MERLIN - CONTACT
AN: Hey everyone, I'm back! I've been working on this with every spare moment I had so I hope you enjoy it. This is the last chapter where I'll be focusing on Will and after that the story will move forward. So without further ado, enjoy :) and I apologise for any mistakes I may have made.
...~~C~~...
It had rained over night. The early morning sun had just struggled to reach the tree line. The bonfire from yesterday was now a damp, crumbling pile of blackened wood and ash lying in the field. There was plenty of wood in the stores though, kept dry for the next bonfire later that day.
This was the last full day before Hunith's wedding to this mystery man. Tonight was AberFest.
Arthur woke up with a groan on the hard ground. Despite the cold temperature, he realised he'd kicked his blanket off him sometime during the night. Thank goodness for the fire burning in the hearth in the next room.
Sitting himself up, every bone made a loud clicking sound. The prince moved his neck round in circles to relieve the muscles. He could not wait to sleep in his own big, soft bed again. One thing he did notice when he moved his head round to the right, was that Merlin was not next to him, lying the other way as she did the first time they were here.
He stumbled into the other room a few minutes later where Hunith was in the kitchen area, cooking what Arthur dreaded was another one of her bowls of delicious porridge!
"Ah! Morning, Arthur. How'd you sleep?"
"Err, well, yes, Hunith, it was very-"
"You don't have to lie to make me feel better, young man. I know it's not what you're used to. I did offer you the bed we have-"
"And I declined. I don't mind, Hunith, honestly. Anyway, where's Merlin?"
Hunith gestured, waving a wooden spoon over her shoulder without looking up from her pot. "She went out quite early. She usually does. I think she just goes for a walk before breakfast..."
"Ah, well, I'll just go see if I can find her then," he smiled and could not skip faster out the door if he tried. Anything to delay eating that slop!
...~~C~~...
When he asked around, Arthur eventually spotted Merlin, standing at the edge of the fields away from the houses, near the forest border. She had her back to him and her head was bowed, as if looking at something on the ground. Approaching her, he saw that's what she was doing. The prince didn't pay much attention to his surroundings before, but how he felt stupid for not noticing that along the edge of the trees, there was a long row of waist-high stones standing out of the grass. In front of every stone was a raised mound. As the blonde man went to Merlin's left, he saw that on the stone she stood before, it had 'Madison, daughter of Avice' carved on its surface. Then underneath:
'William, son of Sir William and Madison'.
He felt awkward standing before a grave. He didn't know how to appear respectful. Perhaps it's the same way as standing before a burning pyre. Hands clasped together against the stomach. Straighten your posture, Arthur.
The prince looked to his maidservant. She was still facing the stone. What conversation to strike up? A few moments of silence. He then cleared his throat.
"Fire Feast was a false advertisement," he blurted. "There wasn't any food there last night."
"Nope."
"The feast was for the fire, wasn't it. Feeding it the blessing logs."
"Yep."
"Pity, I was rather looking forward to eating something that wasn't... wheaty."
Merlin hummed in amusement, "More meaty?"
"Exactly."
They giggled, then stopped, remembering where they were.
Another few minutes of peace passed, nothing but the tweeting birds and distance mooing of cows filled the air.
"William doesn't have a surname?"
"... no, Arthur. His family title never followed him."
"Oh."
Another few minutes went.
This time, Merlin started talking.
"I told you before that Will's father died in battle..."
"You did."
"Well, his mother... Madison, apparently died months before we came here to deal with Kanen... She died, and he never told me."
"You had not long settled in Camelot. He perhaps didn't want to tell you in case it gave you reason to come straight back here again."
"Maybe."
Merlin moved to kneel down at the foot of the mound, her fingers absent-mindedly played with the grass. Arthur went down to join her.
"You know, his father's body never came back. If King Cendred had let his body return home, Will may not have had that major grudge against royalty as he did. That's what Cendred was like. Not the one we had met before Lot. His father. Cendred the first. Though his son was not dissimilar, was he? No, Cendred the first had this disrespect towards everyone. If a knight's body isn't returned home, and/or their seal is 'accidently' lost or destroyed, then there's no guarantee he's a husband or a father, therefore no pension has to be given to the family. Funnily enough, his chainmail and crest did come back. Only after Madison passed."
"How did Madison die?"
"I was speaking to Mr Henry, their neighbour. Even he doesn't know. It wasn't an injury, she wasn't old or ill. It was as if she just... stopped." The maidservant glanced at the mound. It wasn't Will's. Will was burnt. It was Madison. But her son's ashes were scattered over the family stone.
Merlin then looked up from the daisy she spun in her fingers to Arthur. "And now they're all gone."
Arthur looked back at her, in her eyes. So blue. Such sadness.
"Don't believe anything that Wood boy told you last night, alright? You and Will weren't the outcasts. You were the betters. Here, you weren't appreciated. But in Camelot, someone like you or Will are highly regarded as people."
"I left him here on his own. With them. With no one else. I asked him to come with me... I guess he was just scared of a big city. Too overwhelming. He could have had a future there. If it weren't for me-"
"It wasn't your fault-"
"It was." Merlin spoke calmly, and in a matter-of-fact way. "He was ready to leave us when we were preparing to fight Kanen. He was packing. I tried to convince him to join us. I said he was going to abandon everyone. I pretty much called him a coward to his face. If I just let him leave, he would still be alive." Merlin didn't cry. She couldn't. She had shed the last tear she could over him last night. Now it just felt good to talk about him. "And I'm sorry if Billy got to me, but the way he said it... it is as he put it. I'm just going to be the girl that left a small village in a hostile kingdom, that went to seek a better life, and instead achieves very little and will leave the world like she grew up. Alone."
Arthur just stared.
"You can't say that. Look at what you've achieved already. You have a loving guardian, friends who care about you, you're the maidservant to the future king of Camelot," Arthur put his hand to his chest, "who you have saved many times... and now soon you'll even have a stepfather."
"I suppose. I still need to talk to mother about that."
"Well, don't leave me out of the conversation, because I want to know about him too." The prince nudged Merlin with his shoulder and got up off the ground.
He clasped his hands together, "Right! Where do you want me to start?"
The servant picked herself up too and looked amusingly up at him.
"You really want to get down and do dirty work?"
"Yes, I'm here so I might as well help out, I'm not useless you know. I can... lift... things."
Merlin smiled the widest smile since arriving in Ealdor, which Arthur had to admit was so warming to see, and contagious, and gave him a strange tightening feeling in his chest.
Merlin rolled her eyes, "Right, well we better find you some work to do then." The girl paused and looked back at the grave for a moment.
"He'd be very proud of you. I know it." Arthur laid a reassuring hand on Merlin's shoulder, which she appreciated.
They turned and walked back to the houses to help with the preparations, the prince's hand missing the warmth.
...~~C~~...
The village men, along with Arthur gently laid Will down on the table inside his home. After that, knowing the inevitable, they left quickly, Merlin racing to her friend's side, Arthur by the other.
"That's twice now I've saved you," the boy spluttered.
"Twice?"
"It was me, I'm the one you saw using magic."
"Will, don't," Merlin warned. She wouldn't allow him to take the rap, even if she knew Arthur couldn't or wouldn't do anything. And more importantly Will knew that too.
"No, it's alright. I won't be alive long enough for anyone to punish me." He looked back at the prince. "I did it, I conjured the wind. I saw how desperate things were becoming, I had to..."
"You're... a sorcerer?" Arthur exclaimed, amazingly calmly.
Will smirked as best he could through the pain. "Yeah. So what are you going to do, kill me?"
Arthur looked at Merlin. Her face was also full of pain, and it was destroying him. He knew what was to happen but just in a second, he thought about how it would be if Will wasn't dying. Would he had sent him to his death? With Merlin there?
"No. Of course not."
Will was clearly reaching his end, his face screwed up in agony. Blood carried on seeping through the fabric of his father's chainmail. Colour drained from the young man's skin Through it all, they still could make out him saying the girl's name.
"Do what you can for him..." That was the only way to put it. Honestly how else could you spell out a gentler way of saying 'be there for a friend while he slips away'? Why the hell didn't Ealdor have a proper Doctor?! Or treatments?
Arthur left, so did Morgana, Gwen and Hunith who heard everything from the door. Merlin could only lean in as close to Will as possible, wanting him to feel the warmth, that it might somehow help. She rubbed his hand with hers while whispering 'It'll be okay' over and over. Of all her magic, at this point she was angry at it and herself that she could conjure strong winds from nowhere to defeat scum like Kanen's men, but she couldn't save her best friend from dying.
"I was right about him. I told you he'd get me killed." Oh Will, always the joker, even now.
"No, you're not going to die," Merlin choked, always the pessimist, right up to the point of denial.
Will looked into her eyes. "You're a good person, Merlin. Don't let anyone tell you otherwise. You'll grow into a great woman, and one day, be the great servant to a great king. Now you can still make it happen."
Merlin sniffed, "Thank to you, Will," the girl combed her fingers soothingly through his mousey brown hair. She was trying to comfort him but she must have looked a wreck. Cheeks streaked with still streaming tears, hair a mess and her posture slouched, not just from the chainmail weighing her down. "Will, I'm so sorry. I tried saving everyone, like you wanted, but look at you!"
"I'm glad it's me and not you-" The boy coughed, his breathing was getting shorter and faster. "It's been so boring around her without you. Causing trouble, seeing your magic... Like old times. It was so good to see you again."
"...Y-you too. You would love Camelot. It's absolutely full of new people you could annoy."
Will chuckled as best he could. His expression then twisted into one Merlin never wanted to see on him.
"Merlin- Merlin I-I'm scared!"
"Don't be. Please. It will be alright. I'm h-here, Will." It was torture to see him suffer. In some ways she just wanted it to happen now, for his pain to end, but she wanted him to stay with her forever.
"Merlin..."
His face. God, Will No!
With that, Merlin leaned right in and pressed her lips to his forehead and kept them there. Right up to the very moment she felt Will's shuddering cease, and saw him relax, the light leaving his dark eyes.
...~~C~~...
There was no justice in Will's death, just like there wasn't with his father's or mother's. A whole family line forced to an end at the hands of wrong-doers.
Kanen was dead too, yes. And his men had not returned since. But despite that, nothing would ever give those events closure. William was gone. Just gone. He was a hero, but there was no sense of worth in his leaving. There's no moral, no belief that it could not had been avoided. He was just gone. Why is it always the good who suffer more?
Merlin had finally had a chance to grieve properly over him. His death was not the first she'd seen, but his was the first that meant so much to her, and she was terrified knowing that he would not be the last. Freya, Balinor, countless 'followers' of the old religion she feels she had let down. To make sure she lived up to expectations and got on with destiny, she had locked all those feelings away. Repressed the anger she felt over them all, refused to grieve and let it simmer and build up over time. Will's she felt she could finally except and move on from, the other's were still in there.
Thanks to Arthur, she could carry on a while longer.
...~~C~~...
'No time to cry over cold faces that can't smile, ears that can't burn, and minds that won't judge. Not when there are warm bodies that can still throw punches, hearts that could still grow cold, and words that could still scar. He only takes the good away, so the bad can be left to learn.'
...~~C~~...
AN: That quote is from an unknown source, but I feel it really goes with this chapter. So I hope you liked, and there will be more with the plot of the wedding and Arthur and Merlin coming up soon.
Will's parents' names were never given in the series, so I thought giving his name to his father was appropriate because in those days men liked to name their sons after themselves, especially when they wanted them to succeed them in their career. And the information about Will's mother could explain why she wasn't there in 'The moment of truth'. Thank you so much for reading, and reviewing this chapter would be much appreciated :)
So I will see you next time. ta-ra!