Title: Out of the Ashes
Disclaimer: All characters are fictional and are not of my creation. They belong to BBC Merlin.
There is a short quote from Season 1, Episode 1, 'The Dragon's Call'. Can you find it? =)
Chapter Note: One of my strongest parts of my writing is getting into the heads of my characters. One of the weakest parts of my writing is dialogue. I don't know why I had troubles with writing dialogue, but I'm trying to improve it as I write this fic, and hope that I've executed it a bit better in this chapter.
I am awfullysorry about the lateness of this chapter. I've been extremely busy this week with exams and tests and all of the great stuff. I hope the next chapter will be posted a bit sooner than this one was. Again, I'm sorry.
Here are a few responses to the reviews I received from the previous chapter:
KittyO: You brought up a good point. Here's the reason behind what I did - Mordred knows Merlin's magic isn't stable, so he doesn't want to push Merlin too far because Merlin may get angry and attack Mordred [presumably by using magic]. Mordred knows that he may not be powerful enough to ward off the magic of the combined Merlin/Emrys, so he decides to leave Merlin so he can get the help from other powerful sorcerers [namely Morgana, Morgause and Alvarr] to make Merlin/Emrys willingly or unwillingly join then.
Nikki: Thank you for your feedback! In the BBC Merlin series, Mordred's power is talking to people telepathically. In my fanfiction I wanted to take it a step further and enable Mordred to read people's minds through touch. I did this to a) add another dimension to his character and b) it sounded like an interesting idea and I couldn't resist adding another twist to the story.
: I couldn't help but laugh when I first read your username! I'm glad you like the plot =)
Word-Stringer, Tonbo-Kitsune, and Catastros: Thank you so much for commenting. This chap's longer and more eventful and I hope you that you enjoy reading it.
And a big 'Thank You' to all those who reviewed – your feedback is much appreciated. It lets me know how I'm doing and I'm glad that you're enjoying this fic so far!
Now, on with this chapter…
Revelations
Something warm, soothing touches his mind. What is it? He flinches away from the invading sensation that suddenly envelops him.
It feels oddly familiar, like it's always been there. And then it makes sense.
He looks up at his friend.
A tilted head with two bright blue eyes stare down at him curiously.
'Why did you not tell me? Is it because you did not trust me with your secret?'
He is not answered immediately and he watches with sad eyes as the torchbearer nears his friend's pyre. Time is running out and he needs the answer. He needs to know before it's too late…
Sorrow, sadness, pain, loss… forgiveness?
The rush of emotions coursing through his mind are overwhelming him and they make his head spin. His and his friend's thoughts are all disjointed.
He needs the answer now.
The torch touches the dry straw. The fire is now catching quickly; it will soon catch on his friends clothes. But before the fire licks his friend's skin, Arthur feels the warm, comforting feeling suddenly fade from his mind.
No! he inwardly yells, his body instinctively lurches forward, but guards surrounding him restrain him. They pull back his arms, holding him back.
Even as he is held, his eyes do not leave his friend's, even as the fiery flames obstruct his view. A sharp, pang of sadness and anger rips through his very soul.
It is too late.
He will never know the answer.
"It's time to wake up Sire," he called again, this time sighing.
Why hadn't he had he woken up yet? He'd been standing there calling the Prince's name for five minutes and the Prince had yet to awaken. And he wasn't even sleeping peacefully – Henry could tell because he was constantly tossing and turning breathing heavily, obviously trapped in some terrifying nightmare. By the firelight, Henry could see beads of sweat trickling down the Prince's face. The room wasn't even warm; it was only a few minutes ago that he had lit the fire.
He soon lost his patience – the Prince could get a bit stubborn sometimes. He needed to get him up and maybe the Prince would appreciate him for getting rid of his nightmare. Grumbling as he walked up to the bed, he firmly took a hold of the Prince's shoulders.
"It's time to wake up now, Sire," he called once more while shaking the Prince gently for a few seconds.
Arthur woke with a start. His eyes quickly opened and frantically searched the room before settling on the person standing before him. Oh, Arthur thought, it's Henry again.
"I'm sorry Sire, but the King requests that you be woken up right now."
"S'kay," replied Arthur as he rubbed the sleep out of his tired eyes. He hadn't slept well for several days now – these dreams, these nightmares kept plaguing his sleep and refused to take any of the sleeping potions Gaius had prescribed to him. Gaius had looked at him like he was crazy - but Arthur knew he wasn't crazy. Arthur just didn't want to tell Gaius the reasons behind his 'madness.'
The thing was he didn't want the nightmares to go away. He needed the nightmares because they brought back memories, although painful ones, of something, someone he never wanted to forget.
Arthur yawned. "What time's it?" he said as he wiped away some of the sweat that lined his brow.
"Four o'clock, Sire."
God, the sun wasn't even up. Sighing, Arthur stood up and got out of bed.
"Armor?" he questioned as he stretched his arms and legs.
"Oh… yes, Sire. I'll get it immediately." Henry bowed and hurried out of the room.
Arthur watched Henry walk out.
As waited, he sat down at the table and he shook his head. It seemed like everything about this new boy was wrong!
Inwardly, Arthur chuckled. He guessed that he'd become so used to Merlin's disobedience, frequent quips and clumsiness that he'd forgotten what it was like to have a 'proper' servant.
Henry made Arthur think of the first few weeks Merlin and he had had together. Merlin was like a fly - always there, always very annoying and constantly getting on his nerves. But over time, he and Merlin had learned to understand each other, and Merlin's behavior soon grew on him. And that, Arthur reassured himself, would never happen between him and Henry. The strong bond that the he and Merlin had shared was special, different, and sometimes misunderstood. But he knew for certain that it could not be shared with anyone else.
Henry reentered the room with all of Arthur's armor in his arms.
Merlin couldn't sleep.
He was too worried about Emrys. He didn't want to be plunged back into the darkness again and Merlin knew that if Emrys came back, Emrys would be furious with him and he wouldn't be able to stop Emrys from taking over. Merlin was only back on borrowed time and knew it wouldn't be long before Emrys would catch him off guard and take over again.
But what troubled him more at the moment was how he, himself had...come back from the dark oblivion... His last memory before succumbing to to scorching flames that licked his skin... the excruciating pain... and then the peaceful, restful darkness that soon followed.
And then he remembered the first time he woke up out of the black oblivion like wading through knee-high mud in complete darkness and hearing a voice in his head and then telling it to get out. He remembered telling the voice that he was Merlin and that the voice (whose name he had recently learned was Emrys) and he must be related; that they must be the same person. Merlin would never forget the next thing he would feel – Emrys's words cut their way into Merlin and forcefully shove Merlin to the back of his head. It had felt horrible, like someone had actually thrown him against a wall and losing consciousness.
Merlin then remembered waking up in an open field and finding a little girl standing fearfully next to him. He remembered following the girl back to a Druid village, only to be pushed right back into the darkness as Emrys caught him off guard.
And then for a fourth time, Merlin remembered hearing Emrys discuss about joining forces with Mordred. Merlin remembered panicking, knowing that he had to gain control before Emrys made his decision. He remembered slowly and painfully edging his way out of the blackness, desperately needing to regain control to stop his other self from doing something stupid.
Emrys could not take over now. He had to fight Emrys, to become known as the dominant of the two. To remain the dominate of the two for longer periods of time.
What was he going to do about Camelot, Gaius, and Gwen… Arthur? For all he knew, Morgana could have taken over Camelot by then and his destiny failed. And even if Camelot remained unharmed and he came back, he might put Arthur in danger because of Emrys – who knows what Emrys would try to do?
Who was Emrys?
Merlin had been thinking for such a long time that he'd lost track of what time it was.
What time was it? Four… five? All he knew was that it was very early, too early for anyone to possibly be awake.
Merlin opened eyes and searched the room. It was completely dark… except there was something outside that looked like a small light. Who in their right mind would be up this early? he thought. Getting out of bed, he realized that he hadn't even taken off his cloak last night.
Merlin soon made his way out of his tent and silently drew closer to light.
Outside the candle lit tent, Merlin heard a voice. The person wouldn't be able to see him – the darkness concealed his identity- and Merlin closed his eyes and focused on the voices inside. His bright eyes burned gold and lit up the darkness as he used his magic –
"-can barely walk," came a man's mocking voice, soon followed by laughter.
There was a brief pause in the conversation.
"Yes, I know, I know that," came the voice, louder.
Wait a minute! I must have missed something thought Merlin as he listened more closely.
But only silence met his ears.
"Ok, sorry. You know I don't like talking with you that way," the voice said, softer this time and obviously replying to someone, something that Merlin couldn't hear, even with his magic.
So there were at least two people in the tent. But how was the man responding to someone who didn't even talk to him? More silence.
"When? Tonight? Where are we meeting?"
Again, silence. This was getting a bit aggravating.
"Ahh... ok. Thanks for getting that straight. What about Morgana? Is she coming?"
Morgana? Was Morgana going to come to the 'meeting' that was happening 'tonight'?
"That's good, alright. I better get some rest."
Merlin heard footsteps and then a man blow out the candlelight.
" 'night"
Merlin slowly backed away from the tent and made his way back to his. It was a bit difficult making his way back to his tent because he couldn't see.
But he didn't worry about bumping into things. It was the information that he just used that he just obtained that worried him. What meeting was happening tonight and where? Why was Morgana coming? Where was the meeting being held?
Merlin sighed. Like he needed to add another thing to his list of never-ending worries.
Sir Leon was in his chambers, dressed, and putting his sword into its hilt which was attached to his belt. Walking out, he quickly made his way down the torchlight corridor and into the stables. He patted his horses' mane before leading it out of the stables.
Several knights were standing there in the dark courtyard when Sir Leon had arrived, but Arthur wasn't there yet.
Leon shook his head as and the others waited.
How could Arthur keep going on like this? Since the day of Merlin's execution, he'd been acting like the living dead. Like there was nothing left in the world for him. Arthur had stopped going to tournaments, much to his father's disapproval, and he went more frequently on 'hunting trips.' But Arthur would always return without any game, and Sir Leon knew that Arthur wasn't really hunting; it was just an excuse just to go out and... and well, he didn't know exactly what Arthur was doing because he never followed him, but he knew that Arthur was not hunting.
Even Arthur's deep depression was affecting his weight and sleeping habits - he was growing thinner and thinner and although he retired to his chambers early, every time he'd see him at the sword practice, he'd see the dark lines, etched under his eyes.
Even Arthur's aura around him had changed. Anyone who stayed with him, including his new servant 'Henry' he was called, felt the coldness, the sadness, his depression. It was not a comfortable feeling and this worried Sir Leon.
What if today, they were to face a group of sorcerers? How would this affect Arthur? What would Arthur do? After all, his best friend, Merlin had turned out to be a sorcerer himself…
Uther had told him that sorcery was evil, that it corrupted people's souls, and Sir Leon had believed that. But after meeting Merlin…. Well, that really changed his view. He always knew that there was something about Merlin; just like Arthur had suspected the moment he'd met him. But he and Arthur had never suspected that Merlin was a sorcerer.
At first, he had felt anger build up inside himself, but then he thought of his… friend. Merlin had never done any of them harm. Sir Leon chuckled - Merlin'd probably done more damage to himself. If sorcery corrupted, then why hadn't Merlin killed Arthur?
Sir Leon was brought back to the present when he heard the clopping of a horses' hooves upon the cobblestone. Arthur had finally arrived. As Arthur approached his horse, he, Arthur, and the rest of the knights all mounted theirs. Arthur gave the signal and all of the knights followed behind him.
The sun was just coming up when they left.
Merlin couldn't help but feel extremely nervous. He hadn't much sleep and earlier that day he'd gotten a feeling that something was going to go wrong. Something horrible, bad, but he didn't know whether to believe his instincts or not. In the past when he'd follow his instincts, he was usually right. But the feeling he had now was… different than the others. He had a feeling that something was coming… something… someone.
But who? And why would they come here? Merlin paced his tent, walking back and forth in an elongated oval.
I'm baaackkk
Merlin's foot froze midstep. He gasped. No! Not now, please not now…
'No'? That's all you can say? You've had your fun, my friend. Now it's time for me to have mine.
Emrys's voice grew louder, stronger and Merlin knew that he would soon lose control. But what had provoked Emrys to come back? Merlin tried desperately to keep walking to keep moving, to do anything just to keep control…
But it was of no use. Merlin soon felt a numbing sensation wash over his whole body and he knew that he'd fallen down, but he couldn't feel anything of see anything anymore. He was being pushed back into the darkness, the black oblivion of nothingness.
Leaves crunched and birds flew as Arthur and his men quickly made their way through the dark woods. Long shadows of the trees appeared on the leaf strewn ground as the sun rose slowly into the bright red sky. A few miles outside of Camelot they soon came upon a large river. Its waters were a murky blue, and the atmosphere around it seemed… peaceful. It seemed to invite them in and the horses were a bit thirsty, so they all stopped by the river and watered their horses.
Arthur lead his down to the wide expansion of water he could not help but wish that he would find no sorcerers and that this mission would be for naught.
Hope you like that! Until next time! Oh, the sentence "His bright eyes burned gold and lit up the darkness as he used his magic" is alluding to the sentence the dragon said about Morgana to Merlin but reversed – Merlin's the light to the darkness and his magic will always be there to help him (or not help him in this case).
I know where this plot's going. It's going to pick up in the next few chapters and the next chapter's going to be a bit more epic…. *shifty eyes*
And, as always:
Please review. =)