By the time she had made it to her room, she only had a short amount of time to make herself somewhat presentable before she was summoned to the Main Hall for supper. As soon as she had entered the room, Helena forced her into the wooden chair at her writing desk and had begun quickly brushing and plaiting her back. Morgana watched in the mirror as Helena's hands worked quickly and accurately to form two singular plaits that fell on the crown of her head, as though she was wearing her own crown. The plaits were quickly pinned into place and Morgana looked as good as new.

Before Helena and Morgana even had a chance to discuss that afternoon's wanderings, there came a knock at the door.m "Enter!" Morgana said, trying sound as normal and less out of breath as she possibly could. Whilst Morgana acted as naturally as she possibly could, the door to her chambers opened and she was greeted by the pleasant sight of Sir Baynard, one of her father's most loyal Knights.

"My Lady, your presence has been requested for supper," Sir Baynard said, his sandy blond hair fell just shy of his eyes and he kept having to brush it out of the way whilst he waited for the Princess.

"Thank you, Sir Baynard, Helena and I will be along shortly," Morgana replied.

"Yes, My Lady," Sir Baynard said.

"Oh, and Sir Baynard? May I be the one to suggest to a hair cut?" Morgana folded her lips together and resisted the temptation to laugh. She did not normally call out the Knights on their hair choices, but seeing as Sir Baynard kept having to brush his out of the way in an irritated fashion, it only made sense for her to say something. Even if it was not done so in the politest of manner.

"Ah, yes, My Lady," Sir Baynard smiled, a rare occasion for the stone-faced Knight. He nodded as many of the Knights did when they were to exit a room before closing the door behind him as he left to go back to stand guard.

With Sir Baynard gone, Helena and Morgana began the walk from her chambers down to the Main Hall where they were to dine. Still tucked away in Morgana's dress, was the necklace she had brought and the strips of cloth she had intended to gift to Helena. All of that would have to wait until after supper, though keeping it hidden during supper was going to be a hard task, even for someone as sneaky as Morgana.

Whilst they walked down towards the Main Hall, Morgana watched the guards more carefully, trying to figure out why they were all stood at their posts. Never had there been a day where all guards were stood at their posts, unless, of course, they were to have an important visitor, but Morgana had not told been told of such a visitor. Unless, of course, she was to be told earlier, when she had been in the town. "Why are there guards everywhere?" Morgana asked.

"Oh, there is to be a visitor to the castle at nightfall. I do not know who it is to be, Sir Thomas came to your room whilst you were out, I told him I would pass on the message," Helena said, keeping her voice to a whisper as they walked through the stone floored corridors.

"So, I am to change my dress after supper," Morgana muttered to herself.

As a Princess, Morgana had to make sure she was prepared for any and all situations in which she may find herself. A guest arrival would mean a dress of high quality as well as the crown she had long forgotten about. It was her father's orders, as well as tradition that the Princesses were to where their crowns whenever someone of importance was visiting. It was yet another one of his attempts to broadcast their royal status to all who wished to speak to the King, although for some reason, the crowns were never used during Audience.

Morgana and Helena entered the Main Hall together, side by side, as friends rather than mistress and servant. In the past, they had restrained themselves from entering in such a manner, but as Morgana was already late, they had little time to enter separately. Nonetheless, they went their separate ways the moment they had entered the Hall. Morgana walked towards the empty seat at the high table, whilst Helena joined Leanna's servant at the side, waiting for supper to begin.

Leanna, who had always been watchful of her younger sibling, observed her closely as she slid into the opposite chair, straightening her skirts as she did so. Morgana said nothing to her father, or her sister as she straightened her skirts around her legs. The King, who up until now had not moved a muscle, nodded his head to the two serving girls, a signal for them to begin their royal duties of serving the evening meal. As they did so, the King turned to his youngest daughter.

"Did your serving girl inform of this evening's guest?" The King said, seizing his goblet from the table as Emma, Leanna's maid, filled it from her jug.

"Yes, she did. May I inquire as to who we are expecting?" Morgana asked, taking a sip from her own goblet and placing it gently onto the wooden table.

"A Knight from your Uncle Elyan's land. He and his brother have completed their training as the highest ranked Knights so they are to be transferred her and join the elite Knights by my side," The King, running his thick fingers over what little of a beard he actually had. A small smile lay upon his lips, as though he was waiting for Morgana to say something, but she kept her tongue.

Morgana had always thought the introduction of new Knights and guards into the kingdom was pointless, and extremely dangerous. Knights could be any man who had proved himself to worthy whilst under her Uncles instructions. Those who ranked highest out of their group were to transfer to the Citadel to stand guard for the King and the royal family. Others were guards of the towns and the castle itself. The rest were scattered throughout the Kingdom, to watch over towns and villages and to keep any eye on everything that the castle could not see. Others remained in her Uncle Elyan's territory, to watch over him and the training of other young Knights.

Although this system had worked well for many years and had meant that Morgana had the toughest of Knights by her side, it also meant that trusting the Knights became a hard task. Had they been noble men by blood, like Sir Ewan, then Morgana would find it easier to trust them, but as they were nothing but ordinary people, their motives were not known. Sir Baynard, for instance, had come from a family of seamstress's and, after being the first male in his family for generations, decided to take a different route, that route was Knighthood. He trained with Elyan and was ranked highest in his group so was transferred to the Citadel. Ever since he first arrive, Morgana did not trust him, she believed him to have a motive but had yet to discover what it truly was.

"Is it wise, father? To trust these men with your life, after all, you do not know them," Morgana said, taking a bite of the of the steak she had been served for supper.

"Your Uncle Elyan would not have sent these men to me if he did not believe them to be trustworthy, Morgana," the King said, sipping from his goblet the moment he had finished talking.

"Indeed, father," Morgana replied. The table fell into a silence as the three royals emptied their plates whilst the servers filled up drinks whenever asked, keeping their heads down as they did so.

When the main meal had been finished, the servers replaced the now empty plates with new ones, upon which was an apple pie. The castle kitchens had been known to create the best puddings, and the apple pie was their signature. Given the opportunity, Morgana would have eaten a whole one rather than just a slice, but she was forbidden from doing so, according to her father, vomiting was not a very Princess thing to do.

"Our guest will be arriving shortly, Leanna, Morgana, I suggest the two of you head to your chambers immediately to change," the King said once all pies had been finished.

"Yes, father," the two Princesses replied. In unison, they nodded their heads at their father and left the main hall, accompanied by their maids.

Together, Morgana and Helena headed to Morgana's chambers, passing the army of guards as they did so. It was not uncommon for guards to be stationed around the castle when new Knights were being appointed, but it was an awful hassle. They crowded corridors and made it impossible to do anything without being bombarded by questions.

"How was your trip?" Helena asked the moment they arrived back in Morgana's chambers.

"It was thoroughly enjoyable, I engaged in a rather eventful battle with a young man by the name of Caleb," Morgana said, as she removed her dress to replace it.

"Did he not know it was you?" Helena asked.

"Not until Sir Ewan gave me away, after that he was relatively shocked." As she removed her dress, the pieces of cloth she had purchased for Helena were finally with their rightful owner. Not only that but the necklace she had purchased, the first item she had bought for herself, was placed onto her jewellery stand, to remain proudly with the finery she had collected over the years.

Once the new items had been put away, Helena assisted Morgana into her new gown, one she had worn before, but only once. It was made from a deep, almost blood red satin with gold embroidery along the hem and on the bodice of the gown. The design of the gown was a body hugging with a bottom that covered her feet and the floor around her. The length was a hassle for Morgana as she was constantly tripping over the hem of the gown, or standing on it with her heels and sending herself sprawling.

Even with the length, the gown was still one of Morgana's favourite, but it was mainly down to the sleeves. They were tight against her entire arm until it reached her wrist, where they end suddenly became like the bottom of the dress, and fanned out around her hands. Also, the hem of the sleeves had the same golden embroidery as the rest of the gown, it was a unique gown in its own right and Morgana wished she had more opportunities to wear it.

Once dressed, Morgana changed her shows from her blue heels to her red and gold ones before sitting back down at her writing desk, whilst Helena sorted her plaits. As she was only going to need them for an hour or so, Helena undid the plaits from earlier before retying them and pinning them back into place. Once she was certain they were secure, Helena grabbed the crown that had been kept under lock and key in one of Morgana's cupboard.

The crown was crafted from the finest silver in the entire kingdom and was made specially for Morgana. The main ring of the crown as a simple, thin circle of silver embedded with a variety of small rubies and diamonds. Despite the simplicity of the main ring, the crown itself was a pattern of various swirls linking together. Several of the swirls stretched up from the small diamonds placed on the ring itself and curved up and around to end with a small ruby or diamond.

To Morgana, the centrepiece of the crown and the most important piece to her was the big, deep red ruby that lay at the centre of the front swirl. Morgana decided that she liked the rubies better than the diamonds and also decided that if it had just been a simple silver with the ruby on the top, Morgana would have preferred it. She thought the pattern was far too extreme to be taken seriously and would have preferred a simpler one, but her father stopped her.

Helena slipped the crown carefully onto Morgana's head and stroked out the reminder of her hair until it was silky smooth down her back. "There, done," Helena smiled, dropping the last strands of hair.

"Thank you, Helena," Morgana smiled, "we should go, I do not want to be late for this meeting."

"Yes, your father would be ever so angry if we were late again," Helena agreed.

As the bell sounded throughout the castle, Morgana and Helena made their way through the castle corridors and out into the courtyard where they were to greet the new Knights. It was tradition to greet them in the courtyard upon their arrival, whatever the reason may have been, Morgana did not know. As it was warming up, the prospect of standing outside did not matter to Morgana, in the Winter it was a nightmare as it was so cold. However, where she to greet a Knight in the Winter, her father had given her permission to wear a cloak to keep her warm, to have a Princess shivering was considered unroyal.

Arriving in the courtyard, Morgana was hardly surprised to see Leanna stood next to her father on the steps, whilst her maid, Emma stood off to the left. Silently, Morgana walked into place and straightened her back so she looked more royal and less like one of the people. The King shot a sideways glance at his youngest daughter as the bugle horn echoed through the courtyard. As it did so, the sound of hooves became clearer to all who awaited the new arrival.

After several moments of echoing hooves, the noise became clearer as the pure white stallion galloped into view, his tail swishing in the wind as the rider pulled him to a stop. Morgana was too mesmerised by the horse to notice the rider as he slipped from the saddle. She hadn't even noticed the other horse as it came to a stop beside the first, her gaze was fixed on the horse that was the polar opposite of her own horse, Storm.

"Sir Nikolai, Sir Leon, welcome to the Citadel," the King said. The sound of his voice pulled Morgana from the horse and she turned to look at the two men as they removed their helmets.

"Thank you, My Lord, it shall be an honour serving you," one of them said, snapping his heels together and bowing to the king, his blond hair covering his eyes as he did so. When he lifted his head, Morgana caught sight of a small smirk that remained on his lips, whether this was because of where he was, she did not know, but she did not like the look of it.