded to his poisoning, and with anger at their haste to blame Camelot. After being instructed to calm down by Gaius, the King has thanked his healers, and Constantine and Uther, and assured them that words would be had with his men when he was well enough.

After Garth's corpse was presented to Constantine, along with a blow by blow account of all that had taken place in the woods corroborated by the Knights , the King had pardoned Edmund and released him back into Uther's service. A little shaken, he may have been, but Edmund returned to work as efficient and as diligent as ever.

Garth's body was buried outside the city walls, In an unmarked grave.

The sun was just cresting the trees, casting soft light across the woods and meadows of Camelot to stroke at the castle walls and wake the Kingdom for the busy day ahead. Atop the battlements of the lower ward, Uther leant watching the first stirrings of the woodlands bordering the road below.

He twiddled his thumbs atop the stone, unconscious of their movements as his mind skipped over the turbulent events of the past days. There was certainly a lot to mull over...

Beside him, Balinor gave a hearty yawn and shrugged deeper into his blankets. The idiot was bundled up like a folded pastry, not bothering to change out of his nightwear in favour of bringing most of his bed with him. Somehow, despite his inherent need to look down on Balinor for being so damn... common, Uther could not really, truly bring himself to care about it or pass comment on it this morning. Instead he settled his shoulders and relaxed further into his lean, reclasping his hands on the smooth stonework with a light huff.

"Well, that was certainly the most eventful visit we have had in a while." He murmured conversationally.

Balinor grunted in agreement. "Definitely the least boring."

Uther tossed his head. "You find all visits boring. They are beyond your comprehension. You don't understand courtly etiquette."

"Courtly etiquette? Sounds as boring as the bloody visits themselves."

"Well we're not going to poison every visiting monarch simply to keep you amused. It's back to the status quo, I'm afraid."

"Mm." Beneath his blankets, Balinor shrugged. "Admit it. You were expecting to be a bit bored, too."

Uther snorted and dropped his chin to his chest in an effort to hide his smile, "... Perhaps a little."

They fell into a companionable silence, watching a trader's cart approach along the road below pulled by a rather tired-looking donkey. Once the put upon ass reached the gates and was waiting to be let in, Uther broke the silence with a light and tentative clearing of his throat,

"You did well," he managed awkwardly, clearly uncomfortable giving a compliment, "treating Godwyn. You seem quite able when it comes to healing."

Balinor swallowed a grin, electing instead to look mildly insulted. "I am a physician's apprentice under training. Something everyone seems to forget."

"What on Earth do they think you are?" Uther queried, wide-eyed. As though his mind boggled at the very thought of Balinor having a conceivable purpose beyond Gaius' floor-sweeper and herb-picker.

"Everyone seems to think I'm your friend." Balinor returned gruffly, perhaps a smidgen irritated. "I don't know where they get that idea."

The Prince snorted. "Absurd. As if I would keep you around should you not be Gaius' assistant."

Balinor sent him a vicious glare from within his blankets. "Do you think I'm pleased to be considered your rent-a-mate?"

"There are many who would be."

"And they're all sycophantic idiots."

"Sycophantic?" Uther frowned. "What does that mean?"

"Your former mates."

"Who?"

"Clearly you miss them all, remembering them as fondly as you do."

The Prince reached over and shoved Balinor, almost pushing the unsteady nitwit off his feet. The fool simply grinned in return.

Then they were silent again, both losing themselves in their thoughts. After some moments of reflection, it was Uther to break the silence once again.

"You used your magic to heal Godwyn."

Balinor looked at him askance. "Yes."

Uther clasped and unclasped his hands again, and slumped his shoulders, rolling them with his thoughts. "I have never seen you do that before."

"What? Heal?"

"Well, yes. But I mean use a spell." He held up a hand to halt Balinor before he could get started on refuting, "a proper spell. Not some one word nonsense you picked up in your travels around town delivering Gaius' toxins, or those for cheating on your chores. I didn't know you had the ability."

Balinor considered his friend a moment, before dropping his gaze and shifting uncomfortably. "Neither did I."

It had felt good, to read from a book of magic. To perform a spell written by real sorcerers. It had felt liberating, the way his magic had rejoiced within him as it was put to proper use for the first time in his life. Much different to the purely technical speak he had slogged through in the books Gaius gave him, designed purely to control one's magic, and make it easier to live with.

However he had to remind himself not to get used to the feeling. He had to let it go. It would not be happening again.

He did not say so, a deep feeling of dejection coming over him at the thought. His magic seemed to feel the same, if indeed magic were capable of such a thing. It almost shrunk down out of his notice, settling quietly alongside his pulse as though it tried to hide from detection. He didn't like it – made him feel empty, and less than complete.

"... I wonder if Edmund has brought my breakfast yet?"

Uther. Talking again just to fill the void of silence. Balinor pinched his brows.

"Hm. I am hungry."

"It is my breakfast." The Prince all but snapped, a look of thunder on his face as that of a dog hunched protectively over its bowl. "It is brought for me, not you."

"You don't need to eat as much as you do." Came the casual reply. "You get more on one plate than I ever do on two."

"That is because you are a serf. I am royalty. I am better than you."

"Ah yes. I had forgotten."

Uther looked satisfied, and nodded his head. Balinor was not finished.

"I had forgotten that royalty require more energy for all their sitting, and speaking, and consuming more meals. While all we serfs have to do is hard, physical labo-" he stumbled sideways, a grin on his face under a full body shove from Uther who himself was barely trying to contain chuckles. Miraculously Balinor managed to keep both of his feet, and his bedding. Though he lost his composure under force of his own mirth. "Nizzertit."

Uther raised both eyebrows. "That's new."

"Means short arse."

That earned him a kick in the shin. Uther always had been sensitive about his height. Balinor stuck his tongue out to a brief threat of 'showing that again will result in its being removed', and took to fiddling with a loose thread on his blanket.

Thrown by the inactivity, Uther huffed and drew a hand back through his hair to leave it sticking up at all angles in the damp morning air. Funny few days it may have been, but Camelot had been on the cusp of war, and it had been so easily brought there. Garth's words kept going around and around in his head: 'I have completed my task. My employer will be pleased.'

Despite examining his body, no conclusive evidence had been found to link Garth to any of Camelot's enemies. There were many who would benefit from Camelot at war, but it was impossible to tell who could have ordered Godwyn poisoned. Gawant had fewer enemies than Camelot. Could Godwyn have simply been collateral damage?

Something else that Garth had said sent a shiver down Uther's spine, and tied an anxious knot in his stomach. What had Garth meant by being the first? The first what?

Cold suddenly, he looked to Balinor at his side, and felt a deep, inexplicable pang of worry and nervous fear. Fear for what, he could not tell.

Then, Balinor looked up from fraying his thread and met Uther's gaze with a warm, friendly smile, and the fear melted away to be replaced with warm affection, and good-natured exasperation.

The Prince rolled his eyes and straightened from the wall to reach for Balinor's cocooned arm. "Come on. Let's go eat my breakfast."

Balinor's smile grew into a small grin. He shrugged his blankets up higher around his ridiculous ears to follow Uther from the battlements back towards the castle.

The tower was still a mess; instruments left out and surfaces not wiped, the floor unscrubbed and bottles in need of a thorough washing. Also, the leech tank was filthy. Gaius went about the tasks himself. He knelt upon the floor, scrubbing brush in hand and his sleeves rolled up. Yes, he did have an assistant for all of this, but today he felt Balinor could be let off, just this once. The boy had worked incredibly hard during this whole incident. He could well do with a few days off in which to rest up. Perhaps the fact that Gaius was also immensely proud of Balinor had something to do with his leniency, who could say?

He smiled to himself, and began work on a particularly stubborn footprint on the stone. There had been a few of those pop up, all belonging to Uther. It was soil from the Licburg. Strange things tended to happen after encounters with such places, though there were no other signs of the unusual beyond the odd, indelible footprint.

Constantine had ordered Uther burn the boots he had worn, which seemed to do the trick much to the relief of the castle's poor maids.

It was as he scrubbed at the stain that there came a firm knock at the chamber door.

Gaius sat back on his feet and drew a hand across his brow. The footprint was still very much in residence on the flagstone. "Come."

Behind him the door creaked open a way, the weatherworn face of Camelot's resident Dragonlord peering around it. He looked uncertain, his brows furrowed and his lips pursed as though he were undecided on something. "Gaius. I'm not interrupting anything?"

The physician shook his head and clambered to his feet, dusting off his hands. "Not at all, Rion. Come in."

Rion did, closing the door behind him with the same level of care he took in everything. He cocked a glance at the bucket of water and scrubbing brush, a question clear on his face.

"I have given Balinor a couple of days to himself," Gaius explained, shoving his hands into the pockets of his smock. "He worked well. I believe he could do with some time to rest, himself."

"Yes." Rion nodded, thoughtful. He raised his eyes to the stairs leading up to his son's room, the corner of his lips twitching downward as though his teeth worried at their inside.

Again, Gaius picked up on what he did not ask. "He is out at present. I believe he is with Uther."

"Yes, that's... usual."

Gaius could not avoid the twitch of his own lips at that, though they turned upwards, not down. Clearly however, there was something on Rion's mind, and it was giving him difficulty. Gaius felt that he ought to help, so prompted his old friend, "is something the matter, Rion?"

The Dragonlord winced slightly, giving Gaius the impression that he was perhaps in physical discomfort, rather than troubled by thoughts, though he had seen Balinor make exactly the same face when he was trying to say something that was particularly difficult. He let Rion speak.

"I came to talk about Balinor." The man said, and paused, aware that he still stood awkwardly by the door, and moved forward to stand beside the work table. Fidgety, he began to finger the raised patterns on the leather cover of the herbalism book there. "... he did well, these past days. During the... crisis."

"He conducted himself admirably, and his assistance was vital." Gaius fixed Rion with a measured look, the man still engrossed in tracing the book cover. "If it were not for Balinor, then Godwyn would most certainly have died."

"If he had not used his magic...?" Though the question was not spoken in full, Gaius understood it well enough.

"Yes."

Rion almost flinched. He squeezed his eyes shut and took several small, slow breaths through his nose. "I can't keep him from it, can I, Gaius?"

The physician shook his head. Rion rubbed at his closed eyes with the fingers of one hand. "He cannot go without using it, or it... harms him." He breathed a deep sigh, and raised his head to blink at Gaius wearily. "I cannot hide him from it any longer."

Gaius looked back at him, still with that measured gaze. "No."

"Then, what can I do?" Rion raised both hands to scrub over his face and back up into his long, wiry hair. "It's her, isn't it? She has cursed him. The same as she enchanted me."

"Balinor's magic is not a curse." Gaius told him firmly, one eyebrow raised in clear disapproval. "It is his inheritance, as much as his Dragonlord abilities will be. It is a part of him."

"And yet I wish it was not." With a shaky breath, Rion flattened both palms on the book and leant hard on them. "What do I do, Gaius?"

"That is entirely up to you, Rion." Gaius fixed his eyes on his feet, and took a few steps closer to the despondent Dragonlord, "though you must understand that not all magic is the same. It differs according to the possessor."

"I know."

"Balinor's magic is very much his own. It reflects his personality. It is his joy."

Rion's soft laughter was so quiet, it almost went unheard. A small smile pulled valiantly at the corners of his mouth. "He uses it for mischief."

"And what does that tell you?" Gaius halted at the table's edge, and ducked his head a little that he would meet his friend's eye as he spoke. "He also uses it to assist Uther. To protect him from danger."

Rion frowned, and lifted his head. "He does?"

Gaius nodded. "He told me himself. A few days ago."

A small amount of the tension drained from Rion's shoulders, though the tightness in his features did not recede. Gaius went on, his tone careful,

"You are a Dragonlord, Rion. You are a creature of magic yourself. You are aware that magic differs in its many forms."

"We can learn much from the Old Religion. It dictates the laws of nature."

"Balinor too is a creature of magic, by your own blood. I believe that you should trust your son. He has a pure heart, and a good head on his shoulders, as much as he often fails to use it."

A small smirk of amusement settled on Rion's face and refused to leave. He looked down at the herbalism book again, finding it to be a compedia of the plants and their medicinal uses, and tried to hide his smile. Judging by the matching one on Gaius' face, his efforts were to no avail. "I know. That is why I am here now." He straightened, and faced Gaius, all traces of his smirk banished that he may be all seriousness. "I have thought long and hard on this. It has not been an easy decision to make, but I should like for Balinor to study magic."

To say that Gaius was surprised was something of an understatement. He stared at Rion, taken aback. "You wish him to learn?"

Riond nodded, and raked a shaking hand back through his hair, betraying his underlying worry. "It is as I said. I can no longer hide him from magic. I always feared deep down that it should someday come for him. These last days it has found him, and now that it has, I cannot do anything to be rid of it again. I understood that the moment he spelled Godwyn's heart to slow." He shook his head, weary, and appearing much older than his years. "I have never seen him like that, Gaius. I have never seen him so completely at ease with himself. It made me think that perhaps I had made the wrong decision, back when I first brought him to you."

Gaius maintained his level stare, a small amount of uncertainty settling in at the edges of his expression. "We knew the day would come when the bindings failed. He would grow, and his magic would grow with him."

"I feel now that perhaps binding it was the wrong course of action to take. He... could have been injured."

"You did not know what to do, Rion. You were little more than a boy yourself. Alone, raising a child unable to understand the things he could make happen. Balinor did have a tendency to continue making them happen, even if he did not realise that it was him doing it."

"Now he can understand them, and has just as little trouble in making them happen."

"There is nothing remaining of the bonds now, that much is certain." Gaius pressed his lips into a thin line, aware that he could no longer detect the small grain of his own magic in Balinor when the boy was around. With the strange spell Balinor had cast on Godwyn, his magic had well and truly broken free, too strong for that which bound it. But, that had always been so. Gaius exhaled quietly. His own magic had never been strong enough to fully bind Balinor's. Some of the boy's own had been managing to slip its bonds for a few years now. It was only a matter of time before the dam burst, and when it had, it had done so in spectacular fashion, and knocked Balinor out.

Rion was correct. It could have been worse.

Rion sighed to himself, and shuttered his eyes as he was wont to do when distressed. "If he can no longer be kept from magic, then I want him to learn to use it, and to control it fully, to keep it from controlling him. Would you teach him, Gaius?" He looked at his old friend imploringly, clasping his hands together as though to begin wringing them. "Guide him. Show him the way in which magic should be used?"

Gaius considered Rion a moment, marking the desperate hope and fear underlying the man's gruff tone. He nodded his assent. "I shall teach him as much as I can. Though eventually he will need more in depth instruction than I am able to give. He had already surpassed my magical ability as a boy of fourteen. I believe that Alice may be able to assist where I cannot."

A weight appeared to lift from Rion's shoulders. He released the breath he had been holding, and managed a small, tentative smile. "Thank you, Gaius. Thank you."

"It will be my pleasure. Ability such as his does not come along very often. I believe it will be something of a learning curve for me, also." Gaius hesitated, watching Rion carefully before adding "it is no wonder, really. All things considered."

"Gaius." There was a warning undertone in Rion's quiet reply. Gaius brushed it aside.

"His magic is free. It will only grow stronger unfettered. He is going to ask questions eventually, Rion."

"And he must not have answers."

"Rion-"

"No, Gaius," the man all but snapped. "He must never know of her. Never."

"I fear that he may already know more than you wish."

Rion faltered, looking at the physician in uncertainty. "What do you mean?"

"The lullaby." Gaius took his hands from his pockets and clasped them in front of himself, his expression grave. "Balinor hummed its tune to Godwyn. To calm the man in his sickness."

Rion became still. His throat bobbed under a heavy swallow. "How is that possible? How could he remember that?"

"Sometimes the heart recalls what the mind does not." Gaius returned wistfully.

Rion paled. He clenched his jaw, and turned his eyes on the floor. The tension in his shoulders was visible as he struggled with this revelation.

Eventually, he shook his head.

"He must not know, Gaius." He asserted quietly, but firmly. "He must never learn of that... creature, or what she did. It is better that way. For him."

"I respect your decision, Rion." Gaius acknowledged. "Though it is only a matter of time before he asks questions."

The Dragonlord nodded, understanding what it was that Gaius did not say out loud. "And I shall deal with them as they come. He will never know the whole truth."

"You intend on lying to him?" Gaius' disapproval was easy to read in his expression. Rion chose to ignore it.

"If that is what it will take to protect him, then so be it."

"Rion. I must caution you against it. Lying to him will only make it worse, should he one day discover the truth."

"He cannot know, Gaius." The assertion behind that was strong. Imperative. Final.

Gaius nodded. "Very well. He shall not learn any of it from me. But be aware, Rion. The truth has a nasty habit of coming out."

"I am aware. Just..." Rion trailed off, waving a dismissive hand. "Let us speak no more of it. Train my boy in magic, and let that be the end of it."

Gaius inclined his head, and watched as Rion took his leave.

It was a good amount of time after he left, that Gaius broke from his thoughts and returned to his scrubbing. Even engaged in a mindless task, he failed to shake his feeling of deep unease.

It was already late afternoon, getting on for evening when Balinor came tripping lightly up the steps to the physician's chambers. He wore an amused smile that spoke of a day's mischief, and a hurry in his step that told of a desire for his dinner.

Gaius sat at the workbench, documenting the intricacies of Godwyn's poisoning and its cure to be added to the ever-growing pile of tomes and loose leaves that would one day constitute his life's work when his assistant came tramping noisily through the door.

Balinor's disruptive entrance was enough to disturb the dead in the vaults below the castle as he made his way across the chambers, kicking over the thankfully empty cleaning bucket in the process. He bounded up the stairs to his room, calling a greeting to his mentor as he did.

"Evenin', Gaius!"

Sighing outwardly, but chuckling on the inside, Gaius left his work to raise his head and look to the door of the small room at the back of his chambers. "Good evening, Balinor."

As expected, it was a mere matter of moments before the boy reappeared, clutching his knife and a half-finished carving of something as yet unrecognisable. Gaius raised a pre-emptive eyebrow.

"You're not doing that down here. I've only just finished cleaning this floor."

"Hm." Balinor halted briefly by the bench to set down his carving. He glanced about the room in approval. "Looks good."

"Yes. This is how a tidy room ought to look. Not that I would expect you to know."

Balinor smiled at that, and bounded away up the steps by the window to take a seat and watch Gaius as the man returned to his work.

Writing had always been therapeutic, Gaius found. He did not mind Balinor watching him, as he knew the boy had an appreciation for penmanship and the written word. Documenting medical matters took time and patience; something Balinor had in spades when it came to academia, Gaius had noticed.

Still, as much as his work demanded his attention, he found himself curious as to what his assistant had done with his day. Listening to all that the boy had been into was rather amusing. Balinor had a talent for Tom foolery. So Gaius found himself enquiring as he wrote, "what have you been up to? I haven't seen you all day, so I am assuming it was not dangerous."

Behind him, Balinor shook his head. "No. Followed Uther on some guard inspection, then we went down the kitchens when Edmund didn't come with lunch and found him canoodling a kitchen maid in the larder. She bawled about it, yelled, hit me with a spoon and chased me and Uther through the servant's quarter. Had to hang off the inside of the well 'til she realised she'd lost us. Did get some pies on our way out of the kitchen. I think that made her angrier than the whole Edmund thing. Cook didn't mind. She likes me."

"You won't be wanting any supper, then," Gaius surmised, dipping his quill in the inkwell, "after your ill gotten gains."

"I'm starving. Didn't get a one. Uther inhaled the lot, fat nurk that he is."

Gaius could not help but chuckle at that. Balinor always had had a way with words.

"Afternoon was better. Uther wanted to hunt, so we took the birds out."

Ah yes. Gaius nodded to himself. Balinor may despise hunting, but he liked Uther's birds. The Prince had been gifted an impressive aviary of falcons and hawks by one of Camelot's many Lords on his birthday some years ago. Though it was not Uther's favourite means of hunting, he did know that Balinor would not sabotage it as the birds were only doing what came naturally. He truly did love them.

Quite often, when the boy was not to be found, he would turn up in the aviary where he would be chatting to the birds and feeding them. He loved the patterns of their feathers, and their grace in flight, and held a soft spot for two particular birds in Uther's collection: a peregrine named Tallwch, and a little merlin called Calu.

Raising both eyebrows, Gaius picked up some more ink from his well. It was to be expected, really. Dragonlords and their kin tended to favour birds, often being depicted with a hunter bird in paintings and illustrations. Balinor's grandfather, Rowan, had carried a male goshawk on hunts, and his ancestor Ambrosius was often depicted as carrying a merlin on his fist. They shared an affinity for the winged. Especially those of Balinor's bloodline.

"Calu caught a hare." Balinor informed him idly, breaking Gaius from his ponderings. "Uther let him eat it, though Tallwch managed to steal half of it. Which is only fair, I suppose. A full grown hare is a bit much for Calu, really."

"Yes. I suppose it is."

Straightening, Balinor looked about the chamber. "So, no Alice?"

"She returned home some hours ago."

"Oh really?" He scratched lazily at the side of his neck, a smirk tugging at his lips. "I'd thought she'd be staying a little longer."

Frowning, Gaius halted in his writing, staring at the ink blot on the page in front of him in grin annoyance. "Why would you think that?"

"I don't know. Just a... special feeling, I suppose."

"Special feeling?" Gaius' frown deepened. "Are you suggesting that- oh!" He almost jumped out of his skin, hand flying to his chest in alarm having turned in his seat to face his assistant. "Will you take that off!"

Balinor took off the rabbit mask, an impish grin on his face. Gaius rallied, his heart still pounding in his chest. "I do not have feelings for Alice. Special, or otherwise. I would appreciate it if you did not insinuate that I do."

Balinor shrugged. "You both seemed very friendly. That's all."

"She is a great healer." Gaius returned weakly, even to his own ears.

"So are you. You seem to like her. She seems to like you. Why shouldn't you have somebody special in your life?"

Gaius wanted to reprimand Balinor for ignoring his wishes. He really did, but found himself unable. The way in which the boy looked back at him was nothing but earnest. There was no mischief or malice in his words. Only plain and open sincerity.

Despite himself, Gaius felt a fond smile coming over him. "You are the only one of your kind, aren't you, Balinor?"

Idly, Balinor shrugged again and began worrying at one of his overlarge ears. "That's probably for the best."

"Yes. I believe it probably is."

Grinning, Balinor turned his attention back to the ugly mask in his hand. "What is this nasty thing, anyway?"

"It is used in magic and ceremonies that take place upon the full moon."

"Oh."

Despite his opinion on it, Balinor laid the mask reverently on the stair above him. Gaius did not miss it.

After a moment, he made as if to return to his writing, and cleared his throat. "I take it you have not noticed your gift, then?"

Balinor knitted his brows. "Gift?"

"Really. Your attention to detail is appalling." Gaius gestured to Balinor's room. "Up there. On the end of your bed."

Still with that confused expression, Balinor rose and descended from his stair to climb those to his room.

Gaius waited quietly, a small smile finding its way onto his face at the delighted 'ha!' that drifted from his assistant's door.

The boy himself appeared a moment later, flicking through the large, leather bound book in his hands. The look on his face was stunned to say the least. Clearly he did not know what to make of it.

Gaius schooled his features, and nodded towards the book. "Do you like it?"

Balinor started, coming to a halt at the foot of the steps. He blinked at Gaius, incomprehension rife on his young face. "Like it? This is for me?"

"I did say it was a gift, did I not?"

"But this is...?"

Gaius nodded. "Yes."

Balinor's face lit up in a bright, joyful smile. "This is..."

Again Gaius nodded, concluding that if this was to keep up, he would get dizzy. "Yes it is."

Slowly, Balinor's smile retreated. Regretfully, he closed the book. "My father, Gaius. I cannot accept this."

"Balinor." Gaius rose from his chair and looked at the boy before him sincerely. "It was your father who suggested it." Balinor's head snapped up. Gaius went on, "these past days he has seen what your magic can do. What you are capable of. He wished you to study it, and master it."

"He does?" The note of hope was almost too much for the physician, the way Balinor was looking at him as though afraid that this was all some cruel practical joke.

"Yes, my boy."

Balinor studied his mentor, unsure, before huffing out a laugh. He gazed at the book in his hands, unable to believe that it was actually his. "This is... well..."

"That is the very first book of magic I received." Gaius told him. "My father gave it to me when my magic manifested for the first time."

Balinor looked at him and gave a small, grateful smile. "Thank you, Gaius. I will look after it well."

The physician shook his head. "Use it, read it, write and draw in it. It is a tool to help you learn, Balinor. Use it so."

The young sorcerer grinned, and nodded. "I swear I will wreck it utterly."

Gaius gave an approving nod. "Good. I expected nothing less." To his surprise, Balinor stepped forward and embraced him in a tight hug.

"Thank you."

Gaius chuckled, and returned his assistant's embrace. "You are most welcome."

They parted, Balinor looking a little sheepish at such an unmanly display as Uther would find it, and offered his mentor a nod of thanks, just to balance it out.

Amused, Gaius gestured to Balinor's room. "Now, go wash your hands. I'll get started on supper. And, Balinor-"

The boy halted, already halfway up the stairs with book in hand, and looked over his shoulder.

"-get an early night tonight. No reading until the small hours. Your lessons begin tomorrow. You have a lot to catch up on."

Grinning wide, Balinor nodded and disappeared up the stairs.

Gaius left him go, and made his way over to the table to begin preparing the evening's stew. He smiled to himself, and shook his head. It was true that Balinor had a lot to catch up on. The boy had already missed several years of rudimentary instruction, but something told Gaius that he would be a quick study. The prospect of teaching Balinor had the physician quite excited.

Possess the power of foresight, he might not, but somehow he felt that the journey ahead would be an interesting one.

- FIN -

To be continued in part II

Notes: Part one is finally finished! On to the next. Future ones won't be as long as this one, as there is less need for introductions and that. Characters can develop more gradually now, so there will be more focus on action and adventure. Had to have Gaius giving Balinor his book :) I found it a sweet idea that Merlin has something of his father's through Gaius' book, as well as a present from Gaius and that he would be reading Balinor's notes scrawled all over the pages. They didn't get enough time together :( It's another handy parallel in the host of others in this tale, and gives Gaius some grounding in giving guidance to younger magic users. Also, look up Goshawks. They have an awesome angry white eyebrow.

Thank you for reading! xxx Onward!