"And they burned their sons and their daughters as offerings
and used divination and omens
and sold themselves to do evil in the sight of the Lord, provoking him to anger."
-2 Kings 17:17
"Arthur."
The voice slices through his dreams like a sword. Deep in his dreams he calls out in recognition, "Merlin."
"Arthur."
The young heir twists anxiously. Something is wrong.
"Arthur!"
Clawing his way in to wakefulness, he bats at the shadows surrounding him on all sides. "Wait Merlin! I'm coming!"
"Arthur!"
His eyes snap open scanning the upscale hotel room for threats.
"Arthur! Sire if you aren't ready in fifteen minutes your father will be extremely upset."
He turns sideways, nearly falling off the bed in the process. "Leon?"
"Oh good, you're awake. Here."
Arthur really does fall out of bed this time as he fumbles to catch the suit bag tossed lazily to him from across the room. Landing on his hands and feet he stumbles to his feet and groggily staggers to the bathroom.
Twenty minutes later he's surreptitiously straightening his tie as all half a trillion dollars worth of Uther Pendradon stares him down from the back seat of the limo taking them to a meeting of two businesses each worth billions of dollars independently and if, or so his father kept reminding him, someone didn't mess it up were soon to be merged under Pendragon Industries. Arthur yawns.
"Forgive me if you don't seem to fully comprehend the magnitude of consequence you're little late night enterprises could cost us."
Arthur nods respectfully without really listening. He'd been up late into the night searching customs records for a girl of six with black hair and green eyes, only one of several million children worldwide whom went missing each year. He tried to pick children who would be harder to hide, trying to find as many as he could with his own considerable resources. Though his father had cut his allowance down to a pittance in a failed attempt to stop Arthur's so called 'reckless, unnecessary investments', as his father's son he has his own business savvy and even at the young age of seventeen has enough income from stocks and investments around the world to readily fuel his late night passion as long as he sticks to research and leaves the actual rescues to local authorities.
Not that his successful launching of what could accurately be titled a self sustaining charity pleases Father at all. No. Uther never seems to care about the people. For him it is all just a flow of cash and product. Nothing more.
Surreptitiously wiping the last bit of sleep from his eyes, Arthur squares his shoulders and strides confidently into the boardroom. If in nothing else, at least his father will proud of his professional conduct today.
Five hours later, the teenager is seriously weighing the costs and benefits of cracking a joke to lighten the boredom when the two boards finally break for lunch. Grabbing his coat and tablet he gives respectful nods to everyone who catches his eye and heads out for some time on his own. Even if he ends up eating McDonalds or missing lunch entirely it's still worth it for the chance to stretch his legs a bit and do some research on his own.
He has a lead that one of the missing children in his files, a cold case from nearly fifteen years ago, may have ended up in the local metal hospital. Though no one would want their child to end up in one of those he is sure that her parents will be grateful just to see her again. Assuming he can find her at all. Fifteen years is a long time and it is all too possible that the computer software that aged childhood photos had gone just enough off course for his current image of her to be uselessly inaccurate. In any case he's lucky that the merger meeting just so happened to be in the same city as the hospital.
Arriving ten minutes later at his destination he's struck by the gloomy air of the place and it's residents.
"Is it normally like this?"
The secretary at the front desk shakes her head as she prepares his visitors pass. "Oh no. But there was a bit of bad business this morning. One of the residents, well, you know." she trails off but he doesn't get the hint.
"What?"
She looks up at him with sympathy. "He had a long record of self harm. We don't know if he'll make it this time."
His mind blanks for a moment as he absorbs the information and then he reaches out to accept the completed pass. "I'm sorry to hear that. I hope he recovers."
She shakes her head, troubled. "I'm not always so sure. Not that we should ever take a life on purpose, but, perhaps it would be kinder if he didn't."
As he follows his guide to the records office Arthur mulls over what could possibly make it so that it would be better if someone didn't live. With no answers presenting themselves he tucks the question away and introduces himself to the man leading him.
"I suppose you heard about that bit with Mad Merlin this morning." the man asks cheerfully as he pulls out the requested records. "Course we're not supposed to call him that, specially not to his face but way I figure it he's not here so-"
Arthur barely notices the course attitude of the other man. He is fixated on the name of the patient. "Merlin did you say? That's not a very common name."
The man laughs. "Nah, it's not his real name. He's a John Smith in the books you know, but he always refers to himself as Merlin."
Arthur frowns mildly as he flips through the records related to his own case. "If that's the case why isn't he listed as Merlin?"
Sensing an interested listener the man launches into his gossip. "Cause that's not his name you see. He calls himself Merlin, and never when asked, no he's too crafty for that. Doesn't speak to anyone direct-wise. But he has his little friends, all from Camelot mind you; King Arthur and Knights of the Round Table." he winks. "I'm sure you know those stories."
Without realizing it Arthur has stopped flipping through the pages. Slowly he nods affirmatively. "Yes, I surely do." His contemplative tone carries an undertone of warning that goes blithely unheeded by the clearly thick security man.
"Well he goes about talking to them, spouting crack, and so he's known as Merlin but-"
Arthur sets his file down slowly. "What sort of crack?"
"Mostly talks to that king of his. I've got magic Arthur. I wanted to tell you Arthur. I only ever use it for you, Arthur," he sniggers, " as if King Arthur wouldn't know that Merlin was a magician. Heh. He's crazier than the usual crackpot that's for certain."
The man doesn't notice how still his visitor is until Arthur twitches.
"Sir?" He'd worked on the docks for years before landing this security job. He knows a threat when he sees one and while the young man had seemed perfectly nice upon entering, if a bit formal, the hairs are now rising on the back of his neck. Cautiously he reaches for his taser.
Arthur shakes his head. Calmly he stands up and gestures for the man to do the same. "There'll be no need for that. You're just going to tell me where this 'Merlin' is now and I'll hand this file back to you and we can part ways without any trouble."
The security man nods eagerly. He has no desire to get into a fight he's not sure he can win. "He was taken up to the city hospital. It's only a fifteen minute drive away in good traffic. Here, you can use my car-" he fumbles for his keys then stops as Arthur shakes his head.
"That won't be necessary. I'll take a cab. One more question."
"Anything."
"How old is he?"
The man looks for permission and then turns to grab another file from the stacks. "Here. All his information. I don't know anything more that that."
Arthur takes the file with a nod of thanks and turns to leave. At the hallway door he turns back. "You won't tell anyone I took this right?"
The man nods. "Sure, wouldn't dream of it."
Arthur smiles grimly. "Good." He tucks it into his briefcase. "Oh. And if it could be arranged for this security tape to be… lost, I'm sure there will be something in his file for you when I return it."
Greed lights up in the man's eyes. Hook, line and sinker. Confident that the piggish scoundrel won't say anything now Arthur makes his way out to the lobby, turns in his pass and makes his way back to the conference center.
For the rest of the merger that day and the next, Arthur acts the part of the perfect son, but inside his thoughts are a tempest.
Despite the odds, he may have finally found his other half. Merlin. Emrys. Warlock and Dragonlord. Arthur snorts. Not that there are any dragons left for him to lord over. Surly the white beast of Morgana's hadn't survived the expansions of the the 19th and 20th centuries. Then again, a real dragon would have made all the headlines… Not that it matters just now. The only thing that matters is that Merlin survives.
Just what are the extent of his injuries? The secretary had seemed sure he wouldn't make it. Was she exaggerating? Had he really found his warlock only to lose him again? His chest tightens. He can't do it alone, whatever it is he is supposed to do this time around. Not without Merlin.
And what if Merlin does survive? He obviously hadn't wanted to. Can Arthur keep him from trying again? How will he get Merlin out of Ashwood? Can he convince his father to let Merlin stay with them? No, definitely not. Which means he'll probably need to take his father up on his offer to run one of the smaller branch offices scattered beyond Uther's direct reach from headquarters in London. It will make him happy that his son is 'finally' accepting some responsibility, never mind he still had a year of secondary to complete, and hopefully less inclined to double-check Arthur's every move.
Leon will almost certainly be able accompany him as his internship in the company ends in less than a month in favor of a full-time salaried position, but Morgana would have to remain behind. She'd just been accepted into Oxford, she couldn't just back out. Besides, she and Arthur had made up their differences in their seventeen and nineteen respective years growing up together, but he isn't so sure she'll be ready to face Merlin. They had a lot more history after all and wouldn't have the benefit of being friends before they remembered.
This is all assuming he's the right Merlin, of course. Don't get too far ahead of yourself, Arthur murmurs silently to himself.
But despite his cautions he is already certain of the man's identity. Course and greedy though he was, that security guard had been right. It certainty would be odd for the King not to know the Magician…"Unless the warlock was actually the servant," he mutters.
"What's that boy?"
Startled Arthur snaps out of his thoughts and back into the final board meeting. "Nothing Sir, I apologize for the interruption."
The beefy, soon to be ex-, head of directors for the merging company continues with his closing speech. Uther rises. They shake hands. The deal is done.
Comments, Critques, etc. all welcome.
