Strongest of the Warlocks: Chapter Twenty-Five: Out of Time

AN: Yes, I'm back! Updates are still going to be sporadic at best, but at least you guys know that you're getting updates. If you float over to my fanfic tumblr, I've started up a schedule of what two fics are being updated each month. You might get more, you might get less, depending on what's going on in my life at the time, but its typically going to be just two.

The Nemeton referenced in this chapter is slightly stolen from Teen Wolf :)

Merlin was running, racing through the courtyard, her arm in its sling banging painfully against her ribs as she ran. She didn't even stop for breath until she nearly collided with Leon.

"Leon!" Her eyes roved, searching for obvious injuries, but could only see a few scrapes. "Are you all right? What happened?"

For the first time since she'd met him, Leon seemed quite beyond words, only pointing in the direction of the Court Physician's quarters and Merlin didn't wait around, lurching off towards it, flinging the door open.

She knew it had to've been Arthur -who else was as stubborn and foolish- who'd been the reason for the bell ringing, but she'd hoped, perhaps against hope, that maybe he'd managed to keep his head down for at least a full day after the last issue Camelot had to deal with.

Evidently it had been too much to ask.

He was lying on the table, completely passed out, his skin ashen and wet with blood and sweat.

"What happened?" she demanded a second time, reaching Arthur's side and looking for any visible wounds. She tilted his head to the side. "Is this a bite?"

Gaius nodded seriously and regretfully. He hadn't even tried to stem the blood, Merlin noticed to growing unease, that was very unlike him. "A bite from the Questing Beast."

"The what?" Merlin balked. "What the hell is that?"

She didn't have time to receive an answer, at the sound of a shout beyond the door of "Where is my son!"

The king stormed through the door, his eyes on his son "Arthur!" He seemed quite overcome, which wasn't a look that Merlin thought he'd ever wear. Uther may have been a tyrant -and he certainly was that- but it couldn't be said that he didn't love his son.

"Do something, Gaius!"

"I am trying, your majesty," Gaius promised. "I will do everything in my power."

Evidently Uther had reached his breaking point, which Merlin hadn't been sure was possible. He'd thrown Arthur into the dungeon before for defying him. It was somewhat mystifying to discover that his stone heart actually beat in his chest.

He reached down and pressed a hand to his son's chest, over his heart, appearing to steel himself before taking Arthur's arm and moving it around his shoulders. "I'll bear him to his chamber." He lifted his limp son and Merlin could swear there was a wetness to his cheeks.

Gaius cast Merlin a look as he followed Uther out, but Merlin couldn't really analyze what it meant in the moment.

She made to follow after him but she tripped over a spare book on the floor, probably one of the ones she'd cast aside harmlessly after finishing reading and devouring the next one. She'd read most of Gaius' medical tomes, though her interest lay more in healing via magic.

Merlin tried to grasp the wall as she fell, only to fail, colliding painfully with the floor, her head cracking against the stone.

She must've blacked out for a second only to blink her eyes open and sit up, rubbing the back of her head.

"That's the last time I leave books out like an idiot," she muttered to herself, using the table to pull herself upright, stepping towards the door, still intending to follow Gaius, only to pause.

There was something out of the corner of her eye that wasn't right…Merlin twisted around to stare. There was a door on the western wall, one which previously had been entirely bare. It was a bit more than unnerving and slightly more than intriguing. It bore the symbol of the waxing, waning and full moon, the one that marked the Triple Goddess.

That couldn't be right.

Anything pertaining to the Triple Goddess was strictly prohibited in Camelot and finding someone in possession of such a symbol was put to death. It was yet another thing about Uther's kingdom that angered Merlin, but if she dwelled on it too much, things tended to explode around her, so Merlin tried not to think about it, whenever possible.

She brushed her fingers across the symbol, almost reverently. She had the triskelion tattooed onto her skin by a wary Iseldir when she was seventeen -hidden where no one would see it-, but Merlin had always been devoted to the druidic way and to the Triple Goddess.

The knob clicked open with a small creak. Sunlight filtered through the crack, the air suddenly much fresher and filled with the scents of growing herbs, and magic…the magic was potent in the air, like it was the most natural thing in the world, as it should've been.

It was almost as though it was coaxing her through.

She opened the door completely and stepped through before she could even stop herself.

For a moment, there was nothing but darkness and Merlin pressed her hands out, feeling the sides of the walls for something, anything, only to realize they had the rough quality not unlike bark.

Merlin took another step, only to blink as she came out of what seemed to be a hole in a tree, stepping lightly on bright green grass. Everything was so lush and full of life and Merlin could practically feel the magic brushing against her skin.

She turned back to see where she'd come, but the tree with its opening had vanished, which should've unnerved her more than it did.

She didn't think she'd ever seen grass quite so green; the trees' branches were winding, some covered in moss, some not; there were some statues carved of stone, not like the ones in Camelot, stiff and formal, and all of soldiers, these ones were more fluid and beautiful.

"Wow," Merlin murmured in awe, leaning her head back to take it all in. She'd been there before, she was sure of it…it was all so familiar…

She took a few steps back only to nearly crumple against the edge of a fountain. The water was a clear blue, clean enough to drink.

"Trying to figure out where you are, are you?" came an unfamiliar voice that echoed, as though three people were speaking at once.

Merlin twisted back and almost lost her balance, which would've been even more embarrassing. It was a woman that had spoken. Her hair hanging loose with a small braid on either side of her face, strewn with beads. The circlet about her brow held no rare gems, it was a simple a band of gold, and she wore a cloak around her shoulders, brought up to hardly shield her face. A triskelion was carved into the amulet that lay high on her chest, dangling from her throat. Later Merlin would have trouble recalling her face, the color of her skin or her eyes or her hair, nothing but the maternal smile.

"Who're you?" Merlin managed, grasping at her hip for the sword that wasn't there only to gape to find it held in the unknown woman's hand.

"Interesting style, I'll give you that," the woman mused in her echoing voice. "Not the type that would do you much good in a fight."

Merlin huffed in annoyance. Percival had made the first one with limited materials and Arthur had had it reforged for her. "It was too heavy for me, it was remade."

An eyebrow arched. "If it's too heavy, practice until your strength increases. This weapon will only be a hindrance."

Merlin stared at her in incomprehension before exploding in aggravation "Who are you?!"

Her blatant confusion and annoyance seemed to only amuse the woman further. "My name is Danu, dear one, and I am one of the aspects of the Triple Goddess whom you are devoted to."

Merlin's jaw dropped to the ground.

There was a goddess in front of her…talking to her…Merlin was about to lose her head completely. Did she really have time to deal with a goddess on top of everything else that was going on in her life?

"Danu."

"Yes," Danu agreed.

"A goddess?" Merlin's brain had completely quit on her.

"It does seem that way, doesn't it?" Danu mused.

"Wait, one aspect? Who are the others?" Merlin was still trying to wrap her head around the idea of the Triple Goddess having separate aspects rather than the single one she'd been imagining for years. Really, she should've realized it, seeing as she was called the Triple Goddess for a reason. "Wait, that's not important. Where am I? Why am I here? Why are you here?"

Danu tilted her head consideringly. "Surely you know where you are, dear one."

Merlin made a confused gesture with her hand and Danu smiled. "Walk around," she said, "you'll figure it out."

Merlin narrowed her eyes suspiciously, but complied with the request. Danu was right about one thing…there was something so painfully familiar about it…

She walked away from Danu, hands brushing against trees as she walked. She was in a forest, of course, but it was more than that, Merlin could feel it. She continued on, feeling like she'd passed through a barrier of sorts, like there were spiderwebs clinging to her skin.

Merlin turned in a smooth circle. It was a grove, a beautiful and sacred grove like nothing Merlin had ever seen before. There were no sacred groves left, not in Camelot, not in Mercia, not in Ealdor…

The tree at the center was larger than the others by far and old, very old, its branches twisting upwards.

"It's…beautiful." Merlin turned back to see Danu where she'd followed her. "What is it?"

Danu's smile was soft. "This is a sacred grove called a Nemeton, that tree is the center, though its mostly known as the Nemeton itself these days." Danu sighed. "Much of how things were has been forgotten."

"Nemeton," Merlin murmured, looking back to where that fountain was. "Wait, that fountain…" The last time she'd seen it, it hadn't been a thing of beauty; it was cracked and broken, overrun by moss, time and elements chipping away at the carved stone. "That fountain," she said, pointing to where she could barely see it, "that fountain's in Elmet!"

Danu clapped her hands together delightedly. "Yes! You must dream about it constantly."

Merlin didn't know what to make of that, but she didn't have the time to comment on it, because everything around her shifted, withered, died…became Elmet as it was now.

"What happened to Elmet?" Merlin asked. "Not what the stories say, what really happened?"

Danu's lips curved, just briefly, like Merlin had figured something out, before it fell. "You know the name of the last king of Elmet, yes?"

"Cian," Merlin agreed, "what about him?"

"Cian was from a line of very rare, very powerful sorcerers, ones that are now known as Dragonlords, and their family seal is one that you should know well." Danu moved her hands, and what looked like sparks formed into a dragon with a slightly bowed head.

"But that's the crest of House Pendragon," Merlin said before cold unease settled within her, "oh, tell me they didn't!"

Danu gave a half-grimace and Merlin wanted to hit something. "They stole a crest from a magical family? Oh, that is a whole new low!"

Complete and utter bastards! Currently, the only redeeming quality of the Pendragons was Arthur and even he'd been terrible to deal with at the start.

Danu continued as though she hadn't been interrupted. "Cian was powerful and power incites fear, not from his kingdom, but from his enemies and I fear we may have led to his downfall."

"What d'you mean?" Merlin frowned.

"I once had a devoted follower, a nymph who wished to walk on land and learn magic, to grow and see the world."

Merlin could see where this was going.

"She learned the ways of the Old Religion, became a High Priestess, then she found herself as the Court Sorcerer to Cian…and that was when her intentions went from good to bad." Danu clasped her hands together, looking particularly uncomfortable. "I don't know if it was a vision or simply lust for power…but she turned and twisted and became something dark and dangerous…the legend was that Cian had been wounded in battle and that as his injury festered, an infection spread, not just through his body, but through his land as well, reducing Elmet to a wasteland…but that's not entirely true."

"She cursed it," Merlin realized, "the nymph."

Danu inclined her head in agreement. "She wounded him and bound him to his land, cursing him within an inch of death and remaining in a stasis there for centuries."

Merlin was struck by that. She'd never heard of such a thing, but surely being so close to death and being unable to die…surely that was worse than dying. And she'd dreamed about Cian before but he'd never seemed as though he was in pain, let alone dying.

And that was tragic, Merlin couldn't deny it, but what did that have to do with anything?

"All of the actions she'd taken off-set the natural balance of the world," Danu explained, looking to Merlin, "so I created you."

"I -excuse me?" Merlin said blankly.

"You were my answer to imbalance, a child born purely for magic. Your creation is what balanced everything out."

Merlin opened and shut her mouth, seeming unable to deal with that information. Merlin had always felt…unimportant in the grand scheme of things, not unloved, because she was certainly well-loved, but her effect on the world around her was rather small. The idea that a facet of the Triple Goddess, if not the Triple Goddess in her entirety, had played a part in her creation…that was a bit hard to wrap her head around.

Her first reaction was:

"I think you've got the wrong person," she said slowly, cautiously. "I'm…I'm no one."

She was just a woman from Ealdor, and barely a woman at that, one who was just enough strange to be an outcast in her own birth village. Sure, she had magic, but she also had Iseldir to guide her, who only called her 'Lady' when he knew it would annoy her.

Right?

Danu tilted her head and smiled. "You are a child of magic, Emrys, a child of the earth, of the sea, and of the sky, and one day, you will see what I see."

She sounded like Iseldir and Merlin wasn't sure if she liked that. Iseldir, she could handle, not this goddess who could probably kill her with relative ease, without even blinking.

"But Nimueh enjoys the chaos that comes from nature's disharmony," Danu sighed and Merlin twisted her head towards her so fast that she almost got whiplash.

She suppose she shouldn't have been surprised, earlier Iseldir had said that Nimueh had once been a water nymph and among those most devoted to the Triple Goddess, but, somehow, she'd been hoping that it wasn't just one nymph that had been systematically ripping apart her life since she entered Camelot on top of devastating Elmet.

Reality was disappointing. But it wasn't like it was a very common name.

"I've given you all the tools you need, the rest is up to you," Danu said simply.

"I don't understand," Merlin pressed.

"You will," Danu said, giving a twist of her hand and Merlin shot awake, the back of her head aching.

Merlin groaned loudly, pressing a hand to her face before shooting up into a sitting position. She could still hear people talking loudly beyond the door which was still vibrating where Uther had painfully swung it open to see Arthur.

She got up and slammed the door shut, trying to think. As much as she wanted to, it was pretty useless to go after Arthur when she didn't have a clue what a Questing Best was.

"I need a book on the Questing Beast," she said out loud, her eyes flaring gold briefly and one of Gaius' many books fell out of the shelf, open on the page that she needed.

"Thank you," she muttered, grabbing it and putting it on the table, her finger trailing over the words, skimming until she found what she needed. "Questing Beast! Here it is...a strong body of a leopard and the fearsome head of a snake…Its venom is highly poisonous, where one bite means assured death and there is no cure." Merlin gritted her teeth together in annoyance. Of course not, that's how it always went, didn't it? "Questing Beast is supposed to foreshadow a time of great upheaval and is regarded as a terrible omen…only one Questing Beast may exist at a time; when the current Questing Beast dies a new one will come into existence…but there's got to be something to help." Merlin flipped to the next page with an "Aha! Only the Old Religion can bring such an injured person back from the brink of death!"

Now that was something she could work with. Break Nimueh's spell on her mother and save Arthur, those were the only things on her to-do list. Merlin didn't like killing people, but maybe she didn't have to if she used that magic binding spell on Nimueh. Stripping her of her power would be better than killing her by far.

"Where did I put that book?" she grumbled, running off in search of it.

It wasn't that hard to get out of Camelot. Practically everyone was out, mourning Arthur's coming death with lit candles and the sight of it made Merlin so uncomfortable that she just had to look away. Gaius couldn't do anything for Arthur, his medicines would be of no help, but Merlin still could, she could save him.

Merlin clicked her tongue and Triton sped up. This whole day had been exhausting and emotionally draining for Merlin and she really just wanted it to be done. She'd done a tracking spell to find Nimueh, then she'd done the spell to bind magic, containing it in the only place she could think of, within her body.

It was a gamble, a huge gamble that it would work, and also that it wouldn't backfire on her and leave her without her magic. This time, Merlin was going to place her fate squarely in the hands of the Triple Goddess.

Triton gradually slowed, coming to the water's edge.

Merlin had never been to the Isle of the Blessed, not for lack of wanting, but Iseldir had always said it wasn't safe, and if it had been Nimueh's refuge this whole time, that would make sense.

She found a left-behind boat, murmured a spell, and in a few short minutes, she'd made her way through the fog and was on land once more.

Nimueh looked the same as ever beside that altar, her eyes gleaming malevolently. "I thought you'd come," she mused, "you always seem to come to your mother's aid."

Merlin reined in her anger. "What about Arthur?" she asked.

"Well," Nimueh smiled sweetly, "after how Uther prosecuted me after he used magic to get what he wanted, you can't say it wasn't well-deserved."

A muscle jumped in Merlin's jaw.

"Oh, that genuinely bothers you, doesn't it?" Nimueh appeared positively delighted. "If ever there was someone who hated Uther nearly as much as me…it would be Merlin Ambrosius Aurelius."

Merlin stared. She'd never heard that name before, but it sounded important and impressive, not at all what you'd expect to be attached to Merlin, maidservant to a prince.

"Come to avenge dear old granddad, have you?"

Merlin didn't understand anything that Nimueh was saying, but she didn't have time for this. Her mother was dying, Arthur was dying…it was Merlin's prerogative to do no harm, but she'd do as much harm as necessary to keep her family and friends safe.

She opened her mouth and shouted and then everything was moving so fast that even Merlin, who threw the first fireball, had trouble keeping track.

"Bord!" Merlin shouted as Nimueh created spears out of nothing and sent them soaring towards her. Her eyes glowed and she held out both hands, no matter how much it pulled at her healing shoulder, a dome of pure blue surrounding her and keeping her safe.

"Merlin, the healer, are you sure you haven't exchanged that for Merlin, the warrior?" Nimueh jeered and Merlin glowered, dropping her shield.

"You poisoned Elmet," Merlin said.

"I did," Nimueh didn't bother to deny it.

"Why?" Merlin didn't know why she felt so connected to the land or why it was the thing that pissed her off the most, but it was. She'd seen how it once had been and how it one day would be…but currently it was…desolation and that hurt, for some unexplainable reason.

Nimueh gave her an expression that was less of a smile and more of a baring of teeth. "Because it was the very source of Cian's magic and I needed a power boost. Does that make you angry?"

The ground was smoldering under Merlin's feet. Her frustration was growing. Nimueh was right about one thing, Merlin was a healer, not a fighter. Her magic didn't compare to Nimueh's, not when she'd soaked it all up from Elmet. She'd used offensive magic before, against less powerful warlocks and ordinary people, but Merlin was outmatched.

None of her fireballs had come close to damaging Nimueh. Merlin needed to start practicing more; she was only going to get so far in life with healing and enchanting weapons.

She'd cursed Elmet and Cian and Camelot so many times, tried to kill Arthur so many times, cursed her own mother, and perhaps even goaded the Questing Beast into biting Arthur. Merlin had reached a point beyond angry, now she was just tired. She could feel the curse inside her eating away at flesh and skin and bone; the dull aching was moving steadily into a throbbing agony.

Merlin wasn't going to last much longer, and Nimueh knew it. Even without the curse, doing so many spells in a single day, let alone a single hour, was draining.

She crumpled, her knees giving out underneath her. She felt like she was burning.

"Oh, poor baby," Nimueh cooed, stepping closer, "did you overexert yourself?"

The spell to strip magic away had a limited radius in order for it to work properly and with two steps, Nimueh brought herself in range.

Merlin's breath rattled between her lips as she looked up. "End of the line."

"For you, maybe, little princess," Nimueh didn't seem all that worried, but why would she be? Merlin was a novice compared to her.

A novice that was carrying a cannon ball that hadn't yet exploded.

"You're going to regret that," Merlin promised. "Balocræft gebind!" She pointed to Nimueh and the pain grew suddenly and briefly before it rippled out of her, almost like a shadow hanging in the air briefly before shooting forward, towards Nimueh.

The last thing that Merlin heard before she passed out, magically exhausted, was Nimueh's scream of anger mixed with fear.

"No! No! You can't take it from me!"

Merlin's eyesight went fuzzy and for a moment it seemed as though Nimueh's form shimmered, her dress shifting to the color of water and ears coming to points, hands clawing into the ground is she was dragged under by a wave. But maybe Merlin imagined it.

She closed her eyes and knew nothing more.

AN: This chapter was designed to be pretty fast paced. Merlin wasn't doing much looking before she leaped and a lot of stuff alluded to in this chapter will be explained later on.

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