ix.

Merlin ignored Arthur's raspy breaths to explore the magic barrier. The barrier permeated the air, but the strongest of it was entwined into the stone. Merlin went to the wall and pressed his hand to it. The magic that had been forced there pulsed angrily beneath his palm. He had never done anything like it before but he was certain that with enough care, he could handle the pure magic without disturbing the affectation that would throw his magic back at him. Slowly, so as not to disturb the barrier, he drew the life from the stones. Then, using the magic against itself, he forced it back in. It was easy enough after that, accelerating the life force until it weakened and began wilting into death.

When the barrier was weak enough, he reached beyond it. It would still detect a sudden and strong force, like flight, but Merlin knew what would get through. Nature grew outside of the stone walls, he could feel that much from the moment they landed here. He grew the weeds, the mold, the ivy. Digging into crumbled weak spots and snaking through holes in the stone, nature lived out its natural course in a matter of minutes.

Merlin took a few steps back, pulling the ivy along with him. The stones began to crack and strain. Finally, in a plume of dust, the stone crumbled. A cragged hole gaped open in its place, allowing fresh air and sunlight to stream through the dust. His plan had worked, but he was sure Gareth would detect the disturbance.

Merlin returned to Arthur's side. "Can you get up?" he asked. Arthur lay unresponsive. Merlin grit his teeth and hooked his arms under the man.

Flight magic could easily transport Merlin and Arthur and another number of men with ease. Using only his physical strength, Merlin could barely manage to drag the man across the floor. He had met kings before. They tended to the portly side. Arthur, however, for his small stature, was built entirely of muscle. Merlin would have gladly traded for a bit of fat in that moment.

He huffed his way to the wall without stopping to rest. As he predicted, moments later, Gareth came barreling down the stairs. He did not bother to use magic—in a panicked state, it did not come naturally to humans.

"Stop!" Gareth screeched, first to Merlin, then he turned around and shouted to the air. "Stop them!"

Knights stepped out from shadows, which clung after them like a viscous substance. Arthur's knights. Merlin ignored them and heaved Arthur over the largest rubble and stumbled into the light of day.

As the magic lifted from his shoulders, the air drawing fresh and light into his lungs, Merlin met Gareth's angry gaze, and smiled. He flew.

He landed in the middle of the dreary room Arthur had deemed his 'bed chambers'. Merlin had not spent much time there, but it seemed a better place to bring Arthur than the king's chambers where any number of people could be.

Arthur groaned as Merlin lay him on the floor. He leaned over the king, not bothering to situate himself properly, and held his hands to the gaping wound.

As the flesh closed over itself, Arthur stirred. He opened his eyes and tried to sit up, but Merlin held him down. "You lost a lot of blood," he said, looking down at the rush mats turned red and sticky. Arthur looked down at them too, then shoved Merlin's hands away to sit up.

"What happened?" he asked groggily, running his hand over the scar on his side. It didn't hurt at all, as though it had healed years ago. His torn and bloodied shirt told otherwise. He squinted at Merlin, who was grinning back at him with his usual jester expression. "I thought there was no way out."

Merlin shrugged, nonchalant but clearly quite pleased with himself. "I found a way."

"Next time, find a way faster," Arthur hissed. He started to stand, but all at once his head felt heavy and his vision turned black. Merlin caught the king as he toppled forward, falling back against his heels under the weight. In another moment Arthur's senses came back and he looked up at Merlin in a daze.

Merlin's breath hitched. Sunlight fell across Arthur's face and lit his eyes up like the blue of a quiet sea. It made Arthur look a way Merlin had never seen before. The moment was lost not a second later as Arthur shoved himself off of Merlin and sat up again.

Merlin recovered from the spell quick enough. "I told you, you lost too much blood. You have to rest and drink water."

"I don't have time for that," Arthur said, but he remained sitting. "Does anyone know we're here? Did anyone notice we were gone?"

"I don't know," Merlin said. "There was no one here when we landed. Certainly, anyone will take a look at you and realize something occurred."

Arthur looked down at his wrecked shirt. He noticed his empty scabbard for the first time and darted his eyes across the room before they fell onto Merlin again. Merlin was already intimately familiar with that look to know what was coming. "You left my sword?!" Arthur spat. "We must go back and get it! We need to retrieve Gwaine's body, too."

"No," Merlin said.

Arthur paused and looked at him. "Excuse me?"

"No," Merlin repeated with a shrug. "It is too dangerous to go back."

"That sword was forged by the realm's best blacksmith! And who knows what blasphemy Gareth will do to Gwaine!" Arthur's anger had never bothered Merlin, but the stupidity of it now rose his own anger. He took a deep breath, tempering his emotions as he had in the dungeon. Mortals were no match for his anger, and a bout of it could surely kill the king.

"We both almost died because of your choices," Merlin said, his voice low and steady. "I saved your life. Again. I will not put it in danger—again. Now, I will find you new clothes and bring you somewhere to wash." He vanished in an instant that left Arthur blinking and disoriented.

As infuriating as it was to be treated as a child, Arthur could not argue. He was fully prepared to accept death if it was the consequence of his decisions, but to put someone else in that position, especially not a knight who had accepted the same reality, was exactly what Arthur needed to avoid if he wanted to put himself above Gareth and the countless other tyrant kings of old.

He did not know why Merlin continued to save his life or help him at all. Nothing stopped the fairy from flying back to his forest and never returning to Camelot.

Arthur closed his eyes. He had accomplished what he sought to; he found out where his men's bodies had gone, and confirmed it was Gareth behind everything. It was time to gather his allies and take action against that rogue king.

Merlin popped back into the room, his arms full of trousers and shirts. "Here," he said, dumping them unceremoniously to the ground. "I knew you would have problems with anything I chose so I grabbed as many as I could carry." The impatience and abrupt tone of his voice was a stark contrast from the fairy's usual lackadaisical nature. Arthur stared up at him, and Merlin stared back for several seconds before throwing his hands up. "What? Are none of these to your liking?"

Arthur looked down at the haphazard pile. "No," he said mildly. "They will work."

"Then why are you looking at me like that?"

"Are you going to leave now?" Arthur asked him. "Return to your forest?"

Merlin furrowed his eyebrows. "No. Why would you think that?"

Arthur shrugged. "You almost died because of me and you don't seem happy here. Why are you staying?"

Merlin crossed his arms. "I will stay where I need to until all this is resolved. Come with me and I'll bring you to a stream to drink and clean yourself." He held out his hands.

Arthur looked at his palms, fighting the reflex to take the offer. How easy he had grown accustomed to the convenience of magic. "Is what Gareth said true?" he asked. "That humans have killed your kind?"

Merlin dropped his hands to his side and regarded Arthur with an incredulous look. "He did not say that."

"He said something like it. He said our civilization was destroying magic. That eventually it will kill you. So why are you helping me?"

Merlin huffed out a breath and rolled his eyes. "Remember what I told you? You humans want to know and only know, searching endlessly for the logic behind everything. You do not try to fully comprehend, nor are you able."

Arthur smirked. "Tell me anyway."

Merlin narrowed his eyes at the king. Then he sat cross-legged before him and leaned forward. "Gareth's words were true," he said. He watched Arthur's reaction to it. The man furrowed his eyebrows and regarded Merlin with silent concern. He decided to continue. "And my kind, were they still alive in any number, would likely join forces with him. But the forest created me because of their failure to instill their intentions into my antecedents."

Arthur's concern had dropped to utter bafflement. "Are you speaking in riddles on purpose?"

Merlin closed his eyes. "Trees always have, and always will, love humans unconditionally. They give their lives so you can live. They bear fruit, so that you can eat. They offer shade, so that you can rest. They give their wood, so that you have shelter. And they kindle fire, so that you can be warm. Humans used to take care of trees in return, but gradually your kind stopped and turned your attention only to fulfilling your own needs and desires. The trees continued sacrificing themselves for you, and only want to see you flourish. But they needed the role that humans abandoned filled again, and so the Dryads made fairies in human likeness. My kind cared for the forest for generations, their own population growing. They grew bitter and resentful, not only of the humans for failing their part, but towards the trees for still loving humans regardless. They started a war."

"The legends…" Arthur murmured. "They were true? My mother told me stories of the battles between fairies and humans, but they were only silly tales." He paused, thinking back to his childhood. "In fact, it is what children are told to warn them of going into the forest alone. A fairy will snatch them up and hang them by their toes over boiling water."

Merlin's mouth pressed into a straight line. "They never did anything as ridiculous as that but there are some truths to it. And you are on the right path. It is because of the war that humans began not only neglecting the forest, but fearing it. They began to prefer their stone fortresses over green shadowed paths. And when they could, they tore trees down to replace them with such.

"As the trees died, the fairies' magics wilted. We are by our very nature a part of the forest, and our magic is woven into the bark of the trees. We cannot stand on our own. Humans were winning the war. But it was the trees who finished it. They could not watch their creation murder those they sought to protect. The Dryads rose together and used their rarely combined strength to call back the fairies' magics. They stole it from them and rewove it all into me. As I awoke, my forebears weakened and died. I could feel every death from their strands of magic within me. It was my first lesson of the love the trees had for your kind."

"You're the only fairy left?" Arthur asked.

Merlin shook his head. "A few survived who resisted the draining of their magic. They are scattered and have not tried to restart a war. Their numbers are too small. I do not know if they all still hold such hatred in their hearts. I have only ever met one other fairy, and she had held onto her anger. I drove her from the forest and do not know what became of her."

Arthur took a deep breath and held it for a moment, as though he could infuse all this bizarre new information into himself. It was certainly a lot to take in. He was not sure how much he could believe. "Perhaps she terrorizes us still," Arthur said. "There are the occasional claims from rural areas of fairies and mischief being done to people or livestock."

"Perhaps," Merlin agreed. "But mischief does not suit her. She was quite strong, even for me. Her name was Morgana." Arthur's eyes widened and Merlin leaned back. "It is familiar?"

"Queen Morgana," Arthur whispered. "Wife of King Urien. Mother of King Gareth."

Author's Notes: Hello my lovely lovely readers! I am so sorry there was no chapter last week; I got a new job and have had a bunch of computer problems that were no fun whatsoever. Also I gotta apologize for these last two chapters being very info-dump heavy. I promise we will be back to romance and angst and shenanigans in the next chapter! You just have to humor this silly little writer and her world building obsession every once in a while~ Thank you for all your support and patience!