Yeah, I'm a horrible horrible person. Nothing I say or do will ever make up for my long self-imposed hiatus in which I indulged myself with Agatha Christie's books and cursed writers block while planning a new bedroom centered around vintage themes. Anyway, accept my humble apologies readers and let me tell you, you are all amazing! :D

*twists hands nervously* so, folks, here we go with another chapter! I am not happy to say that I got completely carried away and somehow completely forgot about the prompt that started this in the first place ( it doesn't help that Vuurvlieg disappeared from the face of the earth. I loved her Merlin story :( ) but it's the truth. Thanks to Kitty O for reminding me! I'll try to go back to its roots and bend it a little more on that direction, feel free to point out how I'm doing.

Exustio

Part 7

"The Emrys! The Emrys is here!'
Merlin shook his head in astonishment. 'Has it come to this?' he wondered. 'Even small children know me by sight."
― Stephen R. Lawhead, Arthur

Since Dymphna was able to remember her father had whispered ancient legends in the Old Tongue to get her to sleep, tales of Sidhe and pompous princes, of heartless soldiers that were later called 'Of Medhir' and of beautiful spirits that made their home in lakes and bodies of water. A smile illuminated her youthful, slumbering face all those nights her father was still awake, holding his breath as Uther's soldiers ravaged through the druid camps they'd taken refuge in. Sometimes, counted times, she'd been able to hear them as her mind became fuzzy with the heaviness of sleep and the unspoken question would hang in her sleepy blue eyes only to have her father smile reassuringly, a little tiredly, and assuring her it would all be over when Emrys, that wonderful human being, came into the world.

She knew, her heart jumped on her chest, when that tall kind-faced man had approached her with such gentleness. Without even asking Senias, her heart had poured down at Emrys' feet, pledging allegiance with the innocence of a child, pledging fealty to the hooded man that now had a face and that was the soul and heart of her dreams.

Little time later, it all clicked when Arthur Pendragon came forth.

A perceptive child since a very early age, she'd known that Arthur Pendragon was not dangerous, not in the slightest bit, and his confused, apologetic manners stole her heart as well. She'd immediately understood this was a man haunted by his shadow and who possessed a heart of gold, that he had a golden hearted lion roaring on that broad chest.

Her heart had also bowed down before him as soon as she realized the connection between them.

For a five year old meeting the men of her dreams and her fairytales were two steps away from heaven. The way they looked at each other, with hidden affection that lingered below those irises, confirmed what she already suspected.

So she'd added, well naturedly, the phrase that she knew was true in her heart.

My king.

Her king, the Once and Future King, Emrys' heart.

However, her father had insisted that they should take their leave and sneak out of Camelot as soon as possible, with as much precaution as they could. And that's how Dymphna had found herself covered in a blue cloak, scooped into her father's arms as if she was just a sack of grain while another man (as tall as a tower!) Placed a hand on her father's shoulders and guided them out.

"I don't understand!" she'd said, looking up to her father's clear eyes. "Why are we doing this? That was Emrys! And the Once and Future King! They are so beautiful father! Did you see them?"

She'd attempted to put some force behind her words by placing her two hands on Senias' broad shoulders and immediately noted something had gone wrong, for her father was as pale as the goat milk that was so delicious in the morning and his eyes were big. She frowned.

Of course, her gaze finally found the knight, who was looking at her as if she was the most marvelous thing in the world. 'Colossus' as she'd affectionately named him, was standing there, wide eyed, looking at Senias and then at her, before he spluttered, "It is true then? The druids prophecies are true-?"

However, before she could give him a beam of approval her father had turned around and placed a hand on "Colossus'' large forehead, ignoring the way it creased in confusion and his mouth began to form the word wait-!

"I'm sorry my large friend." said Senias, infinite sadness staining his voice. "But I cannot let you walk away with this information. Obliviate."

As 'Colossus'' eyes turned blank and unseeing, heartless with fading memories, her father spurned around and they were gone in the silent fru fru of the ragged blue cloak.

"But even if I don't trust you…Merlin." the druid boy used his birth name with a slight twitch of his mouth. "That does not mean I don't trust in your destiny. I believe in the world that you will build. But I know you are a weakling, burdened by too much insecurity. And if you are not strong enough to make the Pendragon see what magic really is…. Then…." He paused for a moment, fingering the emblem of the knights of Camelot, radiant in his chest. "I am more than ready to do it for you."

To do it for you.

"What?"

Mordred shook his head and his eyes searched the night sky before focusing on Merlin. "Do you honestly believe I will sit around and wait for you to be ready, Emrys? That we can afford the luxury of seeing you waste away opportunities to make us free? I grew up believing in your petty legends." He looked straight into Merlin's eyes with his own, cold and yet so young..."And then I realized...after I met you, that if I ever wanted change I would have to be the change I wanted to see."

The word was out of his mouth, carried in a wisp of startled breath, before the warlock could stop it. He felt his muscles tense up, every ounce of power in his body flaring out when Mordred's clear eyes narrowed, looking feline in the moonlight.

"No…" Merlin's voice was gentler this time as he forced his instincts back. "There is a right and wrong way of doing things, Mordred. Arthur…I believe Arthur's not ready yet."

"You place too much on that man's shoulders Emrys." said Mordred. "What are you waiting for?"

"For Arthur to be ready."

"Do you hear yourself?" the druid boy whispered. "Is that what you've been repeating all along in your mind, Emrys? Is that your excuse? Are you really this dense? Because that's not the right answer."

He stared at Merlin with unblinking eyes, so clear and pale that they were luminous in the darkness they were submerged in. Then, he repeated, almost as if to reassure himself. "No, it's not the right answer…"

Merlin's gaze on the boy did not waver when he answered, gently. "It's the truth."

"No, Emrys." Mordred's voice was sharp while a delicate frown formed between his dark brows. "No. It's your truth. Not mine, nor the one of countless people that die as you entertain the…" the boy grimaced before saying the next word. "Pendragon with your act of being a servant."

Merlin's gaze hardened and the slightly pursed lips seemed to plead when he spoke. "I am a servant. Mordred. And Arthur….you saw him. He accepted you into the council, he defended a condemned child-"

"But his laws had his father killed." Mordred finished, eyes blazing. "There was no one to blame but Uther Pendragon and himself."

"Arthur wants peace for his lands!" Merlin retorted. He found, strangely, that his voice was choked, as if a sudden knot had formed in his throat. "He's a just man and one day he'll be a great King…"

"We'll see." Mordred murmured softly. For once, his eyes detached from Merlin's face and narrowed at the same time a loud thunder pierced through the chilly air

Arthur couldn't sleep.

He'd woken up a few minutes before, gasping for breath, after guilt had finally swept him from the land of dreams and into reality. It was unexpected, the way this dream had come. Out of nowhere upon his eyes, but crucial upon the eyes of destiny.

He was standing, seeing the sorcerer burn as the man pleaded for mercy, and then, out of nowhere, the man looked upon his manservant, his Merlin, and let out a breath he'd been holding.

In less than a heartbeat it was not the guilty sorcerer burning on the stake but Merlin, who was not screaming or pleading for mercy but rather just staring at him, staring up at the balcony with those eyes that could read him so very well, and that only spoke of acceptance and those words that apparently had tugged this craziness on his subconscious.

There have been innocent people condemned before.

And you know how much trouble I am.

He was sitting up straight before he'd blinked his eyes open. And even if he tried to convince himself of the sheer...madness that the dream was, nothing more than a dream, it was still such a horrible prospect, one that had only passed through his mind counted times before- when Merlin was unjustly accused of sorcery by dimwits- that it sent his heart racing as he placed both of his feet on the ground and rubbed a hand on his eyes.

He would never admit it, but he'd found himself staring at Merlin's slowly healing wound far more than he'd thought acceptable. It was wrong, desperately wrong, to think that Merlin, his lovable idiot, the loyal friend, had gotten punished with the same fire he'd used to clean the world from sorcerers. From evil.

He just wanted the bandages to disappear already! He'd tried to avert his attention to other things but besides noting how ridiculously large Merlin's ears were, his eyes were irrevocably directed towards the wound, as if there was a magnetic field between them.

Never had he been surer of his words. That Merlin was the epitome of goodness and no evil could ever take home in his heart. Merlin had proven that many times over, taking his loyalty far above and beyond the simple duty of a servant. It was surprisingly disconcerting and frustrating to see his servant wincing there and then while he did his chores, burnt with the fire of a pyre, a pyre that he'd approved of and that he himself had used!

It was not fair to Merlin. Not fair at all.

How many had, in the course of Camelot's history, suffered the same fate as his friend but with less luck? How many people had watched their family die as they could do nothing but stare, silently waiting for the torture to be over? How many people, like that poor druid boy, had begged to be in the pyre themselves?

The sullen face of the last dragonlord appeared in his mind, a face he'd never managed to quite place but that lingered in his subconscious as a stalking ghost, only to resurface in those moments.

The man...Balinor. Even he had hinted at what was now stirring on his mind. Heated, he'd asked that man if his conscience was truly that heartless, if he would be willing to let thousands of innocent people die just because of his bitterness.

And the man had answered: You should ask that question...of your father.

His father had always insisted that it the well-being of the majority should be put before anything. What was a life, two lives if magic could hurt thousands? What if a child that had done nothing wrong was killed and yet thanks to that evil would not spread for generations?

King Arthur Pendragon was beginning to doubt that theory.

Before he knew it, Arthur was out of his chambers and marching towards Gaius'.

Gaius could barely contain his surprise when Arthur stumbled into his chambers, his hair tousled and his eyes wide, although they still looked veiled by sleep. He yawned as he let himself fall into a chair in front of him, very much like when he was a small child.

"What are you doing here, My Lord?" Gaius asked, raising an eyebrow at the young King. "Is something the matter?"

Arthur shook his head yes, eyes bright. "Gaius, you were alive during my father's Great Purge, isn't that right?"

The physician was speechless for a moment. The next, he was leaning heavily on the table as he stared into Arthur's eyes with deep curiosity. "May I ask the reason for this question, Arthur?"

"Merlin mentioned something a few weeks ago," Arthur said softly. "And I've been thinking about it. Could it be, Gaius, that innocent people were killed during the pyres?"

Gaius placed a gloved hand on his wrinkled forehead, smoothing back his aging hair.

"There were definitely innocents dying, Arthur. How many is a mystery. Your father took the war on magic to heart, you know that. But as noble as his purpose was he made mistakes." The old man sighed. "Numerous mistakes. Your father could be ruthless, Arthur."

Arthur did not move for the space of a few seconds. His eyes were fixed on the old man's face, staring, unblinking.

"I once asked him, Gaius…" he said suddenly, "why did he execute people who claimed to be innocent….and he told me they were lying, most of them-"

"Some did," Gaius explained gently, "And some didn't. Most of them were innocent though. Arthur, you have to understand that your father only sought to make a better world for you. To judge him by his…character would be…"

Arthur did not listen to him though. He was staring blankly ahead, right into Gaius' eyes.

Then, quite suddenly, he gasped a breath as his eyes came alive with immeasurable emotion. "Does that mean children; innocent men and women were executed by thousands during my father's reign?"

Gaius' eyes never left his face, and the physician's gaze seemed to be studying an ailing man that was going through a healing phase.

"I'm afraid so, Arthur." He said gently, "Yes, people who did nothing wrong, just like little Dymphna and Senias, were killed unmercifully in the burning fires."

The young King, suddenly unable to stand the weight of this new revelation, sank his head in his hands.

After a while, the weary head of Arthur Pendragon came back up as he placed a hand in his eyes and slowly dragged it through his face. "Just as the dragonlords, then?" he mumbled.

For a few seconds the physician froze. He stared at Arthur with disbelief before clearing his throat. "Sire, where did you-"

"Now it makes sense, Gaius!" Arthur exclaimed through his fingers. "When we met, I'm not sure if you remember, but when we met him….the last dragonlord, he was a bitter man but surely not evil. However, for him to be the last one…" he trailed off but his anguished eyes peered at Gaius through his hands. "I used to think my father had a good reason for it. Now I see I've been blinding myself... There was none, was there, Gaius?"

The old physician said nothing for a short while. Then, he swallowed roughly, feeling tears prickle his eyes.

"Arthur…."Gaius said, "You are becoming, truly, a greater King than your father ever was."

The King looked into the eyes of the aging physician and found himself staring back at such pride that he blushed slightly. Smiling, he was about to return to his chambers when the door snapped open and Merlin barreled in.

Arthur snapped his head up, preparing to offer an excuse and at the same time a fond jab for Merlin's nighttime escapade or whatever he was doing -Arthur suspected it had something to do with Gwaine and the tavern-but the look on his manservant's face was far from the cheery one he'd had earlier and all intentions of banter died within him.

"Merlin, what the hell happened to you?"

His friend's eyes were bright, his face pale and he had such a set jaw that Arthur could see a muscle jumping. Merlin's eyes focused on him after the initial shock of seeing his King on Gaius' chambers at that time of the night but the next one, his eyes were wide and oh so relieved, as if having Arthur in Gaius' chambers was nothing short of fantastic.

"Nothing." Merlin said, but his voice was hoarse with disuse. He cleared his throat before continuing. "What about you? You look troubled, sire."

Arthur opened his mouth and quickly shut it again, deciding that he did not need to confide Merlin with the new doubts his words had planted on his mind. So instead he just shook his head and placed a hand on Merlin's shoulder, shooting Gaius' a quick look which he'd hoped was enough to keep the old physician quiet, and going out of room.

I really love Percival. :)

Not much happening here but I needed to set the ground before the next chapter. And I sincerely hope to God it does not take this long you guys! :S Thank you for sticking with me. :D

Love,

Ocean.