The Return of the King
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It was a wild and woolly day when the dazed man crested the hill and saw Camelot visible on the horizon. Stark black clouds gathered behind him and the wind whipped with rage through the trees. The man's deathly ashen skin gleamed like cold marble in the eerie just-before-a-storm light that flooded the world. Watery-blue eyes gazed unseeingly as the empty man made his way on shaky legs towards the castle, and deafened ears heard not one of the gasps or excited whispers or joyous cries that followed him.
"The King! The King returns!"
-x-
To the kingdom, it was Merlin who died. Merlin, the faithful servant. Merlin, the secret sorcerer who had won the battle for Camelot. A funeral was planned, lavish as Arthur would have wanted and Guinevere demanded, and if there were those who noticed the King's inexplicable reluctance to participate, they explained it away by his grief for his manservant and the lingering effect of his wounds.
But to five people – Guinevere, Gaius, Leon, Percival, and Hunith – the funeral was for Arthur, the man they could not mourn openly, for Arthur, the true Arthur, had journeyed to Avalon and his most loyal servant was practicing one final deceit to protect the kingdom of the other half of his soul.
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As any wise person could tell you, it is harder to fool a woman than a man when it comes to recognizing a loved one. Men may plan and dream and reach their hands out to grasp something higher and higher, but it is women who have to keep the world going, making sure the children are fed and the linens washed while their man is out spinning his grandiose schemes.
Gwen had seen right away, bringing her laughing, crying dash down the steps to a painfully awkward halt, but she had been too shocked and confused to say a word. But Arthur the imposter took both her hands in his and proclaimed his devotion so convincingly that the crowd was fooled and left smiling with joy when the newly returned King led his bride away to their private chambers.
The Queen took the truth with poise; only a tightening of her jaw and the despair in her eyes gave away her pain. But then it was a truth she'd already known in her heart. She had never let a tear fall in public, and refused to do so now, but she would mourn for the rest of her life.
As for Hunith, when the "King" rode to Ealdor to inform her of her son's death, knowledge and acceptance were both in her eyes, and the tears she let fall were not for her son's life, but for her son's grief and the necessity of the role he must play.
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Gaius, too, accepted Merlin's fate, but also grieved not only for the true Arthur, whom he'd known since the King had been a babe in arms, but for Merlin as well. For his "son" was dead, in a way. No longer would Gaius hear his boy in the next room, or share a simple meal with his apprentice, or talk about magic in hushed tones with the worried young warlock while the moon rose and fell. "Merlin" ceased to exist, and only "King Arthur" remained.
However, Gaius was a wise man. He knew that Guinevere would never have been allowed to reign for long, not being peasant and woman both. Every lord on the council and half the knights all possessed more royal blood and claim to the throne than she, and it was rare that even a royal woman could rule independently for long. Foreign kings would have vied for her hand, and when that failed, they would have gathered their armies to invade, conquering Camelot and forcing the Queen to marry whichever one of them won out. Indeed, even if Gwen could've held onto power – and Gaius had no doubt that if any woman could, it would have been Queen Guinevere – the kingdom would have been wracked by constant war, from within and without. Camelot would have been engulfed in a continual bloody struggle, with the people left suffering and destitute in its wake.
But with "Arthur" back, the land could be stable, and even grow.
As time went on, by day Gaius looked with pride on the peaceful kingdom he called home, marvelling at its two wise rulers, but by night he felt nothing else but a longing for what had been.
-x-
People came and went. Camelot made peace with the druids and eventually even instituted an uneasy truce with magickind. The druids too, instantly saw who "Arthur" was, but the prophecies they sang to their children never made it out to the wider world. It was enough, for now at least, to know that Emrys was with them, and working for the greater good of all.
Hunith, granted a house in Camelot in her son's name, came to live near Gaius in his later days. He moved in with her and his quarters were assigned to the new court physician and her apprentice. But before that, Hunith served as nanny to the young Prince Llacheu, whose upbringing was as happy as his father's had been lonely. For he was the true Arthur's son, though of course, he never knew that the man who raised him was not the man who'd sired him.
Leon and Percival were the stalwart support of the reigning couple, but as Llacheu grew Percival found it harder and harder to continue with this deception. He knew it was for the best for all concerned, but a lie is wearing, and when Llacheu entered his eighteenth year, Percival's King graciously gave him permission to leave on a quest. Sir Percival travelled far and wide, helping everyone he could, and telling them of the promise of Camelot, and in the end he settled down with a fine woman and had seven children who had no idea he'd once been a knight.
Leon, meanwhile, continued to guide the young Prince along with the King and Queen. Stories in later centuries would sing of Guinevere's love for Lancelot, but it was Leon who shared her bed, and only after many years. Merlin and Gwen shared years of affection and kindness, but the spectre of Arthur was always between them, even if romantic love had not already been burdened by the never-ending lie of their situation. The love between Leon and Guinevere was never what she had had with Arthur, but it brought comfort and happiness to both.
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The year Llacheu was made Crown Prince, "Arthur" decided it was time for the play-acting to end. Arthur "died," with suitable drama and heroic action, for a second time. The druids came to bear away his mortal remains to the Kingdom of Avalon and the King was sent off with a level of pageantry never witnessed before or since.
The newly crowned King Llacheu rode as far as he could with his father's burial procession (as he was mortal, nor near death, he could not see the lake itself), then made camp with Leon and some of his closest knights, there to await the return of the Druids, who had promised to bring him a vial of the lake's water as their gift to him.
That night, a dark-haired stranger emerged from out of the trees. The King was about to ask the stranger's name when Leon laughed out loud and rushed to embrace the unknown man. "Merlin!" he cried.
The great wizard Merlin had returned, this time to guide a King instead of being one.