(Longish Author's Note at bottom)
Dear Arthur,
Once upon a time there was a dragonlord and his name was Balinor. He could tame dragons, could talk to them. He was happy and healthy and everything was going good in his life. Then came the evil king, who tricked the dragonlord into capturing the last dragon and chaining him up in the vaults beneath the castle. The evil king Uther hunted Balinor down, even when he was outside his realm and in the small village of Ealdor. In Ealdor lives a beautiful caring woman named Hunith, a woman the dragonlord had grown to care for very deeply. He was forced to flee the woman he loved and the child she was carrying.
This child grew up without a father. This child was born with magic, made things move without realising what he was doing. He lived in constant danger. He had to hide the best parts of himself away from everyone. He was lonely and shy and had only one friend until he was forced to move to Camelot, where said evil king persecuted this young warlock's kind.
Even though the young warlock could not be himself, he still found acceptance among his peers. He found fast friends with a lovely handmaiden named Guinevere and found his destiny in protecting the spoilt prince Arthur. He even had a crush on the Lady Morgana at one point, before she found out about the magic she harboured and he had to poison her in order to save a whole kingdom.
This young warlock found himself going from hating the prince's guts to having a grudging respect to sheer awe and love beyond anything he had ever known for the prince. And it was only to his shock he found the little prat felt the same way for the gawky, clumsy warlock. They began to meet in secret, sharing stolen kisses here and a few gropes there, until the prince admitted that even though he loved his servant, no one could ever know about them, no matter what. He played along as Arthur pretended to have affections for Guinevere and supported their holy union. Gwen had lost the love of her life and was more than willing to cover for the two lovers, pretending Arthur and her were in love, so they could build a love story of their own.
The warlock and the new king spent many years in a secret relationship, happily content with each other and more passionate as the years wore on. They were two sides of the same coin, the half of the other's whole. The warlock continued to use his magic to save the king's life until one day it was too late and the king lay dying in the warlock's arms. No matter what the warlock did, whatever power he used, he could not save the king's life.
He journeyed back to Camelot and lived a hollow existence, only half the man he used to be. A part of him died every time he watched another friend grow old and leave him, knowing he would never die alongside them. He continued on through life, never the same, never quite whole, just waiting for the moment his knight in shining armour would arise again and wake him from his perpetual nightmare and replace it with a storybook fantasy.
The young warlock is still waiting for that to happen. He is alone, he is numb, he is wishing on every bright star for the king to come back again. Though he had new things and new people to fill the spaces of his old wounds, he never completely healed. The warlock still carries his battle wounds with him wherever he goes. He is lost and can't find his way back to true happiness.
The world needs both the king and his lionheart for the balance of the world to be maintained. Everything is falling apart wherever the warlock, no longer young, turns. It is a bleak existence and he can only hope the king will arise soon and restore the world to its former glory, a time of true peace for all.
And then they can all live happily ever after.
Love, Merlin
Hi guys! So I just want to update you a bit on what's going on with this fic. This is a side project for me, so I only write Merlin's letters whenever the mood strikes since I'm focused on another, longer writing. That's why my updates are very sporadic and not very long at all, so I'm really sorry about that. I'm not exactly sure what's going to be said in future letters, or however many more there will be, for that matter. I don't have a set story line: it just all sort of comes to me when I sit down and start writing. So you'll have to bear with me on that. But I do know that at a certain point Arthur IS going to come back. He is going to meet Merlin again and Merlin is going to give him all these letters he's written Arthur (which it's implied there are much more letters than the ones covered in this fic, but that should be a bit obvious). So you will be seeing Arthur's reaction to these letters and see a bit of how things change now that Arthur is set in a modern world. I have begin to start writing the reactions and I don't know how far I'm going to take it, but it's not going to be like a full length novel or whatever. This has always been a sort of short story/novella type of thing that doesn't go into a huge pages of imagery and paragraphs and dialogue (though I will go into that when Arthur comes back, which should be a nice change up from Merlin's straight up narration). So sorry for you having to muddle through short letters and stuff, but I do have a set ending in mind. I've just got to get to it first!
And also, thank you so much for continuing to read and for leaving such amazing, wonderful reviews! I'm always surprised when people tell me they love the letters, that they've cried (I can't believe I've made someone cry by reading my writing! And have it be in a good way! So omg like best compliment ever!) so you guys are simply amazing human beings and I'm really happy you all have continued to support and enjoy my little side project.