Lucimia de Vivea: The Corrupted Knight

Chapter one: Let her ladyship rise once more

The darkness of night had captured Camelot in her grasp very soon after the downing of the sun on this fine autumn day; the moon greeting the star littered sky soon after the sun had gone to rest. The sky was dark however, a thick blanket of clouds covering her in their shrouded embrace. A faint breeze blew through the white city and the lower town, disturbing not much other than the flaming torches that decorated the walls of the citadel and the wind chimes placed outside the houses of the residents of the lower town, their melodies calming on this chilly autumn evening, putting a sense of ease to everyone in the great city. A sweet smell carried by the wind touched the air lightly enough to be pleasant; the smell of harvested crops was ever so relaxing to everyone that the entire city had been at ease for the whole day and a peaceful day it had been at that.

Yet despite these calming factors that had relaxed the usually busy city, a sense of foreshadowed trouble had crept into the minds of those who were smart enough to know that it trouble had been absent for the past two months and while the temporary peace was a joy to all, the wave of terror that had been trapped behind a firm barrier was about to be released.

The clouds slowly peeled back, revealing the moon shining in all her glory. A full moon would be upon the city tomorrow night, where a festival was to take place. Strips of cloth in varying shades decorated the lower down, drowning it in a sea of colours that neighbouring kingdoms would be envious of. The festival of Samhain's Eve was almost upon Camelot, a time of year when scaring each other was turned into a sport, one which most enjoyed thoroughly.

However the festival this year would not go exactly to plan and would most certainly be remembered, by all.

A figure, that of which was a woman stalked through the forest, a hood as black as the void drawn over her head. She paced up to a small gate door in a wall not so far away from the city walls, looking among the trees of the dark forest surrounding her, searching for anyone that may be there, so she could end them before they spied her by the entrance to the castle's catacombs. Satisfied that no one was around, the woman raised her hand towards the lock and whispered a few words that would make no sense to you or I, but to a sorcerer, they would be clear as day, "Alysan duru ronne." She smirked as the barred door opened silently, after the lock clicked, and swiftly stepped inside with the elegance of a queen, the long black skirts of her dress flowing behind her.

She strolled down the corridor of which she had walked many times over the years. How it still remained barely guarded was a slight mystery to her, but then she remembered the man who was king of this castle, and then it made sense why. The king was stupid; her presence would not be known in Camelot. Anyone who saw her would be dead before they could utter another word.

Grabbing a torch resting on the wall, she made her way deeper into the catacombs of the castle; a place where no one dared go in the night on patrol, at least by themselves anyway. She would not be spotted down there… down where the tomb which held the bodies of the kings, queens and knights of old and new. Uther's body was buried below, but that was not the woman's interest.

Smiling, she reached the tomb that held within the body of the one who would do her bidding; the one who would kill Arthur Pendragon. Yet none would decipher her true intentions, not until it was too late anyway. Removing her hood, she revealed her true face. Her hair was black like the void and hadn't been kept. She had not looked after herself well recently, her grief over her dead sister still with her. She had eyes of a light green, shining with malice and hatred, yet they were full of sorrow and remorse. And her expression… she looked like the taker of souls. What had once been sheer beauty was now gone, dissolved in the darkness by which she was consumed.

She hovered both of her gloved hands over the stone, taking the deepest of breaths and closing her eyes, before opening them to reveal burning gold irises. She chanted once again, wielding one of the darkest spells the Old Religion offered. "Gehyre me, wan chiht, awac! Beo strangra ond steacra, forbrec tha wane… Ṹparis; awrec Merlin!"

Nothing happened… yet nothing was meant to happen, until tomorrow night that was.

Morgana Pendragon smiled. Tomorrow would certainly be a night to remember.

Merlin yawned and blinked his eyes open, shying away from the light coming through his window at first. He stretched, feeling the pleasantries of moving after being in the same position for hours while asleep. He got up and got dressed, placing his blue shirt and brown jacket on, along with his red scarf. He did this slowly, still exercising his stiff muscles to loosen them up for the day. Strolling out of his room he noticed that on this rare occasion, Gaius was still asleep. Not wanting to bother him, the Warlock decided to skip breakfast and instead made his way out of his chambers and to that of his King and Queen. He sighed. Another day of what could be considered the torture that was work awaited him, along with the weight of his destiny and the chores he had to do for Gaius as well. Sometimes he wished he could take a break from it all. Yet as this thought crossed his mind, he remembered that despite all the work, he still loved his job and the friends that came with it. Even if some would rather die before admitting it, himself included.

He made sure to pick up two plates of breakfast from the kitchens, minding the cook who threatened him with her ladle for no apparent reason… again, before strolling into the chambers of Arthur and Guinevere. The young Warlock then set the plates down on the small dining table in the room, before making to complete his first and most dangerous of tasks. In fact, it could be the most dangerous task that a servant could ever have. And that was awakening King Arthur.

He noticed that the red curtains were still drawn, concealing the double, four poster bed from the rest of the room and cutting half of the room off. Merlin knew that he had to be even more careful waking Arthur now, because if he thought for one second that Gwen was annoyed from being woken (which was never the case, but Arthur loved to use it as an excuse to throw something) he would somehow punish Merlin with more work or some other tedious task to make up for it.

Drawing the curtains open carefully, he noticed the couple were gone from their bed. Confused, he made his way over to open the curtains blocking off the sunlight coming through the window. Looking around, he saw no sign that they had already dressed and had eaten breakfast. He was about to face the bed when he suddenly jumped and let loose a gasp; a firm hand had grasped his shoulder. He twisted his head to glance at the person, only to be met with a pair of stormy blue eyes glaring at him menacingly and a head of golden blonde hair; King Arthur, nonetheless.

After a couple of seconds, the King smiled and laughed, ruffling Merlin's hair, much to the younger man's annoyance, and walking in front of him, "You scare so easily!" He exclaimed with so much energy that most thought was impossible for him at this time in the morning. But he was probably like this because Gwen had put him in a good mood. He was also fully dressed and wore only his red tunic, implying that he would probably putting his armour on soon and going to train with the Knights… and using Merlin as the target.

"Why don't you try being crept up on like that? We'll see how much you jump then," Came Merlin's swift reply as he went to make up the bed.

Arthur merely chuckled, "You see Merlin that will never happen because of two reasons. One, I'm not cowardly enough to react in such a way, unlike you. And two, no one would be able to creep up on me," He clapped the other on his shoulder before walking through the curtains and over to the dining table where he caught sight of his breakfast, and was placed in an even happier mood… that was until breakfast was over at least. He sat down and started to tuck in, taking smaller mouthfuls than he used to. Apparently, Gwen had taught him some decorum, which was rather amusing to think about considering the king was the one that had been born into a royal family.

"Really?" Merlin questioned, "I seem to remember an incident when-" He was cut off by Arthur's 'shut up, Merlin' tone.

"Merlin," The King interrupted.

"What?" The servant asked, not looking up from making the bed. He was now rearranging the pillows and was nearly done; his years of practice finally showing that he could actually work a little faster, even if other refused to recognise it.

"Don't you have some chores to be doing?" He asked, pointing his fork at his servant.

"I'm doing them now, aren't I?" Merlin inquired. Honestly, the man expected him to do everything at once sometimes, and that was impossible when Arthur was present… then Merlin couldn't use magic for his chores. Which he hardly did anymore but still, it was nice to have a break from all the work sometimes.

"Well… why don't you go and muck out the stables or something?" The King asked, tucking in to a slice of the finest ham in Camelot, while Merlin looked on with envy.

Note to self; don't skip breakfast, Merlin thought.

Gwen then chose that moment to enter the room, "Arthur, don't be so mean," She scolded, before coming to sit down, thanking Merlin for the breakfast he had brought up as she always did.

"It might toughen him up at bit, I mean look at him. He gets so terrified at meaningless things-"

"I do not," Came the protest.

"-That he's reduced to a quivering leaf."

Merlin sighed and turned around to look at Arthur, "Well, maybe if you didn't try to make it seem like some barbarian is trying to kill me then I wouldn't jump."

"It's Samhain's Eve tonight, Merlin. People are supposed to scare each other," Arthur explained, while smiling at Gwen, who was not so amused and gave him on of her 'looks' that told him to behave himself.

"Supposed to scare each other?" Merlin questioned, "All I've ever seen is you using it as an excuse to mess up my chores and scare the living daylights out of me so I fall over." The warlock said, crossing his arms. "That and you absolutely terrified because last year you thought someone had control of the Knights when they pretended to try and kill you."

Arthur smirked, "So you admit it?" He said in reply to Merlin's first comment, before replying to the second after hearing it, "Why don't you go and polish my armour or something?" He said, mocking a serious tone, but smiling slightly all the same.

Merlin smiled and left the room stifling a laugh that had threatened to show. The door shut with a light click.

The King looked at his Queen, who was giving him another one of those 'looks'. "What?" He asked, genuinely confused.

"He does have a point. You do cause chaos for him every year on this day especially." Gwen said, in her stern but calm tone. "With the exception of the incident two years ago."

"I'm not that bad," Arthur said, using a falsely outraged tone to defend himself.

Gwen sighed, placing her knife and fork down before looking directly into the eyes of the King, "Arthur, last year you gave him a fright so bad that he fell off his horse and into a river."

"That was not a river." He stated leaning back and looking to the side quickly; wanting to break the scolding gaze he was being given.

"Either way, try to be nicer this year. Last year he got soaked through and had a cold for two days." Gwen said, using her voice of reason.

At this tone, Arthur gave in. He put his condiments down and held one of his wife's hands in his own, "I promise I will try to be a bit more lenient, but I can't say the same for the Knights."

"Good," The Queen said in reply.

Merlin sighed as he made his way down to the armoury. He knew that he had just been sent down there because Arthur didn't want to be embarrassed in front of Gwen. How did he know? Well for one it was blindingly obvious, the King never acted any differently in such situations in front of his Queen and two, Merlin had polished Arthur's armour late last night and it was not about to lose its shine after a mere few hours to say the least. Unless the Knights had tampered with it... again.

Strolling into the armoury, the first thing the Warlock noticed was a figure slumped in a seat at the nearby table. A table which had been placed there only so Merlin could use it for polishing. The figure was a Knight with long brown hair that of which came down to just touch his shoulders. He was dressed in his chainmail, but had no plated armour on yet. His sword lay on the ground next to him, as if it had fallen and just been left there. A faint smell of mead was in the air and had collected on the man. Yep, this most certainly was Sir Gwaine after a night in the tavern.

Merlin had come to the conclusion that the knight had dosed off after sitting down and decided to rouse him in the most frightening way possible for a knight; startling them. He didn't need to sneak up on Gwaine, not while he was in this state, so he walked up to him and put a hand on his chainmail covered shoulder and shook him.

There was no response.

Odd, thought Merlin, he must have drunk even more than usual for him to be like this.

The Warlock shook the knight even harder this time, only to discover something truly horrific.

Gwaine wasn't moving… at all and Merlin's shaking had made him tumble to the floor.

Now the servant was worried, "Gwaine?" He tried shaking him again, "Gwaine!" He exclaimed. The guards in the hall didn't even come in at the sound of his semi-shouting. Merlin didn't worry for much longer, not when he heard the laughter of the knight who was currently taking up residence on the floor.

Sighing, Merlin realised he had been joking, "Not you as well," He complained. For once, he wished that he could get on as normal on Samhain's Eve, but no, the whole Kingdom just had to make the day harder for him. Or some evil had to take place.

Pushing himself up, a smile gracing his tanned featured, Gwaine replied, "It's Samhain's Eve tonight, Merlin. People are meant to scare each other." He said, wagging his finger at the servant.

"So I've been told," The Warlock replied. "But all I've ever seen is people using it as an excuse to play tricks on me." He helped Gwaine up with some difficulty, considering he was wearing chainmail, and then folded his arms.

"Well, that is the point," The tavern lover stated, "Ever tried playing a trick of your own?" He asked.

Merlin shook his head.

"Why not?"

"I've always had too much to do and in Uther's reign it was more or less impossible without being suspected of magic or treason... unless you were a noble." Merlin explained. "And you remember what happened two years ago when the veil between the worlds was torn."

The knight nodded solemnly; no one had forgotten that year, "Try playing a trick of your own this year then, see where it goes," Gwaine clapped him on the back, picked his sword up and made for the door, "I'll see you on the training field, Merlin." The knight called cheerily as he walked out of the door with a slight stumble.

Merlin pondered over the Knight's words… maybe he should play a little trick on everyone. He would have to think about what to do, but he did know that he wouldn't be doing it soon. No, he would play a trick tonight at the moment when everyone would least suspect him.

He waited for the King to make an appearance, before dressing him in his armour and walking out of the armoury and making his way to the field with him, the two exchanging some regular banter in the process as usual. On the way there however, his right arm was grabbed and the young man was pulled into an alcove in the wall. A sword was placed in front of his throat and a very strong arm held him securely in place. He looked opposite and saw that Arthur was being restrained in the same manner, having been attacked when he was off guard, giving him no time to react, but he was struggling and was unlikely to give up.

Merlin then glanced at the man restraining the King; Sir Leon was smiling and restraining his laughter. The Warlock looked up at his own captor, who was none other than Sir Percival, but he should have guessed, Percival was by far the strongest knight in Camelot and no one had a vice grip like his.

Arthur seemed to have noticed everything as well and had stopped in his pointless struggle to free himself. A small sigh of annoyance at being caught escaped his lips, but a small smile was also present on them, as the same for the other three. Soon the four were laughing and Merlin and Arthur were released and clapped on the back.

While Merlin had to admit that Percival and Leon's little scare had been the funniest so far, it still annoyed him to no end that he hadn't yet thought of his own little trick to play. But it would come to him… in time.

The day continued with various pranks being played on people. During training, Elyan had pretended to have been hit by Leon and had fallen to the ground, much to the horror of Gwen, who had come to watch, and the rest of the knights. They had all gotten quite a scare because it was something that could have happened, but they were all laughing and clapping the man over the back a minute later after they realised he was fine. Gwen didn't see the humour in it however and had scolded her brother for scaring her like that.

Training was soon dismissed early… by order of the Queen who now had full power over her King.

The Knights and Merlin all retreated to the armoury after getting a mass scolding from Gwen for 'behaving like children' but none of them were ready to stop the pranks just yet and began to plot their next move.

"Gentlemen, you all know why we're here," Arthur began. They were all gathered around the table in the Armoury.

"Yeah, so we don't get an earful from the Queen while conspiring to cause mischief," Gwaine said, causing everyone to chuckle.

"Gwaine," Arthur warned. "She is my wife. But yes, in some ways you are right; we are here to plan ways in which to scare people. Any suggestions on who?"

A collection of shook heads and muttered 'no's came. Until Merlin had an idea, that is.

"The cook?" He asked.

"The cook." Arthur said disapprovingly, "Merlin, are you sure that pranking the cook will be entertaining enough for all of us, because I for one don't want to be planning to scare someone because you and the cook had a little disagreement."

Merlin knew that Percival and Gwaine would be with him on this one, since they raided the kitchens often, all he had to do now was convince the others. "Well, it is lunchtime, and we could pick something up from the kitchens."

The rest of the knights and Arthur considered this with great seriousness, before the King spoke, "I'm in, is everyone okay with that?" He asked.

Everyone nodded in agreement, eager to eat something after a hard session of training.

"Right, here's what we're going to do." Everyone crowded in and put their heads together.

Merlin entered the kitchens, only to be stopped by a ladle, which was being pointed at his nose, "And what do you want?" Came a question asked in an accusing tone from the person holding said ladle, which happened to be the cook.

"Er, the King's lunch?" Merlin replied.

He was dismissed and allowed to pass, collecting a platter of food which looked more like something to help yourself from rather than for one person to dine off of. Since the King trained every day unless when he was on important matters of council, he ate lunch with the Knights quite often and so a platter like this was always prepared for them. But the Knights would all go and eat their own plate of food a bit later.

The Warlock made his way out of the kitchen and was greeted by Elyan, who took the platter from him and made his way off down a corridor towards a storage room where the other knights were hiding out, above an all too familiar grate which covered a hole to the kitchens below. It was time for part two of the plan.

Merlin then had to wait a couple of minutes before entering again as to not arouse suspicion, feeling jealous of the knights who were now feasting on various meats and fruits, while he was still hungry. He made the excuse that he had been told to wash the dishes in the kitchen by the King and walked over to a large bucket on a table filled with water. There were a few dirty plates and pans next to it and so the servant set about his false task, casting occasional glances to the grate in the ceiling. Once he got an okay from Percival, the real prank started.

A string was lowered down by the tall knight, a hook attached to the end of it. The other knights gathered around to watch, all with smiles on their faces, but none were laughing to give the game away.

Below the string, was a plate of small chickens, like the ones cooked in the last Samhain's Eve celebrations last year, which Gwaine and Percival had stolen one of.

Checking that no one was looking, Merlin quickly hooked one onto the string and watched as it was quickly reeled up by Percival. He then glanced over to the back entrance to the kitchens and saw Gwaine as expected, who threw him a chicken bone that was one of the remnants of the Knight's lunch and placed it with the other chickens.

This process continued on until there was just a pile of bones where the chickens had been.

The cook turned around and screamed, before going on about how the feast later on was ruined, before she was met by Gwaine and Leon at the main door, who held the platter they had taken earlier, with all the chickens piled on it. The two knights and Merlin were then chased out of the kitchen by an angry cook. But the three were soon greeted by the others, who were in hysterics and congratulated.

The King was secretly glad that even though he was above them all in rank, they disregarded that and treated him as an equal and as a friend, as they did with Merlin, who was of the lowest rank present. Not that Arthur would ever admit this of course.

After a quick regroup in the armoury, they were off again, to Gaius' chambers.

It was the time of day where Merlin would go and eat lunch with his guardian, but the servant was normally there before he was, so the knights hid inside various cupboards in the room, except Arthur, who hid in Merlin's room.

Gaius came back soon enough and the two sat down to eat lunch before they had to go again, conversing over various things to do with the condition of the lower town and if there were any illnesses spreading. Luckily there were none, or there would be something to worry about.

It was that moment that the hidden knights charged out of their hiding places and startled Gaius, who was quick to reprimand the whole lot of them, including Merlin. It seemed that you didn't get on the nerves of Camelot's elders or it's Queen, because you would get told off, no matter your standing.

At the feast in the late hours, the speech given by the King was indeed well listened to and respected by everyone. The celebration of Samhain was one of honouring the dead, and everyone was sure to do that, for in Camelot's new age under its young king, every life, no matter what class it belonged to, mattered and that was respected by all. This new rule meant that there were fewer executions because of fair trials. Less sorrow and more joy in the times of peace. And when trouble came about, no man, woman or child was left behind.

A toast to the dead and the living was proposed at the stroke of midnight and everyone raised their goblets, smashed them together, causing some spillages and drank from them at the same time, some avid drinkers like Gwaine drained their wine in one go. Others, who were polite, such as the Queen, took little more than a sip. Everyone then started to consume the various food laid out on the table, eager to fill their stomachs.

It was then that Gwaine beckoned Merlin over to his table, knowing that being a servant, the man wouldn't have been a part of the toast. "Merlin my friend, have a drink with me!" The Knight exclaimed, clapping the Warlock on the back and passing him a spare goblet. That had in fact been for another Knight, but he had taken ill on the previous day and could not attend.

Merlin was more than happy to oblige. The jug of wine he had been holding was a dead weight in his arms and he wanted to be rid of some of it, so he poured two goblets of wine and set his burden down, before raising his goblet in a toast with Gwaine, and smashing it against his, before draining it of its contents, knowing that would be all he got that night and he wasn't about to leave it with a knight who made drinking a second living, because if he came back to take another gulp he would surely find it empty.

After a few seconds of drinking his goblet dry… again, Gwaine noticed that Merlin didn't look like his usual self. The young man had looked fine a moment ago, but now he seemed to have trouble breathing; a hand was at his throat and he looked like he was clawing at it. He coughed a couple of times. This was odd, Gwaine's wine had been fine… better than fine if the knight was honest.

By now everyone had gone silent and was watching him and they all stared in horror when Merlin's eyes rolled back and were hidden by closed eyelids as the servant dropped to the floor like the deadweight he currently was, the goblet that had been in the grasp of his right hand rolling away, making a clattering sound on the marble floor as it did so.

No… thought Arthur, not again. The panic in his eyes was as clear day to anyone that spared a glance to him.

Arthur, Gwen and Gaius were horribly reminded of the first time this had happened; the first time Merlin had been poisoned. What a horrible experience that had been for all four of them and they had prayed that it would never happen again… unfortunately, it seemed that fate would not allow them that.

The knights closest to the warlock got up instantly and rushed to his side, only to be parted like the seas as Gaius came through, Gwen and Arthur close by his side.

"Merlin, can you hear me?" Gaius asked, echoing the very words he had said all those years ago. He placed a hand on the young man's forehead only to discover that he had no fever. Confused, he checked Merlin's pulse which was normal. This could only mean one thing.

A small smirk made its way onto the servant's lips, before he opened his eyes and laughed at all the faces staring down at him with worry.

Varied emotions were felt by the warlock's friends as they realised they'd been had.

First they felt relief that the idiot in Arthur's words, was okay. Then they felt anger that he had made them so worried, but last, they felt humour, because they had finally been repaid for every single trick they had ever played on him in the best way possible.

Merlin was helped up by the knights, before being embraced by Gaius, whose heart had nearly stopped for fear that the man he saw as a son was dying once again. He was then released and hugged by a worried Gwen and clapped on the back by the knights and Arthur, while being told that he had played a good trick. The King clipped him around the ear for good measure and warned that;

"Merlin, if you ever worry… Gwen like that ever again, you will wish that you were never born," That could also translate to 'Merlin, if you ever worry Gwen or myself like that ever again, you will wish that you were never born'. The warlock was practically the dictionary of Arthur's phrases which meant things that were not even spoken most of the time.

With a smile, the King and everyone else returned to their seats, but were not given the chance to sit down… oh no, something far bigger was about to happen that Merlin's little stunt.

At the other end of the banquet hall, a pure while horse crashed through the stain glass window, the shards of which were scattered everywhere within two metres, hazarding the floor for anyone who neared it. The entrance remained those of the court who were present at the incident with The Black Knight, also known as Tristan de Bois.

The rider of this horse, however, was dressed in the finest silver armour, which held a shine so bright it was like the sun had entered the room. The identity of this person was unknown, for they wore a helmet which obscured their face. A Sigil of wolf was present on their gauntlets and became clearer as they rode to the other side of the hall.

Arthur and the knights drew their swords and stood in front of the Queen and other nobles in a line, ready to defend them. The King pushed Merlin behind him as a way of knowing that the servant was safe and as a way of telling him to back away.

They watched as the rider came to a stop just before the King. They then took off a gauntlet, and threw it down. Not in front of him mind, in front of the man behind him… the servant, Merlin.

The rider… this intruder…waited for his response.

The court stared at the warlock in shock.

First ever Merlin fic. I hope it is up to scratch for everyone and it isn't too bad! Please review, but only if you want to and thank you very much for reading!

It's set between S4 and S5 by the way.

Disclaimer: Apparently I have to put this, so yes, I do not own the TV show Merlin, only the DVDs and the books.