Fandom: Merlin
Character(s): Gwen/Guinevere | Merlin | Arthur
Pairing(s): mentions of Gwen/Arthur
Warning(s): mentions of character death, spoilers through The Diamond Of The Day: Part 2
He never does come back. Gwen waits for a week...for a month...for a year - but Merlin never returns to Camelot. Not when Leon crowns her Queen Regnant. Not when her son (Arthur's son) is born. Not even when Gaius slips away quietly in his sleep.
Gwen sends out search parties, but they always come back empty-handed.
She sends out messenger birds, but the letters always return unopened.
She inquires of the druids; of pilgrims and traveling minstrels; of Elena, Mithian, and Annis...but no one has seen hide or hair of Merlin.
(And if Hunith has heard anything from her son, she's holding it very close to the chest.)
It is as if Merlin never existed; as if, once Arthur was gone, he simply disappeared into thin air like a mist or a wisp of smoke.
Almost as if he had been buried with his king.
And, for the longest of times, Gwen was furious. She had believed in Merlin. She had trusted him with her husband's life; trusted in his magic to defy all odds and bring Arthur home safely...but he failed. Arthur never came home, and now Gwen is left to rule a kingdom on her own without husband to help or friend to comfort.
Did Merlin forget that Arthur wasn't his only friend in the world? Did he forget about her?
She had needed him. Oh, she had needed him so terribly!
Needed his advice.
Needed his support.
Needed to know that he wouldn't leave her too!
But it's been more than a decade since Camlann and the fires of Gwen's wrath have cooled themselves enough that now she only worries.
Is Merlin alive?
Is he well?
Is he eating?
Does he have a roof over his head? A fire to warm his feet? A friend to hold him as he cries?
Sometimes she sits in Arthur's bed and looks at the fireplace Merlin so lovingly attended for so many years and wonders.
And sometimes, in the dark of the night, Gwen thinks she might understand why Merlin never came home.
Because it wouldn't be home without Arthur.
After all, there is no such thing as a one-sided coin.
TBC...