CHAPTER 8

A servant interrupts that morning's council session - a dull discussion on grain distribution for the coming autumn - to announce that the Regent King's Uncle has requested an audience.

"My uncle?" To Arthur's knowledge he has only one uncle, Tristan de Bois, who was killed in a duel with Uther - and then killed by Uther again, after being summoned by Nimueh as a wraith. "My uncle is dead."

"Actually, Sire, you have another uncle. Lord Agravaine De Bois," Geoffrey tells him somewhat sheepishly. "The younger brother of Tristan. He left Camelot many years ago, after your mother's death."

Heat rises to Arthur's face. Another secret his father kept.

"Very well. Show him in."

The man who enters has dark hair and is dressed for travel, his face muddied from what Arthur guesses has been a long journey. Despite his weariness, Agravaine beams when he sees his nephew. He bows.

"Sire."

Arthur's face remains impassive, but his stomach churns. Is this yet another family member come to punish him for his father's actions? "Uncle?"

The man straightens with a nod. "Agravaine. My, how like your mother you look."

Arthur crosses his arms, refusing to be moved by this observation. "What is your business in Camelot?"

"After Ygraine's death, I fell out with your father. I swore never to return to Camelot, but a month ago I heard news that King Uther had fallen ill. I wished to make amends, before... well, before-"

"He's not dying," Arthur interrupts sharply.

"No! No, of course not, I only meant-" Agravaine breaks off with a deep breath, then smiles disarmingly. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to offend. You are the only family I have left."

"We have had betrayals within the royal family recently."

Agravaine's smile drops. "Of course." He clasps his hands behind his back. "I heard about Lady Morgana. A terrible business."

"Then you understand the need for caution." Arthur signals to the same servant who brought Agravaine in. "We will give you a room, but you will be under guard until I have had the chance to investigate your presence here further."

Agravaine looks warily to the guards who have suddenly materialised at his side. "Arthur-"

"It is only a temporary measure," Arthur assures, but his voice is cold and emotionless. "For now, the Council is dismissed."

There is some grumbling and muttering among the more irritating of his council members, but Arthur ignores this, already making a beeline for the Physician's chambers.

He barges in without knocking, but stops short at the scene that awaits him. Merlin is immersed in an enormous book at Gaius's workbench as a variety of objects float and operate around him. A mop cleans the floor, a potions stirs itself, and being polished by a levitated rag over in the corner-

"Is that my armour?"

Everything drops with a resounding clatter and Merlin starts so violently that he falls from his seat and hits the ground almost in time to the rest.

"Arthur!" He scrambles to his feet, looking guiltily around at the recently-enchanted sprawl of items. "Er..."

"How have you never been caught?" This muttered reprimand is directed more to Arthur himself than to Merlin, but still the servant frantically stoops to pick up the fallen mop and bucket. "Is this how you do all your chores?"

"No, of course not!" Merlin's hand trembles as he snatches up Arthur's helmet from where it has rolled beneath the workbench. "It's just, well, Gaius is away, so-"

Clang! The helmet slips from Merlin's shaking fingers, the servant flinching at the loud noise. Arthur, seeing this, marches forward with an air of resignation.

"It's no wonder you use your magic if you're this clumsy." He plucks the helmet from the ground and holds it out for Merlin, who accepts it with a faint smile.

"Thank you. What, er... what did you want?"

Arthur bends to pick up the fallen mop, placing it in the corner of the workroom. "My Uncle has returned to Camelot."

"Oh!" Merlin's eyes widen comically. "But I thought... isn't your Uncle dead? I mean, technically twice now..."

"My other Uncle," Arthur answers scathingly, as if he himself has not just discovered Agravaine's existence little over ten minutes ago. "Lord Agravaine de Bois. He left Camelot after my mother's death, but has apparently returned to make amends with the King."

Merlin closes the book on Gaius's workbench - not a spellbook, but a book on medicinal herbs, Arthur notes with surprise - and goes to replace it upon the shelves. "You don't believe that's all he wants?"

"It just seems very... convenient." Arthur takes a seat at Gaius's table, leaning his chin on a hand glumly. "After Morgana, I don't know who I can trust."

"I understand why you're cautious," Merlin calls over his shoulder from where he stands at the top of Gaius's ladder, restacking the book in its old position upon the highest shelf. Arthur wonders why the servant doesn't just use his magic to reach it. "But if you close yourself to any new connection as a matter of course, you'll just end up alone."

Like my father, Arthur thinks to himself in the echo of his servant's advice. Out loud he questions, "What if that trust is used against me?"

Merlin comes to sit on the other side of Gaius's table; it feels peculiar to do this here. Arthur is suddenly struck by what a safe haven his chambers have become for Merlin and his magic over these past few months.

"I know better than anyone what it's like to fear trusting somebody." Merlin's hands are under the table and Arthur wonders if they're still shaking. "A long time before she turned against Camelot, I knew that Morgana had magical abilities. I wanted to tell her my secret, but I- I'd lived so long with it... I was afraid. I will never know if telling her would have changed anything, but I will always regret not trying."

"How did it happen?" They have rarely discussed Morgana, her invasion still a sore topic for Arthur even so many months after the event. "What made her betray us?"

"When Morgause cast the sleeping spell on Camelot, it affected everyone but Morgana."

Arthur frowns. "You said that Gaius-"

"I lied." Merlin has the grace to look contrite, but Arthur is past caring about his servant's mistruths by now and gestures impatiently for him to continue. "At first I thought it was because she had magic. That was what she thought too, but that wasn't the reason." Merlin's eyes drop to the uneven surface of the wooden table. Arthur realises that whatever his servant is about to reveal has the potential to be as earth shattering as the revelation of the Dragon's release. "She was a vessel for Morgause's spell. I spoke to Kilgharrah and he- he told me the only way to break the enchantment was to destroy the vessel."

Arthur's eyes widen. "You mean you-?"

"I poisoned her." Merlin's eyes drift up, past Arthur, to Gaius's shelves of potions and poisons. "I pretended to give her a drink but I'd... I'd-"

"You had to," Arthur finds himself saying before Merlin can. As much as he may not have known, may still not know, about Merlin - this much is true. It has to be true. "For the good of the Kingdom, you had to. You wouldn't have, if you had any other choice."

"But I didn't have to keep my magic a secret. I could have told her. I could have let her know she wasn't alone." Merlin's gaze is back on Arthur now, grave and steady. "I don't know if your uncle is to be trusted. Perhaps he isn't. But you can live your life trying to avoid what you most fear, only to make it come true anyway. If you trust no one, then no one will be trustworthy."

Merlin rises to his feet and takes the mop, continuing with his chores the non-magical way. As he washes the floor, Arthur sits silent.

What would he have done in Merlin's position? If Morgana had told him of her magic, would he have kept her safe? Would he have protected her from his father? He was younger then, less questioning of Uther's laws... would he have defied his father for her sake?

"You can use magic for that," Arthur says abruptly and Merlin jumps - though thankfully not so dramatically as last time - and eyes the Regent King skeptically.

"Really," Arthur insists, and makes for the door, smiling when he hears Merlin softly whisper a spell behind him.

He reinstates Agravaine's old position on the Council. He is trusting, but cautious, and starts having weekly dinners with his uncle wherein they swap stories of Camelot, of Agravaine's travels and, most cherished to Arthur, of Ygraine.

Agravaine visits Uther to make amends, but does not get the chance. If not for Arthur's timely intervention, the sickly king would have launched himself at his brother-in-law and done his best to pummel him into a pulp. In a strange way Arthur is relieved by how much energy his father has in him - even if it is being expended on a violent, screaming rage.

I will not become like him, he resolves, helping the guards wrestle his father back into bed. I will not turn to hate as he did.

Agravaine departs swiftly, shaken by the attempted attack, but Arthur stays and sits with his father a while.

"You can't trust him," the King wheezes, eyes still darting wildly about the room as if Agravaine is hidden somewhere. "You can't trust anyone, Arthur."

Arthur says nothing, just squeezes Uther's hand and waits with him until he slips into a fitful sleep.