Disclaimer: I don't own Merlin.
This week the update is a little earlier. I want also to warn you an academic year is starting and I'm not sure whether I will be able to update every week as before.
Arthur was getting really impatient. Since the king had done everything in his power to persuade Merlin he could be trusted with the advisor's secret, and yet Merlin couldn't find it in himself to trust him. Allowing Druids to freely use healing magic, abolishing the order of needing supervision by knights, even using magic for harvest or being healed himself had done nothing to make Merlin open up and Arthur started to doubt his resolution to wait for the warlock to confess.
When the advisor interrupted Arthur during his paperwork, the king hoped the time for the confession came, but then Merlin just ... behaved like Merlin! With no apparent reason he ran away with Arthur following without a second thought and barely managing to grab his sword.
When the king got to the forest he could clearly see signs of warlock's passage, who seemed to be in a rush and didn't even try to be stealthy. Suddenly Arthur felt more than heard a powerful roar, which only hurried him up. After a few minutes long run the king got to a clearing, where he quickly hid in the bushes. When Arthur saw a light blue dragon landing just before Merlin, I was supposed to kill the last one! he barely contained urge to draw Excalibur and barge then and there to save his friend or arrest him, depending on the king's state of mind.
That was exactly what Arthur would have done before, but now he only listened and waited what would happen, remembering his resolution to not doubt Merlin.
Then a lean human form descended from the dragon, shocking the king even more. Wasn't Balinor the last Dragonlord? Because that's who the stranger must be and idiot decided to take care of the situation only by himself! It was a proof how much more patient and prudent Arthur had become, because he stayed put.
"Who are you?" asked Merlin who seemed to have an air of confidence and power around him like never before.
"Who am I?" incredulously uttered the brown-haired stranger that must have been a few years younger than Merlin. "I am the one with a dragon that can burn you to a cinder in a moment!"
The threat seemed to leave no impression on the advisor who only raised his eyebrow in amusement. "Really? Then why didn't she?" Stop goading him you idiot! Arthur thought as if his former servant could hear it. Wait... she?
The statement seemed only to confuse the stranger more. "Because... I wanted to give you a chance. Yes, that's right," he seemed to be proud of himself.
"Alright," it seemed as though Merlin had had enough. "Tell me why did you wanted to attack Camelot," the brown-haired boy tried to protest, but the warlock didn't let him. "And don't even try to deny it."
"That's none of your business!" replied the stranger angrily. "Besides it isn't as if you could do something about it!"
Merlin raised his eyebrow again. "On the contrary. After all I have already hindered you." The he added in a serious tone. "And it's you that cannot stop me. I don't know why this dragoness allowed you to ride her, since you aren't even a Dragonlord." The statement shocked both Arthur and the boy. "But I won't allow you to attack anyway."
"How do you know it?" the stranger seemed shaken but then his eyes became huge as saucers. "You are the Ambrosius!"
The statement confused Arthur. Yes, Ambrosius was the surname Merlin had chosen in a tribute to the late Dragonlord Balinor, who died saving the warlock and seemed to have no relatives, but how could the stranger know it. Unless... the king didn't want to ponder it right then.
"How…," Merlin was interrupted with the arrival of another dragon, which Arthur supposedly had killed long ago. "Kilgharrah!" the warlock exclaimed and seemed to be quite familiar with the beast. The king was hard pressed to stick to his resolution and not jump to the conclusions about what it could possibly mean.
The boy seemed even more awed. "A Great Dragon…," he quickly bowed along with his beast confusing Merlin.
"Kilgharrah, what's going on?" asked the advisor.
"Patience, Young Warlock" the dragon spoke with a deep and powerful voice, startling the voyeur king. It talks! "What's your name, boy?"
"Gavin, the Great One," Merlin was surprised at the title, "why are you helping that butcher Pendragon?" There was a real curiosity in his voice, shared by Arthur, even though the latter didn't agree with the term 'butcher'. "I heard you were imprisoned."
"Yes, I was," answered Kilgharrah. "Then I was released and tried to take my revenge," the beast lowered his head. "But this young Dragonlord showed me mercy and the power of forgiveness. That's why I stand by him."
Merlin was touched by the words and said. "Thank you, old friend," then he turned to the stranger. "I don't know who you are or where you came from, but Camelot isn't what it used to be. Druids are once again welcomed and magic is slowly coming back. I am First Advisor and Magic Advisor to the King Arthur of Camelot."
"And he knows about your magic?" Gavin asked incredulously.
Merlin seemed at loss what to reply and Arthur decided he had enough of hiding. "Of course I know," the king said walking towards men and dragons, trying not to show even the smallest indication the situation was foreign to him. Arthur noticed his friend paled, and...was that fear? "Why else would I change the law? After being told magic is evil for my whole life I needed a solid proof it wasn't, which my Magic Advisor supplied." The king came to the frozen Merlin and put an arm around his neck.
Gavin seemed speechless and happy at the same time. Then he flinched and uttered. "I have to... go. Sorry." He looked at every one of them, including Kilgharrah, mounted the blue dragon and flew away with nothing more.
"Wait!" Merlin shouted but it caused no reaction. "What was that about?" the warlock asked his scaly friend at the same time releasing himself from Arthur's hold.
"Right now you have other matters that need your attention, Young Warlock." With that the Great Dragon took off too, leaving the advisor alone with his king.
Merlin slowly turned to the monarch and said. "Arthur, I can explain...," he raised his head to look into king's face, expecting to see anger and betrayal, certainly not the... understanding?
"It's alright. I won't execute you, banish you, or change back any of the laws concerning magic, if that's what you are worried about," Arthur said with a smile, making the warlock relax visibly.
"How long did you know?" asked Merlin. "Did you really start the changes because of me?"
"Yes, I did, however dragon is a new thing for me," the king laughed seeing his friend's gobsmacked expression. "I saw you use magic during one of the patrols and thought you were a spy and decided to watch you and feed you falsehood. It obviously didn't work out." Arthur grimaced. "You had already known too much about Camelot and I couldn't catch you selling information. Until one night I saw you sneak out of the city, when you went to meet with the Druids, I thought I finally had a proof. That was before I heard you talking about saving my life as if it was a common occurrence." Merlin was too dumbstruck to even try to add a joke. "Which I realised it is. I still needed some sense knocked into, which Guinevere excels at, and the rest of it you know."
The warlock took his time to find it in himself to utter anything. "Gwen knows about me?"
"Yes, and she accepts you too," Arthur replied with a smile.
"Thank you, you have no idea how much it means for me." There were tears in Merlin's eyes. After a moment he composed himself and inquired. "Why didn't you say something?"
The king shrugged. "At first I didn't trust you, then I wanted you to trust me enough to tell me yourself."
"I wanted to. I was even going to do it today." The warlock had just confirmed Arthur's suspicions.
"That's what I thought." After a moment the monarch added. "Come on. We have much to talk about, but we can do it in the castle."
Merlin only nodded and began to walk slowly. They were taking their time, not being in hurry at all, when Arthur finally broke the silence. "I understand why you didn't tell me Balinor was your father, but I never expected you to be born with magic!"
"What?! " Merlin exclaimed in disbelief. "How do you know it?"
"You do realise I do read too, right? And since I found about you, I tried to learn about magic as much as I could. That's how I know what warlock means and how the gift of Dragonlord is inherited. The rest was a pure deduction." The king laughed at his friend's shocked expression and continued to walk, leaving the advisor to catch up.
I think Arthur deserved to be for once smart too.
So the moment everyone was waiting for finally came. How did you like it?