Project Endedæg - Part 1
Okay, so this is my new project. I, with the help of my dear friend, RoseMarauder2799, have decided to once again (I know, right?) rewrite Secrets Discovered. So... this will be a half finished work, I will publish the first part, then take a small hiatus to write part 2. I probably won't let you with many cliffhangers, as I will most likely upload all chapters of part 1 on the same day, as well as all chapters of part 2 on the same day too. Enjoy! (AND REVIEW, PLEASE?)
PS. One more thing. This is after the coming of Arthur, with the exception that Lancelot is still alive (He is important to the story, so, here, he never died), Uther is dead and Arthur is king and married to Gwen.
Don't own Merlin!
Prologue.
Merlin was lying on the floor of the cold, dirty cell, the heavy manacles on his wrists hiding a number of bruises that made him wince when he dared move them from their position. The young wizard was, in all the meanings of the word, a disaster; his robes and skin were torn and dirty, his face, which was normally pale, seemed paler: gaunt, shallow and bloodied.
His normally sparkling, happy blue eyes were showing a lot more sadness than usual, mixed with a darkness that could only be described as defeat. If any of the villagers were to look at the cell, they would see a very different version of the Merlin that they knew; a very different version of the silly, dumb, nice Merlin that everyone knew and loved. So different, that whatever poor soul they were, they would go running home – probably to hide under their pillows and never return again.
But everything was so different now, Merlin thought sadly.
He longed to go back in time! Back to the days when everything was okay, his secret was still that, a secret; his friends standing by him! If only he could go back just a week, when he and Arthur had still been friends; joking and messing with each other!
But now everything was messed up. Destiny was failing, he was failing and everything was his fault. If only he had been more careful! If only he had listened to Gaius and Kilgarrah, then he would not be locked up in the dungeons.
Not that he couldn't break free from his bindings, if he wanted to – oh, he could and not only could he do that, he was Emrys, and he could leave it all if he wanted, with just one word. Scratch that, with just a whisper, or a thought.
But he couldn't do that, didn't want to, it would only mean that he failed. It would mean that many innocents would be lost, that a new purge would start – because, really, who could stop it, now that the King knew? But most of all, how could he leave Arthur like that? It had been Merlin's fault, and he was going to stand by his friend if it was the last thing he did – as the last thing he did, because leaving would be betraying Arthur, one final, more lasting betrayal and Merlin knew he could not do that.
He could not see his friend lose his sanity like that. He could not, he would not see Arthur become another Uther, and he would definitely not stand by and let everything he stood for, everything he had fought so hard for, sacrificed so much for, tumble to the ground.
Even as he sat, waiting in the hard stone for his fate, ignoring the dripping water that echoed in his dark little cell in the dungeons; he could not forget the look on the King´s face that haunted him every time he closed his eyes.
A look that could have said millions of words, and been given to billions of people, but was now directed only at him; it expressed only one emotion.
Hate.
King Arthur Pendragon really hated Merlin right now.
Maybe it meant that the end was near. That destiny would break, forgotten by the ages, future only remembering him as the one who failed. Maybe the end had already arrived and Merlin had not noticed it coming.
Like the guard that now stood beside the door and glared hatefully at Merlin.
"Someone's here to see you," said the guard in a hard tone, as if wondering why anyone would want to see the pitiful person in the cell.
"Who is it?" said Merlin in a raspy voice. After all, he had only been given a glass of water and a bit of bread in all the time he had been down there.
"The physician, Gaius," the guard reported, sneering.
"Oh!" exclaimed Merlin, surprised. No one had visited him yet. He had supposed that Arthur had hidden his capture from the Round table, the ones who would surely support him, always – right?
The guard stayed behind and let past an older, grim looking Gaius.
"Merlin," he said tiredly, his eyes full of concern and pain. "I'm sorry Merlin; the King has sentenced you to death."
Merlin felt his stomach shrink and he could not talk.
He shrank into the shadows, whispering with a voice that was so full of pain and oddly, hope.
"Then, it's truly the end." he breathed. "I've failed destiny and I've failed Arthur."
And he closed his eyes.
No one saw the golden glow coming upon them.
