Merlin
Part Three
When Arthur found the sword in the late winter, Merlin could have jumped for joy. That is, if he weren't a tree still.
In the clearing the man stood with a look of awe and wonder on his face. He rubbed his eyes as if he couldn't believe what he was seeing. Arthur approached the sword very slowly and got to his knees before it. He lowered his head and Merlin could hear him thanking God for the great fortune.
Merlin felt a small twinge of guilt, but it passed just as quickly.
With his many knights surrounding him, Arthur pulled the sword from the stone and held it aloft in triumph. When he could a glimpse of the broken end he shouted in fury. Foolishly, his knights looked around as if the tip of the sword was on the ground nearby. Arthur stormed away to be alone with his rage.
The enraged, now King, leaned against Merlin's trunk. He held his hands forward against the bark and Merlin could hear him cry. "How am I supposed to rule a kingdom with a broken sword?" Arthur whispered to himself.
It was terrible watching him be crushed so Merlin projected images of him leading the kingdom with the sword, still broken. The images were then morphed into ones of him reforging the sword. When Merlin gave him images of leading a greater kingdom with a reforged sword. Arthur perked up and looked at the tree with wonder.
"Men! I have a new prophecy!" Arthur shouted to his knights. They came running. "I shall take this kingdom with this partial sword. Then I will find a great man to forge it into my own. It shall be a symbol of the new, stronger kingdom that I reforge! Are you with me men?" And the men cheered.
But Arthur never got the sword reforged. It rejected all attempts to be reshaped or modified.
Merlin's name was still carved into the side which brought Arthur nothing but frustration. Merlin used what magic he could to mask the name when it seemed to be breaking the king's spirit too much.
No amount of images projected into his mind would break Arthur of his quest. The king planned to find the lost tip of the sword and reforge it himself.
It possessed his every waking thought. Merlin watched as Arthur built a castle around the boulder and he himself, the tree. Arthur knew something was special about the tree so when the men came to destroy the forest to make way for the castle, Arthur gave clear instruction to leave the big, old tree alone.
Years into Arthur's reign his confidence waned about fixing his great sword. On a particularly sunny day Merlin dug unto his roots and projected an image to Arthur of the dagger. It spent so much of his energy, Merlin blacked out for over 20 years. He knew nothing of the fate of Camelot or his King.
He awoke one spring to see the castle around him was in disrepair and the garden was think with overgrowth. A haggard man with a beard stumbled to him that evening with a drink in his hand. The man looked up at the tree and shouted obscenities. He threw his drink container towards the tree, shattering it against Merlin's trunk.
Arthur was a broken king.
He laid down and slept off his drunkenness under Merlin's branches that night.
That episode happened once a week for a few years, all the while Merlin stored his magical energy in hopes to communicate with the king, the broken man he was. The magic was slower now, almost nonexistent. Was it Merlin's age?
No, that couldn't be it.
No, the land was devoid of magic. Arthur had run every person that practiced the art of magic out of the kingdom when they failed him. Arthur had sent dozens of men to their death looking for that dagger. They eventually learned it belonged to the Dark One and would venture out no longer. His knights would sometimes brave the task but return sullen and shaken. The Dark One would play tricks on them and coax them out of information, gold, or, in one case, his boots.
Merlin waited for another 6 years before he gathered enough magic to project one single prophecy into Arthur's head: The tree was Merlin.
On a cold night in the winter, Arthur made his drunken stumble to the tree. He shouted about his failures and how his wife, Guinevere, was cheating on him. He believed everyone knew it. He was a betrayed and disgraced king.
Taking pity on the man, Merlin gave him one final vision. The vision of who hem the great wizard, was. The vision of what he could do. And the vision of who could free him.
The last piece of the vision was new to even Merlin. He did not recognize the face or the name. "The Savior of Storybrooke" was not a tale in which he was familiar. His magic had taken some strange changes while he was a tree. He did not like it.
Giving Arthur that final vision destroyed Merlin. He felt all the energy leave him and he knew nothing more of the world.
The next thing he saw was a boy, tied and bound before him. Two women posed with magic orbs, ready to strike. The King he once knew, falling to his knees before him. A man and woman clutching each other, eyes wide with wonder. And… a pirate?
His magic spoke in his ear the name of the boy, the Author.
Merlin was free.