Sorry I was gone for so long! I was working on other stories, then I took a break from all my fics during November to work on an original for NaNoWriMo, then I had school finals and stuff... But I'm back now! Being away from this story for so long kind of took my mind away from the characters. Sorry if they're a bit OOC here, but I tried.

Dishonesty || Merlin

"Never put off till tomorrow what may be done day after tomorrow just as well."
― Mark Twain

"Merlin, what are you doing?" Gaius hadn't let Merlin out of his sights for a moment the entire journey, and when Merlin riffled through his bag, he was immediately on to him.

Merlin didn't look up from his search. "Looking for something."

"What?"

"This." He held up the glass filled with water from Avalon. "When I met the Fisher King, he gave me this. He told me, in Camelot's darkest hour, when all seems lost, it would show me the way."

"Yes. But how?"

That was Gaius. Asking the helpful questions that Merlin definitely hadn't thought of asking himself.

"That's what I've got to find out." Merlin set the vial down and tried some spells on it. Maybe it would open if he asked it to, or reveal if a revelation was commanded. He didn't dare try anything that might break it.

It turned out that he might as well have tried, because he broke the damn thing anyway, in a totally unmagical accident after being distracted by Gwaine. The panic he felt at seeing the shards of glass scattered among the pile of water was insurmountable for a moment - and then it turned out breaking it was exactly what he needed to do.

"Freya?"

She was almost just like he remembered, but a lot less solid, and she looked more calm and put together than he had ever seen her in life. He wished he had seen her like this in life. If Merlin had gotten her out in time, maybe he would have.

"I've missed you," she said. Her voice was a soft echo in the empty cave, and Merlin craved hearing it again more than anything.

"You're…" he struggled to pick only one question to ask.

"Merlin, we don't have long."

"Is it really you?" Apparently, his brain had decided that was most important. If it wasn't really Freya, Merlin reasoned, how would he know that this being made of Avalon water was to be trusted?

"I swore that one day I would repay you. Now is the moment."

"I don't understand."

"There is but one weapon that slay something which is already dead."

Merlin knew this already. "A blade forged in the dragon's breath." But how was that relevant?

"That weapon lies at the bottom of the Lake of Avalon. Where you hid it."

"But Morgana's army are not dead, they're very much alive." He could see the faces of some of them in his memories, clearly living human flesh, each person with a history and a reason for being there.

"Anyone who toys with the cup pays a terrible price," Freya said. Merlin remembered his own price. The life of his mother or Gaius had almost been lost. He had only used the cup to heal. What could the price for something much more meddling be?

"The moment they entered their pact with Morgause, they became the living dead. You must come to the lake."

"And you will give me the sword?"

"In your hands it has the power to save Albion."

"Thank you."

"No. It's giving me the chance to see you again."

Frey disappeared, and all that was left was a small pool of water on the ground. Gwaine reappeared just after Freya left, and Merlin struggled to compose his face into something normal.

"You alright? You look like you've seen a ghost."

"I'm fine. Really." Fine, but unsure how to get to the lake fast enough - unless he asked a favor from a certain dragon he was acquainted with.

"I'll be back in a bit," he said to Gwaine, and left the shelter of their cave.

Arthur, Gaius, Leon, and Elyan sat around a small fire in the darkness. Leon was whispering something to Arthur while Gaius and Elyan listened in with mild interest. They wouldn't notice that he was gone for some time, not it he left immediately and made no delays.

Merlin left the circle immediately and made hastily for a clearing he had seen on their journey. It wasn't too far that he wouldn't be able to find his way back, but it should have been far enough that no one would spot a dragon from their campsite unless they knew to look for one, and since they all believed the great dragon to be dead, there wasn't a chance of being spotted.

"O drakon, e male so ftengometta tesd'hup'anankes!"

Merlin sat, leaning against a tree to wait for Kilgharrah. He was far enough from their usual meeting place that he didn't know how long it would take the dragon to reach him, and figured he might as well not stand the whole time.

"Merlin."

Merlin got up and turned around, holding out his hand defensively. That was not Kilgarrah's voice. Gwaine was in the cave. Arthur, Leon, Gaius, and Elyan were around the fire. He had been so distracted from seeing Freya once again, he had forgotten to account for the seventh member of their party.

"Elsa!" He said. "You shouldn't be here. They could… they could probably use help back at the camp."

Elsa folded her arms over her chest and glared at Merlin. As she came out of the shadows, Merlin noticed for the first time what she was wearing. It wasn't the riding clothes she had borrowed from Morgana. The surface didn't appear to be any type of fabric at all, but… oddly flexible ice?

"What was that?" she asked, moving closer.

"What was what?"

"That… call you just did. Was it for Emrys? I've been wondering when you'd talk to him, it seems like it's long past the point where we need his help."

Merlin laughed nervously. "Er, no, I wasn't calling Emrys, you see -"

"Then what are you waiting for! I have told you everything I can about our enemies, about myself, and I have waited patiently for Emrys's reply to my request. Will he help me, or not?"

Merlin felt the air movement change before he heard the flapping of gigantic scaly wings. He didn't have to turn to know that Kilgarrah had arrived. Elsa's eyes told him everything.

"I see you have allied yourself with the Snow Queen, young warlock," Kilgarrah said.

Elsa stared, wide eyed and speechless, at the dragon. Merlin stood between them. And gestured towards Kilgharrah.

"Elsa, meet Kilgharrah."

"My pleasure," she whispered. "Am I to understand that - is this dragon - do you need the dragon to take you to Emrys?"

"Take you to Emrys?" Kilgharrah scoffed. "I am not a horse, young queen. Nor do you need to be taken to Emrys when he is right here."

Merlin hadn't thought it possible for Elsa to look any more surprised, but somehow she managed it.

"Right here? Where -" She rounded on Merlin. "Young warlock!"

"Please don't be angry with me," Merlin pleaded. "I promise I'll explain when I get back. We don't have much time. Kilgharrah, I have to cross 20 leagues of hostile territory. I need you to take me."

"As I just said, I am not a horse, Merlin!"

"If you do not, then Morgana will have won. Unless that's what you want."

"My allegiance has never been with the witch."

"But is it with me?"

"Yes, young warlock. It is with you."

The dragon bent into a crouch to allow Merlin onto his back. Merlin should have known that Elsa would not be content with being left behind. Having climbed up the other side, Elsa sat comfortably behind Kilgharrah's head when Merlin got there, leaving space for him to sit in front of her.

"You're not coming," he said. It would be too much to explain to her about the sword, why it was important, and why she couldn't use it. There was too much to explain to her already.

The whispers of the birds, creatures, and the forest itself rose around them, but Elsa said nothing.

Her stare was not one Merlin would have ever described as intimidating until this point.

"I guess she's coming," he said, half to Kilgharrah, and half to himself.

The rumble that came from the dragon sounded almost like a deep chuckle, but Merlin must have misinterpreted it. There was nothing funny about the situation.

Elsa remained silent for most of the journey to the Lake of Avalon, asking only how long it would take them to get there. Unlike Merlin, she wasn't shivering, and hadn't seemed to have felt a moment of sickness from the lurch of taking off on a dragon, but maybe that was Just Elsa's gift of not allowing her emotions to show. Or her curse.

Kilgharrah set them down a ways from the lake shore, letting them walk the rest of the way.

"So, what's so special about this lake?" Elsa asked.

Merlin didn't really have a short explanation. It was a gate between the lands of the living and dead, perhaps? The entrance to the realm of the sidhe? The place he had said goodbye to a girl he had loved? He settled for saying "you'll see," and hoping she wouldn't push for more of an answer.

She didn't.

The lake was still and dark under the light of the moon. It was curiously peaceful there, even though Merlin knew they were in the middle of a war and that people had died in Camelot that day. The lake's peace took away that reality.

He didn't realize he'd lost his focus until Elsa's cold hand touched his arm cautiously.

"Are you okay? What did you come here to do?"

Merlin stared at her. She looked concerned, not angry, which surprised him.

"I'm not sure," he said honestly. "I was told that I could retrieve something important -"

"And you can."

Elsa's hand pulled away when she saw the figure standing in the lake. The watery form of Freya looked just as she had in the puddle of water, but this time, she was holding the sword. She smiled and offered the hilt to Merlin.

"Remember, in the wrong hands, this sword can do great evil. You must promise me, Merlin, that once its task is done, you will place it where none can wield it"

"I promise."

Freya smiled sadly. "And I know you will do your best to keep that promise."

"I won't fail."

Freya's head lowered slightly and did not rise for a few moments, making it clear that it wasn't a nod of agreement, but acknowledgement. The moment her eyes strayed from Merlin's he stepped forward to stop her from, the toes of his boots getting soaked by the water. He knew she couldn't stay, and it wouldn't do any good to have her stay, but he wanted to reach out to her anyway.

Her smile directed to Elsa wasn't a sad one, and Merlin wished she had given it to him instead. But even as she looked at Elsa, she still spoke to Merlin.

"Remember me, Merlin, but don't let your life be defined by my death. Your life can still move on."

"I know," Merlin said. "I know, I have to keep my head on straight or Arthur will die on one of his suicide missions, and Albion -"

"-Another piece of advice, Merlin, forget Albion every once in a while, and try thinking of what you want for once."

Her figure started to fade, looking less like a person and more like an illusion in the mist by the second.

"Wait! I…"

"Goodbye, Merlin."

And then she was gone, and it was just him and Elsa again.

Elsa. Now he would have to explain everything to her that he hadn't before because, because, why? First he hadn't trusted her to be an ally of Camelot, and then he had just pushed off the revelation that he was Emrys because there were more important things going on with Arthur. The whole thing with the Cup of Life had come up, and Elsa's problem had been pushed back, along with the day he would have to tell her that Emrys was an inexperienced, clueless, fool.

"I admit," Elsa said, "I didn't expect Emrys to be my age, or even a kind person. I suppose I imagined someone like my father: stoic and commanding with good morals, but not necessarily a great amount of empathy."

"I'm sorry."

"Don't be. This is better. Knowing you before knowing you as Emrys."

"You're really not angry?"

"Of course I'm angry, but I don't have time to let that consume me right now. I need your help, and I doubt I'll get it if I've run an ice pillar through your chest."

Merlin laughed. "I doubt you could."

"Give me a chance."

Merlin nodded. "Go ahead."

Elsa's gaze was curious and calculating as she took a few steps away from Merlin and hesitantly held out a hand. "You don't mean that."

"Er, I mean…" Merlin hadn't meant it in the slightest, it had come out in jest as it would have with a close friend. It was something he would have said to Arthur if Arthur knew and was okay with Merlin's magic, except Arthur would use a sword and not a magical ice stalagmite.

"Well," Elsa said, "I suppose you would deserve it for the amount of confusion you've put me through." She turned away from him, hiding her hands from view, seconds later hurling a ball of snow the size of Merlin's head directly at him.

Instinctively, Merlin blocked it with magic, leaving the snowball to hover in the air in front of it. He grinned. For an extra show, he pulled the warmth he could feel from the earth around him and melted the snow with an easily made flame.

Is there an important reason you're having a magical duel instead of returning? Kilgarrah's voice whispered in Merlin's mind. I would offer some privacy, but as I said, I would rather not have that witch rule over the future land of Albion.

Merlin's concentration dropped, and Elsa's next snowball would have knocked him over if it hadn't been made of light, fluffy snow.

"Hmm. I would've expected Emrys to be made of tougher stuff than that. To get defeated by a powdery bit of snow -"

"I got distracted!"

"By what exactly?" Elsa made an exaggerated show of peering around for something that could have been a thought that Elsa's smile would have been distracting enough even without Kilgharrah.

"Kilgarrah's calling us back, we have to go."

Elsa's smile fell as she looked down at the sword at Merlin's side and remembered why they were out by a lake in the dark of night instead of preparing to sleep back at the castle.

"That sword. What good will it do against the likes of Hans?"

"It's not for him. Its to use against the immortal soldiers. And hopefully, it will make all the difference to our cause.

I would love to hear from you all! Has anyone seen Frozen II yet? I'm supposed to go to the theater today and see it. I've already planned out this story and the sequel, so nothing from Frozen II is likely to make it in, but I'm excited to watch anyway.