The Witchfinder

Arthur and Merlin stepped out of the office just as Francis "The Witchfinder" Aredian came through the doors. The entire floor fell silent, anticipating the new superintendent's next move.

Aredian scanned the room with sharp eyes before making his way forward. Where Gaius had routinely taken the same path to his office with a steady gait, Aredian walked it with a rigid and authoritative manner, one calculated step in front of the other. He studied every employee he passed, and it seemed like forever before he made it to Arthur and Merlin.

He homed in on Merlin first. Out of the corner of his eye, Arthur swore he's never seen Merlin stand straighter. Then Aredian's attention was on him, and Arthur felt himself become the most vertical he's ever been as well.

"DCI Arthur Pendragon." They've never met before. The closest Arthur came to meeting his idol was when his father told him he sat next to Aredian at a charity dinner. Now he was standing face to face with him. "My office in ten." And with that, Aredian walked off into what was once Gaius' office.

The room let out a collective sigh of relief and everyone went back to work.

Merlin slumped against the wall. "Well that was terrifying."

"Too bad I don't have a coffee to drink while I wait for the next nine minutes," Arthur said, crossing his arms.

"I was gonna get it, but then I saw…" Merlin stopped when he noticed Arthur's cranky stare. "Right, you don't care. I'll go get it now, assuming you won't be in there long so it'll still be hot when you're done." Merlin pushed off the wall and headed out, asking anyone else along his way if they wanted coffee too.

Back in his office, Arthur tried to shake out his nerves. He was about to have a one on one with his idol and he had to keep his cool and be professional.

He fixed his hair and adjusted his tie in the reflection of his computer monitor. He had six more minutes and wondered if he should rehearse an introduction, but Aredian already knew who he was.

Arthur drummed his fingers on his desk nervously. He didn't know what to prepare for, and he had four minutes left.

He grabbed the snow globe, gave it an aggressive shake, and watched the artificial snowflakes settle around the dragon until the very last one.

He checked his watch again. Two minutes.

Goddammit. Arthur knew he could get to Aredian's office in five seconds. So what if he was one minute and fifty-five seconds early.

It was the slowest five second walk of Arthur's life. Aredian's door was open, and he could see him reading a document. Arthur knocked on the doorframe. "You wanted to see me, sir," he said, keeping his tone neutral so he didn't sound eager and to not make it sound like he was asking. Of course Aredian wanted to see him. He told him to come.

The new superintendent looked up from the file and frowned. "I said ten minutes."

Arthur looked at his watch and at the clock on the wall. They were both on time, and there was still a minute to spare.

"Wait there," Aredian said and went back to his reading.

Arthur fought back a frown. "Yes, sir," he didn't argue.

"Quiet," Aredian commanded.

And Arthur obeyed. He looked over his shoulder to see Gwaine giving him a confused look, and Arthur silently responded with a small shrug.

"Close the door and sit down," Aredian ordered, snapping Arthur's attention back to him.

Arthur quickly sat down. "It's an honor to meet you, Superintendent Aredian. You've met my father once. He spoke highly of you."

"Uther's death was a shame. Imagine if you didn't let Guinevere Leodegrance go." Aredian made a huff when he glanced at another sheet. "She was quick to change her name back," he remarked.

Arthur wasn't expecting this, and any excitement he had was extinguished. "I don't blame her for my father's death."

Aredian finally looked at him. "I'm surprised there wasn't more in the news about Tauren's demise."

"The news outlets got the information they needed," Arthur said.

"This department is very picky about what information is let out." Aredian punctuated his statement with a firm tap on the desk with his pen.

That bothered Arthur. Gaius hadn't let one scuff or coffee ring mar that desk surface, and now Aredian violated it with a single black ink dot. He composed himself and defended the department's actions. "As should all. When there's a killer on the loose, the news will be informed and updated, but they don't need to know every isolated incident where person tried a hand at homicide."

"They weren't told it was Uther Pendragon's own son who put Tauren down," Aredian said. "Think of the publicity."

"I don't need them in my business."

Aredian put down his pen and folded his hands on the desk. "How did it feel to get revenge?"

"I've already talked out the effects of the incident, thank you, sir," Arthur said through a false smile.

"That's a very significant first kill for an officer—wait." Aredian pulled up another file. "Andrew Jones."

The name didn't ring a bell. "Who?"

"He was dubbed the prostitute killer."

Arthur clenched his jaw. Aredian had dug up his case files involving Gwen that Merlin swore he buried in the darkest recesses of the evidence locker. They called him the Witchfinder because he always found the culprit. They could be invisible and Aredian could still sniff them out.

"Ms. Leodegrance was also there, but I guess given her history it's not a surprise that she is no stranger to such a location," Aredian said offhandedly as he skimmed the file. "Yes, it says here that you shot him in the back."

Arthur glared. "I know what it says."

"Three times."

"He was a juggernaut." The words spilled quickly and naturally out of Arthur's mouth. He felt himself sit straighter, ready to answer anything without hesitation. "He was a hard man to take down."

Aredian flipped over another page, scanned it, and then glanced up at Arthur. "Ms. Leodegrance also assisted in the shutting down of the Crystal Club."

The way Aredian was using facts as questions was starting to annoy Arthur. "Clearly you've read the file. You know why she was able to provide us with intel."

The hmph that Aredian made even sounded mocking. "It's easier for you to work with a killer than catch one."

"Evidence shows she is innocent," Arthur defended.

"Evidence. Evidence seems to go missing in this department, and I'm going to make sure it's stopped." Aredian looked Arthur hard in the eye from over his desk. "Murder is murder."

Arthur's blood went cold. "It upsets you that I got away with it…" he recalled Gwen telling him, "I may have orchestrated his death without getting blood on my hands, but murder is murder, and it's your job to put murderers away. But I'm the one that got away."

Murder is murder. It was the title of Aredian's second book, and had been a belief that Arthur had adopted in addition to utilizing Aredian's writings to be the successful detective that he is.

"Maybe I should make an example out of Ms. Leodegrance," Aredian said.

Arthur jolted forward in his seat. "You can't do that!"

There was a threatening look of determination in the superintendent's eye. "And why not?"

"She's worked hard to rebuild her life, she's saved lives," Arthur said with passion. "She's provided us with valuable information, she's—"

"She's your informant?" Aredian asked, cutting him off.

"Yes," Arthur replied with confidence.

There was the slightest slouch in Aredian's posture for the first time as he eyed the papers in front of him. "I didn't find any documentation of that."

"I guess the Witchfinder misses a few things now and then," Arthur said with icy sarcasm.

Aredian's face was tight and neutral, but his tone was harsh. "That will be all, Detective Pendragon."

"Superindtendent." Arthur rose from the chair and turned to leave. Before he could make it out the door, Aredian curtly told him to shut the door behind him. The thought of slamming it crossed his mind, but Arthur bet that Aredian was expecting him to, so he closed it gently. He had a white-knuckled hold on the doorknob though.

Two steps away from being back in his own office, Arthur was intercepted by Merlin struggling to hold one coffee in his left hand and the weight of four in a flimsy cup holder in his right.

"How was it?" his partner asked, handing over the cup in his left so he can hold the tray with both hands.

Arthur resisted the urge to squeeze the paper cup to avoid scalding burn. "Don't meet your heroes."

A/N: Soooo about how in the last chapter Gwen's date was supposed to be named Francis and I wanted to use Charles as Aredian's first name because he's played by Charles Dance. But I guess in my excitement to write this chapter I forgot and named Gwen's date Charles lol.

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