A/N: Hey guys! sorry for the long wait, I had some major tech difficulties and had to wait for my laptop to be fixed.
Thanks for your love! Hope you like the new chapter!
"So, any ideas on the meaning of the rune?" Merlin asked his mentor. It had taken them several hours going through dusty old books for them to find something on the spell the witch had cast.
"The rune can have several different meanings," Gaius read through his magnifying glass, "chaos, conflict, resistance, drama, and dark desires. If I had to make an educated guess, this rune coupled with the spell the sorceress cast will make everyone within a certain area act out their deepest desire at the same specific time."
"The witch said the citadel, but she also said Camelot, so we have no idea if the spell will only take hold in the citadel or the entire kingdom." Merlin held his chin in his hand wondering how he was going to stop this.
"Well, you're right, we don't know but putting a spell over the entire kingdom would take a lot of very powerful magic."
"So it's more likely that it's just the citadel," Merlin surmised, "At least there's that."
"I wouldn't feel so relieved Merlin, that's still a lot of people acting out their darkest desires. If we don't find a way to fix this, there will be many people killing, stealing, or worse. And I don't think the witch would've given us a lot of time."
"Then let's get to work." Merlin grabbed a nearby book and Gaius continued reading his. There had to be a counter-spell somewhere in one of these books. Right?
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Wrong. They had spent several more hours pouring over the books and there had been nothing. So now they were onto plan B. Merlin and his mentor had gone to the throne room where the rune was still inscribed on the floor. The logic was simple. Hit the thing with all he had, break the rune, and break the spell. Simple. Right?
Wrong again. Another hour was wasted with Merlin hitting the thing with all he had and the only thing he had succeeded at was exhausting himself. Now he was sitting in the King's chambers waiting for him to come back from an emergency council meeting to update him of the situation. But Merlin was so absorbed in thinking about his failure that he didn't notice the older man until Uther placed a cup of wine in front of him. He drank greedily.
"Let me guess? You weren't able to break the spell."
"Unfortunately not. How was the council meeting?"
"Horrible, as always. The councilmen wrote up a plan to calm the people and deal with the fallout of the spell in case you're not able to break it," The king held up a piece of parchment, "But it's so flawed I'm going to have to edit the entire thing."
Wait. wait a minute. "Say that again?"
The king looked at him confused, "I'm...going to have to edit the entire thing."
Edit? "How did you edit something that has already been written down."
"You write over it," Uther spoke slowly.
Merlin jumped out of the chair at the epiphany, "That's it!" And then he ran out the door leaving a very confused king behind.
Uther sighed and put down his cup. He was going to have to follow the boy, wasn't he?
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"I was doing this wrong." Merlin walked around the rune.
"How so?" Uther asked from the doorway. He had asked his guards to leave him alone in the throne room with the boy for a while and ordered them not to disturb him.
"This entire time I was trying to break the spell, but I haven't had much practice with that so it's much harder without a counter-spell."
"Get to the point, Merlin."
"I may not be good at breaking the spell, but what if I cast one over it. It could reduce the effects of the spell or cancel it out completely. I think?"
"You think?" Uther raised an eyebrow at him.
Merlin nodded. He knelt down on the floor and lay his hands over the rune and pushed his magic out, feeling for the magic of the spell, except this time he didn't try to destroy it. He wanted to edit it. He could see the circled area in which the spell would take hold. It had indeed been cast over the citadel and not the whole kingdom. okay that made this easier.
Not really sure what he was doing, he pulled the circle tighter and tighter until he couldn't go any further. The spell now only impacted the castle. Now he could feel the deadline of the spell. It was supposed to start with in the hour and last an entire day. He pushed the deadline further away until once again he couldn't anymore. Now the spell would take place tonight. A few more hours. Unfortunately he wasn't able to do anything about the length that the spell would take place before he blacked out.
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"Merlin. Merlin, wake up."
Merlin opened his eyes and looked up at his king. Uther exhaled. As he became more aware, he noticed that he was in the kings arms, close to the floor.
"How long was I out?"
"Not that long, a few moments. Were you successful?"
"The spell will only take hold in the castle and it'll start tonight and last a full day. I tried to break the whole spell, but again, very little practice with such things."
"At least it's something. You're going to have to start practicing more."
Merlin gasped sarcastically, "Your Majesty, are you really condoning the use of magic? Is that not illegal?"
"You know, I have never met anyone as insolent as you Merlin."
"I get that a lot."
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Uther evacuated the entire castle under the guise that he was protecting himself and the prince from violence. He had Gaius and Morgana leave as well. He believed they went to Gwen's house. But the girl's father was an honorable man and so Uther wasn't that worried.
Merlin refused to leave. Arthur put up a huge fight. Not wanting his citizens to fight for their lives while they were sitting pretty and safe up in the castle. Uther told the boy that Gaius had found the spell would only take place in the castle and that the king and the prince would be the only ones to fall prey to the temporary curse.
And Merlin. Maybe. They weren't entirely sure if his magic would protect him or not. If not then Merlin would spend the next day making sure that the king and the prince weren't harmed. If so... well Merlin had made it clear that his darkest desire wasn't to kill either of them. This was probably a bad idea. But he had no choice. He had to protect his people from this dark magic.
Now the castle was eerily empty and disturbingly silent. And it was almost the middle of the night. Uther had ordered his men to lock away the weapons and form a perimeter outside the castle just in case. But they were not to enter under any circumstances.
And so here they were, Merlin, Uther, and Arthur, in an empty castle with no weapons. Each in their rooms, in their beds, but unable to sleep because of the impending spell. It read like a joke and Uther would've laughed if he wasn't feeling so dreadful.
He had a tiny suspicion of what his deepest darkest desire was. A flashback surfaced of the fantasies he had had of Merlin. The younger man holding him down and having his way with him. And he, Uther Pendragon, King of Camelot, would be left completely helpless. He'd been pushing down the longing but he knew that this spell would probably bring it out of him. He only hoped that he wouldn't be compelled to do anything he regretted.
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Merlin was panicking. Oh yes panic. Because he knew exactly what the spell would cause him to do. He wondered if he had made a mistake. But it was too late to leave, he'd have to get past the guards and there's no way he'd be able to do that. And he couldn't leave, what if the spell didn't impact him at all? Then he'd have to protect the prince and his father. He handcuffed himself to the bed, just in case. He knew it was useless, though. With his magic he'd be able to unlock the cuffs in seconds, but he couldn't bring himself to use iron.
The cuffs, therefore, were mostly for comfort. He could almost trick himself. Oh yes these completely useless cuffs will stop him from forcing himself on the king. Right?
Oh so very wrong.
As the moon reached its high point in the sky, a hot burning arousal took hold of the warlocks body. A flash of gold later and he was out of the cuffs.
And so it began.
A/N: Dun Dun DUN! Wonder what'll hapen next ;P