I'd read a whole heap of really amazing Modern AU fics recently, and my god, some of them have been absolutely incredible! But then I found it really hard to get back in the mood to attempt more of a, well, Merlin fic, so just a little piece I put together in about twenty minutes before attempting that homework I really should have actually been doing for school tomorrow... Sorry if it's a little rushed, but please feel free to point out any mistakes as I don't doubt there are some!
"There can be no place for magic in Camelot"
The words still cut deep, like a knife, unforgiving in the cruel harshness of its blade, the icy sting burnt across my flesh. My eyes stung in pools of self-pity, unrelenting, unyielding in their attempt to display my own blatant self-deceit. Try as I may, they forced their way to the forefront of an equally measured expression, and Arthurs eyes had seen, his pitied yet curious expression no better mask than that I'd worn, yet still, he accepted my judgement without question.
"There can be no place for magic in Camelot"
Lies.
There can be no place for Mordred in Camelot.
He knew. He understood. The words of an unspoken secret buried in the rustle of the leaves, as our eyes met, and his measured gaze turned to one of caution. He knew. I knew. A silent understanding embedded in our banter, unacknowledged for fear of persecution, fear of the change it may bring, harsher than the fiercest winter storm. Yet ultimately, the carefully planned and practiced words remained unsaid. Unspoken. For fear that all he understood, all he contemplated, deciphered, over the truth of his clumsy manservant would become not the fickle tale ingrained in his mind, but a horror story, to which there would be no return, no redemption, a world one cannot possibly hope to understand, without having been dealt a cruel hand by the fates themselves and teased, tortured with visions of hope and sorrow, unsure of which is worse, false positivity or the burden of imminent death, either way knowing that in the end, it all rests upon your shoulders, shoulders already sagging with the weight of hooded lies. Secrets.
In the end, my feet found themselves teetering on the tallest tower, adrenaline flowing as fast as the wind through my unkept hair, numbing my senses, pumping through my veins. Magic ebbed through every pore of my skin, every tip of my body, a humming of uncontained power radiating through outlawed lands, a golden hue, the new tint of the lands, warmer than the afternoon sun, and more precious than the finest of gems. I edged forward. In that instant, arms outstretched expelling the pure, uncensored goodness that is just too much for one man, one burden too big to carry, weighted with the decisions none should be forced to make. I felt nothing more than the desperate need, the uncontainable urge to make it all lighter. To let it fall. To let myself fall. Us to fall.
The weight would smash, like the most precious of china, an earth shattering pierce as the pieces of destiny found themselves shattered on the concrete bellow. The fates would cry, tears of endless rain, and the Dragon would release an agonizing roar as his life's work lay in ruins. But I wouldn't lay as broken as the shards of destiny on the floor. I'd fly. I'd be free.