"Merlin."
Arthur's voice was quiet. "Any chance of being able to keep this conversation ... private?"
Merlin looked taken aback at this request before doing as he'd asked, waving his hand; golden light springing forth coating all of the walls, the windows, the ceiling and the floor. "You're taking this better than I thought you would. In fact, you're taking this too well."
"Well ..." Arthur dragged out the word.
Merlin just looked hard at him, scrutinising. "You knew. Didn't you?"
"I ... suspected."
"How?"
Arthur refused to be abashed. "I followed you about a month ago – to your meeting with, Iseldir?"
Merlin looked shocked, and then horrified. "You mean you heard ...?"
"Yes I did. Mr King of the Druids; High King of something else, Slayer of so and so." Arthur's tone was exceedingly sarcastic.
Gwaine had collapsed onto the table with a loud thump, shaking. With laughter. Leon looked positively terrified at the thought of Merlin being in charge of a large number of potentially dangerous magic users. So did Elyan. Arthur himself wasn't sure if he was over trauma at the thought yet. Percival just sat there and listened. With his mouth wide open. Gaius (unsurprisingly) didn't look at all surprised. Gwen looked in danger of a heart attack or at least an outburst of hysterical giggling.
"Speaking of which – WHY DIDN'T YOU TELL ME?" Arthur paused. "Wait stupid question," he mumbled.
"From a stupid person." It seemed the need for snappy retorts to everything he said was ingrained too deeply for Merlin to control. Therefore he let it go. This time.
"I imagine you thought I'd hand you in to my father?"
Merlin snorted. "Imagine? Only every other day you were standing there spouting your father's opinions on magic – how evil it was. What did that make me?"
"An exception. You and the sorcerer that cast that light ... ball thingy that saved me when you drank poison for me." Merlin couldn't meet his eyes. Arthur sighed tiredly. "Don't tell me that was you."
"It was ... n't"
"Then who was it?"
"You told me not to tell you." There was no doubt that later, probably in about five minutes at the rate this was going, Arthur would be angry. Very angry. He'd probably need a very long training session with the knights. His calm breathing exercises were interrupted by Gwaine. Who was laughing. Again. Damn him.
"So you're a sorcerer?" Several people looked incredulously at Elyan. He raised his hands defensively. "What? I was just checking."
"And he was right to do so. A sorcerer learns magic – they want to use magic so they learn to use it. I, on the other hand, am a warlock. Magic runs in my veins alongside my blood. I am as much a creature of magic as a griffin or dragon but am human at the same time. I am the only one who has ever been or ever will be quite like this. For such a long time, I hated myself –"
Gwaine interjected, looking upset, "Why did you hate yourself?"
"I live on the borders between Cenred's Kingdom and Camelot. Uther's hatred of magic spread much further than that. I grew up believing that magic was evil and because I was magic, so was I."
Arthur felt pity stirring in his gut – his father had caused Merlin to feel like that. And he wasn't even sure if his father had been right about magic. Before today he'd agreed with his father's views. But now Merlin really was magic – he'd had no more control over it than Arthur had being born royal – he wasn't so sure. He needed to see what Merlin had done with his magic first – and whether it had been for the good of Camelot.
oOo
This had not been the incident in which Agravaine had found out about Merlin. He had found out because a very drunk Gwaine had told a very drunk pub about Merlin. And inconveniently this was the only thing they'd remembered in sobriety. A suspicious Agravaine had burst into Merlin's chambers, accompanied by guards, to find Merlin re-enacting the Knight Valiant incident. Including the animation of the stone dog.
Arthur had wondered how exactly that was evil. Unless Merlin cloned them and let them loose in the castle kitchens.
