-Dabbling in Gratuitous Merlin-Myths-
Synopsis: The prince of Camelot declares him to be useless, as a man subject under the spell of so many secrets ought to given his performances as a servant. But Merlin's "uselessness" ends right there and Arthur may begin to see what's on the other side of the coin. (May become a slightly AU reveal-fic)
Rating: K+
I have yet to properly decide what season I want this to orbit around but I'm thinking it will be throughout seasons 3 and 4, much of it may be in the year that separates the two. (completely forgetting about season 5 for now.) I'll do my best to keep everyone in character for these chapters but feel free to let me know if you find something is off. Keep in mind that this is oodles of cannon and nothing more, focusing on Merlin's interactions with the world and the talents he has that don't need to be kept hidden but just sort of do. I am going to fiddle with things so at some point things will change and take a few steps away from the true plot of BBC Merlin, but I hope to maybe set it back on track. It won't go far, I can assure you that.
I further apologize for any historical mistakes I may make throughout this, my knowledge of the medieval era is very small and I have to do extensive research for each chapter.
If you have any ideas feel free to bounce them off of me as well, though I can't promise I'll always be able to write them out.
That said this is supposed to become something of a drabble series, though I have no idea how long it will be. I hope it is enjoyed. :)
Disclaimer: I don't own BBC Merlin.
XXXX
-Chapter 1—
This is How You Read
"There is only one thing for it then - to learn. Learn why the world wags and what wags it. That is the only thing, which the mind can never exhaust, never alienate, never be tortured by, never fear or distrust, and never dream of regretting. Learning is the only thing for you. Look what a lot of things there are to learn."
It's not quite that Arthur finds his job as a Prince hard, per se, just as everything else it has its good moments and its bad ones. But there are times just like this that make him want to flip his desk over in a fit of un-princely frustration and throw himself out the window to spare himself the agony of this.
Sitting in his chambers at gods-knows-what hour of the night leaning over a much too prolific and sagely written tome, the young prince found himself struggling. He sat at this desk every night putting together and reviewing reports, among various other things, and he was quite sure he'd had to endure more arduous situations before.
Right?
But then he read the next sentence and very nearly threw the book Gaius had lent him right at Merlin, who was busy polishing his armor by the table. Wasn't this supposed to be a book on medicine?! Why the hell is it suddenly talking about the Copernican Heavens?!
Instead he simply clapped the tome closed, dropped it in a heap upon the table, and turned away as his servant looked up at him from across the room, surprise brightening his eyes. With his chin resting upon a fist and a tight scowl on his face Merlin needed no explanation for the sudden, rather furious behavior.
The servant's eyes fell across the rejected tome with something akin to sympathy, his deft fingers still scrubbing at the pauldron in his hands. That ancient tome was something Gaius had also made Merlin read and it was only a few months ago that he'd managed to finish the damned thing. It was an admittedly difficult tome to work through once you reached a certain point in the dusty heap of knowledge and in the end he'd found it horribly boring despite learning several very interesting things throughout his struggle.
Merlin liked to learn, the world was so vast and he was so small and there was so much one could do with knowledge should it be used correctly. Yet, philosophical mumblings and the great history of war didn't usually interest him, both were far too simple and far too brutish for his tastes- although, it would probably be more suitable if he described the former as "indelicately complex".
It likely didn't help Arthur that the book he was reading dropped sublimely hidden hints of magic and how it was used to heal the sick and wounded. Hints that only a magician could understand.
Merlin tried not to think about how close his prince was to one of many wonderful characteristics magic held and how oblivious he was to it.
"Has something caught your eye Merlin?" Arthur's voice finally sounded from across the room and his servant paused, blinking several times as though it would help dispel his troubled thoughts.
"Not at all, sire," he replied and turned back to his work. The blond-haired prince frowned at him but after a moment's though wrote the behavior off as simple exhaustion. Turning in his seat he spared a glance at the moon and promptly sighed loudly; it was just past midnight and Pelagius of Asturias would be arriving tomorrow.
Speaking of which…
Leaning across the table with an impatient huff he grabbed another book, this one a literature piece on Christianity. He'd been reading it over the course of the last few days in preparation of the worldly king's visit and at the very least he'd found it was not nearly as aggravating as Gaius's medical book.
Being a Christian himself he'd supposed that it would be rather easy to understand and it was, sort of. The book took upon itself an in depth analysis on the evils of magic and why any and all who wielded it were to be damned to hell, with a touch of deep Christianity here and there. Unlike his father's preaching's, however, this thing went into detail of how magic worked. Not a lot, just enough to make the very educated prince of Camelot cringe in confusion.
What even did half these words mean?
Time passed between servant and master for several minutes like this; Arthur scowling and flipping pages every so often and Merlin moving on to a dirty vambrace.
"I take it you're not enjoying Adrain's take on Christianity either then?" Merlin's voice echoed throughout the expansive room with a touch of amusement to it that made his master's glower turn even darker. It was then the prince realized he must have been making faces because when he set the book down to retort the raven haired manservant was grinning.
"At least you don't have to impress religiously obsessed kings coming for a visit," he shot back and then sighed, wincing a little at the ache in his sore muscles, "your life must be so easy, Merlin."
He missed the barely perceptible twitch and discouraging flash through his not-friend's eyes. Merlin rolled his shoulders back and cracked his neck from side to side, "well, yes, actually, I do Arthur. Everything you have to know about King Pelagius I also have to know," he turned to his slave-driving master with a quirked eyebrow, "or did you forget that as well?"
It was not unknown to him that the whole reason Arthur was forced into this pile of learning was because his father wanted him to brush up his knowledge, worried that his son would insult their guest should he have forgotten the tiniest detail of their shared religion.
But it was late and he'd had a long day, a very long day. Both servant and master had been up since before dawn and for Merlin the day had started even earlier when he'd been told to gather herbs for the resident physician he was living with. Merlin was sore, tired, and hungry, but he couldn't even eat until Arthur let him go.
Which didn't look like it was likely to happen anytime soon with the prince's face set in such a way. A tired, wrath-filled scowl sat upon his features, wrinkling his brow and crinking the bridge of his nose. But then, suddenly, it all disappeared and a suspiciously warm smile touched his handsome features.
Oh no, that wasn't a good transition.
"Look at me, sitting comfortably here and lazing about with a good book, how selfish of me," Merlin watched with a growing sense of horror as his master rose out of his chair and stepped aside, pulling the furniture out and looking at his servant with a gleam in his eye, "please, you must be tired. Why don't you take a seat and read a little?"
It wasn't that Merlin didn't like reading, far from it, it was just that he didn't like reading religious books of any kind- especially Christianity. Those things hated him as much as Uther did and they always went a few leagues too far in explaining why they hated him and what they would do to him if he was ever discovered.
It was disgusting, really.
"Um, I don-" he began to protest, looking from the open chair to the smug prince.
"Oh, don't worry about it being any trouble, Merlin. After all, I've got the easy part," Arthur insisted, coming up beside his servant and grabbing his shoulders.
Merlin wondered if now was a good time to claim that he was an atheist.
He didn't get very far into that thought, however, before he was pushed into the chair and his prince was shoving the book towards him. Then the royal brat stood off to the side with his arms crossed and an expectant, as well as pleased, expression on his face. Seeing that what was to follow was unavoidable he gave in. With an undisguised grimace, Merlin opened the smaller book to its marker and began to read.
He'd already read this book, had to before giving it to Arthur, so it wasn't a challenge to understand any of the words. And perhaps that was what made it so horrible.
The prince was half-way through the worst chapter, the one damning all magic users to hell via fire, drawing and quartering, beheading, beatings, and so on. This was all regardless of age. It made him nauseous to think that there were those who starved and whipped and placed crushing weights little by little on sorcerer's chests until their bones broke and they stopped breathing.
Arthur watched his face intently, not wanting to let a single muscle twitch go unnoticed. But it was a little hard, seeing as how Merlin's face was set to neutral and no decipherable emotion could be found anywhere. He simply read the passage indicated to him, then the page, then the next page, and the next and Arthur was beginning to wonder when Merlin's face never changed. At least, until he caught a glimpse of emotion he'd been previously missing in his not-friend's eye.
Finally the book was set down, chapter finished, and his servant looked up at him, "and?" A look of forced disinterest crossed the man's face, catching the elder off guard.
He shifted from one foot to the other, and looked at his servant, speechless for a few moments, "oh, don't tell me you actually understand that!" The disbelief was left unhindered in his voice.
"It's not that hard when you're living with a physician, you know," his servant rebuffed, but there was a new, indescribable air about him that unsettled the prince. "Besides, I've already read it."
Arthur shook his head and grabbed the book, flipping to a random page, "fine, then tell me what this means then," he said and pointed to a line on the page. Surely Merlin must be lying, how could a peasant be smarter than him?
He handed it back to Merlin and the raven-haired teen looked down, finally raising an eyebrow, "'The reason human beings do not know the future is not that it is not there to be known, but that we are not in a position to witness it.' That line?"
"Yes, Merlin, that line," came the exasperated, almost impatient, reply.
Like a spark shooting off of flint-stone an idea lit up in Merlin's head, a nice, petty form of payback if you will.
"Well, to put it in technical terms, temporal distinctions have epistemological or psychological, but not ontological, reference. It's completely logical, if you're religious at all." That said Merlin set the book down on the table and stood up. Giving Arthur a 'respectful' head-bob and dismissing himself. He'd already finished with all his other chores, the armor was the last of them so he snagged the polished pieces on his way out so he could return them to their proper place in the armory.
Completely baffled the blond watched his servant cross the room, grab the shined pieces, and leave.
Merlin wasn't a complete idiot, he knew, despite how often he told him he was. But this display was definitely not expected- and from a peasant! Where- how had he learned if he didn't have any access to books in Ealdor? Arthur certainly didn't remember seeing any.
He made a mental side note to overload his servant with work for the next few weeks, giving himself a new personal goal to make the servant's life a living hell.
From then on Merlin was just a little more cautious about how he displayed his intelligence.
XXXX
The next installment comes whenever I'll next have time. Throw me any critiques you have, I'd love to hear any of them.
Thanks for reading!
Cheers!
-FT