Elfric threw forwards and hand and whispered a series of menacing sounding words. It was now or never for Merlin. Arthur watched, heart in his throat, as Merlin pushed forwards his hand, eyes gleaming gold.

A golden shield, the same shade as his eyes sprung from his fingertips.

That was when Arthur had not fallen off his throne. And if he had, it was with laughter at the looks on Gwen's and the Knight's faces. They were beyond shocked. Gwaine looked ready to go into cardiac arrest and Percival looked ready to faint. Arthur absently wondered whether this would further damage his poor throne room floor. It was going to be a pain to have the slabs replaced.

Elfric's eyes widened in shock. He hissed another menacing string of syllables. Merlin countered the black smoke snaking towards him with a twist of his wrist and a flash of gold.

"You cannot be who you claim to be." The sorcerer mocked Merlin with a jeering smile. "You would have been discovered long before this." The next attack was deflected, the stone cracking under the blow and power. Glass in the windows metres away, shattered and dived to the floor, ripping through the tapestries on the walls. Arthur was quite annoyed at the sorcerer and Merlin for ruining mementos to his family history. His father would've been furious.

"Be that as it may, you will fail here."

Elfric responded with another sweeping gesture towards Arthur and the Knights, sinister jets of light bursting from his fingertips. Once again Merlin stopped it in its tracks with nothing but a thought; but this time he responded. A golden spurt of light swirled lazily towards the other sorcerer. A misty shield was hastily put up (he had obviously become accustomed to Merlin not retaliating) but the light broke straight through it. If not for the casual speed of the light, Elfric would have been hit by it.

This casual display of dominance further disturbed his watching audience; the knight's mouths gaping unattractively, their eyes wide, unconsciously relaxing their postures at Merlin's defence. Rather inappropriately, Arthur decided this display proved conclusions one and two correct. Now he just had conclusions three, four and five to sort out.

"You cannot be!" Elfric repeated, this time fearfully, willing it not to be true.

"I am." Those two words and the hard look in Merlin's eyes coupled with the next flash of golden light heading towards him; caused the sorcerer to crumple to the ground again narrowly missing the spell. He stayed on the floor looking terror stricken. He began to mumble incoherently.

"No, no, no, not Lord Emrys, not Emrys, no."

Merlin finally spoke aloud in the old tongue (this voice melodic and soft, in comparison to the evil hissing that had already been heard that day); summoning the druid Arthur had seen him with before in a haze of silvery fog. The druid looked around in slight surprise at the sorry state of the throne room – the cracked stone slabs, and shattered windows, and black scorch marks littering the floor – and spotted the sorcerer curled up on the floor whining softly. Then Iseldir bowed his head.

"This sorcerer has attempted to kill both myself and Arthur," Merlin said, gesturing to the sorcerer who was still whimpering on the floor.

"You tried to kill the King?" Iseldir asked calmly.

"No, I tried to kill Arthur Pendragon. And then the King," Elfric moaned pitifully.

Merlin spoke forcefully, "Take him back to your camp. Sentence him there. His is not to be killed or banished. I'd rather have him where I can keep an eye on him."

With a low bow, Iseldir grabbed Elfric and disappeared in a swirl of smoke.

Now the danger had passed, the mask of confidence fell, and Arthur could see fear lurking in the depths of Merlin's eyes. The knights were still gaping in astonishment and perhaps horror. Gwen was blinking furiously as if trying to convince her eyes that she had imagined what she had just witnessed. Gwaine pinched Elyan. At Elyan's yelp, he pinched himself.

'Now,' Arthur wondered. 'What to do now?'