Two of the king's most trusted knights exchanged a look, yielding to the king's will and incentive, silently agreeing this could wait no longer, it was time.

Arthur was willing to hear what Merlin had to say, and for him to continue living in Camelot they had to talk.

After the knights vacated the room, the king was about to turn and pull up a chair across the table from Merlin when he heard and strangled, faltering, whispering noise. He turned, finding the warlock where he had left him, sitting with his arm wrapped around himself as though unraveling it would mean his bones would turn to dust. His head was bowed but not enough to hide his horrified expression.

"Merlin?"

Cautiously, he made his way closer to the servant, frowning in concentration to make out what he was muttering about. He came to a halt in front of the battered man his eyes widening when his strained ears clearly heard what the sorcerer was saying.

"I've failed. I'll never be free. Nothing will change. Alone. I'm a monster." He chanted hopelessly.

All this time he had spent think of what to was to be done after his friend had broken his trust and lied to him. He had thought back at all the other times when Merlin's loyalty to Camelot had been tested and he had never wavered, always putting Arthur's safety above his own life. Gaius had told him he had magic long before he came to Camelot, and had been using it to vanquish every magical threat that presented itself to the kingdom. Every single day, he had to face the possibility that his secret would be revealed, that he could die every time he used it even if it was to save a life, but he had done so anyway. All this time he had only thought what consequence this new information had for him and his kingdom, but never how it affected Merlin. He had experienced briefly what it was to hide who he was, by saving a tavern from hostile drunken men, and entering a jousting tournament under a disguise. Even then he had his servant had been with him and covered for him. The warlock had known the knowledge of this secret would change everything for him if anyone found out. The servant had to lie and let everyone believe he was useless, and Arthur had taken full advantage of that and walked all over him. What had that meant the warlock thought of the king, when, every time he had taken his treatment? What had that been like for him? Merlin had been alone in this.

Arthur let out a breath he hadn't known he was holding as the terrible weight of his ignorance crashed down on him. He needed to do something. Slowly, he crouched down in front of the warlock getting a full view of his face. The servant's eyes were wide holding none of the life or the teasing spark of sarcasm that had become so familiar to the king. His expression was horrified as though he had just been dealt a mortal blow, his eyes widened in shock and hazed over as though he were far away.

Suddenly, terror gripped the knight, and without thinking he reached out and grabbed the warlock's wrist that was not already curled around him, as though it the action could save the man from the horrible fate he seemed to be experiencing.

"Merlin. Listen to me. None of what you're saying is true. Not from what I've heard."

The servant had lost sight of where he was, as the darkness threatened to take him. He hadn't been aware of anything around him, lost in dead space, until some blinding light had shot through out of nowhere letting down a single golden line. As soon as he reached for it, he felt a cool pressure that involved not pain, but instead demanded his attention. The servant finally blinked, his eyes clearing as he snapped back to reality. He regarded the king with thinly veiled shock that quickly turned to skepticism.

"What do you mean?" he asked, while Arthur tried to ignore his guarded, uncertain tone.

The knight was relieved at his successful attempt at pulling Merlin back from where ever his damaged persona had taken him, unable to hide a sigh as the warlock had briefly relaxed, his eyes clearing at the contact. He released the sorcerer and went to settle himself in the chair across the table from him. "Gaius told me some of what you have done, your accomplishments. But I'm beginning to believe it is not the whole story."

"Accomplishments?" the servant snorted derisively. "Is that what you consider them?"

"You don't?" Arthur wondered, puzzled as he folded his hands on the table in front of him.

Merlin gaze returned to the floor, doubtful.

"Then I would like to hear what has happened from an eye witness." Proclaimed the king.

"You want to know what I've done." Merlin stated, without meeting his gaze.

"That would be ideal, unless you know of someone that has seen these various actions?" Arthur asked good naturedly.

But it fell flat. The servant's face darkened to one of pain and regret. "That would be difficult, and a moot point. I've seen so many deaths that were cruel and unnecessary."

"Such as?" prompted the king after a moment of silence.

Merlin sighed, trying to clear his mind. He knew this was coming, and after recent events they could delay it no longer.

"Do you remember how I became your servant?"

Merlin told Arthur everything, leaving the sensitive topic of the dragon and every thing involving him for the time being.

He began with the witch disguised as Lady Helen attacking the prince, and how he had slowed the thrown dagger in enough time to pull the prince to safety, ending with the king rewarding him with task of becoming Arthur's servant. This although indirectly, had meant the king given a sorcerer charge of keeping his son safe, even if it meant killing his own kind.

The servant's sharp and eager eye to find any discreet use of magic in a tournament not long after becoming the servant to the future ruler. He discovers a knight that had armed himself with an enchanted shield of vicious snakes. Merlin had spent the night before the prince's fight with the cheating knight practicing the spell that would expose the man.

The High Priestess Nimueh poisoning the water supply, causing Gwen's father to become ill, and Merlin to heal him. The king having heard of this brought Gwen into questioning ending with an innocent, powerless girl to mourn her father's execution. When they had hunted down the monster responsible, the servant had found it's weakness and used the elements to destroy the creature.

Nimueh disguising herself as a servant in an effort to poison Merlin. Arthur had gone to find the flower that would become the antidote to the poison, and becoming trapped in a cavern with giant spiders rushing to consume him. The servant had known the prince was in danger and had conjured the orb of light that saved the prince's life, Arthur also saving his in return.

Merlin's first meeting with Lancelot, and their courageous, combined effort to slay the griffin that had plagued Camelot by lighting the man's spear with a spell that could kill it.

When Merlin saved Arthur by destroying Sophia and her father who wished to sacrifice the prince to open the gates of Avalon and regain the sidhe girl's immortality. Continuing to skip over to the time after the helped a younger Mordred escape Uther's grasp, and the forging of the current king's favorite sword, Morgana's first act of revenge to try to kill the late king.

The prince's hunting trip gone awry when they came upon the Questing Beast, and the two set out to destroy it, soon they found the creature, which bit Arthur before Merlin could slay it with magic. After he rushed Arthur back to Camelot, Gaius explained there is nothing he can do. The servant, only accompanied by the physician and the unconscious prince, used his magic to find possible cures that have no effect. Left with no other option he then sought out Nimueh to sacrifice his life at the Isle of the Blessed to save Arthur.

He paused, allowing himself a moment of rest and the king to digest every event's retelling.

The king sat, incredulous as he took it all in, remembering each event in turn. Each explanation the servant had spouted compared with the truth. "I don't understand you, Merlin. Why would you risk so much for me?"

It didn't make sense. Merlin should have turned back and left the day he set foot in Camelot. He had to have seen the executions at some point before becoming his servant, so what possible reason could he have to stay? Arthur knew he hadn't made it easy on him in the beginning, so what would have possessed the idiot to not only risk the possibility of his secret being found out and killed for having magic, but to continually throw his life in peril for the son of a man who would not so much as blink when sentencing him to his end; not of it added up. Merlin was not a coward, but he was also not stupid.

"I told you." Merlin stated tiredly. "Eventually we became friends, and you are a royal, granted a royal pain, but a royal nonetheless." Again he paused, wheezing lightly and trying to catch his breath. His chest had been burning for a while but he had brushed it off, determined to tell Arthur the truth he had wanted to from the beginning.

"Why did you not leave even after your knowledge of the law? How did keep yourself from fleeing or at least smacking me upside the head?" He paused remembering all the hunting trips that had almost ended in their deaths, all the training sessions where he had fought the servant that could not defend himself so easily. "I know it couldn't have been easy for you back then, not that I helped much."

"The half cannot truly hate that which makes it whole."

"Come again?"

Merlin would have laughed hearing the response similar to his own echoed back at him, but the burning in his lungs was worsening by the second, so he settled on a slight scoff.

"It's a bit complicated, anyway my entire life has been decided on the measures I took to keep my secret hidden. If not for Gaius to guide me, things could have take a very different course."

A brief image of Morgana flashed across his mind. He sighed, trying not to wince from the raging fire in his chest that almost blocked out all the wounds he had yet to recover from. Almost. "Other then the kingdom's grandeur, it wasn't all that different from my life before." He shrugged, an annoyed hiss escaping him when his shoulder had reminded him of the projectile that had once been lodged in it.

Arthur seemed to hear and notice his increasing discomfort, and was about to speak when the servant, as per usual, cut him off.

"Besides, it is my destiny.. to protect you."

Breathing had become near agony for the warlock as he made an effort to control it. However he knew it was inevitable to keep the brief cough clawing up his throat at bay, and was unable to thwart it any longer. Managing his breathing had become a work of intense labor, every injury threatening to overwhelm him completely. His sudden panic at the thought of it, as well as heavy exhaustion compelled black dots to danced across his vision.

"Merlin!" Arthur exclaimed worriedly. Watching as the servant's hardened mask shattered, braking out in pain and alarm using both hands to cast his torso in a protective hold from an enemy that could not be seen.

Arthur rushed to stand beside him and put a comforting hand on his back while he doubled over in pain. "Hang on, breathe okay?" he tried, glancing around the chambers as though he could will help to appear without calling for it.

"I'll go get Gaius." He stated, and honestly he wanted to aid the injured man, and the knight's instincts told him Merlin needed a physician's aid, but he feared leaving him alone in such a state, not entirely trusting anyone else to watch him.

"Don't bother." The servant stated in a huff as he finally gave into the overwhelming darkness.

Arthur's brain was flying in too many directions to think straight. He wasn't sure what to do to help an injured man that had passed out and was wheezing in a great effort to simply breathe. Moving him might make any injures, fading as well as recent, worse and hurt him even further, if that were even possible. He wanted to yell for the guards to bring the court physician, but that could become misconstrued as a cry for help and put him in an ever worsening position.

Another thing that kept sending the king's thoughts into a freeze was the man's continually paling skin, sweat forming on his brow, and the pained expression marring his face. Merlin had collapsed forward his arms still wrapped around his torso, while his face rested on the table. The knight had time to register a small, cut off groan explode through the too silent room before Sir Leon threw the door open, as the Arthur had obviously not heard him call, admitting the very man he had been hoping to appear.

Gaius walked in behind Leon and was about to apologize for barging in when he caught sight of his ward temporarily hidden by the back of the chair. He rushed over to the pair, putting a hand on the boy's shoulder before glancing over and recognizing the look of stunned fear on the king's face. Quickly he went to feel the servant's wet and abnormally warm forehead.

Arthur turned his attention to the knight, anger diminishing most of his anxiety. "What took you so long?" he nearly yelled, not even making an effort to keep his voice down so as not to alert any one else.

"I'm sorry my lord, I was questioning the guards surrounding the area where Merlin was attacked to get more information before any witnesses could disappear. I woke Gaius and explained what had happened and headed straight for you're chambers."

"You thought the injuries of a wounded man less important?" He barked, acknowledging the knight's logic in catching the culprit, but he was too angry to give him the credit. It wasn't Leon's fault entirely, the man had always been exceedingly rational in these situations and Arthur had even admired him for that. No, it wasn't Leon who he was angry with.

"I didn't think you thought they were important."

The king was stung with a pang of regret. Had he really seemed so indifferent? Or had he been to involved in his own ailments to care?

A quiet voice sounded in the brief silence that followed.

"He's burning."

The irony was too obvious to be ignored. Arthur felt a rush of guilt and a horrible twist of nausea as he turned back to the physician.

"His fever is far too high. I need to get him back to my chambers, then I can assess the rest of his injuries." The physician reported.

Leon looked over to the physician and back to his king who numbly nodded in response. The knight crossed the room, and with incredible care, pushed the warlock into a sitting position and into his arms.

Gaius led the way through the doors of the royal chambers for the knight to follow, leaving the king alone with his thoughts.

Back in the physician's chambers, Leon carefully laid the servant on the patient's cot while Gaius retrieved his supplies. The knight waited, asking if there was anything he could do. The physician shook his head advising him to get some rest. The knight conceded and took his leave.

Gaius took a ready made damp cloth and applied it to his ward's scorching head. He took in the dried blood on his head, nose and mouth, along with a bruise on his throat he believed to not be severe enough to cause the boy's irregular breathing.

An idea crossed his mind and he took hold of the servant shirt exposing a horrifying sight. There was a very obvious protrusion from the warlock's torso that he was shocked he hadn't seen it immediately. Swollen and bruising badly was a nearly dislodged rib poking out enough that he wondered how the warlock had been able to move or breathe easily if at all. Pitying the boy that had been not only been confined in his chamber but due to the state of his leg, he looked down to his right leg, which had swollen again to an almost unsafe size.

He smiled through slightly tearful eyes. Merlin would not be happy when he woke. It was going to be a long night.

Okay so I have written out most of this story, but each chapter I have made previously is very short, so I'm having to go back and beef it up a bit.

This fic has changed considerably from the way it was when I first wrote it. I continue to hope it is being well received by all who have read it.

I used some of the synopsis on wikipidea on this chapter to help with my own brief over views of the seasons.

Thank you to all who have read/reviewed/favorited this fic! Please continue to do so!