Disclaimer: I only own the idea which I got from when I paused an episode at exactly the right time.
(*_*) (*_*) (*_*) ENJOY (*_*) (*_*) (*_*)
Merlin always stood half out and half in the shadows when he was in Camelot. It took ages for Arthur to notice this as this was the correct place for servants to stand – out of sight of most but ready to do anything for him in an instant. But for Merlin it was more than that, it was as though only half of him lived in Camelot and the shadows hid the other half. The crown prince had thought the other half of Merlin was in his home village of Ealdor with his mother and friends, but he realised that was not the case when they went to go save the village from Kanan. Merlin was still half there, sometimes even less. Wherever he was hiding, he had hidden it from his village - only Hunith and Will were allowed to see what hid in the shadows. Even if the shadows didn't actually exist Merlin still managed to hide half in and half out of them. It became Arthur's obsession to find out what was in the shadows.
There were sometimes where he could only see the smallest part of Merlin because of the shadows. These were the times where Camelot was in trouble, he was too busy to try and work out what was hiding in the shadows, and when he thought about it later he all he could remember of his servant was his outline.
The first time where he was sure Merlin wasn't hiding in the shadows was after the situation with the questing beast. "I'm proud to be your servant until the day I die." Merlin meant it, Arthur was sure of that, everything Merlin was had spoken in that one sentence, but he still didn't know what had been hidden.
It was only when he agreed to follow Morgause that he saw the other half of Merlin. The half that was normally hidden was now the half in the light and the half he saw was now the half in the dark. In the great hall after he was the normal half of Merlin again, but it was amplified and his eyes were dim with none of the sparkle and joy that had been in them earlier. It was what had made him listen to what his manservant was saying – the complete difference between the two halves of Merlin.
When Merlin came to his room later he was sure he had worked out what the shadows were. Magic – part of him hoped that he hadn't gone in too deep and that he could come out again safely, half in and half out meant that part of him hadn't completely succumbed. But he knew that it was no hope at all, he had seen Merlin completely in the shadows after all.
When he finally got the courage to speak to Merlin about it and asked him to show what he could do, he finally saw all of Merlin, the hidden magic half was not something he could take away. Without it he would only have half of Merlin. He had not previously only had only half of Merlin like he had thought, he always had all of Merlin. He just hadn't seen the second half as it had been hidden by the shadows.
While Uther reigned Merlin lived half in and half out of the shadows. When his father died and Arthur took the throne Merlin stepped out into the light.
(*_*) (*_*) (*_*) The End (*_*) (*_*) (*_*)
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