Merlin propped his head up on his hand and sighed. Arthur was determined, but had very little stamina, and so had been pretty easy to get to bed without magic practice. Now, they were all waiting around after dinner for Leon to come back and update them on the situation.

"Look at you all, sitting around here moping," Gaius scolded. "One would think you couldn't survive without Arthur."

"He's the one that makes the plans," Gwaine said.

"He always knows what to do," Elyan said.

"And even if he doesn't, he pretends he does," Percival said.

Merlin just sighed again. His solution to political problems was to suggest violence or immediate exposure and have Arthur or Gaius shoot him down until he either came up with a wild magical solution that didn't solve the ultimate problem or helped Arthur refine his own plan. The most political instincts he had had been honed by years of being around Arthur and the constant attempts on his life.

"Well, you can either stop moping around and start planning or help me prepare some potions," Gaius said.

"The best idea I can think of is to knock Agravaine out and keep him unconscious until Arthur's back," Merlin said.

"Merlin!" Gaius exclaimed.

"Sounds like a good idea to me," Gwaine said.

"Use magic to turn Agravaine into a toad?" Merlin suggested.

"Magic is illegal," Elyan said.

"Besides, I don't think Arthur would be particularly pleased if we turned his uncle into a toad," Percival said.

"We could get Agravaine really drunk and then keep him drunk until Arthur re-ages," Gwaine said.

"Of course you would suggest something to do with alcohol," Elyan said.

"You're more likely to give him alcohol poisoning than anything else with that plan," Gaius said.

"Maybe Agravaine won't be that bad," Lancelot said.

"If you think that, you really are dense, mate," Gwaine said.

The door opened and Leon walked in. He scrubbed a hand over his face and sat down at the table with a sigh. "The Council agrees with Lord Agravaine that there must be a temporary ruler until Arthur comes of age again. I tried to suggest Gwen, but Agravaine shot it down because she's a servant. They're going to vote on it tomorrow, but all indications are that Agravaine will get the position due to his kinship with Arthur."

The knights erupted into exclamations and argument. Merlin joined in at first, but after a bit, he pulled out the sigil Arthur gave him and turned it over and over in his hands. Usually this was the moment when someone came up with a brilliant solution to save the day, but he had nothing and the knights were quickly delving into inanity. They were all going to let Arthur down.

"Merlin!" Gaius exclaimed. "Where did you get that?"

"Arthur gave it to me a couple of weeks ago," Merlin said. "Why?"

Gaius picked up the sigil. "Do you know what this means?"

"...that Arthur is more sentimental than he pretends to be?" Merlin asked. What was the big deal? It was a gesture of friendship, nothing more.

"It means that Arthur has adopted you," Gaius said.

Merlin almost choked. "What?"

Leon froze. "That's what he gave you that night at the fire?"

Merlin nodded. "Yeah, why. What did you think it was?"

"Just a token of friendship because he was planning on sacrificing himself to the Veil," Leon said.

"Yeah," Elyan said. "I mean, none of us could hear what you were talking about, but that's what I assumed. I never thought he'd actually adopt you."

"He didn't adopt me!" Merlin protested. "It's just because we've talked about how he never knew his mother and I never knew my father." Though as of last night, Merlin had told Arthur about Balinor. Maybe it was cowardly of him, but it was easier to spill his secrets to baby Arthur than to normal Arthur.

"That may be all that motivated him, but the legality of the gesture is indisputable. Arthur giving you his family's sigil, especially at a time when he thought he was about to die, makes you his heir. You're part of the royal family now," Gaius said.

Merlin's mouth dropped open. This had to be a joke, right? An elaborate joke Gaius was playing on him? "I... I'm not royalty. I'm just a servant."

"Not anymore you're not," Gaius said.

"Guess that solves our Agravaine problem," Gwaine said.

"You look more than presentable," Gwen said, straightening the collar of the nice jacket she'd found Merlin to go with the rest of the nice outfit she'd scrounged up. Apparently he needed to present a good face to the council when telling them he was Arthur's heir. "Just be firm but kind, and don't insult the council like you would with Arthur. In fact, you should probably stay away from all jokes completely."

Merlin sighed. "I don't want this."

"I understand that, but you don't really have much of a choice, now do you? It's you or Agravaine," Gwen said.

Merlin groaned. Politics was Arthur's territory, not his. His deepest venture into politics was "who's trying to kill the Pendragons today," which was more than enough to keep him occupied forever. He never wanted to get deeper than that.

Gwen patted his shoulders. "I'm sure you'll do fine."

Merlin sighed again. "I hope Arthur re-ages soon."

"So do I. Now go!" Gwen turned Merlin around and lightly pushed him to the door.

Merlin obligingly trudged into the council room. The council members sat around the table, Arthur's usual seat left empty.

"Yes, here he is now," Geoffrey said. "Come forward, Merlin."

"This is preposterous," Agravaine spat. "There's no possible way Arthur adopted a simple servant."

"I have the witnesses to the adoption ceremony already in the room," Geoffrey said. He gestured to the knights of the Round Table who stood behind Leon and Gaius.

"Well, young man, step forward and tell us of the adoption," one of the other council members said.

Merlin gathered a deep breath and stepped forward. Speaking in front of a large group of people was the opposite of his forte, but he had to do it. He called up the rehearsed speech he had practiced.

"When I was—when we were traveling to heal the rift in the Veil, Arthur—well, he kept saying he would sacrifice himself to save Camelot, because it's his kingdom and he's the king, so it's his responsibility. I kept trying to convince him to let me do it, but he wasn't going for it. He said that a half-decent servant was hard to come by, then we started talking about our parents. 'Cause his mother died when he was born and I never knew my father either. So he gave me his mother's sigil. And I took it and put it in my bag. Then when we got to the tear he tried to sacrifice himself, but then I tried to do it too, and so did Lancelot, but a peasant that had been following us unbeknownst to us jumped in instead," Merlin said. His speech had flown out of his mind, but he thought he had done all right.

"Well?" Geoffrey said.

"It does follow the ancient traditions," one of the court members said. "Legally, the manservant is now Arthur's son and heir."

Merlin's face burned. Couldn't he have been adopted as Arthur's brother or something? But no, he was apparently his stupid son. Arthur would never let him live this down.

"Is this as you saw it, Sir Leon?" another court member asked.

Sir Leon nodded. "It is exactly as Merlin described. They were arguing about who would sacrifice themselves to the tear, then Arthur gave Merlin the sigil."

"And you are certain he was planning on sacrificing himself to the Veil?" The court member asked.

"I would stake my life on it," Leon said.

"I was so certain that I was willing to give my life to save his," Lancelot said. "I promised the prince's lady that I would protect him with my life and make sure he came home."

Elyan nodded as well. "I couldn't exactly hear what they were saying, but I saw the exchange as well. It's definitely as they said."

"This is preposterous," Agravaine said. "Surely the boy stole the sigil from Arthur's chambers, and the knights are lying to back him up."

"With all due respect, Lord Agravaine, you are a newcomer to this court," Geoffrey said. "You abandoned Camelot when your sister died and now only show up when there's a chance for you to profit. As nontraditional as it may be, I trust Prince Arthur's judgement and his choice knights' testimonies over you."

"You cannot possibly make a servant the regent of Camelot," Agravaine protested.

"And why not?" Geoffrey asked. "After all, even out Lord and Savior was born a humble peasant and spent His life serving others."

"Hear, hear!" a courtier agreed.

"It's unorthodox," another courtier said. "It would be difficult to crown him king because he hasn't performed the crown prince quest, but, as we're in an emergency and Lord Agravaine has not fulfilled those requirements either, I see no obstacles in following Prince Arthur's wishes."

"I propose a vote," a different courtier said. "All in favor of recognizing Prince Regent Arthur's adoption of Merlin and instating him into the position of regent until Arthur is restored to his proper age shall write aye and pass the papers to the court secretary. All opposed shall write nay."

"Well?" Gwen asked. "How did the vote go?"

Merlin leaned against the door, his vision spotting. He pressed a hand to his spinning head. "They voted yes. They accepted me as Arthur's son and heir. I'm now the prince regent."

A/N: If you're curious, the sigil is from a cut scene in I believe the dorocha two-episode arc. I saw something that the gesture meant Arthur was adopting Merlin, and while I couldn't confirm that historically, history means nothing in this show, so I ran with the idea. Also I have no guarantees that the showrunners meant for Christianity to be in Camelot, but given the timeline is right before the Saxons invaded England, historically, Christianity would be widespread in England until the Anglo-Saxons came. At that time, the religion was replaced by Thor and Odin and all them until England was re-Christianized later. Christianity did, however, survive in Wales. Again, history really means nothing in this show, but the line just came naturally and I hated to cut it since it helped the story along, so there you go!