After a week of waiting it's finally here! Yay! Oh, and I lied about this being the last chapter I forgot about the epilogue. Well, it's the most anticipated chapter, and the longest I've ever written (which is king of sad but whatever) so without further ado...

Chapter 9-Merlin

Destiny didn't force them into their next vision, but instead allowed for them to break for lunch. Someone, presumably Freya, had cooked while they were out, so Merlin found himself in the awkward position of not knowing what to do.

"Walk with me." Merlin turned to see Freya standing on the lakeshore behind him. "There is much I must tell you."

Merlin looked over to where Arthur was watching the couple suspiciously, but the Prince didn't speak. Deciding Arthur would hate him soon enough anyways, Merlin followed the girl.

"There are no memories of Guinevere or Sir Leon," Freya admitted once the pair was far from the others. "I think it has something to do with their fate not being a part of yours, just a part of Arthur's." It was true when Merlin thought about it. Sure, he knew Gwen before most everyone else in Camelot, but Gwen wasn't his story, just Arthur's. And of all the knights of the round table Leon would be the most likely to side with Arthur over Merlin, as he is the only one who was actually raised to be a Knight of Camelot.

"Does that mean I'm next?"

Freya nodded, "You're the only one left. I suspect, though I don't know for sure, that you won't be sucked into your past as everyone else has. Destiny did this for you, and she will probably let the others talk Arthur down before he can stab you with Excalibur."

"He's going to hate me," Merlin grumbled looking over his shoulder to where the Prince was still watching him. "I'll have to leave at the very least, and who will protect Arthur then? If destiny is trying to help me, why couldn't she leave well enough alone?"

Freya stood as Merlin exploded, and waited until his eyes stopped glowing to speak. "Destiny is not a person, Merlin. We may speak of her as such, but she is not a god making decisions, or a man dealing with consequences. She's an immovable force. She doesn't know the plan for the world; she is the plan. I cannot explain why this has happened, but I can tell you it has. Arthur has changed much already. He's accepting magic. It is quite possible he will accept you."

"Or he'll run me through with his sword and I'll have to join you as the manservant of the lake or something," Merlin grumbled much to Freya's amusement. "I'm just not ready for things to change."

Freya's hand managed to touch Merlin's shoulder, to both of their surprise. "Everything changed the moment you ended up on my shores. Now it's just time for the last rock to fall and for the ripples to fade."

Merlin kicked a pebble into the lake and watched as what she said happened. "The ripples always do fade in the end, don't they?"

Freya was smiling as she nodded.

Back by the shore, Camelot's troupe were having a very different conversation. "How can Merlin trust her?"

"Because he loves her, Arthur," Gwen reminded the man with a soft smile. "And he got her back after losing her. I imagine he trusts her more than anything."

Arthur shrugged, "It's still kind of strange that only Gwaine has ever heard of her. And that was when Merlin was drunk."

"He told me about her once," Lancelot admitted not looking up to the Prince. "She was a druid girl cursed to turn into a beast every night. You killed her defending Camelot, and that's when she became the lady of the lake."

Arthur was too stunned to say much of anything. "I remember now. I didn't know Merlin loved her."

"He did not want you to know sire," Gaius admitted looking over at the pair. "Because he did not want you to feel guilty over her death. She was killing people, if not by choice. Her death was a mercy, as little as Merlin likes to admit it."

"Speaking of Merlin," Gwaine grumbled looking into the lake. "If he doesn't get back here he's going to miss the next set of images. I wonder who it is."

Gwen looked over, and recognized the woman. "It's Merlin. I recognize his mother." With that said they were sucked into the scene. "Merlin didn't come with us."

"That's odd. We all went even when it was our own past," Arthur reminded the group looking over to where Hunith was panting through childbirth. (Then looking away very quickly.)

Gaius looked over at his niece, not saying anything to the party assembled. Soon enough they'd know why it was best Merlin stayed behind, and Gaius only hoped between he and Lancelot Merlin would be well defended.

"I'm not sure it's best for you to hold him," the nursemaid admitted once Merlin was born squealing. "He's so tiny. He won't survive."

Hunith was not going to accept that. "Give me my son. If he dies he should at least have known his mother."

The nurse looked apprehensive, but she handed the tiny baby over to his mother. "I've never seen anyone that small," Gwen admitted looking on their minuscule friend. "He could fit into one hand. How is it Merlin is alive?"

Magic was the answer, but Gaius wasn't going to betray the boy's secret before the scene before them did.

The nursemaid left, and Hunith and Merlin sat in their tiny cottage alone. The mother cried, suspecting her son's death would be soon, but the baby held on as she sang. It was a Welsh tune, one she knew from Balinor, and, ironically enough, it sang of Emrys. "Emrys , y gwaredwr , rhad ac am ddim ni o boen . Help wrth i ni gerdded drwy'r nos. Y brenin yn cysgu trwy arswyd , ei fab anymwybodol o'r dyfodol, mae'n rhaid iddo ddod .

Emrys , oh Emrys , achub ni rhag poen . Ein gosod yn rhydd rhag marwolaeth . anfarwol byddwch yn dweud celwydd gan eich brith cyntaf , tan y diwrnod pan hud yn marw .

Pan fydd y noson yn tynnu oer , ac yr ydych yn mynd i orffwys , cofiwch y rhai sydd angen eich cân . Cofiwch y rhai byth pwy fydd yn dod i ben eu gorffwys , ac yn canu hwiangerdd iddynt.

Emrys , oh Emrys , byddwn yn cadw eich cyfrinachau . Hyd nes y diwrnod y byddwch yn gosod ni am ddim . Cofiwch fod eich addewid , eich tynged , fel y mae eich plygu i chi pen-glin . Cofiwch fod eich addewid eich tynged , hyd nes Albion wedi ei osod am ddim."

Perhaps the baby heard the prayer in the song, as his eyes opened a burning gold, a wave of magic coursing through the house. Broken chairs fixed themselves. Molding food ripened. The house was suddenly spotless…all because Merlin opened his eyes for the first time.

"Magic," Arthur breathed out on the brink of a panic attack. "That was magic. Baby Merlin just did magic. Merlin. A sorcerer. No, a warlock. Merlin is a warlock. He has magic."

The Prince didn't seem mad, but he was certainly upset. All of those from Camelot were, to varying degrees.

"You knew, didn't you?" Gwen asked looking between Gaius and Lancelot who couldn't manage to feign shock. "Both of you knew. He told you?"

Lancelot shook his head, not wanting to make them feel like Merlin cared less about them. "He didn't have to. We saw him use magic…to save our lives. That's all he ever uses his magic for, to save your life Arthur."

"Why would he do that?"

The answer came in the form of a knocking on Hunith's door. She'd laid the baby in a crib, shaking the whole time and begging for the gods to spare her son from the cruel fate of a warlock. She was terrified her baby would be ripped from her arms and killed, and it broke Arthur's heart because he and his father were the reason why.

"Where is Emrys?" a voice asked when Hunith opened the door. "I was just passing by your village when I felt him. Where is he?"

Hunith tried to slam the door on the druid, but he used magic to force it open. Terrified, the woman drew knife from her kitchen and held it in her shaking hand. "I do not wish to hurt him," the druid whispered, hands up in peace. "I wish to pay him homage. Since the Purge's beginning I've been waiting to hear mention of someone feeling Emry's power. I never suspected the gods to make me the blessed one. Please, tell me where he is."

"Emrys is a fairytale, a legend," Hunith stammered trying to block the man from seeing Merlin's crib. "There is no one here with magic you speak of. Please, leave, before you get us killed."

Her slip up was all the druid needed to push past her, and see the crib. Shaking, he fell to his knees before it. "Of course. He's only a child." He turned to Hunith. "I will not hurt your son. No druid would dare. He is Emrys, our savior, or one day he will be. For now he is in your care. Until he grows."

"Please, leave," Hunith stammered and she slashed at the man when he didn't. Face bleeding, he left, and Hunith threw herself sobbing over Merlin's crib. "My son. Please don't be Emrys. You don't deserve his fate. Please, not my son."

Arthur shut his eyes, and looked away from this scene. "Merlin is Emrys. That's what he meant when he said that I'd be surprised by a warlock who'd stay in Camelot to protect me. He was talking about himself."

"Yes," Gaius nodded surprised the Prince wasn't throwing things. "Yes. Merlin is Emrys and you, Arthur, are the Once and Future King destined to set things right and bring magic back to Camelot. He has been in Camelot for years protecting you; all while under the threat of death should he be discovered."

Arthur shook his head. "But…Merlin! I could never have killed him! He should have told me."

"From what Merlin has told me about his childhood, you might realize why if you watch," Lancelot admitted as the scene shifted around them.

Merlin was only a couple years old, but he sat next to his mom as she worked. There was an old man with a cough sitting in their hut watching the boy as Hunith brewed something. "So this is your son nobody ever sees. No wonder he never leaves the house he looks ready to jump into the grave. You'd think a healer would keep her son healthier, but maybe you're not that great of a healer are you."

"Leave her alone!" Merlin yelled, his magic smashing the vials around him. Hunith, realizing what happened, moved her arms so quickly it looked like she'd been the one to send everything flying. It was such an adroit move, Arthur suspected she had lots of practice with it.

"And she's clumsy too," the man grumbled, taking his potion and walking out the door. Once he was gone, Hunith turned towards her son.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to! I'm so sorry!" Merlin cried tears bubbling over his eyes. "Please don't make the knights take me away. Please don't!"

Hunith wrapped Merlin in her arms. "I'll never tell anyone about you Merlin. I'll never send you away. But you have to control your magic. Old man Simmons is too blind to notice much of anything, but if he saw your eyes you'd be dead. And you remember what dead is?"

Merlin nodded, breaking Gwen's heart. At such a young age he shouldn't know what it meant to be dead. He especially shouldn't be able to give such a description as, "Dead is when everything hurts, and then there is nothing at all, not even Mommy."

"No one can know," Hunith reminded, before turning away and looking to the sky in prayer.

Merlin was older now, and he sat in a tree on the edge of the village. "You know you're my only friend." Merlin told the squirrel whom he was feeding out of his palm. "The other kids don't like me because I'm a bastard. I don't know what it means to be a bastard, but I know they don't like me because of it. They say so."

"What happened to Merlin's father?" Arthur asked Gaius, afraid to know. "Why would the man possibly leave?"

"Because of your father, sire," Gaius sighed, knowing this was another thing Merlin had never wanted to burden Arthur with the knowledge of. "You remember Balinor, and how I sent him to Hunith?"

"Merlin's father was a dragonlord?" Percival whooped, knowing better than anyone else what that meant.

"I told Merlin no man was worth his tears," Arthur remembered, feeling progressively worse and worse as the scenes went by. "I never knew it was Merlin's father."

But it was, and Merlin had only known him for a day before his death. All because of Uther's hatred. A hatred that, until the day before, Arthur had shared.

"Hey big ears!" a kid called from the bottom of the tree. "You spying on us? You a little spy?" Merlin pulled his legs up and shook his head. "Come down here and I'll show you what happens to spies!"

The boy reached up for Merlin, who, trying to get out of reach, fell backwards, dozens of feet down, out of the tree.

The kids who'd been bullying him ran over yelling. "Is he dead? He has to be dead."

Merlin, however, just sat up, his arm angled oddly, but otherwise fine. The kids screamed, running away as they called him a freak and a demon. Crying, Merlin ran back to his house, where his mother set the arm singing softly as she did.

"Am I a demon?" Merlin asked him mom, and the group from Camelot got the feeling this wasn't the first time he'd asked such a question. "They said I should be dead and I wasn't because I'm a demon. Does my magic mean I'm a demon?"

Hunith shook her head. "The only demon is Uther who fools himself into thinking magic, not men, is his problem. You're a very good, and a very lucky boy Merlin, okay?"

Merlin nodded, but as the scene shifted again, he still looked very upset. In the new scene, he looked equally as upset, despite now being a young teenager.

He was still alone in the tree as well, and this time there wasn't even a squirrel to keep him company. "What are you doing up there?" Merlin looked down to see a boy his age staring up at him. "Blimey you're up really high. Aren't you scared you're going to fall and die."

Merlin hoped down, obviously not scared. "Don't worry. I can't die. Trust me, I've tried."

No one wanted to ask what Merlin meant by that. "All the stories I heard when I lived with druids said Emrys was immortal until his destiny was complete. Do you figure that's true?" Percival muttered to the others.

"It would explain his lack of a healthy sense of fear," Gwaine admitted, looking down at his future friend in a new light. "Do you really think Merlin tried to kill himself?"

"Well it would explain the scars," Gwen mumbled before realizing no one else had probably ever noticed them. "Have you never wondered why Merlin always wears long sleeves, even during the summer? I saw him roll them up one day when he was really hot. They're covered in scares."

Arthur shook his head, "We're his friends, and we never knew anything about him. Forget magic, this is the kind of thing he should have told us."

Everyone nodded in agreement, before turning back to where Will and Merlin were first meeting. "Do you like knights?" Will asked the boy who had yet to give him a straight answer to anything.

"No," Merlin admitted probably thinking of Camelot's knights who would kill him should they get the chance. "Why are you one?"

Will shook his head, "Of course not. My father worked with knights and now he's dead."

"At least you had a father," Merlin mused smiling to himself. Will smiled too, clearly glad he hadn't been offered sympathies. "I'm Merlin, town bastard, hated by everyone, and a freak in many senses of the word."

"Will, new guy in town, ready to make everyone hate me, orphan, and friend of freaks everywhere."

"He's a sorcerer too," Arthur recalled looking down on the scene. "Or that's what he said. I'm not sure it wasn't just him covering from Merlin now that I think about it."

"I think that's the only time Merlin has looked happy in one of these scenes…granted we're all pretty miserable in most of these," Gwaine admitted thinking of what they'd seen. Everyone had had a miserable childhood, but none so much as Merlin apparently, as no one else had turned to suicide attempts by age 14.

"Run!" Merlin was yelling at Will as a tree fell in the next image. Will jumped to the side just as a tree tumbled onto an empty house. "Oh gods, old man Simmons is going to kill me," Merlin mumbled looking down at the crushed house. Will was just staring at Merlin. "What's wrong?"

Will walked over to where the tree stump sat. "It's a perfect cut, done with one cut, and you don't have an axe," Will didn't appear scared, more impressed (and a bit pissed). "Merlin, we've been best friends for two years now, and you didn't think to mention in all that time that you know how to use magic!"

Merlin's hand covered Will's mouth as the warlock dragged his friend into the woods. "Please don't kill me. I don't want to have to fight you, but, but I will." Merlin, magic or not, looked like he would lose that fight, but Will laughed.

"I'm not going to kill you Merlin! Magic is what it is, a tool, a force of nature. Like wind that knocks down houses, and cools down summer days. And it's a bloody awesome tool to have. Can you imagine the kind of pranks it could be used for?"

Merlin looked uneasy. "My mum says I'm not supposed to use it because if anyone finds out they'll call the bounty hunters in Camelot and get me killed."

Will shrugged, "Well then we don't let them find out."

"And then the tree fell, and Will saw it was me, but he didn't even care," Merlin rambled to his mother, not even seeming to think twice of the fact that he was 16 and sitting on the kitchen table as she cooked. "Mom, he figured out I have magic and he doesn't hate me for it."

Hunith was shaking both her head, and her hands. "Merlin… I know Will's a nice kid, but what if he tells someone? You'll die!"

"Will won't tell anyone mom," Merlin beamed. "I know he won't because he's my best friend and the only person who has ever understood me, magic and all."

Hunith shook her head though. "I'm sorry Merlin, but I think…I think you need to go to Camelot."

"What? You're sending me to die? That doesn't even make sense." Merlin was still grinning, but it would disappear quickly. Especially as Hunith next spoke.

"It's not so much Will I'm worried about, it's the tree. You didn't even mean to but you crushed old man Simmon's home. Someone could have been killed. You need to go to Camelot and see my Uncle Gaius… he knows about things such as this. He can help."

Merlin held in his tears, but just barely. "But… but I don't want to go. What would I do in Camelot?"

"Ealdor is too small. It's too easy for you to be spotted. Camelot is so large nobody will notice you, especially with Gaius's help. You can be his apprentice… it will work Merlin."

The teen was shaking his head, "But what about you? And Will? My whole life is here you can't just send me away!"

"I must," Hunith confessed looking down at her stew. "I must. It's only in the belly of the beast that they won't be able to see you. You'll be safe in Camelot."

Merlin stormed out of the house, yelling as he went. "When you get a letter from this Gaius saying I've been executed then you can tell yourself that. I hope it makes you feel loads better."

"I've never seen Merlin that upset before," Gwen whispered as the scenes ended. "He really didn't want to come to Camelot. Why did Hunith make him?"

"She was scared," Gaius sighed as the lake came back into view. "She was scared sooner or later those people Merlin loved would find out the truth because then they could hurt him."

And now, as Merlin and Freya came into sight, Hunith's worst fears had been realized. Everyone knew Merlin was a warlock, even Prince Arthur of Camelot. Now they just had to decide what to do with this information.

Lullaby translation:

Emrys, the savior, free us from pain. Help as we walk through the night. The king sleeps through terror, his son unaware of the future he must bring.

Emrys, oh Emrys, save us from pain. Set us free from death. Immortal you lie from your first breath, until the day when magic dies.

When the night draws cold, and you go to rest, remember those who need your song. Remember those who've gone to their death, and sing them a lullaby.

Emrys, oh Emrys, we'll keep your secrets. Until the day you set us free. Remember your promise, your destiny, even as your bend you knee. Remember your promise your destiny, until Albion is free.