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Leon saw magic everywhere he turned. It was nigh impossible for him to ignore it now that he knew it was happening and God above, how in the hell had they all been blind to this for so long?
They were morons.
All of them. Complete and utter morons. There was literally no other logical explanation because half the time, Leon was convinced Merlin wasn't even trying to be careful.
Merlin.
The walking contradiction.
The bane of his new existence.
Arthur's servant, friend, and apparently unofficial advisor used magic around them constantly and everyone single one of them were all too thick in the head to notice. The Knights of Camelot. Defenders against magic.
What a joke.
The Knights of Camelot obviously couldn't recognize magic if it smacked them in the face. Leon pinched the bridge of his nose, trying not to be annoyed with the men around him. They were all so damn arrogant – he wondered how he'd never seen it before.
Maybe it was because Merlin was a servant. It was simply easier for him to go unnoticed when the members of court and anyone given a title were taught to ignore servants completely. It was their job to be invisible. Nobody expected anything great from them. They weren't recognized as threats. Hardly anyone from the lower classes was recognized as an actual, serious threat to anyone. Merlin was unique in court simply because he was Arthur's servant and had a reputation for occasionally saving the prince's life.
It was literally the perfect disguise.
The servant of the future king, known throughout the city for his loyalty to said future king. A sorcerer. One that had literally confessed to sorcery in front of the entire council, to Uther himself… and not a single one of those supposed intellects could recognize the truth. They refused to believe that someone beneath them was anything more than a fool.
And now that Leon was in on the damn secret, he could only mourn the obliviousness and stupidity of the entire kingdom. His own included. The sting that came with wounded pride had yet to fade, even after all these weeks. It was lessened somewhat by the fact that it wasn't just him. But only a little. He was a knight – the first knight of Camelot – and he hadn't known the truth. Hadn't seen the truth about someone that was in constant contact with the only heir to the throne. Wouldn't have, except for the fact he'd stupidly decided to eavesdrop one day.
It made his damn head hurt to even think about.
Leon was going to go to hell. It was a given at this point – the only question was how long it was going to take for him to get there.
Maybe it wouldn't have been so bad if he didn't see the servant every single day. But there was no way to avoid it and the truth about what he was doing was constantly being thrown in his face.
Lying to the prince-regent, future king of Camelot. The man he'd literally sworn his life, services, and loyalty to with an oath that demanded his life should he break it. Harboring a sorcerer. In the heart of Camelot. Letting said sorcerer exist in close proximity to said future king.
He shook his head.
Unbelievable.
His parents should just disown him at this point. Or he should disown himself so that when he got caught in the lie, it wouldn't come back to shame them needlessly. Really, he'd just be saving everyone the trouble.
The only comfort he could find in this situation that he was trapped in was that he was becoming more and more confident Merlin wouldn't actually hurt anyone –
"My Lord!"
Leon glanced up, distracted from his thoughts as someone called for Arthur's attention. His eyes immediately found the prince-regent. Beside him, his new treason partner did the same.
Arthur was across the training field, maybe twenty or thirty paces away. He seemed to have just wrapped up his spar with Sir Benedict and handing his sword to Merlin to take while talking with him quietly. Both had paused and turned to face one of Lord Prescott's knights – Leon couldn't recall his name off the top of his head. There were many new faces around the training grounds lately – Arthur had requested that each of the Lord's spare some additional men for Camelot's army in order to replenish her forces after Morgana's courtyard massacre.
Fortunately, most of the Lord's had been amiable to the request. But it made for an annoying task to sort through all the new men and determine their true character and skill.
The knight in question – a younger man with blonde hair that dropped to his shoulders, and who had a hopeful, if somewhat cocky expression on his face – was approaching the prince-regent with a pace that was something between a fast walk and a jog.
Arthur tilted his head towards his servant, listening as something was whispered in his ear. He nodded after a moment and Merlin took a step or two back, watching with an interested expression.
"Sir Harris," Arthur greeted calmly as the younger knight stopped in front of him.
Beside him, Gwaine scoffed, eyes twinkling with humor. Leon raised an eyebrow, glancing at him.
"Probably wants to challenge the princess to a duel." The other knight gestured to the two men who were now conversing. "He's old enough to know he shouldn't ask. Smart enough to ask towards the end of practice and young enough to think he can win. Moron."
Leon hummed, shrugging in agreement. He and Gwaine hadn't been on friendly terms for a while but he was endeavoring to try and be civil again. The other man wasn't going to leave him alone any time soon, so there wasn't much of a choice in the matter.
"The prince," he said, enunciating the world deliberately. If Gwaine noticed the correction, he obviously didn't care. "Will say no. He'll agree if Harris insists, but only to teach him a lesson. If Harris doesn't push, Arthur will challenge him the next time they train together and likely give him a good fight."
"Interesting tactic."
"He's interested in the response, mostly. It's a good way to learn what type of man he's working with. He makes adjustments with how he trains them from there."
Gwaine sighed, looking a little put out as Arthur shook his head, clapping the younger man briefly on the shoulder. "Shame. I wouldn't have minded watching Arthur wipe the floor with him. It's been a little boring around here lately."
Oh yes. Terribly boring. Because harboring a secret sorcerer was such an easy decision. It didn't make life stressful at all. It wasn't the source of lost sleep or appetite or the cause of an existential crisis or anything.
Jackass. Leon thought bitterly.
Sir Harris turned away from Arthur, an obviously annoyed expression crossing his face. Leon could see his lips move as he muttered something under his breath; something which caused Arthur to turn back to him in surprise and Merlin to stiffen in anger. Whatever had been said was obviously rude.
Well. That just wouldn't do.
Magic wasn't something Leon wanted to deal with – but this on the other hand – a petty knight looking to prove himself? This he would gladly handle. And it was all in the right context too – maybe he couldn't hit Gwaine for being annoying but this guy had unknowingly offered himself up as a sacrifice.
He quickly turned to grab his sword, suddenly intent and eager to release some pent up energy. Sheathing his sword at his hip and taking a quick sip of water from his canteen, Leon turned around just in time for Gwaine to make a quiet sound of surprise and to see Harris trip on literally nothing except air and fall face first into one of the mud holes on the field. There was a stunned silence and then laughter sounded from several knights standing close by. Blushing furiously and covered in mud, Harris hurriedly tried to stand, only to immediately slip once again and fall on his butt.
Leon's eyes immediately flew to Merlin.
"Oh my God."
Did the idiot have any kind of self preservation? Leon was too far away to see the gold in the servants eyes but he knew. He knew. That had been magic. That had been Merlin. Knights of Camelot didn't just trip on nothing. "Merlin just –"
"Tripped Harris, I know."
"Oh my God."
"Shush." The long haired knight elbowed him in the side, a little harder than was probably necessary. "And relax. He was obviously defending Arthur from what was probably a particularly nasty insult. If I was in his position, I probably wouldn't have let it go either."
Leon closed his eyes. "Oh my God."
"Would you cut that out?" Gwaine demanded, finally stepping in front of him to block his view of the servant who would one day be responsible for the stroke Leon was certain was going to kill him.
"But he –"
"Leon." His fellow treason partner admonished, putting his hands on his hips. It was a very condescending stance, he thought distantly. His mother would do the same thing whenever he did something that irritated her. "We agreed to leave him be."
Leon glowered at him. "We didn't agree on anything!" He whispered snappishly, resisting the urge to stamp his foot like some distraught maiden. "You said that if I ever accused Merlin of using sorcery, that you'd accuse me of sorcery! That's not agreeing on anything, Gwaine! That's blackmail!"
The other knight rolled his eyes, obviously thinking that Leon was being dramatic.
"You're being dramatic." Gwaine sniffed regally. Leon wanted nothing more than to strangle him. "And is it really blackmail?" He continued, either not noticing or simply ignoring Leon's murderous urges. "I think it'd just be a lie. For it to be blackmail, I think there would have to be a formal letter sent and that's a lot of effort to go through."
"You're forcing me to commit treason and you won't even go through the effort of blackmailing me properly?"
The dark haired knight shrugged, a smile playing on his lips. "In your case, only minimal effort is required."
Leon could think of five or six different ways that that was insulting. It was really too bad that his father taught him self-control. An all-out brawl was sounding refreshingly chaotic. Maybe it would soothe the fire under his skin. If he could guarantee it wouldn't land him a night in the dungeons, he'd probably give Gwaine a black eye and consider it a stress relieving exercise. As it was, he wanted to maintain what was left of his dignity.
He glanced back at the servant in question. The son of a bitch was smiling a smug smile, obviously beyond pleased with himself as watched Percival graciously lend the fallen knight a hand. Once he was firmly on his feet again, Harris beat a hasty retreat, laughter following him off the field. Some very, very distant part of him wanted to laugh too – the part that recognized the fierce loyalty Merlin was displaying to his master in tripping a man who'd openly insulted him in front of an audience.
The more immediate part of him was simply horrified that he was allowing it to happen.
Somewhere in the middle, he was pissed that the chance to hit someone in an acceptable context had been stolen from him. Obviously there was no justice in this world.
"He's not even subtle, Gwaine." Leon moaned, closing his eyes and wishing the ground would swallow him up and absolve him of this problem. "He does it all the time."
"He is subtle – you're just hyperaware."
"What if he gets caught?" Leon demanded, because that was also a question that now plagued him at night in addition to all the ways he was now committing treason. "The hell do we do then?"
"He won't get caught."
"He already has! We caught him!"
Gwaine rolled his eyes. "Only because we were eavesdropping." He said with a no duh kind of tone. "We were the ones being rude. Honestly, you should have known better than to let me convince you to do something childish. This is your fault, Leon."
Leon could only stare, outraged.
"I hate you."
His fellow knight clapped him on the shoulder. The expression on his face was mockingly earnest. "You and at least three other kingdoms."
Leon felt his hand tighten into a fist.
Maybe he'd spend the night in the dungeon after all.