A work based on Episodes 12 & 13, Season Five: "The Diamond of the Day Part 1 & Part 2", and continuing on after the finale, with a different ending. A Multi-chapter work.

This work is entirely my own, based on the characters established by BBC's Merlin. I do not own any of the characters, and am not making any money from this fiction. It is created purely for my own, and others' enjoyment.

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A/N MAJOR APOLOGY TO MY READERS: I realised at 5am this morning that I'd made a huge continuity error. Sir Percival was left in Camelot to train the knights there in combat skills, and Sir Leon accompanied Arthur into the forest. I have altered the story today (Wed 27th) to reflect this. It really doesn't change the flow of the fic, just some of the mental pictures as you read through.

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FACETS OF A DIAMOND

Chapter: Twenty-Nine

Merlin chuckled to himself and continued on, setting up his next challenge for the Knights to overcome. He couldn't remember the last time he'd enjoyed himself more. Cocking his head, he stopped to consider for a moment: nope, there had never been a time he'd enjoyed himself more! This was the first time he was using his magic openly, with Arthur's full support in order to confuse the Knights.

The idea had initially been Arthur's, and Merlin had grabbed and run with it, elated at the chance to show off his skills. Thanks to Niniane's presence, he had no duties in the citadel that could not wait until later, and he was revelling in the chance to be out in the forest, free, and practising his skills. The young man stopped for a moment, and ducked his head back towards where he knew the Knights were. Using his magic, he saw where they were and what they were doing: they were now all on foot, having abandoned the horses back where he'd set the magical wards. Hmm…must remember that one: forcing an army to give up their mounts could come in very useful. The small group was now gathered before the fallen oak, attempting to get around it in order to continue their pursuit of their quarry.

Merlin chuckled: he'd arranged it so there was no way around the tree. One side ended in a magical bog, the other was encased with an enchantment which caused anybody who entered the area to fall into a spelled sleep after suffering a mild shock, much like being struck by lightning only far less powerful. After all, this was a training mission. Scaring knights to death was acceptable, permanently injuring them just prior to an expected attack on Camelot was not.

Just to make things interesting, he'd also enchanted the giant tree: It was unable to be moved apart from magic, and scaling it would be a further challenge. Merlin had cast a spell which would cause anybody trying to climb over the obstacle to increase their weight 5-fold. Including Arthur. Merlin smiled; after all, he saw no reason why King Prat should escape unscathed, just because he was in on the little jaunt.

Laughing in glee he scarpered off down the dirt pathway, heading towards the dell just ahead. He had plenty of time to set in motion the final phase: he intended to trap the group. The dell was little more than a depression approximately 20 feet across, and surrounded by an earth bank at knee height. Bushes and scrub around the rim provided an ideal natural cover for what he had planned next.

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A small group of armoured warriors stood milling around in front of a fallen oak tree. The surrounding forest was unnaturally quiet. A soft breeze gently stirred the leaves and branches above them, but the usual sounds of rustling creatures were absent. The animals responsible for this had, no doubt, hidden after the shouts let out by the recent shouts of pain and surprise emitted by two of the company.

The tree was ancient, and the trunk in front of the men measured chest-high. Two of their number were begrimed with black slime from the bog at one end of the tree when they'd attempted to go around the obstacle. Two more lay unconscious at the side of the path, casualties to some type of enchantment at the other end of the trunk. This left only one possible solution: they would need to go over the trunk. So, ssounding less certain, Rodney ordered the remaining men to scale the large tree. Wanting to set a good example, Rodney started first, finding a good foot-hold in the rough bark, and dug in his gauntlet-clad fingers. With the first step he found that his legs trembled with effort, and his fingers began to cramp. Quickly he let go of his painful hold, and latched on higher up. Ascending several feet the knight felt he was making good progress, only to discover that his armour felt as though it were full of bricks, and his legs felt about as strong as fresh-baked break. He valiantly struggled for several more minutes before gravity won the battle, and the young knight tumbled down to land ignominiously on his backside.

A short time later, and most of the men had tried and failed to clamber over the tree-trunk. Amidst much muttering and cursing, Rodney dispatched two men back to the horses to retrieve some rope. With the aid of a rock tied to the end of it, the rope was hurled over the tree. The lightest knight was then rapidly divested of his armour by his mates, and shoved up the trunk as far as they could reach. Funnily enough, the lack of extra weight made little difference as he scrambled over the tree and secured the rope securely on the other side. With this line in place, and much huffing and puffing, the sun had travelled a further two handspans across the sky before all the men stood on the path, on the far side of the tree. King Arthur had appointed two different knights to have their turn as captains, and Rodney and his friend stepped down in relief.

Olaf and Bedwyr quickly conferred before arranging the remaining force into a compact unit, King Arthur protected in the middle with men surrounding on all sides. In this defensible pose they proceeded once more down the pathway, continuing to follow the footprints which Merlin had thoughtfully left for them.

It wasn't long before Bedwyr noticed that the trail was descending, and called a halt. Quickly scouting ahead he determined that it was winding between two smallish hills, one on either side. With the track clearly lying ahead, he decided they had no choice but to follow on, and approached his King: "Sire. We are heading into an area from which we may be easily attacked. I would recommend that the men draw their swords before continuing."

Arthur nodded, and merely answered "Then give the order, Bedwyr."

The young knight did so, and the company once more set off on foot. As they journeyed on, the trail continued its downward trend, and soon the sun was obscured behind the neighbouring hills. Before long the group found itself in a small depression and Bedwyr once more called a halt.

"Olaf! Choose a man and quickly reconnoiter the area, I want to know if we are alone in this place."

Olaf nodded, and bent to strike flint and iron, creating a small fire. Grasping a nearby branch, he wrapped the end in an old cloth, and quickly had a rude torch. Indicating the knight nearest him, John, he set off into the twilight on a circuit of the area. He was back within minutes, reporting that there appeared to be no living thing in the small dell. Just at this time, a screeching howling cacophony was heard above and to the south. The men tensed, crouching, not sure whether to attack or retreat: it was apparent that some monster was loose in the area. From its cry, it was probably hungry, and they feared that Knight would be on the menu.

"Form a circle, quickly!" Bedwyr ordered reflexively.

Nervous footsteps were muffled by leaf-litter as the company re-arranged themselves. Bedwyr and several others had provided themselves with torches, and flickering firelight revealed pale, tense faces.

A howling cry sounded from the north, quickly followed by another to the east. It appeared the dell was surrounded, and the creatures were hidden in the scrub above. Feet shifted nervously, and chainmail rattled.

"Steady!" called Bedwyr. "We do not know yet what it might be. Hold your ground."

A shattering howl and trampling feet had the men turning to face south once more, and a fireball suddenly appeared, engulfing one of the trees standing on the rim of the dell. The fire spread quickly from one tree to the next, until the entire rim was ablaze, and the knights were surrounded by a ring of flame.

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Merlin, meanwhile, was perched comfortably in a tree with his hand over his mouth. He was grateful that he'd had the foresight to surround himself with magical wards, otherwise the knights would have long since been alerted by his laughter. It was rare that he got such an opportunity to stretch himself, and never without fear of capture and persecution. He could hardly wait until the time came for him to reveal himself, and the reactions such an action would garner.

The elated warlock raised his hand, and gestured at the fire, commanding it to move.

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"Bedwyr! The fire is coming toward us!" Olaf hollered towards his co-leader, who stood behind him at the opposite side of the circle of knights.

"How? There's no fuel for it to burn: flames do not move magically!"

"Well, these ones are!" was the wry reply. "Look!"

Indeed, it was true. The men watched, horrified, as the fiery ring contracted inwards. It appeared the knights were trapped. Some yelled, some panicked, and some dropped their swords: they were helpless against such a foe.

"Magic!" came from one mouth.

"Cursed Sorcery!" from another. King Arthur stood back, waiting and watching to see how his men would respond to this new threat.

"Stand fast!" ordered Bedwyr. "Those of you with bows, nock arrows and release over the flames; those of us left who have swords will charge through the flames and prepare to attack. We may yet be able to overcome our enemy"

A few men rolled eyes towards Bedwyr showing their opinion of his mad-cap idea, but with no better plan available all, including King Arthur and Sir Leon, prepared to leap through the wall of fire at the Knight's command.

"Bowmen: draw! Release!" A handful of arrows arced into the sky. Bedwyr watched them, timing his next command carefully. "Charge!" With a mighty yell, he, followed by the rest, flung themselves forward into….nothing.

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One by one, the knights regained consciousness to the sound of their King chatting with Sir Leon, and the smell of roasting meat. A campfire burned comfortingly in the darkness, and a spitted yearling deer dripped fat into the flames, causing them to hiss and leap up hungrily. Stars showed clearly in the expanse above, their light periodically shadowed by hunting owls. The horses were tethered just beyond the firelight and could be heard shifting in the darkness as they munched on their nose-bags of grain, saddles removed for greater comfort and set on the ground to act as armchairs at need.

Several hours had obviously passed. Bedwyr, Olaf, and Rodney sat slowly and peered around the dell. King Arthur was sitting relaxing beside the campfire, with Sir Leon and his former manservant, Merlin by his side. Seeing that they were awake, Arthur called out to them. "Come, join us."

Soon the group was seated comfortably around the fire, enjoying the meal prepared for them. Indeed, after the labours and frustrations of the day, it was exceedingly welcome, as was the honey mead that was provided.

"So," the King spoke. "What conclusions have you drawn from today?"

Dead silence from the knights.

Cocking his head towards his friend, Arthur accused; "Did you cast a silencing spell on them, Merlin, along with all the other enchantments?"

Appearing offended, the warlock replied "No! Of course not, Sire. What would I gain from doing such a thing?"

Arthur pinned him with a glare. "What did you gain by including me in that magic surrounding the oak tree? My muscles are still sore from that little trick!"

Flashing his wide, disarming smile, the physician answered "Entertainment, of course my Lord."

Arthur growled and snatched up a nearby piece of kindling, hurling it towards the other man, only half in play.

Not a word was spoken and not a gesture made, but Merlin's eyes gleamed eerily golden in the firelight and the wooden missile stopped in its path before joining its brethren in the flames." "Temper, temper, Arthur." the physician chided.

Leon snickered at his King's being reprimanded, then suddenly found himself flat on his back, legs in the air as the saddle he was leaning against vanished. "Lucky for you, Merlin, that there is plenty more venison for my dinner!" the senior Knight swore as he lurched to his feet and helped himself to more of the spitted roast, ignoring the portion which now resided in the dirt. Glancing around, he located his saddle and settled back down again.

"And since I'm the one who caught it, prepared and cooked it, I'm also the one to thank that there is plenty to go around," was the young man's rejoinder. "Keep going with those comments, Leon, and you'll find your mouth sealed shut until daybreak!"

Leon merely snorted, and opened his maw wide in order to stuff it with tender meat.

The other knights crept forward timidly into the circle of light cast by the fire, unsure what to make of this familiarity between a King, a Knight and a Physician. Seeing their discomfort, Merlin sought to settle them a little: "Come. It's safe, I promise you. Help yourselves; you must be hungry after tracking that fugitive all day." And he flung a grin sideways at his king. "I promise to behave and not punish you like these two dingle-twerps."

"Hey!"

"Merlin!" the two aforementioned protested.

"Well then, show a sorcerer some respect!"

Arthur studiously turned his gaze away, and focused on the knights who were beginning to load plates with food. "So, what did you learn today?" he returned to the previous topic of conversation.

John settled down, balancing his wooden plate on his knee and mused aloud: "There must have been magic involved, somehow…"

Bedwyr snorted.

Olaf joined in: "Of course there was magic involved! Have you not guessed it yet?"

The knights, apart from Arthur, Leon, Bedwyr and Olaf himself looked mystified. Olaf decided to enlighten them: "Merlin was the fugitive we were hunting today, and of course he used magic!"

A stunned silence greeted this statement before King Arthur spoke once more.

"This was a training exercise, as I told you when we set off. Merlin and I set this up during a meeting last evening, although I was kept ignorant of the particular details until they were revealed today."

Merlin joined in. "I could hardly tell you what I planned, because I didn't know it myself. I kind of…made it up as I went along."

Remembering past occasions when Merlin had 'made up' things Arthur only just suppressed a laugh. It seemed that Merlin's magic excelled when he was improvising. He turned back to his men. "The purpose was to place you in an unfamiliar situation, expose you to magic and see how you reacted. Now that we have a powerful sorcerer on our side, I intend to make the most of this opportunity and train my knights to face not only physical threats, but magical ones as well."

Merlin & Leon nodded, and the younger men's faces betrayed various shades of understanding or dis-satisfaction, depending on the emotion of its owner.

"But that's hardly fair, my Lord!" Rodney protested.

The king answered with one word: "Why?"

"Sorry?"

"Why is it not fair?"

"Because we didn't know magic would be involved. We weren't expecting it!"

"And do you expect every sorcerer who attacks you to announce that he is there, and that he plans to use magic?" the questions came from Merlin this time. "Or would they not rather just set their traps, make their spells and confuse and catch you as easily as I did?"

Silence once more, until Arthur took pity on them. "What Merlin says is correct. You will often receive no warning of magical attack, and need to react and deal with it as automatically as you do any other sort of attack."

"But we can hardly win against magic!" Came the protest.

"Exactly: You cannot win against magic, most of the time. However, you must remember that a sorcerer is but a man, and vulnerable to surprise and deception as any man is. Also, we now have magic on our side. Merlin will fight for us, and he will not go easy on our enemies as he did on you today."

Arthur allowed the men to complete their meal in peace before speaking again. "And now I will assess you on your performance today.

"John: you did well: Your tracking skills are good, and you will do well to focus even more on them and develop this skill as much as possible."

The young knight preened at the praise. "But you were too overconfident. You rode into the forest carelessly, and failed to listen to your men when they alerted you that they'd detected an odd cry in the forest. These men know this area, and they also know when something is not right. You disregarded what was an important early warning.

"Rodney: you also were too over-confident. By the time we reached the fallen oak you should already have been suspecting magic. Yet you sent all of your men into a bog together while trying to find a way around the tree. You learned quickly, however, and only sent two in the other direction, thus reducing the losses you suffered."

"Olaf: you proved today that you are steady under fire. You alone thought to light a torch: this had positive as well as negative possibilities. You increased the area you were able to see, thus making your search more productive. But by lighting the torch, you pinpointed your location exactly to anybody who may have been watching. Although, given our situation in the dell, it was likely that anybody watching would have already known our position. Added to that, you reacted well and quickly to orders given when you were surrounded by an obviously magical fire. Well done."

The man smiled, then flushed with embarrassment, before relaxing once more as Arthur summarised his performance.

"Bedwyr: You showed this evening an ability to take command and think rationally while under attack. You assessed the situation, obviously concluded that it was of magical cause, and came up with an attack plan at the same time. You were able to rally and steady the men under your command, a valuable skill in any Knight."

"Thankyou, My Lord." Bedwyr answered, "But I did not win: I was not able to overcome my enemy, and we were captured."

"That is not the point, Bedwyr." Arthur counselled. "It is not always possible to win in every situation. I have learned far more from those times I have been beaten and overcome, than from those times I have been victorious." Arthur's mind dwelled for a moment on the times he'd been exiled from Camelot, and how he'd needed to invent outlandish strategies to fight his way back again. "A man's worth and character is more accurately judged by how he faces an impossible situation rather than one in which he is victorious."

"For these reasons I hereby promote you to a Captain of the Knights. You will now be trained in leadership and other skills by Sir Leon, Sir Percival and myself."

The knight sat, open-mouthed with shock, not having expected such an outcome from his 'failure'.

Merlin smiled quietly in the semi-darkness. It appeared that King Prat Arthur could be developing some wisdom of his own. Perhaps the 'Once and Future King' was closer than he'd realised.

The meal continued for some time while the men chatted idly. Eventually Arthur gave the order to saddle up and return to Camelot.

"But Sir! Is it not dangerous to travel at night? Would we not be better served to remain here and return in the morning?"

Merlin stood and clapped his hands. Several large blue balls of glowing power appeared in the air, hovering above the men's heads. Light streamed in every direction illuminating the forest for many feet as the warlock answered. "I guarantee that we will be safe, and that we will all reach Camelot unharmed." He gestured once more, and the saddles laying on the ground moved towards their correct horses and attached themselves; riding blankets settling and girths attaching themselves. Apart from a few white-eyed stares, the horses stood still and accepted this unusual method of being saddled. (Some of the men suspected that Merlin had cast a binding enchantment on the animals.)

"I have cast a ward around the company: nothing can approach without my knowledge. Any beast, magical or not, large enough to cause harm I will deal with before you even know it is present. And if these precautions are not sufficient, I can always call Aithusa to escort us. Although I think the horses may object to having a large carnivore hovering overhead."

By this time most of the knights had mounted, a little chagrined at forgetting just who was escorting them home. Merlin, Arthur and Leon moved to the head of the column, chatting idly, and snatches of conversation drifted backwards in the still air:

"Alright, Merlin. Enough showing off now."

"Prat."

"Careful how you address your monarch, Merlin."

"Alright then: Royal Prat."

"Merlin!"

"King Prat?"

A chuckle from Sir Leon and a grunt from Merlin as something heavy struck the Warlock.

"Hey!"

"That's what disrespect will get you, Merlin."

"Just wait until you see what I left in your chambers, Dingle-tw…" Merlin's expression was abruptly cut off, and there was a scuffle of hooves on the pathway.

Olaf and Bedwyr shared a look. The trip home was going to be longer than the one out, despite the fact that they were now mounted.

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