I don't own Merlin.
Enjoy.
Long Live the King!
As he stood with Gaius, watching Arthur's coronation, Merlin couldn't help but keep in mind his conversation with Arthur before the coronation began. While he was happy this part of Arthur's destiny had been fulfilled, this had not been the way Merlin had pictured it happening; he had expected Uther to willingly step down from being the King of Camelot, or something would have happened which would have made it impossible for him to rule. Merlin doubted he would have been well missed given how feared the man had been with his vendetta against sorcery, but he had been respected nonetheless.
But Merlin had not expected Morgana and Agravaine to take advantage of Uther's illness and Arthur's decision to use magic to try to heal the King, but now in hindsight the warlock wished he had.
If he had been more alert and if he had checked over the King instead of just casting the spell - Merlin wasn't sure if it was down to his excitement the Pendragons could potentially drop their never-ending hatred towards magic or if it was down to shortsightedness in his disguised old form - then perhaps Uther wouldn't have died and Arthur wouldn't have blamed Dragoon. Merlin was just lucky, although he believed it to be partial luck more than anything else, the new King was blaming Dragoon and not him.
No, it wasn't luck, not for any sorcerers, druids, or magical creatures and beings living beyond in the kingdom. Thanks to Morgana, the chances of Arthur resuming the Great Purge was looking quite high. Arthur had said it himself before the coronation, Uther had been right all along about magic being evil. The condemnation towards magic and the now rigid belief in it being evil and nothing grey like any other kind of power whereas before Arthur had been uncertain considering how he had seen how his father had lost all sense of logic and reason whenever someone was accused of sorcery, or word reached him of some magical doing, which had given Merlin the hope he had needed to believe Arthur was not like his father and gave him something to work with had now died.
God, what the hell had Morgana been thinking? Merlin could outright kill the witch right about now, he really could. She had usurped the throne out of Uther's grasp a year before and had made grandiose claims about restoring magic to the lands, but while he was sure she meant it, if the witch believed for one moment she had just done magic a long-term service she was wrong. There was no doubt in his mind many were celebrating the death of Uther Pendragon. Merlin himself wasn't sorry to see the King go if he looked at how the man had ordered the systematic and brutal murder and destruction of thousands of sorcerers, druids, and magical creatures and magical enclaves like the Isle of the Blessed, but if they expected Arthur to be any different in his current frame of mind, where even Merlin was uncertain what the new king would do, then they would likely be mistaken.
Merlin cheered with the rest of the crowd, swearing fealty to the new king of Camelot but inside he was feeling quite hollow. He was too busy thinking.
He had been with Arthur for five years now, and while he had been pleased to see the now-King move on from being a spoilt bully even though Arthur would always retain those traits regardless of what he did, Arthur had become a better person. But now Merlin feared that thanks to Morgana and Agravaine, Albion's chances of being created and becoming the prosperous kingdom Kilgharrah had promised it would become would never happen.
He had been disheartened in the past, but this was a major blow to his hopes. Although if he were honest with himself, Merlin had never cared about the idea of Albion. He had not even given a damn about the Once and Future King.
No, all Merlin had wanted was for magic to be freed, so the disease which was the Pendragon's senseless and ruthless laws and how the people of Camelot hounded and harassed and killed anyone for sorcery.
He had wanted to stop hiding. He had wanted to be free after spending years in Ealdor being told by his mother to not tell anyone about his magic and to hide his powers from everyone from the villagers who already hated him because his father had run off, judging him and his mother when it was not their business. When he had walked into the city for the first time, seen Mary Collin's son be killed while listening to Uther's speech on sorcery, Merlin had known he would need to be careful (okay, so the few times he had been forced to watch as those whom he cared about paying the price had made him aware of the dangers), but it had only strengthened his desire for freedom.
But it was times like this, days like this, that Merlin wondered if the prophecy and his dreams of freedom would ever be merged. It was so glaringly obvious to even a blind man his hopes and what Kilgharrah promised were completely different things, and right now they looked virtually incompatible.
Merlin could only look on as Arthur took his seat on the throne, and he shuddered as he took in the impassive face. He had known the king long enough to know Arthur's emotions and moods, and he knew Arthur was in pain and it was painfully obvious this was not the way he'd expected to become King of Camelot himself.
All Merlin could do was continue doing what he'd been doing since coming into Camelot for the first time. He would continue working to the ends he hoped would usher in a new age, and allow magic to flourish. It was all he had left. But at the same time, he hoped that Arthur would grow as a King, just as he had as a Prince, and see magic was not evil.
If not…