Remember, without a goal, your stamina is useless no matter how you get trained. You may defend your integrity and attack your obstacles, but when you have no target in focus, you will score many zero number of goals.

Israelmore Ayivor, The Great Hand Book of Quotes

Chapter 22: Epilogue – Divergence by Chance

Over the course of 17 years Frith began to flourish under the rule of the Ambrosius Family. The dry, rocky and barren land that earned the land the former name "The Perilous Lands" was replaced by a green, fertile land with a lake and small rivers with creeks and there was also a waterfall at the edge of the land. The land had healed itself enough to return to the splendor it was during the height of the Fisher King's reign. The area around the castle was first filled in by grass to be followed by homes. One after another, houses of stone and wood were built to take in the people who started to come into this land one after the other. Balinor and his friends brought in people from various corners of the Five Kingdoms for numerous reasons. Some were peasants that had lost everything and wanted to have a fresh start somewhere new, like a good many of the people from Ealdor. Some were deserters of the armies from the war that either ran or were left behind to succumb to their injuries. And there were others who wanted to live in a realm of magic with dragons and other wonders.

The most obvious ones were those that had or studied magic that simply wanted to live in peace. Any rumors or talks of incidents out of the ordinary that involved people led them throughout the land to find those people before Uther and his knights could get their hands on them. It became a personal war between Balinor and Uther to get to these people first. Sometimes Balinor would win and rescue these people first and sometimes Uther would win and see to their demise before Balinor could save them. Balinor soon had widespread alliances with the Druid communities who would help and find people for Frith to take in and they would also warn him of those that he should avoid.

Balinor did offer sanctuary but he also imposed order and security. He stressed that magic itself would be tolerated within the boundaries of respectful and peaceful practices. Balinor put aside a series of laws for magic users on what magics would be allowed into categories: What could be studied freely, what had to be approved first before pursued and what wouldn't be tolerated. He didn't want any power hungry practitioners to take advantage of Frith's hospitality for selfish motives.

The royal family itself grew. Balinor and Hunith were graced with the birth of a daughter a year after Merlin's birth. She was given the name Liana. She had wonderful brown curly hair much like her mother but had her father's soft brown eyes. Also, she was gifted in magic as well, not in the same level as her brother, but gifted nonetheless. Merlin and Liana were quite the duo, not in the best way. Merlin would always go out of his way to tease his sister while Liana would go out of the way to get on Merlin's last nerve. He would ruffle her hair and levitate great bubbles of water over a door to drop when she walked in. She would always try to upstage him in front of the other children and cast a slick hex on a part of the floor that Merlin would walk towards and make him stumble in humiliation. However, despite that they would not stand for it if anyone else rubbed their sibling the wrong way. They had exclusive rights to do that to each other that no one else had.

It was a few years later when Merlin was 6 and Liana was 5 that Hunith pulled Balinor away and told him four words that blew Balinor's nerves away, again.

"I'm pregnant again Balinor."

Balinor embraced Hunith and quickly called for Merlin and Liana to tell them the news. It was a few months later where Hunith had given her and Balinor a second son and Merlin and Liana a younger brother. They named him Nowe. He had his mother's blue eyes and brown hair but it was shaped much like his father's.

Over the years Merlin and his siblings grew up to be relatively normal siblings that would one day to be Dragonlords like their father. Merlin especially was taught by his magical tutor Abel and his combat tutor Richard, both whom he looked to as surrogate uncles, to be a wise and strong young man to one day take the place of his father and see to the health and growth of Frith and its people. He even had a loyal wyvern companion with him from its time as a hatchling that seemed to be smarter and bigger than the average wyvern. Balinor and Kilgharrah had heard old rumors about wyverns bonded to dragonlords becoming different though the practice was an ancient one that died out…until now. Liana found that she had a natural talent for earthly magics and healing. She started studying medicine and herblore when she became old enough to though she also was given some lessons in defense as well. Balinor didn't like the idea of his little girl not being able to defend herself should any time come where she had to and Hunith didn't see the harm in their daughter having a strong confident side to herself. Nowe grew to be much more naturally talented with a sword than his big brother though his magic was a little lacking in a few areas. His spells were not half as powerful as Merlin's tended to be but he still liked learning new tricks from his teacher and even from his big brother. Despite their differences, the three Dragon children were greatly loved by Frith's people and they loved all of them.

When Merlin was old enough, he ventured out to try and live up to the responsibilities that he had as Emrys. Liberating as many magically talented people from Uther's clutches as he could like his father had started before him. He and his friends followed in the footsteps of his father and his own friends in rescuing magic users and putting Camelot knights in their place. He didn't take their sword hands as often as his father did but he did his best to make them look ridiculous like having them hang upside down in the air by magic for hours or have them stuck together until they made it back to Camelot castle. Outside of Frith, he was known widely as Emrys, the Dragon Prince, though within Frith he was just Prince Merlin.

Nimueh wasn't usually a patient person but she found that she would have to exercise it to a certain degree. While she was nestled comfortably in Cenred's lands she couldn't involve him directly in any of her schemes because of the truce reached at the end of the now dubbed 'War of the Kingdoms'. She would have to operate independently with what little allies wanted to assist her in her quest for revenge against Uther Pendragon.

When news of the Dragon King had reached her she thought that she saw her chance. How angry she was when she saw that Balinor had no interest in launching any kind of grand assault against the brutal king. He clearly had the capabilities to both lay siege and take the city of Camelot and destroy Uther's knights but he wouldn't. The extent of the damage he inflicted at worst was cut off the sword hands of select knights. She couldn't believe that Balinor was stopping at that. If she was in his place she would not stop at their hands, she would cut their throats and have their soldiers follow in their footsteps. If there was any consolation, she could see that Balinor was rubbing Uther's nerve in a big way. It may not have been satisfying but she wouldn't deny that she found it amusing.

While she had to be patient in her revenge against Uther, there was another bit of revenge that she didn't have to wait on. She couldn't strike against Uther because he was too well watched and protected for her to strike at but Vivienne and Gorlois were another story. She despised Vivienne for the gall she had against her place as the High Priestess. She planned to put her in her place and she felt that her family was the way to do it. Gorlois and Vivienne had stayed in Camelot for almost three years after the war before they returned to his land of Cornwall with their daughters Morgause and Morgana. Nimueh watched them whenever she could. Vivienne had gone out of her way to secretly set up magical defenses to try and block her spying. Whenever she did manage to glimpse at them, she saw the happy little family. One that she could break apart.

First, her husband Gorlois.

She hired a band of mercenaries to cause some disturbances for Camelot's people close by the vicinity of Cornwall. Uther asked Gorlois to handle it while he would send some knights to reinforce him. Nimueh used magic to conjure a handful of beasts to delay Uther's knights while the mercenaries overwhelmed Gorlois and his strike force. Gorlois was lost in battle.

Next, was her eldest daughter Morgause.

Nimueh found ways to sneak about Cornwall and try to catch the young and impressionable Morgause on her own. Unlike Gorlois, she handled her situation with Morgause in a different tone. Nimueh presented herself to the young girl as a friend. She explained about feeling her latent magical abilities and her potential to become a great Priestess of the Old Religion. She even shared that her mother was a priestess as well. Though this brought her plan slightly off course. While she may have asked Morgause to keep their meetings secret, Morgause went and asked Vivienne if it was true that she was a priestess. That tipped Vivienne off about Nimueh being around her daughter and she confronted the High Priestess.

Vivienne immediately guessed what Nimueh was trying to do and that she wouldn't let it stand. She tried to avenge her husband by striking Nimueh down. A battle of witches took place and, in the end, Nimueh had barely been able to defeat Vivienne. Though she had her revenge against Vivienne, Nimueh felt cheated that Vivienne had robbed her of having it in full by cutting in before it could be fully realized.

Morgause and Morgana were left orphaned when riders had stumbled upon the Lady Vivienne's body in the outskirts of the city of Cornwall. They immediately received invitations from Camelot to come and rejoin them to be raised under Uther Pendragon's supervision. Nimueh may have been cheated out of her revenge against Vivienne but she saw potential methods to this for her revenge against Uther. After all, Vivienne's daughter through Gorlois and her daughter through Uther, together under Uther's roof, both of whom have magic and are unaware of the real truth behind their family dynamic could be very instrumental.

The Kingdom of Camelot went through much over the years. King Uther may not have won the 'War of the Kingdoms' but neither did he lose. He still had a strong and fearsome reputation that struck hard at his enemies. However, the one enemy that Uther had consecutively on his mind was Balinor Ambrosius. He thought the man had quite the amount of gall to start calling himself the Dragon King. He heard rumors that Balinor had started building his own kingdom through whispers that were spreading through the kingdoms. Uther wouldn't legitimize these claims and felt that they were emphasizing that all Balinor had was a simple rathole or hideout that he was calling a kingdom. He wouldn't be deterred in purging his kingdom of magic. Quite a bit of his allies shared in his endeavors and allowed him leeway to purge their lands of magic as well. He followed any sign of magic within his grasp without warning or mercy. Sometimes these instances would result in victory. Yet…Balinor and his band stood in his way in the times that weren't any victory. Whenever one of his knights were captured during these raids on captured or pursued sorcerers they would return without their sword hands. Like with Sir Tate, Balinor would take to hacking them off. Over time, this started to scare some of his men and leave them wondering that if news of magic arose for them to quell, would they return with a lost hand as well.

He tried to find where Balinor was holed up but he had no luck in his searches. Over the years, news arose of a new Dragon Prince called Emrys. While the name seemed unusual to most of his court, the court physician Gaius had heard of it. It was the name mentioned in fabled Druid prophecies about the one destined to bring magic back to the land. Uther dismissed such claims as superstitious nonsense designed to intimidate them into fearing this son of Balinor. Soon, it became apparent that Emrys didn't need superstition as talks of his powerful magic and the great wyvern that he rode in on like a steed started to spread. He made sure to alert his people of the dangerous and evil nature of Balinor and his son; especially installed within his own son.

Their crown prince Arthur Pendragon was growing to be quite the capable warrior. He had many tutors to teach him what he needed to know but none more beloved than Sir Tate. Arthur saw Sir Tate as a war hero for the obvious wound that he received for being the first to suffer losing his sword hand to the Dragon King and his magical band. However, whenever asked to tell him of the time that he lost his hand to Balinor, Sir Tate asked Arthur not ask for it. Arthur thought that the memory was too hard and painful to think of but Tate always seemed scared and sad when it was mentioned.

Arthur never really was involved with too many people his own age in a continuous basis until Lord Gorlois and Lady Vivienne's daughters came to Camelot to live in the castle. He was around the age of 13 when they arrived but he did have vague memories of them when he was younger. He was with his father at the front of the castle as the Ladies Morgause and Morgana arrived. He thought that they were both had become pretty young girls; Morgause was around a year younger than him while Morgana was a little over three. The three of them started to become a constant sight within the castle as they interacted with one another but Arthur seemed to be drawn especially to Morgause. In the sunlight, she looked positively radiant. He had been told that his mother had blonde hair as well and he figured that it must a weakness for Pendragon men. Morgana was lovely as well though the two of them were quick to argue and get on each other's nerves. It was probably due to the fact that Morgana was more passionate and intense than her sister. Morgana had an eye to pursue swordplay and riding instead of court duties of a lady. Uther didn't put much support in Morgana pursuing these interests of hers. Morgause had more lady like interests like court proceedings and for literary study which Uther thought was commendable.

As they got older, Arthur began to secretly court Morgause. He didn't know why but something told him that his father wouldn't approve of him courting the Lady Morgause. She found Arthur to be as enticing to her as she was to him. The two of them had a lot of fun during those times, well until Morgause decided to leave Camelot when she a few months shy of 16. She wanted to see to affairs back in Cornwall now that she was close to age. Uther supported her decision even though a good many in the court felt that she was too young to take that on and promised that he would look over Morgana well.

Arthur did miss Morgause, as did her sister Morgana, and the two of them found a common bond to get behind. Uther was happy to see Arthur and Morgana start to get along even if it was for a little while before they resumed their adversarial relationship. Arthur threw himself into his teachings and duties to get over the new loneliness he felt from Morgause's departure. His skill rose and he had started to have serious duties with patrolling the city and join the ranks and become a formal Knight of Camelot. His father often told him that he had high hopes for Arthur to help him finally defeat their father and son enemies Balinor and Emrys together as father and son themselves.

Morgana had suffered nightmares when she was a girl and after her mother died they had gotten to be more frequent. So much so that Gaius had made her a sleeping draught to help her rest. With the loss of her sister, they hit her even harder. Images of her sister in pain and there was one of a young boy with pale ice blue eyes along with them. She hoped that it was something that she would get over when the loss of her sister wasn't as intense. Morgause made to write her which helped but it just wasn't the same as seeing her all the time. Morgana began seeing a friend in her newly assigned maidservant Guinevere, the daughter of a skilled blacksmith in Camelot. She had an older brother who just left as well and Morgana was able to find someone who truly understood her pain.

What no one knew was that Morgause had a few ulterior motives for leaving Camelot when she did. First was Uther. Over time Morgause was detecting odd feeling coming off him. She was well aware of her abilities as an Empath and it frightened her whenever she felt that hate and pleasure of seeing magic users executed in the courtyard coming off of him. Morgause also thought she felt a bit of bitterness towards her from him while she felt fondness from him around her sister. She was worried that it was improper fondness but after delving in deeper found that it was the type that a father would have for a child. She heard that he thought Morgana was often very much like her father. She didn't see how because their father never had that level of passion for what he did; dedication, yes but no extreme passion. Then there was the consequences of her trysts with Arthur. She was finding herself to be late in her cycle and she knew she had to leave before she started showing if she was to avoid any trouble. She secretly gave birth to a baby boy that she named Mordred. She knew that she couldn't keep him around otherwise someone could make the connection and that could open problems. She took a solo trip and traveled in the guise of a commoner for a while until she stumbled onto a group of passing Druids. She asked if they could care for the boy and they accepted him to her relief. The final reason she had for leaving Camelot was to pursue a path that she was open to a few years ago. Her growing power made her curious and with all the news and talk of the Dragon King and Prince as well as talk of a secret magic kingdom made her anxious to delve into magic to unlock just who she was meant to be. She sought after Nimueh, hoping that she could train to be a Priestess of the Old Religion like her mother was before her.

End of Chapter 22

A/N: Well that's a wrap. This story is also available on AO3, with picture profiles for the characters, the link is in my profile. Originally, I wanted to write this story because I was inspired by stories of Royal!Merlin and AU's about the Purge getting turned around on Uther. Those stories always skipped over the events of those sort of times as the story started with Arthur and Merlin already as adults. I wanted a story that explored something that would lead on to them like that. I was wondering if I would even make a sequel to this story but the support and buzz that Moment of Chance received has convinced me to keep at it. The next story will be called Meeting Of Fate. It will have Merlin and Arthur meeting up with the new changed world surrounding their new relationship.

Snippet from the coming story.

Arthur, his fellow knights, and his servant Lancelot carefully stepped through the woods to the spot where those villagers reported the odd sounds came from. As they neared, they heard some noises that sounded strange indeed but they could also make out some laughs and voices from people. They came upon a hill where they saw a small group of people, maybe 15 or 16. They were sitting and standing in front of a grand fire in a semi-circle like formation. A handful of them were in light armor and the crest of the Dragon King emblazoned on them. In front of the fire was the cloaked man making gestures with arms and solid shapes were coming out of the fire at his command. The investigation was more fruitful than they thought. They didn't just find agents of the Dragon King but they seemed to have found the Dragon Prince Emyrs himself.