Chapter 3

Quiet murmurs pulled Arthur from slumber, dragging the young king into the world of wakefulness. Leon looked at him from across the campfire, gaze anxiously flicking in Merlin's direction and back. The younger man was cocooned between Arthur and Gwaine, not having woken or stirred since his collapse in the cave a few hours before.

Realizing that it was in fact Merlin currently muttering in his sleep, Arthur quickly sat up and leaned over to listen, hoping for a sign that his friend was waking up.

What he heard instead caused the king to close his eyes in pain.

"Father... Merriath... Medric... Freya... Hilde..."

"What's he saying?" Leon asked from a few feet away.

"Names," Arthur said numbly. "Names of the family he didn't have." Despite a reputation towards thick-headedness, the young royal was perfectly able to make the same observations as any of his knights. He saw how the daughter and younger siblings Merlin never had simply vanished, whereas Balinor and the young woman present in the bubble were felled by wounds they sustained. The Dragonlord's death, Arthur had been present for. The unknown girl... He didn't want to think about how Merlin must have lost her.

"Think we should try waking him again?" Gwaine spoke up, revealing that he was awake and aware as well. Arthur didn't answer, but instead went ahead and grasped Merlin's shoulder, gently shaking the younger man.

Eyes that should have been blue snapped open, flared gold, and the next thing Arthur knew he was flat on his back several feet away.

"Whoa!"

"Ack!"

"Oh gods!" Someone scrambled across the stone ground to Arthur's side, anxiously checking him for damage, and it took the addled man a minute to realize it was Merlin. Somehow, it only reassured him that despite having powerful magic, his manservant was still the same old clumsy, accident-prone idiot.

Thrown in opposite directions, Leon was just sitting up, looking stunned, while Gwaine remained in his prone position, shaking with laughter. Elyan and Percival had been woken by the commotion, but were merely staring at the others with confusion, unaware of what had just occurred.

"Arthur, I'm so sorry- that doesn't normally- I didn't mean to- I'm sorry-!" Merlin kept babbling in a panic even as Arthur levered himself upright.

"Oh shut up, you idiot." The king rolled his eyes, then blinked as the younger man clamped his mouth closed and proceeded to stare at him with naked terror. "Merlin. It's fine. I'm fine. Quit acting like I'm a vase you've just shattered."

Gwaine, who'd begun to calm down, burst back into cackles.

"I'm sorry," Merlin murmured again, with such profound sadness this time that Arthur knew he meant more than just the accidental toss.

"We'll discuss it in the morning." He replied sternly, carefully getting to his feet. Leon had also risen, and walked to where Gwaine lay in order to give the other man a light kick to the ribs. Percival took the opportunity to toss another couple of their scavenged logs onto the dwindling fire while Elyan posed the question over what happened. As he listened to Leon explain, Merlin seemed to grow even paler, a detail which did not escape the others.

"It's not that bad, mate, you can stop looking like we're going to skewer you or something." Gwaine tried to reassure the manservant, only for it to backfire. Merlin made a strangled sound in the back of his throat, causing Arthur to fix him with a suspicious gaze.

"Merlin." The king's voice came out softly, but with an authority that forced the younger man to look up at him. "Do you honestly think, after all we've been through together, that any one of us would be willing to attack you without a damn good reason?"

"Having magic is a good enough reason in Camelot." The muttered response caused all of the knights to fall into a tense silence, as Arthur stared at his servant in surprise, then understanding.

"How long have you been practicing it?"

"...All my life." He admitted quietly. "I could move things by magic before I could walk. And I've only gotten more powerful since then." Slowly, but with growing strength, Merlin told them of the things he could do, the foes he'd faced. Arthur could tell there was a lot being left out, but decided that pressing for more could wait until such a time that his servant wasn't afraid of being executed.

"So, by your own admission," the king began as soon as it was clear Merlin had said as much as he was going to. "You've had this power for as long as you can remember, kept it hidden pretty much that entire time, and only used it for the good of Camelot. Correct?"

Merlin gave a shaky nod.

"Then why in the world would we want to kill you for it?"

"Your father-"

"Had his opinions, and shaped the kingdom because of them." Arthur stated. "I have my own, and will alter the laws as I see fit."

Merlin gaped at him. "R-really?"

"Of course really. So quit shaking in your boots, clotpole, nothing's going to happen to you."

Despite all that Arthur and the others tried to reassure him, though, the manservant spent the remainder of the night and a good portion of the next day in a state even more jumpy than usual. It wasn't until Gwaine tried suggesting that he use his magic to pull a prank on the more stuffy Council members, and Arthur pretended to consider sanctioning it, that Merlin returned to something like his usual snarky self.

"So, what happened after we all got caught in those devil-bubbles, anyway?" All their gazes swung in Merlin's direction, who reddened.

"Well... I was keeping out of sight around the corner while you all fought, waiting for a good moment to disguise my own attack against him." Merlin grimaced. "Except, then he threw the orbs, and I wasn't quick enough to block them. He tried to do something to them, I think to make the enchantment permanent, but held off when I threw a blasting spell at him. Just before I followed him from the chamber, I was able to break Elyan's orb, which was closest."

Most of them nodded their acceptance of the story, though the dark-skinned knight gave an exaggerated sigh. "And here I thought I'd manage to overcome the enchantment on my own," he said.

"Not likely." Merlin's eyes became downcast. "From what I saw inside of mine, they were specially designed to generate some new reason for the victim to stay put every time something happened to remind them of the outside world."

"Right... When Gwen asked me 'Merlin who?', I baulked, but then the fantasy introduced me to my mother and I dropped it." It took Arthur a moment to realize Merlin was staring at him intently. "What?"

"Should I be insulted or relieved I wasn't included in your fantasy realm?" The manservant asked, a question that set everyone off chuckling when Arthur rolled his eyes.

"Well, considering that you seem to cause me just as many problems as you solve..." The chuckling increased to full-blown laughter, which both Arthur and Merlin joined in on.

They returned to Camelot that evening, and scattered to their own affairs. Leon went to check in with the castle guard while Elyan asked Gwen to have her evening meal with him, and Gwaine dragged Percival down to the tavern for a night of drinking sorrows away. Arthur retired to his chambers, with Merlin following dutifully after.

"We'll make up an account of the fight with the sorcerer to tell the Council tomorrow," the king was saying as he prepared for bed. "I'd rather not have to explain about the baubles, but we'll definitely make sure they know you were responsible for our victory-"

"You don't have to do that, Sire." Merlin quickly said, grabbing up soiled clothing and taking it over to the laundry basket.

Arthur looked at him in surprise. "Of course I do, you were responsible. We just have to change the details of how." When his manservant merely ducked his head, the king frowned. "What's the matter, Merlin?"

"It's n-"

"Don't you dare say nothing."

Merlin glared, but Arthur simply raised an eyebrow and dared him to go on. "Oh alright, have it your way - I've gone so long now trying to avoid being recognized for any of the things I do behind the scenes, putting me in the center of attention just feels, well, wrong. Especially since I need to keep hiding my magic until I'll be accepted by people."

Sighing, Arthur stood and walked over to his servant, delivering a light punch to the younger man's shoulder. "I get it. But we won't bring up anything about the magic, and I promise to make it sound more like you were simply in the right place at the right time as opposed to actually going through any actual plan."

"...Fine."

"Good."

"Clotpole."

"Cabbage-head."

"Prat."

"Idiot."

"You know, I think I'm starting to realize why you weren't included in my fantasy world-" Merlin yelped when Arthur grabbed him in a headlock, roughly digging a fist into his scalp. "Gah!"

"That's what you get, Merlin-!" Laughing, the king eventually released him - just in time to see Merlin's eyes glow gold, causing a pillow to fly up off the bed and smack Arthur in the face.

"Did you just-?" The incredulous question was cut of when the younger man's expression turned to horror, and he began babbling an incoherent mess of words.

Arthur shut him up by walloping him with the pillow.

By the time that Gwen arrived, not ten minutes later, all the pillows had been snatched up of Arthur's bed and turned into weaponry, quite a few of them lying torn on the floor. She grinned, listening to Arthur and Merlin's banter-mixed-laughter, and left them to it a while longer.

A/N: And that's that! Thanks for reading folks, I hope you all enjoyed this little tale as much as I loved writing it! As I said, I'll start posting my Aithusa-centric story tomorrow, and when that's done, it's a toss-up between my mostly-happy AU where magic was never banned in Camelot, and a Next Generation story in which a fair amount of the show's finale didn't happen ("Just this once, EVERYBODY LIVES!"). And opinions on which should be shared first?

-Tri