I really have no explanation for this; this is where things started getting unrealistically ridiculous.
Then again, this is the world of Merlin, so I guess sky's the limit, huh?
My one note? My words aren't always what they seem.
All the characters except that one strange lady you've never heard of belong to the Merlin creators.
I write chapters, you write reviews. That's how it goes my friends. :)
The destruction and ruin all around him showed the true evil behind her intentions. Once the bulk of the kingdom's knights had rode off to Astolat to protect them further attacks, Cenred's army stormed Camelot. With the little remaining knights, the kingdom quickly feel, and now, Merlin stood mere feet away from the woman he once knew as Analise, bodies between them, debris from the castle still falling.
"Oh, Merlin. Have you come to play hero again?"
Silence.
"Poor, naïve, Merlin. Still trying to fight a battle he has already lost. You haven't changed at all, have you?"
Finally, Merlin found his voice. "You have."
The cold smirk on Analise's face churned his stomach; she was proud of what she had done, proud of the destruction that surrounded her.
"You're proud of this," Merlin choked out.
"Nothing gets past you."
"What have you gone through? You were never like this."
"I hear you've been through some things. Let's see, shall we?"
After reciting a simple memory recalling spell, the dust at Merlin's feet swirled in a tornado-like fashion, debris forming a large oval in the air before him.
In the oval, images flashed before Merlin's eyes, showing him the negative images causing him to relive his past pain.
He saw himself, lying on a bed in Gaius' chambers, after being poisoned by Nimueh; Will, his closest friend, slowly die in Ealdor, shortly after taking the blame for Merlin's use of magic; his mother, Hunith, close to death after he had bargained his life for Arthur's.
He squeezed his eyes shut, turning his head away from the mirror, attempting to block out the images.
The worst was yet to come, and the images still flashed through his mind in vivid detail; he saw himself again, this time pushing Freya out into the lake and setting the boat on fire, his emotions from that day flooding back over him. Freya was the Druid girl he had rescued from a bounty hunter, and she was the one person who made him forget about Analise and finally feel happy.
"Stop!"
That broke Analise's enchantment, sending the rocks that formed the mirror flying back at her and fading the image of the burning boat.
"Had enough?" Analise's cold voice reached his ears.
He opened his eyes, tears blurring her form and making her fade into the background. It was then that an enchantment came to him; Analise had the ability to see auras, a magical light around a person that revealed their true nature and intentions. Those born of the Old Religion that didn't possess this gift could cast a spell that briefly gave the ability to the caster. He figured it was worth a shot.
Instead of the aura surrounding her, Analise's form was replaced by that of the sorceress Nimueh, which appeared briefly, then faded away. The form of the dead sorceress Nimueh, to be specific.
"Nimueh?"
"Very good Merlin."
"It's not possible. You're dead. I killed you."
"I'm the Priestess of the Old Religion, therefore my spirit cannot truly die. Analise is a sorceress of great power, possibly greater than your own. Her powers combined with mine created abilities far beyond your comprehension."
Merlin had a hard time coming to terms with that.
"Why did you use Analise?"
"Did you not hear me? She is a powerful sorceress. Very few sorcerers are born with the ability to see auras. They are quite valuable to the elders of the Old Religion. And she is close to you."
"Me?"
"Yes."
Merlin opened his mouth to speak, but couldn't find the words.
"When you look back upon this day, the day Camelot fell, just remember, it was you who caused it, Merlin."
She must have noticed his shocked expression, for she continued: "You refused to let Analise die, despite Kilgharrah's warning. You helped her escape, allowing me to get stronger and discover the extent of her powers. You could have easily prevented this."
"You did this all just to take revenge on Uther for killing your kind."
It wasn't a question.
"Our kind. You and I, Merlin, we aren't so different."
"No, see that's where you're wrong. Look around you. Hundreds of innocent people, people who were just pawns in this sadistic game you're playing. They're all dead. You are no better than Uther."
In an instant, Analise's eyes flashed gold, then a bright red, and a sudden, sharp pain shot through Merlin, just below his ribcage. Crimson blood soaked through his blue shirt, and as he clasped his hands over the wound, he looked back up at the body of his one love, Nimueh's spirit possessing it, her eyes iris-less, midnight black.
"One day soon, Merlin, everything will fall back into place, and magic will return as the highest power," Nimueh's disembodied voice reached his ears as he faded out of consciousness.
He collapsed to his knees as she continued: "And we will all have you to thank."
Her satisfied, sadistic smirk was the last thing he saw before his world went black.