Aosora:

Hey guys! I know some of you may be thinking that I shouldn't post new stories before I finish my old ones, but this is actually one that I wrote a little more than a year ago and I thought I had lost it! Turns out that it was part of the corrupted files that I later managed to fix with some help from a friend. So I decided to post it as a oneshot. If you would like this to be a multiple chapter story you can feel free to adopt it, I guess(?), since I probably won't have time for it until waaaaaay later.

Please enjoy :3

Merlin sighed as he walked into the prince's chambers, it was still early, for Merlin at least. Arthur was not in the bed, which meant that someone else had woken the prat and given him breakfast already, so Merlin started cleaning the messy room. He had not been cleaning for long before the prince returned and he was immediately tossed a sword.

"Sharpen my sword, Merlin. We can't have you get any more lazy now, can we?" the prince smirked at him, and Merlin quickly countered with a small "Of course not, then who would make sure you got the new holes into your belt, your pratness?" The prince threw a goblet at him, but as usual it missed its goal. He knew that the prince really could hit him if he wanted to, but they were friends when there wasn't anyone else nearby. "Just hurry up and sharpen the blade Merlin" and so Merlin went down to the armory to sharpen the heavy piece of metal.

That had been a week ago. Back when everything was normal, before he knew what would happen to him in just a few hours. He let out another sigh, he had been doing that a lot lately. And he still hadn't told anyone… Merlin slowly went up to Arthur's chambers and knocked on the door, Arthur would not be happy but he had to tell him before it was too late. "Come in!" he heard the prince call and he quietly stepped inside the big chamber. Arthur looked strangely at him. "When did you learn to knock?" He jokingly asked, and Merlin gave him a small smile. "I have always known how, I just don't do it when it would go much faster if I don't." "Well, you must have pretty bad news if you wanna drag it out today then." Arthur laughed slightly in good humor before he noticed the serious face that Merlin had. "What is it, Merlin?"

Merlin took a deep breath before he told Arthur about what was going to happen. "Have you've heard about necromancers' before?" he asked quietly. Arthur raised his eyebrows, well that was certainly not what he had been expecting. "It's someone with mythical powers that allows them to bring the dead back to life, is it not? Such dark magic should never exist!" Merlin cringed slightly, but the prince didn't seem to notice. "Well, a necromancer can do a lot more than just bring the dead to life, their power can change reality itself, rewrite history and bend the world to their will. They don't age and cannot have children, but necromancer can still be born." Arthur stared at Merlin. "How can they exist without being able to have children? And what brought up this conversation?" It got quiet for a few seconds. "When a necromancer is killed, their power transfers itself to child that has yet to be born, and then when the child becomes reaches the age of sixteen they stop growing. Their powers surfaces when they have reached adulthood and they will then have to wear items created solely for the purpose of sealing as much of their powers as possible. They are not allowed to speak, as their very words may affect the world around them, and they cannot show emotions as that could bring disaster." Arthur started to look worried, something was not right with his friend, and he needed to find out what was wrong before he lost him. "But how do you know such a thing?" Merlin bowed his head and closed his eyes as he mentally prepared himself for what would happen next. "Tomorrow I will be eighteen, and that means that I will have to leave." "What do you mean?!" Arthur looked angry. "I'm the next necromancer, Arthur!" He cried as he ran out the door, the prince following him quickly but he didn't stop until they had reached the forest. "Don't follow me" he said angrily, "just forget about our conversation!" His head pounded but he just turned around and continued running. Not looking back to see a very confused prince returning to his chambers. He didn't want to leave but he had to, or else he would only cause trouble for all of his friends. He needed to learn how to control his powers. He stopped running as he reached a clearing, and slowly walked over to a large rock that laid in the middle. Reaching his hand in under it he pulled out a simple armor, which he put on in silence. The armor wasn't much, just a chestplate, gauntlets and a headpiece. But it was going to help him control his powers. He would figure out a way of communication later, he needed to rest if he was going to walk the next day. Soon he fell into a deep sleep.

Arthur awoke late that morning, apparently his manservant hadn't thought it important enough to wake him up on time, again. He called for a servant to get him breakfast as he started planning how he would punish Merlin later. A short while later one of the many servant boys came in with his breakfast. "Have anyone seen Merlin yet?" He asked the young man, and the the boy made a few squeaky sounds before he managed to answer the impatient looking prince. "N-no sire, I shall immediately go fetch him for you sire!" but before he could move Arthur stopped him. "No, that's alright. I wanna get the chance of reprimanding him directly. You are dismissed, take the rest of the morning of." The boy blushed slightly as he thanked Arthur before bowing and quickly walking out the door. 'Now to find Merlin', Arthur thought, 'and I think I know where he is...' he smirked to himself as he took an apple from his breakfast tray and went towards the physician's chambers.

Gaius was crushing various leaves as usual when the prince came in. Quickly he bowed to Arthur as a greeting when he couldn't see any apparent injuries on the young man. "Ah, sire how may I help you?" Arthur smiled and nodded slightly in greeting. "I was looking for my manservant, have you've seen him?" Gaius frowned. "No, I can't say I have. He wasn't in bed when I went to wake him up so I assumed that he was on time for once." "Is that so? I nor the servants have seen him, you don't think he went to gather herbs for you again?" The elderly man shook his head, "No, but he might just have gone to the tavern with Gwain again." Arthur nodded. "Yes, I will check there right now. Have a good day Gaius." "You too, sire" and Gaius bowed as the prince left. He did not like the feeling he had, but right now he had to finish the medicine he was making.

It was past midday now and still no sight of Merlin, Arthur was starting to get worried. Where could his stupid manservant have gone? Or maybe he had been kidnapped for information about Camelot's weaknesses?! No, he couldn't think like that. He would go to the kitchen staff first and ask them if they had seen him, and if they hadn't he would gather a few of his knights to go on a "hunting trip". Nodding slightly to himself he quickly made his way back to the castle.

It was almost evening when Merlin decided to take another rest, he had managed to reach a very secluded area in between two small mountains and an even smaller lake. Bending over the water to drink he almost swore out loud when he noticed that his hair no longer was it's usual color, instead it was an almost vibrant silver color that seemed otherworldly. He sighed to himself but reached out to drink a bit of the thirst quenching water. He had managed to go all the way from Camelot to the border between Camelots Kingdom and Cenred's Kingdom. He should be safe here, it wasn't very well traveled and it had a few caves nearby where he could hide. He was broken out of his thinking when he heard a twig snap.

Arthur was now riding with his knights, no one had seen the goofy young man so he had decided to gather his most trusted knights; sir Leon, sir Gwain and sir Percival. He had already told his father that he would go hunting, and arranged the "hunt" so that he and the knights would camp out for the night as he wanted to go into the older woods that was just a bit further than his normal hunting ground. If Merlin had been kidnapped they would most likely take him somewhere secluded, like on the border between Camelot and Cenred's Kingdom. For some reason he suddenly got a very vivid picture of a lake close to a pair of mountains… He shook his head to clear it, he better start thinking up a tactic with his knights.

This would take a while…

Merlin slowly turned around to see his friends standing behind the trees looking at him in shock. He stared back at them with almost expressionless eyes under his hood. Finally Gwain decided to step forward, and Merlin took a small step backwards towards the lake. "Merlin, are you alright?" Gwain asked as he took another step towards his friend, but Merlin stayed quiet as he looked towards the ground trying to think of an escape plan. Arthur, Percival and Leon started walking towards Merlin but frowning as they felt something 'off'. Why won't he say anything? Arthur thought as he slowly walked closer to his friend, but Merlin took another step back. "Why aren't you saying anything, Merlin? It's okay now, we're here to bring you back home." Arthur tried to reach Merlin but he swirled around and started to run. Arthur quickly tried to grab him but only got a hold of the cape which dropped to the ground between them and exposed the back of Merlin's now silver hair shocking the knights and young prince before they quickly chased after him. They didn't need to run far however as Merlin was still tired from all the walking and they had ridden most of the way. Arthur quickly made another grab for Merlin as soon as he was within reach and this time he managed to catch the younger boy's wrist, successfully stopping him. "Calm down Merlin, we're not gonna hurt you! Did a sorcerer curse you? Are you hurt?" Arthur was almost rambling in his feeble attempt to calm his friend down. His knights caught up to them and Merlin tried to loosen Arthur's grip but the prince daren't budge it, afraid that merlin would just run away again, instead he carefully pulled Merlin closer to himself. Merlin slowly turned his head towards them and they were shocked to see tears streaming down his face. Gwain reached out and put a hand on his shoulder trying to help calm their friend down. And Merlin let out a silent sob before taking a small breath as if he was gonna speak but he never had the chance to as the ground started shaking and an enormous shadow loomed over them. Arthur and his knights all drew their swords and readied themselves for battle while Merlin stumbled back behind his friends. The giant beast swiped at Gwain who quickly dodged and cut deep into the flesh of its front leg. It growled in pain and anger as it jumped at Arthur who was trying to sneak up behind it instead. But it turned and swung its giant clawed front leg towards Arthur, successfully crushing him and then turning towards Percival who quickly rolled away. Merlin stared at the monster as it was about to crush Gwain as it had Arthur. 'No!' He couldn't let it happen! And before he knew it the word were already on his lips. "Die." and just before it could reach his friend it dissolved into smoke leaving Gwain, Percival and Leon confused while Merlin held his head to lessen the pain. As soon as it was gone he ran towards Arthur who still hadn't moved, and saw the damage that the monster had caused. Arthur's right arm and part of his chest was gone, leaving the young prince bleeding profusely. "He is dead… Arthur is dead…" Leon whispered sadly, hardly able to believe it. Merlin carefully pushed himself in between Leon and Percival and slowly reached towards Arthur's head. "We have to leave, there might be more beasts around, Gwain, take Merlin and let's go!" Leon hurriedly ordered. But Merlin shook his head and took a small breath. "Nows not the time for this, Merlin! We can't lose you too!" Gwain was about to grab him but before that Merlin took a hold of Arthur's head. "Don't die." he said simply, and almost to quiet for anyone to hear. Still his friends had heard and was about to grab him and drag him away. But the glowing corpse of Arthur made them stop in their tracks and stare as the prince's body quickly healed not even leaving a scar. Merlin dropped his head as he painfully clutched his own trying to drown out the pain that made him feel as if he was being torn apart. As soon as Arthur was fully healed and breathing the pain went away and Merlin felt his hands drop to his sides as he lost consciousness.

Gwain stood in front of the former corpse in shock as reality finally kicked in. Merlin brought Arthur back from the dead, Merlin healed Arthur, Merlin was a sorcerer but Merlin's eyes didn't turn gold, they had stayed that ocean blue color the whole time. He was dragged out of his shock when he noticed his friend's hands stopped clutching his head and went towards his side (when had he started to clutch his head?) and Merlin fell to the side with his eyes closed. Was he dead?! Had he sacrificed his own life to bring Arthur back? Gwain quickly turned Merlin onto his back and sighed in relief as he saw Merlin breathing. He was only asleep, and Arthur seemed fine too as he was hauled up on his horse by Leon and Percival. Gwain hurriedly picked up Merlin and put him on his own horse as Leon sat up behind the unconscious prince. The quickly rode back home as soon as everyone was ready.

It had been days since the attack and although Merlin had woke up he had not said a word since then. Not even Gaius had managed to make him talk. Arthur and his closest knights were all worried for him. When Arthur had been told about what happened he was quite shocked, which at first turned to anger but after he had a few days to think about everything had had reached the conclusion that Merlin could never be evil, no one who was so clumsy that he tripped over nothing and who was so innocent that even a unicorn had let him touch it could never be even remotely evil. And that's when Arthur felt bad about how he had thought of Merlin. At least he hadn't told his father about anything, and neither had his knights who had cleverly told the King a story that mostly were half-truths and neglecting to tell about how Arthur had died or that Merlin had used what must have been magic (because that's what it had looked like, what else could it have been?" to bring the dead prince back to life. Merlin deserved a week of, paid of course, for what he had done Arthur decided and so he walked of to the physician's chambers to have a talk with his friend.

It had not gone as he had thought it would. Not at all. He had thought that Merlin would have been happy, maybe scared at first since he might have thought that he was about to receive a death sentence. But his friend, and yes Arthur had started to see him as that, had not spoken a single word. Arthur had started to believe that he had permanently lost his prince had told him that he was getting a vacation, he had even thanked his manservant for saving his life and told Merlin that he was starting to think that maybe, just maybe, not all magic was bad. "Or it might just have been because he's Merlin and that's why the evil that had seemed to infect every sorcerer or sorceress could not affect him." He thought. And Merlin smiled at the last part, a proud look in his eyes as Arthur had admitted that tiny, insignificant feeling to his friend. Arthur was glad to see his friend at least smile. He continued talking to his friend and manservant over a few glasses of wine about how he would change the kingdom once he had become King, and that if he could find any proof that magic wasn't evil he would remove the ban and put Merlin as the court sorcerer instead of keeping him as a manservant. Merlin was a great listener, nodding every once in awhile as Arthur spoke and giving smiles of encouragement. And before they knew it midnight was upon them, the full moon casting it's silver glow through the small window over Merlin's bed. Arthur had started to feel very sleepy and he wasn't quite sure if he was dreaming or not, but Merlin had spoke to him. Only two words. "Stay safe" Merlin had said as he gave Arthur a sad smile. Arthur had tried to reach out to him, but his legs felt like lead and he had fallen to the floor as soon as he had stood up. He raised his head to notice that Merlin had disappeared without a trace. He blacked out.

Merlin didn't return, and no one had seen him leave. Arthur and his knights were worried. The followed rumors and fought questing beast, trying in vain to find him. Until one day when they had fought an especially strong beast that breathed fire and had poisonous claws. Sir Gwaine had been stabbed through his stomach and was laying on the ground, pale as death when Merlin had stepped in and saved them all. He swiftly dealt the questing beast a deadly blow with his spear and healed Gwaine with only one muttered word. He had then turned to the rest, mouthing the words "Don't worry" before walking away. But this time no one ran after him. He would be okay, and somehow they all knew that one day he would return.

And he did, a few years had passed and Arthur was crowned King. Arthur had just removed the ban on magic, and he did so by holding a great feast for all. Many were angry, but most seemed happy that the witch hunt was over drinking and singing happily. Arthur and the knights enjoyed some ale together with Gwen, who had become a queen, and her handmaiden. It was a beautiful evening. That's when Merlin had strode in, still wearing that strange armor the had seen him in last they saw him. He did not seem to have aged a single day since then. Everyone surrounded him, clapping him on his back and welcoming him home loudly. Arthur had even given him a brotherly hug before they started bantering just like in the past.

"About goddamn time Merlin, even a snail is faster than you!"

"Well, someone had to get rid of all those darned questing beasts on the way since you seemed to only annoy them with your useless hunk of metal!" Merlin joked back.

It felt good to be home.