Merlin and the Lightning Thief - Part 2
Title: Merlin and the Lightning Thief
Author: dianadisaster
Movie Prompt: Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Lightning Thief
Pairing: Merlin/Arthur, Gwen/Morgana, and vaguely implied Arthur/Gwen and Arthur/Gwen/Merlin in the epilogue.
Rating: PG-13
Word Count: approx. 20k
Spoilers: Spoilers for Percy Jackson and the Olympians series, definitely The Lightning Thief and Battle of the Labyrinth, and the movie version of The Lightning Thief.
Warnings: Character death.
Author's Notes: Written for reel_merlin Round 3. I took Merlin canon, book canon, and movie canon and stuck them in a big ol' blender. Takes place is Ye Olde Camelot, but in Percy!verse.
Gwen in this fic was inspired and influenced a great deal by this beautiful fanart of steampunk Gwen.
Huge and massive thanks to eraticschematic, who beta'd this, and it would never have been finished without her. Any remaining mistakes are my own, feel free to point them out in a PM or a comment.
Header also by eraticschematic, because she is awesome and she loves me. :D
Summary: Merlin finds out that his absent father is really Zeus, and must embark on a quest to find the lightning thief and retrieve Zeus' most powerful weapon, the Master Bolt.
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3
Gwen met Merlin just outside his cabin, bags slung across their backs. They both had a forced air of optimism, but Merlin could sense the grim doubt in Gwen's expression and movements. They had barely gotten a few feet when they heard rushed footsteps coming toward them. Turning toward the sound they saw Morgana running toward them, her bow at her side. "Wait!" she called out to them. At first Merlin believed that she was going to come with them after all, but quickly realized she had no other bags with her, so that couldn't be the case. He followed behind a little bit as Gwen rushed forward to meet her. "You must take this, please!" She said frantically as she thrust her bow at Gwen.
"What? No, I couldn't! Its your best bow!" Gwen said.
"I hardly need it here. But you might. Out there." Morgana's eyes began to shine with wetness as she struggled to get the words out. "Be...be careful." Morgana pulled Gwen into a fierce hug and then kissed her almost desperately. She leaned forward and whispered something in her ear that Merlin couldn't make out.
Gwen had a sad expression on her face as she pulled away, "I'll be okay."
Morgana stared at Gwen sadly for a moment, but nodded resolutely, turned to Merlin and gave him a curt "Merlin." before turning and walking away.
Gwen stared after her as she left before tucking the bow into her neat and organized pack, and they set off for the gate again.
Arthur was waiting for them at the gate, as they had agreed. Merlin was used to seeing him in his mail and armor, but now he was wearing a leather jacket over his breeches and tunic, showing off his broad muscular frame. When Merlin's gaze finally reached Arthur's face, Arthur was scowling at him. "Where is your sword?"
"What? Why would I bring a sword?" Merlin asked.
Arthur scoffed. "Aren't we going on a dangerous mission? Won't you need to defend yourself?"
"A sword wouldn't do me any good, I know nothing about swords."
"He really doesn't." Gwen chimed in.
Merlin continued, "I have my magic, it's what I've always relied on."
"Well now we're all relying on each other." Arthur began, but cut himself off looking sheepish. "For gods' sake, at least keep this dagger." He chastized, as he plucked a dagger from somewhere mysterious on his person and handed it to Merlin.
Merlin narrowed his eyes as he tentatively reached for the weapon. "Wha..." he began, but Arthur just shoved the handle (hilt?) into his hand more insistently.
Merlin opened his haphazardly packed bag to try and maneuver the dagger inside. "What the hell is that?!" Arthur exclaimed getting a look inside. Gwen just started laughing.
Merlin scowled and covered his bag quickly. "It's just my supplies," he mumbled.
"Do you have some sort of mental deficiency, or are you just that unorganized?" Arthur scoffed. Despite his harsh words, there was no malice in his tone.
Merlin shouldered his pack roughly and stomped a few steps away. "Let's just go." he said sullenly.
Gwen and Arthur followed behind, Gwen holding in her giggles and Arthur muttering "disgraceful" under his breath.
Once they were on the road and farther from Camelot, Merlin asked Gwen about the Isle of the Blessed.
"I thought it was a myth, really," she replied thoughtfully. "They say that the witch Nimueh lives there. Some people say that she grants wishes, some say that its a religious holy site, but I don't know if anyone really knows the truth, because its supposed to be near impossible to find."
"I've heard of Nimueh," Arthur interjected. "Seen her, even."
Gwen and Merlin whipped their heads to him at this news. "What?" Gwen asked.
Arthur continued, "Morgana has a sister, Morgause. Or a half-sister. When we were small she came to visit us sometimes. The last time we saw her, Morgause was a teen and that woman, Nimueh, was with her. Uther banned them both."
"Why did he do that, why was she there?" Gwen pressed.
"I don't know, I was a lot younger. I don't remember, really," he said sheepishly.
They were quiet again for a minute before Merlin asked Gwen another question. "What about the Depths of Sagacity, what do you know about them?"
"Hmm, they're a cave system, like Gaius said. They're a realm of Athena, and a way to test yourself." She paused. "So they say."
They were all quiet with weariness as they continued walking, and Merlin's legs were starting to go numb by the time the sun dipped below the tree line. After the third time Merlin tripped on nothingness, Gwen piped up "This would be a good area to make camp for the night!" pointing toward a lake not too far from where they were.
"Perfect." Arthur stated as he half-helped and half-yanked Merlin up and toward the water. They started to make camp in a small clearing not yet out of the trees but near the shore.
Gwen started a fire out of nothing but magic in the center of the space they had chosen. Merlin plonked down immediately in front of it, while Arthur began opening his pack and removing bedrolls and blankets. "That's a nice trick." he said to Gwen.
"Yeah, I'm pretty good with fire." She smirked back.
"Good thing you're here, then, since you're actually useful. Unlike some lazy idiots I could mention." Arthur looked pointedly over at Merlin, who was now laying in front of the fire with his eyes closed.
"Oi! I'm right here!" Merlin quipped.
Arthur threw a blanket at Merlin's face, "Then help me!"
Merlin waved a lazy hand and the contents of Arthur's bags began unpacking on their own. "That is cheating, you know." Arthur admonished.
"I'll just get some food then, shall I?" Gwen muttered as she dissapeared with Morgana's bow into the trees to hunt some game.
Once the camp was set up, Merlin walked to the lake to try and wash a bit. The chilly water felt good on his sore muscles, and Merlin closed his eyes letting the sound of the waves clear his mind. Trying to forget about what might lay in store for them, the long journey still to walk, and the way it was a little harder to breathe when Arthur looked at him.
Once he returned and Gwen had both returned, they all three ate and got into the bedrolls, retiring early. As tired as he was, Merlin was having difficulty falling asleep. Gwen was next to him, and he could tell that she was laying awake also, Arthur was snoring lightly somewhere near their feet.
"Gwen?" Merlin ventured, whispering under his breath.
"Hey." she replied. "I keep thinking about Morgana." She said suddenly. "She's been acting strange, I'm worried about her." Merlin wasn't sure how to respond, but Gwen continued. "Seeing Arthur was really weird for her, but it started before that, and she won't talk to me about it."
"Maybe she just needs more time?"
"I suppose, but what could it be?"
"Gwen...what did she whisper to you?"
"She said..." Gwen huffed, almost in disbelief, "she said 'You can still back out.'"
"Of the quest? What does that mean?"
"I have no idea." Gwen was quieter now, like she wasn't even really speaking to Merlin anymore. "Surely she knows that I would never abandon people who need me...It's just not like her."
Merlin continued to stare at the trees above him, trying to figure out why Morgana wouldn't want Gwen to help him, trying to see her motives through all the odd behavior and coming up with no answers. Gwen's breathing became shallower, and eventually Merlin must have fallen asleep, too.
Merlin awoke some time later to a loud splashing coming from the lake. His body tensed and as he slowly raised his head he saw Arthur's eyes open and staring toward the water as well.
The fire was burning low, and Merlin could just make out a huge hulking shape at the lake shore, and it was...wriggling.
"Get up!" Arthur hissed, "Get Gwen, get behind me!"
Merlin poked Gwen sharply to wake her, and managed to clamp a hand over her mouth as she emitted a now-muffled "OW!" He pulled her up quickly, and magicked Arthur's sword into his hands as he pulled Gwen behind Arthur's ready defensive stance.
"Gwen, we could do with a little more light." Arthur said low and evenly, eyes never leaving the mass coming toward them. The fire blazed into heat and life and they all took a sharp intake of air as the creature came into focus. It had nine towering heads on long serpentine necks, moving and writhing, hideous jaws snapping at the air all around it. It was a Hydra.
As it got closer, it reeked of dead fish and lakewater. The trio backed up more to keep a distance, but the trees were getting thicker again, and they didn't have much room to maneuver. The heads seemed to be able to reach a solid radius of about 10 feet around the creature, moving too quickly to track.
"What do we do?" Gwen squeaked.
"Hydra...Hydra...how do you kill a Hydra?" Merlin was muttering under his breath, wracking his brain for the method they used in the tales he heard as a child.
It was close enough to Arthur that he was parrying snaps of its jaws with his sword, clanging against its teeth and smacking it bluntly in the head. He managed to cut one of its eyes on a lucky stroke, but that just angered it, heads began thrashing even more wildly.
"Something about the heads? Cut off the heads!" Merlin shouted to Arthur. Something still didn't feel right, but it was the most obvious attack.
"You need to distract it!" Arthur yelled. Gwen dashed out from behind them and ran back toward the fire, which she was really feeding with her magic now, blazing super hot and bright. Five of the heads whipped in her direction while Arthur lunged and swung his sword wide, getting enough power in his swing that he managed to lop off a nearby head.
Merlin cheered as the creature stilled, but his enthusiasm was cut short. His stomach dropped as the bleeding stump began moving, growing two new heads before their very eyes. In no time it was in full movement again, turning most of its heads back toward Merlin and Arthur.
"Now what?" Arthur yelped, breathing hard as he resumed blocking the creatures snapping teeth.
"Um, DON'T cut off the heads!" Merlin began to panic.
He saw movement from where Gwen was still cowering behind the fire and turned, she had stuck her hand into the fire and withdrawn a hunk of flaming coal in her bare hand. She sprung up and threw it hard at the Hydra. Its attention was completely on Gwen, but while some of the heads wanted to attack her, some were also cowering away, trying to direct the body farther away from this fire-wielding girl. "I think its scared of the fire!" she yelled back at them, increasing the flame even more.
"Of course!" Merlin shouted. "Arthur, we do have to cut off the heads!"
"Are you crazy? Did you see what happened before?" he screamed.
"Just do it, trust me! Gwen, get ready!" he yelled again, hoping that Gwen understood. She nodded and pulled out another flaming lump.
Luckily Arthur got it, too, at the mention of Gwen, and while the creature was still focused on the fire, Arthur lopped off another head. "Now!" he shouted and Gwen hurled her fireball. Merlin quickly grabbed it with his magic and redirected it, sizzling on the stump of the neck.
They held their breath as they watched. When the creature began moving again, the charred flesh remained singed and dead, no new heads emerged. Gwen whooped and the breath that Arthur let out turned to a laugh, and then a "Hyah!" as he lunged again with his sword.
With their new found system they made quick work of the Hydra, Arthur only missing his mark a couple times, but every head that was severed was quickly burned. As soon as the last head had been chopped off, Arthur collapsed on the ground, an exhausted mess. Gwen and Merlin cauterized the final stump, and surveyed the scene. One of the heads had landed on Merlin's bedroll, and he grimaced as he noticed it. He used his magic to hurl the head back into the lake, muttering "That was disgusting."
Gwen raised an eyebrow as she gestured to the carnage of their campsite, "And what about the rest of them, then?"
Merlin flew the other nine heads into the water simultaneously, and then slowly half-floated half-dragged the rest of the hulking carcass to the lake as well. When he returned, Arthur and Gwen were sitting by the now normal-sized fire and drinking from their water-skins. They were chatting easily, even laughing a little, and Merlin felt a different sort of unease, watching them as he approached.
"You were amazing with your sword." She was saying to him.
"Hey," Merlin interrupted them as he finally reached the fire. He stomped to where his bedroll had been, but Arthur's was lying in its place. He looked over at Arthur, who had Merlin's slightly messier bedroll from the Hydra head near where he was sitting.
"I thought you might like a cleaner one," Arthur explained. "Besides, we should set up a watch anyway, and there's no point in you sleeping in the filthy one if I'm awake on guard. I'll wash it for you, get some sleep."
Merlin began to protest. "But you did all the fighting, I can stay up while you-"
Gwen cut him off. "We're all exhausted, just let Arthur take the watch, you can switch later."
Gwen and Merlin got in their bedrolls as Arthur headed to the water to wash the other one so that it could dry by the fire before morning. Merlin lay in Arthur's bedroll and drew the covering close to his face, breathing in Arthur's scent. If Gwen saw him, she politely didn't say anything, but when Merlin looked at her he thought he could detect a smirk on her face.
They set out early in the morning despite the poor sleep, anxious to find their destination. It didn't take long.
The entrance of the Depths of Sagacity was pretty obvious once they'd spotted it, a large opening next to a statue of Athena. Gwen was the one who noticed it first, tucked a small way from the road they had been directed to. She pointed and jumped excitedly. "There! We actually made it!"
Merlin grinned as he hurried over to it with Gwen, relief flooded through him that they had made it to the caves. Arthur approached more cautiously, scanning the trees around them for any signs of danger.
When they were stood in front of the statue, they could see a small inscription written on its base.
Before you awaits the entrance of the Depths of Sagacity. Have caution, those who enter here. If you are wise you may find what you seek, else you may perish forever in the maze. Δ
"I don't know about this," Gwen ventured, her apprehension audible in her voice.
Arthur supposed "I think-" before Merlin cut him off, Arthur's mouth still hanging open in mid-thought.
"Look, we don't have any other choice, yeah?" Merlin looked deliberately in Arthur and then Gwen's faces. "This is what we came here for. We have to go in, we have to try."
Arthur closed his mouth and nodded resolutely. "You're right, lets go."
They entered the cave cautiously. The mouth of the cave was wide, and their path was still well lit in the sun, but they picked up the small torch laying near the entrance. The walls were perfectly smooth and the path in front of them was perfectly straight with a slight downward incline as far as they could see.
"This is not a natural cave." Gwen stated slowly, perplexed.
"This is too easy," Arthur said in a low voice, his eyes narrowed.
"We'll just be careful," Merlin said. "We know this is the right cave."
Time was hard to keep track of, though they kept walking, the light hardly dimmed at their backs and the tunnel seemed to stretch on forever in both directions. At one point Merlin reached out and touched the wall, keeping his hand there and running it along the smooth surface as they walked. Arthur forward and lightly grasped Merlin's wrist. "Merlin, don't do that. We have no idea what sort of traps are here that you could activate."
"I'm hardly going to activate a secret death-trap in a cave!" Merlin squawked, stopping and turning to face Arthur, who dropped Merlin's wrist abruptly.
"You could." Gwen interrupted from behind them. "But if someone were sophisticated enough to make a trap in the cave wall, they could also easily put it in the floor where we would walk on it, so there's no point in avoiding the wall and not the floor," she continued matter-of-factly.
Arthur harrumphed and continued onward again, not waiting for the other two. Merlin grinned sheepishly at Gwen and they set off following him, Merlin keeping his hands at his sides.
Merlin was on the verge of suggesting they stop for a rest when suddenly the tunnel expanded enormously in front of them. Arthur stopped abruptly, holding his hands up to signal to Gwen and Merlin who didn't see it in time. They found themselves crowded at his back as they all peered into the pitch-black space. They could still see quite clearly in the tunnel, but the light did not seem to reach into the cavern.
"Gwen, can you light the torch?" Arthur whispered, barely audible. She focused her magic and the torch blazed with a hiss. She handed it to Arthur, still standing at the front, on alert for danger. He stepped forward and light flooded into the room, perfectly round with a low, flat ceiling and empty except for an inscription written directly across from them.
"Ok, you were right, Arthur, this is feeling very trap-like," Merlin whispered.
"I can't read what it says, we need to get closer," Arthur said a bit louder. He seemed more confident now that they could see into the room. They stepped closer to the writing.
One path will lead to the Isle of the Blessed, and one path alone. Logic lies deeper than the surface. Δ
"One path? Other than the one we just came from?" Merlin sputtered, turning to face the tunnel behind them but stopping suddenly. Now behind them were six nearly identical tunnels, four in the center with equally bright lighting and two dark on either side of those, all of them of similar quality stone.
"Were those...those weren't there before." Gwen was still staring dumbstruck at the new puzzle before them.
Merlin noticed Arthur had turned back to the inscription and was frowning at the strange triangle at the bottom. "Arthur, are you ok?"
"That symbol..." He drew out slowly.
"It was on Athena's statue, too. At the entrance. Maybe it just means 'end of message' or something," Merlin supplied, trying to be helpful.
"But I feel as though I know it from somewhere else."
"Ok, but how are we going to figure out which is the right path to take?" Gwen interjected. Merlin and Gwen both seemed to be turned to Arthur.
"Well, I don't know!" he shot at them when he noticed them waiting for his answer. "There's no way to tell them apart."
Merlin ducked his head sheepishly. "Oh. I guess since you're a son of Athena, we kind of thought..."
"Look, I just found out about that two days ago, and anyway I don't think we'll be able to tell anything until we try one," he explained.
"Okay, try one it is!" Gwen shouted, eager to make a decision.
"The air is fresher from these four brighter ones, I think they lead outside," Merlin said, his eyes closed as he concentrated on the minute air currents he could feel floating around them.
"All right, then. Ladies first," said Arthur, gesturing to Gwen toward the sun-lit tunnels.
She looked them over for half a second before marching into the tunnel second from the left side, Merlin and Arthur following closely behind. She extinguished the torch when it was clear that they didn't need the light, eager not to waste it.
The journey through the new tunnel was much the same as before. So much so, in fact, that when they emerged from the tunnel at last, they were standing next to the same statue of Athena. "Back where we started," Merlin grumbled.
"At least we know we can get back out!" Gwen pointed out, cheerily.
"Ok, back inside, time for the next tunnel." Arthur said flatly, turning around and re-entering the cave they had just come from.
When they re-emerged in the room with the inscription, they were still in the tunnel second-from the left. A look at the other tunnels revealed something was amiss, instead of the two dark tunnels at the outsides, the fourth and fifth tunnels were dark and the others bright. The trio stopped and stared.
"They've moved," Merlin stated, dumbfounded.
"Now what?" Gwen asked, looking at Arthur.
Arthur set his mouth in a determined grimace. "We just have to try another." He stood staring at the other tunnels for a few moments longer before turning to re-examine the one they had just exited. "We should try to mark this one somehow."
Gwen immediately dropped to a kneeling position, rummaging through her bag with determination. She pulled out a small bit of metal and set it on the ground just inside the tunnel they had left. "Bit of scrap," she mumbled. "Plenty of that to go around." She straightened and said more brightly "Well, on to the next one," trying not to let her nervousness show.
They followed Arthur into the next tunnel, where the light could still be seen at the end. Much to their disappointment, but not to their surprise, the tunnel again led to the entrance to the caves, where the statue of Athena still stood. That time, however, as they began to walk back to the room with the inscription and the tunnel entrances, the light began to fade.
"Is it getting darker?" Merlin asked nervously, breaking their pessimistic silence.
"The sun must be setting. It had to happen eventually," Arthur replied, keeping his eyes forward and moving steadily onward.
"We still have the torches!" Gwen chirped, lighting them as they walked.
"Once we get back to the room we can set up a camp for the night," said Arthur. "It'll be safer in there than out in the forest. Warmer, too."
Gwen was fiddling with the torch in her hand as they found their way back to the larger room. "These won't last us the whole night, and who knows if we'll have to spend more than one in these caves," she tutted. She got a mischievous grin on her face and said "I have an idea" as she got out her mechanical kit. Merlin layed out almost all of what was left of the food as Arthur took off his boots and sat next to him. Gwen grabbed some of the dried meat as she got up and walked away from the boys. "I think I see some phosphorous minerals down this path!" Gwen called as she headed toward one of the tunnels on the far right side.
"Some what?" Merlin asked.
"Glowing rocks!" She yelled back sounding very excited.
"Gwen, don't go to far, we shouldn't separate in here!" Arthur called after her. "What is she doing?" Arthur asked Merlin as they both stared after the tunnel she had entered.
"No idea. Looks like she had an idea for an invention. She's amazing, you should see some of the stuff she's made," Merlin beamed as he bragged about his friend.
She returned quickly, and without the fear of their companion getting lost in the tunnels, Merlin and Arthur relaxed again, stretching out and regaining their strength from the journey so far. Gwen set to work with her kit a small distance away from the boys as they talked, while she made all manner of clatter working on her project, which she refused to share with the boys until it was completed. "I don't want to jinx it!" she scolded lightly.
"I've seen that symbol before," Arthur said suddenly, breaking the easy silence Merlin was beginning to enjoy next to him. He found comfort in Arthur's presence, but Arthur was agitated and tense now.
"Symbol?" Merlin inquired, lifting his torso from its reclined position to study Arthur more closely.
"At the end of the inscription, that triangle. I feel as though I should recognize it," Arthur insisted.
"I don't know it," Merlin replied.
"Why doesn't that surprise me?" Arthur asked, a slight smile twitching on his lips. "Didn't you get an education in wherever-you're-from?"
"Says the one who doesn't know it, either!" Merlin sputtered.
"Ah, see, I do know it, I just don't remember it, there's a difference," Arthur chuckled lightly as Merlin began laughing in earnest.
They were interrupted by a loud noise from Gwen's station, it sounded like she was grinding something. The boys halted their conversation again and listened to Gwen banging and grinding and making all manner of odd noises from her little workspace.
Suddenly the room flooded with light as Gwen cried "Aha!" Merlin shielded his eyes as Gwen brandished a strange stick at them, glowing very brightly from one end. "Mechano-torches!" she crowed as she brandished two more, and pulled back a cover causing each of them to emit the same light. She handed them off to the boys. "Now that our light has improved, we could try to explore a little further if you boys aren't too tired?" she asked hopefully. She was stifling a grin, excited about her contribution.
Arthur looked at Merlin who shrugged. Not one to back down from anything, Arthur caught her grin and said "It can't hurt to try one more, can it?"
When they ran into the first skeleton, Arthur wanted to revise that question. They slowly walked around it and the group was careful not to mention it. When they saw the second and third, huddled together, Gwen whimpered and Merlin wailed "Oh gods, we really might die down here!"
Arthur turned to both of them, and in a strong confident voice looked each of them in the eyes and said "We will get through this, we will be fine." He grasped them each on the shoulder in turn, staring into their faces and willing them to be strong. They each gave small nods as they composed themselves. "We'll move away from them," Arthur tilted his head in the direction of the two skeletons still just behind him, "and sleep for the night. We'll keep moving in the morning when we have daylight as a guide again."
They shuffled along their path until they came to a slightly larger section of tunnel right before it forked into two directions. They silently set out the bedrolls, and Merlin volunteered for first watch as he was "too scared to sleep, anyway." Arthur and Gwen lay down quietly until they fell into fitful sleep.
"Merlin!" he heard quietly hissed from the two sleeping figures.
He turned to see Arthur slowly crawling from his bedroll and quietly making his way over to where Merlin was sitting. "Can't sleep?"
"No, not really. I just know that I'm missing something, I can't figure it out."
"It'll be fine, Arthur, we'll get there, there's still time."
"Or we might just end up like those skeletons earlier. There's not much food left, either. Merlin, we could really end up dead in here..." Arthur trailed off abruptly, looking like he had just been stung. "Of course!" he whispered more fervently. "Daedalus!"
"What?"
"Daedalus! That's what the symbol means, its Daedalus' symbol, the greek letter Delta!"
"The guy whose kid died when he flew his wax wings too close to the sun?" Merlin asked skeptically.
"Yes, that was him, too, but one of his other great inventions? I think we're sitting in it." Merlin continued to stare at Arthur as though he were talking gibberish, but Arthur just shook his head and continued. "I think we're in the Labyrinth."
"This is the labyrinth?" Merlin made a face. "Weren't there like, sphinxes and stuff in the labyrinth?" He paused, his face looking more worried. "Oh gods, do you think there are sphinxes and stuff in this labyrinth?"
Arthur shook his head again, "I think this is only a small bit of it, re-purposed to challenge anyone looking for the isle. But that could also mean that if we're not careful, we could wander deep into the maze for real."
They both paused and let that sink in. "Let's not do that," said Merlin.
"No, which means we really need to figure out what that inscription meant." Arthur sat silently for several long minutes. "Daedalus was a son of Athena," he quietly volunteered. "He's trying to tell us the way, it must be right in front of me. I can solve it, I have to." Another pause.
"Athena was your mother, too, you have what it takes, Arthur, I know it," Merlin reassured him.
"Yeah, we're pretty much brothers, me and Daedalus." Arthur's face paled in horror. "Oh gods, does that make you my uncle?"
Merlin burst out laughing. "You make me sound like some old man! Can you imagine me as your uncle?"
Arthur grimaced slightly. "I'd really rather not." He looked uncomfortable for a moment longer, and then snickered. "You'd need a big proper beard for anyone to believe you were older than twelve." He reached over and poked Merlin hard in the arm.
"Hey!" Merlin protested, a smile creeping onto his face.
"Child," Arthur muttered, smiling and laughing at Merlin. They heard Gwen make a noise and both stifled their laughter, resuming the quiet as Gwen turned over and went back to sleep.
They sat silently for a few minutes, making sure they hadn't actually woken Gwen. The cave was so silent compared to their nights in the woods, and Merlin wasn't quite sure how to break the silence again now that they'd given in to it.
Arthur fidgeted a few times and even opened his mouth as if to say something once or twice, but Merlin just sat quietly, pretending he hadn't noticed, waiting for Arthur to decide when it was time to speak. "I still can't really think about myself as a child of Athena. It sounds like a joke when I say it."
Merlin looked at Arthur now, who was still looking at the cave wall in front of them.
"I wish I had known about her. My father...he never told me anything. I didn't even know who she was." Arthur's voice got deeper, more bitter as he continued. "I learned early on not to ask about her, but no one would speak of her at all. No one else knew either, I don't think." He paused again, his voice back to a whisper, and Merlin wasn't even sure Arthur was speaking to him at all anymore, or just talking to the cave or to the gods. "It seems like it would have made it just that much easier if I had known who she was, known that there was a reason she couldn't be there. Instead I had to wonder if she had died or if she just didn't want me." Arthur's voice broke on the word want, and he hunched his shoulders inward, closing off his body language.
Merlin scooted closer to Arthur, a few inches until their sides were flush against each other, putting his arm carefully around Arthur's shoulders. Arthur seemed to be radiating a good deal more heat than Merlin himself, and Merlin instinctively wrapped a little closer and tighter around Arthur's broad shoulders, bringing his other arm across Arthur's chest to clutch him in a sideways hug. Arthur let out a small sigh and drooped his head down on Merlin's hands now clasped together on his shoulder.
"I know how you feel. I didn't know about my father until I came to Camelot. It was the same, my whole life I knew almost nothing of him. But my mother and I, we took care of each other. We did the best we could."
"When the dragon told me, I couldn't even tell what I had just heard. I didn't know what to do, it didn't make any sense. After Morgana left...how could my father not have told me?"
"Our ignorance was a defense against the monsters, so they say. I'm not a fighter like you, but still, I would rather fight monsters my whole life than live in ignorance like I did. The not knowing, the emptiness, it wounds you in a much different way."
Arthur turned to look at Merlin again, their faces much closer to each other, watching, learning. Reading the pain and hope and friendship and awe mirrored in each other's eyes.
"I'm glad you are here, Arthur, on the quest with us."
"Me, too," Arthur replied, a smile sneaking onto his lips as he looked away. He began to wriggle out of Merlin's arms, still clasped around him. "You should get some sleep, I'll take over the watch."
"Yeah, ok," Merlin replied, reluctantly pulling away and standing. He looked back down at Arthur for a second, he was busying himself studying the mechano-torch and not watching Merlin as he made his way to the bedroll and slipped inside.
Merlin went to sleep with one hand resting on his chest, where he imagined it was still an extra bit warmer from being pressed against Arthur.
When the sunlight was visible again at the end of the tunnels, they re-packed their bags and approached the fork in the tunnel. The left fork was brighter, but sunlight was visible down both tunnels. The right fork seemed to be tiled, old and scummy slabs slotted together over the stone on the ground. Merlin approached it and peered down the murky corridor. "Who tiled this?" he wondered aloud.
Arthur stood back from the two paths, staring critically. Gwen was inching toward the brighter tunnel. "I like this other tunnel, it looks more...friendly."
Merlin pulled his mechano-torch from his bag and attempted to activate it, swinging it to and fro as he looked for the mechanism Gwen had showed him three times already. When the beam of light burst forth, the torch swinging past bright tunnel, it reflected off of the ground in a tiny spot. "Did you see that?" he shouted.
Arthur had seen the flash of light, and rushed to the left tunnel. He picked up a small but familiar piece of metal. "Gwen, is this...?"
"This is my scrap metal!" she exclaimed. "See, this chink with a notch is from my tiny hammer. This is mine, I'm sure of it, but how did it get over here?" She frowned at the bit of metal in her hand. "Merlin, were you in my bag last night while we were sleeping? Maybe it was flung over here while you were digging around." she accused teasingly.
"No I wasn't!" Merlin yelped. "I wasn't in your bag at all! I was up with, I was just doing my watch until Arthur took over," he stuttered.
He looked at Arthur who had an almost predatory expression on his face. "I have a theory," he told them. "Gwen, do you have more of those scraps?"
"Yes, as much as you need." She pulled a handful out of her bag and handed them to him. He tucked them securely in his pocket before turning to the other two.
"Alright, let's test this," he said as he headed down the left fork where they had picked up Gwen's scrap, replacing it as they went.
Before long, they found themselves exiting the caves at the statue of Athena once again. Merlin whimpered in frustration, but this seemed to be the result Arthur was looking for because he was beginning to beam even brighter as he hustled them back into the cave. When they emerged again, much to Merlin and Gwen's surprise, they were facing the inscription again. Looking around, they had exited one of a group of six tunnels. Arthur let out a triumphant whoop.
"How did we end up back here again?" Gwen asked him, puzzled.
"Last night I realized that this triangle," he ran over to the inscription and pointed at the Delta at the end, "is the mark of Daedalus, inventor of the Labyrinth. That's where we are, or at least part of it," he gestured to their surroundings. "When we saw that scrap in the tunnel at the fork, I realized that maybe it didn't come from your bag at all. The labyrinth is constantly changing and moving, so I realized, what looked like a different tunnel was actually the same one we'd already been down. The one we already marked!"
"That can't be possible! How is that possible?" Merlin balked.
"A creation like that, that would be very complicated," Gwen pondered.
"I have no doubt," Arthur responded, "but Daedalus was a genius, and I believe that it's real. I think that's what he meant in the inscription, 'Logic is deeper than the surface.' It means that however it appears, everything still follows the rules of logic. We eliminate paths and eventually we will come up with one that leads us the right way." Arthur stood beaming.
"That's still a lot of possible paths," Merlin said doubtfully.
"No need to worry, Merlin, I have a system," Arthur replied, a smug smile on his face.
Arthur's system worked rather well, actually, after passing through the murky tiled pathway, they came across a few more stone tunnels and even a path with a wooden floor, but before long they found themselves exiting into a wooded clearing where there was no statue at all.
"Is this it?" Merlin asked. "Are we at the Isle of the Blessed?"
"I think I see a lake through that clearing," Gwen pointed out.
"Yes, Merlin, generally you can't have an Isle without some sort of water," Arthur mocked him.
"Now we just have to get across!" Gwen said brightly, ignoring the boys as they playfully shoved each other a few times.
Onto Part 3
Author: dianadisaster
Movie Prompt: Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Lightning Thief
Pairing: Merlin/Arthur, Gwen/Morgana, and vaguely implied Arthur/Gwen and Arthur/Gwen/Merlin in the epilogue.
Rating: PG-13
Word Count: approx. 20k
Spoilers: Spoilers for Percy Jackson and the Olympians series, definitely The Lightning Thief and Battle of the Labyrinth, and the movie version of The Lightning Thief.
Warnings: Character death.
Author's Notes: Written for reel_merlin Round 3. I took Merlin canon, book canon, and movie canon and stuck them in a big ol' blender. Takes place is Ye Olde Camelot, but in Percy!verse.
Gwen in this fic was inspired and influenced a great deal by this beautiful fanart of steampunk Gwen.
Huge and massive thanks to eraticschematic, who beta'd this, and it would never have been finished without her. Any remaining mistakes are my own, feel free to point them out in a PM or a comment.
Header also by eraticschematic, because she is awesome and she loves me. :D
Summary: Merlin finds out that his absent father is really Zeus, and must embark on a quest to find the lightning thief and retrieve Zeus' most powerful weapon, the Master Bolt.
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3
Gwen met Merlin just outside his cabin, bags slung across their backs. They both had a forced air of optimism, but Merlin could sense the grim doubt in Gwen's expression and movements. They had barely gotten a few feet when they heard rushed footsteps coming toward them. Turning toward the sound they saw Morgana running toward them, her bow at her side. "Wait!" she called out to them. At first Merlin believed that she was going to come with them after all, but quickly realized she had no other bags with her, so that couldn't be the case. He followed behind a little bit as Gwen rushed forward to meet her. "You must take this, please!" She said frantically as she thrust her bow at Gwen.
"What? No, I couldn't! Its your best bow!" Gwen said.
"I hardly need it here. But you might. Out there." Morgana's eyes began to shine with wetness as she struggled to get the words out. "Be...be careful." Morgana pulled Gwen into a fierce hug and then kissed her almost desperately. She leaned forward and whispered something in her ear that Merlin couldn't make out.
Gwen had a sad expression on her face as she pulled away, "I'll be okay."
Morgana stared at Gwen sadly for a moment, but nodded resolutely, turned to Merlin and gave him a curt "Merlin." before turning and walking away.
Gwen stared after her as she left before tucking the bow into her neat and organized pack, and they set off for the gate again.
Arthur was waiting for them at the gate, as they had agreed. Merlin was used to seeing him in his mail and armor, but now he was wearing a leather jacket over his breeches and tunic, showing off his broad muscular frame. When Merlin's gaze finally reached Arthur's face, Arthur was scowling at him. "Where is your sword?"
"What? Why would I bring a sword?" Merlin asked.
Arthur scoffed. "Aren't we going on a dangerous mission? Won't you need to defend yourself?"
"A sword wouldn't do me any good, I know nothing about swords."
"He really doesn't." Gwen chimed in.
Merlin continued, "I have my magic, it's what I've always relied on."
"Well now we're all relying on each other." Arthur began, but cut himself off looking sheepish. "For gods' sake, at least keep this dagger." He chastized, as he plucked a dagger from somewhere mysterious on his person and handed it to Merlin.
Merlin narrowed his eyes as he tentatively reached for the weapon. "Wha..." he began, but Arthur just shoved the handle (hilt?) into his hand more insistently.
Merlin opened his haphazardly packed bag to try and maneuver the dagger inside. "What the hell is that?!" Arthur exclaimed getting a look inside. Gwen just started laughing.
Merlin scowled and covered his bag quickly. "It's just my supplies," he mumbled.
"Do you have some sort of mental deficiency, or are you just that unorganized?" Arthur scoffed. Despite his harsh words, there was no malice in his tone.
Merlin shouldered his pack roughly and stomped a few steps away. "Let's just go." he said sullenly.
Gwen and Arthur followed behind, Gwen holding in her giggles and Arthur muttering "disgraceful" under his breath.
Once they were on the road and farther from Camelot, Merlin asked Gwen about the Isle of the Blessed.
"I thought it was a myth, really," she replied thoughtfully. "They say that the witch Nimueh lives there. Some people say that she grants wishes, some say that its a religious holy site, but I don't know if anyone really knows the truth, because its supposed to be near impossible to find."
"I've heard of Nimueh," Arthur interjected. "Seen her, even."
Gwen and Merlin whipped their heads to him at this news. "What?" Gwen asked.
Arthur continued, "Morgana has a sister, Morgause. Or a half-sister. When we were small she came to visit us sometimes. The last time we saw her, Morgause was a teen and that woman, Nimueh, was with her. Uther banned them both."
"Why did he do that, why was she there?" Gwen pressed.
"I don't know, I was a lot younger. I don't remember, really," he said sheepishly.
They were quiet again for a minute before Merlin asked Gwen another question. "What about the Depths of Sagacity, what do you know about them?"
"Hmm, they're a cave system, like Gaius said. They're a realm of Athena, and a way to test yourself." She paused. "So they say."
They were all quiet with weariness as they continued walking, and Merlin's legs were starting to go numb by the time the sun dipped below the tree line. After the third time Merlin tripped on nothingness, Gwen piped up "This would be a good area to make camp for the night!" pointing toward a lake not too far from where they were.
"Perfect." Arthur stated as he half-helped and half-yanked Merlin up and toward the water. They started to make camp in a small clearing not yet out of the trees but near the shore.
Gwen started a fire out of nothing but magic in the center of the space they had chosen. Merlin plonked down immediately in front of it, while Arthur began opening his pack and removing bedrolls and blankets. "That's a nice trick." he said to Gwen.
"Yeah, I'm pretty good with fire." She smirked back.
"Good thing you're here, then, since you're actually useful. Unlike some lazy idiots I could mention." Arthur looked pointedly over at Merlin, who was now laying in front of the fire with his eyes closed.
"Oi! I'm right here!" Merlin quipped.
Arthur threw a blanket at Merlin's face, "Then help me!"
Merlin waved a lazy hand and the contents of Arthur's bags began unpacking on their own. "That is cheating, you know." Arthur admonished.
"I'll just get some food then, shall I?" Gwen muttered as she dissapeared with Morgana's bow into the trees to hunt some game.
Once the camp was set up, Merlin walked to the lake to try and wash a bit. The chilly water felt good on his sore muscles, and Merlin closed his eyes letting the sound of the waves clear his mind. Trying to forget about what might lay in store for them, the long journey still to walk, and the way it was a little harder to breathe when Arthur looked at him.
Once he returned and Gwen had both returned, they all three ate and got into the bedrolls, retiring early. As tired as he was, Merlin was having difficulty falling asleep. Gwen was next to him, and he could tell that she was laying awake also, Arthur was snoring lightly somewhere near their feet.
"Gwen?" Merlin ventured, whispering under his breath.
"Hey." she replied. "I keep thinking about Morgana." She said suddenly. "She's been acting strange, I'm worried about her." Merlin wasn't sure how to respond, but Gwen continued. "Seeing Arthur was really weird for her, but it started before that, and she won't talk to me about it."
"Maybe she just needs more time?"
"I suppose, but what could it be?"
"Gwen...what did she whisper to you?"
"She said..." Gwen huffed, almost in disbelief, "she said 'You can still back out.'"
"Of the quest? What does that mean?"
"I have no idea." Gwen was quieter now, like she wasn't even really speaking to Merlin anymore. "Surely she knows that I would never abandon people who need me...It's just not like her."
Merlin continued to stare at the trees above him, trying to figure out why Morgana wouldn't want Gwen to help him, trying to see her motives through all the odd behavior and coming up with no answers. Gwen's breathing became shallower, and eventually Merlin must have fallen asleep, too.
Merlin awoke some time later to a loud splashing coming from the lake. His body tensed and as he slowly raised his head he saw Arthur's eyes open and staring toward the water as well.
The fire was burning low, and Merlin could just make out a huge hulking shape at the lake shore, and it was...wriggling.
"Get up!" Arthur hissed, "Get Gwen, get behind me!"
Merlin poked Gwen sharply to wake her, and managed to clamp a hand over her mouth as she emitted a now-muffled "OW!" He pulled her up quickly, and magicked Arthur's sword into his hands as he pulled Gwen behind Arthur's ready defensive stance.
"Gwen, we could do with a little more light." Arthur said low and evenly, eyes never leaving the mass coming toward them. The fire blazed into heat and life and they all took a sharp intake of air as the creature came into focus. It had nine towering heads on long serpentine necks, moving and writhing, hideous jaws snapping at the air all around it. It was a Hydra.
As it got closer, it reeked of dead fish and lakewater. The trio backed up more to keep a distance, but the trees were getting thicker again, and they didn't have much room to maneuver. The heads seemed to be able to reach a solid radius of about 10 feet around the creature, moving too quickly to track.
"What do we do?" Gwen squeaked.
"Hydra...Hydra...how do you kill a Hydra?" Merlin was muttering under his breath, wracking his brain for the method they used in the tales he heard as a child.
It was close enough to Arthur that he was parrying snaps of its jaws with his sword, clanging against its teeth and smacking it bluntly in the head. He managed to cut one of its eyes on a lucky stroke, but that just angered it, heads began thrashing even more wildly.
"Something about the heads? Cut off the heads!" Merlin shouted to Arthur. Something still didn't feel right, but it was the most obvious attack.
"You need to distract it!" Arthur yelled. Gwen dashed out from behind them and ran back toward the fire, which she was really feeding with her magic now, blazing super hot and bright. Five of the heads whipped in her direction while Arthur lunged and swung his sword wide, getting enough power in his swing that he managed to lop off a nearby head.
Merlin cheered as the creature stilled, but his enthusiasm was cut short. His stomach dropped as the bleeding stump began moving, growing two new heads before their very eyes. In no time it was in full movement again, turning most of its heads back toward Merlin and Arthur.
"Now what?" Arthur yelped, breathing hard as he resumed blocking the creatures snapping teeth.
"Um, DON'T cut off the heads!" Merlin began to panic.
He saw movement from where Gwen was still cowering behind the fire and turned, she had stuck her hand into the fire and withdrawn a hunk of flaming coal in her bare hand. She sprung up and threw it hard at the Hydra. Its attention was completely on Gwen, but while some of the heads wanted to attack her, some were also cowering away, trying to direct the body farther away from this fire-wielding girl. "I think its scared of the fire!" she yelled back at them, increasing the flame even more.
"Of course!" Merlin shouted. "Arthur, we do have to cut off the heads!"
"Are you crazy? Did you see what happened before?" he screamed.
"Just do it, trust me! Gwen, get ready!" he yelled again, hoping that Gwen understood. She nodded and pulled out another flaming lump.
Luckily Arthur got it, too, at the mention of Gwen, and while the creature was still focused on the fire, Arthur lopped off another head. "Now!" he shouted and Gwen hurled her fireball. Merlin quickly grabbed it with his magic and redirected it, sizzling on the stump of the neck.
They held their breath as they watched. When the creature began moving again, the charred flesh remained singed and dead, no new heads emerged. Gwen whooped and the breath that Arthur let out turned to a laugh, and then a "Hyah!" as he lunged again with his sword.
With their new found system they made quick work of the Hydra, Arthur only missing his mark a couple times, but every head that was severed was quickly burned. As soon as the last head had been chopped off, Arthur collapsed on the ground, an exhausted mess. Gwen and Merlin cauterized the final stump, and surveyed the scene. One of the heads had landed on Merlin's bedroll, and he grimaced as he noticed it. He used his magic to hurl the head back into the lake, muttering "That was disgusting."
Gwen raised an eyebrow as she gestured to the carnage of their campsite, "And what about the rest of them, then?"
Merlin flew the other nine heads into the water simultaneously, and then slowly half-floated half-dragged the rest of the hulking carcass to the lake as well. When he returned, Arthur and Gwen were sitting by the now normal-sized fire and drinking from their water-skins. They were chatting easily, even laughing a little, and Merlin felt a different sort of unease, watching them as he approached.
"You were amazing with your sword." She was saying to him.
"Hey," Merlin interrupted them as he finally reached the fire. He stomped to where his bedroll had been, but Arthur's was lying in its place. He looked over at Arthur, who had Merlin's slightly messier bedroll from the Hydra head near where he was sitting.
"I thought you might like a cleaner one," Arthur explained. "Besides, we should set up a watch anyway, and there's no point in you sleeping in the filthy one if I'm awake on guard. I'll wash it for you, get some sleep."
Merlin began to protest. "But you did all the fighting, I can stay up while you-"
Gwen cut him off. "We're all exhausted, just let Arthur take the watch, you can switch later."
Gwen and Merlin got in their bedrolls as Arthur headed to the water to wash the other one so that it could dry by the fire before morning. Merlin lay in Arthur's bedroll and drew the covering close to his face, breathing in Arthur's scent. If Gwen saw him, she politely didn't say anything, but when Merlin looked at her he thought he could detect a smirk on her face.
They set out early in the morning despite the poor sleep, anxious to find their destination. It didn't take long.
The entrance of the Depths of Sagacity was pretty obvious once they'd spotted it, a large opening next to a statue of Athena. Gwen was the one who noticed it first, tucked a small way from the road they had been directed to. She pointed and jumped excitedly. "There! We actually made it!"
Merlin grinned as he hurried over to it with Gwen, relief flooded through him that they had made it to the caves. Arthur approached more cautiously, scanning the trees around them for any signs of danger.
When they were stood in front of the statue, they could see a small inscription written on its base.
Before you awaits the entrance of the Depths of Sagacity. Have caution, those who enter here. If you are wise you may find what you seek, else you may perish forever in the maze. Δ
"I don't know about this," Gwen ventured, her apprehension audible in her voice.
Arthur supposed "I think-" before Merlin cut him off, Arthur's mouth still hanging open in mid-thought.
"Look, we don't have any other choice, yeah?" Merlin looked deliberately in Arthur and then Gwen's faces. "This is what we came here for. We have to go in, we have to try."
Arthur closed his mouth and nodded resolutely. "You're right, lets go."
They entered the cave cautiously. The mouth of the cave was wide, and their path was still well lit in the sun, but they picked up the small torch laying near the entrance. The walls were perfectly smooth and the path in front of them was perfectly straight with a slight downward incline as far as they could see.
"This is not a natural cave." Gwen stated slowly, perplexed.
"This is too easy," Arthur said in a low voice, his eyes narrowed.
"We'll just be careful," Merlin said. "We know this is the right cave."
Time was hard to keep track of, though they kept walking, the light hardly dimmed at their backs and the tunnel seemed to stretch on forever in both directions. At one point Merlin reached out and touched the wall, keeping his hand there and running it along the smooth surface as they walked. Arthur forward and lightly grasped Merlin's wrist. "Merlin, don't do that. We have no idea what sort of traps are here that you could activate."
"I'm hardly going to activate a secret death-trap in a cave!" Merlin squawked, stopping and turning to face Arthur, who dropped Merlin's wrist abruptly.
"You could." Gwen interrupted from behind them. "But if someone were sophisticated enough to make a trap in the cave wall, they could also easily put it in the floor where we would walk on it, so there's no point in avoiding the wall and not the floor," she continued matter-of-factly.
Arthur harrumphed and continued onward again, not waiting for the other two. Merlin grinned sheepishly at Gwen and they set off following him, Merlin keeping his hands at his sides.
Merlin was on the verge of suggesting they stop for a rest when suddenly the tunnel expanded enormously in front of them. Arthur stopped abruptly, holding his hands up to signal to Gwen and Merlin who didn't see it in time. They found themselves crowded at his back as they all peered into the pitch-black space. They could still see quite clearly in the tunnel, but the light did not seem to reach into the cavern.
"Gwen, can you light the torch?" Arthur whispered, barely audible. She focused her magic and the torch blazed with a hiss. She handed it to Arthur, still standing at the front, on alert for danger. He stepped forward and light flooded into the room, perfectly round with a low, flat ceiling and empty except for an inscription written directly across from them.
"Ok, you were right, Arthur, this is feeling very trap-like," Merlin whispered.
"I can't read what it says, we need to get closer," Arthur said a bit louder. He seemed more confident now that they could see into the room. They stepped closer to the writing.
One path will lead to the Isle of the Blessed, and one path alone. Logic lies deeper than the surface. Δ
"One path? Other than the one we just came from?" Merlin sputtered, turning to face the tunnel behind them but stopping suddenly. Now behind them were six nearly identical tunnels, four in the center with equally bright lighting and two dark on either side of those, all of them of similar quality stone.
"Were those...those weren't there before." Gwen was still staring dumbstruck at the new puzzle before them.
Merlin noticed Arthur had turned back to the inscription and was frowning at the strange triangle at the bottom. "Arthur, are you ok?"
"That symbol..." He drew out slowly.
"It was on Athena's statue, too. At the entrance. Maybe it just means 'end of message' or something," Merlin supplied, trying to be helpful.
"But I feel as though I know it from somewhere else."
"Ok, but how are we going to figure out which is the right path to take?" Gwen interjected. Merlin and Gwen both seemed to be turned to Arthur.
"Well, I don't know!" he shot at them when he noticed them waiting for his answer. "There's no way to tell them apart."
Merlin ducked his head sheepishly. "Oh. I guess since you're a son of Athena, we kind of thought..."
"Look, I just found out about that two days ago, and anyway I don't think we'll be able to tell anything until we try one," he explained.
"Okay, try one it is!" Gwen shouted, eager to make a decision.
"The air is fresher from these four brighter ones, I think they lead outside," Merlin said, his eyes closed as he concentrated on the minute air currents he could feel floating around them.
"All right, then. Ladies first," said Arthur, gesturing to Gwen toward the sun-lit tunnels.
She looked them over for half a second before marching into the tunnel second from the left side, Merlin and Arthur following closely behind. She extinguished the torch when it was clear that they didn't need the light, eager not to waste it.
The journey through the new tunnel was much the same as before. So much so, in fact, that when they emerged from the tunnel at last, they were standing next to the same statue of Athena. "Back where we started," Merlin grumbled.
"At least we know we can get back out!" Gwen pointed out, cheerily.
"Ok, back inside, time for the next tunnel." Arthur said flatly, turning around and re-entering the cave they had just come from.
When they re-emerged in the room with the inscription, they were still in the tunnel second-from the left. A look at the other tunnels revealed something was amiss, instead of the two dark tunnels at the outsides, the fourth and fifth tunnels were dark and the others bright. The trio stopped and stared.
"They've moved," Merlin stated, dumbfounded.
"Now what?" Gwen asked, looking at Arthur.
Arthur set his mouth in a determined grimace. "We just have to try another." He stood staring at the other tunnels for a few moments longer before turning to re-examine the one they had just exited. "We should try to mark this one somehow."
Gwen immediately dropped to a kneeling position, rummaging through her bag with determination. She pulled out a small bit of metal and set it on the ground just inside the tunnel they had left. "Bit of scrap," she mumbled. "Plenty of that to go around." She straightened and said more brightly "Well, on to the next one," trying not to let her nervousness show.
They followed Arthur into the next tunnel, where the light could still be seen at the end. Much to their disappointment, but not to their surprise, the tunnel again led to the entrance to the caves, where the statue of Athena still stood. That time, however, as they began to walk back to the room with the inscription and the tunnel entrances, the light began to fade.
"Is it getting darker?" Merlin asked nervously, breaking their pessimistic silence.
"The sun must be setting. It had to happen eventually," Arthur replied, keeping his eyes forward and moving steadily onward.
"We still have the torches!" Gwen chirped, lighting them as they walked.
"Once we get back to the room we can set up a camp for the night," said Arthur. "It'll be safer in there than out in the forest. Warmer, too."
Gwen was fiddling with the torch in her hand as they found their way back to the larger room. "These won't last us the whole night, and who knows if we'll have to spend more than one in these caves," she tutted. She got a mischievous grin on her face and said "I have an idea" as she got out her mechanical kit. Merlin layed out almost all of what was left of the food as Arthur took off his boots and sat next to him. Gwen grabbed some of the dried meat as she got up and walked away from the boys. "I think I see some phosphorous minerals down this path!" Gwen called as she headed toward one of the tunnels on the far right side.
"Some what?" Merlin asked.
"Glowing rocks!" She yelled back sounding very excited.
"Gwen, don't go to far, we shouldn't separate in here!" Arthur called after her. "What is she doing?" Arthur asked Merlin as they both stared after the tunnel she had entered.
"No idea. Looks like she had an idea for an invention. She's amazing, you should see some of the stuff she's made," Merlin beamed as he bragged about his friend.
She returned quickly, and without the fear of their companion getting lost in the tunnels, Merlin and Arthur relaxed again, stretching out and regaining their strength from the journey so far. Gwen set to work with her kit a small distance away from the boys as they talked, while she made all manner of clatter working on her project, which she refused to share with the boys until it was completed. "I don't want to jinx it!" she scolded lightly.
"I've seen that symbol before," Arthur said suddenly, breaking the easy silence Merlin was beginning to enjoy next to him. He found comfort in Arthur's presence, but Arthur was agitated and tense now.
"Symbol?" Merlin inquired, lifting his torso from its reclined position to study Arthur more closely.
"At the end of the inscription, that triangle. I feel as though I should recognize it," Arthur insisted.
"I don't know it," Merlin replied.
"Why doesn't that surprise me?" Arthur asked, a slight smile twitching on his lips. "Didn't you get an education in wherever-you're-from?"
"Says the one who doesn't know it, either!" Merlin sputtered.
"Ah, see, I do know it, I just don't remember it, there's a difference," Arthur chuckled lightly as Merlin began laughing in earnest.
They were interrupted by a loud noise from Gwen's station, it sounded like she was grinding something. The boys halted their conversation again and listened to Gwen banging and grinding and making all manner of odd noises from her little workspace.
Suddenly the room flooded with light as Gwen cried "Aha!" Merlin shielded his eyes as Gwen brandished a strange stick at them, glowing very brightly from one end. "Mechano-torches!" she crowed as she brandished two more, and pulled back a cover causing each of them to emit the same light. She handed them off to the boys. "Now that our light has improved, we could try to explore a little further if you boys aren't too tired?" she asked hopefully. She was stifling a grin, excited about her contribution.
Arthur looked at Merlin who shrugged. Not one to back down from anything, Arthur caught her grin and said "It can't hurt to try one more, can it?"
When they ran into the first skeleton, Arthur wanted to revise that question. They slowly walked around it and the group was careful not to mention it. When they saw the second and third, huddled together, Gwen whimpered and Merlin wailed "Oh gods, we really might die down here!"
Arthur turned to both of them, and in a strong confident voice looked each of them in the eyes and said "We will get through this, we will be fine." He grasped them each on the shoulder in turn, staring into their faces and willing them to be strong. They each gave small nods as they composed themselves. "We'll move away from them," Arthur tilted his head in the direction of the two skeletons still just behind him, "and sleep for the night. We'll keep moving in the morning when we have daylight as a guide again."
They shuffled along their path until they came to a slightly larger section of tunnel right before it forked into two directions. They silently set out the bedrolls, and Merlin volunteered for first watch as he was "too scared to sleep, anyway." Arthur and Gwen lay down quietly until they fell into fitful sleep.
"Merlin!" he heard quietly hissed from the two sleeping figures.
He turned to see Arthur slowly crawling from his bedroll and quietly making his way over to where Merlin was sitting. "Can't sleep?"
"No, not really. I just know that I'm missing something, I can't figure it out."
"It'll be fine, Arthur, we'll get there, there's still time."
"Or we might just end up like those skeletons earlier. There's not much food left, either. Merlin, we could really end up dead in here..." Arthur trailed off abruptly, looking like he had just been stung. "Of course!" he whispered more fervently. "Daedalus!"
"What?"
"Daedalus! That's what the symbol means, its Daedalus' symbol, the greek letter Delta!"
"The guy whose kid died when he flew his wax wings too close to the sun?" Merlin asked skeptically.
"Yes, that was him, too, but one of his other great inventions? I think we're sitting in it." Merlin continued to stare at Arthur as though he were talking gibberish, but Arthur just shook his head and continued. "I think we're in the Labyrinth."
"This is the labyrinth?" Merlin made a face. "Weren't there like, sphinxes and stuff in the labyrinth?" He paused, his face looking more worried. "Oh gods, do you think there are sphinxes and stuff in this labyrinth?"
Arthur shook his head again, "I think this is only a small bit of it, re-purposed to challenge anyone looking for the isle. But that could also mean that if we're not careful, we could wander deep into the maze for real."
They both paused and let that sink in. "Let's not do that," said Merlin.
"No, which means we really need to figure out what that inscription meant." Arthur sat silently for several long minutes. "Daedalus was a son of Athena," he quietly volunteered. "He's trying to tell us the way, it must be right in front of me. I can solve it, I have to." Another pause.
"Athena was your mother, too, you have what it takes, Arthur, I know it," Merlin reassured him.
"Yeah, we're pretty much brothers, me and Daedalus." Arthur's face paled in horror. "Oh gods, does that make you my uncle?"
Merlin burst out laughing. "You make me sound like some old man! Can you imagine me as your uncle?"
Arthur grimaced slightly. "I'd really rather not." He looked uncomfortable for a moment longer, and then snickered. "You'd need a big proper beard for anyone to believe you were older than twelve." He reached over and poked Merlin hard in the arm.
"Hey!" Merlin protested, a smile creeping onto his face.
"Child," Arthur muttered, smiling and laughing at Merlin. They heard Gwen make a noise and both stifled their laughter, resuming the quiet as Gwen turned over and went back to sleep.
They sat silently for a few minutes, making sure they hadn't actually woken Gwen. The cave was so silent compared to their nights in the woods, and Merlin wasn't quite sure how to break the silence again now that they'd given in to it.
Arthur fidgeted a few times and even opened his mouth as if to say something once or twice, but Merlin just sat quietly, pretending he hadn't noticed, waiting for Arthur to decide when it was time to speak. "I still can't really think about myself as a child of Athena. It sounds like a joke when I say it."
Merlin looked at Arthur now, who was still looking at the cave wall in front of them.
"I wish I had known about her. My father...he never told me anything. I didn't even know who she was." Arthur's voice got deeper, more bitter as he continued. "I learned early on not to ask about her, but no one would speak of her at all. No one else knew either, I don't think." He paused again, his voice back to a whisper, and Merlin wasn't even sure Arthur was speaking to him at all anymore, or just talking to the cave or to the gods. "It seems like it would have made it just that much easier if I had known who she was, known that there was a reason she couldn't be there. Instead I had to wonder if she had died or if she just didn't want me." Arthur's voice broke on the word want, and he hunched his shoulders inward, closing off his body language.
Merlin scooted closer to Arthur, a few inches until their sides were flush against each other, putting his arm carefully around Arthur's shoulders. Arthur seemed to be radiating a good deal more heat than Merlin himself, and Merlin instinctively wrapped a little closer and tighter around Arthur's broad shoulders, bringing his other arm across Arthur's chest to clutch him in a sideways hug. Arthur let out a small sigh and drooped his head down on Merlin's hands now clasped together on his shoulder.
"I know how you feel. I didn't know about my father until I came to Camelot. It was the same, my whole life I knew almost nothing of him. But my mother and I, we took care of each other. We did the best we could."
"When the dragon told me, I couldn't even tell what I had just heard. I didn't know what to do, it didn't make any sense. After Morgana left...how could my father not have told me?"
"Our ignorance was a defense against the monsters, so they say. I'm not a fighter like you, but still, I would rather fight monsters my whole life than live in ignorance like I did. The not knowing, the emptiness, it wounds you in a much different way."
Arthur turned to look at Merlin again, their faces much closer to each other, watching, learning. Reading the pain and hope and friendship and awe mirrored in each other's eyes.
"I'm glad you are here, Arthur, on the quest with us."
"Me, too," Arthur replied, a smile sneaking onto his lips as he looked away. He began to wriggle out of Merlin's arms, still clasped around him. "You should get some sleep, I'll take over the watch."
"Yeah, ok," Merlin replied, reluctantly pulling away and standing. He looked back down at Arthur for a second, he was busying himself studying the mechano-torch and not watching Merlin as he made his way to the bedroll and slipped inside.
Merlin went to sleep with one hand resting on his chest, where he imagined it was still an extra bit warmer from being pressed against Arthur.
When the sunlight was visible again at the end of the tunnels, they re-packed their bags and approached the fork in the tunnel. The left fork was brighter, but sunlight was visible down both tunnels. The right fork seemed to be tiled, old and scummy slabs slotted together over the stone on the ground. Merlin approached it and peered down the murky corridor. "Who tiled this?" he wondered aloud.
Arthur stood back from the two paths, staring critically. Gwen was inching toward the brighter tunnel. "I like this other tunnel, it looks more...friendly."
Merlin pulled his mechano-torch from his bag and attempted to activate it, swinging it to and fro as he looked for the mechanism Gwen had showed him three times already. When the beam of light burst forth, the torch swinging past bright tunnel, it reflected off of the ground in a tiny spot. "Did you see that?" he shouted.
Arthur had seen the flash of light, and rushed to the left tunnel. He picked up a small but familiar piece of metal. "Gwen, is this...?"
"This is my scrap metal!" she exclaimed. "See, this chink with a notch is from my tiny hammer. This is mine, I'm sure of it, but how did it get over here?" She frowned at the bit of metal in her hand. "Merlin, were you in my bag last night while we were sleeping? Maybe it was flung over here while you were digging around." she accused teasingly.
"No I wasn't!" Merlin yelped. "I wasn't in your bag at all! I was up with, I was just doing my watch until Arthur took over," he stuttered.
He looked at Arthur who had an almost predatory expression on his face. "I have a theory," he told them. "Gwen, do you have more of those scraps?"
"Yes, as much as you need." She pulled a handful out of her bag and handed them to him. He tucked them securely in his pocket before turning to the other two.
"Alright, let's test this," he said as he headed down the left fork where they had picked up Gwen's scrap, replacing it as they went.
Before long, they found themselves exiting the caves at the statue of Athena once again. Merlin whimpered in frustration, but this seemed to be the result Arthur was looking for because he was beginning to beam even brighter as he hustled them back into the cave. When they emerged again, much to Merlin and Gwen's surprise, they were facing the inscription again. Looking around, they had exited one of a group of six tunnels. Arthur let out a triumphant whoop.
"How did we end up back here again?" Gwen asked him, puzzled.
"Last night I realized that this triangle," he ran over to the inscription and pointed at the Delta at the end, "is the mark of Daedalus, inventor of the Labyrinth. That's where we are, or at least part of it," he gestured to their surroundings. "When we saw that scrap in the tunnel at the fork, I realized that maybe it didn't come from your bag at all. The labyrinth is constantly changing and moving, so I realized, what looked like a different tunnel was actually the same one we'd already been down. The one we already marked!"
"That can't be possible! How is that possible?" Merlin balked.
"A creation like that, that would be very complicated," Gwen pondered.
"I have no doubt," Arthur responded, "but Daedalus was a genius, and I believe that it's real. I think that's what he meant in the inscription, 'Logic is deeper than the surface.' It means that however it appears, everything still follows the rules of logic. We eliminate paths and eventually we will come up with one that leads us the right way." Arthur stood beaming.
"That's still a lot of possible paths," Merlin said doubtfully.
"No need to worry, Merlin, I have a system," Arthur replied, a smug smile on his face.
Arthur's system worked rather well, actually, after passing through the murky tiled pathway, they came across a few more stone tunnels and even a path with a wooden floor, but before long they found themselves exiting into a wooded clearing where there was no statue at all.
"Is this it?" Merlin asked. "Are we at the Isle of the Blessed?"
"I think I see a lake through that clearing," Gwen pointed out.
"Yes, Merlin, generally you can't have an Isle without some sort of water," Arthur mocked him.
"Now we just have to get across!" Gwen said brightly, ignoring the boys as they playfully shoved each other a few times.
Onto Part 3