It was night, when Arthur woke. Regina had returned with the memory potion. There were holes in the things that Merlin could remember. Gaps in life and in death, where Arthur's memory must be recovered or they would not be able to retrieve the full origin story of the demons that had attacked them.
The others came up to meet Arthur and Merlin, now that they knew from Arthur that "Emrys" was actually his best friend Merlin, and that Emrys was his other name.
"I know that Nimueh created them...and I know that they will return..."Merlin answered a sea of questions.
"But, if I may, I think that Arthur is too exhausted to be forced to remember all of that tonight. It could make him quite ill." Merlin looked at Arthur in anguish. His eyes were fluttering, and he sat on the bed wan faced.
"But those things could come back tonight! They attacked my son!" Regina snapped, annoyed.
"I can manage...I think..."Arthur reached his hand out blindly.
"No, I have to agree with Merlin...It won't do us any good if you remember but then pass out for several days like he did. Let's just..Just tonight, Regina. Let's give him tonight." Emma met Regina's gaze. Regina tilted her head.
"We have to keep Henry safe..."Regina said it almost defeated, so scared those things would come back. Emma smiled as if to say "I know, he's my son too..." And they both agreed that this was right in silence.
Regina turned to look at Arthur. Then, she handed the potion to Merlin.
"You...I can tell you really care about him. When the time is right, you'll be the one to give this to him." Regina nodded. Merlin smiled.
"That's generous, milady. I will see to it that he gets it as soon as he is able." Merlin smiled down at Arthur.
"Normally, I would argue with this, but...Well, I'm just too tired." Arthur smiled.
"Right...well, let's let Merlin be the judge. He clearly cares a lot about you..."Emma went and helped Arthur to stand up. They looked each other in the eyes for a moment, studying each other as if they knew each other.
Emma tilted her head.
"I...I am getting this really weird sense that...we know each other?" Emma looked over at Merlin to see if it was true. Arthur's eyes studied Emma still, perplexed.
"You do know each other, but not in the way you think...It's what I was explaining on the battlefield. See, the magic that you were born from was created by Arthur's birth and sacrificial death. He is the origin of all that makes your life force Light. So, the familiarity you're feeling about each other is the fact that you are kin in a way...Not in the way of ancestor and descendant by births, but in the way of magic wellspring and its offspring. It's as if he is an ancestor of your spirit rather than your blood." Merlin smiled.
Emma blinked. Arthur smiled.
"I think we even look a bit alike. Our hair is the same. Yes, you surely are my descendant in some way, though I died without any heirs." Arthur swished the end of Emma's hair. She smiled.
"This is all so...weird..."She laughed, and then she helped Arthur down the stairs, the others at her heels.
They made their way to the dining area. Henry was eagerly waiting for his mother with cinnamon cocoa. When he saw who she was with, he let a happy chirp and ran and hugged Arthur. Arthur caught the boy as he jumped into his arms and held him. Merlin felt his breath catch. It looked like a young uncle or a big brother with a much younger brother. The magical bond ran deep. Merlin realized then that he and Arthur had come back to life and found a family, in a strange time and a strange land.
When Arthur sat the child on his feet, he smiled broadly and giggled.
"Thank you for...all you did that night. I wanted to see you, but I went with my Mom-my-my other Mom to find the potion. I-I'm Henry." Henry smiled.
"Well met, Henry. I'm Arthur." Arthur smiled at the small one. Emma and Regina were looking down at him with adoration. Soon, Hook joined the circle, beaming at the child that was the pride of Emma's life.
Then came Snow and David.
"Do you remember now?" Snow smiled.
"Not yet...we're letting him take a breather first. He's still kinda sick from coming back..."Emma smiled over in Arthur's direction.
"Cocoa will help with that! Come on..."Henry took Arthur by the hand and drug him over to where he'd been sitting. Merlin smiled, long suffering. Everyone was looking at him now, as if realizing that he might still be sick too from his sudden memory.
"Are you okay?" Snow asked after a moment. Merlin sighed.
"I will be now that I'm up on my feet...but...it's going to be...like looking at a ghost for a bit." Merlin smiled. He looked back at Regina, who was studying him intensely. He could tell that she was eager for answers about the things that came to hurt her child.
"The demons that attacked us are High-Wraiths formed from the Dorocha, the spirits of the dead. They are what happens when poisoned magic twists Dorocha ghosts to do the bidding of darker powers..." Merlin sighed.
"What did they want with Emma?" David asked, eyes crossing.
"Or Henry..." Regina's voice was a whisper.
"I think...well Arthur will be the one to have to answer that question in full. They were created by the circumstances that necessitated his death. See, he sacrificed himself for me...to the Gatekeeper of the Spirit World." Merlin squared his chin. He felt like he could cry, but he steadied himself by looking into Emma's eyes. She had a grace that shone from within. Merlin was beginning to be drawn to her Life force, so much like Arthur's, but also gentler in many ways, compassionate as only a mother could be.
"The witch Morgause had created a dark curse to poison my natural born magic, out of the Ether, kin with the darkness. She would bind it to the Dorocha and twist all the living souls of our Kingdom into Walking Wraiths, people neither alive nor dead. She meant to make a kingdom controlled by High-Wraiths, her great army of magic-armed Dorocha..." Merlin looked at the roof.
"I was so sick, laying near to death, that I could not stop him. The very last time I saw Arthur before he sacrificed himself, I was lying in a bed made up for me by our physician Gaius...Arthur was telling me he was going to the Isle of the Blessed to save me. He sacrificed himself to Nimueh, the high priestess who knew how to reverse dark curses and close the gates of the Spirit World. When I got well, I went to where Arthur was sacrificed, and held him as he died...I never knew how the sacrifice happened. I only know...he...he really suffered..." Merlin closed his eyes and shook his head. When he opened them again, Snow had taken his hand. He nodded.
"I think the curse must have been so deep that it still hurts him some. That it's still making him sick. All I can think is that Nimueh must have drawn the power of Arthur's sacrifice for her own dark curse, which she intended to use on Uther, Arthur's father, the wicked king who had persecuted Nimueh's kind, who were called Mages after a time, because they were people born with magic. Only Arthur knows exactly what was done to him, as he...he was alone..when she performed the ritual that sacrificed him." Merlin's eyes were big with regret, thinking about poor Arthur being slaughtered by himself.
The others had fallen silent, mortified by what they'd been told. All eyes wandered over to where Arthur sat chatting with Henry. They were a lot alike, they all realized, and for a moment, it pierced their hearts to see someone they could recognize in the faces of their loved ones, and know they had suffered so much.
"I think they have come to enact the dark curse of Nimueh and to consume the magic created by Arthur's birth. That is something only the Savior can stop. Emma, you...you are the perfect balance of the magic created by that sacrifice, the bond between me and Arthur. It was my Destiny to protect him so he could become king, and I had to do it all throughout time. It was his destiny to die so Albion would be born through his sacrifice. You...you, Emma..."Merlin took her hands.
"You see, Emma, you are Albion. You are the perfect balance of the forces of magic, and so you are the kingdom of magic come to be." Merlin smiled.
"How can a kingdom be a person?" Regina asked, voice in awe.
Emma's face took on a look of fear.
"If I'm like kingdom come...then...then what does that make Henry?" She swallowed.
"Your heir." Merlin nodded.
"Oh...oh so that's why they want to kill us...oh..."Emma looked at Regina in terror.
"No, we're not going to worry about that now. We're not. Because we will defeat this together." Snow stepped forward and put an arm around Emma.
"It seems like, somehow...through your spirits...you and Arthur are part of our family. We will stop these Wraiths or whatever together..as a family." Snow smiled.
They all stood around with a look of uncertainty.
"Mom! Mom! Arthur told me that he was my age when he started fighting in battles. Can I get a sword?!" Henry called from the table. Arthur, exhausted though he was, had a hand pressed to lips, trying to hide from the child the fact that he was dying laughing at his enthusiasm.
Merlin felt like his heart might burst. He suddenly loved these people. Come Dorocha, all the forces of Death, and even Nimueh herself, Merlin was going to save them.