Prologue

1600 years ago

The castle seemed to hold its breath in silence as he walked the corridors alone. It was strange to see him without the other at his side, the two nearly inseparable for years. The king and his most trusted servant who was more a friend than one who merely tended to his duties as the king's manservant. Everyone knew why he was alone, but seeing it with their own eyes was the final blow to make the shocked whispers a cold reality.

Worn leather boots padded across the polished stone of the Great Hall, hardly making a sound as they approached the throne at the end of the otherwise empty space. The queen sat in the throne, her back straight and her chin strong under the new weight of the crown that rested upon her head, her usually warm brown eyes fixed with grief on the simply-dressed young man who now stopped before her on bent knee. His raven black hair fell forward as he bowed low.

"Merlin, you needn't bow before me. Gaius told me who and what you are."

Merlin hesitated a beat before raising his head and stood to meet her eyes. "You are still my Queen, so I should still pay you the respect which is due."

Guinevere sighed lightly before standing and walking down the five steps which elevated the throne above her friend of many years. She approached him and embraced him, not having to wait long before he returned it.

"Gwen...I am so -"

"I do not blame you for Arthur's death, Merlin. I trust you did all you were capable of to save him, as you no doubt have been since we met all those years ago." Gwen released him and looked into his pale blue eyes which were hollow with loss.

"Come," she said as she turned and left the Hall. The hem of her long black gown glided across the floor, her long black hair draped elegantly down her back moved gently back and forth at her waist with her steps. Merlin followed her to one of the meeting chambers where they would not be overheard.

He closed the door behind them and the queen sat at the head of the table, leaning back in her chair and placing her elbows on the armrests, her fingers touching. "Percival returned a day before you from an ill-planned mission he and Gawain had conceived to trap Morgana. I had previously sent her on a goose chase in the opposite direction of you and Arthur with the information you gave Gaius about the spy in Camelot. It seems that Gawain and Percival thought that they might take matters into their own hands for revenge, so they pursued her.

"It was there where she captured them and interrogated Gawain for the king's true location. Gawain did not survive the encounter, I am sorry to say, and I am sure that it was through this that Morgana was able to find you. I'm not wrong in assuming that she interfered in your journey to the Lake of Avalon?"

Merlin gestured at the chair next to her, and she bade that he sit. "She did find us. She chased off our horses and wasted the precious few moments which might have meant life for the king if our path had otherwise been without obstruction. There is a silver lining to this though: we do not need to fear her anymore. The witch is dead."

Gwen's brow furrowed slightly. "I would have thought that, as a High Priestess, she would have been difficult - if not impossible to kill - without prior preparation?"

Merlin smiled slightly as he looked at the dust illuminated by the light of the sunset shining through the window, "That's why I gave Arthur the sword that I drove into the stone. It was forged in the Great Dragon's breath, making it a weapon capable of killing any and everything in its path. A similar blade was forged to slay the king, the dragon' s magic being impervious to my own so I would not so easily be able to heal him."

"I see," said Guinevere. They sat in silence before Merlin realized that he sensed another smaller presence in the room. Sitting up straighter, he focused his magic to locate the source of the…

"Intruder?" he wondered as he found his focus directed to the queen. More specifically, to the child who she herself might not yet have been aware that she bore.

Arthur's child. There was a hint of the magic of which the king himself was born residing in the unborn child that spoke to Merlin's own magic.

Merlin stood abruptly, aware now of what he must do until the fated return of the Once and Future King. Guinevere stared at him as he pushed a hand through his hair before cupping his hands together and mumbling indecipherable words into them. When he opened his hands he held a thick silver ring: it was made of multiple thin silver vines curled and knotted around each other to come together in the center where a deep blue - almost black - stone lay, the crest of Pendragon carved into its surface.

He took one of Gwen's hands and placed the ring in her palm, curling her fingers round it to grip it tightly. "On this ring, I swear to protect Arthur's line. Pass it down to your child," he glanced at her stomach, "and tell them to give it to their heir, and they to theirs. In this ring is magic which will allow me to watch over them without being directly with them."

The queen looked entirely confused. "Merlin, the Pendragon line is already lost with the deaths of Arthur and Morgana."

Merlin smiled now. "Not quite yet, my lady. You are with child."

"What?" she said, placing a hand to her abdomen in shock. "If that is true, then why this precaution? You will be staying in Camelot still I presume?"

"No," he said firmly, "my place is no longer in Camelot. I must leave to hone my magic; I cannot do so here since it is still prohibited and I do not wish to add another shock onto this place so soon after Arthur's death and your ascension to the throne."

Gwen nodded slowly. "I understand. I do not like it, but I understand. Just promise me one thing."

"Anything, my lady."

She smiled as she stood up to stand before him. "Please remember your friends here. I will miss you dearly, my friend."

Merlin nodded, a sad smile on his face. With this, he took her outstretched hand, kissed her knuckle, and departed far from the kingdom.