He climbed to the perch for the trapeze artists and surveyed the nearly full audience who came to see his circus perform. He searched but didn't see Emrys anywhere. He called out mentally but no one responded. He sighed and climbed down. Another night of restless sleep then.

Ever since he had suddenly woken up on an island in Northern Wales, he had been searching for Emrys to explain this strange world to him. When he woke he found that the castles and fortresses he once knew were in ruins. People wore strange clothes and rode around in big metal boxes. It seemed like sorcery to him. Yet he knew it wasn't so.

He didn't know why he came back, he had died after all. But if anyone knew why, it would be Emrys.

"Go get your outfit on, boy!" Mordred grumbled in response and went to his tent. The worst part of this circus was the clothes he was forced to wear. He joined them when they found him wandering aimlessly through the woods. He was still wearing his armour and so they figured he had been a runaway actor. They gave him food and some of the adults took care of him. He was slowly learning the ways of this crazy world. Wearing clothes that glittered though, no amount of explaining could convince him that this was a normal thing to wear. He kept his worn cloak wrapped around him as long as he could. He grudgingly changed into the sparkles and walked to the performance tent. He waited for them to call him out.

"And now, prepare to be amazed, nay, astounded by the next performer. From a time of magic, the myth reborn, put your hands together for Mordred the Magnificent!" He took a deep breath, forced a smile, and walked out to the applause. The introduction was ridiculous but the Ringmaster liked it and Mordred hoped it would catch Emrys's attention. It hadn't worked yet so he continued with his normal performance.

He began by turning off all the lights and instead dimly lit the cavernous tent with floating flames. Though he didn't need his hands to perform the trick, he swirled his hands and the flames began spinning around the room. As the spinning distracted the audience he created the illusion that they had been transported to Camelot, specifically the jousting yard. This was another intended hint to Emrys if he was here. He stopped the lights from spinning and people gasped in amazement as they looked down to see themselves arrayed in normal clothes and the occasional few who had been lucky enough to sit in the pavilion section. Their clothes had changed to be fancier than those of the common village people.

Mordred too had altered his appearance so as to appear as he did when he was a knight while he announced in a booming voice that he would be swallowing a sword. The audience "oooo"ed in anticipation. He pulled out a sword and a sharpie marker.

"I shall lend this sword to someone and they shall mark it so that they know it is the same." He walked over to a young couple in the front row. The man held the sword while the girl wrote their names in a heart on the blade. "An excellent choice," Mordred drawled and took it back.

He twirled the sword dramatically and he walked back towards the center. He reached the center and threw the sword into the air. The audience gasped as he caught the sword by its hilt just before it entered his open mouth. He slowly lowered the blade down his throat. Well, actually he just shrunk the blade as it passed his lips to it never reached his throat. He enlarged it as he drew it back out again to wild applause.

After a short bow, he thrust the sword in the air and began summoning a thunderstorm. Clouds began gathering and swirling around the sky above the sword as his chanting grew louder. Most started to form on the ground and formed a cloud that lifted Mordred higher in the sky. When he was three meters off the ground, the cloud stopped and he threw the sword into the thick swirling cloud that had gathered above him. The sword disappeared and a bolt of lightning cracked down to the area. As the lightning disappeared, so too did all the flames that had previously lit the big tent. Only a semicircle remained to light Mordred in sinister silhouette.

Crouched on one knee, his head bowed, the crowd held its breath as he remained still before throwing his head back and flinging his arms out wide. Flaming arrows burst into existence and a cloud of them shot straight at the crowd. They began their descent.

Suddenly, way before they would've hit anyone, they turned into doves and flew away. Mordred was stunned. That was not what normally happened. They normally became harmless glitter that sparkled as it fell on the delighted audience. This could only mean one thing. Emrys.

As soon as the show ended he ran to the exit to try and spot Emrys. Many faces filed past him but none had that look of magic about him. Dejected and confused, he walked back to his tent. Once inside he stripped out of his glittering outfit and threw on his gray cloak.

"What are you playing at?" Growled a voice from the shadows. Mordred spun and shot a charm in the direction of the voice without thinking. It was deflected without Mordred seeing who the voice belonged to.

"Emrys?" he asked hesitantly in his mind.

"Aye," he replied in mind speak. Emrys stepped out from the shadows. It looked like he hasn't aged a day since Mordred betrayed them and went back to Morgana. A choice he now regretted. "What were you doing back there?" Emrys asked aloud.

"Trying to attract your attention." Mordred snapped out his temporary lack of speech. "It finally worked. Why am I here?" Emrys glared at him.

"I think you have a few things to answer for first. Namely, the murder of Arthur." Suddenly, despite his appearance of a casual young man, he got the look that reminded Mordred that the most powerful sorcerer who had ever walked this earth. Humbled, and a bit scared, Mordred sat down on his bed.

"I'm sorry for that," he spoke to his feet. "I felt bad about it you know. I've had a lot of time to think. I've realized that I wasn't thinking straight when I left you. I was just so mad that Arthur was stubbornly going to execute her. Just because she had magic. It's just not fair."

"I see you've picked up the language fast," Emrys muttered. "Arthur didn't execute her based on her magic. He brought her to court and explained that her magic was irrelevant. He tried to get her to admit that she hadn't intended to kill him. She refused and proudly declared that she wanted to kill him for repressing her kind. I swear, Arthur tried to make her go back on her word, but she wouldn't; he had no choice."

"I should've trusted him," Mordred said sadly.

"Or broken her out of prison in secret. That's what I was going to do," Emrys stared past the walls of the tent to a far distant time when he thought he could settle down with a wife and kids.

"What happened?" Mordred asked. He had not hear of Emrys having a girlfriend, let alone one Arthur wanted to kill.

"She died." Subject closed. "How long have you been here?"

"A few months I reckon. These guys found me wandering confused in the forest. Everything is so strange here. When I told them my name they acted as if we were distant legends told up children. How long has it been since, well," he trailed off uncomfortably.

"It's been close to two thousand years since you killed him at Camlaan." Mordred's eyes widened at the thought. "Close to two thousand years of wandering alone, waiting for his return."

"Whose return?"

"Arthur. It is his fate to be the Once and Future King. In the time of England's greatest need he will come back to me and we will unite the Kingdom once more. It is his destiny."

"And yours, Emrys. But where do I fit into this?"

"You had a destiny too, though you may not have known. You were fated to deal Arthur a mortal blow at Camlaan."

"And that's why you never trusted me. Why you kept trying to leave me behind." Mordred felt the anger abating that he had been unaware of. "How long have you known?"

"Since you came to Morgana as a small child. Kilgharrah warned me that the two of you would form a deadly alliance and murder Arthur." His voice spoke of deep regret. "He told me to kill you then and there. It wasn't until many years later when I began to trust him. Far too late. By the time you came back with us, you had all the knights in your hand. There was nothing I could do. Our fate had been sealed."

"Couldn't you have stopped me at the battle?" Mordred asked.

"I was too late. Morgana had trapped me and taken my magic. I'm not sure you can imagine what that felt like. I felt I had nothing to live for. I almost did not go on." They sat in silence.

"But you did regain your magic," Mordred asked quietly. "How? I witnessed Morgana doing the same to someone else and they died."

"Long story." Emrys waved his hand to dismiss the thought. "I warned Arthur that your forces would be attacking from the back and then I set off for Camlaan. After a long ride, I made it just before you found Arthur. I was doing my best to hold off the rest of the forces while I was looking for Arthur. I only found him when I felt you stabbing him in the gut." Emrys sank slowly into a chair. "I had hoped I would never have to see that vision come true."

"All the lightning, that was you?" Mordred asked incredulously. He nodded.

"A few days later I had to bury Arthur. I threw Excalibur back in the lake. And I have been waiting for his return ever since. The tower that marks his grave has been falling into ruins, I once feared it was like an hourglass; once it fell completely, Arthur would come striding out of the lake and meet me on its shores."

"What made you change your mind?"

"You." Mordred raised his eyebrows. "Or rather you made me sure. The world has been falling into increasing decay. There were times in the past when I thought for sure that Arthur would come, but I see now that those problems needed modern solutions. The way the world is now, though, some very old solutions may be the best way to fix things. There has been an increase in druid activity lately too. Of course, most people do not know it is them, but I have kept my eyes open. Yours was not the first traveling circus I visited either. I investigated one many years ago when they were advertising the man you couldn't die. I thought maybe it was Arthur. Your were more obvious though."

"I did it intentionally to attract your attention."

"How did you know I was alive?"

"I didn't know why I was alive either, but I figured if anyone would know it would be you so I prayed to the gods that I would find you."

"I'm afraid I do not know why you are here either." He got up and began to pace the length of the tent. "I have not heard of anyone else coming back; I didn't think anyone else was going to. Perhaps it is time for a new Camelot and all the knights are needed to help Arthur. It's possible that the gods have decided to give you another chance." He stopped pacing and looked Mordred in the eye. "Do you want to come with me?"

"What?" Mordred was stunned. "But you hate me! With good reason too."

"I hated you and feared you because I had seen a vision of you killing Arthur. Seeing as he's currently dead, I don't have to worry about that. I know my power is stronger than yours. And it has been lonely these past centuries. I would be glad of some familiar company."

"I can't just run away though, the ringmaster would put up posters and then there would be people looking for me."

"You say they found you in the woods, right?" Mordred nodded. "Then they should believe if your very old grandfather came to claim you at last." Suddenly Emrys no longer looked like a young man, but resembled an elderly figure with a long white beard. Mordred cracked a smile. "Pack up your things, my boy. It's time I took you to Avalon."