Part 6
Merlin couldn’t sit still, but he knew that he couldn’t leave the room, too so he just paced. Gaius hadn’t been gone that long, but with his nerves on end and not knowing what to do if the fairy came back, he couldn’t sit around and wait for something to happen. Killing the beast had been a chance that was one in a million, something that he had to go back into the deep recesses of his mind to figure out how to kill the thing. He honestly didn’t want that to ever happen again unless he had to protect Arthur in a whim and that was all that was left to be done in a situation.
Snapping out of his thoughts when he heard a faint noise coming from Morgana, he paused, wondering what he would have to do to this fairy if it happened to be over there. Gaius said that he needed a book for this specific type of fairy so he wasn’t quite sure he should just go around and try killing the winged thing. Then again he wasn’t that foolish.
Glancing over at Morgana, he caught a glimpse of the fairy, shining brightly and sprinkling its dust across her face. Squinting at it, he saw that it seemed to be muttering something which he knew was not a good thing. Chanting could usually mean a spell, something that he knew all too well, but he couldn’t understand this tiny fairy’s language. And, honestly, if he needed a book for this tiny thing was laughable considering this thing stood as tall as his middle finger. Gaius had to be losing his mind with these things. He could just go over there and squish the thing if he so pleased.
Merlin moved as stealthily as a cat, not making a noise and managing to avoid the spots that squeaked if you put your foot on it wrong. The thing must have heard he was coming all along because the moment that he approached it, the fairy turned on him, its eyes open and some foreign words coming out of its mouth. It looked almost comical with the squeaks escaping past its lips, its wings flapping like crazy, and its little fist shaking in frustration. If it hadn’t attacked Morgana just moments ago he would have laughed, but he knew it wasn’t a creature to be laughing at. Although how Morgana could understand this thing was beyond him, it was speaking in a foreign tongue. Unless Morgana knew the language deep down inside of her.
Picking the fairy up pinched between his thumb and finger, a grin planted firmly on his face he brought it eye level. “You can keep talking, but I won’t understand you no matter what happens.” The fairy made a little ‘humphing’ noise, crossing its arms in front of its chest. “What are you doing with Morgana here? You trying to make her come over to your side? You have to go through me you know.”
The fairy stopped struggling, a smile popping up on it’s lips and a tiny, what sounded like an evil laugh came out of it’s mouth. And before he knew it, the fairy started growing, its laugh sounding more human, but still evil. “You foolish, Wizard. You honestly think that you are a match for me? I have more power then you could ever imagine.”
Merlin was taken back, clearly not expecting this fairy to actually be able to grow. He clearly didn’t know anything about them because he had thought that they stayed that tiny and their fairy magic couldn’t be that strong except on the weak minded. But seeing the fairy having grown to his height shocked him, making him wonder what was going on in the fairy world that he couldn’t remember. “What do you want with Morgana?”
“She is a very powerful girl…she is going to do well in the world and I know that she will be very helpful to the fairy world.”
“You can’t take her away from Camelot. The King will have your head!”
“If the King survives this young warlock.”
Pausing, he took a few moments to think over what the fairy had just given him. “What do you mean?”
“I mean, young warlock, that the King will see his last few hours in a few days.”
“You’re going to kill him?”
“No. The fates have decided how he will die. You shall see. Until then….”
In a flash, the fairy left and Merlin was standing there bewildered, wondering what had just happened. Did this mean that he had to worry more about the King rather then Arthur now?
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Gaius rushed back in with the book clasped tightly to him, gasping for breath. “Merlin, what happened? I saw a flash. Did the fairy visit?”
“Yes, Gaius…”
“What’s wrong, Merlin?”
Merlin shook his head, not even sure if that had actually happened or if he was dreaming about it. It felt like a dream the more he thought about it. But that was impossible, Gaius said he saw a flash.
“Merlin…tell me what happened.”
“Uther is going to die, Gaius. He said so.”
“Oh my.” Gaius put the book next to Morgana’s bed, glancing still at his apprentice. “He told you this?”
“He mentioned that Morgana will be good for his people and that the King will die.”
“This is worse then I thought it was,” Gaius muttered, running a hand through his hair. “He plans to fight us for her?”
“That’s what it sounded like.”
“We have to prepare, Merlin. Just us because we both know Uther will not believe us if we told him a fairy wanted Morgana for their own. He would have us beheaded.”
“How can we fight something like this, Gaius? I have a feeling it’s going to be more then just this fairy coming to take her.”
“We will do everything we can, Merlin.”
Merlin knew that wasn’t a good thing. No way was he going to be able to take care of these fairies on his own. He was just one wizard and he wasn’t even that strong yet. Maybe it was time to tell Arthur everything.
_____________________________________________________________________________________
It took a while before Merlin came upon Arthur in his own bed chamber, sitting down at his desk and writing on the parchment before him. He honestly hadn’t thought that his master would be so busy and that something like this would be hard to do. Telling someone that he knew magic was something that he struggled with considering the king had a law that anyone caught doing or practicing magic would be beheaded immediately. Just thinking of himself getting his head cut off made him shiver and pause directly in front of Arthur.
Arthur looked up from the parchment he had been writing one when a shadow fell over it. Glancing up, he saw Merlin standing there staring at him. “Merlin, do you need help with something?”
“Have you gone to visit Morgana yet, my lord?”
“Of course I have. You just never happen to be there when I do and nor do you happen to be anywhere that I can find you. Why do you ask, Merlin? Has she gotten worse?”
“No, Sir, it’s just...” How could he go about saying this? Merlin could think of plenty of ways to tell someone this, but this was Arthur, someone who he wasn’t sure would believe him and whose father could send him to his death.
“Just what, Merlin? I do not have all night. I have to finish this letter and send it out by tonight.”
“There is something that I have to tell you.”
Arthur’s eyebrow quirked up as a tiny smile popped up on his lips at what Merlin had just said to him. “Clearly you have something to say to me, Merlin since you are obviously here.”
“Well....what if I told you something magical was influencing Morgana?”
“Is there something? What is it, Merlin? Out with it!”
“It’s just a tiny fairy that is sprinkling its dust on her.”
At first Arthur didn’t say anything, just sat there thinking over the information that Merlin had just told him. “Are you actually telling me the truth, Merlin?”
“Yes.”
“How long has this been going on?”
“Just today, Sir. I promise.”
“This cannot be told to my father. He will not take this information well and we do not want a repeat of what happened when I was younger.” Not that Arthur could remember anything that happened when his mother had died due to a magic pact, but he had heard plenty of things from the villagers when he had been younger. He had managed to sneak into the marketplace of Camelot and hid behind stalls or in alleyways and happened to hear them still grieve over his mother’s death and the new law about magic. He hadn’t understood it then, but he did now.
“I hadn’t planned on telling him, Sir.”
“Good idea, Merlin. Best thing I have heard from you yet.”
“Sir, there is something else.”
“More bad news?,” he asked, sighing softly.
“Not really, just some information.”
“Very well, carry on.”
“I have to get you to promise me that you will not go to the king and tell him anything that I am telling you now.”
“Merlin, I told you once, but I do not have time for this now. Out with it.”
“Iknowhowtodomagic,” he managed to say in one breath, quickly, almost sounding incoherent.
Arthur’s expression was somewhat unreadable and he wasn’t saying anything which normally meant that it was a bad thing. But Merlin was pretty confident that everything was going to work out in the end considering he hadn’t blown up in his face about anything yet. “Merlin....do you know what this means?”
Merlin shook his head, afraid for what was to come next. “No, Sir.”
“That you have been lying to all of Camelot. Did you set up that beast?”
“No, Sir.”
“Why have you not told me this earlier?”
“Because of the rule, Sire. No one would believe me.”
“Do you dabble in the dark magic?”
“No, Sir. Only the good kind.”
“Why are you presenting this information to me now?”
“I need your help.”
“Help with what?”
“The fairy won’t stop with Morgana unless we fight for her.”
“They want a fight?”
“A battle it seems like, Sir. He wasn’t very specific with the details.”
“You know what this means then, Merlin? We have to prepare for this fight and you have to help.”
“This is why I am coming to you though, Arthur. I need your help.”
“I cannot believe I am saying this, but we can work together.”
“Work together?”
“Of course. You can do the magic stuff and I can arrange the actual battle. We are not going to lose Morgana to a fairy, Merlin.”
“I understand, Sir. What are we going to do?”
“I don’t know, Merlin. I will figure this all out tomorrow. For now, be on your way because I have to finish this letter. Now out of my sight.”
Merlin turned to leave, feeling like this whole thing had gone a lot better then he had intentionally planned it to. That was always a good sign.
____________________________________________________________________________________________
The next morning Merlin woke up with a spring in his step, glad that he had told Arthur everything because his master had taken this all surprisingly well. He hadn’t been turned into the king and he wasn’t waiting in the cell again for something that was entirely his fault. Although getting thrown in a cell for magic use was a lot worst than the fact that he got caught stealing bread was. So it seemed that he made a good decision.
He made his way to Arthur’s chambers, spotting him up and dressed already. Which was unusual for him considering he had to be dragged out of bed and needed help getting dressed every morning. Thankfully today was not one of those days because if it was then Merlin would honestly wonder if last night had actually happened and if Arthur had taken everything to heart like it had seemed like. He clearly did though because he was up and about without the assist of Merlin.
“Ah, Merlin I am glad to see you on time,” Arthur mentioned, giving his best and biggest smile to Merlin as his servant had walked in. “Have you figured out yet how we are going to stop the fairies yet?”
“No, not yet sir,” he muttered.
“Very well then. We are going to have a talk today with you and a few of the knights.”
“A few of the knights?”
“Yes. Is there something wrong with it?”
“Will you tell the others what I am....capable of?”
“Don’t be silly Merlin, I wouldn’t do a bloody thing like that.”
Merlin relaxed slightly when Arthur told him that, glad that his secret was safe right now with his master. If he had gone to blab it around town he honestly would have wondered how loyal Arthur was to him. Not that they were on the best on of terms more then half the time, but his loyalty obviously meant a lot to him. This information was huge and there was no way that he was going to go telling just anybody that he could do magic if he couldn’t at least trust him. And, honestly, the only reason he even told Arthur that he could do magic was because he needed his help. Of course if it had backfired then he would have had a lot on his hands to deal with. Thankfully it hadn’t come down to that.
“Just making sure, sir.”
“Well, Merlin, since you can trust me now let’s get to the meeting.”
Not saying anything, Merlin followed after Arthur, wondering where they were heading. It wasn’t to the usual meeting room that they usually went to when they had something important to talk about amongst one another. This was in a completely different direction and seemed to be leading towards the basement. “Where are we going sir?”
“Somewhere private, Merlin. We can’t have this getting out now can we?”
“You have a point there, sire.”
Arthur continued not to say anything as they walked down the dank steps towards what Merlin thought to be the dungeons. But when they walked even farther then the dungeons, he began getting worried. There was no way that he was going to be able to ask anymore questions about this because they were both in a part of the castle he had absolutely no idea even existed.
When they finally came to their destination, Arthur knocked in a pattern that Merlin had never heard of before.
“Password.”
“Basketful of puppies.”
The person behind the door clearly was satisfied with the answer because the door swung open, revealing nothing but a hallway with torches hanging throughout. Arthur once again led Merlin down the hallway, Merlin glancing at everything that caught his eye. Mainly it was the flicker of a torch or the wall surrounding them, but he couldn’t help but stare at this unusual place. Thankfully he looked back in front of him or he would have ran right into Arthur who had stopped. Glancing around his master, he spotted a round table, torches lighting up the cave they were in, but it seemed to focus on that round table in front of them.
“What is this place?,” whispered Merlin, clearly in awe.
“This is the Knights of the Roundtable, Merlin.”
“Is it a secret society?”
“Just a secret that I hide from my father. Whatever happens here does not go outside these caves wall. This once used to be a nice little hideaway when those crueler and older than me would make me feel sad about my mother. A few of these knights in front of you grew up with me and helped me make this cave into what it is today. There are a few here who are not in the flanks of my father for their social status. Here at the roundtable everyone is the same, everyone is equal. And now you Merlin are equal with all of us,” Arthur mentioned, placing a hand on Merlin’s shoulder. “If you want to tell them about what you can do that is up to you and you alone. I will not tell your secret.”
He had no idea what happened, but Arthur had just grown up before his very eyes. This was a whole new side that he had never knew his master was capable of. Of course this did explain why he happened to be gone a lot of the time sometimes when he claimed to be in a meeting. Now he knew where he escaped to. Unfortunately he had no idea what they talked about.
“What goes on here?”
“Anything and everything happens here. We talk about many things that my father would hang us for if he heard them. Or cast me away as his son if he ever found out. He cannot find out about this, Merlin. No one can.”
“I understand, Arthur.” Having not used that name in a while, he flinched slightly, unsure what he was going to do to him.
“Have a seat, Merlin. The meeting will start shortly. We have to wait for Lancelot.”
“Lancelot...?”
“Yes. He is a part of this.”
Blinking rapidly, he stumbled over to the seat that was to the right of the center of the table. It was funny though that he happened to consider the table to have a center considering it was a circle and it didn’t have a beginning or an end, let alone a center. But that was where he sat, to the right of what he was positive was Arthur’s chair.
Merlin was still shocked the moment Lancelot walked through the door, Gwen coming up right behind him. It took just a few seconds for him to comprehend that this was all happening and that they were all working together. This was a dream that he couldn’t quite get around until Gwen squealed and ran up to Merlin, giving him a hug. “Merlin. You made it.”
“Gwen? What are you doing here?”
“What everyone else is doing here. I am preparing to fight.”
“Can you even hold a sword?”
“Better then you can.”
“Fair enough.”
“I hope nothing too drastic happens to Morgana. She is okay isn’t she, Merlin?”
“She is quite alright, Gwen. Don’t you worry your head off about her alright? If anything had happened we probably would not be here right now.”
“Of course you’re right, Merlin. I just worry. She is my master and I don’t know what to do with myself without busying myself around her.”
“You should take care of Arthur then,” he said with a hint of a grin pulling at his lips.
“After all of the stories that you have told me about him? I would rather not.”
“And here I am, wanting a day off.”
“Maybe some other time, Merlin.”
Gwen gave his shoulder a light squeeze before taking her seat next to Lancelot who was sitting on the left of the center chair. It had to be Arthurs now that everyone was sitting. There were a few faces other than Lancelot and Gwen that he recognized like Sir Leon and two other knights whose names he always had a hard time remembering. Very interesting to see them here.
“Alright, alright, quiet down you rascals,” Arthur said, stepping to his chair, trying to calm everybody down. “We are here to discuss a very important matter and we don’t need anymore distractions along the way.” After he sat down, he looked around at each and every person sitting there, feeling a sense of pride come over him. “Morgana is in trouble. I have resources who have told me that she is going to be captured by a race of fairies that no one knows what they are capable of. They will not go down without a fight. And this is what we have to stop.”
“How are we going to stop fairies, sir?,” asked someone from the table.
“We fight my good man, we fight. We use our weapons to the best of our abilities and do not stop until we get Morgana into our hands and make sure she is safe. Are we clear?”
“Does Uther know about this?”
“Unfortunately he does not and no one must tell him until the time has come and it is too late for him to back down. I know my father and if word got out that fairies were coming to take Morgana away, he would ban anyone from visiting her and it would escalate into a bigger fight. We do not want that.”
“What do you mean a bigger fight? This sounds like a big fight.”
Arthur laughed, finding some of these questions from him knights to be rather amusing. “Ah, but it isn’t. The fairies only want to fight with us because we are going to want to get Morgana back. And I am not going to let these flying monsters take her away. My father expects me to protect her and she is like a sister to me. If you do not want to help then that is all fine with me, but do not think that this is not worth it and you would rather wait for it to become bigger.” When there were no responses to Arthur, he continued on. “We have to think of a plan and we have to to start on it soon as possible.”
Merlin raised his hand, clearing his throat before he butted in with anything. “I think everybody needs to know that I..can do something that is forbidden around here. I can do magic.” A few people gasped, clearly surprised that someone like Merlin could do something like that. “I haven’t told anyone because of Uther’s law about magic and I really don’t feel like getting my head cut off anytime soon.”
“He will prove to be very helpful in this fight,” Arthur mentioned, giving Merlin a smile. “He will be fighting along my side for we will be fighting the main fairy. Any questions?”
Sitting there, listening to all the questions the knights had about how this was going to work and what they were going to do made Merlin feel better about himself. Just sitting around with Arthur made him feel like he was going to make a big difference in Camelot. Even if it was just helping out with protecting Morgana, it was something.
Snapping out of his thoughts when he heard a faint noise coming from Morgana, he paused, wondering what he would have to do to this fairy if it happened to be over there. Gaius said that he needed a book for this specific type of fairy so he wasn’t quite sure he should just go around and try killing the winged thing. Then again he wasn’t that foolish.
Glancing over at Morgana, he caught a glimpse of the fairy, shining brightly and sprinkling its dust across her face. Squinting at it, he saw that it seemed to be muttering something which he knew was not a good thing. Chanting could usually mean a spell, something that he knew all too well, but he couldn’t understand this tiny fairy’s language. And, honestly, if he needed a book for this tiny thing was laughable considering this thing stood as tall as his middle finger. Gaius had to be losing his mind with these things. He could just go over there and squish the thing if he so pleased.
Merlin moved as stealthily as a cat, not making a noise and managing to avoid the spots that squeaked if you put your foot on it wrong. The thing must have heard he was coming all along because the moment that he approached it, the fairy turned on him, its eyes open and some foreign words coming out of its mouth. It looked almost comical with the squeaks escaping past its lips, its wings flapping like crazy, and its little fist shaking in frustration. If it hadn’t attacked Morgana just moments ago he would have laughed, but he knew it wasn’t a creature to be laughing at. Although how Morgana could understand this thing was beyond him, it was speaking in a foreign tongue. Unless Morgana knew the language deep down inside of her.
Picking the fairy up pinched between his thumb and finger, a grin planted firmly on his face he brought it eye level. “You can keep talking, but I won’t understand you no matter what happens.” The fairy made a little ‘humphing’ noise, crossing its arms in front of its chest. “What are you doing with Morgana here? You trying to make her come over to your side? You have to go through me you know.”
The fairy stopped struggling, a smile popping up on it’s lips and a tiny, what sounded like an evil laugh came out of it’s mouth. And before he knew it, the fairy started growing, its laugh sounding more human, but still evil. “You foolish, Wizard. You honestly think that you are a match for me? I have more power then you could ever imagine.”
Merlin was taken back, clearly not expecting this fairy to actually be able to grow. He clearly didn’t know anything about them because he had thought that they stayed that tiny and their fairy magic couldn’t be that strong except on the weak minded. But seeing the fairy having grown to his height shocked him, making him wonder what was going on in the fairy world that he couldn’t remember. “What do you want with Morgana?”
“She is a very powerful girl…she is going to do well in the world and I know that she will be very helpful to the fairy world.”
“You can’t take her away from Camelot. The King will have your head!”
“If the King survives this young warlock.”
Pausing, he took a few moments to think over what the fairy had just given him. “What do you mean?”
“I mean, young warlock, that the King will see his last few hours in a few days.”
“You’re going to kill him?”
“No. The fates have decided how he will die. You shall see. Until then….”
In a flash, the fairy left and Merlin was standing there bewildered, wondering what had just happened. Did this mean that he had to worry more about the King rather then Arthur now?
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Gaius rushed back in with the book clasped tightly to him, gasping for breath. “Merlin, what happened? I saw a flash. Did the fairy visit?”
“Yes, Gaius…”
“What’s wrong, Merlin?”
Merlin shook his head, not even sure if that had actually happened or if he was dreaming about it. It felt like a dream the more he thought about it. But that was impossible, Gaius said he saw a flash.
“Merlin…tell me what happened.”
“Uther is going to die, Gaius. He said so.”
“Oh my.” Gaius put the book next to Morgana’s bed, glancing still at his apprentice. “He told you this?”
“He mentioned that Morgana will be good for his people and that the King will die.”
“This is worse then I thought it was,” Gaius muttered, running a hand through his hair. “He plans to fight us for her?”
“That’s what it sounded like.”
“We have to prepare, Merlin. Just us because we both know Uther will not believe us if we told him a fairy wanted Morgana for their own. He would have us beheaded.”
“How can we fight something like this, Gaius? I have a feeling it’s going to be more then just this fairy coming to take her.”
“We will do everything we can, Merlin.”
Merlin knew that wasn’t a good thing. No way was he going to be able to take care of these fairies on his own. He was just one wizard and he wasn’t even that strong yet. Maybe it was time to tell Arthur everything.
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It took a while before Merlin came upon Arthur in his own bed chamber, sitting down at his desk and writing on the parchment before him. He honestly hadn’t thought that his master would be so busy and that something like this would be hard to do. Telling someone that he knew magic was something that he struggled with considering the king had a law that anyone caught doing or practicing magic would be beheaded immediately. Just thinking of himself getting his head cut off made him shiver and pause directly in front of Arthur.
Arthur looked up from the parchment he had been writing one when a shadow fell over it. Glancing up, he saw Merlin standing there staring at him. “Merlin, do you need help with something?”
“Have you gone to visit Morgana yet, my lord?”
“Of course I have. You just never happen to be there when I do and nor do you happen to be anywhere that I can find you. Why do you ask, Merlin? Has she gotten worse?”
“No, Sir, it’s just...” How could he go about saying this? Merlin could think of plenty of ways to tell someone this, but this was Arthur, someone who he wasn’t sure would believe him and whose father could send him to his death.
“Just what, Merlin? I do not have all night. I have to finish this letter and send it out by tonight.”
“There is something that I have to tell you.”
Arthur’s eyebrow quirked up as a tiny smile popped up on his lips at what Merlin had just said to him. “Clearly you have something to say to me, Merlin since you are obviously here.”
“Well....what if I told you something magical was influencing Morgana?”
“Is there something? What is it, Merlin? Out with it!”
“It’s just a tiny fairy that is sprinkling its dust on her.”
At first Arthur didn’t say anything, just sat there thinking over the information that Merlin had just told him. “Are you actually telling me the truth, Merlin?”
“Yes.”
“How long has this been going on?”
“Just today, Sir. I promise.”
“This cannot be told to my father. He will not take this information well and we do not want a repeat of what happened when I was younger.” Not that Arthur could remember anything that happened when his mother had died due to a magic pact, but he had heard plenty of things from the villagers when he had been younger. He had managed to sneak into the marketplace of Camelot and hid behind stalls or in alleyways and happened to hear them still grieve over his mother’s death and the new law about magic. He hadn’t understood it then, but he did now.
“I hadn’t planned on telling him, Sir.”
“Good idea, Merlin. Best thing I have heard from you yet.”
“Sir, there is something else.”
“More bad news?,” he asked, sighing softly.
“Not really, just some information.”
“Very well, carry on.”
“I have to get you to promise me that you will not go to the king and tell him anything that I am telling you now.”
“Merlin, I told you once, but I do not have time for this now. Out with it.”
“Iknowhowtodomagic,” he managed to say in one breath, quickly, almost sounding incoherent.
Arthur’s expression was somewhat unreadable and he wasn’t saying anything which normally meant that it was a bad thing. But Merlin was pretty confident that everything was going to work out in the end considering he hadn’t blown up in his face about anything yet. “Merlin....do you know what this means?”
Merlin shook his head, afraid for what was to come next. “No, Sir.”
“That you have been lying to all of Camelot. Did you set up that beast?”
“No, Sir.”
“Why have you not told me this earlier?”
“Because of the rule, Sire. No one would believe me.”
“Do you dabble in the dark magic?”
“No, Sir. Only the good kind.”
“Why are you presenting this information to me now?”
“I need your help.”
“Help with what?”
“The fairy won’t stop with Morgana unless we fight for her.”
“They want a fight?”
“A battle it seems like, Sir. He wasn’t very specific with the details.”
“You know what this means then, Merlin? We have to prepare for this fight and you have to help.”
“This is why I am coming to you though, Arthur. I need your help.”
“I cannot believe I am saying this, but we can work together.”
“Work together?”
“Of course. You can do the magic stuff and I can arrange the actual battle. We are not going to lose Morgana to a fairy, Merlin.”
“I understand, Sir. What are we going to do?”
“I don’t know, Merlin. I will figure this all out tomorrow. For now, be on your way because I have to finish this letter. Now out of my sight.”
Merlin turned to leave, feeling like this whole thing had gone a lot better then he had intentionally planned it to. That was always a good sign.
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The next morning Merlin woke up with a spring in his step, glad that he had told Arthur everything because his master had taken this all surprisingly well. He hadn’t been turned into the king and he wasn’t waiting in the cell again for something that was entirely his fault. Although getting thrown in a cell for magic use was a lot worst than the fact that he got caught stealing bread was. So it seemed that he made a good decision.
He made his way to Arthur’s chambers, spotting him up and dressed already. Which was unusual for him considering he had to be dragged out of bed and needed help getting dressed every morning. Thankfully today was not one of those days because if it was then Merlin would honestly wonder if last night had actually happened and if Arthur had taken everything to heart like it had seemed like. He clearly did though because he was up and about without the assist of Merlin.
“Ah, Merlin I am glad to see you on time,” Arthur mentioned, giving his best and biggest smile to Merlin as his servant had walked in. “Have you figured out yet how we are going to stop the fairies yet?”
“No, not yet sir,” he muttered.
“Very well then. We are going to have a talk today with you and a few of the knights.”
“A few of the knights?”
“Yes. Is there something wrong with it?”
“Will you tell the others what I am....capable of?”
“Don’t be silly Merlin, I wouldn’t do a bloody thing like that.”
Merlin relaxed slightly when Arthur told him that, glad that his secret was safe right now with his master. If he had gone to blab it around town he honestly would have wondered how loyal Arthur was to him. Not that they were on the best on of terms more then half the time, but his loyalty obviously meant a lot to him. This information was huge and there was no way that he was going to go telling just anybody that he could do magic if he couldn’t at least trust him. And, honestly, the only reason he even told Arthur that he could do magic was because he needed his help. Of course if it had backfired then he would have had a lot on his hands to deal with. Thankfully it hadn’t come down to that.
“Just making sure, sir.”
“Well, Merlin, since you can trust me now let’s get to the meeting.”
Not saying anything, Merlin followed after Arthur, wondering where they were heading. It wasn’t to the usual meeting room that they usually went to when they had something important to talk about amongst one another. This was in a completely different direction and seemed to be leading towards the basement. “Where are we going sir?”
“Somewhere private, Merlin. We can’t have this getting out now can we?”
“You have a point there, sire.”
Arthur continued not to say anything as they walked down the dank steps towards what Merlin thought to be the dungeons. But when they walked even farther then the dungeons, he began getting worried. There was no way that he was going to be able to ask anymore questions about this because they were both in a part of the castle he had absolutely no idea even existed.
When they finally came to their destination, Arthur knocked in a pattern that Merlin had never heard of before.
“Password.”
“Basketful of puppies.”
The person behind the door clearly was satisfied with the answer because the door swung open, revealing nothing but a hallway with torches hanging throughout. Arthur once again led Merlin down the hallway, Merlin glancing at everything that caught his eye. Mainly it was the flicker of a torch or the wall surrounding them, but he couldn’t help but stare at this unusual place. Thankfully he looked back in front of him or he would have ran right into Arthur who had stopped. Glancing around his master, he spotted a round table, torches lighting up the cave they were in, but it seemed to focus on that round table in front of them.
“What is this place?,” whispered Merlin, clearly in awe.
“This is the Knights of the Roundtable, Merlin.”
“Is it a secret society?”
“Just a secret that I hide from my father. Whatever happens here does not go outside these caves wall. This once used to be a nice little hideaway when those crueler and older than me would make me feel sad about my mother. A few of these knights in front of you grew up with me and helped me make this cave into what it is today. There are a few here who are not in the flanks of my father for their social status. Here at the roundtable everyone is the same, everyone is equal. And now you Merlin are equal with all of us,” Arthur mentioned, placing a hand on Merlin’s shoulder. “If you want to tell them about what you can do that is up to you and you alone. I will not tell your secret.”
He had no idea what happened, but Arthur had just grown up before his very eyes. This was a whole new side that he had never knew his master was capable of. Of course this did explain why he happened to be gone a lot of the time sometimes when he claimed to be in a meeting. Now he knew where he escaped to. Unfortunately he had no idea what they talked about.
“What goes on here?”
“Anything and everything happens here. We talk about many things that my father would hang us for if he heard them. Or cast me away as his son if he ever found out. He cannot find out about this, Merlin. No one can.”
“I understand, Arthur.” Having not used that name in a while, he flinched slightly, unsure what he was going to do to him.
“Have a seat, Merlin. The meeting will start shortly. We have to wait for Lancelot.”
“Lancelot...?”
“Yes. He is a part of this.”
Blinking rapidly, he stumbled over to the seat that was to the right of the center of the table. It was funny though that he happened to consider the table to have a center considering it was a circle and it didn’t have a beginning or an end, let alone a center. But that was where he sat, to the right of what he was positive was Arthur’s chair.
Merlin was still shocked the moment Lancelot walked through the door, Gwen coming up right behind him. It took just a few seconds for him to comprehend that this was all happening and that they were all working together. This was a dream that he couldn’t quite get around until Gwen squealed and ran up to Merlin, giving him a hug. “Merlin. You made it.”
“Gwen? What are you doing here?”
“What everyone else is doing here. I am preparing to fight.”
“Can you even hold a sword?”
“Better then you can.”
“Fair enough.”
“I hope nothing too drastic happens to Morgana. She is okay isn’t she, Merlin?”
“She is quite alright, Gwen. Don’t you worry your head off about her alright? If anything had happened we probably would not be here right now.”
“Of course you’re right, Merlin. I just worry. She is my master and I don’t know what to do with myself without busying myself around her.”
“You should take care of Arthur then,” he said with a hint of a grin pulling at his lips.
“After all of the stories that you have told me about him? I would rather not.”
“And here I am, wanting a day off.”
“Maybe some other time, Merlin.”
Gwen gave his shoulder a light squeeze before taking her seat next to Lancelot who was sitting on the left of the center chair. It had to be Arthurs now that everyone was sitting. There were a few faces other than Lancelot and Gwen that he recognized like Sir Leon and two other knights whose names he always had a hard time remembering. Very interesting to see them here.
“Alright, alright, quiet down you rascals,” Arthur said, stepping to his chair, trying to calm everybody down. “We are here to discuss a very important matter and we don’t need anymore distractions along the way.” After he sat down, he looked around at each and every person sitting there, feeling a sense of pride come over him. “Morgana is in trouble. I have resources who have told me that she is going to be captured by a race of fairies that no one knows what they are capable of. They will not go down without a fight. And this is what we have to stop.”
“How are we going to stop fairies, sir?,” asked someone from the table.
“We fight my good man, we fight. We use our weapons to the best of our abilities and do not stop until we get Morgana into our hands and make sure she is safe. Are we clear?”
“Does Uther know about this?”
“Unfortunately he does not and no one must tell him until the time has come and it is too late for him to back down. I know my father and if word got out that fairies were coming to take Morgana away, he would ban anyone from visiting her and it would escalate into a bigger fight. We do not want that.”
“What do you mean a bigger fight? This sounds like a big fight.”
Arthur laughed, finding some of these questions from him knights to be rather amusing. “Ah, but it isn’t. The fairies only want to fight with us because we are going to want to get Morgana back. And I am not going to let these flying monsters take her away. My father expects me to protect her and she is like a sister to me. If you do not want to help then that is all fine with me, but do not think that this is not worth it and you would rather wait for it to become bigger.” When there were no responses to Arthur, he continued on. “We have to think of a plan and we have to to start on it soon as possible.”
Merlin raised his hand, clearing his throat before he butted in with anything. “I think everybody needs to know that I..can do something that is forbidden around here. I can do magic.” A few people gasped, clearly surprised that someone like Merlin could do something like that. “I haven’t told anyone because of Uther’s law about magic and I really don’t feel like getting my head cut off anytime soon.”
“He will prove to be very helpful in this fight,” Arthur mentioned, giving Merlin a smile. “He will be fighting along my side for we will be fighting the main fairy. Any questions?”
Sitting there, listening to all the questions the knights had about how this was going to work and what they were going to do made Merlin feel better about himself. Just sitting around with Arthur made him feel like he was going to make a big difference in Camelot. Even if it was just helping out with protecting Morgana, it was something.