Mordred had grown and looked more mature. Merlin cautiously stepped closer. He could hear the boy's thoughts, a complicated spell designed to torture the person it had been put on.

Mordred.

The young boy looked away, stopped chanting the spell and glared. Emrys.

Don't do this.

I must, to right the wrongs that have been done to us.

Arthur is not like his father. He helped you.

A debt must be repaid. His life for hundreds. He is not innocent, Emrys. He too has caused suffering and death to our kind.

Merlin snapped out a hand and Mordred fell to the ground. The crowd gaped and looked between them both in alarm, then Mordred was stood and firing an attack at Arthur. Merlin ran over to the knights, pushing them aside until he reached the king.

"Do not take off your armour," he said, holding a hand over Arthur's chest and starting a spell. "And do not fight –" he gasped for breath as Mordred's spell to blast him aside hit him on the chest.

He could hear Mordred again. This ends now. Merlin tried to stand but couldn't, and gasping for breath he sat up as Mordred strode closer to Arthur, blasting everyone else aside easily. You will feel my pain. You took my family from me. I will ruin yours and your queen's.

Arthur stared, powerless against Mordred as the druid boy raised his hand to attack.

...

Gilli smiled as he walked into Camelot again. Nothing much had changed, but he'd heard that the laws against magic were now, at the very least, ignored.

He knew from the time they'd last met that he'd see Merlin again, but despite all his asking around the servants and Druids, no-one knew where he was. He was looking at the sign of The Rising Sun tavern when he stumbled and walked into someone. He grunted and stepped back, apologising and expecting someone tall and strong to threaten him. Instead, he saw familiar eyes and smiled broadly, but stopped. "Uhh, sorry, I thought you were someone else–"

"Gilli?"

Gilli frowned. "Who are you?" He stared at the bearded sorcerer in red robes, who had been walking with a sinister-looking man. Alator had also stopped and was glaring confusedly between Gilli and Merlin.

"It's me, Merlin," the older man whispered. "But don't tell anyone."

Gilli laughed. "Right, right. Why do you..?"

"Oh, because no-one knows I have magic yet. And I'd like to keep it that way for a little while," he muttered. "To win the battle."

Nodding but not sure he understood, Gilli smiled again. "I'll get a room here," he nodded at the tavern. "And I'll be training for the rest of the day against the prince... or king, now. Then I'll fight." he laughed. "It'll be great."

Merlin grinned apprehensively, nodding. "Now, uh...we have to go," he said quickly, glancing at the other man. "I'll be seeing you." They hurried off, leaving Gilli frowning slightly.

He sighed and walked into the inn. Some people recognised him and nodded, but others looked at him as if they were sizing him up for an easy fight. That will change, he thought. He got a room, dropped his things, put on the ring and hurried from to the training grounds, glad to see everyone still fighting. He saw Merlin again. He wasn't sure if he could get used to seeing him old like this, but supposed it was Merlin's decision.

"Emrys," Gilli saw a Druid talking to Merlin. So when he looks old he's Emrys, he thought, then listened again. "Mordred..."

"I know, Iseldir...what do we do?"

Iseldir shrugged, looking around. "He spoke to me. Do you really think he'll try to do it, now of all times?"

"I don't know. I can't even see him – there," he pointed, now whispering, to Mordred

Gilli didn't understand why the boy was doing it, but he knew Merlin and everyone else couldn't threaten him – he was shielding himself from them – but Gilli was sure he had to be stopped. Gilli could feel the power and sense the hatred and hear from the words Mordred was speaking that this wasn't an ordinary spell – this wouldn't kill Arthur, it would make him lose himself to his own mind, tortured by fake realities created by Mordred.

And he owed it to Merlin to help. He raised his own hand, glanced at the ring then at the boy, and watched as he fell to the ground like a rag doll. Alator stepped forward and rolled the boy over. Alator stood behind him, placed a hand on the adolescent's chest and muttered something. The boy's skin glowed gold for a second and he remained unconscious.

"We need to bind his magic, Alator." Merlin said, standing.

Alator nodded. "My enchantment won't last long."

Arthur stepped forward, grinning, and grasped Gilli's hand. "You saved my life."

He shrugged. "It was nothing."

"You will be rewarded. What would you like?"

Gilli raised his chin, smirking. "To challenge you to fight against me, sire. I dare you to beat me."

...

Morgana screamed. Atol tried to talk to her her, but he couldn't calm her hysterics with either comfort or threats. "They have him, they have Mordred...Emrys has Mordred in Camelot!" she wailed. "We have to go now, we have to help him –"

"And break Camelot from within..." Atol muttered. "That's brilliant, my lady!"

"But what of Mordred?" she pleaded.

"I will take the boy."

She gasped, and nodded eagerly. "Yes, my lord. Thank you," she breathed, taking his hand.

He smirked. "I'll leave now. Take the army as planned, arrive at dawn. I will shatter defences from the inside."