Merlin: The New Age

Part 1

The boat slowly descended underneath the surface of the just-warm water. The wooden base was soon ablaze in a white-blue glow before crumbling away; cyan embers lighting up the darkness under the surface of the water. The last of the boat-dust glittered away, leaving the body afloat and the magic working around him.

"...and King Alined were among the ones who also expressed agreement with Odin's..." Leon's eye contact flickered before he continued, "outrageous claims."

The queen turned her face away to one side for a moment, the suppressed rage on her expression being shared silently by the rest of the court, before facing her audience again.

"If these corrupted rulers mean to use these taunts to start a conflict," Gwen began with a calm voice edged with sternness, "then they are grievously mistaken."

The determined faces of Sir Leon and Sir Percival at the front as well as others around the throne room spoke agreement and encouraged the queen to continue.

"It has only been a year since-" Gwen paused unintentionally but quickly regained her composure, "the Battle at Camlann. And the time since is to be used to restore peace," she said compassionately before adding more seriously, "so unless there is threat to our people, we must not foolishly believe their words to be a gauntlet thrown at us."

The court accepted this solemnly. Then the silence was lifted by Sir Leon's voice once again.

"But My Lady, there is one more claim still that has been raised, one that is of concern to us." The gravity returned to Gwen's face as she concentrated for the next part, with everyone listening intently.

"That you are in league with Morgana, meaning that the sorceress has been sighted once more."

The body was just beneath the surface now with layers of water sweeping over it from all directions; rippling over him, with the contours of water having a slight glow. As the last of the ripples dissolved away, the body slowly ascended and floated on the surface of the lake momentarily.

Arthur opened his eyes.

So soon as the cloud streaked sky formed his vision, it was fast disappearing as he realised he was sinking.

Merlin struck the flint stone against the rock with more force this time. Third-time lucky. His fingers warmed up as a spark was born.

'I want you to always be you...' he heard a distant voice say in his head and ignored it as the fire burnt healthily before him. He sat about doing other tasks, many of which he could have done using magic. But he took all the time he could, doing these tasks without any short cuts. He kept the practicing of powerful magic -the difficult, the better- to use up the remaining of his time. That is how he survived his cave dwelling.

How father must have been, he thought sometimes. Except, unlike Balinor, he had no fear of persecution when he went to the nearest town for supplies occasionally.

Arthur had been watching Merlin for a while now, peeking in from the side of the mouth of the cave. Merlin seemed to be present in form but his actual self seemed to be somewhere else. As their last memories together settled clearly on his mind, all of a sudden Arthur didn't know how to make his appearance known. But he straightened himself from the stealthy stance and stood at the cave's entrance and decided to try "good morning."