Archive of Our Own

Arthur’s chair was uncomfortable. It was embarrassing to admit so, but in the comfort of his mind, he decided it was an important matter to bring up. Contrary to Merlin’s constant jibes, his behind was not plump and the throne was remarkably unbearable to sit on for long periods of time — one such time being when he held court.

It was hard to listen to problems like ‘Sire, my bull jumped the fence and mated with William’s cow and now he wants me to pay for the calf’s upbringing but it’s hardly my responsibility!’ and ‘Your Highness, I wish to marry Lady Emilia and the fact she is married only makes my love burn stronger: please bless our union by eliminating her husband’ and provide appropriate solutions, especially in such a straight-backed, wooden chair.

Arthur pulled himself from his thoughts and sighed as a couple of his guards pulled a boy to his feet. Arrests were becoming more frequent these days what with his father out of action: he was officially resting and unofficially recovering from Morgana’s betrayal. The entire city was struggling, not just Arthur and his throne.

“What has the boy stolen?” he asked, trying to not sound too disinterested already. The standard punishment would be a week’s worth of hard labour in the farm or shop from which he had attempted his robbery. Often, the sentence was lightened if the goods were food for a family.

“Your identity, Sire,” informed the guard on the left. Well, that got Arthur’s attention. “The boy claims he is in fact the prince of the realm.”

“Is that so?” said Arthur icily. “What is your name, boy?”

The boy shrugged off the guards with a bitter look and straightened. He held his head up high as he answered, “Prince Aurelian of Camelot.” In all fairness, if Arthur hadn’t been sitting on his own throne with his own circlet on his own head, he would have believed the boy as he spoke with such strong conviction. 

From the corner of his eyes, he could see Merlin stand incredibly still, proving he was capable of behaving when he wished to. But Arthur had a different problem on his hands. Confronting his idiotic servant would have to wait.

“If you’re the prince, then what am I?” he asked with a raised eyebrow. He wasn’t too sure why he was even humouring the kid instead of throwing him in the dungeons and calling it a day. Maybe it was a last attempt to stay awake by entertaining the mystery.

“You’re the King of course,” said the imposter with roll of his eyes, as though it were obvious and Arthur was being painfully obtuse. He was not, thank you very much. The rest of the court gasped and the guards stepped forward again, unsure if they should arrest the boy on the grounds of high treason.

It was an open secret that Arthur was Prince Regent and yet for someone to boldly claim he was, in fact, the king was still technically illegal. How long it would be illegal for, no one knew, but the days were numbered.

“I should warn you, such talk is treasonous,” tried Arthur. After all, this could be simply be a boy who was repeating what his father had said in the privacy of his own home. Granted, the boy was nearing adulthood and should definitely know better, but Arthur was willing to make an exception if it meant his day would end sooner. His attempts weren’t working and he accepted the inevitable fact that he needed to sleep.

“What do you mean?” asked the boy with a concerned look. “Are you, are you feeling alright?” Arthur was fantastic, thank you. There was nothing wrong with him… right? Maybe this was just a confusing dream, he decided. “What’s wrong with him?” he said suddenly, directing his attention to his manservant. The audacity!

Arthur also faced Merlin, certain this was some prank he had cooked up. He should have suspected it earlier! Who else would ask Arthur if they were feeling alright after lying, if not some protege of Merlin’s?

“Do you know this madman?” asked Arthur and the boy spluttered.

“Why are you like this? Wait! What, what year is this?” he asked, switching tracks immediately. Arthur rolled his eyes as he informed the boy that today’s year was the same year as yesterday’s, and the day before that. “King Uther’s reign?” he repeated faintly.

Arthur massaged the bridge of his nose, keen to have some strong words with Merlin later. Court wasn’t the place for such pathetic jokes although he had picked a good actor. The boy had gone deathly pale and even Arthur felt slightly bad for worrying him.

“I… see,” said the so-called Aurelian, blinking rapidly. He shot a panicked look at Merlin yet again and Arthur supposed he was worried the joke was unravelling. Any second now, Arthur was expecting his manservant to bail the kid out.

Just as he guessed, Merlin spoke up. “Arthur, I don’t think he’s alright in the head.” The boy was so distressed he didn’t even refute those claims. “He needs to see Gaius.”

Arthur pursed his lips and Merlin firmly gripped the boy by the elbow and dragged him out of the court room. He had to restrain himself from following immediately but the dwindling crowd of peasants meant it wouldn’t be too long before Arthur could demand some answers. Maybe Merlin could pay a visit to the stocks, he thought wistfully as he shifted in his uncomfortable chair. 

Not too long before he could get off the damn thing either.

///

“You’re hurting me,” whined Aurelian. “Merlin, please let go! I swear I’m not gonna run. I can’t even go anywhere because I’m—”

Merlin paid no attention to his words and threw him roughly inside the Physician’s chambers. Gaius watched with mild interest from his work bench and frowned when he saw the boy. “Who the fuck are you?” asked Merlin, picking up a broom from the floor and twirling it in his hands expertly.

Aurelian sighed. It was like nobody actually paid attention to his words. “Prince Aurelian of Camelot,” he repeated duly. Gaius’ interest was further piqued as he put down his books and turned to the commotion. 

“Impossible. Are you a sorcerer out to kill Arthur?” asked Merlin harshly. No point beating around the bush. To his shock, the boy snorted. “What is it?”

“That’s right, Merlin,” he said in a tone awfully similar to Arthur’s. “I absolutely travelled back in time just to do my own father in.” He laughed as Merlin’s jaw dropped open.

“You’re… what?” Merlin looked at Gaius who had now decided to look closely at the boy. “That… that’s impossible! You can’t be from the future!”

“Well, tough,” said Aurelian, picking up an apple and crunching loudly. “Also, why do you need that broom? You’ve got magic, haven’t you?” Merlin glared. The broom inched closer to his ribs.

“How could you possibly know that? You’re some druid, aren’t you?”

“What part of ‘I’m from the future’ do you not get?” he asked condescendingly.

“Gaius, he’s lying, right? This must be some plot by Morgana!”

“Oh yeah, Aunt Morgana was the one who—” Aurelian never got to finish what his Aunt Morgana had done as Merlin’s broom was firmly jabbed into his side and he yelled in pain.

The door to the chambers were thrown open for the second time in ten minutes but Merlin’s attention was still fixed on Aurelian. “Merlin, you have precisely ten seconds to explain why you decided to play that joke in the court— is that a broomstick?” said Arthur, distracted and disappointed by Merlin’s poor choice in weapons.

“Why did Morgana send you?” asked Merlin and Arthur promptly quietened as he narrowed his eyes at Aurelian. “Does she… is she planning something? Are you a spy?”

“Oh, good god! Father wasn’t kidding, you really were paranoid!” huffed Aurelian as he eyed the tip of the broomstick with dislike. “I’m not gonna say anything until you remove that broomstick.”

“It’s not going anywhere,” said Merlin simply. He glared straight into Aurelian’s blue eyes, trying not to get distracted by the fact that they were the exact same shade as Arthur’s. Purely coincidence. He pressed the broomstick sharply and the boy groaned. “Confess, or I’ll have you arrested on the grounds of sorcery and conspiracy with Morgana.”

“Hang on,” said Arthur with a frown. “You can’t arrest him! I’m the prince — I do the arresting.”

“Same difference,” said Merlin flippantly. Aurelian took one look at the exasperation on Arthur’s face and burst into laughter. He winced a little when Merlin prodded the broomstick in an effort to shut him up.

“Sorry, it’s just really funny to see this,” he said, still smiling. “I honestly can’t wait to go back and—”

“You won’t be going back to Morgana, I can assure you that much,” said Merlin coldly and even though Arthur snorted, loudly proclaiming that Merlin’s threats were as weak as he was, Aurelian gulped. The swirling gold in his eyes was a whole different level of threat that Arthur didn’t have the privilege of witnessing.

“I am telling the truth, just hear me out! Also, please, the broomstick,” he tried, turning to Gaius. It worked as Gaius raised an eyebrow in Merlin’s direction who sighed angrily as he slightly eased the pressure. Better than nothing, he thought. “Okay look, I really am from the future. I don’t know how far, but I’m the crown prince and Father is the king,” said Aurelian, pointedly avoiding Arthur’s gaze. “One day, Aunt Morgana and I were just hiding from Gaius because I didn’t want to do my lessons and…” Aurelian paused. The next part would be hard to explain if this was still his grandfather’s reign. “I heard some whispering and there was some strong wind before I found myself here.”

At some point, Merlin had removed the broomstick and Aurelian sat up as he rubbed the sore spot. He watched as Merlin ran his hands through his hair and Arthur paced around the small room. “So Morgana did send you here,” concluded Merlin eventually.

“No! I, uh, I saw her eyes and they weren’t gold,” said Aurelian quickly. Maybe too quickly if Gaius’ suspicious frown was any indication. “It must have been another… sorcerer.”

“I have a son,” said Arthur quietly. Aurelian fought to roll his eyes. How was it that his father was still stuck on that part? “I have a son and he calls Morgana his aunt.”

“Arthur—”

“Merlin, don’t you get it? She, she turns good!” said Arthur, his eyes lighting up. “Maybe she decides to abandon her magic and comes back!” Both Merlin and Aurelian grimaced at the same time, causing him to stop daydreaming. “What?”

“You’ve seen Morgana,” said Merlin with a shrug. “Does she seem like the type to abandon her magic?”

“Also, you legalise sorcery in the future,” said Aurelian with a nod. “I think that’s what brought her back.”

“My boy, I can’t pretend to know much about sorcery,” said Gaius as he cleared his throat, “but I don’t think you should reveal any more about the future. Knowing too much could cause some parts to never come true.”

“But you know plenty about sorc—”

“Shut up,” advised Merlin, casting a wary glance at Arthur. Right, Aurelian had forgotten about the fact that sorcery was currently a criminal offence. Thankfully, his father was still preoccupied with the revelations. “Arthur, you can’t let this change anything. Morgana hasn’t changed, not yet.”

“What if our treatment of her is what made her turn to magic?” wondered Arthur aloud. “If I had been a better friend, I mean brother, perhaps, or if my father had been better, she…”

Aurelian opened his mouth but at Gaius’ stern glance he shut it again. Merlin led Arthur to a corner of the room to talk and Aurelian turned to Gaius. “Merlin knows he’s Emrys, right?”

“He does, but how do you?” countered Gaius. “I can imagine in the future, Merlin reveals his… talents. But his druidic name has no business being revealed,” he said with a frown.

“He’s, he’s Court Sorcerer,” said Aurelian finally. That was technically true, even if Merlin did a few more tasks in the future. “I’ve heard druids call him that so I asked him once.”

Gaius looked unconvinced still but now Merlin returned with a distinctly displeased Arthur in tow. “Right, we need to send you back to your time,” he announced and Aurelian nodded. He’d gladly sit through five of Gaius’ lectures if it meant he could stop tiptoeing around topics which could get people killed. 

“But that means sorcery,” Arthur pointed out. “Which is currently illegal and besides, we need a sorcerer.” Silence followed as he was no doubt still considering Morgana.

“There are druids?” said Merlin, phrasing it slightly as a question as he directed it to Gaius. “We could leave him there.” Aurelian frowned. He didn’t particularly want to get left anywhere, actually. Arthur looked uncomfortable at the idea too.

“Can we trust them? I mean, my father hasn’t— they may try something with the future heir,” he finished uneasily. Merlin rolled his eyes.

“And this would be a perfect opportunity for the so-called future heir to prove himself. Didn’t Uther send you off to the Perilous Lands for your journey?”

“There’s a bit of a difference between killing some old man in a desert and travelling a few dozen years into the past,” said Arthur, rolling his eyes. “And thanks to you and Gwaine, I didn’t even get to do that by myself.”

“I wanna see Uncle Gwaine,” said Aurelian suddenly. Arthur made a face of disgust.

“Uncle Gwaine?” he repeated incredulously. “Why the hell is Gwaine an uncle?”

“All the knights are. Merlin insisted,” added Aurelian with a grin. Arthur sighed.

“Am I not an uncle, then?” asked Merlin with a frown. “Don’t tell me I’m still a servant!”

“What happened to ‘I’ll serve you until the day I die’?” asked Arthur with a smug smile. “Can’t handle actually following through?”

“I’m just mourning the fact that I’ll spend the rest of my life helping you put your sock on,” shot back Merlin. “One can only hope that the future king can dress himself—”

“Merlin?”

“Shut up?”

“How perceptive of you.”

“That’s a big word, Arthur.”

“As much as I enjoy your childish antics,” said Gaius, unimpressed as Arthur shoved Merlin into the table, “I would appreciate having my chambers to myself again. If no one is injured then this isn’t the place for you. Out you go!”

///

“Why the hell are we hiding him in my chambers?”

“How many people come in to the Prince’s quarters without your permission?”

“Well, you, for starters!” said Arthur with an exasperated sigh. “And Leon to discuss drills and—”

“Okay, okay!” Merlin rolled his eyes and looked at Aurelian. “Is he like this in the future as well? Always so annoying.”

“You’re worse,” smirked Aurelian and ducked a second too late as Merlin’s hand connected with the back of his head. “It’s treason to hit the Prince!” he yelled, his voice jumping an octave.

“Did I hit you, Arthur?” asked Merlin innocently. “After all, you’re the only prince I know.”

“I didn’t know you were capable of acknowledging your prince, Merlin.”

“Don’t get used to it— ow! Why did you do that?” Merlin’s retaliation would have to wait as there was a knock at the door.

“Sire?” came Leon’s voice and Arthur gestured impatiently at Aurelian. “Is now a good time to discuss drills?” Merlin rolled his eyes and opened the door. Outside stood not only Leon, but also Lancelot, Gwaine, Elyan and Percival with sheepish looks.

“We wanted to ask about patrols,” clarified Lancelot at Arthur’s questioning look. “But I see you’re busy, Sire. We can do it—”

“No, no, come in,” said Arthur lightly. His knights took a seat and kept glancing at Aurelian, who was sitting by his desk with Merlin to entertain him. After all, Merlin was remarkably skilled at playing the position of the fool. “You can all tell me what you think about drills.”

“Hate them,” stated Gwaine immediately. “The fewer we have, the better. Why do we have to run around in circles? More importantly, why can’t we run up and down to the tavern?”

Leon laid out a few papers with detailed notes and Arthur was torn between appreciation for his First Knight’s dedication to his duty and exasperation for his First Knight’s dedication to his duty.

“Sire, who is that boy?” asked Elyan, unable to contain his curiosity any longer. Percival and Gwaine also leaned in with interest. “Is he a relative of yours?”

“You could definitely say that,” snorted Merlin as he dragged Aurelian’s chair to the table with an annoyed Aurelian still sitting in it.

“Why do you ask?” 

“Forgive me, Arthur, but it would be impossible to look at him and not see you,” said Leon, looking up from his plans. “It’s like looking at you when you were sixteen or seventeen summers.”

“I should hope so,” said Aurelian, rolling his eyes. “Are you ever going to tell them?”

“Is that anyway to speak to your… father?” asked Merlin, relishing the look of shock and horror on the knights’ faces.

“Father?”

“No way!”

“Princess, I— a bastard?”

Arthur frowned. “No Gwaine, I have not been that careless.”

“We all think that, but you never know until it’s too late,” said Gwaine wisely. Leon reddened and cleared his throat multiple times.

“Arthur, please tell me that is not your son. Is this another of your jokes, Merlin?” he asked weakly and it looked as though a small part of Leon died as Merlin shook his head enthusiastically.

“I’m from the future,” added Aurelian helpfully. The knights blinked.

“Sorcery?” asked Lancelot finally, his eyes darting towards Merlin. Gwaine burst out laughing.

“Sorry, it’s just hilarious that Princess is violently against magic and his own son happens to be a sorcerer,” he said, howling with laughter. Elyan fought to contain his smile and tried harder as Arthur glared.

“How many times have I told you to stop calling me that? I will put you in the stocks, Gwaine. I don’t want my— Aurelian catching that term,” he said finally. Aurelian grinned sheepishly.

“He calls you that in the future as well.”

“I think you and I will be excellent friends,” said Gwaine with a broad smile as he reached over to high-five him. 

Arthur looked close to tears as his son called Gwaine ‘Uncle’ and Gwaine did start crying. “I’m his uncle! Did you hear that, Merlin? Me! I’m an uncle! And to the Princess’ kid!”

“Yes, Gwaine,” said Merlin flatly as the knights shook with silent laughter. “If you could put your dear nephew down?” Because of course Gwaine was now attempting to spin Aurelian in the air. Arthur had given up and decided to stare out of the window instead.

“Merlin? You’re right, let’s dump him at the druids,” declared Arthur finally. Aurelian pouted and instantly, Gwaine drew his sword.

“How dare you upset my nephew? I’ll challenge you to a duel!” Arthur simply looked up to the ceiling.

“This is me paying for my father’s crimes against sorcery, isn’t it?” he asked suddenly. “I’m being punished by those old gods by having to put up with Gwaine.”

“That’s Uncle Gwaine to you.”

“Right, dungeons,” said Arthur. Gwaine sat firmly in his seat but whichever god had punished him by sending Gwaine had also sent a blessing in the form of Leon, who forced the man out and handed him to the waiting guards.

“What’s your name?” asked Elyan and Merlin couldn’t control his laughter as he realised Gwaine was ready to give up his life for a kid he didn’t even know the name of.

“Do you want to join Gwaine?” asked Arthur in a low tone. He turned to address the rest of his knights. “Unfortunately, patrols and drills will have to wait until we send Aurelian back to his time. A rogue sorcerer sent him back but we don’t know why, right?” he checked with Merlin.

“Is it safe, then?” said Lancelot. “Maybe he was sent to escape danger?” Merlin nodded slowly.

“No, no, everything was fine,” said Aurelian airily. He noticed Merlin’s shrewd look and tried to look sure. “As I said, I was just messing around with—”

“Yes, yes,” said Arthur quickly. He had no intention of explaining the Morgana situation to his knights and struggle yet again with what-ifs.

“Weren’t you trying to avoid one of Gaius’ lessons?” Merlin pointed out and Aurelian nodded immediately. “But then—”

“Not now. First, we need to find where the druids are.” Arthur turned expectantly to his knights, who looked at each other.

“I believe that was Gwaine’s focus this week,” said Percival finally. Of course. Aurelian instantly perked up and Arthur hated Gwaine even more for somehow stealing his son from him. 

“I’ll go get him,” said Aurelian, half way out of his chair before Merlin dragged him back by his tunic.

“You will not. I’ll get Aaron to bring him,” said Merlin firmly.

“How many times, Merlin? You don’t tell my guards what to do!”

“Of course, Sire. Aaron!” The door opened and a guard popped his head in. “Get Sir Gwaine, will you?” 

“This is the fastest jail sentence I’ve ever seen,” muttered Elyan as Gwaine waltzed back into the room just a minute later.

“I knew my presence would be required.”

“Gwaine, if you speak even one word out of turn, I will… I will, I—”

“I’ll have Tara lock you out of the tavern for a week,” said Merlin helpfully. Gwaine immediately sat up straight and nodded with a sombre expression. “Oh, but wait. I’m not the prince so I can’t be bossy.”

Arthur waved him off. “Just this once. And I’m not bossy. Gwaine, where are the druids?”

“Safe,” he answered simply. At Arthur’s warning look, Gwaine added, “I may have told them to clear out to avoid the patrols. So I don’t know where they are any more.” Gwaine beamed around and only Merlin returned his smile.

“That is not the point of sending you to scout out areas! You can’t just tell criminals to hide!”

“I’m sorry, Prin— Arthur,” corrected Gwaine with a wink in Aurelian’s direction. “As a Knight of Camelot, I cannot allow innocent citizens to become sitting ducks.”

“Innocent,” repeated Arthur with a snort. “None of them are in any way innocent.”

Merlin glared at him. “Can we get back to the topic at hand? Also, your son has a more favourable view on magic, keep it that way,” he added with a serious look.

“He has the wrong view, that’s what it is. I don’t know what possesses me to legalise the thing in the future but—”

“Remember his aunt?” said Merlin pointedly and Arthur closed his mouth. In front of him, his knights looked uncomfortable.

“Is this treason? The King is still alive,” said Elyan, the word ‘technically’ going unsaid at the end.

“It’s the future, isn’t it?” asked Percival. “I don’t think it’s…”

“Surely if it’s Arthur then—”

“The point is, we need to find the druids,” said Arthur, irritated. How he wished he could send all of his knights and guards to track down the elusive druids but the task needed discretion. Something only his highly trusted knights (and Merlin) could help with. Gwaine narrowly made the cut as even now, he was miming a great deal of treasonous acts to Aurelian who was nodding along and adding his own modifications.

“Would they know what to do?” asked Lancelot, his eyes once again lingering on Merlin for just a second, but long enough to pique Aurelian’s interest. 

“It’s sorcery, it’s the only thing they know how to do,” said Arthur decisively. “We’ll find the druids, leave Aurelian there and return to normal duties by the end of this week.”

It was, in fact, not that simple.

///

Arthur had too much on his plate. The latest problem was where to put Aurelian. Technically, as a (future) member of the royal family, he was entitled to his own chambers. This would, no doubt, raise plenty of questions from all the servants and Arthur didn’t fancy making his son the topic of gossip for the week. Lady Emilia’s passionate lover would be old news any day now.

The only other place for him was with Merlin. Arthur expected him to argue relentlessly and he was prepared to use the ‘I’m the Prince and you’re my manservant, you’ll do as I say’ — it wasn’t as effective as expected but sometimes (not very often at all, actually) it worked. 

“I’d be more than thrilled to look after him,” beamed Merlin, pulling Aurelian towards him. Arthur frowned. That was a lot easier than expected. Had it been any other matter, he would have been a bit more suspicious of the way his manservant was digging his fingers into Aurelian’s shoulders, or of the way Aurelian had gone deathly pale, but Arthur was tired and tomorrow was already going to be a long day, especially if they were going to patrol around to catch the druids.

That’s why Arthur nodded and left for his chambers, leaving his son (of sorts) with the person he trusted most. After all, Merlin’s heart bled for random rabbits — this was Arthur’s kid! He’d most likely be overly spoiled and become too used to this treatment.

///

“Please don’t hurt me,” whispered Aurelian as they waved goodbye to Arthur. He wasn’t fooled by the bright smile on Merlin’s face as his father was. It was never good news when Merlin readily agreed with Arthur, and especially terrible news if he looked happy whilst doing so. 

Aurelian was going to die tonight.

“Go to my room and don’t even think about running to your daddy,” hissed Merlin. Aurelian complied, dreading the worst. He sat on the floor and fiddled with one of the rugs as he looked around.

The room was mostly sparse and reminded him of the guest chambers. The bedside table had a little dragon figurine and Aurelian’s wandering fingers found it. Unfortunately for him, the door banged open just then and Aurelian shrieked, the figurine slipping to the floor in his shock.

“He has terrible reactions to be the killing mach— you broke it?” gasped Merlin. Behind him stood Lancelot who entered and closed the door behind him.

“I can fix it!” said Aurelian quickly but Merlin advanced towards him and snatched the body of the dragon back, his eyes softening as he collected the broken pieces.

Merlin’s eyes flashed and the dragon fixed itself, looking just like it did before it caught Aurelian’s eye. He put it back on the table and Aurelian tried to apologise but Lancelot blocked him.

“You saw nothing,” he said firmly. “The dragon never broke. Do I make myself clear?”

“But… what? No it—”

“Don’t worry, Lance,” said Merlin, sitting on his bed and flicking his hand to conjure two chairs. “He’s a sorcerer too.”

“How could you tell?” asked Aurelian instantly. “I mean, no… I’m not!” Merlin ignored him.

“Sit down and tell us the truth, before I kill you right here,” he said simply. Aurelian was torn between fear and exasperation. He sat down anyway.

“How many times? I’ve already told you — I was playing with Aunt Morgana when some sorcerer sent me back in time,” repeated Aurelian, belatedly remembering the fact he wasn’t meant to mention his aunt’s name.

Merlin patted Lancelot’s knee as his eyes widened. “Morgana… we don’t kill her? I mean, more importantly, she’s close enough to be an aunt?”

“Later,” promised Merlin with a reassuring glance. He turned to Aurelian and the warm look disappeared. “You keep changing your story. First you were avoiding Gaius, then you were just ‘messing around’, whatever that’s meant to be and now you and Morgana were playing? Which is it?”

Lancelot nodded along. “You may be Arthur’s son and have proof for that claim, but how do we know you weren’t sent to harm one of the others? Or maybe you are a shapeshifter.” Aurelian tried really, very hard to hold in his snort. They were giving his meagre magic skills a lot of credit.

Instead, he grimaced. Honestly, he totally deserved this. He knew Merlin incredibly well and he knew how ridiculously paranoid the man could get. How had his lying game been so weak? If he wasn’t careful, Aurelian would actually be the first person in history to die in history. He hesitated for just a second before deciding to fuck it.

“Okay look, in the future, there was this stone,” he began, holding his hands out to estimate the size of the rock. “And Morgana decided to take it from you,” he said looking at Merlin, “and she brought it to me because… I actually don’t know why.” Aurelian had assumed she just wanted to piss off Merlin but as a High Priestess, surely she knew of its power?

“Anyway, I was curious and I prodded it with my, my magic and instantly, there were the strong winds and I found myself here. This is the truth, and you can see now why I couldn’t tell you before… when Father was here,” finished Aurelian. Merlin still looked unsure but Lancelot seemed to believe him. Aurelian was quickly learning of the key players he needed on his side to protect him against Merlin: Lancelot and Gaius.

“Gwaine was right about you,” smiled Lancelot, “about you having magic when Arthur… is Arthur,” he said with a half-shrug.

“Who’s your mother?” asked Merlin suddenly, as though Lancelot’s words had triggered a thought.

Aurelian closed his eyes for a few seconds out of despair. His honesty streak was going to end here, apparently. “I don’t know.” That part was honest, technically.

“How do you not know your mother? Shouldn’t be too hard, it’s the woman whom Arthur married.”

“Well, I don’t know. Father doesn’t speak about her,” shrugged Aurelian. Now that his life was less at risk with Lancelot on his side, it was quite funny to watch Merlin groan.

“Maybe the Queen, whoever she will be, doesn’t survive childbirth,” suggested Lancelot.

“Of fucking course. It’s like I try so fucking hard to keep Arthur alive and somewhat happy and destiny’s determined to oppose my every action!” yelled Merlin, falling back on his bed. “Why can’t I get a divine intervention instead of Arthur? Why couldn’t it be my son who comes back and tells me how the fuck I should do things?”

Aurelian froze. Divine intervention. That was him. That meant he had an important job to do. But how would he do it?

Merlin continued lamenting, unaware of the crisis Aurelian was facing. “And your mother! How hard is it to stay alive, that stup—”

“Merlin, be respectful,” said Lancelot immediately with an apologetic glance towards Aurelian. Merlin sat up at once and grimaced.

“I… I didn’t mean that. I’m sorry,” he said stiffly. Aurelian didn’t care too much as both of his parents were alive and well, but if there was anything his dad had taught him, it was how to use a situation to his advantage. 

He turned to Lancelot and smiled gratefully. “I think you’re the only person I’ve seen who can get Merlin to do something,” said Aurelian honestly. “Why is it you’re not around in the future?” This was a less honest statement, strictly, but that didn’t matter too much.

His words were punctuated with a stunned silence. “What?” asked Merlin after a second. “What do you mean, he’s not around? Where the fuck does Lancelot go?”

“Merlin’s, it’s possible… it’s possible things don’t—”

“Don’t you fucking dare finish that sentence, Lancelot! You!” Merlin stood up and shook Aurelian roughly. “What happens to him? Is it Morgana?”

Lancelot dragged Merlin off of him and Aurelian conjured himself a glass of water. “I really don’t know. I just know that, that something happens where L— Sir Lancelot sacrifices himself,” he said after gulping his water down. 

“Then I die a respectable, honourable death,” concluded Lancelot with a smile. “Don’t, Merlin. It’s the best way to go.”

“A better way would be to not go,” huffed Merlin. “Also, you have good control over your magic. I assume Morgana teaches you? Aunt Morgana and all.” His tone was unusually bitter and Aurelian decided to tell the truth. Maybe the man needed a confidence boost.

“You do. Sometimes,” amended Aurelian. “But you always set loads of theory and you make us sit with Gaius,” he continued, determined to finally complain. Maybe in the future, Merlin would remember and go easier on him.

“I assume we have to find this stone then?” asked Lancelot after some time. “If it’s what brought you here, it should send you back.”

“Describe it to me,” said Merlin and frowned when Aurelian tried to paint a picture of the turquoise, book-sized rock he had stupidly touched. “Do you know where I get it from in the future?” He sighed angrily as Aurelian shook his head.

“You don’t tell me a lot,” said Aurelian pointedly. “It’s always ‘Nothing that concerns you, Aurelian, now get back to reading’.”

“Well, when we’re searching for the druids, we can keep an eye out for this stone,” said Lancelot placatingly. “Speaking of, are we still going to the druids?”

“Maybe they have it?” suggested Aurelian and felt quite proud when Merlin didn’t immediately shoot down his idea. “Besides, Father can’t find out about the stone, so we need the druids.”

“I still want to know who your mother is,” said Merlin as he surveyed him critically. “It’s like you’re a clone of Arthur’s!”

“Why is it so important?” Lancelot raised an amazing question. After all, Aurelian hadn’t paid too much attention to this mystery mother but Merlin was quite obsessed.

“Because magic is hereditary, as far as I know. Which isn’t very far, actually, but Gaius won’t tell me more. Anyway, Arthur’s not magical at all, so his mother must be a sorceress for him to do magic.”

Well that made a lot of sense. 

“It appears that a sorceress is, like me, doomed to an early death,” quipped Lancelot and ducked as Merlin’s hand headed towards him. 

///

“Hello, Merlin,” called Gwen from afar. Merlin pulled Aurelian behind him and grinned at Gwen. They had attempted to lead Aurelian back to Arthur without being seen but, of course, destiny had other plans.

“Gwen! How are you?” asked Merlin quickly, trying to keep her eyes on him. She frowned but smiled anyway. “Any plans?”

“The usual, you know. I need to clean the linen for Lady Emilia — I try not to think what she’s done on them — and Cook asked for my help with placing orders for food. Oh, and I also need to find out what you’re hiding,” she added in a cheery tone. Merlin froze.

“W-What do you mean? I’m not hiding anything,” he laughed nervously but Aurelian chose that moment to sneeze. “That was me! I, allergies, you know…” Gwen raised an eyebrow and Merlin crumbled, pulling Aurelian out.

“Who’s this?”

“Prince Aure—” Merlin clamped a hand around his mouth and glared at him. It seemed the boy was only capable of pissing Merlin off.

“This is a new servant!” he said loudly. “Yes, um, because we need one for, uh, when I decide to quit.” 

Gwen gave him an unimpressed look. “You stick to Arthur’s side like a limpet, Merlin. What’s going on?” He sighed.

“This is Arthur’s kid from the future.” She gasped and pulled Aurelian away from Merlin’s grip to have a closer look. “He was sent back by some sorcerer.”

“He looks identical to the prince,” she said with an astonished look. “My, just like Arthur did when he was a boy.”

Merlin nodded. “Maybe Arthur’s a lizard. Gaius told me they can clone themselves.” Aurelian snorted.

“Nice to meet you, Aunt Gwen,” he smiled and Gwen beamed. “We were going to see Father.”

“You should go,” she said, hugging the boy. “You don’t want to see your father in one of his moods.”

“He has plenty of those in the future. I’m used to them.”

///

“I’m hungry,” whined Gwaine for the umpteenth time. Arthur finally cracked. He had been doing pretty well for the past half hour but there was only so much a man could take.

They had aimed to spend the entire day on the road, just like they had for the past week, determined to finally catch the druids. Of course, travelling with certain members of his round table had meant their aim was now different.

“You had a whole side of beef at lunch, Gwaine, and we stopped so you could pick those demented apples. You can’t possibly be hungry again.”

“Sounds like someone’s jealous of my healthy appetite,” sniffed Gwaine. “I speak for the people when I say I’m hungry.”

“If even one person says they’re hungry, you won’t have to go to the dungeons tonight,” promised Arthur. Lately Gwaine was spending all of his nights in the dungeons. Well, he was supposed to yet Arthur kept turning a blind eye when his manservant kept letting the knight out. “And it can’t be Merlin.”

Gwaine pouted. Arthur felt a hard stone bounce of his shoulder. He rotated in his saddle to glare at Merlin, who was innocently petting his mare. Maybe he should commission a 2-person stocks set-up so Merlin and Gwaine could spend every day there.

“I’m hungry,” said his traitorous son and Arthur shifted his glare to him. Aurelian didn’t look the least bit repentant either. Clearly spending time with Merlin was detrimental. A 3-person stocks set-up was necessary.

“There we go, Princess, we’re stopping,” declared Gwaine and brought his horse to a stop in the middle of nowhere. He tied up his horse to a nearby tree trunk and looked around. “I see a beehive. Come, Aurey. Let your fabulous Uncle Gwaine teach you how to get honey out of a beehive,” he said, flipping his hair. Aurelian trailed after him like a happy puppy.

“Is this wise, Arthur?” asked Leon, ever the voice of reason. “The bees could sting…”

“And he’ll learn his lesson to not trust Gwaine,” said Arthur with a small smile. Gwaine had decided to stop in a small clearing and the looks on Elyan’s and Percival’s faces told him maybe another break was necessary. 

“We should head back soon,” said Lancelot with a look to the distance. “It’s getting dark and we haven’t found anything today. But tomorrow, we will,” he said optimistically. “We could eat some of Gwaine’s honey and then leave.” Arthur nodded slowly. Another unsuccessful day.

Elyan grimaced. “I hate honey. It’s the worst thing I’ve tasted. But I would totally go all Gwaine over chocolate.” He closed his eyes and smiled. “Best thing ever.”

“‘Go all Gwaine over’?” Leon looked slightly confused

“It’s a way of saying something we’d go absolutely mad for,” clarified Percival.

“Apt,” snorted Arthur. A high pitched shriek interrupted the rest of his sentence. Almost instantly, Gwaine appeared from the thicket with Aurelian close behind him.

“They stung me!” He held up an arm which was covered in honey and had an angry bump. Merlin sighed and wrapped a bandage over it whilst he rolled his eyes. “Hey, I was very brave.”

“A knight of Camelot brought down by a bee,” said Elyan, fighting a smile. “It’s a good thing Morgana doesn’t have a horde of angry bees under her command.”

“Or wasps,” added Percival. They were both subjected to a frown from Gwaine.

“You know, I hope a thousand bees sting the both of you. Maybe I’ll make it happen,” he said threateningly.

“Is Aurelian alright?” asked Lancelot and Gwaine sighed with a longing look at his dear nephew.

“He’s got a way with animals, Lance. The bees literally loved him.”

“Sounds like you, Merlin, with your cute bunny rabbits and stupid twittering birds” said Arthur with a face of disgust. “I think Aurelian shouldn’t spend so much time with you. You’re rubbing off on him.”

“Well it only makes sense I’m like Merlin,” said Aurelian with a shrug. Everyone turned to him and he blinked. He hadn’t meant to say that out loud. “Because I, I, I spend a lot of time with him in the future!”

“With my manservant?”

“Makes sense I’d be his babysitter,” said Merlin pointedly. “Maybe it runs in the family: absent parenting.” Leon snorted and hurriedly tried to pass it off as a cough, his face reddening in mortification. 

It was thanks to their distraction that not one member of the group noticed the problem until an arrow whizzed past Arthur. Merlin saw it too late as it headed straight to its destination — Arthur’s heart.

But, a lot of things can happen in one second. Such as someone tackling Arthur to the floor as the arrow lodged itself firmly into the tree trunk behind its target. 

Arthur sat up and turned to his saviour; a young boy no older than sixteen. “You, you saved my life!”

“Not now, Sire,” replied the boy as he drew his sword. The bandits revealed themselves but now everyone was prepared as they duelled readily. Arthur vaguely noted his son’s decent fighting skills as he disarmed another masked man. Apart from the slips in his footwork, and the fact he was noticeably favouring one side, Aurelian was quite the duellist. Nowhere near Arthur’s level of expertise at that age, of course, but a strong skill set indeed. 

Arthur knocked out a man and observed his knights for a second. Elyan was interrogating an individual with a bleeding stump and finally put him out of his misery. Lancelot and Leon were fighting back to back, as were Percival and Gwaine — his dominant hand had the bee sting yet Gwaine was unnaturally strong with his left. Arthur made a mental note to train up the rest of his knights as well and, to his own surprise, considered letting Gwaine lead training for that lesson.

Aurelian was up against a man twice his size and yet fought bravely. The bandit, however, was made of sterner stuff compared to his brethren and backed him up against a tree. Arthur prepared to enter the scene but he didn’t need to because his new young saviour distracted the bandit, letting Aurelian use the hilt of his sword to dislocate the man’s shoulder. He howled in pain and retreated, directing most of his men with him.

The last pair of bandits came up to Percival and Gwaine but it seemed fate was on their side. Just then, a large tree branch crashed to the floor, effectively hitting both of the attackers whilst leaving his knights unharmed. 

Truly, what luck.

“I blame Gwaine,” said Elyan, once it was clear that they were in the clear. “If we hadn’t stopped for the stupid honey, we wouldn’t have had to deal with that.” He lightly kicked the dead bandit, trying hard not to get blood on his shoes.

“I think he’s getting his own punishment in the way of the sting,” Percival pointed out as Gwaine nodded sadly.

Arthur ignored them and turned to the boy. “I owe you my life. Tell me, what reward would you like?” The boy blushed and ran his hands through his bouncy brown curls. 

“Sire, I was only returning the favour. I’ll never forget the time you helped me,” he said and honestly, Arthur didn’t think he had ever seen the boy before but he didn’t want to wipe the earnest look on his face. 

“I insist. Anything you could wish for, I’ll give.”

“Whatever you wish Sire, I’m happy to follow.” Arthur smiled: looks like he was getting another knight.

“Who’s getting knighted?” came Merlin’s voice as he jumped down from a tree. Arthur’s happy mood disappeared.

“And where were you, Merlin? Hiding in the trees from the scary bandits?” Merlin spluttered angrily.

“No, actually. I was… looking for more bandits. There are none, by the way. You’re welcome,” he added with a glare. “Who are you knighting?” Arthur pointed at the kid and Merlin’s glare morphed into a frown. “Who, who are you? You seem really familiar.”

“Well, of course he’s familiar,” said Aurelian suddenly. “That’s Mordred!” Aurelian ran up and pulled him into a hug. “You have no idea how weird it is, now that you’re my age.”

“Umm, forgive me, I don’t recognise you,” said Mordred uncomfortably and then Aurelian laughed.

“You’re not knighting him, Arthur,” said Merlin in the meantime. “I don’t care what he’s done but you’re absolutely not knighting him.”

“Where do you get the idea you can tell the Prince what to do, Merlin?” said Arthur with a serious look. “And, for your information, Mordred here saved my life and helped Aurelian, which is more than you’ve ever done as you’ve only ever hid up in trees,” he added, feeling particularly vicious. 

Now, Arthur knew Merlin, right. The man had his secrets (serious alcoholism being one of them, not to mention his frequent nightly trysts) but Arthur knew his manservant. If pressed then yes, Arthur would admit that Merlin could be called a friend… of sorts. All this to say — Arthur knew that Merlin loved to argue his point even if he had no evidence. 

So imagine his surprise when Merlin merely nodded and walked away. Arthur felt very slightly guilty, for just a second. After all, Merlin had done more than his fair share of saving Arthur such as drinking that poison like a demented fool. But the feeling disappeared in an instant, replaced with rage, especially after his own son ran after Merlin. Apparently Aurelian liked everyone but Arthur at this point.

“Hang on, I haven’t dismissed you!” That had never worked and it didn’t here either. But no matter. Arthur wasn’t going to give Merlin the satisfaction of receiving an apology and instead, doubled down. He was the Prince, he did what he liked. “You’re now an honorary knight, Sir Mordred, until I can conduct your test.”

Mordred fought hard to contain his enthusiasm and instead shook Arthur’s offered hand. The other knights slapped him on the back and began filling him in on the latest news, with the exception of Lancelot, who nodded politely at Arthur.

“Sire, I have a concern. If I may speak honestly?”

“Lancelot, you know I’ve never forbidden Gwaine and he’s yet to ask for permission. Go on,” said Arthur airily. How bad could Lancelot be?

It turned out, very bad.

“In that case, what the fuck was that about?” said Lancelot instantly and the knights fell silent at once to hear what could only be described as a once in a life-time experience of an angry Lancelot.

“Merlin has done everything short of giving his life up, and we all know how readily he would do just that if the need arose! None of you lot know how much Merlin deals with everyday, what with his work as a servant, as Gaius’ apprentice, as a teacher to the servants’ children, as an errands-boy for the older people in Lower Town, as an acting physician whenever Gaius isn’t available and whatever else. He doesn’t trust anyone with you, Arthur and goes as far as making your food by hand and keeps every other servant at arms length just to keep you safe. But no! Just because he doesn’t fight off bandits, which, I might add, isn’t part of his duty as your manservant, Merlin means nothing to you.”

Arthur’s jaw dropped. He… had not known Merlin at all, had he? He taught children? He was an acting physician? More importantly, Arthur’s food was made by Merlin? What was his Cook being paid for?

Lancelot wasn’t done yet though. “We take him on all these patrols with us and not once have any of us considered Merlin’s safety. We have swords, the man has nothing! No wonder he hides in trees or behind rocks.” The knights too looked guilty now. “Merlin has the extreme privilege of being our friend, which is a kind way of saying he’s our servant as well. He cooks for us, arranges all of our hunts and does what five servants manage between themselves. This is my fault, as much as it is yours, Arthur, but at least I make an effort to show my appreciation for him. I would like to think the King I will serve has the same decency,” finished Lancelot coldly. “I say this with respect, Sire, and I will now take your leave.” He bowed stiffly and left in the same direction Merlin went in without waiting for an answer.

Gwaine let out a low whistle. “Didn’t know he had it in him.”

“That was terrifying,” agreed Elyan. “Surely Merlin doesn’t do all of that?”

“When was the last time we saw Merlin relax?” asked Percival. “He probably does more that Lancelot doesn’t know of.”

“Well, I feel embarrassed to call myself a Merlin fan and get a talking to by Lance of all people,” declared Gwaine. “I wonder how Princess feels.”

Arthur was in shock, simply. 

“No one person should do so much,” frowned Leon. “Hang on. Has anyone seen young Mordred?”

///

“Merlin!” 

Aurelian was certain he had headed this way but then, it seemed as though Merlin had disappeared in thin air. He closed his eyes and tried to feel for a hint of Merlin’s magic so he could follow it. This wasn’t a very successful method as Aurelian tripped over a tree root and somebody snorted.

“Why— what are you doing?” asked an amused yet confused voice and Aurelian found himself in front of Merlin. He waved his hand and a rock cleared itself of the foliage and Aurelian sat tentatively on it. Merlin did the same with another rock. “You don’t need to be here. I’m, I’m fine. I just need some time.”

Aurelian raised an eyebrow, trying to copy the way Gaius did it. It didn’t work as intended but Merlin continued anyway. “I just thought. I mean, I know he’s never going to know everything. Well, in the future, he’ll know about the magic, no doubt, if I end up giving you lessons, but… Arthur will always just see me as a bumbling fool.”

He sighed. “I do so much for him and, when I was younger, I was desperate for him to find out,” he continued with a dry laugh. “But now? I don’t have the same stupid dreams. I just wish he would listen to me. Not all the time,” added Merlin quickly. “Arthur’s too stubborn for that. But just once or twice.”

Aurelian cleared his throat slightly. It was incredibly strange to come from a place where Arthur and Merlin worked so in sync with one another and see that things hadn’t always been like that. “He changes. Father changes and I think, I think it’s because you never give up, Merlin.”

For the first time since he arrived, Merlin looked at Aurelian and didn’t see Arthur in him. If anything, Aurelian reminded him of himself as a young child. Optimistic, idiotic and a little too carefree. Merlin cupped his hands and breathed into them gently, opening them to reveal a small, gold dragon.

It yawned and stretched its tiny wings before taking off and circling their heads. Aurelian tried the same thing but when he opened his hands, it was empty. “Picture your magic taking a form. Any form. Whatever feels right.”

Aurelian complied but his magic didn’t and he wilted slightly. “Get me to teach you properly in the future. I’ll learn more about magic in the meantime,” said Merlin with a small smile. A silence followed and Aurelian debated asking a question but Merlin got there first. “How do you know Mordred?”

“He’s a knight,” he said, almost whispering the answer, if only to avoid upsetting Merlin again. “But you like him in the future!”

“How can I?” asked Merlin also in a whisper. “I— He’s… I can’t tell you because you’ll get stressed, and Arthur won’t listen to me and I can’t tell Lancelot all my problems because he—”

“Merlin,” interrupted Aurelian. “It won’t matter, tell me. I’m tougher than I look.”

“You’re a kid,” said Merlin with an uncomfortable look.

“And so were you when you came to Camelot. Please, trust me,” he said and Merlin broke.

“Mordred destined to be Arthur’s bane. He’s the one who kills Arthur!”

There was a gasp behind them and Merlin spun, conjuring a ball of golden flames almost instinctively. “Who’s there?” A second later, Mordred stepped out, looking horrified and guilty.

“Emrys, forgive me, I didn’t mean to eavesdrop, I just wanted to— it doesn’t matter, Emrys, please, I would never attempt anything like that!” pleaded Mordred, falling to his knees. Merlin hurriedly stepped back and tripped over his rock sitting place. Mordred grew even more pale, if that was possible. “Emrys, I didn’t mean to kill you!”

“Mordred, get up,” said Merlin, sounding resigned as he picked himself up. “I, I don’t know. What if one day, you do? Can you handle Arthur talking shit about sorcery and, and blaming the druids for every single thing? What if you snap and just…”

“Emrys, I have just seen what you have faced for the past I don’t even know how long! Maybe as long as I’ve been alive, you’ve spent every day hiding who you really are and I’ve seen how much the Prince really knows,” said Mordred, still on the floor. Aurelian simply watched, his head hurting. He hadn’t realised how perfect his life had been. Here, it seemed like everyday there was a new problem to deal with, not to mention the amount of secrets people had.

“If it means you won’t hate me, Emrys, I’m prepared to do anything. Even give up my magic,” promised Mordred.

“Why does it matter if I like you or not? Arthur’s made it clear how much my opinion is valued around here and—”

Mordred cut him off by spluttering incoherently. “Emrys, what did you think your name means?”

“It’s a bird, Mordred,” said Merlin flatly. “I thought you were a druid.” Aurelian snorted.

“Not that! Emrys! What did you think it meant? It means you’re a god!” said Mordred, gesticulating wildly. “How did you not— Emrys, you are a god, a literal god of magic and do you know how incredibly stressful it is to know your god hates you?”

“I’m a god,” repeated Merlin faintly. He turned to Aurelian. “Did you know this?”

“Umm… no?”

“You are a terrible liar and every inch your father in that manner. I can’t even—”

“Did you just think you had insane amounts of magic?” asked Mordred incredulously, finally getting up. “That people have given you a druidic title for fun?”

“I don’t know, Mordred, because no one ever tells me anything unless it’s ‘Oh, Arthur’s gonna die, keep him alive’ and ‘You have to bring magic back and make Albion’. Never once do I get any advice on how to do any of that,” sighed Merlin, collapsing on his rock. Aurelian offered Mordred his seat.

“So don’t you think it’ll be helpful to have an ally?” asked Mordred, his tone filled with hope. “I could be that. And Aurelian,” he added with a confused look. “I’m still confused about you, if I’m honest.”

“I’ll explain later.”

Branches crunched as the trees shifted to reveal a slightly dazed Lancelot. He brightened up immediately upon seeing Merlin and hugged him tightly.

“How are you?” he asked after some time, staring deeply into his eyes. “Arthur’s wrong. You do more than everyone else combined to keep him alive and one day, he’ll see it.”

Merlin nodded. “We should get back. We still need to find the druids.” Mordred froze.

“Why? Are we, are we hunting them?” His voice rose by a few octaves in distress.

“Oh, that’s me,” said Aurelian as he walked alongside Mordred. “Basically, this shit show started last Friday, when…”

///

The gang (plus Mordred) continued a slow pace into the woods with little regard for the sinking sun. This was because their newest addition had excitedly declared that he knew where the druids were.

“It’s because, I, uh, I, I saw them. I stayed with them for a night,” said Mordred with a suddenly uneasy look. “But I don’t want them to be in trouble. They, uh, they were very kind to me.”

Arthur frowned but ensured the druids would remain safe as long as they were peaceful. “Lead the way,” he smiled and so Mordred rode ahead with Arthur and Aurelian, who was roped along by his father to lead the group.

The rest of the knights took the opportunity to hang out at the back and talk. “Merlin, I want you to know I’m going to be better,” said Gwaine solemnly. “I have let you down and haven’t done my duties as a ‘Merlin appreciator’ very properly. But not any more! I won’t let you out of my sight,” he promised.

Merlin was very confused. “Gwaine, what do you mean? I’m fine!”

“You don’t need to pretend,” said Percival with reassuring smile, “Lancelot told us about all your jobs.” Merlin grew deathly pale as his head snapped towards the knight.

“Lancelot said what now?” he asked, desperately trying to control his panicked expression.

“Just about how you teach kids, cook Arthur’s food, treat people as an acting physician,” clarified Lancelot hastily. Merlin sighed with relief. 

“Percival, I believe ‘telling’ isn’t the right verb,” snorted Leon. The suspicious look on Merlin’s face returned. “More like he yelled at the Prince and I think he even swore?”

“Lancelot did what now?!” 

“I know right!” said Gwaine with a wistful expression. “Never thought I would live to see the day Lance uses fuck. Like genuinely, I thought he didn’t even know any other words apart from nobility, valour and whatever,” he continued with a disgusted look.

“Words you won’t find in Gwaine’s dictionary any day,” commented Elyan. Gwaine fist-bumped him and with Percival, the three of them began to act out exactly what Merlin had missed and he stared in utter disbelief.

“You swore at Arthur?” Merlin still couldn’t wrap his head around that. Was Lancelot possessed? He had to be! “Why?”

Lancelot merely shrugged, although he had slightly reddened during the recounting. “It’s time Arthur began to appreciate you a bit more.”

Leon cleared his throat multiple times and looked uncomfortable as he said, “And we should too. Please accept my apologies, Merlin, for not taking a more active role in our friendship, if I can still call it that… You really are a good friend to me and I can’t forget how you brought extra helpings of pie every day while I was sick.” Merlin blushed now. 

“Leon, don’t worry about it. Honestly, it’s not as big of a deal as Lancelot made it out to be.”

“No, Merlin, Leon is right,” said Elyan immediately. “We’ve taken you for granted. But… does Gwen know of all this?”

Merlin sheepishly shook his head. “She’ll tell me to not push myself so much and she’d only worry so—”

“And she’s right,” said Gwaine fiercely. “Who cares about Princess? You should find him another servant and just become a teacher full-time. I’d come to all your lessons,” he added with a wink.

“I’m gonna tell her,” said Elyan and looked guilty as Merlin immediately gasped in horror. “I must! She’ll kill me if she knew that I knew and I didn’t say anything,” he explained in a small voice.

“So you’re happy with my death?”

“They’ve stopped,” said Percival, looking ahead. “I think we might be turning back now.”

“It’s too late for that,” said Leon with a frown. “Are we staying for the night?”

They covered the last few metres to find Arthur’s, Aurelian’s and Mordred’s horses tied a short distance away from them in a large clearing. “We’re going to set up camp,” announced Arthur and immediately Merlin sighed.

“We don’t have any supplies. No food, no bedrolls, nothing. How do you expect—” Something changed in his face and Merlin shut his mouth suddenly. “As you wish, Sire,” he muttered and tied up his own horse.

“Sire, Merlin’s right,” tried Leon. “We can’t possibly…” He paused. He didn’t want to criticise the Prince but this was a very unwise decision.

“Mordred says they’re only an hour’s ride from here,” said Arthur with a resigned look. “It’s too dark now to continue or turn back. Had it been a clear night, we could have pushed on.” He glared at the skies as though they had personally offended him.

Emrys? 

Merlin jumped a foot into the air and weakly tried to reassure everyone he was fine. He was not fine. Mordred’s voice was back in his head. Without warning as well. Sorry I scared you, Emrys, he said in a small tone and Merlin caught his eye.

No, it’s fine. I really did see a rat.

I find that hard to believe.

Maybe I’ll leave you to die, decided Merlin and Mordred sent a frustrated whine. Fine, fine, quit making that annoying sound! What’s wrong?

Nothing, it’s just… Mordred hesitated and now Merlin was very curious. Couldn’t you conjure some bedrolls and food by magic?

I could if I decided I was ready for death, said Merlin in an overly cheerful tone. Mordred winced. Because Arthur doesn’t hate me enough already, so let’s make things worse, shall we?

“We’re knights of Camelot, we have faced worse, have we not, men?” asked Arthur loudly and he was met with weak agreements from his knights. “Our cloaks will function as our bedrolls and we will forage for berries for our food.”

Please Emrys. Do something.

Thought you wanted to be a knight, Mordred. This is basic training. Merlin felt a bit bad as the boy blinked back but then remembered his destiny and Merlin felt fine again.

He disappeared to pick some kindling and found Aurelian trailing unhappily behind him. “Don’t tell me, you also hate your father’s brilliant proposal?”

“I’m realising how excellent my life was before this nonsense,” said Aurelian bluntly. “I cannot wait to get back. Maybe I could convince Dad to take me to see the dragon I like,” he said, brightening up slightly. Merlin froze.

“Kilgharrah? Arthur takes you to see Kilgharrah… as a treat? You like him?” He didn’t give Aurelian any time to answer as he muttered, “maybe insanity also runs in the family.”

“Hey!”

///

Merlin was cold and hungry. The few berries Lancelot and Mordred had scrounged up couldn’t satisfy the gnawing feeling in his stomach and the fire had long gone out, leaving Merlin to shiver in his thin jacket.

The knights had all valiantly offered up their cloaks at once, no doubt a result of the new ‘We need to be a better friend to Merlin’ campaign initiated by Lancelot. But Merlin had refused with equal valour, pointing out that they needed something to sleep on and that he had his jacket.

It was a long, hard argument but still one he had won. Merlin pulled himself in and tried to fall asleep quickly, hoping to wake up to a delicious breakfast. One he would most likely have to make himself.

However, it seemed destiny, who was determined to fuck him at every possible opportunity by now, had other plans. He felt a small kick to his ankles and Merlin sat up, intent on murdering whoever this was.

It was Arthur.

“Come,” he said simply and disappeared into the trees. Merlin groaned and turned over. He would not be going anywhere. 

But what if a bandit attacked? Or a snake? Or a vengeful Morgana?

Merlin got up seconds later and followed Arthur.

Arthur was casually leaning against a tree and kept tapping his sword against his foot. Merlin tried to aim for a conversational tone, instead of one laced with the frustration he felt. “What do you want?”

Judging by Arthur’s raised eyebrow, he hadn’t been very successful. “To talk. You love to chew my ear off usually so I thought this would be a welcome opportunity.”

“Not in the middle of the night!” Merlin sighed and pushed his growing hunger out of his mind. Nevertheless, he took a deep breath and tried again. “What do you want to talk about?”

Arthur’s sword stopped moving and his entire expression grew serious. Had Lancelot accidentally told him about his magic? “Do you really cook for me? Every day?”

Merlin nearly cried from relief. But then, his annoyance grew. Couldn’t this wait until the morning? “Arthur, if you’ve dragged me out in the middle of the night to ask about something I’ve been doing for more than a year, I swea—”

“More than a year?” asked Arthur incredulously, tucking his sword away. “What do you mean? What has the cook been doing?”

“There are other people in the castle.” Arthur had a serious case of assuming himself to be the centre of the universe. Merlin wasn’t surprised. “And I make yours,” he added.

“But… why?” said Arthur, as though he couldn’t fathom this at all. Had it been another situation, Merlin would have cherished the look of utter bewilderment but for now, he was cold, tired, hungry and sleepy. If Arthur could hurry up with his epiphany, it would be much appreciated. “It’s not like she’s going to poison anything,” he joked. Merlin’s face stared back at him, unimpressed, and Arthur rolled his eyes. “What? Oh come on! I mean, I have a poison tester — he’s employed to stop that from happening,” said Arthur with a long-suffering sigh. Once again, Merlin didn’t react, leading him to narrow his eyes.

“Correction: you used to have a poison tester. You have not had one for the past year or so.” Arthur gaped.

“Merlin, what did you do to him?”

“Look, it wasn’t my fault,” began Merlin and Arthur sighed again. “I was bringing back your food and I was really hungry so I decided to steal a sausage. Next thing I know, I was out cold for an afternoon and Gaius told me I was poisoned. So I searched for Richard and he was still alive so obviously, he poisoned your food. I talked to him, he didn’t want to reconsider his life choices so I had to…” Merlin trailed off with a shrug. The actions that followed were entirely the consequences of Richard’s own stupid choices. He was hardly to blame!

“You killed him?” Arthur’s surprised squawk was enough to wake a roosting bird, which glared at them with red eyes as it tried to go back to sleep.

“You’re one to talk,” muttered Merlin. He wasn’t proud of how he handled Richard. Nowadays, potential assassins were still killed, but with grace, with poise and with perfection. Richard’s death had been sloppy and Merlin hated to think about him. He didn’t mention any of this to Arthur, who already seemed to be struggling with the mere notion that Merlin killed someone.

“You, you could’ve told me and we would’ve fired him,” said Arthur, massaging the bridge of his nose. “And, if you’ve… dealt with Richard, why do you insist on cooking anyway? The cook was innocent, right?”

Merlin looked at Arthur as though he was especially dumb. “Do you know how many people have access to those kitchens? It’s all too simple for someone to slip something in so I’ve decided that your food won’t leave my sight.” It had been a brilliant plan. Sure, he had to sacrifice some more of his sleep but it was worth it. “If Lance hadn’t ratted me out, you would have never known,” said Merlin with a casual shrug.

“You were just never going to tell me?”

“Why would you need to know?” he returned almost instantly. Arthur spluttered incoherently, looking on the verge of tears. Merlin really wished the circumstances were different so he could appreciate this beautiful moment. He sighed and waited instead.

“I don’t know, Merlin, maybe because I’d like to know what’s happening in my own castle!” said Arthur, his voice rising an octave. “What else have you been doing?”

“Literally nothing. I mean, I don’t let any of the other servants come too close to you but you also help — nobody wants to come close to you,” grinned Merlin. Arthur wasn’t impressed, though he seemed to calm down slightly. “I did spend a couple of months sleeping outside your door,” he added as an afterthought. “It was because someone tried to attack you in your sleep and thankfully, Aaron got me in time but I couldn’t risk it so…”

Merlin stopped as Arthur sighed deeply and sat down. “Is… is something wrong?” Merlin joined him on the soft grass.

Arthur stared. “A lot of things are wrong, Merlin. Things will never be right again because I’ve just found out how integral my manservant is to my safety. It’s like one would think as a Prince, I would have a battalion of soldiers ready to give up their life and limb for me—”

“You do. Your knights—”

“But no, apparently one manservant is enough,” he finished with a frustrated groan. “I can’t believe you just decided I never needed to know! Half of this stuff is enough to knight you on the sp— why are you making that face?” Because of course Merli’s face had contorted into an expression of pure disgust.

“Can’t believe you’d insult me like that,” muttered Merlin. “After all I’ve done, you want to knight me?”

“Being a knight is an honour, Merlin, and one you will never receive,” decided Arthur airily. “Right, this is going to stop now. You’re going to sleep in your own bed, you’re only going to enter the kitchens to bring and take back my food and we—”

“Were you even listening?” whined Merlin. “It’s like you’re inviting assassins to take a shot!” Arthur looked slightly offended now.

“I am capable of protecting myself, Merlin.”

“Just as you’re capable of cutting your own chicken into bite-sized pieces, Sire?” It had, admittedly, been one time, when Arthur was deeply analysing one of the tax reports and Merlin had appeared with the dinner. But, a dilemma struck because these reports had to be analysed by the morning (or else face Lord Pylesworth’s disdain) but there was chicken! So Arthur, hoping Merlin would recognise and sympathise with his dilemma, had asked him to cut up the food so he could eat it.

It went about as well as expected. Merlin didn’t let him live that down and it was only a small mercy he hadn’t narrated the tale to the rest of his knights but Arthur suspected Lancelot knew. Why else would his knight pointedly avoid his gaze whenever chicken was served at feasts?

“It was one time! I’m not going to have you behave like a lunatic because you’re paranoid,” he said firmly, effectively silencing Merlin’s protests. “We’ll hire a new poison tester, Cook will go back to doing what she’s fucking being paid for and if you don’t go back to sleeping in your own bed, I’ll make you sleep with me.”

Merlin blushed and cleared his throat. “I hope you don’t mean that.” Arthur raised an eyebrow, not understanding.

“Why won’t I? I’m not joking, I will forcefully tie you down—”

Now Merlin turned away, his face burning. “Arthur! At least take me out to dinner first!” he managed hoarsely.

Arthur still did not understand but then again, when did Merlin ever make sense? It was not his fault, he assured himself. “Well, I mean it. This changes now—”

Merlin rolled his eyes. “Look, everything’s working fine now, isn’t it? Just, go back to treating me like shit and I’ll go back to ignoring you and we’ll be fine.”

“No,” said Arthur seriously. “Things aren’t fine, Merlin, because if they were, I wouldn’t have been subjected to another side of Lancelot. Here’s what’s going to happen. One day, and I’m giving you that privilege, you will explain everything that you do. I want to hear all of it, do I make myself clear?” Merlin avoided his eyes but nodded slightly.

“Whenever I want?”

“It might be the stupidest decision I’ve made, but yes,” said Arthur and watched as Merlin seemed to relax. He wanted to demand answers right there and then but this was important for his plan. “Until that day, and afterwards as well, I… I think it’s time you take your proper place by my side.”

There was a pause, and then a squeak. “What?”

“As my advisor,” said Arthur with a wave of his hand. Clearly, Merlin was even more idiotic at night than in the day: a feat Arthur did not think was possible. “You tell me what you think whether I want to hear it or not. You might as well share these thoughts with the rest of the Round Table.”

Merlin’s face lit up as he nodded. “About time, clotpole,” he said and Arthur shook his head, unable to stop the fond smile from growing. “Now can we please go back before I starve and die?”

“Typical. You had five whole berries and you still want more. Such greed. What are you doing?” Merlin ignored him and hunched over, making sure to hide his eyes. 

“Oh, look what I found!” he said in an overly cheerful tone. “A strawberry bush.” Merlin deftly picked all the fruits off and ate them, slapping away Arthur’s hand when he tried to help himself. “Oh no, Arthur, you’re being greedy.”

Merlin quickly returned to the clearing and headed towards Mordred’s sleeping form. “Oi! I’ve got food.” He would be so grateful.

“Emrys, really?” came a sleepy voice. “I had finally fallen asleep!”

///

“I’m afraid we can’t help, Your Highness,” said Iseldir, his head still bowed. “The magic of time is far beyond even my expertise and I believe only Emrys has those skills.”

“Then we shall seek Emrys,” declared Arthur. Mordred pushed past the other knights, stumbling over an errant rock in his haste.

“Oh, Sire, Emrys is a god,” he said quickly with a subtle shake of his head to Iseldir. “I think Iseldir meant it as an exaggeration.” He glanced expectantly at the druid Leader who nodded after a second.

“Well, is there a more experienced druid?” asked Arthur impatiently. Iseldir didn’t take offence and merely smiled.

“Your Highness, I do not wish to question your authority, but look around. You are standing in the middle of a druid camp and yet how many druids can you see?” Iseldir gestured to the empty land surrounding them. Arthur nodded gravelly. They didn’t trust him yet and he couldn’t blame them. “Even if one of them knew how to send your son back to his time, I would be surprised if they came forth.”

“It’s treason not to.”

“Is it, Arthur?” asked Merlin suddenly. “I don’t know much about magic but I can’t expect them to be happy to help you, especially if there’s the chance they won’t escape with their lives.”

“Merlin, I don’t remember aski—” Arthur paused. Had it been someone else, how would he react? Why was Merlin any different? “You’re right.” He could hear his knights’ jaws drop open. “Thank you Iseldir. We’ll leave now,” he sighed and gestured to his men to get their horses.

“Prince Arthur, wait. You must stay for sometime, otherwise your trip has been in vain,” said Iseldir with a pleasant look. 

“I’ve gained a new knight, I believe this trip has been helpful in other ways,” said Arthur, fighting to keep his tone pleasant. He didn’t win the battle. “Besides, it’s not like your lot want me here.”

“We’ve upset you,” stated Iseldir serenely. “Please, you must dine with us and give us an opportunity to learn more about you. After all, one should never judge based on the past,” he continued in a slightly louder tone. There was rustling and before the knights could react, faces appeared out of the bushes. Men and women, young and old came out of their hiding places and stood shyly in front of them.

“We should stay, eh?” said Gwaine as his stomach grumbled loudly. The morning’s breakfast had been less than satisfactory, with only a few more berries. No matter how hard they tried, nobody could found the mysterious strawberry plant Arthur had seen the day before. “It would be rude not to.”

“It would be rude to make everyone at Camelot worry,” said Merlin flatly. “Tell Iseldir we have to leave, Arthur.”

“You’re doing it again, Merlin. Telling me what to do.”

“Yes, I’m well aware. Come on.” Somewhere in the crowd, a girl laughed.

“We’ll stay, Iseldir,” said Arthur with a pointed look at Merlin. “And I’m sure Merlin can help with any tasks you have.”

“Oh no, we can’t ask… Merlin,” said Iseldir with a little cough. Behind him, Arthur saw Merlin’s sharp glare and — was that fear on the man’s face?

“He is a servant. A pretty lousy one, I’ll admit, but it is his job,” said Arthur, carelessly waving his hand. “I insist. It’ll also comfort him. Merlin’s convinced everyone’s out to poison me,” he explained with a chuckle when Iseldir frowned. “It’s ridiculous, but you wouldn’t believe the lengths he goes to.”

The druid leader turned to him immediately. “We would never do anything of that sort.”

“Of course, Iseldir,” said Merlin stiffly. “Arthur exaggerates. We really should be leaving.”

“If that is what you wish,” said Iseldir, already bowing. Arthur paused.

“Hang on, no one cares what Merlin wishes!” The crowd gasped and Arthur turned to them incredulously. Once again, Mordred spoke up.

“Oh Sire, you shouldn’t say that. You see, uh, druids are, um, really respectful of servants…”

“Of servants?”

“Yes! Very, so very much. They, uh, it’s a druid custom,” finished Mordred with a nervous laugh. 

“Well, please accept my apologies,” said Arthur to the crowd. He was never going to understand sorcery, was he?

“You seem to know a lot about druid customs,” said Elyan with a hum. 

“Yes, it’s lucky, isn’t it?” said Aurelian quickly. “Otherwise Father would have upset a lot of people.”

“Very lucky,” agreed Lancelot. “Sire, if I may?”

“You may not, Lancelot,” said Arthur with a panicked look. Gwaine snorted. “We’re staying. You all will unload our horses and put them wherever directed. Merlin will assist the druids with the feast and I have a few more questions for you, Iseldir,” he said with a definitive nod. 

Iseldir looked like he might disagree but Merlin spoke up. “Iseldir, it’s not like anyone here can tell the Prince what to do, is it?” he said and Arthur wondered if this was a new insult. Whatever it was, it worked and Iseldir’s peaceful smile returned.

“I shall be happy to answer any questions you have, Sire.”

///

“Emrys, please, you mustn’t be here,” pleaded Calla, looking close to tears as Merlin happily shelled peas on the floor. He stuffed a few into his mouth every now and then and watched as other druids looked at each other, panicked. He heard one despairing that he “didn’t know Emrys took a liking to peas! I’ve been offering beans for the past month!” and another retaliated with “oh, please, what’s the difference! I’m the one who’s properly sinned — I’ve been worshipping with grains. Grains!”.

“Mordred!” She saw him walk past and dragged the boy by the scruff of his shirt into the kitchen tent whilst gestured wildly (yet respectfully) in Merlin’s direction. “Do something! You seem to be a close confidant of Emrys!”

“Calla, trust me, Emrys will look favourably upon everyone here apart from me,” said Mordred hoarsely. “I am a victim of hate crime.”

“Don’t be like that, Mordred. I offered you berries and you rudely turned me away, so it is your fault. I’m the victim.”

“You turned away Emrys’ blessings?” said Calla, horrified. “Mordred! Haven’t we taught you anything? We must be facing punishment due to your actions.”

“Emrys, I hate you,” decided Mordred as he walked back out. Merlin snorted and his laughter only grew as he saw the other druids’ stunned looks.

“Are there any more peas?”

///

“So. Tell him, Aurelian,” said Arthur, looking at his son. “Tell him what happens in the future.”

“Um, a lot happens, Father. What specific—”

“The, the thing! The, I— the sorcery part,” he said, trying not to recoil.

“Oh, yeah. Sorcery’s legal in the future,” said Aurelian dutifully. Iseldir smiled. “Um, Emrys ensures that,” he added, sounding unsure. He was rewarded with a slightly larger smile.

“The god? What does a god have anything to do with it?” Arthur frowned. “Is he a god, or was Mordred lying?”

“Young Mordred is quite right, Sire,” clarified Iseldir. “Emrys is a god and your son speaks of a prophecy, where it says that magic will return to the lands in the hands of the Once and Future King as he is guided by Emrys.”

Arthur considered the words carefully. Finally, he said, “Prophecy? So it’s, what, it has to happen? I don’t get a choice?” He glanced irritatedly at the rabbits who frolicked past.

“It can be said, Prince Arthur, that none of us have any choice. We are all slaves to destiny and—”

“Respectfully, Iseldir, I want answers, not philosophy,” cut Arthur, glaring at his son as he sniggered. “I wanted to know if the future was set in stone,” he continued after some time. “I mean, it must be, if Aurelian exists and comes back. But… does anything I do matter? Nothing anyone does matters any more, if everything’s decided.”

“Your Highness, you ask questions I fear no one knows the answers to,” said Iseldir gently. “No young person, no matter if they may be a Prince, a King or even a god, can know of their destiny.”

“You call me the Once and Future King,” said Arthur, frowning. “What does that mean? I’ll be king once and then forever?”

Iseldir smiled mysteriously. “All in good time, young king.”

“You mean Prince.”

///

“Tell me more about Emrys,” said Gwaine, biting into his apple and moaning so obscenely that Percival thwacked the back of his head to get him to shut up. 

“Are you considering worshipping him, Sir Knight?” asked the young boy — River. “I think you’ll like him lots, he’s the god of magic and mischief!”

“You are very right, I will love him,” declared Gwaine. 

“Do you know any good stories?” asked Leon, trying to keep the boy’s interest as he wandered around. They felt quite uncomfortable standing in the middle of the suspicious crowd and only a few of the children were brave enough to hold a conversation with the knights. Leon didn’t particularly enjoy the distrustful glances but at the same time, he hoped he hadn’t been recognised from the last druid camp raid.

“No,” said River, looking downcast. “But Mordred knows lots!” He jumped up and down and ran off before Leon could stop him. Seconds later, River reappeared with a confused Mordred behind him.

“River, what is it now? Oh, hello,” said Mordred, eyeing the knights. “Is anything the matter?”

“River was just telling us that you know stories about the druid god, Emrys,” said Elyan and Mordred paled slightly.

“I don’t, really. I’m sure Iseldir know many more,” he added weakly. 

River frowned. “But that’s not true! Yesterday, you were telling us how Emrys tried to ki—” Mordred quickly clamped the boy’s mouth shut his hand and picked him easily.

“I think I hear your mother calling, River. I’ll take him there,” said Mordred to the knights before practically sprinting away.

Lancelot hummed thoughtfully and instantly, Elyan nodded. “Yep, I agree.”

“To what?”

“You seriously didn’t notice anything, Gwaine?” asked Percival with a smile.

“Wait, what’s going on?”

“Even I could tell something was up, Gwaine,” added Leon and predictably, Gwaine broke. 

“Oh, the horror — this is torture, Percival! Elyan, tell me! Come on!”

///

“Will Em— Merlin not be dining with us?” asked Iseldir, almost screaming as Merlin turned to serve him food after he’d finished filling Arthur’s plate. “I can’t accept this!”

“Merlin, remember the druid customs,” said Lancelot with a knowing smile. “Iseldir most likely doesn’t feel comfortable being served by a servant.”

Arthur shook his head in mild disbelief. “Sit down, Merlin, before you give Iseldir a heart attack. I must say, druids have strange beliefs.”

“Well, you believe in letting your sword do all the thinking, Sire,” muttered Merlin. Unfortunately, one of the druids heard him and reverently repeated the phrase to their neighbour, who gasped and kept the chain going until whispers rose.

“Iseldir, Mordred said you would know stories about Emrys,” said Elyan. “Can we hear these tales of your god?”

“Absolutely not,” said Merlin quickly. “Arthur, this is the part where you say it’s treason to talk about gods and sorcery.”

“Merlin, I don’t think I can come to a druid camp voluntarily and tell them it’s treason to follow their beliefs,” said Arthur dryly. “What has your god done then? It can’t be very impressive if sorcery is still illegal, and will remain so.” Mordred grimaced and tried to speak, but another druid beat him.

“I don’t think it’s fair, Your Highness, to blame our gods when it is your father who cruelly hunts our kind,” she said coldly, biting into the meat and missing the way Arthur turned to his knights in stunned surprise. “Am I to learn you will carry on the legacy?”

“Kara, please…” said Mordred weakly but Kara glared at him.

“Mordred, don’t shush me. You know,” she continued, looking at Arthur again, “I do have a story about Emrys. Everyone says he’s a god, and he is, but he was firstly a boy. A boy who was born with magic, Sire. Oh, but wait! Sorcery is a crime punishable by death and yet all this boy has done is exist. What do you say, Your Highness?”

Arthur blinked and tried to think of an answer but Kara wasn’t finished. “Emrys’ destiny is to serve you, Sire, were you aware? Magic Incarnate was born to serve you, Arthur Pendragon, and I’m sure you would dispose of him the second you didn’t need Emrys any more. No wonder our god hasn’t done more for us, not when his life is in as much risk as ours!”

In the distance, a clap of thunder sounded, making everyone jump — the day had been warm and sunny and this was quite out of place. Well, for the knights and for Arthur it was quite out of place. The druids looked at Merlin who was positively fuming. Kara didn’t need Mordred’s nudge to understand that she had overstepped.

Emrys, please forgive her. She’s, she’s just passionate, came Mordred’s explanation. Merlin ignored him and continued eating silently. 

Arthur, unaware of the dynamics in the tent, cleared his throat. “Kara, wasn’t it? You raise very important questions and firstly, I hope you will all forgive me for speaking ill of your beliefs.”

“Prince Arthur, please, that isn’t necessary…”

“No, Iseldir, it is. I’m sure news travels fast and you all know Aurelian here is from the future?” asked Arthur and the lack of whispers told him he was right. “Aurelian comes from a time where magic is free, as it was once before.”

The effect was instantaneous. The druids cheered and turned to each other, happiness evident in their tears and hugs. Arthur couldn’t help the smile on his face and something clicked inside. Up until that moment, he had only seen the burden of the future, of what was destined to happen, but here, he saw hope. Aurelian’s arrival had filled an entire community with happiness. 

“To King Arthur!” yelled a druid as he held up his goblet.

“To King Arthur!”

“I’m afraid that is treason,” said Leon uneasily but it was lost amongst the chatter.

///

“I have five minutes before Arthur realises I’m missing,” said Merlin. “I’ve left Aurelian to serve as a distraction and Mordred to keep watch though.”

“Emrys, it’s good to see you. How are things?” asked Iseldir and was met with an ironic laugh.

“Oh, simply fantastic. I absolutely love having to keep two blonde prats alive as opposed to the usual one and the fact they’re related makes my job harder because they’re both equally dumb.” Iseldir smiled politely. “Anyway, you said something about only Emrys knowing how to?”

“Travelling through time is unheard of. I do not know if you are capable but as Magic Incarnate…”

“Theoretically, I should be able to,” finished off Merlin and Iseldir nodded. “Aurelian says he touched some turquoise stone and ended up here.” The druid leader thought for some time.

“It sounds like a magic enhancing stone,” he said finally. “Although turquoise is an unusual colour.”

“Maybe I made some modifications in the future. Where do we find these stones?”

Iseldir grimaced. “The stones find you. They’re often described as appearing in a dream, or in times of desperate need.” Merlin rolled his eyes.

“Of course. It’s not like my job’s ever been easy before, has it?”

Iseldir smiled apologetically. “Forgive me Emrys. I fear your journey has been in vain, even if the young Prince doesn’t see it so.”

“He’s got another knight now so Arthur’s over the moon,” sighed Merlin.

“Emrys, I would hate to add to your burdens…”

“What can I do?” Merlin was determined to actually step up in his godly duties as well, now that he actually knew that this was also part of his job description.

“Please will you take care of Mordred, Emrys?” Merlin’s smile disappeared almost instantly. “I fear magic-hating Camelot isn’t the place for a druid.”

“It isn’t the place for any magical being,” agreed Merlin sadly. The tent flap opened and he jumped. “Is Arthur yelling for me— oh, it’s you.” The arrival was none other than Kara.

“Emrys, please forgive me,” she said somewhat stiffly. “I shouldn’t have—”

“Merlin! Where is my idiotic manservant?” Arthur’s dulcet tones could be heard and Merlin nodded to Iseldir, ready to leave.

“Kara, Arthur may appreciate your questions, but you have no right to speak to the Once and Future King in that manner,” said Merlin sharply. Kara’s head rose, her eyes full of angry tears.

“Emrys, I was defending you! In fact, I don’t believe you have any right to tell me off, not after you’ve done basically noth—”

“Kara!” Iseldir cut her off with a furious look. “How dare you speak to Emrys in that manner? You know nothing of the struggles he faces!”

“Iseldir, I’m afraid I must leave,” said Merlin as Arthur once again yelled for him, this time sounding quite close. “I will see to Mordred. And thank you for all your help.”

“Emrys,” said Mordred from outside the tent, sounding quite desperate. Merlin briefly regarded Kara, guilt apparent on his face as he left.

///

The stench of blood hit him first. It was a smell he had become quite familiar with recently and Merlin turned in despair. The hut was filled with knights who were slumped over, most bleeding to death slowly. He couldn’t save them all!

Merlin hurried to the one closest to him and gasped as he saw Gwaine’s lifeless face staring back at him. How had this happened? He squeezed Gwaine’s hand and went to another knight who was weakly trying to catch his attention, his hand pressing into his ribs.

“Percival! You’ll be fine,” said Merlin firmly as he tried to reach for his satchel. Where was it? He shushed the groaning knight as he looked around, keeping one hand on the wound. There was nothing else he could do and Merlin’s eyes flashed without a second’s hesitation. Percival’s wound stitched itself shut but once his eyes shut in relief, they didn’t open again.

“You are a sorcerer,” stated a harsh voice causing him to jump. Morgana stood in front of him and Merlin glared at her.

“Did you do this?” he asked, gesturing to the fallen knights. “Morgana, how did you find us? Where is this place?”

“Funny how you protect the unworthy with your magic and yet when it came to me, you happily left me to die,” she said with a cruel smile. “I thought you were naive and my brother and his father had brainwashed you, but no. You hate me,” she continued, her voice soft. Merlin backed away as Morgana approached him, a dagger in one hand. “What have I done to you, Merlin? Or should I call you… Emrys?”

“How do you know this?” asked Merlin, his eyes tracking the blade carefully. What was going on? Where was this? Morgana smirked.

“I know everything, Emrys. I know of how you convinced Arthur to turn away from killing his father whilst betraying your own kind!” Merlin stared at her. Nobody knew that. How did Morgana know? “I know you’re scared that Mordred will kill Arthur and I know you plan to kill him before,” she taunted — Merlin froze. He hadn’t told anyone that. That meant…

“You’re a dream,” he said bluntly and Morgana cackled, throwing her head back. Merlin tried to take the dagger from her but it danced out of his reach. “That’s what this is. You can’t do anything, Morgana. You’re just in my head,” he said, desperately trying to control his magic into a ball of fire. Dream or not, Morgana was still terrifying.

“Oh Merlin, I never did harm you, did I?” she asked sweetly. For a second, Merlin saw the kind, innocent smile of Morgana Le Fay, before it grew into the twisted counterpart that belonged to Morgana Pendragon. “You were the one betraying me but I suppose you have no loyalty to magic. I’m not like you. It’s strange that even now, I’ve only come to help you, it seems.”

“What do you mean?” Merlin was aware Morgana was just trying to trick him. He had an almost sizeable sphere of flames and was preparing for his attack when she threw the knife into the air. It landed as a turquoise stone in her waiting arms and she grinned manically at him. It was the same turquoise stone they had been searching for the past month now! He felt his magic slip away from his fingers as he gasped. “That’s… that’s— how do you have that?”

“Wrong question. You should ask, is this real, or is it all in your head? Come find out, Emrys.”

Merlin tried to grab the stone but Morgana was faster. She waved her hand and everything disappeared, leaving Merlin to wake up in a cold sweat in his room.

///

We’re finishing the meeting, reported Mordred promptly. Merlin sent back a confirmation and turned to Aurelian. 

“You were the one who told Father not to trust Aunt Morgana,” said Aurelian. “Why are you saying we should go to her?”

“She was the one who gave you the stone, right?” Aurelian nodded but he looked unconvinced. “Aurelian, I’ve changed my mind,” tried Merlin with a sigh. “Maybe Morgana knows where the stone is. I don’t know about the future but right now she is a High Priestess.”

“You don’t stop being a High Priestess,” said Aurelian, rolling his eyes.

Emrys, we’re packing up! came Mordred’s slightly panicked voice. Should I stall? Please don’t make me, I’m really bad at lying.

“Come on Aurelian, you have to say it now,” said Merlin firmly. “Mordred’s going to have a heart attack if you don’t,” he added and that got the boy moving. They entered the throne room and Arthur instantly glared at them.

“Oh, so you do remember where the meeting was taking place,” he said dryly. “Tell me, Merlin, what’s the point of giving you a seat on this damned thing if you won’t even turn up?”

“Your son was hyperventilating,” said Merlin with a faked grimace. “Going on about how he was going to disappoint you and whatever. I wanted to leave him but he saw me,” he added with a genuine disappointed look. Elyan snorted. Arthur ignored the explanation and continued glaring at him.

“What’s wrong, Aurelian?” asked Lancelot when it was clear Arthur wouldn’t. 

“I think the stone is with A— Morgana,” he said, slightly too cheerfully.

And I thought I was bad at acting, commented Mordred and Merlin struggled to hide his laugh. He kicked Aurelian and the boy sounded a bit more distraught now.

“She came to me, in a dream. She told me and she showed me the stone.”

Leon looked at him sceptically. Arthur shared the sentiment as he said, “a dream? Really, Aurelian?”

“I believe him,” said Merlin quickly. They had to set out soon if they wanted to make the most of the light and Arthur was notoriously stubborn. “Don’t you believe your own son, Arthur? No wonder he thought he was going to disappoint you—”

“Merlin, for the love of Camelot, shut up.”

“I thought I was an advisor now. You don’t tell your advisors to shut up.”

“I really wish I could,” muttered Arthur. He cleared his throat. “This isn’t a matter of belief, it’s a matter of safety. I’m not going to risk my men’s lives just because of a dream.” That was a very good point and it was the sort of good point Merlin hoped Arthur wouldn’t have. He was usually so thick!

“Sire, we could use this opportunity to scout out her whereabouts,” suggested Percival. Merlin smiled at him.

“Or we could attack her when she’s least expecting it,” added Gwaine enthusiastically. Arthur frowned at him.

“Not attack, per se, but we could observe her and, uh, take the stone when she’s not home,” said Leon, looking uncomfortable at his own idea of potentially stealing, even if it was from a half-deranged witch who hated their guts. Elyan hummed thoughtfully.

“She might have some plans lying around, which we could take as well.”

“Sire, if I may?” asked Lancelot with a sincere look. He had been valiantly trying for the past month to offer his opinion in a respectful way but he was met with Arthur’s suspicious glance at every turn. This time, it seemed he had a chance though.

“Go on,” said Arthur hesitantly. Everyone held their breath in anticipation — realistically, it was unlikely for Lancelot to give a repeat performance, but one could hope. And hope was the one thing Gwaine did. Fervently.

“It is quite appalling that you have disregarded your own sister and your son’s aunt—”

“That’s enough Sir Lancelot,” came Arthur swiftly, crushing Gwaine’s dreams. “Sir Mordred, have you anything to add?”

Mordred couldn’t help but savour this moment — he still hadn’t become used to the fact that Prince Arthur had made him a knight, let alone the fact that he had been trusted enough to attend these secret gatherings. And his opinion was wanted? Clearly, Mordred had died and this was Heaven.

Can you please hurry the fuck up? Emrys interrupted his dreams. Quite rudely, in fact, but he was Emrys. Mordred sighed.

“I think Sir Lancelot is right, Sire,” he began, nervously fiddling with his tunic. Yes, knights didn’t fiddle nor were they nervous but the way Arthur twitched his eyebrows was terrifying, alright? “I mean, Morgana, I don’t know her very well at all. But, I think seeing Prince Aurelian might convince her to help us?” suggested Mordred. He braced himself for Arthur’s anger but he simply laughed.

Well now Mordred was offended. His idea wasn’t that bad, surely? “It could be like the druids, Sire,” said Lancelot, his saviour. No wonder Emrys loved this knight. Maybe they could start a Lance fan club. 

Maybe Emrys would actually like him then.

“She might see Aurelian as hope,” nodded Arthur slowly. He looked at all of them as he weighed up his options. “Very well, I’ve heard compelling points. We should leave at first light tomorrow.”

“Tomorrow? Why not now?” asked Merlin instantly. “Sooner we get baby Arthur out of our hair the better.”

“I have a name.”

“I recognise that but given that it’s a stupid-ass name, I’ve elected to ignore it,” informed Merlin pleasantly. Mordred spluttered, pressing his hand against his mouth to look decent. Gwaine had no such reservation and slapped the round-table as he hunched over in hysterics.

Emrys, that is the future prince!

You see the title, I see an extension of Prince Prat. Mordred wasn’t quite sure when he fell off his chair whilst he howled with laughter but quickly picked himself up, muttering his apologies and avoiding Merlin’s eyes desperately. By the way, don’t you dare dream of calling him that.

Arthur glared at Gwaine as he answered Merlin. “Do we know where she is?” He was met with silence. “Exactly. Today we find out and prepare to ride at dawn. Meeting adjourned.”

///

“That’s it,” said Elyan, gesturing to the small hut which could just be seen through the thicket. Arthur held his hand out and their horses stilled. They dismounted and chose to walk — an executive decision made by Arthur to give them an advantage with their swords.

Merlin froze momentarily as he saw the hut clearly. It was just like his dream. How had his subconscious been able to replicate it to the last stone? Had it been a dream? Or a vision?

“Come on,” said Aurelian, his eyes flicking to Arthur whose lips were pursed. Merlin shook himself and mock-glared at Arthur.

“Men, we’ll go through the plan once more,” decided Arthur. “According to the patrols, she shouldn’t be home at this time, right?” 

Leon nodded. “Percival and I saw her forage for some herbs yesterday at this time. We weren’t noticed,” he added.

“I never have the doubt, Leon. If things go awry and she returns before expected, we will…”

“Fight minimally, just to escape,” said Elyan instantly. “She has sorcery on her side and is unpredictable. Keep Aurelian safe, he’s our first priority.” Arthur nodded, satisfied.

“And me and Lance are on Merlin duty,” said Gwaine brightly, swinging one arm around Merlin’s shoulders. “Don’t give us that look, Merls, I had to fight the Princess to get this honour, after he wouldn’t allow me to keep Aurey safe,” he added with a pout.

“I’m your second choice?” Merlin joked weakly even as he turned to Lancelot in despair. “I don’t need protection, Gwaine.”

“Can’t have you hiding up trees,” said Arthur, his tone leaving no room for argument. “Come on, we won’t have this window forever. Aurelian, describe the stone again.”

Once they were all clear, Arthur led the group, Excalibur twirling expertly in his hand. Leon accompanied him, his sword held in a more appropriate grip and Elyan and Lancelot followed, Aurelian between them. Towards the tail end was an inappropriately excited Gwaine, an incredibly nervous Mordred, a determined Merlin and a Percival.

“Spread out,” ordered Arthur with one of his fancy hand signals. Everyone complied but Aurelian chose this opportunity to glue himself to the most powerful person in the group: Merlin.

“Do you think we’re going to run into her?” asked Aurelian in a whisper. Merlin glared at him.

“Don’t hope for that!”

“But she’s really nice, Merlin. I don’t get how Morgana was ever evil,” he sighed. Merlin pressed is lips together and, as he hunched over some of the spread journals, he answered Aurelian’s burning questions.

“Morgana wasn’t always like this. Her fear of what Uther would do to her was what changed her. And… it was my fault. I should have shown her my magic, shown her she had an ally. A friend. I should have done literally anything else than what I did,” he said, massaging his temples.

“What did you—”

“She’s here!” yelled Percival from his post as a look-out but he choked. Arthur dropped the cauldron he was inspecting and nodded urgently to Leon. It was time to act.

Their plan had been flawless, yes, but they had all failed to account for one thing. The fact that Morgana wouldn’t actually be happy to let them leave unscathed. Percival was fighting the golden ropes which bound him as he was levitated inside the hut and Morgana followed.

Her time in voluntary exile hadn’t served her well as she was dressed in tatters. A far cry from the beauty she was. But her eyes still had the same fire — literally, as they were ringed in gold. She hissed a few words and instantly, a strong wind picked up inside the room, pushing everyone to the walls. They tried to push against it, if only to wield their weapon, but Morgana was too strong.

“Morgana, we come in peace!” yelled Arthur, trying to be heard over the wind. Morgana looked unconvinced but she dropped the wind, keeping them pressed against the wall with an invisible force.

Merlin immediately reached out with his magic, trying to find a weak spot from which he could attack. He just needed her to be distracted so she wouldn’t feel the intrusion. Thankfully, Arthur delivered. “Please, Morgana! We need your help!”

“What help could you need from a witch?” she spat, her lips curling as Arthur recoiled. “Have you forgotten that I have scary magic, Arthur, dearest?”

“Not easy to forget, my lady,” quipped Gwaine and winced as he felt a strong punch to his midsection. “I, I jest. I will stop now.”

“Morgana, please. Listen to me,” tried Arthur again but Morgana cackled at those words, sounding eerily similar to Merlin’s dream. “Tell her, Aure—”

“Mordred?” she said suddenly, her cold mask cracking slightly. “You’re… you’re a knight?”

Mordred looked torn between guilt and fear as he nodded by a fraction. “How could you join him? That’s the side of tyranny, Mordred! He is just like his father,” she muttered darkly. Merlin faltered as he probed the shield for weaknesses — he wanted to say something, anything, but he didn’t want to bring Morgana’s attention to him. The others didn’t know of his involvement in driving Morgana and her sister out and it was best to keep it that way.

“No, my father is not like that,” said Aurelian suddenly. Morgana paused and narrowed her eyes. Her second’s worth of distraction costed her as Merlin pushed against her magic, catching her off guard.

The knights stumbled at the loss of pressure but didn’t have time to recover as Morgana advanced towards Aurelian. Instantly, she was faced with three swords pointing at her, belonging to Elyan, Gwaine and Lancelot. Leon helped Arthur up, leaving Percival to check on Mordred and Merlin, the latter of whom hastily blinked to hide the gold in his eyes.

“You look familiar,” commented Morgana as she surveyed Elyan.

“Gwen’s my sister.” Her eyes momentarily softened at the mention of Gwen but it wasn’t enough to distract her from Aurelian.

“Morgana, we can discuss this in a civil manner,” said Arthur again, this time standing tall. “We’ll put down our weaponry if you, if you’ll refrain from using sorcery.”

She tilted her head, as though considering the proposal, before finally accepting. “Put yours down first and we’ll talk.”

“No,” said Merlin immediately. Morgana’s indifferent mask contorting into a tortured expression as she looked at him. “Arthur, you won’t put Excalibur anywhere.”

“Merlin, be reason—”

“Then I have nothing to say,” said Morgana, tearing her eyes from Merlin. “Leave now, before I force you out.”

“I accept,” said Arthur, pointedly drawing his sword and kicking it to one side. He wasn’t going to throw away this opportunity just like that, no matter how paranoid Merlin was. Morgana wouldn’t do anything to her brother, would she?

///

They sat in a circle, with Gwaine and Elyan on either side of Aurelian and Leon and Percival on either side of Arthur. Mordred was the bravest knight of them all, sitting closest to Morgana (which was still a good metre away) and Lancelot sat on his other side. Merlin chose to stay standing and was subjected to shrewd glances from Aurelian and Mordred alike, who had both concluded that he was currently the most interesting person. Merlin rolled his eyes.

“Aurelian?” Arthur finally cleared his throat and his knights acknowledged him before turning back to Morgana. They had her word, yes, that she wouldn’t try anything, but her last takeover of Camelot meant they felt foolish to be so naive as to believe her. “Tell Morgana what you have told us.”

Apparently Arthur’s son was incapable of understanding simple commands. Just like his father, thought Merlin, massaging his temples as Aurelian’s head whipped towards him. He was once again the subject of everyone’s attention, with the exception of Morgana, who couldn’t bring herself to look at him. It was what he deserved.

“I’m from the future,” said the boy finally, causing Morgana to regard him suspiciously. “I, there was this weird stone and I touched it and I ended up back here. I had a dream where you had this stone so we’re here.”

“Damn, Aurey, what a way to summarise,” winked Gwaine, deciding the tension needed breaking. “You don’t think you could give the Princess a few lessons so the bloody meetings don’t drag on?”

“Gwaine, is it too much to ask for you to behave?” sighed Arthur. “Don’t answer that. Morgana, could you think of any stone which has the ability to send people back in time?” He tried not to sound too desperate but the situation was far too strange for him to worry about small things like that.

Here Arthur was, a king in all but name, seeking the help of a sorceress or more commonly known as his sister Morgana Pendragon, to send his future son back to his time. He was allowed to be desperate.

Morgana surveyed him critically. “You are like Uther in every way,” she said finally, her lips curling in disgust. “You condemn sorcery up until the time when you need it. You, Arthur Pendragon, are a hypocrite.” She looked as though she was ready to leave but Aurelian stopped her.

“Aunt Morgana,” he called and she stilled. Aurelian took it as a positive sign and pressed on. “Aunt Morgana, you are my favourite!” 

Merlin resisted the urge to smirk — Aurelian knew how to play the court. Only a week ago had Gwaine been his favourite and this had rewarded him with the knight’s coveted apples which he shared with no-one. Before that, Elyan was the winner of Aurelian’s affections and he earned a custom sword. Percival had his turn first and Aurelian managed to win a ride on the giant’s shoulders, as though he were a young boy. Leon waited patiently for his day. “In the future, you always show me the rituals you do to protect Camelot and, and, and I love, uh,  cutting the herbs and, uh, stirring, which doesn’t involve magic at all!”

Merlin had fought bravely to contain his snort — Aurelian was as bad as him when it came to lying. Although he had managed to hide his magic much more effectively. It seemed the boy wasn’t finished yet. He stepped closer to Morgana and tentatively reached for her hand.

“I’ve known you to be the kindest and most mischievous person and I, I don’t understand why you’re like this,” he said with a disheartened sigh. Damn, the boy was actually a pretty good actor. “Why, Aunt Morgana?” A silence answered him and just when it seemed they wouldn’t get an answer, Morgana spoke.

“Because I’ve been betrayed too many times,” she said hoarsely. “I don’t know what makes me like that in the future but I can tell you now, that time will never come. The wounds are too great. I trust no one now. Especially not a Pendragon.” Aurelian kept his focus on her, missing the way Arthur closed his eyes as though pained behind him.

“In the future, you sit within Camelot’s court as the last High Priestess. You teach so many the art of prophecy. You help magic to return to the lands,” said Aurelian slowly, smiling as Morgana gasped. She still refused to meet his eyes though and he decided it was time for drastic actions. “I know you said you wouldn’t trust a Pendragon, but I think you’ll find you can trust me.” He gently touched her shoulder and when she finally looked at him properly, Aurelian let a faint golden ring form in his eyes. 

Morgana’s eyes widened and she turned in shock to Arthur, who was now torn between hope and confusion. “You… you are—”

“I am,” said Aurelian calmly. “Please help us, Aunt Morgana?”

///

It took a few more minutes of distrustful glances and solemn promises about the future until Morgana decided to tell them what she knew. “I did see a turquoise stone a few days ago,” she said and Merlin closed his eyes in relief. Finally! “It was… strange. I normally see amber ones but this one seemed out of place when it called to me.”

“It may have travelled back in time with the young prince,” said Leon tentatively. Emboldened by Arthur’s approving nod, he continued, “Where did you see it, my lady?”

Morgana’s eyes flashed dangerously yet at Arthur’s shake, none of the knights reached for their swords. Merlin had no such barrier and readied his magic. “I am not your lady!” Aurelian squeezed her hand slightly and she took a deep breath. “I brought it back yesterday. It could be anywhere here.”

“Well, men, we all know what this stone looks like,” called Arthur and the knights nodded before dispersing into pairs. Merlin debated between using his magic to search faster and keeping an eye on Morgana. However, the decision was made for him as Arthur attached himself to Merlin. His usual fan club of Aurelian, Mordred, Gwaine and Lancelot pouted at the missed opportunity.

“How did he do that?” whispered Arthur incredulously as he fiddled with some of her trinkets, drawing his hand back sharply when one started to release smoke. “Morgana listened to him.” Merlin nodded but before he could reply, Arthur continued. “She, she— it was like the druids all over again! Aurelian fills them with hope and, and everyone who would have been an enemy just… caves. Is this all because magic is legalised in the future?” he asked sceptically.

Merlin opened his mouth but Arthur didn’t give him the chance. “But sorcery corrupts! I mean, she is the prime example,” he added in a low tone, gesturing to Morgana who was now stiffly embracing Mordred. “Morgana’s always been strong-willed, but to betray Father’s heart like that…” Merlin clamped his lips together in an effort to not snort. “What if it’s not magic? How can magic corrupt yet provide hope?” Arthur trailed off and reached for a book, missing the way Merlin gasped. This was it! Arthur was changing and all it took was his son coming back from the future.

“I found it!” came a shout from the other room and seconds later, Elyan walked out with a huge blue stone wrapped in a black cloth.

“Excellent job! Good talk, Merlin,” said Arthur as he headed to his knight’s side, leaving an exasperated Merlin behind.

“Talk? You were monologuing!”

///

Morgana’s eyes glowed gold as she held Aurelian’s hands. They sat in a circle around the stone with the knights pressed against the walls, warily eyeing the process. Arthur stood closest with his back to Merlin, which was fantastic as his eyes were also gold due to the fact that he was boosting Aurelian’s magic. Mordred had taken it upon himself to act as the distraction and engaged the knights in quiet chatter and of all, Leon was the most grateful. 

Morgana finished her chant and the stone turned from its turquoise state into a deep blue colour. “When you touch this, you should be sent back to whenever you came from,” she said finally and Aurelian nodded. He reached for the stone but Arthur stopped him.

“Thank you,” he said with a deep breath. “What I’ve seen this month, I will not forget. I cannot be a good ruler to my people without first understanding them and Aurelian, I have you to thank for, for showing me what I would have otherwise neglected.” Arthur reached for Aurelian’s hand and while his son had aimed for a handshake like a knight would, Arthur pulled him into a hug. “I look forward to the day I call you my son.”

They pulled away after a few seconds and Aurelian turned to Merlin, who was still at the back as he tried to avoid attention. “I know you wanted your son to come and give you a few pointers,” he said and paused to hide a smile, “but I hope you don’t mind me telling you that you’re doing a good job, D-, I mean, Merlin.” 

Merlin rolled his eyes fondly. Aurelian turned and spoke to each of the knights, stopping at Lancelot to hug him. He finally hugged Morgana once more before reaching for the stone and with a final smile, he disappeared from the hut and from their view as a strong wind reclaimed both Aurelian and the stone.

///

Aurelian knew the trip was a success because his magic felt at ease again. In the old Camelot, his magic would constantly be on edge as it was held back yet here, where magic was free to flow, Aurelian felt he could finally breathe. How on earth had his dad managed for so long, then?

Speaking of his dad, Merlin appeared. Aurelian dropped the stone, which was now turquoise once again, and immediately began stammering his apologies. Merlin took no note and grabbed him firmly by his elbow, reminding him once again of his time in the past.

“Please, I didn’t mean to! Aunt Morgana gave it to me and I honestly didn’t know what—” Merlin clamped a hand over his mouth and Aurelian complained with sounds instead whilst being dragged. Servants and the like ducked their heads but he could see the small smiles on their faces as they were well used to the way Merlin treated his son and even his husband. 

They stopped in front of the throne room and the guards whispered something to Merlin and Aurelian paused to overhear but was unsuccessful. Seconds later, Merlin entered the throne room with a grand entrance (or as grand as one can be with one arm firmly around the crown prince’s mouth). Arthur seemed to be in the middle of a court meeting but rose to his feet at once, prompting his council to follow suit.

“Do you remember, Arthur, when you told me I could choose one day to reveal my secrets?” asked Merlin, sounding as though he were merely commenting on the lunch menu rather than interrupting an important meeting. 

Arthur frowned. “You have more? I thought finding Kilgharrah alive was the last of it,” he shuddered slightly and Aurelian also grimaced. That dragon hated him for some bizarre reason. He was the crown prince and automatically an amazing person to meet, thank you very much! At least Aithusa was more fun to be around.

“I have one last one.” Arthur nodded and turned to the lords and ladies who had been watching the exchange with great interest.

“My round table may stay. Otherwise, the meeting is adjourned.” There were loud grumbles as the advisors complained of the blatant favouritism of certain members of court and how Knights had the same privileges as they did but they complied. Merlin flicked his hand to remove the extra chairs, leaving Arthur, Morgana, Gwaine, Percival, Elyan, Mordred, Leon, Gwen and Lancelot at the table.

Merlin took his place by Arthur’s side and pulled Aurelian into the seat beside him. “Right, this here is Aurelian,” he introduced, causing Aurelian to frown. They knew who he was… right?!

Apparently not as everyone wore identical looks of shock. 

“Oh god, that’s, that’s Aurelian!”

“I remember him! Wait, why didn’t we—”

“It was so long ago…”

“He called me uncle!”

“What’s going on?” asked Aurelian, turning to his dad. He had spent a month in the past and everyone had forgotten him already! 

“Merlin, explain,” demanded his father, silencing the table. “Why did we not recognise Aurelian before?”

Merlin cleared his throat and began. “You all know that I’m Emrys, but do you know what that means?” Blank faces greeted him until Mordred took pity on the others.

“It means immortal.”

“You can’t die?” asked Arthur swiftly. Merlin squeezed his hand gently and shook his head.

“I thought that too but when Mordred, Morgana and I were researching, we learnt that there could be another interpretation.” As he conjured himself a goblet of water, Morgana continued.

“There are multiple universes and every time you make a decision, each universe shows a different outcome. So there’s a universe where I would have succeeded in my coup, and a universe where you succeeded in killing me,” she said matter-of-factly.

“Being Emrys means that Merlin can see what each of these universes end up as,” said Mordred, pausing as Arthur massaged his temples.

“Right, so you can see every mistake we make?” Merlin shrugged.

“That’s the gist of it. I can see the mistakes I make and how the future ends up for them.”

“I don’t get how this relates to Aurelian,” said Elyan, dodging to avoid Gwen’s flying hand.

“Let him continue.”

“Thanks Gwen. Basically, all of the other universes fail,” said Merlin bluntly. the others stared back at him, their mouths open in shock. He pressed on. “Arthur dies, you all die and Camelot falls. I’m cursed to live forever because I’ve failed my destiny and it’s just— it’s not great.” Now Arthur squeezed Merlin’s hand and he smiled in return. “But this life is the best of them all. I mean, we’re all alive, for one, but the other versions all fail way before this stage.”

“Why’s that?” asked Gwen with a frown.

“I’d wondered the same thing. Clearly, I had done something differently to my other selves but I didn’t know what it was until—”

“Until he took Mordred and me with him,” finished Morgana. “We traced back each decision he made in all of his lives until we realised one common problem, which was—”

“Sir Lancelot’s death.” At Mordred’s words, everyone turned to Lancelot, who looked guilty.

“Forgive me for causing such pain—” He was interrupted by Gwaine’s exasperated groan.

“It’s our fault for letting you die!”

“No, Lance’s death isn’t anyone’s fault,” said Merlin with a sigh. “I’m sure you remember how we prevented his sacrifice?”

“It’s hard to forget with how you revealed your magic,” pointed out Percival, causing everyone to laugh wistfully. 

“Yes, well, in other versions, Lance leaps into the veil before I can stop him. This was the only universe where I knew what Sir Noble was planning to do and I was able to stop him. Coincidentally, this is the only universe where I don’t fail.”

“Where we don’t fail,” corrected Arthur. “You’re not by yourself any more.” Aurelian averted his eyes as they kissed. It was so unnecessary!

“How did you know to stop Lancelot?” asked Leon once they broke apart and Merlin ran a hand through his curls.

“It was strange, I just… I had a funny feeling, I guess.” Instantly the knights began nodding wisely. “Why are you doing that?”

“Your funny feelings always save us from bandits during patrols,” said Elyan seriously, “it’s no surprise that they literally saved the universe this time.”

“Do you see, love, how your loss can cause such pain?” asked Gwen as she looked at Lancelot. “Maybe now you will think before you offer up your life?” she asked hopefully.

“My love, I cannot help myself,” said Lancelot with a distraught look. Gwaine snorted, ruining the moment. 

“But anyway, once we realised, we had to find a way to keep Lance alive in every universe,” continued Merlin after a short pause. “I tried communicating via prophetic dreams, dragons, crystals, everything but it didn’t work. That was until Morgana had an idea.”

“I thought of sending Aurelian to each universe and have him tell Merlin what he should do,” said Morgana. “Anyone else and our versions in those universes will fear sorcery unnecessarily.”

“We found a stone which allowed for dimensional travel but it also needed to travel back in time so we spent about a year trying all sorts of charms,” added Mordred, “until we finally got it to work.”

“And then we had to prep Aurelian up for the journey but before we could, Morgana here decided to just give the stone to him,” said Merlin with a sharp look at her. Arthur also glared alongside his husband.

“What were you thinking, Morgana, sending Aurelian off on a dangerous quest without any warning? He is the crown prince!” Morgana rolled her eyes.

“He’s fine, aren’t you?” she asked Aurelian who beamed back. “He’s tougher than he looks and, anyway, you two coddle him too much.” Arthur and Merlin spluttered.

“I do not!”

“We worry the perfect amount!”

“Father, you wouldn’t let me cast a fireball at a training dummy,” reminded Aurelian and Arthur frowned as Merlin laughed at him. “And Dad, you thought my sword was too heavy for me.” Everyone burst into laughter.

Merlin muttered under his breath but finally spoke out, “Not the point. What I need to know is how you knew what to do. You told me, didn’t you, that Lancelot would die in the future?”

Aurelian held his head up proudly. “I’m cleverer than I look—”

“Stop lying.”

“It’s true! I just knew—”

“Aurelian.”

“My magic told me—”

“I’m not Arthur, Aurelian, I can tell when you’re lying.” Arthur scowled.

“Fine! I spoke to Uncle Lance about what you were like when you were younger and he told me,” admitted Aurelian. 

///

“What was my dad like when he was young?” asked Aurelian when Lancelot joined him in the armoury. They had finished a gruelling training session led by Leon, who had taken it upon himself to train the knights as Arthur and Merlin focussed on strengthening Camelot’s magical defences with Morgana. Leon was ruthless and Aurelian was still waiting to feel his legs.

“Merlin?”

“Yeah. Was he always so…” Aurelian trailed off. It was hard to describe Merlin. He always seemed to calm and controlled with his magic and the power he held yet the second there was a threat to anyone, he unleashed hell. It was hard to believe Merlin had lived in a time where sorcery was banned. “How did he hide his magic?”

“Not very successfully,” joked Lancelot as cleaned his sword. “I was convinced that Arthur in fact knew of Merlin’s secret and deliberately turned a blind eye until I saw how he revealed his magic.”

“How?” asked Aurelian eagerly. He had heard multiple stories of the magic reveal but Merlin always frowned and set him more research whenever he asked. 

“Well, we were journeying to repair a tear in the veil which separates the land of the living from the land of the dead and the keeper requested a sacrifice. Merlin had already told me he intended to become this sacrifice to stop Arthur from giving himself up but I couldn’t let either of them go through,” said Lancelot. He put his sword away and turned fully to the boy. “You see, even before your father declared his undying love to Merlin, it was clear to anyone with eyes how they felt about one another. Neither could live without the other.

“So I decided that I was going to leap when the chance presented itself. And I went for it but somehow, Merlin anticipated this and snatched me back with this leash of pure gold light. He then conjured this bird cage and locked me inside and I was quite furious as he walked towards the keeper but thankfully, Arthur tackled him away. For a while, we just stared at each other until Merlin decided to offer a goat, which the keeper readily accepted—”

Aurelian burst out laughing. “I’m sorry, it’s just, didn’t the idea occur to him before? You were all so desperate to sacrifice yourselves instead!” Lancelot smiled.

“Love makes you do strange things. But that was the moment when I realised how blind my king really was,” he finished, causing Aurelian to double over and laugh again. “You know, I asked Merlin afterwards how he knew and he just shrugged but I wonder if it was a divine interference which saved my life that day,” he wondered aloud.

///

“And when I heard your younger self wish for a divine interference, I realised that was me, so I knew I was the one who tells you to save Uncle Lance,” continued Aurelian. “I didn’t know what to do, but then I remembered that Father always complained of how paranoid you were so I thought that if I told you that Lancelot isn’t around in the future, you would focus on keeping him alive.”

“You said I was paranoid?” said Merlin after a while, turning towards Arthur.

“Is that really what you got out of that?”

“My paranoia is justified, thank you very much! Do you even know how many murderers you attract on a weekly basis? I have fought day and night, with sorcerers and otherwise to keep you alive and to get you to this posi—mmph!” Merlin could never finish his sentence as Arthur’s mouth shut him up, much to Aurelian’s disgust.

“I can’t believe our universe survived because a kid wanted his uncle to be alive,” sighed Elyan. Percival patted him on the shoulder as Gwaine offered him a wine-skin, which he gratefully accepted.

“So why didn’t we recognise Aurelian before?” asked Leon, waiting until the rulers of Camelot had finished snogging each other’s faces off. 

“Isn’t it because we sent him to a different universe?” asked Percival doubtfully. Merlin shook his head.

“No. When I finished the ritual to get Aurelian, I put a spell around him so that you won’t recognise him as the same Aurelian who you met in the past until I reintroduced him to everyone. I didn’t want him to grow up without having all the memories we have with him,” he said. He turned to Arthur. “This is it, though. My last secret.”

“From now, we do everything together,” said Arthur, half-phrasing like a question.

“Together. But, this is not like you,” said Merlin suddenly. “You like to remind everyone who’s King and how you’re in charge. Why didn’t you demand I tell you everything?”

Arthur cleared his throat and reached for his goblet. After a while, he said quietly, “I wanted you to trust me. I mean, when I made that promise, I had no idea of the extent of your secrets but… I wanted you to be comfortable.” Merlin took one look at him and immediately began kissing him again.

Aurelian had had enough.

He got up from his chair and, with a little boost of his magic, dragged Merlin’s chair away from Arthur’s before firmly plopping his in between them. Morgana nodded approvingly whilst the others laughed at Arthur’s pout. 

Looks like someone volunteered to clean Gaius’ leech tank, came a voice in his head. Aurelian groaned aloud yet couldn’t help but smile — he was incredibly lucky to be in this universe, even if it meant his parents were glued at the face.