Sorry for the late update, but my internet was down all morning. Once again thanks so much to everyone who has followed, Favorited, or reviewed. This is already my most followed story, and if the reviews continue at the rate they're going I'll end up with over 200 by the time every chapter is posted. Yikes! Anyways thanks so much and please continue to do so.
Chapter 7
With his father's warning in mind, Merlin decided that perhaps the knights had been on vacation too long. If there was a danger to Cymru, they had to be prepared. Besides, if the knights sat around too long they got bored, and bored knights always ended with Gwaine in a bar brawl.
He went down to the training yard hoping to find someone who could spread the word that training would resume after lunch, but found, much to his surprise, Prince Arthur there instead.
Merlin had heard stories of the prince's fighting, but it was only when he saw the boy with a sword that he understood. A sword was to Arthur what magic was to Merlin, not something to be wielded but a part of oneself. The prince seemed frustrated though, and was taking that frustration out on the training dummies. "You're not weak," Merlin finally assured the prince who jumped clearly not having realized he had company. "You're blaming yourself, saying you're out of practice, right?"
"Oh can you read my mind too?" Arthur remarked clearly considering swinging the sword at Merlin. Instead, the Prince of Camelot just turned back to beating up the dummy. "And I guess you are just here to enchant me into obedience like you have Morgana?"
Merlin rolled his eyes, "I haven't enchanted Morgana; I've just been a decent human being." Merlin almost mentioned how he hadn't forced himself upon Morgana, but he quickly remembered how dangerous putting that information out there was.
"You're. Not. Even. Human. You're. A. Sorcerer," Arthur replied hitting the dummy in between each word. Frustrated he kicked the dummy, and found himself falling flat on his ass."Why won't this damn thing move?"
Because Arthur was an idiot who clearly forgot he was in a magical kingdom now. "They're enchanted not to get damaged so we don't have to constantly replace them. You'd need a sword forged in a dragon's breath to hurt those things." And since even Balinor agreed that magic was too powerful to be legal Arthur clearly wouldn't have one of those. "And, for your knowledge, I am a warlock, not a sorcerer. Sorcerers are those who have to learn magic spells and such. Warlocks are those of us who are magic itself and don't need spells."
Arthur looked shocked to discover that maybe, just maybe, magic wasn't a choice. "I didn't know there was a difference," the prince huffed and Merlin almost felt like he'd achieved a huge step. "Either way though magic kills; that makes it evil." Merlin made the sword turn to ice in Arthur's hand so he noticed it. The prince looked down before muttering a curse. (Not a literal curse, he's not the magic one remember.) "Swords are different. Swords don't kill people; those who wield swords do. It's the man that is evil; not the tool."
"And how is magic any different? My magic won't kill someone unless I will it too." Well that wasn't always true. Merlin thought of how he and Morgana almost died because her magic was out of control. That was different though. It was still just a tool as a sword was. One who didn't know how to wield a sword could cause just as much damage as one who didn't know how to wield magic. The biggest difference was that you could teach a kid not to pick up a sword, but you couldn't keep a young warlock from having magic. (All the more reason why magic couldn't be stigmatized against and training programs needed to exist.)
Although he didn't say anything else, Arthur must have seen the logic in Merlin's argument because he didn't fight it any more. "Why are you here anyways? Did your father send you to make sure I didn't get in trouble?"
"Pure coincidence," Merlin shrugged. "Apparently when you're not intentionally avoiding me the fact that we live in the same building makes it easy to run into each other. Nice job on that by the way; a week is a long time to avoid someone completely."
Arthur shrugged not denying his intentions but instead turning back to the dummy to beat it up some more. "Well the servant your father appointed me, Mordred, has been willing to tell me your usual habits."
It took all of Merlin's willpower to keep from balking. His father had assigned Mordred to Arthur? Hadn't they discussed how Arthur would probably be much more comfortable with someone who didn't practice magic? "Oh, and um, do you and Mordred get along well?"
"He's a good kid," Arthur sighed finally giving up on killing the dummy. Sweat lined his brow, and, though he didn't show it, Arthur had clearly exhausted his frustration. "I'm glad he doesn't have magic; no offense."
Arthur had been trying to offend Merlin all day, but the Prince of Cymru was distracted by the fact that Mordred, the only other warlock in Camelot before Morgana showed up, was Arthur's new servant. What game was Merlin's father playing? "Well enjoy your physical fighting," Merlin coughed awkwardly knowing he needed to find the druid boy. "See you later I guess, oh and Morgana wants to talk to you, but if you make her cry again I'll show you why you're scared of magic, understood?"
As Merlin left Arthur just stood surprised when he realized that Merlin wasn't just being possessive. Somehow, Merlin had begun to actually love Morgana, and the idea of a warlock being able to love was quite terrifying to the foreign prince.
