AN: Well, here it is...the final chapter (short epilogue still to come) of BNW Part Three: Keys of Fate. Things begin making sense for our heroes, and the stage will now be fully set for the real adventure to begin.
I'm so glad you all have been enjoying this story so far! It is such a joy to write. I am going to be taking a lot of time this next month to work on editing my Coins series and straightening that out, while working on Part Four of this saga. Due to all the intricate plot variations, I am going to force myself to hold off posting until it is completed so I don't write myself into a corner. It will probably begin posting sometime around the Christmas Holiday.
Thanks as always to Nance who helps set my writing straight, even after the chapter has been posted. (because my editing skills suck :P)
Aerist, your graphic manips have really helped this story come alive! (They can be seen posted inline with the story at theheartofcamelot dot com, search the fanfiction forum for username Moonfox. The Merlin/Jag/Bi-plane is AMAZING! *squeals*)
IcarusLSU- you are an awesome idea bouncer, couldn't have come up with this plot without you.
Thank you all soooo much for the reviews! TIP, CarolynneRuth, GoldFireFish, FeedtheFlames, AWanderersHaven, Aerist, IcarusLSU, and Nance...AND everyone else along the way who has reviewed! They are amazing to receive, and help to feed my overworked plot squirrels, especially with a temperamental keyboard.
Over the years, and throughout his galactic travels, Leon had seen many warrior races. He'd lived and hidden out with a few from time to time. Some were rather primitive, others had technological advances went far beyond that of the Tau'ri. He was able to see the qualities of many of them in his old friend.
The sense of peace that exuded from Merlin was akin to that he felt whenever Lancelot visited him. Many times, he had tried to find that calm within himself. It was a quality he had once thought he possessed, back in the days of Camelot.
Camelot...He felt the weight of a ring, kept on a chain around his neck; his only personal possession of his past that held any meaning. It had once belonged to his wife. She was a comely little thing, from a noble Scottish family. As part of an arranged marriage, it was good for both families, and the kingdom. Bridgette was young, having seen perhaps only seventeen summers when she was brought to Camelot, but she was well-trained by her mother to be a good housekeeper. Her auburn hair and startling, forest green eyes had captured his fancy immediately.
Fascinated by each other in the early days of their marriage, it was a blissful honeymoon time at first, which neither had expected. He would ride out on patrol and return to his beautiful new wife, waiting for him with a warm meal and soft bed. Then, one day, he entered their home to find her weeping over a pot of stew in the fire. When he broached the subject, she had flown into a tantrum, cursing everything from the lack of thickening in the stew to his frequent absences. A few months later, and his fiery-haired wife gave him his first son.
Two more children and many years later, their love for each other as a family had grown in some ways, and cooled in others. Leon's duties, when Arthur became king, had grown, as did his time away from his family.
After Arthur was struck down in Camlann, their lives became even more separated. Leon was the highest ranking noble on the Queen's Council, and he rarely saw his family. Instead, he spent more time with Guinevere and her son, than with his own. Faithful to the Crown, Leon had been raised to know that duty to the kingdom came before all else.
His fourth child, a daughter, was still a tiny infant, barely a month old, when the Plague came. Leon had only held her a handful of times. He cursed himself, for not being able to even recall her name, and sometimes it seemed he had forgotten about her completely.
All that transpired, those last few years in Camelot, had left deep scars in his heart. Watching the queen and prince float off into the mist was the breaking point. Leon built a solid wall around his emotions. He volunteered in Nemeth for the worst of the battlefronts, in the furthest of places. While he and Merlin had grown close as friends in the two years following Camlann, he realized it was their mutual fondness for Guinevere that brought them together.
Merlin had begun moving on with his own life in the neighboring kingdom; marrying and settling down, being granted his title and position which he honestly, in Leon's opinion, should have been given in the days of Camelot, had it not been for Uther's laws. It intrigued him, how the raven-haired warlock, born outside of Camelot's borders, was able to cope with the losses, whereas Leon was not.
He never understood why he didn't die, until Lancelot appeared to him and presented him with the quest, hinting at things to come. Leon was terrified when he was first brought onto the alien vessel and met Heimdall. She became his mentor in all things beyond the world he knew, and the closest thing he considered to a friend, beside the Ascended form of Lancelot. Yet, even with those two, he kept himself walled off and somewhat aloof.
The ancient knight envied Merlin. Where the warlock had found peace, Leon had found only turmoil over the centuries. Nearly everything he was, he locked away. He still managed to find enjoyment in parts of his life, but it was usually temporary. He found his eyes drifting towards Laney and stopped himself.
He never stayed in one place long enough to build a connection with another being. He was a galactic drifter, and outwardly proud of it. The few times he had considered settling for a while, were always ripped out of his grasp by someone or something. Danger was attracted to him. He knew it was partly due to the sword he had carried.
It was a powerful item, and the only thing, other than the ring, that he felt any semblance of emotion for. The sword was a link to what could have been the greatest kingdom ever known. He wondered how it would play out in a world and galaxy, so changed from what they used to be. Right now, it sat in a vault safe that Merlin had built; protected not only against mundane threats, but also magical ones. The thought made him uneasy. His constant companion over the centuries, was no longer his.
He stood back a bit from the fray and watched how Merlin effortlessly took on his opponents...disarming them within the first minute. The others soon gave up on weapons, choosing to simply try and take him down, by whatever means necessary.
Gwaine and Cameron attempted to team up on Merlin...very unsuccessfully...as Merlin sank to the ground and rolled out from between them. Percival and Arthur thought they spied an opening. Merlin had his back to the porch and the four men, their eyes glinting with mischief, knew they had him cornered.
...Until Merlin grabbed the rail behind him and used the leverage to run up Percival's large torso, flipping himself up on the small ledge.
"You're not joining in?" Dr. Jackson asked Leon. The knight knew the other man was trying to figure him out.
They watched the lanky warlock vault into an airborne somersault off the porch rail, landing on his feet behind the four intrepid friends, and dashing off.
Leon snickered, "Oh, I will. Just waiting patiently for the right moment. He did say any weapon, correct?"
Daniel's eyes shifted suspiciously towards Leon. "Something to that effect..."
It was quite obvious Merlin could have easily taken all four men out early on, but he seemed to be having fun toying with them. Percival finally managed to wrap his arms around the thinner man from behind. The others descended on him, assuming he was trapped.
When Laney called out that dinner was ready, that was all the incentive Merlin needed to put an end to the mock battle.
Four warriors laid sprawled out in the dirt within seconds.
"Hey, Merlin!" Leon called out.
The smirking warlock turned towards the one knight, who had stayed out of the fray. A bolt of electricity shot through the air and caught him off guard...square in the chest...before he even registered that Leon was holding something similar to a gun in his hand.
Merlin fell to his knees, reeling from the shock of the alien weapon. He reached out and placed his hands on the ground in front of him, and took a few deep breaths trying to stop the ringing in his head.
The other four men had finally regained their own footing, aching and bruised from the fight. They glanced nervously between Leon and Merlin.
It took a few moments before Merlin shook his head and looked up at Leon, a question in his eyes.
The blond knight shrugged, "You said 'whatever we could find' weapon-wise."
The warlock grinned through the tingling in his body and began to laugh. Years of working with UNIT should have prepared him for such a thing, but he had been careless around his old friends, and it was a good reminder. "Indeed I did. Next time, I will be more careful with my words." The sparkle in his stormy blue eyes silently promised Leon just that.
(*~*~*~*)
Cold beers, and the Colorado sunset lent to the ambiance surrounding the friendly, after dinner atmosphere on the back porch. A cool breeze wafted down off the snow-capped peaks of the Rockies. A cold front was supposed to be headed their way, and Merlin hoped it would hold off for a few more days. As much as he loved flying...flying in a winter storm was not something he cared to do, especially with those he considered his family on board.
"Way to go all Indiana Jones on him, dude!" Cameron commented to Leon, as they sat around, nursing various bruises from the fight with Merlin.
Leon smiled his thanks at Cameron, but made no inclination that he understood the reference.
The colonel shifted in his chair. "You're not from around here." Cameron stated. He shared a look with Daniel, before casting an accusatory glance at Gwaine.
Up close, the archaeologist had noticed that the weapon Leon had held, appeared to be similar to a Particle Magnum which he'd only seen used by an alien member of the Atlantis Base...Certainly not a firearm of Earth origin...nor from the Milky Way Galaxy, for that matter.
"I never said he was!" Gwaine said defensively.
"Oh! Gwen, you have to come and see this!" Martha called out excitedly from the living room.
Laney had, unbeknownst to any of the men, pulled out her phone and recorded the whole fight digitally. The two women were busy setting up the TV to display the video.
Gwen, and most of the others, moved inside to the living room to watch the playback. Merlin shook his head and chuckled, not making any move from the Adirondack chair. He was able to tell by the way Daniel Jackson lingered behind the others, that the archeologist wanted to discuss something. He motioned to the seat next to him.
Daniel sat down with a smile. "Have you been able to take a look at that file? There's a lot more where that came from, and I have to admit the translation hasn't been our top priority...with everything that's going on. General Landry and I decided to keep it in-house, partly out of respect for you guys, and also as per the agreement that Guinevere bartered for."
The warlock snorted, "She has always been a very shrewd and thorough negotiator." Merlin shook his head, and released a breath in a sigh. Part of him wanted to keep what little information he had gained to himself, but he realized the Daniel would probably be one of the few who could truly appreciate the knowledge. "Gwaine told me you don't have much on a race called the Furlings."
"Uh...no. We know they are one of the..."
Merlin cut him off. "Yes, I know about the Alliance and all that, not just from Gwaine, but other sources as well."
Daniel took off his glasses and cleaned them on his shirt. "I see...Well, none of the languages on those files even resembled the Furling language."
"How do you know the 'Furling' language you have seen, is the actual language of that race?"
Shrugging, he put the glasses back on and stared at Merlin, waiting for him to elaborate.
"First thing you should know, these Furlings...didn't have any fur."
The archaeologist laughed, "Yeah, that was a rather bad joke that just hasn't gone away. But, we think we found some skeletal remains a couple years ago, basic humanoid in structure, with only a few minor differences. The native people on the planet said their ancestors had been protected by the Furlings."
"Well, I doubt what you found was a true Furling. Tell me, Dr. Jackson...do you believe in dragons?"
"Uh...Is that a trick question?"
"No, actually, it's not. Once I realized that all the fluctuations were misleading, and which set of gibberish in that file was the real language, my friend, Mickey, was able to set up a filter and begin a translation program, night before last. From what little has been translated so far...Furlings got their name, or the translation of it...from furling and unfurling their wings, like great sails on a ship."
"How did he find a cypher for the baseline?" The linguist side of him was truly intrigued.
"It was a language I know. The language of the Dragons."
Daniel's face appeared strained with disbelief. "...And you know that...how?"
A shadow of emotion fell across Merlin's face. His voice took on a deep, mysterious quality. "I am the last Dragon Lord."
"I see..." Daniel's skeptical nature kept his enthusiasm in check, but he hoped that Merlin would elaborate.
"When I return home, I hope to be able to sit down and actually read through it all." He then began explaining to Daniel about his father and Kilgharrah...and how, because of the timing and circumstances...he really had no clue about his own heritage.
"You'll have to keep me apprised of what you learn. Do you think that it is why your...abilities...reacted with the radiation from the sword shrapnel?"
"I do."
"That is really interesting. When Sam was studying the piece, she found it gave off a sound frequency, too. On a hunch, Sam and Dr. Lee recently developed a device that emits a frequency...almost identical to the sword...that actually interferes with the powers of the Priors. Mitchell and I got to have some fun on the Sodan homeworld with that one."[1]
Merlin thought about it for a moment. "One of the main properties of the dragon-forged blade was to be able to kill something that was already dead." He purposely neglected telling Daniel about Arthur's sword.
"Well, our theory is that while not exactly dead, the Priors aren't fully alive anymore."
"Like a shade?"
"A 'shade'..." Daniel rolled his bottom lip between his teeth for a moment. "...partly from the ancient Hebrew the term 'tsalmaveth,' which literally meant 'death-shadow.' It was said, the Witch of Endor conjured the spirit of Samuel after his death, and he prophesied the downfall of Saul's army. There are references in Homer's Odyssey and Dante's Inferno about similar spirits residing in the Underworld. I have to admit, that is rather a fitting description for the Priors."
"There were some artifacts of the Old Religion that would allow people...namely High Priestesses...to summon the spirits. I had a friend once who was raised after his death. It was his body and mannerisms, but with only the memories the Priestess bestowed...quite like a shadow of himself. Another time, before that, a whole army was made seemingly immortal. No weapon made by man at the time could injure them, but when cut down with a blade forged by a dragon...Well, they kind of exploded." [2, 3]
"Ooh, hmm...The Priors, to try and prove a point, or to be punished for failure, end up bursting into flames." Daniel mulled over the information. "I don't suppose one of the, uh, 'artifacts' was a staff?"
"No...but, now that you bring it up, Gwaine did mention their staves to me." The tickle at Merlin's subconscious returned. "I don't suppose you have a picture or anything?"
Daniel pulled out a small notebook and scribbled on the page. "They look kind of like this."
Merlin's eyes widened. He snatched the paper from Daniel and rushed inside. "Leon!" He called out. "Do you possibly recall that little tart Arthur tried to run off with and marry?"
The blond knight broke off from his conversation with Percival. His eyebrows dipped, trying to bring up the memories.
"You mean that Sophia girl?" Gwen asked, overhearing the question.
Merlin nodded, chiding himself for forgetting that she had been there more recently than either him or Leon. He held up the drawing. "Tell me, does this look familiar?"
She moved closer and looked at it. Her hand covered her mouth and her eyes widened, "Yes. Both she and her father had staves just like that!"
"I do not remember that..." Arthur grumbled defensively. From his tone, Merlin suspected the former king was lying.
"Of course not, you prat. You were too busy being bespelled by Sophia and trying to drown yourself...literally..." His voice raised and took on a flighty quality, accompanied by Merlin batting his eyelashes. "...for her love." [4]
Placing a hand on her husband's arm, Gwen prevented him from throwing anything at Merlin. "Morgana had a dream about that. It scared her nearly to death."
Leon chuckled, "I remember that now." He turned to Arthur. "Your father was not happy when you declared your love for her. I always wondered what happened to those two. They just seemed to disappear, as suddenly as they had arrived." He turned to Merlin with an accusatory stare.
Merlin grinned widely. "Well, after that, I found myself in possession of a staff...nearly identical to that...but without the symbol on the side. Sophia and her father were Sidhe, a type of malicious fairy. They had been banished from Avalon and were using Arthur as a sacrifice to try and get back to their people.
"The Sidhe really had it in for the Pendragons, though I never knew exactly why...They even had one of their own possess another princess, when she was a babe, in hopes that Arthur would marry her and then they would have control of the future Queen of Camelot." [5]
"Wow, they really didn't like you." Gwaine laughed, clapping Arthur roughly on the back, eliciting a grunt of annoyance.
"When we head back home, after Boyd's funeral on Saturday, I'll start looking into it more and let you know what I find out." Merlin said, turning back to Daniel. "Although, I'm not sure any of the Sidhe even exist anymore, but if they do...maybe I can finally get some answers...now that I have a better idea what questions I need to ask. I think this staff might be the connection I needed to start putting this puzzle together."
[1] Stargate: SG-1 episode 9x10 "The Fourth Horseman, Part 1" Here is a vid of that rather amusing scene. watch?v=54XGQ6ZXxf8
[2-5] Various Merlin episodes 4x9, 3x13, 1x7, 3x6