History 101 [Safehold series (David Weber), Merlin+Cayleb, G]

[dogmatix_san]

Title: History 101
Author: dogmatix_san
Rating: G
Warnings: Er, none? How'd that happen?
Word count: +- 4600
Summary: Without Staynair to vouch for him, Merlin decides to tell Cayleb anyway.
A/N: I have an entire page of author's note, so I decided to stick it at the end.

Comments

[fenikkusuken]

No clue as to this fandom or these characters, but this was extremely well-written and obviously a labour of love! It kept me engrossed right up until the end - well done!

[dogmatix_san]

Thank you ^_^ I'm very glad you enjoyed it.

[jedibuttercup]

I gave up on the Safehold universe around book 4, mostly because of things like the copout with the Order of St. Zhernau; thank you for writing this.

[dogmatix_san]

Thank you for reading. :)

I'm hanging in there with the series, but the Order definitely greased the wheels too much. I liked it more when there was still that medieval/pre-renaissance mindset from Caleb, and he had to trust himself rather than taking the Order's word for Melin's non-demon-ness.

Plus I reeeaaaally would have preferred Merlin get to know Sharleyn(spelling? XD;) a lot better before spilling the beans like that. Although with Caleb to vouch for Melin, that would have helped a lot. And it would have been.. earned? I mean, with Caleb's built up history of mutual trust and respect, that would have carried a lot more weight than the Order's vouching for Merlin. Or something.

I won't be writing this, but in my head the logical extension of this is that when Caleb and Sharleyn get engaged, they swap bodyguards, so that Merlin can get to know Sharleyn, and vice versa. And then later when it all hits the fan, it would be nice if she either made that call to trust him independently, or did freak out about the 'demon' but

[mel_redcap]

It became their nightly habit, the Prince and his bodyguard sequestering themselves in Merlin’s chambers for an hour or so, and the rest of Cayleb’s protective detail adjusted around it.

Cayleb wondered if his bodyguards would have been quite as blasé about it if they knew what their charge and the resident seijin were discussing each night.

Some of the bodyguards probably think this fic needs warnings, ya know. *waggles eyebrows* >:D And I still love the scale model. :)

[dogmatix_san]

XD hahaha! True! And man I wanna do the fic where Cayleb's all 'so... that rugby game *eyebrow waggle*'
Merlin: *quellingly* Yes. But after that I... didn't.
Cayleb: You can control that? *surprise*
Merlin: *even more quellingly* Yes. And I've had more important things to think about.
Cayleb: So you've never even.. *makes wanking motions and grins*
Merlin: *VERY quellingy* No.
Cayleb: Huhn. We'll have to work on that. 8D

[mel_redcap]

I will totally read the follow-up fic if you write it, y'know. :3 And now I'm imagining Cayleb giving Merlin 'hands-on' instruction on how to wank properly... *snicker* >:D

[skitscare]

I actually went and bought the kindle version of the safehold series because this was just too interesting. :)
Although I have to agree with you about the explanation shortcuts the author uses. To me, how and when, and how much, you explain something is really important to character development and relationship development between characters.
I will probably insert this as my personal head canon when I get that far in the books. ;)
Thank you for the wonderful story and the introduction into new fandoms.

[dogmatix_san]

^__^ Whoot! I'm glad you liked the fic, and I hope you enjoy the series.

[seshat_maat]

Yes. This. I like the elaboration in later books that the Order has laid some of the world-disbelieving groundwork, but the way it gets used to evade describing the process of realization is...frustrating. Especially in the case of Cayleb, and you do a spectacular job drawing that out here. I love the specificity of the things that he has trouble understanding, and the way that he simultaneously clings to and is disturbed by Merlin.

[dogmatix_san]

Thank you. :) I loved doing this fic so much, and feedback like this is wonderful. I hope I do the source material(the first book in the series) justice, because Weber did such a marvelous job of slowly bringing Cayleb around from Church-canon to trusting his own sense of justice even when the Church/Group of Four would tell him it was wrong.

And that's a large part of what made the Merlin-Cayleb dynamic work for me, that slow dance where Merlin would try to be sneaky somewhat ordinary(and sometimes fail horribly at it XD ) and Cayleb would be smart and think things through and then call Merlin on it.

I think it also helps that Cayleb was still a teenager, still flexible and growing, when he first encountered Merlin. And of course the fact that the Church is an active opponent, but it's still a huge show of trust for Cayleb to throw in with his 'demon' in the face of his worldview.

And Cayleb does have a worldview that is completely based in Church doctrine. It's not that he chooses to believe that God created Safehold, he