MC: So, when I introduced SV to Merlin, I showed her the episodes out of order. (Mainly, I showed her the funny, light-hearted and romantic ones, because those were the ones I liked, and this was supposed to be a distraction from her errant plotbunnies.) This has probably contributed to her not wanting to rewrite some episodes and switching around others. Thus, we skip the sidhe for now.

I could have lived without the 'romantic' ones. Word of BBC is the man Mordred is with is his father, by-the-by.

Mordred

Camelot is big and beautiful, Mordred almost forgets the danger this place represents, almost.

They needed supplies, and his Father has decided to teach Mordred the best way to interact with towns and cities that have those supplies because he's ten and old enough to start having some responsibility and knowledge dealing with the world outside of their clan.

It goes wrong, and his father shouts in his mind to run and hide as he himself is captured.

Mordred doesn't even feel the pain from the wound he receives as he runs, desperate to find a safe place.

The man that hears him and ushers him into the castle is bright, a brilliant beacon of magic he's only ever heard described in stories. Emrys, Mordred realizes, and is hopeful. Emrys will save him, he's supposed to defend magic, stop their persecution. (Well, him and the missing prince, who will be the Once and Future King.) They run to a woman who is a warm glow, just like the priest and priestess that accompanies their clan to keep away evil spirits.

She calls Emrys 'Merlin', and Emrys calls her Lady Morganna, and she hides them both, sending away the guards who knock on her door with annoyance and an air of power that means she's a noble of Camelot.

And yet, Mordred feels he is safe with Emrys and Lady Morganna, and his body has had too much of fear and panic for one day, so the instant his mind decides he's safe, he blacks out.


When he wakes, it's to a dark room (night, he realizes) and a throbbing arm, and Morganna introduces herself and her maid 'Guinevere, you can call her Gwen', telling him Emrys (Merlin) has gone for help.

Mordred wants to tell her his name, when she asks, but he's too scared that if he opens his mouth, he'll start crying and screaming like a baby. He's in the castle of Camelot, and the castle is where the king lives and there are horror stories about what happens to Druids who are brought to this place (mainly told by some of the older boys to scare the younger ones, much to the disapproval of the adults). Morganna and Gwen look at each other in concern when he doesn't respond, and he lowers his head.

Emrys returns with a blond man, who looks at Morganna and Gwen in annoyance.

"He's dragged you two into this as well? Merlin, you are an idiot." The blond man gives Emrys a satchel, which Emrys just puts on the bed. "You cleaned the wound already?"

"Right, but he's lost a lot of blood, we think, and if I go to Gaius …"

"Don't. It's bad enough you've gotten the ladies into this, I'd like to keep the amount of people committing treason at a minimum, thank you." The blond turns to him, and softens slightly. "I'm Arthur. I need to see your injury."

Mordred hesitates, but this Arthur … Mordred's magic is reaching out to him, in a way he's never felt it reach out before, as if this Arthur is an even safer haven than Emrys and the Lady.

(He is too young, then, to describe the feeling, to understand that his magic recognizes their fates are intertwined, for good or ill, and is reaching out to the steady presence of this man while Mordred is racked in fear and uncertainty. It will be years before someone does, finally explain it, and by then, Mordred will be unwilling to listen.)

"I thought Merlin was Gaius' apprentice?" Gwen asks, looking between Emrys and Arthur.

"Before I was knighted, I occasionally helped Gaius stitch up wounds, not that much different from repairing a saddle or blanket which I've gotten too much practice at because my brother is lazy. Merlin here is still working on his stitch work before Gaius even considers letting him touch a person." Arthur gently takes his arm and removes the bandage, hissing at the sight of the wound. "I'm not going to lie, this is going to hurt … you might want to bite down on this." He gives him a piece of leather that has quite a few sets of teeth marks, and Mordred hesitantly takes it. Emrys goes to stand by the door, and Mordred wonders if he's casting a spell.

"Can't we give him something?" Morganna asks, and Mordred realizes she's sat down behind him, wrapping him up in her arms as she continues, "Surely he's been through enough." Gwen looks through the satchel.

"I've got nothing for him in that bag, Guinevere, he's too small for even the weakest dose I can think of, and he's lost too much blood. You're going to want to give him milk or juice for that." Arthur turns back to him, and looks into his eyes. "I need you to bite down on that piece of leather, alright? There's no shame in tears, if you have to, I've cried myself a few times."

Mordred gives a very curt nod, shoving the leather in his mouth.

It hurts, and Mordred does cry. He tries to jerk out of Morganna's hold, but she holds him tighter, murmuring soothing words, even while tears slip from her own eyes. Arthur is steady, keeping up a commentary of the first time he'd had to stitch himself up because a boar had caught his leg, and he'd fallen down into a shallow ravine that was still deep enough to end up separating him from the other knights for a day. It's over fairly quickly, and Mordred stops crying when Arthur announces he's done. Morganna gently loosens her hold and wipes his eyes with a handkerchief.

"That will do it, but you need to watch for infection." Arthur sits back after putting on a salve and wrapping a new bandage around it. He smiles at Mordred, though it's more a twitch of his lips. "You're a brave little man, you're going to need that and some rest for the next few days, so try and get some sleep." Arthur's hand rests on his head, and for a moment, Mordred remembers being held by his mother while his father ruffles his hair. The moment is gone as Arthur removes his hand, and Mordred is brought back to the cruel present. His mother is gone, her memory starting to fade, and he doesn't know where his father is (he's still alive, Mordred feels, but he can't find him).


His Father dies in the morning, executed by the king, and Mordred's magic lashes out. He couldn't do anything, and now he's alone, and hunted, and Morganna and Merlin have to hide him from the guards again.

Mordred thinks he might hate the King for killing his father- they hadn't done anything wrong!- and angry because Emrys didn't save his father; he's supposed to be their savior, but he did nothing. He doesn't dare speak to any of them, not sure what he wants to say, and then he gets sick.

An old man comes to look at him, and he scolds all four for helping him, he'll help this time, he says, but he won't do so again, and Mordred wonders (Children are precious to Druids, they were taught from a young age to look after those younger than them, but here it seems, only these four believe in that, the rest will let him die.). Arthur and Emrys go with the old man, Morganna and Gwen once again stay to watch him.


Morganna swears nothing will happen, and Mordred knows she tries her best. She's a lady and clearly not familiar with sneaking around and the guards catch them.

Mordred is tossed into a cell, and it scares him. He doesn't want to die, and he knows Morganna is probably in trouble because of him (and what if the king discovers Emrys? That would be Bad) so he just sits, trying to think of something other than the horror stories. He thinks of Morganna and Arthur, and how safe he felt held between them; how his magic reached out to Arthur for comfort; and Gwen's flowers that she brought to show him and cheer him up, and Emrys standing by the door to protect them; and his father telling him how beautiful and strong his mother was. The day passes, and it's night again, and the guards outside his cell switch with two new ones.

There is a jangle of keys, and Arthur is there, opening the door. The guards don't react, and Mordred stares for a moment at Arthur's outstretched hand. "Trust me, we've got to go." Mordred takes his hand, and as Arthur pulls him away, he sees one of the guards wink at him, before standing at attention.

Arthur leads him down several halls, a torch in hand. The exit the tunnel comes to is open, and Arthur extinguishes the torch and discards it before moving the grate back into place. "C'mon, we've got to hurry, they're going to raise the alarm any moment." Arthur puts him onto the horse, swinging up behind him and riding fast. They slow down once Camelot vanishes through the trees, and Mordred finally works up the courage to ask a question.

"Why?" Arthur flinches, and Mordred wonders if he should have remained silent.

"Because Merlin and Morganna wanted to save you, and I owe them both quite a bit." Arthur finally responds. Mordred thinks there's more to it than that. "Which reminds me, we'd like to know your name, since you know ours?"

"… Mordred. My name is Mordred." Mordred says. "Son of Cerdan," he tries, and now, now, the tears start despite his attempts to keep them in. Arthur gently tightens his hold.

"I'm sorry, Mordred, we couldn't save you both." He says, and Mordred just presses back into the man who's saved his life, wanting to bury the memories of the past few days. "There's a druid camp nearby, I don't know if it's yours, but they'll be able to get you away from here."

"What'll happen to you?" Mordred asks, remembering the way Arthur had rebuked Emrys, and the old man's scolding of the four for risking the King's wrath if he discovered they helped him. Mordred doesn't want them hurt because they helped him; that would be just as wrong as his father's death.

"Morganna's the king's ward, he's not happy but he won't hurt her. He doesn't notice Guinevere or Merlin, and I actually left Camelot this afternoon with my brother for a hunting trip. How on earth could I have helped you?" Arthur assures him, with a small teasing smile as he asks the question with mock confusion, and Mordred smiles through the tears. "Don't worry about us, Mordred, just stay out of trouble, alright?"

The Priest and Elder that met him are from his tribe, and Arthur requests that they never say his name, which baffles Mordred, before he remembers that Arthur has risked his life to help him, and if the king learns it was Arthur, he might kill him.

Before Arthur leaves, Mordred gives in to one last impulse. He hugs Arthur. "Thank you Arthur." Arthur hesitantly wraps him in a hug, and it's not a perfect match, but it is close enough that Mordred can pretend his father is giving him one last hug. "I won't forget you."

"Likewise, Mordred, take care." Arthur tightens the hug a moment, kisses the top of his head, and then mounts and rides off as the Priest and Elder lead him back to their camp. As they wake everyone to pack and move, as a precaution against the knights attacking them, Mordred has a very odd thought.

Someday, when the Once and Future king takes the throne, he wants to be a knight like Arthur.


Mordred's part of the round table in pretty much every version he's in. Mordred also started out as an unrelated person to both Arthur and Morganna. (In the earliest mentions of him being related to Arthur, he's first the son of Arthur's no-longer-existent-full-sister Anna and her husband, and then Morgause. He doesn't become Morgan le Fay and Arthur's son until, well, after the middle ages and the French.) More on Mordred later.

Ideally, Knights knew how to at least patch up their own gear, if not how to actually fix it. Especially true of those that started out as pages/stable boys like our dear Arthur, and would know basic first aid to patch themselves up, usually shoving herbs or putting on a salve and wrapping it. I have no idea when people started using stitches, but the Roman Army (again, historical trivia that's slightly relevant) had the best doctors anywhere- in fact, Roman Soldiers had longer life expectancies than most civilians back in Rome, because their army doctors had seen enough mutilated bodies to know where the important organs were while the docs in Rome would suggest ways to get rid of the evil spirits causing illness. And as mentioned before, Rome did reach Briton/Albion before Arthur's time. And the middle ages had some advancements (and back tracking) in medicine too … So, it's not that big of a stretch, right?

MC: Yay, more useless trivia that you somehow know despite it being over a decade since you took the class you learned that in. (SV scares me sometimes.)

So, the alert reader will notice things happened a little differently, and are probably wondering what was happening with the guards and where was Merlin- Those guards were Dinadan and Alexander (The Orphan is the latter's title, by the way, he probably felt bad for Mordred) and Merlin was with Sir Kay getting an earful about endangering Morganna and Guinevere (and Arthur, in a very roundabout way). Uther will be told Mordred was rescued by a druid who knocked out the guards with a sleeping spell, and oh, Morganna won't get a threat to her life, because Uther thinks she was manipulated into feeling protective by a druid and was a victim of sorcery that made her feel extremely maternal for Mordred. (Yay for period sexism!)