A/N: I didn't like writing this chapter... Actually made me sad.
Thank you, High Serpent King and bubzchoc for your reviews. A maze thing here is the big bad. TARDIStraveller, hehehe. Yeah, I giggle whenever I read that. Distressed Clover, you are very welcome. Things get... better. (awkward grin)
For those of you reading much later when the story is complete... Thank you for reading.
Disclaimer: So I called the BBC and asked if I could own Merlin... I still don't know why they laughed...
The Harsh Goodbyes
Everyone in the village was returning to their homes in the darkness. Hunith watched them take light to their huts from behind the curtained window, clutching her shawls to her neck. Arthur knew she was worried the villagers would attack again, but the enchanted sleep had left them weak, and everyone needed food and rest.
Hunith had cooked for them, though Arthur wasn't sure it could be considered food. The gruel in the bowls was left full in front of Arthur and Leon, but Merlin and Will had emptied their plates quietly and sullenly.
Hunith returned to the table, tightening her shawls around her. She had changed and wrapped her hair up in scarves high above her head. Her bowl of food had been slowly emptied throughout the course of the night as if she had no appetite. She pushed the leftovers around the bottom until she'd enough.
After a long silence of nothing but wooden spoons knocking wooden bowls, Hunith looked up at Merlin with a dark look in her eyes. "You should go back to Camelot."
Merlin let go of his spoon with a clatter, his jaw dropping to the table. "What?"
"You heard me, Merlin. You should go to Camelot and live with Gaius for a while."
Merlin's face was scrunched up in pain. "But... Mother?"
"Learn how to be a physician. You're good at it, it seems. You'll have a bed too."
"But-"
"It will be good for you. New place, new people."
"I don't–"
"And Gaius could use the company."
"How–"
"And the help. I know his apprentice left recently. That man can barely find his head sometimes, and he's getting older."
Merlin stood up as he shouted over her. "But I don't want to leave!"
"Merlin. The village don't want you here," she said finally, her eyes hardening, but beneath the resolute exterior was nothing but pain.
Arthur looked between mother and son, as Merlin's eyes well up with tears. "Them or you?" he demanded. With that, he bolted from the hut, slamming the door behind him.
"Merlin!" Hunith shouted, but he had run too far to hear or didn't want to.
Will got up too, glaring across the table. "He's not going anywhere. They always get over it eventually and this time is no different."
"This isn't you and Merlin almost collapsing a tree on Crazy Nathaniel!" Hunith argued. "This is people dying and being scared enough to believe that Merlin was the cause."
"Merlin saved their lives! They need to be grateful, not run him out of the village."
"Unfortunately, they can't see it like that, William. They don't ever see the good Merlin does."
"If you send him away, I'll never speak to you again!" Will shouted. He ran out much the same way as Merlin had, leaving Leon and Arthur alone with Hunith. With a tired sigh, Hunith pressed her face into her hands. Her shoulders started to shake, and she was crying.
Arthur looked to Leon, but he had already withdrawn a handkerchief from his pocket and handed it to her. Hunith whispered her thanks, dabbing the cloth beneath her eyes. "Will is right. They should be grateful."
"May I ask, my lady, why did they blame Merlin?" Leon asked.
Hunith sniffed and wiped more tears away. "Not Merlin. His father." Arthur's heart clenched. He recognised the problem as one he had experienced himself. Arthur often bore the consequences of his father's actions against others.
"Merlin's father was a kind man. A good man. But he made a mistake and was hunted by the Knights of Camelot." Both men leant forward, more intrigued now. "He... He was a friend and... I let him stay with me. He was here for six months, and no one in Ealdor trusted him. To them, he was a strange man. Around the same time a wolf got the chickens, and a child was born with an incurable disease. They thought sorcery was to blame, and they accused Merlin's father of being the sorcerer. Someone reported him to Camelot because sorcery isn't punishable in Essetir. He had left before I knew I was with child when Will's father warned us the knights were coming. Camelot Knights came and tore the town apart searching for him. But there was nothing to be found.
"If I had not been with child, it would have been over. But the night Merlin was born, there was a great storm. It flooded the village, and the lightning set the forest on fire. A unicorn fled from the woods and took shelter in our barn. No one had ever seen before a creature of magic, and they surmised Merlin was to blame, and not the fact we have a storm every winter season.
"They tried with Merlin. I'll give them that. Most people fell in love with him, but there were always more with hardened hearts. He falls over a lot, gets into mischief with Will, and the villagers all blame his father and not the boyish traits of a child. They say he's too smart to be ordinary. Condemns him because he enjoys reading whatever book Gaius sends him. They say he is too weak because he cannot pick up a bale of hay without toppling. Now they are saying he is the cause of our illness because they need someone to blame.
"Now he's come to the village with two of Camelot's Knights. The people cannot forget how they destroyed our lives before with Balinor. It took two summers to fix the village. They're probably sleeping tonight thinking you two have come back to do it again, this time for Merlin. After this evening, I'm afraid I can no longer hold their hate back. At least in Camelot, no one knows who he is."
Hunith rubbed her eyes again and stood up, straightening shoulders. "I should pack his bags and write a letter to Gaius, explaining. I am sure he will take him in."
Hunith began to busy herself with packing, and Leon and Arthur shared uncertain looks. How were they supposed to explain to Uther returning home with Merlin? How would the king react?
But Arthur had seen the townsfolk, and he knew Merlin couldn't stay in Ealdor. He wouldn't be safe, and something within Arthur yearned to protect the boy. He went to the window, pushing aside the thick gauze curtain. Merlin was out there, sitting on the other side of the dirt road with Will. Will had an arm wrapped around Merlin to console him, chatting animatedly most probably about how there was nothing to worry about. "We best sleep," Leon muttered, approaching him from behind. "It's late, and we'll need to ride through the night to reach Camelot before your father grows suspicious."
From the corner of his eye, Arthur saw a man staring out his window, glaring at the huddled forms of Merlin and Will. If he stays, he will die, Arthur thought to himself. Mind made up he turned to Leon. "Tell Merlin to rest too. He's coming with us."
"Arthur," Leon said desperately, not wanting to get into any more trouble with the King.
"He's not safe here," he said, rolling his shoulders back and standing straighter. "We'll send Merlin ahead of us. Say he came back on his own. He can make a formal apology to my father, take up the apprenticeship left open by Rowan's abrupt departure. Lord knows, Gaius needs help. I can't leave him here, Leon."
Leon sighed. "You've grown fond of him."
"No, I haven't. He's a child. I can't hurt a child." Arthur scowled, his voice hardening as his fists balled by his side. "He's twelve years old, and he stood up to my father for a village that doesn't even want him. He's a brave fool, and for some reason, I'd care if he got killed for it."
Leon clapped Arthur's shoulder. "You too are a child, Arthur. I know you hate to hear it, but you're not yet a man. You're still a prince."
Arthur's brow furrowed and he looked back to Merlin who had stood up and was angrily pacing, yelling something to Will. Merlin had a fire about him that made him hard to contain and understand. He seemed to be kind and loyal, but also stubborn with the tendency to outburst with bottled up anger. He was highly intelligent for his age and was able to read, despite being a peasant. More than anything else, Arthur could tell he was special, though he didn't know why and for some reason he wanted to be the man Merlin said he could be.
So when he heard Leon's words and saw Merlin still angrily saying something to Will, Arthur smiled wistfully. "Maybe I can be something more."
Leon smiled, a little confused at what Arthur was saying. "You do know by doing this you will defy your father. You'll have to be responsible for him and his outbursts. Make sure he doesn't get himself killed by decree of the King."
Arthur shrugged. "It can't be that hard."
Leon shook his head and went to tell Merlin they were leaving come dawn. Arthur went to his bag to retrieve a new shirt, but a hand on his shoulder startled him. "I haven't seen you, Arthur Pendragon since the day of your birth." Arthur spun to face Hunith. She was smiling gently at him, face filled with a gentleness reserved for someone with far more familiarity.
"You... You were at my birth?" he concluded.
Hunith nodded. "Yes. I acted as midwife along with another woman. To be honest, we weren't anything of the such." She stared down at the floor, frowning in memory. "I knew when I heard who you were that it was destiny calling my bluff. Finally pushing into head what I knew to be true. Merlin has a fate far greater than Ealdor. I knew it because it couldn't have been by chance that Merlin stumbled into Ygraine's only son.
Arthur remembered what his father and Arnold had spoken about. Of Hunith being friends with his mother. But looking at her and the place she lived, he couldn't understand what Hunith would have in common with a Queen. "How did you know my mother?" he asked, timidly.
Her face softened. She appeared as if she was daydreaming, a soft smile upon her lips. "Ygraine took me in when I first came to Camelot. Long before your parents were wed, she befriended me and would take me to balls and dinner parties. I truly did love her, and I believe she felt the same.
"Ygraine was quite sick when she first fell pregnant, and I was in the castle visiting Gaius. I cooked for her one night when all else failed, and it just so happened your mother could stomach my recipes." Arthur thought ruefully of the food that was dinner, and Hunith laughed at his face. "I was in Camelot and had access to more than just barley and wheat. I stayed for all of her pregnancy and one night, your mother took my hand and asked me, how she could repay all my kindness. I told her there was nothing to repay. She had done so much for me. What I was doing for her was a small show of my gratitude.
"But your mother was insistent that it was different. That taking care of her as I was, went above and beyond my duties as a friend. She said, 'When you become pregnant, I promise I will do all of this and more for your child. You and your family will be allowed all the riches your heart could desire.' I said, 'All I desire is for my family to be safe.' She smiled such a beautiful smile - the same smile I've seen grace your face tonight, in fact. Ygraine smiled and said, 'Then I promise you my safety and that your children will be my children, and mine yours.'"
Hunith reached forward and gently stroked his cheek with the pad of her thumb. "Alas, she died and never got the chance to help with my pregnancy. Ygraine could not even save Merlin's father." Hunith's eyes welled up with tears. "But you have an opportunity to fulfil her promise, Arthur. Through Merlin. You can do as Ygraine promised sixteen years ago and keep my son safe. Protect him like he was your brother, just like Ygraine said, and I will consider you my son. He is brave and loyal, and those are his faults and his strengths. He would sooner die than allow another to be harmed, and I cannot have him die." Hunith tugged on his collar. "Please, Arthur. Promise to take care of him. To keep him safe."
Arthur didn't realise he was crying until Hunith was wiping the tears from his cheeks. For a man who swore not to cry, he had been crying a lot in the last week. He nodded and spoke with a swollen throat. "I promise."
Hunith hugged him, and Arthur hugged back tighter, the firm grips of a mother foreign to him but comforting nonetheless. She squeezed him as tight as she could, running a hand through his hand to soothe his tears. "Hush, now," she calmed him with gentle words. "All is well; all is fine; all is safe if you are kind."
Arthur awoke in the pre-dawn morning on the floor of the hut in Ealdor, staring up at the thatched roof. He didn't recognise where he was straight away, but when he did, he turned his head to look around without being noticed. Leon was sat at the table, quietly chatting with Hunith over freshly brewed tea. He turned his head to where Merlin slept, on the straw patch beside him. The boy was also awake, hands braced behind his head, staring up at the ceiling. "Merlin?" Arthur whispered, careful not to let anyone else know they were awake.
Merlin turned his head slowly, not surprised by the fact Arthur was awake at all. "Yes, Arthur?"
"It'll all be alright, you know? You'll be living with Gaius in the castle. Most of us live there. Morgana, Leon, Gwen and me. Gwen's brother Elyan is always around too, though he stays in the lower town. You'll have loads of new friends, and no one will try to kill you with a pitchfork."
Merlin smiled at that. "But then how will I go on my daily run?"
Arthur sighed as though he was being put out. "Well I don't have a pitchfork, but I do have a sword…"
"It'll have to do, I suppose," Merlin sighed back. Arthur couldn't help but smile. The boy had a certain humour about him, even if it was sometimes annoying. They sat there quietly, contemplating the morning until Merlin quietly spoke his fears aloud. "I'm not quite sure what Will'll do without me. His mother is dead. He barely remember's to eat unless I'm around.
"I'm sure your mother will take care of him."
"But I'm his only friend. I may make new friends, but he won't. The same idiots still live here."
"I'm sure he will," Arthur assured him. "Anyway, you don't have much of an option. Either you come to Camelot, or you get run out of town. In both scenarios, Will is alone. At least this way you can visit one another."
"I should've been a better son," he whispered.
Arthur remembered when he was much younger than Merlin and his father had yelled at him for something. He had said the same words to Gaius, who hugged him and let him cry on his shoulder.
"I don't think she wants a better son. I think she likes you," Arthur echoed Gaius's words. Merlin perked up at that and shot Arthur a grateful smile.
Before he could say any more, Will burst into the hut, almost falling over his own feet. "Is he here? Did he go yet? Merlin!"
Merlin sat up and waved his hand. "Over here, Will."
Arthur was kicked in the back when Will tripped over him to tackle Merlin back to the ground. Both boys slid across the floor and into the wall. "I'll dig a moat around your house," Will muffled into his shirt.
"You don't own a shovel."
"I'll take Crazy Nathaniel's."
"He'll kill you."
"We'll have a moat."
"You'll still have to dig it, not to mention get the water. Even if you did manage that, Nathaniel could swim it."
"Can nothing kill that man?"
"The gods are still trying."
Will pulled away the slightest bit and spoke in a small voice. "Maybe while you're the physician apprentice, you can learn about poisons for us."
Merlin smiled, realising it was his friend's way of saying he was letting him go. "I'll bring back phials in every colour, and we can pour them in Nathaniel's soup."
"I like that idea," Will said.
Breakfast was a quiet affair, with no one having much to say. Just a little after dawn, they headed out to the horses and Leon mounted his steed as Arthur waited for Merlin to finish his goodbyes to his mother and Will.
Arthur couldn't say who was crying more out of the three of them, but when Merlin was done hugging Will and went to Hunith, Will grabbed Arthur by the arm and sharply tugged him aside. Arthur stumbled as Will twitched his nose and narrowed his eyes, looking every bit the demon the townsfolk made him out to be. "I heard you last night. Talking to Hunith. I was gonna grab my jacket before I went home. Here." From his pocket, Will pulled out a noble seal and shoved in in Arthur's hands. Arthur unfolded the paper and read it.
Sir William IV
House of Fernwall Knight of Essetir.
Married to Danielle of Ealdor.
One son, William V.
The seal was blue and orange, and Will looked fiercely proud of it. It seemed that Will wasn't lying after all about his title. "That's my father's seal. I don't have one. Never got it made up. Do you know what that makes me?"
Arthur nodded, already knowing. William was a noble and in Camelot law, able to become a Knight. "You're of noble blood."
"Yes. I am. I know your kind Arthur and a promise to a peasant means nothing. But an oath to a fellow noble." Will stuck his hand out to shake. "Swear to me you'll take care of the idiot."
Arthur wondered what it was in Merlin that struck up such strong emotions in everyone. He had never planned on breaking his word to Hunith, but now he was making an oath to a fellow, not a little boy's mother. With someone who he was taught to break an oath with would be the greatest sin.
It was nerve wracking, and Will watched and waited until Arthur gave in and shook his hand. "I swear Will."
Will nodded and let to of his hand. "Break your word, and I'll have your neck."
Arthur couldn't help but be impressed with Will and smiled. When Merlin finally detached himself from Hunith, Arthur helped him onto his horse then got in front of him, taking the reins and taking off towards Camelot. Merlin's small arms were wrapped around his waist and his face buried in his back. Arthur could feel the tears seeping through his jacket, but said nothing.
Despite the ending of Merlin's life in Ealdor and the boy's disappointment, Arthur couldn't help but feel that this was a new era. The dawning of a new time. And it was all because of Merlin.
Along the road, a few villages north of Ealdor, a young blond woman of at least twenty stared into a scrying bowl, scrunching her nose up in disdain. The village of Ealdor was alive and burying the few that had died.
Her eyebrows scrunched above her warm brown eyes in confusion. How did they all manage to survive?
She had checked just yesterday morning, and it seemed the town was in ruins. Their deathly slumber was going to be the end of them all. "What are you looking at?" A woman with sparkling blue eyes looked over her shoulder. "That village? Again? Do you not have better things to do with your spare time?"
The young blonde sorceress turned her nose up in disdain. "You said I could do what I wish with no interference."
"This is quite useless."
"He scorned me!" the woman hissed. "Used me like a courtier and threw me aside like a serving girl." Her face relaxed somewhat, and she leant her arms on either side of the scrying bowl and leant forward. "Anyway. It was one spell and a village of useless peasants who fear magic like it's the devil's assistant. Good riddance to them all."
"Will you ever learn, Morgause. There is a time to be foolish, and this is not it. You are still in training and have not yet been blessed as a high priestess, yet."
Morgause twisted her lips into a snarl. "And whose fault is that?"
"Patience, my dear. You must learn patience."
"But I do not wish to know of patience. I wish to seek out revenge on Uther Pendragon for throwing me from my home, killing my kin and tearing apart my family. Why must we be patient, Nimueh?"
The older woman's youthful face turned into a rueful grin. "For neither you nor I are powerful enough on our own... I have foreseen my death at the hands of a Warlock, and I do not wish to see it pass. No, instead we will wait. Wait and gather our army, then take Camelot for all our own." Nimueh pressed her hands against Morgause's shoulders and calmed her with a gentle squeeze. "Trust me, my dear. Patience is key."
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