Ch. 11

Merlin had expected at some point to wake up in a bed, most likely in a vast room smelling of the chemicals normally associated with hospitals. He recalled waking a few times to being wrapped in blankets, and Gaius' wrinkled and calloused on on his forehead smoothing back his hair or coaxing him into taking some vile potion. It was the bitter, acrid taste of those medicines that had told him, rather forecefully, that he wasn't dreaming.

So he was a little more than surprised when he woke to find himself in his tiny room in Gaius' chambers. It was such a shock that, for a moment – a very brief moment – Merlin wondered if everything that had happened – the journey, the underground city, the dragon, his torture and escape – had all been a dream. Then he shifted, trying to get more comfortable, and gritted his teeth against the pain flaring through his chest.

Nope. Not a dream, then.

"Gaius," Merlin called, or tried to but his throat wasn't having any of it. He cleared it, it protested by burning momentarily, and he tried again.

Gaius hurried in, looking both bemused and happy, then just happy. He fussed over Merlin, ignoring Merlin's myriad of questions until Gaius was satisified by the results of his poking and prodding. Gaius still didn't tell Merlin anything until after Merlin had a full glass of water and a teaspoon of medicine.

"The escape flyers landed near a small village, but the moment we realized that the Order wasn't with us we immediately began organizing a rescue. Not an easy feat in a small village with a sporadically functioning telegraph, let me tell you," Gaius said.

They had remained in the village, waiting for reinforcements, when a patrol brought in two prisoners who just happened to be Gwaine and Lancelot dressed in enemy uniforms. Merlin's fever had been quite high by then – infections compounded by the stress of his injuries - so no surprise that he remembered very little. Thankfully the village had its own doctor with a most excellent practice who had aided Gaius in getting Merlin's fever down. Reinforcements had arrived by then along with a derrigible to take everyone back to Camelot – and, yes, Merlin's precious flyer included. Arthur had made sure of it.

"What of Morgause, Cenred, the city?" Merlin asked almost frantically.

Gaius patted the air to calm him. "Settle down, Merlin. You're still too weak to deal with getting excited." He sighed heavily, not looking particularly happy. "It took time for help to come. We found the valley, but the only sign anyone had been there were a few camp fires."

"And the city?"

"The last telegram we recived told us entrance was finally gained but they had yet to find anything of interest. Either the Emrys wasn't there or..." Gaius trailed off.

"Or they found it," Merlin said. But he shook his head. "No. The dragon said that as long as I escaped then it wouldn't be found."

"Ah, yes, the dragon," Gaius said, sounding wistful. "Arthur told us of it. I'm not sure how your escape would have helped, unless it was to provoke Morgause and Cenred into abandoning the search before our people arrived. But... it would have been most odd. Morgause is not known to be one who gives up so easily. She would have put up a fight until either she found what she was looking for or died trying."

"So, you think the dragon was wrong?" Merlin asked.

Gaius pressed his lips together, thought, then shook his head. "I'm not sure. The Great Dragons were labeled 'Great' for a reason. Their magic is considered the second most powerful magic in the world, only rivaled by the sidhe. Among their many gifts is the ability to calculate possible futures. If the dragon said that your escape would prevent Morgause from finding the Emrys... well, speaking for myself, I'm rather inclined to believe him."

Which helped put Merlin's mind at ease.

Merlin, home, safe, and most of his pains numbed by medicine, slept for the rest of the day, waking only long enough for Gaius to ply him with some food. Otuside his little window, day eased itself into night, Merlin still weary enough to be able to sleep through it, and more than happy to do so.

Merlin.

Merlin's eyes snapped open.

He knew that voice ehcoing in his head.

Merlin. I know you can hear me, young warlock. Meet me in the courtyard. Quickly.

Merlin groaned miserably.

It will not be for long. I wish only to tell you what you need to know, I promise.

It can't wait? Merlin asked.

I am afraid it can't. But it will be worth it. That, too, I promise.

It was with another groan that Merlin forced his aching body out from under the pile of warm coverlets. He was dressed in his sleeping shirt and the old, comfortable trousers a bit too frayed to wear in public. He didn't bother to change, nor tie his boots, and took only long enough to slip into his coat – a hard lesson in mild discomfort.

Merlin padded softly down the little steps into Gaius' chamber, passed Gaius' bed tucked into its little alcove, with Gaius a large snoring lump under the covers. The headquarters of the Order was dark, but nothing an orb of light only Merlin could see couldn't handle.

Merlin had just stepped outside into the cool night, shivering despite his coat, when a dark shape detached itself from the shadows of a pillar.

"Going somewhere?" Arthur asked.

Merlin jumped, the jolt of his frazzled muscles pulling on his broken ribs. He hissed, cradling his chest with his arm – the one with the bandaged wrist.

Arthur stepped into the light of the orb, blinking against even its mild brightness now that he was in range enough to see it. He placed a hand on Merlin's shoulder.

"All right?" he asked.

"Yeah, I'll be fine," Merlin said, waving him off.

"Fine enough to get back to bed, I hope?"

Merlin gave him a sheepish look. "Um... yes, perfectly fine. I'll just see myself back, if you don't mind-"

"Merlin," Arthur said.

"Arthur," Merlin said.

"You're a rubbish liar, you know that?"

Merlin narrowed his eyes at Arthur. "And you're a prat. Well, good night." He then proceeded forward.

Arthur's hand still on his shoulder stopped him. "Merlin. What are you doing out here?"

"I could ask you the same thing."

"You could, but I'm not the one with severe injuires who only recently overcame a fever."

Merlin opened his mouth even while wracking his brain for a proper explanation that didn't make him sound mad, when the ground shook beneath the sudden impact of a very large, gold body.

"That would be my doing, young regent," Kilgarrah said.

Arthur looked up and took an involuntary step back. "Uh, should you be here? The guards-"

Kilgarrah smiled his amused smile. "Are busy looking the other way. Do not judge me by my size, Pendragon. There have been dragons larger than I who practiced such stealth that even the most wary did not see them coming until it was too late. And... the aid of a few spells does make life easier."

"Okay, then," Arthur said. "I suppose that explains why no alarm bells. What are you doing here? Not planning to burn down the city, I hope."

Merlin nudged him hard in the ribs. Arthur nudged him back, making sure to aim for his arm.

"I am here to repay a kindness," Kilgarrah said. "By assuring you that your enemy, the dark sorceress Morgause, did not find the Emrys, as I had promised she wouldn't."

"Oh," Arthur said with a blink of surprise.

Merlin's eyes widened up at the dragon. "But how? What did our escape have to do with preventing her from finding it?"

Kilgarrah's large eyes regarded Merlin with something like glee. "Everything, young warlock. Everything."

"But what is the Emrys?" Arthur asked. "If no one is meant to find it that's fine enough with me but I, for one, would at least like to know what it is."

Which made Kilgarrah chuckle. "Oh, young Pendragon. This, you see, is why no one has ever been able to find the Emrys. Many have tried, beleive me. But, for one, for many of those adventurers, the Emrys had yet to exist. For others, such as yourself, young Pendragon, you continue to assume that the Emrys is an it.'"

"It's... not an it," Arthur said slowly.

"Oh, no. Not an it at all, but a he."

Merlin chuckled. "You mean all this time people were looking for a thing and it's actually a person?"

"Indeed."

But then Merlin immedaitely sobered. "But... does that mean he's still in the city, living all alone?"

"Of course not. He never lived in the city. He never knew of it's existance until that very day. But I did not lie when I told the sorceress that he was near. Right under her very nose, in fact." Kilgarrah looked at Merlin, his gaze keen. "Already in her posession, as she treated him with only cruelty."

Merlin stared at Kilgarrah. Kilgarrah continued to stare at him.

Merlin's brain, sluggish with medicines and the continuing need to rest, took its sweet time putting it together. He gaped.

"No."

"Yes," Kilgarrah said.

Merlin's heart began to race. "There must be some mistake. I'm... I'm just a mechanic!"

"A mechanic born with a power that takes others years to master."

Arthur's head, in the mean time, was doing a remarkable impression of a weather vain in a storm, pivoting between Merlin and the dragon, his brow creasing with confusion.

"Wait..." he said. He looked to the dragon. "Are you saying... is he..." he pointed at Merlin. "That he...?"

"That Merlin is the Emrys?" Kilgarrah said. His eyes danced with mirth. "Yes."

"What?" Arthur gasped.

"What?" Merlin squeaked.

Kilgarrah chuckled. "Emrys is a name, young warlock. The name given to the one who would not be born merely with the gift of magic, but who would be a creature of magic. It is not a talent, it is what you are. Magic is woven into your very being, as much a part of you as your blood, your bones, and your heart. You are destined for great things, young warlock. It was foreseen by many when the world would be in great need, and that there would come a man whose destiny it was to aid the protector of this realm."

"Protector, what protector?" Merlin said, his voice quavering.

Kilgarrah turned his amber eyes to Arthur. Arthur paled.

"Me!" he yelped.

"Yes, young Pendragon," Kilgarrah said. "You. You are this realm's greatest hope, as Merlin is magic's greatest hope. Together you will bring this realm into a golden age, protect it from its greatest threats. A task you have already undertaken, young Pendragon. But until now you were only one side of the coin. Together, you are two sides of the same coin, your destinies entwined."

Merlin looked at Arthur, Arthur at Merlin.

"Well," Arthur said, his voice rough. "I suppose it's a good thing I didn't pulvarize you at the hangar."

"Only because I didn't let you," Merlin said indignantly.

Kilgarrah laughed. "That is all I wished to tell you. I will now leave you to fulfill what has been foreseen, and wish you both good luck in your endeavors."

"Will we ever see you again?" Merlin aked.

Kilgarrah's head reared back in mild surprise. "Of course, young warlock. I, too, am a guardian of magic. And I will be there whenever you have need of me."

The dragon then launched into the air and flew away into the night.

Merlin watched him go, but the moment the dragon was beyond sight, he deflated, his body feeling suddenly heavy as though carrying an unseen weight.

He was the Emrys, the thing an insane sorceress and muderous disgraced lord had killed for. The thing Arthur had lost men, and nearly lost himself, for.

As if Merlin wasn't enough of a freak.

Arthur's heavy sigh yanked Merlin from his dour musings.

"All right," Arthur said. "What is it?"

Merlin blinked at him. "What is what?"

"What's wrong?" Arthur said. "You look like someone just kicked your favorite kitten."

Merlin glanced at him forlornly, but already knew that this time there would be no enemies to distract Arthur from the matter at hand.

"Do you remember," Merlin said, "When you asked me why I never attended any schools of magic?"

"Yes," Arthur said.

"I could have, you know. Raw talent like mine would have won me all kinds of scholarships. It did get me scholarships, actually. We'd get sorcerers dropping by and they would hear of me and want to meet me, and my mum and I, we'd be all happy about it thinking they could explain why I was the way that I was. But the way they'd look at me..." Merlin's fingers clenched into a tight, shaking fist. "It's like I wasn't even a person, just some thing they wanted to put in a room and study. They would ask me for hair samples, blood samples. One bloke even asked me for a urine sample. They didn't want to train me, they just wanted to study me, like some animal in a zoo."

Merlin met Arthur's gaze and held it. "They looked at me and saw a thing, Arthur. A literal freak of both nature and magic. And I knew that the moment I stepped into any sorcerer school, that's all I would be, a freak, a thing to be studied and locked away where no one can use me for ill purposes, like some artifact. Arthur, I..." he shuddered. "I don't want to be a thing."

Arthur was silent for a moment as he studied Merlin.

"Funny," he said at last. "All I've been seeing is a skinny idiot. Abeit a very brave, selfless skinny idiot, even if he is a bit too quick to sacrifice himself and has absolutely no sense of propriety toward his future regent what so ever. And, yet, despite all evidence pointing to a rather annoying amount of cheek, I still have yet to find suffecient reason to go back on the decision I'd made."

Merlin looked at him warily. "What decision?"

~oOo~

Merlin decided that he hated ceremonies, even ones that couldn't exactly be called public. It was just him, the Order, Gaius, but also Uther, and that was nerve-wracking enough.

But it was also a little exciting, like being knighted. Exactly like being knighted, actually, at least according to the stories. There was a fancy chair, gilded gold and padded in red, that Uther stood before while Merlin knelt before him. The regent didn't look particularly happy, but not even he could refute all that Merlin had done not only for the Order but his son (that Merlin was Emrys... hadn't really been divulged to Uther, Arthur seeing no reason for it since it would only mean those idiot sorcerer-scholars poking and prodding at Merlin only to find out that he was little more than the skinny idiot Arthur claimed him to be). Uther tapped Merlin on either side of the shoulder with a rather large, imposing sword. With the "knighting" done, he bade Merlin rise, gave him a ring with an image of a dragon stamped on the front, then a folder full of various papers – rules, regulations, things expected of him and so on – that he was going to have to read, thoroughly.

But that didn't matter, because it was wonderful and terrifying and made Merlin both giddy and sick at the same time. Then it was over and Merlin was herded into the lounge by Gwaine and Morgana for a drink.

The very next day, a man with a camera arrived for the annual photo of the Order of Avalon to be hung within the halls alongside past photos and paintings of past Order members. The Order gathered in the sitting room – Gwain, Lancelot, Morgana, Gwen, their leader Arthur, and their newest member, dressed in his coat, his goggles around his neck, the Order's first mechanic-warlock, Merlin.

The End

A/N: And that's a wrap. I would once again like to thank everyone who read and review. Reviews are like money - emotional money, paying me in joy - because it always makes me so happy when something I write is enjoyed.