Authors Note: Lol, I suck for leaving off there… I know. Anyway here's part two. I may extend this further if you all ask me to but it take time. Probably a lot of time… Anyway part two. For the full story of what happens before and after this, to Merlin, read The Sorcerers Lament. I own nothing!
2. Breathe
Then he heard the dull sounds of tearful cries from the hallway Clayton had dragged Merlin through.
"Did you hear that?" Gwaine kept yelling but everyone else paused to listen. He defiantly heard it that time. He turned and looked at the body of Clayton, the man who death was too good for. One of his knights had put a sword through his chest. He looked terrified and Arthur felt a wave of slightly sadistic joy. Then the numbness returned as he fumbled for the keys.
"Lancelot, do what you can for him. Gwaine, Kay you're with me." He led his knights through the doors and began unlocking cells and unchaining prisoners. They were at this for about ten minutes when Arthur heard someone calling above the noise of the freed slaves.
"Arthur! Arthur, come quick!" Lancelot, desperately calling to him from the room they had left him in with Merlin. Arthur wasn't sure he could take any more bad news.
He ran, his heart beating in his throat, keys left in Kay's hands without a second thought. Gwaine ran behind him. He skidded into the room that still held Clayton's corpse. Merlin lay deathly pale and unmoving. But his neck appeared to be glowing dimly, a soft pale gold light encircling chain bruised skin. It was not the gold of his magic, his was the color of melted unblemished gold gleaming in the sunlight. This was the color of a misty sunrise. In fact there was mist, rising from nowhere swirling gently around the room. It avoided Clayton's body by about a foot on all sides and deepened around Merlin, almost forming a figure but never quite managing to fully coalesce.
Arthur raced forward into the mist. Unlike normal mist it was warm and welcoming. He knelt down and placed a hand on Merlin's right shoulder. The bruises on his neck were vanishing as the light began to fade and the mist started to dissipate. Then suddenly and without warning Merlin's finger twitched. No one noticed the glow vanishing completely, no one noticed the mist disappearing entirely.
All they noticed was the rise and fall of their friend's chest. He was alive. The world, so wrong a moment ago, righted itself and Arthur dimly heard Gwaine cheering as he ran off to tell Kay the news and help him free the rest of the prisoners. Merlin showed no signs of waking yet but Arthur could handle that.
His friend would not wake for several hours to come. He would be in pain and would complain non stop, there would be damage beyond the physical to deal with. Merlin was strong but Arthur knew that even he would be hurt beyond the burns and cuts by this. But beyond all the plans and comforts and strategies that began to take form in Arthur's mind, something inside him cheered and cried for joy.
His friend, his other half, was still alive. He could finally breathe again.