Pendragon's Folly, Chapter 9
Title: Pendragon's Folly
Pairing: M/A, eventually.
Characters: in this chapter - Merlin, Arthur, Gaius.
Rating: PG maybe even U
Chapter Word Count: 7,500
Warnings: No sex
Summary: There's an out of work wizard, a museum, a sizeable donation that turns it into a building site, suspicious happenings and magic. A sort of 'take your fandom to work' story.
Author's note 1: When it comes to romance, this story is the definition of 'slow burn'.
Comments are always greatly appreciated, loved and cherished.
Author's note 2: More thanks than I can say to my beta, plot wrangler and best friend, sparrow2000. And many, many thanks to DJ for (hopefully) catching the typos we missed. If you spot any more, please do let me know.
Disclaimer: I write fan fic. All the characters from the Merlin series are the property of the BBC and Shine, etc. No infringement is intended and no profit is being made from this writing.
Previously on Pendragon's Folly:
Merlin turned his hand so it was flat, palm upwards. "Look," he said and a small swirl of tiny coloured lights began to form and dance above his palm. Once he had the complex orbits stabilised, he looked up. Arthur's eyes were fixed on the lights. Merlin concentrated and began to bring them closer to each other, until they coalesced into a single, blue-green ball, about the size of a large glass marble that swirled with silver and gold.
The sound of a gasp made him look up again. While he'd been manipulating his light show, Arthur had come back across the room. He was slightly bent forward, so his face was only a foot from the globe. His expression made something in Merlin's chest swell.
Arthur reached out his hand, but aborted the gesture. "You can touch it, if you like," Merlin said. "It's not hot."
Arthur looked up. "Or not," Merlin added, closing his hand. When he opened it again, the ball was gone.
Arthur abruptly straightened and collapsed into the chair behind him.
Chapter 9
As soon as Arthur had taken a breath, Merlin had to do it again, of course.
It took three more demonstrations, with Merlin standing in different places in the room, before Arthur would believe it was not some sort of three-dimensional projection, but eventually it seemed he was convinced enough to sit down and let Merlin talk.
"It really is magic," Merlin said, for the fifth or sixth time.
"The proper word is probably telekinesis."
"Yeah, maybe. Point is, I've always been able to do it. Mum said I could fetch things across the room, from my cradle."
"That would be teleportation."
"Okay, if you want to call it that."
"What about Telepathy?"
"I've never tried. It's kind of important that no one ever finds out about any of it." Merlin explained. "I just call it magic."
"But you're telling me?"
"Yeah, because Morgana's trying to kill you and I need you to listen, so you won't, you know, get killed."
The first part of the story, the part where Merlin explained about spells and pulled his book out of his bag to demonstrate, used up the rest of Arthur's beer. He laid it all out - stories from his childhood growing up with an ability he could never allow anyone to see. Stories his mother had told him about things he had done before his earliest memories. He created a dragon from sparks of light. He fetched more beer, without leaving his seat. He even recounted his part in the history of Will and the falling tree that almost killed old Mr Simmons. Arthur's instinctive, 'How are you doing that?' turned into reluctant wonder and, eventually, into even more reluctant belief. By then it was past midnight.
When the beer was gone, Arthur decided he was still in need of liquid support. "Fetch us a bottle of wine, would you?" he said. "The Merlot."
"I can't."
"Of course you can." If Arthur still wasn't perfectly happy, he did seem to recognise that magic had its uses. "You fetched the beer and that was in the fridge. The wine's in the rack on the wall, there."
With a sigh of ostentatious patience, Merlin explained, "I can see the fridge from here and when I opened the door I could see the beer. I can't fetch the Merlot because I don't know which bottle it is. Merlot doesn't have some sort of magical signature I can latch onto and call." He brightened. "Unless you'd be satisfied with a lucky dip?"
"No, I want Merlot," Arthur said, hauling himself to his feet. "And now I think about it, I have to get the glasses, anyway. I'm not trusting them to your precarious, gravity defying tricks."
"Hey! It was one bottle and it didn't even break."
When Arthur returned with an open wine bottle in one hand and two glasses held between the fingers of the other, he paused and looked down at Merlin before retaking his seat. "How are you still alive?" he asked, shaking his head. "And not locked up in some secret government lab?"
Merlin smiled wryly. "For as long as I can remember, I mean forever, Mum drummed it into me. Not to tell anyone. To keep it secret. And I did."
"From birth?" Arthur asked. This seemed, for some reason Merlin didn't understand, to be the bit Arthur was having most difficulty with.
"Yes, from birth," he confirmed. "My mum knew how dangerous it could be if anyone found out."
Something in his voice seemed to catch Arthur's attention. "But?" he asked. "You told someone?"
"Yeah. When I was about twelve, I, I thought she was wrong. There was Will, you see. He was my friend. And I told him..."
"And?"
"And then he wasn't my friend for a while."
Arthur nodded. "But he forgave you," he said. It was a statement, not a question. "Why are you telling me?"
"I said - because you need to know what you're up against."
"No, I mean okay, but…"
"I trust you to keep my secret."
"But why do you?"
"I really don't know, because you can be a real prat. But I do."
Arthur laughed. "Thank you," he said. He sobered quickly, however, and regarded Merlin seriously. "Yes, I'll keep your secret," he said.
They sat in silence for a moment, Arthur staring at Merlin and Merlin gazing into the empty fireplace.
"Tell me more about magic," Arthur said. "What makes you think Morgana is magic?" He was pouring wine, but he paused thoughtfully. "Has magic?" he said, as if he was testing the words as he voiced them. He looked up at Merlin and smiled. "What makes you think she can do magic?" he asked and returned to his task. "Have you seen her do some?"
So Merlin started talking again. He listed the three attempts to injure, if not kill, Arthur and explained how he had tasted her magic on the air, but hadn't recognised it for what it was until Monday afternoon. "I've never felt someone else's magic before," he explained.
"But you know it's magic?" Arthur shook his head. "And I still can't believe I'm seriously saying that."
Merlin smiled in sympathy. "Yeah, I know it's magic. And she was always there - when Pell fell, when you almost went under a car, when the bust almost cracked your skull open."
"Yes, that was weird," Arthur agreed. "I fell backwards and the bust landed in front of me." He caught Merlin's eye and froze. "I didn't fall, did I?" he said.
"I might have given you a small push," Merlin admitted.
"You saved my life, you mean. It almost scraped my nose on the way past." Arthur stopped talking and looked into space. "Bloody hell," he said quietly. "Oh fuck." And then, still quietly and almost breathlessly, "Ohfuckohfuckohfuckohfuckohfuck."
Merlin waited him out and eventually he took a large gulp of wine, emptying his glass. "So what else can she do?" he asked, picking up the bottle and tilting it towards the light to check how much it still held. "Obviously more than your pretty light shows." He looked at his glass and put the bottle down again.
"She has wild magic," Merlin said. "At least, that's what Miss Kay said."
"Miss Kay? Gods! This story keeps on growing. Miss Kay knows about magic?"
"Also Gaius."
"Does my father know?"
"I don't think so." He remembered what Miss Kay had said about Arthur's mother and amended that to, "I don't know."
Arthur looked at his watch. "It's two o'clock. I don't think I can absorb any more of this. I need to sleep on it. If I sleep at all." Having made up his mind, he stood up. "Come on, I'll show you the spare room," he said, walking towards the stairs.
Merlin got up and followed him but, with one hand on the banister and a foot on the bottom step, Arthur turned. "Show me again," he said. "Show me something, so I don't convince myself this was all some sort of hallucination, by morning."
Merlin scanned the room. The empty beer bottles, the almost empty wine bottle and the dirty glasses levitated themselves across to the kitchen counter. They hovered for a moment before settling gently. "Okay," Arthur said and turned to go up the stairs. He stopped at the sound of clinking and looked back at the kitchen to watch the glasses engage in a short, formal dance, tipping towards each other and gliding around each other in an extended figure of eight. He looked away from the glass ballet, to Merlin, who with dividing his own attention between the kitchen and Arthur. "Now you're just showing off," he said. "Come on, idiot."
Merlin grinned at him and followed him up the stairs.
*****
When he woke up the next morning, Merlin opened his eyes to a high, sloped ceiling with exposed structural beams and white walls. "Seven o'clock, Merlin," Arthur called through the door. "Get up."
Merlin groaned and rolled out of bed. "Coming," he called back.
Fifteen minutes later, after a quick shower, he staggered down to the kitchen. Arthur was sitting over a bowl of cereal and a mug of coffee at the counter. There was a slight frown between his brows. He pointed at a second mug with his spoon. "Help yourself," he said. "There's muesli or cornflakes." He indicated a box and a plastic bag next to the coffee filter machine. Merlin nodded his thanks. "Bowl on the shelf behind you," Arthur added.
Merlin went and retrieved a bowl but focused first on the offer of coffee. He poured himself a mug and sat down opposite Arthur. Holding the mug up to his face, he breathed in the steam before taking a sip.
With the edge of his awareness, he noticed Arthur shift on his stool. "What makes you think Morgana's my sister?" Arthur asked. He glanced up briefly but quickly returned his concentration to his bowl. "Not from googling."
Merlin put his mug down and reached over for the cornflakes packet and the milk carton. He poured cornflakes and milk into the bowl before he answered and Arthur didn't try to hurry him. "No," he said, eventually, "Miss Kay told me."
"Miss Kay?"
"Yeah. When I went to see her yesterday. I mean, the day before."
"And she just told you Morgana was my sister and you believed her?"
"Well, she knew your mother when she was young, before she married your father."
"She might have done, but what does that have to do with anything?" Arthur stopped, his eyes fixed on a spot beyond Merlin shoulder and his expression thoughtful. "But she knows about magic? You said that last night, right?"
Merlin nodded. "You know? You're taking this very calmly. More calmly than Will did."
"What else can I do?"
"Did you get any sleep last night?"
Arthur glanced around the kitchen. "I'm still at home eating breakfast at 7:30," he said. "So no, I didn't get much sleep last night. But that doesn't change what I now know. It wasn't a hallucination, was it?"
"No."
"So magic is real and Miss Kay knows about it."
"Yes."
"And when we went to see her, as we were leaving, you said there was something odd about her."
"Did I? Well, I was right. I don't know what she is. But she feels like something powerful."
"Something? How'd you know she's powerful?"
"Because when I try to feel her magic, I can't find anything." Arthur opened his mouth, but Merlin kept talking. "I can't even feel the spark. Everybody has that. A sort of flavour I can taste with a part of my mind that sits at the back somewhere."
"You're not making any sense."
"I know. Hang on." He stirred his cornflakes but didn't eat. "Okay," he said. "So when we went to see her, I tried to sort of check her out. I hadn't really done that before. On anyone. But people have a kind of aura? Something like that. And I can sense it. Mostly it's just there, faintly, all the time, and I don't notice it. But when I tried to suss her out, there was nothing. I could sense her heartbeat, but... At first I just thought I'd done it wrong. It was only later I realised it was her that was different."
"And that's why you said she was odd?"
"I don't know. I guess?"
"It seems to me that a lot of this magic of yours is subconscious." Arthur said, frowning, a spoon full of muesli held suspended above his bowl. "I'm trying to imagine it," he said. "If you could always do stuff -"
"Yeah," Merlin agreed, interrupting him. "That's it exactly. I never thought about it. It was only since Gaius gave me that book that I've realised I can learn to direct it."
Arthur shook his head. "Show me something again," he said. "Because this conversation we're having? It doesn't make sense."
Merlin looked around, spotted the sugar bowl and drew it across the counter until it stood between them. The lid floated off and set itself down on the countertop with a gentle click. A spoonful of sugar, without the benefit of the spoon, rose out of the bowl, sailed like a procession of flying ants across to Merlin and scattered itself over his cornflakes.
"Not moving stuff," Arthur said. "Something else."
"That's actually quite difficult," Merlin protested. "All those separate grains of sugar."
"But it didn't look impressive. Show me something else."
Merlin held out his hand between them, palm up. Slowly a small cloud of pink began to form there. It darkened to deep red and began to coalesce into a ball. As it did so, the top edge whirled and a dark green spot appeared near its underside, at the base of Merlin fingers. It drew tighter and the swirls froze in place, leaving a perfect crimson rosebud. Merlin lifted his hand higher and they could both see the short stem sticking down from between his middle and ring fingers. "Buttonhole?" he suggested.
Arthur laughed. "I think not, I am neither sixty years old, nor looking for questions I can't answer. Either put it in water, or you can wear it."
Merlin laid it on the countertop and addressed himself to his breakfast.
"Morgana," Arthur said.
Merlin looked up. "Yeah?"
"You say she's behind it all." He held up his hand when Merlin opened his mouth to protest. "It's not that I don't believe you," he said. "But I've only got your word. Ah, ah, wait. It's possible you're mistaken. I need evidence." Merlin subsided and Arthur picked up his coffee mug. "And if it turns out -"
"When," Merlin said.
"If it turns out that she's guilty, then we have to stop her somehow," Arthur said.
"We could go to the police?
"And say what? That an evil witch put a spell on my father, so he embarrassed himself on prime time television and, by the way, she's trying to kill me too? No. We have to talk to her."
"Talk to her? And say what?"
"I don't know, but I'm coming back to Camelot and we're going to sort this out. What were you planning to do next?"
"There's a bus at four o'clock," Merlin said.
"I have to go into the office to make sure Geoffrey has everything under control, but if you wait until this evening I'll drive you," Arthur said. "What were you going to do until four?"
"The British Library. Gaius told me about their arcane collection. There's a lot of magic there, he says."
"Hmm. You do remember that you work for me, don't you? It might be Friday, but that's still a working day and I'm paying for your time."
"The British Library is valid Pendragon research," Merlin protested. "I'm trying to save your life."
"Right, well, I hate to break it to you, but you have to apply for a library card before you can get in there and that takes days. You can't just walk in off the street and ask for books."
With a smug grin, Merlin said, "Magic does have practical uses you know. I've known how to charm my way past things like that since I was old enough to leave the house alone."
Arthur smiled back. "Okay," he said. "Not just pretty lights and roses, then. But you'd better take this." He took his wallet out of his jacket pocket, withdrew a business card and looked around the bench top.
Merlin dug in his own pocket, extracted the pen he had borrowed the previous week and held it out.
"You had it, did you?" Arthur said, taking it. He scrawled a number on the back of the card. "That's my private mobile," he said, handing it to Merlin. "If you get arrested, call me on that number, okay?"
*****
It didn't prove difficult for Merlin to gain entrance to the reading rooms, but he soon realised that they were not what he needed. Some careful spying on other users showed him how they were ordering books and having them delivered to their desks, but he wasn't confident that he could pull off his impersonation well enough to access that facility. Instead, he followed his nose and a member of staff into the stacks. From there it was a case of concentrating on what he was looking for until he knew which way to go.
The miles of movable book shelves in the basement didn't have any helpful signs pointing at "Magical Texts", so he walked along them until he felt a ripple of heat across his skin. There was no one else in sight so he wound the handle on the end of the shelf to open it up.
The sensation grew stronger and he walked into the space between the newly exposed shelves, running his finger along the spines until he felt something tickle at the back of his brain. Carefully pulling the book out, he squatted down in the narrow space, opened it and dug his notebook out of his bag.
*****
They met up again at Arthur's house at seven o'clock, when Arthur finally got home from work. Merlin was sitting on the doorstep reading through his photocopies when Arthur appeared in front of him, his briefcase in one hand and a bulging carrier bag in the other. "I see you didn't get arrested then," he said. "Any luck?"
Shoving his papers away in his pack, Merlin looked up and smiled. "Oh, man, you have no idea," he said. "I found this amazing book. It was dedicated to King James and it was full of the most amazing stuff. I just read and read." He got to his feet while he was talking and Arthur handed him the carrier bag.
Arthur dug his keys out of his pocket. "Sorry I'm a bit later than I planned," he said, unlocking the door. "There was a lot to tidy up."
"It's okay. I called Gaius to say we'd be back later tonight."
"Right, I just need to pick up a few things. Have you eaten?"
They went in and climbed the stairs. "Uh, yeah, I couldn't leave, but I bought a pasty and some beer on the way back."
Arthur looked over his shoulder. "A pasty and beer?" he asked.
Merlin grinned. "I ate the pasty on the tube. The beer's for later."
They had reached the kitchen and Arthur went and dug in the back of a cupboard, pulling out a large thermos. "Would you make some coffee to see us through?" he asked. "It'll be too late for the hotel restaurant by the time I drop you off, but there's bread and the making of sandwiches in the bag, if you fancy putting some together. I haven't had time to eat since breakfast."
"You had time to shop, but not to eat?" Merlin asked.
Arthur was already on his way up the stairs. He looked down at Merlin and grinned. "Well, I did the difficult bit and wrote the list," he said. He left that hanging while he continued up the stairs and out of sight.
Merlin unpacked the carrier bag.
*****
The front half of the ground floor of Arthur's house turned out to be a double garage, housing Arthur's MG and a dark blue Toyota Yaris. Merlin was slightly disappointed that Arthur elected to take the Yaris, but he had to admit it did have more space. He relaxed into the passenger seat as Arthur navigated them through the city traffic, until miles of uninterrupted motorway stretched ahead of them. They shared the coffee, passing the cup back and forth, and ate the sandwiches, while Arthur drove and the daylight faded. Once they were done, Merlin packed the rubbish away in the carrier bag.
"Tell me," Arthur said, glancing over and catching Merlin's eye "Have you ever used magic to do something illegal?"
"Um… Well, maybe when I was at school, I might have occasionally handed in invisible homework," Merlin admitted, "but, well, that didn't work out."
"Why not?"
"Because you get the marks, but you don't really learn anything."
"How old were you?"
"Fourteen."
Arthur shot him a dubious look, before turning his eyes back to the road. "That was very mature of you."
"Yeah, well," Merlin muttered. "And maybe my mum found out?"
Arthur threw back his head and laughed. "Now that I do believe," he said. "But that's it? Never forged a cheque?"
"No!"
"Or magically turned plain paper into money?"
Merlin didn't answer while he thought that one through. "I wonder if I could?" he mused.
"Don't," Arthur said. "I suspect it's like invisible homework - there's sure to be a karmic backlash. In fact, in a world that suddenly has magic in it, I'm betting instant karma exists too." He paused as he pulled out into the fast lane to overtake a Sainsbury's lorry. "And that's it?" he asked, when they were back in the left hand lane again. "Nothing else?"
"No. My mum dragged me up proper."
Arthur nodded. "Okay," he said. "I believe you. So can you use magic to save my company?"
Merlin shook his head. "What, interfere in the economy of the country? Sorry. No, I don't think that would be a good idea."
"Of course it wouldn't. It would be too easy if the magic-" He winced as he spoke the word. "And I still can't believe I'm treating this as fact. It would be too easy if the magic that caused this problem, could also fix it."
They approached a road sign that announced, 'Camelot 45 miles'. Arthur shook his head, as if he was clearing it. "We should be there by nine," he said. "I suppose we'd better think about how I'm going to get to talk to Morgana without her magic-ing me."
"We're going to Gaius first," Merlin said. "I want to talk it all over with him there." Arthur looked across at him and Merlin said, "No, listen, he already knows all about it. Who do you think I've been talking to all this time? He knows about magic and, and he's my uncle. And he's old and wise and he'll understand the stuff I found today."
"Okay," Arthur agreed. "I suppose he's at least another head on the problem. So if we're not going to make plans now, you'd better entertain me."
"I'm not doing magic in the car when you're driving. I don't want to distract you into a ditch."
"Tell me what you found out at the British Library then."
The account of Merlin's day occupied the rest of the journey and Arthur proved to be an intelligent listener, whose questions forced Merlin to puzzle through a few issues that he'd instinctively accepted and not questioned when he read them. By the time they drew up in front of Gaius's small house, he was feeling both exhausted by the interrogation and buzzed from the stimulation and challenge.
*****
It was closer to 9:30 than 9:00 by the time Gaius had made the inevitable pot of tea and mugs of coffee. Arthur and Merlin pulled out the table in Gaius's living room, so they could all sit at it, shoving some of the papers, books and other miscellaneous objects that occupied half its surface onto the sideboard to make space.
"So you believe him?" was Gaius's first question, once they were settled.
"I have to," Arthur replied. "I'd have loved it to be some sort of stage trick, but..." he paused for a moment before finishing the sentence, "it's not."
"No, it's not," Gaius agreed. "I know this is a lot to accept on short notice." Arthur waved a dismissive hand but Gaius continued, "I've known about Merlin's magic since he was a baby. And I've been researching the subject for almost as long. Between us, his mother and I, mostly his mother, have tried to help him grow with his gift."
"Hey, sitting right here," Merlin said, but Gaius paid as much heed to his protest as he had to Arthur's attempt to move him on. "We don't have magic," Gaius said, "and Merlin's father is who knows where. But ever since his mother first saw… She's an intelligent woman and she made sure she brought him up to understand the implications, as well as the possibilities. The responsibilities, as well as the potential power." Merlin was actively squirming in his seat by this point and Arthur shot him an amused look before dutifully returning his attention to Gaius.
"I've done some research while you've been away," Gaius said, glancing at Merlin. "Morgana also grew up fatherless." He gave a slight nod of acknowledgement in Arthur's direction. "But in her case, her mother died when Morgana was five. She was brought up by her aunt, who I've met on more than a few occasions at various functions. She's a good woman, but narrow. And I believe that in her devotion to her religious beliefs, she is not very flexible when faced with new ideas."
"She wouldn't respond well to Morgana's magic?" Arthur asked.
"It depends when it manifest. If Morgana is like Merlin and has channelled magic since birth, it is impossible that her mother and probably her aunt didn't know about it. However, from what I have read, in most cases magic doesn't manifest until puberty. By that time, Morgana would be old enough to decide for herself who she told."
"What are you saying?" Merlin asked.
"I am saying that Morgana did not necessarily have the clear guidance that you had, on what is right and what is wrong, in the context of magic."
"That's... very interesting," Arthur said, "but I really don't see how knowing it helps."
Gaius shrugged. "No, it probably doesn't," he agreed, "but I felt it was worth saying." He frowned, visibly putting that train of thought aside. "Where else are we?" he asked.
It was Merlin who replied. "I found some fantastic books in the British Library, Uncle Gaius. I told you when I called - there was some amazing stuff in them. Well…"
"Before we get into the detail," Gaius said, holding up a hand. Merlin reluctantly subsided. "Could we possibly consider the bigger picture?" He turned to Arthur. "What do you hope to achieve by coming back to Camelot?" he asked.
Arthur pursed his lips thoughtfully. "If Morgana has caused the problems my father and my company are suffering from, I want to make her stop and put it right."
Merlin opened his mouth, but Gaius quelled him again with a glance. "And do you have any plan for how to achieve this?" he asked.
"No. Talk to her, I suppose. I'm not sure what else I can do. We can hardly involve the authorities. And she may be a witch, literally, but she can't be locked up for it."
"In a mental hospital?" Merlin suggested.
"She's not crazy," Gaius said. "At least, not in any way that a doctor would understand. Do you think any doctor would believe in magic sufficiently to commit her? And, as you say," he added, turning back to Arthur, "other legal channels are also closed to us."
"Which really only leaves talking to her," Arthur said again. "Unless there's some magic you can do?" he asked.
Both Gaius and Arthur looked at Merlin and he shook his head. "I found out a few interesting things in the library," he said. Gaius nodded encouragingly so he was finally able to say what he had been wanting to say since they sat down. He turned to Arthur. "I think I found out how Morgana set up your father," he said.
Arthur's eyes widened and Merlin explained, "There's a potion, mostly harmless herbs, but with the right spell and a full moon, it…" He paused as the need for diplomacy occurred to him and when he continued he picked his words with care. "It draws out a person's deepest doubts and magnifies them. Twists them to give them more power and pushes them back in. Deep. If," he paused again and took a breath. Arthur was watching him intently but didn't look like he was about to interrupt. Opposite him, Gaius's gaze was similarly intent. Merlin continued, "If your father was afraid, years later, that something he'd done had been responsible for your mother's death, for example, no matter that it's not true, the spell would turn that fear into a certainty. If he knew he'd cut business corners and was worried about the... the propriety of that, the spell could convince him that he had really broken the law and was on the brink of being caught." He paused and bit at his bottom lip as they absorbed that. "Morgana made the tea that day," he said. "It would be easy for her to slip something into his cup."
"So she did it to hurt him," Gaius said. "Is that why he confessed on television?"
Merlin shrugged. "There might have been another spell on top," he said. "I don't know. I didn't find one, but I only had one day in one library. Who knows how long Morgana's been planning? He did look conflicted, but I think it might have made him want to confess. If it did, if he hadn't been on the telly that night it would have come out some other way." He looked at Arthur and reached out one hand, laying it on Arthur's forearm. "Or it might not be a spell, that bit," he said. "I think your dad has a very rigid code of... morality? He might feel that, since he'd done wrong, he should own up."
Arthur gave him a tight smile. "Thank you," he said. "But I've watched that programme, over and over, and the more I watch it, the more crazy he looks. Now, with what I know now, I would interpret his behaviour as being subject to an overpowering compulsion. And very unwilling."
Exchanging a quick glance with Gaius, Merlin shrugged again. "I don't know," he said. "But I think so. I've never tried anything like that, but some of the stuff I read…"
"It's certainly possible," Gaius said. "But it's very dark magic. To overwhelm someone's autonomy like that..."
"And Morgana can do it?" Arthur asked.
"I suppose anyone with sufficient magical ability could do it. At least to some extent. If they chose to go down that path."
"I need to be certain." Arthur said. He sounded weary. "And I need to know why she's doing this. If she's angry enough to punish my father, well, I suppose I can just about understand that, however much I deplore it. And I really, really do. I've never been blind to my father's faults. He's a hard man. But..."
He sighed, shook his head and when he spoke again it was in a brisker tone of voice. "Why is she trying to kill me? If you're right about her and she's my sister, wouldn't she be happy to know she has family?" He shrugged helplessly. "Then there's the company. She's threatening the livelihoods of all the people we employ."
"I don't know," Gaius said. "Morgana has always seemed a very nice person. I've only met her half a dozen times, but she seemed to be intelligent, friendly and, well, very well balanced."
"Miss Kay said that wild magic is dangerous to the wielder. But she loves the Museum," Merlin said.
They fell into a thoughtful but unproductive silence.
Merlin broke the mood by standing up. "I think we need more than tea and coffee for this," he said, but before going into the kitchen he added, "All we need is a plan."
He fetched beer from the fridge and when he sat down at the table again he handed them each a bottle. He looked expectantly at them. They stared back.
"I suppose we start with what we know?" Gaius suggested.
"Morgana's here. She's trying to ruin the company and kill Arthur," Merlin said.
Arthur's lips twitched. "I suppose that's it, cut down to essentials."
"But you didn't have to come back to Camelot," Merlin said. "You could have stayed in London. Why did you come?"
"Besides the fact that I need to know it's her? That she's done anything. Staying in London would not exactly make me safe. She can drive, or catch the bus, as easily as anyone else." He turned to Gaius. "Can she cast a spell over a distance?"
Merlin spoke before Gaius could. "I think the spell she used to force your father to confess his plans was set up earlier. He was fighting it, but I think the pressure had been building for a while by the time Question Time started."
Gaius was frowning and when he answered Arthur's question, it sounded as if he was thinking things out as he spoke. "Miss Kay told Merlin that she needs a charm to focus and boost her magic. From what little I've ever been able to find and read on that subject, I get the impression that charms and amulets are used for conjuring things directly in front of the sorcerer."
"You think that the fact they are used like that means they can't be used any other way?" Arthur asked.
"I'd be reluctant to say it was certain. Post hoc ergo propter hoc is a logical fallacy, after all. But the accounts of sorcerers using charms, the ones I've read, describe them as being used in an immediate way. That may mean geographically."
"But we can't know," Arthur said. "That's why I had to come back. We have to sort this out and stop it, once and for all. I have to talk to her. Try and make her see that what she's doing is wrong." He glanced over at Merlin. "I don't suppose you've ever done that," he made a vague gesture with his hand, "probing magic thing on her?"
"No, I never tried it. I don't like to do it, really; it feels a bit invasive."
"Okay, but you said she loves the museum? She may resent me and hate my father, but why would she undermine the company that's paying for the museum?"
Merlin scowled. "You've forgotten about what your father was doing, haven't you? She exposed his plan to close the museum."
"My father's plans for the museum were a perfectly legal manoeuvre and the publicity can't change that."
"I wonder how she knew," Gaius mused. "It was not as if she'd ever really met him, had she?"
"Maybe she has visions," Arthur said. "It doesn't really matter."
"It doesn't matter that it's legal," Merlin said hotly. "But the museum matters. It matters to me, and to Gwen, and to Gaius, and to the kids who come to the Museum Club every Saturday, and to the old guys who come in off the street to stay warm, and any number of other people in Camelot. The Folly's special and we want to save your life, but we want to save it too." He sat back in his chair and crossed his arms, glaring at Arthur.
Arthur blinked. Then he surprised Merlin by laughing. "Well, thank you for the concern over my life," he said. "And I'm sorry. You're right. The museum is important." He turned to Gaius who offered him a thin smile in return.
Looking down at the bottle in his hand, Arthur turned it around on the table top. "Cedric was working for my father," he said.
"What?" Merlin asked.
"There was mismanagement of the project," Arthur admitted. "But some of it was deliberate mismanagement."
"When did you find that out?"
Arthur rubbed at his forehead with his fingertips. "On Wednesday. Geoffrey told me on Wednesday, when I got back from seeing my father."
"But why?"
"Think about it Merlin. If the museum was closed already, gutted and empty, and there was no money to finish refurbishing it, what would the Council do?"
"They'd jump at any offer to develop the site usefully," Gaius said. "What was Uther planning to do with it?"
"A shopping arcade and flats. Luxury apartments."
"Oh shit," Merlin said. "That was what Will said."
Arthur smiled bleakly. "Smart guy, your friend."
"Because of the high speed rail link?"
"I suppose. Yes." He frowned. "But the truth is, as a museum the Folly is totally unfit for purpose. It's far too big. Before Leon took the wall down, it was already too big." He looked across at Gaius. "If you could have paid for more display cases and put everything in the stores on display, it would still have been too big. You know that." Gaius gave a reluctant nod. "The whole scheme was unrealistic from the start. As soon as I saw it, as soon as I got a clear idea of what's in the collections, I knew that." He picked up a pen that was lying on top of a pile of bills and bank statements stacked on the edge of the table and fiddled with it as he spoke. "I looked into it, after we spoke the other morning. You're right; there's a clause in the bequest that stipulates that the building is to be a museum for as long as the Town Council wants. It could have been argued that the Council's removal of funding for the cleaner, the security guard and now for Gwen, is proof that they don't feel the town needs a museum anymore, but this was a surer bet. I suppose it still hangs on where the Council's budget meeting goes, but..." He trailed off.
"So you're not going to reverse your father's decision?" Merlin said. "The museum's going to close and you're going to save your company by selling it off? Is that what you're saying?"
"No!" Arthur said, interrupting Merlin's indignation with such force that Merlin rocked back in his chair. "No," he said again, more calmly, "that's not what I'm saying. And if you give me a chance to explain..." He took a deep breath and let it out slowly. Looking across at Gaius, he held his eyes and said, "I know the museum's important. I know there are people in this town who love it. And I think it could be even more generally loved. But, there's no doubt it's also a valuable piece of real estate." Merlin snorted but Arthur ignored him. Gaius was saying nothing, but he was watching Arthur through narrowed eyes. "I think we can find a middle way," Arthur said.
"And how exactly would that work?" Gaius asked.
For a moment Arthur looked almost sheepish. "I don't know yet," he admitted. He gave a half laugh. "I've not had much time to think about it. But I'll save it if I can, believe me on that. It's a big building and most of it's been empty for years. Maybe we can find a way to use part of it to generate revenue, as it did when two thirds of the floor space in the Great Hall was rented to the Council as a store."
Gaius nodded. "Yes," he agreed. "Something like that might be a solution." He glanced over at Merlin and said with a sly smile, "With your word on that, I don't mind helping to save your life." Merlin choked back the laugh that surprised out of him and Arthur's shoulders relaxed. "Because I think you'll agree," Gaius said calmly," that is really more important and more urgent, at the moment."
"Okay," Merlin said. "So how do we solve the problem named Morgana?"
"Are we absolutely certain?" Arthur asked. "I mean, I'm willing to believe in your magic; I've seen it. But are we absolutely certain that there's magic involved in the rest of this mess?"
"If you don't believe it's Morgana doing this," Merlin said.
"I didn't say I didn't believe you. But if she is my sister, well, I need proof, for my own peace of mind."
"So we trap her and make her confess."
"And how exactly would you do that?" Gaius asked.
Merlin shook his head and shrugged one shoulder. Arthur looked down at his beer bottle. Gaius placed his hands flat on the table top. "It's late," he said. "We could sit here all night, but my old bones need their bed." He hauled himself to his feet and stood, leaning on the table. Looking over at Arthur he added, "And it's too late for you to be heading out again. You should sleep here. Merlin won't mind sharing, will you, Merlin?"
"Oh, um, no, sure, yes," Merlin said. He glanced over at Arthur and encountered a tired but amused smirk. "No problem," he said, with more certainty and returned Arthur's smirk with a challenging grin of his own.
Arthur protested that he had a room waiting for him at the Hilton, but Gaius overruled him. "You'll be coming straight back here tomorrow morning. There's no point in losing another hour's sleep. And on that note," he said with an assumption of compliance that was both annoying and somehow endearing, "if you'll excuse me, I'll leave you to settle yourselves," and he shuffled off to the kitchen and the bathroom beyond.
*****
They ended up topping and tailing it, Merlin trying to hide his embarrassment and Arthur apparently feeling none, if the amused glint in his eye was anything to judge by.
"At least it's a double," Arthur observed when he entered the room, having been last to use the bathroom. "If all you'd had to offer was a space on the floor, I think I'd have risked Gaius's disapproval and gone back to the Hilton, regardless."
Merlin was already under the covers, lying against the wall. He had pointedly placed a pillow at the foot of the bed on the other side and turned the duvet back. Arthur hung the jacket of his suit on the hook on the back of the door, toed off his shoes, shucked his trousers and folded them neatly on top of Merlin's desk. Merlin closed his eyes.
Arthur switched off the light. The bed dipped as he got in and for a while the room was quiet.
"Why did you come to Camelot?" Arthur asked, breaking a silence that had almost seemed to have physical weight.
Merlin shifted onto his back. He clasped his hands behind his head. "Oh, you know," he said. "Couldn't find work. Don't like London."
"Couldn't find work?" Arthur asked. "I'd have thought with your talents you'd have no trouble becoming invaluable."
Merlin grinned up at the ceiling. "My god, is that a compliment?" Arthur snorted and kicked him in the arm pit.
Merlin turned onto his side and shoved Arthur's foot away. "Fuck off," he said. "It was my so called talents that cost me my last job." He paused thoughtfully. "Although, I think I've got more control now than I had then. I could probably hide it better, or even stop it doing things without me deciding."
"It does that? How did you manage growing up, if you couldn't control it?"
"Mostly I could, can. It's just sometimes." He realised he was still holding Arthur's foot and let it go, drawing his hand back to his chest. "And I had a reputation for being lucky," he admitted. "But in the end, I guess it was just time to move on. I wanted, I wanted to see if I could find somewhere that I could really fit in.
"Had any luck?" Arthur asked.
Merlin settled into his pillow. "I'm not sure yet," he said. "I'll let you know."
Arthur chuckled softly. "You do that," he said.
Note: Post hoc ergo propter hoc - is Latin and translates as: after this, therefore because of this.
Pendragon's Folly, Chapter 10
Pairing: M/A, eventually.
Characters: in this chapter - Merlin, Arthur, Gaius.
Rating: PG maybe even U
Chapter Word Count: 7,500
Warnings: No sex
Summary: There's an out of work wizard, a museum, a sizeable donation that turns it into a building site, suspicious happenings and magic. A sort of 'take your fandom to work' story.
Author's note 1: When it comes to romance, this story is the definition of 'slow burn'.
Comments are always greatly appreciated, loved and cherished.
Author's note 2: More thanks than I can say to my beta, plot wrangler and best friend, sparrow2000. And many, many thanks to DJ for (hopefully) catching the typos we missed. If you spot any more, please do let me know.
Disclaimer: I write fan fic. All the characters from the Merlin series are the property of the BBC and Shine, etc. No infringement is intended and no profit is being made from this writing.
Previously on Pendragon's Folly:
Merlin turned his hand so it was flat, palm upwards. "Look," he said and a small swirl of tiny coloured lights began to form and dance above his palm. Once he had the complex orbits stabilised, he looked up. Arthur's eyes were fixed on the lights. Merlin concentrated and began to bring them closer to each other, until they coalesced into a single, blue-green ball, about the size of a large glass marble that swirled with silver and gold.
The sound of a gasp made him look up again. While he'd been manipulating his light show, Arthur had come back across the room. He was slightly bent forward, so his face was only a foot from the globe. His expression made something in Merlin's chest swell.
Arthur reached out his hand, but aborted the gesture. "You can touch it, if you like," Merlin said. "It's not hot."
Arthur looked up. "Or not," Merlin added, closing his hand. When he opened it again, the ball was gone.
Arthur abruptly straightened and collapsed into the chair behind him.
Chapter 9
As soon as Arthur had taken a breath, Merlin had to do it again, of course.
It took three more demonstrations, with Merlin standing in different places in the room, before Arthur would believe it was not some sort of three-dimensional projection, but eventually it seemed he was convinced enough to sit down and let Merlin talk.
"It really is magic," Merlin said, for the fifth or sixth time.
"The proper word is probably telekinesis."
"Yeah, maybe. Point is, I've always been able to do it. Mum said I could fetch things across the room, from my cradle."
"That would be teleportation."
"Okay, if you want to call it that."
"What about Telepathy?"
"I've never tried. It's kind of important that no one ever finds out about any of it." Merlin explained. "I just call it magic."
"But you're telling me?"
"Yeah, because Morgana's trying to kill you and I need you to listen, so you won't, you know, get killed."
The first part of the story, the part where Merlin explained about spells and pulled his book out of his bag to demonstrate, used up the rest of Arthur's beer. He laid it all out - stories from his childhood growing up with an ability he could never allow anyone to see. Stories his mother had told him about things he had done before his earliest memories. He created a dragon from sparks of light. He fetched more beer, without leaving his seat. He even recounted his part in the history of Will and the falling tree that almost killed old Mr Simmons. Arthur's instinctive, 'How are you doing that?' turned into reluctant wonder and, eventually, into even more reluctant belief. By then it was past midnight.
When the beer was gone, Arthur decided he was still in need of liquid support. "Fetch us a bottle of wine, would you?" he said. "The Merlot."
"I can't."
"Of course you can." If Arthur still wasn't perfectly happy, he did seem to recognise that magic had its uses. "You fetched the beer and that was in the fridge. The wine's in the rack on the wall, there."
With a sigh of ostentatious patience, Merlin explained, "I can see the fridge from here and when I opened the door I could see the beer. I can't fetch the Merlot because I don't know which bottle it is. Merlot doesn't have some sort of magical signature I can latch onto and call." He brightened. "Unless you'd be satisfied with a lucky dip?"
"No, I want Merlot," Arthur said, hauling himself to his feet. "And now I think about it, I have to get the glasses, anyway. I'm not trusting them to your precarious, gravity defying tricks."
"Hey! It was one bottle and it didn't even break."
When Arthur returned with an open wine bottle in one hand and two glasses held between the fingers of the other, he paused and looked down at Merlin before retaking his seat. "How are you still alive?" he asked, shaking his head. "And not locked up in some secret government lab?"
Merlin smiled wryly. "For as long as I can remember, I mean forever, Mum drummed it into me. Not to tell anyone. To keep it secret. And I did."
"From birth?" Arthur asked. This seemed, for some reason Merlin didn't understand, to be the bit Arthur was having most difficulty with.
"Yes, from birth," he confirmed. "My mum knew how dangerous it could be if anyone found out."
Something in his voice seemed to catch Arthur's attention. "But?" he asked. "You told someone?"
"Yeah. When I was about twelve, I, I thought she was wrong. There was Will, you see. He was my friend. And I told him..."
"And?"
"And then he wasn't my friend for a while."
Arthur nodded. "But he forgave you," he said. It was a statement, not a question. "Why are you telling me?"
"I said - because you need to know what you're up against."
"No, I mean okay, but…"
"I trust you to keep my secret."
"But why do you?"
"I really don't know, because you can be a real prat. But I do."
Arthur laughed. "Thank you," he said. He sobered quickly, however, and regarded Merlin seriously. "Yes, I'll keep your secret," he said.
They sat in silence for a moment, Arthur staring at Merlin and Merlin gazing into the empty fireplace.
"Tell me more about magic," Arthur said. "What makes you think Morgana is magic?" He was pouring wine, but he paused thoughtfully. "Has magic?" he said, as if he was testing the words as he voiced them. He looked up at Merlin and smiled. "What makes you think she can do magic?" he asked and returned to his task. "Have you seen her do some?"
So Merlin started talking again. He listed the three attempts to injure, if not kill, Arthur and explained how he had tasted her magic on the air, but hadn't recognised it for what it was until Monday afternoon. "I've never felt someone else's magic before," he explained.
"But you know it's magic?" Arthur shook his head. "And I still can't believe I'm seriously saying that."
Merlin smiled in sympathy. "Yeah, I know it's magic. And she was always there - when Pell fell, when you almost went under a car, when the bust almost cracked your skull open."
"Yes, that was weird," Arthur agreed. "I fell backwards and the bust landed in front of me." He caught Merlin's eye and froze. "I didn't fall, did I?" he said.
"I might have given you a small push," Merlin admitted.
"You saved my life, you mean. It almost scraped my nose on the way past." Arthur stopped talking and looked into space. "Bloody hell," he said quietly. "Oh fuck." And then, still quietly and almost breathlessly, "Ohfuckohfuckohfuckohfuckohfuck."
Merlin waited him out and eventually he took a large gulp of wine, emptying his glass. "So what else can she do?" he asked, picking up the bottle and tilting it towards the light to check how much it still held. "Obviously more than your pretty light shows." He looked at his glass and put the bottle down again.
"She has wild magic," Merlin said. "At least, that's what Miss Kay said."
"Miss Kay? Gods! This story keeps on growing. Miss Kay knows about magic?"
"Also Gaius."
"Does my father know?"
"I don't think so." He remembered what Miss Kay had said about Arthur's mother and amended that to, "I don't know."
Arthur looked at his watch. "It's two o'clock. I don't think I can absorb any more of this. I need to sleep on it. If I sleep at all." Having made up his mind, he stood up. "Come on, I'll show you the spare room," he said, walking towards the stairs.
Merlin got up and followed him but, with one hand on the banister and a foot on the bottom step, Arthur turned. "Show me again," he said. "Show me something, so I don't convince myself this was all some sort of hallucination, by morning."
Merlin scanned the room. The empty beer bottles, the almost empty wine bottle and the dirty glasses levitated themselves across to the kitchen counter. They hovered for a moment before settling gently. "Okay," Arthur said and turned to go up the stairs. He stopped at the sound of clinking and looked back at the kitchen to watch the glasses engage in a short, formal dance, tipping towards each other and gliding around each other in an extended figure of eight. He looked away from the glass ballet, to Merlin, who with dividing his own attention between the kitchen and Arthur. "Now you're just showing off," he said. "Come on, idiot."
Merlin grinned at him and followed him up the stairs.
*****
When he woke up the next morning, Merlin opened his eyes to a high, sloped ceiling with exposed structural beams and white walls. "Seven o'clock, Merlin," Arthur called through the door. "Get up."
Merlin groaned and rolled out of bed. "Coming," he called back.
Fifteen minutes later, after a quick shower, he staggered down to the kitchen. Arthur was sitting over a bowl of cereal and a mug of coffee at the counter. There was a slight frown between his brows. He pointed at a second mug with his spoon. "Help yourself," he said. "There's muesli or cornflakes." He indicated a box and a plastic bag next to the coffee filter machine. Merlin nodded his thanks. "Bowl on the shelf behind you," Arthur added.
Merlin went and retrieved a bowl but focused first on the offer of coffee. He poured himself a mug and sat down opposite Arthur. Holding the mug up to his face, he breathed in the steam before taking a sip.
With the edge of his awareness, he noticed Arthur shift on his stool. "What makes you think Morgana's my sister?" Arthur asked. He glanced up briefly but quickly returned his concentration to his bowl. "Not from googling."
Merlin put his mug down and reached over for the cornflakes packet and the milk carton. He poured cornflakes and milk into the bowl before he answered and Arthur didn't try to hurry him. "No," he said, eventually, "Miss Kay told me."
"Miss Kay?"
"Yeah. When I went to see her yesterday. I mean, the day before."
"And she just told you Morgana was my sister and you believed her?"
"Well, she knew your mother when she was young, before she married your father."
"She might have done, but what does that have to do with anything?" Arthur stopped, his eyes fixed on a spot beyond Merlin shoulder and his expression thoughtful. "But she knows about magic? You said that last night, right?"
Merlin nodded. "You know? You're taking this very calmly. More calmly than Will did."
"What else can I do?"
"Did you get any sleep last night?"
Arthur glanced around the kitchen. "I'm still at home eating breakfast at 7:30," he said. "So no, I didn't get much sleep last night. But that doesn't change what I now know. It wasn't a hallucination, was it?"
"No."
"So magic is real and Miss Kay knows about it."
"Yes."
"And when we went to see her, as we were leaving, you said there was something odd about her."
"Did I? Well, I was right. I don't know what she is. But she feels like something powerful."
"Something? How'd you know she's powerful?"
"Because when I try to feel her magic, I can't find anything." Arthur opened his mouth, but Merlin kept talking. "I can't even feel the spark. Everybody has that. A sort of flavour I can taste with a part of my mind that sits at the back somewhere."
"You're not making any sense."
"I know. Hang on." He stirred his cornflakes but didn't eat. "Okay," he said. "So when we went to see her, I tried to sort of check her out. I hadn't really done that before. On anyone. But people have a kind of aura? Something like that. And I can sense it. Mostly it's just there, faintly, all the time, and I don't notice it. But when I tried to suss her out, there was nothing. I could sense her heartbeat, but... At first I just thought I'd done it wrong. It was only later I realised it was her that was different."
"And that's why you said she was odd?"
"I don't know. I guess?"
"It seems to me that a lot of this magic of yours is subconscious." Arthur said, frowning, a spoon full of muesli held suspended above his bowl. "I'm trying to imagine it," he said. "If you could always do stuff -"
"Yeah," Merlin agreed, interrupting him. "That's it exactly. I never thought about it. It was only since Gaius gave me that book that I've realised I can learn to direct it."
Arthur shook his head. "Show me something again," he said. "Because this conversation we're having? It doesn't make sense."
Merlin looked around, spotted the sugar bowl and drew it across the counter until it stood between them. The lid floated off and set itself down on the countertop with a gentle click. A spoonful of sugar, without the benefit of the spoon, rose out of the bowl, sailed like a procession of flying ants across to Merlin and scattered itself over his cornflakes.
"Not moving stuff," Arthur said. "Something else."
"That's actually quite difficult," Merlin protested. "All those separate grains of sugar."
"But it didn't look impressive. Show me something else."
Merlin held out his hand between them, palm up. Slowly a small cloud of pink began to form there. It darkened to deep red and began to coalesce into a ball. As it did so, the top edge whirled and a dark green spot appeared near its underside, at the base of Merlin fingers. It drew tighter and the swirls froze in place, leaving a perfect crimson rosebud. Merlin lifted his hand higher and they could both see the short stem sticking down from between his middle and ring fingers. "Buttonhole?" he suggested.
Arthur laughed. "I think not, I am neither sixty years old, nor looking for questions I can't answer. Either put it in water, or you can wear it."
Merlin laid it on the countertop and addressed himself to his breakfast.
"Morgana," Arthur said.
Merlin looked up. "Yeah?"
"You say she's behind it all." He held up his hand when Merlin opened his mouth to protest. "It's not that I don't believe you," he said. "But I've only got your word. Ah, ah, wait. It's possible you're mistaken. I need evidence." Merlin subsided and Arthur picked up his coffee mug. "And if it turns out -"
"When," Merlin said.
"If it turns out that she's guilty, then we have to stop her somehow," Arthur said.
"We could go to the police?
"And say what? That an evil witch put a spell on my father, so he embarrassed himself on prime time television and, by the way, she's trying to kill me too? No. We have to talk to her."
"Talk to her? And say what?"
"I don't know, but I'm coming back to Camelot and we're going to sort this out. What were you planning to do next?"
"There's a bus at four o'clock," Merlin said.
"I have to go into the office to make sure Geoffrey has everything under control, but if you wait until this evening I'll drive you," Arthur said. "What were you going to do until four?"
"The British Library. Gaius told me about their arcane collection. There's a lot of magic there, he says."
"Hmm. You do remember that you work for me, don't you? It might be Friday, but that's still a working day and I'm paying for your time."
"The British Library is valid Pendragon research," Merlin protested. "I'm trying to save your life."
"Right, well, I hate to break it to you, but you have to apply for a library card before you can get in there and that takes days. You can't just walk in off the street and ask for books."
With a smug grin, Merlin said, "Magic does have practical uses you know. I've known how to charm my way past things like that since I was old enough to leave the house alone."
Arthur smiled back. "Okay," he said. "Not just pretty lights and roses, then. But you'd better take this." He took his wallet out of his jacket pocket, withdrew a business card and looked around the bench top.
Merlin dug in his own pocket, extracted the pen he had borrowed the previous week and held it out.
"You had it, did you?" Arthur said, taking it. He scrawled a number on the back of the card. "That's my private mobile," he said, handing it to Merlin. "If you get arrested, call me on that number, okay?"
*****
It didn't prove difficult for Merlin to gain entrance to the reading rooms, but he soon realised that they were not what he needed. Some careful spying on other users showed him how they were ordering books and having them delivered to their desks, but he wasn't confident that he could pull off his impersonation well enough to access that facility. Instead, he followed his nose and a member of staff into the stacks. From there it was a case of concentrating on what he was looking for until he knew which way to go.
The miles of movable book shelves in the basement didn't have any helpful signs pointing at "Magical Texts", so he walked along them until he felt a ripple of heat across his skin. There was no one else in sight so he wound the handle on the end of the shelf to open it up.
The sensation grew stronger and he walked into the space between the newly exposed shelves, running his finger along the spines until he felt something tickle at the back of his brain. Carefully pulling the book out, he squatted down in the narrow space, opened it and dug his notebook out of his bag.
*****
They met up again at Arthur's house at seven o'clock, when Arthur finally got home from work. Merlin was sitting on the doorstep reading through his photocopies when Arthur appeared in front of him, his briefcase in one hand and a bulging carrier bag in the other. "I see you didn't get arrested then," he said. "Any luck?"
Shoving his papers away in his pack, Merlin looked up and smiled. "Oh, man, you have no idea," he said. "I found this amazing book. It was dedicated to King James and it was full of the most amazing stuff. I just read and read." He got to his feet while he was talking and Arthur handed him the carrier bag.
Arthur dug his keys out of his pocket. "Sorry I'm a bit later than I planned," he said, unlocking the door. "There was a lot to tidy up."
"It's okay. I called Gaius to say we'd be back later tonight."
"Right, I just need to pick up a few things. Have you eaten?"
They went in and climbed the stairs. "Uh, yeah, I couldn't leave, but I bought a pasty and some beer on the way back."
Arthur looked over his shoulder. "A pasty and beer?" he asked.
Merlin grinned. "I ate the pasty on the tube. The beer's for later."
They had reached the kitchen and Arthur went and dug in the back of a cupboard, pulling out a large thermos. "Would you make some coffee to see us through?" he asked. "It'll be too late for the hotel restaurant by the time I drop you off, but there's bread and the making of sandwiches in the bag, if you fancy putting some together. I haven't had time to eat since breakfast."
"You had time to shop, but not to eat?" Merlin asked.
Arthur was already on his way up the stairs. He looked down at Merlin and grinned. "Well, I did the difficult bit and wrote the list," he said. He left that hanging while he continued up the stairs and out of sight.
Merlin unpacked the carrier bag.
*****
The front half of the ground floor of Arthur's house turned out to be a double garage, housing Arthur's MG and a dark blue Toyota Yaris. Merlin was slightly disappointed that Arthur elected to take the Yaris, but he had to admit it did have more space. He relaxed into the passenger seat as Arthur navigated them through the city traffic, until miles of uninterrupted motorway stretched ahead of them. They shared the coffee, passing the cup back and forth, and ate the sandwiches, while Arthur drove and the daylight faded. Once they were done, Merlin packed the rubbish away in the carrier bag.
"Tell me," Arthur said, glancing over and catching Merlin's eye "Have you ever used magic to do something illegal?"
"Um… Well, maybe when I was at school, I might have occasionally handed in invisible homework," Merlin admitted, "but, well, that didn't work out."
"Why not?"
"Because you get the marks, but you don't really learn anything."
"How old were you?"
"Fourteen."
Arthur shot him a dubious look, before turning his eyes back to the road. "That was very mature of you."
"Yeah, well," Merlin muttered. "And maybe my mum found out?"
Arthur threw back his head and laughed. "Now that I do believe," he said. "But that's it? Never forged a cheque?"
"No!"
"Or magically turned plain paper into money?"
Merlin didn't answer while he thought that one through. "I wonder if I could?" he mused.
"Don't," Arthur said. "I suspect it's like invisible homework - there's sure to be a karmic backlash. In fact, in a world that suddenly has magic in it, I'm betting instant karma exists too." He paused as he pulled out into the fast lane to overtake a Sainsbury's lorry. "And that's it?" he asked, when they were back in the left hand lane again. "Nothing else?"
"No. My mum dragged me up proper."
Arthur nodded. "Okay," he said. "I believe you. So can you use magic to save my company?"
Merlin shook his head. "What, interfere in the economy of the country? Sorry. No, I don't think that would be a good idea."
"Of course it wouldn't. It would be too easy if the magic-" He winced as he spoke the word. "And I still can't believe I'm treating this as fact. It would be too easy if the magic that caused this problem, could also fix it."
They approached a road sign that announced, 'Camelot 45 miles'. Arthur shook his head, as if he was clearing it. "We should be there by nine," he said. "I suppose we'd better think about how I'm going to get to talk to Morgana without her magic-ing me."
"We're going to Gaius first," Merlin said. "I want to talk it all over with him there." Arthur looked across at him and Merlin said, "No, listen, he already knows all about it. Who do you think I've been talking to all this time? He knows about magic and, and he's my uncle. And he's old and wise and he'll understand the stuff I found today."
"Okay," Arthur agreed. "I suppose he's at least another head on the problem. So if we're not going to make plans now, you'd better entertain me."
"I'm not doing magic in the car when you're driving. I don't want to distract you into a ditch."
"Tell me what you found out at the British Library then."
The account of Merlin's day occupied the rest of the journey and Arthur proved to be an intelligent listener, whose questions forced Merlin to puzzle through a few issues that he'd instinctively accepted and not questioned when he read them. By the time they drew up in front of Gaius's small house, he was feeling both exhausted by the interrogation and buzzed from the stimulation and challenge.
*****
It was closer to 9:30 than 9:00 by the time Gaius had made the inevitable pot of tea and mugs of coffee. Arthur and Merlin pulled out the table in Gaius's living room, so they could all sit at it, shoving some of the papers, books and other miscellaneous objects that occupied half its surface onto the sideboard to make space.
"So you believe him?" was Gaius's first question, once they were settled.
"I have to," Arthur replied. "I'd have loved it to be some sort of stage trick, but..." he paused for a moment before finishing the sentence, "it's not."
"No, it's not," Gaius agreed. "I know this is a lot to accept on short notice." Arthur waved a dismissive hand but Gaius continued, "I've known about Merlin's magic since he was a baby. And I've been researching the subject for almost as long. Between us, his mother and I, mostly his mother, have tried to help him grow with his gift."
"Hey, sitting right here," Merlin said, but Gaius paid as much heed to his protest as he had to Arthur's attempt to move him on. "We don't have magic," Gaius said, "and Merlin's father is who knows where. But ever since his mother first saw… She's an intelligent woman and she made sure she brought him up to understand the implications, as well as the possibilities. The responsibilities, as well as the potential power." Merlin was actively squirming in his seat by this point and Arthur shot him an amused look before dutifully returning his attention to Gaius.
"I've done some research while you've been away," Gaius said, glancing at Merlin. "Morgana also grew up fatherless." He gave a slight nod of acknowledgement in Arthur's direction. "But in her case, her mother died when Morgana was five. She was brought up by her aunt, who I've met on more than a few occasions at various functions. She's a good woman, but narrow. And I believe that in her devotion to her religious beliefs, she is not very flexible when faced with new ideas."
"She wouldn't respond well to Morgana's magic?" Arthur asked.
"It depends when it manifest. If Morgana is like Merlin and has channelled magic since birth, it is impossible that her mother and probably her aunt didn't know about it. However, from what I have read, in most cases magic doesn't manifest until puberty. By that time, Morgana would be old enough to decide for herself who she told."
"What are you saying?" Merlin asked.
"I am saying that Morgana did not necessarily have the clear guidance that you had, on what is right and what is wrong, in the context of magic."
"That's... very interesting," Arthur said, "but I really don't see how knowing it helps."
Gaius shrugged. "No, it probably doesn't," he agreed, "but I felt it was worth saying." He frowned, visibly putting that train of thought aside. "Where else are we?" he asked.
It was Merlin who replied. "I found some fantastic books in the British Library, Uncle Gaius. I told you when I called - there was some amazing stuff in them. Well…"
"Before we get into the detail," Gaius said, holding up a hand. Merlin reluctantly subsided. "Could we possibly consider the bigger picture?" He turned to Arthur. "What do you hope to achieve by coming back to Camelot?" he asked.
Arthur pursed his lips thoughtfully. "If Morgana has caused the problems my father and my company are suffering from, I want to make her stop and put it right."
Merlin opened his mouth, but Gaius quelled him again with a glance. "And do you have any plan for how to achieve this?" he asked.
"No. Talk to her, I suppose. I'm not sure what else I can do. We can hardly involve the authorities. And she may be a witch, literally, but she can't be locked up for it."
"In a mental hospital?" Merlin suggested.
"She's not crazy," Gaius said. "At least, not in any way that a doctor would understand. Do you think any doctor would believe in magic sufficiently to commit her? And, as you say," he added, turning back to Arthur, "other legal channels are also closed to us."
"Which really only leaves talking to her," Arthur said again. "Unless there's some magic you can do?" he asked.
Both Gaius and Arthur looked at Merlin and he shook his head. "I found out a few interesting things in the library," he said. Gaius nodded encouragingly so he was finally able to say what he had been wanting to say since they sat down. He turned to Arthur. "I think I found out how Morgana set up your father," he said.
Arthur's eyes widened and Merlin explained, "There's a potion, mostly harmless herbs, but with the right spell and a full moon, it…" He paused as the need for diplomacy occurred to him and when he continued he picked his words with care. "It draws out a person's deepest doubts and magnifies them. Twists them to give them more power and pushes them back in. Deep. If," he paused again and took a breath. Arthur was watching him intently but didn't look like he was about to interrupt. Opposite him, Gaius's gaze was similarly intent. Merlin continued, "If your father was afraid, years later, that something he'd done had been responsible for your mother's death, for example, no matter that it's not true, the spell would turn that fear into a certainty. If he knew he'd cut business corners and was worried about the... the propriety of that, the spell could convince him that he had really broken the law and was on the brink of being caught." He paused and bit at his bottom lip as they absorbed that. "Morgana made the tea that day," he said. "It would be easy for her to slip something into his cup."
"So she did it to hurt him," Gaius said. "Is that why he confessed on television?"
Merlin shrugged. "There might have been another spell on top," he said. "I don't know. I didn't find one, but I only had one day in one library. Who knows how long Morgana's been planning? He did look conflicted, but I think it might have made him want to confess. If it did, if he hadn't been on the telly that night it would have come out some other way." He looked at Arthur and reached out one hand, laying it on Arthur's forearm. "Or it might not be a spell, that bit," he said. "I think your dad has a very rigid code of... morality? He might feel that, since he'd done wrong, he should own up."
Arthur gave him a tight smile. "Thank you," he said. "But I've watched that programme, over and over, and the more I watch it, the more crazy he looks. Now, with what I know now, I would interpret his behaviour as being subject to an overpowering compulsion. And very unwilling."
Exchanging a quick glance with Gaius, Merlin shrugged again. "I don't know," he said. "But I think so. I've never tried anything like that, but some of the stuff I read…"
"It's certainly possible," Gaius said. "But it's very dark magic. To overwhelm someone's autonomy like that..."
"And Morgana can do it?" Arthur asked.
"I suppose anyone with sufficient magical ability could do it. At least to some extent. If they chose to go down that path."
"I need to be certain." Arthur said. He sounded weary. "And I need to know why she's doing this. If she's angry enough to punish my father, well, I suppose I can just about understand that, however much I deplore it. And I really, really do. I've never been blind to my father's faults. He's a hard man. But..."
He sighed, shook his head and when he spoke again it was in a brisker tone of voice. "Why is she trying to kill me? If you're right about her and she's my sister, wouldn't she be happy to know she has family?" He shrugged helplessly. "Then there's the company. She's threatening the livelihoods of all the people we employ."
"I don't know," Gaius said. "Morgana has always seemed a very nice person. I've only met her half a dozen times, but she seemed to be intelligent, friendly and, well, very well balanced."
"Miss Kay said that wild magic is dangerous to the wielder. But she loves the Museum," Merlin said.
They fell into a thoughtful but unproductive silence.
Merlin broke the mood by standing up. "I think we need more than tea and coffee for this," he said, but before going into the kitchen he added, "All we need is a plan."
He fetched beer from the fridge and when he sat down at the table again he handed them each a bottle. He looked expectantly at them. They stared back.
"I suppose we start with what we know?" Gaius suggested.
"Morgana's here. She's trying to ruin the company and kill Arthur," Merlin said.
Arthur's lips twitched. "I suppose that's it, cut down to essentials."
"But you didn't have to come back to Camelot," Merlin said. "You could have stayed in London. Why did you come?"
"Besides the fact that I need to know it's her? That she's done anything. Staying in London would not exactly make me safe. She can drive, or catch the bus, as easily as anyone else." He turned to Gaius. "Can she cast a spell over a distance?"
Merlin spoke before Gaius could. "I think the spell she used to force your father to confess his plans was set up earlier. He was fighting it, but I think the pressure had been building for a while by the time Question Time started."
Gaius was frowning and when he answered Arthur's question, it sounded as if he was thinking things out as he spoke. "Miss Kay told Merlin that she needs a charm to focus and boost her magic. From what little I've ever been able to find and read on that subject, I get the impression that charms and amulets are used for conjuring things directly in front of the sorcerer."
"You think that the fact they are used like that means they can't be used any other way?" Arthur asked.
"I'd be reluctant to say it was certain. Post hoc ergo propter hoc is a logical fallacy, after all. But the accounts of sorcerers using charms, the ones I've read, describe them as being used in an immediate way. That may mean geographically."
"But we can't know," Arthur said. "That's why I had to come back. We have to sort this out and stop it, once and for all. I have to talk to her. Try and make her see that what she's doing is wrong." He glanced over at Merlin. "I don't suppose you've ever done that," he made a vague gesture with his hand, "probing magic thing on her?"
"No, I never tried it. I don't like to do it, really; it feels a bit invasive."
"Okay, but you said she loves the museum? She may resent me and hate my father, but why would she undermine the company that's paying for the museum?"
Merlin scowled. "You've forgotten about what your father was doing, haven't you? She exposed his plan to close the museum."
"My father's plans for the museum were a perfectly legal manoeuvre and the publicity can't change that."
"I wonder how she knew," Gaius mused. "It was not as if she'd ever really met him, had she?"
"Maybe she has visions," Arthur said. "It doesn't really matter."
"It doesn't matter that it's legal," Merlin said hotly. "But the museum matters. It matters to me, and to Gwen, and to Gaius, and to the kids who come to the Museum Club every Saturday, and to the old guys who come in off the street to stay warm, and any number of other people in Camelot. The Folly's special and we want to save your life, but we want to save it too." He sat back in his chair and crossed his arms, glaring at Arthur.
Arthur blinked. Then he surprised Merlin by laughing. "Well, thank you for the concern over my life," he said. "And I'm sorry. You're right. The museum is important." He turned to Gaius who offered him a thin smile in return.
Looking down at the bottle in his hand, Arthur turned it around on the table top. "Cedric was working for my father," he said.
"What?" Merlin asked.
"There was mismanagement of the project," Arthur admitted. "But some of it was deliberate mismanagement."
"When did you find that out?"
Arthur rubbed at his forehead with his fingertips. "On Wednesday. Geoffrey told me on Wednesday, when I got back from seeing my father."
"But why?"
"Think about it Merlin. If the museum was closed already, gutted and empty, and there was no money to finish refurbishing it, what would the Council do?"
"They'd jump at any offer to develop the site usefully," Gaius said. "What was Uther planning to do with it?"
"A shopping arcade and flats. Luxury apartments."
"Oh shit," Merlin said. "That was what Will said."
Arthur smiled bleakly. "Smart guy, your friend."
"Because of the high speed rail link?"
"I suppose. Yes." He frowned. "But the truth is, as a museum the Folly is totally unfit for purpose. It's far too big. Before Leon took the wall down, it was already too big." He looked across at Gaius. "If you could have paid for more display cases and put everything in the stores on display, it would still have been too big. You know that." Gaius gave a reluctant nod. "The whole scheme was unrealistic from the start. As soon as I saw it, as soon as I got a clear idea of what's in the collections, I knew that." He picked up a pen that was lying on top of a pile of bills and bank statements stacked on the edge of the table and fiddled with it as he spoke. "I looked into it, after we spoke the other morning. You're right; there's a clause in the bequest that stipulates that the building is to be a museum for as long as the Town Council wants. It could have been argued that the Council's removal of funding for the cleaner, the security guard and now for Gwen, is proof that they don't feel the town needs a museum anymore, but this was a surer bet. I suppose it still hangs on where the Council's budget meeting goes, but..." He trailed off.
"So you're not going to reverse your father's decision?" Merlin said. "The museum's going to close and you're going to save your company by selling it off? Is that what you're saying?"
"No!" Arthur said, interrupting Merlin's indignation with such force that Merlin rocked back in his chair. "No," he said again, more calmly, "that's not what I'm saying. And if you give me a chance to explain..." He took a deep breath and let it out slowly. Looking across at Gaius, he held his eyes and said, "I know the museum's important. I know there are people in this town who love it. And I think it could be even more generally loved. But, there's no doubt it's also a valuable piece of real estate." Merlin snorted but Arthur ignored him. Gaius was saying nothing, but he was watching Arthur through narrowed eyes. "I think we can find a middle way," Arthur said.
"And how exactly would that work?" Gaius asked.
For a moment Arthur looked almost sheepish. "I don't know yet," he admitted. He gave a half laugh. "I've not had much time to think about it. But I'll save it if I can, believe me on that. It's a big building and most of it's been empty for years. Maybe we can find a way to use part of it to generate revenue, as it did when two thirds of the floor space in the Great Hall was rented to the Council as a store."
Gaius nodded. "Yes," he agreed. "Something like that might be a solution." He glanced over at Merlin and said with a sly smile, "With your word on that, I don't mind helping to save your life." Merlin choked back the laugh that surprised out of him and Arthur's shoulders relaxed. "Because I think you'll agree," Gaius said calmly," that is really more important and more urgent, at the moment."
"Okay," Merlin said. "So how do we solve the problem named Morgana?"
"Are we absolutely certain?" Arthur asked. "I mean, I'm willing to believe in your magic; I've seen it. But are we absolutely certain that there's magic involved in the rest of this mess?"
"If you don't believe it's Morgana doing this," Merlin said.
"I didn't say I didn't believe you. But if she is my sister, well, I need proof, for my own peace of mind."
"So we trap her and make her confess."
"And how exactly would you do that?" Gaius asked.
Merlin shook his head and shrugged one shoulder. Arthur looked down at his beer bottle. Gaius placed his hands flat on the table top. "It's late," he said. "We could sit here all night, but my old bones need their bed." He hauled himself to his feet and stood, leaning on the table. Looking over at Arthur he added, "And it's too late for you to be heading out again. You should sleep here. Merlin won't mind sharing, will you, Merlin?"
"Oh, um, no, sure, yes," Merlin said. He glanced over at Arthur and encountered a tired but amused smirk. "No problem," he said, with more certainty and returned Arthur's smirk with a challenging grin of his own.
Arthur protested that he had a room waiting for him at the Hilton, but Gaius overruled him. "You'll be coming straight back here tomorrow morning. There's no point in losing another hour's sleep. And on that note," he said with an assumption of compliance that was both annoying and somehow endearing, "if you'll excuse me, I'll leave you to settle yourselves," and he shuffled off to the kitchen and the bathroom beyond.
*****
They ended up topping and tailing it, Merlin trying to hide his embarrassment and Arthur apparently feeling none, if the amused glint in his eye was anything to judge by.
"At least it's a double," Arthur observed when he entered the room, having been last to use the bathroom. "If all you'd had to offer was a space on the floor, I think I'd have risked Gaius's disapproval and gone back to the Hilton, regardless."
Merlin was already under the covers, lying against the wall. He had pointedly placed a pillow at the foot of the bed on the other side and turned the duvet back. Arthur hung the jacket of his suit on the hook on the back of the door, toed off his shoes, shucked his trousers and folded them neatly on top of Merlin's desk. Merlin closed his eyes.
Arthur switched off the light. The bed dipped as he got in and for a while the room was quiet.
"Why did you come to Camelot?" Arthur asked, breaking a silence that had almost seemed to have physical weight.
Merlin shifted onto his back. He clasped his hands behind his head. "Oh, you know," he said. "Couldn't find work. Don't like London."
"Couldn't find work?" Arthur asked. "I'd have thought with your talents you'd have no trouble becoming invaluable."
Merlin grinned up at the ceiling. "My god, is that a compliment?" Arthur snorted and kicked him in the arm pit.
Merlin turned onto his side and shoved Arthur's foot away. "Fuck off," he said. "It was my so called talents that cost me my last job." He paused thoughtfully. "Although, I think I've got more control now than I had then. I could probably hide it better, or even stop it doing things without me deciding."
"It does that? How did you manage growing up, if you couldn't control it?"
"Mostly I could, can. It's just sometimes." He realised he was still holding Arthur's foot and let it go, drawing his hand back to his chest. "And I had a reputation for being lucky," he admitted. "But in the end, I guess it was just time to move on. I wanted, I wanted to see if I could find somewhere that I could really fit in.
"Had any luck?" Arthur asked.
Merlin settled into his pillow. "I'm not sure yet," he said. "I'll let you know."
Arthur chuckled softly. "You do that," he said.
Note: Post hoc ergo propter hoc - is Latin and translates as: after this, therefore because of this.
Pendragon's Folly, Chapter 10