Diviner Captive

Signed Over

…

The throne room was crowded with people, which Uther wasn't happy about. The concession made through the castle had gained people's attention and they had all followed to cure their curiosity.

"We're at the throne room now, so let's talk." Gwrthfyr convincingly acted outraged. "We traveled many miles to be here, hoping to create peace between our two kingdoms…" He indicated to the princess standing behind him. "But instead your son assaults my daughter thinking he can get away with it. The treaty we were going to sign is now null and void. There will be war; unless…" He had a thoughtful look.

"Name your terms. I'll do almost anything to avoid going to war, within means." Uther was trying to be agreeable but he didn't want to leave his offer too open-ended so that the other king could demand anything. How his son managed to turn a done deal into this for such a silly revenge for whatever grudge he holds against the princess he would never know.

"I think it will be very well within your means. All I ask for is the manservant Merlin to be signed over to my possession." Gwrthfyr shrugged. He knew enough about Uther's personality to know that he wouldn't care about the boy because he didn't see servants as people.

A few gasps could be heard in response in different areas around the throne room. The people started to whisper to each other. They all knew the rumors about the prince and his manservant's relationship, or had witnessed it themselves. The Knights of the Round Table froze.

"Done." Uther agreed without batting an eyelash in thought about it. Signaling for Geoffrey to fetch the boy's papers. One lowly manservant wasn't a very large price to pay when a war would've cost him many fine knights. Now if he had demanded their kingdoms be joined by marriage he didn't think he could've handled it.

"What?" Arthur yelled in reaction. "He's my personal manservant, I think I get to decide what will happen to him."

It had been a little over four years since his father had assigned Merlin as his personal manservant. The prince thought at first that he wouldn't last a week but after the first few months he had grown to mean a lot to him. Now that it had been years together he was even more important to him and he thought Merlin would still be here when he was crowned king himself.

"You have no say in these matters, since it was you who caused them to be. Where is the boy?" Uther demanded just noticing that Gaius's assistant wasn't present for once. It always seemed the boy was never far from his son.

Arthur folded his arms and held back a pout, feeling like a child again. He started to crack under his father's glare. "Where do you think, he's in my chambers fulfilling his duties."

"Guards!" Uther yelled. Jarrett and Finley were the two closest to the door so they assumed the king meant them. Leaving to go retrieve the boy without question.

Arthur didn't expect this to be the terms the other king would chose. He had to make a last ditch effort to change his father's mind before the guards got back. Hopefully they could offer something else to stop the declaration of war. "Isn't it a little suspicious that he would chose my manservant out of all the staff. He probably wants to use him for information that he overheard. You're always reminding me he isn't a very good servant after all, so why would he want him for his skills. He could've asked for anything so why a clumsy servant that are not very rare to come by?"

Gwrthfyr actually hadn't thought about using the boy in that way but now the prince had put the idea in his head.

Arthur could see that he almost had his father, but then the king shook his head. "This is your punishment. You wouldn't have lost your manservant if you could control your temper." Uther drove the point home that if Arthur lost his best friend it was his own fault.

The large doors were slammed open showing the guards dragging a raven-haired lanky boy between then.

Merlin's brain was rushing in panic. 'Uther knows I have magic. The other king told him. I'm doomed, I'm doomed.' He had been shinning his master's boots and was taken totally by surprise when the doors were thrown open, then being dragged away from his master's chamber by the guards.

The warlock was dropped to the cold stone floor. Merlin rubbed his head and looked up to examine the room's occupants. There was a lot of whispering between the people and pointing in his direction.

He found it surprising that the look he was receiving from Uther wasn't the one he gave confirmed magic users; instead he was giving him a thoughtful look before turning to glance at the other king with suspicion like he was a possible threat.

Arthur stood behind his father, shooting him regretful looks. The prince definitely didn't look like he discovered he'd been lying to him for years. Instead he looked guilty about something instead of accusatory in his direction.

Merlin looked at the present Knights of the Round Table through the crowd for an answer but just received pitying looks.

Maybe his secrete hadn't been revealed yet and he had been brought here for another reason. He thought it would be better to play dumb until that reason had been confirmed before admitting his secrete himself by accident to a large crowd.

Merlin stood to his feet and brushed the dirt off his knees. "Why have I been brought here in this fashion, did I do something wrong?" Merlin asked clueless looking for an answer. Worried since it involved the Dyfred King. 'Maybe I don't have to act dumb?' He thought to himself since he felt like the idiot Arthur was always calling him at the current moment.

"It has been agreed that you will now be transferred into King Gwrthfyr's services." Uther answered simply like the boy didn't need any other explanation than that and was just expected to mindlessly agree to the new terms no question asked.

It took a second for the implication on his life from what the king said to register. "What?" Merlin snapped in surprise completely ignoring the fact he was speaking to a royal who wasn't Arthur. What had he done that warranted him to be ripped from the place he had made home and the friends he had made if it didn't have to do with his magic?

Arthur thought Merlin at least deserved a proper answer and some reassurance before he had to leave. He slid up behind his manservant, sorry, former-manservant and whispered in his ear. "I played a prank to get back at the princess for the way she had been treating you, and the other king took great offense to it, enough to declare war on Camelot. Unless he was given one thing, which turned out to be you for some reason." His manservant went pale enough he thought he was going to faint so he put a hand on his arm to support him.

Merlin knew what this was all about even though no one else present did. He noted that both Gaius and Lancelot were absent, even Gwen though she didn't know his secrete. He wished he could see them all one more time before he was spirited away. He didn't think he would be given the courtesy to be able to say his good byes from the expectant look on the foreign kings face he was receiving.

Arthur leaned closer to whisper so no one else could hear what he was saying. "Don't worry, this will only be temporary. I'll think of a way to get you back. Trade you for something he wants more."

Merlin knew the prince was trying to reassure him the best he could, but he knew that once the other king got his hands on him he probably wouldn't be letting him go for any reason. Arthur's weakness was going against his father's wishes so he didn't feel betrayed that he wasn't fighting to keep him, he thought to himself as he watched Uther sign him over to the other king.

.

"Now that we have the paper work done and over with, I think it's time we were leaving." Gwrthfyr made a motion that indicated he wanted his new possession to come to him.

Merlin knew that was his cue. He had to pry Arthur's fingers from the tight grip they had made from his arm before he pretended to calmly walk towards his new master.

As soon as he was within arm's reach of the Dyfred king he clamped what felt like a metal shackle around his neck so fast no one even saw it coming. "What is this?" Merlin asked while yanking at the collar and wriggling about hoping it would come off. As soon as the thing had made contact with his skin he had felt like his life force had stopped flowing in some way.

"What do you think you're doing?" Arthur yelled in anger and tried to stomp over to defend his friend but his father put a restricting arm out to stop him.

"While staying here I discovered something? Completely by accident I assure you but someone just wasn't being careful enough." Gwrthfyr smiled at the boy mocking him as he began to circle him slowly. Everyone was almost in a trance wondering what would happen next in the series of events. "Imagine coming back to your room and finding it cleaning its self while Merlin here just stood there calmly in the middle of it all."

Merlin thought his heart would stop. He was thinking that the other king would just take him without revealing a word about his magic so that it could be used as his secret weapon against another kingdom. The warlock guessed the Dyfred king was one of those people who liked to flaunt their things in front of others and rub their noses in it.

"I don't believe what you're accusing him of since everyone tries to pin their use of magic on Merlin, and it's never been proven true, even after all these years." Arthur pushed passed his father and came to stand within touching distance of the other king, his arms crossed.

"Did you ever think there was a logical reason for that?" Gwrthfyr asked the prince mockingly that he hadn't seen the connection before.

"You have no proof." Arthur scowled at the Dyfred king, challenging him to show something undeniable against his manservant.

"You want your proof you've got it." Gwrthfyr started mumbling words of the old religion under his breath, getting louder and louder as he went. All the guards and knights presence tensed and prepared to defend if they needed to.

Merlin gasped as he could feel that missing life force flowing again without any control over it. He yanked at the collar knowing the sensation was coming from it. The warlock could feel that there was some symbols carved into it but couldn't tell what it said exactly. He was pretty sure if was in the old religion though.

The noise his manservant made gained Arthur's attention. His eyes widened at the golden color that was so unnatural that had replaced the normally blue color of his friend's eyes; so undeniably magical in nature. He could feel his heart break just a little bit.

They flashed and the prince went flying.

A giant blue dome force field had been erected around the Dyfred king and his followers. The crowd scrambled to get out of its path but didn't leave because they wanted to witness this for themselves. All looking in from outside could clearly still see everyone since it was transparent but they all had blue tints to their skin.

Apparently Arthur was unwanted inside of it if his current state on his back was anything to go about. Percival and Elyan rushed over to help the prince up, with Gwaine trailing behind in thought.

"I demand to know your meaning behind this!" Uther yelled, angry about magic being performed so carelessly in his court. There was no denying though that his son's manservant was the power source.

King Gwrthfyr smirked out of his protective shield were no one could touch him. "I've always been fascinated by magic but have never been able to perform it no matter how hard I tried. That's where Merlin is going to come in, see this little trinket here," The king flicked against the metal collar, "allows me to control what power he has using my own extensive knowledge, while giving him no control over it at all by blocking the flow of it when I don't command it to rise up."

Gwaine didn't find the Dyfred kings thinking logical. "Why would you want to use Merlin for that, even if he does have magic, you could catch some nameless magic user who's much stronger and not cause a war until you were ready?" He questioned. Merlin having magic didn't faze him because he was still a little brother in his mind.

The crowd scattered away from him not wanting to be near the man who might anger the foreign king enough that he might use the boy against him. Leaving only the prince and the Knights of the Round Table in place.

Gwrthfyr smirked at the chance to reveal more of his discoveries. "Of course I looked into the boys background very thoroughly before acting on this. I'm not stupid." He said addressing the knight personally. "I didn't just go with my gut instinct that he was powerful. I followed the trail back through the years. Why do lowly chores and work in a kingdom that despises your every essence? So that he could be privy to everything that's going on…"

"Merlin would never betray Camelot's secretes." Elyan spoke with conviction in his friend's defense. He'd grown to trust Merlin very quickly since his sister did with all her heart and he trusted her.

"You misunderstood what I meant. His job is to be present wherever the prince goes, allowing him to always know what's going on. How many battles had he been in un-armored and survived while fully trained knights had fallen? He's there in the background to save his precious prince's life every time." Gwrthfyr pointed out with glee while shooting Merlin triumphant looks.

Arthur felt his heart constrict because it actually made sense if he thought about it. For some reason he dragged his manservant everywhere, into mortal peril all the time but somehow both of them always managed to come out of it alive. He didn't understand why though.

"So you found out my evil scheme to protect the prince with my very life." Merlin put air quotes around the word 'evil' and dramatically hugged himself when he talked about protecting to mock the king's conclusion even though he was right. The warlock thought he'd been quite for too long now. His magic had now been revealed and there was nothing he could do about it. No use crying over spilt milk.

"That's not all I figured out." Everyone perked up at more gossip. "I had to search way back to figure this out, but it's the only thing that makes sense to how the great dragon was actually defeated, or not really." Gwrthfyr smirked when he saw the way the boy tensed.

"The prince went to retrieve the dragon lord Balinor followed by his trusty manservant when the great dragon attacked two years ago but he never managed to make it back because he died on the way. How then did you defeat the dragon if the only way is by a dragon lord then?" Gwrthfyr could hear how the boy started to take deeper breaths like he was trying not to cry.

Arthur froze at the implications. He had that explained to him by Gaius. It was the reason why they had to leave for help in the first place. Which is why he was so sure that he was riding to his death when they had failed to bring the dragon lord back.

"Balinor was also the dragon lord that originally led the great dragon to Camelot under false pretenses by king Uther, only to have him turn on him and sentence him to death once the job was done. Then he escaped and was tracked down where…?" He asked the boy staring him straight in the eyes.

Merlin frowned knowing that if he didn't say it himself that the foreign king would just reveal it any way. "Eldor." The warlock loudly mumbled.

"Yes, isn't that the very same village you were born in." Gwrthfyr asked rhetorically knowing he wouldn't get an answer. "…And how old are you?" Merlin just glared back at his mocking tone.

…TBC