Corrupted Sorcery

Setting: After season 4.

Spoiler Alerts: Pretty much every season, especially season 4, though it shouldn't be to too bad. Mostly just spoilers for the last episode of season 4.

Pairings: Arthur/Gwen, though very, very little since that's not what this story is focusing on.

Major Characters: Merlin, Morgana, Arthur, and Gwaine.

Warnings: Dark Merlin, gore, battles, ect.

Disclaimer: I own nothing you recognize.

Author's Note: So I've been watching a lot of dark Merlin videos on youtube and this idea came from that. Kinda surprised me actually that I could come up with a dark Merlin story when I usually hate those ideas. Oh well, those youtube videos made him look so cool as an even bad dude that I had to give it a try. Anyways, I'll shut up now and get on with the first chapter of Corrupted Sorcery.

Chapter 1: Bandits in the Woods

The sun slowly rose in the sky, casting a cheery glow across the gated city of Camelot. It was a cool spring morning, but the sun's rays told of a warmer afternoon. Camelot was still and quiet, no one was yet out and about as it was still just early morning. The only movements and sounds came from the horse stables were a tired young man was attempting to saddle a not-too-pleased horse.

"Oh come on, Anwen." Merlin said with a yawn. "I don't want to be up either, but I have to get these herbs for Gaius before his royal pratness gives me a list of chores to do."

The horse just neighed and nipped at the boy's arm. Merlin just sighed and ran a hand through his black hair. He stepped backwards away from Anwen and folded his arms, letting the horse tip the saddle and blanket off once more. Anwen looked back over at Merlin and neighed softly before shaking her mane. Merlin shook his head before glancing around and letting a grin spread across his face.

"Cyfrwy y ceffyl." Merlin's voice was low, almost a whisper.

His blue eyes flashed gold and he watched in satisfaction as the fallen blanket and saddle magically rose in the air and went to the horses back. Anwen didn't have time to react before she was saddled. She let out an annoyed whinny and shook her mane at Merlin, who just grinned and patted her on the neck.

"Sorry girl." He said as he mounted. "Let's just keep this our little secret, how about it?"

Anwen just neighed and shook her mane once more. Merlin laughed, taking the horse's response as a "I won't tell" and gently edged her forward and out of the stable. He let the horse go at her own pace—a nice gentle trot—down the streets. A few early rises were out tending to chores and Merlin gave them a cheery wave and a smile. He was in the lower town when a little girl, about six or seven years old, ran out in front of his horse, causing her to rear slightly in surprise.

"Whoa, girl." Merlin said soothingly, patting the horse and steering her away from the little girl who had frozen in surprise and fear. "It's all right Anwen."

The horse shook her mane a couple of times and sidestepped slightly, before calming down.

"Good girl." Merlin said with a smile, patting the horse lovingly. He turned and smiled down at the little girl who was looking curiously up at him. "Good morning, Amaya."

"Good mowning, Mewin." The girl said, smiling brightly up at him, revealing two missing front teeth. "Where you going?"

"To get some herbs for Gaius." Merlin replied, grinning at the girl's slurred speech. "Where are you going?"

"I get to help Aunt Mawy with her store." Amaya's announced excitedly, referring to her Aunt Mary's clothing shop. "She's going to let me help pick people's clothes out!"

"That's great!" Merlin replied. "Tell her I said hi, will you?"

"Sure!" Amaya cried as she started to run off. "Bye bye Mewin!"

"Bye Amaya." Merlin called after her.

He clicked his tongue and Anwen started back at a trot. He got out of Camelot quickly and headed toward the woods about five miles away. It wasn't a long ride, and was one that he quite enjoyed. He'd never admit it, but he really did love getting out of the castle and going for a ride…so long as that ride didn't end in carrying dead animals across his back.

Merlin took a deep breath and relaxed as the horse trotted along. He really did love his horse; well, technically she was Arthur's, but no one ever rode her except Merlin. Arthur had seen to that. So Merlin considered Anwen as his horse. And she clearly thought the same for she threw a horse fit every time someone other than Merlin would try and ride her. Only Gwaine and Arthur had ever managed to ride Anwen when Merlin wasn't around to control her.

Despite what Arthur said about his horsemanship, Merlin was quite good with animals, especially horses. And kids. He was great with kids. Like little Amaya back at the lower town. Oftentimes when Arthur hadn't loaded him down with chores—or when he just decided to not do them and say he did—he would go down to the Lower Town and play with the children. They loved when he came down and they always asked him to tell his stories. He was quite a good story teller too, though the kids would never know that the stories of the prince and his manservant on their many adventures were true stories of him and Arthur. Minus the magic part. As bad as Merlin wanted to, he knew the children were too young to keep their mouths shut and would repeat his stories. He didn't want to risk even mentioning magic around them for fear of word getting to Arthur. Arthur wasn't his father, but he still didn't want to have to make Arthur face the decision of whether or not to arrest a young child for telling stories of magic.

Merlin sighed and smiled. It really was a beautiful day. Already the weather was beginning to warm up and the sun felt good on his exposed skin. It was days like this when he wasn't saving King Arthur's royal backside that he felt truly at home. Sure, he missed Ealdor, and he especially missed his mother, but Camelot became more of his home each and every day.

It didn't take him long to reach the forest. It was a deep forest, and the sun cast shadows that on normal days would have made Merlin nervous. But today was just too fine a day and Merlin started to hum as he steered Anwen down a narrow dirt path. He didn't go too far, only a couple hundred yards or so. When he reached the spot he was looking for—a small clearing with plenty of vegetation between the large trees—he dismounted and tied Anwen to a root that was sticking out of the ground. She whinnied and shook her mane in disapproval, but Merlin just laughed and patted her lovingly.

"I won't be too long girl," he said softly. "Just have to collect a few herbs and then we can go on that ride I promised before heading back to Camelot to serve the royal prat."

Anwen whinnied again and nipped at Merlin, who easily backed away with a laugh. He grabbed the basket and turned around and started toward the spot where he knew the herbs he was looking for where. Sure enough, between two of the largest trees was a big bunch of ground ivy just ready to be used in some of Gaius's tea. He placed the basket on the ground and knelt beside it, carefully picking bits of the ground ivy as he did.

He hadn't been there long, only about five minutes or so, when the sound of a breaking branch interrupted the silence of the woods. Merlin sat up quickly and glanced around frantically, trying to find the source of the noise. A small brown bird hopped into the clearing and Merlin breathed a sigh of relief. Humming to himself, Merlin turned back to his work of picking ground ivy.

A loud shout suddenly broke through the air. Merlin spun around, falling backwards onto the ivy. He stumbled backwards, trying to get away from the large man with red hair wielding a sword coming after him. Behind the running man stood four other men, all holding swords at the ready, but standing where they were.

The red haired man shouted again as he brought his sword crashing down at Merlin, who rolled away quickly and got to his feet. The man spun around and swung out with his sword, cutting Merlin's shirt as he barely dodged the blade.

"What are you doing?" Merlin cried out, ducking as the sword swung at his head.

The man didn't reply, and just kept swinging. Merlin, use to dodging from his training with Arthur, narrowly dodged each swing before he was backed into a tree. The man grinned and let out a harsh laugh before swinging what he believed would be the death blow.

Merlin reacted without thinking. His eyes glowed gold and the man was sent flying backwards, his sword falling to the ground, until he hit a tree behind him, knocking the bandit unconscious. Merlin bit back a groan and took a step forward as the other four bandits looked at each other nervously before making their move.

The remaining bandits spread out, trying to surround the young warlock. Merlin just sighed as the four all charged at him with a yell. He threw his hand out, his eyes glowing gold, and the four bandits all flew backwards, falling to the ground unconscious. Merlin stood there staring at their bodies for a moment, his eyes fading back to blue.

"Why is it always me?" he asked with a shake of his head.

He turned back to the ivy and groaned when he saw that his basket had overturned and the ivy had fallen to the ground, crushed and of no use anymore.

"Just my luck." Merlin sighed and bent to pick the basket up.

Basket in hand, he turned and started to head toward his horse when something hit him in the back of the head. Merlin felt the blow and felt himself fall to the ground, but the darkness overtook him before he hit.

Spell Translations

(Taken from Google translate, so if the Welsh is off—which it most likely is, please correct me if it is—blame Google translate 'cause that's all I got. I also used Welsh because I always heard that the Arthurian legend took place in Wales and Britain, so it seems like spells the "real" Merlin would have used would have been in Welsh or something. So yeah, I'm going with that.)

Cyfrwy y ceffyl—Saddle this horse.

Anwen: Very Beautiful (Ok, so this is the horse's name, but it's in Welsh—according to the site I found—and I felt like sharing. Please correct me if this is wrong, I'm not good at languages at all.)