As a one off for New Years, I have decided to write about the first training session involving magic. Set Between Revelation of Emrys and Out Of Control. The Magic ban has been repealed for two weeks to date, and Arthur has decided that his knights need training with regards to magic… Of course, Merlin is the only one suitable…
_

Merlin burst out laughing at Arthur's proposal.
At the indignant expression on the Kings face, he started laughing even louder.
"What is so funny?"
"Nothing… but… Oh Hahaha…" Merlin sank down onto the wooden chest at the foot of Arthur's bed, still laughing. It was some time before he stopped. When he eventually did stop, and managed to get out a half coherent response, he was still hiccupping slightly.
"Sire, are you telling me that you want me to get a bunch of your best knights together, and attack them all with magic?"
"Well… I wouldn't put it quite like that…"
"But you are aware that several sorcerers have recently come to light, and the knights are mad at the fact that they were right under their noses? And you want me to go against them, whilst they have swords and god knows what else, with a few, non-dangerous spells? I had no idea you hated me that much…"
"Merlin… They need to train against a sorcerer. We know that Morgana had allies… You are the only one I trust not to hurt any of them…"
"It's not them I'm worried about. It's me. I wouldn't use dangerous spells on them, but those swords are sharp…"
"Well, it's not like they are gonna hurt you…"
"Then what good will training do? They need to be trying…"
"Oh come on… If you can defeat Morgana, you can beat a few men with sharp swords…"
"Oh yeah? But I was actually intending to hurt Morgana…"
"Ah, you'll be fine…" Arthur looked as though he was trying to convince himself, then shook his head grinning. "You're just making problems out of nothing. I actually get the idea that they are looking forward to it… Well, most of them…"
"So… they already said yes?"
"Yup. I decided to just stick with a few men at first. See how it goes. And if it goes well, it will convince those with doubts."
"Arthur… Three weeks ago, the only experience that they had had with sorcerers was to have been hunting them. It'll take time to adjust…"
"I know… but the sooner the better."
"It may not be one of those things you can get over without any trouble. Heck, I'm having a hard time adjusting. It's really… weird to be able to use magic in the open… "
"I can guess…"
"No. You really can't… Who has volunteered?"
"Gwaine, Leon, Percival, Bedivere, Peredur, Owain, Erec and Tristan."
Merlin groaned and slumped down on the chest, head against the foot of the bed. After a few moments, he sighed, then opened one eye, looking at Arthur.
"Fine… But only as an experiment. If it goes wrong, you'll have to get someone else. I don't know how to do things like this…"
"Ah, come on. You've managed to save my life more times than I care to remember, whilst keeping the guise of an idiot… I'm sure you can hold a training session…"
"'Guise'? Are you saying I'm not an idiot?"
"…No. I was trying to butter you up…"
"You could just make it an order…"
"You have never listened to orders…"
"True. Fine, I'll give it a go. When and where?"

Arthur tried to hide his satisfied smile as he told Merlin to be at the training fields that afternoon. Merlin's disgruntled expression, combined with the fact that he really didn't seem very keen on this, had Arthur ready to reconsider, but he knew it would work. The knights he had chosen trusted him implicitly, so there would be no trouble from that angle. The only thing he was worried about was how the magical population would react… Especially if Merlin got hurt. They seemed very protective of their own, especially seeing a Merlin had become the unofficial leader of the magic users in Camelot. But Merlin would be fine, the knights would be fine, and it would all go brilliantly. After all, putting the world's most powerful Sorcerer against several of Camelot best knights, who had, until recently, been hunting down his kind? Throw in some swords, a few spells and an eager crowd of spectators? What could possibly go wrong?

Merlin had been raging to Gaius at Arthur's 'Clot-pole'ishness since he had returned that morning. But he had looked up some spells that would be handy. Blasts that were mainly just for show, but that held quite a kick if they hit someone squarely. Only a slight sting and a bit of a punch, but nothing too dangerous. Though whether the others would think that…
Gaius , surprisingly in Merlin's opinion, had been supportive of the idea. When he had explained why, Merlin had changed his own tune.
"Merlin, have you considered that this is a huge show of trust from Arthur? He wants this to work. As much as you from what I've seen. If he can get the knights, well, those who have slight doubts, on his side, then the rest of Camelot's people will follow. Though, they seem keen on the idea anyway."
"And it will show the magical population that he means what he says…" Merlin mused, then shook his head, grinning.
"I hadn't considered it like that. It's a brave way of doing things…"
"But if it works, and I have no doubt that it will, it will make everyone much less tense."
"You're right Gaius. Thanks… I'll see you later."
Reassured by his mentors words, Merlin head down to the training field with a much lighter step. He found he was actually looking forward to this…

Walking onto the field, Merlin found himself accosted by Taren. The first to come forward, she was a strong willed, loud spoken woman, and Merlin had formed a firm friendship with her.
"Be careful out there, eh? We don't want things to go wrong. Arthur's a brave man. This is risky… if something goes badly-"
"It'll be fine. Trust me… I had my doubts, but… these guys are fine."
"Okay then... And Arvin and a couple of others are considering Arthur's offer to join the guard. He really wants this to work, doesn't he?" She was referring to Arthur, and Merlin nodded, grinning.
"Yeah, he does. And you have no idea how much you sounded like Gaius just then…"
"Merlin! Get your ass over here!"
Merlin saw Gwaine beckoning to him and sighed.
"I better get going. You gonna stay and watch them get their asses kicked?"
Taren grinned, nodding.
"Wouldn't miss it for the world…"
Merlin ran over to Gwaine and they head into the field. Merlin wasn't surprised that the edges of the sparring field were surrounded by people, all keen on watching what was going on. Merlin smiled, ruefully, and made his way over to the others.
"So…" that was Bedivere, "Leon? You owe me a drink. I bet that Arthur would be able to persuade you. Leon said you were too stubborn." Bedivere explained, and Merlin grinned.
"I agreed just to get away from his infernal logic…" he said, then sighed. "Right. To be honest, I have no idea how this is going to go, so I thought just start on something simple then see where it goes."
The knights nodded, and Merlin continued.
"So… the best thing you can do in a magical attack is avoid the blasts directed at you. You're swords would also be good for deflecting some spells. With that in mind, I've found a spell that isn't really dangerous, it only packs the same kind of force as an average punch… with a little light stinging that disappears almost immediately."
"Yeah, but the last time you punched someone, they were unconscious before they hit the floor…" Leon said, grinning at the memory.
"I was irritated…"
"That's what Gwaine said too… That's also when we decided to never piss you off…"
"…Right. Okay then…"
"Anyway, what were you saying?"
"Yeah… Right. I fire at you, you dodge or deflect with your sword. If not, you get a few seconds of very unpleasant tingling."
"No worse than when Arthur beats us in sparring… or Percival when we're sparring…" Owain summed up, then grinned. "That's it?"
"Well… If that seems to easy… we can always… speed it up."

Merlin grinned at the knights arranged themselves at the other end of the field. This was going to be fun.
He sent a bolt at Gwaine, who just managed to bring up his sword in time. At the glare, Merlin just shrugged, grinning. The mutterings around the field grew and Merlin began firing.
In the next ten minutes, the mutterings grew to applause, cheering and whistles, as the crowd got into what had turned into, a game. Merlin had sped up his attacks, and started sending multiple shots at once. All of the knights had been hit at least once, and Gwaine was still accusing him of favouritism as he got to his feet for the fifth time. After another few minutes, where the knights were literally doing acrobatics in the air, Merlin stopped firing. After a few moments, the knights realised that he had finished and stood upright. From the smiles on their faces, Merlin realised that they had enjoyed it. The clapping and cheering from around the field intensified, and Merlin felt a hand on his shoulder. Turning to see Arthur, he grinned.
"Okay, maybe you were right."
"You enjoyed that, didn't you?" Bedivere accused him, jogging over with the others.
"Maybe a little," Merlin replied, grinning. "Ready for the next lesson?"
"Hell yeah!" That was Erec, who was laughing. "That was the most fun I've had in ages… What else you got?"
"Close range…"
"Well," Leon said, "This should be interesting…"
Merlin explained his idea, and they all agreed, positioning themselves in a circle. To Merlin's surprise, Arthur joined them, grinning.
This caused a lot of excited muttering around the edges of the field.
The idea was simple. Merlin was in the center of the circle, and the knights could take it in turn to attack in any way they wanted, and from any direction. Merlin would attempt to stop their attack.
"Ready?" He got affirmatives from the knights, and positioned himself In the center of the circle. Merlin opened his magically enhanced sight, and after a few seconds, felt someone move behind him. Turning, he blasted at Owain, who deflected the shot with his sword. Gwaine lunged from his left, and Merlin blasted at him. Gwaine dodged it by spinning around, but was too slow to deflect Merlin's next blast. And so the session continued. Arthur, Leon and Erec managed to get close enough to strike, but Merlin used the dagger in his belt, to deflect the light blows, ducking away. As soon as one person was out of his way, Merlin was attacked form another direction, and eventually the activity evolved so that he had up to three people attacking him at once. Eventually, after almost half an hour of this, Arthur got past his defense and knocked him to the ground. Grinning, Merlin disappeared, reappearing behind all of the men.

They all noticed him a few seconds later, but Merlin held up his hand, calling the session to a halt.
"Never assume you have won. It would have been all too easy to attack from behind."
"But what was that? Did you just jump from one place to another."
"Similarly to what I did with the druids. A small distance is not hard to do. Takes hardly any energy at all."
"So, how could we possibly combat that?" That was Peredur, who was still catching his breath.
"Whenever someone does that, there is a small shift in the air. If you are focused, you can detect it."
"But if we are in a fight, we'd be focused on other things…" Tristan said, "So how could we focus on it?"
"There is a way… But it's kind of… Ah, how do I explain…?" Merlin thought it over, then nodded, "Okay so a movement like that creates a change in the air wherever the person appears. Like this." Merlin vanished and reappeared right next to Tristan, making him start. But the knight nodded,
"Yeah, I get what you mean… But what if they appear at a distance?"
"That takes intense concentration, but it would be unlikely in a battle. Afer all, most things are in close proximity. Anyway, only a powerful magic user can hope to do this. At least, more than couple of times and for any great distance."
"So... we should look for the shift in the air." Bedivere asked,
"No to the exclusion of everything else. Rather, you should become accustomed to what it feels like, so its second nature to check for it. Like it is instinctual for you to scan for weapons in a fight."
"So. How do we do that?" Arthur asked, "We can't just wait for you to keep doing it. We need to know how to focus on more than one thing at once…"
"Exactly." Merlin grinned. "How about we resume what we were doing before, but this time, I'll throw in some moves…"
"Can you show us what I feels like first?" Gwaine said, and jumped as Merlin appeared next to him.
"Like that." A few more jumps and they all knew what they were looking for.

They took their original positions and started again, with the rule that they were to leave the area after they had been tapped on the back by Merlin. The idea was to whittle the knights down, making it harder for Merlin to get them out. Erec lunged forward and the game began. Tristan was the first to leave, five minutes into the session, followed by Owain and Percival. Fifteen minutes in, and Gwaine was out, though the men had started to focus more as a team, much to Merlin's relief. They worked better as a group. Though it made his job harder. It took him a further ten minutes to whittle the men down to Leon, Erec and Arthur.
Soon, Leon left, and, five minutes later, Merlin realised that he wasn't going to Get Arthur and Erec and called a halt to the activity.

It was close to an hour later before the spectators had vacated the field, and Merlin had spent most of that time assuring Taren and Arvin that he as fine. He had to work hard to convince them that the jumps hadn't taken much energy out of them, and it took an explanation about him having found the core of his powers to get them to leave him alone. Still, Merlin was warmed by their obvious concern for him. Suddenly, he felt a blade behind him and span out of the way, vanishing and reappearing behind Arthur.
"Nice try…"
Arthur span around, grinning,
"Damn it. You have seriously keen senses… How come I never knew that?"
"They are kinda fuelled by magic and stuff… It's complicated… And hey, What on earth did do that for?"
"I'm surprised that wasn't the first thing out of your mouth… I was just trying to see how the hell you seemed to be able to sense people moving behind you. I guess I now know…"
"But that thing is sharp!"
"Relax, it wasn't like I was aiming to hit you."
"You could have…"
"Merlin?"
"What?"
"You are such an idiot…"
"… Let's just drop the conversation."
"Agreed…" Arthur was grinning at the scowl on Merlin's face, and Merlin couldn't help grinning too.
He knew that he sword wouldn't have touched him. But never-the-less…
Arthur spoke up again,
"So, I think that went well…"
"Yeah… And don't say I told you so."
"Wouldn't dream of it. But I wanna hear you say I was right."
"And give you credit? Nope."
"Merlin…?" Arthur raised an eyebrow and Merlin sighed,
"Fine. You were right. Happy?"
"Marginally. Though there is a rat in my quarters…"
"Seriously?"
"Sorcerer or not, you are still my servant…"
"Not if I quit…" Merlin muttered… grumbling,
"Ah, you wouldn't do that…"
"No?"
"Nope. You wouldn't pass up the chance to wake me at a godforsaken hour every morning…"
"Really? Thats the reason you want to use?"
"Well, I…"
Their banter was cut short by the arrival of Erec.

"We were thinking of heading for the Tavern to wind down… Would you two be interested in coming along?"
"I'm afraid I have a meeting in an hour." Arthur said, and Merlin grinned, winking conspiratorially at Erec.
"He's just afraid I'll win all his money again…" he said, referring to the night, a week previously, where he had beaten Arthur in a game of dice at the Tavern.
"I still say you cheated…" Arthur complained, "You must have used magic…"
"Sire!" Merlin looked at him in mock outrage, "I would never dream of using magic to show you up… The very thought is absurd…"
"Right… Either way, I have a meeting, and you are going to catch that rat…" Arthur concluded, gripping his servants shoulder and pulling him towards the castle. "Give our apologies to the others Erec."
"Yes Sire…"
Merlin couldn't help laughing at the indignant look on Arthurs face.
"You know, if you want a rematch…"
"Nope…"
The rest of his response was cut short by the arrival of a young woman, who curtsied to Arthur, and turned to Merlin. From the respectful nod, Arthur surmised that she was one of the magic users in Camelot.
"Merlin… Gaius has sent for you… It appears someone has arrived, having been sent by your mother."
"Who?" Merlin looked as confused as Arthur, having heard nothing about anyone visiting from Ealdor.
"A young boy. His name is Archie… Gaius sent me to find you…"
"Yes… I'll be there right away…"
The woman ran off and Arthur ad Merlin exchanged bemused looks.
"You'd better go see what's going on…" Arthur said, "But I want my outfit, for the meeting, ready in half an hour…"
"I'll add it to the list Sire…" Merlin said and took off in the general direction of Gaius's rooms.
Arthur went in the opposite direction, wondering why on earth Hunith would send a young boy to Camelot in search of Merlin...