Author's Note: I'm aware that this chapter is short, and that it deserves more, and that the ceremony is just basically a mix between the wedding and a knighting. However, I can't make it any better, and I have no idea how to write ceremonies. I'm extremely sorry about the wait- life kind of got a hold of me and I ran out of motivation to write. Excuses, excuses, I know. But I will continue this, and I will have the chapter up soon. No promises, though.

I'm changing the rating to T because of language. There's not really anything else.

Anyways, enjoy the chapter as much as possible with how short it is.


Arthur took one look at Merlin and burst out laughing. Merlin crossed his arms, indignant. Arthur was the one insistent that they use the old design for the Court Warlock uniform- it was his fault how Merlin looked. And Merlin looked-

"Ridiculous," Arthur said, chuckling even as he said it. Merlin grunted in displeasure.

"It's your fault. You could have chosen something different, but no."

The robe was long and blue, and looked like it was more fitting for a girl than Merlin. Arthur was always calling him a girl, though, so maybe that's why he had chosen it. It made Merlin look like a fountain of silk.

"You could try something like a tunic and pants, maybe," muttered Merlin grumpily. "Or something similar to your outfit. Maybe the girly coat."

Arthur looked at him like he was crazy, then his lips quirked and he was laughing again.

"Alright- we'll choose something different," he said, and Merlin noticed that he had said we with a breath of relief.

"Thank you," he said, satisfied. Merlin didn't notice Arthur's eyes flash, but then Arthur doubled over, laughing still more, and Merlin looked in the mirror.

"Hey!" he said, rubbing his now green hair.


Merlin knelt before the king as he stepped forward. They had gone over this a thousand times, Arthur had insisted, so "Merlin wouldn't screw it up." (After inventing it, that is. The last Court Sorcerer had been around long enough that even Geoffrey didn't remember the ceremony for making new ones, and the text containing the official ceremony had been burnt, so they had just invented a new one.) Merlin still felt nervous, though, butterflies flying around his belly like a bunch of angry wasps. He was beginning to think they were wasps with the stomachache he was getting.

He put his hand in Arthur's as he knelt, and began his speech.

"I, Merlin Emrys, do swear to control and manage the use of magic throughout the kingdom, help those in need, and uphold the laws placed by my king. I will advise the king in matters of magic and sorcery and protect those with my own magics. So do I swear."

The speech wasn't exactly long, or very good in Merlin's opinion, but it served its purpose. Arthur smiled.

"Rise, Lord Emrys." That really freaked Merlin out, he had to admit, being a lord.

Merlin did so, and Geoffrey of Monmouth piped up, his voice still sounding somewhat smug in Merlin's ears.

"I now present to you Lord Merlin Emrys, Court Sorcerer."

Applause echoed throughout the throne room, and Merlin grinned, even though he knew he wasn't supposed to. Arthur was smiling too, though.

Then Merlin decided to hell with Arthur's rules, and let loose what, in a few years, would be called fireworks. The crowd cheered and Arthur cried out in a most unkingly fashion. Merlin grinned as he glared.

Arthur eventually sighed, though, smiling a bit at the light show.


Morgana stared down at her scrying bowl with barely contained wrath. Merlin was being made Court Sorcerer? Swearing to help those in need, after ignoring her plea? She swept the bowl aside, the bowl crashing to the ground and breaking into tiny pieces.

Arthur may be her kin, in blood and in magic, but if he ignored what Merlin had done to her, how he had poisoned her in more ways than one, then it didn't matter. Kinship meant nothing if she was treated like dirt.

She called for the commanders of her armies. She would have her revenge, for herself and for Morgause.


The feast was most definitely not boring, with Merlin being able to show a wide array of tricks. Neither were the celebrations after, which had lasted for a week. However, the day after that most definitely was, as it was even more politics, something which gave Merlin a headache. He plopped down in his new chambers and groaned into his pillow.

"Not what you thought it would be, right?" Arthur smirked from the doorway, having walked by his room to just see Merlin entering it. Merlin shook his head vigorously, face still implanted in the pillow.

"...I am quite liking the bed, though," he admitted. Arthur laughed.

"The advantage of nobility," said Arthur, then yelped as a boy came running through the door and knocked him down.

"-Sire! Oh my gods, I am so sorry-" he stopped at Arthur's glare, then decided that his news was more important than the king's wrath, "Morgana's attacking Camelot!"

Merlin sat up abruptly, and Arthur and he dashed out the door.