Round One Challenge Ten Voting
OMG. This is it, the last week! Everybody has been so, so amazing, and now we're down to our last two. Are you as excited as I am?? :DDD
This week all I need is the number and title of your favorite only (and I promise you will love them both!). As usual, all comments are screened.
~*~
1. Author: tetsubinatu
Title: Balance
Rating: G
Warnings: Implied character death
Notes:
"He's my father" Arthur grits out.
"It's not that I don't want to!" Merlin tries to keep his voice down. Gaius is asleep in the chair beside Uther's bed, too exhausted to keep watch any longer. The likelihood is that Uther will never wake again.
"Look!" Merlin orders, taking Arthur's hands in his. "Look out of the window and tell me what you see." He mutters the words of the spell low but Arthur casts a resentful look at him before obeying.
"What am I seeing?" He is bewildered.
"Magic."
Arthur can see little sparks of light coursing through every living thing outside; rushing through the veins of the trees and lighting the pulsing bodies of his knights on the training field. Gawain glows brightest of all, while Kay is a bare shimmer of light.
High above them a kestrel gleams as it hovers and dips.
Arthur turns to ask more, but his eye catches his father and he stops quite still. Uther is the only living creature he has seen without a spark of light. The darkness is like a slap to the face.
"Why?" he breathes. Uther's breath rasps slow and uneven from the large, cold bed.
"I think..." Arthur knows that anxious, earnest voice, trusts it beyond reason. "I think that he has rejected magic so strongly that the magic rejected him back. I... I'm sorry Arthur. I don't have anything to work with!"
Arthur nods, unseeing.
"You may go," he says, reaching out to take his father's hand.
The blinding light that is Merlin slips quietly out of the door. Arthur kneels there beside his father's bed until Gaius wakes to tell him what he already knows.
~*~
2. Author: hermette
Title: This Precarious Balance
Rating: PG
Warnings:
Notes:
The lies come easy to him now, easier than he ever would have imagined. When he stands before his father, he nods and says words like Magic. Enemy. Evil. Days later or hours or minutes, he averts his eyes, feigns ignorance, is deaf and dumb as Merlin's words prickle at his skin. When he closes his eyes, flames dance across his eyelids.
Uther drinks more these days; feasts often descend into ruckus, as the king grows louder and drunker, grows bolder and reckless. Merlin stands, as always, at Arthur's shoulder. When Uther bangs his fist upon the table, they both flinch.
He must never find out, Arthur thinks. He must never know.
When morning breaks, he stands at the battlements, watches the sun light up this land that he loves with a passion that borders on terrifying. He has to make a decision one day, he knows. He has to tip one way or another, to make his allegiance known.
When night falls, when his crown is simply a circlet of gold abandoned on the table, when he curls his body around Merlin's and presses promises into his skin, he knows his decision was made long ago.
This week all I need is the number and title of your favorite only (and I promise you will love them both!). As usual, all comments are screened.
~*~
1. Author: tetsubinatu
Title: Balance
Rating: G
Warnings: Implied character death
Notes:
"He's my father" Arthur grits out.
"It's not that I don't want to!" Merlin tries to keep his voice down. Gaius is asleep in the chair beside Uther's bed, too exhausted to keep watch any longer. The likelihood is that Uther will never wake again.
"Look!" Merlin orders, taking Arthur's hands in his. "Look out of the window and tell me what you see." He mutters the words of the spell low but Arthur casts a resentful look at him before obeying.
"What am I seeing?" He is bewildered.
"Magic."
Arthur can see little sparks of light coursing through every living thing outside; rushing through the veins of the trees and lighting the pulsing bodies of his knights on the training field. Gawain glows brightest of all, while Kay is a bare shimmer of light.
High above them a kestrel gleams as it hovers and dips.
Arthur turns to ask more, but his eye catches his father and he stops quite still. Uther is the only living creature he has seen without a spark of light. The darkness is like a slap to the face.
"Why?" he breathes. Uther's breath rasps slow and uneven from the large, cold bed.
"I think..." Arthur knows that anxious, earnest voice, trusts it beyond reason. "I think that he has rejected magic so strongly that the magic rejected him back. I... I'm sorry Arthur. I don't have anything to work with!"
Arthur nods, unseeing.
"You may go," he says, reaching out to take his father's hand.
The blinding light that is Merlin slips quietly out of the door. Arthur kneels there beside his father's bed until Gaius wakes to tell him what he already knows.
~*~
2. Author: hermette
Title: This Precarious Balance
Rating: PG
Warnings:
Notes:
The lies come easy to him now, easier than he ever would have imagined. When he stands before his father, he nods and says words like Magic. Enemy. Evil. Days later or hours or minutes, he averts his eyes, feigns ignorance, is deaf and dumb as Merlin's words prickle at his skin. When he closes his eyes, flames dance across his eyelids.
Uther drinks more these days; feasts often descend into ruckus, as the king grows louder and drunker, grows bolder and reckless. Merlin stands, as always, at Arthur's shoulder. When Uther bangs his fist upon the table, they both flinch.
He must never find out, Arthur thinks. He must never know.
When morning breaks, he stands at the battlements, watches the sun light up this land that he loves with a passion that borders on terrifying. He has to make a decision one day, he knows. He has to tip one way or another, to make his allegiance known.
When night falls, when his crown is simply a circlet of gold abandoned on the table, when he curls his body around Merlin's and presses promises into his skin, he knows his decision was made long ago.