AN: This first bonus chapter is for beating my last record of 69 reviews for my other multi-chapter. Hope you guys like! This chapter is an alternative epilogue. Sorry for the delay, been busy revising for January exams. … and then June exams… and then university preparation… and then university work…. and then university exams... (I've actually just continuously added to this '…' as I've been delayed).
Oblivious
Bonus Content #1
A year into Balinor's pleasant new life, he was more than a little surprised to receive a letter. This in itself may not have been too strange, however there were a number of peculiarities about the letter which made the event so prominent in his memory.
Firstly, the majority of people who may have wanted to send him a letter believed him to be dead, and whenever Merlin corresponded with them he usually addressed the letters to both Hunith and Balinor so the letter wasn't from him; secondly, the letter was brought by an owl. An owl. He had stared in bemusement until Hunith had rather exasperatedly told him to "ignore the method of transport and just read the bloody letter!" which he had then, rather sheepishly, done. Curious to see who the letter was from, Balinor skipped to the end of the letter to see the sender's name.
"Who is it from?" Hunith asked.
"King Arthur." A few months previously, whilst Merlin and Arthur had been away on a quest, one Arthur would not have gone on without the knowledge that he had magic to back him up, there had been an attack on Camelot and although they had managed to defeat the invaders, Uther had been fatally wounded and had only managed to survive until Arthur's return. Balinor wondered what the busy new king could want to speak to him about.
"Is it about Merlin?" Hunith asked quickly, worried that something may have happened to him.
"Not exactly." Balinor replied as he finished reading the letter, "He's asking about ceremonies and posts that existed before the purge."
"Couldn't he have asked Gaius, wouldn't that have been quicker and easier?"
"Not concerning these specific ceremonies and posts, Gaius was only the court physician; these ceremonies were usually only attended by certain members of the nobility and magical community."
"Magical? What sort of post is he asking about?"
"Court Sorcerer." Balinor paused thoughtfully, "Corin attended Nimueh's appointment ceremony as well as myself, I'll check the details with him before I send a reply." Balinor hoped that he wasn't misunderstanding the significance of Arthur's request for magical information.
Sure enough, a short while after Balinor had double checked his information and sent Arthur a reply (feeling distinctly odd trying to attach a letter to an owl, and Hunith had been no help whatsoever as she had just stood by and laughed at his attempts to keep the bird still), another letter arrived, this one far grander and official looking (but still brought by an owl which had sent Hunith into fresh rounds of laughter at the disgruntled expression on Balinor's face).
The envelope contained two letters, one of which was a formal invitation for both Balinor and Hunith to attend the inauguration ceremony of the new court sorcerer as well as the lifting of the ban on magic and the formal royal apology to the magical community for the actions of the late King Uther, it went on to say that after this event, all the lands and titles which had belonged to Balinor before the purge would be returned to him and he would also be given a seat on the King's council of advisors. The second letter was less formal; it was a request from Arthur for Balinor to locate and invite prominent members of the magical community to also attend. Arthur could not do it himself for obvious reasons.
Balinor showed both letters to Hunith who was almost bursting with joy. Arthur had never specified who would be given the post, he hadn't needed to. Balinor had immediately gone to drag Corin, one of the druid leaders of this settlement, to his and Hunith's house in order to persuade him to attend. Corin had put up some resistance, not believing the invitation to be genuine, until Balinor told him that he was going himself. Balinor had then quickly written a response to Arthur saying that he and Hunith would attend and that he would try to reach out to old acquaintances. Letter sent and a brief goodbye said to Hunith, Balinor called Kilgharrah and set off.
He first visited major druid leaders but most of them had the same fears as Corin. They all believed that the invitation was a trap, that Arthur was no better than his father and that Balinor was a fool for falling for it. He hadn't told them that Arthur was aware that he had a practicing warlock as a manservant and had made no move to execute him in the past year despite having the opportunity. He did manage to get promises from some more hopeful druids, as well as a member of the Catha called Alator whose desire for a Camelot where magic was freely practiced was clear, he even made some mention of the possibility of this being the start of Albion but Balinor had to hide his cynicism about this since he knew that, without Emrys, Albion was impossible and the legendary sorcerer had yet to make an appearance.
Knowledge that a powerful sorcerer like Alator would be going encouraged a few others and with better numbers, Balinor headed towards the Isle of the Blessed to see his old friend Nimueh. When he arrived, he looked around but could not see the sorceress anywhere until an unfamiliar blonde woman appeared followed by another unfamiliar brunette. Balinor gave them the typical magical greeting and they both responded in turn. The blonde introduced herself as Morgause, a high priestess, but did not say anything about her companion. When Balinor enquired about Nimueh, Morgause informed him of her death. He was saddened by this news, but not surprised, Nimueh had been more furious than most about Uther's actions and no doubt she had done something rash and gotten herself killed for it. In exchange for this information, Balinor told them about the appointment of a new court sorcerer and asked them to attend as representatives of the Priestesses of the Old Religion. The brunette chose this time to speak up.
"Arthur would never lift the ban on magic; he is too much like Uther." Balinor shrugged.
"Choose what you want to believe, in a few months I'm sure the truth will come out." He said his goodbyes and thanked them for their time while they said they would pray to the goddess and hope he survive the inevitable trap.
AN: So this is part 1 of the alternative epilogue. I'm going to start work on the second part which will involve everyone going to Camelot, the ceremony and a few new revelations that I've hinted at in this chapter . In case it wasn't clear, the brunette at the end of this bonus chapter is Morgana, I'm not sure yet if she'll be in the next part. I know this has been super delayed, really sorry about that and I can't guarantee a quick next bonus content but I've had this chapter on my computer for a while and I thought that it would be good to put up even if it takes me forever to put up the second part. If any of you have been watching 'The Crimson Field' I'm probably going to be posting a few short stories on that, so if you're interested stay tuned to my channel (or profile or whatever you call it).