Deviner Captive

Proof

...

By the time Arthur managed to process everything completely the other king was already speaking and confirming it. "I give you Dragon Lord Balinor's bastard son, who he had to abandon when Uther caught on to his where a bouts." Gwrthfyr loudly addressed his audience like he was a stage actor. "That's where your sorcerer power originates from."

"Actually I'm a warlock." Merlin thought he should at least be referred to by the right title if his name was going to be scorned.

Gwrthfyr gave him a look of confusion. "What's the difference?"

"A warlock is born with magical powers while a sorcerer has to study for years to raise his powers to the surface. The only reason I started to study is so that I could have control over it instead of letting it lash out without my consent." Merlin explained.

Gwrthfyr addressed the boy personally. "I honestly don't understand why you don't want revenge for your father?"

"My father was a faceless my all my life in my head since my mother refused to tell me who he was because she probably thought I'd try to find him if I knew. I only learned he was my father right before we left to go find him. I never knew Balinor as a person, only ever had one actual conversation with him. I can only morn for the lost opportunity to get to know him. You can't change your whole outlook on life for something that was never really a major part." Merlin explained his reasoning.

Percival could feel that gold heart he thought the boy had coming out in those words.

Arthur's mind was reeling with the implications of how this revelation filled in all the gaps. Why Merlin cried over the man's death. He could even see the resemblance between the two now. How he demanded to be let to ride out with them to defeat the dragon. Only he must have waited until they were all knocked out to use his mystical dragon lord powers. Explained why there was no dam body when he woke up. How stupid was he to believe Merlin that he had actually defeated a dragon by himself?

"What did you mean by the dragon wasn't really defeated?" Arthur stepped forward to ask the Dyfred king. Needing an answer to this. He could feel himself moving past the denial stage and into anger. Merlin had been lying to him for years even about this.

"A dragon lord has a connection with a dragon so strong it makes them kin. Family in each other's eyes. I doubt our young Merlin here had the heart to kill the beast, only commanded it to leave and never return. Isn't that right?" Gwrthfyr turned his attention from the prince to the boy.

Merlin took a deep breath before answering. "No I couldn't."

Arthur could feel his temper smoldering. Merlin had left that dragon alive even after all the destruction and loss of life it had caused. Allowed it the chance to kill another day if it felt like it.

"It wasn't just that though. It seems like now is the time to confess my sins before I have to leave." Merlin could feel the prince's eyes sizzling into the side of his face. "When I first came to Camelot I kept hearing a voice calling my name in the middle of the night, I tried to ignore it thinking I've gone crazy, after many sleepless I gave in and went to look for where it was coming from. It led me to a cave under the dungeons." Uther knew the cavern the boy was talking about. "Imagine my surprise when I found a talking dragon imprisoned in it. It told me it was my destiny to protect Arthur, this was the same day I had just had a fight with him in the market place, so I thought it was the most idiotic thing I've ever heard at the time." He could help chuckling to himself at the memory.

"You've been conversing with that beast all these years. Getting advice from it. You're probably the one who set it free in the first place." Uther used his most accusing voice.

Merlin had been working his way slowly into confessing that factor. "When I first came here I had no knowledge of any spells, I didn't actually know what to do most of the time, so yes I took his advice. I wasn't always conversing with Kilgharrah though; that's its name if anyone's wondering. We had our disagreements. One so large I didn't talk to him for almost a full year." He stopped to think of the reason. "But I was so desperate when Morgause cast a spell that put the whole castle to sleep, for a cure, since it was effecting me too, and if I went under we had no hope. He only said that he would help me if I promised to one day set him free. What could I do but agree since Camelot would fall otherwise? I put it off as long as I could afterwards but I had to keep my word."

"That beast killed many people, you should be held just as accountable for their deaths." Uther accused him of the crime.

Gwaine could never stand by and let what Uther was indicating to happen. He'd rather just abandon Camelot altogether and break Merlin out, live as outlaws together.

"I didn't know that he would go on a rampage as soon as he was set free. It's one of my decisions I regret most, I felt so guilty since I couldn't do anything about my mistake. No idea I had the blood of a dragon lord running through my veins." Merlin explained how he felt about it. "It's only activated anyways when the father is dead so that the knowledge passes on to the son." The warlock tried to catch the prince's eyes but he was staring at his feet.

"That is enough to sentence you to death let alone your use of magic." Uther's face was made of stone now.

That was the face Merlin had originally expected to be greeted with. He'd had many dreams about this moment and he never felt how much it would hurt to lose Uther's trust completely, when he didn't even know he wanted it in the first place.

Gwrthfyr made a 'tisking' sound while shaking his head as he came to stand in front of the boy blocking him from the Uther's sight. "That won't be happening." He unrolled the contract he was holding. "You just signed him over to my possession, see. Making him a citizen of Dyfred, where magic is legal and I get to decide what crimes he will get charged with." Gwrthfyr smirked at Uther's gob smacked expression.

Uther could still clearly see his signature through the blue force field. "So what you have the boy now? What use will he be? He was a shoddy manservant, so he's probably a shoddy sorcerer." Refusing to refer to the boy by the title of 'warlock' like he wanted. "Magic users have been trying to take my kingdom down for years. Why do you think having one of them on your side will scare me?"

"Because Uther, this magic user has been protecting your kingdom instead of attacking it, taking out all the threats before they could severely harm the kingdom with no hope of recovery. You want to see an example of his power for destruction." Gwrthfyr started to speak words of the old religion.

Merlin could feel the heat behind his eyes start to gather. Understanding the spell being spoken though he'd only ever read about and never performed it. He directed his eyes where it would cause the least amount of a threat to the people occupying the room, though not damage.

Red light shot from his irises and blew up a left wall taking a large chunk out of it. The stone blew outwards but a lot of dust went into the air. All the bystanders scattered deciding it had now taken too dangerous a turn. All the knights and guards tried to organize the panicked citizens. Everyone closest to the door had an easy time getting out but people on the furthest side of the room had to wait for the heavy crowd to dissipate more before they could even move.

"I think I'll leave off attacking your kingdom for a while and give other sorcerer's a chance to attack, then we'll see how much you'll miss him." Gwrthfyr had fun mocking Uther who always thought he was better than all the other rulers.

The warlock turned to the king. "You've got to stop this." He begged not wanting anyone to be hurt since they'd avoided it so far, though it looked like the danger was escalating.

"Give me one good reason why should I try to fight for you?" Uther growled.

The Knight's of the Round Table were nudging Arthur to do something, say anything, but he just ignored them and the pleas of who he thought was his best friend. He stayed quite.

"The dragon won't be very happy about this." Merlin could see from the king's expression that he had misunderstood what he meant and had taken it as a threat. Thinking he was going to command the dragon to attack Camelot again. He turned to where he knew the prince was for help, since he'd lost any hope convincing the king, but he had turned his back. Now losing Arthur's trust had hurt ten times worse than Uther's because he had treasured it.

Gwrthfyr grabbed Merlin's arm suddenly gaining his full attention. "Everyone Gather closer. Matilda, come here!" Merlin could see when she got closer from the princess' expression that she was just as surprised by these turn of events as he was. The Dyfred king nodded when he was satisfied with everyone's position and begun to speak a magical incantation.

Merlin's eyes flashed gold.

The wind began to pick up and spin around them, spreading out until it covered the whole group in the center. Uther could recognize this spell for the traveling one it was. Leaving empty space where eight people had just stood. The force field shrunk into a floating ball in the middle before completely dissipating since its power source was now far away.

...TBC