My plot gremlins and I are back with another chapter, and we still do not own Merlin.


The frail old king sat on his throne, he did not move nor eat or speak. The only thing the man could do was wait and sleep which he did for as long as possible, sometimes his slumber would last for a few days other times he managed to sleep for years, but no one can sleep forever while they are alive. He had been alive for so long, trapped by a spell of immortality that kept him alive but did not keep him young.

The spell that kept him alive also connected his life force to the kingdom that he ruled. Instead of dying like anyone should when they have lived their life, the kingdom started to wither away in a perpetual state of dying yet not dying much like the king. First, the field slowly stopped yielding crops, then the trees stopped producing fruit as they slowly died. With no food growing the wild animal migrated away and the water sources dried up or turned into swamps.

The Kingdoms noble families found places with relatives outside the kingdom the ones that stayed found they were no longer able to conceive children to carry on their titles, the women in the villages around the kingdom suffered the same infertility as did the animals.

Villages that once thrived were deserted and became nothing more than ghost towns. The kingdom was in a constant state of dying. Eventually, everyone left or died, leaving the king on his throne unable to move from his seat as his castle crumbled around him.

Over time people avoided the cursed land, they eventually forgot about the old frail king sitting alone in the ruins of what was once a castle that would have rivaled Camelot in is splendor. The old king cursed to live was resigned to myths and stories.

The fisher king lifted his head and look straight ahead.

"Emrys, remember your promise" the old king spoke with a raspy voice. An image of an orange yellow stone appeared in the air.

Morgana's eyes open and she sat up in her bed, she rubbed the sleep from her eyes and looked around. The dream had been so vivid she almost expected to wake up in the throne room with the fisher king. The lady slipped out of bed and walked over to the window to pull back the drapes. It had been a few months since the last time she had had a vision while sleeping. So it took her by surprise, it took her a minute to realize that it wasn't like the dream visions she had before, it was more like the dream she's had when she and Merlin were traveling through the perilous lands.

It was still early the sun had just barely risen over the horizon. Morgana sighed and turned away from the window, there was no use trying to go back to sleep. She got dressed and headed toward Merlin's chambers, the guards bowed slightly as she passed them.

She hoped to catch Merlin before he went to get Arthur's breakfast and wake him up. Morgana knocked on Merlin's door hoping she wasn't waking him. The door opened a crack, then slowly opened all the way. Merlin blinked at her a bit confused.

"Morgana?" Merlin asked.

"I need to talk to you," Morgana said stepping past him and into the room.

"come in," Merlin said with subtle sarcasm as he closed the door.

"I had a dream," Morgana said.

" I don't think it was a vision but it didn't feel like a normal dream either"

Merlin walked over to his wardrobe and pulled out a shirt, as he did Morgana realized that he wasn't wearing one. Her eyes moved from his face to his torso for a couple seconds before they snapped back up to his face.

"do you remember the fisher king?" Morgana asked.

"Yes," Merlin said.

"I've actually been thinking about him lately, why?"

"do you remember when we were in Elmet, he sent me a vision"

"yeah, I remember," Merlin said as he finished buttoning his shirt, he turned to Morgana.

"you think that he's sending you a message again?"

"I think he's sending you a message," Morgana told him.

"I saw him sitting on his throne, he looked up and said don't forget your promise Emrys."

Merlin thought for a second.

"he want's me to bring him the phoenix stone," Merlin told her.

"come on we need to talk to Arthur"

Merlin held his door open as Morgana stepped past him out into the hallway.

They made their way to Arthurs chambers, Merlin stopped by the kitchen to pick up breakfast for Arthur, Morgana and himself. Morgana had questions but she held them till they got to Arthur. The changes to the laws on magic were in their infancy and the witch and warlock didn't feel comfortable talking about anything magical with anyone able to hear them except for the Gaius, Gwen, the king and a select group of knights.

"why does he want the stone?" Morgana asked as she closed the door to Arthurs room behind them.

"the phoenix stone is the only thing that can kill him," Merlin told her as he walked over and set the tray of food on the table.

"you'd think he would want something like that as far away from him as possible, although from what I remember perhaps it's understandable" Morgana said looking around at the mess that was her brother's room, she knew the room was clean yesterday how did he make such a big mess in one day? Merlin gave her an I know look when he saw the face she was making looking around the room.

Merlin's eyes flashed gold and the clothes started separating themselves into clean and dirty. The clean clothes hung or folded themselves and floated to their proper places, the dirty clothes flew into the laundry hamper. Morgana felt something tugging as her foot, she looked down as she lifted her foot to see one of Arthurs shirts move out from under her foot.

Once the clothes were taken care of the king's goblets and pillow cushions that he liked to throw at his manservant, floated to the table and the bed where they belonged respectively. Morgana stifled a giggle when two of the cushions hit either side of Arthur's head making a tent like effect.

Merlin smiled and rolled his eyes, his eyes flashed and the cushions flipped away from the kings head.

Arthur who had woken when two cushions landed on his head sat up and glared at Merlin, or at least he tried to, it looked more like grumpy face to his advisor and his sister.

"somethings come up," Merlin said before Arthur could say anything about Merlin using magic to do his chores. Something Arthur had told him he didn't want him doing, the king felt it unfair to the other servants that had to do their chores the normal way. The exception being if Merlin was needed do deal with something magic in nature.

Merlin explained to Arthur, while he got dressed behind the changing screen, about the fisher king and the water that Morgana had pulled Arthurs sword out of, with Morgana cutting in to explain about the fisher king being able to send her messages through her visions. Merlin explained his promise, which he admitted he had almost forgotten about with all that had been happening in the last several months, to find and bring him the phoenix stone and what it would do.

Arthur listened intently, it seemed odd to him to repay someone that helped them by bringing him something that would kill him.

"so this man in his way helped in the battle against Cenred's army," Arthur asked sitting at the table his breakfast untouched in front of him.

"and you want to help him kill himself?"

"you didn't see him, Arthur," Merlin said sadly.

"from what I understand from the vision he's in a constant state of dying without actually dying," Morgana said. " If he hadn't been cursed he would have died of old age before any of us were even born"

"he's not living, he's existing and suffering," Merlin said.

Arthur considered for a moment, he didn't like the idea of what would essentially be assisted suicide on the other hand who is to say the phoenix stone would kill him maybe it would just release him from the curse and allow him to live out the rest of his life and die normally.

"I'm not asking you to help Arthur," Merlin said

"I just need some time and leeway"

Arthur frowned and pointed at Merlin with his fork.

"you are not doing this on your own Merlin" Arthur told him in a no nonsense tone.

"I and a couple of the round table knights will go with you"

"Arthur you can't," Merlin said

Arthur opened his mouth to say something, but Morgana cut him off before he could argue with Merlin.

"He means because you're the king" Morgana pointed out.

"you can't just take off like you used to, not right now"

Arthur opened his mouth then closed it again, she was right, damn it. It was too early in his reign to be going on quests. The kingdom needed him in Camelot, he had too many responsibilities. Especially trying to start undoing the damage his father had done during his reign. Not to mention the new addition of Escetir to Arthurs domain.

"but the knights can come with us," Morgana said

"and what makes you think you're going?" Arthur asked her. There was no way, he would be worried enough with Merlin going. Which he will deny if it's ever brought up.

"I don't think it's a good idea, Morgana," Merlin said.

"and why not?" Morgana asked.

"and don't say it's too dangerous because I'm a woman, we all know I can hold my own with a sword and if need be I have my magic to fall back on"

Merlin and Arthur gave each other a look, neither of them could argue against her point.

"beside" She continued.

"I'm the only one that knows what the phoenix stone looks like"

Arthur shook his head and held back a sigh of resignation.

"I found a picture of the stone months ago, so I know what it looks like" Merlin pointed out.

"we just need to figure out where it is. When I was talking to the fisher king when we were in Elmet he said that you had found the means to retrieve it, that the key was hidden in"

"the only thing I found in Elmet was that room full of books," Morgana said.

"you don't suppose he meant there is an actual key hidden in the books," Arthur asked

"maybe," Merlin said

"or it could be there is information about where to find it."


Arthur sent word to have Gwaine, Leon, Lancelot and Galahad meet him, Morgana and Merlin at the round table. Percival and Elyan were out on patrol and Belivare was stationed in Escetire as part of a program to retrain the Essitirain knights and guards. Gwen was helping Geoffrey reorganizing the library to make room for some more books that he had acquired, and Gaius was tending to an outbreak of la grippe in a few of the outer villages in Camelot and Escetir.

"so you want to look for this phonics stone?" Gwaine asked

"Pheonix stone" Merlin corrected him

"right," Gwaine continued.

"so this fisher king, who apparently was an important part of defeating Cenred's army, can die?"

"think of it more along the lines of breaking the curse that's keeping him alive," Morgana said

"it's not like he suffering from a normal malady ,like ague or colic ,that he could recover from he's in a constant state of dying without being able to actually die"

"so we need to go to the ruined castle in the perilous lands find the book that has the information on where to find the stone or the key to where ever it's hidden, go get the stone then return to the perilous lands to bring it to the fisher king" Galahad summed it up.

"sounds like fun," Gwaine said, he turned to Merlin.

"when do we leave?"

"we might not need to go to the books," Morgana told them thinking, her mind went back to the day she and Gwen were looking for the counter spell to Morgause's Horcrux.

"Morgana, how are we suppose to read the books if we don't go to them," Arthur asked,

"do you remember Cenreds sword, the Horcrux?" Morgana asked

Arthur, Merlin and the knights all nodded, a collective shiver went through Merlin and Arthur. That had been one of the darkest forms of magic either had come across.

"when I was looking for information on it I cast a spell to get Merlin's book to open to the page that the information was on" Morgana explained.

"except the information wasn't there, however, it was in one of the books from that room. The spell I cast which was to find the information, made Merlin's book flip through all the pages and shut then another book appeared into thin air and landed on top of it, the book open and flipped to the page with the spell we used."

"okay," Arthur said not quite understanding

"Morgana or I could use our magic to summon the books that we need here" Merlin explained

Morgana had told him about summoning the book not long after the battle when they were still having trouble sleeping without the other in the same room. They had been practicing the spell in their secret, not secret magic studies. They had become fairly good at teleporting items that they need to them, such as when Merlin had called a sword from the weapons vault when the assassin had tried to kill Gwen.

"so we find the information then go get the stone, then bring it to the fisher king. We would still have to go through the perilous lands" Galahad

"Galahad the mission is strictly voluntary" Arthur explain recognizing Galahad's apprehension.

"yeah," Merlin said.

"and I have no problem going by myself if I have to, after all, I'm the one that made the promise to the fisher king"

"No," everyone in the room said in unison.

It was decided that Galahad ( he was a knight damn it and he would face his fears) and Gwaine (cause Gwaine was going if they liked it or not) would accompany Merlin on his quest for the phoenix stone, Morgana had insisted that she should be going as well until Merlin pointed out that if something happened and they needed to send for help or if they needed to access information, it would be faster if he could send a telepathic message to her back in Camelot. Lancelot wanted to go to but Merlin told him he would feel better knowing Lancelot was watching Arthurs back considering half the round table was currently out of city and how much trouble Arthur attracts.

Since they couldn't tell the people outside the members of the roundtable what was happening the group opted to tell anyone that asked that the two night had gone on a hunting trip and dragged Merlin along.

Galahad and Gwaine left the room to go pack for the quest (hunting trip), Leon and Lancelot went to help them.

Morgana, Merlin, and Arthur waited for them to leave, while it was no longer against the law to read about magic or talk about it without condemning it, it was technically still Illegal to perform it.

The Knights policy was a state of not remembering when their friends openly talked about casting a spell and not being in the room when they did cast a spell. Arthur being king could pardon them for the crime which wasn't going to stay a crime anyway.

Merlin laid his palm on the door, his eyes turned gold and muttered a spell under his breath. He made it so that they would be able to hear anyone talking outside the door but they would not be able to hear what was going on in the room. The guards would only hear the people in the room if that person was talking to them directly. Merlin's eye returned to their original cerulean as he turned and joined Arthur and Morgana at the round table.

Morgana stood in front of the table, her hand held up over the wood, fingers splayed palm out.

"ábæren py gewitscipe ic ascian" Morgana spoke in a commanding voice (bring me the knowledge I seek).

Nothing happened, Morgana frowned wondering why it didn't work. She had done everything right, at least she thought she had.

"maybe you need to be more specific" Merlin suggested, he stepped over to stand beside her

"here I'll help you"

He raised his hand palm out over the table, Morgana raised hers again so that it was underneath his.

Arthur watched them, he had seen people cast spells before but this was new to him. It almost looked intimate to him, or at least it would if it wasn't Merlin and Morgana.

"ábæren me se cæg be ágan se fenix stán" Morgana spoke her and Merlin's eyes glowed gold. (bring me the key to find the phoenix stone)

"andwearden us se gewitscipe wit héahþearf " Merlin spoke low and clear. (bring us the knowledge we need).

At first, nothing happened, then the air above the table started to move in a slow circle. The air picked up speed and a portal appeared. There was a loud thus as a book fell through the portal and landed on the round table. Merlin and Morgana both jumped back as more books fell onto the table with a loud thump. The circling air slowed and the portal disappeared.

The king and the warlock and the witch were left wit a pile of books, and no idea where to begin.

Someone banged on the door, which Arthur had locked not thinking it would be a good idea far anyone to come in and see his sister and his servant performing magic. Merlin mentally cursed his lack of foresight, he had blocked the people outside from hearing them talking but had not thought to block other sounds. Merlin's eyes flashed as he temporarily lifted the spell on the door.

"sire, is everything alright in there?" one of the guards asked as he tried to open the door.

"yes everything is fine" Arthur answered.

"my clumsy servant just tripped and knocked one of the candle staffs over"

Merlin glared at Arthur "prat"

"Sire I can't get the door open" the guard called with not well-hidden worry in his voice.

"you couldn't have told them you tripped' Merlin said in a low voice.

"that's because it's locked," Arthur told the guard, he turned his attention to Merlin.

"I had to tell them something they would believe Merin," Arthur said keeping his voice low so the guards would not hear him. Merlin hadn't actually informed him about the spell on the door.

Morgana lifted her hand to cover the smile on her face, one of the things she had missed when she and Merlin were away was watching Arthur and Merlin banter.

Arthur walked over to the door and unbolted it, He opened it to talk to the guards on the other side. Merlin and Morgana positioned themselves in between the door and the books so the guards wouldn't see them. Neither knew if the guards had seen that the books hadn't been there before and that no one had brought into the room, but they didn't want to risk it. Merlin's eyes flashed and candle staff nearest him laid down on the floor, they flashed again and Merlin put a perception spell on the books so the guards wouldn't notice them.

When Arthur opened the door the two guards scanned the room. They saw the candle staff laying on the floor. The guards gaze moved to the king's manservant who was moving to pick up the candle staff. He turned to the king when he spoke getting the guard attention.

"I don't want to be disturbed for at least the next few hours," Arthur told the guards.

"no one is to enter except for Sirs Gwaine, Lancelot, Leon, and Galahad."

Arthur gave the guards no more explanation for the noise they had heard other than the one he already had, cause hey, he's the king and he doesn't have to.

"yes sire," the guard said bowing to their king and giving Lady Morgana a slight bow before stepping back to their posts.

Arthur closed and rebolted the door as he did Merlin lifted the perception spell from the books. Arthur turned to see Merlin setting the candle staff upright, He raised an eyebrow in a silent question.

"you told them it had been knocked over" Melin pointed out.

Arthur walked back over to the table as Merlin and Morgana turned their attention back to the books that had appeared out if thin air and landed on the round table.


An hour later Merlin unbolted the door to let Leon and Galahad back in the room. Gwaine and Lancelot showed up just as Merlin was about to close the door. Merlin let them in giving the guard a polite nod before closing the door.

"any luck yet? Galahad asked as they approached the table where Arthur and Morgana were each looking through a book.

"each book has information about the stone," Merlin told them as he rebolted the door and rejoined the group at the table.

"but so far we haven't found any clue about where it is."

Leon pulled one of the books from the pile that had been Organized into stacks on the table. The book he chose was about different mythical stones. He skimmed through till he found an entry fo the Phoenix stone.

The Phoenix stone after the phoenix bird because of it's resistance to fire. He opened another book, the phoenix stone was once part of the phoenix sword.

Galahad sat in his chair and took one of the books, he looked at the spine of the book thinking the writing looked rather odd. The knight opened the book, he tried to read it, He could read english, french and a bit of latin, but he didn't recognize the language in the book.

"we've already been through those ones," Morgana told them, then she thought for a second.

"but I suppose it wouldn't hurt for a new set of eyes to look through them, perhaps you'll see something we missed"

"I doubt it my lady" Galahad said as he set the book down after skimming through it.

"I can't understand a word in that book"

He picked up another book this one talked about the misconception that the phoenix stone was a phoenix egg. A theory that was debunked when a real phoenix egg was found in a volcano on an Island somewhere in the south seas. The island, of course, wasn't on any map and the egg was reported to be so hot that anyone who tried to steal it from its nest would burst into flame and turn to ash in seconds of touching it.

Galahad closed the book and looked at the marking on the spine, he noticed that they curved around to the back. He shook his head and place the book beside the other one he had just skimmed through.

Merlin closed the book he was reading, apparently, the phoenix stone had once been branded into a sword which the lord who owned the sword believed would imbue him with the regenerative power of the phoenix. A power he had hoped would help him achieve his goal of overthrowing his king. The man had fallen ill and died soon after he had been given the finished sword.

He got up and stepped over to place the book on one of the stacks that had already been read and choose another. Merlin sighed in frustration, all of the books had information about the stone but none of them had any clues about where the stone could be now.

The warlock was just picking up another book when his eyes landed on the two books Galahad had put aside. The knight had placed the books side by side upside down on the table, both of the books had similar designs on them. Merlin looked at the books that Arthur, Morgana, and Leon were reading. The back of the books all had similar designs. He flipped over the book he had just put back and looked at the one he was holding.

"That's it," He said as he took the books from the stacks and started organizing them on the table.

"I can't believe I didn't notice before"

"Merlin, I was still reading that" Arthur complained when Merlin snatched the book he was reading away from him.

"What are you doing?" Morgana asked as she closed and handed Merlin the book she had.

She was sure he had a reason for what he was doing, the witch watched as the warlock laid all the books flat out on the table.

The books all had different designs, but they were also similar to each other. Merlin switched a couple of books around, the lines of the patterns on the books started to line up with the others.

Morgana stood up to get a better look, she almost gasped as she started to see the start of the picture Merlin had suspected. She stepped over and moved a couple of the books around to match up the lines.

She scanned the books and notices something, she stepped over and tipped up two of the books that had designs that lined up and looked at the spines.

"Merlin," She said holding up one of the books so that he could see the spine.

"am I just imagining things or does this look like Armenian numbers?"

Merlin looked up and walked around the table to get a closer look. He looked at the book that was in her hand then the other that had been beside it.

"your right," he said
"not only that but the spines are the same color there in numerical order when placed in the right spot"

Morgana picked up on of the books that had a different color spine.

"the different colored books have different numbers on them," Morgana said showing the book to Merlin.

"these ones look like the language we saw in Jenshang," Merlin said

"and this one is Welsh"

"" Merlin"" Morgana telepathed.

""I don't think all these books are from the library we found in Elmet""

""I think you're right,"" Merlin responded.

"uh, care to share with the rest of us" Arthur spoke drawing Merlin and Morgana's attention.

"the books are color and number coded" Morgana explained.

Arthur turned his gaze to Merlin with an expectant look, he had no clue what his sister was talking about.

"it's a puzzle" Merlin explained as he replaced the books and moved some more around.

"and the books are the puzzle pieces"

Merlin walked around to stand beside Arthurs chair, he adjusted a couple more books then stepped back and scanned the finished puzzle.

"do you see what I see?" Merlin asked

"oh my god, the books really were the key" Morgana said, she held in a gasp of recognition when her eyes landed on the cities of Jenshang and Gasi. His eyes scanned the map she found the city where she and Merlin had met Kejan and Fiamae, Ade and Budiwata's village was nearby.

Morgana blinked and turned her attention back to the task at hand, she needed to focus on the phoenix stone.

Arthur stood up to get a better view of what Merlin and Morgana were talking about. His eyes widened as he saw the complete picture. It was a large map of the known world including Albion and several Islands surrounding it.

Near the corner of the map, four books fit together to reveal a picture of a phoenix holding a stone in its talons. That had to be where the stone was, it was an Island to Camelot's west just on the other side of Eire. An Island that Arthur didn't remember seeing on any other map he had seen before, and studying the maps of Albion and the surrounding area's had been part of his education growing up.

"I don't recognize that Island," Arthur said pointing out the Island that the phoenix was drawn above.

"neither do I," Leon said

"there're a few places I don't remember seeing on any other map," Lancelot said.

"What language is that?" Galahad asked

Merlin stepped over to get a closer look, it was the language of the old religion.

"that's the language of the old religion," Merlin told him.

Lancelot stepped around to look at the map from a different angle.

The map had places he knew to be names of places that were thought to be only myths.

"it looks like the island is called seo domeadig ieg," Merlin said

"but I thought that Island was in middle of the lake of Avalon," Morgana said

"no" Merlin shook his head.

"that's seo islan of se domeadig"

"what does that mean" Galahad asked

"one is the blessed Island, the other is the isle of the blessed" Merlin explained.

"what's the difference," Gwaine asked.

"the names" Merlin deadpanned.

Gwaine rolled his eyes, that hadn't been what he meant and he knew Merlin knew that.

Arthur placed his hands on the table and looked at Merlin square in the face.

"are you sure about this?" He asked, not liking the idea of his friend having to leave Albion again so soon after getting back. Even if it was only going to be for a short time and unlike before he knew where he would be, sort of.

"yes Arthur, I made a promise and I need to keep it," Merlin told him

"If it hadn't been for the fisher king's help we wouldn't have had the means to retrieve Excalibur."

The room was silent for a moment as Arthur thought. Before it was just reading books. Now they had a map a place to start looking for the stone. Arthur knew Merlin was right, he may not have met the fisher king himself but from what Merlin and Morgana had told him it would be cruel to not help the man end the curse that was causing him such suffering.

"alright, I guess you three are going to need a ship then," Arthur said.


We the plot gremlins are ending this story here.

Wait what? No, what about the phoenix stone?

What about it?

Well, Merlin needs to find it.

Who says?

I say.

So?

* turns to readers and gives apologetic look *

don't worry I'll get them on finding the stone. I guess this is going to be a two-shot.