I am going to be honest with you, I had really hoped that I had written more of this story by now. I really want to get this on to updating three times a week but I haven't written any of it for a while now. I tried last night and instead of writing a chapter as I had hoped, I wrote just over 100 words. I have no idea what is up but on Monday I start University again and after last term, I really need to do better.

Obviously I will try my hardest but it looks like, for now at least, this is going to be on a slow update.

As I have finished preparing for uni at the moment, I will try and write something today but I really doubt it at the moment.

The News of the Assassin

Merlin threw down the quill. It was times like this that he hated the fact that he was born a peasant. He knew how to read, his mother had always made sure he could do that much. He knew that she would have loved to teach him how to write but she was only a beginner at that as well, only writing what she had to and it taking her ages to do. She could never find the patience to teach him when she was constantly frustrated by it. Well by the time he was old enough to start to learn, he was more focused on being outside all the time.

He also knew that some of the lords still saw him as the servant rather than their king. Just because he wore the crown and dressed better didn't mean that people accepted him. It was times like this, when Merlin felt the weight of the crown crushing him, which he wished that he took up Morgana's offer and they just ran off with the druids. Arthur could do the role he had been prepared for and everything would turn out fine.

But then history would have ended with the Pendragons in Camelot. Merlin knew that he should have tried to gain some more support on the inside first before he found his father. There were still a few knights and lords that had fought by his grandfather's side and they took his and his father's side and Merlin was grateful for them. He had what they thought as well as Arthur's advice.

Merlin knew that he couldn't run a kingdom when only half the council supported him and the other half seeing him as nothing more than a piece of mud on their boot. Everything frustrated him and he wanted so desperately to finish his father's work and complete part of his destiny. He wanted magic to be legal.

He still had the dreams of magic flowing through the streets. He wanted that dream to become reality.

"Merlin, we have news."

Merlin jumped up at Arthur's voice and he tried to play it off.

"I scared you right."

"No, I was just … you shouldn't sneak up on your king like that."

"We have news. Who do you want to hear it?"

He scratched the stubble that was starting to grow.

In the end, he had the people he trusted most.

As it was about his father, Merlin knew his mother had to be present, no matter how hard it would be for her to hear. Well she actually demanded that she needed to be there and he wasn't going to stop her. Gaius was there as well for moral support.

When Morgana had got word that there was news, she demanded as well to be by his side. Merlin was going to have her down there anyway. His father had become like a second father to her … well maybe a third but she wouldn't really count Uther as a father figure now. She deserved to know what had been found out. She would be there to support him.

Gwen was allowed down because of the pure fact that she was there to support Morgana but then again Merlin trusted her. She was on the balcony with them.

Merlin would have had Lancelot with them but then he thought that he would be better to guard the room that they were in. He reassured him that he did trust him but Lancelot told him that he understood.

They had gone into one of the many rooms underneath the great castle. Balinor had taken Merlin around them not long after they had taken back what was rightfully theirs. He had been so excited to show them. Merlin had been taught all the secrets of the castle within a day and there was no way he was going to share them. Arthur didn't even know that the part of the castle they were in existed.

The man that had the information waited for them to settle before he spoke.

"I am sorry that it has taken so long milord." He said in his low, gruff voice. "But finding out who was behind it was a big task. The arrow that you gave us could have been made by any artillator in the land. They were very simple arrow. So we had to look harder and lucky there was a mark on the arrowhead. It wasn't one known to me but after a while we found that the artillator was a man named Kayburn, he works and trades in Kernow."

"That's Odin's lands." Arthur commented.

"Exactly." The man said.

Arthur placed his head in his hands.

"Odin? Guessing not a very nice man." Merlin said.

"Him and my father never really got along. They both have the same opinion on magic. It was the only thing that they every agreed on. Odin thought that my father was too soft on magic. He constantly said that he would have allowed them to get away. I never really understood what they were going on about until now."

"He was talking about my father and grandmother."

"Odin has never really been a friend of Camelot. I suppose he may have felt threatened that if it was made legal in the place where it first became illegal then, like the purge, everyone would follow afterwards and then he would feel pressured into doing it. As I said, he shared my father's view on magic."

Merlin stood up and started to pace, chewing on the skin around his thumb nail. He could feel everyone watching him.

"So I am not even fighting my own council over magic but a king that I have never met and hates my existence."

"Merlin." Hunith said.

"Just father made this look all so easy." He said before leaving the room.

Hunith went to get up but Morgana stopped her.

"Just let it all sink in. Everything is still fresh and he has so many plans and dreams but cannot make them a reality."

The older woman nodded before mentioning that she needed to retire herself.

Arthur sighed back into his seat and thanked the man for the information.

"You need to stop." Morgana said.

"What are you on about?"

"Merlin may have agreed that you were in charge slightly as he mourned but he is now king. Just advise him that he needs to know these things. You cannot do all his work for him or he might as well never have met his father."

"Are you accusing me of trying to take Camelot off Merlin?" Arthur said, sounding hurt by it.

"If anything I am telling you what people are starting to think. I know that you aren't like your father and you would never try and take Camelot off your own cousin but you have to make Merlin believe that he is going to be a good king. I have tried but I think that if we both do it then he is less likely to abdicate and give it to you."

"He wouldn't do that."

"He has spoken to me many times about running off to find a druid camp and living that way. He lacks confidence Arthur. So please start taking a more back seat approach to helping Merlin out with his duties. Or otherwise … I fear that the kingdom will fall back to Uther."

Morgana left without another word.