Die, Die Again [6/9]
Fandom: BBC Merlin
Characters & Pairings: Uther/Catrina, Morgause, Morgana, Arthur, Merlin, Kilgharrah, Gwen, Gaius
Genres: Drama, Humor
Rating: T
Warnings: Violence and character death. So very many character deaths. Also asphyxiation, terminal illness, and mind-wipe.
Spoilers: Through 3x05, “The Crystal Cave”
Words: ~19,000
Beta: talesofyesac
Chapter 6: The Torque of Galatea
Morgana loved her sister, but sometimes the woman was maddeningly opaque. Morgause had insisted that Morgana fetch some bauble of Catrina's, so here she was, outside the king's chambers just after breakfast, wondering if stealing the queen's jewelry counted as treason. Gaius was there, examining Catrina and dosing her with tincture-of-something.
Uther was not there, as Morgana had predicted. He had been slowly distancing himself from the whole situation. Later on, Morgana planned to take him to task for running away from his wife just when she needed him most, but first she had this business with the necklace.
"Good morning, dear," said Catrina, looking and sounding like a woman twice her age. "A bit early, isn't it?"
"If none of us sleep, does it really matter?"
Catrina smiled. It seemed to take some effort.
Morgana pressed on, "I was wondering if I might see that necklace of yours? I've been admiring it for ages."
"Uther gave it to me. He bade me never take it off, but…" Catrina slipped it off and gave it to Morgana. "I suppose it will be yours soon enough."
Feeling ashamed of herself, Morgana apologized, but Catrina would hear none of it.
"Please, Morgana. I know we've only known each other a short time, but I do think of you as a daughter. Let's not fight."
Morgana, who had lost her mother in early childhood, was overcome with emotion and cast the necklace aside.#
Merlin had to make an effort not to whistle. The atmosphere in the castle was stifling due to Queen Catrina's illness, but aside from that, the leaves were turning, the air was crisp, and…Gaius was waiting for him outside his chamber door?
"Merlin, there is an...issue...on the other side of this door," said Gaius. "If you wouldn't mind lending a hand."
"And a good afternoon to you too," said Merlin, listening to the "issue" bark inside. Steeling himself, he went in and subdued the dog while Gaius kept lookout. It didn't take long with magic; why anyone would want to not have magic when they could have magic was beyond his understanding some days.
"Very good, Merlin. Now…take that necklace off of him."
Merlin hadn't noticed that little detail. "Would this be an awkward time to point out I've never seen you on a date?"
For that, Gaius gave him the Doom Glare.
No sooner had Merlin removed the necklace than the dog turned into a stone statue.
"Then I was right. Merlin, I believe this is the Torque of Galatea. Anyone or anything wearing this necklace becomes what it appears to be."
"And that would be good for…?" Merlin imagined a man sitting in a field of stone dogs, praying to all the gods that he had a live one.
"Uther gave Catrina this necklace. It was previously locked in the vault beneath the castle." Gaius checked outside the chamber door just to be sure no one was listening. "She took it off this morning and nothing happened."
"Spooky."
"Merlin! The king gave his wife a magical artifact - something expressly forbidden by his own law - and it apparently had no effect whatsoever. Why would he do such a thing?"
Merlin took the necklace and looked it over, turning it in his hands and reading the inscription. "It's pretty," he said. "Women like pretty things. Especially Queen Catrina."
Gaius was silent for a long time.
"Put it back in the vault," he said at last.#
Morgana met Morgause in the woods later that night. As per usual, they played at cloak and daggers - changing the location and times of their meetings periodically. It all seemed a bit silly to Morgana, who tried to convince her sister that she had Uther wrapped around her finger. But that only seemed to make Morgause angry, so Morgana put up with her sister's peculiar habits and assumed it had something to do with her upbringing.
Morgause looked pleased this particular night. "Well? Did you find your task illuminating?"
"I found it heartwrenching," Morgana said. "I quite forgot to take the necklace with me. Was it very important?"
"It was the taking that was important. Didn't anything happen?"
"Catrina gave it to me, told me I was like a daughter to her, and then we both cried. Was something else supposed to happen?"
"How?" said Morgause, strangling the word as it tried to crawl out of her throat.
Morgana stared at her blankly.#
Vexed, Morgause sent her sister back to the castle. Had she waited too long? Perhaps the magic of the necklace infused the wearer until there was no longer a difference between seeming and being.
It didn't matter. What mattered was that she was running out of ways to defeat Uther. She had hoped that when Morgana revealed her magic to him, he would do the obvious thing and disown her at once. (Actually, she'd hoped he would die and stay dead, but alas, wishes were not horses.) Instead, he had dedicated himself to spoiling Morgana senseless and was succeeding, be he thrice damned!
From what Morgana said, Uther was taking his queen's imminent death badly. Perhaps her death would weaken Camelot sufficiently to take it…but if Morgause were to press that advantage, would Morgana ever forgive her?#
This was supposed to be different. You're supposed to be different, Merlin thought in Arthur's general direction. Encouraged by the Great Dragon, Merlin had expected that when Arthur gained power, he would be a very different king than Uther. That faith in a better future was the only thing keeping Merlin in Camelot, not that he could come out and say so.
With the queen's illness, Uther was withdrawn and distracted, leaving Arthur the de facto regent much of the time. He did send away Aredian the Witchfinder, Merlin gave him credit for that. Then a bounty hunter had arrived with a Druid girl called Freya, and Merlin put Arthur to his first real test. He interceded on her behalf, and was bitterly disappointed to find that Arthur had little interest in overturning his father's policies while Uther was still alive. So Merlin broke Freya out of her prison and hoped he'd made tracking her down too much trouble for Arthur to bother with.
Freya filled a hole in Merlin's heart that he didn't even know was there. He realized how lonely he had been in Camelot, never able to share all of himself with another person, always hiding. The fact that his new friend was a beautiful girl didn't hurt, either.
He hid her successfully for two days and two nights, after which he discovered that she had a terrible secret: at midnight each night, she transformed into a ferocious Bastet. She couldn't help it, but in that form she was a real threat to the people of Camelot. Merlin felt responsible for the two deaths she'd caused; after all, they would be alive if he had done nothing to help Freya. He pondered his options the next day, but if he seemed distant, he was no more so than most of the other occupants of the castle.
"Merlin," said Gaius over dinner that evening, "Are you in there somewhere?"
"Sorry?"
"I feel like I'm the only living creature in this castle today. What on earth is the matter with all of you?"
"Oh, er…I'm worried about the queen." That was partially true; Merlin liked Catrina, who was unfailingly kind to him, but - the queen!
Merlin jumped up and ran into his room, where he dug around in his wardrobe, carelessly tossing things all over the room. There it was! He was so happy he actually laughed. Gaius had told him to put the Torque of Galatea back in the vault, but that required getting the key from Arthur, and awkward explanations, and Merlin had put it off until he forgot about it.
He was so intent on his task that he didn't notice Gaius follow him.
"Merlin! I told you to put that back in the vault!"
"I didn't mean to keep it, Gaius…but now that I have it, how can I not use it?"
"She can't live here. She's already a fugitive, all the more if she's caught wearing jewelry from the royal coffer." Gaius's voice was gentle and sympathetic, but that only steeled Merlin's will.
"Then I'll leave. We'll come back later, when Camelot is ready."
"Just that simple, is it?" Gaius said softly.
"Yeah. It is."
Merlin closed the door in Gaius's face, heartsick but determined.#
When the extent of Catrina's illness became clear, Uther did not process it in the usual way. He had chosen to give her the necklace instead of a noose because he was tired of being alone, and he missed the emotional and physical intimacy of marriage. Having that torn away in so cruel a manner was more than he could bear. He'd tried to do the right thing and stand by her, but his first attempt at being supportive was a fiasco. He'd ended up weeping into her skirt while she consoled him.
He recovered from that, but only partially. Unable to concentrate, he wandered around the castle, feeling as if he were a mere observer, watching some foreign land go about its arcane business. He couldn't take his duties as king seriously at all, and indeed, Camelot hardly seemed to need him. This malaise was punctuated with bouts of feeling like a giant hand was squeezing the life out of him.
His path crossed with Gaius, on his way to see Catrina for her nightly examination. Unseen, Uther followed him into the chamber and watched them from the shadows.
"Have you seen Uther today?" Catrina asked.
"I have not, my lady." Gaius pinched his lips the way he always did when he was biting back something impolitic.
"It's just as well. I lost the very first gift he ever gave me. He would be angry."
"I don't think so, my lady," said Gaius gently. "But perhaps you didn't lose it. Perhaps it was stolen?"
Uther joined her at the side of the bed. Gaius was startled, but quickly melted into the shadows.
Holding her hands, Uther asked, "What shall I do, my love?"
Catrina smiled, breaking Uther's heart all over again. "If it was stolen by a young swain for his lady, you must be merciful. There isn't enough love in the world."
He bent down and kissed her, and stayed with her until she drifted into a sleep from which she would never awaken.
#
Merlin waited until he heard the bell tower strike eleven before going to visit Freya. Arthur hadn't time to change the pattern of the patrols lately, so Merlin was reasonably sure he wouldn't be caught.
As he crossed the last arcade on his way to the depths of the castle, a hand reached out from the shadows and grabbed him. He found himself looking into the stony face of the king.
Uther's mouth was moving, but for a moment all Merlin could hear was the sound of blood rushing in his ears. After a bit of struggling, Merlin understood that the king had asked him what he intended to do with the necklace.
"There's a girl -" Merlin began, and Uther's face fell into resignation. "This might be the only thing that can save her life."
"That cursed necklace cannot give you what you want," said Uther. "If you love the girl, you will turn it over and forget you ever saw it."
Merlin's head swam. There had to be a reason, a very good one, that Uther was telling him this instead of calling the guards and hauling him off to the gallows. Was it a trick?
"I have to try. Wouldn't you do the same in my place?"
Wordlessly, Uther released him.
Now the owner of a magical necklace and a heavy feeling of impending doom, Merlin scurried away into the night. But Freya's beautiful smile was all the assurance he needed that he had done the right thing.
"We don't have much time," she said, barely managing to get the words out before Merlin busied her lips with his own.
"We have all the time in the world," he said warmly, showing her the necklace. Together, they slipped the necklace over her head.
The effect was immediate. Freya turned into the beast. Merlin had to roll to the side to avoid being mauled to death. She didn't seem to know him at all; even that small comfort was apparently too much to ask for.
The alarm bell rang, and soon the night was alive with flashing blades and clanking armor. Merlin did what he could to help Freya, but it was no use. Arthur and his knights managed to surround it - her - and fatally wound her. She breathed her last surrounded by hostile soldiers in a body that wasn't even hers.
Numb, Merlin wandered aimlessly until he made his way to the bell tower. Uther was there, staring out at the blue countryside.
"You knew what would happen," he said flatly.
Uther shook his head. "No."
"But you let me take it."
"It was Catrina's last wish. She would have wanted you to save your love."
A chill came over Merlin, like cold rain extinguishing the fire in his heart.
"Why didn't it work?" he asked, although he already knew what the king would say: Because it is magic, and magic is evil.
But all Uther said was, "I don't know."
The king wavered on his feet, finally giving up and dropping to his knees. As Merlin watched him weep, fury crept over him. He thought of Freya, dying afraid and unaware that Merlin was there, loving her to the very last. For no reason he could articulate, he felt as if Uther had cheated him of something important, something he should have had.
It would be easy, so easy, to push Uther off the tower. He felt the impulse wash over him - it felt different, somehow, from his other desires, as if it came from outside, from a power greater than himself. It pulled at him like a riptide, as if…Uther was meant to die here, and Merlin was merely the instrument.
No, he thought firmly, I am not a murderer. I am not a catspaw for Destiny or anyone else.
Merlin helped the king up and took him to his bedchamber. When he returned, exhausted, to his own chamber, Gaius was waiting up for him.
"Why didn't it work?" he asked Gaius, without preamble. His whole body felt like it was made of some kind of very heavy clay, but he needed to know what had gone wrong. Uther's answer had surprised him; maybe Gaius's would too.
To his relief, Gaius did not lecture or judge him. Instead, he poured Merlin a glass of wine.
"I don't know precisely how the enchantment works," Gaius said, lacing his fingers together. "The Torque of Galatea was an heirloom of House Valeria, one of the founding families of Camelot."
"I've never heard of them."
"No, you wouldn't have. Some years ago, when Uther was the age Arthur is now, Valeria had declined down to its last male heir. The boy died in an accident, and his desperate father tried using the necklace on him." Gaius paused, his face clouding over. "The effect…well, I couldn't say that he was alive in the sense that you and I are, but neither was he dead. He had already killed both his parents when Uther and I got there."
"Is the necklace cursed, then?"
"Hard to say. There may be some good purpose for it, but I believe it can only turn an object into something it is not."
Merlin considered Gaius's words. If he was right, that would mean Catrina was once something other than human. And Freya…Freya all too human.
Tears stinging his eyes, Merlin excused himself and went to bed.
Die, Die Again Master Post
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