I agree with you. I wasn't left completely sad after finishing the fic...the ending is a bit hopeful, but it's all up to perception. Yes, I do love that Merlin can fly now and looks rather pretty, er...handsome as a phoenix (no big ears ;)).

Now that you mention that interview, I guess you could say I wrote this in honor of that interview. I couldn't resist. :p And anyway, the fic-writing bit of my mind is still stuck on my daemon fic wherein Merlin's daemon is a phoenix...so I decided to go for it and write a fic where Merlin actually is a phoenix.