Through the Ashes (4/?)
Title: Through the Ashes (4/?)
Author: vail_kagami
Beta: nightrider101
Rating: PG
Pairing: Merlin/Arthur
Summary: It's been fortold that Arthur will return at a time when he is needed most. What Merlin needs most, right now, is for Arthur to remember who he is, and not to kill Merlin when he does.
Word count: 5562
Note: So sorry for the long delay. Real life ate me for a long time, and after that I needed a while to get back into this story.
He is standing by the edge of the lake, a long dress floating around his legs. It is soiled by the mud of the battlefield. It isn’t his.
The air is dead. Everything here is dead, and he is waiting with a patience that is not his either until the slim figure appears on top of the hill and stumbles closer, dirty and lost. That is him, in the worst moment of his life.
In his dream, he looks at himself through another’s eyes and speaks with the voice of a woman. He offers a pale, slender hand to the desperate man he has once been, but this time, the younger him refuses to take it.
-
Merlin didn’t like the dream, and he liked it even less when he dreamt it from the point of view of another person. He hated seeing himself in that moment, though not as much as he hated being himself in that moment. He’d been stumbling down that hill far too many times in his dreams. He had seem himself stumble down that hill far too many times - through her eyes, through the senses of an eagle flying by, as the mist on the lake; desperate, lost, exhausted and always, always too late.
He should just stop sleeping altogether, he though sourly when he got out of bed. He’d gotten the message well enough - there was no point in drilling it into his head every damn night.
It was a grey morning. He didn’t feel like getting up. He felt like rolling over and curling against Arthur’s warm body and let the day pass by, but of course that never had happened even in the old days, because by the time they were sleeping in the same bed, Arthur was too busy just about every day to waste a single one. The Lazy Sunday was invented too late for them, and didn’t go for kings anyway.
This was a Lazy Saturday, potentially, and there were no kings around. Merlin still couldn’t curl against Arthur, because he didn’t sleep in his bed. It was frustrating.
The times, it seemed, were never quite right for them.
Merlin felt like turning over anyway. He didn’t, because there were griffins flying around, and the weather was acting funny, and he needed to use the bathroom.
When he entered the living room, there was no trace of Arthur. Merlin knew he was still upstairs, sleeping - he knew this, because it made sense, and because he could sense it, somehow.
Also, Arthur rarely showed up before breakfast was ready. It was a talent that had survived aeons.
Today, Arthur didn’t show up when breakfast was ready either, and that was unusual, because the talent to arrive as soon as someone else has done the work was also something that had proved to be remarkably persistent.
Merlin sensed him wake up, and that was a new development. He hoped this connection, familiar but long lost, would remain. It would make it so much easier to keep watch over the boy.
Merlin was hungry, but reluctant to start eating before Arthur showed up. It was not like Arthur needed company to eat or cared much for courtesy, but Merlin waited anyway, drinking his coffee and reading the newspaper while he listened to the sound of running water upstairs. His guest took unusually long with his shower, but that might have been because he didn’t have to go to work and could take his time for once.
Still, by the time he heard footsteps down the stairs, Merlin’s eggs were cold and he was a little bit angry. For which he had no reason - they’d never even agreed to eat together, least that one had to wait for the other. It just kind of happened.
But then Arthur entered the dining room, and his face was so pale that all Merlin could think was his cold must have gotten worse overnight. Hs movements were lacking the usual grace, and he barely lifted his feet off the ground when he crossed the room.
“You look like crap,” Merlin told him.
“Great. I’m glad my looks go along with how I’m feeling.” Arthur slumped on his chair, resting his head in his hands. He didn’t seem very interested in food.
“Your cold?” Merlin asked, not entirely sure because Arthur’s voice sounded normal, not like his nose was stuffy or his throat raw. The boy shook his head without bothering to look up.
“I just have a headache. Didn’t sleep very well.”
“Bad dreams?” Merlin couldn’t help but ask.
This time Arthur did look at him. “Just confused, mostly. I don’t even remember what they were about. How do you know?”
“I usually have strange dreams when I’m sick.” Merlin sipped his forth cup of tea and hid behind the newspaper. Professor Sasher was featured again. His project was all over the news. Once again, Merlin found himself staring at his face.
“I’m not sick,” Arthur protested. “I’m just tired.”
“I think you should stay in bed and take Monday off if it doesn’t get better.”
“And I think what you think is irrelevant.” Arthur let his head fall back into his hands. After a second he asked, “You wouldn’t happen to have a painkiller somewhere, would you?”
“I do.” Merlin was frowning now, because admitting to needing medicine to get through the day was not something Arthur liked to do. Gaius had had a knack of knowing when he was sick when he grew up, and later Merlin developed the same instinct, but if Arthur admitted it himself, it had to be pretty bad.
As he left to rummage through his cabinets in search of aspirin, he considered trying one of the healing spells on his friend. But his magic was still so unreliable that he didn’t dare. It wouldn’t do for his king to get turned into a tree, or a book.
Or, going with the times, into a computer.
Which reminded Merlin of something.
“Will you be okay for a few hours? I’ve got to go to the city.” It earned him an impatient glare.
“I don’t need a babysitter.”
“Of course not,” Merlin muttered.
“Where to you need to go?”
“Just buy something I’ve been meaning to get for a while. I think it’s time, and tomorrow the shops are closed.”
“A while?”
“A couple of years. Maybe ten.”
“Wow. Once you’ve made up your mind, you don’t lose any time, do you?” An amused smile played around Arthur’s lips, even though he was still pale. Merlin filled his glass with juice and nearly ordered him to drink more, but thought in the last second that might be pushing it.
As would telling him to stay inside and don’t go work in the garden or take a walk or get abducted by aliens while Merlin was gone. If the boy had any common sense he wouldn’t leave the house in this weather anyway.
“Don’t leave the house,” Merlin told him. “It’s raining.”
Arthur looked out of the window. “It’s not.”
“It will. Trust me.”
“Why would I go out? There’s nothing to do outside.”
“You might get an urge. I know you. Don’t follow it.” Knowing Arthur, he would now go out just to spite him. “On the other hand…”
“You’re not making an awful lot of sense here.”
“Best to ignore me then.” There. That wasn’t hard. Merlin was quite satisfied with his reasoning. “I’ll go as soon as the kitchen’s cleaned up. Enjoy your day off!”
-
One of the products of technical development that had always fascinated Merlin but never quite gripped his interest enough to bother with it was the computer. Given his wealth, it seemed astonishing for him not to have at least three of the newest models standing around, but Merlin had never quite understood what he was supposed to do with them. If he needed to do some internet research, he used web cafes. Having one of those at home seemed like a luxury he just didn’t need.
Although he did have more fun than most with the game called Google Your Own Name.
By now, he decided that it was time to finally get a computer of his own. It would make internet research a lot easier, especially if he didn’t want to leave the house to do it. Of course Merlin knew he didn’t need to keep watch over Arthur twenty-four hours a day and that it would be a failsafe way to alienate the boy, but if he really got ill one day, Merlin would rather be able to look for evil beings on the net without leaving him alone.
Especially since the internet was a good source of information on all things griffin, sea serpent and alien space ship that might come up. Much more reliable than the news, if one knew how to navigate through all the crap.
So Merlin drove to the nearest multimedia store and bought a laptop. Because a laptop could be used everywhere and wasn’t too heavy to carry around. He nearly forgot it on the counter after paying for it.
He also got a contract with an internet provider, so he could get online. He then was a little miffed to learn that the activation of his connection would take approximately ten thousand years. Or at least ten days. Somehow, he had always imagined this to be a matter of no time at all.
For now, all he could hope for was that Arthur didn’t get ill in the next ten days - or, preferably, ever. On the way back home, Merlin stopped at an internet café to look up any more reports on griffins and other recent sightings of mythical beings. After five minutes, he was pretty certain that most of the people writing about such sightings were either idiots, or trying to make fun of him. Five minutes in an internet café just didn’t suffice for serious research.
At least no one claimed to have seen a dragon lately.
He hurried home to see if Arthur had died in his absence and found that he had not. Instead, he was working in the kitchen, doing the cleaning Merlin had ultimately decided to leave for later before he’d left. He looked better, almost healthy, and a little annoyed, which was always a good sign.
“You know,” he greeted Merlin, “when you said you’d leave after you cleaned the kitchen, you actually had me fooled into thinking you meant this kitchen.”
“I’m full of surprises.” Merlin offered a grin he hoped looked innocent and was rewarded with an eye roll.
“What did you buy?”
“A computer!” Merlin exclaimed proudly and lifted the box with his newest toy.
“That’s a laptop,” Arthur observed.
“Is there a difference?”
“A subtle one. Every laptop is a computer but not every computer is a laptop.”
Merlin thought about this. “So what I said was not wrong. It is a computer.”
“What I said wasn’t wrong either,” Arthur retorted. “It is a laptop.”
Merlin suspected that this was going nowhere. When exactly had they started to argue about nonsense just for the sake of arguing?
Oh, right. That long ago, huh?
“I also bought the internet.” This one earned him a raised eyebrow.
“You bought the internet? I didn’t know you had that much money. What are you going to do with it?”
“Research. And stuff.” As far as Merlin knew, the internet was mainly for stuff. And porn. He suspected the latter had been a lie, but couldn’t be sure. “I’ll have to wait ten days, though.”
“That’s normal.” Arthur shrugged. “If it’s really urgent, you can always buy one of those sticks that enable you to access the internet using the phone network.”
“And that works at once?”
“If it works at all.” Arthur shrugged. “A good one costs a lot, though…” he trailed off, apparently remembering who he was talking to.
“I think I need to go back to the city again.” A great way to spent Arthur’s free day: Driving back and forth in his car. Merlin grimaced. Nothing he could do about it. Tomorrow was Sunday, after all.
Did the internet even work on Sundays?
“If you go back to the city again,” Arthur said, opening the refrigerator, “you could stop by the supermarket on the way back. We’re out of milk.”
-
“So, let me get this straight.” Arthur was leaning against the table, his arms crossed before his chest, as he watched Merlin struggle with his new computer. Laptop. Whatever. “You never had a computer before.”
“I have a typewriter,” Merlin offered, reading the instruction on the screen and wondering which of these was the ‘any’ key.
“And you were born when exactly, did you say?”
“I didn’t.” Actually, he had. Arthur hadn’t believed him. Typically. “You don’t have a computer either.” Did he? These things came in small sizes. Impossible to tell without searching all of Arthur’s pockets.
“But I don’t have a typewriter either.”
Yet he had a gun. Merlin had seen it only once, but he couldn’t quite forget about it. Somehow, he’d never thought to ask Arthur about that. It was odd that he had one and got it through customs at the airport without trouble. What did he even do with it?
As far as Merlin knew, he never used it. He thought of the thing, lying upstairs in some drawer, and wondered why he didn’t have the urge to ask.
At least Arthur didn’t carry it around all the time. It would be inconvenient if he was arrested for illegal gun possession or however it was called, and the police found out that John Miller didn’t actually exist, and he ended up in jail before he could save the world from whatever.
Inconvenient, but somewhat funny.
With Arthur’s help, he eventually managed to get his computer in order and even get more or less reliable, if somewhat slow access to the internet. Arthur left him alone after that, retreating to his room upstairs to rest a bit because his headache had returned. Merlin stayed in the dining room, searching the net for useful information. Most web pages he found, as before, were full of crap. Why wasn’t there a law that forbade everyone to post on the internet who didn’t have something interesting to say?
And interesting in this case was defined as ‘relevant to Merlin’s interests’.
Eventually, he did find something interesting. He had missed it at first, because it was written on a serious, official looking page and concerned someone he knew from the newspaper.
“So we meet again,” he muttered as he looked at the picture of Professor Sasher, who still looked eerily familiar and completely unknown at once. According to the article of the online magazine, Sasher had come up with the theory that the weird sightings of weird creatures that happened more and more often all over the land were related to the strange signals they got from space. He had an explanation that sounded very scientific and made no sense at all. As scientific explanation tended to do.
A scientist who contributed the appearance of monsters to signals sent by aliens. Merlin just couldn’t ignore this one.
According to the article, Sasher and his team were working on a scientific project that involved sending some kind of radiation into space and seeing if it was reflected by something or other. Merlin didn’t pay much attention to that part, distracted by the sudden certainty that this was important, these strange signals the scientists claimed they were receiving from space. They had to do with the return of the magic creatures. Merlin sensed that it was so.
It was all connected: Arthur, and the return of his magic, and the appearance of griffins and gargoyles, and the signals from space. As if they were calling all the creatures of old to return.
Merlin needed to learn more about this. And obviously, Professor Sasher was the person to ask. Unfortunately, according to the article, he was living in Florida.
Well. So Merlin would need about a day to get there. He was quite happy that the internet was also offering plane tickets.
-
Getting from London to Florida last minute was pretty expensive. Arthur had been complaining quite a lot about Merlin’s lack of planning ahead. He didn’t have much money and found it hard to understand how anyone could throw it away so carelessly. Even if the person in question had more money than there was sand on the beach.
Merlin was still a little paranoid about leaving him alone, but Arthur had to be at work on Monday, and there was no way they would be back by then. And somehow, Merlin had a feeling that in this case it would be better not to raise attention to him by bringing him along.
So he left alone, leaving the house at five AM Sunday morning. For once, Arthur would have to take care of breakfast himself.
Merlin didn’t pack much, because he didn’t want to stay long. The fact that he was travelling to another continent with only a backpack caused the check-in lady to look at him funny but he calmed down her suspicion with a goofy grin, which, miraculously, still worked almost every time.
The flight was long, but the comforts of first class made it bearable. Merlin had a lot of time to think, though, and worry a bit, and think some more, and read a lot of magazines.
When he finally left the plane and then the airport, the warmth of the air came as a surprise, despite the fact that he was used to travelling long distances and had been here before.
He remembered, suddenly, that Arthur had considered moving to Florida before winter should he earn enough money for the flight. It probably was for the best that Merlin had not taken him along. He’d never have been able to get him back home to England.
Travelling last minute like this had the downside of him not having a place to stay once he arrived. Having a lot of money had the upside of not having any trouble finding a place to stay. Merlin had not originally intended to need a place to stay, because he just wanted to find Sasher, talk to him, and go home with the next flight leaving in the general direction of Great Britain, but when he arrived at the institute the professor was working at, he learned that the man he was looking for was having a long weekend off and currently travelling the countryside with his jeep, trying to run over as many rabbits as he could find. Or something. In any case, he wasn’t there, and no one could tell Merlin where he was.
Which presented him with the problem of finding a place to stay. He did, and spent the night being happy to be out of the cold Autumn weather of England. At the same time, it felt wrong to be here, though Merlin couldn’t tell if it was England he needed to go back to, or Arthur. It was so damn far. If anything happened to the boy, he wouldn’t even learn of it before he returned, and even if somehow he did find out, it would be a day at least before he got back to him. Too late to be of help should Arthur get in trouble.
Merlin didn’t sleep at all that night. But that wasn’t at all uncommon, and it was nice to have a different ceiling to stare at for once.
The next day he was at the institute again, letting the warmth of the air soak through his bones and suddenly feeling old. Perhaps, though, he was only feeling the heat. A hat might have been an idea. His brain was getting toasted in there, and his ability to think turned to steam. Arthur would confirm that, if he were here.
If Arthur were here, and a couple of years older, Merlin would not have spend the night staring at the ceiling. At least not from that position.
He really needed to stop thinking about that.
The clerk at the scientific institute who had sent him away the day before now greeted him with a smile. “Professor Sasher is expecting you,” she said, which was a little surprising, because Merlin had no appointment, and he hadn’t thought the woman would even mention his visit to the professor.
Well, obviously he had been mistaken in this regard. Perhaps his fake name and genuine wealth were more generally known than he had expected and Sasher intended to be very nice to him in hope for financial support for his research.
Though the institute surely didn’t give the impression of being short on money. It was clean and bright and modern, and altogether a lot better looking that Merlin’s house in London. Arthur would like it here. Although he appeared to enjoy fixing roofs and painting window frames well enough.
Sasher awaited Merlin in a large, bright office. There were no windows - the bright light came from lamps that imitated daylight almost perfectly, and there was a black leather couch for visitors, a desk with a computer and a chair behind it. Sasher did not sit in the chair. He was standing in front of the desk, leaning against it and facing the door, as if he had done nothing all day but wait for Merlin to arrive.
“Welcome, Mr. Rogers,” the man he had only seen on pictures greeted him. He smiled, which made him look even more familiar than he had before.
“You were expecting me?” Merlin asked.
“Oh, indeed I have. I thought you might be here sooner, though.”
Merlin glanced at his watch. It was almost noon. “I hope you haven’t been standing there in front of your desk all that time waiting for me.”
Sasher chuckled. “I did not. In fact, I have been quite busy.” He gestured to the couch. “Do sit down.”
Merlin did not sit down. He didn’t even move, because something about the way the man moved and spoke stirred something in the back of his mind and his mouth moved to voice the thought as it came to him. “I know you.”
There was a different quality now to Sasher’s smile. “Do you indeed?”
“Yes. Who are you?”
“Did you not just say you knew him?” That was the secretary, sounding confused. Sasher looked at her, not at all unfriendly, and she left the room without another word.
“I have been on the news a lot. Surely you saw my face before.”
“Yes, I have. And every time I thought I knew you from somewhere.”
Sasher shrugged. “Well, perhaps we did meet before, in passing, during your very long life. Had it been a closer acquaintance, surely you would remember.”
There indeed was something very odd about this man, and the way he spoke, and the fact that only after a few seconds Merlin did notice what bothered him about Sasher’s words.
“I’m thirty-six,” he announced. It was as good an age as any.
“Fascinating,” said Sasher.
“I’d say you are older than me.”
“Oh, I am indeed a lot older than you.”
“In that case, it was inappropriate to imply my life having been a long one,” Merlin said wisely.
Sasher was still smiling. “My apologies. That came out wrong. So, what grants me the honour of your visit?”
“You don’t know?”
“You never told.”
Now Merlin thought about it, he hadn’t. He had made up something to tell if he was asked, but no one had seemed to care.
“Then why did you agree to meet me?”
“I’m curious. I wanted to know what you want from me. Also, I suspect you want to talk to me about my work, and I love talking about my work.”
This man was just plain odd. Merlin didn’t trust him. “I’m sure a lot of people want to ask you about your work. Do you do this often? Welcome random visitors?”
“Only when they look interesting, and are famous and rich. Scientists are always looking for someone to sponsor their work.”
“I’m not famous and… I’m not famous,” Merlin pointed out. “At least I’m pretty certain I’m not.”
“Funny, I could have sworn I knew very well who you were, Mr. Rogers.” Sasher shrugged and walked around his desk to sit down behind it. “I must have been mistaken. Anyway, are you going to give us money so we can use it in the name of science?”
“That depends on what exactly you are using it for.” Merlin went over to one of the visitor’s chairs, but remained standing behind it instead of sitting down.
“Don’t you know? I thought that was why you were here.”
“Griffins, unicorns and other mythical creatures are running around all over the world. At least they are running around all over Great Britain. Even Nessie is said to have returned to Loch Ness. They appeared at the same time your funny signals from space came in.”
“Was that supposed to be a question?” Sasher smiled ever so slightly.
“Where is the connection?” Merlin asked to clear all doubts that his was, indeed, supposed to be a question.
“How would I know? We do not yet know what to make of these signals.”
“I think you’re lying.”
“So.” Sasher lightly crossed his fingers in front of his mouth. “I have been sending out signals into space hoping we would get a reply. It looks like we did, but we don’t know what it means.”
“So this is aliens trying to contact us?” Arthur would not be thrilled to hear this. It meant Merlin had been right.
“I think it comes from aliens, but I don’t think they want to contact us. They signals are too random, too unstructured. It’s rather as if they are looking for something.” He tilted his head, his eyes never leaving Merlin’s. “I think they are going to attack.”
“Oh, please! Alien attack? You’ve got to be kidding.”
“You think so? Fine. Take the risk. There’s nothing you can do about it yet, anyway.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?” The guy was beginning to get on Merlin’s nerves.
“Just what I said: If we’ll be attacked by aliens, you can’t stop them. Mankind might end in slavery or total extinction because you can’t stop them. Or can you? Hypothetically speaking, I mean.”
“Of course not.”
“And hypothetically speaking, if you could stop them, would you do it?”
Merlin frowned. He didn’t know where this was going, but this, for once, was a question he could answer without having to think about it.
“Yes. Of course.”
“No matter the cost?”
“Yes.”
“Are you sure?”
“Of course I am! What’s more important than the entire planet?”
“In that case, everything will be alright.”
“Is this going somewhere?” Merlin asked irritated. “Actually I had come here to ask you some questions.”
“You did. I couldn’t answer them.”
“No, you refused to answer them.” Merlin almost took a step closer, but something kept him from it. “You know very well what is going on. Who are you?”
“Haven’t we been there already? My friend, if you want to know what’s going on, you’ll have to wait and see, and then react accordingly. It’s the same as always.”
“The same as always,” Merlin repeated. “You know, you really sound like someone I once knew. You’re just as helpful.”
Sasher’s smile had even more amusement in it than before. “Why did you come here, young man?”
“Actually, I don’t know. It seemed like a good idea.” As he spoke the words, Merlin realised they were true. He had no more reason to come than a few wild connections he thought he’d seen. He wondered if it had been magic leading his actions, but if it was, it had led him nowhere. “I know now that I can’t expect any straight answers from you.”
“Perhaps you are asking the wrong questions.”
“Fine, then.” He could be more direct if that guy insisted on it. “Was it you who-”
“I’m sorry. I only had a few minutes to spare, and those minutes are over. Please come again later, when I’m not so busy.”
“With something evil?” Merlin asked. It couldn’t hurt to try.
Sasher snorted good-naturedly. “We’ll meet again, I’m sure. One day, with more time on our hands. And less things for you to worry about.”
Merlin, already on his way to the door, stopped dead in his tracks. “What do you mean by that?”
“Nothing, young friend. Just an old man rambling. Great changes are going to come for this world, but they are changes for the better.”
“Are you talking about the possible enslavement of mankind by aliens right now?” Merlin asked drily.
“The fate of the world depends on various factors. As you well know, some things have to be sacrificed for the greater good.”
Merlin turned sharply back to the professor, but Sasher only smiled at him in a way that for once seemed almost genuine.
“Everything will be all right in the end,” he said. “You’ll see. The greater good is not just an expression.”
Somehow, as he walked out of the building, Merlin wasn’t quite convinced.
-
The best word Merlin could come up with to describe the professor was creepy. And the best word he could come up with to describe this trip was useless. He now was as smart as before, but thoroughly weirded out. It was not the accomplishment he had hoped for.
So Sasher knew who he was. There was little doubt about that - despite popular (meaning Arthur’s) opinion, Merlin was not a complete idiot. There was no other way to interpret Sasher’s cryptic remarks but as “Hey, I know who you are, and I’m going to hint at it without actually saying it so you will have to wonder all the time! Ho ho ho!” Well, that didn’t work, since Merlin knew exactly that the guy knew him and didn’t have to torment himself with wondering.
Not that it helped in any way.
Thinking about it, coming here had been a bit of a stupid idea. By now, Merlin was pretty convinced it was magic that had caused this meeting. If magic had a specific purpose or just liked to get on his nerves, though, he couldn’t say. The professor definitely wanted to get on his nerves. And show he had the upper hand. After all, he knew who Merlin was, but Merlin didn’t know him
Was he another sorcerer of the old days who had survived eons? It was the most likely answer, but if he was, he had enough magic left to change his appearance, because Merlin had never seen him before.
So was this magic’s way of showing him that he was not, after all, the most powerful sorcerer ever? If so, it could stay with someone who liked it!
Or was it all just a coincidence, their shared powers drawing them together? Merlin did not believe it. Sasher had known he was coming, or had at least not been surprised to see him.
But then, Merlin had announced his visit. So much for that.
All he could say, at this point, was that he did not trust the man. And since he had proven so incredibly unhelpful, Merlin would not approach him for help again. Ever. In his life.
Now it had been established that this trip was a giant waste of time and only resulted in unnerving him, Merlin decided to go home again, as soon as possible. Who knew what kind of trouble Arthur would get into if he stayed away any longer?
Though, despite everything, Merlin had to admit that the biggest danger for his friend right now was getting hit by a falling brick. Which was dangerous enough, if completely random. People had been killed by falling bricks, and Merlin had to get back to make sure Arthur didn’t become one of them.
(Sacrifices had to be made for the greater good, Sasher had said. Merlin didn’t like the sound of that at all.)
When he boarded the plane back home, he had been in the United States for all of two days, and was very eager to get back to cold, rainy England. Although, had he been in the full possession of his magical powers, he would have packed some sunshine and warmth, for Arthur. The sun would be with him wherever he went, and shine in his hair, and it would be epic.
And warm. Merlin would demand that Arthur sharing that part of the Florida gift with him.
But he had no magical powers for that. In fact, he had the impression whatever powers had returned to him had disappeared again during this brief, useless trip. He could only hope it wasn’t Sasher’s doing, and that this was just a phase, without meaning. After all, the powers that had returned to him were less than reliable.
And as he sat in the plane going towards London, Merlin couldn’t fight off the feeling that very soon he was going to need all the power he could get.
- tbc
November 29, 2009
Author: vail_kagami
Beta: nightrider101
Rating: PG
Pairing: Merlin/Arthur
Summary: It's been fortold that Arthur will return at a time when he is needed most. What Merlin needs most, right now, is for Arthur to remember who he is, and not to kill Merlin when he does.
Word count: 5562
Note: So sorry for the long delay. Real life ate me for a long time, and after that I needed a while to get back into this story.
He is standing by the edge of the lake, a long dress floating around his legs. It is soiled by the mud of the battlefield. It isn’t his.
The air is dead. Everything here is dead, and he is waiting with a patience that is not his either until the slim figure appears on top of the hill and stumbles closer, dirty and lost. That is him, in the worst moment of his life.
In his dream, he looks at himself through another’s eyes and speaks with the voice of a woman. He offers a pale, slender hand to the desperate man he has once been, but this time, the younger him refuses to take it.
-
Merlin didn’t like the dream, and he liked it even less when he dreamt it from the point of view of another person. He hated seeing himself in that moment, though not as much as he hated being himself in that moment. He’d been stumbling down that hill far too many times in his dreams. He had seem himself stumble down that hill far too many times - through her eyes, through the senses of an eagle flying by, as the mist on the lake; desperate, lost, exhausted and always, always too late.
He should just stop sleeping altogether, he though sourly when he got out of bed. He’d gotten the message well enough - there was no point in drilling it into his head every damn night.
It was a grey morning. He didn’t feel like getting up. He felt like rolling over and curling against Arthur’s warm body and let the day pass by, but of course that never had happened even in the old days, because by the time they were sleeping in the same bed, Arthur was too busy just about every day to waste a single one. The Lazy Sunday was invented too late for them, and didn’t go for kings anyway.
This was a Lazy Saturday, potentially, and there were no kings around. Merlin still couldn’t curl against Arthur, because he didn’t sleep in his bed. It was frustrating.
The times, it seemed, were never quite right for them.
Merlin felt like turning over anyway. He didn’t, because there were griffins flying around, and the weather was acting funny, and he needed to use the bathroom.
When he entered the living room, there was no trace of Arthur. Merlin knew he was still upstairs, sleeping - he knew this, because it made sense, and because he could sense it, somehow.
Also, Arthur rarely showed up before breakfast was ready. It was a talent that had survived aeons.
Today, Arthur didn’t show up when breakfast was ready either, and that was unusual, because the talent to arrive as soon as someone else has done the work was also something that had proved to be remarkably persistent.
Merlin sensed him wake up, and that was a new development. He hoped this connection, familiar but long lost, would remain. It would make it so much easier to keep watch over the boy.
Merlin was hungry, but reluctant to start eating before Arthur showed up. It was not like Arthur needed company to eat or cared much for courtesy, but Merlin waited anyway, drinking his coffee and reading the newspaper while he listened to the sound of running water upstairs. His guest took unusually long with his shower, but that might have been because he didn’t have to go to work and could take his time for once.
Still, by the time he heard footsteps down the stairs, Merlin’s eggs were cold and he was a little bit angry. For which he had no reason - they’d never even agreed to eat together, least that one had to wait for the other. It just kind of happened.
But then Arthur entered the dining room, and his face was so pale that all Merlin could think was his cold must have gotten worse overnight. Hs movements were lacking the usual grace, and he barely lifted his feet off the ground when he crossed the room.
“You look like crap,” Merlin told him.
“Great. I’m glad my looks go along with how I’m feeling.” Arthur slumped on his chair, resting his head in his hands. He didn’t seem very interested in food.
“Your cold?” Merlin asked, not entirely sure because Arthur’s voice sounded normal, not like his nose was stuffy or his throat raw. The boy shook his head without bothering to look up.
“I just have a headache. Didn’t sleep very well.”
“Bad dreams?” Merlin couldn’t help but ask.
This time Arthur did look at him. “Just confused, mostly. I don’t even remember what they were about. How do you know?”
“I usually have strange dreams when I’m sick.” Merlin sipped his forth cup of tea and hid behind the newspaper. Professor Sasher was featured again. His project was all over the news. Once again, Merlin found himself staring at his face.
“I’m not sick,” Arthur protested. “I’m just tired.”
“I think you should stay in bed and take Monday off if it doesn’t get better.”
“And I think what you think is irrelevant.” Arthur let his head fall back into his hands. After a second he asked, “You wouldn’t happen to have a painkiller somewhere, would you?”
“I do.” Merlin was frowning now, because admitting to needing medicine to get through the day was not something Arthur liked to do. Gaius had had a knack of knowing when he was sick when he grew up, and later Merlin developed the same instinct, but if Arthur admitted it himself, it had to be pretty bad.
As he left to rummage through his cabinets in search of aspirin, he considered trying one of the healing spells on his friend. But his magic was still so unreliable that he didn’t dare. It wouldn’t do for his king to get turned into a tree, or a book.
Or, going with the times, into a computer.
Which reminded Merlin of something.
“Will you be okay for a few hours? I’ve got to go to the city.” It earned him an impatient glare.
“I don’t need a babysitter.”
“Of course not,” Merlin muttered.
“Where to you need to go?”
“Just buy something I’ve been meaning to get for a while. I think it’s time, and tomorrow the shops are closed.”
“A while?”
“A couple of years. Maybe ten.”
“Wow. Once you’ve made up your mind, you don’t lose any time, do you?” An amused smile played around Arthur’s lips, even though he was still pale. Merlin filled his glass with juice and nearly ordered him to drink more, but thought in the last second that might be pushing it.
As would telling him to stay inside and don’t go work in the garden or take a walk or get abducted by aliens while Merlin was gone. If the boy had any common sense he wouldn’t leave the house in this weather anyway.
“Don’t leave the house,” Merlin told him. “It’s raining.”
Arthur looked out of the window. “It’s not.”
“It will. Trust me.”
“Why would I go out? There’s nothing to do outside.”
“You might get an urge. I know you. Don’t follow it.” Knowing Arthur, he would now go out just to spite him. “On the other hand…”
“You’re not making an awful lot of sense here.”
“Best to ignore me then.” There. That wasn’t hard. Merlin was quite satisfied with his reasoning. “I’ll go as soon as the kitchen’s cleaned up. Enjoy your day off!”
-
One of the products of technical development that had always fascinated Merlin but never quite gripped his interest enough to bother with it was the computer. Given his wealth, it seemed astonishing for him not to have at least three of the newest models standing around, but Merlin had never quite understood what he was supposed to do with them. If he needed to do some internet research, he used web cafes. Having one of those at home seemed like a luxury he just didn’t need.
Although he did have more fun than most with the game called Google Your Own Name.
By now, he decided that it was time to finally get a computer of his own. It would make internet research a lot easier, especially if he didn’t want to leave the house to do it. Of course Merlin knew he didn’t need to keep watch over Arthur twenty-four hours a day and that it would be a failsafe way to alienate the boy, but if he really got ill one day, Merlin would rather be able to look for evil beings on the net without leaving him alone.
Especially since the internet was a good source of information on all things griffin, sea serpent and alien space ship that might come up. Much more reliable than the news, if one knew how to navigate through all the crap.
So Merlin drove to the nearest multimedia store and bought a laptop. Because a laptop could be used everywhere and wasn’t too heavy to carry around. He nearly forgot it on the counter after paying for it.
He also got a contract with an internet provider, so he could get online. He then was a little miffed to learn that the activation of his connection would take approximately ten thousand years. Or at least ten days. Somehow, he had always imagined this to be a matter of no time at all.
For now, all he could hope for was that Arthur didn’t get ill in the next ten days - or, preferably, ever. On the way back home, Merlin stopped at an internet café to look up any more reports on griffins and other recent sightings of mythical beings. After five minutes, he was pretty certain that most of the people writing about such sightings were either idiots, or trying to make fun of him. Five minutes in an internet café just didn’t suffice for serious research.
At least no one claimed to have seen a dragon lately.
He hurried home to see if Arthur had died in his absence and found that he had not. Instead, he was working in the kitchen, doing the cleaning Merlin had ultimately decided to leave for later before he’d left. He looked better, almost healthy, and a little annoyed, which was always a good sign.
“You know,” he greeted Merlin, “when you said you’d leave after you cleaned the kitchen, you actually had me fooled into thinking you meant this kitchen.”
“I’m full of surprises.” Merlin offered a grin he hoped looked innocent and was rewarded with an eye roll.
“What did you buy?”
“A computer!” Merlin exclaimed proudly and lifted the box with his newest toy.
“That’s a laptop,” Arthur observed.
“Is there a difference?”
“A subtle one. Every laptop is a computer but not every computer is a laptop.”
Merlin thought about this. “So what I said was not wrong. It is a computer.”
“What I said wasn’t wrong either,” Arthur retorted. “It is a laptop.”
Merlin suspected that this was going nowhere. When exactly had they started to argue about nonsense just for the sake of arguing?
Oh, right. That long ago, huh?
“I also bought the internet.” This one earned him a raised eyebrow.
“You bought the internet? I didn’t know you had that much money. What are you going to do with it?”
“Research. And stuff.” As far as Merlin knew, the internet was mainly for stuff. And porn. He suspected the latter had been a lie, but couldn’t be sure. “I’ll have to wait ten days, though.”
“That’s normal.” Arthur shrugged. “If it’s really urgent, you can always buy one of those sticks that enable you to access the internet using the phone network.”
“And that works at once?”
“If it works at all.” Arthur shrugged. “A good one costs a lot, though…” he trailed off, apparently remembering who he was talking to.
“I think I need to go back to the city again.” A great way to spent Arthur’s free day: Driving back and forth in his car. Merlin grimaced. Nothing he could do about it. Tomorrow was Sunday, after all.
Did the internet even work on Sundays?
“If you go back to the city again,” Arthur said, opening the refrigerator, “you could stop by the supermarket on the way back. We’re out of milk.”
-
“So, let me get this straight.” Arthur was leaning against the table, his arms crossed before his chest, as he watched Merlin struggle with his new computer. Laptop. Whatever. “You never had a computer before.”
“I have a typewriter,” Merlin offered, reading the instruction on the screen and wondering which of these was the ‘any’ key.
“And you were born when exactly, did you say?”
“I didn’t.” Actually, he had. Arthur hadn’t believed him. Typically. “You don’t have a computer either.” Did he? These things came in small sizes. Impossible to tell without searching all of Arthur’s pockets.
“But I don’t have a typewriter either.”
Yet he had a gun. Merlin had seen it only once, but he couldn’t quite forget about it. Somehow, he’d never thought to ask Arthur about that. It was odd that he had one and got it through customs at the airport without trouble. What did he even do with it?
As far as Merlin knew, he never used it. He thought of the thing, lying upstairs in some drawer, and wondered why he didn’t have the urge to ask.
At least Arthur didn’t carry it around all the time. It would be inconvenient if he was arrested for illegal gun possession or however it was called, and the police found out that John Miller didn’t actually exist, and he ended up in jail before he could save the world from whatever.
Inconvenient, but somewhat funny.
With Arthur’s help, he eventually managed to get his computer in order and even get more or less reliable, if somewhat slow access to the internet. Arthur left him alone after that, retreating to his room upstairs to rest a bit because his headache had returned. Merlin stayed in the dining room, searching the net for useful information. Most web pages he found, as before, were full of crap. Why wasn’t there a law that forbade everyone to post on the internet who didn’t have something interesting to say?
And interesting in this case was defined as ‘relevant to Merlin’s interests’.
Eventually, he did find something interesting. He had missed it at first, because it was written on a serious, official looking page and concerned someone he knew from the newspaper.
“So we meet again,” he muttered as he looked at the picture of Professor Sasher, who still looked eerily familiar and completely unknown at once. According to the article of the online magazine, Sasher had come up with the theory that the weird sightings of weird creatures that happened more and more often all over the land were related to the strange signals they got from space. He had an explanation that sounded very scientific and made no sense at all. As scientific explanation tended to do.
A scientist who contributed the appearance of monsters to signals sent by aliens. Merlin just couldn’t ignore this one.
According to the article, Sasher and his team were working on a scientific project that involved sending some kind of radiation into space and seeing if it was reflected by something or other. Merlin didn’t pay much attention to that part, distracted by the sudden certainty that this was important, these strange signals the scientists claimed they were receiving from space. They had to do with the return of the magic creatures. Merlin sensed that it was so.
It was all connected: Arthur, and the return of his magic, and the appearance of griffins and gargoyles, and the signals from space. As if they were calling all the creatures of old to return.
Merlin needed to learn more about this. And obviously, Professor Sasher was the person to ask. Unfortunately, according to the article, he was living in Florida.
Well. So Merlin would need about a day to get there. He was quite happy that the internet was also offering plane tickets.
-
Getting from London to Florida last minute was pretty expensive. Arthur had been complaining quite a lot about Merlin’s lack of planning ahead. He didn’t have much money and found it hard to understand how anyone could throw it away so carelessly. Even if the person in question had more money than there was sand on the beach.
Merlin was still a little paranoid about leaving him alone, but Arthur had to be at work on Monday, and there was no way they would be back by then. And somehow, Merlin had a feeling that in this case it would be better not to raise attention to him by bringing him along.
So he left alone, leaving the house at five AM Sunday morning. For once, Arthur would have to take care of breakfast himself.
Merlin didn’t pack much, because he didn’t want to stay long. The fact that he was travelling to another continent with only a backpack caused the check-in lady to look at him funny but he calmed down her suspicion with a goofy grin, which, miraculously, still worked almost every time.
The flight was long, but the comforts of first class made it bearable. Merlin had a lot of time to think, though, and worry a bit, and think some more, and read a lot of magazines.
When he finally left the plane and then the airport, the warmth of the air came as a surprise, despite the fact that he was used to travelling long distances and had been here before.
He remembered, suddenly, that Arthur had considered moving to Florida before winter should he earn enough money for the flight. It probably was for the best that Merlin had not taken him along. He’d never have been able to get him back home to England.
Travelling last minute like this had the downside of him not having a place to stay once he arrived. Having a lot of money had the upside of not having any trouble finding a place to stay. Merlin had not originally intended to need a place to stay, because he just wanted to find Sasher, talk to him, and go home with the next flight leaving in the general direction of Great Britain, but when he arrived at the institute the professor was working at, he learned that the man he was looking for was having a long weekend off and currently travelling the countryside with his jeep, trying to run over as many rabbits as he could find. Or something. In any case, he wasn’t there, and no one could tell Merlin where he was.
Which presented him with the problem of finding a place to stay. He did, and spent the night being happy to be out of the cold Autumn weather of England. At the same time, it felt wrong to be here, though Merlin couldn’t tell if it was England he needed to go back to, or Arthur. It was so damn far. If anything happened to the boy, he wouldn’t even learn of it before he returned, and even if somehow he did find out, it would be a day at least before he got back to him. Too late to be of help should Arthur get in trouble.
Merlin didn’t sleep at all that night. But that wasn’t at all uncommon, and it was nice to have a different ceiling to stare at for once.
The next day he was at the institute again, letting the warmth of the air soak through his bones and suddenly feeling old. Perhaps, though, he was only feeling the heat. A hat might have been an idea. His brain was getting toasted in there, and his ability to think turned to steam. Arthur would confirm that, if he were here.
If Arthur were here, and a couple of years older, Merlin would not have spend the night staring at the ceiling. At least not from that position.
He really needed to stop thinking about that.
The clerk at the scientific institute who had sent him away the day before now greeted him with a smile. “Professor Sasher is expecting you,” she said, which was a little surprising, because Merlin had no appointment, and he hadn’t thought the woman would even mention his visit to the professor.
Well, obviously he had been mistaken in this regard. Perhaps his fake name and genuine wealth were more generally known than he had expected and Sasher intended to be very nice to him in hope for financial support for his research.
Though the institute surely didn’t give the impression of being short on money. It was clean and bright and modern, and altogether a lot better looking that Merlin’s house in London. Arthur would like it here. Although he appeared to enjoy fixing roofs and painting window frames well enough.
Sasher awaited Merlin in a large, bright office. There were no windows - the bright light came from lamps that imitated daylight almost perfectly, and there was a black leather couch for visitors, a desk with a computer and a chair behind it. Sasher did not sit in the chair. He was standing in front of the desk, leaning against it and facing the door, as if he had done nothing all day but wait for Merlin to arrive.
“Welcome, Mr. Rogers,” the man he had only seen on pictures greeted him. He smiled, which made him look even more familiar than he had before.
“You were expecting me?” Merlin asked.
“Oh, indeed I have. I thought you might be here sooner, though.”
Merlin glanced at his watch. It was almost noon. “I hope you haven’t been standing there in front of your desk all that time waiting for me.”
Sasher chuckled. “I did not. In fact, I have been quite busy.” He gestured to the couch. “Do sit down.”
Merlin did not sit down. He didn’t even move, because something about the way the man moved and spoke stirred something in the back of his mind and his mouth moved to voice the thought as it came to him. “I know you.”
There was a different quality now to Sasher’s smile. “Do you indeed?”
“Yes. Who are you?”
“Did you not just say you knew him?” That was the secretary, sounding confused. Sasher looked at her, not at all unfriendly, and she left the room without another word.
“I have been on the news a lot. Surely you saw my face before.”
“Yes, I have. And every time I thought I knew you from somewhere.”
Sasher shrugged. “Well, perhaps we did meet before, in passing, during your very long life. Had it been a closer acquaintance, surely you would remember.”
There indeed was something very odd about this man, and the way he spoke, and the fact that only after a few seconds Merlin did notice what bothered him about Sasher’s words.
“I’m thirty-six,” he announced. It was as good an age as any.
“Fascinating,” said Sasher.
“I’d say you are older than me.”
“Oh, I am indeed a lot older than you.”
“In that case, it was inappropriate to imply my life having been a long one,” Merlin said wisely.
Sasher was still smiling. “My apologies. That came out wrong. So, what grants me the honour of your visit?”
“You don’t know?”
“You never told.”
Now Merlin thought about it, he hadn’t. He had made up something to tell if he was asked, but no one had seemed to care.
“Then why did you agree to meet me?”
“I’m curious. I wanted to know what you want from me. Also, I suspect you want to talk to me about my work, and I love talking about my work.”
This man was just plain odd. Merlin didn’t trust him. “I’m sure a lot of people want to ask you about your work. Do you do this often? Welcome random visitors?”
“Only when they look interesting, and are famous and rich. Scientists are always looking for someone to sponsor their work.”
“I’m not famous and… I’m not famous,” Merlin pointed out. “At least I’m pretty certain I’m not.”
“Funny, I could have sworn I knew very well who you were, Mr. Rogers.” Sasher shrugged and walked around his desk to sit down behind it. “I must have been mistaken. Anyway, are you going to give us money so we can use it in the name of science?”
“That depends on what exactly you are using it for.” Merlin went over to one of the visitor’s chairs, but remained standing behind it instead of sitting down.
“Don’t you know? I thought that was why you were here.”
“Griffins, unicorns and other mythical creatures are running around all over the world. At least they are running around all over Great Britain. Even Nessie is said to have returned to Loch Ness. They appeared at the same time your funny signals from space came in.”
“Was that supposed to be a question?” Sasher smiled ever so slightly.
“Where is the connection?” Merlin asked to clear all doubts that his was, indeed, supposed to be a question.
“How would I know? We do not yet know what to make of these signals.”
“I think you’re lying.”
“So.” Sasher lightly crossed his fingers in front of his mouth. “I have been sending out signals into space hoping we would get a reply. It looks like we did, but we don’t know what it means.”
“So this is aliens trying to contact us?” Arthur would not be thrilled to hear this. It meant Merlin had been right.
“I think it comes from aliens, but I don’t think they want to contact us. They signals are too random, too unstructured. It’s rather as if they are looking for something.” He tilted his head, his eyes never leaving Merlin’s. “I think they are going to attack.”
“Oh, please! Alien attack? You’ve got to be kidding.”
“You think so? Fine. Take the risk. There’s nothing you can do about it yet, anyway.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?” The guy was beginning to get on Merlin’s nerves.
“Just what I said: If we’ll be attacked by aliens, you can’t stop them. Mankind might end in slavery or total extinction because you can’t stop them. Or can you? Hypothetically speaking, I mean.”
“Of course not.”
“And hypothetically speaking, if you could stop them, would you do it?”
Merlin frowned. He didn’t know where this was going, but this, for once, was a question he could answer without having to think about it.
“Yes. Of course.”
“No matter the cost?”
“Yes.”
“Are you sure?”
“Of course I am! What’s more important than the entire planet?”
“In that case, everything will be alright.”
“Is this going somewhere?” Merlin asked irritated. “Actually I had come here to ask you some questions.”
“You did. I couldn’t answer them.”
“No, you refused to answer them.” Merlin almost took a step closer, but something kept him from it. “You know very well what is going on. Who are you?”
“Haven’t we been there already? My friend, if you want to know what’s going on, you’ll have to wait and see, and then react accordingly. It’s the same as always.”
“The same as always,” Merlin repeated. “You know, you really sound like someone I once knew. You’re just as helpful.”
Sasher’s smile had even more amusement in it than before. “Why did you come here, young man?”
“Actually, I don’t know. It seemed like a good idea.” As he spoke the words, Merlin realised they were true. He had no more reason to come than a few wild connections he thought he’d seen. He wondered if it had been magic leading his actions, but if it was, it had led him nowhere. “I know now that I can’t expect any straight answers from you.”
“Perhaps you are asking the wrong questions.”
“Fine, then.” He could be more direct if that guy insisted on it. “Was it you who-”
“I’m sorry. I only had a few minutes to spare, and those minutes are over. Please come again later, when I’m not so busy.”
“With something evil?” Merlin asked. It couldn’t hurt to try.
Sasher snorted good-naturedly. “We’ll meet again, I’m sure. One day, with more time on our hands. And less things for you to worry about.”
Merlin, already on his way to the door, stopped dead in his tracks. “What do you mean by that?”
“Nothing, young friend. Just an old man rambling. Great changes are going to come for this world, but they are changes for the better.”
“Are you talking about the possible enslavement of mankind by aliens right now?” Merlin asked drily.
“The fate of the world depends on various factors. As you well know, some things have to be sacrificed for the greater good.”
Merlin turned sharply back to the professor, but Sasher only smiled at him in a way that for once seemed almost genuine.
“Everything will be all right in the end,” he said. “You’ll see. The greater good is not just an expression.”
Somehow, as he walked out of the building, Merlin wasn’t quite convinced.
-
The best word Merlin could come up with to describe the professor was creepy. And the best word he could come up with to describe this trip was useless. He now was as smart as before, but thoroughly weirded out. It was not the accomplishment he had hoped for.
So Sasher knew who he was. There was little doubt about that - despite popular (meaning Arthur’s) opinion, Merlin was not a complete idiot. There was no other way to interpret Sasher’s cryptic remarks but as “Hey, I know who you are, and I’m going to hint at it without actually saying it so you will have to wonder all the time! Ho ho ho!” Well, that didn’t work, since Merlin knew exactly that the guy knew him and didn’t have to torment himself with wondering.
Not that it helped in any way.
Thinking about it, coming here had been a bit of a stupid idea. By now, Merlin was pretty convinced it was magic that had caused this meeting. If magic had a specific purpose or just liked to get on his nerves, though, he couldn’t say. The professor definitely wanted to get on his nerves. And show he had the upper hand. After all, he knew who Merlin was, but Merlin didn’t know him
Was he another sorcerer of the old days who had survived eons? It was the most likely answer, but if he was, he had enough magic left to change his appearance, because Merlin had never seen him before.
So was this magic’s way of showing him that he was not, after all, the most powerful sorcerer ever? If so, it could stay with someone who liked it!
Or was it all just a coincidence, their shared powers drawing them together? Merlin did not believe it. Sasher had known he was coming, or had at least not been surprised to see him.
But then, Merlin had announced his visit. So much for that.
All he could say, at this point, was that he did not trust the man. And since he had proven so incredibly unhelpful, Merlin would not approach him for help again. Ever. In his life.
Now it had been established that this trip was a giant waste of time and only resulted in unnerving him, Merlin decided to go home again, as soon as possible. Who knew what kind of trouble Arthur would get into if he stayed away any longer?
Though, despite everything, Merlin had to admit that the biggest danger for his friend right now was getting hit by a falling brick. Which was dangerous enough, if completely random. People had been killed by falling bricks, and Merlin had to get back to make sure Arthur didn’t become one of them.
(Sacrifices had to be made for the greater good, Sasher had said. Merlin didn’t like the sound of that at all.)
When he boarded the plane back home, he had been in the United States for all of two days, and was very eager to get back to cold, rainy England. Although, had he been in the full possession of his magical powers, he would have packed some sunshine and warmth, for Arthur. The sun would be with him wherever he went, and shine in his hair, and it would be epic.
And warm. Merlin would demand that Arthur sharing that part of the Florida gift with him.
But he had no magical powers for that. In fact, he had the impression whatever powers had returned to him had disappeared again during this brief, useless trip. He could only hope it wasn’t Sasher’s doing, and that this was just a phase, without meaning. After all, the powers that had returned to him were less than reliable.
And as he sat in the plane going towards London, Merlin couldn’t fight off the feeling that very soon he was going to need all the power he could get.
- tbc
November 29, 2009