A/N:
This is probably the worst chapter I've wrote. It's poorly written with not much excitement, just some humor and heartfelt moments. Practically a filler and I'm so mad at myself. I'll make it up to u guys with the next chapter, sorry. Please review.
"Arthur." Uther beckoned his son over to where he was standing behind the physician's table. "Do you know what this is?"
"Yeah, it's a sigil." Arthur responded as he glanced down at the dark green cloak with a gold lion as its crest. "One that I've never seen before."
"That's what troubles me." Uther responded, not taking his eyes off the sigil, "those men that I fought, they had skills of true warriors, they had armor and capes. It's quite obvious that they were Knights sent from another kingdom, one which even I have never seen before."
"Is it possible that they were foreign? From another country like France or Spain?" Arthur asked.
"No, if they were from another country they'd speak a different language or would have an accent. The sorcerer that was with them spoke perfect English; however he did sound a bit northern... Gaius" Uther uttered, "hand me a map of Albion."
Gaius immediately started searching for what his king had asked of him. He set to work, scrummaging through papers, and opening up several drawers before he finally found what he was looking for.
"Ah, here we go sire."
Uther reached over the table and grabbed the map, he then laid it on top of the green cloak. All three hovered over it.
"This, is the map of Albion, the only updated map we have." Uther began, "right here is the northern plains, and that is where this map cuts off because no one we know has ventured beyond the plains, or beyond Mercia. Those who try, have never come back. There's a possibility that there are other kingdoms past it, on the other side of Albion."
"If that's true, then what do they want of us?" Arthur asked.
"Well they did try to take you, so I'm guessing information, about Camelot most likely."
"Well they were the ones that took Merlin."
"Arthur, are you sure it was they that took your manservant?" Uther asked.
"If I may, sire, I believe he is correct." Gaius spoke up. "I found this," the physician moved over to his book shelf and picked up what looked like to be a royal seal. "On Merlin's bed, it is the same Royal Crest that is on that cloak."
Arthur took the ring from Gaius and held it close to his face, observing it from all angles. "It's a perfect match."
"That is their Royal seal, not one normally fit for a king but, for a Prince." Uther stated.
Arthur stilled, "Are you saying that the Prince from this mysterious kingdom personally came here to kidnap my manservant?"
"I have no idea, son. All I'm saying is that," he pointed to the ring in Arthur's hand, "that is a royal seal fit for a crown prince."
Arthur gaped at his father. "Where's mine?"
Uther opened his mouth to respond but quickly closed it. He cleared his throat before turning to Gaius, "research this, tell me if you find anything, I have a council meeting to attend to." He spoke before turning around.
"But father, that meeting isn't until later."
"I must get ready now." The king responded without stopping.
Once the king left, Arthur turned to Gaius, "where's my royal seal?"
The physician just stared at him, "on your cloak sire."
"No, that's the pendragon crest. I'm talking about my ring."
"I must get started on my rounds." Gaius turned around and started to gather random vials.
"Didn't you already do that this morning?"
After a long day of strength training as per usual... Merlin was resting on his bed, having just eaten a big dinner earlier he decided to sit up against his pillows instead of laying down, not wanting to disturb his stomach for his next training session.
Merlin inwardly groaned. Another hardworking training sesh was just what he need after a long day of torture with Lord Mason. As much as he dreaded another two hours of working himself to exhaustion, he did get a giddy feeling in his full stomach whenever he thought about the Prince of Arudus training him of all people. Even though he was already sort of special for being the apparent 'Most Powerful Warlock to Ever walk the Earth,' he still couldn't shake the thought of being special at the moment, something he never felt around Arthur in Camelot.
Camelot... Arthur... No. Merlin shook his head, clearing away those thoughts. He promised himself once he finally committed to going through with the games that he would stop thinking about Camelot and everyone in it; including his other half, no matter how many times the thought of Arthur lingered in the back of his mind. It's not like Arthur was missing him anyways, if anything, he probably was happy, overjoyed that his idiotic and useless manservant was gone... missing.
The warlock rubbed his eyes with the heels of his palms, relinquishing in taking slow, deep breaths. When he let his hands fall back to his side he didn't dare open his eyes. He just wanted to fall asleep, take a nap for a bit before round two. He concentrated on the quietness and warmth of the room, his last trail of thoughts were about Camelot before he fell into a dreamless sleep.
It wasn't even three hours later, a little past dawn, when there was a sharp knock at his door. Merlin stretched his limbs weakly before pushing himself to get up and out of bed. Shivers trailed up his body when his feet touched the cold, hard wood floors. He waited a moment till his body adjusted to the cold before he descended to the door. The knocking started once again.
The warlock opened up the door to reveal a dirty blonde knight with a hand up, clenched into a fist, preparing to knock more. When he noticed he was just standing there, the knight quickly brought his arm down and clasped both hands behind his back, rocking back in forth on the balls of his feet.
"Merlin!" Cade greeted with a toothy grin that made the corners of the warlock's mouth twitch up.
"Cade." Merlin croaked, his voice still groggy from his nap.
The knight raised a questionable eyebrow and let his eyes roam over Merlin's body, taking in his appearance. He took in the messy black hair, wrinkled tunic, slightly twisted trousers, and the unnaturally small eyes on Merlin's face. His face morphed into some sort of guilt when he came to the realization.
"You were sleeping."
"Is it that obvious?" Merlin replied, his voice slowly coming back to normal. "Forgive me Sir Cade for resting before my second vigorous training session of the day." He replied with sarcasm but apparently Cade didn't pick up on it.
"Merlin," Cade softly responded, "I'm sure we are past using propriety, I am just Cade. You've earned it you know, for saving my Prince's life."
Merlin's tired eyes looked up to meet Cade's grateful ones. The Raven haired man gave a small smile to the knight. A warm feeling settled in his stomach, one he used to get all the time when he was with family or friends, and that is exactly what it felt like to be with Cade. Friends.
"I'm guessing you are here to escort me to the forest for training. Alex's orders?" Merlin asked.
"Well of course." Cade smirked with an amused glint in his eye as he outstretched a bent arm, offering it to Merlin. "Milady."
Merlin scowled at the man before him, but took his arm in a mocking gesture, "well of course sir knight." Merlin grumbled. "Lead the way."
When Cade threw his head back and barked with laughter, it didn't take long for Merlin to do the same.
The knight guided him through a bunch of confusing and dark hallways until they came across a long forest green colored tapestry in an alcove with the golden Arudus family crest beautifully woven into the middle.
Cade unhooked his arm from Merlin's and moved forward, drawing the banner to the side to reveal a wooden door underneath.
"Is that-"
"The entrance to a siege tunnel?" Cade finished for Merlin, "Yes, it'll take you right to the edge of the forest. That's where Alex will be waiting for you everyday."
There was a long silence before Cade turned back around to face the warlock.
"You know Merlin... We don't normally make friends with the competitors, and Alex certainly does not, what so ever, train a competitor, let alone someone who isn't a knight. I don't know what it is with you but, he trusts you. Trusts you enough to go against the rules and train you himself. He's better than me, better than anyone I've ever seen, and not just in swordplay but everything. Any weapon you can think of, he's mastered it. He's a true warrior and to be trained by him is a privilege, an opportunity people yearn to seek. A skill people would kill to have. I'm proud to say that by the end of these eight months, he will make a true warrior out of you. Just promise me one thing, Merlin."
"Anything," Merlin breathed.
"Try your hardest, and do not let him down."
"Never." The warlock responded, and he meant it, with everything he had left.
Cade smiled, "good, now c'mon, your already late for training on your first day! This will give your trainer a terrible impression" the knight taunted as he opened the wooden door.
"Hey! That was your fault." Merlin remarked and followed after him obediently.
"Oh please, I wasn't the one who took a nap before we came here, making us late with your slow arrival to the door." Cade argued.
Merlin stubbornly scowled.
"Leohtbora," he heard Cade whisper before a torch lit up beside them.
Merlin gasped, "you have magic."
Cade's outstretched hand stopped halfway. He watched as the Knight clenched his jaw, then turned to him with wide eyes.
"I- I don't know what came over me, I shouldn't have, I just got so carried away, I felt so comfortable with you and and-"
"Cade." Merlin spoke, stopping the knight from his ramblings. He put a reassuring hand on the man's shoulder. "There's nothing wrong with having magic, I have it, your friend James has it, so why are you freaking out about it?"
"You don't understand Merlin. Nobody knows, well, nobody knew. Not even Alex or anyone in our inner circle. Especially not the king." He stressed.
"Your right," Merlin responded, "I don't understand."
Cade stepped back and rubbed a hand over his face. He quickly took the lit torch from the wall and started walking away.
"If you are a magic user here in the kingdom," Cade began as Merlin caught up with him, "you have to register and become part of our army full of sorcerers. There are royal Knights and there are sorcery Knights. I like where I am, I don't want to be told what to do or be constantly watched, I want to be a free man and a royal knight, I want to stand by my Prince's side. If I were ever discovered, even though I have little magic, I would be stripped of my title and switched over to our sorcerer army. They are practically the king's pets, and have little freedom. I shouldn't say this, but Alex's father is a cruel man, sick man. He cares nothing of his people or his son, he cares only for personal gain and power. Of course, Alex doesn't see this because he chooses not to, and I'm afraid that it may just be the death of him. These games just tell you how insane our king's have been in the past. They're inhumane and just Edward's excuse to get rid of the strong sorcerers from other kingdoms. But, I know there's something more, something else that Edward does this for, not all for money and power, but for something else, something more dangerous. I dreamed it once, I dreamed about you before you came."
Merlin halted in his tracks. "Are you a seer?"
"I- I'm not sure." Cade responded.
"What did you see?" Merlin hesitantly asked.
"It wasn't much of seeing, more of hearing, I saw a brief image of your face, and then a name."
"W-What name?" Merlin hesitantly asked.
"Emrys." Cade sounded speculative, as if he couldn't believe he was saying the name.
"Weird, never heard of it." Merlin responded, feeling a pang in his gut for lying to this knight when he was being so truthful to him.
"Don't worry about it," Cade said before turning back around to continue walking, "it's a silly myth that James is obsessed with. First he went on and on about his father being a dragon lord and now it's Emrys."
"Dr-dragon lord?" Merlin spluttered, "who was his father?"
"His fathers name was something like, balor, Balidor, Belin..."
"Balinor?" Merlin whimpered.
Cade sharply turned around to face Merlin once again. "How did you know?"
Merlin clutched his chest, feeling a strong ache in his heart. He backed up into the stone cold wall and took a ragged breath. "B-Balinor is my fathers' name, and he was a d-dagon lord."
"No." Cade breathed, eyes wide.
Merlin just nodded.
"Y-your James' younger brother." A small smile appeared on Knights face. "You've got a brother!" He shrieked.
A small smile formed on Merlin's lips too as he let out a laugh that came out more like a choked sob, "yeah... I've got a brother."
There was a knew found energy running through Merlin's veins. Finding out you had a brother isn't something you would normally hear. He was happy, really happy that he had more family; however, with knowing this information, led to some questions.
'Who is James' mother?'
'If he's older then me, how did I become the dragon lord?'
'Does James know his father is dead?'
Cade and Merlin had agreed to keep this information from everyone, including James till Merlin felt ready. Cade knew that if James ever found out that his little brother was a competitor in the games, he may defy the crown just to get him out of there, and he couldn't let that happen.
They finally arrived at the end of the siege tunnel a few minutes later. Cade handed Merlin the torch, then set forth on climbing up the rusty metal latter. The knight unlocked the latch and pushed it open to reveal the navy night sky filled with thousands of bright stars. The luminescent moon was visible from the hole above their heads, illuminating both men with a soft glow. Merlin's skin looked a smooth milky white in the moonlight.
"Took you guys long enough." Merlin heard the familiar voice of Alex.
"It was Merlin's fault, he was sleeping when I reached his chambers." Cade responded.
Before Merlin could stop himself, he had reached out and pinched the back of Cade's leg. The warlock grinned in satisfaction when he heard the knight Yelp.
"Ow!" Cade shrieked before he quickly climbed the rest of the way out of the tunnel.
The warlock burned out the torch, then started up the latter. He smiled wider when the sound of Alex laughing filled up the clearing he was in.
The first thing he saw other than a scowling Cade was that Alex had brought an extra sword. All Merlin could think about was how happy he was to actually be training like he was supposed to be.
"Hello Merlin." Alex spoke once he was done laughing, his eyes glistened with unshed happy tears.
"Hi Alex," merlin responded as he took the offered hand. The Prince pulled him out of the hole like he weighed nothing.
Alex then turned and glared at Cade.
"Right," The knight said, "well, I'll come back for you later Merlin." And with that, Cade disappeared back down into the siege tunnel.
"Sorry," Merlin moved his gaze to meet Alex's. "I figured it would just be better without all the distractions."
"No, it's fine." Merlin reassured him, "I think it's better with just the two of us."
The Prince smiled before he bent down to pick up the spare sword.
"This is yours."
Merlin carefully grasped the hilt of the sword, treating it like it was some ancient artifact. From his years of serving Arthur, he knew a great sword when he saw one. The blade was sharp and glistened beautifully in the moonlight.
"Alex... this is, wow." Merlin breathed.
"Well." He began, "like I said before, it's all yours."
Merlin's eyes went wide, "I - I can't accept this! This sword is one of the best I've ever seen, fit for a king. Not for-" A servant like me, he wanted to say, because maybe he'd had hoped that one day, it would be Arthur giving him a sword. But who was he kidding? Arthur would never do something like that. "Not for me." He finished.
The warlock tried to hand the sword back to Alex but he just pushed it back. "Merlin please, I'm your trainer and your my competitor, let me give you this."
Merlin opened up his mouth to reject again, but Alex interrupted him. "If it makes you feel better, It was just one of our many swords, lying on the rack alone with no owner."
Merlin thought it over for a moment before sighing in defeat, "fine, okay, but I don't deserve this."
Alex beamed, "You saved my life Merlin, I'm forever indebted to you." He responded with upmost sincerity.
"Thank you, Alex, for everything. I know how much of a risk this is for you, and you couldn't possibly understand how much this means to me." It meant everything to him how well he was treated by this man, if he was going to stay mentally sane here, he needed some friends.
They stood there for a moment, just enjoying the warmth of the summer night as the crickets chirped. Merlin looked up into the sky and observed the beautiful stars, he let his mind trail back to Camelot just this once.
'Happy Birthday my King, I will make it home to you.'
"Well." Alex clapped his hands together, breaking the peaceful silence. "lets get started with the basics, shall we?"