Alaia Skyhawk: Hehehehe, Arthur has something coming lol... Bad choice of game to pass the time XD

Disclaimer: I don't own Merlin.

Music: Hunith's Letter To Gaius (Merlin OST)

"Whom History Won't Remember" Episode: N/A

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Chapter 23: To Ponder a Mystery ~Part 2~

The kitchens were awash with chatter, far more than the norm as the various personal servants arrived to gather their masters' breakfasts. Some of the talk was about the usual things, but by far the most of it regarded Camelot's Prince and his manservant, Merlin.

Merlin, who had saved Arthur's life and drank poison to do so, and in doing that had helped expose a plot by a sorcerer to trigger a war with Mercia. Of course there was plenty of praise for Arthur, and his courageous actions in retrieving the cure for his servant and in doing so discover the truth of the poisoning. But for many of the staff it was like a personal victory, for one of their own to do something so significant in the eyes of the court.

Bern found himself listening to the talk, pausing in loading Arthur's breakfast onto a tray. He didn't blame them, he could hardly believe it himself. Merlin had stepped in once again to save Arthur, selflessly drinking the poison despite knowing it could mean his death... It would have meant his death, if the prince had not gone to get the antidote.

He sighed as he collected the last of the food for the prince, mindful to take herbal tea and fruit like Merlin had been doing. The walk to Arthur's chambers was a thoughtful one, not even this pseudo-return to the job of his manservant gaining him any satisfaction. He was filling in for one day, and only because Merlin had the day off to finish recovering from the poison.

Bern arrived at Arthur's chambers with the tray, the prince nodding in acknowledgement before remaining standing by his window and gazing out of it. He seemed to have a lot on his mind, to the extent he almost ignored the servant completely.

Bern didn't disturb him, instead laying out the day's clothing behind the dressing screen and straightening the bed, before leaving the room and the unusually quiet prince. It was then that he realised he'd been given no instructions for chores or errands, and faced with the opportunity he decided to used some of that time to speak to the whose arrival seemed to have started all this.

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"There's soup in the pot by the fire, Merlin. Help yourself if you get hungry, but under no uncertain terms are you to go recklessly gallivanting around the castle. I may have let you out of bed, but you are still to take things easy today. You'll have time enough for exercise when you return to work tomorrow."

Merlin sat at the table in Gaius' chambers, looking bemused beneath his mentor's stern warnings. He'd now decided that he hated being ill, and would endeavour to never become ill if he could help it. It was annoying to be stuck in bed, especially considering besides time-speeding induced bouts of nausea and headaches he'd never been ill before in his life prior to coming here.

He remained sat there, picking through his breakfast of watery porridge while Gaius prepared to go out on his rounds. He was just wondering whether to do some more reading from his spellbook when there was a light knock on the door, and it opened to allow a certain man to peer round it.

Both of them stared in surprise, before Gaius bid the other servant come in.

"Can I help you, Bern?"

Bern entered the room, hesitating.

"I uh... I just came to see how Merlin was doing."

Gaius raised an eyebrow, picking up his bag and heading for the door.

"Then I'll leave you two to talk. I have a number of patients to visit this morning."

He left without another word, Bern then standing there and awkwardly glancing at Merlin.

"Um, how are you?"

Merlin folded his arms on the table's surface, clearly finding this as odd as it seemed.

"Feeling better. I'll be back at work tomorrow. Gaius says it looks like there's no lasting damage to me."

Bern nodded slowly.

"Ahh, that's um... That's good to hear."

All right, so this was clearly getting nowhere. Merlin pointed to the seat opposite him as he spoke to Bern flatly.

"Just sit down at the table already. It's painful listening to you stammering like that." Bern took a deep breath and did as asked, Merlin raising his eyebrows in query once he was seated. "Come on, tell me. Why did you really come? We both know you don't like me, so it can't be out of concern for my health."

There was a long moment where Bern just stared at him in silence, before the servant suddenly blurted out what was bothering him.

"Why did you do it? Why drink that poison like that?"

Merlin rested his chin on one hand, bland as he answered.

"Was I supposed to sit back and let Arthur die? Knowing I was tricked by that sorceress, as part of framing Bayard, doesn't change the fact that the goblet was poisoned. Faced with the same situation, I'd do the same thing again."

Bern just couldn't seem to grasp it.

"But why? You don't like Arthur."

Merlin snorted in amusement at that.

"Heh, my opinion of him has improved a bit... He risked a lot to save my life, and I know he did it because I saved him. He wanted to repay that, even if he won't admit it to my face."

Merlin continued to chuckle to himself at that thought, until a quiet murmur from Bern stopped him.

"He disobeyed the king to do it..."

Merlin blinked in confusion.

"Eh? What's that got to do with it?"

Bern regarded him in silence, before sighing.

"...You won."

"Won? Won what?"

"The bet, you moron." Bern jabbed at a finger at him. "Before you became his manservant, Arthur would never have disobeyed the king. Had it been me in your situation, he would never have gone and I would have been left to die. He wouldn't have been happy about it, but he'd have done as ordered to... But for you, he deliberately went against his father to save you. Do you have any idea how big a deal that is? The Prince of Camelot, going off of his own will, to risk his life for his manservant."

Merlin stared at him, stunned.

"I won the bet?"

Bern was now looking a bit put out.

"Some of the staff still think you're too lucky for your own good, but more than half of them are singing your praises right now. After what Arthur did, there isn't a servant in this castle that would dare try to get you fired now. Don't get me wrong, some will still go out of their way to pick at you, but it won't be many. It took me almost eighteen months to get to the same point when I first started serving him. You've done it in barely five weeks... I know when I'm beaten." He held out a hand across the table. "The better man won, and a deal is a deal. If I hear any of the other servants speaking against you, I'll set them straight. Likewise, if you want advice on things around the castle, feel free to ask me."

Merlin started to smile, accepting and shaking the proffered hand.

"Thanks."

Bern got to his feet, his expression thoughtful as he started towards the door. He paused once he got there, glancing back to where his now former rival sat.

"I know you're not working today, but if you feel up to it I think Arthur would appreciate you stopping by... He looked like he had a lot on his mind when I took him his breakfast, and I get the feeling you could probably help him figure it out."

The door thudded closed, Merlin staring at it in confusion for several seconds. Bern was actually suggesting he was the one Arthur needed to talk to? He got to his feet, deciding that it wasn't entirely a bad idea. He quickly wrote a note for Gaius, saying where he'd gone and promising to be back by midday, pulling on his jacket before leaving the chamber and heading for the prince's chambers.

Arthur was still by the window when he got there, Merlin remaining unnoticed by the door. Watching him, seeing the solemn expression on his face, he realised that Bern had been right and knocked on the open door to get the prince's attention.

Arthur flinched and turned, reacting in surprise to see him.

"Merlin? What are you doing here? Aren't you supposed to be resting?"

Merlin smiled slightly, walking into the room, pushing the door closed behind him, and tucking his hands into his jacket pockets casually.

"A day off from doing all your chores is resting. I didn't want to sit around all day, so though I'd take a short walk to stretch my legs."

Arthur frowned.

"Does Gaius know?"

"I left him a note saying where I'd gone. It's not that far between here and his chambers, so I know he won't mind."

Awkward silence fell between them, considering Merlin was here on a social visit, not for work, and Arthur found himself at a bit of a loss as to how to go about this. How was he supposed to act towards his manservant, when said manservant wasn't actually here to work?

After a moment he suddenly turned, going and getting a small wooden box from one of his cupboards.

"You know how to play Fox and Geese?"

Merlin's smile widened into a grin, heading to the table where Arthur set out the wooden cross-shaped board and began to arrange the pieces on it.

"Sure, I'll play a few games against you."

Arthur sat down at his side of the board, starting to smirk.

"Prepare to lose."

Merlin sat down opposite him, having being given the theoretically easier side of the seventeen geese. Arthur was the lone red fox, but he didn't seem concerned as he made his first move.

Merlin made his first one in response, watching the board intently even as he murmured.

"So what's been bothering you?"

Arthur didn't answer immediately, moving his piece again first.

"Bothering? Nothing."

Merlin waited through several more moves, before giving the prince a knowing glance.

"So you always stand at your window brooding?" Arthur remained silent, Merlin rolling his eyes. "I drank poison for you. I think you can trust me to keep quiet about something if you need to talk about it."

Arthur frowned, sighing as he took his next turn. Remembering his realisation at the cave that Merlin wasn't someone who would judge him for having doubts about something.

"Just thinking about something my father said, that all those who use magic are evil. I spoke to Gaius about it earlier, about..."

Merlin raised his eyebrows in query.

"About what?"

The prince hesitated. Well he'd already told Gaius, Merlin's guardian, so he supposed telling the man's ward wouldn't hurt.

"Someone, I don't know who, used magic to help me when I was at the cave getting the antidote for you. They sent a light to guide me out."

Merlin now realised where this conversation was going.

"Oh... So wait, you think your father might be wrong?"

"To contradict the law against magic, is treason."

Hearing the way Arthur said that, Merlin, on some strange instinctive impulse, decided to take the offensive with him. Right now, something inside him was telling him it was time to give Arthur his first big push... Right now, when a new doubt, a new possibility, had occurred to him.

The warlock moved one of his geese again, absently counting how many Arthur had managed to take even as he spoke.

"It's not treason to have an opinion..." Arthur blinked , Merlin continuing un-bothered. "You can't order someone to think the way you want them to. You have to convince them, give them good reasons. I personally don't believe either way about the law against magic. In Cenrid's lands that law doesn't exist. I've lived most of my life knowing a sorcerer could come walking into the village one day. If that turned out to be a good thing or a bad thing, who am I to say?" He looked into Arthur's startled face. "I'm not about to judge someone because someone else with the same powers did something bad. It's the worst kind of prejudice there is, judging all people from one background as being guilty of the crimes of a few of them, and I won't stoop to that level."

Arthur's expression changed to a wary frown, giving his servant a long look.

"And did a sorcerer ever walk into your village?"

Merlin sighed, moving another of his pieces.

"Well, not exactly. Once came close, but he was just a kid travelling with some friends. They knew he had magic, he wasn't evil, and surrounded by their friendship his only interest was using it to protect them. He carried on along his way, and I just went back to the village, and that was it."

Arthur let his hands come to rest on the table, staring at his servant. His tone of voice had a slight edge to it.

"So you're admitting you met a sorcerer and didn't report it."

Merlin, resisting the urge to wince at that, raised a hand to cut him off.

"Cenrid's lands, different law." He lowered it again, explaining. "I'm not saying I'd oppose Camelot's law against magic, but I do still have my own opinion. I've yet to see proof, true proof, that all magic is evil. Until I do, I'm not going to commit either way. I will remain neutral."

Silence fell between them, Arthur moving his fox again before muttering. Inwardly admiring Merlin for being so firm in his beliefs, even as he said otherwise.

"Merlin, you're a fool. Do you know that?"

The servant let out a short laugh, starting to smirk.

"Better to be an open-minded fool, than to blind myself to the possibility. If I wasn't open minded, I'd have written you off as a lost cause the moment I became your servant. But instead I decided to give you a chance, and it turned out you were worth giving one." He looked the once again startled prince in the eye. "You've earned my respect, Arthur. Don't do something stupid to change that. You said it yourself, someone used magic to save you. If it's all bad, then why did they do it?" He moved one more piece. "You lose."

Arthur blinked, looking down at the board and realising that Merlin had his fox completely boxed in and unable to move. He reset the pieces, this time giving Merlin the fox, and waited until they'd each made several moves before he spoke again.

"Fine, let's just say you're right. That would mean my father is wrong, yet he's seen more of magic and its evils than either of us. You've seen it yourself, the magic that's been used against Camelot recently."

Merlin frowned, thoughtful as the two of them continued the game.

"Yeah, I wonder what their reasons were. Valiant just seemed to want to win the tournament, but that witch I saved you from, she only went after you because your father executed her son."

Arthur twitched at that, unwilling to admit he found himself agreeing with it. Even a blind man could have seen that was the woman's motive.

"And the plague?"

"Probably targeted at Camelot to get at your father because of the Purge."

"The framing of Bayard?"

"Probably to start a war to harm Camelot and get at your father because of the Purge."

Arthur snapped, growing frustrated. Why was Merlin being so flippant about all this?

"Merlin!"

Merlin raised his eyebrows in response to that, his tone remaining calm despite the glare he was currently receiving.

"Did that sorceress tell you why she was trying to kill you? Why she did all that, the poison, the framing of Bayard? Gaius says she's the same one who sent the plague. He recognised the signs of both things being her work."

Arthur hesitated, the woman he saw was the one who sent the plague?

"I asked her, and she said she wasn't the one who should be asked that."

Merlin hopped his fox over one of Arthur's geese... The prince now only had one left.

"So if you want to know why people with magic keep targeting Camelot, why she keeps targeting it, then maybe the king is the one you should be asking."

Arthur went rigid at that, stunned. Was that what she'd meant? He hesitated, shaking his head.

"Even if he is, I can't. If there are things he wants me to know, he'll tell me when he thinks I'm ready."

Merlin, still looking at the board, hopped his fox over Arthur's last goose.

"That's a lame excuse not to ask, and you know it... You lose."

Arthur looked down, only now paying attention to the game and realising Merlin had won again.

"Hey!" Their conversation ended for a few minutes, Arthur now totally focused on the next game only for Merlin to beat him for a third time. He then started to grumble. "How are you doing that? I'm almost never beaten at this game."

Merlin started to smile in amusement.

"I just keep my mind open to possibilities. You're so overconfident you're not paying attention to when I'm using my moves to trick you." He looked to the window, noting the angle of the shadows and getting up to head for the door. "I'd better get going, or Gaius will wonder what's keeping me." He paused, glancing back at the prince. "I may be just a servant, but after coming here and hearing about the Purge from Gaius, I can understand why people with magic could hate Camelot, and your father, so much. It's just like any other war. Someone starts it, and then the cycle of hate and revenge just keeps going until someone stands up and puts a stop to it one way or the other. With Bayard, he offered a hand of friendship and it led to the treaty. With magic." He shrugged. "Who knows. I guess that will depend on the king, but all things considered I think he's just going to keep making enemies for himself among the sorcerers. The more brutal he is towards them, the more of them will have reason to target him and Camelot."

Arthur slowly rose to his feet, expression stormy at those words.

"I could have you thrown in the stocks for talking like that."

Merlin just stared back at him.

"But it wouldn't change my opinion, would it? Give me reasons, Arthur, absolute proof, and then tell me if magic is good or evil... Force doesn't change anything, the attacks on Camelot prove that."

Any parting shot Arthur might have made was silenced by those words, the prince remembering how his father almost seemed to evade the question when he'd commented that it sounded as though he knew the one who had tried to kill him at the cave. Uther knew why she hated him so much, why she wanted Camelot to fall, but he would not say what it was even to his own son. Why would he keep it secret? ...Unless it were something that could change everything.

His thoughts turned back to the strange light, and how gentle the glow had been, how it had seemed to urge him onwards and even show him which way to go for his horse. There had been no malice in that act, that light a fragment of evidence that perhaps magic wasn't entirely evil. What had Gaius said? Magic is neither good nor bad, but does have the tendency to corrupt those unprepared for the responsibilities of having it. Would that mean if someone understood those responsibilities, and stayed true to them, then their magic would be good?

He filed the thoughts away, oblivious to Merlin leaving and closing the door, deciding to do as the servant had said and keep an open mind. Merlin had spent most of his life growing up in country where magic was permitted, and while he'd met one good sorcerer and two bad ones, he didn't let the latter change his opinion of the first. He had more experience of that kind than he, Arthur, did. He who had grown up constantly told by others to think magic was evil, but Merlin was right in saying people cannot tell you how to think. Far better to watch for evidence and make up your own mind about something, than to live your life blindly following the words of others.

Outside, going down the hall, the servant in question found himself letting out a shuddering breath, the nerves he hadn't been aware of draining out of him. Why had he talked about all that? It was like pasting a massive sign over his head saying 'look at me, I don't hate magic and think it could be good! Hey, Uther, take a closer look at the man who confessed to being a sorcerer only to be laughed at when you thought it was an idiotic act of love!' He'd acted on that same strange instinct that had caused him to stand up to Arthur in the market those weeks ago, the instinct that told him an important moment had come to try and teach the prince something. Thinking about it he wanted to keep feeling nervous, but somehow he knew he'd said what Arthur needed to hear. Arthur needed to hear someone else admitting they though that magic could be used for good.

And that's when it dawned on him, and with a growing smile Merlin murmured to himself.

"Wait, Arthur's begun to question Uther's beliefs? He disobeyed him to save me, and now he's actually thinking for himself, wanting to make his own decisions about magic?"

In that moment of elation, Merlin broke into a wide grin. Maybe this destiny thing would work out, but first he wanted to learn a bit more about it than the dragon had deigned to tell him. Unlike Arthur, who had him to ask his questions to, he would have to find his answers for himself.

He hurried back to Gaius' chambers, resolving to see if he could find anything among the physician's collection of books. He wanted to know more about why he and Arthur were so important.

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Alaia Skyhawk: Hehehehe, nothing like having a debate while playing a board-game... Poor Arthur, losing three times in a row to his servant. At least he learnt something from it XD