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Fic: The Wolf and the Phoenix (5b/7)
The final part of Chapter 5
Word count: ~8,892
Chapter 1 | Chapter 2 | Chapter 3 | Chapter 4 | Chapter 5a
~ * ~
The throne room was like the one Arthur was familiar with at his Camelot. But this one was brighter, which was little surprise considering the ceiling looked like the sky outside. The sun’s light penetrated the room and Arthur could only see the sky’s clear blue when he looked up. It was like he was outside. Beautifully done tapestries hung on the walls. Each tapestry depicted magical creatures – Arthur wasn’t surprised to see dragons and fairies on a few of the tapestries. An eerie black raven appeared on one tapestry with diamonds – acting more like water did -- springing forth from a white marble fountain beside the dark bird.
He discovered that King Merlin was married to a Queen Freya. Arthur knew he shouldn’t find the news shocking. A king should wed soon so that an heir would be produced and the kingdom would have stability with the assurance of a male heir. Arthur was especially familiar with all that considering he had had the importance of this drilled into him since he was young.
Yet this was Merlin. Yes, it was an alternate version of Merlin who was more or less a stranger to Arthur, but he still couldn’t help his emotional reaction. A fleeting sense of loss swept over Arthur as he was introduced to the queen. He hoped that he would never lose his world’s Merlin. Despite the prospect of his Merlin marrying someone else and removing himself from Arthur’s life was low, Arthur still had an irrational fear of losing him.
Despite his concerns, Arthur had to admit that this queen was friendly enough. It was hard not to like her. Freya was pretty with dark hair and warm brown eyes. She wore a blue dress with a tight bodice but with wide sleeves and a silver and gold flower design was at the waist. Sapphire jewels adorned her hair and a sapphire-bedecked silver crown sat on her head.
She had a pale blue female phoenix with silver eyes named Kastella. Archimedes was perched on the back of the king’s throne and Kastella was in a similar position upon the queen’s throne. The two phoenixes looked to be having a silent conversation with one another.
Blakeney was standing by the king’s side and some other advisors were present as well. Morgan was there at the front near the other ladies of the court. But she was talking to the Court Physician, who to Arthur’s bemusement, was a red-headed woman named Kara. Arthur easily recognized that there weren’t many men in the hall except most notably a few knights stationed by the king. More women were present than men while the number of boys was greater than that of older men. After Blakeney telling him about the war, Arthur concluded that most of Camelot’s men were fighting the battle against this darkness.
As Arthur stood facing the audience, he told them how he grew up, about the daemons, and the anti-magic Camelot of his world thanks to his infuriating father.
The pair he had seen earlier -- Will and Lyra – were a part of the audience. Although now a young blonde girl was with them, standing close to Lyra as the younger girl seemed a bit nervous and overwhelmed about being there. A blue and purple dragon that was almost the same size as Krola was beside the blonde girl. One of the girl’s hands was on the dragon’s head. The red dragon carving that the girl clutched in her hand left Arthur thinking that clearly the little girl really liked dragons.
In response to the fate of the dragons in Arthur’s world, Will spoke up and said his own father would find the whole matter blasphemous and the worst crime. Will’s father apparently bred dragons for a living, which explained Will being a dragon rider, Arthur deduced.
And then Lyra asked about Krola – if when Arthur was younger, she had been a wolf pup to match his age.
Arthur told her that yes, that was how it worked. Each daemon aged as the person grew older. Yet Krola had been more than one animal – frequently a wolf pup -- before she settled into her permanent wolf form when he had turned eleven.
Arthur saw the little blonde girl coo – probably imagining a white wolf pup – after he verified Lyra’s remark. Of course little wolf pups would be considered adorable to girls.
The other women – Lyra included – all had similar “oh she must have been a precious little wolf pup!” reactions while Krola didn’t know how to react and just asked Arthur, “Why must they all do that?”
“Oh, admit it, Krola,” Arthur prodded her teasingly. “You were cute when you were a pup. Remember when Morgana used to tell you that?”
Krola huffed, and she looked slightly disgruntled, but Arthur just knew that she was pleased at the positive attention she was receiving.
Unfortunately, the proceedings turned sour a moment later when Blakeney fell to the ground. Blood was coming out of his nose and eyes. Morgan and the Court Physician Kara immediately went to him.
King Merlin nodded at them. “Take Blakeney out of here,” he directed them and Arthur swore he heard the king’s voice break a little with emotion. Certainly, he wasn’t happy about Blakeney being harmed. “It appears that the pest has arrived.”
Blakeney’s face had paled quickly, now a sickly white, and he seemed about ready to vomit. After placing a firm grip on Blakeney’s arm, Morgan disappeared by magic with Blakeney vanishing with her. The Court Physician disappeared at the same time.
A man in a dark hooded robe appeared a few feet away from the king and queen. Even though Arthur was near the stranger, he discovered that the man’s face was hidden in shadow. He couldn’t see his face at all.
“I was doing him a favour. I’ve been practicing and I’ve gotten quite good,” said the hooded man in a self-satisfied tone of voice.
Arthur heard others in the room whisper in alarm, “It’s the Prince of Darkness!” while a few also called the hooded man, “The Mad Prince.”
Then the man turned to look at Arthur and to Arthur’s confusion, the man began laughing. He now had an inkling why some in the audience had dubbed him, “The Mad Prince.” The hooded man had his head back and he was clutching his stomach, he was laughing so hard.
Krola growled threateningly, feeling just as taken aback as Arthur was at the hooded man. The king’s dark blue phoenix, Archimedes, unsettled Arthur as well. He had never even seen his Merlin’s Zlota be so still and unblinking. Arthur wondered if Archimedes was anticipating pecking the strange man’s eyes out. He didn’t doubt that the king’s phoenix knew exactly where the man’s eyes were despite his face being concealed.
For his part, King Merlin looked unhappy with his mouth set in a thin line. He gave Freya a significant look, speaking to her mentally as well Arthur thought. A moment later, the queen and her phoenix reluctantly left the hall by disappearing magically.
“Are you done?” The king asked wearily of the hooded man.
The man’s laughter subsided and he answered the king, “Touchy, aren’t we?” Said the man in amusement.
Arthur noticed how most of the people in the hall had disappeared – leaving via magic as the queen had. Will, Lyra and the small blonde girl with her dragon had gone shortly after Blakeney had collapsed.
The king gave the man a sharp look and then he addressed his subjects, “I think it best that everyone should leave for your own safety. We all know that the Prince of Darkness likes his wretched tricks. I will make sure the Prince has left our world once he is finished with whatever he feels he has to say. Sir Leontes, Sir Gwaine, and Sir Kay--” King Merlin nodded toward the three of his knights, who returned the acknowledgement and stayed in the room as others departed via their magic.
Arthur assumed the three knights were there for added protection to the king. Each knight had their swords at the ready and to Arthur’s surprise, each sword literally glowed. Could it be that in this world of magic, the swords held magical enhancements as well? It wasn’t that farfetched of an assumption. Thinking about swords had Arthur recall his own Excalibur. He really should find out what had happened to his most treasured possession. He had almost forgotten about the sword after everything else he had learned today and the new people he had met.
Once the room had mostly emptied – only the “Prince of Darkness”, the king, the knights and Arthur himself remained; Arthur took it upon himself to speak up.
“Who are you?” Arthur asked of the man. “What do you want?”
“I’m the Prince of Darkness, didn’t you hear? I’m honoured to be such a pest to the esteemed King Merlin of Camelot,” The hooded man said bitterly. He looked like he was going to shoot a spell at the king, but Sir Gwaine stood in his way, his glowing sword ready to attack.
“Watch it, you fucker,” Sir Gwaine said to the Prince.
“Just say what you want to say or we will fight and you will lose,” said the king firmly. “You are in my world and you are alone. You aren’t mad enough to try to fight me, are you now?”
“I just wanted express my congratulations on your success,” the Prince said in obvious sarcasm.
“How is the White Diamond Clan treating your forces? Frustrating enough for you?” The king asked with a smirk.
“Colourless non-humans, the bloody lot of them,” he replied, looking especially annoyed.
Arthur got the sense that this White Diamond Clan was a thorn in the Prince’s side.
“They are more human than you will ever be. So you admit that they do fight well?”
“They fight like the bastards of the gods,” he only said.
Arthur felt that the Prince had meant to insult the Clan’s fighting prowess; but still…there was some admission there of their commendable skills. After all, even if one was a bastard of a god, the person still had the blood of a god within him and that was undoubtedly impressive, bastard or no.
“But I think our little ‘friend’ here would like to know more about the fight,” The Prince declared, nodding at Arthur.
“What is this about?” Arthur demanded to know, turning to the king.
The king sighed. “The Prince of Darkness and his forces from the Dark World is who we are fighting against. This man is thirsty for revenge and would rather force a living hell onto all the other worlds in existence to satisfy that revenge.”
“All right,” Arthur said, nodding. He could have guessed that much.
The Prince of Darkness looked ready to interject, but the king put up his hand. “You can add your own twist to the story once I have my say. I don’t need to remind you that this is my world, my rule, don’t I?”
“That’s exactly what the problem is,” the Prince shot back, but then he didn’t say anymore, backing down, when the three knights gave him challenging looks. He appeared to realize that it wasn’t worth causing trouble at least now. That’s what Arthur thought, but he couldn’t tell for certain with the Prince’s concealed face. “Fine. Speak your lies,” the Prince said with quiet contempt.
“How long has your daemon world been the way it has? With your souls outside of your bodies? In the form of animals who speak?” The king asked of Arthur in such an informal tone that Arthur was thrown off by it.
“I never thought about it,” Arthur said frankly, shrugging. “Probably for centuries. Since my world first came into existence I would imagine.”
“This world as you’re seeing it now is a new creation at least by your world’s standards,” the king explained. “My world went through a great change almost twenty-five years ago. If you had called this world, the World of Magic, before that time then it wouldn’t have made sense. We used to be more like your world, I would say, excluding the daemons, but with more non-magic users than magic users. Two years after the change began; I was born into a rapidly altering world.”
“A conspiracy by magic users to gain control of this world,” the Prince interrupted with disdain.
The king frowned. “There has been no definitive evidence of what caused this unfortunate circumstance. We believe it was caused by the mother goddess. We don’t know why it was done, but it happened and regrettably, things had to be changed.”
“What was the great change?” Arthur asked. He wasn’t sure if he really wanted to know because it didn’t sound good at all.
“It was a plague that caused all those who didn’t possess magic in my world to grow gravely ill and die,” the king confided sadly. “When I was very young, the plague was at its height and not much could be done for the non-magic users suffering from the plague. This was a widespread disaster and no one knew how to control it. All we knew was that the magic users were spared the effects of the plague while others succumbed to it with no hope of a cure. Before the plague hit, the king of Camelot was not a magic user. As you can expect, he died from the plague. Sorcerers in this kingdom gathered and declared that my father, Balinor, should be the new king of Camelot. That with this changing world, a powerful magic user should be the leader of this kingdom. And my father was undoubtedly a powerful sorcerer and more importantly, he was well-liked as well. Other kingdoms throughout our world followed our example and installed popular magic users as rulers. And then my mother gave birth to me during the early days of my father’s reign.”
Arthur wondered what his Merlin would think of this. It definitely put a dark cloud over this World of Magic that a deadly plague altered the world’s population make-up so drastically. He also couldn’t help but agree with the Prince that the plague’s cause could be a conspiracy.
It was rather suspicious and he could see the magic users, through their magic somehow, initiating the plague to gain control of a world where they were a minority. The magic users benefited the most from the plague. King Merlin’s belief that the mother goddess had engineered the plague seemed hard to believe compared to the other explanation.
Although, who else but a goddess would have that kind of great power to cause a plague to sweep through an entire world?
Arthur wasn’t sure who to believe, but he did know that the Prince of Darkness unnerved him while King Merlin seemed more honest and friendlier with him. So it was easier to support the king’s side of the story.
“Your mother is a sorceress, right? With only magic users surviving…and it’s just in my world, Merlin’s mother is far from a magic user as far as I know.”
The king nodded. “Yes, my mother possesses magic. She’s an Empath meaning she is able to feel what other living beings – both people and animals – are feeling. Their joys, their sorrows, their anger…” he said a little sadly. “It is quite tiring for her to control such an emotionally-powered gift, so she’s currently retired to a more peaceful location after my father’s passing a year ago. I visit her of course.”
The Prince cut in, asking, “So where exactly is your mother?”
“You’ll never find her,” the king said sharply before he returned his attention to Arthur, “Anyway, back to the story. The king before my father – the one who didn’t possess magic – had a son. He was two years older than me. According to what my father told me, the boy had ailed from the plague as his father had. The boy didn’t have magic in him. Though this young prince was strong and he did survive longer than expected. Yet still, there was nothing that could be done to cure him of his sickness completely. He could never be healthy again.”
“You’re a damn liar!” The Prince yelled in accusation.
Arthur was beginning to deduce that this boy had to be the Prince of Darkness especially judging by the Prince’s reaction. But as to what exactly happened in the intervening years, he was at a loss for an answer. He needed to know more.
The king glared at the Prince. “Let me finish,” he told the hooded man calmly.
The Prince looked to be simmering in his anger, but didn’t say anymore and instead, he kept a careful eye on the knights’ glowing swords.
“The boy was placed into his own bedchambers here in Camelot. My father said that he wanted the boy to be comfortable as he lived out his last days. When the child was five, he was given a little black wolf pup to keep him company and serve as a comfort to him. The boy quickly came to adore the wolf pup. My father told me that the boy even named him – Achilles, I believe. But then some months later, the court physician entered the child’s chambers to discover the child gone, vanished. And the wolf pup…” The king paused, his face in a grimace and he looked unwilling to continue.
Arthur was growing suspicious of the Prince’s identity. The boy had a black wolf pup at one point and his story could have echoed what might have happened to Arthur and his father, King Uther, had the daemon world been dealt the plague. And here was Arthur with a wolf as his daemon. It can’t have been a coincidence that this boy had received a wolf pup as a pet. Could this Prince of Darkness be an alternate version of him?
He recalled the king’s past words: “The Prince of Darkness and his forces from the Dark World is who we are fighting against. This man is thirsty for revenge and would rather force a living hell onto all the other worlds in existence to satisfy that revenge.”
This was getting to be too much for him.
“Are you me from this world? Or the Dark World now – wherever you call home?” Arthur demanded to know.
The Prince didn’t say a word and only turned to face Arthur with his concealed face. He wouldn’t even do Arthur the courtesy of revealing his face to prove the truth of Arthur’s words.
Arthur addressed the king instead. King Merlin looked rather resigned and a bit unsurprised that Arthur had figured it out.
“The Prince of Darkness wants to reclaim what could have been his, right? Prior to the plague? He feels that he was denied his birthright because of a plague that suspiciously could’ve been caused by magic users.”
“The trouble is that he wishes to destroy all the worlds in retribution. Unfortunately, it’s not such a simple revenge plot, is it?”
“The bigger, the better,” the Prince said almost gleefully.
“But why?” Arthur was honestly baffled by the Prince’s strategy, if there even was one. “Why are you hoping to punish all the worlds when your main concern is with this Camelot in this world? What is the point of making all those innocent people in other worlds suffer?”
“Because I loved that wolf pup more than anything else in the world. The man who came to take me to the Dark World – he told me that King Balinor had ordered my Achilles to be killed. Apparently, my closeness to my wolf was making me live longer than I should have been,” The Prince said in outrage. “That according to the new King, the wolf needed to be put down so the plague would finally kill me off. That he shouldn’t have given me the wolf pup anyway since the creature wasn’t making me die any faster. If I would have lived any longer, then I could contest my right to Camelot’s throne. Of course King Balinor didn’t want that because after all, he had his own son’s future to secure. I was in the way,” remarked the Prince bitterly. He glared at King Merlin.
“That man was lying to you,” King Merlin said firmly. “And my father would never, never have allowed the wolf pup to be beheaded like that and then to be displayed on your bed for you to see. My father was never that callous. And since he is now deceased, I pray you would not speak ill of the dead, but considering it’s you, I am asking for too much.”
The Prince of Darkness made a snide retort back.
Arthur was horrified to hear that a dead beheaded -- which made it all the more terrible -- wolf was placed in the sight of a five-year old, one who had viewed the creature as a beloved pet. He felt like he could vomit at the thought.
But did King Balinor order the wolf pup to be killed or did the man who took the Prince really lie to him? Maybe the wolf killing had been an orchestrated set-up by the man to convince the Prince that this new King wanted him dead.
Should he side with an alternate version of himself or with this King Merlin?
So she could speak privately with him, Krola stood up with her paws on his chest for support. She whispered to him, “They call him the Mad Prince, Arthur. I don’t trust he’s of sound mind. No matter if he’s another version of you. Though it is terrible what happened to that black wolf.”
“All right, all right. You do have a point,” Arthur conceded.
He stroked Krola behind the ears before she set her paws back down on the ground again.
“After losing my Achilles like that, I found it hard to care for anyone else or anything…and then I thought…why not make all the worlds out there feel just as miserable as me? Luckily, dark magic has given me hope that I’d achieve this goal. I may not have had magic in me at birth, but I learned that I could still possess magic despite not being born with the talent.”
“But to gain magic when you were never meant to have it takes a toll. On your humanity,” argued the king.
“Humanity is weakness!” The Prince exclaimed defiantly. “Magic makes you powerful. I would have thought you’d agree considering your little plague was all about making magic users rulers of this world.”
The king looked affronted and he defended himself. “I have never advocated dark magic. The way you’re using magic is despicable. And you do care about someone.”
“Ah yes…well, it must really make you mad that you can do nothing about it. Seer after Seer. All saying the same thing. But I’m telling you this now: you may have round one with your pawn, Your Majesty, but I will have round two!” The Prince declared fervently.
Then the Prince finally revealed his face and Arthur was shocked to see a likeness of himself, but with completely black eyes. Even the whites of his eyes were an unrelenting black. Like one would expect on the devil himself.
The Prince of Darkness formed a big fireball in his hand and shot it at the King. Sir Leontes’ sword blocked the fireball’s path without the blade getting damaged in the slightest. The magical glow clearly offered a solid protective barrier on the sword to halt magical attacks.
Then Kilgharrah appeared in a burst of black and golden light. With great force, the dragon pushed the Prince to the ground and then he scratched one side of his face with his claw.
“One day I will eat your heart with a song in my own,” Kilgharrah threatened the Prince. He growled at him.
Archimedes looked intent on joining the dragon in his assault, but the king told the phoenix to stay put. Ruffling his feathers, he shifted to the other side of the throne and did a weird little pacing, hopping routine from one side to the other. Arthur thought it seemed like the phoenix was excited about what the dragon was doing?
“Kilgharrah, please,” King Merlin pleaded with him quietly.
Reluctantly, the dragon extricated himself from on top of the Prince.
The Prince stood up roughly. He touched the part of his face that had been injured and he shrugged.
“Well, good luck to you,” he said to Arthur in a sarcasm-laden tone. “And by that I mean bad luck, very, very bad luck.”
Then the Prince of Darkness addressed King Merlin, his smile cold as he spoke, “Your wife is with child, isn’t she? How nice,” he said in biting sarcasm.
The king frowned.
And again, true to his “Mad Prince” title, he laughed. His mirthless laughter echoed in the hall after he vanished in a display of dark clouds and lightning.
“I think you need some rest now. You’re feeling overwhelmed, I’m sure,” the king acknowledged.
“I don’t know who to believe,” Arthur admitted frankly.
“Understandable. I don’t profess that I am without fault. I am only human after all as you are. But I want to prevent the destruction of all the worlds. I’d hope you’d agree with that?”
Arthur nodded. “Yes. Of course,” he said readily. “Will Blakeney be all right?”
The king smiled lightly. “He should be fine.”
“Blakeney’s stronger than he looks,” Sir Gwaine assured with a quick grin.
“Can you – this is probably the last thing I should be asking, but I’m curious – what sort of magic can you do? The extent of it? You said your father was a powerful sorcerer and your mother is an Empath? Did you inherit her abilities?”
“Yes, I do in fact have some empathetic abilities after my mother. I’m not as strong as her in that area as that is her specialty, but not mine. But it’s there regardless. I can show you my transformation into the five elements. Wood, fire, earth, water and metal – I can easily turn into all of them.”
Arthur nodded. “Please. I’d like to see it, Your Majesty.”
And Arthur couldn’t help but be awed. King Merlin turned into the different elements, but he still maintained his human form despite being composed of fire or soil from the earth. When the king transformed into water, he was able to change his shape and his water form came together to create a large puddle of water on the floor.
Arthur wasn’t sure that his Merlin could do this sort of elemental transformation. He didn’t doubt his Merlin being capable at some point of achieving this skill. He just had never seen Merlin do it.
But here was an alternate version of Merlin, about the same age as Arthur’s Merlin, and he had the talent to become the elements. It was one of the most interesting displays of magic Arthur had seen.
“I admit that I’m impressed,” Arthur told him honestly once the king returned to his normal form.
“Thank you. Now you should go. You could probably appreciate some time to yourself to think over what you have learned now…”
“All right. I’m free to go on my own? I’m still not sure that I’m not a prisoner.”
“You can go outside if you like. There are certain restrictions, of course, but you’ll know if there’s a place where you can’t venture into. Your sword will be returned to you, undamaged I assure you, when I’ve decided it’s time for you to leave my world. But you have the rest of the day to yourself.”
“So you did take Excalibur… even though you clearly have other means of transportation between worlds.”
“Yes, and it was only to have a closer look at the sword. As you say, we do have other ways of interworld travel, but we couldn’t pass up the opportunity to investigate what makes Excalibur work. We were very careful with it to insure the sword was returned to you, the rightful owner, in excellent condition,” the king said smoothly.
Arthur sighed. “All right. As long as you give my sword back to me,” he conceded.
The fact that the king had acknowledged that Arthur was Excalibur’s true owner calmed Arthur. At least King Merlin respected Arthur’s ownership of the sword.
And with a dismissal, Arthur left the hall with Krola close by his side. He made the easy decision to head outside. He needed some fresh air.
~ * ~
“Did Lancelot communicate with you on the Prince’s departure, Sire?” Sir Kay asked of the king.
King Merlin nodded. “The Prince has left our world. All is well in that regard. Now I think it is time to bring the orphan to this world. I believe the Prince is using this young Merlin as a power source for his forces fighting against us.”
“As any version of Merlin has considerable power at his disposal,” Sir Leontes said. “The Prince found it easy to take advantage of the parentless child. He gave him the love and affection that the other Merlin desired.”
“Yes. But I have more right than him to the child. He is an alternate version of me after all,” King Merlin reasoned, strong in his conviction. “Though we can not destroy the orphan as the prophecy says, we can at least remove him from the Dark World.”
“Wait. So he’ll stop being a power source for the Mad Prince’s forces if he’s taken out of that world?” Sir Gwaine confirmed. Then he realized something, “But the Prince is not going to be happy about it. Is it a good idea we raise his ire like that?”
“It’s unlike you to be worried about that, Gwaine,” the king pointed out with a small smile. Gwaine joked about something being in the ale this week.
“Still yes, you are right,” the king agreed. “But keeping the orphan here will be worth the cost. Our world – and the other worlds as well – will have that additional guarantee of a weakened opposition. All of you heard what the Prince of Darkness declared – that he’d have round two. Just placing faith in the betrayal between the Arthur and Merlin of the Daemon World is simply not enough.”
The three knights agreed with the king’s words. King Merlin then decided to call a meeting with the knights and his advisors to discuss the “Capture the Orphan” mission in further detail. Before the meeting, the king checked out the star cat litter as he wanted to give one of the black kittens to Blakeney. To hopefully help in comforting him as he recovered from the Prince’s magical attack.
~ * ~
Arthur walked across the courtyard and he appreciated getting a nice view of the outside of the castle. It was a smooth grey stone structure – not different from his Camelot – though the statues were of dragons and phoenixes. Real small dragons sat alert on the castle ramparts while some big dragons – closer to the size of the dragon his father had locked up – flew overhead.
He tried to be polite even as he grew tired of others peering at Krola as if they had never seen a white wolf before. True, most of them might not have seen an actual daemon in person and Krola’s silver eyes were not a common eye color for wolves – but still, it made Arthur feel out of place. As a consequence, he longed for his Daemon World. At least there, people wouldn’t be so overly interested in Krola like she was an exotic animal. He would be just like everyone else instead of the outsider with his soul outside his body instead of inside like it was in this World of Magic.
Thanks to his speech in the hall, the people who stopped him to talk didn’t touch Krola. Though Arthur could see in the eyes of the younger children how they were yearning to pet his daemon. Arthur could understand the temptation to touch a furry animal, but he was grateful even those children exercised some restraint. After getting a closer look at Krola, one little boy pleaded with his mother that he wanted a wolf of his own while the mother looked weary. She reminded her son that he would get his own dragon to look after not long from now. Fortunately, that reminder was enough to appease the boy for the moment.
Then the blonde girl he had seen in the hall came up to him.
“Hello, I’m Alice,” she introduced herself with a smile. “I met someone else with a daemon earlier today. Now I know why I couldn’t touch her.”
“Wait,” Arthur asked, his interest peaked. Had this girl seen Merlin? “Was the daemon a scarlet-gold phoenix? And was she with a dark-haired man--?”
Alice nodded. “Yes. I doubt I’ll ever forget such a beautiful-looking phoenix. The man said his name was Myrddin. I met him in my world…well, the world I was born into. I live in this world now. I have to stay with my dragon after all,” she said matter-of-factly.
Arthur felt relieved. He knew that Myrddin was one of the aliases Merlin decided to use in case he didn’t want to be found out. The girl clearly came from a non-daemon world with her lack of knowledge about daemons. She mostly likely came from the world he and Merlin had stumbled upon and where they had met that other Merlin. So Blakeney had been right. Merlin wasn’t in the Daemon World, thank goodness, and he wasn’t facing the threat of King Uther’s terrible plan on his own.
That was one less thing to worry about Arthur thought.
“Where’s your dragon now?” Arthur asked her.
“She’s spending time with some of the other dragons. Her name is Amethyst.”
“I saw her in the hall with you. Amethyst looked impressive.”
“Thank you,” she said with a smile. Then she offered, “Would you like to see the garden?”
“All right,” Arthur agreed.
“It’s just there’s a phoenix nest there and Lyra – you saw her in the hall. She has dark blonde hair. I was standing next to her.”
“Yes. I know her. I saw her on a winged horse too.”
“Oh she’s really good at that, isn’t she? But she told me that the phoenix eggs should hatch soon. I was on my way to see them. You don’t have to come… it’s a bit silly,” Alice said softly, suddenly shy as she bit her lip.
“No, no,” Arthur said hurriedly, not wanting to upset the girl. “I want to come. Really I do. I’ve never seen phoenixes hatching out of their eggs.”
Alice smiled brightly at him.
They walked toward the garden. She told him about the red dragon carving Arthur still saw in her possession. How Myrddin –really Merlin as Arthur automatically corrected to himself -- had given the carving to her as a good luck charm.
And that she believed the carving led her to find Amethyst.
Arthur thought wryly that it was just like Merlin to conjure a toy for a little girl.
~ * ~
That evening, Arthur found Blakeney at his door. Tailing him was a little black kitten with a white star on his forehead. Blakeney told him that he had just received the kitten, who he named Veritas, earlier that day from King Merlin. When Blakeney had first come to the castle years ago, the then Prince Merlin had given him a black kitten. Blakeney had named him Midnight, but unfortunately, the kitten had run away a few years later. Blakeney confided in slight exasperation to Arthur that Veritas was determined to follow him everywhere.
The other man still looked a bit peaky and unsteady on his feet, but he did seem to be on his way to getting well. Arthur thought that maybe the kitten’s presence was helping.
After Blakeney sat down, he took the creature into his arms. Veritas purred contentedly as Blakeney pet him. Arthur was eerily reminded of the Prince’s conviction that his wolf pup, Achilles, keeping him alive longer was why Achilles had been killed by those who wanted the Prince dead.
Arthur was grateful to see Blakeney with Excalibur, which had been put in a new sheath. Blakeney returned the sword to him and told him he could use it as he usually did to return to the Shadow World. That Merlin would be waiting for him there.
And as the firelight illuminated the both of them, releasing shadows of their forms, Arthur finally discovered what his role was in this battle against the Prince of Darkness.
After he had lost Merlin, Arthur would come to wish that he hadn’t let Blakeney into his room that night.
~ * ~
Arthur returned to the Shadow World using Excalibur. He tried to smile easily as he caught sight of Merlin.
All the while, in his head, a battle was going on. But it was so simple. Risk the end of all the worlds or risk all that he had with Merlin. All that they had been through, how close they had become especially during their year in exile…
Arthur could only do the honourable thing, the right thing.
“Are you all right?” Arthur asked Merlin.
He was sitting on the bed with Zlota perched on one of the pillows beside him. Merlin had been reading a book judging by the open text laid out in front of him. Arthur took the seat in the empty chair situated by the bed.
Merlin smiled at him and nodded. “Yes, I’m fine. Where were you? I’m glad you have Excalibur with you. I was worried someone had stolen it. I know how much the sword means to you. I’m guessing that since you were able to return here, that you weren’t taken for ransom…”
Arthur did his best to look reassuring. “It’s nothing. I’m fine. I – we – have Excalibur and neither of us are hurt, so that’s what matters most,” he reasoned. “But I have a question…I should have asked you this months ago, but you never told me why I couldn’t touch Zlota. I know that it’s painful for you as you’ve told me in the past, but we’re close, aren’t we? If you think about it from my view, it doesn’t make sense. I should be able to--” Then he stopped, and he reached out to touch Zlota.
Merlin paled. “Arthur, don’t – please don’t touch her,” he pleaded of him.
He gripped Arthur’s forearm to emphasize his point. Arthur gave him a look, but he removed his hand from Zlota’s head. The daemon shifted closer to Merlin and away from Arthur as if she saw him as a threat. “This is ridiculous, Merlin. You can touch Krola without incidence, why can’t I do the same with Zlota? Do you – do you not love me enough?” He asked tentatively.
Merlin shook his head fervently. “No, no. It’s not you, Arthur. It’s me. It’s – sometimes I wish that I had never made the promise, but it’s too late now.”
“What is it? Just tell me. After all that we’ve gone through together, I have a right to know, Merlin. At least give me the courtesy of the truth,” Arthur demanded of him. Krola growled beside him.
Merlin looked a little unwell as if Arthur were still touching Zlota. He bit his lip before he reluctantly confessed that he had made a promise to himself long before he had met Arthur or had come to Camelot.
It was that the first person he was intimate with would be the only person who could touch Zlota without Merlin feeling any uncomfortable or painful sensation … even if he were intimate with anyone else after that, the promise still would remain firm. Of course, his mother or anyone of his blood would still be able to touch his daemon – the promise didn’t pertain to blood family.
“I was young…and I had the silly idea that my first would be my one and only… so that the promise wouldn’t cause an issue. But unfortunately it did,” Merlin remarked regretfully. “Before we were together, I became close to Morgana. Especially close. And she was--” he paused and didn’t seem to want to continue. Arthur knew what he was going to say, but he just knew that once he heard Merlin confess it out loud, then the truth would truly hurt.
“Morgana was my first, Arthur,” Merlin finished quietly, head bent. He couldn’t look Arthur in the eye. “And now she’s dead. I should have told you long ago, but I--” he looked at Arthur now. “– we have something special together, Arthur. More than what I had with Morgana. There’s not a day that goes by that I wish I’d waited longer, that you had been my first. That you can touch Zlota and I wouldn’t feel as if someone had punched in the gut. If I had to choose one person to touch my soul, Arthur, it would be you. It would be you,” Merlin confided in him earnestly.
Arthur ventured slowly, “So you said it’s too late. You can’t undo the promise?”
Merlin nodded unhappily. “You can only have one first. I suppose if such a thing existed, I would travel back in time and change what I had done, but… I’m sorry. I’m so sorry.”
“It’s all right. We all make mistakes. Anyway I’m glad you finally told me the truth. I don’t want any secrets kept between us,” Arthur told him firmly.
Merlin nodded in agreement. “Yes, I couldn’t agree more.”
“Let us drink to our relationship, shall we?” Arthur suggested.
He pulled out the decanter he had with him.
Merlin looked uncertain as he saw the dark-colored decanter. He couldn’t tell what was inside of it.
“What’s wrong, Merlin? It’s just wine in here. It’s good, trust me,” Arthur assured him.
Merlin gave him a small smile. “It’s nothing. You should drink it first. I insist.”
Arthur shrugged. He put the decanter to his lips and he pretended to drink from it as convincingly as he could.
He gave the decanter to Merlin who had decided to trust Arthur. He drank from the vessel.
Arthur tried not to look at Merlin since he was sure of what he would see. Confusion. Surprise. Betrayal.
“Arthur, why are you doing this?” Merlin asked him in dismay. Arthur could hear the confusion in his tone.
But as the sedative did its work, he couldn’t keep his eyes open and he succumbed to sleep. Zlota fell asleep along with him.
Krola whined.
“Nothing is ever going to be the same again,” Arthur said softly, his jaw clenching as he steeled himself for what came next.
~ * ~
When Merlin roused, he dearly wished he were still sleeping and in the midst of a nightmare.
But no. This nightmare was reality.
He was back in the Daemon World going by the audience in the hall. Everyone had daemons. And the worst daemon, King Uther’s boar daemon, stood by the tyrant king’s side with a self-satisfied smirk on his ugly face.
Merlin himself was lying on his back on the ground with guards on either side of him. Merlin felt a collar at his neck and he knew it was one that prevented him from using his magic. He could tell from the choking emptiness inside of him as well as the nausea he felt at this terrible restriction. He felt Zlota’s claws clinging to him a bit too sharply on his arm. She was as anxious as him.
“You’re awake. Stand up,” Uther commanded of him from his throne.
Guards were immediately on either side of him and forced him to stand up. It was hard as Merlin rather felt like curling up on the ground and throwing up. This was the last place he wanted to be.
Merlin looked to see Arthur and Krola standing off to the side, a short distance away from Uther. A small sense of relief came over him that Arthur wasn’t seated in the empty throne beside his father.
But the relief quickly faded away as he saw the cold, emotionless expression on Arthur’s face. Merlin wasn’t sure if Arthur was putting on a particularly good act or if he really had turned against him. The Arthur he knew would never, never do this to him when he understood just what kind of hell he’d be subjecting Merlin to while in King Uther’s grip. Merlin couldn’t even mentally communicate with him to discover what was really going on. There was a wall in place. Arthur had shut him out.
“It’s so good of my son to come to his senses and turn you in,” Uther remarked with a small smirk. “Take his daemon. Let’s see what happens when we subdue the daemon of one of the most powerful sorcerers in the land, shall we?”
“No! You can’t--” Merlin protested futilely. Uther was going to place him under his control, taking the magic restricting collar off once he was confident in Merlin’s subordination. He was going to be a walking puppet.
A guard grabbed Zlota who cried out, terrified of what awaited her.
“You can’t do this! Zlota!” Merlin exclaimed desperately as he fell to the ground.
He tried to work through the pain he was feeling as Zlota was roughly handled. He covered his face in his hands to hide the tears threatening to fall. None of this was real. This couldn’t be happening.
Merlin looked wildly to Arthur, pleading silently of him to stop this. To do something. But he could still see the unrelenting coldness in Arthur’s eyes. What had gone wrong? What had happened to Arthur? He should have been more careful – the other Merlin had been right. Meeting that lucky orphan had given him the worst luck imaginable. Merlin never thought that Arthur would betray him like this. They had come too far for that. But now Merlin wasn’t so sure anymore of Arthur’s intentions.
Though Merlin didn’t have access to his magic, he could still do one thing. He forced himself to go to sleep. Whatever they were going to do to Zlota, he couldn’t bear to watch it.
His head dropped to the floor as he forced his body to go into a deep sleep. He heard King Uther’s shout of outrage and frustration. He heard the king tell the guards to lock him up in the dungeons.
And that was the last thing Merlin heard before sleep overtook him.
~ * ~
Arthur swore and then he swore again when he hit his knee against the hard wooden table.
Despite handing Merlin over to him, Arthur hadn’t regained his father’s trust. Apparently paranoia over who was truly loyal to him had set in for King Uther.
Maybe in this case, his father had been right to lock him up in this high tower – so high that even Arthur who had no fear of heights was rather unsettled by how high up he was from the ground. He hadn’t even been aware that such a tall tower existed in Camelot.
Who knew what his father had been up to while Arthur had been in exile away from Camelot. Judging by a strange invisible barrier that prevented Arthur from leaving his circular room, he was positive magic was keeping him imprisoned here. Arthur guessed that his father had gotten a sorcerer in his service by subduing his daemon and had the mind-controlled sorcerer build this tower. So that his father could trap Arthur in it when the time came.
At least Arthur was glad for one thing – that his father let him keep Excalibur. Fortunately the king was unaware that Excalibur was more than just a sword. His father probably figured that Arthur couldn’t do much with a sword trapped in this room in a tall, seemingly inescapable tower.
Except maybe impale himself to death considering Arthur wouldn’t be surprised at all if Merlin never forgave him for what he’d done. That would be enough to die over, honourable death be damned. He prayed to the gods that betraying Merlin would have helped in saving the worlds from disaster.
Arthur knew that he needed help even though the source of this help was far from ideal.
He deeply felt the irony for who he was going to ask for aid. But Arthur still felt that if anyone in all the bloody worlds could have a heart and help him, it would be the King Merlin of the other world’s Camelot.
He had to.
Unfortunately, Arthur discovered that the way back to the World of Magic was closed off. Krola growled in displeasure at the sight of the solid golden wall that revealed itself when Arthur cut through with Excalibur. The opening that should have been there was not.
“What – now that I did it, King Merlin wants nothing to do with me anymore?” Arthur wondered out loud bitterly.
Krola pawed at the yielding wall and not even the scratches from her claws remained on the barrier for long.
“It would seem like that’s the case,” Krola agreed unhappily.
“Fuck this,” Arthur said in annoyance.
Then a stream of purple light shot through the golden wall and into the room. Arthur and Krola stepped back, both expecting the light to transform into an animal as they had previously witnessed in the other world.
The light turned into a deep purple phoenix. The phoenix had a rolled piece of parchment and a quill in its talons.
“And who are you?”
The phoenix clicked her beak and she set the parchment and the quill down in front of him.
After unrolling the paper, Arthur saw writing appear on it.
“I am Sagittarius, phoenix to Camelot’s Gatekeeper. The gateway to and from the Daemon World and the World of Magic is currently closed. The way shall be re-opened when the reason for the closure is resolved. If you require assistance, please write down so on this parchment and my Gatekeeper will assist you when he is available.”
Arthur raised his brow. “Can you tell me why the gateway was closed?” He demanded.
The phoenix, Sagittarius, shook her head. The previous writing disappeared and more writing appeared, “No, but I assure you that King Merlin will do what he can to open this gateway again. But please, if you need help, say so on this paper and I will send it along to my Gatekeeper.”
“Did King Merlin order the closure? Is he trying to keep me out?” Arthur was determined to get to the bottom of the matter.
“No, His Majesty is not,” the writing unraveled on the sheet once again, “As I said, if you require assistance--”
Arthur nearly growled in unison with Krola. He was feeling so frustrated. “I don’t want to speak to the Gatekeeper, I want to speak to King Merlin of Camelot, all right? Can’t you just tell him I need to see him? Whenever this ridiculous closure ends?”
“Procedure has to be followed, Sir. My Gatekeeper will get you in contact with King Merlin if you--” Sagittarius tapped her talons on the now blank piece of parchment.
“Fine,” Arthur muttered.
He took the quill and wrote down on the paper, “I need to speak to King Merlin immediately. That is, if he has any time to spare,” Arthur wrote down, hoping the king could hear the sarcasm in his words. “If you, as the Gatekeeper to the World of Magic’s Camelot, could notify him of my request for assistance, I would appreciate it.”
Arthur was about to sign it ‘Arthur Pendragon of Camelot’ but he decided that considering the existence of other worlds and alternate versions of himself as well, that he had to change that.
So he revised it to, ‘Arthur Pendragon of the Daemon World.’
He rolled up the parchment and he handed it off to Sagittarius. The purple phoenix, parchment and quill in her grasp, turned back into a stream of purple light and returned to the World of Magic through the barrier.
Not caring that it would hurt, Arthur hit his fist against the golden wall that wouldn’t budge. Maybe if he had the ability to turn into a phoenix, he’d get past the barrier like the Gatekeeper’s phoenix had?
Arthur rid himself of the absurd thought. That was far from a viable solution now.
Feeling despondent, he sealed the blocked opening with his fingers.
“I feel like a damsel in distress locked up in this bloody tower,” Arthur mused aloud.
He collapsed on the bed with a great sigh and covered his face with a pillow. Maybe he could smother himself to death instead of impalement.
It would be less bloody.
Krola agreed with his frustrated assessment. She jumped on the bed and rested her head on his chest. Arthur stroked her idly.
“Nothing is ever going to be the same again,” Arthur silently repeated to himself.
He wasn’t sure if he’d ever be happy again either.
~ * ~
Chapter 6 Title: The White Raven
And a preview: Arthur gains an ally from another world, Merlin has rather strange dreams, and the lucky orphan (Gwydion aka another world's Merlin) makes friends. ;)
~ CHAPTER 6 LINKS ~
Chapter 6A | Chapter 6B
Word count: ~8,892
Chapter 1 | Chapter 2 | Chapter 3 | Chapter 4 | Chapter 5a
~ * ~
The throne room was like the one Arthur was familiar with at his Camelot. But this one was brighter, which was little surprise considering the ceiling looked like the sky outside. The sun’s light penetrated the room and Arthur could only see the sky’s clear blue when he looked up. It was like he was outside. Beautifully done tapestries hung on the walls. Each tapestry depicted magical creatures – Arthur wasn’t surprised to see dragons and fairies on a few of the tapestries. An eerie black raven appeared on one tapestry with diamonds – acting more like water did -- springing forth from a white marble fountain beside the dark bird.
He discovered that King Merlin was married to a Queen Freya. Arthur knew he shouldn’t find the news shocking. A king should wed soon so that an heir would be produced and the kingdom would have stability with the assurance of a male heir. Arthur was especially familiar with all that considering he had had the importance of this drilled into him since he was young.
Yet this was Merlin. Yes, it was an alternate version of Merlin who was more or less a stranger to Arthur, but he still couldn’t help his emotional reaction. A fleeting sense of loss swept over Arthur as he was introduced to the queen. He hoped that he would never lose his world’s Merlin. Despite the prospect of his Merlin marrying someone else and removing himself from Arthur’s life was low, Arthur still had an irrational fear of losing him.
Despite his concerns, Arthur had to admit that this queen was friendly enough. It was hard not to like her. Freya was pretty with dark hair and warm brown eyes. She wore a blue dress with a tight bodice but with wide sleeves and a silver and gold flower design was at the waist. Sapphire jewels adorned her hair and a sapphire-bedecked silver crown sat on her head.
She had a pale blue female phoenix with silver eyes named Kastella. Archimedes was perched on the back of the king’s throne and Kastella was in a similar position upon the queen’s throne. The two phoenixes looked to be having a silent conversation with one another.
Blakeney was standing by the king’s side and some other advisors were present as well. Morgan was there at the front near the other ladies of the court. But she was talking to the Court Physician, who to Arthur’s bemusement, was a red-headed woman named Kara. Arthur easily recognized that there weren’t many men in the hall except most notably a few knights stationed by the king. More women were present than men while the number of boys was greater than that of older men. After Blakeney telling him about the war, Arthur concluded that most of Camelot’s men were fighting the battle against this darkness.
As Arthur stood facing the audience, he told them how he grew up, about the daemons, and the anti-magic Camelot of his world thanks to his infuriating father.
The pair he had seen earlier -- Will and Lyra – were a part of the audience. Although now a young blonde girl was with them, standing close to Lyra as the younger girl seemed a bit nervous and overwhelmed about being there. A blue and purple dragon that was almost the same size as Krola was beside the blonde girl. One of the girl’s hands was on the dragon’s head. The red dragon carving that the girl clutched in her hand left Arthur thinking that clearly the little girl really liked dragons.
In response to the fate of the dragons in Arthur’s world, Will spoke up and said his own father would find the whole matter blasphemous and the worst crime. Will’s father apparently bred dragons for a living, which explained Will being a dragon rider, Arthur deduced.
And then Lyra asked about Krola – if when Arthur was younger, she had been a wolf pup to match his age.
Arthur told her that yes, that was how it worked. Each daemon aged as the person grew older. Yet Krola had been more than one animal – frequently a wolf pup -- before she settled into her permanent wolf form when he had turned eleven.
Arthur saw the little blonde girl coo – probably imagining a white wolf pup – after he verified Lyra’s remark. Of course little wolf pups would be considered adorable to girls.
The other women – Lyra included – all had similar “oh she must have been a precious little wolf pup!” reactions while Krola didn’t know how to react and just asked Arthur, “Why must they all do that?”
“Oh, admit it, Krola,” Arthur prodded her teasingly. “You were cute when you were a pup. Remember when Morgana used to tell you that?”
Krola huffed, and she looked slightly disgruntled, but Arthur just knew that she was pleased at the positive attention she was receiving.
Unfortunately, the proceedings turned sour a moment later when Blakeney fell to the ground. Blood was coming out of his nose and eyes. Morgan and the Court Physician Kara immediately went to him.
King Merlin nodded at them. “Take Blakeney out of here,” he directed them and Arthur swore he heard the king’s voice break a little with emotion. Certainly, he wasn’t happy about Blakeney being harmed. “It appears that the pest has arrived.”
Blakeney’s face had paled quickly, now a sickly white, and he seemed about ready to vomit. After placing a firm grip on Blakeney’s arm, Morgan disappeared by magic with Blakeney vanishing with her. The Court Physician disappeared at the same time.
A man in a dark hooded robe appeared a few feet away from the king and queen. Even though Arthur was near the stranger, he discovered that the man’s face was hidden in shadow. He couldn’t see his face at all.
“I was doing him a favour. I’ve been practicing and I’ve gotten quite good,” said the hooded man in a self-satisfied tone of voice.
Arthur heard others in the room whisper in alarm, “It’s the Prince of Darkness!” while a few also called the hooded man, “The Mad Prince.”
Then the man turned to look at Arthur and to Arthur’s confusion, the man began laughing. He now had an inkling why some in the audience had dubbed him, “The Mad Prince.” The hooded man had his head back and he was clutching his stomach, he was laughing so hard.
Krola growled threateningly, feeling just as taken aback as Arthur was at the hooded man. The king’s dark blue phoenix, Archimedes, unsettled Arthur as well. He had never even seen his Merlin’s Zlota be so still and unblinking. Arthur wondered if Archimedes was anticipating pecking the strange man’s eyes out. He didn’t doubt that the king’s phoenix knew exactly where the man’s eyes were despite his face being concealed.
For his part, King Merlin looked unhappy with his mouth set in a thin line. He gave Freya a significant look, speaking to her mentally as well Arthur thought. A moment later, the queen and her phoenix reluctantly left the hall by disappearing magically.
“Are you done?” The king asked wearily of the hooded man.
The man’s laughter subsided and he answered the king, “Touchy, aren’t we?” Said the man in amusement.
Arthur noticed how most of the people in the hall had disappeared – leaving via magic as the queen had. Will, Lyra and the small blonde girl with her dragon had gone shortly after Blakeney had collapsed.
The king gave the man a sharp look and then he addressed his subjects, “I think it best that everyone should leave for your own safety. We all know that the Prince of Darkness likes his wretched tricks. I will make sure the Prince has left our world once he is finished with whatever he feels he has to say. Sir Leontes, Sir Gwaine, and Sir Kay--” King Merlin nodded toward the three of his knights, who returned the acknowledgement and stayed in the room as others departed via their magic.
Arthur assumed the three knights were there for added protection to the king. Each knight had their swords at the ready and to Arthur’s surprise, each sword literally glowed. Could it be that in this world of magic, the swords held magical enhancements as well? It wasn’t that farfetched of an assumption. Thinking about swords had Arthur recall his own Excalibur. He really should find out what had happened to his most treasured possession. He had almost forgotten about the sword after everything else he had learned today and the new people he had met.
Once the room had mostly emptied – only the “Prince of Darkness”, the king, the knights and Arthur himself remained; Arthur took it upon himself to speak up.
“Who are you?” Arthur asked of the man. “What do you want?”
“I’m the Prince of Darkness, didn’t you hear? I’m honoured to be such a pest to the esteemed King Merlin of Camelot,” The hooded man said bitterly. He looked like he was going to shoot a spell at the king, but Sir Gwaine stood in his way, his glowing sword ready to attack.
“Watch it, you fucker,” Sir Gwaine said to the Prince.
“Just say what you want to say or we will fight and you will lose,” said the king firmly. “You are in my world and you are alone. You aren’t mad enough to try to fight me, are you now?”
“I just wanted express my congratulations on your success,” the Prince said in obvious sarcasm.
“How is the White Diamond Clan treating your forces? Frustrating enough for you?” The king asked with a smirk.
“Colourless non-humans, the bloody lot of them,” he replied, looking especially annoyed.
Arthur got the sense that this White Diamond Clan was a thorn in the Prince’s side.
“They are more human than you will ever be. So you admit that they do fight well?”
“They fight like the bastards of the gods,” he only said.
Arthur felt that the Prince had meant to insult the Clan’s fighting prowess; but still…there was some admission there of their commendable skills. After all, even if one was a bastard of a god, the person still had the blood of a god within him and that was undoubtedly impressive, bastard or no.
“But I think our little ‘friend’ here would like to know more about the fight,” The Prince declared, nodding at Arthur.
“What is this about?” Arthur demanded to know, turning to the king.
The king sighed. “The Prince of Darkness and his forces from the Dark World is who we are fighting against. This man is thirsty for revenge and would rather force a living hell onto all the other worlds in existence to satisfy that revenge.”
“All right,” Arthur said, nodding. He could have guessed that much.
The Prince of Darkness looked ready to interject, but the king put up his hand. “You can add your own twist to the story once I have my say. I don’t need to remind you that this is my world, my rule, don’t I?”
“That’s exactly what the problem is,” the Prince shot back, but then he didn’t say anymore, backing down, when the three knights gave him challenging looks. He appeared to realize that it wasn’t worth causing trouble at least now. That’s what Arthur thought, but he couldn’t tell for certain with the Prince’s concealed face. “Fine. Speak your lies,” the Prince said with quiet contempt.
“How long has your daemon world been the way it has? With your souls outside of your bodies? In the form of animals who speak?” The king asked of Arthur in such an informal tone that Arthur was thrown off by it.
“I never thought about it,” Arthur said frankly, shrugging. “Probably for centuries. Since my world first came into existence I would imagine.”
“This world as you’re seeing it now is a new creation at least by your world’s standards,” the king explained. “My world went through a great change almost twenty-five years ago. If you had called this world, the World of Magic, before that time then it wouldn’t have made sense. We used to be more like your world, I would say, excluding the daemons, but with more non-magic users than magic users. Two years after the change began; I was born into a rapidly altering world.”
“A conspiracy by magic users to gain control of this world,” the Prince interrupted with disdain.
The king frowned. “There has been no definitive evidence of what caused this unfortunate circumstance. We believe it was caused by the mother goddess. We don’t know why it was done, but it happened and regrettably, things had to be changed.”
“What was the great change?” Arthur asked. He wasn’t sure if he really wanted to know because it didn’t sound good at all.
“It was a plague that caused all those who didn’t possess magic in my world to grow gravely ill and die,” the king confided sadly. “When I was very young, the plague was at its height and not much could be done for the non-magic users suffering from the plague. This was a widespread disaster and no one knew how to control it. All we knew was that the magic users were spared the effects of the plague while others succumbed to it with no hope of a cure. Before the plague hit, the king of Camelot was not a magic user. As you can expect, he died from the plague. Sorcerers in this kingdom gathered and declared that my father, Balinor, should be the new king of Camelot. That with this changing world, a powerful magic user should be the leader of this kingdom. And my father was undoubtedly a powerful sorcerer and more importantly, he was well-liked as well. Other kingdoms throughout our world followed our example and installed popular magic users as rulers. And then my mother gave birth to me during the early days of my father’s reign.”
Arthur wondered what his Merlin would think of this. It definitely put a dark cloud over this World of Magic that a deadly plague altered the world’s population make-up so drastically. He also couldn’t help but agree with the Prince that the plague’s cause could be a conspiracy.
It was rather suspicious and he could see the magic users, through their magic somehow, initiating the plague to gain control of a world where they were a minority. The magic users benefited the most from the plague. King Merlin’s belief that the mother goddess had engineered the plague seemed hard to believe compared to the other explanation.
Although, who else but a goddess would have that kind of great power to cause a plague to sweep through an entire world?
Arthur wasn’t sure who to believe, but he did know that the Prince of Darkness unnerved him while King Merlin seemed more honest and friendlier with him. So it was easier to support the king’s side of the story.
“Your mother is a sorceress, right? With only magic users surviving…and it’s just in my world, Merlin’s mother is far from a magic user as far as I know.”
The king nodded. “Yes, my mother possesses magic. She’s an Empath meaning she is able to feel what other living beings – both people and animals – are feeling. Their joys, their sorrows, their anger…” he said a little sadly. “It is quite tiring for her to control such an emotionally-powered gift, so she’s currently retired to a more peaceful location after my father’s passing a year ago. I visit her of course.”
The Prince cut in, asking, “So where exactly is your mother?”
“You’ll never find her,” the king said sharply before he returned his attention to Arthur, “Anyway, back to the story. The king before my father – the one who didn’t possess magic – had a son. He was two years older than me. According to what my father told me, the boy had ailed from the plague as his father had. The boy didn’t have magic in him. Though this young prince was strong and he did survive longer than expected. Yet still, there was nothing that could be done to cure him of his sickness completely. He could never be healthy again.”
“You’re a damn liar!” The Prince yelled in accusation.
Arthur was beginning to deduce that this boy had to be the Prince of Darkness especially judging by the Prince’s reaction. But as to what exactly happened in the intervening years, he was at a loss for an answer. He needed to know more.
The king glared at the Prince. “Let me finish,” he told the hooded man calmly.
The Prince looked to be simmering in his anger, but didn’t say anymore and instead, he kept a careful eye on the knights’ glowing swords.
“The boy was placed into his own bedchambers here in Camelot. My father said that he wanted the boy to be comfortable as he lived out his last days. When the child was five, he was given a little black wolf pup to keep him company and serve as a comfort to him. The boy quickly came to adore the wolf pup. My father told me that the boy even named him – Achilles, I believe. But then some months later, the court physician entered the child’s chambers to discover the child gone, vanished. And the wolf pup…” The king paused, his face in a grimace and he looked unwilling to continue.
Arthur was growing suspicious of the Prince’s identity. The boy had a black wolf pup at one point and his story could have echoed what might have happened to Arthur and his father, King Uther, had the daemon world been dealt the plague. And here was Arthur with a wolf as his daemon. It can’t have been a coincidence that this boy had received a wolf pup as a pet. Could this Prince of Darkness be an alternate version of him?
He recalled the king’s past words: “The Prince of Darkness and his forces from the Dark World is who we are fighting against. This man is thirsty for revenge and would rather force a living hell onto all the other worlds in existence to satisfy that revenge.”
This was getting to be too much for him.
“Are you me from this world? Or the Dark World now – wherever you call home?” Arthur demanded to know.
The Prince didn’t say a word and only turned to face Arthur with his concealed face. He wouldn’t even do Arthur the courtesy of revealing his face to prove the truth of Arthur’s words.
Arthur addressed the king instead. King Merlin looked rather resigned and a bit unsurprised that Arthur had figured it out.
“The Prince of Darkness wants to reclaim what could have been his, right? Prior to the plague? He feels that he was denied his birthright because of a plague that suspiciously could’ve been caused by magic users.”
“The trouble is that he wishes to destroy all the worlds in retribution. Unfortunately, it’s not such a simple revenge plot, is it?”
“The bigger, the better,” the Prince said almost gleefully.
“But why?” Arthur was honestly baffled by the Prince’s strategy, if there even was one. “Why are you hoping to punish all the worlds when your main concern is with this Camelot in this world? What is the point of making all those innocent people in other worlds suffer?”
“Because I loved that wolf pup more than anything else in the world. The man who came to take me to the Dark World – he told me that King Balinor had ordered my Achilles to be killed. Apparently, my closeness to my wolf was making me live longer than I should have been,” The Prince said in outrage. “That according to the new King, the wolf needed to be put down so the plague would finally kill me off. That he shouldn’t have given me the wolf pup anyway since the creature wasn’t making me die any faster. If I would have lived any longer, then I could contest my right to Camelot’s throne. Of course King Balinor didn’t want that because after all, he had his own son’s future to secure. I was in the way,” remarked the Prince bitterly. He glared at King Merlin.
“That man was lying to you,” King Merlin said firmly. “And my father would never, never have allowed the wolf pup to be beheaded like that and then to be displayed on your bed for you to see. My father was never that callous. And since he is now deceased, I pray you would not speak ill of the dead, but considering it’s you, I am asking for too much.”
The Prince of Darkness made a snide retort back.
Arthur was horrified to hear that a dead beheaded -- which made it all the more terrible -- wolf was placed in the sight of a five-year old, one who had viewed the creature as a beloved pet. He felt like he could vomit at the thought.
But did King Balinor order the wolf pup to be killed or did the man who took the Prince really lie to him? Maybe the wolf killing had been an orchestrated set-up by the man to convince the Prince that this new King wanted him dead.
Should he side with an alternate version of himself or with this King Merlin?
So she could speak privately with him, Krola stood up with her paws on his chest for support. She whispered to him, “They call him the Mad Prince, Arthur. I don’t trust he’s of sound mind. No matter if he’s another version of you. Though it is terrible what happened to that black wolf.”
“All right, all right. You do have a point,” Arthur conceded.
He stroked Krola behind the ears before she set her paws back down on the ground again.
“After losing my Achilles like that, I found it hard to care for anyone else or anything…and then I thought…why not make all the worlds out there feel just as miserable as me? Luckily, dark magic has given me hope that I’d achieve this goal. I may not have had magic in me at birth, but I learned that I could still possess magic despite not being born with the talent.”
“But to gain magic when you were never meant to have it takes a toll. On your humanity,” argued the king.
“Humanity is weakness!” The Prince exclaimed defiantly. “Magic makes you powerful. I would have thought you’d agree considering your little plague was all about making magic users rulers of this world.”
The king looked affronted and he defended himself. “I have never advocated dark magic. The way you’re using magic is despicable. And you do care about someone.”
“Ah yes…well, it must really make you mad that you can do nothing about it. Seer after Seer. All saying the same thing. But I’m telling you this now: you may have round one with your pawn, Your Majesty, but I will have round two!” The Prince declared fervently.
Then the Prince finally revealed his face and Arthur was shocked to see a likeness of himself, but with completely black eyes. Even the whites of his eyes were an unrelenting black. Like one would expect on the devil himself.
The Prince of Darkness formed a big fireball in his hand and shot it at the King. Sir Leontes’ sword blocked the fireball’s path without the blade getting damaged in the slightest. The magical glow clearly offered a solid protective barrier on the sword to halt magical attacks.
Then Kilgharrah appeared in a burst of black and golden light. With great force, the dragon pushed the Prince to the ground and then he scratched one side of his face with his claw.
“One day I will eat your heart with a song in my own,” Kilgharrah threatened the Prince. He growled at him.
Archimedes looked intent on joining the dragon in his assault, but the king told the phoenix to stay put. Ruffling his feathers, he shifted to the other side of the throne and did a weird little pacing, hopping routine from one side to the other. Arthur thought it seemed like the phoenix was excited about what the dragon was doing?
“Kilgharrah, please,” King Merlin pleaded with him quietly.
Reluctantly, the dragon extricated himself from on top of the Prince.
The Prince stood up roughly. He touched the part of his face that had been injured and he shrugged.
“Well, good luck to you,” he said to Arthur in a sarcasm-laden tone. “And by that I mean bad luck, very, very bad luck.”
Then the Prince of Darkness addressed King Merlin, his smile cold as he spoke, “Your wife is with child, isn’t she? How nice,” he said in biting sarcasm.
The king frowned.
And again, true to his “Mad Prince” title, he laughed. His mirthless laughter echoed in the hall after he vanished in a display of dark clouds and lightning.
“I think you need some rest now. You’re feeling overwhelmed, I’m sure,” the king acknowledged.
“I don’t know who to believe,” Arthur admitted frankly.
“Understandable. I don’t profess that I am without fault. I am only human after all as you are. But I want to prevent the destruction of all the worlds. I’d hope you’d agree with that?”
Arthur nodded. “Yes. Of course,” he said readily. “Will Blakeney be all right?”
The king smiled lightly. “He should be fine.”
“Blakeney’s stronger than he looks,” Sir Gwaine assured with a quick grin.
“Can you – this is probably the last thing I should be asking, but I’m curious – what sort of magic can you do? The extent of it? You said your father was a powerful sorcerer and your mother is an Empath? Did you inherit her abilities?”
“Yes, I do in fact have some empathetic abilities after my mother. I’m not as strong as her in that area as that is her specialty, but not mine. But it’s there regardless. I can show you my transformation into the five elements. Wood, fire, earth, water and metal – I can easily turn into all of them.”
Arthur nodded. “Please. I’d like to see it, Your Majesty.”
And Arthur couldn’t help but be awed. King Merlin turned into the different elements, but he still maintained his human form despite being composed of fire or soil from the earth. When the king transformed into water, he was able to change his shape and his water form came together to create a large puddle of water on the floor.
Arthur wasn’t sure that his Merlin could do this sort of elemental transformation. He didn’t doubt his Merlin being capable at some point of achieving this skill. He just had never seen Merlin do it.
But here was an alternate version of Merlin, about the same age as Arthur’s Merlin, and he had the talent to become the elements. It was one of the most interesting displays of magic Arthur had seen.
“I admit that I’m impressed,” Arthur told him honestly once the king returned to his normal form.
“Thank you. Now you should go. You could probably appreciate some time to yourself to think over what you have learned now…”
“All right. I’m free to go on my own? I’m still not sure that I’m not a prisoner.”
“You can go outside if you like. There are certain restrictions, of course, but you’ll know if there’s a place where you can’t venture into. Your sword will be returned to you, undamaged I assure you, when I’ve decided it’s time for you to leave my world. But you have the rest of the day to yourself.”
“So you did take Excalibur… even though you clearly have other means of transportation between worlds.”
“Yes, and it was only to have a closer look at the sword. As you say, we do have other ways of interworld travel, but we couldn’t pass up the opportunity to investigate what makes Excalibur work. We were very careful with it to insure the sword was returned to you, the rightful owner, in excellent condition,” the king said smoothly.
Arthur sighed. “All right. As long as you give my sword back to me,” he conceded.
The fact that the king had acknowledged that Arthur was Excalibur’s true owner calmed Arthur. At least King Merlin respected Arthur’s ownership of the sword.
And with a dismissal, Arthur left the hall with Krola close by his side. He made the easy decision to head outside. He needed some fresh air.
~ * ~
“Did Lancelot communicate with you on the Prince’s departure, Sire?” Sir Kay asked of the king.
King Merlin nodded. “The Prince has left our world. All is well in that regard. Now I think it is time to bring the orphan to this world. I believe the Prince is using this young Merlin as a power source for his forces fighting against us.”
“As any version of Merlin has considerable power at his disposal,” Sir Leontes said. “The Prince found it easy to take advantage of the parentless child. He gave him the love and affection that the other Merlin desired.”
“Yes. But I have more right than him to the child. He is an alternate version of me after all,” King Merlin reasoned, strong in his conviction. “Though we can not destroy the orphan as the prophecy says, we can at least remove him from the Dark World.”
“Wait. So he’ll stop being a power source for the Mad Prince’s forces if he’s taken out of that world?” Sir Gwaine confirmed. Then he realized something, “But the Prince is not going to be happy about it. Is it a good idea we raise his ire like that?”
“It’s unlike you to be worried about that, Gwaine,” the king pointed out with a small smile. Gwaine joked about something being in the ale this week.
“Still yes, you are right,” the king agreed. “But keeping the orphan here will be worth the cost. Our world – and the other worlds as well – will have that additional guarantee of a weakened opposition. All of you heard what the Prince of Darkness declared – that he’d have round two. Just placing faith in the betrayal between the Arthur and Merlin of the Daemon World is simply not enough.”
The three knights agreed with the king’s words. King Merlin then decided to call a meeting with the knights and his advisors to discuss the “Capture the Orphan” mission in further detail. Before the meeting, the king checked out the star cat litter as he wanted to give one of the black kittens to Blakeney. To hopefully help in comforting him as he recovered from the Prince’s magical attack.
~ * ~
Arthur walked across the courtyard and he appreciated getting a nice view of the outside of the castle. It was a smooth grey stone structure – not different from his Camelot – though the statues were of dragons and phoenixes. Real small dragons sat alert on the castle ramparts while some big dragons – closer to the size of the dragon his father had locked up – flew overhead.
He tried to be polite even as he grew tired of others peering at Krola as if they had never seen a white wolf before. True, most of them might not have seen an actual daemon in person and Krola’s silver eyes were not a common eye color for wolves – but still, it made Arthur feel out of place. As a consequence, he longed for his Daemon World. At least there, people wouldn’t be so overly interested in Krola like she was an exotic animal. He would be just like everyone else instead of the outsider with his soul outside his body instead of inside like it was in this World of Magic.
Thanks to his speech in the hall, the people who stopped him to talk didn’t touch Krola. Though Arthur could see in the eyes of the younger children how they were yearning to pet his daemon. Arthur could understand the temptation to touch a furry animal, but he was grateful even those children exercised some restraint. After getting a closer look at Krola, one little boy pleaded with his mother that he wanted a wolf of his own while the mother looked weary. She reminded her son that he would get his own dragon to look after not long from now. Fortunately, that reminder was enough to appease the boy for the moment.
Then the blonde girl he had seen in the hall came up to him.
“Hello, I’m Alice,” she introduced herself with a smile. “I met someone else with a daemon earlier today. Now I know why I couldn’t touch her.”
“Wait,” Arthur asked, his interest peaked. Had this girl seen Merlin? “Was the daemon a scarlet-gold phoenix? And was she with a dark-haired man--?”
Alice nodded. “Yes. I doubt I’ll ever forget such a beautiful-looking phoenix. The man said his name was Myrddin. I met him in my world…well, the world I was born into. I live in this world now. I have to stay with my dragon after all,” she said matter-of-factly.
Arthur felt relieved. He knew that Myrddin was one of the aliases Merlin decided to use in case he didn’t want to be found out. The girl clearly came from a non-daemon world with her lack of knowledge about daemons. She mostly likely came from the world he and Merlin had stumbled upon and where they had met that other Merlin. So Blakeney had been right. Merlin wasn’t in the Daemon World, thank goodness, and he wasn’t facing the threat of King Uther’s terrible plan on his own.
That was one less thing to worry about Arthur thought.
“Where’s your dragon now?” Arthur asked her.
“She’s spending time with some of the other dragons. Her name is Amethyst.”
“I saw her in the hall with you. Amethyst looked impressive.”
“Thank you,” she said with a smile. Then she offered, “Would you like to see the garden?”
“All right,” Arthur agreed.
“It’s just there’s a phoenix nest there and Lyra – you saw her in the hall. She has dark blonde hair. I was standing next to her.”
“Yes. I know her. I saw her on a winged horse too.”
“Oh she’s really good at that, isn’t she? But she told me that the phoenix eggs should hatch soon. I was on my way to see them. You don’t have to come… it’s a bit silly,” Alice said softly, suddenly shy as she bit her lip.
“No, no,” Arthur said hurriedly, not wanting to upset the girl. “I want to come. Really I do. I’ve never seen phoenixes hatching out of their eggs.”
Alice smiled brightly at him.
They walked toward the garden. She told him about the red dragon carving Arthur still saw in her possession. How Myrddin –really Merlin as Arthur automatically corrected to himself -- had given the carving to her as a good luck charm.
And that she believed the carving led her to find Amethyst.
Arthur thought wryly that it was just like Merlin to conjure a toy for a little girl.
~ * ~
That evening, Arthur found Blakeney at his door. Tailing him was a little black kitten with a white star on his forehead. Blakeney told him that he had just received the kitten, who he named Veritas, earlier that day from King Merlin. When Blakeney had first come to the castle years ago, the then Prince Merlin had given him a black kitten. Blakeney had named him Midnight, but unfortunately, the kitten had run away a few years later. Blakeney confided in slight exasperation to Arthur that Veritas was determined to follow him everywhere.
The other man still looked a bit peaky and unsteady on his feet, but he did seem to be on his way to getting well. Arthur thought that maybe the kitten’s presence was helping.
After Blakeney sat down, he took the creature into his arms. Veritas purred contentedly as Blakeney pet him. Arthur was eerily reminded of the Prince’s conviction that his wolf pup, Achilles, keeping him alive longer was why Achilles had been killed by those who wanted the Prince dead.
Arthur was grateful to see Blakeney with Excalibur, which had been put in a new sheath. Blakeney returned the sword to him and told him he could use it as he usually did to return to the Shadow World. That Merlin would be waiting for him there.
And as the firelight illuminated the both of them, releasing shadows of their forms, Arthur finally discovered what his role was in this battle against the Prince of Darkness.
After he had lost Merlin, Arthur would come to wish that he hadn’t let Blakeney into his room that night.
~ * ~
Arthur returned to the Shadow World using Excalibur. He tried to smile easily as he caught sight of Merlin.
All the while, in his head, a battle was going on. But it was so simple. Risk the end of all the worlds or risk all that he had with Merlin. All that they had been through, how close they had become especially during their year in exile…
Arthur could only do the honourable thing, the right thing.
“Are you all right?” Arthur asked Merlin.
He was sitting on the bed with Zlota perched on one of the pillows beside him. Merlin had been reading a book judging by the open text laid out in front of him. Arthur took the seat in the empty chair situated by the bed.
Merlin smiled at him and nodded. “Yes, I’m fine. Where were you? I’m glad you have Excalibur with you. I was worried someone had stolen it. I know how much the sword means to you. I’m guessing that since you were able to return here, that you weren’t taken for ransom…”
Arthur did his best to look reassuring. “It’s nothing. I’m fine. I – we – have Excalibur and neither of us are hurt, so that’s what matters most,” he reasoned. “But I have a question…I should have asked you this months ago, but you never told me why I couldn’t touch Zlota. I know that it’s painful for you as you’ve told me in the past, but we’re close, aren’t we? If you think about it from my view, it doesn’t make sense. I should be able to--” Then he stopped, and he reached out to touch Zlota.
Merlin paled. “Arthur, don’t – please don’t touch her,” he pleaded of him.
He gripped Arthur’s forearm to emphasize his point. Arthur gave him a look, but he removed his hand from Zlota’s head. The daemon shifted closer to Merlin and away from Arthur as if she saw him as a threat. “This is ridiculous, Merlin. You can touch Krola without incidence, why can’t I do the same with Zlota? Do you – do you not love me enough?” He asked tentatively.
Merlin shook his head fervently. “No, no. It’s not you, Arthur. It’s me. It’s – sometimes I wish that I had never made the promise, but it’s too late now.”
“What is it? Just tell me. After all that we’ve gone through together, I have a right to know, Merlin. At least give me the courtesy of the truth,” Arthur demanded of him. Krola growled beside him.
Merlin looked a little unwell as if Arthur were still touching Zlota. He bit his lip before he reluctantly confessed that he had made a promise to himself long before he had met Arthur or had come to Camelot.
It was that the first person he was intimate with would be the only person who could touch Zlota without Merlin feeling any uncomfortable or painful sensation … even if he were intimate with anyone else after that, the promise still would remain firm. Of course, his mother or anyone of his blood would still be able to touch his daemon – the promise didn’t pertain to blood family.
“I was young…and I had the silly idea that my first would be my one and only… so that the promise wouldn’t cause an issue. But unfortunately it did,” Merlin remarked regretfully. “Before we were together, I became close to Morgana. Especially close. And she was--” he paused and didn’t seem to want to continue. Arthur knew what he was going to say, but he just knew that once he heard Merlin confess it out loud, then the truth would truly hurt.
“Morgana was my first, Arthur,” Merlin finished quietly, head bent. He couldn’t look Arthur in the eye. “And now she’s dead. I should have told you long ago, but I--” he looked at Arthur now. “– we have something special together, Arthur. More than what I had with Morgana. There’s not a day that goes by that I wish I’d waited longer, that you had been my first. That you can touch Zlota and I wouldn’t feel as if someone had punched in the gut. If I had to choose one person to touch my soul, Arthur, it would be you. It would be you,” Merlin confided in him earnestly.
Arthur ventured slowly, “So you said it’s too late. You can’t undo the promise?”
Merlin nodded unhappily. “You can only have one first. I suppose if such a thing existed, I would travel back in time and change what I had done, but… I’m sorry. I’m so sorry.”
“It’s all right. We all make mistakes. Anyway I’m glad you finally told me the truth. I don’t want any secrets kept between us,” Arthur told him firmly.
Merlin nodded in agreement. “Yes, I couldn’t agree more.”
“Let us drink to our relationship, shall we?” Arthur suggested.
He pulled out the decanter he had with him.
Merlin looked uncertain as he saw the dark-colored decanter. He couldn’t tell what was inside of it.
“What’s wrong, Merlin? It’s just wine in here. It’s good, trust me,” Arthur assured him.
Merlin gave him a small smile. “It’s nothing. You should drink it first. I insist.”
Arthur shrugged. He put the decanter to his lips and he pretended to drink from it as convincingly as he could.
He gave the decanter to Merlin who had decided to trust Arthur. He drank from the vessel.
Arthur tried not to look at Merlin since he was sure of what he would see. Confusion. Surprise. Betrayal.
“Arthur, why are you doing this?” Merlin asked him in dismay. Arthur could hear the confusion in his tone.
But as the sedative did its work, he couldn’t keep his eyes open and he succumbed to sleep. Zlota fell asleep along with him.
Krola whined.
“Nothing is ever going to be the same again,” Arthur said softly, his jaw clenching as he steeled himself for what came next.
~ * ~
When Merlin roused, he dearly wished he were still sleeping and in the midst of a nightmare.
But no. This nightmare was reality.
He was back in the Daemon World going by the audience in the hall. Everyone had daemons. And the worst daemon, King Uther’s boar daemon, stood by the tyrant king’s side with a self-satisfied smirk on his ugly face.
Merlin himself was lying on his back on the ground with guards on either side of him. Merlin felt a collar at his neck and he knew it was one that prevented him from using his magic. He could tell from the choking emptiness inside of him as well as the nausea he felt at this terrible restriction. He felt Zlota’s claws clinging to him a bit too sharply on his arm. She was as anxious as him.
“You’re awake. Stand up,” Uther commanded of him from his throne.
Guards were immediately on either side of him and forced him to stand up. It was hard as Merlin rather felt like curling up on the ground and throwing up. This was the last place he wanted to be.
Merlin looked to see Arthur and Krola standing off to the side, a short distance away from Uther. A small sense of relief came over him that Arthur wasn’t seated in the empty throne beside his father.
But the relief quickly faded away as he saw the cold, emotionless expression on Arthur’s face. Merlin wasn’t sure if Arthur was putting on a particularly good act or if he really had turned against him. The Arthur he knew would never, never do this to him when he understood just what kind of hell he’d be subjecting Merlin to while in King Uther’s grip. Merlin couldn’t even mentally communicate with him to discover what was really going on. There was a wall in place. Arthur had shut him out.
“It’s so good of my son to come to his senses and turn you in,” Uther remarked with a small smirk. “Take his daemon. Let’s see what happens when we subdue the daemon of one of the most powerful sorcerers in the land, shall we?”
“No! You can’t--” Merlin protested futilely. Uther was going to place him under his control, taking the magic restricting collar off once he was confident in Merlin’s subordination. He was going to be a walking puppet.
A guard grabbed Zlota who cried out, terrified of what awaited her.
“You can’t do this! Zlota!” Merlin exclaimed desperately as he fell to the ground.
He tried to work through the pain he was feeling as Zlota was roughly handled. He covered his face in his hands to hide the tears threatening to fall. None of this was real. This couldn’t be happening.
Merlin looked wildly to Arthur, pleading silently of him to stop this. To do something. But he could still see the unrelenting coldness in Arthur’s eyes. What had gone wrong? What had happened to Arthur? He should have been more careful – the other Merlin had been right. Meeting that lucky orphan had given him the worst luck imaginable. Merlin never thought that Arthur would betray him like this. They had come too far for that. But now Merlin wasn’t so sure anymore of Arthur’s intentions.
Though Merlin didn’t have access to his magic, he could still do one thing. He forced himself to go to sleep. Whatever they were going to do to Zlota, he couldn’t bear to watch it.
His head dropped to the floor as he forced his body to go into a deep sleep. He heard King Uther’s shout of outrage and frustration. He heard the king tell the guards to lock him up in the dungeons.
And that was the last thing Merlin heard before sleep overtook him.
~ * ~
Arthur swore and then he swore again when he hit his knee against the hard wooden table.
Despite handing Merlin over to him, Arthur hadn’t regained his father’s trust. Apparently paranoia over who was truly loyal to him had set in for King Uther.
Maybe in this case, his father had been right to lock him up in this high tower – so high that even Arthur who had no fear of heights was rather unsettled by how high up he was from the ground. He hadn’t even been aware that such a tall tower existed in Camelot.
Who knew what his father had been up to while Arthur had been in exile away from Camelot. Judging by a strange invisible barrier that prevented Arthur from leaving his circular room, he was positive magic was keeping him imprisoned here. Arthur guessed that his father had gotten a sorcerer in his service by subduing his daemon and had the mind-controlled sorcerer build this tower. So that his father could trap Arthur in it when the time came.
At least Arthur was glad for one thing – that his father let him keep Excalibur. Fortunately the king was unaware that Excalibur was more than just a sword. His father probably figured that Arthur couldn’t do much with a sword trapped in this room in a tall, seemingly inescapable tower.
Except maybe impale himself to death considering Arthur wouldn’t be surprised at all if Merlin never forgave him for what he’d done. That would be enough to die over, honourable death be damned. He prayed to the gods that betraying Merlin would have helped in saving the worlds from disaster.
Arthur knew that he needed help even though the source of this help was far from ideal.
He deeply felt the irony for who he was going to ask for aid. But Arthur still felt that if anyone in all the bloody worlds could have a heart and help him, it would be the King Merlin of the other world’s Camelot.
He had to.
Unfortunately, Arthur discovered that the way back to the World of Magic was closed off. Krola growled in displeasure at the sight of the solid golden wall that revealed itself when Arthur cut through with Excalibur. The opening that should have been there was not.
“What – now that I did it, King Merlin wants nothing to do with me anymore?” Arthur wondered out loud bitterly.
Krola pawed at the yielding wall and not even the scratches from her claws remained on the barrier for long.
“It would seem like that’s the case,” Krola agreed unhappily.
“Fuck this,” Arthur said in annoyance.
Then a stream of purple light shot through the golden wall and into the room. Arthur and Krola stepped back, both expecting the light to transform into an animal as they had previously witnessed in the other world.
The light turned into a deep purple phoenix. The phoenix had a rolled piece of parchment and a quill in its talons.
“And who are you?”
The phoenix clicked her beak and she set the parchment and the quill down in front of him.
After unrolling the paper, Arthur saw writing appear on it.
“I am Sagittarius, phoenix to Camelot’s Gatekeeper. The gateway to and from the Daemon World and the World of Magic is currently closed. The way shall be re-opened when the reason for the closure is resolved. If you require assistance, please write down so on this parchment and my Gatekeeper will assist you when he is available.”
Arthur raised his brow. “Can you tell me why the gateway was closed?” He demanded.
The phoenix, Sagittarius, shook her head. The previous writing disappeared and more writing appeared, “No, but I assure you that King Merlin will do what he can to open this gateway again. But please, if you need help, say so on this paper and I will send it along to my Gatekeeper.”
“Did King Merlin order the closure? Is he trying to keep me out?” Arthur was determined to get to the bottom of the matter.
“No, His Majesty is not,” the writing unraveled on the sheet once again, “As I said, if you require assistance--”
Arthur nearly growled in unison with Krola. He was feeling so frustrated. “I don’t want to speak to the Gatekeeper, I want to speak to King Merlin of Camelot, all right? Can’t you just tell him I need to see him? Whenever this ridiculous closure ends?”
“Procedure has to be followed, Sir. My Gatekeeper will get you in contact with King Merlin if you--” Sagittarius tapped her talons on the now blank piece of parchment.
“Fine,” Arthur muttered.
He took the quill and wrote down on the paper, “I need to speak to King Merlin immediately. That is, if he has any time to spare,” Arthur wrote down, hoping the king could hear the sarcasm in his words. “If you, as the Gatekeeper to the World of Magic’s Camelot, could notify him of my request for assistance, I would appreciate it.”
Arthur was about to sign it ‘Arthur Pendragon of Camelot’ but he decided that considering the existence of other worlds and alternate versions of himself as well, that he had to change that.
So he revised it to, ‘Arthur Pendragon of the Daemon World.’
He rolled up the parchment and he handed it off to Sagittarius. The purple phoenix, parchment and quill in her grasp, turned back into a stream of purple light and returned to the World of Magic through the barrier.
Not caring that it would hurt, Arthur hit his fist against the golden wall that wouldn’t budge. Maybe if he had the ability to turn into a phoenix, he’d get past the barrier like the Gatekeeper’s phoenix had?
Arthur rid himself of the absurd thought. That was far from a viable solution now.
Feeling despondent, he sealed the blocked opening with his fingers.
“I feel like a damsel in distress locked up in this bloody tower,” Arthur mused aloud.
He collapsed on the bed with a great sigh and covered his face with a pillow. Maybe he could smother himself to death instead of impalement.
It would be less bloody.
Krola agreed with his frustrated assessment. She jumped on the bed and rested her head on his chest. Arthur stroked her idly.
“Nothing is ever going to be the same again,” Arthur silently repeated to himself.
He wasn’t sure if he’d ever be happy again either.
~ * ~
Chapter 6 Title: The White Raven
And a preview: Arthur gains an ally from another world, Merlin has rather strange dreams, and the lucky orphan (Gwydion aka another world's Merlin) makes friends. ;)
~ CHAPTER 6 LINKS ~
Chapter 6A | Chapter 6B
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Shame Arthur did that in the end :(
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Yes, I agree. It was hard to write, but it had to be done to break their close bond. Of course it won't be for good because I like a happy ending. After working so long on this story, this fic definitely deserves a happy ending (I sort of wrote it already too ;)).
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I have posted the next chapter if you're interested. This is the penultimate chapter before the final one:
Chapter 6a (http://dk323.livejournal.com/216763.html) | Chapter 6b (http://dk323.livejournal.com/216893.html)
Or on AO3: Here (http://archiveofourown.org/works/246433/chapters/591608)
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