Chapter 4: The Troubles and Falling Together

Disclaimer: See Chapter One.

A few of the others had been woken up by my raised voice and wandered sleepily down the stairs.

Morgana, the woman from my dreams and that had been part of Merlin's Dark Legends team, had perched herself on the couch and was helping Merlin shoot down my feeble attempts to prove I wasn't Arthur.

Galahad, another member of Merlin's team, had been sent out while I paced and ranted to get the crown from my front seat and lock my car. He helped prove, along with a very amused Lance and Gwen, that the crown only fit me.

Finally Merlin took my hand and led me up to the attic, which was not only his workshop but his bedroom as well.

He grabbed both of my hands once he'd locked the door and stared into my eyes. "It is nothing to check if you are Arthur or not, but you have to trust me."

"I do trust you." I told him.

His blue eyes flashed gold and a wave of magic that felt achingly familiar washed over me.

Different lives flashed before my eyes, most of them ending very early or before I could realize my true potential, until the life I'd been dreaming of since I was little played before my eyes.

I relived everything in seconds and knew.

When I came to myself, Merlin and I were sitting on the bench by his worktable, his arms wrapped tightly around me and my hands fisted in his shirt.

I caught my breath and pulled away a little to meet his gaze. "I guess I am the reincarnation of Arthur Pendragon. That makes you Merlin's reincarnation I guess."

He smiled. "I'm the original actually."

I stared at him in shock. "'The original'? How? I have memories of you getting white hairs from age and stress."

"I just stopped aging when I turned twenty-five. It had something to do with my magic and that I would be needed when you truly came back." He let me go and stood up to fetch a blanket to help stop my shivering.

"What happened after Mordred killed me? Because you were supposed to be magically trapped somewhere, especially since you showed up at Camlann only towards the end of the battle."

He wrapped a thick yet very soft quilt around my shoulders. "It's not important. Besides you know the story already."

I caught his hand as he went to turn away. "Please Merlin, tell me?"

He sighed. "It's not a story I like to relate."

"I want to know. I need to know so I can find out just how much work rebuilding Camelot is going to take. And I want to know what happened to my best friend in my absence." I tugged on his hand to make him sit down.

Once he had, I tucked myself into his side which got a small smile from him.

"My fight with Morgana took a little longer than I thought it would. She trapped me in a column of air at first, and it took me some time to figure out how to get out of it. By that time she'd left to go help Mordred, so I had to hunt her down to make sure she didn't succeed. I finally found and got rid of her. Unfortunately she cast a spell that trapped me in an oak tree before she fell. And that took even longer to get out of since it was a living being. By the time I finally reached the battle, it was too late to stop Mordred. I was too far away to do anything that might have saved you and could only watch as he struck the mortal blow and was killed himself. The battle stopped after that and I was right there as you took your last breath. We took your body and started back towards Camelot. As we passed a lake, the Lady of the Lake appeared and said that your body was to go to Avalon. I asked to come with you and she allowed it. I watched as they healed your body and then made it vanish. It scared me more than I'd like to admit. The Lady handed me your crown and sent me back to the edge of the lake with the promise that you'd come back when the world needed you. I returned to Camelot to find it sacked and deserted. Only my rooms and the secret places you hid important things were untouched. I rebuilt everything that was damaged, hid it with a powerful spell, and trapped myself in the Crystal Cave for a hundred years. During that time, I felt you and sent out a spell that would bring you to me when you were ready, but your life ended too soon after I felt it."

"And after your self-imposed century of exile?" I asked.

He chuckled. "Taliesin kicked me out. He told me to stop moping and go live my life. By doing so, I would learn more and be ready to help you when it was time."

I listened intently as he told me about almost everything he'd done while waiting for me.

My shivers had passed by the time the story was done and the sky was barely beginning to lighten.

He grinned down at me after a few minutes of quiet. "Well I've answered your questions, now you have to answer my one question."

"What?"

"What's this about an 'unholy, all-powerful, all-consuming lust' for one of your professors?" he teased.

I hid my face in his shoulder with a groan. "Don't make me have you thrown in the stocks, Merlin."

He chuckled and pulled me close. "I have status now. I'm no longer your manservant."

"Don't think I won't demote you." I retorted.

He kissed the top of my head. "Wouldn't think of it. Your feelings are returned you know."

I smiled softly and looked up at him. "We weren't like this so long ago."

"No, but we should have been seeing as we're 'two sides of the same coin' as that bloody dragon was fond of saying. It wasn't right back then, but thankfully Fate has fixed that." He grinned.

"Are you saying that if I were a man, you'd not be with me?"

He held up his hands. "No, of course not. I just like you better as a woman. You're prettier and much softer."

I pushed him off the beach with a smirk. "Just because I'm a woman this time doesn't mean I'll go easy on you. You're still going to be my favorite sparring partner." I stood up, the quilt wrapped around me like a cape. "Come along Merlin. I'd like something to eat and a nap considering I did leave my parents' house in the middle of the night."

He stood up. "Ye gods, you're still a prat."

I smiled sweetly at him as I unlocked the door. "Yes, but I'm your prat. It all balances out."

His laughter followed me down the stairs.

Mordred sat with Morgana on the couch as I entered the living room. He looked up at me and grinned.

"You're not going to try to kill me are you? Because if you are, I'd like a ten second head start so I can find a weapon to defend myself." I asked with an answering grin.

"No, I'm not going to kill you. I've realized you're a better ruler than anyone. Plus I don't want to find out what Merlin would do to me if I tried to. But if I ever do, I'll give you a twenty second head start," he replied with a laugh.

"Fair enough."

Gwen smiled at me. "It's good to finally have you back. Merlin's been going crazy trying to find you and waiting for you to remember."

Merlin entered the room with a tray of tea things. "I have not. You shouldn't lie Gwen."

I rolled my eyes. "Overactive magic?"

"Worse than that time you snuck out of camp alone to sneak into the Saxon's camp to listen to their battle plans. I don't know how many times we were under attack by usually inanimate objects." Lance told me.

"I counted two thousand, six hundred and fifty-two reports of such incidents. Lady Morgana's cat still won't go anywhere near the couch. And Percy still adamantly refuses to use the downstairs bathroom after the toilet and sink faucet tried to attack him." Galahad commented from where he was draped on a divan.

"It was two thousand, nine hundred and eighty-seven. Morgana, Morgause, and I chose not to share our experiences with the rest of you." Mordred corrected.

"It was not that bad." Merlin returned. He looked back down at the tea tray he'd sat down as Galahad spoke, only to find that the sugar bowl was heaping tons of sugar into one cup. "Will you knock it off? I don't use that much sugar!"

The sugar bowl smacked him sharply on the knuckles with its spoon when he reached for the cup and then brandished it like a sword.

Merlin eyed it threateningly.

I laughed. "I'll take care of it." I knelt by the table and smiled at the sugar bowl. "Hello. My name is Alys."

It bowed deeply to me.

"Well it knows you're Arthur." Morgana stated.

I rolled my eyes and returned my attention to the sugar bowl. "That much sugar will make him sick, and that would be bad. As the keeper of the sugar, it is your job is to make sure he doesn't use too much. Okay?"

It nodded vigorously.

I picked up the butter knife from the tray and knighted it. "Arise Sir Sugar Bowl and assume your knightly duties."

The sugar bowl bowed once more and began scooping sugar out of the cup until there was very little left in the cup.

"It's going to be completely insufferable now." Merlin commented.

I grinned up at him. "Well now your knuckles won't be abused nor your cup overflowing with sugar. Besides, I like the little guy."

The sugar bowl politely tapped a tea cup to get my attention and mimed putting a spoon of sugar in the cup.

"No thank you. I only use sugar in my iced tea. I prefer a tablespoon of honey in my hot tea." I told it.

It immediately charged over to the honey and dragged the fighting container over to the cup. It watched carefully as the honey container added honey and made sure it put the right amount in the cup by hitting the other container with its sugar spoon when the other began to get lazy.

"Please tell me the toaster hasn't been animated." I requested.

"I've only animated it once. It kept spitting burnt toast at me, so I took away the spell." He eyed me and the sugar bowl. "But you would probably get perfectly browned toast every time if I reanimated it, seeing how fond the china is of you. No doubt you'd charm the toaster with but a smile." He picked up the teapot and poured the tea.

I took my cup and sipped it. "My life just got odder than I ever thought it would."

Merlin handed me a hot scone covered in clotted cream and fruit bits. "Good. Part of what makes life fun."

-SPACE-

I pushed my glasses farther up my nose.

Morgana's fingers ran soothingly through my hair as I sat on the floor by the couch and rested my head on her knee.

I spun the crown on my finger as I tried to think of how what I now knew was going to change my life.

After eating a couple scones and drinking some tea, Merlin had personally tucked me into his bed.

I slept until about ten thirty when Merlin came up with a tray piled high with a breakfast fit for a king.

We sat on his bed and devoured it.

He presented me with a comfortable yet stylish outfit he'd scrounged together from the wardrobes of the female members of the Court while the tray floated itself back downstairs.

I just watched him with amusement as he puttered around and told me about who was back and what everyone was doing. "Merlin, is there any way I could get some privacy to change?"

He looked up from tidying a stack of papers and books. "I've seen you naked before, Alys."

"Wasn't a woman in that life now was I? I don't even change in front of Gavin and I've known him for ages and been one of his test patients when he needed one." I replied.

He smirked. "Very well."

A changing screen scuttled away from the wall and set itself up before me.

"And don't you dare peek or I'll have Lance get me a sword." I changed from my flannel pajama pants and faded Avalon High T-shirt into a pair of snug fitting blue jeans and an extremely soft and warm cream color scoop-necked sweater.

After pulling on a pair of Merlin's socks, the boots he quickly crafted for me (the most comfortable pair in the world in my opinion), and the crown, we descended the stairs to find the house full of Knights and three magic wielding swordfighters that had once been dead set on killing me. Introductions were dutifully run through and that led to where I was now.

Percy, who was Sir Percival, dropped to the floor in front of me and watched me.

I stopped spinning the crown and watched him back. "Yes Percy?"

He grinned. "You're a woman."

Leon, the last member of Merlin's Dark Legends team, snorted from where he was playing cards with Greg (Gwaine), Owen (Owain), and Peter (Pellinore). "Thank you, Captain Obvious for that piece of information. I don't know how we could have missed it."

I looked over at him. "Be nice to him, Leon. He can't help it that he's cruelly depriving a village somewhere of an idiot. I'd say we should help him get back, but he can't remember where he's from since he let his mind wander and it never came back."

People started laughing, and even Percy chuckled.

"What I meant was you're different. You're not the Arthur we knew," he explained.

"No, I'm not that Arthur, not completely. Times have changed and so have we so we can live. This isn't going to be the Camelot of old Percival. We no longer have to worry about bandits and their ilk with swords and bows. We have much greater things to worry about. And if you think that just because I have two X-chromosomes and only one head to think with I'm not as good a fighter, just remember the Faire." I told him.

He shook his head. "That's not what I meant."

"Then what are you worried about? My leadership skills? Because I'm still as good a leader as I was then."

He sighed. "I know that. What I'm worried about is how you're going to keep the knights and all the others in line. You're a woman and, though you don't think so from what Merlin tells us, rather attractive. It won't be much of an issue for those of us in your close circle, but the others might get it in their heads to try and take advantage of you."

"Then I prove to them that I'm not just a pretty face and not to be taken lightly. And if they continue, they can face my Champion, because it'll be his job to defend my honor.'

"Who's your Champion?" Percy questioned.

I smirked and nodded in Merlin's direction where he sat listening to music and fixing his PowerPoints.

Owen laughed. "I take it you have plans for him my liege?"

"Call me Alys. I do have plans for him. Very big plans." I replied.

"Royal Bed-warmer?" Greg asked with a leer.

"That's only part of it. I was thinking something more important than even Royal Bed-warming Court Sorcerer."

"You would make Merlin Royal Consort?" Peter asked in shock.

Merlin pulled out an earbud. "What are you talking about?"

Morgana answered his question with an evil smirk. "Just which of the remaining royals of the world Alys should marry to strengthen ties. We've decided on Elizabeth's youngest grandson, Harry."

"I still say I should marry someone closer to the people. According to Gavin, the head of the Swedish government has a very lovely son. He's fit and has the bluest eyes you've ever seen." I stated, joining in on teasing him.

"Do you even speak Swedish?" Greg asked as he laid down his hand and collected his winnings.

I grinned. "Nope. But Gavin says he has nothing important to say anyway, so it all works out."

Mordred spoke up. "You need someone who can protect you from all sorts of threats. Someone like me. I'm willing to marry you, as long as you don't mind me missing from your bed six nights a week."

I tilted my head back to look at him. "We can be like Hera and Zeus. You can do what you like, just don't embarrass me."

Merlin rolled his eyes. "Very funny."

"We all know there's only one person I'd marry, especially since he'd sabotage any dates I go on with other people." I told him.

He smiled and turned off his music. "What are you going to do?"

"About what?"

"You left home in the middle of the night."

I shrugged. "They're my parents and I love them. And I know that it's Thanksgiving, but I'm not sure if I'm ready to see them right now. I understand why they didn't tell me, but I would have preferred to be eased into the idea that I'm Arthur than have it sprung on me all at once."

He stood up from the desk he sat at. "Do you trust me?"

"You know I do Merlin. I trust you with my life and all of Camelot."

"Good." He pulled out his cell phone and dialed a number.

The person on the other end picked up right away.

"Alys?" my mother's voice asked as Merlin put the call on speakerphone.

"No Mrs. Penn. It's Merlin Emrys," he replied.

"Hello Merlin. I'm afraid Alys isn't here at the moment. She left in a bit of a state last night and hasn't returned." Mom told him.

"That's why I'm calling actually."

"You know where she is? Uther!" she called for my father.

Dad joined her as the phone made a noise that signaled that they had put the phone in Dad's home office on speakerphone. "Alys?"

"It's Merlin. He's calling about Alys." Mom explained.

"Is she all right?" Dad questioned.

"She's fine. She's sitting on my floor right now." Merlin answered.

"Thank God. May we speak with her?" Dad sounded very relieved.

"The phone is on speaker, but I think it would best to speak face-to-face. So I was wondering what time dinner was." Merlin caught the crown when I chucked it at his head, plucking it right from the air.

"Three thirty." Mom stated quickly.

Merlin smiled as he walked over to me and put the crown on my head. "Alys and I will be on our way shortly. I hope you don't mind that I'm inviting myself, but there are a few things I need to discuss with you. And I think Alys has questions that only I can answer."

"Of course we don't mind. We'll be expecting the two of you in a little bit." Mom assured him.

Merlin bid them goodbye and hung up.

I crossed my arms. "Forget Royal Consort, from now on you're going to hold the title of Stock Inspector. And I'm going to help you by throwing rotten apples."

He uncrossed my arms and pulled me to my feet. "This is for your own good Alys. You will need all the support you can get in the coming times. Plus, how else am I to ask for permission to court you?"

I gave him a stern look over my glasses. "Fine. But you're driving and I'm bringing along the sugar bowl. Heaven knows I'll need something to amuse me." I left the room to grab it.

-SPACE-

We sat in my car in my parents' driveway.

"I don't think I can do this. I love them and everything, but they expect me to change the world. What if I can't?" I questioned, trying not to hyperventilate.

Merlin grabbed my hand and kissed the back of it. "You are Arthur. Changing the world is what you do. And you're not doing this or changing the world alone. You've got Morgana, Morgause, Mordred, all the Knights of the Round Table, Gwen, Gavin, Olivia, your family, and me. And I will always be there for you." He looked at the sugar bowl that sat on the dashboard and was dueling the air. "And you have that blasted sugar bowl too."

I smiled at that. "Leave it alone. I like it."

"I'm glad. Now let's go have Thanksgiving with your family."

As we neared the house, Isolde came running out to meet us with Monty and Speedy.

She wrapped her arms around my neck tightly when I picked her up and put her on my hip. "You left Alys and I thought you'd never come back.

Merlin watched us as he petted Monty.

"Never gonna happen Issy. I'll always come back as long as there is breath in my body." I assured her.

"Are you gonna make the cake and salad? 'Cuz Mommy said she would make it, but it doesn't taste as good as yours does."

Merlin gave me a questioning look as he held open the door.

I smirked. "'Course I am, Issy. There's still about an hour until dinner, so you and I have plenty of time to make it."

"I get to help?"

"Yep. Can't do it really well without the best little helper in the world." I carried her and the sugar bowl into the kitchen.

Mom opened her mouth to say something.

"I don't want to talk about it until after dinner. Besides, Isolde and I have a very important dessert to make and we will have to concentrate." I stated before she spoke.

She nodded and asked Aunt Laudine how the early pea salad was coming.

The sugar bowl began to march back and forth before the stuff I lined up to make the Penn family dessert, looking like a general inspecting its troops.

"Alys, the sugar bowl is moving." Isolde stated in awe.

"Merlin enchanted it. Sir Sugar Bowl is going to help us. Sir Sugar Bowl, my cousin the young Lady Isolde." I smiled as Isolde giggled when it bowed to her.

Merlin leaned against the other side of the island. "Is there anything I can do to help?" He jerked his hand back when the sugar bowl hit his knuckles as he reached for a bit of chocolate.

"You could cut the fruit while Issy and I make the cake batter and filling." I told him.

The knife I'd gotten out for that reason jumped up and began slicing the fruit.

"You are so lazy." I added the cocoa powder.

"I work smart, not hard. So what are you making?"

Isolde handed me the egg I needed. "It's a Penn family secret recipe. Only people who belong to the family can know it. And you don't."

Merlin just chuckled and went to offer Mom and my aunts help with what they were doing.

It was closer to a quarter until four that we all sat down at the table. I was sitting between Isolde and Merlin and across from Tristan.

We waited until Grandpa Lionel, my paternal grandfather, spoke.

"I am thankful for my beloved family and that we are all together for another year," he stated.

Grandma Ruth took her turn. "I am thankful for my family and good friends."

Pawpaw David spoke. "The family the Great Spirit allowed us to join."

Mawmaw Mary smiled at everyone. "I am thankful for all that we have."

This continued around the table. My aunts and uncles were thankful for their families and jobs, my parents were thankful for the family and their biggest miracle (that being me), Tristan was thankful for his family and the internet so he could be a gamer, Lucan was thankful for cell phones and turkey, Viviane and Joseph were thankful for my dessert, and Isolde listed everyone at the table.

I looked at my hands that rested in my lap for a few seconds before looking up at everyone. "I am thankful for my family, for friends new, old, and in between, for knowing who I am, for the other side of the coin, and for Merlin's magical sugar bowl that amuses me so."

The sugar bowl preened as everyone laughed.

Then it was Merlin's turn.

"I am thankful for too many things to list. Among the many things I am thankful for are friends, but mostly for the return of someone I have waited many years for. I am more thankful than can be expressed that things are finally going to be as they should have been and that the feelings I've fought for longer than I knew are returned just as strong." Merlin took one of my hands with a smile and gave it a squeeze.

Tristan snickered. "Alys and Merlin sittin' in a tree, k-i-s-s-i-n-g." He yelped as I kicked him under the table.

"My dearest cousin, you don't want to finish that." I warned him with a sickly sweet smile.

He gulped. "Yes Alys."

Merlin chuckled as bowls were passed around. "You're still terrifying, especially with that smile."

I finished putting a small scoop of early pea salad on Isolde's plate and put a scoop on mine. "Shut up Merlin." I handed him the bowl of it and took the plate of turkey from Aunt Laudine.

Dinner was spent talking about random things that included my grandparents, aunts, and uncles questioning Merlin about his job, Lucan telling me about the newest Yu-Gi-Oh: The Abridged Series video by Littlekoriboh (somehow getting a promise that I'd watch the last four I'd 'missed' with him), and other trivial matters.

"Uther says that Alys told him that you don't cover Merlin in your class." Grandma Ruth commented.

Merlin swallowed what was in his mouth. "No, I don't. Since there's such a large amount of speculation and set views on the topic, I don't cover it in class to prevent an uproar when I give my own opinion."

I took a drink. "Even if it is the truth. The lecture he gave over Fall Break caused quite a stir. That's why Olivia, Gavin, and I didn't come home like we normally do since we attended it. Plus Merlin doesn't like to go in depth about the tail end of the Battle of Camlann and afterwards. I had to correct the fact that Merlin was made Arthur's manservant because his mother asked that he be given the position."

"Don't you say that Merlin got his job 'cause he saved Arthur's life at a feast?" Viviane asked.

"Yep. And it's the truth." I replied.

"So is he really Merlin the wizard?" Joseph questioned.

"Yes." Merlin and I answered in unison.

Joseph studied Merlin. "You don't look old. Shouldn't you have a long white beard and be living backwards while stuck in a column of air?"

Merlin laughed. "I'm almost two thousand years old. I stopped aging at twenty-five, and I'll have you know that I escaped that fate. Would you like to see some magic?"

The little ones' heads nodded so much that I feared they might fall off.

Merlin turned to Dad. "May I?"

Dad sat back in his seat. "Please do. I'd like to see some proof myself."

Merlin turned to me. "Any requests?"

"Nothing dangerous and stick with what you're best with." I replied.

He held up hand palm up and his eyes flashed gold as a fireball appeared over his palm.

It morphed into the Pendragon crest and took flight to circle the room. It flew over the two unlit candles on the table, setting them alight, before it came to rest above my head and burst into bright multi-colored lights that quickly disappeared.

There were impressed noises from all around the table.

Isolde tugged on my sleeve. "Alys, if he is Merlin, does that make you Arthur?"

Merlin summoned the crown from the table I'd put it on when we'd walked in and put it on my head. "It does indeed."

I glared at him. "You and me, two swords, front yard, after the discussion."

He paled slightly. "I was just telling the truth."

"Don't be mean to him, Alys. I like him." Isolde told me.

I ruffled her hair. "All right Issy. I will be nice for your sake." I turned to Merlin. "You're lucky Issy likes you or you'd be in trouble. Now you owe a six year old for keeping me from creaming you in a sparring session."

He leaned forward and gave as much of a bow as he could to Isolde. "I thank you from the bottom of my heart Lady Isolde."

Isolde giggled and dinner moved on.

Merlin fell in love with my dessert and had two large helpings of it.

Mom stared at him in shock, having watched him eat to heaping plates of dinner and then dessert. "Where does it all go? He's almost as slender as a twig."

I chuckled as I sat back in my chair with my usual after-dinner cup of hot chocolate, piled high with whipped topping and chocolate shavings. "I think it has to do with his magic. It burns tons of calories. I used to ask the same thing at feasts until I finally decided that was just Merlin."

Merlin finally ate his last bite, wiped his mouth on his napkin, and sat back with a content sigh.

"Alys, I keep forgetting to ask. How's that class of yours going? Your students learning?" Uncle Gawain asked as we adults moved into the living room.

"I love it. They're getting ready to a quiz over Merlin and the tale of the Green Knight. The rest of the class is focused solely on the Grail and the final is going to cover everything. I've gotten good feedback so far from the students." I sat down in my usual spot by Dad's armchair.

Isolde followed us instead of the other kids and settled in my lap.

Before the discussion to come could start, the front door opened and Olivia and Gavin joined us.

"Happy Thanksgiving everybody." Gavin stated.

"So, looks like we're just in time for the conversation. Scoot over you, that's my spot you're in." Olivia told Merlin.

I grabbed his hand. "Sit in Gavin's lap, Liv. Merlin's not moving."

She pouted as she did so until Gavin kissed her neck.

I looked at everyone else. "Okay, first place to start is how much does Gav and Liv know about this?"

Gavin spoke. "We know about your dreams and that you left the house last night without your cell. And that you somehow ended up at your professor's house. Geez Lys, you're such a stalker."

I stuck out my tongue at him. "It was by accident. I had no idea where he lived until I parked and walked in the front door."

"I can catch them up really quickly if you'd like, and give them back their memories from your first reign." Merlin offered.

I looked my two best friends over. "Gav is Gaius, but who is Liv?"

"Freya."

I turned to him. "That Druid girl you were trying to hook up with that was cursed and ended up as Lady of the Lake? Liv isn't going to try and hit on you if she gets her memories back is she? 'Cause if she is, I'm afraid I'll have to fight her, even if she is my best friend."

He chuckled and squeezed my hand. "No, she won't. Who do you think helped me figure out what I was feeling?"

I shrugged. "Just make the recovery period short."

He muttered something as his eyes flashed gold and Gavin and Olivia froze.

They soon recovered and blinked at Merlin and me.

"I told you everything would work out if given enough time Merlin." Olivia told him smugly.

Gavin just shook his head and hugged Olivia closer.

Mom spoke up from Dad's lap. "Now that that's taken care of, I know you have questions Alys. So ask away."

I wrapped my arms around a very sleepy Isolde and rested my chin gently on her head. "I get why you didn't tell me. You didn't want me to feel like I was being forced to do it or start thinking I was extremely important." I ignored Merlin's muttered 'even if you are.' "My main question is who all of the family knew about me being the reincarnation of Arthur?"

The guilty looks my grandparents, aunts, and uncles shared answered that one.

I sighed and turned to Merlin. "The rest of my questions only you can answer. Exactly what am I supposed to do?"

"You are to lead the world into a new age of enlightenment." Dad told me before handing me the book I'd grabbed the night before to compare the sketch of the crown with my own. "I know you've read the book."

Merlin caught sight of the title and the author. "I can sign that if you'd like."

I rolled my eyes. "Should have known you wrote this. Had too much truth to it. I get that Dad, but I want to know details."

"The stone I placed in front of Camelot and put Excalibur in before hiding them has appeared again. It's been kept quiet, but there is a group claiming to be the Knights and you and I reborn. They're power-hungry and set on making the world follow them. You're to pull your sword and enter the gates of Camelot, since I spelled it to where only you can. Once that's done, it's just political reform and the like." Merlin explained.

I groaned. "Oh yay, tons of counsel meetings. You had better be there or the purple robes and the Hat come back." I warned.

He paled. "I'll be there. I never want to see them again."

A/N: And thus Alys acts like a prat...and my favorite character of my whole story makes its appearance.