"What did you do while you were away?"
Merlin glanced up at Arthur, surprised. The king had been sitting at the head of the table in contemplative silence while his servant filled his plate from the various trays set out before him.
"Sire?" The wizard questioned.
"Sit down." Arthur tipped his chin to the chair Merlin was standing beside.
Now truly startled, Merlin obeyed. In all the ten years he'd served the king, Arthur had never invited him to sit at table with him. Even if a servant was a noble's close friend, it just wasn't done.
Arthur picked up the drumstick Merlin had chosen for him from the roast chicken which the kitchen had provided for the king's dinner. Examining it meditatively, he asked once more, "During the months you were gone – what did you do?"
"I visited my mother . . ." Merlin said slowly.
"But that wasn't the whole time." Arthur shook his head. "I went to Ealdor when I came looking for you, and they told me you had only been there for, what was it, a fortnight or something like that?" He took a bite of the chicken leg. "And you said you were with the slavers for two months, and before that you traveled with Kay and his sister – what's her name?"
"Katera." Merlin supplied.
"Right. You traveled with them for how long, again?"
There was no again to it; Merlin hadn't told Arthur quite how long he'd actually been with Terra and Kay. "A bit more than two months. I met them just after I left Ealdor."
"And the three of you just wandered." Arthur nodded broodingly. "But what did you do between when you left here and when you visited Ealdor?"
The truth was that Merlin had done a lot during those months. He had hunted down those that remained of Morgana's allies with strong magic who might rise against Arthur. He had served as a healer in one or two smaller towns and helped to drive off the bands of Saxons that had scattered across the countryside after their defeat at Camlann. The main thing he had done, though, was seek out Aithusa. Finding the young dragon had been one matter; Merlin, being a dragonlord, had summoned him easily enough. The challenge had been to find him some place to live, far from any humans, where he could grow and recover without being discovered and hunted.
However, Merlin didn't want his friend to know the part about Aithusa. Arthur was still unaware of all Merlin's interactions with Kilgharrah, most notably the fact that the young wizard had been the one to free the dragon. Considering the disaster and massive number of deaths that the dragon had caused upon his release, it was completely reasonable for Arthur to think dragons were absolutely evil. No matter what Merlin might say to the contrary, he knew the king wouldn't believe that Kilgharrah, or any dragon, wasn't a threat to Camelot. There was no way Arthur would condone his longtime companion helping a dragon.
With that in mind, the wizard told half of the truth. "I searched out a few of Morgana's followers with the strongest magic to be sure they wouldn't try to carry on her cause, and I helped some of the outlying towns with Saxon marauders."
"Hm." Whatever curiosity had been tugging at Arthur was placated by this. He took another bite of his chicken leg. "Aren't you hungry?"
Merlin eyed his friend dubiously, half certain that the king was having a laugh. "Sire?"
"Go on, then, Merlin, eat something." Arthur waved his drumstick generously at the spread Merlin had carried up from the kitchens; it was easily big enough to feed a family of five.
Still a bit suspicious, the manservant helped himself to a roll from the plate of them in front of him. His mistrust was allayed after a moment, as Arthur gave no indication that he was pulling Merlin's leg.
They ate in silence until the king spoke again. "Merlin . . ."
"Yes?" The wizard paused in the middle of a sliced and roasted tomato.
"I don't . . ." Arthur frowned, swirling his wineglass as he tried to put his thoughts into words. "This isn't – I mean, what you're doing now, being my servant, it isn't . . . I don't know, good enough for you."
"What d'you mean by that?" Merlin leaned on the edge of the table.
"Merlin, literally anything you wanted to be – anything, Merlin – you could be it. You could be my chief advisor, or a knight, a lord or a baron or grand minister of the palace, master physician, or a judge, or, I don't know, royal speech writer – "
"I already write all your speeches for you anyway," The younger of the two pointed out with a small grin.
"Not all of them," Arthur countered defensively. "But I mean, officially. You could have anything you wanted, Merlin. I could give you land and money and power. I don't think you realize just exactly how much you're sacrificing to be – to be this, what you are. A servant."
"I'm not sacrificing anything, sire." Merlin forked a bite of tomato into his mouth. "You act like I'm doing this for you, not because I want to." He considered, then amended, "Not that I always want to. But this is what I love, Arthur. It's not always easy, but working with you and Gaius and the knights is what makes me happy." He grinned, twirling his fork. "I'm not like you and Leon and the others; I grew up without grand ambitions and heavy responsibilities and all that. Maybe you find power and rank rewarding, but they'd only make me miserable."
Arthur took a long sip of his wine, staring pensively at the flickering candles. "That's deep of you."
"Plus, as your manservant, it's easier for me to keep track of what's going on in the castle and around the city. If I was grand – what did you say, grand chief advisor?"
"Something like that." The king smiled.
Merlin nodded dryly. "If I was something high-ranking like that, with big responsibilities and all that nonsense, I wouldn't be able to do my real job."
Arthur raised an eyebrow at him. "Your real job?"
"Taking care of you. Taking care of Camelot." He shrugged. "Being your servant and Gaius' assistant, it's easy to go wherever I need to."
"Have it your way." His blond friend bit off another chunk of meat. "I'd have to find a new manservant, anyway, if I promoted you." He chewed the chicken for several seconds, then swallowed it and said abruptly, "I'm sorry I left you out there so long."
"Left me where?"
"I mean, after you left, I should have come to find you much sooner than I did." He put the drumstick down on his plate and shifted his position, putting both feet up on the seat opposite Merlin and leaning on the arm of his own chair. Guilt glittered in his eyes. "I let you wander for almost a year, Merlin!"
His manservant shrugged softly. Arthur scowled. "You keep insisting it's alright, but I know better. I'm just so sorry, Merlin." The profoundness behind his apology set the wizard's eyes stinging, though he hid it as Arthur continued, "I'm sorry it took me so long to see you deserved better."
Merlin did his best to grin. "Well, if I tell you I accept your apology, can we agree the subject is resolved and forget about it?"
The king gave a short laugh. "Fair enough. Have the other drumstick, Merlin."
His friend obliged cheerfully, remarking, "Apologizing and sharing your dinner! Who are you and where have you put Arthur?" He grinned. "Wherever you put him, let's keep him there. You're much more generous than he is."
"Hilarious." The monarch tossed a chopped piece of carrot at his servant. "Try asking for a day off and you'll see how generous I am."
Merlin obliged immediately. "Can I have the day off tomorrow?"
"No." Arthur responded shortly, with a severe expression but a grin in his eyes. "You're feeling too privileged already. Just because I let you have some of my supper doesn't mean you're getting a raise or having your chores cut back or anything ridiculous like that." He reached for the knife on the chicken platter, intending to cut himself a slice of meat, but his arm knocked his wine glass over and it ran across the table, spreading a red stain into the flawless white tablecloth and drizzling into the king's royal-robed lap.
Smiling as Arthur cursed himself out, Merlin cleared his throat. "Looks like that jerkin will have to go."
The king gave him a pained look. "This is my favorite jerkin!"
"I know." Merlin agreed smugly. "Tell you what, though . . ."
He leaned over and waved a hand over the stain down Arthur's front; it vanished with a flash of his eyes.
"Merlin!" The king exclaimed.
"Well, it's your favorite jerkin." The dark-haired wizard held his hands up reasonably.
"Look." As he spoke, Arthur unlaced the jerkin and tossed it to the floor to get it out of the way of any other unfortunate spills. Merlin couldn't help grimacing; he would have to iron that out later. "Merlin, I understand that you and your magic are good. But the people of Camelot hate magic, Merlin, they hate it. After Morgana and everything she did, they'd burn anyone at the stake – even me, if I had magic."
"Good thing you don't, then." The wizard commented.
"I'm trying to cut back the punishments on magic users, Merlin." The king settled back in his chair with a sigh. "It's going slowly, but my approach is working. I've eliminated death for using magic under almost all circumstances, and I've been gradually lessening the other penalties on magicians, too."
"I know." Merlin set the king's empty glass upright once more and reached for the wine jar to refill it.
"I have a plan to eventually bring about legalization of magic. In some cases, anyway." Arthur continued. "I have to whittle the laws down a bit at a time, and if I go too fast, the people will fight back. But the thing is, Merlin, while my laws still forbid magic – even if I'm planning to get rid of them – I can't have magic openly practiced in my presence. As king, I have to respect my own laws; I'm ignoring them by not punishing you for using magic." He shook his head, frustrated. "It's not right for me to disobey my own laws, Merlin! It's not right for you to put me in that position."
"I know." The wizard repeated gloomily.
"You have my word that I'm doing everything in my power to get rid of the laws against magic." The king took a sip from his refilled wine glass. "But if I move too fast on this, my subjects won't stand for it. I have to change their hearts, Merlin, not just their laws. And the other kingdoms' aggression toward magic certainly doesn't improve the attitude the people of Camelot have." He sighed. "After Morgana, all the five kingdoms are more averse to magic than ever before."
"I heard there was a magician executed in Mercia a few days ago." Merlin commented.
"Yes, that's what the report we got yesterday morning said." The king nodded. "It was bizarre, even for a situation involving magic. The wizard was notorious for using animals – he would take over their bodies with his mind. He could even make some of them talk, or so I was told. All the animals he had taken possession of were burned with him."
"That's terrible." Merlin leaned his head on his hand. "They should have waited to see if his control would leave them once he had died."
"The soldier who brought the report seemed to think that their bodies became his when he look them over, so he could have kept living in any of their bodies after he was burned; he wasn't tied to his original human body."
Merlin sat up, exhaling loudly. "Well, now that we've filled our sad and serious conversation quotas for the next three years, can we talk about something less horrible, please?"
"Sorry." Arthur ran a hand through his hair. "The execution of magicians like that one is a familiar subject for me."
"Me too, unfortunately." Merlin shook his head. "Think of it like this; wouldn't it upset you if you knew there was a king-killing spree going around?"
His friend grinned. "You make a good point."
"Yes, I do." Merlin agreed. "Changing the subject now . . ."
A/N: Guys... I was so happy. The day after I posted part 5 (the part before this one), I opened my inbox and I had FIVE NEW REVIEWS. Guys... I never get five reviews in less than 24 hours. That made my day! Chocolate and fudge for everyone who's reviewed recently. For the record, to all the people who follow or favorite but don't review... I do still appreciate your support, but I'd appreciate it even more if you'd post a review, even if all you have to say is that you read it and you liked it (or didn't). Really, the whole reason I post this stuff is for the reviews.
So, that being said, I'd like to address some of the feedback I'm getting from my reviewers. There are a couple of main things that people aren't liking, the biggest one being that the dynamic between Arthur and Merlin hasn't changed, Arthur hasn't given Merlin some kind of recognition, promotion, public acknowledgement, or something, and (this was before I posted this chapter, of course) it seemed like Arthur had "forgotten" about Merlin's magic. Some people aren't thrilled about the fact that I have Merlin back to the same old same old, doing the same thing he's always been doing. I hope this chapter helped clear the air on that stuff. Let me know if it did. If you guys still have any issues I'll try to work in a solution or explanation at some point. :)
Basically, what I'm trying to express through Arthur and Merlin is that Arthur has completely accepted Merlin as he is, but because of the people's understandable hostility to magic he can't just come out and give Merlin the recognition he deserves. Arthur wants to reward Merlin for everything he's done, but he has to change the hearts of the people first, which will take time. He's working on it. There, in a hundred words or less, is the basic point it took me 2000 words to explain in this chapter. :D
Another thing I've been hearing is that people want to see more interaction with Merlin/Gwen, Merlin/Gwaine or the knights in general. That's all coming, don't worry. I want more of that stuff too, but I mean, I can't fit everything I want into one episode if I still want room for a plot. I'm going to try to show more of that over the course of the next few episodes. I promise it'll happen. And maybe Gwaine, and possibly the other knights, will be let in on Merlin's secret. Maybe. No promises for that one. :)
Also, EvaTodd predicted that Kay would become a knight. I'm not going to confirm or deny that, but I'll just say this; if you know your traditional Arthurian legends, one of the knights of the Round Table was called Kay... :)
Any other issue, questions, stuff you want to see, etc? Let me know in your reviews, guys! I'll try to address them in the episodes, or if I won't have the chance, I'll explain to you in my author's notes. Speaking of which, this particular footnote has been almost as long as the chapter itself... :P
Oh, also, for the record, the idea for the awkward scene with Gwen about Merlin's first kiss wasn't entirely an original idea of mine. I read something similar in another fanfic (if I could remember what it was called I'd refer you guys to it), and I thought it was so great that I kind of copied it a tiny bit... :}