My gosh, the response to this has just been so amazing! It simply blows my mind!

Thank you so much to absolutely everyone who's reviewed, favorited, or story/author alerted! Or even if you've just read (my visitors count has skyrocketed to over a thousand!)! You simply can't imagine how much this response means to me! I hope this chapter is just as enjoyable as the others have, apparently, been! :)

I think maybe I've said this enough now, but I'll say it just this once more and leave it alone hereafter: Not Merthur. Don't like, don't read.

Merlin TV show and characters (c) BBC and their respective actors.

Merlin had a choice now. Arthur didn't believe him, so two options lay before him: the young wizard could just laugh his confession off as the joke the prince thought it was or… or he could prove it and risk his life, for Arthur's sake, again. The first choice was, undoubtedly, the safest. But… he hated living a lie. He hated that his best friend, someone he would willingly die for, might think he didn't trust him. He decided he'd take his chances, that dying for the truth was better than living for a lie.

The young warlock looked at Arthur, noticing his friend's humor had been replaced by a paralyzed shock. So he was at least entertaining the idea. Gathering his courage, something akin to the fire he felt whenever Arthur's life was threatened, Merlin challenged the prince. "Do you want me to prove it?"

Slowly, still dazed, Arthur nodded.

Merlin lifted his hand, searching blue eyes never leaving his friend's face, waiting for that telling first reaction, whether he would live or die. He spoke the words aloud, knowing Arthur would recognize the language of the Old Religion as that employed by all the magic-users they had run into over the last three years. As soon as the words left his lips, a softly glowing blue orb floated an inch or two above the raven-haired warlock's hand, bathing him in its pale light.

Arthur drew in a sharp breath as he watched his friend perform the magic that would mean the end of his life if anyone ever reported it to the king. The blonde prince's first reaction was awe-filled, that this person, a boy he considered his best friend, would trust him enough to place his continued existence in the young Pendragon's hands, giving him the power over Merlin's life or death. But then suspicion and bitterness crashed in like a wave. How could he possibly trust Merlin, when the young man had been hiding such a treacherous secret from him for so long? What else had he hidden from the prince? And what if the wizard before him was only trying to gain his trust in order to do something horrible to Camelot? But it's Merlin, whispered another, less skeptical portion of his mind, Merlin, his emotional, goofy, loyal-to-a-fault, manservant/best friend. How could he possibly doubt Merlin's sincerity and loyalty after the last three years, when the raven-haired boy had proven time and time again how willing he was to sacrifice himself for Camelot, for the king, for Arthur himself? The blonde boy shook his head, trying to sort through the tangle of emotion and logical reasoning muddling his mind. And then something occurred to him. Taking a closer look at the orb floating above Merlin's hand, he realized it looked oddly familiar… But that was absurd. He'd never seen Merlin's magic before. Had he? Then it hit him: the orb looked exactly like the one that had led him safely from the cave when he'd gone to find the Morteus flower, the time Merlin had drunk poison to protect him. Arthur looked up, searching his friend's gaze, wondering if the boy had protected him even then, on his deathbed. But he wasn't quite sure how to ask. So he just took a deep breath and jumped in. "I've… seen that before," he said, gesturing toward the blue orb that Merlin was now absently playing with as he awaited the prince's decision. "When you were poisoned, and I had to get the Morteus flower to save you, an orb just like that one guided me out of the cave. I knew it was magic but that didn't seem to matter, as whoever had sent it had just saved my life… Did you do that?"

Merlin simply looked at him for a minute before answering completely truthfully, "I don't know. I remember next to nothing about what happened after I drank the poison. All I can tell you is that, despite being unconscious, I knew you were in danger. And my destiny is to protect you, so maybe it was me. Gaius would probably know."

The comment about Merlin's destiny baffled Arthur. So he decided to leave it alone for now. Instead, he asked, "So Gaius knows about… about this?" The blonde boy gestured vaguely at his raven-haired companion.

Merlin nodded. "Yeah, I saved him from a fall off a ladder the day I got here. He's been helping me hide it ever since."

Arthur considered this new information for a moment. What Gaius was doing, harboring and protecting a warlock, was treasonous. But the prince could understand. He, too, felt the need to protect this hapless boy standing in front of him no matter what he had done, a boy with a secret more dangerous than a sword was sharp…

The young Pendragon was torn. Keeping Merlin's secret meant betraying his father and going against everything he'd ever known about magic. But betraying Merlin to his father meant sentencing his best friend, the most loyal, trustworthy person he'd ever known, to certain death. Either action had consequences. The question was, which set of results could he live with? The prince decided he needed more information. He had a few questions and the person best suited to answering them was standing right in front of him. After a second or two of quiet, Arthur asked, "How long have you been practicing magic?" and was a bit taken aback at Merlin's prompt response.

"All my life. I was born with magic, I didn't learn it, it's always just been there. I was moving things with magic before I could walk. I have been studying though, to improve, so that I can better protect you…" The warlock fell silent again.

The blonde prince contemplated this for a moment; he sensed it was the truth. Glancing up, he looked straight into Merlin's eyes, his gaze direct, piercing, discerning, seeking any untruths hidden in his friend's answer to his next question. "How many times have you saved my life?"

Again, thank you so much for all of your kindness! There is nothing an author cherishes more than the response of the readers! And you've all just been so amazing! It's hard to believe this has only been posted since April 21st, seeing as today is April 24th. I appreciate all of your support!

Saoirse