Merlins’s beard! This was an amazing, heartbreaking, loving story that I died when I finished reading it. Seriously I was crying, laughing (Gwaine), furious, understanding etc. Great story keep it up if author should you continue writing more stories. Very original and I appreciate that. Thank you ️

Very interesting concept! PooMerlin!

What would be really cool is an alternate ending to this where Merlin dies from the stuff, and their reactions. You don't have to, of course.

It was good ,I give it a B

I'm not going to lie this is a better ending and should have been canon I love it start to finish

Dark depressing fic that can make one cry, no sob pitifully into the night..

Regardless, it's well written but I simply cannot agree with your ending. While it's all lovely to have a happy ending and everyone moving on to greater things.. it's quite frankly impossible to forget this kind of event. He wasn't kept in there for a few days or even weeks.. but months. And only ever brought out for an entirely selfish reason and even then not trusted.
So quite frankly I hate your Arhur. And forget Merlin, Gwen would never be able to forgive her husband. She is a Queen and his wife. His Equal. When your partner refuses to even listen to you and betrays your trust like that. That relationship is simply broken forever. There may still be lingering love and haunted feelings of the past but they are painful and simply History. You cannot go back to the past. One day eventually they may learn to be civil to each other but the regrets, and betrayal from before always remain like a cliff barrier.
So forget Merlin... Gwen and Arthur's relationship would never repair itself. This also being the second time that Arthur betrayed her in their relation- the first when he refused to listen or accept Gwen's innocence in Morgana's evil Lancelot debacle. Gwen could forgive him once, before marriage, to give up on her ( I don't. But that's another matter, the show writers were terrible in the latter seasons and made most characters awful). But to forgive her husband on something ten times worse than her banishment.. is simply not comprehensible.

While I generally seek happy endings, I think this is one fic where it could have ended with Merlin's death or him leaving for a new life elsewhere with friends.. anywhere but Camelot or next to Arthur anyhow. And then Arthur may to try to re-bring Magic in his honour and guilt.. with Gwen living her second chance at life as fulfillingly as possible and never quite as close to Arthur again..

Angsty but believable, short but deep, with hope at the end. I liked it, thanks!

Great story, greatly enjoyed it :)

I really liked this story, it was well written and truth be told made me want to cry which was perfect.

That was amazing! I absolutely ADORE the ending. Great job!

That was beautiful. I didn't really want Merlin to forgive Arthur, but it was still good

Thank you so much for writing and posting. Don't forget to mark this story as "complete".

Oh, what a breathtakingly emotional story! I read another fic with Merlin in the oubliette not so long ago, and it described the horrors he faced in there and the changes he went through in great detail. In that story, he got out of there after a month, and was a completely broken man. I had all those happenings in th back of my head - so when you wrote "the weeks rolled on" I felt my heart clench painfully, and when you oh-so-casually mentioned that it was MID SUMMER it was all I could do to stop reading for a moment, take a few deep breaths and stop myself from crying, but the tears of horror had already filled my eyes. Wow. I think how you described Merlin and his behaviour afterwards was spot on - he had every right in the world to lose himself in his hatred, and yet being the gentle soul that he is, he still kept together quite well. That paragraph where he describes how Arthur destroyed his faith and his light though - dear lord, that just broke my heart completely, and it was SO well written Wow. Just wow. I think I need some time to compose myself over how much this story touched my heart and played with my feelings. You're one hell of a writer, you!

This is making me want to cry. Poor boys.

Very nicely written, and put together. For a minute there I didn't think even something as significant as moving to make magic legal would break through the crust. Definitely one of the better reveals I have read, and perhaps a good example of this part of the spectrum of reveals that seem to be possible in this fandom. My only recommendation would be to tag this fic as completed as it is and that tag on a fic adds greatly to its value as one gets tired of reading amazing but incomplete fics. Thank you for posting!