CHAPTER - 1
The summoning of any high level spirit or demon was an exhausting and tiresome process, danger riddled and often fatal to a magician should he leave the slightest thing to chance. The slightest alteration in the summons, the slightest leeway in the drawn pentacles even the mispronunciation of a single syllable, gave the summoned demon every chance of breaking the walls of a pentacle and kill a magician on the spot.
Of course Merlin was no ordinary magician who had need of pesky little demons to carry out his tasks, not many magicians were lucky enough to have been born a warlock and a warlock of highest order at that.
Merlin was known through the ages by many names, Emrys the Great, Lord of Dragons, Commander of the Five Elements, Lord Protector of the Anglican Realm, Magician of First Order, Destroyer of the Tyrannical rule of Men Kings, Blessed by the High Elves of Vanyrian, Blessed by the Golden Gods of Egypt, Friend to Loki the God of Chaos, Friend to Artemis, Prometheus and Aphrodite, Father of Dragons, Wyverns and Serpents, Commander of the golems, dwarfs and elves of the Anglican Realm and the list of various exhausting titles stretches on and on and on.
Hence, in conclusion Merlin was more than capable of handling himself without a need to use demons. Though many demons would love to serve a master such as Merlin, it was an honor in comparison to being used by lower level sorcerer's who hadn't the name or the glory of being attached to a great warlock such as Merlin.
Merlin was however very interested in the pursuit of knowledge, most especially knowledge pertaining to the spirts realm, where they came from, what they existed as in their own realm, what were the differences, how were they bound in service to the earth under magicians, what were the boundaries between their realm and the spirts' realm and so on and so forth.
Hence, on this beautiful rare sunny day Merlin was trying to summon a demon named Astaroth, known to be one of the seven princes of hell and commander of a whole battalion of hells armies.
Astaroth also had a reputation for being a rake among the Princes of Hell in spite or perhaps because he was ugly as sin.
He was just finished with the last words of the summoning when he felt a disturbance in his wards and the door burst open the next minute with a resounding bang as it hit the walls.
Only one person in all of English country had access to him anytime, anyplace despite the presence of any and all types of wards he weaved and that person was, he turned despite himself just as a frothy black and pungent smoke pervaded his nostrils, oh and Astaroth was also known for his positively gut wrenching bad smell. Think several months of rotten eggs being fed upon by maggots.
Curse his erstwhile mate to come when he was inevitably in danger.
"WHAT IS THAT SMELL?" shouted Arthur his hands covering his nostrils and looking up at Merlin with a glare the likes of which could have turned Merlin to cinder had he any magical skills whatsoever.
Freya, Merlin's long suffering lake spirit apprentice and assistant knew better than Arthur to breach his wards, and enter when Merlin was summoning a potentially dangerous demon.
"I told him you were busy Merlin, he wouldn't listen!"
Still Merlin heard her and gave her a small smile, to show he wasn't irritated with her incompetence in keeping people out, for he knew she'd have kept anyone out except for Arthur.
He turned his irate gaze to Arthur however and said "I should let Astaroth give you a taste of his medicine to know exactly what happens to people who get caught in the crossfire in a demon summoning ritual."
Merlin was protected from the stench because below his nostrils a disk of sliver hung from the special metal framework that was perched like a spectacle on his face.
Arthur however had no such luxury, as he had chosen to barge in on a ritual when he should have waited like a normal person.
Merlin huffed in long suffering tones he said "Next time Arthur, I won't be so sympathetic." He moved his hands, and Arthur was then standing safely in a pentacle, protected from the summoned demon by the freezing charm Merlin had placed on his legs.
"Can't you do anything about that smell?" Arthur shouted outraged when he found he couldn't move his legs, "What have you done to me?"
Merlin rolled his eyes.
Arthur was nothing if not dramatic.
It was that which had driven him barmy.
"I have protected you from your own stupidity." Merlin said succinctly and then finally Astaroth materialized in front of Merlin, his dragon was missing and his head was shaped like a rams and the rest of him was basically humanoid, two legs, and two hairy arms, nothing spectacularly demon-ish or frightening.
"Well, well, well, this is a great honor" Astaroth said and then added, "Though I can't imagine why you would need to summon me unless you were falling from grace…"
Ah! Astaroth was also known to be a conniving bastard.
Merlin smiled tight lipped and cursory, he knew very well that most demons wished he was dead, hell most magicians did too, it was the curse of being the most powerful sorcerer alive. Merlin only thanked his stars that his magic was as powerful as everyone feared, there'd been not less than a million assassination attempts made on his life in just this century.
"Is the smell coming from that?" Arthur asked tactless and blunt as usual and Merlin groaned as Astaroth turned away from Merlin to look at Arthur.
"Who are you calling 'that' you worthless human? Do you have a smidgeon of an idea of what I can do to you?"
Demons were very prideful, talk about fragile egos!
Merlin decided to lean back and let Arthur suffer for his ineptitude, maybe this will teach him a lesson or two about diplomacy.
"I'm not a worthless human you worthless demon! I am Arthur Pendragon!"
Astaroth failed to be impressed and said "I haven't heard your name yet human, and believe me I hear the names of any humans who are great and worthy of notice, and you are not!"
Arthur turned to Merlin, enraged eyes demanding, "You are going to let this stupid demon talk to me in this manner?"
Merlin huffed as Astaroth sent a spell straight at Arthur making Arthur flinch and cover his head with his hands, even as the spell hit the barrier of the pentacles defenses and rained blue shards all over the barrier that protected Arthur from a very painful curse, that would have cut him in half and left him bleeding all over the floor.
Arthur after a second, when he noticed he was still alive looked up from where he was still protecting his head with his hands and immediately set about screaming bloody murder at Merlin.
"MERLIN!" he shouted, "I won't bear this insult a second longer, dismiss this demon this instant, I wish to speak with you!"
Astaroth looked bewildered that some mere human was speaking to Emrys, the Great Emrys in that tone. Hell! Demons with more power in their fingertips that in this human's entire body hesitated to talk to Emrys in that insolent and borderline commanding manner.
And so thinking Astaroth asked "Human, are you out of your mind? Do you realize who you talk to?"
Arthur turned back to the demon, his face etched with a scowl as he retorted, "I realize very well."
Astaroth turned to Merlin at that, who at this point looked plain exasperated instead of the angry affront that the demon imagined the warlock must be sporting.
"Emrys, who is this human who insults you blatantly and yet stands to see another day?"
"I AM RIGHT HERE DEMON! And I happen to be Merlin's husband, so you had better stop calling me 'human' in that derogatory tone."
Astaroth looked at Arthur then, bewildered, snorting he said "You almost gave me a laugh there sonny!" He turned back to Merlin expecting the warlock to share his amusement, but alarmingly Merlin was stony faced and looked none too happy at the human's horrendous attempt at a joke.
He turned back to Arthur mouth pinched in a scowl, turned back to Merlin whose jaw was clenched tight in anger, he turned to and fro, to and fro and then clapped, and laughing raucously he exclaimed "I CAN'T BELIVE THIS! YOU…" he said pointing at Merlin, "married to a lowly human!"
Merlin looked up at the ceiling praying for patience as Astaroth laughed it up, Merlin could guess at the reason, after all two centuries ago he'd been something of a player, tales of his affairs with succubi, sidhe princess', human maidens, vampires, lycans and even centaurs were widespread and various as was his might in magic and efficiency in battle.
He remembered a particular orgy in the mid seventeenth century in which this very demon had been invoked.
"Humans are not lowly." Arthur said from his pentacle.
"Oh they are sonny! They are"
"Oh and you are very much different is it? At least we are not enslaved by the whims of magicians and sworn to serve them like lap dogs without much of a choice, at least we humans have the back bone to fight against magic."
That brought the demon up short, the comment having hit a little too close to home for comfort.
Astaroth glared, his eyes becoming blood red in anger as he changed form into a giant serpent that hissed and spat.
"Resorting to parlor tricks are we now? Surely you can't believe a bit of contortion is going to impress me much demon?"
Astaroth changed form at once back into a humanoid with a ram's head, he tilted his head to one side looking at Arthur contemplatively before saying "You have courage human."
"My name is Arthur!" Arthur hissed.
Astaroth paid him no mind as he turned to Merlin, "Is he always so feisty, I can almost see why you must have been enchanted enough to marry this human."
Arthur snorted at that, "You don't keep up very well with current news much, do you demon?"
"I wasn't talking to you human!"
"ENOUGH!" Merlin shouted from where he was perched on his throne, this had gone on long enough.
He clapped his hands.
"Oh come on! It's been a decade since I was summoned by anyone and I was just getting into the juicier part of this story Emrys!"
Merlin stared back passively and finally the demon vaporized back into a black smoke, all the while nattering on about how it was unfair that Merlin was preventing him from an opportunity for ripe gossip after a decade of tedious boredom.
Merlin paid him no mind as he watched Arthur, who had by this point crossed his arms in front of him and was looking at Merlin with utmost displeasure as his was wont to do.
Finally Astaroth's crux disappeared along with the god awful stench and Merlin removed his glasses and regarded Arthur.
He looked just as the same as he did when he left, all those years ago, ten to be precise.
Why he'd come to see Merlin now was anybody's guess, Merlin hoped it wasn't a plea for immortality for his father like a dozen different times.
Merlin would not bestow such a gift on such a worthless human like Arthur's father. No matter how much Arthur begged him to.
Arthur drew himself tighter once Merlin's eerie gaze was focused entirely on him.
They kept looking at one another in tense silence for a whole of ten minutes before Merlin moved minutely on his throne and asked Arthur, "Well, what have you come here for?"
Arthur seemed hesitant to answer, and this alone made alarm bells ring in Merlin's mind. Whatever Arthur was going to ask of him, Merlin knew it was going to be bad and he knew he wasn't going to like this demand, for it was always a demand with Arthur.
Finally Arthur seemed to gather his strength about him, like he did right before he was about to explode into righteous fury only this time it wasn't fury so much as embarrassment that colored Arthur's tone as he said rigidly, "I want to have a child."
Merlin's mouth dropped open, it was safe to say he wasn't expecting that of all things.
"No" he said immediately and without tact, what can he say? Arthur's tactlessness was rubbing off on him.
Arthur looked outraged and he was all spitball of fury as he shouted, "What do you mean no? I'm your husband! I want to have children, so provide me with them or annul our marriage so I can find a different man to marry and have children with!"
"A marriage to me cannot be annulled, you knew it when you married me." Merlin said tonelessly as he mulled on Arthur's sudden hair brained desire to have a child of all things.
"It's not like I married you out of choice Merlin!" Arthur retorted waspish and biting.
"It's not like I had much of a choice either remember? And I was merciful and let you take her place when I could have just had her if I wanted to!" Merlin snapped back, Arthur was able to get under his skin like no other person ever did.
"You call that mercy? Are you perhaps deluded?"
"Not more deluded than your father, tell me, how is Uther these days?" Merlin knew it was a low blow when Arthur's eyes narrowed with simmering anger and hatred, making an allusion to Uther's mental deterioration was low, no matter that Uther Pendragon deserved all the scorn and derision a thousand times over.
Arthur gritted his teeth and said nothing.
Merlin went on, now that he'd started he couldn't stop talking, "And where did you even conceive the idea of having a child? Do you know the first thing about children to handle one of your own?"
"Every one of my friends, mortal and otherwise have children"
"And that's reason enough for you to want one?"
"Why can't you do me this one favor?"
"I'm not going to give you a child just because you wish it Arthur."
"WHY NOT?"
"Because it's a child! It's not just you and your desires that matter here."
"As if my desires have ever mattered much to you Merlin"
Merlin sighed and rubbed his temples in absolute irritation, this was the last thing he needed imposed upon him when he was on the cusp of a groundbreaking invention about the gateway to the spirit world.
"I'm not giving you a child, and that's my final answer."
Merlin expected Arthur to fly into a raging fit of temper and leave with all the grandiosity of a spurned Prince and not return for another ten years, preferably when Merlin had time enough for this and had completed his research but uncharacteristically Arthur's shoulders slumped and he looked truly aggrieved making a pang go into Merlin's chest.
His eyes when he met Merlin's were imploring and desperate, "Please Merlin, I can't go another decade with nothing but a failed marriage and occasional philandering's to fill my days. Please…if you care about me at all, give me a child."
This was the problem with humans see, they always needed a purpose for existence instead of simply existing, they fashioned these ideals of satisfaction to focus their attention for the limited time they were allowed to live and die and for most of them a life without a purpose was like being blinded and left to fend for themselves in a forest.
But Arthur was not a mortal anymore, still his roots influenced a certain amount of power over him, he was new to the whole immortality jargon after all, courtesy of being married to Merlin.
And now his mortal side, his human side was wanting for satisfaction in the most basic way humans did, by reproducing and focusing their life spans attention on their own procreation.
"You realize I can't just make a child out of nothing, we'd have to have sex." Merlin said bluntly and without fanfare, after all having to have sex with Merlin might well be a deterrent in Arthur's plans to have a child.
"I'd realized that Merlin, I'm not an idiot" arguable but Merlin said nothing as Arthur continued, "I'm willing to go through it if it will give me a child."
Well, there went Merlin's last hope for evasion, that Arthur would be too put off with the necessity of having sex with Merlin and he'd be quite safe from Arthur's ridiculous demands for a decade or two longer.
Finally with nothing left for it Merlin said "I'll have to think about this, I need time."
"I'll come back tomorrow" Arthur said giving Merlin no time to come up with any excuses that he will not be available tomorrow he left swiftly making Merlin thump his head with his fist.