Interesting and wise conversation

Poor kid!

That...was glorious. And beautiful. So well done. Kudos :)

I liked this. Simple and sweet showing the struggle Merlin fights within himself.

That is very clever and beautifully written.

Very nice!

GREAT! LOVED IT! MORE LIKE THIS PLEASE!

This was wonderful! Made me cry. Does Aodan appear in any of your other stories?

excellent

Okay, now that I am a little more coherent (late nights, errant novels, dead brains, bleurgh) I can review properly.

So my first reaction was "Um, YES." Because this is just the right balance of thoughtful, whimsical, and just a touch heartbreaking. I do, in fact, love Aodan as a character-he is practical and sensible and lovable and just roguish enough to make sense and he pulls off the tragic background with a modicum of angst, which is really nice in a piece like this. And the way he talked Merlin back around was stunning, because the "Merlin would forgive Arthur a lie, why wouldn't Arthur forgive Merlin?" dynamic is considered so little around here that it is kind of pathetic. Yes, there will be anger and regret and hurt and throwing things, but eventually it will get better, because Merlin and Arthur are brothers and you cannot hate that which makes you whole. So that bit is perfect. And also, Aodan's ability is unusual and fascinating and wonderful. The dialogue and Merlin's reasons/behaviors are all so perfectly in tune and in character (I LOVE the fact that he didn't leave anyone a note, not even Gaius, because I can't really see him doing that once I think about it) and the whole story offers just the right about of hope to go with its perfect little portion of hurt.

So, in short, you continue to be brilliant in pretty much every way, and I love this story very, very much, and I hope to see Aodan again. This was just really, really nice.

It must be so hard for Merlin to keep on going, when it costs him so much. Aodan was concrete evidence of why the struggle is worth it. I pictured your OC as a philosophical version of The Artful Dodger - eastend accent and all!
Well written!

And now, awkward explanations of where he has been! :)

Very nice.

This was so enjoyable! I thought you wrote Merlin wonderfully, and your OC was great, I especially loved his dry responses... "Walking away then, if you're keen on semantics,". Great job, made me smile!

Emma

Felt a bit like Aodan was there to turn him around but I did like his story. I was rather liking the image of Merlin running a magical orphanage on the banks of Freya's lake. That would have been fun, but was not to be, alas.

This was awesome! I love how you tackled this scenario, since I often wonder how Merlin manages to keep going and if the prophecies are written down or not. Also, I really liked Aodan. He reminded me of one of the Lost Boys from Peter Pan except with an underlying, mysterious wisdom that's really appealing. I'd love to learn more about his ability, but the ending was really clean and closed up the story nicely.