First TLK update of 2025! If anyone's curious, I'm pretty sure now that the Dawning arc will wrap up before chapter 30. Progress on this fic might seem slow, and it does look like it'll end up on the longer side of my personal average, but I promise it will get finished.
Stunned silence reigned for a moment, before Bo exploded. "What?! You want me to bring the dragons back from extinction?! What, am I supposed to do some kind of Jurassic Park bullshit with extracting DNA from fossilized mosquitoes and cloning a new dragon? If I had Lauren and all her fancy equipment here and I could hook her up with a couple of magical geniuses like Merlin and Gaius, maybe they could pull it off in about twenty years, but something tells me I don't have that kind of time, do I?"
"No, you do not," Elaine agreed. "Fortunately, there is an easier way to complete your task." She picked up the mysterious wooden spiral she had instructed Bo not to throw away the previous day and held it up. "This is one third of a triskelion; when all three pieces are united, they will form a key to the tomb of Ashkanar-"
"Ash who?" Bo interrupted.
"Ashkanar lived more than four hundred years ago, before the dragons' misguided participation in that ill-fated underfae uprising earned Fitzpatrick's wrath, yet in his time, his wisdom was unmatched. He foresaw a day when the once-proud race of dragons would be laid low and took steps to prevent them from being lost entirely by concealing an egg within his tomb."
"A dragon egg?" Merlin whispered, astonished. "Then Kilgharrah isn't the last of his kind after all. Does he know?"
"I have spoken with him," Elaine confirmed. "As you can imagine, he is most eager to aid you in this task. I think you will find him much more willing to carry all of us now."
"Us?" Morgana asked in surprise. "Are you coming with us?"
"I am. It just so happens that another piece of the triskelion is in the possession of an old friend, who I will be very happy to see again."
###
True to Elaine's prediction, Kilgharrah was impatient to begin their next journey, though he had to wait for Trick to bid his granddaughter farewell first. "Take care of yourself, Bo," he entreated her, peering earnestly into her face. "The third task of the Dawning is always the hardest – not least because, as you draw closer to the time when you must enter the Temple, you'll begin to devolve more rapidly."
"Don't worry, I'm fully stocked up on those mud-tasting anti-devolution potions," Bo assured him, though she omitted the part where she'd had to raise her dosage twice during her trip to the Perilous Lands. No need to worry him with minor details like that.
Still, Trick seemed to know she was holding back, since the look of solemn concern in his eyes remained. Reaching into the pocket of his coat, he withdrew a small crystal vial full of clear liquid that almost seemed to glow with an inner radiance all its own. "This was Isabeau's most precious gift to me – her life essence. Take it."
"Trick, I can't-"
"It has powerful curative properties," he explained, still holding out the vial insistently. "If you feel your mind slipping away, if the darkness starts to overcome you, this will restore your body and soul. I'm certain Isabeau would want you to take it, and use it if necessary. If she had had the opportunity to meet you, I know she would have loved you dearly."
Bo bent down to throw her arms around his neck, blinking back tears as she whispered, "Thank you, Trick."
A rustle of wings interrupted their moment, and they looked up to find Kilgharrah watching them. "Now that you have taken the wise precaution of providing the princess with such a valuable remedy, perhaps we might be on our way?" he asked with thinly veiled urgency, even as he kept his tone carefully respectful while addressing Trick. "We do have a long way to go."
"Indeed you do," Trick agreed, before holding up a cautionary finger. "I hope you appreciate how much trust I'm placing in you, Kilgharrah. Perhaps this is an opportunity for both of us to atone for our past sins."
"Yes, your majesty. I shall guard Isabeau with my life, and serve her to the best of my ability." He would do so anyway, since the restoration of his species depended on her success, but if assisting her also gave him a chance to earn back the status he'd held prior to that disastrous underfae rebellion, when he had been revered for his wisdom as the Great Dragon, that was a very enticing incentive as well.
With that in mind, he went out of his way to be helpful throughout their travels and never uttered a word of complaint even though, with the druid priestess and Gwaine along for the ride, his total number of passengers was now up to seven. When they finally landed in the Forest of Ascetir, Merlin was pleasantly surprised to be greeted by a familiar face.
"Iseldir! How are you? How's Mordred? Where is he?" He eagerly scanned the surrounding area, but the three cloaked figures accompanying Iseldir were all too tall to be children.
"Mordred is well," Iseldir assured him with a smile at his concern for the boy. "He is with the rest of our group at our main camp, which is located in a secret place much farther from Camelot. My companions and I only ventured this close to collect our newest arrival."
As he spoke, the other three pushed back their hoods, revealing the two druids who had been with him when he took charge of Mordred, plus a shorter woman, older than his companions but younger than Iseldir himself, with a long, gray-streaked brown braid. Merlin and Bo exchanged looks when she introduced herself as Alice, wondering if she might be Gaius' lady friend – if she had recently been forced to flee Camelot, it fit – but Iseldir continued talking, not giving them an opening to ask her.
"I know why Elaine has brought you here," he said, now looking directly at Bo. "I wish I could help you, but alas, I cannot give you the piece of the triskelion that has long been in my clan's keeping."
Bo's heart sped up, almost leaping into her throat. "Why not?"
Iseldir's face darkened. "Because it was stolen from us."
"What?" Elaine's pale eyes widened in shock and concern; it was the first time Bo had seen a crack in her spiritual guide's calm, wise, unruffled demeanor, and she found it disquieting. "Who would do such a thing?"
###
As he sat down to another solitary meal of beans and not-quite-fresh bread, Gaius found himself ruminating yet again on how quiet it was. The level of noise in the workshop and living quarters that made up his domain had lessened greatly when Merlin left, but Gwen and Lancelot stopped by most days to keep him company and help him out where they could (Kenzi also dropped in to fill the room with her chatter, but she rarely did any work. In fairness, Gaius didn't really encourage her to, since he did not particularly want her inquisitive sticky fingers pawing through his delicate instruments and fragile old books and scrolls). Now that they were all gone, though, off chasing Arthur through the Perilous Lands, the silence was almost oppressive.
Don't be a fool, old man, he chided himself. He had, after all, lived like this for several years before Merlin's arrival turned everything upside down. As he tried to remind himself that he had been content with his quiet existence until his nephew bumbled in, bringing more complications, danger, laughter, and warmth into his life than Gaius had experienced since the days of the Great Purge, he heard a knock at his door.
Gaius immediately abandoned his dinner and got up to answer, because if someone was knocking at this hour, it must mean they needed his help with a dire medical emergency. When he opened the door, however, he was met not with a critically ill or injured patient, but by a man he had hoped never to see again. "Julius Borden. What are you doing here?"
"Come now, Gaius," the man said with a smile that might have appeared charming if Gaius didn't know better. "Is that any way to greet an old friend on a rainy night like this? I could do with drying myself by your fire."
"You have a nerve showing your face here," Gaius said as he reluctantly stepped aside to let the man in; he didn't want to, but if his former pupil was willing to risk venturing into the heart of Camelot, Gaius was certain he wouldn't leave until he'd said whatever he had come to say. When he heard what Borden had to say, he could only shake his head at the man's audacity – stealing a piece of a triskelion from a druid band, then coming to Camelot in hopes of persuading Gaius to help him steal another piece from the vaults – it was madness. Still, when he inspected the piece Borden showed him, he had to admit that unless his eyesight had gotten much worse in the last ten minutes, it did indeed appear to be Ashkanar's.
"There's just one problem," he said as he handed it back. "Even if you were somehow able to gain entry to the vault and get out alive, you'll still be missing the third piece. You cannot hope to open the tomb without it."
"I already have a lead on that bit," Borden replied confidently. "Some druid woman has it; I was close to tracking her down when she suddenly disappeared. By the time I reached the last place she was said to be, they told me she'd been called away on urgent business, but I'll find her again. In the meantime, I figured I might as well go after the piece that hasn't moved in four hundred years. Think about it, Gaius. I'll be in the tavern in the lower town when you change your mind." With that, he took his leave.
Gaius watched him go uneasily; he already knew he wasn't going to change his mind, but Julius Borden had always been incredibly, infuriatingly persistent once he'd set his own mind to something. If he was truly determined to get his hands on that triskelion, Gaius suspected he would eventually find a way to do it, with or without help.
His suspicions were proven right two days later, when he was awakened by the clanging of the warning bell and poked his head out to find the castle in an uproar. Stopping the first knight he saw, which happened to be Leon, he asked what had happened.
"Intruder in the castle," Leon replied tersely. "No one was hurt, but they broke into the vault. Geoffrey's in there now with the king, trying to determine what they took. Excuse me; I must resume the search." He rushed off, leaving Gaius with a sinking feeling in his stomach.
He already knew what the intruder had taken, and if Borden succeeded in finding the last piece of the triskelion – and why shouldn't he, when he had already managed to steal the others, including one from the supposedly impregnable vault of Camelot – then in discovering Ashkanar's tomb…if he actually got his hands on the last dragon egg in existence… Gaius didn't know what Borden intended to do with the egg, but he was afraid to find out.
Usually, this was when he would tell Arthur what was going on and give him what information he'd gleaned from ancient legends and history books regarding the probable location of Ashkanar's lost tomb, but Arthur still hadn't returned from his quest. Gaius supposed he could tell Uther, who would undoubtedly send his knights to retrieve the stolen artifact; the problem with that idea was that Uther would probably also order them to find the tomb and destroy the egg hidden within. Gaius didn't want that to happen, which left him with only one option. If he wanted Borden stopped, he would have to do it himself.
###
Three days into his journey, Gaius had been amply, unpleasantly reminded why he left the daring adventures to the youngsters. There had been a time when spending days in the saddle and nights sleeping on cold, hard earth wasn't a great strain on him, but now his old bones loudly protested such treatment, aching more each time he climbed on or off his horse. Worse still, he was beset by doubts as to what he would do when he actually caught up with Borden – if he was able to overtake him, which was by no means certain since he was sure the younger man could maintain a much faster pace than he could.
Julius Borden had never shown a great aptitude for sorcery while studying under Gaius, but the physician had no idea what new skills he might have acquired in the twenty years that had passed since then. If Borden hoped to hatch a dragon egg (and Gaius had no idea how he planned on accomplishing that feat), then surely he must have mastered enough magic to make him reasonably confident in his ability to control the creature, or found some other means of ensuring its obedience – the Julius Borden Gaius remembered had been secretive, sometimes dishonest, self-serving, and prone to single-minded fixations, but never stupid – and if he had grown powerful enough to subjugate a dragon, he was certain to be a very formidable foe.
Lost in his increasingly pessimistic thoughts, Gaius didn't even notice the people standing in the middle of the trail before him until his horse abruptly halted. "What's the matter with you? Walk on- Oh." He blinked rapidly, uncertain whether his eyes were deceiving him, then dismounted at a speed he hadn't managed in at least thirty years; suddenly, his creaky old bones weren't bothering him anymore. "Alice! What are you doing here? If Uther discovered you were still in Camelot-"
"We won't be here long," she assured him, embracing him and then stepping back to gesture at her companion. "Iseldir here offered me sanctuary with his druid band, but he has business to attend to in the area before we can join them."
"What manner of business?" Gaius inquired, wondering what could possibly draw a druid elder inside Uther's borders. Whatever it was must be a matter of great importance.
"I was meant to deliver a certain artifact to an old friend," Iseldir explained with a frown. "Unfortunately, it was stolen before I could do so. I believe you know the thief; he recently approached you to seek your help in stealing the final piece of Ashkanar's triskelion from the vaults of Camelot, did he not?"
"Julius Borden," Gaius said grimly. "Yes, he now has two pieces, and I fear the consequences should he find the third."
"Iseldir and his friends intend to make sure that doesn't happen," Alice told him, taking his hand. "Come, let us take you to the others."
###
Gaius followed Alice and Iseldir a short distance to a clearing where the druid's party had set up a campfire. Gathered around the fire were two younger druids, a woman who somehow seemed neither old nor young, two other men Gaius didn't recognize – and, to the physician's great astonishment, Merlin, Morgana, Bo, and Dyson. A flurry of joyful greetings and introductions ensued, during which Merlin learned that Alice was indeed the woman Gaius had loved and lost so long ago, and Gaius heard all about his former ward's adventures among the fae.
"I'm glad you've made a new life for yourself, but Camelot hasn't been the same without you, my boy." He hugged his nephew tightly once more, before finally loosening his grip on Merlin and turning toward Morgana. "Of course I've missed you too, my lady. My workshop has been much too quiet without visits from my favorite patient."
"I've missed you as well, Gaius – or at least your sleeping potions," Morgana teased, earning a dry chuckle from the old man. However, the group's collective mood soon sobered as their talk turned to what they were going to do about Julius Borden.
"With all the magical talent here, can't one of you cast a spell to find him?" Gwaine asked.
"It's not that simple," Merlin replied patiently. "Unless you already have a connection with the person you're looking for – the kind that comes from a strong emotional bond, or shared blood if you're tracking a family member – you need something that belongs to them. A part of their body, like hair or fingernail clippings, works best, but possessions will do in a pinch. We don't have anything that belongs to Borden, though."
"Sometimes an oracle can look into someone's past and retrace their steps," Morgana chimed in, sharing some of what she'd learned from the fellow oracle Trick had enlisted to help her better understand and eventually control her Sight, "although that also requires a connection. If you don't know your subject well, you have to either have them with you or be where they were at the time you're trying to visualize, and I don't want to venture that close to the heart of Camelot. If someone recognized me… I'd rather not have to flee with Uther's knights at our heels."
"I fear I cannot help you either," Kilgharrah said regretfully. "If this thief has taken refuge in the woods after robbing the vault as Gaius believes, I will not be able to spy him from the air."
"About that… Are you sure he's still in this area?" Bo asked. "How well do you know this guy?"
"It's been twenty years, my lady," Gaius answered, spreading his hands apologetically. "I remember him as a cunning and determined youth, yet with a penchant for dishonesty that gave me some misgivings about him. Since then, it seems his obsession with achieving his current goal has only grown. I fear years of hardship have made him desperate."
"He always had the sharpest eye for herbs of any of our students," Alice offered. "I remember when we sent him out to collect ingredients for our medicines and potions; sometimes he'd be gone for days at a time, refusing to come back until he'd found the perfect specimens, but he told me I shouldn't worry about him sleeping in the woods because he'd found a wonderful camping spot near the river, in a grove of silver birch trees… Oh! That grove is only a few miles from here!"
"You believe he may have sought shelter there while he regroups?" Elaine asked, her voice as serene as ever even as excitement rippled through the rest of the group.
"He only has two pieces of the triskelion; he was stalking you in order to steal the one in your keeping, my lady, but he lost track of you when you traveled to the land of the fae to guide Bo through her Dawning," Gaius said thoughtfully. "Now that he's made himself a wanted man throughout Camelot, I think it's likely he went to ground in a familiar place while he figures out what to do next."
"Let's hunt him down and take those pieces from him, then," Dyson suggested.
Vex, Gwaine, Morgana, and Iseldir's younger, more hotheaded companions agreed enthusiastically, until Gaius shared his concerns about what sort of magic Borden might have harnessed in service of his quest. That unsettling possibility gave them pause, but Merlin wasn't stymied so easily.
"All right, so maybe confronting him head-on isn't the best approach, but if we could draw him out somehow…get him to let his guard down…"
"How do you propose to do that, Emrys?" Iseldir asked, eyeing him with keen curiosity.
Merlin, who hadn't quite worked that part out yet, could only answer with a frown, but Bo cleared her throat and spoke up in his place. "Actually," she said slowly, "I have an idea…"
###
As he dismounted near the silver birches and cautiously proceeded on foot, Gaius wondered for the hundredth time what he was doing. His current mission didn't seem at all the sort of thing he was cut out for, but it was necessary to help Bo succeed in her task, so he would give it his best effort. If he failed…well, he was sure Bo and the others would find a way to recover the triskelion without him. At least I got to see Alice and Merlin one last time…
That was his last thought as Julius Borden seized him from behind, and he felt the cold bite of steel at his throat. "You've chosen a fine time to appear, Gaius, after I risked my neck breaking into the vault alone. Why have you come here now, when I no longer need your help?"
In his anger, he pressed the blade harder against Gaius' skin, until a pointed clearing of the old man's throat reminded him that his captive couldn't speak in his current position, so he would have to release him if he wanted answers. After a second's hesitation, he did so with a frustrated growl.
"I'm sorry I turned you away when you came to me, Julius," Gaius began while rubbing his neck. "I believed your search was ill-advised, but after you made off with the second piece of the triskelion, I began to think perhaps you might actually succeed after all. The thought of the dragon race being reborn into the world… I must admit it awoke old interests I thought I had left behind forever. There are not many who will ever have the chance to witness such a momentous event, or to study such a fascinating creature."
He had talked it over with Alice and decided scientific curiosity was a more believable motive for his supposed change of heart than greed, as they suspected Borden would remember that Gaius had never been particularly interested in wealth or power. Now he watched his former pupil's face closely, and was relieved to see that he seemed to be swallowing it.
"True, you always were intrigued by any exotic novelty that came under your nose," Borden recalled with a slight scoff. "However, the fact remains that I no longer need you."
He brandished his knife again, but Gaius spoke quickly, staving him off before he actually made a move. "I can still help you. People come to me from outside the city now and then, seeking my cures and treatments – people Uther would not want me to help if he knew – and sometimes they tell me things. I know where to find the druid priestess you seek, the one who holds the final piece of Ashkanar's key."
For a moment he feared Borden wouldn't believe him, that he would think it was too good to be true, but after a brief internal battle, the temptation of being so close to achieving his life's goal at last won out over his skepticism, and he lowered his weapon, an avaricious smile spreading over his face.
###
Gaius led him to the campsite where he'd left the others, though by the time they reached it in the early hours of morning, just as pale light began to filter down through the trees, only Elaine sat by the dying fire, with no sign of another living soul anywhere nearby. Her back was turned toward them as she warmed her hands over the embers, yet she greeted Borden calmly as he crept up behind her. "Hello, Julius Borden. I know why you've come."
"Do you? Hand it over, then, and there'll be no need for any unpleasantness." Even as he spoke, he was already drawing his dagger just in case she decided not to comply, only to find his hand suddenly frozen in midair as everyone else emerged from their hiding places.
"Did you really think we would just let you walk away with another piece of the sacred artifact we swore to protect?" hissed the younger druid woman who had accompanied Iseldir to meet Alice, still irate over how they'd been forced to let him escape after robbing them when he threatened the life of one of their band.
"We'll be taking the other bits now," Gwaine informed him as he commenced searching the thief's pockets.
Borden tried to resist, but Vex effortlessly immobilized his arms at his sides. His mouth, however, was still free to shout, "You can't do this! I've worked for this for twenty years-!"
"By stealing things to which you have no right," Iseldir interrupted, frowning sternly at him.
"And what were you doing with it?" Borden retorted. "Letting it collect dust? You never tried to assemble the triskelion or retrieve the egg; you'd let it petrify while you sat in your pathetic little tents, fulfilling your so-called sacred duty!"
"Our people have always known it is not we who are meant to call the race of dragons back into existence," Elaine replied coolly. "We have waited all this time for the one who does hold that privilege."
"Don't try to act like you're worried about the egg either," Bo added disdainfully. "Gaius says you just want it for some get-rich-quick scheme."
"What do you want it for, then?" Borden rejoined, eyeing her speculatively. "These idiot druids might be content to spend their lives scrounging in forests, but I can tell you're not like them. The riches you could have with a dragon under your command, the lands you could rule over… Isn't that what you're after too?"
"Actually, it turns out I'm independently wealthy, and I'm not interested in ruling anything. I just wish my grandfather would get the message and quit trying to push a crown on me," Bo sighed.
"She's a princess, you know," Morgana said casually, smirking as Borden's jaw dropped.
"Besides, dragons are not meant to be enslaved," Merlin cut in, feeling that his girlfriends' repudiations failed to address the most offensive part of Borden's plan. "As creatures of magic, they deserve to be free!"
"What about what I deserve?! I've dedicated my entire life to finding that egg, hunting down every scrap of information on the tomb of Ashkanar, chasing the pieces of that damned triskelion through half of Albion – I have more right to it than anyone! The dragon belongs to me!" Borden bellowed, thrashing furiously against his magical restraints.
"Oh, really? Do you truly believe a dragon could ever be the property of any other creature, let alone a mere mortal such as yourself?"
This new voice came from behind Borden – strangely, it also seemed to come from above him – so he couldn't see the speaker, but he could hardly fail to notice the effect their arrival had on his captors. Some of them backed away, and everyone's expressions shifted, ranging from smugness to awe which in a couple of cases was tinged with fear. Desperately curious to know what sort of person could have such a powerful presence (and more than a little concerned about the fact that his back was exposed to them), Borden redoubled his efforts to move, only to find that the various forms of magic that had bound him had been removed. Struggling against fetters that were no longer there, he spun around so forcefully that he almost lost his balance, barely catching himself in time to avoid a fall – then froze when he saw who, or what, was behind him.
Forests weren't an ideal environment for dragons, whose bulk made them more suited for wide open spaces where they could take off quickly, but even though concealing himself among the trees and then emerging from his hiding place took him longer than it would have for someone smaller, Kilgharrah had finally managed to make his way back to the campsite. Now he stood peering down his snout at the singularly unimpressive human – not a dragonlord, nor even more than a middling sorcerer at best, having only ever managed a few basic magic tricks under Gaius' tutelage – who had the temerity to imagine he could command a dragon, his golden eyes simmering at the outrage of such a thought.
"Are you honestly deluded enough to think that one of our ancient and noble breed, who possess more wisdom and power than you could hope to amass if you lived a hundred lifetimes, would ever deign to serve the petty aspirations of a low-minded, grasping, selfish human?"
If Julius Borden had ever labored under such delusions, Kilgharrah's fiery gold stare was swiftly stripping them away, like the sun burning away lingering scraps of night mist. He'd had a vague notion that a newborn dragon, small and weak, with an unformed mind empty of knowledge about the world, might be controllable – but now, as he gazed up at the gargantuan beast whose teeth and claws were longer and sharper than any manmade weapon yet who spoke like a scholar, whose eyes burned not with mere animal ferocity but with a vast, alien intelligence, that the frail, helpless creature he'd hoped to tame would have grown into, he realized that any control he might have exercised over it would have been nothing more than a temporary illusion. How could any being of such awesome power ever be fooled into submitting to the dominance of someone it could crush like an ant with a single swipe of one huge, taloned foot?
Seeing that the thief was beginning to get an inkling of how egregiously he had erred, Kilgharrah drove the point home by lowering his head until he was as close to Borden's eye level as he could get and only a foot in front of him, opening his mouth so that his cavernous maw, lined with elegantly curved, lethally sharp fangs as long as a man's upper body, filled the terrified human's entire field of vision, and letting out a deafening roar that shook the ground and blasted Borden backward with the force of the air he expelled.
When he was able to move again, Julius Borden picked himself up and fled for his life, his flight unhindered by the assembly of fae, druids, and other humans; they simply watched him go with varying degrees of amusement and grim satisfaction. By the time he calmed down enough to stop running (after covering several miles in his panicked sprint), he had resolved to go back to the Mercian village where his family lived, which he used to think was beneath him. Suddenly, being a turnip farmer didn't seem like such a meaningless occupation after all – or at least, it seemed a lot more conducive to leading a long, healthy life than attempting to meddle with dragons.
Nothing like having the error of your ways laid out by a dragon to scare someone straight, eh? When I rewatched Aithusa's debut episode and heard Borden's 'the dragon belongs to me!' rant, I couldn't help thinking Kilgharrah would have something to say about that if he'd been there, so I decided to let him put his two cents in.
I also noticed that the show never addressed the question of how he intended to control a dragon, or even get the egg to hatch once it was revealed you need a dragonlord for that – did he even know that? So Gaius was probably giving him too much credit when he mused over what sort of powerful magic Borden might have mastered (he also never used magic in the show, even when it would've come in handy, so I'm guessing he couldn't), but that's because Gaius assumed nobody would spend this much time looking for a dragon egg unless they had a plan for what to do once they found it.