"…What on earth does that mean?" Arthur demanded.
Merlin stared at Galahad, trying to tell him to stop talking without actually coming out and saying it. He tried shaking his head, mouthing no, stop! and making slicing motions with his hands, but the boy didn't pick up any of the hints.
"…You don't know what Avalon is?" Galahad asked, raising an eyebrow. "Avalon? The Land of Eternal Youth? They've taken to calling it the Land of Apples ever since the new Lady of the Lake took over—"
"Are you talking about magic?" Arthur hissed, looking around to make sure they weren't being overheard.
"That's one word for it, I suppose, although Avalon is much deeper and older than that," Galahad rattled on, completely oblivious to Merlin's panicky eye signals to shut up, for the love of Camelot, boy, shut up! and his uncomfortable coughing. "It's a place of rest for magicians and magical things, for the most part, although some non-magical people end up getting half-lives after they die, for doing incredible things or having family there. Father gave his life to repair the tear in the veil between the worlds, and as a result, was given a place in Avalon as a reward. A half-life."
Arthur was numb, pale, and trembling from head to foot at hearing magic so openly spoken of right in front of him. Percival looked increasingly distracted and uncomfortable, as he always did whenever the subject of magic arose. Gwaine was gaping with his mouth open. Gwen was trying to lean as far away from the boy as she could without moving. Merlin was spasming at Galahad to NOT SAY ANOTHER WORD and coughing to cover it up, and Leon, for lack of anything productive to do, was thumping Merlin on the back in an attempt to alleviate the servant's "coughing fit."
Gwaine's mouth closed, his teeth clicking together. "…How do you know this?"
Galahad chuckled. "I didn't come up with it on my own, that's for sure. I'm not very good at understanding that kind of thing, but Lady Vivienne is a very good explainer."
And now Merlin really was choking. "Lady…Vivienne?" he wheezed.
The boy nodded. "She's the Lady of the Lake. She's very nice. Father is her knight now. He likes to complain about being dead and still having to do things, but I think he secretly likes the work."
Arthur turned a little purple. "…What?"
"Galahad," Merlin hissed. "You have not spoken to your dead father."
"But I have," he said. "Quite a lot. He's been teaching me how to fight since I saw my tenth summer."
The knights looked at each other, alarmed and very, very confused. "But he only died two years ago," Elyan said, almost reluctantly.
"Yes, but I was raised in Astolat." He looked as if he expected that to make an impression. The only thing it did was send more warning bells off in Merlin's head. Galahad frowned. "…Astolat's a Threshold, a thin spot between worlds, where they sort of overlap? Time is…oh, how did Lady Vivienne explain it? Well…she says time's sploshy in Thresholds. Father says she means more fluid, but she thinks the funny word fits it better."
He'd talked to Freya, all right.
Arthur turned his ashen face at the largest knight. "Percival," he said hoarsely.
Percival nodded, closed his eyes, and thought very hard of Munsalvaesche. "…It's telling me there's a Threshold near the northwest corner, but it's not Astolat. It's not giving me anything about Thresholds."
"…Galahad," Leon asked, something suddenly dawning on him. "Did Lancelot ever say when he met your mother?"
Galahad's mouth furrowed in thought. "I'm not sure. He got in by accident, and it very nearly killed him. Mother nursed him back to health, and then got into some trouble herself, and Lancelot saved her. Mother said…she said while he was ill he mentioned the name Gwen several times, and something about being eaten by a Wildoeren?"
"That was seven years ago," Merlin muttered. "Remember, Gwen? When you were sold to Halig?"
Gwen nodded, looking nervously at Arthur.
"Well, after he was better, he tried to get out again. But Astolat back then was like a mousetrap. Nearly impossible to get out once you'd gotten in. It's not all that much better now, but that's why Lady Vivienne makes so many trips—Astolat doesn't drain her like other places do, and she's been trying to untangle the magic…"
The boy smiled, just a little. "Anyway. He couldn't get out. I'm not entirely sure what happened between him and Mother. He offered to marry her, but she refused him every time. Said it wasn't fair to bind him to Astolat when he was so determined to get back to Camelot and serve Arthur. She wouldn't leave even if she could—she couldn't see, being part elf and already having used up all her years. When I was three, he found…well, something like a hole in a wall, or a way out of the trap. In any case, it was a way to get out of Astolat, so he took it. Mother drowned a few months later…she loved him. She was missing him. She went to the river for a bath and just sort of…slipped away. My aunt took me in…well, great aunt, but she hated it when I mentioned it.
"Then, when I was nine, Father showed up again, as Knight Vassal of the Lady of the Lake. He said Mother was in Avalon, too, and they'd finally been married. He said he'd loved Mother more than he ever knew he could love someone, and he felt bad that he'd never actually told Gwen that he didn't care for her that way anymore, but it was just too much and too dangerous to explain. He loves to talk about Camelot and all his adventures, and all the things he's doing for Lady Vivienne now…"
Lost in his own thoughts, he suddenly looked thoughtful. "…Actually, there was a time a little while back, when Father said he felt like he'd been torn in half, like the dead-part of his half-life was suddenly just…gone. It reappeared a bit after that, but he was very disconcerted about it at the time. He was completely off balance, couldn't get a thing done… I bet that's what it was that you met!" He smiled and nodded enthusiastically, oblivious to his audience's agonizing discomfort. "I bet someone snatched the completely dead half of him and raised it into a Shade and sent it to Camelot!" Then he looked, really looked at Arthur for the first time since he began talking and frowned. "What's the matter, your majesty?"
Arthur swallowed several times. "Guards," he said, barely more than a whisper. Then he stood and called loud enough to be heard. "Guards!"
"Arthur, what are you doing?" Merlin asked, horrified, as the guards ran toward them.
"…I am trying very, very hard to hold my temper," the king said, voice trembling. "I'll not make that mistake again. But…I can't…this isn't…Guards," he said as they drew closer. "Arrest this boy."
There was much protesting all around, and Galahad looked stricken as the guards pulled him to his feet and started dragging him away. "On what charge?" Gwaine asked, hands clenching in fury.
"Sorcery, for now," Arthur said. "I just…I need time. And I need to talk to Gaius and Percival." He walked away and they all rushed to follow him. Merlin came last, shaking his head, trying to plan a way to get Galahad out of this alive.
All the things Lancelot had apparently told his son about Camelot, and he didn't think to mention the fact that magic was illegal.
That's all for today. Hope you're enjoying this!
