AN: I think I screwed up my own timelines somewhere, so please forgive me if it doesn't add up. That's part of the problem of doing my own editing and posting this before I have it completely written out.
The first part was me channeling some aggression due to something in RL from yesterday. I decided to let Merlin have a bit of a bitch session on Arthur.
Arthur groaned into his hands. It was late and he knew he should be going to bed, but the problems of the kingdom kept arising. The fact that the king dreaded this time of year didn't help matters.
The change in the laws of magic his people had accepted better than he anticipated. Merlin's heritage being revealed was grumbled about in dimly lit corridors, but no one could challenge it. The command change for the knights to a man without noble blood was met mostly with indifference, although a few from his father's day would have preferred Gwaine or one of the other knights that was less of a commoner. Even the idea that Morgana had a change of heart didn't seem like that far of reach. Yet, from the moment they arrived back from the Perilous Lands with a talking head and a strange pale girl he could feel the upheaval in the town, and especially amongst the noble council.
On top of all that tomorrow night would mark the fifth anniversary of the worst and possibly best year of his life. Samhain, a holiday once celebrated as the final harvest and a chance to bid farewell to those that departed from this life during the previous year, was a sore spot for all who resided in Camelot. It was the day the veil was torn and hell was unleashed in a form that couldn't be fought with weapons. Despite all the other times the city had fallen into the hands of others trying to claim it as their own, or even when the dragon attacked, and the number of people that died during those times, nothing could amount to the sorrow felt as his people fell, frozen in fear by the vengeful spirits from the other side of the veil.
Less than a month from now would be the anniversary of his birth, his father's death, and Arthur's subsequent coronation. The sacrifice of a friend, the betrayal of his uncle, banishing Gwen from Camelot, losing nearly everything he once held dear. Five years as king. He sat back in his chair and stared out the window at the moon. Five years since Arthur received a wakeup call about his crimes against the druids. Almost five years since Merlin told him a story about a sword, he smiled remembering how if it wasn't for the faith of that one idiotic servant, everything would have been lost. The kingdom, Guinevere, himself.
He sat forward, hands flat on his desk as his thoughts began to play out in a different direction, and suddenly he was feeling rather irate. Merlin. He puckered his lips and stared at the door, almost willing his dear cousin to enter at that moment. Five years since the bloody awful servant tried to make a mockery of the king. "He 'had to pee', right… He made me carry him and he kicked me," Arthur bit down on his bottom lip, his fingernails digging into the wooden desk. "Nearly made me look a fool in front of Queen Annis. I'll bet he's the one that turned me into a simpleton and then concocted that entire story about King Bruta!"
The king had to keep himself from yelling the out the name when there was a knocking at his door. Arthur grabbed one of his boots and called out with a sadistic smile, "Enter!"
George barely managed to duck the heel of the projectile footwear. His breath caught in his chest from the fright of immediately being assaulted. His voice squeaked out, "Your Majesty." He couldn't help but note the utter disappointment on the king's face.
"Damn, I was hoping it was Merlin. Sorry about that," Arthur muttered, falling back into his chair.
The servant attempted to clear his throat, "Well, I came to tell you he has returned and requested your presence in the physician's chambers, Sire."
Arthur grinned manically, "Thank you, George!"
(*~*~*~*)
Arthur stormed into the physician's chambers without knocking. He immediately set upon Merlin, "Why wasn't I informed immediately upon your arrival?"
The warlock looked confused, wondering what had type of critter had crawled into Arthur's under drawers, "Because you told us to sneak in?"
The king's cheeks puffed out as he bit back a retort. It was true, he had said that. He looked around the room, finally realizing there were more people there than what he thought, especially for so late in the night. Alice was sitting over near Gaius's bed, speaking lowly with him; Percival was out on patrol, so Gwaine sat near Cai, Loholt, and Merlin pretending to take their report. Hunith was making tea and standing next to Guinevere- the two women now watching the exchange between Arthur and Merlin. "Guinevere," Arthur addressed his wife, wondering what she was doing in the chambers.
"I was already here helping with Gaius when they came in. It was me who sent George to fetch you. So don't give me that look Arthur Pendragon," she responded patronizingly.
"What has your skirts in a twist, princess?" Gwaine asked with a smirk.
The king huffed and crossed his arms. "Do you know what day tomorrow is, Merlin?" He addressed his cousin.
Merlin nodded, everyone in Camelot knew that the following day would be Samhain.
"Five years, since possibly the most difficult year of my life. And I have been wondering, what did you do during that year? Besides make a fool of me on numerous occasions and try to get yourself killed occasionally?"
"What did I do?" Merlin's head fell to the side, his ear nearly brushing his shoulder. His mouth hanging open slightly in disbelief and his blue eyes wide and staring blankly at the king for the space of a few moments.
"Well, I'm waiting."
"Are you serious?" The warlock blinked slowly, he personally didn't feel the time was right to bring up things that happened years ago, but the resolve in Arthur's face told him that the king wouldn't be backing down until he was satisfied with some answers. It occurred to Merlin that aside from some observations when the blond man first recognized his magic, and some talking about their family in the north, the two men had yet to take the time to hash out many unanswered questions.
"Quite."
"Well, let's start out then," Merlin stood up to face his cousin. "First off, because of my connection with magic I was hit with the power of the veil tearing, which is why I collapsed at the feast. I jumped in front of a doracha to save you, I planned to walk through the veil myself to save your sorry ass, but one of my best friends, the only one other than Gaius and my mother that knew of my magic decided to beat me to the punch because he knew you needed me here. I then tried to thwart your uncle, or find proof against him, for which you of course didn't believe me. I tried to save your father only to find out that you told Agravaine who with magical help caused the spell to backfire and kill him instead. I saved the last dragon egg, and your life in the process."
Gaius coughed at this point. The others in the room passed it off as a normal bodily function for an old man. Although it made Merlin pause and blink momentarily before he continued on his tirade, understanding the warning his mentor was giving him. "I used my magic to counter Morgana's when you were facing off against Annis's champion, which by the way if you had listened to me might never have come to that point.
"Oh, I was taken hostage, tortured,* subjected to a magical creature called a Fomorroh, woke up in a bog…" he trailed off when he heard Gwen snicker, "Hush you."
The queen tried to bite her lip but the laugher began rolling out of her. "I'm sorry, Merlin, but it has been a long time since I even thought about how bad of an assassin you were."
"Assassin? What?" Arthur was completely confused now.
"Good thing Morgana didn't know about my magic, otherwise things would have turned out quite a bit differently. But I don't know why you're complaining my lady, I heard you got a good look at…"
"That's enough Merlin," Gaius warned his eyebrow hidden near his hairline as he suffered his own memory of seeing the king nearly naked.
Arthur glared at his wife, who was blushing more deeply than he had ever seen finally realizing the time they were referring to.
"I think you should move on Merlin," the queen suggested.
"Right then where was I… Oh yes. Gaius was kidnapped, accused of treachery, and tortured. My closest friends tried to kill me over a woman. I… saw… a lot of other things and was either helpless to do anything about them, or…" he stuttered, not wishing to relive Lancelot coming back or the betrayal. Nor did he feel it was necessary to bring up Gwen's banishment. "Then you almost got married to Mithian. Not long after that I had to get you out of the castle as Camelot fell, put up with your mood swings, kill Agravaine, and give you the pep talk of the century, summon a dragon. Oh yeah and sneak into the castle, scare the daylights out of Morgana, steal her magic, and…"
Gwen gasped, "The roof collapsed." She recalled, her mind had always been curious about how she escaped that day disarmed and facing a very angry priestess.
Merlin nodded in answer to her questioning gaze.
"You saved my life that day. Again, it appears."
Merlin shrugged, "It's what friends do."
Arthur was just staring at Merlin, an unreadable expression on his face. "You killed my uncle?"
Melin rubbed his lips together and his gaze darting around the room before he forced himself to look at Arthur. He nodded, unsure of what the king was thinking, "He gave me no choice, Arthur. It was him or me."
Arthur flopped down on the bench and closed his eyes. The room was cast into an uncomfortable silence. No one dared to breathe as they waited for the king to respond. Arthur was toiling over the information. Reliving the days where he almost lost everything to his uncle…including his best friend. It took a few minutes, but he finally looked up at Merlin and nodded, silently telling him that was enough for now.
The warlock breathed a silent sigh of relief.
"Alright then, so tell me about this Manticore thing with…" He waved his hand towards the healer woman.
"Alice?"
Arthur nodded. His anger finally sated with the answers Merlin had given him.
"Right then," Merlin smiled and sat down across from his cousin.
(*~*~*~*)
The holiday came and went, with only a small feast after a day of honoring those that passed. Arthur was accepting of the explanation concerning Alice, and she had agreed to stay. She made it perfectly clear she was there for Gaius, anything else would be decided later. The treatments she was administering on the old man appeared to be working, and everyone could see the love rekindled in the two healers. Merlin was busy spending his time between assisting them both and taking care of Aithusa who had taken to reading very quickly under Geoffrey's tutelage.
A few days later Merlin decided it was time to do something Arthur had requested a while back. He saddled a few horses and gathered some supplies for a small overnight trip before approaching the king. "Arthur, are you busy?"
The blond king looked up from his desk with a scowl, "What do you think, Merlin."
The warlock shrugged, "It looks to me like you could use a break."
"Gods yes! What did you have in mind?" Arthur was quick to push his chair back, "Offering to be a training dummy, emphasis on dummy or some hunting perhaps?"
Merlin's eyebrows pinched together, "Actually I was thinking of grabbing Gwaine and Percival as well and taking a short ride."
Arthur nodded thoughtfully, "I'll tell George to pack my crossbow and we can do some hunting while we're out too."
With a roll of his eyes and a heavy sigh, Merlin shook his head. Some things would never change.
(*~*~*~*)
The four men stood somberly on the lakeshore. It was the anniversary of Lancelot's first death and Merlin brought them to the familiar lake just outside of the city.
"If only my eyes had been opened sooner to everything," Arthur said sadly, all thoughts of hunting had fled his mind when Merlin explained where he was leading the four of them. "This place feels so familiar."
"You remember Sophia?" The king milled the name over in his mind for a bit before nodding. Merlin continued, "Yeah, I didn't exactly knock you over the head. I actually swam in to save you from drowning after defeating her and her father."
"Ah," he always thought the story Merlin and Gaius had given him was suspicious.
Percival appeared the most upset when he was told this was the lake where Lancelot had been laid to rest. He whispered more to himself than the others, "I need to tell her." Shuffling his feet he looked up at Arthur, "By your leave, Sire, I need a few days off to make a journey."
"Of course, where to?" It was unlike the giant man to make such a request.
The revelation of Lancelot being raised as a shade after giving up so much for Camelot didn't appear to be sitting well with the man. Although it did answer many questions for him about his friend's return from the grave, "Lancelot's wife, Sire."
"He had a wife?" Gwaine asked suddenly very interested.
Precival chuckled, "Well sort of. She was the daughter of a gypsy lord, before we came to help you all. She had tricked him into 'jumping the broom' with her, and by her people's laws, it meant that they were married."
Merlin had to chuckle and wonder why Lancelot never told him. "And of course he was too honorable to back out of a commitment such as that."
"When he received word from you requesting aid, he jumped on it, I think hoping he wouldn't have to go back. She's a nice girl, but a bit out there. I went and told her of his sacrifice after the doracha, and found out she'd given birth."
Gwaine, Merlin and Arthur's heads all snapped simultaneously towards the large knight. Merlin recovered first, "He had a child?"
Percival nodded, "She named him Galahad."
"Percival, what aren't you telling me?" Arthur asked suspiciously.
The knight looked confused, "What do you mean, Sire?"
"Lancelot had a son, Gwaine and even Merlin here were sort of unknown sons. There's…"
"Your son." Merlin offered quickly.
Arthur drew a sharp breath, his face tightening, "Yes, there is that as well."
"Have you and Gwen talked about it?"
"She knows but… Oh, shut up Merlin."
Merlin gave him the stink eye.
"Fine, I'll try to find a way to talk to her about it."
"Galahad…" Gwaine stared off pondering the name. "I've heard it somewhere before. Was the name from her family or something?"
"No actually, while Lancelot and I were travelling together, there were a couple of times he woke up from dreams, well nightmares really. When I finally got him to talk about it, he said he remembered a battle when he must have been a baby and someone calling him Galahad…"
Merlin could have groaned, "Are you certain, Percival? I recall a few times talking about dreams with him, but he mostly spoke of his parents who were killed when he was almost nine." Although the warlock had to admit, most of the private conversation between he and Lancelot was centered on Arthur and Merlin's magic. He knew Lancelot's story from the time around his parents' death, but never pressed much further beyond that.
"Oh bloody hell! Now I know where I've heard the name! It was the lost prince of Caerleon," Gwaine spouted off.
The others looked at him oddly.
"It was one of my father's favorite stories," He explained. "Since he was a knight of Caerleon's father at the time. There had been a battle with Uther and Camelot when they almost lost their throne to him. The king's grandson, so Caerleon and Annis's son, as a baby was supposedly stolen by fairies when they escaped. My father said Caerleon was injured and it was while Annis was tending to him that the kid disappeared. Most everyone, including my father, thought he had perished, or was carried off by his nursemaid, and it was just a story spread so they wouldn't appear to be weak and without an heir. The prince's name was Galahad!"
The large knight nodded attentively, "I'm sure that was the name he said. It was only once he ever talked to me about it, and I'm reasonably certain he had no idea about the stories of this lost prince."
"I think Gwaine and you need to pay a visit to Queen Annis before we jump to any conclusions," Arthur suggested to Percival. "Afterwards, if she can confirm the story, head out and find this woman. I think we owe it to Lancelot to make sure his son is taken care of."
* after a few fics I read I almost put in "Used as a sex slave, although that wasn't actually bad..." However that didn't happen in the actually series so I deleted that line LOL
Anyhoo- Please leave a review if you would be so kind! Thanks
