Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Merlin thought it would be a normal day. Merlin thought he could catch a break. Merlin thought that at least for one day nothing life changing would happen. Merlin was sorely mistaken.

The whole castle had been in disarray, and Merlin was scrambling just to get out of Gaius’s cottage because apparently there were magic users arriving that morning that had been caught by the guards the night before. Two if he was told by Gauis correctly. Now he was to rush to Arthurs side in the balcony above the courtyard to see the trial.

Merlin nearly triped over himself more than once running down the halls, every time he's late Arthur smacks him in the back of the head. He’d rather skip it, just being there at those trials and knowing what the outcome will be and knowing he couldn't do anything to stop it… Merlin's steps falter. Just how many more deaths of magic users would he have to witness at the hands of the king, he asked himself. He'd been able to smuggle out as many magic users he'd come across out of the kingdom but even then it seems there were executions every month. His anger flared each time the king dared to justify the deaths.

“MERLIN.”

Merlin whirled around to a furious blonde marching at him in his signature red tunic and scowl.

“Arthur, sire, aren't you supposed to already be at the trial?” Merlin said, trying to immediately deflect from himself and from the inevitable lecture about being late.

“I could ask you the same thing, you idiot. Being late again? I should have you clean the stables”, replied the prince, grabbing the other boy's elbow and dragging him forward. Merlin thought inwardly he would actually prefer that then seeing more innocent people hanged or burned alive.

Merlin and Arthur arrived at the balcony that is to the right from the one where two guards stand at each side of king Uther, who looked grim and intimidating. No doubt to appear so to the incoming magic users.

Merlin as well as the rest of the people in the courtyard, from the king at the top of the highest balcony to the servants and guards on the ground, knew exactly how this would turn out. The gallow that stood in the middle of the grounds, being a very large reminder. Still, it stayed quiet, then there was the sound of armor marching toward them from the entrance getting closer. As the guards entered escorting the magic users forward, Merlin's breath hitched. There were two magic users but they were children. Merlin saw Arthur stiffen from in front of him and glance urgently at his father.

Uther merely looked down at the children as if they were filth that needed to be gotten rid of, looking as high and mighty as he is. As he has all the power. Merlin’s heart thundered against his chest as he looked at the children getting a better look at them. The tallest and seemingly the elder had her arms protectively around a smaller frail boy. The boy looked absolutely terrified and clung onto the older girl never taking his eyes off the gallow as if afraid it was going to get up and hang the boy itself. The girl squeezed the boy closer to herself as she looked up to the balcony, as she looked up to the king, with only what could be called as absolute loathing. She looked at him like he was the only person there besides the other child in her arms.

If looks could kill, was the phrase that immediately came to Melins mind, except her glare could kill a hundred times over. Merlin followed her gaze to the king and saw that the king seemed uncomfortable with the daggers he was reserving from this girl, he was used to people looking down too afraid to look at him, yet this girl was doing the exact opposite. The discomfort was only shown for a moment before went back to looking unfeeling toward the children below him. The trial had begun.

“Are you aware of what you are being charged with?” The king’s voice boomed.
The children stayed silent. The boy, startled from the sudden yelling, clung tightly, while the girl kept her head up defiantly. Merlin looked around him to see if the reactions to the magic users that are being put to death, are children, is as appalling to them as it is to him. Arthur sat still, looking at his father dreadingly knowing what he would say next, his hands in fists.

And the king speaked again, “The use of magic has only one punishment.”

The girl then started to visibly shake, not with fear but with fury. He could tell that she was trying to hold herself back, she knew that she was outnumbered and she would not be able to fight the guards surrounding her while keeping the younger child safe. He could see that all of these thoughts were going through her head, because he had thought the exact same whenever he was close to having to use his powers in front of people. Merlin then has a very bad idea. The king continued to give the same speech he did at every execution.

“Let this all be a lesson to the rest of the kingdom, no matter what age you are, magic is still a threat to this kingdom and will be treated as such and I will protect this kingdom from such threats no matter what.” Then there’s the attempt at justification that makes Merlin rethink all his decisions to sit still. Merlin stared at the back of Arthur's head and he knew that he could feel him staring yet he said nothing.

“Arthur.” Merlin said firmly but quietly enough for only the prince to hear. But the prince remained silent. Merlin looked then desperately to see if anyone, anyone, would say anything to oppose this. A servant, a knight, Arthur. If no one would say anything then…

“If you have nothing to say then that only proves your guilt. Guards-“, as he was about to give the order, and the guards moved toward the children, the eldest spoke hastily, moving the younger boy out of the guards reach and taking a step forward. Her voice cut off the kings as it rang out steady and recalcitrant for everyone in the vicinity to hear.

“If you so much as touch us, Emrys will-“ Merlin's heart nearly stopped.

“Emrys?” The king cut off in turn, confusion in his voice.

“He’s only the embodiment of magic, last of the dragon lords, and is the most powerful warlock that has ever roamed the earth.” There is only silence as the girl's words hang in the air. The girl smirked when she saw the king flinch from the implications that someone like that could still exist. Merlin felt satisfaction from the reaction. But then it was immediately replaced with a sinking realization that he can’t let these kids down. Merlin then noticed that the boy stopped looking at the gallow and instead turned his face to look at the eldest, with hope and admiration on his face. He won’t let them die. He could not and would not stand aside this time.

Merlin then turned to leave, not caring when Arthur called after him because he won't be able to follow. When he was out of earshot, he sprinted to the bottom of the castle, while powering up his magic. No one was in the halls, they were all in the courtyard for the execution. Not that there will be an execution Merlin thought. A laundry basket was left unattended near a door and Merlin quickly riffled through to find a cloak and put it on. As he ran, the clouds turned dark and shadowed themselves over the sun. As his eyes turn gold, thunder is heard in the distance.

Where he stood just outside the doors of the courtyard, Merlin could hear the screams of the girl and the crying of the boy. He had to act quickly. The young warlock’s anger had been building all for this moment and each incantation he uttered was accelerated by the emotion.

Outside, strong winds blew in all directions making the knights in their heavy armors unsteady. Merlin looked out into the courtyard to see who was where. The children were still in the middle of the courtyard next to the gallow but each child’s arm was in a knight's grip. Thunder and lightning brought out in the sky, then as the guards look around helpless at the suddenly aggressive weather change the eldest took this opportunity to twist herself around the guard, kicking him in the back of his knees, making him fall to the ground, still holding onto the arm that was only moment ago holding onto her, Merlin blinked and a yell of agony came from the knight as he fell to his chest holding his shoulder with one hand.

A moment later lightning struck down to the top of one of the towers of the castle. This startled the knight that was holding onto the boy enough that the girl ran to the knight and kicked him between his legs. Thus letting go of the boy and allowing her to grab the boy to her side, she held on to his hand firmly as she surveyed the next move. Then she finally noticed that the winds aren’t nearly as strong in the small circle that both the children were in.

While she looked around, she and Merlin met eye contact. Merlin saw realization flash on her face as well as disbelief as she stared at the golden eyes. This is where it got risky. Merlin put the hood of the cloak over his head, closed his eyes and desperately hoped this would work.

He muttered a spell, then suddenly he was standing directly in front of the two children, both of whom were startled that he showed up mere inches from them.

The little boy gaped at him, “Are- Are you-u..”

“Emrys”, the girl breathed out.

“No time to talk, I need you to hold on to me if you want to get out of here.”, Merlin said pressingly. Both children glanced at each other then without a second thought, hugged Merlin, who put his arms around them, closed his eyes and said the same enchantment that brought him in front of them.

When he opened his eyes once again he was in Guias’s work chambers with the children still in his arms. Merlin then whirled around and went immediately to the front door to lock it. When he did, he put his back to the door and took a deep sigh of relief.

Then he looked up to see that the children were still standing there. Looking at him with an awed expression, the girl still gripped the younger boy's hand. There were a few moments of silence as the adrenaline started to ebb away, which then broke to all three people's stomachs groaning in unison.

—--------------------

Merlin poked his head out of the chamber door, looking both ways before fully opening the door to let himself out.

It had been about ten minutes since his great escape with the children and since then he had situated them to stay inside his room should Gaius return from collecting herbs, then told them he would be right back to get all of them some food from the kitchens in an attempt to take advantage of the still chaotic situation that was in the courtyard, where everyone was sure to be in disarray and confusion and fear.

The children themselves had appeared fine physically but were still in shock of all that had transpired. He had told them that he was going to use a special knock when he came back so that they knew it was him when he returned with the food. The eldest merely nodded with her eyes looking at him but not really focused on Merlin.

Just as he thought, Merlin could see scarcely any one in the halls of not only the occasional maid or servant. They all greeted him in passing, sparing only a hello as they kept busy on their own chores. Merlin then thought now he had an alibi, maids and servants had seen him, if he was questioned by Arthur he could have others vouch that he was near the kitchens.

The chefs weren’t scheduled to start cooking until later on so Merlin quickly grabbed bread, cheese, and grapes. The reality of what had happened dropped on him like pounds of weight dropped on his shoulder. He had saved two children, two magic wielding children from execution and they were hiding in his room and he had no plan on what to do next. When Gaius found out… should the king find out…if Arthur found out… Merlin shook his head to focus on what was really important at the moment. There were two hungry children that were afraid and needed his help.

Merlin knocked the rhythm he had taught the children to let them know that it would be him. Then waited a moment before letting himself inside then locking the door. He put the food gently on the table and made his way up the stairs to his room.
Merlin knocked lightly on the door, “Hey it's me. I brought food.”
There was silence on the other end and Merlin had a terrifying thought that they snuck out and fled, before he heard shuffling from inside. The door opens to show the girl, looking slightly up at Merlin with a guarded expression and the boy right behind her.

“Hey” Merlin said softly, he tried smiling a small reassuring smile to show that he wasn't going to hurt them and just wanted to help. That he wasn’t gonna let anyone hurt them, he would protect them. As if all of that could be conveyed just from a facial expression, Merlin thought pathetically to himself. But the girl must have seen something in his meek smile, because her face softened and she opened the door wider to let the boy go out before her. His face brightened at the food and quickly went down to the table as he said a thank you over his shoulder. Merlin stayed by the door and glanced at the girl who was looking at the boy and the food on the table and her face welled up and her eyebrows furrowed together. Merlin could tell she was on the verge of crying but had been trying not to for the sake of the younger child. He thought that the sight of him alive and in front of her was finally hitting her. He could understand that feeling, every time Arthur had a brush with death, the relief would sometimes leave Merlin drained which could lead to a breakdown. This child should not have that much stress on her shoulders, but being magic users, that just came along with the magic, the constant threat of imminent death.

“Do you need a moment?” Merlin asked. The girl continued to look at the younger boy. “I promise I’ll take care of him for a bit, or if you want to stay with him.”
“I… I want to stay with him.”, The girl's voice broke and tears couldn't help but make their way down her cheeks as she tried to rub them away.

Merlin nods, “Ok, but you need to eat as well, alright?”

The girl raised her head up to look at Merlin with those tear stained eyes and gave a broken little smile. Merlin’s heart broke because he didn't deserve her gratitude, he watched dozens die before them, it was just about time he did something. He hated himself for not doing anything. He hated that it had to take two children almost dying at the hands of a tyrant before he did anything. But they didn't die, they were here and they were safe, so Merlin watched as the eldest quickly wiped away her tears and joined the younger boy in eating the food on the table.

The children were inhaling the food as if at any moment it would be taken from them. Merlin kept refilling their cups with water and they downed almost everything Merlin had brought and the whole jug of water before they both slumped in their chairs sighing satisfactorily. Merlin put away what was left then sat back down in his own chair, then looked at both children, indicating that he was going to say something, but was then interrupted.

“Our parents are dead.” The girl said blatantly.

Merlin shut his mouth because he was actually going to ask what their names were.
“I’m sorry,” he said instead.

The girl dropped her eyes and nodded, but the boy's eyes simply looked down at his hands that were under the table.

“I’m going to ask some questions”, Merlin began, “Would that be alright?” Both children sparde a glance at each other, seeming to come to the same conclusion before both nodding at Merlin.

“What are your names?” Merlin tried again, “And how old are you?”

The girl put her elbows on the table and crossed them, “My name is Pandora, I’m thirteen, and this is my little brother Roland, he's ten.” Roland softly smiled. Merlin smiled back, but turned his attention back to Pandora.

With finally a chance to have a conversation with both the children he was able to get a good look at both of them. Pandora’s skin was slightly sunburned with auburn hair tied back in a long braid over her shoulder and what looked like a mixture of dirt and freckles covering her face. Her brother, however, was not as sunburned but was much ganglier than his sister, even for his small stature. Roland had a mess of dark, frizzy curls on his head with what Merlin could make out as a dry leaf sticking out. Even with their differences they both had one thing in common, and that was their steely gray eyes, that bore into Merlin as if trying to figure him out. Merlin decided that then would be the best time to ask what's been on his mind since he saw them walk into the courtyard.

“What happened that led the two of you here?”

Pandora’s jaw tightened, Roland’s gaze went back to his hands fidgeting with his shirt. Both children look incredibly guilty, and Merlin prayed that they didn't end up accidentally hurting anyone using their magic.

“Someone saw us trying to steal food with our magic…” Pandora said quietly.

Then Roland’s face looked up at Merlin and added rushingly to their defense, “But it was leftovers from the people living there, and we were hungry! We didn’t mean to steal.” He said the last part with a hint of guilt.

Merlin’s heart couldn’t help but break a little, because they were guilty for trying to steal food. They didn't hurt anyone, they were just hungry. And they felt guilty for doing what they had no other choice to do. The worst punishment for that would have been simply maybe a night in the dungeon, Merlin should know, he's gone for less. But since they used magic… instant death as the penalty.

“Wait, how did you use magic?” Merlin doubted that Pandora would be as reckless as to try to steal food where someone could see.

Roland whispered, “I was going to surprise Pan with the devel- devl- deveo-”

“Development.”Pandora supplied gently.

“- of my magic. So I tried floating the food out the windowsill.”, he said the last part rushed and looked away from Merlin.

Merlin stared at Roland. Merlin blinked a few times, having to repeat what the little boy had said over and over again in his head. Floating the food out the windowsill. That’s what he said but he’s a child for the gods' sake! And yet he knew enough magic to do levitation. That reminded him of when he and Will, his childhood friend, would steal food from neighbors that were better off than them. Merlin’s heart tightened at the memory of the friend he had lost, but resigned his focus back to the two children in front of him.

They both looked at him withered and tired and scared. It was only barely the afternoon and they looked ready to pass out. Merlin opened his mouth to say something when the door suddenly was being rattled in an attempt to be opened. The children froze while Merlin quickly stood and waited.

“Merlin?! Are you in there?!”

Merlin then felt like pulling his hair out and screaming out in frustration because of course Arthur was there. But Merlin stayed silent and just glared at the door, hoping, praying, that the prince just leaves, and to Merlin's relief, he hears the boots that he polished the night before stomp out of earshot. He breathed a deep sigh for the second time that day and looked back at the children.

Pandora had her hand on the back of Rolands chair with her steely eyes still trained on the door, looking ready to go into either flight or fight mode. Roland has the same face of when he was looking at the gallows in the direction of the door, like it could kill him at any moment. It takes a full minute since Arthur left before the siblings could look away from the door and finally relax their stiffen postures.

One thing is for sure. They can’t stay there with Merlin, he needs to find a place for them to stay until he comes up with what to do next. He could try to contact the druids, they seem to have spent some time with druids before they had gotten to Camelot, there was a good chance that they were in fact Druids but Merlin couldn’t be sure because of how they were dressed. Druids had a specific way of weaving their clothes as well as a specific type of stitch, the kids before him had none of that. He filed away to ask them about it at a later time, for now they needed rest and Merlin needed to come up with a plan.

“Pandora, Roland.”, the set of siblings looked over at Merlin, “How about you go sleep for a bit while I come up with a way to get the both of you out of this kingdom?” He said with the kind of tone that promised as much as he was saying.

Roland and Pandora both nodded, Roland because he seemed genuinely exhausted and Pandora because while she was tired she also understood that they needed to keep their strength up. Merlin led them back upstairs where Roland crawled into the stiff lump Merlin called his bed like it was the most comfortable thing he’s laid on and immediately fell asleep. Pandora watched this all unfold with Merlin at the doorway and laughed lightly as the tightness in her shoulders loosen just a bit.

Pandora turned her gray eyes to Merlin, “Emrys-“

Merlin put up his hand, interrupting her, “Please, call me Merlin.”

Pandora paused, then corrected, “Merlin… thank you.”

Merlin frowned to himself, he didn’t deserve her thanks. He watched others die from a similar fate and did nothing, even if he was trying to defend himself saying he couldn’t reveal himself, that he had to make sure Arthur became king but all it would be is excuses. The guilt would forever hang on his shoulders from all the lives he couldn’t save. From those he wouldn’t save. Merlin shook his head, untangling himself from his plaguing thoughts.

“Of course.”

Pandora looked at him a moment longer, searching his face for something when she turned inside the room and closed the door. Merlin moved his gaze over his guardians workspace, he would need to do a bit of work so he could prove to Arthur that he was doing work, make some medicines for Guias, ground herbs, things like that. So Merlin put a small protection on his room before going to the work table.

Two hours later, Merlin hears the stomping of worn leather shoes making their way to him outside the door. At this point, he had already memorized the sound of footsteps and to whom they belonged . He only said a small curse to himself when Guias barged through the door with his signature look of raised eyebrows on his face and with the wrath of a small army.

“Merlin. What did you do?!”

Chapter Text

“Let me make this clear, you interrupted an official trial in front of the king. You used your magic to save the prisoners in front of the king. And you brought said prisoners HERE?”
Guias said with his hands on his head controlling a migraine. He sat at the same bench the children ate.

“In a word? Yes.” Merlin glanced from the floor to see his guardian's disapproving gaze. He stood not far from the court physician still fiddling with some herbs to ease his nerves.

“What, pray tell, was your plan?”

“Well I didn’t have a plan, but now-“

“You didn't even have a plan?!”

Merlin threw his hands in the air exasperated, “Guias. They are children! Children. I couldn’t just leave them there to die. Not like..” Merlin held back the rest of his sentence, and caught the tail end of Guias’s pitied expression, before turning away. He wasn’t about to lay his guilty conscience to his guardian. “To call what I took from them a trial, is an insult. Trials are meant to be fair and just. What I took those two from was an execution. You know that.”

Guias stays quiet, before asking, “What is your plan?”

Merlin stands a bit taller as he says, “To get them out of the palace, then eventually out of the kingdom.” Merlin takes a breath before saying, “I want to tell Arthur, I think he can help.”

Guias immediately looks up at that last statement, “Have you gone mad? The prince?”

“He helped Mordred escape, he can help these two escape as well.”
Merlin argued, keeping the desperate tone out of his voice.

“Merlin, you and I both know that Mordred, a child of druids, is much different then two children that were caught doing magic, no matter how innocent.”

“Then he won’t know, he won’t harm them, I won't let him have the chance to.” Merlin said, taking a step forcefully towards Gaius. “But I’m going to need help. If I can’t get the kids out of the kingdom tonight and they can’t stay here, then there has to be some vacant place close to the palace they can hide out in until the guards die down so they can escape.”

Gaius remained silent, staring at the table in front of him. The anticipation makes Merlin nearly jump out of his skin when he hears a creak that the physician quarters at times makes. The physician closed his eyes and took a breath, seeming to finally come to a conclusion.

“There’s a house that is no longer occupied, four blocks from the palace. The owners had moved to a different kingdom only a fortnight ago, I doubt anyone would be moving in any time soon.”

Merlin felt he could crumble from the relief that hit him. “Thank you, Gaius.”

Gaius continued, “However, now you have to come to the decision of whether to risk trying to take them out of the knight filled kingdom tonight or to hide them from the king of Camelot until a better time.”

————

Arthur hadn’t seen his manservant in almost 7 hours since the trial. Well the shit show that was a trial that is. Merlin had seriously chosen either the absolute worst or best time to leave, Arthur didn't know which.

The most he remembers is the dramatic change in weather and screams of panic. Next thing he knows, the two chil- magic users escaped and everyone is in such a state of panic that even the king struggled to tell the knights to look for the sorcerers.

Arthur thought of only two things right before all hell broke loose. Where was merlin? And What the hell is going on? Arthur was still struggling to figure out why he thought of Merlin at all at a time like that.

Now there he was, in his room getting ready for a nightly patrol with the other knights in search of the sorcerers.

Behind him, Arthur hears the doors to his chamber open and close with a click along with the clattering of a tray. There's only one person he knows that could possibly be that loud in the evening, and for a moment he let himself feel relieved of who it was.

“Merlin.” Arthur doesn't even look behind him, only just calling the name as he gathers his armor. “I expect a full explanation on where you have been.” Arthur could practically feel Merlin roll his eyes before putting down the tray of food onto the table.

Merlin finally turned his head slightly to him, completely ignoring his command, “I heard what happened, was anybody hurt?”

Arthur thought back to the conversation he had with the knights, after things had relatively calmed, where he had asked the same question. He was surprised to learn that no one except the knights holding the children themselves had gotten hurt.

Despite the lightning and the winds, which was obviously the work of magic, the king wasn't targeted and there were no unnecessary casualties when the debacle happened.

Just one knight with a dislocated shoulder (to which the knight claimed the child had done with magic) and the other that was kicked harshly.

With magic that powerful there was no way those two were the causes of it, but then why didn’t the mystery person take advantage of the chaos to get to the king? A big percent of the palace’s knights were there, why didn’t the powerful magic user harm them to lower Camelot’s defenses?

A cough from Merlin brings Arthur out of his thoughts.

“No one was hurt, whoever attacked just took the ch- sorcerers. My father believes it was the person they called Emrys. He is determined to find the three of them” Arthur said, turning to Merlin

Merlin stays quiet with his hands behind his back looking thoughtfully in the direction of the food.

There's a tension in the air, an elephant in the room that suffocates Arthur, because in the balcony of the trial he did hear Merlin. Telling him to say something, anything, against what could have unfolded in front of them. He wouldn't be surprised if Merlin was furious at him.

Why should he care? He's the prince,he has a duty to uphold and protect his kingdom from magic no matter who it comes from, not only that, he shouldn't worry about his servants feelings, especially not Merlins, but he can't help but have his chest tightening at his prolonged silence.

“And you're going to look for them?”

“That's what my father orders of me.”

Merlin opens his mouth to say something, before closing it and turning away. Alarm bells immediately started going off in Arthurs head, it was rare when Merlin held his tongue to him.

“Sire, if that’s all, may I leave?”

Arthur tried to look closer at Merlin's face but only saw a guarded expression. A blank look only looked back at him, the defiant and witty comebacks nowhere to be found. His jaw was tense, his eyes were steady on Arthur. He also noticed ripped skin on his lips from the terrible habit of biting his lips when he's anxious.

“Go on.”

Merlin turned on his heel and left.

———————

Merlin wasn't completely lying to Gaius when he was explaining his plan. He just left out a few details. Such as letting Morgana and Gwen in on the plan after that night. He could trust those two, Morgana practically lives to go against the king when its unjustly and once she gets wind of the missing children she’ll most likely drag him and Gwen to ‘finding’ them before king Urther does.

Before Arthur does, a bitter voice says in the back of Merlins mind.

Merlin shakes his head, he needs to get back to the physicians chambers so he can sneak the children out of the palace, better yet out of the kingdom.

But by now, all of Camolet will be crawling with knights. Getting past all of them… even with a transportation spell he couldn't tell who was in the vicinity so he could just teleport right in front of a group of knights while they were patrolling the forest.

Merlin is a good liar but he doesnt think he would be able to explain why the prince’s personal servant was with the two convicted sorcerers.

As Merlin walks up the physician's door he knocks on the door and calls out that it is him. A moment later he hears the lock on the other side slid out of its place, with a creak the doors open to reveal Gaius with a serious expression settled on his face.

“We need to talk.”

“I really don't like the sound of that.”, Merlin sighed.

When he walked in he saw that Pandora was sitting at the bench facing the door with a blanket over her shoulders and a cup of hot tea in between her hands.

Her auburn hair was a bit tousled from her earlier sleep but that was nothing compared to her brother, who sat to the side of her with his curls sticking from all angles.

He mirrored her with a blanket draped over and a cup in front of him. Roland’s head drooped on Pandora’s arm, as she looked at Merlin he immediately realized that she was the one that needed to talk.

“I heard you and Mr. Gaius’s earlier conversation.”

Straight to the point, Merlin notes, she’s pretty blunt for a thirteen year old.

Merlin nods slowly, thinking that she’ll most likely want to leave the kingdom that night. Now he’ll have to come up with a plan so the guards won't-

“I want to stay in the vacant house until a better time.”

Merlin’s mind studders, and he has to run what she said over and over in his head before he comprehends.

“What.”

Pandora, seemingly taken back by Merlin’s shock, hesitates before explaining, “ It makes the most sense, right now there are probably hundreds of those guards who are looking for me and my brother. If we try to escape tonight…” She looks down at the boy to her side. “I don’t want to risk getting caught. If there’s even any way to make it less risky then I’m willing to take it.”

Merlin looks sternly at her, “You realize staying here is extremely risky in itself?”

“We’d be hidden.” Pandora argued, “Plus if we stay for only a bit, we’d be able to learn the guards' schedules and stuff.”

Merlin was speechless, this girl was 13 and she had already come up with her own argument that had some valid points.

“You’ve thought about this.” Merlin commented. “But for food and supplies… I could bring things down when I’m supposed to run errands for Guias and I could check up on you whenever I have spare time.”

Pandora nods and stands a bit straighter, Roland mimicking her.

Merlin looks to Gaius to see if he has any objections but is just met with his calculating gaze on him.

Great.

Merlin turns back to the children. So far this was the best plan that has been made all day.

Merlin walked shortly over to one of the physicians cupboards and took out a rolled up piece of parchment, went to the bench and spread out the paper, with both of his hands, to show a map of the palace and the village surrounding it.

“When I first came here this place was a maze, so they gave me this map to help me find my way around.” Merlin smirks up to the children, “Now we’ll be using it to our advantage. Guias, where is the house?”

The court physician hubles over to the bench and points a finger at a little area farther from the palace area, in the outskirts of the village.

Merlin reaches for a quill that rested on the bench and marks the spot Gaius had pointed on.

“I know a few passages we could take to get there but that doesn't mean that guards won't be there either, even if we take every back alley there's a hundred percent chance that we will run into at least three squads patrolling. So we need disguises and luck, a lot of it, to get past them. I have some old clothes you can use and I can get some hoods.”

Both children looked intently at Merlin, soaking up all he was saying.

“We leave in half an hour.”

——————

The bell outside had tolled, marking it to be 8 at night. The king had issued a curfew soon after the trial addressing that if the sorcerers weren’t captured by then, then there would be a curfew and anyone that was seen out would be taken to the dungeons.

Merlin threw his hood over his shoulders and kneeled down to help Roman tie his.

“Are you actually Emrys?” Roland questioned, emphasizing on the word ‘actually’.

Merlin thought for a moment then replied, “That is what the Druids name me.”

“That’s not your name?” Roland asked, seeming to be genuinely curious.

“Think of it.. as a sort of secret name. That’s why no one here knows that Emrys is me.” Merlin said, trying his best to explain it in the most simple way possible.

Roland nodded thoughtfully as Merlin stood.

The door from Merlin’s room opened and Pandora came through wearing Merlin’s old clothes that he had outgrown from when he had first arrived in Camelot.

A short sleeved dust colored shirt and an even less appealing color of pants, she had her hair tied in a short braid that rested on her shoulder. Merlin had to alter the clothes so that they would fit her but they made her seem more like a commoner boy.

“How do they fit?” Merlin had hoped they he did a good job altering them since he had to always sew Arthur’s shirts whenever he ripped them during training.

Pandora tugged at the shirt experimentally, “Really well, thank you.” The girl herself seemed surprised by this fact.

Merlin just smiled ignoring the confused expression and took the cloak hanging from the bench, handing it to Pandora.

Pandora walked down the stairs and put it on without further comment.

“Are you both ready?”

Both children’s expressions went serious as they both faced Merlin and nodded in unison. Did they practice that, Merlin wondered to himself.

“Good, let's start. To say it's going to be a pain to get past all those thick headed guards is an understatement.”

Merlin thankfully got a chuckle from them.

Chapter Text

A shift around them and suddenly Merlin, Pandora, and Roland are standing in the wine cellar hand in hand.

Merlin lets go of his hold on Roland and walks carefully over to the exit of the cellar into the streets of the village. There were no guards patrolling in that area yet.

Merlin turned his head to the children and whispered, “We need to move quickly, there are no guards at the moment but they should be on their way.”

Pandora nodded, while she kept her hand clasped in her brothers, she stepped right beside Merlin looking out the door.

“Keep your hood up, don’t make eye contact with anyone, and we’ll make it there no problem.”

Roland used his free hand to clumsily put his hood on, and both Pandora and Merlin tugged on their own. Merlin looked out the door for the final time before slipping out, motioning for the children to follow him.

They stalked the streets, hiding in alleys when they heard patrols coming, and staying in the dark shadows of homes when they thought they heard anything that could lead to them being caught, uneasiness coiling up in Merlin each time.

They were nearly there, just one more block to the house when they heard a shout behind them, telling them to stop.

“For the love of-“ Merlin took a breath and took a meaningful look at the children. Thankfully they had come up with a plan in case they did indeed get pulled by a patrol team. Both children hurriedly pulled their hood around their face and started coughing violently. The group of knights jogged to where the trio were.

The knight in front, the patrol leader, spoke aggressively, “Who are you and what is your business? Take off your cloaks.”

Merlin took a small breath, readying his lie, before replying, “I would not advise that, Sir Henry.” He pulled his hood down, with his usual smirk and playful demeanor.

The knight seemed taken aback that Merlin knew his name before he fully recognized Merlin.

“Prince Arthur’s manservant. Care to state why you are out when there is a curfew set in place? You of all people should know that if you are not in line you are sent to the dungeons.” A few knights behind him snicker.

Merlin kept his smile plastered, trying not to show any nervousness, while sweat started to build on his temples, “Yes well, other than being that ars-“ Merlin stopped mid way, reminding himself that there are children right beside him. “Then being Arthur’s servant, I am also the physician’s assistant. These two are quite sick and they needed to be taken home. They are also quite contagious so I would not want them to take their cloaks off as that is their only means of protection.”

Both children coughed hoarsely, keeping their cloaks close to their faces. While the knights all simultaneously took a few steps back. Sir Henry, however, stayed where he was, looking at Merlin suspiciously.

“If they are so contagious, why are you with them?”

Merlin's mouth dried, just wanting the whole interaction to be over.

“I’ve already gotten the illness before, it doesn’t affect me now.” Merlin’s lie rolled off his tongue easily.

“Then you won't mind if we accompany you, there are dangerous magic users on the loose after all.”

Merlin mentally cursed himself, he stepped in between the children and the knight keeping his easy smile. He was about to speak when groans broke out from the groups of knights.

“Sir, let's just move on! I don’t want to get sick!”

“Yeah, it's just Merlin. Plus, if we throw him in the dungeon, you know how irritated Arthur gets when he’s not around at training.”

“We need to keep patrolling to find those magic users, we can’t waste anymore time.”

Murmurs of agreement ruptured from the knights. Sir Henry sighed frustrated, studied Merlin for a moment longer before turning, waving an impatient hand over his shoulder, signaling for Merlin to be on his way.

Merlin pulled his hood back over his head and pushed the kids forward in the opposite direction of the knights. When they turned a corner and were finally out of earshot of the knights, they all let out a breath of relief. Pandora was visibly shaking as she kept holding onto her brother's hand, like he could be ripped away at any moment. Roland didn’t seem to mind, if anything he was holding onto her with the same amount of force.

“Look.” Merlin motioned down the road to a small house, taking breaths of fresh air. “We’re here.”

————

Merlin opened the door to the house and sneezed instantly and wiped his nose. It seemed as if the people had moved out long enough ago where there was already dust floating in the air.

“Well, it could use some cleaning but it should do for a short amount of time.” Merlin ushered the kids in, while he locked the door behind him.

Both children looked around as they made their way inside. Merlin walked around through the whole house to check for any damage that needed immediate fixes, however, found none. He did find a broom, a few plates, and a slightly broken table with a wobbly leg that was left behind.

The children each drew out a medium sized pouch that was concealed with their cloaks. Merlin sent them a confused expression.

“Oh, Mister Guias gave us these so we can eat something tomorrow before you stop by to give us more things.” Roland quickly filled in.

“Speaking of…” Both children looked quizzically at Merlin as he drew out the word.

“Tomorrow, when I bring more things for the both of you, I might bring one or two people with me. They are friends, and like me, they’ll help make sure you both escape. They’ll be helping me bring supplies and such.”

Roland’s expression showed one of nervousness but hopefulness. After all, that was two more people in the kingdom that didn’t want his sister and him dead. Pandora however wore an extreme look of suspicion and fear.

“Are you sure that we should let more people know that you are hiding us here? I just…” Pandora drifts off avoiding eye contact with Merlin.

“I know that having more people know is risky but trust me, you’ll want these people on our side.” Merlin said softly but confidently.

Pandora’s eyebrows scrunched together in thought, as her gray eyes once again studied Merlin.

“Do they know that you’re Emrys..?” Pandora asked just above a whisper.

“No”, Merlin crossed his arms self concisely, “No one knows, except for Guias.”

Pandora looked down at Roland, released their hands, and instead rested her arm across his shoulders. “But they’ll help us?”

Merlin's response was immediate, “Yes. With all they can.”

Roland’s eyes met Pandora’s and seemed to have a silent conversation amongst themselves as they came to an understanding.

“I can’t wait to meet them.” Roland smiled shyly up to Merlin.

—————

Nearing the physicians quarters, Merlin couldn’t help but have the exhaustion of the last 12 hours hit him. He was ready to just walk through the door, go straight up to his room and sleep until the sun harassed him to wake up once again.

You still need to let Morgana and Gwen in on the plan, a part of Merlin said.

Sleep, another argued.

“Young warlock.”

That was not one of Merlin's voices.

“Noooo,” Merlin groaned outwardly, “No, you dragon, I’m too tired to deal with your lecturing.”

“Young warlock, we need to have a discussion.” Said the deep voice of the dragon in Merlin’s head.

“Can’t we have the conversation right here?” Merlin telepathically, desperately asked.

No response came.

Merlin had half a mind to just ignore the dragon's call and just head to sleep.

—————-

“Young warlock, you have come at last.”

“You try sneaking past guards in the middle of a lockdown.” Merlin snapped back, holding up the torch.

“Yes, those children..” The dragon sighed. Merlin wasn’t sure if dragons had facial expressions, but if they did he would say that the dragon before him looked almost conflicted.

“If your going to tell me that I shouldn’t have rescued them like Mordred-“

“Young warlock, your blatant disregard of my advice in regard to the Druid boy is something much different then what is happening now.”

Merlin's next sentence faltered on his tongue.

“Could you please blatantly tell me what you mean? Are you telling me I shouldn’t help them or not? This was not how I thought this conversation would go.”

“Did you think I was going to demand you not to help these children and then you would help them anyway, despite my wishes?” The dragon asked without any weight.

“Quite frankly, yeah.” Merlin answered, a bit exasperated.

“Hm.”

“So?” Merlin yelled. He was getting quite annoyed with the dragon's cryptic way of speaking, and he was really not in the mood after the day he had.

“No matter what I say, you will do what you want. However, I will tell you that if you let them, they will play an important part in your destiny.” With that, the dragon stretched his wings outward and flew off into the ceiling of the cave, the thunder claps of the wings echoing between the walls of the cave.

“WHAT THE HELL DOES THAT MEAN?” Merlin yelled into the darkness as the dragon flew off.

———————

The next morning, Merlin woke much earlier than he usually did, with only a fuzzy memory of how he got back to his bed. He then got dressed for the day, went down from his room to the physician's working bench. Taking out a small piece of parchment and ink, Merlin wrote a hasty message before tucking the parchment in his pocket.

Merlin hurried out the door, hoping to cross paths with Gwen while he went to give Arthur his breakfast from the kitchens. While on his way to the kitchens, Merlin heard the undertones of gossip about the things that transpired the day before.

When Merlin grabbed the prince's breakfast, he was given the usual warm greetings from the staff, each wishing him a good morning, some teasing that he was actually on time for once. Merlin just gave them all a smile telling them he must be off.

Merlin quickened his pace intent to find Gwen.

“Merlin!”

Merlin, however, didn’t turn his head to see who it was and just said, “I’m really sorry Gwen, but I need to-“ Merlin had nearly tripped over, almost making the plate fall, before turning to face an exasperated Gwen. “Gwen!”

Gwen quickly walked over to Merlin, lowering her voice so only he could hear, “Merlin, those children yesterday.. is it really true?”

The servant looked both ways of the hallway before nodding to the maid solemnly. Gwen brought her hand to her mouth in silent horror.

“Morgana and I had no idea until guards were sent to protect her in her chambers.” The maid whispered, then snapped back to Merlin hurriedly, “Morgana has an idea, she thinks that the three of us-“

Merlin quickly once again looked back and forth in the hallway but found once again it was only the two of them, before saying just below a whisper , “ I don’t have time to explain but”, Merlin takes out the piece of parchment while balancing the tray of breakfast, “Read this with Morgana, then burn it.” He had hoped he said it with enough force so she wouldn’t question more.

Gwen looked slightly up at Merlin questioningly, but nodded firmly, turning on her heel to, what Merlin could only guess, Morgana's chambers.

The servant took a deep sigh. The weight on his shoulders only lifted a bit, with the help of both the maid and the king's ward then he could actually help the children get through this unscathed.

Merlin continued his walk to the prince’s chambers, while his thoughts strayed to the note he had given Gwen and Morgana, and prayed to the gods above that they would be discreet. When Merlin opened the door and made his way across the room, putting the tray of breakfast on the desk, he was still trying to figure out what exactly the dragon had meant when he mentioned the children and his destiny.

“Time to get up, sire!” Merlin sarcastically chimed, pulling the curtains apart to let the light of the morning in. He heard the rustling of covers and usual groans of protest from the person underneath the sheets but Merlin took that as his cue to grab the plate of food on his tray, plus a utensil, and start to scrape the utensil to the plate.

“Mmm, Arthur, the staff have really outdone themselves this time, I mean this tastes absolutely incredible.” Merlin states loudly, not taking a single bite. Then, without even looking up, he takes one step to the side as a pillow is thrown where he was previously standing. The young man looks up to see a very rumpled looking prince Arthur, with hair standing up on sharp edges, staring daggers at him. And Merlin, like the fool he is, can help but smile fondly despite everything.

“Merlin, I swear to the gods, if you took a piece of my breakfast again-“

Merlin strode over and shoved the plate in Arthur’s arms, “Relax, your royal pratness.” Arthur looks at his plate with a blank stare. Then looks up confused at Merlin.

“What?” Merlin asked, he tentatively raised his hand to his face to see if something was there. He really hoped not or Arthur would never shut up about it for the rest of the week. The prince stares at his manservant for a few more moments, and Merlin desperately tries not to squirm from his gaze, with his stomach churning with anxiousness.

“Nothing,” The prince ultimately drawls out, before starting to eat his food.

Great, Merlin thinks to himself. The prince now could be suspicious of him for no reason.

With that absolute terrifying thought, Merlin continued to do his servant duties. Trying to avoid drawing any more suspicious attention to himself, Merlin stayed quiet as he clothed Arthur, got him ready for morning training, and readied his books for studies in the afternoon.

Right as Merlin was grabbing the last of his books, Arthur interrupted him, “Don’t bother, my father will have me join the rest of the patrols in the afternoon until the late evening.”

Merlin paused in his motion. Something about the way he said it made his voice sound strained. The way it sounded when he didn’t want to do something. Merlin hoped it wasn’t just his mind making delusions for himself.

There’s another silence that mirrors the one they had yesterday, where Merlin wants to tell Arthur everything about the plan and ask for his help. Ask him to go against his fathers wishes. Against the law, because Merlin knows that Arthur has to know that deep down this is all wrong.

Behind him, Merlin can hear the young prince take a steadying breath, like the ones he takes when he is about to share something important, and Merlin desperately hopes.

A knock at the door shatters Merlin's delusion as all reason comes flooding back to him on how and why Arthur wouldn’t help.

“You need to go, you’ll be late.” Merlin says, as he goes to pick up the tray to take back to the kitchens. He hears a small ‘hm’ of agreement from behind him before hearing footsteps leave out the door.

Chapter Text

Later that day, when Merlin had gotten the chores for the morning done, he went down to the front of the palace with a basket in hand, filled with food and water, and a hood over his head. Anxiety rolled in his insides like a snake dripping poison from its fangs; Dramatic, yes, but that was how he felt.

Merlin was about to give up and leave before out of the corner of his eye he could see two people, both in cloaks walking in his direction. Each had in their hands baskets of blankets and food, as well as two medium sized bags.

When they reached him, Merlin smirked to one of them in particular, “My lady.”

“Merlin, You’ve got a lot of explaining to do.” Morgana whispers harshly to him, while Gwen sighs softly beside her.

Merlin raised his arms up slightly in defense, “And I will, ‘gona, but not here.”

Morgana was still fuming, but let herself be guided by Merlin as the three of them made their way into the village. They cut through the main roads and finally found an alley that Merlin believed they would hide from prying eyes and where no one could overhear them.

All three pulled the hoods over their heads around their shoulders, revealing their faces. Gwen was slightly nervous, constantly looking all around to assure herself that no one was there. Morgana on the other hand had a scowl trained on Merlin.

“Ok, so I’m sure you both have a lot of questions.” Merlin turned to face the two women, dearly hoping that Morgana wouldn’t run him through before he had time to explain everything.

“Uh, yeah!” The king's ward replied as if Merlin had said the most stupidly obvious thing she had ever heard. Merlin was sharply reminded of Arthur. “You wrote to us saying that you knew where the sorcerer children were and to bring a list of items.”

“Which we did.” Gwen put in softly, while holding up said items in her hands.

“Which we did.” Morgana repeated, seeming to finally lose her anger, to Merlin's great relief. “Are they safe?” She asks softly. Her worry was evident, plastered on her face and rooting in her posture. Gwen waited for his answer as well with the same look, taking a step closer to him, now side by side with Morgana.

“They’re still in Camelot. Last night, I took them to an abandoned house on the outskirts of the village where they can stay hidden. I knew you two would want to help them as well, so I gave you the note.” Merlin supplied, a bit hopelessly.

Both women stood a bit straighter, and looked at Merlin empathetically.

“So, this is for them?” Gwen asked, looking at all of the baskets they were holding pointedly.

Merlin nods. Morgana lets out a breath. “Ok, lead the way, Merlin.”

Nearing the house, Merlin mentally puts down the wards he had set up the night before and gently walks up to the door and knocks the same rhythm as when he went to go get the children's food from the kitchens the day before. Morgana and Gwen stand a foot behind him waiting.

There’s silence on the other side of the door, and the warlock nearly has a heart attack, because what if someone found them? He would have felt if his wards went off. What if knights came this way? What if-

“Merlin? Is that you?” If Merlin hadn’t been paying attention, then he would have missed the small voice from the door.

“Pandora?” Merlin matched the tone, “Yeah it's me, my friends are with me too. Can we come in?”
—-----------

Morgana wasn't sure what she was expecting when her friend Merlin told her that not only had he found the children, but that he had helped hide them. She had not expected to be guided to an abandoned small house on the outskirts of the village. From the outside, it looked the same as any other house on the street, with a wooden door, and small windows on all sides, covered by curtains from the inside. This house however looked as though it hasn't been lived in quite recently.

Morgana’s attention is turned back when shuffling is heard from the door, then with a soft creak, an auburn, braided hair girl pokes her head out slightly to look up at Merlin. Morgana notices just how small the girl is compared to him, seeing as how her head barely reaches his upper arm.

She feels all the more guilty, for what the situation is, for what the children are going through, and what they will continue to go through. All because of a tyrant's rule, they are forced to hide like mice escaping a murderous cook in the kitchens, having to hide in holes in the wall until they can flee.

In front of her, Merlin offers a small smile at the girl in the door, it was the same smile that could disarm anyone, that seemed to calm even the most high strung person. It was the same smile she saw when she had first decided she wanted to be Merlin's friend and that she could trust him. Now here she was committing treason with the two people she trusted most in the world. The thought brings her comfort as she steps to the side to look at the girl in front of Merlin. It's clear just from a glance that she is distrusting of them. So Morgana offers an olive branch.

“May we come in?” Morgana asks, lifting up one of the baskets that hangs on her arm.

The girl looks down from her face to the basket, before giving a slight nod and opening the door for all of them to go inside. Olive branch accepted. Both Morgana and Gwen stepped up and through the door along with Merlin.

Once inside, Morgana's eyes sweep over the square room. Much like Gwen's house, the floor of the house had hard wooden floors and a table in the middle of the room, but it seemed to be broken in one of the legs. On the table were about 4 dishes piled, two cloaks, and two small bags. Then when Morgana looked to the far corner, she saw a boy with a head of unruly black curls, standing awkwardly with a broom in his hands.

“Hi,” the boy waved hesitantly with a wobbly smile, Then when his eyes spotted merlin his face instantly brightened. “Hi, Merlin.”

“Hi, Roland.” Merlin gestures to Morgana and Gwen, “These are the two friends I was telling you about.”

Gwen, after staying quiet for so long, speaks up. “It's nice to meet the two of you.” She brings the baskets and bags she brought over to the table to spread them out.

“We brought food, water, and sleeping bags the Knight used when they set up camp.” She continued, taking out each item.

Pandora and Roland walk to the other side of the table, with the younger boy holding onto the arm of the older girl, looking hungrily at the things spread before him. The girl looked at Morgana and Gwen directly with gray eyes filled with gratitude. She then turns to Merlin and he gives her an encouraging smile, before turning back to the women with a watery smile.

“Thank you.” Was all she said before beginning to rummage through all of the things on the table. Gwen went to help her find whatever she needed but Morgana stayed where she was, staring heartbrokenly at the children in front of her. The children hiding from death.

“Morgana.”

Being pulled from her thoughts Morgana turns to Merlin, where he is standing at the back end of the house near a door that leads to the back of the house.

“Come with me to check if there is anything else in the back.” he continues, opening the door. Morgana immediately takes that as a sign that he wants to talk, so she follows without a word.

Outside, there are three wooden fences boxing the small area around them, with a laundry line hanging from one side to the other. The ground is only rubble and dirt, crunching under their feet as they step out of the dusty house. Merlin closes the door softly behind him, with Morgana
noticing, taking a glance at the children. Then, he finally turns to her, tiredness evident in his face.

A silence passes between the ward and the servant.

“When do we get them out?” Morgana asks sternly.

“A week at most.” Merlin stated, crossing his arms and leaning on one foot, “We need to figure out the guard’s schedule and even when we get them out I want to make sure they have a safe place to go afterwards.”

“The Druids.”

Merlin hums in agreement, “I’ll have to contact them, but until then we have to protect them and keep them safe.” Morgana feels a slight chill run up her spine when she sees the way Merlin's eyes darken with determination, and his next words come out like steel.

“No matter what happens.”

Chapter Text

Arthur wanted to talk to Merlin. Correction, he needed to talk to Merlin.He felt like his consciousness was being pulled in all directions. Deep in himself, he would never want to bring harm to the children but the teachings his father had etched into him, gnawed at his heart. Then there was magic.

The thing he was taught to hate, to kill on sight; had saved his life a multitude of times and had proven that just maybe it wasn't as evil as he believed. It wasn’t like it had escaped his notice that all of the magic users that had attacked the royal family were all seeking out for revenge. Revenge for the lives that were taken. But then that begs the question, did they strike out from grief and rage or did magic truly poison their hearts?

He had no idea, and his existential crisis was beginning to give him the beginnings of a headache. He needed to talk to Merlin, he would know what to say, he always did. With his loyal eyes and easy demeanor. Arthur just desperately hoped that Merlin would be somewhere close. Arthur was on a lunch break and asked for extra to get Merlin to eat something, since he had strangely not eaten any of the prince’s breakfast that morning.

—------------------

Later that day, Merlin finished the last of his chores for Guias and went down to the knights armory, where the schedules for the knights were posted. He just needed to be careful that no one saw him and think that he was suspicious.

There it is, Merlin exclaimed to himself as he walked over to where it was nailed on the wall. He was reaching for the parchment to rip off when he heard scuffs of boots behind him.

“Meerlin, just what are you doing down here?”

Merlin's stomach flipped at the familiar voice as they drew out his name. He instantly drew back his hand and turned to face the prince that had a bemused smile on his lips, with his chainmail over his red tunic, and his hair slightly sticking up from one side that Merlin wanted to smooth out-

Focus, Merlin, he reminded himself as instead focused on the wall behind that prince. Remember why you're here and find a way to not reveal that to Arthur, he scolded himself.

“Just uhm, looking at the schedule, my lord.” Merlin dumbly replied.

Arthur frowned, “Yes, I can deduce that for myself, what I’m asking is why?”

Merlin smirked, trying to deflect his nervousness with sarcasm, “Well, I have to know just how much I’m going to be free from your royal arse, it’s not like I could read your mind to find out..” Merlin trailed off suddenly realizing something, and cursing to himself for not thinking of it before. He really was an idiot.

That stupid dragon in the dungeon had been using magic to reach out to Merlin to speak to him from his mind, and so had the druid boy. They were all able to communicate because they were all connected, like an invisible thread embedded in each person or creature with magic. Linking them together. So, he should be able to do the same with the two children, he would be able to constantly check up on them, making sure they were alright.

“Hello? Merlin! Where did the small amount of your brain go running off to?” Arthur said impatiently, with his eyebrows raised as if trying to recapture the attention of a small child. Merlin rolled his eyes, ignoring the jibe and instead started attempting to walk around the prince. He’ll just have to try to get the schedule later.

“And dare I ask, what did you need, sire?” Merlin asked warily, he really didn’t have the energy to do any heavy work.

”It’s time for my lunch, or have you forgotten that you're my manservant?” Arthur asked, following his servant out the armory.

”Ah, yes, gods forbid that you actually retrieve your own lunch and pour your own pitcher of water.” This in turn, got a hand smacked to the back of his head.

———————

That day, neither Morgana nor the king showed up in the dinning room for lunch, not that Merlin minded. He didn’t particularly feel like hearing the king drag on and on about how magic is evil and must be purged and on and on. He had become numb to it at this point, but it still unsettled him, always making him have the urge to run away and erase all memory of the words. So, ok, maybe it still hurts.

“Merlin.”

Merlin's attention was snapped back to Arthur sitting next to him while he stood, with one hand holding a pitcher of water and the other behind his back. “Hm?”

”The cooks gave me far too much, you take some of this.” Arthur then started using his fork to move some of the meats and potatoes to a separate plate and gestured for Merlin to take it. Merlin, himself, was blinking stupidly, rethinking everything he thought he knew. Arthur, the prat prince. Was offering food. To him, Merlin, who he thought the prince had hated.

“Are you feeling alright, sire?” Merlin put down the pitcher and moved his hand to the prince’s forehead to check for a fever, moving his hair softly away. Arthur immediately started swatting his hand away, pink coloring his cheeks.

“Don’t be stupid, I’m fine, do you want the food or not? Merlin, stop trying to check if I’m ill!”

Merlin withdrew his hand hesitantly, not quite convinced, but Arthur’s head didn't feel abnormally warm, for the split second he had his hand there. He was being serious. Merlin then skeptically looks down at the plate in front of him. He didn’t poison it, did he? Merlin thought exasperatedly to himself. Merlin keeps eye-contact with his infuriating prince and grabs the plate along with the spare utensil. The smell of the plate wafts into Merlin’s nose, his stomach's reaction very loudly reminding him that he had not eaten breakfast that morning. All thoughts of Arthur’s odd behavior leave his mind, as he shoves a fork full of food into his mouth, nearly groaning in relief.

Merlin turned around swiftly and leaned on the edge of the table next to the prince, the plate still in his hand, savoring each bite he took. Out of the corner of his eye, he could make out the prince still looking intently at him. Merlin tilted his head questioningly in his direction, and Arthur suddenly found his goblet very interesting.

But then the prince's demeanor changed from abashed to something more serious as he gazed in the wooden goblet, as if the water held all answers to every question imaginable. Merlin tried reading his face, becoming aware that something was bothering him.

“Arthur?”

“Yes, Merlin?”, Arthur replied, glancing up and meeting the servant's eyes.

“What’s wrong? It's not like you to give me food from the kitchens, extra or not.” He teases, trying to lighten the mood. The blonde doesn’t answer immediately, instead taking more time in his own thoughts, and turning his gaze back to the table in front of him.

“I’ve just been thinking..”, he finally said softly and delicately, measuring his words. He put his elbows on the table to hold his head, his nails digging into his blonde hair.

“And we’ve already discussed how terrifying that is.”

“Merlin.”

“Yes, yes, I know, I’ll shut up.”

Arthur huffed out a small chuckle, loosening some of the tension from his shoulders, and Merlin counted that as a small victory but he also knows he can stall for only so long. He knows that Arthur wants to talk about magic but he’s not ready to hear the same hate that spills out of the king's mouth through the same voice of the man he cares about so much. A part of Merlin hopes that maybe Arthur won’t see the worst in magic and won’t turn out like his father.

In a careful tone, Arthur says, “Those children… I don’t think that they-“

The door to the dining room opening, startles Merlin from the edge of the table, nearly dropping the plate and fumbling to get back to his designated spot next to Arthur's chair. What had Arthur been trying to say?

“Good evening, sire.” A knight enters bowing.

“How may I help you?” The prince’s voice was strained, Merlin noted, most likely also startled by the sudden intrusion.

“The King wishes to see you, to talk about where to search to find the magic users.”

Merlin felt his heart rate speed up, even when he knew that those two were as safe as they could be, he still felt the urge to check in on them.

Arthur stood from his seat, walking around the table toward the door , “Thank you for notifying me. Merlin, see that this is cleaned up, if that isn’t too difficult of a task.”

The servant bowed shallowly, with his eyes on the ground, “As you wish,” he then whispered under his breath, “Prat.”

Arthur turned sharply, “What was that?” His blue eyes squinted suspiciously.

Merlin looked up, blue eyes meeting blue eyes, looking as innocent as he possibly could he said, “Nothing, my lord.”

———————-

On the way to the king’s study, Arthur tried not to groan from the missed opportunity to talk to his manservant. He was still as conflicted as when he first saw the children from the top of the castle, and a visit with his father was most definitely not going to help him.

When it came to his magic, the king would become manic and unpredictable. It would terrify the kingdom and even the prince himself at times. The last time a child of magic had been on the run from death, the king and guards nearly tore the palace apart trying to find him. Now there were two of them.

At the door, the prince knocked and waited stiffly.

“Come in.”, came a rough voice from within.

Arthur steeled himself for the inevitable never-ending ranting, opening the wooden door. He stepped through, closing it behind him, he clasped his hands behind him and straightened, much like any soldier about to receive orders.

“You asked for me, Father?”

The walls that lined the room were shelves full of books and texts. At the front of the room, sat a cluttered desk, filled to the brim with papers, and behind it sat a rumpled king. Crown skewed, royal robes wrinkled, and a nearly empty bottle of wine in his gloved hand. The only light in the room was from the window behind Uther that was covered in the royal red curtains, casting everything in the room with a crimson glow.

“Arthur, report how the search for the magic users is going.”

The prince’s throat ran dry, gulping, he tried to keep his voice steady, “We are still continuing the search thoroughly, by now we have inspected the majority of the palace and are-“

“So you have still not found those gods-forsaken sorcerers?!” Uther’s voice boomed over lapping Arthur’s.

Arthur keeps his motionless stance. “We are keeping vigilant but-“

““Do not give me any more excuses.” Utter slammed his bottle on the desk, causing parchments to fall to the floor. “There are dangerous magic users still out there. If you have still not found them then that could only mean that they are being helped, you and your men are to search every nook and cranny of this damn kingdom, if need be. When you find the ones aiding them, you are to kill on sight.”

Arthur tightened his hands, letting that be the only place he flinched from his fathers harsh and crazed tone. Arthur doesn’t know why, but hearing his father now, after all of these years of his justifications to why killing anyone with magic, he doesn’t quite believe in his words. The same sureness that came with thinking he knew what was right and wrong wasn’t as strong.

That magic was evil and it was his duty to make sure it was to never come to power again, to eradicate even the thought of it. He wonders what changed, certainly not his father, perhaps it was the fact that the all of the kings words were directed at children, perhaps it was the reaquering instances that this wasn’t all as black and white as he was lead to believe, or maybe it because of a certain manservant with a wayward tongue that couldn’t help but speak up for what was right.

“Yes, sir.” Is all that the prince of Camelot says before bowing and leaving the study.

—————————————

Back in the physician's chambers it is almost late noon, Merlin is grabbing several herbs as well as the stone mortar and pestle. He needed to find a way to connect with the children, but if anyone were to step in he also needed to seem like he was doing something. Putting the items on the wooden table, Merlin sat down at the bench and closed his eyes to focus.

Merlin opened his eyes and thought to himself, Just how the hell do I do this?

Ok calm down, just try to focus on connecting to magic around you, he reasoned with himself. Closing his eyes once more, Merlin canceled out every solid thing around him and mentally reached out to something intangible. It was like dozens upon dozens of different strings were spread out before him going in all directions but never intersecting.

Now to narrow it down to only those wielding magic.

The majority of the strings faded, leaving only a few left. Honing in on each of them, he was able to differentiate them, each having a distinct sense and sound to them.

The brightest of them was a brilliant and thick silver that sounded like strong winds even when there was none. The dragon. Then there was one that would have been giving a very bright purple glow had it not seemed like it was being dulled by a cloth. It must have been someone that hadn’t realized they had magic yet, Merlin took note of it before moving on to the last two. Both had the same green luminescence that hummed softly. Pandora and Roland. Merlin reached out to one of them and tried to hold it in his palm.

With the slightest touch, the rest of the strings disappeared and there was only silence.

“Hello?” Merlin thought experimentally into the void. A very long silence passed, from which Merlin was pulling his hair out, praying that he didn’t accidentally try to speak to someone other than the two children, before finally a voice floated into his mind that wasn’t his own.

”Merlin?”

The servant nearly fell out of his seat with excitement when he recognized the small voice of Roland. Never had Merlin been more happy to hear someone else’s voice in his head. Merlin nearly cried out with pride for himself before replying.

“Roland! It worked! Thank the gods!”

”Uhm.. Merlin..?” Something in the way the boy had sounded a hundred times more frightened then what Merlin thought made him immediately on edge all over again.

”Roland? What’s wrong? Are you alright?” Merlin stood from the bench feeling his pulse begin to quicken.

“I’m so sorry, Merlin, I didn’t mean to I swear but you scared me and it just slipped out before I could stop it-“

Merlin put his hand up to his head, and interrupted Roland before he could go into a full on meltdown.

“Roland, whatever it is it's ok, calm down, it’s ok, what’s wrong?”

”Morgana is here with us…”

Merlin felt as if a large stone dropped to the bottom of his stomach, weighing his whole body down, causing his legs to tremble with the realization.

“Did she…?”

“…” Roland’s silence was all the confirmation he needed before bolting out of the physicians chambers, nearly tearing the door from its hinges.

“I’m on my way.” Was the last thought he gave to the small boy.

————————

Morgana felt glued to the floor as thousands of thoughts and emotions bubbled in herself, ready to explode at any moment. Merlin was a sorcerer… everything made so much more sense. Of course he was, it was no wonder how that man had yet to die with the amount of trouble he gets into.

But why was he in Camelot then? Murder capital for all things magic. Did he plan to hurt the royal family? No, that didn’t make any sense.. If he meant any harm to the crown he would have done it by now, Morgana refused to believe that one of her closest friends could be capable of such betrayal. The ward feels the prickles of tears in the corners of her eyes just at the thought. Her stomach twists in contrast, causing her to have to lean on the wooden table with her hand.

“Miss Morgana..?”

Morgana looks up to the two children in front of her, each wearing an expression of fear, but the youngest holds more horror while the older has a more calculating trepidation. Watching her to see what she’ll do next. The boy, who had previously startled off his seat on the table because apparently, Merlin was talking to him through his mind, before realizing what he had said and in whose presence he was in. Morgana realizes that she’s slightly trembling from the shock of learning the truth about Merlin. She goes to open her mouth before she’s interrupted by a horrified boy.

“Miss Morgana, please don’t tell on Merlin!”

“Roland-” Pandora tried to put her hand on her brother’s shoulders, but she shook her off, taking a small step to Morgana.

“He’ll get in trouble! And if the king finds out then Merlin will-” Roland's voice broke, tears filled his gray eyes, while clutching his hands in balled fists. Pandora, at her brother's side, then pulled him into a hug by the shoulders as his sniffles filled the silence between the king's ward and the children.

Pandora’s and Morgana’s eyes meet, before the younger girl says just above a whisper but still with steel in her tone, “Merlin saved our lives. You have to know he’s not evil just for having magic, right?” She had said ‘magic’ softly as if anyone could hear them even if it was just the three of them.

Morgana’s eyes softened at the girl's words. She thought back to every time the servant had protected someone. Gwen when she had been charged with sorcery. Arthur, when he drank the poison in the prince’s stead. Even Morgana, at night she never missed how there were her favorite sweets and comforting teas that she knew Gwen hadn’t ordered for her.

She knew Merlin wasn’t evil. And him having magic wasn’t going to change any of that.

“I know.” Morgana’s voice was watery even in her ears, and the children’s eyes widened. The three stood in silence before Morgana straightened up and continued with organizing the rest of the supplies, like she had been doing before.

The children eased from in front of her and hesitantly walked back toward the table. Morgana didn’t even look up when she finally said, “Merlin is the kindest man I’ve ever known, his secret is safe with me.” And as soon as the man himself got there, Morgana was going to say as much to him.

A few more minutes passed by before they finally heard footsteps sprinting towards the front of the house's door. Then the door was slammed open, showing a pale, raven haired boy, out of breath no doubt from running all the way from the palace, and eyes wide with a slightly trembling frame. Morgana had never seen her friend so terrified.

The children, startled from the sudden noise, turned to stare at Merlin, who seemed to relax just a fraction at the sight of them but when the sorcerer's eyes finally met Morganas, he was already stammering profusely, “Morgana, please, I can explain.”

But before he had the chance to get another two words out, the king's ward had moved around the wooden table, skirts swishing from the sudden movement, and made her way across the small house, wrapping the sorcerer in a hug.

Chapter Text

Each step Merlin ran, the more his magic bubbled under his skin, reminiscent of the day he saved Pandora and Roland from their execution. But replaced with anger was fear and anxiety. His lungs burned from the rushing of air entering and exiting, his muscles sore and threatening to give out but he couldn’t seem to stop or care, Merlin just needed to get to the house.

With the house finally in his sights, he sprinted up to the door and pushed it open with splintering force. Merlin’s eyes swept through the whole house until he found the children at the side of the table both staring at him, and the pounding in Merlin’s ears dulled to a firm throbbing, before finally seeing Morgana just next to them.

”Morgana, please, I can explain.” The words were out of his mouth before he had any time to actually think about them. How could he possibly explain? How could he explain that he had talked to Roland without incorporating magic? How could he-

Merlin is then suddenly wrapped in firm, warm arms that encapsulates him with comfort. Along with the embrace came quiet soft words that vibrated through his whole being.

“It’s ok, Merlin. You’re ok. You're not in trouble. I’m not mad. You’re the kindest and bravest man I’ve ever had the pleasure to meet, and I’m so grateful to call you a friend.”

Pressure built in the warlocks throat and tickled his nose, relief over flooding him as he embraced back, drooping his head to her shoulder. Lowering his guard to her, letting just a bit of everything he’s been holding in for so long slip out, as his friend rubbed reassuring circles on his back.

“Thank you.” Was the only thing Merlin murmured, holding back a sob. Thank you for accepting me, he continued in his head, thank you for not hating me. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

A high pitched voice spoke up from ahead of Merlin that caused him to look up and break from the embrace.

“Merlin?”

The young boy at the side of the table was shaking, with a visibly trembling bottom lip, as if he was going to burst out crying at any moment, and Merlin was sure that he was. Pandora already had her hand around his shoulders trying to comfort him, but was staring at both him and Morgana as if she couldn’t believe they were standing right in front of her, utter disbelief written across her features with something else Merlin couldn't place.

Roland started sniffling and bringing his sleeves up to wipe away at his runny nose and tears on his freckled face, and continued speaking.

“I’m sorry, Merlin. I didn’t mean to tell her. I swear, I didn't want to get you in trouble, please don't be mad, I’m sorry. And now Miss Morgana knows…”

Merlin was sure that the poor boy would have kept going if Merlin had not walked over to the table and bent down to his knee, putting a hand on the table to balance himself, in front of him so that the younger boy had to look down to Merlin, trying to seem as non threatening as possible.

“Hey, hey, it’s ok. See? It’s alright, I’m ok, nothing’s going to happen to me.”

“Really?” The small boy sniffed, looking down with wide gray eyes. Tears threatened to spill at the edges of his eyes.

“Really.” Came the resolute voice of the king's ward from behind the warlock. Merlin looked back, knee still on the ground, to see his friend straightened her stature, appearing all the more confident and powerful that she was.

Even if he tried, he couldn’t suppress the smile that made its way to his lips.

Before he could turn back towards the children, two arms made their way around Merlin’s neck and desperately clung, sniffling loud next to his ear. Merlin sat there shocked, with his arms slightly hovering over the younger boy's body before finally returning the embrace, and patting his back reassuringly with one hand, while the other ruffled Roland’s head of black curls.

Merlin glanced slightly above to where Pandora stood, as if Merlin had achieved the unthinkable, she stared at him and at the king's ward over Merlin’s shoulder. When she looked back at the warlock, he offered a nod and smile, to which she replied with a meek one of her own.

—---------------

“Are you…who Roland and Pandora, called Emrys?”

The question made Merlin nearly drop the candle in his hand. An orange and yellow glow floated through the half opened window, a distinct tell of how evening was starting to settle in, basking everything in the room with the same light.

The two children sat on the ground with their sleeping bags spread out already, caught up in their own conversation, until Morgana’s question promptly took their attention away. Morgana sat leaning on the table with her arms crossed and eyes trained on Merlin’s from across the room, while he laid candles on the shelves perched on the walls.

Both children turned their gray eyes toward him, not knowing what he was going to say, both with a sympathetic look on their faces.

“Yes”, Merlin says slowly, continuing to lay out all of the candles around the room. "It's what the druids call me at least.”

“So all those things they said about you in front of the king was..”

“True, for the most part.”

Merlin recounted the silence that followed as Morgana tried to wrap her mind over the whole ‘embodiment of magic, last of the dragon lords, and is the most powerful warlock that has ever roamed the earth’ thing. Merlin wasn’t so sure about the second statement however.

“But then what are you doing in Camelot?” The slight desperation didn’t escape the warlock’s notice and the guilt pained him. He knew that Morgana just cared about him.

“If anyone were to find out you had magic, you would be killed, Merlin.”

“I know”, the warlock closed his eyes for a moment, remembering the pyres and the guillotines and the gallows and the risk he was in each day just for breathing.

“But it doesn't matter, my place is here.” Merlin spoke with more confidence then he felt at that moment, but it was the one thing he was certain of above all else.

“For what purpose?!”

“The Once and Future King.” Everyone in the room turned to face the young girl sitting beside her brother, with her stormy eyes downcast, her frizzy auburn braid falling over her shoulder.

Merlin was then once again led to believe that these two have to have been with the druids for at least some time for them to know not only his name but as well as the prophecy that went with it.

“King?” Confusion laced Morgana’s voice followed by an appalled gasp. “Uther?!”

“Gods no!” Merlin turned fully around to face the ward, almost amused enough by the idea to laugh.

“But then who…?” Morgana trailed off before realization finally seemed to slap her in the face.

”Arthur.”

”Mhm.” Merlin lowered his eyes to wooden floors underneath him.

”Wait so does he kno-“

Merlin cut her off before she could finish, replying resolutely. ”No. He can’t know.”

”Merlin, do you think he would let something… happen to you?” The tension raised, the whole group knowing what was being insinuated.

”I’m just his servant, ‘gona.” Merlin avoided her pointed glares about the statement and continued, finding his confidence and sureness.

“And that’s fine. Because I know that he will grow to be a just king and a great man. Better than his father; he will grow to be the future king of Avalon and will bring peace to the land. I just know he will. I see so much of it in him already.” The warlock grinned pridefully and stood straighter finally allowing himself to face his friend, showing her just how much he believed.

”My magic, my existence, my purpose, it's all for him, I will serve him until my last breath.”

”But-“

Roland spoke up, interrupting Morgana’s protest with a wistful awe.“That’s what the prophecy says, that Emrys will help the Once and Future King to bring the lands together and achieve peace, eventually bringing magic back to the lands.”

Both Morgana and Merlin turned their heads toward where the children sat. Merlin decided that this would probably be the perfect time to ask what had been on his mind for a while.

“You both seem to know who I am to the Druids, are you, yourselves, Druids?”

Roland shifted in his place uncomfortably while Pandoras eyes darkened, uncounsiously picking at the hem of her tunic.

After a moment of silence, the youngest of the two children spoke up, “We’re not Druids, but they took us in. They treated us as their own after…”

The boy trailed off, looking towards his sister with hesitance.

“After..?” Merlin prompted softly, curiosity getting the best of him.

“After our parents decided that they didn’t want two good for nothing magic users in their house and kicked us to the streets.” The bitterness in Pandora’s tone startled everyone except her brother, who just looked at her with those helpless gray eyes.

Pandora and her brother locked eyes before she took a breath, letting the bite in her voice go.

Pandora pulled up her legs and hugged them close to her chest. “They never saw magic as anything other than evil and ugly and horrible. So they treated us as such until they just couldn’t stand the sight of us anymore.”

“They treated us like monsters.” The young boy whispered miserably.

Merlin was then transported back to his first few weeks in Camelot, when he was speaking to Guais feeling the exact same as the children in front of him. The sight of both of their eyes downcast and empty, had Merlin feeling immense dejavu of the whole conversation with his mentor. They were the same as him. Born with magic and living with the consequences of it.

“Let me show you something.” Merlin moved to sit directly in front of the children, his legs crossed and both his hands at his side.

After looking around the room, at the expectant faces of both the siblings and his friend, the warlock took a steadying breath and brought his right hand, palm up, in front of himself. Magic stroked through his veins, feeling his blue eyes start to fade into the molten gold, and pressure started to build in his open palm.

There was a sharp intake of breath from Merlin’s left at the table. Merlin ignored it and continued to let his magic flow through his body, eager to finally be released. Then, as if a match had been struck, a flicker of fire appeared in the warlock's hand.

Both, Roland and Pandora, stared transfixed on the small flame as it started to grow in size steadily until it took up his entire hand. To the minute horror of everyone else, Merlin put his other hand on the fire, not even bothering him one bit. The fire only a warm sort of substance between his hands.

Moving his hand through the fire, he started to shape it as one would do with a piece of clay. He used his long fingers to mold four legs, a tail, a long neck with a horned head at the top, along with two wide wings.

Merlin cupped both of his hands under the dragon shaped fire and softly blew into it, leading to the figure coming to life and roaring with its head held high while it flapped its wings.

Three gasps filled the air of the cramped room, all mesmerized on the flickering figure. Adrenaline from the use of magic in front of an unlikely audience caused the warlock’s pulse to quicken.

“Merlin…”

Merlin allowed a small, amused smile to play across his lips at the sound of his friend’s floored tone. There weren’t many things that could leave Morgana at a loss of words. Without another word, Merlin tossed the dragon of fire into the air, allowing it to take flight. The creature took flight and raised to the ceiling of the house, circling overhead. Then after a few laps, the dragon dived down and glided toward the candles and using its wings, lighted the tips of the candles.

When it reached the candles on the table, Morgana watched with rapt attention as it zoomed by. Each turn and twirl made it abundantly clear that the dragon intended to show off its infernal glory. To which by its pleasure, gained surprised giggles and awed gasps from the children and Morgana.

By the end of its show, the flaring beast rose once again to the ceiling and spread its wings, roaring for the last time before dispersing into glimmers that disappeared as it touched the wooden floors.

Once the last of its remains disappeared, a silence settled between the four of them. Merlin studied each of their expressions intently. Roland had an appreciated grin on his face as he looked at Merlin, his sister wearing a matching expression as she stared at the warlock. Morgana still sat, leaning on the table, however she now had one hand stabling her to the table, and the other over her heart as if trying to catch her breath, with disbelief written across her features, as if she couldn’t process what had just happened.

The silence was finally broken by Morgana when she tentatively began, “I never thought magic could be…”

‘Beautiful, amazing, wonderful, graceful, anything but evil.’ Merlin thought to himself.

Merlin spotted closer to the children and placed each of his hands on each of their heads as he spoke.

“We can not let people make us believe we are monsters, no matter who they are. We hold value in this world. Magic is a part of us, but it doesn’t make us ugly, worth less then; it doesn’t make us horrible, it does not make us monsters.” Merlin announced each word in the last sentence as he looked deeply into the twin sets of gray eyes in front of him.

A wet laugh escaped Pandora’s mouth, as the beginnings of tears were starting to form at the edges of her eyes, wiping at them viciously with her arm, while her brother was simply biting at his trembling bottom lip as he struggled to let his own flood of tears escape.

Merlin then did something he wished he had been given in the first few terrifying weeks in Camelot, he pulled the both of them further into his arms, cocooning them in his own embrace. The younger of the two siblings immediately wrapped his arms around Merlin’s torso as he placed his head on Merlin’s left shoulder, sniffing as quietly as he could. His sister on the other hand, had tensed from the action, and just when Merlin was about to remove his arm, she placed her forehead in the crook of his neck, not embracing back but still letting herself be held.

——————————-

Morgana watched as one of her best friend’s hugged two broken children, helping them heal from wounds they never should have suffered.

Shortly after the three of them broke apart, Morgana said her goodbyes to them, giving her friend one last hug before leaving and heading back to the palace.

On the way back her mind raced with all of the events that had taken place, learning the secrets of Merlin had emotionally drained her and she was ready to lie down in her bed, hoping that her nightmares wouldn’t torture her at least for this one night.

Before allowing sleep to overtake her, Morgana vowed to herself that she would help Merlin from then on, with the children escaping, and with his destiny.

Chapter Text

After Morgana left, Merlin started preparing dinner for the three of them with the ingredients and meals that Gwen had packed in the bags.

While they ate, the children slowly started asking more about magic and simple spells they could learn and how they would be able to reach Merlin if they needed him, showing that they were finally starting to relax more. So Merlin guided them step by step on how to reach him through his mind should the need be.

Next, he took a candle from a shelf and led the two to the back of the house outside and he taught them how to grow herbs, vines, and other edible plants. The botany grew in the candlelight as Merlin spoke in the old religion. Once he was done, both the children started experimenting and mimicking the older warlock.

Merlin heard an unexpected snicker from Pandora, when he looked over to her questioningly, she had a hand over her mouth muffling a laugh, “Pink looks good on you.” She managed to get out.

He just became even more confused until he realized there was an almost non existent weight on the right side of his head. When he reached his hand just above his ears and his fingers brushed over soft petals. A few of the tiny petals fell to his lap to reveal the baby pink shade of the flowers. A giggle from behind Merlin revealed the culprit to the pink wildflowers in his hair.

“You as well.” Merlin says with a smirk, not even raising his arms before matching pink flower crowns were woven round the heads of a near hysterical Roland and a cheeky Pandora that simply rolled her eyes at his response.

“I think we all look quite charming.” Roland said through giggles.

———————

On the way back to the castle, Merlin couldn't help an exhausted smile starting to pull at the corners of his mouth, the events of that days events etching into his bones, but he couldn’t help but think that it was worth it to know that he had his friend by his side despite finding out his magic.

A mini bouquet of pink wildflowers was bunched in the inner pocket of his jacket, and Merlin was determined to get back to his chambers to press the flowers in one of the many thousand pages of books he owned. Thankfully he was able to make it to the palace half an hour before the bells rang for the curfew to commence.

Walking through the halls of the palace, Merlin was startled out of his thoughts when a crisp voice rang out from the hall behind him.

”Merlin.”

Merlin felt like completely ignoring the familiar voice and just running down the corridors till he reached his room, but thought better of it as he turned around with a false smile. “Oh! Sir Henry, hello! It’s not past curfew is it?”

“No”, the knight drawled out, as he took long strides until he was just a foot away from the manservant. “But I can't help but notice you’ve been acting extremely suspicious as of late. Shifty. Enough to cause questions about what you are doing.”

Merlin’s plastered expression nearly fell, but enough close calls have prepared him for nearly anything. “Sir Henry, it’s late, and while I find it flattering that you want to continue speaking, I believe it is time for me to head back to the physician chambers.”

The servant shifted his feet in an attempt to walk away, when a gloved hand roughly grabbed his upper arm tugging him back towards the knight.

“We are not done talking, Merlin.” He said gruffly.

The friendly facade faded from Merlin’s face as he was forced to face the man. “Sir Henry, if you would please let me go.”

The knight ignored him and pushed the servant in between a column and a wall, trapping him. “Just where have you been the entire day?” He then noted impatiently, “You weren’t chasing the prince around like you usually do.”

”I was in the village, doing my duties.” He answered automatically. His throat felt tight, and he swallowed to keep his voice from breaking.

”I don’t believe you.”

”You don’t have to, it's the truth.” In Merlin’s defense, he didn’t mean for his tone to sound so sarcastic and snarky in that moment

In an instant, Sir Henry twisted Merlin’s arm and forced his chest to the wall, while the right side of his face was squished to the cold stone. The movement caused the bouquet to slip out of the servant’s jacket and fall to the ground near Sir Henry’s feet.

The knight started with barely restrained calm before morphing into steely fury, while the flowers escaped his notice. Merlin kept his eyes trained on the bundle.

“Two god-forsaken magic users are scampering around the kingdom, and you have coincidentally been keeping busy away from the palace since? I think not. What do you know about their whereabouts?!”

Sir Henry took a step closer causing more pressure and pain to build in Merlin’s arm, while he kept his eyes down, not particularly liking how close the knight was to stepping on the flowers.

“Look at me when I speak to you!” The knight’s voice rang out in the silence of the corridors, pushing Merlin more into the wall once again causing further strain to go through his arm, barely holding in the pained grunt. There was definitely going to leave a bruise on his wrist.

“What is the meaning of this?”

Both the servant and the knight froze at the voice from down the hall. Even if Merlin was facing where the voice came from, he knew who had just arrived. He knew just from the words, and sound of heavy boots heading towards them that he was either going to be saved or be in even more trouble.

“Prince Arthur.” Merlin couldn’t place the tilt of the knight's voice, but it sounded almost like… regret?

“Sir Henry”, the prince’s tone was icy, but still made his anger known as he stomped closer to the pair, “Care to explain why you have Merlin in such a harsh position?”

“He was acting suspiciously, my lord.” Merlin could feel the way the knight burned holes in the back of his head, not loosening his grip on him for a moment. He then added coldly, “I believe he needs to be questioned immediately and thoroughly.”

Merlin bristled at the thought of potentially being sat in a cold dungeon whilst others relentlessly asked him questions and prodded him, not releasing him until they were satisfied. Merlin had heard rumours that if they weren’t, they would turn to extreme measures of torture and considering how desperate the king must be by now to capture the children, the servant wouldn’t put it past him to accept any kind of technique to get information.

Merlin attempted to try to escape the knights grasp while stammering out, “I was just out doing my duties, I haven’t done any-“

“Be silent!” Sir Henry interrupted, somehow tightening his grip even more on Merlin's wrist, willing the servant to cut off his sentence with a painted huff.

“Enough.”

Merlin’s entire body tensed at the rough order that came from the prince, echoing through the halls. Once again, Merlin didn’t need to see his prince’s face to know that he was beyond furious. Sir Henry also seemed to have been startled from Arthur’s outburst when he stilled from behind Merlin.

Two more pounding footfalls, and Merlin finally feels the forceful relief of release from his arms as he is no longer pushed up against the wall. Instead, when he turns, he sees Arthur in front of him. The prince has an iron grip on the knight's bicep as he pulls him away, making sure that he is between Sir Henry and the servant.

Merlin notices, from over the prince's shoulder just how much pressure he has on the knight's arm, the fabric of Sir Henry’s tunic wrinkling under Arthur’s digging nails.

“You are not to ever lay a hand on him in that way again. He is my manservant, and he has my trust. Do I make myself clear, Sir Henry?” The prince’s tone left no room for debate, steady and dismissive and dangerous. Every bit of the nobility that he was, and leader he was born to be.

Merlin tried not to stare at the back of the blonde’s head, as affection filled his heart at the prince’s words. He ignored the pang of guilt that followed soon after. Guilt that Merlin did indeed know about the whereabouts of the children and Arthur’s misplaced trust in Merlin’s innocence.

Merlin looked over the prince’s shoulder once again, only to meet the threatening glare of the knight right before he stiffly bowed his head toward Arthur only muttering, “Yes, my lord.” Then turning on his heel and walking away in the direction of the knight chambers.

Once out of eyeshot, Merlin released a relieved sigh, causing Arthur to turn his attention from the direction the knight left to his servant. The prince’s demeanor changed from its intimidating gaze to something much softer as he turned back to Merlin with a concerned look in his blue eyes.

This absolutely does not make Merlin’s heart flutter, as he tried for a grateful smile, unconsciously rubbing his wrists.

“Are you alright?” The prince asked worry lacing his words, which came as a surprise to Merlin. Arthur was worried about Merlin. That would be a thought that would never fail to make Merlin feel light in the head.

“I’m fine.” The servant replied, clearing his throat and his thoughts.

“Merlin, your wrist.” The prince then grabbed Merlin’s arm rolling up the sleeve slightly with his own gloved fingers, revealing red marks circling his wrist that would most likely lead to a slight bruise.

Merlin hissed at the sight of how bad it probably seemed, but with Arthur’s hands gently ghosting over the forming bruise, the servant fixed on his most calming smile and looked into the ocean blue eyes. “Really, Arthur, I’m fine.”

The two stared at each other suddenly going silent, the prince still holding onto the servant's arm, softly tightening his hold, and Merlin leaning into the touch without realizing it himself, until he almost took a step forward into Arthur’s space. This small movement broke whatever trance they found themselves in because the prince quickly let go of his servant's arm and Merlin shuffled back a step, neither looking at each other.

When the servant’s gaze wandered to the floor, he saw pink petals from just behind Arthur’s boots. “Oh wait..” Merlin placed his hand on the side of the prince’s shoulder, pushing him to step to the side, then he kneeled down to pick up the bundle of flowers that had fallen from his pocket. A few of the petals were gone but it was still mostly all in one piece.

Merlin, what are you- What’s that?”

“It’s just uhm… flowers.” Merlin said hesitantly, before standing back up.

“Flowers?” The prince sounded baffled, as if utterly confused as to associate flowers with his manservant.

“Yes, Arthur, can you not see the plants in front of you?” The servant fought not to roll his eyes.

“And am I to assume that you were just waltzing about the kingdom picking flowers all day?” The prince said, his voice rising with mock aggravation.

Merlin spoke to defend himself but immediately regretted it when the words came out. “Well, I didn’t pick them-“

“You were given flowers?” Arthur gave extra emphasis on the last two words, checking if he was hearing Merlin correctly, along with something else in his voice that Merlin couldn’t place.

“Technically yes but- Wait, why’d you have to say it like that?” Merlin asked, trying not to feel offended at the tone of the prince's voice. So what if Merlin had flowers? Why should the prince care? Why should he care if the prince cared?

Before he could follow that train of thought he interrupted himself. “You know what? I don’t care. Thank you for saving me, Arthur but I think it’s about time that we got you ready for bed.”

The blond sputtered for a few moments, the servant almost believed he was going to correct himself on something but Merlin never gave him time to finish a sentence before grabbing Arthur by the bicep and dragging him towards the direction of his chambers.

“Merlin, you can’t handle me like this, I’m the prince.” He said, not bothering to pry himself from Merlin’s grasp.

“Whatever you say, my lord.”

——————————

Arthur stayed quiet as Merlin did his usual night time routines around his chambers. He didn’t know what to say to him if he was being honest with himself. He wanted to know more about the flowers his manservant had tucked in his inner coat pocket. Who gave them to him? Was it a maid? Kitchen staff?

The raven also seemed much more quiet then he usually was. He’s been much more quiet for the past two days. And Arthur has been hating it. The servant changed the prince in silence. Making said prince all the more aware of the lack of distance between them. He had never really noticed until then, just how prominent Merlin’s cheekbones were, how his hair had curled in his ear. And his eyes…

“Arthur.”

The blond cleared his throat, thos clearing his thoughts before pulling his eyes away from his servant. “What is it, Merlin?”

A beat of silence passed before Merlin once again spoke up, looking up to meet the prince’s eyes. “Thank you. For earlier.”

Arthur didn’t realize he had stopped breathing until he saw the blue eyes crinkle in confusion, finally he huffed out a curt reply. “There’s no need to thank me.”

“I’m just a lowly servant.” Merlin sighed, with a smile on his lips. The prince knew this expression to be one where he is supposed to play off his servant’s comment as a joke but his mouth speaks before his brain catches up with it.

“You're more than that.”

Arthur said it with such ferocity, enough to startle both the servant and himself at his words. Merlin’s eyes had widened almost comically, his mouth slightly parting, and Arthur wanted to laugh at the sight had he not said what he had said.

Faking a cough, Arthur stepped away from his servant making sure to ensure there is distance between the two of them, holding his arm to his mouth he quickly added, “That will be all, Merlin, thank you.”

“I-“

“That will be all.” He reiterated each word forcefully.

Neither spoke of how the prince thanked Merlin, and it escaped Arthur’s notice the bright shade of red Merlin’s ears turned as he quickly walked out of the chambers with a thud of the doors behind him.

Chapter Text

Once his manservant left the prince’s chamber’s and he was sure that he was out of hearing range, the prince walked toward his bed, flopped down and screamed into his mattress. What an idiot! Why did he say that? Why did he say it like that? All of these thoughts flew through Arthur’s mind as he laid on his bed, now laying on his back with his hands in his hair.

Anger still bubbled in the back of his mind and for his own sake, Arthur focused on that instead of his embarrassment. The prince had just come from finishing up the last of his patrol and was making his way to his chambers when he heard shouting and stumbled upon the scene in the hallway. Arthur couldn’t recall a time when he had gotten so angry so quickly as when he saw Merlin shoved against the wall by the knight, in an obviously uncomfortable and painful position. Arthur’s fingers curled into fists and he had to fight the urge to punch Sir Henry in the jaw and instead calmed himself enough to use his words.

Arthur tried to hide his satisfaction when Sir Henry finally backed off and went back to his own chambers. Then found it even harder to not stomp back towards him when he saw that Merlin’s wrist was sure to be bruised from the interaction with the tempered knight.

He had just wanted to head back to his chambers after a long day, get ready for the following day and to hopefully sort out his inner conflict with a conversation with Merlin… Gods above, he had totally forgotten to speak with his manservant in his haste to make him leave because of the prince’s embarrassing statement. Arthur screamed into his mattress once again for his idiocy,

—------------------

Merlin walked back through the halls to the physician quarters in a sort of deep thought daze, letting muscle memory guide his feet to his location. Had Arthur really said that to him? Of course Merlin was more than a servant, he was a living person after all. So then why did those few words affect the warlock so much? Maybe it was because the prince made it sound as if Merlin was more than a servant to him…

The warlock froze in his step just in front of the door at the thought, his cheeks and ears continued to warm comfortably. He then thought to himself he really was a fool as he opened the doors to the physicians chambers.

Merlin stood in the doorframe staring at the woman he had seen only a few hours ago, sitting on the physician’s bench having been in the middle of a conversation with the man himself. Both heads turn to the warlock. The physician with a bewildered and accusatory glare and the king’s ward with a pleading look in her eyes.

“Merlin, we have a problem.” She said in a hushed tone as she stood from the bench and walked towards the warlock.

“Morgana? What happened?” Merlin asked in the same volume, only sneaking a glance at his guardian and seeing his signature raised eyebrows with hand on his hip.

“Mind telling me what is going on, you two?” Gaius called from across the room, sounding every bit as impatient as he looked.

Morgana’s eyes darted between the two of them, but more towards Merlin. As stubborn as she was, she still couldn't quite compete with the court physician. “Uhm..”

The warlock knew that Gaius would eventually find out, and he did need to clear things up now before any miscommunications would occur so it would be best to be blunt now, so he quickly spoke over her, “I told Morgana. She knows.”

Gaius’s eyes widened, momentarily shocked before fixing his glare straight on Merlin, “Knows?”

”About everything.”

“And what exactly is ‘everything’, Merlin?” Gaius’s tone came out warningly, cautious and because Merlin knew him so well he could hear the concern in there as well. So the warlock took a deep breath, and reiterated calmly.

“She knows about the children, the plan and…” Merlin paused before finally admitting in a whisper that was only heard because of the silence that fell in the room, “About my magic.”

A harsh gasp gasp escaped the older man as he took a step back and brought a hand to clutch his chest. Panic and fear painted over the man's features as he looked between the king's ward and the warlock. Merlin moved in an instant toward his mentor, firmly grasping his shoulders and ducking his head to catch Gaius’s gaze and to focus on him alone.

“Gaius, it's alright, everything is alright, Morgana is going to help us, she won’t hurt me or the children.”

“Merlin, do you have any idea-“ The court physician then cut himself off sparing an almost fearful look at the young woman from behind Merlin. Following his gaze he saw Morgana’s face shift from horror to shame as she clasped her hands in front of her and looked at the floor.

”Miss Morgana.”

Morgana raised her head immediately, locking onto Gaius’s stare. ”Do you swear that you will not harm them?” He asked with nothing more than a near desperate whisper, clinging onto Merlin’s sleeve.

Morgana stood straighter, leveling her words, ”You have my word, Gaius. Merlin is not only my friend but the bravest and kindest man I have ever met. No matter what happens, I will protect him with everything I have.

The two continued to stare at each other from across the room until the court physician seemed to have found what he was looking for in her gaze and nodded to her to which she returned. Merlin felt his chest tighten from the affection he felt but at the same time loosen from relief that he could completely trust one of his friends. And now so did his guardian.

Once a moment passed, Merlin cleared his throat returning the attention back to the reason Morgana was there in the first place. “Now that we have all of that cleared away, what exactly is the problem, Morgana?”

The woman’s mood darken with such intensity, Merlin felt the familiar sinking feeling in his stomach that nothing good was going to come out. Morgana walked back to her place on the physician’s bench and crossed her arms on the table as she spoke to the other two in a solemn tone.

“The king is now going to be sending troops to the lower towns to continue the search, and one of the areas is the neighborhood the children are hiding in.”

“How do you know this?” The court physician questioned, now much more compossed than he was moments ago.

“I was awoken from the sounds of knights going back to their chambers telling each other of the new patrols that would be happening first thing in the morning.”

Merlin stilled and breathed out through his nose to calm the nerves arising from his chest.

“I know.” The Raven haired woman sighed tiredly.

“Why? It’s only been a day.” Merlin asked, already knowing the answer but still voicing his frustration out loud.

“Apparently, Uther has been getting more and more desperate to find and bring in the children.” The statement hung in the air, causing images of past executions to slip into Merlin’s mind, except this time the victims had lifeless gray eyes staring back at him.

“How much time do we have until they reach where the children are?”

“A day, maybe less.”

Merlin tightly crossed his arms, leaning on the desk behind him. “So we have less than twenty four hours to get the children out of here safe and sound.”

”Have you gotten in contact with the druids yet?” Morgana asked hopefully.

Merlin took a heavy breath, letting the familiar smell of the herbs in the quarters fill his senses to ground him, and realized just how tense he was when he had let his shoulders fall. “Not yet, I planned to tonight. I’ll see if I can reach them with the new spell I learned.”

Gaius raised one his eyebrows questioningly at the warlock.

“I found a spell that allows me to speak with others that poses magic, since sending a letter to the druids will take too long I am going to try to use the spell to reach the nearest camp.” Merlin explained, walking over to the books he was looking through earlier. Perhaps there was a way to magnify the range to outside the kingdom specifically to their group, he reasoned to himself.

Merlin flipped through the yellowed pages of the books, barely noticing the other two continuing the conversation about the possible guard routes until he heard Moragana speak once more, addressing the both of them.

“There is one good thing, however.” She said, flashing a mischievous grin, as she brought a hand to her side and into her dress pocket, fishing out what seemed to be a folded piece of parchment similar to the ones the knights used-

“You didn’t.” Merlin breathed, feeling the beginnings of a manic smile tugging at the corners of his mouth.

“I did.” Morgana replied, unfolding the piece of parchment on the physician's work bench, revealing the knight's routes and shifts for searching the palace and the lower towns.

“You could have told us this in the beginning, you know!” Merlin saw from his peripheral, his guardian walking closer to look down at the paper scanning its contents.

“Details, details.” The king’s ward waved off. “The point is, now we have the upper hand, we know where they will be and where they will not.”

“How did you even get this?”

“Sneaking into the knights armory isn’t nearly as difficult as one would think, especially if most knights are out patrolling.”

“It seems it will not be until the afternoon that the knights will be searching where the children are.” Gaius spoke up, talking with the same professional tone he would use while working with a patient. “Merlin, can you try to contact the druids now?”

Merlin curtly nodded his head. He understood that they were short on time and needed to make arrangements as soon as possible. So Merlin closed his eyes and went back to only feeling the magic around him like how he did earlier that day.

Merlin once again saw the strings around him and instead of focusing on the ones in the kingdom, he instead focused on the ones in the outskirts, farther away from him. Many of the threads pulled away to reveal a thick clump of all differently colored strings all overlapping on itself. Signifying a large group of people. Merlin turned his focus on the brightest of the bunch, a strong humming with a blue hue. That would have to be the leader of the druids, the elder some had called them, Merlin thought to himself before he reached out to grab it.

“Emyrs.” A deep gentle voice greeted him in his head.

“Uh. Hello.” Merlin hadn’t been expecting the elder to speak first, but he supposed that made things easier now that he didn’t need to introduce himself.

“What do we owe the pleasure, Emyrs?” The man’s voice continued casually almost as if expecting a mental visit from Merlin. Knowing the druids and cryptic ways however, Merlin wouldn’t be surprised. So the warlock gathered up his courage and replied seriously.

“I’m going to have to ask a favor, Elder.”

“Mm.”

“There are two children in my care that are hidden in the city. The king and his army are currently trying to track them so they can be executed.” Merlin paused for a moment to let the druid leader absorb the information before continuing, “I can not keep them hidden for much longer, would you be able to take them in?”

The elder said almost immediately, “We would be more than happy to take them in,” Merlin felt such immense relief from those words which was then short lived as the elder didn’t stop there, “But I am afraid I can not put the lives of my people at risk by personally going into Camelot territory. Should even a small group of us be discovered by the knight of Camelot, it could lead to the rest getting found out especially now that there has been an overflow of knights parolling.”

Even though the druid leader couldn't see him, Merlin nodded to himself, understanding the cautions that the leader was making. He was responsible for his entire encampment of druids, he had a duty to keep them safe. Just as Merlin made it his duty to keep the children safe.

The next half hour, Merlin, Gaius, Morgana, and the druid leader conversed and planned on what the best course of action was. It was nearly half past ten when the lady Morgana had finally gone back to her own chambers after they had finished talking.

It was nearly one in the morning when the all too familiar booming of a voice loud enough to make Merlin’s entire head vibrate thundered through his mind.

“MERLIN.”

—--------------------------

“YOU HAVE TOLD THE WOMAN OF YOUR GIFT.” The dragon flapped his wings ferociously causing strong winds to blow at Merlin, making him put up his arms to protect himself from incoming dusts and grabble that came with the winds.

“Oh, I am not taking any shit from you!” Merlin yelled back at the furious dragon, his voice hoarse from exhaustion and anger. “She is my friend, and I trust her.”

“YOUR FALSE JUDGMENT WILL BE THE DOOM OF THIS KINGDOM. OF ALBION.” The dragon roared, his claws digging into the crumbling stone perch he stood on, pieces of stone fell into the abyss below.

“It’s not like you’re helping me out here! At least I know that Morgana has my back.” The warlock defended, remembering all that had transpired in the past few hours. Remembering the immediate acceptance he was given and assurance he was still the same Merlin she thought of.

“That witch,” the dragon spat out, “will cause you to fail.”

“No, she will be the reason those kids will-” The warlock paused, his mind catching up with what the dragon had called Morgana. “What do you mean ‘witch’?”

Merlin’s pause in argument brought the dragon to perch atop the stone in a haughty manner, and if dragons had facial expressions, Merlin would describe the one in front of him as smug. “You wish to know things but do not heed my warnings when I tell you. So now you will stay in the darkness of your ignorance.” With that, the dragon flapped his wings taking off into the darkness above, leaving Merlin in his half asleep and infuriated and completely confused state.

Merlin really hated that dragon.

Chapter Text

The smell of charred flesh overwhelmed Merlin to the point of his eyes watering. Looking around, Merlin tried to find the source of it when he suddenly stopped, paling at the sight before him. In front of him were thousands of burning pyres all lit with people hung up and tied to them. That's when all of their screams exploded in Merlin’s ears all at once. All yelling for help and for anyone to save them. Men, women, children, all yelling in agony as fire licked their limbs and engulfed them in flame. Merlin tried to put his hands up to his ears to block out the horrifying sounds but it seemed to only intensify, the cracking of the wood and bones, the cries and the pleas, the roar of the red, merciless fire. Merlin was surrounded by it, seeing no escape from the hell that he was seeing. He closed his eyes.

Then it all stopped.

Merlin opened them, only to feel as if he was going to be ill. He couldn’t speak, couldn’t move, only stood frozen in fear and shame.

In front of him, was every person that he had watched die. The man he had seen at the execution when he first arrived in Camelot, blood spilling out from around his neck, soaking his clothes and spilling on the floor. He saw the man’s grieving mother, Mary Collins, next to him, glass and metal lodged in her wrinkled skin and in her hair. Merlin saw Numueh standing beside them, her hair and her dress smoked while her once pale skin was red and blotchy with burns. He saw Gwen’s father, Tom, with a gape in the middle of his stomach bleeding out from what could have been a sword wound. Merlin saw his childhood friend, Will, with an arrow through his stomach. Behind them were every person whose execution Merlin had to attend. All either burned, bruised, or bleeding.

They all stood around him, all with various faces of disgust and hatred.

“It’s your fault.” They chorused.

“No…” Merlin whispered, he didn’t know if to himself or the people in form of him.

“WHY DIDN'T YOU SAVE US?!” They yelled at him.

“My son was taken from me!” Mary spat at Merlin with her bony hand clutching the front of her tattered dress.

“You allow Uther to kill hundreds of our kind, yet you are supposed to save us?!” Numueh shouted, her golden eyes blazing with rage.

“I’m trying-!” Merlin, finding his voice, whispered.

“You are a monster! My daughter calls you a friend and you betray her every day!” Tom balled his hands into tight fists as his dead eyes bore into Merlin’s terrified blue ones.

“No I-“ Merlin’s voice cracked, panic and fear caved into his chest.

“Why do you protect them?! Why didn’t you save me?! You could have used your magic.” Will roared at him, as he moved closer and took the front of Merlin’s tunic in his hands.

“Will, I’m sorry- please-“ Merlin choked out barely restraining a sob.

“You're a coward.” Will sneered before shoving Merlin to the ground.

Merlin fell on cobblestone and looked up to meet eyes with two sets of gray eyes. Tears spilled down his cheeks as he realized he was looking at the mangled, burnt bodies of Pandora and Roland. A cry left his throat as he reached out to take both of them in his arms.

“Please, no… I’m so sorry, please..” Merlin sobbed, bringing them closer to his chest. “I was supposed to protect you… I said I was going to protect you…” Merlin could feel nothing but the rapid beating of his heart in his chest and the chill that sat permanently in his bones. They felt so cold.

“Merlin?”

Merlin turned his head rapidly in the direction of Arthur’s voice, only for the children’s bodies to no longer be in his arms but instead his arms are suspended over his head and his legs are tied together and his back is to a wooden pole. More wood is spread around him and Uther is standing in front of him with a burning torch. Merlin tries to pry free from the bonds and reach his magic but it’s not there. It abandoned him in the same way Merlin abandoned his kind. Then in the corner, he spots Arthur standing there with a blank expression. Not moving, not protesting, just standing and staring as his father sets the pyre that Merlin is tied to ablaze.

———————

Merlin woke from his dream screaming and half sobbing as he sat up grasping the sheets of his bed. His head throbbed and his throat felt hoarse from use. His magic drummed in his veins, waiting to be released from the adrenaline, but Merlin kept it in, bringing his legs up to his chest and wrapping his arms around himself to keep it inside. He muffled his sobs as he thought back on the dream and the people in them. The people whose death’s he was responsible for, the death’s he had stood by and watched. Their blood on his hands. He stayed there, tiring himself out, tossing and turning throughout the rest of the night, going in and out of sleep until the beginning of morning light made its way through the small window in Merlin’s chambers.

———————-

Moving to sit up correctly in his bed, pain shot through his wrist. Merlin hissed, he brought his hand up to where he could see it and cursed under his breath when he saw the slightly purplish coloring circling where his arm met his hand. In his exhaustion the warlock had completely forgotten to put anything on the bruise, and it was too late for him to make something to heal it. It was important that he had an early start that day, it was finally the day he got the children out of the kingdom.

Once Merlin was dressed and had cleaned up the dried tear streaks from his cheeks, he hastily wrapped a bandage around his wrist, it would at least provide a bit of protection from irritation. He hoped he didn’t look as exhausted as he felt as he left his room and made his way down the stairs where his guardian was working, setting up the daily potions and medicine that would need to be given to people around the castle.

“Good morning, Merlin.” The physician called from his work table.

“Morning, Gaius, are these the medicines I need to give out later?” Eyeing the amount of potions and calculating how long it would take for each delivery.

“Indeed, make sure to give those out to people before you go to meet with the children. You need people to have seen you here in the castle.”

Merlin nodded, mostly to himself, as he went over the plan they had come up with the night before. Morgana was going to be filling Gwen in on their plan that morning, telling her to go down to the house where the children were to get them ready to leave. Morgana was going to stay in the castle since her being out the day before had only been because most of the guards were too busy searching to hover over her. No doubt, by now the king would notice this and make sure that Morgana stayed in the castle.

Merlin had made arrangements to pick up the children from the house once they were all packed, while Gwen went back to her own duties so no one would notice her absence. From there, Merlin would smuggle the children out of the kingdom, into the forest, and to the druid camp.

It was a relatively simple plan as long as everything played out as it should. They would be heavily relying on the schedule that Morgana had given them the day before to make sure they time each of the patrols perfectly.

—----------------------------

“Sire, just as you said, the fake patrol schedule we planted had been taken last night.” The knight bowed to the king in the throne room.

Uther nodded solemnly. The day before, the king had told the knights about his plan to put out a fake patrolling schedule in the knights armory and to go bout the castle talking about it to get the attention of anyone helping the children that might want to steal it. And now that there was news of the parchment going missing, that means that whoever is hiding the children took it to learn the patrol routes.

Taking into account that the one that had been named ‘Emrys’ was in fact the one that had helped the magic users escape and if he really was as powerful as they made him out to be then the guards would need to arm themselves with the very best weapons especially lethal to magic. Using the fake schedule, Uther set a trap where they surely will be captured, and led straight to an execution for all three of the sorcerers. Even with a plan set, the words of the young girl echoed in the king's head.

‘He’s only the embodiment of magic, last of the dragon lords, and is the most powerful warlock that has ever roamed the earth’

Not that he would ever admit it to any one in the kingdom, but those words chilled him to his very bones. He remembered those gray eyes that had nothing but hatred for him, Uther was certain that should she have the chance, she would destroy him and the entire kingdom with her and her kind’s dangerous magic. He had no doubts that she would teach the young boy she was with to do the same. In Uther’s mind, the only thing he saw those children grow up to be were evil sorcerers. Magic turns the hearts of men evil, he would say to himself as a mantra, justifying every action he took against those who used it.

Even if they were children, there needed to be no exceptions. He would set an example of them yet.

“Summon Arthur, at once,” the king called to the knights in the throne room.

——————————

Arthur walked into the throne room mechanically as he bowed and greeted the king that sat stoically. “Good morning, father.”

As if he hadn’t heard his son at all, the king’s expression was devoid of any emotion as he addressed the prince. ”Arthur, you and your knights will be having a change in schedule, I believe we may just catch the sorcerers on this day.”

Arthur felt sick as soon as the words hung in the air, as well as when he was given his instructions.

————————————

Pandora woke from the light peaking through the crack of the curtained windows hitting her eyes, she laid there looking up at the ceiling of the house while her brother softly snored beside her on the cots they had laid out.

The events of the last few days seemed to have finally caught up with her as she thought back on everything that led her where she was. Her brother and her had been caught using magic and was sent to execution, then the man described in the many myths and prophecies she had been told by the Druids had saved them using the most impressive display of magic she had ever witnessed. But that was all she had ever thought of them, merely stories. That day, however, she had seen the earth and skies respond to Merlin’s whim, she had felt the expanse of his power at her core.

And then in his attempt to hide her and her brother he had been found out by his own friend, the ward to the very king that wished for their death. And she had accepted him. Pandora sat up, thinking of that moment over in her head, when the world seemed to have changed forever for her. No one besides other magic users had ever helped her let alone accepted her, yet yesterday there was Lady Morgana, embracing a warlock. Her friend. Pandora just couldn't believe it, even when it was right in front of her eyes, Morgana hadn’t looked at Merlin with anything other than care for her friend. She hadn’t attacked him, but instead offered comfort to his fears. She had seen Merlin’s magic and not showed a single trace of disgust. He had shown everyone in that house the beauty of magic and had healed something that had been broken long ago in both Pandora and Roland with just a few words. She couldn’t remember the last time she had been embraced with such assurance and certitude.

Could it really be possible, she wondered to herself, for there to be more people such as Lady Morgana. She wondered if there really could be change.

When the Druids had told the stories and prophecies of Emrys, she never allowed herself to think that could be a world where her kind wouldn’t have to hide from the rest of the world. She refused to allow herself to hope, but when she saw the goodness of Merlin and how he was able to sway the opinion of someone that had been raised to hate magic, the little bit of warmth wormed its way to her heart. She looked to her brother beside her. Perhaps there could be a possibility that Roland could be safe and free.

Then there was the tiny voice in the back of her head telling her to diminish all of those thoughts, to not so easily believe in fairytales and myths. A lifetime of hiding was not going to change because of one man. No matter how powerful or good he was. Good men were the most often to die at the hands of others because of their kindness. It was a weakness that led to their deaths.

But maybe-

A series of intricate knocks at the door interrupted her thoughts as she startled. For a moment, Pandora hoped it was Merlin, but then a small higher pitched whisper cut through.

“Hello? Pandora? Roland? It’s me, Gwen.”

Pandora stood and walked as quietly as she could across the creaky wooden floors to the front door and opened it slightly so she could see the familiar face of the maiden from the day before. Except gone was her friendly face, instead replaced with a sullen and concerned one. Pandora immediately became alert as she quickly let Gwen slip into the house and locked the door behind her.

“What’s wrong? What happened?” Pandora shot at the maiden hastily, not liking at all the expression Gwen was showing, of clearly knowing something urgent and serious.

Gwen grimaced and answered, “There’s been a problem. We need to start packing now.”

—————————

“Merlin?”

The warlock immediately recognized the voice of Pandora as it echoed in his mind. He hadn’t realized how much he needed to hear either of their voices since his dream when he released a breath of relief. He continued making his way down the halls of the palace with the bottles of medicine.

“Yes, I’m here”, Merlin replied.

There was a moment of silence in which Merlin had thought that the connection was lost but then the girl's voice once again spoke up.

“…Is it really time? For us to leave?”

There was trepidation and hopefulness mixed in her voice. Merlin could have been mistaken because of his lack of sleep but he could have sworn he heard a note of sadness in her tone as well.

He wouldn’t admit that he would miss them and that a selfish part of himself wished to stay with them. He wouldn’t admit that in the short time he had known them he would sooner die than let anything happen to them and would be seeing them to safety until the very end. He felt the last part went unsaid. Flashes of the blank and burnt faces from his dream came to his mind but he immediately pushed it away.

“Yes, I’ll be taking you to the Druid. Sorry you're going to have to put up with me for a bit longer.” Merlin teasingly assured to hopefully lift the child’s demeanor. And his own.

Merlin could picture in that short silence that she didn’t answer, her packing up all of the supplies in one of the sling over satchels Merlin had given to them along with the other supplies the days before, while rolling her eyes to herself.

“We’ll see you soon.” She finally said.

“Until then.” Merlin agreed, turning the corner to a different section of the castle. After Pandora left the connection, Merlin continued to make his rounds for the last of the medicine that needed to be delivered, not that he munched paid attention, instead his mind being hopelessly distracted by what the plan to get Roland and Pandora out of the kingdom.

Footsteps from behind the servant suddenly alerted him to the blond prince marching up to him, not helping at all to his already frayed nerves.

”Erm. Good morning, Arthur.” Merlin tried with his easy smile, one that he had perfected to seem harmless and clueless.

“Don't ‘Good morning, Arthur’ me,” The prince snapped. Of course, he had rarely ever believed the smile, “Where were you this morning? George was attending to me.” He whispered exasperated.

Merlin chuckled to himself at the image of Arthur’s confused state with his lopsided hair. Arthur continued to walk with Merlin down the hall.

“Gaius had me pass out the medicine in the castle today,” the servant took out one of the bottles of liquid that would no doubt taste just as disgusting as the last. Merlin held it up for Arthur to see but the prince’s gaze was not on the battle but rather on Merlin’s wrist, just underneath his jacket sleeve.

Arthur’s brows furrowed, displeased and Merlin thought for a moment that he was upset with him but then he realized that the prince was looking at the bandaging on his wrist. Merlin quickly tried to bring his arm down but Arthur had caught his forearm bringing it back up.

“Arthur-“

“How’s your wrist?” Arthur asked firmly, eyes locked stubbornly on Merlin’s hand.

“Arthur, I’m fine.” Merlin shot back just as firmly with a smile, trying to catch the prince's gaze. It was only then that Arthur looked back up to meet his eyes, staring into them and Merlin feared, into his soul.

Arthur slid his hand down from the forearm onto Merlin’s wrist, which sent chills down his spine and goosebumps on his skin, and squeezed. Arthur watched carefully as Merlin hissed from the sensitive and bruised flesh.

“You were saying?” Arthur cocked an eyebrow at the servant, to which the servant rolled his eyes with a grimace.

“Well then, it’s good that I do not have any heavy chores to do today and only herb picking in the forest.” Merlin shot back. The blond beside him stopped beside him, Merlin cast a questioning look at Arthur as he stood there rigid.

”Don’t go to the forest today.” He said stiffly to Merlin’s unsaid question. The servant’s eyes widened in surprise at the blunt but random response.

“And… why not?”

For some unknown reason, Arthur hesitated to answer. He seemed to teeter on whether to ask Merlin something or to answer honestly or…

“Can’t you listen to me for once?”

Deflect.

He then realized where Arthur could be going with his reasoning. At that point, he couldn’t even muster enough strength to keep his annoyance and rage under check as he bit out, “If this is about those ‘dangerous’ kids that are out there, that you and the knights are trying to capture-“

“That’s not what I meant.”

Both the prince and the servant stopped in surprise at what Arthur had said. Could Arthur possibly not think that the children are a threat? Is that what he meant? He's jumping to conclusions, Merlin thought to himself, self loathingly.

”Then what do you mean?” Merlin slowly allowed himself to say.

The prince startled out of his own thoughts by Merlin and thought only for a moment before responding, “The person… Emrys, that the children were speaking of. They could be dangerous, we have no idea who they are but they are obviously very powerful. You can’t be wandering like a buffoon in the forest where you could very well get into trouble.”

The word vomit the prince provided threw Merlin for a loop as he thought back on all that was said. Arthur was worried about Merlin for two different reasons. Firstly: because he thought he would run into a very powerful magic user. Secondly: He was that very powerful magic user. Merlin almost wanted to laugh at the irony of it.

“Arthur-“

“Just promise me, you won’t go anywhere near the forest.” Arthur looked at Merlin with such vehemence, Merlin faltered. But then he looked past it and could almost make out desperation. And his heart fell and cracked when he tugged the corners of his lips to a smile and lied to his prince.

“Alright, Arthur, I promise not to go near the forest.”

Chapter Text

Arthur watched as Merlin continued down the hall to continue to do his chores and duties and thought about his own in comparison. About the duties he had pledged to do in his childhood and had upheld as he grew. Never questioning, never wavering.

He thought of Merlin’s face should he ever find out about what he had done and continued to be expected of him to do. Beside his father, he had never valued a man’s trust nor approval as much as Merlin’s. Arthur didn’t want to see his servant's disappointed face if he were to have to put the children to their deaths in front of him.

He was running out of time but at least he knew Merlin would be away from all of it.

——————————

Morgana had woken extra early that morning to pass along the message of the plan that was made late the night before to Gwen. Afterwards, since Morgana wasn’t supposed to wake until a bit later, she laid back in bed not expecting to actually fall back asleep and wait, she instead was pulled back under to slumber.

It was only a few hours later, she sprung up in her bed gasping as the images from her dream flashed through her mind.

Merlin’s scream in agony.

The children’s faces as they looked ahead of them in horror.

Arthur’s expression broken in rage.

Morgana placed her hand on her head, she looked at her lap and tried to level her breathing but it did nothing to lessen the foreboding feeling emanating from the dream. So many she had seen before come true. So many she had let go and simply ignored. It wasn’t until recently she started to tell select few of the warnings she received at night.

This was not good. She needed to get to Merlin and warn him before it was too late. She would not let anything happen to her friend or to the children. The glare in Arthur’s eyes chilled her, she shuddered to think of whom it was directed at. If he found out…

No, she would reach Merlin in time and warn him.
——————————

Once Merlin was done with his morning chores and the sun was beginning to rise to its peak, the warlock grabbed his cloak from the physicians chambers and headed into the village and down to the house. At the door, Merlin knocked the same pattern, signifying that it was him. There was rustling from inside the house followed by the small creak as it opened to reveal Gwen.

“Merlin.” The maid smiled from behind the door, looking relieved.

”Gwen.” The servant greeted, allowing himself inside, while Gwen quickly closed and locked it behind him.

”Hi, Merlin.” Roland called from across the room, rolling up his bed roll on the floor. He was dressed in another one of Merlin’s old blue tunics, with his curls slightly more frizzy than it had been the night before. Pandora smiled and gave a small wave from next to him in greeting.

“Are you all packed?” He asked, looking around at the supplies that had even laid out the day before, not once again packed in its bags.

“Yeah, so is Pan,” The boy motioned to his sister beside him, looking through one of the supply bags that knights would use for camps. “Miss Gwen made sure we packed enough supplies on the way there.”

“Good. Gwen, you need to get back before anyone notices you're gone.” Merlin turned seriously over to his friend beside him who already had her chore basket in hand.

“Right, I’ll be on my way-“ Gwen turned to leave but was interrupted when Pandora spoke up suddenly, which got the attention of both Gwen and Merlin.

“Uhh, Merlin? I think the knights accidentally left something in the supplies you gave us.” She stated hesitantly, lifting something out of one of the bags.

“What do you- oh.” Merlin watched as Pandora switched a flask before uncapping it and taking a sniff at the contents. He could hear his friend stifle a laugh beside him.

“They left their drink?” Roland asked, confused.

Pandora quickly capped it again, her nose wrinkled in slight disgust.“Their very flammable drink.” She casted a knowing glance at Gwen, who tried to grimace in distaste, and Merlin, who had the sudden strong urge to track down and berate whichever knight was responsible for leaving their alcohol in the camping supplies.

“Those little drunkard pr-“ The servant’s whispered curse cutoff as he once again remembered he was with children and would need to watch what he said. He instead sighed and put out his hand to the children, “Just give it to me, please.”

Right after Pandora had gotten up from the floor and given the flask to Merlin and he put it in the small pocket in his brown jacket, he suddenly remembered, “Oh and if anyone asks-“

“You’re going out all day for special herbs, yes, it’s already taken care of,” Gwen quickly cut off, then continued with a smile, “I have servants and maids covering for you and your chores.” The maid then added, “Oh, and Morgana wanted me to tell you both that she wished she was able to say goodbye but to stay safe.”

”Thank you for everything, Miss Gwen. Please tell Miss Morgana that we will be, and we’re grateful to have met both of you, you saved us.” Pandora finished softly, looking at her brother who was violently nodding his head.

The maid gave a small smile to the children then turned and walked to the front door, Merlin then grasped just how much Gwen was risking herself, knowing the fear of being accused of using magic, she knew the fear of death being close. Yet she still chose to help the children, to help Merlin to risk being in that same position of imonate death. Merlin wavered on feeling warmed, full of gratitude for her and feeling the cold guilt seep into mind for putting her in this situation.

Just when Gwen was going to walk out from the door, Merlin rushed toward her, lowering his voice and holding on to the edge of the wood, “Gwen. Before you go… Thank you. Truly. I don’t know if I would have been able to pull all of this off without you or Morgana’s help.” Merlin wavered on his words, not even sure if he was allowed to say it, before finally admitting, “You truly are one of my greatest friends.” He wished he could express to her how true it was.

Gwen gave him an odd look, “Of course, Merlin. We will always be here for you, and we did it for them. They needed help, it wouldn’t have been right to just let you do this yourself when those children desperately needed help.”

“Thank you, Gwen.”

“There’s no need to thank me, just be careful.” She warned firmly, her brows creased in concern.

“We will. I’ll keep them safe.” Merlin tried for his most reassuring smile, matching her tone.

“Good. Keep yourself safe too.” Not waiting for Merlin’s rebuttal, she turned and walked into the street.

The warlock just sighed to himself, closing the door in front of him and he turned back to the children who were already standing, each with a satchel slung over their shoulder. Both a determined look on their faces. Both prepared for the journey until they could reach their freedom.

“We’re ready, Merlin.”

—————————————

“Lady Morgana, what is it?” One of the knights posted outside of Morgana’s chambers asked as she exited its doors.

“I just need to pick something up from the physician.” She replied smoothly, trying her best to look calm and casual, starting to walk past the knight. However, he simply took a step in front of her, blocking her path.

“We can get those for you, my lady.” He stated sternly and professionally.

“No!” Morgana quickly reined in her outburst and reiterated, “No, I can get it myself, really.”

“It would be no problem, my lady, if it is your medicine then-“

“It’s not my medicine. It’s something else.” Morgana interrupted, her temper rising and panic seizing her, essentially killing any attempt at social niceties.

“What is it?”The knight asked skeptically.

“It is something that would be inappropriate of a woman to discuss with a man that is not a physician.” Morgana crossed her arms and watched as the knight in front of her blushed sputtered trying to regain his composure, while the knight behind her could be heard by his armor stiffing from the unexpected come back. She schooled her expression to keep from laughing at them both.

“Ve- Very well, you may be on your way.” The knight finally stuttered out, moving out of the ward’s path, allowing her to uncross her arms and march down the halls in the direction of the physicians chambers.

Almost running down the hallways, and up the narrow stairs, she reached the front door of the physician’s chambers and burst through, “Guias!”

“Lady Morgana? What’s wrong? What’s happened?” The physician moved down from the top of the stairs in the chambers, and suddenly, Morgana felt guilty. She knew the physician was already terribly anxious already because of the current plan of Merlin sneaking out the kids. She knew that she was only adding to his worry, but she couldn’t keep it to herself this time, not when her friend and those children could be at risk.

“I think something’s going to happen to Merlin and the children. I had one of my dreams, and I know that you always say that they mean nothing but with all that’s going on.. I just don’t want any of them to get hurt-“

“Morgana, stop.” She then noticed Gaius’s pale face and grew more concerned as he seemed to be having an internalized battle within himself.

“But-“

Gaius interrupted her again, this time speaking urgently, “We don’t have much time, if your dream comes to fruition..” He trailed off before sighing, “It’s time you knew the truth of your dreams.”

—————————————

After double checking supplies and packing up the rest of the things they had brought to the house, Pandora and Roland pulled their cloaks over their shoulders. It was an hour past noon, and that was when the schedule said there would be a clear path they could take to the forest.

“Are you both ready?” Merlin asked, one hand on the metal doorknob and the other pulling his hood over his head.

Pandora, with her auburn hair now tied in neater braid courtesy of Gwen if Merlin had to guess, looked down at her brother meeting his eyes. There must have been a clear understanding going back and forth between those gray eyes because when they met their eyes with Merlin’s blue ones they nodded almost in sync.

“Ok then.” With that, Merlin led the two out into the village street and locked the door behind them.

One the way to the forest, the three of them weaved their way through the dense crowds and through back alleys whenever they saw an incoming group of knights on patrol. Merlin carefully made sure he timed each one, following the schedule exactly how it was. If nothing else, at the very least the knights were punctual. Each of them made sure their hood covered their face as they passed by others, hanging on to it like a lifeline when the wind blew and keeping their head low, never making eye contact with anyone should they be recognized.

Eventually they reached the very edge of the village and crossed the threshold, it was only then that they felt they could finally breathe. The three of them exchanged grins as they continued on the path further into the forest. Merlin felt like laughing at the relief of at least being out from the suffocating amount of people and instead surrounded by the flush green around him. Leaves rustled in the winds and the quiet hum of life continued.

It then occurred to Merlin how strange it was that there weren't more guards posted in that section to exit the main kingdom. How strange it was that everything had worked out perfectly, without any issues at all. How strange it was that it was so quiet they had yet to pass by anyone else taking the same route.

Merlin stopped in the middle of the dirt trail garnering confused looks from the children.

Merlin lowered his voice, the children strained to hear, “Something’s not right… Get behind me!” He yelled, yanking the two of them to the side, as an arrow zoomed past where the young girl had been. For once. Just once, he wished his bad feelings were wrong. Merlin raised his hand up in the direction of where the arrow flew and casted a spell in the highest branches of a tree. From the tree, fell an archer dressed in light armor and a Camelot red cape.

”It’s a trap.” Merlin barely muttered the words before suddenly yelling and clangs of metal erupted from behind the walls of trees and dozens of knights charged at the three magic users.

Instinct and adrenaline fueled his reflex as he instantly began throwing spells all around him and the children, his magic flowed as one with the blood in his veins. One raised palm threw back three knights, knocking them unconscious, the other dropped heavy branches from the trees onto the heads of knights still in the forest while also getting rid of the archers hidden in the trees.

There were too many knights for Merlin to keep track of by himself, he wouldn’t be able to hold them off for much longer, he had to find a way to get them out of there. A sudden yell from behind him caused him to turn his attention to several knights tripping over roots that sprung from the ground. It was then that he noticed the children’s raised arms, and the golden hue that glossed over their eyes.

Pandora and Merlin locked eyes, nodded to each other in understanding. Merlin knew that she would do whatever she could to keep her brother safe, even if it meant facing against trained soldiers. He recognized the determination she had, and respected and shared it. With Roland in between them, Merlin and Pandora faced back to back, circling. Pandora, with Roland helping her, used the roots of the trees around them to sprout from the ground to unbalance the knights while Merlin pushed them back with his magic. Distantly, he heard the thrum of hooves approaching as well as the neigh of a horse. It wasn’t long before the soldiers realized it was a failed endeavor and instead formed a circle around the warlocks, keeping their distance but still maintaining their stance of attack.

“In the name of Camelot, you shall surrender yourself and face the consequences of using magic on this land.”

Every fiber in Merlin’s being froze at the sound of the ice cold thunderous voice. The voice that never ceased to remind Merlin of how the owner of it was trained. The voice of a general and a leader that whomever found themselves facing against would feel immediate intimidation.

“Turn yourselves in now, or we will have to bring you in by force.” The voice of prince Arthur once again warned in its withdrawn tone, not showing an ounce of emotion.

No, no, no, no, was the only thing processing in the oldest warlock’s mind as he moved in the direction of the prince in front of the children, blocking them from the prince’s view. He couldn’t be there, he wasn’t supposed to be there. He was supposed to be on the other side of the kingdom, patrolling. Merlin kept his head down, letting the shadows from the hood shield his identity, only granting himself to look up slightly to see a large group of knights on horses, with the prince leading them on his own stead.

“Reveal yourself, sorcerer.” The prince ordered harshly, from whilst his horse grew agitated, stomping its foot on the ground.

Matching the horse, Merlin’s magic thrummed in sync with his rapid beating heart rate, only ever growing with how wrong everything had gone in such little time. They were surrounded by knights in every direction ready to attack at any moment, if they somehow managed to get past them, they had horses that could easily catch up with them. They needed a distraction, something to startle and spark a frenzy that would allow them to escape…

Merlin lowered his voice only intending for the children to hear him, as he felt them slightly lean forward he whispered, “When I saw so; run and don’t stop.”

He gave them both meaningful glances, with only an almost nonexistent nod in response. Their gray eyes stormed with hints of golden magic acting as lightning.

In a flash of movement, Merlin reached into the inside pocket of his jacket pulling out the flask of alcohol and bringing it to his lips, drawing every last drop of it in his mouth, and moving his magic to focus on his free hand.

Before the knights could react to the action, or the children could question why Merlin was doing what he was doing, the oldest warlock connected his pointer finger to his thumb in the shape of an ‘O’, brought it up to his lips, only instead of the fermented drink being sprayed when he spit out the liquid, inferno erupted from Merlin’s mouth.

Merlin moved in a circular motion around him and the children, causing shouts and yells to rupture from the knights, all running from the flames. The horses, startled by the hot flares, brayed and bucked, desperate to get away, many of the knight’s including the prince were knocked off their horses.

In the chaos that ensued after Merlin finished circulating, with several knights that had caught on fire and were running away while some knights were struggling to retain control of their steads, he turned to the children and yelled, “Run!”
Within a second, the three warlocks raced into the woods to the side of them.

Merlin had taken no more than five long strides when he heard a swoosh and a piercing and tearing pain struck Merlin in the inner, left shoulder blade. He hadn’t realized it was his own when a pained cry left his already strained throat. He stumbled over the forest floor only for a moment before he was once again running with Roland and Pandora in front of him.

“Merlin!?” The children yelled out in alarm, looking behind them, dangerously slowing their pace.

“I’m fine!” Merlin snapped far harsher than he intended, agony racked through all of his upper left side, leaving him feeling dizzier by the second. “Keep your head ahead and don’t you dare stop running for a second!”

The children followed Merlin’s instructions, increasing their speed, while for Merlin he felt his head get lighter and his legs start to feel more and more heavier, his vision started to swim when he realized they started to get further and farther away from him.

He needed to catch up with them, was his last thought before he lost consciousness.

———————————

“I hit him!” One of the knights exclaimed from somewhere Arthur couldn’t see. It didn’t matter to him either way, the point was that the sorcerer would be weak at that moment and would therefore be easier to catch up with. With only a grunt of discomfort from his fall, the prince stood and sprinted in the direction where the magic users had disappeared to.

“I’m going after them!” Was the only statement Arthur made to his men, not waiting to hear their warnings of how it would be too dangerous while they were still recovering from the attack from the eldest sorcerer. With only one attack, they were able to make all hell break loose and breach through more than two dozen knights that should have had them cornered, it would have infuriated him if there wasn’t also a part of him that was relieved the children escaped from him.

He swept those thoughts to the side as he heard ahead of him, groans of pain. With years of skillful hunting, he had learned to stalk quietly in the forest toward any unsuspecting prey, at that moment he used all that he learned as he got closer to the groans until he saw only a couple of trees ahead of him a cloaked figure laying on the forest floor with a arrow protruding from their back as they struggled to get up, using a nearby tree as support.

Arthur placed his hand on the hilt of his sword. As he neared, the prince took notice of the peculiarly familiar buckled boots the sorcerer had, then at a closer look, he saw that they also had bandaging on the wrist they were using to support themselves. Arthur stopped in his tracks when he was just a few feet away from the sorcerer and the hood of the cloak fell to their shoulders to reveal a mess of shaggy raven hair, along with big ears poking out, identical to the ones that belonged to the person who promised him just that morning he would not be anywhere near the forest.

———————————-

Merlin’s head throbbed as he struggled to get up from the dirt, the arrow in his back screamed in anguish as he felt the tip of it lodged in his muscled and the blood stream down his back. Using the closest tree as balance, the warlock was finally able to stand at least partially correctly. He had no idea how long he was laying on the cool earth, but as he looked around he deduced it couldn’t have been more than a few minutes. He allowed his hood to fall back to his shoulders as he took steadying breaths. First thing he needed to do was check on the children, Merlin took a few more breaths intending to go back to mentally connect with the children when he heard a branch break from behind him.

“Merlin?”

The warlock whipped his head around to meet face to face, blue eyes locked on blue eyes, with the prince of Camelot. In excruciating silence, the only thing he could do was watch as his prince stared at him with a sea of emotions stirring, outrage, disgust but the most prominent of them was betrayal. Merlin was deathly aware of the grip that the prince tightened around the hilt of the sword.

Neither spoke on either end when despite his heart beating so fast and his magic boiled anxiously and uncomfortably through his whole body, Merlin swallowed and croaked out pathetically. “Let me explain.”

“You…” The prince started but then stopped himself. He looked down then back up at Merlin. The expression Merlin could once read so well, was replaced with the one devoid of any emotion at all. And when he spoke again, he used the voice he had never directed at Merlin before that day, the tone that was reserved for those outside of his walls and in front of his weapons. His enemies. Oh, how he hated that voice.

“You lied to me.”

Merlin felt as if he could cry. He wouldn’t be able to tell you if it was from heartbreak or from… relief.

But as they continued to stare at each other Merlin couldn’t help but wonder, what do you do in that situation? When you’ve been found out by someone you care so much about and you have no idea what they will do next. When you're both just there staring at each other while you pray that they don’t hate you. When you're stuck in the stand still of what happened and what will happen. Because once it’s there there's no way to take it back, the person now knows. They know you’ve lied to them. And you have to just be there staring at them to see their reaction, because you can’t look away, you have to know what they think. You didn’t plan on them finding out this way, not like that. Maybe sitting them down once you have all your courage and slowly explaining to them who you are. But right then, there’s the voice in your head telling you to run while you can but your body just freezes in fear and, if you allow yourself, just a shred of hope. That maybe, just maybe they won’t turn you away. That maybe they will still see you the same way.

That shred of hope for Merlin then tears into blisters at the sound of metal unscathing from its sheath.

Merlin had no idea what to do in that situation. Had no idea what to do when his prince pointed a sword at him.

“In the name of Camelot-“

“Sire, please listen-“ Merlin pleaded, as he felt the last of his strength leave him. He wanted Arthur to stop looking at him like that, to stop talking to him like that.

The prince continued forcefully over Merlin’s pleas. “You shall surrender yourself-“

“Please, don’t do this-“

“And face the consequences of using magic on this land.” Arthur practically yelled, hollow. As if he was speaking to any other stranger, with no connection to him. As if he was nothing to him.

“Arthur, please!” Merlin dropped to his knees still hanging on to the tree when his legs could no longer support him. He hadn’t realized he had started crying until he saw the prince’s eyes widen in surprise as it followed something going down his cheek.

Arthur opened his mouth to say something when suddenly a branch from the tree Merlin was leaning on fell right next to Arthur, startling him to trip into a vine that automatically grew, first weaving its way around his ankles tying them together, then continuing to grow rapidly around his body. The prince used his sword to cut the vine, only for two more to shoot out to catch his wrists, causing him to drop his sword. Arthur’s struggling only seemed to tighten the plants as it pulled him to his knees, he grunted in frustration as he tried to stand.

Merlin’s heart leaped in panic as he saw the prince struggling to get out of the plant and was about to cast a spell to ward it off when he heard a familiar voice calling out his name from behind him.

“Merlin!” The boy exclaimed, relief flooding his features as he saw Merlin, appearing from seemingly nowhere.

“Roland? What are you doing here?” Merlin questioned, beyond confused but also beyond relieved as to how the child could have found him along with a dozen other questions.

”Well, we weren’t gonna leave you behind.” The child said stubbornly with a pout, crouching down Merlin’s level.

”Where’s your sister?” Merlin asked, realizing he didn’t spot the auburn haired girl with him.

A grunt from behind him interrupted his worry when Pandora herself walked beside her brother, “Right here, I'm not sure how much longer I can do this.” She struggled, with both her hands raised in Arthur’s direction and her eyes a golden hue. Arthur stilled when he saw the child was the one that was the source of the plants.

Roland then carefully helped the older warlock get up from where he was kneeling near the tree so he was instead focusing his body weight on the young boy. Merlin turned to walk away but stayed looking at Arthur. The prince simply stared back without saying a word.

“Merlin, we need to go!” Pandora called, already walking away.

Merlin takes one last long look at Arthur, with his gold hair glinting in the sunlight that filtered from the leaves above, tied on the floor then used a spell to put him to sleep before he could decipher what the last expression at Merlin meant.

Chapter Text

Pandora had come to terms with the fact that if Merlin ever were found out, he would be in imminent danger, but it had seemed so much like a far away thought then to an actual reality, but when she saw the blood that stained the back of the man’s tunic, soaking in and dripping onto the floor of the forest floor, it suddenly become much much too real. Too real for the possibility of Merlin actually dying.

As fast as they could with Merlin’s injury, the three warlocks quickly left the unconscious prince in search of a place to rest. The sudden attack left them feeling weary and paranoid. As they walked, Merlin had stayed silent, and Pandora and Roland followed suit leaving them to stir in their separate thoughts. He only spoke when he muttered he recognized the part of the forest they were in and informed the children of a nearby cave.

When they arrived at the cave, Roland immediately helped Merlin settle on the stone floor, carefully avoiding the arrow protruding from his back. Pandora internally cringed when despite her brother's carefulness the older warlock still hissed in pain from the movement.

“Your shoulder-“

”It’s fine, my magic is keeping my bleeding to a minimum.”

The guilt and anger that sat at the back of her mind, showed its ugly head as she looked over at the young man that had protected her sibling and her over the last few days. He never should have saved them, a thought whispered in her head. Now he was hurt and in a situation where he could never go back home. He was hurt and it was her fault. Her eyes stung with unshed tears but she held them back, she couldn’t cry, not when Merlin needed her help. So she did what she always did and put all the guilt and anger and shoved it back in the dark corner of her mind.

“We can’t stay here long.” Merlin spoke up once again, this time his voice was strained and hoarse as he clutched his shoulder with his opposite hand. Both children looked at Merlin with newfound shock.

“You’re hurt! You need to rest.” Roland protested after a moment of stunned silence. His worry was evident in his tone and the way he held his hands up in front of Merlin as if the warlock would spring up on the spot and run out of there. Pandora shared her brother’s sentiment but realized why Merlin had made the statement. The knights knew they were somewhere in the forest and they knew that Merlin was injured, more than likely, they would start scouring through the woods to try to find the three of them as soon as they could.

“Until evening then?” Pandora hurriedly suggested, “The shadows would better hide us from patrols and it gives us time to rest and recuperate.”

Merlin gave it some thought, and looked out the entrance of the cave, where the sun was beginning to descend from its peak, then nodded to himself, “Alright. Until evening.”

————————————

Arthur had woken bleary and slightly dazed as he distantly wondered what he was doing on the forest floor. His thoughts caught up with him and in an instant he sprang to his feet with his head aching from the sudden movement. Looking around, he observed the vines that had restrained him were nowhere to be seen, seemingly to have vanished.

The vines… they had come from the children magic users. They had come to rescue… all the events that led to him there hit him with such a force, Arthur felt he could lose his balance just by standing in the grassy clearing. His entire being going to war with itself, he felt ill at the images of Merlin’s face at the end of his sword. His ears rang with the sounds of his voice as he pleaded with Arthur to listen to him, to please listen to him. Every inch of his skin burned as he itched to scratch it off. He wanted to rid himself of all that had transpired and all that happened afterward. Just when tears threatened to blur his vision, the prince raised his head to the sky and willed himself to hide everything beneath until he felt everything around him dull. He turned to head back to his knights only hesitating when faced to pick up his sword from between the glades of grass.

He walked back to his men that waited for his return to the trail. He answered none of their questions, only stating that the sorcerers had gotten away from them. He didn’t answer if he saw the identity of the older sorcerer, they assumed was the one called ‘Emrys’. Arthur stayed silent as he led his slightly burned and pride-wounded men back toward the main citadel.

Red cloaks flapped as dozens of knights marched through the streets, some on horses most on foot but all with dented helmets and armor. Arthur led the group with his helmet in one hand and the other gripping on the hilt of his sword, his face sullen. He looked straight ahead until he noticed from his peripheral, a flash of a familiar purple cloak coming quickly forward from one of the side streets until they suddenly stopped.

Right as the person was going to turn away, the prince startled as he realized it was Morgana. Just as she and Arthur’s eyes met from afar and he mouthed out her name to himself confused, as if checking with himself if he was correct. What was she doing in the village? Why was she heading toward the forest? There was no way for her to know about the attempt to capture the sorcerers this soon. In a flash, Morgana dashed away, springing Arthur out of his thoughts and to her direction.

”I’ll be right back. Continue on without me.” Arthur called back to his men, once again leaving them in a rush. They squawked in surprise, asking him where he was going, but he ignored them as he sprinted to the side streets.

Because of his training, it didn’t take long for Arthur to slowly close the gap between him and Morgana even as he swerved past merchants in armor, “Morgana!” Arthur called. Then in only a few seconds, the prince caught up with her and grabbed her wrist, forcing her to turn around and look at him.

“Morgana, why are you here?” Arthur demanded, confusion lacing his words. It made no sense, she couldn’t have known that the knights would be in the forest but if she wasn’t expecting the knights to be down there… Arthur let his thought trial off as realization dawned on him revealing the truth.

His eyes widened and his face morphed into betrayal, his grip slightly tightened around her wrist. She wasn't expecting the knights but who the knights were planning to capture. For the second time that day, he felt as if the air had been stolen from his lungs without warning.

She knew. He didn’t know how much but with only one look he could tell she knew. And as she looked at him, she knew that now he knew.

“Arthur-“

Arthur released her wrist, schooling his face to slip on the cold mask of the soldier he was raised to be and turned away from her, walking back from where he came.

“Where are you going?!” Her voice almost sounded desperate, something he had never heard in her tone before.

The prince looked over his shoulder and met Morgana’s eyes, “To report to my father.”

———————————-

On the cold floor of the cave, Merlin felt tides of emotion coming to the surface only for whole new ones to replace them, each more difficult to deal with then the last. But worst of all, a feeling he refused to name clawed at his heart. He felt his whole body tremble from a simple thought of what was going to happen from then on. All his thoughts revolved around in circles, from the trap the knights had set to Arthur finding him injured and guilty in the forest.

The clatter of peddles startled the older warlock out of his mind to the present, realizing the children had finished setting out their supplies and had started building a small circle from stone that resembled a fire pit. He looked down to see he had also spread out his limited supplies in front of him.

Distantly, he thanked Gaius in his foresight to tell Merlin to pack bandages and first aid should any one of them get hurt. Although, from the way the arrow continued to painfully throb from his shoulder through his body, he suspected that even his mentor couldn’t have thought to pack enough for that bad of an injury. He needed to treat it immediately, first by taking the damn thing out from his shoulder. He ignored the tiny voice in his head that resembled his mentor that told him he should definitely not do that.

Merlin glanced at the children and with steadying breaths he did what he could to block the ache from making his head spin, “Hey, could you guys go out and look for dried leaves and branches just outside the cave?” He proposed, trying to sound casual.

Roland nodded vehemently without thought and was already starting to get up eager to help but his sister just stared at Merlin, her gray eyes narrowed before standing along with her brother.

”We’ll be right outside, we shouldn’t be long,” Pandora said softly, her calculating stare catching Merlin’s eyes as he donned a smile. His hold tightened on his shoulder impulsively and he hoped she hadn’t noticed as he held her gaze a moment longer until she turned with her brother out the cave.

Merlin let out a breath, when he could no longer hear the children’s footsteps, the older warlock then acted quickly as he closed his eyes and took several measured breaths bringing a cloth he laid out from in front of him and stuffed it between his teeth. Each breath Merlin took out his nose, his arm shakily reached behind him to grasp the arrow's body. Hot air blew out his nose and ghosted over his forearm and sweat beaded down his neck as he mentally counted down.

Three.

Two.

Merlin gathered the last wisps of his strength and ignored his body's blinding screams as he pulled with all of his might until he felt the tip of the arrow move. White hot pain scotched through his whole body as it protested against the self inflicted pain. Still, Merlin held strong to the arrow, tugging and pulling until one final and desperate yank tore through his skin causing him to seeth through the cloth in his mouth.

The crimson coated arrow clanged on the stone ground just as Merlin slumped from the exertion. Even as he felt blood seep from the wound and down his back. Weakly, the warlock took the cloth from his mouth and placed it down. All he needed to do then was to bandage the wound, but even then the thought exhausted him.

Even his own magic responded sluggishly to clot the raw wound. Shakily, he shook his head, then reached to pull over his tunic. Even as the cloth softly glossed over his wound he still hissed in pain, dropping the tunic beside himself and reaching for the bandages laid out in front of himself. Unraveling the bandages carefully, the warlock started wrapping it on his shoulder and under his arm looping it multiple times to insure it was secure.

Once Merlin finished tying, he once again slumped in fatigue. Splattered blood surrounded Merlin and he felt a dull pang of guilt as he realized that in his attempt not to dress a rather gory injury in front of the children he had failed to register the mess that would be left afterwards. Without even having to think of it, his magic charmed the spare cloth to move lazely around the you warlock wiping what blood it could pick up on. What was left was faint smeers, and it seemed to have found it satisfactory when it stopped cleaning.

Merlin’s eyes then took it upon themselves to start to droop despite his own protests, seconds passed and Merlin was pulled into a deep slumber.

——————————————-

“Merlin!”

The fact the voice sounded worried following hurriedly approaching footsteps briefly crossed Merlin’s mind as he struggled to open his eyes. After a fruitless attempt for a few seconds the warlock gave up and this time allowed sleep to take him.

——————————————-

The prince of Camelot marched through the halls of the palace straight to the counsel room where his father surely would be waiting. He paid no heed to the servants and maids that bustled around him, unaware of the war raging internally in their prince. Behind the cold mask Arthur donned, the events of the past hour ran through his head on repeat. Over and over the faces of Merlin, Morgana, and the children appeared in his mind.

He continued his walk disconnected from the outside world until he was suddenly standing before the tall wooden doors leading to his father. For a moment he hesitated, not even reaching for the handle when a loud crash from inside spurred him into immediately yanking the door wide open to reveal the king standing in the middle of the room standing to the side of the rectangular table, huffing as the shattered remains of a wooden chair was scattered around him.

Arthur stood frozen for only a second before he stood up straight and brought his arms tightly to his sides, just as he was taught since he was a boy, he stood there with his eyes straight ahead, a soldier awaiting orders.

It was then Uther turned around and spotted Arthur with what he could only describe as a feral rage before dissolving into a cold but calm state. A chill went down his spine at the change as it did every time he witnessed it.

He wondered if he did the same to others.

“I have been informed that you have once again failed to capture the sorcerers,” said the king passively. Arthur knew that this calm was only feigning for a storm to come.

“Yes, father,” the prince replied robotically, keeping his head forward on the opposite end of the room while he could feel his father’s piercing stare on him.

“And it appears that the one they called Emrys truly is real and has much power.” The king continued unaware Arthur’s mind snagged on the name his mind immediately translated to Merlin. Merlin truly is who they spoke of in the trials. Merlin had much power. He couldn’t comprehend his own thoughts even as they repeated themselves over and over.

When the prince didn’t answer, in what the king assumed was shame, he sighed, “I cannot fault you when they use such witchcraft, they will take any opportunity to hurt you especially when you least expect it.”

Memories flooded Arthur, of quiet nights in his chambers, of easy chatter during breakfast, of every smile and laugh that escaped his throat. Early mornings with missing pieces of sausages and bread. Loaded gazes from across the room that held entire conversations. His heart tightened as if wanting to crush itself rather than remember, than to believe it was a lie.

“I was also told, a knight was able to injure the magic user, although not a lethal blow, one sure to slow down the man,” The chaos inside Arthur stilled, knowing what the exchange was going to lead to even before Uther finished his statement. “And that you went after them on foot.”

“Were you able to catch up with them and reveal who the true identity of the one they call Emrys is?” The blood in the prince’s veins froze as he struggled to maintain his composure, to not let anything show. What was he to tell his father? He had to tell him he knew who helped the children, that there was a traitor from within the castle. The servant that he appointed to his son was none other than the powerful sorcerer and had committed treason on multiple counts.

Arthur swallowed, then answered, “We were not able to reveal the identity of the sorcerer assisting them.”

Silence filled the room following Arthur’s lie.

“Are you sure?” The king demanded, turning his back to his son and releasing him from his stare. Relief washed over Arthur as he released his fist, not even aware he had in the first place.

Once again, the prince replied, “Yes, they were disguised-”

The crash of splintering wood drowned out whatever Arthur planned to say, completely railing him from his train of thought, fighting back the urge to flinch back when pieces of wood skidded to his feet. From his peripheral, he could see Uther continuously kicking into the broken wooden chair despite only the base being left of it. For the second time, Arthur pushed the compulsion to step away as his father rounded back around, marching his way toward the prince with the same manic rage he saw when he first came into the room and had seen hundreds of times before.

“HOW ARE YOU TO PROTECT THIS KINGDOM WHEN YOU CANNOT EVEN CAPTURE AN INJURED MAGIC USER AND TWO CHILDREN?!” He roared so close, spit landed on his face.

Uther placed himself right in front of the prince so he was all he could see, cornered as the king lowered his voice until each word was soaked in venom commanding, “I want you out of my sight and searching for those sorcerers before nightfall. Now.”

Arthur said nothing, only taking a step back and turning back out the heavy wooden doors with measured but fast strides not before he heard behind him Uther muttering with the same venom under his breath that caused Arthur’s vision to blur and fists curl.

“I sometimes wonder if you will ever be ready to take the crown at all.”

Chapter Text

Merlin groaned as he turned to his side, propping himself up on his arm. His head swam for a few seconds before suddenly there was movement from his peripheral vision. Merlin blinked a few times at the leather flask extended toward him before he realized that the arm belonged to Roland. A concerned and slightly scared expression pinched his features white he looked down at the older warlock. Guilt immediately set in, realizing that the children most likely had found him passed out on the floor of the cave.

Merlin took the flask with a nod, sitting up only allowing himself to breathe out a pained hiss and took grateful chugs of water before putting it to the side and looking back to the boy in front of him, then moving his gaze behind Roland at Pandora sitting by a small makeshift fire crackling. The girl matched her brother’s concern and looked ready to stand but settled when she met Merlin’s eyes.

“Are you both alright?” Merlin asked, his voice hoarse even to his own ears. Roland turned around and his sister and him exchanged a loaded glance that he couldn’t decipher. After a second, both looked back at the older warlock on the floor with a blank face.

“We’re upset with you.” Roland stated bluntly.

Merlin felt something inside of himself shatter. Of course they were upset with him. He had put them in so much danger and he had gotten himself hurt, creating even more of an inconvenience when he should be safely guiding them to the Druid camp. “Oh. I deserve that.” Merlin looked away from the two children, ashamed.

A moment passed, where neither side said anything until the small boy nearly exploded in concern and exasperation, “I’m sorry but that was so dumb of you! How could you just treat your own wounds with no assi- assis- “ He grunted frustrated.

“Assistance.” Pandora supplied from behind him.

“That!” He agreed vehemently, eyes blazing.

Merlin whipped his head back at the two dumbly, not completely comprehending what they were talking about. “I’m sorry?” Merlin offered.

”You should be!” Roland huffed. He crossed his arms for a few seconds, looking like someone who finally made their point. His face then softened visibly regretting his words.

The boy crouched beside Merlin, hiding his face in his knees before mumbling out, “You made us really worry, we could have helped, you know?”

Oh. Realization dawned on him along with creeping remorse.

”I couldn’t ask that of you, Roland.” Merlin soothed, “I would never ask you to take care of me, that’s my job here. To keep you both safe. Besides, I’m a physician’s apprentice, I know how to treat wounds, especially lethal ones.” He smiled lightly.

“So you’ll be ok?”

Merlin’s gaze traveled across the cave to Pandora, sitting near the fire. If he were anyone else he wouldn’t have noticed the tension she had even when sitting so casually nor the tightness in her voice when she voiced her question. Merlin desperately wanted to comfort the children and to tell them that he was fine, to tell them that he would always be ok. But he knew that they would value his honestly and would not appreciate sugarcoating, especially in situations such as this one.

”I’m still a bit weak, my magic is on overdrive trying to replenish my body and heal the wound but I’ll be fine. There should not be any lasting effects, I promise.” He pointedly stared at each of the children’s stormy eyes, hoping that his words would bring some sort of relief.

Roland went to sit beside Merlin against the wall of the cave, pulling his knees up to his chest and wrapping his arms around them, without a word the younger boy leaned his head on Merlin’s shoulder. The three warlocks then lapsed in silence, each plagued by their own thoughts.

The pressure on his shoulder grounded the oldest warlock as he went through the events of the last few hours. An image of the prince’s betrayed face flashed through his mind. He knew. He finally found out what Merlin was, who he was. Some part of him, that he didn’t dare name, ached with the rest of his body at that fact.

At his side, Roland shifted uncomfortably. He wanted to say something, Merlin could tell and as he looked across the cave to the young boy’s sister, it seemed she wanted to speak as well.

“Roland? What’s wrong? Please, speak your mind.” He asked softly, looking down at the nest of curls.

The young boy seemed to wrestle internally with himself before mumbling, “Those knights…do you think Morgana…” The rest of the question went unsaid. The possibility of Morgana's betrayal quickly comes to mind for each of them.

“No. She wouldn’t.” Merlin’s answer came immediately and firmly. Enough so that he felt Roland flinch slightly, and mentally kicked himself.

“How can you be so sure?” Pandora's voice sounded hollow and guarded. He made sure to soften his voice next he spoke.

“The day she found out about my magic she could have had me arrested that night, it wasn’t her. And the way that Arthur reacted…”, Merlin’s voice cracked slightly at the prince’s name, “He didn’t know it was me at the beginning.”

“You can’t go back there.” Pandora said out loud. It wasn’t a statement or a question, but more of a depressing observation that hurt the oldest warlock at his core now that it was said out loud. Merlin said nothing.

Roland shifted again at his side, before he hurriedly jumbled out, “You could stay with us, Merlin. With the Druids.” His voice was filled with nerves but when he looked at Merlin, his eyes were full of hope.

Merlin’s eyes widened. To stay with them, with the Druids. It broke his heart when he muttered out, “I- I can’t. I have to stay in Camelot.” He watched as the boy’s heart sank and his sheepish smile vanished.

“Why?”

Merlin was taken aback at the harsh tone and even more at the glare he was receiving from Pandora. “What?”

“I said, ‘why’?!” She reiterated, standing and marching over to where the two boys were sitting. She stopped right in front of Merlin, gray eyes staring into the soul through blue ones. For a moment he froze, not knowing how to respond.

Muscle memory kicked in, without even having to think about it, he said, “It’s my destiny to serve him, to-“

“Forget about ‘destiny’!” Her shout echoed in the cave and shocked the older warlock into silence. Beside him, Merlin could have sworn he heard Roland say the beginnings of his sister’s name before being cut off. Pandora gestured at Merlin and then to the mouth of the cave. “He raised his sword to you, Merlin! He was going to hurt you, why do you want to stay there, even now?!”

Merlin’s tone is solid, “He is a good man.” He is my other half, he doesn’t say. “He brings hope when there is none, I know he will grow to be a better man than his father, a better king.” His voice rang true and earnestly to his ears as he fully believed every word.

To Merlin, to be without Arthur would be to be incomplete. When he was with him everything felt right where it should be, like it shifted into place.

Merlin said none of this out loud to ring out in the hollows of the cave, but by the way Pandora looked down at him with a pitying stare he thinks she already knew. As her gray eyes studied Merlin’s face she could probably tell what he felt for the prince. He felt vulnerable and ashamed when her eyes softened from its hard glare to realization.

Like her brother, she said not another word before dropping to Merlin’s side and resting her head on his shoulder with a sigh.

”It’s ok.”

It wasn’t, but it was all Merlin could say.

——————————————————

Arthur paced in his rooms, hands wrung in his hair pulling at the ends. No matter where he looked in his chambers everything reminded him of what was missing, of who was missing. And then from there, bringing all his thoughts back to the forest, where Merlin laid bleeding on the forest floor.

Back to when every part of him had screamed at him in anguish when he raised the sword, the hilt feeling more as a heavy, scorching rode of metal rather than the smooth leather binding that was tailor made for him. Aiming straight at the heart of Merlin.

His manservant. His…

Arthur yelled and tore off his chain mail, throwing it to the stone floor. He loosened his belt that carried the weight of his sword and let it clatter against the ground.

When he remembered the moment the hood fell from the figure's head, Arthur quickened his pace. When he remembered the gold fading from the eyes of who he trusted most, Arthur tightened his hands in his hair. It was only when he remembered the tears rolling down Merlin’s cheeks that Arthur stopped in the middle of his bedroom, squeezing his eyes shut as his stomach rolled. His skin felt too hot and he was too aware of how the clothes itched his flesh and how each breath he took was too heavy.

A knock came from his door, making his heart jolt. Whoever it was, they couldn't see him like that, not then, not when they could tell his father how weak he was at that moment.

“Arthur?”

Morgana’s voice. Arthur couldn't breathe, couldn't move from his spot. He took a few steadying breaths before he gritted out, “What is it? Now is not the time.”

There was a moment of silence but just when Arthur thought that she had left, the door was pushed open harshly. Arthur was faced away from his door but he could feel the way she glared at his back. He heard her close the door behind her and lock the door, then the clacks of her heels striding towards him. She came to stop just a few feet away from the prince, not saying another word.

“Look at me, Arthur.” She pleaded. It was such a difference from her usual confidence she always had. She sounded scared and for whatever reason, Arthur felt the same. Fear gripped him to the spot and he hated it as it squeezed his insides and left him feeling helpless.

“I don’t have time for this, Morgana.” Arthur dismissed, picking up his belt and sword, ignoring the way it didn’t feel as right in his hands as it did that morning.

“I don’t care if you do or not.” Morgana replied defiantly.

“Leave. I won’t be asking again.” He snarled, still not having enough courage to turn around to face the young woman.

“NO.” The one word echoed in the walls of the chambers, Arthur heard swishing of skirts as she shifted. “I will not be leaving. I will be staying right here and so will you. You will hear what I have to say.” She commanded.

“Then say it!” Say it and leave, he pleaded internally.

“You saw him out there, didn’t you?” She questioned, her voice softened slightly. “You saw Mer-“

He couldn’t bear to hear the name, not since he muttered it back in the forest, when his world went on its side. This time, he swung around halfway, meeting her gaze and snapped, “Do not dare say his name in front of me.”

Morgana’s eyes darkened and her fists clenched at her sides, “Do not speak of him as if he is some horrible thing! He was the one to save those children.”

The last sentence made Arthur pause, guilt pooling at the bottom of his stomach along with the anger and grief. He shook his head and forced himself to focus on only the anger. “He has magic, that is enough to-”

“To warrant his execution? To warrant him to be beheaded?!” Her voice rose with each question, emphasizing the ends of the accusations. “To warrant him to be burned at the pyre?!”

Arthur imagined Merlin’s face framed by flames, licking at his limbs up his body until it was all consuming him. He couldn’t bear it, couldn’t stand it, the edges of his eyes blurred and he swallowed, pushing down the lump in his throat. He wanted to focus on his fury, he wanted it to surround him and to numb him from everything else.

“He betrayed my trust, he lied to me about everything and you helped him commit treason!” He yelled exasperated, waving his arm wildly out towards the door. “He is not the man that I thought he was.”

”He is loyal to you and all that you are.” She shot back, venom laced her tone. “How blind could you be not to see that?”

He could see it, Arthur wanted to cry out. He could see it in the way Merlin every so often told him of what a great king he was going to be even if he didn’t believe it himself. He saw it in the way that Merlin always looked at him like he trusted Arthur with his life, and damn it, Arthur trusted that stupid man with his life as well. He wasn’t a fool, and neither was Merlin.

So why… So many questions Arthur wanted to shake out of Merlin by the shoulders stayed locked in his soul, smothered by his rage and all that he was taught.

Arthur finally noticed he was looking away from the woman and clenching the leather belt with such force, the seams strained in his grip. He looked back up at Morgana and he cursed as something in his face must have given him away as her features softened from the defensive posture she held.

“You are so trusting, Arthur,” Morgana said earnestly, “That’s what makes you such an honest and good man, you expect it the same as you give it. But you have to understand that people have things to hide, Merlin had this to hide.”

“Why would he..” Arthur faltered before trying once more, “How could he? He knows magic is-“

”Evil?” She guessed with no heat, but merely knowingly. “Arthur, magic is a part of him. He was born with it.”

For the second time that day, Arthur felt the blood rush to his ears as his world was turned on its side again. “What?”, he muttered under his breath, horror bracing his bones. He must have heard her wrong, that was the only explanation.

Not having heard Arthur, Morgana barreled on, “He couldn’t control having magic and neither could those children… Neither could I.” Her eyes filled with tears, her hand clutched at her chest, staring at the prince in front of her.

That’s.. that’s impossible. The prince gasped out, his breaths came out as short puffs of air. Had he said that out loud? He couldn’t tell, not when his ears rang and all he could hear was Morgana’s voice echoing in his mind.

”It was never his fault. It was never the children’s fault. None of us were to blame for these gifts.” Tears spilled from her green eyes. Morgana was crying, laying her heart bare to Arthur and all he could do was stare, having the pieces of information fit nowhere to what he thought he knew to be true.

“Arthur…” Her voice was soft and testing. She took a step closer to the prince unaware of the whirlwind that cascaded through Arthur’s body and mind. He had long since dropped his sword to the ground again, when had that happened? His hands reached to the ends of his hair again, tugging to make sure he was really there, in his chambers, with his world falling apart before him.

Arthur’s blue eyes locked on to the worried green eyes of Morgana. “Nothing makes sense anymore, Morgana.” He admitted brokenly to the woman and in the next moment, he was enveloped in a hug instead of the fury he had desired before.

Morgana’s arms tightened over his arms, almost in a subtle way to signal for Arthur to hug her back. He doesn’t move to return the hug but doesn’t move away either, so she seemed to take that to mean she was allowed to hold on.

Merlin was born with it. Merlin was born with it. Merlin was born with it. Arthur couldn’t think of anything other than that one sentence. How many more were like Merlin? Those children. Morgana. How many more innocent people had he watched be killed? How much blood had he spilt thinking he was defeating an enemy?

Arthur’s legs gave out from under him, the newfound revelations being too much for his body to carry. Morgana kneeled down with him, keeping her arms wrapped around him.

“Morgana… I- I’m..” He couldn’t finish his sentence, his tongue weighed down with too much to say, too much to apologize for.

“I know, Arthur, I know.” She shushed.

“Merlin-“ The moment his name slipped through the prince’s lips, his vision blurred, “He… oh god, Morgana, the fear in his eyes when he looked at me…” As if he was going to be killed on the spot.

“I know…I know.”

Arthur’s sobs filled the room, while the vision of what he thought to be good and just now had cracks and broken fragments creating a much uglier truth.

Chapter Text

“Guias is going to kill me.”

Pandora snorted and Roland giggled, but Merlin stared straight ahead in his horrified realization at the textured wall of the cave. The image of his uncle tearing his hair out in fistfuls almost made Merlin want to laugh at the absurdity as well but the reality of the matter held strong to his heart.

Arthur knew that Merlin had magic now. He had to have figured out by now that Gaius knew as well, as much as he liked to joke about it, Arthur was not stupid. Especially in the times he wanted him to be. But the prince was a good man, surely he would see the physician’s loyalty to the crown, by the years he had served the king and helped care for the kingdom with his remedies. Arthur wouldn’t knowingly put an innocent man to death.

Wouldn’t he, though? A voice wormed his way into his reasoning. The voice was similar to his own if it was dripped with bitterness and paranoia. He pushed down the thought and instead brought back his attention to the dying light outside the cave. The orange and pink hues started to make way for the darker shades creeping from the shadows of the forest.

”It’s almost time to leave,” Merlin spoke up again. He felt both children shift from beside him with hesitation and he couldn’t blame them, he just wanted to stay there and fall back asleep despite the lingering pain on his back.

“Will you be alright?” Pandora asked, looking over Merlin for any signs of severe pains that he may be hiding.

The warlock tentatively tried to stand while both the children then stood next to him, ready to steady him if he stumbled. Merlin couldn't help but feel slightly pathetic at the notion that he couldn't even stand up, let alone walk through the forest hiding from incoming knights.

Even in his state, he could feel his magic working on over time to reach his injuries. His magic was still within range for him to reach but his mind felt sluggish and drained. It was only the importance of the situation that kept him up right. He looked at the children now in front of him, hands stretched out, ready to assist at a moment's notice. He had to be strong for them, to keep going to get them to safety.

“I’ll be fine.” Merlin assured, steadying his posture to further prove his point. Two pairs of concerned eyes stared at him, so the eldest warlock continued with a small smile, “I’m serious, now we really must get going.”

The warlock took five steps forward to reach the bags around the makeshift campfire, until finally the children stopped staring at him like he might drop right in front of them. Pandora walked over to where Merlin was and before he could do anything else, she picked up two satchels, that Merlin had a sneaking suspicion that one of them was his, without looking at him. All the while, Roland started packing up as well.

When they had packed all the supplies they laid out and each ate a small loaf of bread to control their growing hunger, the three warlocks gathered at the front of the cave and looked into the dark crevices of the shadows that would be hiding them.

“Are the two of you ready?” Merlin asked, he looked to the side where Pandora and Roland stood with determined expressions and held hands. They both nodded and that was all that was needed for them to be spurred into the depths of the woods.

————————————————

“I need to inform Gaius of all that has transpired. What are you going to do?” Morgana’s voice whispered urgently to Arthur in the near empty halls. The pair walked speedily down toward where the prince was going to meet with his men. He filed away the fact that the court physician knew all that was going on for later to fully process, at that moment he only had one thing that took immediate importance. The prince looked all around them before lowering his voice to the same tone as hers.

“Protect Merlin and those children,” he replied without hesitation, “I have to make sure they make it out of Camelot and to the Druid camp without any of the other knights suspecting a thing.” The image of Merlin bleeding out on the forest floor flashed in Arthur’s mind with his chest constricting on itself before quickly being shoved away. He needed to focus, for all of their sakes.

They continued walking for a handful of seconds before Morgana stepped in front of Arthur and stopped the both of them in the middle of the corridor. “Then what?”

The question caught the prince by surprise. “I.. Then.. I don’t know.” He didn’t know what would happen after that. All he cared about was getting the children and Merlin out of danger. Every second that they were out there, the higher the danger they would be from a knight not under Arthur’s command. The prince moved to walk past, but Morgana grabbed on to his arm.

“No, that’s the wrong answer. Then you ask Merlin to come home.”

His confusion was quickly replaced with understanding. Then with remorse. “Morgana.”

“No, you listen to me, Arthur Pendragon.” Her green eyes bore into Arthur’s blue ones, “When both Merlin and the children are safe, you will apologize and beg for him to come back home.”

Arthur wanted to argue that Merlin had every right to never come back to Camelot and every reason to stay away now that he was found out by Arthur of all people, but each argument he made in his head led to more and more of his chest tightening uncomfortably. The thought of never seeing Merlin again made Arthur feel off kilter, as if it was the world spinning too fast for him to keep up with.

“Whether he comes back with you is his choice,” She continued, “But he has to know that you won’t kill him when given the chance.” Her eyes drifted to the sword at Arthur’s hip, and the weight of the steel felt all the more heavier.

“I have no idea if I may even see him again.” The thought that Merlin could choose to stay with the children at the druid camp went unspoken.

Seeming to read his mind, Morgana replied with a gentle smile, “He’d never leave you.”

Arthur wondered what else she knew that he didn’t when she turned around with a knowing glint in her eyes. He pushed the thought to the back of his mind and turned the corner continuing on his path to the courtyard.

Just as he arrived at the courtyard where his men sat on their horses talking amongst themselves, they immediately straightened at the sight of him. It was then, he noticed that one knight was seated right next to the only horse with an empty saddle. Arthur walked down the steps to his steed calmly and climbed on before finally turning to the knight.

“Prince Arthur,” the knight greeted, not meeting the prince’s eyes, instead looking somewhere to the side of the prince’s face.

“Sir Henry,” Arthur gritted out with a faux smile. Without another word, he pulled the reins to his horse and directed all the knights to follow him toward the direction of the woods with a single hand gesture. All the knights silenced and pulled on their horses to follow the prince.

To the prince’s annoyance, Sir Henry sped up his horse to the side of Arthur’s. He refused to acknowledge the knight until he saw from the peripheral of his vision that the man was visibly shifting uncomfortably, a sliver of satisfaction warmed its way through.

Sir Henry brought a fist up to his mouth and coughed, gaining Arthur’s attention. “I realize I never properly apologized for my… actions regarding your manservant.”

Arthur stared at him and waited. When it became clear to the knight that Arthur was expecting for him to say the actual words, Sir Henry momentarily sputtered indignantly. The prince leveled him with a glare that quickly silenced Sir Henry.

“I- I apologize, sire.” He muttered, suddenly finding his stallion's hair very interesting.

“Apology accepted, but I suggest you don’t make the same mistake.” He finished the sentence icily, but the knight must not have noticed the tone when he spoke next.

“Speaking of your manservant, I noticed he has not been seen around the palace all day since this morning.”

Panic flickered through Arthur but quickly recovered saying casually, if not a little pointedly, “You have truly taken a sudden interest in Merlin, Sir Henry.”

“I mean only to say that it is odd, my lord.”

“He has other duties other than my servant, for example, he is also the apprentice of the physician. What other chores he has to do is none of my concern.” Arthur managed to keep his face blank and voice stern, indicating the end of the conversation.

“Of course not, my lord,” he answered quickly.

“Then I find no purpose in having this conversation. Unless you have something you would like to say outright, Sir Henry?” Arthur raised his eyebrow, glancing sideways at the knight.

Sir Henry hesitated and opened his mouth to say something but seemed to think better of it when he finally muttered, “No, sire.”

“Then I suggest we keep our focus on finding the magic users escaping in the forest rather than making unfounded accusations.” And without hearing what his knight had to say, the prince rode further ahead to provide space between him and the rest of his men.

He pulled his sword from its sheath and held it high above his head, the last of the sun's setting rays glinting off the metal. Every second bought Merlin and the children more time to get farther from the kingdom so with that in mind, Arthur waited until he had every one of his men’s attention before bellowing out to them just as he had many times before.

“We will bring the magic users to justice. For Camelot!”

”For Camelot!” They repeated, their swords raised as well.

Before turning to the forest’s entrance, the prince sent a prayer to a god he had not thought of for a long time, and prayed that Merlin as well as the children would be safe.

—————————————————

Dry twigs crunched under the three warlocks' feet, each walking at a steady pace. Every so often when they heard a sound that wouldn't come from them they would freeze and frantically look around, hands raised and ready to defend themselves. Eventually a rabbit would appear from the bushes or a bird would swoop down from its branch. The three of them would let out a relieved breath of air and continue on their path.

They spoke to each other through their mind, not wanting their voices to be carried in the wind.

“How are your wounds, Merlin?” Pandora asked when they had been walking for a little over an hour and a half. The oldest warlock turned to look at the girl, seeing her ever calculating gaze. Merlin wanted to scold her, to say that he was the all powerful Emrys that they had not so long ago looked upon with awe. But it felt sarcastic even to himself and something told him he would not be met with an amused expression.

“I’m doing alright, how about the two of you?” His thought echoed in his mind towards the pair of children.

“My feet feel like they’re going to fall off,” Roland replied in the mind link. Merlin fought back a laugh and instead what came out in the silence was the sound of him struggling against a giggle.

“Mine, too,” Merlin admitted.

A few feet away, they heard bushes rustling and a branch breaking loudly enough for all of them to immediately know that whatever it was was much bigger than a rabbit. In less then a second, Merlin got between the children and the direction of where the sound came from.

“Who’s there?” Merlin called out, he raised one arm in front of him and the other to his side to further block the children. The double edge sword of using the shadows to hide from possible threats, Merlin realized miserably, was that they could not see the possible threats either.

A deep voice answered back, “Please, we mean you no harm.” More branches were broken as two figures walked through the overgrown grass and greenery to reveal two men dressed in robes with their hands up. The first figure was tall and broad shouldered, taking up the space around him while Merlin barely registered the second man with his hood pulled up and looking as if he was part of the shadows themselves.

“Who are you?” Merlin demanded, beneath his skin he felt his magic rush along with his adrenaline, itching and spreading throughout his body. He felt the children shift behind him anxiously.

The two strangers looked up and down Merlin, when they saw the two children behind the warlock their expressions brightened. The taller of the two men smiled and spoke up. Merlin realized it was the same voice that first answered him. “We’re druids. We were sent to retrieve the children and bring them back to our camp.”

Alarm bells rang in the eldest warlock's head. “I was told that they were not going to be allowing any of their own to come all the way to Camelot because of how dangerous it would be.” He made sure the suspicion in his voice was made clear to the strangers.

The taller man’s smile strained for a moment before he said, “They realized how dangerous it would be if you were to transport them by yourself so they sent us.”

“Merlin, I don't trust them.” Pandora’s voice echoed in the eldest warlock’s head, the sense of in coming fear and trepidation along with the words.

”Neither do I.” He agreed seriously.

The more the stranger spoke the more things didn’t make sense. The Druids would have sent a mental message to Merlin if there had been any change of plan. They wouldn’t have sent their own over to Camelot. They would have addressed Merlin as Emrys.

The realization hit Merlin with such force he took a step back, his whole body tensed enough for the strangers to notice the sudden change in demeanor.

“They’re not Druids, are they?” Roland asked in the void of all of their mental links.

”No, they aren’t.” Merlin confirmed, swallowing excess spit.

The taller stranger watched the three warlocks in silence before he let his expression drop as well as his friendly demeanor. “I understand that you are suspicious but we really must be leaving lest the knights find us first.”

“We won’t be going anywhere with you-“ It was then Merlin realized that the shorter of the strangers was no longer next to the broad shouldered man. The warlock looked all around, searching for the hooded figure.

“Merlin, watch out!”

Before Merlin knew what was happening, he was knocked on his back to the rough ground by something big and solid. He yelped in pain when his back collided with a sharp rock on the forest floor. He looked up to see the broad shouldered stranger standing over him with his lips turned up in a snarl. He turned his head to the side to see the children holding onto each other a few feet away. His attention was pulled away when the man bent down and grabbed a fist full of Merlin’s cloak and neckerchief.

Just as he was going to say a spell to get the giant off of him, the man pulled back a fist and punched the warlock twice on the side of his face, causing him to see stars in his vision and for his neck to have twisted to an odd angle, leaving it to sag to the side. For a few moments, all he heard was ringing and the thought that he could feel the blood sliding simultaneously down his face and back.

All at once, the ringing in his ear quieted but hadn’t disappeared completely, sounds from the real world flooded his head. His own shallow breathing and erratic heartbeat thudding in his chest.

“Merlin!” One of the children called out to him but he couldn’t discern which one.

An unfamiliar voice snapped,“Quiet, boy!” It was higher than the broad shouldered stranger’s.

“Don’t touch him!” That was Pandora, Merlin was sure of it, she sounded so scared. He needed to open his eyes, the children were in danger, it was his job to protect them. Merlin struggled wretchedly in the giant man’s grip but was just received with a punch to his stomach, knocking the air from his lungs and gasping to put it back in.

“Take a step closer and your brother will be bleeding out on the grass.” Complete silence followed the man’s words. Merlin felt it was more deafening than any ringing in his ears could be.

Merlin felt himself being pulled up limply before the voice spoke up again, “Leave him! We only came for the children, he will be too much dead weight to carry.”

Merlin was dropped to the ground, a pained gasp escaping his throat. The back of his tunic soaked up the blood seeping through from the bandages that clung to his skin.

“Let us go!”

“Merlin?!” Roland’s desperate voice rang out clearly loudly through the warlock’s muddied thoughts.

“Mffph!” More muffled yelling was heard distantly as well as the sounds of metal clinking against itself. The warlock reached for any spare magic he could use or even just a twitch of movement from his limbs but despite his senses being in a loud disarray his body was silent.

Merlin could feel the last wisps of his consciousness slipping through his fingers, guiding him to oblivion, away from Pandora and Roland.

“Merlin, please wake up!” The cries of the siblings were the last clear thing he felt before he felt nothing at all.

————————————————-

It had long since been two hours when the knights, as well as Arthur, lit their torches to navigate their way through the forests, speeding through the paths on their horses. Arthur kept his eyes open for any movements from the shadows, any signs of life other than the ones that lived in the forest.

Every one of his knights had been given horns to blow if they found any sign of Merlin and the magical children, and to Arthur’s great relief and anxiety he had yet to hear the calling of the horn.

It had been another hour of racing through the woods looking for any signs of the three magic users when not even a few yards west of where the prince was, the roar of the horn tore through the trees. Without a second thought, with his pulse hammering through his body, Arthur pulled on the reins of his horse with one hand, harshly turning to the direction of the call.

“Sire! Over here!” Two knights awaited, one on his saddle with a torch in hand and the other standing beside his horse with his sword armed.

“What’s happened?” Arthur slid off his horse and placed his spare hand on the hilt of his sword. It fitted into his hand as he thought of how he would be able to fend off the knights giving Merlin and the children a way to escape if only to get a head start from the fast approaching knights. But instead, he stopped at the sight ahead of him.

Behind the two knights were four figures hidden in the shadows. Arthur raised his torch higher in front of him to properly see who they were. Two men dressed with dark clothes and belts holding daggers knelt with robes hung over their shoulders.

“We have come to you, bringing the children that king Uther has set a bounty for.”

The prince’s heart dropped to his stomach when behind the two men, the two children Arthur had seen with Merlin were gagged and chained, staring right at him. He felt like he couldn’t breathe when he realized Merlin was nowhere in sight and the taller of the two men had blood staining his tunic.

Chapter Text

It was still dark when the knights made their way through the woods, still holding on to their torches. The girl looked at the prince suspiciously and gave a deadly glare when he so much as took a step towards the two. The young boy simply stood as close as he could to his sister but looked up at Arthur with wide, scared, gray eyes. As well as something else that the prince couldn’t place.

His heart beated wildly in his chest, almost fearful that the other knights would be able to hear it. When the self proclaimed mercenaries handed over the chains to him, he felt like his hands would forever be soiled from the rust of the used metals. He wondered how many other magic users had been bound and handed off to their deaths with the same chains.

Arthur tried his best to keep his voice steady when he spoke up, eyeing the blood stained tunic on the mercenary, “There was another traveling with the children, what happened to them?” From the corner of his eye, he saw the children flinch ever so slightly, their expressions darkened.

The taller mercenary’s gaze followed the prince’s and a crooked grin spread across his lips. He scoffed when he answered, ”He was no trouble. If he did have magic I didn’t give him a chance to say any spell before I took care of him.”

Arthur’s throat felt dry as he gripped his gloved hand, trying to reign in his rage and worry. Merlin couldn't be… Arthur had to believe that he was alive. The prince turned away without another word, feeling all his helplessness rage inside him burn through his veins.

He couldn’t fend off the knights as well as the mercenaries when there were fast approaching knights on their way. Even if the children did run now, they would be caught within minutes. Arthur stood frozen, feeling his head reeling from what to do next. He needed a plan, time to think about what to do next if it was only for a little time.

“We head back to the castle, now.” Arthur marveled at how he could get his words to sound cold even to himself. Somehow, the little boy managed to glue himself closer to his sister's side while she looked like she wanted to run through Arthur with his own sword. If it weren’t for the cloth tied around the child’s mouth, he was sure that she would have been cursing him to kingdom come, and Arthur couldn’t help but wish she could.

—————————

The ride through the forest was deadly quiet, nothing filling the void save for the stomping of the horse’s hooves and the breaking of branches beneath the knight's feet. The rest of the groups of knights had caught up with them and surrounded Arthur and the children. The possibility of the children escaping through the ranks; impossible.

The children sat, chained on the saddle of the horse while Arthur walked ahead guiding, with one hand holding a torch while the other held the reins. Every time Arthur spared a glance behind him he could swear he saw the children shrink within themselves each moment they got closer to the kingdom. Their faces were painfully empty and devoid.

The children sat quietly, holding onto each other almost desperately not saying a word. The silence from them disturbed Arthur to no extent when in contrast, the prince heard the mercenaries joking and talking with his knights as if they were simply out taking a stroll with old friends. It took only one glare from the prince to shut the lot of them up. He tried to ignore his guilt when the children flinched just as violently, even when the gaze wasn’t directed at them.

It was well into the night, when they couldn't see anything in front of them besides what the light from the torches provided. It was when the silence couldn’t have been louder that the group walked through the exit of the forest onto the main road that led to the kingdom. Arthur looked over at the children’s sudden still forms on the horse. Both were as tense as statues, their faces pale in the moonlight but for the first time their expressions were unguarded and horrified. The prince looked back at his kingdom but at that moment it wasn’t his home, the one he fought for. It was a graveyard that he was killing for.

———————————

The sound of the horn was blown again to announce their arrival. Lights slowly but surely lit the open windows of the castle. As they made their way through the archway, to the courtyard, the gallow stood still. It was then that Arthur heard the first sounds from behind him since children had been saddled on his horse. It was the muffled crying of the boy. He trembled and hiccuped into the older child’s shoulder, who had her arms around his shaking body. Arthur stopped, as did the rest of the knights, most staring at the pair of children.

A knight that had been right behind the children’s horse, stepped forward, placed his hand on his sword and started to yell at them, “Stop your insufferable babbling.”

He could see the girl’s eyes shoot toward the grip the knight had on his sword and she tightened her grasp on the boy. She laced her fingers through his hair and tried to hum to him through her own muffled mouth. The clangs of their chains rang through the night.

“Enough of this.” The sound of metal unsheathing spurred Arthur to let go of the reins and stand between the children and the knight, leveling said knight with a deadly glare. The man backed away, startled and let go of his grip on the weapon.

”That is enough.” Arthur stepped into the knight's space, meeting chest to chest with a look that dared the knight to question him, to say anything to defy him. “You are out of line, I suggest you remember your place.” The prince continued, his voice dropping to a low tone.

“Ye- Yes, my lord.” The knight sputtered, stumbling backward before straightening for a moment and going back to where he was stationed.

This time, the prince felt all of the knight's eyes on him, studying him and his actions. He couldn’t find himself to care, he turned his head up to the children that sat on the horse. The boy was still trying to stifle his cries while his eyes were glued to the other side of the courtyard. To the gallows.

The girl was looking at Arthur with a look of bewilderment in her eyes, but her protective embrace never loosened on the boy. A moment passed when the prince and the girl held each other’s eyes but then she was back to trying to place the boy’s head in her neck, to shield his eyes. When she managed to coax him to hide in the croak of her neck, she looked back at the prince with a grimace.

Arthur went back to the front of the horse and picked up the reins he had abandoned. He pulled the horse forward toward the dungeons, ignoring the stone that sat at the bottom of his stomach.

No matter what happened, he would make sure the children behind him never stepped foot on the wood of the gallows.

——————-

Morgana had been in the physician’s chambers waiting with Gaius throughout the whole night. She had explained to him all that had happened. About the plan going awry. About Arthur finding out about Merlin’s magic. About Merlin and the children still on the run from the knights. She had thought the old man was going to faint from the way his face had gone pale and had frantically steadied himself with a nearby chair.

It was hours later when she heard the howl of the call horn, the physician and Morgana only met their eyes for a second before the king’s ward was on her feet and out the door, grabbing her skirts and darting to the courtyard as fast as she could. With most of the knights going out to look for Merlin and the children, the patrolling knights were even easier to get past than usual.

When she heard the marching of knights in their armor and the beating of hooves on pavement, Morgana was quick to hide behind a column lest she be spotted. Morgana heaved as she stood at the mouth of the castle's main doors that led to the courtyard. She peaked to the side of the column she hid behind with a torch alit right above her; what she saw made her breath leave her as if someone had hit her.

She froze looking at the small army of guards that held the children in the middle. Even from a distance, she could tell they were chained and gagged, Morgona could see their small forms huddled together on the horse.

Morgana scanned the knights, through the men and horses she failed to see her friend. The one that swore he would do anything to protect the children that were now in Uther’s clutches, was nowhere to be found. Where was Merlin? When she looked over the groups of men again she couldn’t tell if her relief out weighed her worry or if her worry out weighed her relief when didn’t see a third person in chains.

—---------------------------

Two knights accompanied Arthur as they made their way down to the dungeons with the two children. The boy had quieted by then but still hung tightly to the older girl, almost glued together. The clinking of their chains echoed in the confined space of the stone walls as they were escorted down the steps to the dungeons below.

Arthur said nothing when they eventually reached an empty cell. He uttered not a word when he attached the chains to the back wall, the older girl boring her steely eyes to the side of his head. He made no sound when those eyes demanded that they meet his own and then continue to carry on with his life. He left the children in that cell feeling every bit the coward he had taken an oath to never be. Shame bled in his entire being, it clouded his mind and leached onto his body.

As Arthur marched up the steps from the dungeon, he could faintly hear the sounds of muffled sobbing from below. If the other two knights with him could hear it too, they made no indication that they had.

The prince returned to his knights. They all milled about the armory, piling away their armor for servants to polish in the morning, unstrapping their swords from their waists and placing them back in the correct places. Arthur walked swiftly to an empty bench beside another one of his knights, Leon. The prince said nothing as he set to pulling off his armor and letting the metal clunk to the ground without further thought.

His knight caught sight of this and Arthur’s demeanor. He’s not sure what the man might have seen and gathered from the expression but when the knight stood to clasp his hand on Arthur’s shoulder, the prince’s grip tightened on the leather strap that held his sword.

“We’ve caught the sorcerers, sire. We have succeeded,” Leon said with a smile. It didn’t quite reach his eyes that held no mirth. It was strained and showed too much teeth. It was wrong and both Arthur and Leon knew it.

Arthur couldn’t stay silent then. Not when everything was so horribly wrong. His shame and guilt felt like it was suffocating him, filling his lungs and building up his throat until it was falling through his mouth. Arthur pulled away from his knight's friendly grasp with a sharp turn.

”We have imprisoned children, Sir Leon.” Arthur said loud enough and with enough venom where all the chatter in the room stopped dead silent at the prince’s words. He felt every pair of eyes on him, burning through him.

Arthur turned towards his knights and projected so that the entire room could hear him. His voice never wavered when he continued, ”I want you all to never forget that. Down in that cell, there are no dangerous sorcerers but only children. I will throw my glove to anyone that dares refute that fact.”

The threat hung in the air, dangling for any one of the men in that armory to grab it. Arthur studied each of the faces in front of him, his gaze piercing and hard. When moments pass where no man even dared to breathe too loudly, Arthur walked through the crowd of knights, as they parted a pathway for him to get through.

He continued to walk through the halls of the empty castle. It was only when he turned his third corner that he slowed his pace. There was no one there to see him as he pressed his back to the stone wall, his hands shaking at his side. He closed his hand in a fist and pressed it to his side, trying to steady it. So much was threatening to spill through the mask of Arthur’s facade. His anger boiled beneath his skin, his guilt built in his stomach. But most of all, his worry blurred his vision and he wished to know one thing more than anything.

Where the hell was Merlin?

Chapter Text

“Merlin.”

The voice was harsh in tone and it grated against the walls of Merlin’s head, he couldn’t help but think it was Arthur’s for a split moment. His mind was fuzzy and laced with pain that spread all throughout his body. He would have almost not heard the voice had it not been repeating in his head like the echoes in a cave.

“Merlin. Get up.”

There was the voice again, this time with much more anger. Instinctively, he felt like curling into himself away from the voice if only he could make out where it was coming from. He wondered through the haze just what he did to make the person speaking to him this mad.

“They’re gone, Merlin.” The voice echoed, putting extra emphasis on the sentence. Who was gone? He couldn’t hear his own thoughts through the thrum of pain in his head. He felt like he was forgetting something, something so very important… Merlin sifted through the few thoughts he could trudge up. A slow creeping sense of panic crawled up his spine when he came up empty. Desperation then made itself known as he continued to grasp for anything solid only for it to slip through like sand through his fingers.

Each time, his heart picked up in speed keeping a steady, painful rhythm with the thrum in his head but he couldn’t find it in himself to care when the continuous thought of missing something plagued him. Something was wrong. Something was wrong. Something…

Something was reaching out to him. It was familiar and warm and… magic. It was wisps of magic just beyond his grasp, it called out for him, pleaded for him to answer. Like an outstretched hand ready for him to take, the wisps waited for him. It was only when the magic started to flicker and sputter away from him that unfounded panic seized at the momentary loss of the feeling of the magic.

He stretched out his consciousness to the magic, trying in all of his power to stay awake. He willed his strength to connect his magic with the other while it still flickered, threatening to disappear in a second.

He had just barely brushed it when he was suddenly filled with bone chilling fear. It gripped him with a desperation that made it difficult to know whether air was moving through his lungs. His mind was filled with flashes of knights on horses, the clanging of iron in the dark, malicious faces only slightly hidden with metal helmets. It was as if looking through the eyes of another’s. Then as sudden as the flashes and feelings were there, it was gone in less then a second. Merlin was left filled with an emptiness and helplessness that came back full force. Unconsciousness overtook him again.

——————-

Bleary eyes opened slowly as soft grass scratched Merlin’s cheek. For several long moments, the only thing that processed in his mind was the smell of iron and soil. Then all at once, sharp pain quickly followed along with the memories of the day before. In quick succession, the warlock remembered the scared faces of the children he swore to protect. He saw dark figures standing over him, debating his fate. He saw them take the children while they screamed his name for help.

His breaths came out in rasps. He failed them. Every joint in his body creaked like splintering wood as he pushed himself on his elbows. He failed them. He tasted the metallic tang of dried blood on his lips. He failed them.

A scream escaped his lips then. With it, his magic tore through the forest around him, like a ripple in water from a stone, winds blew through the branches and leaves. Clouds covered over the sun, covering the whole land in a blanket of shadow. Unknown to Merlin, it would reach all the way to Camelot.

——————-

Pandora and Roland were woken to the sound of metal clanking together loudly. The older of the two looked up from where they had made their own sort of nest. There had been hay left in the cell and Pandora supposed that it was supposed to be some sort of bedding for whoever was kept there. Using that and the cloaks both her and her brother still had, they maneuvered their chained hands to bundle the cloaks into pillows. No matter how hard they tried, they could only uselessly fumble to try to untie the cloths around their mouths before they eventually gave up and fell into a restless sleep.

It was only a few short hours later that they found themselves being pulled out of the cell. They were led out the dungeons to a hallway where the prince of Camelot stood waiting for them. At the sight, Pandora felt her stomach clench uncomfortably and her younger brother shifted ever so closer to her as the prince looked down at them with an expression that gave nothing away. At that moment, she would have given almost anything to know just what he was thinking looking down at them with such indifference.

She narrowed her eyes and glared when prince Arthur turned on his heel with no further word and started to lead the group down a series of different halls. With two guards on either side of her and the prince in front of them and the cold iron bruising into her wrists, the oldest warlock felt like she was suffocating. The walls of the palace seemed to be shrinking around her and her brother as if the castle itself knew that it had sorcerers under its roof.

While they walked, Pandora couldn’t help but think back to Merlin. Even when the last thing she wanted to imagine is his unconscious body somewhere in the woods while knights were sure to be searching for him. She knew that he worked closely with the prince and by extension to the king. What was the king's reaction when he found out there was a sorcerer in their midst? Would he be so angered by the betrayal that he would send out more knights to search for their traitor? Would they find Merlin?

It was only then that the prince stepped in front of a set of grand doors. He looked over his shoulder to where the two children stood, he hesitated for a moment, meeting Pandora’s eyes. She looked down to Roland who had already been looking up to her from where he was glued to her side.

In that single exchange, a silent conversation passed without using their magic. The downturn of his mouth and the squinting of his eyes as if he was willing away his tears all told her just how scared and unsure he was. She returned a grimace and what she hoped was a determined expression to promise that they would get through this together.

The prince knocked on the grand doors twice with the back of his hand. The next second, the doors opened inward. It was only when the prince led the group through that Pandora noticed the guards on the other side that had pulled the doors open.

All around the room, guards and knights were spread out, all of their eyes trained on her and Roland. She felt each of their stares bear down on her, looking at her like they were some sort of animal that could pounce on them at any second. She swallowed the urge to act like the animal they thought she was, resisting to growl and act as if she was going to attack them. Instead, she pulled her brother closer to herself with a chained hand grasping his.

On her left, there were large windows that overlooked the kingdom and parts of the forest. Thick white tuffs of clouds floated across the sky, occasionally blocking the bright sun. Daylight filtered through the glass across the floor of the room. At the center of it, king Uther sat on a throne. He stared at the children with a vicious glint in his eyes and a triumphant air surrounding him. A chill ran down Pandora’s spine at the sight of the predatory expression, one that differed so greatly from his knights.

It was silent save for the shuffling of feet on the pristine carpet of the courtroom. Even when they stopped in front of the throne the king sat upon, it wasn't until Uther raised from his seat and stepped toward his son that the deafening quiet was broken.

“Well done, son.” Uther said, as he placed a hand on his son's shoulder. Even when he was speaking to the prince, the king kept his gaze on the two children. It could have been Pandora’s imagination but she could have sworn she saw Arthur’s head droop down at the praise.

Uther moved past his son, stopping in front of the children. “You two caused quite the trouble to track down.” His tone was cold and hard, as he looked down at the two with an upturned nose.

It didn't escape either of their notices of the grip the king kept on the sword hanging from his hip. He looked every bit the deadly tyrant that could kill any opponent that got in his way. But even then, even when she could feel her brother trembling beside her, her grip tightening on his small hand, Pandora glared right back at the older man, her anger thrummed loudly in her ears.

She knew she should have been cowering from him. She was terrified, the trembling in her hands a clear indicator but for whatever reason she hated giving him the satisfaction of knowing he was the one in power. She had heard the stories and tales of how many lives he had taken. He had seen their terrified faces before he slaughtered them. Maybe, for once, Pandora wanted him to see that he couldn’t intimidate a magic user so easily.

”You will answer my questions and you will answer them with utmost honesty.” The king demanded slowly. The threat behind the words was clear.

With a single nod directed to a knight behind them, Pandora saw as a knight came closer to her and her brother with his hands up. She flinched back when the hands got closer to her face. When a second knight tried to get closer to Roland, he sent a fearful questioning glance up to her. Pandora tried to calm her rising nerves before looking down and giving the barest of nods. She tried not to recoil when the knights came close to them to untie the cloths around their mouths.

Pandora brought a hand up to rub at her jaw from how tight the cloth was tied. From the corner of her eye she could see Roland doing the same. Unfortunately, it was only a second before the king’s booming voice snapped both the children’s attention to him.

“Who is it that you call Emrys?” He demanded, spitting the name out with disgust. “Is he truly the one who aided in your escape or is he simply a fairytale you sorcerers came up with?”

Pandora stood there mouth agape. A second passed. Then another as she tried to school her expression. Just what was he talking about? Didn’t he know that Merlin was the one that helped them? She looked down at Roland hoping to see if the same confusion was mirrored in his expression only to see that was staring past the king.

She followed his gaze, over the shoulder of Uther, to where the prince stood, staring right back at the two young warlocks. His face held a barely concealed grimace while he tightly held his hands behind his back. It was only then that realization crashed into Pandora hard enough to make her inhale just a bit sharper.

Prince Arthur never told the king Merlin was a sorcerer.

”Answer me, girl!” Pandora’s gaze startled back to the now angered man in front of her. Roland flinched back from the outburst, taking a step back. She stood as still as she could despite her trembling. Despite the king’s grip on his sword and the fact he could unsheath it at any moment, Pandora kept her lips shut. A lump formed in her throat and her mouth went dry as tears started to build, she didn’t think she could talk if she even wanted to.

She knew that the king’s patience was at its end. She knew she shouldn’t push further if she wanted to stay somewhat safe from king Uther’s wrath. Even when she knew this, Pandora made sure she met the king's eyes when her gray eyes flashed a brilliant golden.

Uther backed away from the children instantly, taking out his sword and aiming it directly at Pandora’s chest. The knights around them sputtered to life, unsheathing their own weapons and pointing them all at the two young warlocks. At the same time, Pandora brought her arms around her brother, trying her best to shield his body with hers from the weapons around them. No one in the room moved, each party watching the other with apprehension.

She could just barely see the prince as he took a hesitant step toward his father. He had both his hands up placating, he opened his mouth to speak. “Father-”

The king's thundering voice drowned out whatever he was going to say as he yelled out orders to his knights. “Separate them and take them to the dungeon until the execution!”

Panic flared in her chest as Pandora saw knights start to slowly surround them, their swords at the ready. Just as she looked over her shoulder, to keep an eye on a particular knight that seemed to be getting much closer than the others, she felt a tug from her arms. Before she knew it her little brother was out of her grasp and instead was struggling against the grip of a knight.

“No!” He yelped, his eyes wild and hand outstretched toward his sister. Two knights took that moment to grab each of Pandora’s arms to restrain her.

“Get away from me!” She screamed at them. Their gloved hands dug into her forearm enough for it to bruise. She couldn't reach him. “Roland!”

Guards started to push them further apart, blocking Pandora’s view of her little brother who fought just as hard as she was. She couldn’t see him. “Get your hands off of him!”

“Pan!” Roland’s voice cracked as he called out for his sister. Tears ran down Pandora’s cheeks all while she kicked and flailed uselessly against armored men. Desperately, she looked all around the room praying she would find an out from the group of knights surrounding her. Her eyes flitted to the prince who stood next to his father almost looking as if he was trying to placate his father, making gestures to her and the direction her brother was. She looked toward the windows and saw as dark clouds filled the sky and covered the sun completely and blocked its rays from reaching her. She supposed even the sun hid from things.

“This is your last chance… I will ask again, who or what is Emrys?!”

Outside the windows, movement caught Pandora’s eyes as well as a few of the knights. As Pandora stilled, the knights trying to restrain her did as well. She had barely noticed when just above the forest, the dark clouds started to circle. They swirled over the forest eerily but distinctly. The courtroom had quieted, everyone staring out toward the woods.

”What in the name of…” The king whispered out, just barely heard.

Pandora blinked and next thing she knew, a wave of winds filtered through the forest heading straight toward the kingdom. All she could do was watch as the winds picked up dust and debris until there was a current of air blowing through the lower towns, never losing its force. From the corner of her vision, Pandora could have sworn she witnessed Uther back away from the window with his sword slightly raised in defense.

When the mysterious winds finally made its way to the castle, towards that very room, Pandora distantly thought that she wouldn’t be able to feel it through the window and stone walls. It surprised her when she did feel air blow in her face and rustle her clothes slightly. With it came the familiar energy of magic, the same one she felt the first time her and Roland were first rescued. The moment it was there, the winds were gone.

Pandora looked around the courtroom, not really knowing what she was hoping to see. Maybe if she wasn’t the only one that felt what had happened. Terror and bewilderment was plastered on almost all of the knight’s faces. Almost all of the knights. She stared at the prince of Camelot while he stood just in front of the windows with a strange look on his face. It wasn’t fear and it wasn’t trepidation, instead something soft and thoughtful seemed to have overtaken the prince.

King Uther on the other hand looked as if he had soiled his pants, his face pale while he sputtered like a blathering fish.

‘Pan… did you feel that..?’ Roland’s voice echoed in her mind.

Pandora closed her eyes and for the first time that morning, allowed herself a small smile as she replied, ‘Merlin.’

Chapter Text

Arthur stared out the window of the courtroom. Where there was once wavering trees and a darken sky, replaced was the sun shining down on the still forest. He stared out as if hoping he could see Merlin in the distance at the center of all the chaos.

A shiver ran down his spine suddenly at the remembrance of the wave of winds that swept through the lands and through the walls of Camelot. As it washed over him, his entire body was warm and alert.

For those few seconds, the warmth seemed to have swirled in his being, the feeling so foreign yet so identifiable. It clung to him, like waves lapping at the sand of shores. Caressing his skin like the soft brush of spring winds. Like a laugh he could pick apart from across a crowded room. He knew that the only thing that could cause it was magic. The owner of the magic was the reason he was stuck with his heart lodged in his throat.

Even with no proof or evidence to suggest he was right, something deep down inside of the prince rang out a single name. Merlin. Despite the horrible circumstances they all found themselves in, he couldn't stop the pang of fondness that flowed through. His name echoed through the prince’s mind and found its way to his lips, just barely whispering out the name before Arthur caught himself.

Distantly, he heard the barking out orders, the entire room breaking from the silence the magic brought and instead erupting into a clatter of armor clanging and shuffling of feet.

He turned back in time to see knights taking the children out the room by the chains around their wrists. They walked out, side by side, the older keeping a pointed glare at the knights around her. Her brother looked over his shoulder to the prince. Arthur and the boy’s eyes met briefly before he was taken from his sight and the doors closed as they left.

With them, the last remnants of warmth from the magic dissipated out the courtroom, leaving behind an unbearably tense silence. Arthur felt empty. He had felt that way since he saw Merlin leave from his sight in the forest, like something inside of him was off kilter.

As if the air was filled with a flammable gas and the slightest wrong move could light a spark that could cause the entire room to go up in flames, the king finally spoke.

“You are to make sure that no one gets in or out of this castle without our direct permission.” The king’s order was firm and even, his back turned to his son. Arthur couldn’t see his father's expression but by the way his grip shook ever so slightly, he could feel the underlying fury that raged in the king.

After a pause, he continued, his voice dripping with venom. “If a third sorcerer comes here then we will be ready to intercept them and kill them.” Arthur suppressed a flinch. “Am I understood?”

Arthur’s gloved hand tightened in a fist, hearing the way the leather creaked. The prince strode across the room toward the doors, not daring to look Uther as he passed.

He said not a word as he opened the door just wide enough to slip out. He didn’t waste a second before taking off down the corridors.

Merlin was in danger. Whether he knew it or not, the king of Camelot was ready for an attack from a very powerful, very dangerous sorcerer. In the past week, the prince’s world had been turned upside down countless times, making him question all he knew. But if Arthur was certain of anything, it was that Merlin would return to save the children and this time he would have Arthur’s help.

—----------------

Uther felt as if a bucket of cold water had been dumped on him. When the magic had washed over his body, it itched against his skin. A chill ran down his spine at the expanse of the power. To be felt by both magic users and non magic users alike. To change the weather. It was unlike anything he had ever witnessed before, even when magic did run freely.

After the two sorcerer’s execution, Uther vowed to himself he would find Emrys and kill them himself. He vowed to himself that the magic user’s blood would run down his sword if it was the last thing he did. Even if he needed to use the children to draw them out.

—---------------

Arthur had only taken a couple of steps down the hallway, when suddenly he was flanked at both sides by Morgana and Gauis. They were both out of breath as if they had ran there and Arthur slowed his pace so the older man could keep up. When they spoke, they conversed in hushed whispers even when there was no one in sight in the corridors.

“What happened? What was that this morning? Where is Merlin?” And wasn’t that the question of the century.

Arthur turned to Morgana with a tilt of his head, answering to her multitude of questions, “I haven't a clue but wherever he is, he’s in danger. There is not much time to explain.” He added when Morgana opened her mouth, most likely about to ask again about the events of the morning.

“What has happened? How did the children get recaptured?” Guias whispered harshly. The hand that gripped the handle of his sword tightened as Arthur thought back to the night before. When he saw the two children gagged and stumbling through the forest with the bounty hunters, he was ready to run the men through with his sword.

“Mercenaries had captured them and we found them while they were on their way back to the kingdom.” Arthur stopped walking and met the eyes of both Morgana and the court physician. “Merlin wasn’t with them.”

If possible, the older man grew a shade paler with wide eyes. As Guias’s growing panic was growing more and more visible, Arthur didn’t waste a second before placing a steady hand on his shoulder and keeping contact with his weary eyes.

“Don’t worry, Guias, we’ll find him. I promise.” His voice came out much more sure than he felt. The older man’s posture softened but concern still rolled off him.

“What’s your plan?” Morgana asked under her breath, stepping closer to Arthur’s side.

The prince dropped his hand and turned slightly to her, “We need to talk to the children, they were the last to see Merlin. Perhaps he was able to escape to find the Druids for help.”

A silence followed. Arthur could tell that the others believed his words just as little as he did. They all knew that Merlin would never leave the children behind. Not if he had any say in it.

”Where are they?” Morgana finally spoke up.

Arthur was quick to respond, “They’re being held in the dungeons.”

”Then to the dungeons we go.”

Arthur smiled at her and she gave a nod back to him. The prince straightened and turned to Gaius, “Go back to your quarters, and if you see Gwen, tell her what has transpired but keep it vague. We cannot have her or you acting strangely. We cannot let anyone suspect that someone in the castle was helping hide the children.”

“Morgana, as much as it pains me to say it, I need your help. Those children are sure to be terrified and they will not trust me. They know you, they will want to see a familiar, friendly face.”

Without another word, the three looked down the halls of the corridors and separated right after Gaius bowed slightly in departure. Arthur led the way to the dungeons with Morgana not even a foot behind him.

—----------

It was easier then it should have been to get past the guards. When Arthur and Morgana had started down the stairs, they had found the guards outside playing a game of dice. The prince had quickly made himself known and ordered them to let him and Morgana through.

Arthur thinks that they were too embarrassed to have been found slacking that they didn’t question why the prince and the king's ward would want to see prisoners. Arthur didn’t know whether he should be thankful for their incompetence or deeply concerned.

The hallway of the dungeon was dark and humid, with barred windows letting the days light in. Once they knew that the guards couldn’t hear them, both Arthur and Morgana hurried their steps, checking each of the cells carefully.

Morgana suddenly gasped, startling Arthur. She was then kneeling on the grimy ground, her hands wrapped around the bars of the cell. “Pandora, Roland!”

“Miss Morgana!” A young watery voice quietly exclaimed. “What are you-“

The sentence was cut off violently as Arthur stepped behind Morgana. Both of the children sat in the dirty cell, cuffs hanging off of their wrists and connected to the back of the wall.

At the sight of Arthur, he saw the young boy sink into himself as if trying to hide. His sister on the other hand, had jumped to stand in front of, who Arthur just learned was, Roland.

“What is he doing here?” She spat out, her glare locked on the prince. He met her gaze but kept his own expression with no emotion. She looked ready to take a swing at him and Arthur couldn’t help but be reminded of Merlin when they first met.

Morgana was quick to assure, speaking in a rush. “He means no harm, I promise. He's here to help.” But by the way neither of the children eased, it seemed her words fell on deaf ears.

Silence stretched. With the children giving Arthur untrusting glances and Morgana waiting for them to ease, all Arthur could feel was his own growing restlessness. Arthur clenched his jaw and tried to ask as carefully as he could. “Where is Merlin?”

“Arthur.” Morgana warned, turning her head and giving him a glare of her own.

He ignored her and instead stepped closer to the bars. He waved his arm to the exit of the dungeons and felt his own voice rising. “He is in danger, we have no time to waste. You have to tell me where he is.”

“Why?” The young girl, Pandora, finally spoke, her cold stare turning to Morgana. “For all we know, you could have been the one that sold us out to Uther.”

Morgana flinched back as if she had been struck, hurt plastered across her face. Pandora looked immediately regretful of her words, drawing into herself with hunched shoulders.

Morgana’s body was tense, but she whispered out wetly, “I would have never betrayed you or Merlin in such a way.”

Arthur offered a gloved hand for her to take and Morgana took it, rising from the ground while still gripping onto the bar of the cells with one hand. He could see the unshed tears in her eyes but said nothing. He placed his hand on her shoulder.

A fragile atmosphere enveloped them, as if a single misplaced action could shatter it. Tension so thick, the prince barely allowed himself to breathe too heavily.

“We care for him.” Arthur knew as soon as the words were out of his mouth that he had said the wrong thing.

Pandora lunged at the bars of the cell, her chains the only thing restraining her as she roared at him, “You care for him?! Yes, because pointing a sword at his chest is an appropriate way of showing that.”

Arthur could feel Morgana’s eyes boring into the side of his head as she breathed out his name in disbelief. Air constructed in his lungs and he struggled not to look away, to avoid the accusatory grey eyes that reminded him of all that he had done wrong.

“Do you know how we arrived in your kingdom, Prince Arthur?” Her voice broke the same way any child would when they were angry and tried to sound older than they were. Her brother had risen from the ground and reached for Pandora but she shrugged him off.

“We were in a Druid camp for no longer than two months when knights, similar to that of Camelot’s, raided and attacked us.” Arthur saw her story playing out clearly in his mind and his heart dropped. He knew the ending before it was even finished. How many times had he led his knights and gone on such a similar raid?

“We had done nothing to that kingdom, merely living peacefully deep in the forest, and somehow they saw that as a fitting reason to burn everything to ash.” The young girl was faced in Arthur’s direction but he knew, by the way tears started to run down her cheeks, that she was back in those woods, reliving.

Roland took his sister's hand with both of his. She startled but came back to herself. With a loud sniff that echoed between the walls, she continued. “Me and my brother ran for days until we finally came across one of your outlying villages seeking food or supplies.”

Whatever guard she let down, it went back up as if it had never been lowered. She leveled the prince with piercing eyes, a storm brewing in the grey. “If you think even for a second that we would give away the location of one of the few people to have shown us kindness, only for you to hunt down; you truly are as unworthy of his faithfulness and compassion as I thought.”

With each passing minute the prince allowed himself to think about Merlin, he grew to understand that more and more. Arthur’s mouth was unbearably dry, only a hoarse syllable managing to formulate. “I-“

“He speaks so highly of you.” She interrupted, her free hand curling into a fist as she shook. “I don’t understand it.”

He didn’t understand either, he wanted to say back to her. He couldn't fathom why Merlin would ever stay in Camelot, least of all stay with Arthur. Why does a man as good-hearted as Merlin ever pledge his loyalty to someone trained to kill him and anyone like him? Arthur felt the urge to find Merlin just to shake him down for answers. Then hug him and keep apologizing until he lost his voice.

He knew that admitting any of this would help absolutely nothing. So as the three other people in the dungeon stared at Arthur, waiting to see his reaction, never has he so wished for Merlin to be by his side. He always knew the right thing to say to gain someone’s trust. It was one of the things that always amazed and impressed Arthur.

Now, however, Arthur would have to gain the trust of two children that were fiercely protective of Merlin. He needed to show that he would shield Merlin from danger just as much so. To do that, he would need to give the same amount of honesty they had given him.

The prince took a breath and knelt on the ground, his eyes meeting both of the children, letting the things he had realized finally take form in words. “When I first saw Merlin in those woods, I was blinded by my father’s teachings, by my own rage. I had let myself act when I should have listened. I now see the fatal flaws of my belief. I was ignorant and I have allowed myself to stay that way for years. My father has allowed hatred to swallow his heart and infect his judgments. He is a bad king because of that.”

The children had expressions of shock and after a pause they took a few small steps away from the wall and closer to Arthur and he took it as a barest of victory, but a victory nonetheless.

He continued, keeping his tone even but sincere. “There are not enough words I could say to remedy the pain you have experienced. Words can only mean so much, so I ask of you, even when I have given you no reason to trust me. I ask that you try to trust when I say I am here to help and will do my best to ensure no innocent life will be hurt by Camelot’s ignorance again. Starting with both of yours.”

Arthur could hear quiet sniffling to his side but kept his gaze locked on the faces on the other side of the cell. “No magic user will have to hide. Not the Druids, not you or your brother, not Morgana, and not Merlin.“

“But for that to happen, I need to know where he is, I need to know if he needs my help. If he’s out there and…” Arthur couldn’t finish the sentence without feeling like poison was eating through his stomach. A flash of Merlin laying beside a tree with an arrow stuck out of his back hit Arthurs mind and he fought the feeling of sickness welling up.

“He’s alive.” The younger boy whispered out, but because of the echoes of the brick walls, Arthur heard it loud and clear. “We felt his presence earlier.”

“This morning.” Morgana breathed out.

“Yes.” Roland replied once more. “The last time we saw him was when we had run into the bounty hunters. Merlin was badly hurt and they left him in the woods.” Roland looked toward his sister as if wanting to add something but not sure if he should.

“But he’s on his way here, isn't he?” Arthur sighed in realization. The children exchanged a glance and nodded grimly. ”Morgana, try to stay with the children.” With that he stood back up from where he was knelt and began walking down the dungeon to the exit.

“Arthur, where are you going?” Morgana called after him.

Arthur paused in his step just to look over his shoulder and reply, “I have to stop him, he’ll get himself killed if he thinks he can just waltz through the courtyard like an idiot.”

Chapter Text

Merlin trudged through the paths of the forest for what felt like hours. He stuck to the hidden overgrown paths only he knew when foraging for herbs. He knew that using the main paths would only get him caught if knights were still looking for him, which they surely were. By then, the whole kingdom would know that Merlin was not only the one that helped the children escape but also a sorcerer.

He had managed to come up with a plan as he limped through the woods. First, once he got out of the forest, he would use the back entrance to the dungeons where Pandora and Roland were sure to be being kept. He would try to find the knight that was guarding their cell and steal the keys to unlock their cell.

Merlin’s mind flashed to Gaius and guilt settled deep in his stomach. Would they suspect that the physician knew that Merlin was a sorcerer? What if he was locked with the children? Should Gaius be there, Merlin would find him along with the children.

Merlin then thought of Morgana and Gwen. Were they safe? Did Gwen find out about Merlin’s magic? The pace of the thoughts swirling through his mind made his head throb. Merlin slowed his steps to deepen his breaths, trying and failing to quell the pain in his body.

As he walked, he allowed himself to be pulled by his magic, letting it roam from his body to all around him and calming his nerves. A few times, he closed his eyes for a few seconds and just weaved through the terrain, almost as if his magic was guiding him safely to where he needed to go. Even if where he needed to go was the most dangerous place for him at the moment.

The closer he got to the kingdom, the more his magic thrummed and pulled him, he quickened his pace until he finally made it out of the forest, where just over a small hill he could see the towers of the castle.

Just atop that hill was the Arthur Pendragon. His armor shined and caught the light of the sun, momentarily blinding Merlin. At first, he had thought that it was a cruel hallucination caused by the hit he received from the night before. He felt what was left of his hope drain out of him when after a few more seconds, the prince was still there.

——

Seconds past where Merlin and Arthur just stared at each other, one at the top of the hill with the sun's rays splayed over them while the other was shaded by the tall trees of the wilderness. A wind blew from the forest toward Arthur and that seemed enough to break whatever trance they were in.

Almost as if moving with the wind, Merlin walked up the hill with a raised head in defiance. For a moment, he looked every bit as powerful as Pandora made him out to be that day in the courtyard, strong and tattered as if nature had created him. But then the man tripped on a root and Arthur was reminded of his clumsy manservant.

The closer Merlin got to Arthur, the more the prince saw the extent of just how badly hurt Merlin looked. His clothes and cloak hung torn over his shoulders, more unfitted than he had ever seen. Merlin noticed the prince’s observing gaze and immediately tried to wrap his cloak around himself but he knew there would still be dried stains of blood visible on his person. The warlock knew that the prince was trained to find as many weaknesses to use against his opponent. And that was what Merlin realized he was to Arthur then; an opponent. An enemy.

Finally, both men stood on equal ground, a handful of feet away from each other but close enough to pick up on familiar mannerisms. Merlin recognized the way the prince kept his hand on his hip, near his sword. He always did it more out of a way of grounding himself then reassurance of the weapon. Except this time there was no sword to reach for. There was no weapon in sight. There must be one concealed somewhere, Merlin reasoned to himself.

“Arthur.”

“Merlin.”

The warlock took a single step forward, intending to walk past the prince. Arthur in return stepped to the side, blocking Merlin from getting any farther.

“Stand aside. Now.” Merlin bit out with as much fury he could muster. He would not lose his resolve just because Arthur Pendragon stood in his way. Merlin flashed his eyes gold in an attempt to scare Arthur off, but he knew it wouldn’t work for two reasons. First, Arthur never backed down from his stance. Second, Merlin knew that he could never use his magic to hurt his prince.

The prince stared into the pools of molten gold. It didn’t shine like the jewelry that royals strutted around in, instead it glowed like freshly mined gems. The same shade of campfires and fall leaves. He lost himself in them, and his heart picked up pace. The color he was so afraid of in others looked captivating and beautiful on Merlin. Finally, Arthur croaked out, “You can’t go back there.”

The warlock huffed and looked away, lowering his eyes. “I don’t have time for this.” This time he took two more steps to try to get past Arthur.

Only this time, the prince grasped Merlin’s bicep, grounding him from moving any further.

“I’m not letting you go up there, you’ll be killed.” Arthur had meant to say that Merlin couldn’t go up there alone when he already was so injured, but panic was welling up inside of the prince, making only part of what he wanted to say actually be spoken.

“What do you care whether I live or die?” Merlin tried to shake off the prince’s grip but Arthur held on, opening his mouth to come up with the most eloquent way to express his deep revulsion at the thought of anything bad happening to Merlin. The warlock ignored his hesitancy and growled out, “Get out of my way, Arthur.”

“Or what? You’ll use your magic against me?” Arthur snapped, taken aback by Merlin’s tone. Because it was true, Merlin could easily use his power to get past him. He realized quickly that he never knew how to say the right thing when it came to speaking to Merlin.

Merlin stepped back and out of Arthur’s reach. “Is that what you think?!” He yelled, hurt and anger lingering on each of his words. He felt like a forest fire was consuming him, raging and anxious and hot and burning. Once again, Arthur took too long thinking of what he could say and Merlin took the next moment to swing a punch at the prince’s head.

Instincts took over and before Arthur could think further, he grabbed the flying fist and twisted the arm and the person around. He was struck with a sudden sense of dejavu but lost his train of thought when Merlin was suddenly stepping violently on Arthur’s foot. The prince hissed in pain but didn’t release his grip on Merlin. So when he brought his foot up and Merlin tried to shove him away, they both lost their balance leaning over the side of the hill.

Merlin felt a hand grab the back of his head and an arm wrap around him, pulling him closer to the metal chest plate before both the prince and the warlock went tumbling down the steep hill. When they finally rolled to the bottom, both were groaning from the little hits and bruises they earned from the rough ground.

Merlin, still trapped underneath Arthur by his stupidly strong arms with his own arms stuck between him and the chest plate, yelled at the prince right next to his ear, “Get off of me, you pratish oaf!” He tried to wiggle out but Arthur locked his fists into Merlin’s clothes tightly, securing him in place.

“No! Not until you listen to me.” He yelled back and Merlin once again tried to pull back, if only not to lose his hearing or feel the hot breath on his neck or face.

“When have I ever done something like that?” The warlock countered. He couldn’t escape and even if he did, the prince could take him down easily. He failed the children. Morgana and Gwen and Gaius would surely find a way to help Roland and Pandora but Merlin…. He broke his promise to them. Merlin fell limp as he realized what his fate would be. Against his will, tears started blurring his vision.

“Are you going to kill me?”

Arthur felt all the air leave his lungs at the question. He couldn’t see Merlin’s face but he could hear the ever so slight quiver in the calm tone.

“No.” He rasped out desperately. He swallowed to hopefully soothe his dry throat. “I don’t think I could ever kill you.”

Merlin’s voice stayed hollow. Numb. As if he wasn’t hearing the conversation at all. It broke Arthur. “It didn’t seem that way in the woods.”

“I was angry.” He said, as if that would excuse what he had done in the past, when he found out about Merlin, before he found out about Merlin, before he even knew Merlin. He knew it didn’t, it never would. Not to Arthur and not to the people he hurt and killed.

Neither remembered who said it, but someone had muttered out, “I was scared.”

And someone had replied, “I was too.”

“I’m so sorry, Merlin.” It was then that Arthur did something he had swore he would never do in front of another person again. Tears trailed down his cheek silently and gravity pulled them down Arthur’s face to Merlin’s tunic, soaking through the fabric to his skin. It was enough to cause Merlin’s own cries to filter through, his cold numbness breaking.

“There is so much you don’t know, Arthur.” Merlin gasped out. “About magic, about my people. About me. Gods, Arthur, the amount of blood that is on my hands. I am not the person you think I am.”

Words fell out of Arthur’s mouth, earnest and true, he hugged Merlin closer to him and put his head in the crook of the warlock's neck. “Tell me everything. All of the pain you have had to carry, let me shoulder it with you. Everything you have gone through, let me help you heal from it. Tell me every terrible thing you could have possibly done and I will still see you the same. You have stayed hidden and silent for long enough.”

He took several breaths, then he slackened his arms and pulled himself to his knees. Merlin sat up from the ground but made no move to run, just staring at Arthur like he was something of a miracle.

Shame ran through Arthur and he had to look away before he continued. “You have every right to be furious with me, to never want to see me again, and I will respect that.”

A sort of calm washed over the prince, almost like each word he said slid out as easy as breathing. “All I ask is that you let me help you just this once. To give those children a bright future in contrast to their harsh past. Then, if you so wish, you may go wherever you like, to leave and live a peaceful life. One where you don’t have to hide.”

“Arthur.” Merlin breathed out. Everything around them felt dull, as if it was far away. All he could see or hear was Arthur saying the impossible. Because Arthur Pendragon would never say this. Would never accept him. But here he was.

“I will make Camelot safe. I promise you that. Should you leave or go, I will have things changed. Even if I am stripped of all I own or am banished, I will strive to be a better man, and eventually a better king, for all of my people. And once I succeed you will always have a place in Camelot.” Arthur looked up to meet watering blue eyes and all over again, he felt himself growing into a panic. He opened his mouth to say more. “And- and-“

“Arthur.” The warlock interrupted again, this time with more force. He wouldn’t be able to hear another word without doing something he would regret. Never had Merlin seen the prince so vulnerable, speaking so freely of his feelings and of treachery. He wasn’t sure whether to be horrified or overjoyed. So instead, he wrapped his arms around Arthur’s neck and pulled him into another hug while laughing under his breath, “Shut up.”

The prince stilled but brought his arms up to wrap around the warlock and for a moment, all that mattered was that they held each other.

Chapter Text

Merlin stumbled to stand on his feet and Arthur half scrambled to catch him and balance him upright. At the same time, they looked at each other and abruptly turned away just as quickly. Arthur kept his hand on Merlin’s waist and slung his arm around his neck.

There was a moment where neither said anything, until a sharp flare of panic rose up in Merlin. “Pandora and Roland, the children,” Merlin breathed out, his throat hoarse, “Are they alright?”

The image of the two of the children walking up to the gallows flashed through his mind. Then an image of them being tied to a stake while the king held a torch just over the wood quickly followed.

Arthur must have seen the incoming alarm bleeding through the warlock because within a second he reassured, “They aren’t hurt, at least not what I could see. They were brought in by mercenaries and are currently being held in the dungeons. Morgana is keeping an eye on them while I came here to get you.”

The nausea that built up in his throat only eased just a bit. At the very least, they were not in any immediate danger. But the fact still remained that at any moment they could be dragged out to the courtyard in front of the entire court. Any moment, king Uther would look down at them and dictate their fate.

Merlin forcibly shook his head, forcing the thoughts out of his mind. He would get to them in time. With renewed vigor, he surged both himself and Arthur to start to walk. They both flailed for a second, trying to find the right footing while Arthur half carried the other man. Once they found a rhythm they could both walk in, they steadily made their way up the hill and on the trail again.

Both men stayed silent as they trekked through the slightly overgrown path, with the only indicator that there even was one being the thin line of dead grass. But while he tried not to think of the children, Merlin could only focus on just how easily Arthur was holding up his weight. Instead of recoiling from his touch after finding out about Merlin’s magic, the prince held on tight to him, not even allowing the possibility of Merlin slipping from his grasp. Warmth swirled in his chest and made its way to his face.

Trying to find something to occupy the silence, Merlin asked hesitantly, “Can I ask you something?”

“You just did.” Arthur responded but coughed when Merlin gave him a deadpan look. “Yes, of course.” He amended.

“How did you know where to find me?” He expected his question to be met with some variation of ‘all I had to do was follow the clumsy trail you left’ or ‘I was raised since birth to hunt and track, of course I would find you, you have the grace of a newborn doe.’

The last thing Merlin was expecting to say was, “Only an idiot would look on the main paths of the forest. You obviously would use the trails you take to collect herbs for Gaius.”

The prince must have noticed the godsmaked stare Merlin was giving him because his face screwed up in a confused scowl. “What?”

“You remembered which trails I take?” Merlin managed to croak out.

Arthur’s face grew red as he turned away and sputtered for what seemed like an excuse as to why he knew his servant’s personal chore routes. Merlin’s ears warmed at the realization that the prince must have paid attention to the times he had described everywhere he had to go to gather herbs. The two quickly lapsed into silence again, tension hanging heavy between them.

It only took one badly placed foot and for Merlin to hiss in pain to break the quiet. Just one small jostle managed to remind him of how his entire body felt like one giant bruise. Even while his magic worked over time to heal him, he knew that without having food or proper rest it would be slow going. Squeezing his eyes shut, the warlock focused on the magic flowing through him, how it spread with his blood and gathered where wounds known and unknown were. From the arrow wound to getting beaten bloody, it did more damage then his magic could keep up with.

Ice ran down Merlin’s spine when he remembered just how desperately his magic had reached out for the children as they were taken by the strangers.

Using so much magic already was putting a strain on his body but the thought of not reaching out to the children for a moment longer suddenly seemed unbearable. The warlock screwed his eyes shut and mentally searched through the strings of colors until he found the pair of familiar green strings. They hummed with tremors of fear and anguish rippling from them.

Distantly, he felt Arthur pause, turn his head to look at him and ask him if he was alright.

Instead of answering, tears formed in the corners of Merlin’s eyes as he called out to the void. “Pandora. Roland.”

The fear almost immediately evaporated and was replaced with shuddering relief. Two young voices called back to him. “Merlin!”

”Merlin!” This voice was outside of his head and was instead yelled with concern. The warlock opened his eyes to an almost frantic Arthur, who was shaking Merlin the best he could with one arm. “Are you alright? Are your wounds worse than you let on? Is this a magic thing?”

Merlin huffed aloud to the prince, “Arthur, stop shaking me, I’m fine. I’m talking to the children right now.” He pointedly ignored the bewildered look Arthur was giving him and closed his eyes once more.

Merlin mentally reached back out to the children. “Are you both alright? Are either of you hurt in any way?”

Roland responded quickly. “No, no, we’re fine. But what about you? When we last saw you…” His voice trailed off and Merlin tried not to think about how gruesome the sight of him getting beaten must have been for them.

“It doesn’t matter.” Merlin interrupted. “I’m on my way to you now.”

“Wait, Merlin!” Merlin could hear the urgency in the younger boy and it was enough to make him physically stop to listen. “The prince is out looking for you! But he’s going to help you. He’s good now, we think. He gave this really big speech and he really cares about you, Merlin! He was on his knees and everything just to know where you were to help you. I didn’t even know that princes could kneel to anyone.”

Merlin risked a glance to his side and saw the still confused but studying gaze the prince had, looking at the warlock like Merlin was a strange creature. He focused back on the conversation. “Roland, please slow down. Don’t worry, I’m with Arthur right now. I should have clarified that we are both on our way.”

“Arthur’s with you?” Pandora finally spoke up, but her magic sparked with unease, betraying her calm tone.

“He is.” Merlin replied carefully. He knew that of either of the children, Pandora would be most suspicious of Arthur. Whether he was the prophesized future king of the lands or not, the young girl would not easily trust someone with her and her brother’s lives.

“And you’re safe?” She asked again. Even in his mind, Merlin could hear how young she was but tired beyond her years.

“I am. He’s not going to hurt me, Pandora. I promise.” Merlin put as much mental strength into his reassurance and hoped that his magic reflected it.

“I know.” Pandora’s tone was resolute, as if she was starting to come to terms with something she could never believe before. There was still unease but with each second it seemed to be forced into calming. “Prince Arthur looks to be finally growing into the legend.”

Merlin blinked his eyes open, and looked back at the prince beside him, confused. He found it difficult to believe that the young girl, who was cautious of anyone around her, was willing to accept help from someone she had seen as an enemy.

Arthur raised a brow at the expression. “What happened?”

Merlin struggled to find the words. Eventually, he realized that his mouth was already half open. He said almost proudly accusing, “You tell me. Whatever you said to them, you earned their trust.”

Arthur huffed and readjusted his grip on Merlin while turning his face away. “It is my job, as prince, to take care of all who inhabit my lands.” He turned his head only slightly to give Merlin what can only be called a fond look. “Whether they have magic or not.”

A little voice in his head, that sounds like himself, is yelling at him to stop staring at Arthur like a creep and to stop looking at the bottom part of the prince’s face.

Another voice, that sounded much like a little boy, called out, “What’s the plan, Merlin?”

Merlin glanced over to Arthur, who looked to be purposely trying not to sneak uneasy glances at the warlock. He had no idea if the prince had a plan of his own. It was entirely possible considering Arthur’s strategic mind but it was strange to think that he was going to be freely talking to the prince about the best way to free magic users. “So far, get the both of you out of the dungeons and as far from Camelot as possible.”

“So no plan at all.” Pandora chided, the doubt clear. Merlin felt like the words struck through his chest, a painful reminder that he had no idea what to do next.

“You have so little faith in me.” Merlin’s comment was met with silence but he could almost hear the older girl huffing a laugh while her brother giggled under his breath at the oldest warlock’s dramatic tone.

“Arthur.” Merlin said, no longer playful. Instead, he turned his face up to the royal with a determined furrow in his brow. He hoped his voice wouldn’t give way to the fear slowly but surely eating through him. “Do you have a plan?”

Blue eyes seemed to be piercing through his soul. “The safest way for the children to get out of the kingdom will be for them to stay in the dungeon for as long as possible. We have to hurry before they are taken to the courtyard. We can use the passageways we used to help the Druid boy escape. We’ll get both you and the children to safety.” Arthur spoke as if he was delivering a sacred oath.

Before Merlin could ask what he meant, Roland’s voice echoed, “Morgana is still here with us, she wants to know what she can do to help.”

Merlin relayed the message to Arthur, who stared off in front of them with a thoughtful expression. By then, the back wall of the castle was in full view as well as the back door used to get to the rations room.

“I have an idea.”

“I’m terrified to ask.” Merlin groaned, then hissed in pain when Arthur ‘accidentally’ justled him. “Kidding, kidding.”

“Tell Morgana to get a horse ready and tied to the front of the courtyard.“ Arthur took a breath. “If she runs into Gwen then tell her to get armour from the armoury and to bring it to us in the rations room. Almost no one goes in there anymore.”

“Armor? Why? And how exactly will Morgana let us know she did all of this?” Merlin questioned, failing to see the string of thoughts that Arthur was following.

The prince tilted his head with an odd look on his face. “Can’t you…” He waved his free hand flippantly. “I don’t know, I thought all of you could talk to each other.”

“What are you talking about?” The warlock asked, exasperated. There were many times that Arthur did or said things that confused Merlin because of just how horribly he was at explaining them. Arthur looked just as bemused as he opened and closed his mouth, willing himself to say something.

“Can’t all magic people talk to each other?” Arthur finally huffed. “Isn’t that how you’re talking to the others?”

Merlin thought back to all of the peaceful magic users he had come across with. It was a short list that only had a pissy dragon that acted like he hated him and Druids that treated him like some great entity. Both parties he was able to speak to through his mind. He replied thoughtfully, “Yes?”

“Well, Morgana has magic as well so doesn’t that apply to her as well?” Arthur had said the sentence as if it was simply a known fact of life. Not in the smug way where he knew Merlin didn’t know something but in the genuine way of believing that everyone knew this fact. Merlin, however, was not aware of this fact.

“Morgana has what?!” The warlock nearly fell to the ground at the full body reaction he gave. He would have too, had Arthur wrapped his arm around Merlin’s torso and pulled him closer.

Arthur breathed out heavily, “How could you not know that?”

”How could you know that?” Merlin shot back. With all the moving around, moving his body felt less and less desirable with each second. In front of them, the door was mercifully just a few more feet within reach.

”She told me.” That time, Arthur sounded smug. Merlin’s annoyance with the tone helped dull his pain.

“Well, she certainly never told me!” The warlock basically yelled in the prince's ear.

”Merlin, be quiet.” Arthur hissed, while using both hands to help move Merlin to lean against the side of the wall next to the doors. He patted the side of his belt until in the next moment, a ring of keys was in his hand. “We’re almost inside the castle.”

He turned each key until he found the one he was looking for and put it in the key hold. He jiggled the lock all the while Merlin was resting his head against the cool brick of the wall as his head spinned with unanswered questions and thoughts.

“You said no one goes in here anymore.” Merlin’s hushed accusation was the first thing out of his mouth.

“Almost, Merlin.” Arthur said, “Almost.” Once he opened the door, he went back to Merlin’s side and grabbed his arm to sling over his neck again.

“Truly comforting, sire.” He deadpanned, leaning his weight and head on Arthur, his eyes still closed shut. In an instant, he felt his consciousness fall back into the void with all the strings of magic crossing over each other in all directions.

”It’s not my fault you seem to have cotton in your ears-“ Arthur muttered, making his way inside and kicking the door behind him closed. The room inside had a faint smell of grains while piles of bags of dry food were scattered around the rooms.

“Shut up, I’m trying something.” Merlin said, bringing a hand up to his head.

There was a pause until the prince hesitantly asked, “Is it a magic thing?”

A smile played along the warlock's lips as he replied, “Yes, Arthur, it's a magic thing.”

“I can’t believe you are doing magic in front of the crown prince.”

“I will crawl the rest of the way out of this kingdom just to escape this conversation.” Merlin threatened.

“Well, I don’t see you trying very hard to escape my grasp.” The smirk was clear in his tone.

Merlin ignored him in favor of finding the string of magic that most felt like Morgana’s. Back in the void, he searched through the threads in the castle. Eventually he found his way back to the siblings' green threads as well as the dragon’s. It was then that he remembered seeing a purple string of magic, one that felt veiled to the world. As if in hiding.

Distantly, he felt Arthur half drag him over to a pile of grain bags and gently place him down while moving away somewhere.

In an instant, the purple string was right in front of him, all of the other magic blocked off from it. It was no longer dulled but instead was pulsing with renewed passion. He asked himself how he didn’t recognize it sooner.

“Morgana.”

There were a few beats of silence where Merlin thought that he didn’t properly reach out until the familiar voice of the king's ward called out, “Merlin?”

“You really do have magic.” It felt unreal. It rang with such tragic irony that the king, who hates all that is magic, would have a ward that has magic.

“It’s a long story.”

Merlin laughed out loud, but thought quietly to her, “You are going to have to tell me it sometime soon.”

“Trust me, I’m still trying to wrap my head around it myself.” Merlin could imagine Morgana running a hand through her hair, a nervous tick that her and Arthur shared. “But that’s besides the point. If I know Arthur, he already has some sort of plan half made in his head.”

“One that’s probably insane.” Merlin pointed out.

Morgana sighed and added, “And unbelievably thick headed.”

A fond smile crept up on Merlin’s face. “And it just might work.”

“I can feel the both of you mocking me.” Merlin snapped his eyes open to look at a suspicious eyed prince from across the room with a basket in one hand and a burlap sack in the other. He gave Arthur a mischievous smirk and closed back his eyes.

“What can I do to help, Merlin?” Her tone was determined, willing to fight through whatever got in her way, should the need come.

Merlin leaned his head bag against the bags of grain. “The only thing he told me was that he needed you to get a horse ready and tied in the front courtyard and that if you run into Gwen then to send her here, to the rations room, with a knight's armor.”

Morgana responded within the next second, “Consider it done, my friends.”

“What would we do without you?” Merlin chuckled, feeling the ward’s fondness from their connection.

Her voice was blasé, as if she was picking at her nails while discussing the weather, “I imagine Arthur would die a tragic death and you would be very lonely without your closest friends.”

Merlin found himself laughing out loud while thinking inwardly, “Don’t tell Arthur he is one of my only friends, he needs to continue thinking I have a life outside of the castle or else his ego will grow tenfold.”

“Go.” Merlin’s smile faded and he continued, “I’ll stay in touch with the children and let you know of any updates.”

“Very well, I’ll see you in a bit.” She said before her connection with Merlin was severed.

With a sigh, the warlock opened his eyes and called out to Arthur, “Morgana has gone to do what you requested.”

“Thank you.” Came the response from beside him and he startled when he saw just how close the prince actually was. He was sitting on Merlin’s left side with an intense look on his face, as if he had been looking at Merlin throughout the entire conversation.

Almost immediately, Merlin was struck with the oddity of the prince using proper manners toward him. It felt out of place when they usually fought and bickered. “It’s few and far between that I hear you thank me.” It wouldn’t hurt if he tried to bait a sarcastic comment from the prince.

“That just means I need to do it more often.” It was the same matter of fact tone he used earlier and Merlin found himself at a loss as to what to say to it. Arthur on the other hand seemed calm and meticulous as he grabbed the basket and began taking medical supplies out of it. One by one, he pulled out gauze, bandages, a cloth, and a bottle of disinfectant tonic on the floor in front of them.

Suddenly, the arrow wound in Merlin’s shoulder felt all the more pronounced. As well as all of the other bruises and ache littering his body. “What are you doing?”

The prince gave him a look that urged no arguments, “I need to check your wounds.”

The thing about Merlin was that he never acknowledged these things. “I’m fine.” He huffed, turning away from the other man.

“Merlin,” Arthur groaned and pulled Merlin’s shoulder back to lean against the lump of bags. “Quit being a stubborn git and let me help you.” With a final shove that sent a jolt of pain through his back, the warlock finally relaxed against the gain.

“Fine.” Merlin finally conceded while taking off his cloak and started to pull his tunic over his head. If Arthur did see his struggle then he didn’t comment on it. Underneath, the bandages that Merlin had wrapped around his body earlier were bled through and some had already started to crust.

It was only when goosebumps started to appear that the warlock felt just how exposed he was. There he was, exposing his wound to the crown prince of Camelot without a second thought. He couldn’t help but think that he must be a pathetic sight with all his bruises and scars laid out on his skin. Unlike Arthur, all of his blemishes weren’t from honorable battles and honest fights. He couldn't be ashamed of them because each one was to protect Arthur but even then, he knew that the people he was fighting were only coming from a place of suffering that turned bitter.

Merlin ducked his head and turned his back to Arthur without another word, hoping to save himself from seeing what the prince's expression might be.

“Was that so difficult?” Arthur griped, while taking the bloody tunic from his hands, “Now, there is some food in the basket. Eat. That’s an order.” He pushed the basket closer to him.

“Yes, my lord.” Merlin drawled sarcastically, trying to go back to the usual casual demeanor but his unconsciousness betrayed him. After Arthur took off his gloves, he just barely brushed his fingers over the bandages when a chill ran down Merlin’s spine and he flinched at the touch.

There was a moment of silence until Arthur once again tried to undo the bandages covering the warlock. This time he did not flinch but instead raised his arm to allow easier access to remove it. It wasn’t long until the prince’s fingers glided against Merlin’s flesh once it was all gone and he heard a soft gasp from behind him.

Merlin suddenly felt two warm hands on his back, vividly aware of the rough callouses on the palms and fingertips. “Does it hurt still?” Arthur whispered and Merlin heard the clank of metal as the prince moved closer.

“No, Arthur, it actually feels quite like a mosquito bite.” The warlock brought his arms around his middle and shifted so he could glare over at the prince. He wasn’t sure why he felt defensive but a knot of nerves had made itself in his chest that made him feel off kilter.

“Merlin, I only meant…” Arthur’s mouth was pulled in a frown as he was thinking of a way to put it to words. “I mean, your magic must have healed- Your wounds look days old.”

Merlin hadn’t even realized he had tensed his shoulders until they were drooping down. “Oh.”

Arthur sat there as his eyes roamed Merlin’s back, catching on scratches and purple bumps. He reached for one of the disinfectant tonic and poured the thick liquid on the cloth before gently spreading it over the scabbed arrow wound. The air felt heavy between the two as the liquid dripped down his back, and Arthur began to wipe the cloth over every mark he could reach.

”What does it feel like?” The prince asked, grabbing the fresh bandage while not so subtly pushing the basket toward him. Merlin didn’t need further explanation, he was more surprised he wasn’t asked earlier. He opened the basket and pulled out a roll of bread.

“It’s different for everyone but for me,” Merlin paused, thinking about all the times he had tried to put to words the importance of magic in his life. “It comes as easy as breathing. I was born with it. It’s almost like having an extra limb, sometimes I just can’t help but use it even when I try consciously not to.”

The bandages were ever so carefully wrapped over the wound and Merlin could feel the pain start to ease just a bit. “How many times have you used magic in front of me?”

“I don’t think you’ll like the answer.”

“I think you might be right.” Arthur secured the bandage and started putting things away. The medical supplies were back in the basket and the bloody clothing in the burlap sack. “Tell me anyway.”

Merlin leaned back on the pile of grains and looked down at his wrapped arm, where the knight, who tried to interrogate him, had grabbed him. In that still moment, where it was just Arthur healing Merlin’s wounds and everything was literally and metaphorically out in the open, the warlock felt like he could admit to anything. “I’ve just about lost count.”

“This whole time…” Arthur’s voice trailed off. Perhaps thinking of all of the odd things that had been happening in his life since Merlin had barreled into it.

“It’s always been for you, Arthur.” His heart was hammering but even then, he felt as calm as could be. The nerves in his chest eased and it felt easier to breathe. It was as if he had just finished a long run. He was exhausted and every part of him hurt, but he could feel every breath that easily filled and escaped his lungs. “I use it to protect you, guide you, assist you.”

“And I’ve been oblivious.” There was a bitter bite to his words that had Merlin whipping his head to face the prince. Arthur had his head hung low as he leaned against the grains, his face was scrunched with frustration. The warlock was shocked to realize it was frustration at himself.

“What? No, there was no way you could have known, Arthur.” Merlin scooted closer to the prince and leaned his head close to the other man’s.

When Arthur looked back up, there was only a few inches between the two, neither making a move to back down. “You mean to tell me in all of the time you’ve been here, you’ve been sneaky enough that not a soul has found out about your magic?”

“Well, I wouldn't quite say that.” The ground beneath them suddenly looked much more interesting.

“Merlin.” His huff of annoyance grazed past a part of Merlin’s shoulder and neck.

“Everyone that’s found out has been trust worthy, I swear.” Merlin was quick to reassure, meeting the calculating gaze of the prince.

“I should hope so.” There was a hidden threat under that sentence and Merlin could have sworn that the blue eyes had darkened just for a moment. It was enough to have Merlin suddenly pulling away and turning away to hide the warmth traveling to his cheeks.

“I think this might be the longest we’ve had a conversation this serious,” The warlock chuckled nervously. “I didn't think you had the emotional capacity for it.”

The clank of metal was all the warning he got before Merlin was hit upside the head. “Ouch.” He deadpanned.

“Here I was thinking that you could stay serious for more than ten minutes.” Both men looked at each other and couldn't help the laughter that spilled out.

Once it died down and both men were seated on the dirty ground, shoulder to shoulder, Merlin finally asked, “So are you going to tell me what exactly you have planned for us to get the children out of here?”

It was then that quiet but solid three knocks rang from the door connecting to the castle. Arthur was on his feet within a second, pushing Merlin down and behind him. He silently tiptoed toward the door, waiting and both of them listened closely.

“Arthur? Merlin? It’s me, Gwen.”

The sigh of relief was audible from both of them and Arthur was quick to get to the door and usher the maid inside. Her hair was made up in the same messy fashion with a few frazzled strands around her face, her face showing just how concerned she was. Clutched righting in her arms was a basket filled with clinking armor.

“Come in. Put the armor down over there, please.” He gestured to the pile of grains Merlin was sitting near.

He must have looked much worse than he thought because Gwen had gasped, placed the basket of armor down, and fell to her knees beside her friend in one fell swoop. “Merlin! Are you alright?” Her hands hovered over him as if wanting to do something to help but not knowing what.

“I’m fine, Gwen. Don’t worry about me, they are simply little scratches.” Merlin heard a scoff from over the maids head but paid it no mind. Instead, he simply took one of her hands and gave it a squeeze that had the unease clearing from her posture.

“Gweniviere,” Arthur called, while walking over to the armor and inspecting it in his hands. Each time he weighed it experimentally and sent a glance to Merlin, he felt a little chasm of dread start to grow. “If you could help Merlin stand, we need to dress him in the armor.”

Both Gwen and Merlin exchanged apprehensive glances. Merlin used the pile to help himself start to stand. “For what reason?” She questioned, grabbing his arm for better support.

“You asked what my plan was?” A roguish smile crept into his face and Merlin's disquieted feelings only deepened. “We are going to just walk out the front gates.”