Disclaimer: I do not own Merlin.

Chapter 21 – Altering Fate

Merlin stayed away for the rest of the night, though he didn't go far lest Arthur need him. With The King not hollering for him to return come dawn – though he honestly hadn't expected him to – Merlin journeyed alone to the cave, knowing that to be where Arthur went. Sure enough, Camelot's King stood before the Disir once more, standing tall and proud, an indiscernible look on his face.

"Arthur Pendragon."

"King of Camelot."

"Is your decision made?"

"It is." They waited for him to continue. "If you will grant me time, I will do as you ask." Merlin felt a jolt of surprise go through him. Regardless of their discussion last night, a part of him – a large part – never actually thought that Arthur would lift the ban.

"Time?" The Disir questioned.

"Yes. I have seen too much of the horrors sorcery can bring to simply change the law and hope for the best. There are those who would take such an act as an invitation to attack Camelot, Morgana most of all."

"Many of those you speak of would have just cause to seek revenge."

"Perhaps." Arthur wasn't about to get into that particular line of discussion. "But in their quest for it they would harm many innocents. This I cannot allow."

"What is it you propose?" Thankfully the Disir asked, for Merlin was about to ask himself.

"Allow me to slowly begin reintroducing magic to my kingdom in a controlled manner. Then, when Morgana is destroyed, I will fully lift the ban and welcome the Old Religion back into Camelot."

"What you propose could take years or more."

"Do not think to manipulate the Goddess, young Pendragon, and claim you will lift the ban with no intention of actually doing so."

"I do not manipulate. Nor do I trick." He turned their words from yesterday back on them. "But if I allow unrestricted use of magic before Morgana is destroyed, it will spell Camelot's doom. You must see this." The Disir were silent. "Unless you want Morgana to win. She is a High Priestess of the Old Religion, is she not? She would not hesitate to bring back the old ways and allow magic to reign once more. Perhaps you want her to defeat me and rule Camelot instead."

"Do not presume to know the will of the Goddess."

"Only we can divine her word."

"Except that's not exactly true." Merlin finally spoke up. "Her will is known to others. There are but few, it is true, but to those of us within whom the magic of this earth runs strong, we too can divine her will. Though not as clearly as you, admittedly." He could feel the Disir's gaze upon him, though Arthur had not turned nor in any way acknowledged his presence, save with his silence in letting Merlin speak. "But in this I have no doubt. If the Goddess wanted Morgana to win we would not be here. She would not have given this chance, but instead would have summoned Morgana and helped her succeed." For a moment Merlin wondered if he had overstepped the mark and gotten everything completely wrong, regardless that he felt he was right. Eventually though, the Disir spoke.

"Emrys is not wrong."

"While it is true that Morgana is a High Priestess of the Goddess' order, her mind has become warped."

"Twisted with anger and hatred."

"She would bring back the Old Religion but at the cost of the people. And of the land itself."

"So you will give me time?" Another pause.

"You will have your time, Arthur Pendragon."

"But the Goddess will not wait for too long."

"Draw this out longer than necessary and the consequences will be…severe."

"I have no intention of drawing this out longer than necessary to see my people safe." He promised. "Their safety is my only concern."

"Then so be it." The three banged their staffs on the ground and Merlin could feel the magic rippling through the earth as a deal was struck with the Goddess; should Arthur go back on his word, the consequences would indeed be severe.

"And Sir Mordred?" Arthur asked, getting back to the original reason for his return here. "You will heal him?"

"All will be as it should, young king." It was apparently all he was going to get, and with no other choice, Arthur decided to trust them. With a nod of his head, he turned and left, Merlin following close behind. The warlock waited until they were nearing the horses before attempting to speak.

"Arthur-"

"Not a word, Merlin. Not one word." He was still angry, and Merlin honestly couldn't blame him. He only hoped he would get the chance to explain, to talk with Arthur and sort things out between them, and if the fact that Arthur didn't order him away but clearly expected him to return to the citadel with him – albeit begrudgingly at the moment – was anything to go by, then it looked like he probably would.

oo00oo00oo

They arrived back at the citadel by nightfall and Arthur's sour mood changed when he saw Mordred coming down the steps to greet him. Merlin's reaction was much more subdued, having thought that Arthur's agreement would have meant the Disir would have let Mordred die, ensuring he could never be Arthur's downfall. However, they had promised that everything would be as it should, so Merlin had to hope this meant that Mordred's fate had changed, that his part in Arthur's destiny was no longer to be the cause of his death. Deep down, however, he knew that the young knight's fate remained unaltered. After happily greeting Mordred, Arthur made his way inside without a backwards glance at Merlin and immediately sought out his wife. He found Guinevere in the nursery, laughing alongside Mithian and Isolde as Leon and Tristan made fools of themselves for their children, crawling around on the floor and making funny faces.

"Sire!" Leon cried upon seeing him, moving to stand but he didn't get the chance. Arthur had not stopped upon entering but had moved to his wife, grabbed her hand and pulled her out of the room all before Leon could scramble to his feet.

"Arthur!" Guinevere cried, though it did nothing to slow him down. He didn't answer her, or any of her other inquiries, until they were safely in their chambers. "Arthur what-"

"Merlin has magic." Guinevere sat down slowly with a look of shock on her face and listened intently as he explained everything that had happened on their second journey to see the Disir. When he was done neither spoke for awhile, both sitting in silence as they absorbed what had been said, Arthur still trying to come to terms with it too. Eventually, Guinevere spoke.

"What I don't understand is why Uther insisted for so long that magic, and all those that practiced it, were evil." Arthur wasn't sure what to think.

"That is what you take away from everything I just told you? Merlin, our Merlin, is a sorcerer!"

"Yes, which is why I don't understand how Uther could have been so wrong."

"What do you mean?"

"Well clearly magic is not completely evil as we were led to believe all our lives." Arthur merely stared and Guinevere sent him a look. "Surely you concluded the same thing." It wasn't a question. "Merlin, our Merlin, has magic. As such it cannot be all evil as Uther claimed. This is Merlin we are talking about. There isn't an evil bone in his body!" After a moment Arthur burst out laughing and dropped into the nearest chair.

"That's exactly what I thought when the anger of him having kept this from me subsided some." Guinevere smiled softly and stood, moving to sit in her husband's lap and wrapping her arms around him.

"It's why you agreed to allow magic to return with little fight. And without consulting me or your council." She knew him too well.

"We will have to find a way to make this work." He was already beginning to plan; it was not going to be easy. "The Disir have given me time, but there's still much work to be done."

"We will figure it out. Together." She vowed. "But I do not think the Disir would begrudge you a day or two to get used to the idea of magic returning to Camelot. Especially with just learning that your best friend has magic as well." Arthur scowled at her calling Merlin his best friend, but did not correct her.

"Merlin – Emrys – will be earning his keep now more than ever." From what Merlin had said the other night it had not taken long for Arthur to conclude that he was Emrys; the Disir addressing him as such earlier only confirmed it. "That's what I find most difficult about all this. How is Merlin the most powerful sorcerer to ever exist? I mean it's…Merlin." Guinevere raised an eyebrow.

"You certain that is what is most difficult about all this?" He glared but it had no real heat to it; sometimes it was annoying how well she knew him.

"No." He admitted, knowing it was futile to do otherwise. "What's most difficult is that he lied to me. Kept this very large secret from me since the day we met." Guinevere remained silent and allowed him to continue. "Part of me is so angry with him that I want to throw him in the stocks and leave him there for the rest of his life. But another part understands why he kept it a secret." He sighed. "Especially while my father was alive. He wouldn't have hesitated to execute Merlin if he even suspected that it was possible for Merlin to be a sorcerer. By not telling me he was not only protecting himself, but protecting me. He knew I would be torn between my loyalty to my father and my desire to not see him killed." He couldn't quite say 'and my loyalty to him' but it was understood between the two that that is what he meant. "By not telling me he didn't test my loyalty and protected me from any consequences should he ever be found out. Father would have been livid had I known and not said anything."

"I am impressed that you realized all this in one night." Arthur scowled at her. "I do not mean because I think you too dimwitted to realize all this. Merely that it was a great shock you had and in such a short amount of time you not only accepted that Merlin had magic but came to these conclusions as well. I simply thought it would take more time." Arthur couldn't fault her for thinking that. He has been known to fixate on one fact in times of turmoil only to see the whole picture later on, usually before it was too late though, thank god.

"Yes, well, I didn't exactly sleep last night." Now it was Guinevere's turn to scowl.

"Perhaps then it would be best if you slept some before telling the others, or summoning Merlin?" Once again she asked a question that wasn't really a question, in this case it being a command.

"Only if you join me." Arthur countered, leaning up to kiss her, though Guinevere pulled away before it could grow into something more.

"Only if you understand that sleep is all we shall do."

"Spoilsport." He complained, but it didn't last long for he was exhausted. Guinevere stood and began to lead him to bed. "But I'm still angry with him." Understandably he could think of little else, especially now that more pleasant pursuits had been thoroughly rejected.

"Of course you are. I am too, to a certain extent." She said pacifyingly.

"I'm going to enjoy making him suffer. He can muck out my stables everyday for a month. Or perhaps I'll get George to instruct him in all this duties again."

oo00oo00oo

Arthur slept straight through to morning and nearly groaned when he opened his eyes to see George hovering over him. He'd thought of the servant for but a moment last night and here he was, much to The King's dismay and confusion.

"Good morning, Sire. Merlin appears indisposed today," His tone of voice clearly displayed his disapproval of a servant ever being indisposed to their master. "And asked me to look after you." This time Arthur did groan, seeing that Merlin had had similar thoughts of using George against him; while Merlin would no doubt say he sent George because he was the 'most efficient servant he'd ever seen', Arthur knew the truth.

"Guinevere." The thought suddenly struck him that George was seeing his wife in her nightdress, and that he may have to kill him for it. Such a thought had never crossed his mind concerning Merlin, his manservant having seen Guinevere in her nightdress before, just as Sefa had seen him in naught but his sleep pants, and he's never once thought anything of it. However, Merlin and Sefa were a part of the inner circle, so to speak, George was not.

"The Queen left some time ago, my lord." George seemed to sense what Arthur was thinking and a slight blush could be seen, though it quickly disappeared. "I was sent after Sefa had helped her mistress dress for the day. The Queen asked that I allow you to sleep, thus why it is nearing the noon hour, my lord." Although a good thing that Guinevere was dressed and gone already, Arthur wasn't sure if it was a good thing for him to be alone with George. Deciding the best way to get this over with without bloodshed was to simply let George help him dress as quickly as possible, Arthur jumped out of bed and ordered George to do just that. When he was ready he left his chambers without hesitating, leaving George to clean up, and went in search of his wife. He found her in their presence chamber alongside the Privy Council – in other words their closest friends, save Merlin this time – all of whom had varying degrees of shock written on their faces.

"I see you've told them." He said as he took his seat beside her.

"How did we not know?!" Gwaine suddenly burst out. "He's a blundering idiot who trips over his own feet. How on earth did he keep something like this from us?"

"Is he though? The fact that he did keep this from us leads credence to him being far more than we thought." Leon argued.

"True, but Gwaine's question is still valid, which makes me now see how blind we must have been to not notice." Said Percival.

"You must understand that hiding his magic was imperative." Gaius spoke up. "Not just for him and his very life, but for all of us. If Uther even suspected we knew…I doubt even Arthur would have escaped unscathed. Certainly we would not have."

"You knew though, didn't you Gaius?" Arthur asked. The physician nodded.

"Merlin saved my life the very day he arrived in Camelot by using magic. I've known since then."

"And you said nothing. For similar reasons as his, I assume." Again he nodded.

"That, and he is my sister's boy. I may not have met him before he arrived in Camelot, there being many years between my birth and Hunith's we were never terribly close growing up, but he is my nephew. And they are my only remaining family."

"Not entirely true, Gaius." Guinevere couldn't help but say, earning her a smile.

"So what happens now?" Asked Isolde. "Gwen has said that you are lifting the ban on magic, but not how you intend on doing it. Nor what you intend with Merlin."

"He intends nothing untoward with Merlin, I think we all know that." Mithian spoke up, all of them having reached the same conclusions as Arthur and Guinevere had, that Merlin having magic meant it couldn't be all bad, and that he had been right to keep his magic a secret given the circumstances.

"It is said he will stand by my side and help forge a Golden Age of peace and prosperity." Arthur assumed correctly that Guinevere hadn't kept anything from this group, including Merlin's identity as Emrys. Trusting them unconditionally as they did, they knew it would not leave this room to make its way back to Morgana. "Well, that's exactly what he's going to do. For now from the shadows, until Morgana's defeated we don't want to announce that he has magic, but he will not be idle."

"Given who he is I think it safe to assume that he has thought about how magic could return to Camelot?" Guinevere looked to Gaius who nodded, he and Merlin having had many discussions over the years on the best way to bring magic back when the time was right. "He will be an invaluable resource in this."

"And he shall be used as such." Arthur agreed. "Guards!" The doors opened at once and the two guards stationed outside entered, awaiting their King's command. "Fetch Merlin to us. We would have words with him."

A/N - Of course he's gonna accept magic when Merlin's got it. For as blind to Merlin's magic and shocked as Arthur was when he found out in the show, I honestly think that had it not been the last episode in the series and Arthur lived then he would have accepted that not all magic is bad for the simply reason that Merlin has it. I think there are certain characters, Arthur chief among them, who can't question Merlin's love and devotion to Arthur so while it would certainly still be a shock, it would almost instantly change their views cause they don't hold up anymore (at least not entirely) for it doesn't even enter their minds that Merlin could be evil or deceiving them.

I'm also a sucker for a happy ending, as anyone who's read any of my other fics will know, so there honestly wasn't any other way this could go in this story.

Review please!