I know I shouldn't have but I glanced at the comments beforehand and knew I was in trouble. Half of the book I felt awful and was crying because that's how much the book hit me and gosh the relief that everything turned out alright was great.

Cenred's kingdom is called Essetir. Mercia belonged/elongs to Bayard.

Wow it was just so terrible to read! Though I really loved thank you very much! It is a great work.
Hunith's death was awful, I just wanted to hug Merlin.
Thanks for the hard work!
Harya

I was LITERALLY sobbing when Merlin got that news about his mother, I feel Merlin is veryyyyyy lonely, more lonely than usual
You are doing a great job with the story, the feeling is so deep
I love the fluffiness in the last chapters
Thank you

noooo not the eyebrow of doom

Dear merciful lord! I haven't cried over written work in /months/ and here you have me bawling out my heart like a new born baby! Just when I thought I reached that stage where feelings no longer come easily! Well at least I know I still have a heart! Though it is worrisome how much /whump/ it takes to bring that heart out.

Oh dear, there were moments - especially during the first half of the story - where it felt like my heart was being torn out from my chest. Merlin being abused is so heart wrenching and to make things worse is when /no one/ notices or is forced /not to/ notice due to rank and proprieties. That's unfair and cruel - but I'm glad everything worked out fine in the end!

All that heartache and pain was soothed by the justice brought by Arthur and the knights. Though it wasn't mentioned, I hope Sir Ewan gets some sort of payback as well. Arthur really needs to take some time and make it up to Merlin -sigh-

Thanks for sharing your writing C; I thoroughly enjoyed the experience!

Awww I really liked this Story. Still very upset about Hunith, though. *sob*
You are a very skilled writer and the length of this Story and what you filled it with were perfect. Well done and thank you for sharing! :)

Oh God... And I had just managed to dry my tears from Gaius' letter, and then you go and write THIS. Oh god, if my heart was broken before, it has now been shattered into a Million pieces... The way you wrote that reveal, that was - breathtaking. And now I'm crying again, great...

No. No no no no no. You can't - but - Hunith! D': Oh nonononono, this can't be Happening... Oh Merlin, my dear Boy! Oh no... :'(

I thought it was a good story overall. If I had any complaints, I think it would be that some scenes, especially with Merlin's interaction with the knights, were interrupted and just wouldn't be allowed to play out. I wanted to see more of that! That makes the story seems kind of rushed, you know? We have a scene playing out, then there's a scene interrupting the scene, and some things just eventually remain off-screen, implied but forgotten.

Another thing is that there are three characters that seem kind of simplistic in their "I'm-higher-than-thou" attitude (the prince, the steward and the physician). It's not that I have a problem with the attitude itself, it's just that I wish they had more distinctive and redeeming qualities other than that. You could easily exchange them and feel no difference at all. And Arthur just keeps banishing them instead of, at least, explaining their offence to them in more detail (it's no use being punished if you don't know the reason). Even with the prince, the dialogue was just cut off short. It could have been longer. You know, more making clear that saving the king's life is the duty of a knight but not a servant and that the kingdom is only as strong as its people. And I think in the case of the steward it would have even benefited Arthur to make the matter more public to show that this kind of behavior would not be tolerated in the future and to set off some noticeable change. A trial, perhaps?

I don't know. I enjoyed it in general but the resolution left me a bit unsatisfied.

I also don't think Arthur would be hugging Merlin in his sleep. Best friend or not, he has boundaries and pride to care about. It's not to say that it couldn't happen at all - I've read stories in which it happened and felt believable - I just don't think that this particular situation warranted that and there was a distinct lack of inner turmoil and struggle on Arthur's part to do a thing that would normally be very out of character for him.

Anyway, thanks for sharing!

This story made me cry so hard eyes were swollen for the first day of school. Totally worth it! Amazing to the max!

this was a great story! thank you for it, and i saw a few spelling errors, but they were not degrating on the story! good job cannot wait to read more!

I really liked your story and it was very well written. But, all honesty, I think you messed up on merlin and Arthur's characterizations. Besides that, great story!

Hello I'm srry but I am 100% sure that normally gwaine, percivap, Elyan, or Leon would defend merlin in this situation. And almost everybody goes to the physician all the time and not one person notices that merlin is replaced by a 12 year old? And where is Gwen she isn't LIVING in the lower town is she?

If you love Merlin as a character all I can say is don't read this story, for the sake of your own sanity just... Don't.