Chapter 1

I sadly do not own Merlin.

When Merlin awoke to find himself in a strange white room he could honestly say it wasn't the strangest thing to have happened to him. Considering he had once woken up in Morgana's hovel to her tending to his wound he could also say it was not the worst place to wake up.

He looked around and noticed a huge blank canvas placed on the wall. With another glance at it, he noticed the material was not something he had seen before. He also saw a banquet table filled with delicious looking food and huge benches and chairs scattered about the room with what looked like bedding material attached to it.

These observations led him to believe he wasn't in Camelot. He tried to remember how he got to this strange place. The last thing he remembered was visiting his mother after the Disir incident. He had been upset over having to lie to Arthur, especially about the very nature of magic itself. He had done what he thought was best at the time but it blew up in his face, as it had so often in the past. Whenever he tried to prevent horrible things from happening, it only seemed to cause them.

While Gaius was there to help him through these feelings most of the time, recently he began to doubt his destiny. Could Arthur really accept magic after all it has put him through? Even if he did would he ever forgive Merlin for all the lies? Would Arthur ever trust him again if he found out Merlin's secret?

A groan drew his gaze toward the entrance of the room. He realized his mother and Gaius had just appeared. They were sprawled on the floor as he had just been.

"Is everyone ok?" He asked. "Mom? Gaius?" He quickly glanced over at his mom to make sure she was unhurt despite her assurances she was okay.

"I'm fine Merlin however I cannot say this situation is ideal for a man as old as I. Be a dear and help me up will you?" Gaius answered. Merlin rushed over to help him up and then continued surveying the room.

To his relief and confusion, he saw Arthur, Gwen, and Elyan had appeared.

"Arthur? Gwen? Elyan?" he said, "Are you all okay?"

"I'm fine…. Guinevere? Are you okay?" asked Arthur. He rushed up to her side to check on her.

"I'm fine," Replied Guinevere. "Elyan?" she inquired.

"Here and unhurt," Elyan answered. He too looked worried about Gwen until he laid eyes on her and confirmed she was unhurt.

"I'm fine too in case anyone was going to ask about me," joked Gwaine.

Merlin turned and realized that Gwaine, Percival, and Leon had arrived too.

"I'm good too," claimed Percival.

"I'm here my lord," Leon said.

They were all on the floor like he had been moments ago, scattered about the room. He was the closest to the door and therefore could see the entire place. He felt he was missing something vastly important and couldn't comprehend the storm of emotions he felt at seeing everyone. He felt like he hadn't seen them in ages.

He shook these thoughts from his mind as he reminded himself of their current predicament. He further surveyed the room. There were brown knapsacks for each individual, each labeled for a person in the room.

"Now that everyone is accounted for, does anyone know where we are?" Asked Arthur

Everyone glanced around the room and noticed the same things as Merlin had. Everybody shook their heads no.

"Guess we are staying here then," Gwaine said in response to seeing the bag with his name on it. He opened it and noticed that it had everything he would need. It had his personal possessions that he took anywhere on a mission. He saw his flask of course and more surprisingly, his seal of nobility he had since his father was a knight. He kept it with him because it was the only thing he had of his fathers.

"Whoever got our stuff really took their time and knows us really well." Observed Leon.

"Creepily well." replied Gwaine.

The others had taken the time to look through their bags and had varying degrees of shock and confusion displayed across their faces. They all had their personal items there with them and items they had never told anyone about.

Merlin noticed his dragon figurine his father had given him just before he died. He wondered how someone could know its value to him and began to realize that since this person knew a lot about them, did that mean that whoever brought them here knew about his magic? How much did they know exactly and what did they intend to do with the information they seemed to have at their disposal?

With a start, Merlin realized that since this person had brought them all their personal items and seemed to have planned this thoroughly that they were probably going to be here a while.

He was snapped out of his reverie by a noise just outside the room. He turned and was thankful he was near the door in case he needed to defend everyone from another threat.

A man entered he was dressed in robes that Merlin recognized as Druid. The man seemed to have a wise air about him but also had the weariness that is present in someone who has been through a lot. The man looked at all of them and Merlin didn't get the impression he was going to do them any harm.

He relaxed a tiny bit and looked at Arthur to see his reaction. Arthur looked more confused than angry and didn't look like he was going to chop the druids head off. Merlin decided to take that as a good sign.

"Who are you and why have you brought us here?" Demanded Arthur in his trademark commanding tone.

"My name is Pahoren and I brought you all here so that you can learn more about each other and maybe learn something about yourselves along the way. I know this isn't how you thought your day would go however if this goes wrong it could have catastrophic effects through the ages."

"So you know no pressure," Joked Gwaine weakly. He had his fair share of secrets.

"What do you mean? All the people in this room are like family and know you are telling me I don't know them as well as I think?" Arthur asked confused.

"All will be revealed soon," replied Pahoren mysteriously. "However transporting you here takes energy out of you so I suggest you all eat and then I will explain everything."

Hey! This is my first story on here! Please let me know if there is anything that needs changing! Thanks so much and I hope you enjoy the story, it's an idea I have had for a while now so I thought it was time I posted it.