GAIUS'S CHAMBERS

"I need to get well into the forest before Arthur and Elyan…" Merlin said as he rushed down the stairs from his room, slinging a bag over his shoulder as he walked towards Gaius, "So if the king asks tell him I am anywhere… thanks."

He took the bottle of aging position from the old physician and walked towards he door.

He half opened it before he turned back to face Gaius.

"Anywhere but the tavern."

Gaius nodded once, "Merlin?"

The young warlock looked over his shoulder at the man before him and waited while Gaius inclined his head, his voice remaining firm and holding a parental warning that Merlin nearly always heeded.

"Good luck."

Merlin nodded and let the door slam behind him.

CAMELOT CORRIDORS

He rushed through the shadows, careful not to be seen, as he made his way towards the east gate.

Merlin stormed past an alcove when an arm shot out and grabbed him into it.

He gasped but his eyes narrowed as he straightened.

"Sir Mordred." He said coldly.

Mordred stared at him, his wide blue eyes as confused as always as to why Merlin showed him the coldness he did.

He did not know as Merlin did though, that the dragon had once said that he was destined to play a part in Arthur's death.

Merlin refused to believe that it was not true, that that was only one path of Camelot's future…

If he asked Eveline she would not have told him.

He could not ask her now, for she had been dead months, and that was something else that caused a rift between the young warlock and the druid 'boy.'

Merlin refused to see that it had not been Mordred's fault.

He refused to trust him.

"Is there something I can help you with, Sir Knight?" Merlin asked shortly.

Mordred stared at him, his voice low so they were not heard.

"Sir Elyan and the king are making the ride out to meet an old sorcerer who is going to cure the queen…"

Merlin stiffened, "I am not surprised."

"Oh really?" Mordred lifted one eyebrow expectantly.

Merlin shifted.

He would not play this game.

He would not trust Mordred at all… although in a way he was forced to, as the young 'boy' knew his secret.

Yet he had not shared it.

"Arthur would do anything for Gwen regardless of his views on magic. He loves her very much, that is common knowledge." Merlin said cryptically, yet with a patronising edge that made Mordred narrow his eyes at him.

The young druid 'boy' kept his voice low yet strong.

"See that is 'common knowledge' but I think that you know that they are planning to ride out because it is you that they are going to meet…. But of course they don't know that do they?" Mordred almost hissed.

Merlin glared at him, "What is your point Mordred?"

Mordred stared at him, "He needs to know…"

"No he doesn't."

"He does and you know it!" Mordred took a moment to control the volume of his voice, "Without the knowledge ofwho you are you cannot complete your destiny, there will beno magic in Camelot!"

"This is not about me; it is about healing Gwen…" Merlin tried, yet part of him agreed with the 'boy' he so wanted to despise.

He would not trust him.

Mordred spoke in a hurried, desperate but still low voice.

"You need to tell Arthur who you really are. I know that you don't trust me, and that you have the king's best interests at heart. My only point… is for you to realise that I do too; andthat we want the same things… for our kind to be accepted, not repressed."

With that Mordred turned and walked past the young warlock.

"Good luck."

His lingering voice made Merlin stiffen.

He drew in a short breath and looked around.

He pushed the desperation to reveal himself to Arthur from his heart, and focussed on the task of helping his queen and friend, as he strode towards the gate he would exit from.

THE DARKLING WOODS

The moon was high in the midnight sky as Elyan and Arthur stopped their horses and dismounted before the large fallen body of the oak tree Gaius had spoken of.

"Are you sure that this is the place?" Elyan asked as he dismounted.

Both of their sets of armour clinked as they dropped to stand on the floor and wrapped their horse's reigns around the branches of the fallen tree.

"this is where Gaius said…" Arthur looked around.

Both of their heads snapped back the way they had come, at the sound of hoarse grumbling and trudging, as the elderly and slender frame of the old sorcerer Arthur had met before, entered the glad in which they stood.

The moonlight made his hair shine.

Yet there was something in the eyes that neither Arthur nor Elyan could place.

Merlin, as his true form of Emrys, stared at them.

It was growing harder and harder to sustain his act.

He so wanted to tell Arthur who he was.

"So," Emrys's croaking voice left his throat, "You have come Arthur Pendragon."

"Yes." Arthur straightened.

Emrys walked towards him, "Gaius said that you would."

"You seem to know Gaius well." Arthur appeared at him.

Emrys stated his words.

"I trust that man with my life, and would trust him with my greatest secret before anyone."

Arthur stared at him, his words firm and closed, "You know why I have come."

"You have come for me to save your queen… Gaius said…"Emrys coughed slightly and shifted.

Merlin's body ached all over.

"Will you do it?" Arthur pressed.

"Of course." Emrys stated, "But first you must understand that I did not kill your father… he was dying… and there are some things even a sorcerer like I cannot cure."

"So how do you know you can cure Gwen?" Elyan almost demanded.

Emrys glanced at him, yet felt more need to answer to terrified emotion, even at the thought, in Arthur's eyes, than in the knight who was the queen's brother.

"I don't," Emrys said, "until I try… But if you don't let me help she will certainly die… and the child."

The thought of this broke Arthur's heart and he straightened, locking his jaw and closing his eyes for a moment.

HE gritted his teeth against a shout of distress at the feeling of ice in his heart.

"Well hello brother…"

The sneering voice behind him made him spin to face that way.

Elyan did the same and Merlin as Emrys straightened.

Morgana sneered hard at her brother.

"IS your wife dead yet?"

"No. No thanks to you…" Arthur hissed.

Morgana laughed at him, and was about to throw a cold reply at him, when she saw Merlin as Emrys move over his shoulder.

She gasped and staggered backwards at the sight of him.

Her eyes were wide and haunted.

"Emrys…"