Hello!

This is my first time trying this organization for a story, so I hope it worked. I enjoyed writing this anyways, and I hope you enjoy!

Story takes place after 5x03, The Death Song of Uther Pendragon.

Disclaimer: I do not own Merlin. All rights to the respective owners.

Arthur stared at Merlin without really seeing him.
It wasn't like Merlin had changed from the moment Arthur had been wishing him awake to now, where Arthur was thinking about every other person in the room. Several questions swirled through his mind, but he couldn't ask until Merlin was conscious. Still, there was one he could.
Had they known?
Gauis had, that Arthur knew. But Gwen? And the knights? It wasn't that Arthur doubted their loyalty, or that any of them had been acting shifty, suspicious, or guilty. It was just that none of them were surprised. At all. About a sorcerer hiding in Camelot. Where sorcery was illegal. Why weren't they surprised.
"We need to talk." Arthur decided and strolled out of the room.

It had been a regular patrol.
Well, mostly. Leon and Arthur had agreed the day before to bring Mordred, and he spent most of the patrol riding backwards on his horse with his bleachers inside out. Other than that, though, it was a regular patrol.
They left the castle, rode out, were attacked by bandits, defeated said bandits, gave Merlin a harsh time for not helping defeat said bandits, listened to Gwaine's ramblings and Merlin's complaints, settled down in the forest for the night, ate, and then went to sleep. Arthur was woken for his shift at the right moment by the right knight, and woke the right knight at the right moment when his shift ended.
They had another attack in the middle of Elyan's shift, but this time it was mercenaries, not bandits. Skilled mercenaries too.
With a lot of sweat, sword clashing, and yelling, the Camelot patrol came out victorious.
"Everyone alright?" Arthur called out. Leon, Elyan, Gwaine, and Percival all said more-or-less that they were fine.
"Mordred?" Arthur asked. No reply. Arthur couldn't see him either - though it was dark and cloudy, so he could barely see anyone. Where was he?
"I saw him fighting with a mercenaries by the creek." Leon stated. Arthur looked in the direction he thought the creek was - he could somewhat hear the water - but didn't see any motion.
"And where's Merlin?" Gwaine asked.
"He's right-" here. Arthur looked back to where he assumed Merlin was, but no one was there. "I, I don't know. Where was the last place anyone saw him?"
"I think I saw him near the creek." Elyan said.
"The same creek Mordred was at?" Gwaine asked. Elyan nodded. "Well, that's not a good sign."
"Indeed." Arthur agreed. "But at least we should be able to follow both trails at the same time."

Everyone stared expectantly at Arthur, so he took a deep breath and started speaking.
"We have all been caught up on the events of our latest patrol, correct?" He looked at Guinevere, the only person in the room who hadn't been there. She bit her lip and nodded.
"So, as you all know, Merlin had a... surprising secret he enlightened us with." He paused for a second when he noticed a nervous energy pass in the room. "So, tell me, why weren't any of you surprised?"
*Now* they looked guilty.

*Being attacked once was to be expected. Twice was fairly common as well. But three times in one patrol?
Not that that was what Arthur had been thinking when he heard a crossbow go off behind him.
He and Elyan, who had been standing next to him, ducked and the bolt flew harmlessly through the air.
"We're under attack!" Arthur yelled at his knights, who were already drawing their swords.
The world turned to chaos for the third time in about two days. At least this time it was about noon and Arthur could see his attackers, even when it started raining.
They were winning when the first fireball hit.
*Sorcerer*, Arthur thought. *But not one with good aim.*
His knights fought undeterred, and the fireballs continuous failed to hit their marks. Arthur pulled Gwaine from a duel with a Percival-sized man and the two went to hunt down the source of the magic.
The man was blind, judging by the way his eyes moved. He wasn't deaf, though, and Gwaine and Arthur soon found a blazing ball shooting right at them.
That one found its mark, but Gwaine and Arthur were too quick for it to hit them.
The next one hit the tree in front of them, as if to trap them, but it was pouring rain by that point and the only thing it managed to do was dry the tree up a little.
The third would have been fatal had it not been for Merlin. *

"You all knew, didn't you?" Arthur finally asked.
"Arthur..." Gwen started.
"He told you?" To Arthur's surprise, everyone shook their head no.
"And we didn't know," Elyan added. "Not for sure."
"But you guessed?" Elyan nodded. "How?"

The fireball hung in front of Arthur for a moment before disappearing.
Arthur looked around, trying to understand what just happened. The blind sorcerer looked just as confused.
That's when he saw Merlin and Mordred hiding in the trees on the otherwise of the clearing.
Well, Mordred wasn't actually hiding. He was just fighting off a mercenary in hand-to-hand combat without either of them making a sound. Somehow.
Merlin, on the other hand, was hiding. Arthur could only see half of him, but it was enough to see his raised hand. Merlin had just stopped a fireball.
He caught Arthur's eye, and Arthur could see fear in there. As if Arthur was going to execute him right there.
Arthur stood there in shock, trying to understand what just happened. He probably looked like an idiot. Gwaine moved from beside him to sneak up on the distracted sorcerer, and Merlin turned to help Mordred.
It was until Gwaine pulled Arthur out of the way of a fourth fire ball that he even moved.
Merlin yelped loudly, and someone hit something hard.
Arthur was one his feet in seconds as more mercenaries started swarming them. He knocked on out, stole the sword, and tossed it to Mordred, who was now barely surviving three armed attackers.
Merlin and the blind sorcerer had a quick round of who-can-shoot-the-most-fire, which Merlin won easily.
Arthur swung and hit and tried not to think to hard about that.
Eventually the mercenaries suffered the blow of common sense returning to them and ran away.
Arthur looked around at his knights, all injured now. Mordred barely looked like he could stand, and Gwaine had multiple places on his head that was bleeding. All were alive, though.
Reluctantly, Arthur turned to where he had seen Merlin last. He didn't want to look at him, didn't want to see him, not now, not ever again, but he needed to be sure he was okay, even if he didn't understand why.
Good thing he did too. Merlin was slumped against a tree, hand covering a wound on his stomach. He was unconscious, but his chest still rose and fell.
All the anger, shock, disappointment, and betrayal washed out of Arthur as he ran to Merlin's side.

"In the castle of Fyrien," Elyan eventually said, breaking the silence. "Merlin ran back to help you defeat Morguase. You said her column of fire just vanished. And then his help tipping the Cup of Life. You say he's lucky, sire, but that's can't just be luck."

"Are you okay sire?" Elyan asked as his horse trotted up next to Arthur's.
They had immediately started the journey back to Camelot after bandaging Merlin. The stab wound wasn't fatal, but that didn't mean he didn't need Gauis.
Besides, Arthur needed to *do* something.
"Just thinking," Arthur answered. He almost slipped right back into his thoughts when another thought occurred. Had the rest of the knights witnessed what he had?
"Elyan," Arthur started.
"Yes, sire?"
"Did you see what..."
"What Merlin did?"
"Yes, that."
"I think we all did."
Arthur looked Elyan over. He seemed oddly calm considering everything.
"Sire, if I may ask, what are you planning on doing?"
"I don't know."
"He's loyal, you know. He's the most loyal person I've ever met."
"I know. It's just... what am I supposed to do when my most loyal friend betrays me?"

"At first, I just thought he was extremely lucky," Gwaine admitted. "He always escaped, and it seemed whoever was with him got his luck too. The bar battle, the quest I'm not supposed to talk about, the fire, the Cup of Life, he always came out on top. And so did you, I, and anyone else that was with him. I only realized it wasn't luck after the Dorocha attacked him. He survived the improbable before, but never the impossible. Not until then."

"I can feel your glare, Gwaine, from all the way up here," Arthur called. He needed to say something or he would go crazy.
"I'm not glaring," Gwaine answered. "I'm watching."
"Sorry to disappoint, but I'm not going to do a trick for you."
"That's not what I'm watching for, you know that."
"I do. But my point still stands. Merlin is getting to Gauis, Gwaine. There is no need to worry."
"And after?" Arthur hesitated.
"That will be decided when he's awake and can explain himself."

"It was the Dorocha for me as well," Percival admitted. "The Dorocha and the lamia. Merlin never seemed to get enchanted or bewitched. It was almost as if he was immune to magic. I knew from my travels that the only way to be immune to it is to have it."

"Percival," Arthur called. "Can you please get Gwaine to bicker. Or talk. Or just anything. This silence is driving me insane."
"I never thought there would be a day we wanted to hear more of Gwaine." Percival commented.
"Oh please, you know you enjoy my presence." Arthur sent a thankful look to Percival, who sped up to ride next to him.
"Actually, I was doing fine in the silence. Hearing myself think is a rare privilege these days." Elyan continued.
"He's going to be fine, sire," Percival whispered. "Gauis has healed a million of those same wounds."
"I know." Arthur admitted. "That's not what I'm scared of."

"There was no one moment for me, sire," Leon stated. "I knew Merlin was loyal from almost the beginning, so at first I tried to turn a blind eye. But the proof was continuous. And it grew. A tree branch there, a bandit slipping here turned into rock falls and miraculous cures and people accusing him for this and that just for them to turn out to be evil. No servant, even one with Merlin's dedication, could survive two accusations of sorcery, one of theft, several battles, several attacks by Morgana herself, and who knows what else."

"It's getting dark, sire." Leon commented.
"We're almost there." Arthur replied. "There's no point in stopping now." Leon didn't argue. For once.
"Sire, if I may ask-"
"What am I going to do about Merlin?"
"Yes."
"What I told Gwaine I'd do. I have to hear his story before deciding anything."
"Of course."
"Though I think if I'm being completely honest with myself, I've already made the decision. And I think you know what that is."
"I do, sire. But he did break the law."
"That's the problem."

"I suspected at the beginning," Gwen stated. "When he defeated you in the mace battle. Then again when my father was healed. I was almost certain. But then he must have gotten better at hiding it, and I started to doubt. It wasn't until the lamia that I started thinking about it again. It wasn't like what Percival said, that he was just immune. She hated him. It was the only thing that made sense. But even then I wasn't sure."

Gwen and Gauis greeted them as they always did, standing tall and proud at the top of the stairs, despite it being well after dark.
Until they saw Merlin. Then they were both running down the stairs to help him.
"What happened? Gwen asked as Gauis and Gwaine carried Merlin off.
"He was stabbed by mercenaries." Arthur said, already following them.
"Is he okay?" No, he's not, otherwise Gauis and Gwaine wouldn't be carrying him.
"He's fine, Gauis has dealt with this type of thing a million times."
"Oh, I hope your right. Not that you or anyone else looks much better. Have you been riding all day?"
"Pretty much. We had to get him to Gauis as fast as possible."
"And you did. But what would he have done if you had fainted while getting him here."
"I'm fine Guinevere."
"No your not. And your not going to go check on him."
"Guinevere."
"You need to go to bed Arthur."
"She's right, sire," Leon added. "We can check on Merlin."
"No you can't. You all look tired and you all need to go to bed."
"But Gwen-" Elyan tried.
"Elyan." She put her hands on her hips and they all knew they weren't going to win this.
That didn't mean they stopped trying.

The room was quiet, but not everyone had spoke yet.
"Mordred?" The young knight looked down at his feet.
"I, I guess I just knew." No one looked convinced. "It's a Druid thing, being able to... to sense powerful sorcerers. I can't explain it pass that."
"Alright." Arthur took a deep breath. "So the next question is did you know that the rest of you knew?"
"No, sire." Leon stated.
"I talked to Gwen about it a little, but that's all." Elyan answered.
"Just Elyan." Gwen replied. Mordred shook his head no.
"I suspect one or two of the servants have an idea." Gwaine added.
"Probably. Servants tend to be observant." Gwen added.
"I think Lancelot might have known, but I didn't figure out about Merlin until after he died."
"Does Merlin know any of you know?" Most of the knights shook their heads. Gwen and Mordred hesitated, which Arthur noticed, which they noticed.
"I think he might have suspected I was suspecting him." Gwen answered.
"He knows I know." Mordred confirmed.
"Great, so all of you knew there was a sorcerer hiding in Camelot in plain sight, but no one told me, one of you told the queen, none of you told each other and only one of you actually confronted him about it?"