The Cult of Emrys
Chapter Three
Disclaiment: The Author only owns what she owns, and nothing she doesn't

A\N: I have officially graduated! Yippee! Now tis summer time where I have no excuse not to write. Hopefully, I'll start updating everything in reasonable timeframes now.

Previously:

Tomorrow would be a day of great excitement. After years of planning, this was it. Tomorrow would be his smooth takeover of Camelot, and nothing would stop him.

Nothing had the ability to.

Certainly not the two teenagers of destiny. Ha. They weren't waking up until after Dras had the dungeons at his disposal.

...

Sir Owaine was patrolling the castle wall, not worried about much of anything. The young man was tired, he never liked being awake before dawn. Everything was just so peaceful this time of morning, almost mockingly so. It was so quiet that it seemed to say to him in the sign language of nature that he should be in bed. Nothing was going to happen. Only madmen were up at this time! Madmen and knights so green that they couldn't avoid the worse assignments.

The sky was full of clouds and the stars were gone. Mysteriously, even without even a hint of the sun, a little light illuminated the purple sky instead of it being pitch. It was thirty minutes away from being pretty in Owaine's opinion. At least it was almost dawn, almost time to sleep.

He felt like a bat.

As he walked he started humming a light tune about a lady and a fairy competing for the hand of a fair knight. He always liked the song. The lady was both witty and beautiful, knowing just how to avoid the fey's traps to be with her true love, while the fairy was delightfully devious and cheated. He thought Lady Adria was like the lady in the song. He wondered if she would even be interested in besting a fairy to marry him.

Owaine would fight a dozen fairy's for a chance for her hand in marriage. Unfortunately, it was her father that he had to worry about. Adria's father wanted better for her than a no name knight without any glory to his name. He wanted her to find a man who owned land, not one likely to get himself killed.

Owaine understood but still... It was nice dreaming. He and Adria could talk for hours, and she had a wonderful singing voice. He wondered if she knew the song about the lady and the fairy. Maybe he could teach it to her.

He was on the chorus when he heard a faint twang. Huh.

Then was pain pain pain. Pain. He was on the cold stone, his chest was cold. Cold.

The sky wasn't purple anymore.

...

When Morgana woke, Camelot was already taken. Dras spent no effort doing so- paying off key people to sneak in and using the vastness of Emrys's magic. Uther and his main supporters, anyone influential that hadn't been bought off, and a few high ranking servants were in the dungeons. Dras had not bothered with capturing any guard or knight who had fought for the previous tyrant. As far as he knew, they were all dead.

Morgana, however, knew none of this. She hadn't exactly been deemed 'threat material'- not yet anyway, she was part of the planned 'second wave' that was put in place to keep the power that was gained- so she had been somewhat forgotten about in the short conquest.

As it was, she still almost woke up screaming- but the fear from her dream seemed to solemn for that. Instead she opened her eyes slowly, surveying the room around her. She shivered once, and tried to calm herself. Unfortunately, she couldn't get her nerves down. Her stomach burned from a mixture of anxiety and excitement- adrenaline pounding through her and ridding any last sleepiness left in her body.

Jittery, she quickly pulled off the covers and stood up. Morgana found herself pacing, and even while feeling rather silly, peeking out her window for danger. Something had happened. Something bad.

She barged into Gwen's small adjoined room and was glad that her maid had slept there last night. Morgana decided that she would go riding, before breakfast even, and needed help with her bothersome dress.

Gwen shifted, slowly waking from the bang of the door. She had a smile on her face, obviously she had had better dreams than Morgana last night.

"Gwen, come on!" Morgana tried to be polite but her tone came out a little more desperate than intended.

Gwen immediately shook herself awake, "Milady?"

"I need your help." Morgana tried to explain. Then she left the doorway and continued her pacing.

Gwen was following her in seconds. "What's wrong?"

"I don't know." Morgana said grimly with another glance out the window. Gwen followed her gaze and gasped when she saw the sun.

"Milady, I apologize! I'm so sorry for not waking you earlier. They must not have rang the morning bell. Or, they probably did, but perhaps I didn't hear it? I must not have heard it. I'm so sorry. I don't think I've ever slept through it before. I should probably start getting your breakfast now. I'll go now. That is, if you want me to go. Now." A flustered Gwen always started babbling. Morgana usually found it adorable but instead she felt a sudden annoyance. The situation, which she knew was probably nothing, seemed serious. Flustered babbling was not serious.

"No, I need you to stay." Morgana ordered, "I'm going to go for a ride." She glimpsed out of the window again.

"Yes, milady." Gwen agreed. Once again she looked out the window. "That's odd."

"What?" Morgana ran closer to the glass and peered out yet again, scanning for anything 'odd'.

"There's no guards in the courtyard." Gwen clarified. That's when she seemed to register the same vibe that Morgana was getting. Her posture straightened and she joined Morgana at the window.

Morgana couldn't see any one in the courtyard. No servants, no knights, and not even the guards who were always posted there at this time.

No morning bell. No one in the courtyard.

Maybe Morgana wasn't going crazy.

…

A little while away, Morgana's unknowing half brother woke up in his own bed. The familiarity gave him comfort and unlike Morgana, Arthur forgot what was wrong.

Until, well-

"LET'S HAVE YOU LAZY DAISY!"

"Argh!" The prince found himself pulled from his warm, soft mattress and onto the cold, hard floor. What had he done to deserve to get that? No. Who had dared do such to him. Morris was lacking a spine.

With a groan, the battle ready, head of the knights, prince poked his head out of his covers with determination.

"Merlin?" Arthur's eyes widened as the haze of sleep started to clear and he remembered the last few days. "What are we doing here?"

"I don't know where here is actually." Merlin admitted, "I just woke up myself. It appears we are in some sort of castle."

"It's Camelot." Arthur declared.

"Are you sure?" Merlin pressed,

"This is my room, idiot."

"Oh."

There was a pause as the two prisoners looked at each other.

"This isn't good then."Merlin's fingers found his metal collar and started fidgeting with it. "Dras went and conquered Camelot without us."

…

As soon as both girls had dressed, they had camped out by the window- trying to glean anything more about the situation. They weren't quite ready to wander around the castle quite yet. As an amateur tactician- ok, someone who had sat in Arthur's lessons to tease him, and someone who had sat on her father's lap as a child and listened to troop movements- Morgana knew that information was key. She didn't want to send herself or her maid into a situation blind. Unfortunately, nothing had happened yet. Soon, she'd have to leave her room so that if anyone hostile was in the castle then they wouldn't so easily find her. She'd ask Gwen about good hiding spots later.

Gwen suddenly let out a slight gasp and pointed to the left. A group of maybe twenty men were walking, they're clothing as raggedy and mismatched as bandits. The most shocking thing however was that one man was casually bouncing a red ball of light in his hands.

"Is that magic?" Morgana watched the procession in horror.

"Yes. I think so." Gwen whispered as the man threw it up in the air and it didn't come down, instead floating calmly a foot or two above his head. Another one of the strangers reached up and grabbed it, throwing it to one of the men in the back.

"Have we been invaded by sorcerers?!"

…

"No! Camelot wouldn't fall that easily. Father would never let sorcerers-"

"Arthur."

"He wouldn't. Why would Dras even bother to put me in my room, he wouldn't-"

"Arthur."

"Gaius probably-"

"Arthur." Merlin finally snapped him out of it. "I'm sorry."

…

Gwen took a deep breath. Well, this was exciting. She needed to say rational. She couldn't let her nerves get the best of her. Father was still out in the city. Or, at least, she hoped. She had to believe he was alright. She couldn't let herself fall apart.

Morgana was a hairsbreadth from hysterics. That wasn't going to do. From childhood, Gwen knew that the Lady Morgana had the fortitude to keep her head in a fight. Her mistress was usually sensible.

Unfortunately, this was right after she had woken up from a nightmare. Morgana was keyed up enough that she was either going to fight someone or start screaming. They both knew enough that it was particularly unsafe for Morgana with some unknown magical enemy going for the throne. The best case scenario was that the invader decides to marry her for a sense of legitimacy to the throne, and Morgana was terrified of that. Execution was not nearly the worst fate for her.

Gwen bit her lip and then gritted her teeth.

They were getting out of this.

Then and there she decided to be strong and not break. Little did she know that Morgana was making the same promise.

"We should get out of here," Gwen said, "Before anyone finds you."

"Right." Morgana nodded, "Maybe we could get to the armory and-"

"That will be too guarded." Gwen argued, "If the invaders had any brains what so ever, that's one of the first places they would have secured."

"True. We really need weapons though. And sorcery," Morgana brought up, "That means that the castle could have traps or other dangers."

"We need to avoid any tactical areas."

"I never thought I'd say this, but I wish that Arthur was here." Morgana stormed, "He's a prat but he'd be useful right about now."

Gwen's eyes widened with the spark of an idea, "What about Arthur's room? Doesn't he keep a sword or two in his chambers?"

Morgana thought about it and then nodded slowly, "Not all the time, but we might get lucky. I know where he keeps a dagger for emergencies at least."

"Good! After that we can try to get to the lower town. I can hide you in my house."

"I need to get my own dagger." Morgana grumbled, "After all this, I want one for my birthday. A nice, sensible dagger."

Gwen didn't mention that if Morgana ever did get it as a present it would most likely be a gaudy, gem encrusted affair. No one would get the King's ward a plain weapon. Then again, Morgana might consider a jeweled weapon as sensible. On the other hand, she could take it as an insult. Morgana was a noble after all.

…

Sir Leon had been out on patrol when he had noticed oddities around the forest- too many tracks in the dirt for the usual crowd of bandits, a lot of old fires, and other signs of a large mass of people. Leon sent the rest of his unit to ride back to Camelot with great haste, to give a warning just in case. Leon himself had decided to investigate further and follow the trail.

He found the charcoaled remains of a large camp at the crack of dawn. The fires were still warm, one even still going. Obviously this place had just been vacated.

It was strange the amount of burnt down remains of tents there were. Even stranger was a tree coated in bugs. The land had been marked, and for some reason it appeared to be intentional.

Dismounting, the red cloaked knight drew his sword. Even though he saw no one, that didn't mean he was out of danger. With great seriousness, he started poking around- sometimes literally, using his sword like a stick. He found the bug tree was coated in honey of all things, as well as a pair of finagled open shackles that was lying on the ground. There were remnants of chewed cloth and when Leon bumped into a tree- he had just lost his balance, ok, but none of his dignity, no one could prove anything- a small purse fell down and conked him on the head. Ow.

As curious as it all was, he decided that it was probably a threat on Camelot. How? He didn't know. Honey-smearers and cloth eaters weren't exactly traditionally threatening. The attack money was a different story, but still.

In Leon's experience, everything was a threat to Camelot.

Everything.

Ok, he wasn't as bad as Uther who believed everyone except the sorcerers had magic, but Leon had seen a lot of 'innocents' turn out to be assassins and vengeful sorcerers. Leon had no problems adjusting his worldview to "be able suspect everyone" because of all the crazy hijinx that had happened in his years of being a knight. Being ahead of the curve saved his life. His co-workers, brothers-in-arms, didn't have a habit of sticking around long. He was the exception. Leon was actually the longest lasting knight for the past few years. It was actually kind of sad.

He walked back to his horse and ticked him slightly on the nose before remounting.

…

Merlin was trying to take stock in their position. Camelot seemed to be conquered, so they had missed all the fighting. He still didn't have his magic. Dras still had them alive. Arthur's sword was on the bedside table, gleaming with Dras's mocking smile.

Back to his original plan then.

Merlin grinned, so ready to be over with all of this. Dras was going to have to show him to people. People gave him power.

The truth would set him free.

There was definitely a plus of being the nominal head of a cult. It wouldn't be impossible to take advantage of that and take vengeance on the secret puppetmaster head of the cult. The truth would take most of Dras's powerbase, and give Merlin an opportunity.

Arthur was not so pleased, staring forlornly out of the window at his occupied home. The prince was having problems with the whole 'Camelot not belonging to Daddy' thing.

Merlin wondered if he should try to raise his ally's spirits again. Probably not. He was still sulking a little from getting a goblet thrown at his head. Arthur really didn't have any manners, did he?

The door was locked from the outside, a strange design for a bedroom Merlin thought. Was Arthur often locked in his room? Or was it just some odd quirk of the room that had been added years before the prince's birth? Or could Dras have wasted magic on it?

The room was too high up to safely jump. Maybe if they had a rope but it would have to be pretty long. Longer than the bedsheets for certain.

Too bad. It would have been advantageous to move out of Dras's reach. Maybe not possible, given the enchantments on their collars, but Merlin had no idea what the limits were set at now.

Arthur moping at the window was really grating on Merlin's nerves. Did the prince expect a pep talk? His ally's disheartening broken silence was getting surprisingly annoying.

"Are there any other weapons?" Merlin decided to give the royal a purpose. Arthur had seemed to like sharp, pointy things before.

Arthur deigned not to reply.

"Arthur." Merlin said in a singsong, "Do you have anything useful in this pathetically posh room?"

"Merlin, why do you care? Camelot was taken just like you said it would be."

"That doesn't mean Dras gets to keep it. I'm not going to give that creep the satisfaction. Are you?"

Arthur looked him straight in the eyes for twenty two seconds before nodding and stepping away from the window.

"Morris took most of my arms back to the armory but I do have a few things. There's the ceremonial sword," Arthur pointed, "I have a dagger, some belt knives, and possibly-" the prince opened one of his cupboards, "Nope."

Merlin picked up the ceremonial sword, testing its balance like he'd see other people do. Like always, he was surprised by the weight of it. Fighting with sharp edges was almost a hilarious concept at this point. The warlock was so used to seeing tornadoes and fireballs that mere steel was strange. He knew swords weren't affective. He'd seen that proven in Eald-

"Do you even know how to hold a sword?" Arthur had his eyebrows raised as he eyed Merlin's apparently unsatisfactory grip.

"It can't be too hard if people like you do it."

"Ooh, really then. People like me? Who, prey, are people like me."

"Well, you know, knights. Thick nobles. They aren't exactly knows for their brains…"

"Uh huh," Arthur nodded, a thin smile playing on his face despite the outrage painted everywhere else, "Then try to swing the thing."

Merlin, the pommel squeezed in his fists, holding as tightly as humanly possible, tried to demonstrate the ease of swordplay. Unfortunately, he went too fast and the unexpected weight and momentum of the blade disrupted his balance. While he was trying to compensate and not fall on his face, Arthur very exactly disarmed him with a smirk plain on his face.

"Obviously, you are just brilliant."

Merlin growled, "I almost had it."

"Idiot." Arthur shook his head, "You'd hurt yourself before you took anyone else out. You have to keep your hands relaxed."

Merlin didn't know how loosening his grip would help him keep the bloody thing in his hands. It seemed counterproductive. Was the prat just trying to laugh at him? Rather poor time for that.

"Give me the knives." Merlin suggested instead, "Those are actually usable."

Arthur rolled his eyes but complied, "They're not going to be much use against-"

Merlin threw one at the dead center of Arthur's door. The wood was thick so it didn't go in far, but it still stuck in his target.

"Not much use against…?" Merlin tried out his smirk now.

"Armor." The prince revised, "You can't throw those hard enough to pierce chainmail."

"I can go for the eyes."

Arthur actually shuttered slightly. Merlin's delivery of that line was perfect. He congratulated himself.

"As long as the door forces the cultists to enter single file we have a tactical advantage." Arthur announced, "When that door opens, we attack."

…

Dras surveyed his new kingdom. Funny how almost no one was up yet. The bells controlled so much. In the distance, he could see tiny ants of peasants strolling about and he had to laugh. So clueless they all were! He couldn't wait for his first public address. He couldn't wait to tell all the people of Camelot how they were all free from the Tyranny of Uther Pendragon and how Emrys had could to fulfill his prophesized duty of bringing peace and prosperity. The commoners would be shocked and afraid but then Dras would invite them to a feast. He would announce lowered taxes and show evidence of Pendragon corruption. He figured that a secret grain storage would be enlightening. When the druids came flooding in with their stories of massacres and mistreatment, that would only be sealing the story to amber.

Dras knew people. He knew people all too well. Most people just wanted to live their daily lives without interference. They were obsessed with their families and livelihoods- they didn't particularly care about politics if it didn't affect them for the worse. The easiest way to get the people of Camelot on his side was to give them security and make them distrust the old ways. Everyone knew Uther was mad. It wouldn't be difficult to add adjectives.

After things had settled down of course, then Dras could start preparing for the rest of Albion. As soon as his new subjects were loyal to him for saving them from the old evil despot and providing food during a harsh winter (magic was made to be used after all…) then he'd start emphasizing his army. He'd give a few rousing speeches, set up a few inciting incidents, and voila! The people of Camelot would help his take the other kingdoms.

Uther was locked safely in the dungeons. Dras thought a public execution would work. An 'accidental' one, perhaps? Putting him in the stocks to watch as all of his 'crimes' were revealed to the public until a 'spontaneous' riot started and the old king was killed in the process was a possibility. Then Dras wouldn't have murdered his way onto the throne. That could be good for peace.

Then again, sentencing Uther to death would be a good show of just strength. Hmm… Dras really wanted him to burn somehow.

The influential nobles could make their decisions. Either they would die for their 'crimes' against the peoples of Camelot or they would support Dras and give evidence against their more stupid brethren. Dras could award the no longer necessary titles to some of his supporters. He'd make sure he found some commoner to enoble, someone popular for the rest of the citizens to goggle at.

The servants would be persuaded to serve him. Dras ran a good show and they would be taken in, just like the peasants. He wasn't a fool to rid himself of the people who actually knew how to run the castle. If, in a shocking turn of events, he actually found a loyal servant then they could be gotten rid of. He wasn't sure whether doing it quietly or dramatically was the best option yet. Common people connected with other common people after all.

A slight yawn came from his mouth and Dras turned on heel, striding toward his new throne. He didn't dare sit on it. No, that would convey the wrong image. He was playing the loyal servant to the great Emrys. He was far to humble to lounge on the throne. It wasn't the seat for him.

Politics was nothing but a game of theatre.

…

The two girls reached Arthur's door without any hassle. There had been a few close moments, but they had avoided being detected. Morgana had a key to Arthur's room from a prank she had set up seven years ago, so the lock turned with only a squeak. Morgana turned the doorknob slowly, trying not to make a sound.

…

"Ready, Merlin?" Arthur said, the two posted at the door.

Merlin better adjusted his knife, glad that he had practiced. If they had a shield it wouldn't do a thing, but if they had let their guard down… that was a why he had kept his belt knife. Sword, he may have found useless, but a knife struck before someone could see it coming. Surprise.

Years ago, younger and desperate, he'd perfected this skill. Just in case. He'd never used it, never let anyone see- he knew it was a one trick wonder. It'd only work once.

It wouldn't work with Dras, not as long as he owned Merlin's magic, but the others? Well the others could pay for their sins.

He was so close to bringing it all down. A few words and he won. This blood would be icing on the cake. He could finally afford this. His vengeance was close enough to taste.

As the door inched open, he was ready to let his weapon fly.

A/N: Camelot has been taken! Yay! Or not... Yeah. I actually surprisingly feel kind of guilty about killing Owaine. That was kind of a last minute addition so I'm still a little raw from that. Poor guy. Or is he dead?! Well... Um. Yeah. And Dras! Whoa dude. I'm having fun with a theatrical villain. Anyone else a little worried about Merlin?

Thanks for continuing to read this! I'm still hoping to finish this in a few chapters so it won't be long now. Anyways, again- SUMMER!

Crazyperson8- I'm glad you think so! Thanks so much for your compliment and your review! I sincerely appreciate it!

June Odyssey- Awesome! I'm happy you found it such. Thanks a bunch for reviewing! :D :D :D

Archadian07- Yay! I'm happy to hear it. I myself love AUs and playing around with characterization. It's so interesting to see what makes a character. Sometimes it is a little like walking a tightrope though! You want everyone close to cannon so that they're themselves but if you change certain things then they are kind of different people. But it's fun. The weird thing was actually writing pre-season one Morgana actually! I'm so used to her smirking-evil onward, even though I love her when she's good to bits! But this Morgana is back before she even suspected she had magic, which kind of changes her sympathy towards sorcerers. Anyways, I'm glad you enjoyed the pranks! They were fun to write as well! I was actually worrying that they were a little too light hearted, but the thing is- they would totally go around and sabotage the enemy. So it was written. I'm glad you think it worked! Thanks so much for reviewing!

dee- CAMELOT! Yeah... Uther didn't quite have a chance. Dras has been planning this for years and kind of had the advantage for this battle. Maybe not so next time... Hope you found this direction interesting and I thank you soooo much for taking the time to review! Thank you!

1983Sarah- Thanks! And yeah, about the prophecy, it only made sense. The show never gave us a full scope of the knowledge of the prophecies. The dragon knew everything, druids knew that Merlin was Emrys, and until season 5 no one really knew about Mordred's destiny, or really Morgana's. So the only confirmed bit that was known is that the druids knew that Merlin was Emrys. There's a lot of room to play with that and Dras is the kind of villain to take advantage of that. Anyways, thanks for reviewing :)

Fai's smile- Glad you think so! And mind control... ick. The canon forms are pretty horrible, aren't they? A snake or torture. That's not even bring up other options that Dras may have come across in his background in the slave trade... Not a pleasant picture, is it? I guess we'll see if he uses any. And on the destruction of Ealdor, I can't elaborate too much at the moment since I'm fairly sure I'm going to expand on it eventually, but I will say that something forced Dras's hand. He was playing a longer game when something made him decide that he needed Emrys under his control right then. Destroying Ealdor was not his first plan, but his fast plan. But, anyways, I appreciate you taking the time to review and absurdly large amount, so thanks!

Hopefully, I'll have the next chapter soon. We'll get to see if Merlin throws the knife or not. See you then!