Security is not a license for people in authority to hide tactics they would never openly admit to using.

~ John G. Hemry

Chapter 25: Consequence of Power

Will was really given an earful by his parents when they pulled him away from the tower. They scolded him for his brashness but they did say that they were somewhat proud that he would do something so selfless for their friends. Will made it to his room and collapse onto his bed, still not believing that he was still alive to do so. He had been prepared never to see any of this or his family and friends again and here he was.

There was a knock on his door.

"Come in!" he called out as he straightened himself.

It was Liana who came in. "Hey Will."

Will backed away slightly. "You're not here to slap me again, I hope."

She laughed a bit. "No, but you did deserve it."

"I did?"

Now Liana put her hands to her hips. "Of course. Will, why did you do that?"

Will was silent under her stare for a good moment and barely was able to say the next two words. "For you."

Liana narrowed her eyes. "For me? You think that I wanted to lose you to get back my mother?"

"You were hurting Liana. When your mother's life was being traded for yours, I knew that you were going to live the rest of your life thinking that 'It should've been me' and I didn't want that for you. It would've torn you apart. I know because…it tore me apart."

"You? Will, what are you talking about?"

"I'm talking about how it was supposed to be me," he cried out. "I was the one that the Questing Beast should've bitten, not you. I was the one who was down and in its path but you jumped in front of it and were bitten instead. You were dying and I knew that it wasn't right. I should've been the one to die in the first place. Your family shouldn't have been suffering at all. I only wanted to make everything right again."

Liana looked close to tears by the time Will finished his rant. Liana walked up to Will and then slapped him again. However, as soon as she did she then wrapped her arms around him and gave him a tight hug which he returned. Tears fell freely from both of their eyes as they held their embrace for who knows how long. They managed to find the will to break apart and Liana started to wipe her cheeks.

"Will, you're an idiot."

He hadn't expected that to come out of her mouth. Come to think of it he hadn't expected another slap so suddenly followed by that hug though he wasn't complaining about the latter.

"What do you mean Liana?"

"Do you really think that my family would've been spared pain? That your life was so meaningless that you could just throw it away like it meant nothing? That's why I slapped you. Why I slapped Merlin as well." Tears started to fall from her eyes again. "You tried to throw your lives away for me like they were meaningless things that you could just toss into a deep pool. You think I wanted that? For either of you. I love you both and would never want either of you to do that. And…you say that it should've been you. No, it shouldn't have been you. I saved you because I felt your life was worth risking mine to save. If you just threw it away then that means that what I went through was for nothing. You're more important and precious than that Will."

Will felt like he was rooted to the floor. "I'm…so stupid. I'm sorry Liana. I never wanted to hurt you at all. I wanted only to try and make you not feel sad anymore."

She nodded. "I know you did Will. It was kind of sweet that you didn't want me to feel guilty for my mother. The way you went about it stunk but I could understand why you did it." She then went to his cheek and slapped it again, with a small kiss. "Thank you."

Will tried not to smile and giggle too giddily but his face did go red under Liana's stare.

Balinor put the golden cup that Merlin retrieved in front of a table that was surrounded by his friends and advisors.

"The Cup of life," he mumbled. "Amazing."

"Is it really?" asked one of the members of Balinor's court. "It seems like a fancy cup to me."

"You shouldn't judge things by appearance so callously," Abel lectured.

"He's right," said Richard. "I've heard the stories of this thing. It is much more powerful than you think it is."

"Richard is right," said Alice. "The cup has the power to tap into life itself. It's not something that is to be taken lightly. Do you mean to seal it away sire?"

"No," Balinor said in almost a whisper. "As you said Alice, it has the power to tap into life. In the wrong hands it could do a great degree of harm. It has done so in the past, both distant and recent. Perhaps it's time to see it put to do some good for a change."

"Here sire?" she asked.

"No," he shook his head. "It could tempt too many people here to repeat those dark moments of history. It might be better suited with those that have respect for its power long before it was ever in their presence."

"Who?" asked Richard.

Balinor looked over at his druid friend. "Abel?"

"Sire?"

"I have a favor to ask."

Morgause lightly stepped into the ruins of the once grand fortress of the Isle of the Blessed where the priestesses once reigned in glory and the grace of the Old Religion. This was not the first time she had been here yet it had been a few years since she had last stepped foot on this once holy ground. However, she did remember everything and noticed that a few things were different. There were new holes on some of the structure's inner walls and by the pedestal in the courtyard was a grand marking of ash as if something burned immensely hot in that single spot.

"What is this?" she mumbled to herself.

In that spot, she sensed something. She was able to sense lingering feelings of fear, anger, hate and…awe. And everywhere else, she could feel it. Magic. Powerful magic was done in this fortress not too long ago. It was so great that it left a trace for her to feel almost as if it was still being done at this moment.

Morgause wandered about the isle and the only trace that she could find of her mistress was her traveling cloak which had been discarded over a moldy chair. As much as she didn't want to she would have to accept the inevitable truth: Nimueh was gone. She was on her own now. She had nothing now. She let the fear and anger of that fill her until she remembered that that wasn't necessarily true. She wasn't alone.

"Morgana," she mumbled.

Merlin was in his room, furiously trying to wash out the filth that clung to him from his and Will's time of cleaning up the stables. The punishment given to the two boys by his father was that they had to clean the stables of all the filth for two months with no help from the stable boys. Given that the two of them had little experience with that kind of work they ended up falling and slipping in the muck, more than once.

It took Merlin an hour before he was able to feel clean enough leave his bath. There was a knock on his door as soon as he finished getting dressed.

"Come in," he called.

The door opened and he saw that it was his mother.

"Merlin." She then stopped and took a look at him. "Why do you look like you just came out of the bath?"

"Because I did."

"You came back from the stables over an hour ago."

"Don't remind me," he grumbled.

Hunith laughed. "You had to bathe for all this time? Well, I hope you don't have to go through that two days from now when you and Will have to go back again."

Merlin shut his eyes tightly to push the thought of going through this again so soon. "Don't remind me."

Hunith sobered herself. "Well, now that you're done soaking, I'm here to tell you that your father wants to see you."

"I didn't do anything else, I swear," he said quickly.

"You're not in trouble Merlin. He and Kilgharrah want to speak with you at the top of the tower."

Then tension he had loosened but wasn't gone considering the look in his mother's eyes. "About what?"

Merlin went up to tower and saw that his father and Kilgharrah were waiting.

"Ahh Merlin, you're here."

"Father, Kilgharrah. Is something wrong?"

Balinor just held his hand out. "No, no son. We just really need to talk."

"About what?"

"We'll wait until your brother and sister arrive."

"Liana and Nowe?"

And as he spoke their names they both, magically (not quite), appeared out of the entrance to the tower with their mother right behind them.

"Everyone's here then," Hunith said as she closed the door behind her.

"What's this all about?" asked Liana.

"Well, Merlin, you know that you tapped into a strong force of magic when you actually manipulated life and death to save Will's life by trading in Nimueh's own. And yes, it worked out for you but there was the possibility that it couldn't have."

Merlin nodded. "I know father and I'm sorry about meddling in such an unstable force but I can't be sorry for how it turned out."

"And neither am I, I assure you of that. However your mother, Kilgharrah and I…the three of us feel that with what's happened recently, the time has come to tell you three something. You three are old and strong enough to know this now."

The three children went and bunched up together.

"Know what?" asked Nowe.

"It's about Uther Pendragon," said Hunith.

Merlin was thrown. "Uther? What about Uther?"

"It's about him and the last time that the Questing Beast appeared," said Kilgharrah. "The true events that led to the Great Purge."

That gripped the hearts of the three of them.

"You see Merlin, there is a good reason why I reacted so strongly to you meddling with the power of life and death as you did. You're not the first royal person to do so. Over twenty years ago, Uther Pendragon meddled with that power as well."

"Wait," Liana said holding up her hand. "Uther Pendragon? The king that has made his whole image about being the bane of magic itself, dabbled in perhaps the most arcane of high magicks?"

"Not personally," Kilgharrah explained. "He made a pact with a priestess of the Old Religion who had integrated herself in his court. The priestess Nimueh."

"Nimueh?" Merlin almost fell off his feet. "So that's how you knew about her."

Balinor nodded. "Yes."

"But wait, why would Uther Pendragon want to meddle with life and death anyway?" asked Nowe.

Kilgharrah went back to telling the story. "Because of his wife, the late Queen Ygraine. You see, she was barren. She was unable to bear any children which meant that Uther would have no heir to the throne. He couldn't turn his wife away as her family were perhaps the prime reason he managed to defeat the Greedy King and take the throne in the first place. Yet, now he was faced with having a throne with none of his blood to succeed him."

"Which is why he went to Nimueh," Merlin said catching on. "With her talent to manipulate life and death, she could create a life for his wife to bear."

"Exactly," said Kilgharrah.

Merlin nodded but then froze. "But wait…Nimueh told me when I wanted to save Liana that for a life had to be taken for a life to be restored."

Kilgharrah nodded. "That's correct Merlin. There is a balance to be maintained. To save a life doomed to certain death or to create a life that would never exist otherwise then there must be a death to maintain the natural order of the world. In this principle, you and Uther were of the same mind on the subject."

Merlin became both offended and disgusted when he said that he was on the same mind as the Butcher. "What do you mean?"

"He heard Nimueh's warning, same as you, a life for a life. So, he decided to execute a criminal to try and pay the cost for the life that would be taken just as you decided to offer your life as the one that would be taken. Needless to say that it wasn't that simple."

"So, whose life was taken?" asked Liana.

It was Hunith who answered the question. "The Queen's." Merlin, Liana and Nowe froze in shock. "Just like with you as well."

"However," cut in Kilgharrah. "Unlike you there was nothing to be done to save Uther's wife, who was taken so Uther could have the heir he so wanted."

"Arthur Pendragon," supplied Merlin. "That hypocrite! Uther spurns the good that magic has done for others and calls it evil yet he parades and shows off his son, the product of magic like a crowned jewel."

"Yes. The night preceding the announcement that Uther had been given a son was the first sighting of the Questing Beast all those years ago. Shortly after that, Uther began the Great Purge as he had become infuriated and blamed magic for the death of his wife though he never gave that as his reason. He simply called magical practices a plague on the land that he saw had to be destroyed."

Merlin was somewhat speechless. "You think that I could've done what Uther had done? Blame magic for what happened to mother? Magic may have done that to her but magic belonging to Nimueh. Nimueh who I bargained with to my own foolishness," he added a little shamefully. "What happened to mother was the fault of both Nimueh and myself. I may be the Dragon Prince but not even I should have the license to treat and trade lives as if they were pieces of pottery on a shelf. Trying to decide which stay and which are to be taken out in place of another."

Balinor looked upon his son with a soft look plastered in his eyes and face. "That is quite wise and mature for you to admit that so openly. Uther, I'm afraid, was quite lacking in both when he assessed his own situation with Nimueh and his dabbling with life and death."

"Yes," agreed Kilgharrah. "Uther was rather foolish as he thought that he could take a common person out of this world to trade his death in for the life of an heir. The Old Religion doesn't differentiate the lives of people based on noble or low birth the way that man does. Uther wanted an heir, a precious life to come into this world, so naturally, he had to have a life equally precious to him leave it."

"And what could be more precious to a spoiled king than his queen," said Liana as she understood where this was heading. "So many lives lost and destroyed because he couldn't have everything he wanted, how he wanted."

"I would never do that," Merlin almost shouted. "I wouldn't take the folly of my choices out on people."

"Of course not. You actually have a heart and a brain." Nowe started to glare a bit. "I still can't believe this. He decides to take it out on and blame hundreds of innocent people, including our own family because he can't face the fact that he tried to act like a god and was forced to pay the price for it?" Nowe was livid at the end of that rant.

"Yes," Balinor said a little resentful. "That is why I told you three this. You have to remember, you might be warlocks, witches, future dragonlords and the heirs to this blossoming land but you are still only human, not gods. Trying to be one, it has costs. Costs that might not only affect you but the people whom look to you to rule and watch over them. So, please. Merlin, Liana, Nowe, remember this. Remember what happens to those who attempt to seize and use power they are not meant to and what has happened as a result."

Merlin, Liana and Nowe nodded. No, they wouldn't forget what they had learned here. Not at all.

Uther was out on the terrace overlooking the courtyard as he mentally went over both recent and long passed events. Magical activity was being seen more and more recently. If Uther were to mark a starting point to all of it, it would be during the public emergence of the so called Dragon Prince Emrys. The one who calls himself the Dragon King, Balinor, and his men had been causing him problems sporadically over the years and while troublesome Uther was able to keep a good degree of the trouble at bay. The worst trouble Balinor had caused was cost Uther his alliance with Bayard. However, the actions of Emrys seemed to be something new. The young sorcerer was bringing his evil doings straight into the city and had even managed to sow his chaos in the walls of his very castle. He still felt anger over the memory of the night of his festival for the Great Purge where Emrys had invaded his main hall and humiliated him and his son. Over the months, Emrys has been making Camelot and its stance against magic seem like a mockery. Spectacles such as those profound dragon banners littered across the city streets and his magic casting hollow gifts to his people to try and turn them against him.

Turning against him the same way that Nimueh's magic did.

As his thoughts went to Nimueh, he couldn't explain it, but he felt his heart become light. It was as if she didn't have a hold over his nerves any longer. He didn't know why but his instincts seem to tell him that she was no longer a threat to him. He just wished he felt that way about Balinor and his children. Emrys was problem enough but with this mystery brother and sister that he had, he didn't want to think on what problems they could deliver coupled with their older brother. He just hoped that Arthur would be able to catch and defeat Emrys and hopefully weaken the resolve of his siblings along with it.

End of Chapter 25

A/N: Well, now Merlin and his siblings know the truth about why the Purge came to be. I think it's truly hit Merlin hard because now he's seen how dabbling with life and death, how volatile it could make a person, especially the wrong person. I had many comments against Liana's reaction to both Merlin and Will's decision to help her. I hope I didn't turn you all off from her. She may have come off as a spoiled brat but she was just acting out and dealing with what they did in her own way. She does deeply care for both of them, so much that she didn't want their lives to be so callously thrown away, not on her account.

The next chapter will skip ahead in time about half a year or so. To help with the feel of time, I won't be uploading the next chapter until the last week in May. Things have settled down and have become quiet until excavators in Camelot uncover what appears to be the tomb of the famed sorcerer Cornelius Sigan.