Hi! I haven't posted a new story in a long, long time, but now I'm back! This is just a teaser chapter for a new story I'm working on. This takes place sometime in Season 4 after Arthur becomes King, but before Gwen is banished. Some characters in this fic (like King Urien) are loosely based on real historical figures.
Disclaimer: I do not own Merlin or any of the characters in this story.
The Return of Emrys
Teaser Chapter: How to Accidentally Summon a Sorceress
King Urien of Rheged thought himself a rather charismatic man. He had rallied his subjects with talk of war and gold and food until most were willing to pay the highest taxes his kingdom had seen in generations. Wars were costly, and high taxes were necessary for Urien to pay for them. His current war preparations were for the war that would nearly double the size of his kingdom when he won. Even better, his kingdom might quadruple in size if he played his cards just right and took Camelot by surprise. For that part of his plan, Urien was confident that he would have the upper hand. After all, Camelot had no means of defense against hundreds of furious sorcerers whose family-members had either been killed for using magic or fled Uther's kingdom in terror during the Purge.
Urien was almost ready to attack Camelot. There was just one final component he wanted on his side during the battle, to ensure his victory. That was why he was in the middle of a forest near his castle, in the middle of the night, kneeling before a druid that radiated magic like no other ever could or would again.
"Join us! The Pendragons have wronged you and your brethren for too long. If you help us, I'll make sure you receive whatever you want from the spoils. The castle, titles, riches, land—Whatever you want!" Urien pleaded desperately.
The druid before him wore a navy blue cloak, with the hood up. Even in the half-moon's light, Urien could not see his face. The druid shook his head. "My answer remains the same. I will not join you." The man was young judging by the sound of his voice. It was not the voice Urien would naturally associate with the world's most powerful magical being.
"Your people are becoming desperate, suffocated on all sides by kingdoms influenced by Uther to turn against magic. It does not take a seer to know which way the scales of magical power are tipping. And I am no fool; I have read the prophecies about you, Emrys, and I hear the talk among sorcerers in my kingdom. They are starting to lose hope that you will ever come to free them from persecution. Some do not even believe you exist." Urien tried a different approach.
"I am well aware of all those things." Emrys answered neutrally, his tone revealing nothing of his motives or thoughts to the increasingly frustrated king before him. Then he added, "Please, stand."
Urien got to his feet, anger pulsing through him. "My trip here was for nothing then," he spat, clenching his jaw.
"Not necessarily."
"Oh? How so? If you will not join me, and will not remain neutral in this war, then Emrys, you are my enemy."
"And the enemy of my enemy is my friend. I am sorry it has come to this. I do not wish to fight you, or see anymore lives lost."
"Yet you have done nothing to stop this war from happening. And which of my enemies is your friend?"
"You will never understand why I won't join you until you stop allying yourself with fear. You can fight fire with fire, but not fear with fear. You do not factor love or friendship into your plan. You forget that your subjects are people just like you and me, and that neither you nor your people are worth more or less than the other. For that, I feel sorry for you, and your kingdom. You only know how to spread fear and anger." Emrys' voice was too calm for the king's liking.
Urien felt a volatile, blinding rage consume him, and he shouted in the druid's face, "I GIVE YOUR PEOPLE HOPE!"
"Temporarily, maybe so." Emrys remained as calm and stoic as ever. Shifting his footing on the cold autumn ground, the druid then held out his hand to Urien. Three small, flat stones lay in his palm
"Do you know what rune stones are?" Emrys asked.
"Yes," The king gave a slight nod of his head, eyeing the stones warily. A sense of foreboding had come over him at the sight of the stones. Emrys was prophesied to be the most powerful magic-user in all of history. Given that fact, Urien was not so keen on being on the receiving end of such a powerful person's magic.
"Good. Then I implore you to pay close attention to what they say." The warlock's eyes flashed gold and the three stones in his palm flew into the air. Urien's eyes followed them, and when he next looked back at Emrys, the warlock had disappeared, quite literally, into thin air. Urien cursed himself for falling for Emrys' trick. Then three small thuds on the ground around him made him start, as the rune stones fell back to Earth. Urien bent down and picked each one up with extreme caution. He then examined all three in his palm. rune signs were glowing gold with magical tendrils of light on two of the stones. The third stone was blank.
He knew what each of them meant. The stone with the rune sign that was two parallel vertical lines connected by a short diagonal line in-between was Hagalez, representing disruption and elemental forces. The second stone's rune sign was a vertical line with another, shorter line cutting through it diagonally, named Nauthiz. It represented constriction, pain, and necessity. The blank stone was typically called Odin's stone, symbolizing The Unknowable and the all-powerful.
Urien wanted to pass the rune stones off as just a scare tactic Emrys had used to make Urien doubt his ability to win the coming war, but somehow, he just couldn't shake off the ominous feeling he'd gotten earlier. His fears only intensified when he returned to his castle and performed his own rune ritual in his chambers.
Every time he drew a rune stone out of the leather pouch he kept his own set in, the stone would be one of the three Emrys had left with him in the forest. Over and over again.
Hagalaz, Nauthiz, Odin's stone.
Nauthiz, Odin's stone, Hagalaz.
It was maddening.
In a fit of anger, Urien threw the entire leather pouch and rune stones into the fire blazing in his chamber's hearth. He stood in front of the hearth, gazing into the flames as they slowly consumed the pouch's worn layers of leather. Suddenly, the king felt a cold breeze at his back, and he whirled around to see which window his idiot of a servant was foolish enough to leave open in late Autumn. There were no windows open. Instead the young king of Rheged found himself staring directly into the glowing gold eyes of a semi-translucent human face. He stepped back in alarm and drew his sword. A ghostly woman with long dark hair, ruby lips, and a tattered red dress regarded him with hooded eyes that continuously burned with an unearthly fire.
"Who are you? Why are you here, spirit?" Urien demanded. As sorcerers lived freely in his kingdom, he was knowledgeable about magical arts, including as the summoning of spirits or souls for certain rites. He possessed a handful of magical abilities himself, but had never seen such a spirit summoned personally, never mind one with such a powerful magical presence.
"Don't you know? You summoned me yourself." The woman's tone was somehow both seductive and harsh, cutting and soothing all at once. She glanced around the bed chambers and sighed. "Another castle. That means you must be…" the spirit's gaze settled on the shield bearing Urien's coat of arms hanging above the fireplace. "The king of Rheged."
"That I am. I'm King Urien, but I did not summon you here."
The woman's eyes flicked briefly to the fireplace. Donning a faintly pleased look that didn't make her any less intimidating, she cut the young king off. "You are mistaken. You threw your rune stones into the fire. An unconventional way to call upon the Old Religion, but effective nonetheless."
"And what do you know of the Old Religion?" Urien asked, lowering his sword.
The spirit suddenly seemed to hold her head a bit higher. "I am Nimueh, High Priestess of the Old Religion."
"I have heard your name before. Were you by chance a member of a neighboring kingdom's royal court? You seem so familiar."
Nimueh's expression darkened. "Yes," she spat, "I was once a part of Uther's court, until he began his wretched Purge and murdered so many of my kind. That is part of the reason you were able to summon me. Your rune stones were crafted by followers of the old religion many years ago, and contain ancient magic. Your burning runes cried out for the guidance and power of the Old Religion. I, as part of the Old Religion, answered."
Urien could not have been happier to hear that. If Emrys would not join him, the spirit of a powerful High Priestess was a very good alternative. "Indeed. My army will march on Camelot in just over a week. Would you help my legion of sorcerers take down your oppressors?" He waited with bated breath for the sorceress' response.
"I have dreamt of the day when my kin would finally rise up against the Pendragons. I will help you, if you promise me one thing in return."
"Name it."
"Tell me what you know of the prophecy about the Once and Future King."