The castle door creaked open with a terrible creak. Emma felt uneasy.
"Shh, stop, guys. Something doesn't feel right." Emma held up her hands. Everyone came to a pause.
"What's wrong, love? Your hair is standing on end?" Hook slipped up behind Emma, poised to protect her if need be. She held her breath. Idiot, it was her job to protect him. She huffed.
"Do you feel that? It's like a cross breeze. Like there's some kind of wind coming from inside the castle. It's warm too..like someone lit a fire..." Emma's ears pricked. Then, realization came through.
"Someone else is here..." Emma froze. She looked over at her mother and Regina.
"This is my castle. I'm not worried about someone else being here." Regina lit a fireball. Snow, without a word, lifted her bow and put an arrow to the string. She nodded for Emma to lead the way.
They crept inside the castle. With careful steps, they made their way up and up the spiral staircases that led up to Regina's least favorite library, where she had put all of the old and musty books on history and archives. All of these books, perhaps the most useful ones, had been moved up to this drafty and forgotten tower to make way for preparations of the Dark Curse.
Emma paused. The library was cold and dark, but somehow felt strangely full.
"See, Emma, maybe you were worried for nothing..."Snow sounded hopeful for a moment.
But then, the door slammed behind Regina. The pages of many books scattered about started flapping in a fierce wind.
Out of the corner, there stepped a tall, thin boy with dark hair and blazing golden eyes. His hands were full of light and fire. He sent some of the fire with his hand back into the fireplace and the other he held in his palms.
He started jabbering in an ancient language. One that sounded similar to the language Arthur had been speaking when he was found.
"Hey...hey uh, we can't...we can't understand you? but we're not here to hurt you..."Emma gasped, hands up in a truce motion. Hook drew protectively near her in case the boy attacked.
The flames and light died down, and the boy's eyes fell back blue.
"I think...it was I who nearly hurt you. What do you want with me?" Merlin tilted his head. They were surprised when he spoke to them in English.
"Wait, you can understand us?" Snow was surprised.
"I have mastered the spell that unlocks all languages...Though...I don't remember how." The boy smiled.
"How? That spell is old and guarded...It would take years to learn that...like really very many years, and you look pretty young." Regina tilted her head.
The boy shrugged.
"I told you I don't know. I don't really remember anything clearly at the moment." He frowned.
"Why the hell are you in my castle?" Regina snapped, somewhat annoyed that he was here, adding to the mystery of the last few days.
"Oh, sorry. Is it your castle now? I didn't see anyone living in it? Anyway, it was warm and dry and I was tired of living in a puddle hole. Good enough reason?" The boy was peevish. He gritted his teeth and forced a smile.
Emma sighed.
"Okay, so...you've been living here. But this...this is Regina and she is actually the one who owns the castle. We're not here to hurt you...alright? We're just looking for some books." Emma smiled.
"Maybe you can help us. Then we can take you back with us where we live where there's plenty of food and warm places to sleep. Warmer than this abandoned castle that Regina owns but should really renovate because it's dark and creepy." Emma shrugged.
"Hey! Well, maybe..."Regina doused her fire balls.
Merlin studied them for a moment. His eyes said he was scared.
"Alright...Yeah, I don't really have anything to lose from helping you. What books are you looking for?" Merlin's eyes went to Snow, who was smiling at him, sympathetic to his plight. She nodded, eager to help him.
"Um, they would be really old. See, we're looking for information about a man we found in the sea...He...well...His name is Arthur...and...we think these old lore books might hold legends about him..." Snow smiled. Merlin's face dawned with wonder.
"Arthur...?" He tilted his head.
"Yeah...Arthur Pendragon? He said he was the King of Camelot? Does any of this sound familiar to you?" Emma gritted her teeth, not sure.
"He literally like popped up in the middle of the ocean, mate. It was magic." Hook smiled. Merlin's eyes went to him, wide open with alarm now.
"Arthur...is...real? I thought that was just a fairy tale." Merlin blinked, face scrunching up in his upset, and rushed over to his books. He opened them all at once with a spell, and started flipping through them rapidly with magic.
"I..I have been reading these books about King Arthur, the Once and Future King of Albion, for days...They help me not to feel lonely living here...They say so much about the kind of king he was, his knights, and his servant Emrys...but they can't be true,can they?...They are just story books...Surely you've just found a mad man washed up out of the sea?" Merlin tilted his head, frightened by the idea that this could be real.
They studied him, feeling his anxiety.
"We promise we're telling the truth. He...really did appear by magic. His eyes were on fire with like this weird gold light, just like yours were when you thought we were gonna hurt you? Ariel, the mermaid who found him, she told us..." Emma nodded.
Merlin studied her. His face said he was fighting a battle with his wits. Then, his eyes filled up with tears.
"What...what does he look like?' He bit his lip as it trembled and ran a hand over his eyes, mad at himself for being so fragile at the moment. The newcomers looked at each other, as if wondering what this could mean. They nodded and then Snow smiled.
"Well, he's about your height...maybe a little shorter. Blond. Like a golden blond not wheat blond. And he has blue eyes." Snow smiled.
Merlin's eyes fluttered. He nodded.
"I...I have been seeing that man in my mind's eye. I thought it was my imagination...but perhaps it is...perhaps it is Arthur. Perhaps Arthur is the man I've been trying to find out what happened to...I cast a spell trying to find someone, and I found these books instead..."Merlin let a shaky breath. He looked back at them.
"You can have these books. Well, I suppose they are yours anyway, but I won't try to stop you from taking them. I will tell you as much about them as I know. But...I didn't reach the end of the story yet..." Merlin shivered.
"You...I want you to take me to Arthur, though. I need to talk to him. I need to understand how I know him, if I am remembering him. If I can't read in the book how he died, then I want him to tell me himself...You have to understand that I was brought to this castle by magic, and it could be very important for me to know who this Arthur is and why I see him in my thoughts without trying to see him. "Merlin swallowed.
"He's...not really remembering things all that clearly right now?" Emma tilted her head.
"Even so. I'll give you the books without any fuss, if you take me to this Arthur Pendragon. What do you say?" Merlin smiled.
"Sounds like a plan to me..." Regina started scooping up the books and putting them in a massive bag they had brought with them.