Author's Note: This is a one-shot. I will not be turning it into a full length story. However, if anyone is interested in doing so, you have my blessing so long as you give me a heads up and proper credit.
Arthur received the news during a council meeting.
The King had stared at the messenger, momentarily dumbstruck and at a loss for words. His lips twitched for several seconds, debating whether or not they should display amusement or annoyance. Silence reigned throughout the council room, a dozen or so pairs of eyes trained upon their King. Slowly, Arthur stood from his seat, the chair emitting a sharp screech, as it moved against the wooden floor. Sir Leon winced.
Curtly, Arthur addressed the guard once more, "What did you say?"
"Forgive me my Lord," the guard gulped nervously, noticeably shivering under the King's hard gaze, "bu-but, I belie-ved you would wi-ish to be in-infor-med of the traitor's fa-a-ate."
Instinctively, the guard took a few steps back, as he was suddenly faced with not one, but several dark gazes. Arthur scowled, and his fists tighten in a manner which the guard found rather foreboding to his health. The Knights of the Round Table all glared at him in some way or another – though some were more transparent than others – the guard noted as Sir Gwaine fiddled with the hilt of his sword.
It seemed that, with the exception of Sir Agravaine and a handful of men, the guard had thoroughly upset everyone in the room. Prewitt, the hapless guard, who had been tricked into being the bearer of bad news, lamented his fate.
"Well," Agravaine all but gloated, "I have to say Sire; I'm not all that surprised at this unforeseen turn of events. I always thought that something wasn't quite right with the boy. Let's simply be grateful that his sorcery was discovered outside the city walls."
Later, when Merlin had been rescued, and safely returned to Camelot, far, far, far away from peasants baring pitchforks and torches, Gwaine would ask of Merlin the one question that had been weighing on all of the Knight's minds – why hadn't Merlin used magic to escape the villager's clutches and returned to Camelot by his own means?
Dumbfounded, Merlin would answer, "I wasn't going to use my magic on the villagers after I'd gone through all of the trouble of saving them! What would have been the point of using my magic to save them from the rackner beast that threatened to devour them, if I was simply going to turn around and knock them about afterwards?"
Silence would reign momentarily, only to be broken by an angry growl emitted by the King himself, "You bloody idiot!"