Alaia Skyhawk: Here's part 3 guys. (Those not concerned by the additions of Gaius knowing Merlin is Emrys, and the Conspiracy, can skip the blurb below. It's just me talking about the core plot points that are the reasons for those additions. I figured I'd explain them and ward off any more comments about them. Then again, read it if you want to get a teaser of a future sub-ep) :)
(Start of blurb)
Now, seeing as I'm getting quiet a few comments about Gaius seeming to "know too much" about the prophecies, I figure I'll explain for those who want to know, what's behind me having him know. If any of you have read A Question of Motives (and I'm fairly sure most of you have lol) then you'll be familiar with the sub-ep "Dragonlord and Dragon". Now in that sub-ep, Kilgharrah tells Merlin about how Gaius once regularly went as Camelot's representative to the Isle of the Blessed, and was basically Camelot's liaison with the High Priests of the Old Religion... Well, THAT'S why he knows lol. The guy isn't that powerful a sorcerer, but in this version of the series he was still trusted by the guys at the top, hence him being able to convince Nimueh to help Uther gain the son he wanted so much. That past position of trust is why he knows in this story, and also forms part of the cause in my fics for high ranked people from the magical community (such as Nellan) being wary of or having a grudge against him (some have more mundane reasons for their grudge, like Edwin). All this would have come out in the "A Question of... Series" as time went by, but by mentioning it here now hopefully it will reassure you guys that it was not a random whim on my part but rather something I planned to fit with the information from Motives. If I stuck totally to the exact themes and events of the episodes, and didn't twist some of the reasons behind some of the characters' actions, then I'd have very little material to make interesting sub-eps out of (I actually have a sub-ep planned for *checks notes* after S1:08 called "The Old Religion", where Gaius and Merlin have a nice long talk about his early suspicions and then realisation about just who Merlin is). I don't have the luxury of Arthur knowing about Merlin's magic in this fic, so I'm eking out every other drab of interesting potential I can while staying fairly close to cannon.
Anyways, from next real episode onwards I have things plotted out so that Gaius will be transitioning much more to the father-figure sort of mentor, than the slightly fearful of Merlin's power yet still very protective of him way he's been so far. His confrontation of Edwin, in the next ep "A Remedy to Cure All Ills", is the turning point when he makes up his mind and finally gets his head on straight. And of course, in "The Old Religion", he will admit all this to Merlin. (A side note, S1:08 is the episode with Mordred, where Merlin also learns that the Druids call him Emrys. Hence the sub-ep that follows it is the one where he and Gaius have that talk.)
Now secondly, the matter of Merlin being watched by the Conspiracy. He's not being watched 24/7 lol, it's just Hargren and crew keeping their ears open for anything weird happening around him, or caused by him, with a handful of occasions where one of them makes a point of following him around for a short while (Fyren, in "Valiant") or discretely taking advantage of a random meeting to talk to him (Nellan, in this sub-ep). Georg does keep tabs on him a little, but remember he's the Captain of the Castle Guard and has to do that job in most of his time. As does Catherine, who has a job working in the laundry and is basically just a gossip-sponge. Even when Merlin was still at Ealdor, Nellan's clan kept their distance. I think peeps got the impression they were acting like Big Brother, 24 hour surveillance. Truth is 99.9999% of the time, the Conspiracy had and still has no clue what Merlin was and is up to. Not even Gallye (Nellan's clan's Oracle/Seer) knows what he's doing all the time lol. He only sees when something significant is soon to happen, random flashes like Morgana gets, except when the event actually starts he can consciously decide to then watch it unfold. I personally think the idea of 24/7 surveillance to be creepy (shudders) and it was never my intention to give the impression that that was what the Conspiracy were doing.
(End of blurb)
Well anyway, hopefully that clears things up, and I politely request that further comments on those two issues not be voiced in the reviews please seeing as I just used 696 words to explain them, hehehe. This fic (and series) has never been intended as a 100% true-to-cannon re-write of the show, and while I acknowledge that I will never be able to please everyone, it does get annoying to have the same things mentioned by a small minority of people over and over when you're writing a fanfiction for fun. It kinda kills part of the enjoyment of it. So peace guys, just let me enjoy some artistic licence because that's why we all come to write/read on FFnet. To have fun :)
Now, onwards with the story... CHAAAAAAAARGE! HEEHEEHEEHEE!
Disclaimer: I don't own Merlin.
Music: Siren song (Yuki Kajiura), Hunith's Letter To Gaius (Merlin OST)
"Whom History Won't Remember" Episode: N/A
~(-)~
Chapter 30: The Nature of Magic ~Part 3~
Getting out the city had been easy, too easy really... Uther really needed to reconsider his security strategy.
Merlin slunk through the woods, shaking his head at that thought. First it was pathetically easy to get down to see the Great Dragon on a night, due to the guards on that shift always being drunk, and now he gets to stroll out past the guards on the main gate because one had gone off to deal with a call of nature while the other had been napping. It was sloppy, and if reporting it didn't mean admitting he'd been sneaking out, Merlin would certainly have done so.
Nellan was already waiting for him when he finally stumbled through the dark and reached the root cave, the druid smiling by the light of his torch.
"Glad you could make it. Now, follow me. We have a ways to walk before we get to where I'll hold your test."
Merlin followed him, uncertain, but aware now of that instinct Nellan had mentioned before. It was true, he could sense that he could be trusted, a feeling of calm deep inside him. That had him keep pace with the man, until curiosity also had him start to ask questions.
"So, were you born a druid? Or did you chose to become one?"
Nellan glanced back at him, still walking.
"I was born a druid. My sister is the current leader of my clan, and should anything happen to her then it would be I whom replace her. My clan is a small one, we do not take in converts like the groups belonging to the four main clans do. My clan are specialists in certain forms of magic, with only a few of us widening our knowledge to other areas."
Merlin picked up his pace a little, allowing himself to get alongside him. He looked extremely interested.
"What magics?"
Seeing that enthusiasm, Nellan couldn't help but chuckle.
"Healing and Vision magics are what my clan specialises in, specifically those that use crystals with a couple of exceptions. As the brother of the clan leader, and potentially the next leader of the clan, I'm expected to know more besides those though. I am well versed in a wide variety of enchantments and spells, and while I am not powerful enough to be a High Priest, I possess the knowledge of one. That is why I can teach those who seek that path."
Merlin continued to ask other questions, some of which were answered, many that were cleverly evaded. Indeed he was so engrossed in the conversation that he was completely unaware of how long they'd been walking.
Nellan came to a stop in a clearing dominated by a large rock, and staring at it in the torchlight Merlin frowned a little.
"It this where you're going to test me?"
The druid nodded.
"Yes, but first that lesson I promised. Close your eyes."
Merlin took a deep breath, doing as instructed.
"Ok, what now?"
Nellan dropped the torch and rolled it in the bare earth beside the rock to snuff it out, plunging the clearing into darkness.
"If there is one thing Uther does not know about magic, does not accept, is that it is not limited to the people who wield it... Listen to the sound of your heartbeat, your breath moving out into the air around you. Hear that wind, feel how it sweeps over the lands and ties them together as one."
Merlin frowned a little, but kept his eyes closed.
"And this will teach me... what?"
Nellan snorted in amusement at the young warlock's impatience.
"Everything and everyone is connected, a living web of power. Those who can use magic are those able to grasp that web, draw on it, use it, but there are others who are born an even deeper part of it than them. They are the warlocks, the witches, the ones born with a power inside. You are one of these special ones, one of those with the potential to become even closer to the Old Magic. Do as I told you, and listen... Can you feel it?"
Merlin did not answer, rather standing there with his eyes closed, taking slow deep breaths and falling into a trance as he concentrated. Sensing the moment that Merlin achieved the state of meditation, Nellan put a hand over his eyes, leaving a narrow gap between his fingers to look through, focusing his mind. This was one of the skills his clan had perfected centuries ago, teaching it to the other clans so they could test and gauge their children's potential for magic.
Settling into a light trance of his own, he started to see the faint traces of that 'web' he'd spoken of, like glimmering gossamer strands that extended across and from all things to wave and shift in an otherworldly wind like golden summer grass. Right in the middle of the veil of the Old Magic before him stood Merlin, now just a small blot of light to his vision that would be roughly where his heart was, a number of white strands reaching out from it. Those were what determined a sorcerer's power, reaching out from them to connect them to the web of magic, but this was when Nellan began to frown...
Because Merlin looked normal, when he'd expected the warlock to appear to be far from it. The more strands, the more powerful the sorcerer, yet right now this view of Merlin barely had him match up to a hedgewizard. He only had six short strands, each only reaching about ten feet away from him, even a weak warlock should have had at least ten reaching twice as far, and someone with potential to be a High Priest typically had a draw range of fifty meters and as many as a hundred strands... By comparison Merlin appeared not to have enough draw on magic to light a candle, never mind kill a griffin, so where was his power coming from? It couldn't all be coming from inside him, no spells worked without at least a moderate amount of the power for them coming from the veil.
Nellan took a deep breath, about to try again, when Merlin then moved slightly and murmured.
"Hey, I think I feel it. Magic... It's everywhere. It's like blanket of energy covering the land, coming from everything, and then the lands are crossed by... are these what people call ley lines? They feel like rivers of power."
Nellan paused, considering the description and puzzled by the implications of that question.
"Yes, that is what a ley line is. They flow between the places where the force of the Old Magic is particularly strong. Keep feeling the magic around you, observe it, how it all ties together."
Instructions given to keep Merlin occupied for a little longer, Nellan began to frown. Merlin could sense the ley lines? But they were several miles from the nearest, and with a draw range of only ten feet he couldn't possibly...
Nellan jolted, taking a few steps back and rather than look directly at Merlin, he looked to the side of him and deliberately focused on tuning out the glow from everything else but the warlock. That was when he saw what he'd failed to see before. Meditation caused a sorcerer to send out all their 'connections', the strands representing their ability to draw on magical energy for spells, when normally those strands were hidden unless the number needed for a spell were being used. That was why he'd wanted Merlin to meditate, to cause him to reveal just how many he had. It was the standard litmus test that druids used to identify all candidates for magic, and it worked on the same principle as the other tests of which Cenrid had been using a few to search for 'Emrys', the idea of detecting how much power a person could call from the veil of the Old Magic. Now it seemed perhaps his clan's protection of Merlin all those years had been needless... Merlin had been hidden in plain sight all along, in more ways than one.
Nellan had to crane his neck as far as he could to one side, attention set on Merlin's strands and nothing else, in order to see what had been invisible before. Merlin only looked like he had a tiny number strands, because at close range those six were the shortest and by far the easiest to see. If he were ever examined by someone not aware of who he was, they would assume those few were all he had, never detecting the rest that were obscured by the natural energy of the land. It was like some sort of camouflage, connecting him to his immediate surroundings and painting him as a regular and almost pathetically weak sorcerer, but they were not the source of his real strength.
Nellan could only stare in fear and awe, seeing strands finer than spider silk, nigh invisible, reaching far up into the skies and all around him for as far as his eyes could see. There must have been thousands of them, and at the heart of them stood the young man whose natural strength let him reach that far. The was no way any of Cenrid's sorcerers would be able to detect this. Merlin wasn't just a part of magic, he wasmagic, there was no other explanation. With a draw range like his, his only limit really would be his own stamina and imagination. If was frightening to behold. Was this what Kalem had sensed all those years ago?
Nellan forced himself to remain composed, speaking to get Merlin's attention.
"The ley lines are special. Magic performed along their lengths, or at the points where they converge, is generally easier than magic cast far from them because of the power they contain. You see now the true nature of magic. It is something that will always exist, and cannot be destroyed. Uther will never understand that."
Merlin opened his eyes, quiet, but awed by what he'd seen. He then smiled at Nellan, grateful.
"Thank you for showing me this. I had no idea all this was around me, staring me in the face. It actually makes me feel kind of small."
Nellan could only smile at that, inwardly marvelling at the choice of words while he picked up and re-lit the torch. Could Merlin ever be 'small' to the world of magic, when he had all of its might right at his very fingertips and not even know it?
"Meditation beforehand allows more powerful spells to be cast, but be wary of using it. While you meditate, you are defenceless. You may sense the web of magic around you, but you will be unable to tell the difference between a herd of deer of a band of brigands. The corn snake or the adder, both will appear the same, and yet the bite of the latter holds poison. Meditation is a tool for learning, for contemplation. Most sorcerers will never use it in a practical setting, and it is useless in combat. Meditating will help you improve how efficient you are in using power for your spells, but that is not why I showed you this. I have shown you this purely so that you might understand better just how important magic is, and how much responsibility comes with possessing it. That is something all High Priests must learn, and learn well."
Merlin nodded.
"I understand, and still, thanks." He looked around. "So what now?"
Nellan raised a hand high, his voice ringing out in a spell.
"Now is time for your test... Cume se graman de se wuduwesten."
Merlin gaped when his instinctive knowledge translated it.
"You just called..."
Nellan lowered his hand, smiling slightly.
"We are close to the edge of the Darkling Woods, south of the City of Camelot. They are home to a large number of serket, giant scorpions. As the test I spoke of, I want you to face the ones I've just lured to come in this direction. Do not worry, if I believe you are unable to fend them off, I will drive them away. But in truth I think you will be more than a match for them."
Merlin stared at him.
"You've got to be joking."
Nellan laughed, climbing up the nearby rock to get himself out of the way. He then sat on the top of it, smiling.
"And I will inform you that I am not. If you wish to one day be a High Priest, you will be expected to face a number of similar trials to prove yourself worthy of it. You killed a griffin, Merlin, and that is no small feat. If you feel you cannot face the serket as you did the griffin, which was a far more formidable foe, then ask yourself. What gave you the strength, the courage, to face it? Will that reason give you courage now?"
They both started to hear the approach of many clicking and rattling creatures, Merlin hesitating before his expression became set and he turned to face that direction. When the first of the giant scorpions came into view, he picked one up with silent magic and threw it, before glaring at the next nearest and shouting.
"Astrice!"
The serket was slammed into a tree and killed, Nellan calling out over the mayhem.
"Why do you fight them? What was it that gave you the courage to face the griffin?"
Merlin couldn't turn to face him, too busy shoving more of the thirty-something serket trying to take a piece out of him.
"Because I had to! There was no one else who could stop it!"
"Was that the only reason?"
Merlin hesitated a moment, in the pause before more of the creatures came into range of him.
"Arthur... I knew he would die if he faced it. If I stood back and did nothing while he went against it without my help."
Nellan watched as the next serket to get too close was crushed into the side of the rock beneath him.
"And why protect the son of Uther Pendragon, the oppressor of magic?"
Merlin's shout held a tinge of anger.
"Arthur is not his father! Uther's wrongdoings are not his! Arthur has a good heart, and is a good man. He willingly risks death if he must for his people. He disobeyed his father in order to save my life when I was poisoned. He already doubts that all magic is evil, and sees the folly in valuing only those of noble birth."
Nellan started to stand up, a sense of awe rising in him.
"Is that why you have chosen to fight?"
Merlin blasted several serket through the air, about to drop from exhaustion. He wasn't used to throwing magic around like this.
"I fight because I believe I am meant to. That I'm meant to be here, that my magic has a purpose, and that purpose is to protect Arthur and the great king I think he can become!"
Nellan dropped down from the rock, imposing himself between the panting Merlin and the serket. The scorpions hesitated and then left, Nellan watching them disappear into the night's darkness before turning to the warlock behind him.
"And that answers my question from earlier... Would you want to pursue the path of becoming a High Priest, when it would mean leaving Camelot."
There was an apology in Merlin's eyes, as he stood there panting from fighting the serket. His voice was solemn.
"I'd like to, but I'm needed here. Many people have already tried to harm Arthur just because he is Uther's son. He is not to blame for the king's actions, and it's not right that he suffer because of them. Arthur is arrogant, conceited, too concerned with what the other nobles thing of him, and sometimes is a complete and utter prat... But I know he cares about his people, and that given the chance he will be the kind of king they deserve. One that will do his utmost to understand them, and in time also understand magic. He has it in him to be all that, but without someone to protect him from his father's enemies, he'll never live long enough to achieve it... He needs me at his side."
Nellan regarded the young warlock before him, surprised and awed at Merlin perceiving and apparently choosing this path all on his own... When in truth he had no idea Merlin had already been told it was his destiny to do this.
"And so you have chosen to remain at his side and protect him?"
Merlin nodded.
"I'm still not sure if I'll be good enough, if I'm strong enough to do this, but I'm going to try. I think he's worth putting my faith in."
Nellan put a hand on Merlin's shoulder.
"And I think you will do just fine if you believe in yourself... It would have been an honour to teach you, and I honestly believe that one day you may be able to become a High Priest all on your own." He put that hand over Merlin's heart. "You already have everything you need, right here."
~(-)~
At the sight of the large and repeated yawns of his ward, while said ward attempted to eat his breakfast in the gaps between them, Gaius nudged Merlin when another one struck.
"You seem awfully tired... Have you been staying up late reading that book again? I told you, you need to get enough sleep."
Merlin yawned again, knowing he couldn't tell Gaius where he'd really gone, and settling for the excuse the physician had just handed him.
"It was just a really interesting bit, I didn't want to put it down."
Gaius smiled a little, shaking his head.
"You really are a glutton for punishment. Hurry up, finish your food. You can wake yourself up by getting me this list of herbs from the apothecary in town after you've done your morning chores. The fresh air will do you some good."
Merlin accepted the piece of paper he was handed, sighing exaggeratedly.
"More donkey work..."
Gaius started to laugh, Merlin also cracking a smile, while far off outside the city a certain druid was riding away to take the borrowed horse back to Ulwin.
Nellan paused and looked back, to the spires of the castle visible above the trees, smiling to himself.
"You've already changed, Emrys, from the young man who left Ealdor just a few months ago, and I know you will continue to grow stronger. Albion's future is in good hands."
~(-)~
Alaia Skyhawk: I can tell you that I yawned about fifteen times writing the first few lines of that last scene... Merlin's yawns are contagious XD
And there's this fic's intro of Nellan, the main druid from Whom History Won't Remember. I can't promise he'll show up again in this fic, but I can promise he will appear at least once during the Season 4 part of A Question of Motives :)
Oh and apologies if the massive block-o-text at the top was distracting. Putting it at the top of a chapter just saved me repeatedly pasting it into review replies, hehe.