Author's Note: BWAHAHAHAHAHAHA cough hack… Yeah I know I'm evil, so very evil. Well you should know it only gets worse from here, this is where I start borrowing spells from other shows. Bonus points if you can recognize what show the spells come from. I own nothing.

3. The First Fear

The knights kept watching the rock in front of them. Lancelot looked insanely guilty and worried as he glanced around at the others. Arthur fumed.

"Lancelot! You knew about this!?" Lancelot was still gagged but his refusal to meet anyone's eyes was telling enough. A whispered word, courtesy of their host, and the gag fell away. Hareth was grinning.

"This is just starting to get entertaining, go on good sir knight, tell your king how you've been harboring a sorceress this whole time." Lancelot coughed and shook his head.

"She's not a sorceress." Hareth glared at Lancelot, as did Arthur, but Arthur beat him to the punch.

"We all saw her stop that arrow! There's no use covering for her now!" Arthur was furious, his best friend, the one person he trusted above all else had been lying to him for who knew how long. Could she be working for Morgana? Had she ever really been his friend? And yet even with all this turmoil he could not deny that his first thought as Merlin's eyes had flashed gold was one of relief as the deadly projectile had stopped centimeters from ending her life. Gwaine cleared his throat.

"Listen, princess, as interesting as your stance on magic is. And by that I mean, as biased and tainted and stupid it is I would like to actually see Merlin make it out of this labyrinth in one piece so would you and Sir Prancelot kindly do us all the favor of shutting the hell up!?" Arthur was stunned. Gwaine had actually yelled at them. He never yelled, the only times he could remember was when they had first met and Gwaine had saved Merlin from two knights who had turned out to be thugs in disguise and once when they were trying to close the rip between worlds. Though that had been more of a cry of rage. Merlin had closed that rip, with a blood sacrifice. It had taken nearly a month to get her back on her feet. Would an evil sorceress really sacrifice to save them? Arthur mentally shook himself, he couldn't think about this now. He refocused on the image in front of him.

Merlin was taking deep calming breaths. The arrow still hovered right between her eyes. She plucked it out of the air and laughed quietly.

" Really glad no one saw that. I'd never hear the end of stepping on that trap." Gwaine snorted slightly.

"Yeah she's never going to hear the end of any of this." Arthur glared at his knight.

"Hey Gwaine, take your own advice and shut up." Gwaine rolled his eyes. Merlin took a breath and continued talking to herself.

"Ok so traps, don't want to step on any more of those." She raised an arm and spoke in a language Arthur immediately pegged as magical but did not recognize.

"Austendo specialis." Merlin's bright blue eyes once again flashed gold and a light mist swirled out of her hand and sped down the hall. It glowed in the darkness and settled over several tiles in the floor. Merlin nodded and made her way forwards careful to avoid the patches of mist. She made it to the end of the hall and sighed. Then a voice echoed from deeper in the maze.

'Merlin… Merlin…' Merlin froze on the spot. Arthur thought he knew that voice but he could not for the life of him place it. Merlin raced off down the corridor until she hit a crossroads. Three options were available to her she paused.

'Merlin, help. Please.' Why did Arthur know that voice, it wasn't one of the knights. It wasn't anyone he knew in Camelot. As Merlin stepped forward a figure came into focus, he was laying on the ground in chainmail and a tunic, there was an crossbow bolt sticking out of his chest. Merlin cried out and dropped her torch rushing forward to kneel next to the fallen man.

"Will!" Then it clicked, the boy from Ealdor that had saved his life all those years ago. Tears spilled down Merlin's cheeks. The figure of Will reached up and ran a hand along her face.

'Merlin. Help me.' Merlin shook her head, tears increasing.

"I can't Will." The figures face twisted into an angry snarl and he pushed Merlin away.

'Then what good are you?! You couldn't even save your best friend, I died because of you. If you had never brought that stupid prince to Ealdor I would still be alive!' Merlin let out a strangled sob. Another voice echoed out of the darkness making Merlin stiffen and her tears increase.

'He's right. If you had been able to deal with things the right way the dragon would never have been released and I would not have died.' A second figure stepped out of the shadows, an older man with a long beard. Arthur was now thoroughly confused.

"Balinor?" He didn't realize he had spoken aloud until Elyan raised an eyebrow.

"Who was Balinor?" Before Arthur could answer Merlin spoke in a shaking, desperate voice. She only said one word but it shook Arthur's world to the core.

"Father." She sobbed again. Another voice echoed around her.

'Merlin, you should have been faster. You could have saved me if you had gotten there in time.' This time Arthur did not recognize the figure that stepped out of the darkness. He wore a tattered red shirt and equally torn brown pants. He was tall and painfully skinny with slightly matted black hair and cobalt blue eyes. This time Merlin stumbled back despite being on her knees.

"Frey. No please, not you too." Merlin was begging, something Arthur had never seen. It absolutely broke his heart to see, but he tried to shove those thoughts away. Merlin was a sorceress, he shouldn't feel anything at seeing her in pain like this. Lancelot's eyes widened when Merlin spoke this third specters name. He knew who this man was to Merlin. The three voices began to speak their taunts and what if's together so it all jumbled into one mess of sound. Merlin curled in on herself and clamped her hand over her ears. Frey knelt down in front of her.

'You are like poison Merlin. Everything you touch dies, everyone you care about meets a gory death because of you and your destiny. You said you loved me but you let Arthur kill me and you never even batted an eye.' At this Merlin shot up a look of defiance taking over her face. Arthur flinched, he did not remember killing this man.

"That is not true! I loved you, I still love you and my Frey knows that." The specter of Frey disappeared in a glimmer as Merlin stood defiant in the light of the dying torch. She turned to Will next.

"The Will I knew was never cruel, his last act in this world was protecting me by taking not only a crossbow bolt to the chest but also telling Arthur that it was him that conjured the windstorm that won the day. It was me, Will, my Will died to protect me and Arthur. You are not my Will!" The specter vanished. Lastly she turned to the specter of her father.

"I only knew my father for a day. But in that day I learned what kind of man he was. His last act in life was to save mine. In his dying breath he gave me the knowledge I needed to defeat the great dragon. He passed his power over dragons to me when he died and every time I feel that power I feel as if my father is guiding and protecting me even now. His last words to me were that he had seen enough to know that he was and would always be proud of me. You are not my father." The final specter vanished and Merlin wiped the tears away from her face looking even more determined. She picked up her torch and her eyes glowed gold and the fire grew bright and cheerful once more.

Arthur glanced at his knights. None of them had dry eyes and he realized that neither did he.