Sorry guys, I know I promised you this like a week ago but what I had done then was appalling and I don't think you'd have wanted to suffer through that. Also I know I said this was definitely going to be the last chapter but...well I lied. This chapter got so long that I've had to split it into two so there is another chapter after this one that should be up by the end of the week. Thanks to everyone who's reviewed, and Roses-as-lips for the beta. I hope this is worth the wait. Enjoy and please review. x

Part four

They both stared at each other for a moment, neither wanting to be the first to speak. Arthur gazed round Merlin's small room, taking in the mess it was in; the clothes thrown everywhere, the packed bag and the book in Merlin's hands. Realising what he holding Merlin tried to hide the book behind him but it was too late, Arthur had seen exactly what it was. Anger flared inside of him again and he tried to control himself. Although all he wanted was to rant and scream at the boy in front of him he knew that he needed Merlin's help with his damn shirt and going in guns blazing would no doubt ruin any chance of getting the boy to cooperate. And a small part of him was still hoping that this was all a mistake and there was a logical explanation for everything, one that didn't involve him being betrayed by his closest friend.

"Going somewhere?" He asked, indicating Merlin's packed bag.

Merlin's gaze flickered from Arthur's face to the bag and back again. He knew that he'd been caught and that there wasn't really anything he could say to get out of it. However his mind still went into overdrive trying to find a way to explain everything. He slowly placed his magic book on the bed behind him and subtly tugged a stray neckerchief over it. Arthur was still staring at him impatiently, waiting for his answer.

"Um...well you see...I was just..." Merlin trailed off his spluttering, realising he was getting nowhere.

Arthur raised his eyebrows at him, clearly amused at Merlin's attempt to explain. Merlin briefly contemplated trying again but knew it was futile. He sighed and closed his eyes in despair. There was a moment of silence before he managed to build up the courage to open them again. He looked up and surveyed Arthur warily, waiting for the inevitable explosion. However Arthur seemed to be struggling with some sort of inner turmoil and didn't speak. He was debating what was the best course of action to take. The walk to Gaius' chambers had calmed him down slightly, however the anger inside of him had flared again when he'd seen the magic book. He was fuming at Merlin and wanted nothing better than to shout at the younger boy, but he also knew that he needed his help if he was ever going to find a way to get out of his shirt.

"Why?" Was all he managed to croak out.

Merlin frowned at him, unsure as to what he was asking. There were so many different ways the prince could mean that and Merlin didn't really want to risk guessing and getting it wrong.

"What?" Merlin questioned.

"Why would you learn magic? You of all people have seen the damage it has done. Why would you learn something so evil?"

"Magic isn't evil Arthur, its people who use magic for evil purposes, it's just the tool." Merlin tried to explain.

"I've seen enough magic to know that all it brings is death and destruction." Arthur angrily stated, staring at Merlin stubbornly.

"Magic itself isn't the cause of that; it's how it's used that creates destruction." Merlin pleaded.

Arthur looked at him unconvinced, it was going to take more than that to change the beliefs he'd held his whole life. Merlin saw that Arthur wasn't buying it so decided to find a different way to explain it.

"It's like your sword." Merlin started, causing Arthur to look at him sceptically, "Hear me out. In the wrong hands a sword can be used to kill innocent people and cause chaos. However in the hands of the right person who'll use it for the right purposes it can save those innocent people from those who wish to harm them. Magic is just the same; it can be used to destroy lives and families or it can be used to save those you care for."

Merlin fell silent, watching Arthur carefully as he seemed to consider this. He was half hoping that Arthur would pick up on the hint about saving people and realise what he had been doing all this time. But this seemed to go straight over Arthur's head. Arthur however could see the point of what Merlin was saying about swords, he'd seen enough raiders and outlaws to know the truth of it, however he had never considered the possibility of the same thing applying to magic. Maybe there was something in what Merlin was saying. But then he remembered one of the phrases his father was always spouting about magic; it corrupts the individual's soul, turning even the purest person evil.

"How do you know that it isn't the magic that corrupts the person making them evil?" He argued.

"Do you really think I'm evil Arthur?" Merlin asked his friend and master sadly.

Arthur had to admit that he was taken aback by Merlin's question. His first instinct was no, there was no way Merlin could be evil. But the seed of doubt had been planted by his betrayal and he was having to reconsider everything he thought about his manservant. Then the absurdity of the situation his him; this was Merlin for god's sake. Useless incompetent Merlin who wouldn't hurt a fly. In fact he'd always refuse to kill any insects in Arthur's room, insisting that he chase them out the window or capture them and take them outside. Well that time there was a rat in his room might be the exception to that, but Camelot had been in the middle of a famine and he had been demanding that the boy find him something to eat.

Arthur knew there was no way that Merlin was evil but that wasn't to say that if he continued practicing magic he wouldn't become evil. He eyed the raven haired boy carefully, looking for any sign that he'd changed, but he found nothing. If he was honest he wasn't even sure what he was looking for but his mind was spinning and he was having trouble making everything add up. Everything he'd been taught his whole life seemed to be breaking down around him and he wasn't quite sure what to do next.

"Well how do you know that you won't become evil if you keep practicing magic?" He asked stubbornly.

Merlin actually laughed at the absurdity of this. Arthur narrowed his eyes at his response. He didn't take well to having Merlin laugh at him after all this and didn't understand what there was to laugh about.

"Arthur I've had magic my whole life, I was born like this. If it was going to corrupt me it would have happened a long time ago." Merlin explained.

Arthur's brow furrowed as his frown increased. This was news to him. He had always been taught that magic had to be learnt and therefore those who had it had purposely set out to defy the laws of Camelot. However if what Merlin was saying was true then he'd had no choice in his possession of magic.

Suddenly the implication of this hit him. If magic was a skill some people had since birth then this meant that they had been punishing people for something that had no control over. It was almost the same as executing people for the colour of their hair.

Arthur closed his eyes in despair and rubbed his forehead with one hand. Everything that he had been taught his whole life, everything that Camelot stood for when it came to magic, was crashing around him.

"How is that possible?" He asked confused, "You have to study magic, it takes years to learn."

"For some people yes." Merlin explained quietly, knowing the conflict that was raging in Arthur's mind, "But for others it is a part of who they are from birth. Magic flows in my veins Arthur; it would be about as easy for me to stop using it as it is for you to stop breathing."

As Arthur pondered this he felt a cold chill down his spine as he realised the true extent of his father's blindness when it came to magic. Faces flashed across his eyelids; faces of the people he had seen executed for using magic. He remembered even as a small child being made to stand and watch as his father condemned people to burn for something he wasn't really old enough to understand. Their screams had haunted his nightmares for weeks afterwards and he remembered finally being able to sleep peacefully when he was forced to attend another one.

His eyes snapped open as he pushed the visions that had haunted his youth away. He was now starting to understand that many of them had been killed for something they couldn't help. He realised that the suffering and fear that Camelot had lived under for the past twenty years may have been unnecessary for many. For if Merlin, the least evil person he knew, could have magic then Uther's policies were clearly flawed.

Arthur's gaze landed back on Merlin and he realised that he hadn't asked the one question that had been bothering him the most. The one he wasn't really sure he wanted the answer to.

"Why didn't you tell me?"

A flicker of emotions flashed across Merlin's face at this question. Guilt was the most prominent but Arthur thought he spotted alarm, apprehension and even hope cross the other boy's face.

Merlin had known this was coming since he opened his mouth and announced he was a warlock. He could see the betrayal Arthur felt written all over his face but he stood by the decisions he'd made in regards to his magic since coming to Camelot but it wasn't going to be easy persuading Arthur he'd done the right thing. However a small glimmer of hope flickered inside of him. Merlin had been expecting Arthur to come barging in and start shouting at him until he wore himself out and finally let him explain. But this hadn't come so Merlin hoped that maybe this meant that Arthur wasn't quite as angry as he expected.

"How could I?" Merlin asked quietly, "If I'd have told you when we first met you'd have had me executed for sure."

Arthur had to admit Merlin had a point. The two of them hadn't got off to a great start and he was ashamed to admit that he would probably have taken any excuse to get rid of his new manservant. However their relationship had changed and grown since then and he was feeling hurt that Merlin hadn't trusted him enough to tell him now.

"What about now? After all we've been through you didn't feel the need to tell me?" Arthur asked feeling hurt.

"I tried!" Merlin exclaimed, "I did tell you once remember, when Gwen was going to be executed, but you didn't believe me! And then every other time I tried you deemed me to idiotic to know anything about magic."

"Well you should have tried harder!" Arthur fumed, "All I know is that after everything we've been through you still couldn't trust me enough to tell me!" He sighed and looked at Merlin sadly, "Why didn't you tell me?"

"I don't know." Merlin replied honestly, "I didn't want to put you in the position of having to choose between me and Camelot."

Arthur pondered this. He was still feeling hurt that Merlin hadn't trusted enough to tell him when he had let Merlin in much further than anyone for a long time. However he could see where Merlin was coming from; he was already feeling conflicted between his friend's safety and upholding the laws of Camelot.

Silence fell over the pair as each party considered the other. Nervousness had overtaken Merlin again as he wondered what Arthur was going to do next. He didn't seem to be as angry as he had when Merlin had first told him however he knew that Arthur had been trained all his life to hide his emotions from everyone and so could be holding it back. His impassive mask gave nothing away and Merlin shifted uncomfortably on the spot.

"So what are you going to do now?" He asked quietly.

"I don't know."

Arthur's words were full of honesty but Merlin felt his heart sink at them. He knew this was a lot for the prince to take in but he was still hoping he would keep his secret eventually. Conflict was filling Arthur and everything he had been taught his whole life was battling with what Merlin had told him and all he knew about his clumsy manservant.

Merlin sank down onto his bed in despair, unsure what was going to happen now. However he had forgotten that he had placed his magic book there earlier and his bum connected rather painfully with it. Pulling it out from underneath him Merlin chucked it aside, he knew Arthur had seen it earlier and it was futile to hide it now, it wasn't like it could make anything worse.

Curiosity had sparked within Arthur when he had first seen the book with such strange symbols on the front and when Merlin threw it across the room he couldn't resist. He glanced at Merlin, who had sunk his head into his hands and was not looking at him, and moved over to where it had landed on the floor. Picking it up Arthur riffled through the pages idly, pausing whenever he stumbled upon anything interesting. He stopped on a page that had a spell to 'bring inanimate objects to life' and something stirred in his memory. He remembered fighting Sir Valiant and the snakes on the other man's shield coming to life, revealing the fraud he was.

Curious Arthur kept reading. The next page that peaked his interest was one depicting how to 'conjure a ball of light' and Arthur remembered the mysterious blue light that had appeared in front of him in the cave when had been searching for the flower to cure the poisoned Merlin which had led him to safety and without which he would have probably died. Flicking through more of the pages Arthur found some of them were more worn than others. Glancing at the most used pages he found levitation spells, spells for slowing objects down and many other spells for protecting others. He realised how many times Merlin may have used these to protect him and others.

However before he could ponder this any longer he found the book snatched out of his hands and glanced up to see Merlin holding it to his chest protectively, glaring at Arthur. Suddenly the prince realised how much Merlin must have done for him over the couple of years they had known each other.

"How many times?"

Merlin frowned at Arthur in confusion as he asked that. The prince seemed to be full of half explained cryptic questions and Merlin didn't have the foggiest idea as to what he meant this time either. He was unsure as to why Arthur had felt the need to riffle through his magic book but was praying that this wouldn't make things worse. He didn't move from his position, eyeing Arthur warily, uncertain as to what the prince was going to do next.

"What?" He asked slowly.

"How many times have you saved my life?"

Merlin's eyes widened in shock and he stared at Arthur incredulous. That was the last thing he thought Arthur would come up with after riffling through his magic book. After all the time he had spent hiding what he'd done he had never expected Arthur to ask him the question that, frankly he had lost count of the answer. He examined the prince's face for any sign that this was a trick however he found only curiosity written across it. Arthur's eyes told another story. Although they were lacking the level of anger and hatred they had contained when he had first heard the news, they still held traces of the betrayal and anguish that Merlin had seen earlier.

The young warlock tried to respond however he found his voice caught in his throat and he couldn't quite get the words out. He backed away as he tried to get his voice back under control and only stopped when he had reached the other side of the room. Although Arthur had calmed down and Merlin deemed him unlikely to explode at him he still felt a wave of panic wash through him. He had spent the whole time he was in Camelot hiding everything he had done for them and having to now tell Arthur was going against everything he had done and part of his mind was rebelling against this revelation. He was also wary of what his answer could do to the prince's pride and didn't really want to risk it making him angrier. However knew that he had to answer.

"I've lost count." Merlin replied truthfully once he regained use of his voice.

His words came out as barely more than a whisper however Arthur heard him loud and clear. The prince contemplated him calmly. Whilst riffling through Merlin's book many things that hadn't really made sense over the time had known Merlin started to click in his mind. All those strange situations where they had been blatantly outnumbered and managed to escape relatively unscathed suddenly made sense. All those times that Merlin had seemed to just sit there and do nothing yet remain unhurt were now explained.

Arthur realised just how much Merlin had done for him since they had met and it was his turn to stare in shock. All those times Arthur had thought he and Camelot were dead for sure it had been Merlin that had saved them all, Merlin that had prevented them from being overrun by sorcerers. Arthur had known that he had owed his life to Merlin, there had been that time when they first met and a couple after that that he had been aware of, but he hadn't known the extent of it. From what Merlin had said he seemed to be implying that there had been more times than the handful Arthur knew about.

His legs suddenly felt week beneath him and he moved swiftly over to the bed and sat down on the spot that Merlin had vacated moments before. Suddenly all the arguments as to why he should hand Merlin over to his father seemed insubstantial. He had clearly done much more for Arthur and the kingdom in the small amount of time he had been here than some of their most experienced knights. He couldn't send him to his death as reward for that. Arthur knew that they were going to have to sit down and have a long talk, something he hated, about all of this. There was clearly more to magic than he knew and he had to learn more about it, despite what his father thought, if he was to be a fair and just king.

Coming out of his thoughts, Arthur's gaze flicked up to look at the young warlock on the other side of the room. Merlin was surveying him carefully and Arthur could see the fear in his eyes. He felt his heart constrict to see his friend looking at him so apprehensively. He knew that Merlin could probably dispatch of him easily without even moving, yet he was the one looking so scared of the man in front of him. And that itself showed Arthur that there was no way Merlin was a threat to him or anyone that didn't deserve it. The look in his eyes made it clear that Merlin wasn't planning on doing a thing to protect himself from Arthur no matter what he decided to do.

"I'll keep your secret."

The words hung in the air between them. Merlin blinked slowly, his eyes widening in shock. He couldn't dare to hope that Arthur meant what he thought he did; he didn't think he'd be able to handle it if he was wrong. However despite this he couldn't help the small flicker of anticipation that sprung inside of him at Arthur's words.

"What?" Merlin asked, his voice barely a whisper.

"I'm not going to tell anyone." Arthur replied calmly.

Merlin's face broke into the biggest smile Arthur had ever seen as his meaning finally sunk in. Merlin had to restrain himself from launching himself on Arthur and hugging him, knowing how the prince felt about hugs, or any display of emotion at all. He took a few deep, gulping breaths, trying to get himself to calm down and his body back under his control.

"Thank you." Merlin said, his voice full of raw emotion.

"Well there wasn't really anything else I could do." Arthur said, shrugging uncomfortably.

"Yes there was." Merlin said quietly.

Arthur knew exactly what Merlin meant but just nodded in response, never one for emotional moments. They sat in comfortable silence for a moment before Arthur decided to change the subject.

"Does anyone else know?"

"No." Merlin replied, "Well only Gaius."

Arthur smiled wryly at this. It seems Merlin wasn't quite as adapt at hiding it as he'd thought. Though he was curious as to how the physician had found out as he couldn't see him approving of Merlin using magic often. As if he knew what Arthur was thinking Merlin spoke up.

"When we first met I saved his life with it."

"You seem to be doing a lot of that." Arthur pointed out.

Merlin flushed slightly and looked away. He shifted uncomfortably on the spot as he felt Arthur's eyes boring into him.

"So, what do we do now?" He asked nervously.

"Well for starters you can find a way to get me out this damn shirt. And then after that I seem to recall that you still have to finish tidying my chambers and I'm sure you mentioned something about not having done any of my laundry and then after that I'm sure my stables will need mucking out." Arthur stated imperiously.

Merlin rolled his eyes at him with a sigh and just like that all the tension that had developed between them disappeared.

"Prat." Merlin muttered before opening the book in his hands.