The Daughters of Merlin
Chapter 10: Virgil's Birthday

Grace bit her lip as she stood outside the palace’s doors, watching all the Kings, queens, Princes, Princesses, Dukes, and duchesses enter the castle. Everyone was dressed elegantly in their finest clothing, adorned with beautiful jewels.

Grace glanced down shyly at herself. She was wearing a simple blue dress that went past her knees stopping above her ankles, a black corset tied around her top half. For once, she was wearing shoes, simple black flats with ribbons tied around them and up her leg so that they wouldn’t fall off though she was wishing they would. Some of her long wavy white hair was pulled back from her face into a bun, a small crown of light blue and white seashells adorning her head.

Zana and Merlin were wearing regular clothes. The only fancy thing Zana wore that she usually didn’t was a hooded purple cloak which had green flames sewn into it. The cape matched perfectly with her usual color scheme of a purple shirt, dark green pants, and black boots. Unlike Grace, they weren’t nervous nor trying to impress the royals that accepted King Arthur’s invitation, not at all intimidated. Grace found herself wishing she had their level of confidence.

Sensing her sister’s discomfort, Zana grabbed Grace’s hand, giving it a comforting squeeze as they entered the palace.

“I’m fine.” Grace said in response, barely even realizing that she had done it as she scanned the crowd for Virgil.

“Liar.” Zana smirked at her sister. She spotted Virgil and pointed him out to Grace. “There’s your Prince Charming.”

Grace glared at Zana playfully, blushing. “He’s not mine.”

“I wouldn’t be too sure about that.” Zana looked off to the side, smiling knowingly as she walked off after their father who had gone to greet one of his old friends that he had spotted, leaving Grace alone.

Grace sighed, rolling her eyes at her sister’s actions before heading towards Virgil.

The Prince of Camelot was talking with a group of other princes and princesses around his age. He was laughing with them as someone must have finished a funny story or joke. As Grace got closer she noticed one of the princesses was getting a little close to Virgil, enough to make her jealous. The princess was wearing a magnificent blue ball gown and her sunshine colored hair was up in a perfect bun, a few perfect curls framing her beautiful face.

Grace had almost reached the group and was about to say something to Virgil when someone bumped into her from behind. Grace tried to stop herself from falling but being so unused to shoes she tripped over her own feet, bumping into the blonde princess as she fell, though the princess had much better sense of balance then Grace did, managing to stay on her feet, unlike Grace.

“How dare you? You almost made me fall!” The princess shouted in an annoying voice.

Grace blushed as she sat up, glancing at the princess.

“Grace! I didn’t see you arrive. Are you alright?” Virgil asked, smiling at the sight of his friend, holding his hand out to her.

Grace gratefully grabbed his hand, allowing him to pull her to her feet. “I’m fine. And, uh, I’m sorry about bumping into you. It was an accident.” Grace said to the Princess.

"Your majesty." The Princess rolled her brown eyes in disgust at Grace. “What is a commoner like you doing at a party like this?” The Princess wrinkled her nose at the sight of Grace’s outfit. “Or are you just the Princess of Mermaids or something?”

“My mother is a Naiad, not a mermaid. Naiad’s have human legs . . . for the most part.” Grace replied quietly, pulling her hair down slightly to hide her pointed ears as well as grabbing a strand of her hair to play with nervously as she looked down at the ground. “She’s not a Queen either.”

The Princess laughed as did the others. However they all stopped laughing when they noticed Virgil’s serious expression and protective hand which he placed on Grace’s shoulder.

“Wait, she’s serious?” The Princess exclaimed, disgust returning to her face.

“Her mother is Freya, Lady of the Lake.” Virgil nodded.

“That’s worse than if she had been a commoner. I would never allow those creatures in my palace.” The princess glared at Grace.

“She’s not a creature, Banon! She’s half human.” Virgil replied, getting defensive.

Grace bit her lip, glancing at Virgil briefly. “I’m a fourth human, actually. A fourth human, fourth mage, and half Naiad.”

“Oh, yeah.” Virgil chuckled, causing Grace to give him a small smile, her nervousness slightly dissipating.

“This is disgusting! You should be ashamed of yourself! Wait until my father hears that you conspire with witches and warlocks!” Banon shouted, causing the other partygoers to look over.

“I’m not a witch!” Grace shouted, now becoming defensive as well. “We aren’t warlocks either so don’t you dare say that!”

The temperature in the room dropped significantly and everyone could feel it. Had it not been for Grace’s shoes, the entire floor would have been covered in ice.

“Angel.” Virgil warned, tentatively placing his hand on her shoulder.

Before Grace could do anything, the world around her spun quickly for a few seconds before stopping.

Grace fell to her knees, waiting for her stomach to settle. As she sat on her knees, hunched over, she realized that her hands were touching grass. She looked up and saw that she was now outside in the palace’s garden.

Grace bit her lip as tears began to gather in her eyes, spilling over and falling down her cheek. Whenever Grace ran into other people besides Virgil and Mr. Lyn, everyone would give her weird looks. She could feel their unease, though they never seemed to act that way around Merlin or Zana. Their only problem seemed to be Grace.

Grace dug her hands into the ground as she released control on her powers, making the ground freeze beneath her. With her shoes on, Grace’s powers were restricted, and unless she called her powers forth, which became extremely strong when she got too emotional, then it would cause her pain, which had happened only once a few years before.

That was why she never wore shoes.

“Grace?”

Grace gasped, looking up quickly, lifting her hands off the ground. The grass which was within a five foot radius in front of her had already been frozen in a thin layer of ice.

“Virgil, go back inside.” Grace said, wiping away her tears as she sat back on her ass, pulling her knees in front of her.

Instead of listening to her, Virgil hurried to her side, kneeling down in front of her.

“You’re going to get your suit dirty.” Grace said, refusing to meet his gaze.

Virgil chuckled, his brown eyes seeming darker in the moonlight. “That’s the least of my worries.”

“I’m sorry about ruining your party. I should’ve known they would have reacted that way. I should’ve stayed home.” Grace said, avoiding his gaze as she began to undo the ribbons keeping her flats on her feet, unable to stand them any longer.

“Don’t say that. Here, let me.” Virgil said, taking the ends of the ribbon from her.

Hesitantly, Grace let go. Once he was done, he pulled off her shoe before beginning to undo the other ribbon.

“I’m surprised you even wore shoes. I’ve never seen you wearing them before.” Virgil noted.

“Everyone wears shoes and with all the people there, I didn’t want to give them another reason to stare. I guess it would’ve been better had I not worn shoes instead of wearing them and these seashells.” Grace sighed, reaching up and taking the crown off.

“I like them. I think they’re beautiful. You’re beautiful.” Virgil said, setting down her ribbon and shoe.

Grace sighed, shaking her head, throwing the seashells to the ground. For once she didn’t even blush at his compliment. Part of her wanted to believe Virgil, but after what had just happened, she knew that it wasn’t true.

“Don’t say that. I’m not beautiful.

“You know, humans think my mother is beautiful, but she’s really not. I’m the exact opposite. Papa, Zana, and you all say that I’m beautiful and when I look in the mirror I think that you might be right, though I still wouldn’t agree with “the prettiest girl in Camelot” as you all make me think.

“But other people . . . they think I’m ugly. . . Disgusting. . . Unnatural. . . A witch.” Grace spat the word out, a tear falling down her cheek as her voice softened, trying to swallow the lump in her throat. “A witch just like Morgana.”

“No!” Virgil shouted with wide, angry eyes. He had never met Morgana, but Grace had told him all she knew, all that Merlin had said. Virgil grabbed Grace’s hand, tilting her head up so that he could look directly into her eyes. “You are nothing like Morgana!”

“Virgil, stop lying to yourself. You know that I’m a freak, even worse than Zana. At least she’s mostly one thing, being mostly magic.” Grace wiped away her tears before reaching inside her corset and pulling out a knife.

The hilt was made of bronze with a leather grip. The blade was a foot long, made out of silver. Grace handed the blade to Virgil.

“I thought you would like it though now I realize that you probably won’t. It’s not Excalibur and you probably won’t ever need a knife in battle.” Grace said, refusing to meet his gaze.

Virgil took the blade from her and examined it. He tested the balance and found that it was perfectly accurate. Virgil looked at Grace. He set the blade down on the ground before leaning towards her, placing his hands on either side of her knees so that he could get closer. He gently placed his lips against her cheek, slightly surprised at the coolness of it.

When he pulled away, Grace quickly lifted her head to look at him with wide, confused, and surprised eyes. He was still leaning over her, his lips tilted up in a half smile.

“You never know when you might lose a sword in battle.” Virgil said. “No matter what you tell yourself, I love you, Angel. I always have and I always will.”

“Y-y-you love me?” Grace asked, not wanting to believe it, waiting for herself to wake up and see that this had all just been a dream.

Virgil opened his mouth to respond when he looked at something behind Grace before collapsing on top of her.

“Virgil?” Grace asked, concerned, placing her hand on his shoulder.

"Peles.” Was the last thing Grace heard before her world went black.