Merlin and Gaius
"How did you do it?" Gaius asked the second Merlin came through the door. Full darkness had set in again, but fires and candles could now stay lit.
"What makes you think I did it?" Merlin snorted back. Gaius lifted an eyebrow.
"Those creatures were demons Merlin, only magic could have brought them and only magic could have sent them away. I am not asking if you did it Merlin, I am asking you how you did it."
Merlin scooted into the bench at the table and rubbed his hands across his face.
"It must have taken an obscene amount of power to light the whole kingdom." Gaius tried again.
Merlin shook his head, still confused himself. "I don't know how I did it Gaius."
"There is another sorcerer in Camelot?" Gaius sat across from him leaning in closer and lowering his voice to a whisper.
"Yes, no - no?"
"That's not a very clear answer."
"Have you ever heard of someoneā¦. how do I say this? Who couldn't use magic but had so much of it? No, that had magic another sorcerer could use? This isn't making any sense."
Gaius was silent. He stood up and paced several steps away.
"Gaius?"
"I - Don't believe it."
"What?" Gaius narrowed his eyes in concentration.
"I'm trying to remember. It was just a story when I was young. A story of a man who killed a dragon."
"What?"
"The story says that a man who lived long ago was so jealous of sorcerers that he killed a dragon and drank its blood to try to gain its magic. It worked, but he was still not a sorcerer and could not wield it. It was a terrible curse. Sorcerers would seek him out and use him to amplify their magic. Because the magic ran through his blood whenever they called on it, it felt as if the magic were being ripped from the inside - that was his punishment for killing the dragon."
Gaius looked back at Merlin and sighed.
"It was just a story though. I've never heard of anyone having his kind of curse. Certainly never met one."
"She said it usually feels like knives ripping her apart."
"Who Merlin?"
