Hello! Another update! And a Happy Easter to all those who celebrate, and a happy day to those who don't :)
Enjoy!
~Ra1n
Previously...
"How long has he been awake?" The druidian leader asked.
Gwen shook her head. "He hasn't."
Iseldir looked at her and smiled a little.
"Well, he is now."
The whole room went silent.
"He's what?" Gaius squawked, rushing towards Merlin's side. Iseldir had already knelt by the boy's head, and was now whispering something, blocking the rest of the room's view.
"Merlin?" Gaius's voice was cautious. Iseldir stopped murmuring and leaned back to allow a clear view of the warlock's face. Sure enough, Merlin's eyes were slivered open, his jaw slack and his brow furrowed. At the sound of his name, he turned his head painfully to the side, his half-lidded eyes landing on Gaius. His throat worked beneath the collar.
"Guh..." He slurred.
Gaius knelt down and took his hand, squeezing it gently. Merlin blinked, his eyes rolling back into his head for a moment, the whites painfully visible. Then he shuddered and winced and opened them again, dull blue in sunken sockets.
"Guh...iss…?" he forced out, his brow creasing with confusion.
Gaius felt his eyes fill with tears. "Yes, my boy. It's me."
Merlin blinked slowly, his eyes unfocused. "M'...neck...hu-h'rs." His brow suddenly crumpled, and a few tears ran down his cheeks. He took a deep, painful breath between each word. "'M...s'ry." His bony fingers moved to touch the collar around his neck, and his eyes filled with tears. "'M suh-sorry."
"There's no need to be sorry." Gaius said, placing a hand on Merlin's forehead. At the contact, Merlin swallowed painfully.
"'I-I- 'm dead?" He whispered, his eyes turning to look at Iseldir sadly. "Let y-yuh-duh-down. 'M s'ry."
Iseldir shook his head. "You're not dead, Emrys."
Merlin nodded. "'M duh-dead. 'M dead."
"No, Emrys. You are safe now. You are with Gaius." Iseldir tried catching the warlock's eye as he spoke, but his eyes kept wandering around the room, stopping on different faces without focusing.
"I don' hafff plans. Promise."
"We know you don't, mate," Gwaine said, emerging from the back of the room. Merlin's eyes widened. "'G'aine?"
The knight smiled. "It's me."
Merlin smiled back. "Hm. G-Good."
His eyes slipped closed, but opened again not a moment later.
"Please," Merlin gasped, his fingers gripping the collar once again, "Oh g'd, please. Suh-stop."
Iseldir stood very quietly, his eyes full of sympathy and maybe a little regret. Gwaine's stomach dropped as he remembered the conversation in the woods, but willed it away. Merlin couldn't live with a collar around his neck for the rest of his life. He wouldn't survive it.
Iseldir knelt so that he was eye-to-eye with Merlin.
"Emrys," he said. His voice was full and loud over Merlin's frail one. Merlin's eyes traveled to look at his, fingers still clenched against the collar.
"Please," Merlin whispered, "it huh-hurrs." His voice was only marginally stronger than before. He winced as a tremor moved down his spine.
"I know, Emrys." Iseldir stole a glance at Gaius, and when he spoke, he spoke to the entire room. "If I could take the pain away right now, I would. But magic does not work on iron, and the collar is designed to react to any spell being cast inside of it." He looked at Merlin thinking out loud, "and yet... the pain isn't from casting, is it?"
Merlin stared blankly. Iseldir sighed before repeating the question, slowly, and Merlin finally shook his head.
Iseldir nodded. "I thought so. You gain magic from the earth and the air around you. It sustains you, both your soul and your body." He looked back at Gaius, "The pain isn't directly from the collar."
"What are you playing at? He-" Gwaine was cut off by Iseldir before he could finish.
"I said not directly. Collars like these- they need to be activated by spells. By casting. Otherwise, they are just preventing the sorcerer from accessing his magic. But Merlin is a warlock, so instead of having magic, he is magic. He is feeling pain because his body is unable to properly sustain itself without the aid of its magic."
"So it's killing him," Gaius said quietly.
"It should be," Iseldir furrowed his brow as he searched Merlin's face, "but you're still here." He reached his hand out, "May I?"
Merlin gasped, but jerked his head slightly in a nod.
Iseldir ran his fingers along the runes of the collar, then the inner jewels, cringing a little as they made contact with his own skin. Merlin made a few pained noises, but didn't move away from the touch. The Druid's frown deepened.
"There isn't…" He ran his fingers along one of the runes again. "Who etched these?"
"The court scribe," Gaius said. "Is there something wrong with the runes?"
Iseldir shook his head, but his brow was still furrowed. He stood up. "No, but I thought there would be. These collars can kill a warlock, even without the jewels. They simply cannot survive without their magic. I assumed there was some kind of flaw in the etching, something letting a little magic in, and that was why he was doing so well."
Everybody looked at Merlin. They didn't want to think about how this was doing well.
"But there are no flaws. The runes are complete. The only other way the collar could possibly be allowing enough magic in to keep Merlin alive would be if there was a hole in the collar itself somewhere. But in that case, I would be able to feel the magic flow to the area, as would Merlin, so it is obvious that there is no hole. And yet… it's almost as if he isn't fully inside of the collar."
"But that is impossible," Gaius said.
Iseldir pursed his lips. "That may be, but all the same, Merlin is still breathing." He knelt again, resting a hand on Merlin's cheek. The warlock flinched but quickly calmed himself, his glassy eyes coming to rest on Iseldir. Iseldir held the eye contact as he spoke. "Where is your magic, Emrys?" He whispered, "Can you feel it?"
Merlin continued to stare, reactionless.
"Emrys, I need you to hear me. You must feel it somewhere; it is the only thing keeping you alive. Where is it coming from? Please, listen to me."
Merlin whimpered and shook his head, attempting to shy away from the Druid's contact. Iseldir held firm, keeping his hand on his cheek, urging him to open his eyes again. There was a long moment where nothing happened, and then Merlin's eyes fluttered open and came to rest on Iseldir.
"Destiny," he gasped, and Iseldir immediately understood.
"We need to get Arthur in here," Iseldir said, standing suddenly. The occupants of the room all stood as well, but more in a frantic confusion than in any productive way.
Finally, Gaius got his wits about him. "Why?" He asked, glancing from Merlin to Iseldir.
Iseldir was speaking excitedly. "Because he and Arthur are tied together with a destiny that has existed since the beginning of time. What is it, 'two sides of the same coin?' 'A half cannot truly hate that which makes it whole?' Either way, he and Arthur are incomplete without each other. They do not and cannot exist independently. And so the collar might be cutting Merlin off from his magic, but his destiny is still intact. And that destiny, that magic, is still a part of Arthur. And so Arthur is the weakest link. He is the part of Merlin that is free, whose magic is not bound. The hole in the barrier that should be killing Merlin. So to remove the collar, we need to exploit that hole. Magic does not work on iron, but there are ways to enlarge a hole."
"But how do we do we do that? If there is no physical hole-"
"It's the magic connection between Merlin and Arthur that is the hole, not Arthur himself. We need to utilize that connection, to press the magic directly through that tunnel, so to speak.
"But we can't just go about casting spells on Arthur, surely." Gaius was slowly approaching
"Of course not. The magic has to be direct. It has to go through Arthur. The king needs to wield it himself."