A loud crash startled Arthur into consciousness. He blinked, and was about to get up, when he heard Uther say, "You have magic."
Arthur wondered *who* had magic, and resolved to execute whomever did as soon as possible, but his thoughts were interrupted by Merlin yelling in a pained voice, "I was *born with it!"
Merlin? Silly, clumsy, useless Merlin had magic? Impossible, Arthur thought.
Uther was talking again. "I made you Arthur's servant," he said. "You are a sorcerer!"
"Even while you were king, there was magic at the heart of Camelot," replied Merlin, in a strangely triumphant tone of voice.
Arthur could hear Merlin and Uther arguing, but he was too busy with his own thoughts to pay them much attention. His feelings were nothing but rage- rage that Merlin, his last, most trusted confidant, had been lying to him all these years. All the other betrayals he'd suffered- Morgana's, Agravaine's, Lancelot's, and Gwen's- were nothing compared to this. He had trusted Merlin with some of his greatest secrets and feelings, and Merlin had been deceiving Arthur all this time.
However, logically, he could understand why Merlin would lie about this. After all, magic was still outlawed in Camelot. Revealing his secret would cost him his life. Arthur knew this, but that knowledge only lessed his anger, not got rid of it completely.
By the time felt less like executing Merlin and more like grilling him for hours about any other secrets he may have, Arthur noticed that the room was silent. He looked around the room and realized that Merlin and Uther had left. Some instinct drove him out of the room to the armory, where he rounded the door just in time to see Uther extending his sword towards Merlin.
"Father!", he called, and Uther turned around. Arthur stood there for a few seconds, locked in internal debate, then held up the horn. Uther stepped away from Merlin, lowering his sword, his expression scared. "Arthur, no," he whispered. "Please. Whatever I've done, I've done- for Camelot."
"You've had your turn," Arthur replied. "Now it's mine." He lowered the horn to his mouth.
"Merlin has-" Uther had started to speak, but his sentence turned into a wordless scream as Arthur blew the horn and Uther finally disappeared.
Arthur lowered the horn from his mouth, and fought to hold back the tears in his eyes.
