AN: I am such an absolutely horrible person for updating this late. There's really no excuse for it, but all I can say is that things have been crazytown around here with school and all. I've been working feverishly on my semester paper for my independent project on the psychology of creepiness, and calculus has been eating up my time like there is no tomorrow.

Also, a ginormous thank you to everyone who reviewed/favorited/followed. You guys are so amazing! I can't even express how happy they make me.

Anyway, I hope you all had fantastic holidays! On with the fic!

I couldn't.

I forced myself to breathe. I could do this. I could. I managed about three stuttered steps inward before swallowing convulsively. "Is she really dead?" I hated my how small my voice sounded. I was teetering, I was falling back to a little boy, as if I'd never seen death before. I wasn't that naïve.

"Yes," Mother answered. "Alisa won't be hurting anyone ever again."

A lie. She was still hurting us.

I only nodded and took a few more careful steps forward. Up close, Uncle Merlin looked even worse. The color and sheen of his face matched Aithusa's scales, for one, and breath barely seemed to hiss between his teeth. His dark hair, practically the same color as my own, was plastered to his forehead. "Do we – know what happened?" I managed, although I well could guess. In all honesty, I didn't think I really wanted to hear the answer.

Father shook his head. "No. I think it's safe to say that Merlin and Alisa disagreed."

"We'll find out more when he wakes," Gwaine interjected. His tone held no room for ifs.

So I said it. "Will he wake up?" I didn't know why I said it, wasn't even sure I'd uttered it aloud until Gwaine's eyes flashed angrily to mine and Father responded in a voice that seemed to dance on the edge of despair.

"He'll wake up. He always does."

"He'll be up by tomorrow, complaining about the prat, just you wait." Gwaine had gone all bright and fake-cheery, as if with a child, as if I didn't understand the situation Merlin was in. It took less than half a second with the man to see that he wasn't going to be complaining about anyone for a very long time. Maybe a few years ago I would have believed Gwaine, but after Morgana's last stand, when I was fourteen, I would not be fooled about death.

Gwaine threw me a strained grin. "By tomorrow. I'll bet you anything."

Had the circumstances not been so somber, I would have regretted not taken the knight up on his bet, as Uncle Merlin did not, in fact, wake up the next morning. Or the morning after that. The castle held its breath for ten days as he slept, his life hanging on by a thread. Father stayed with him most days and nearly every night, but the King had important meetings to attend and charters to sign, and Father could not shrug out of all of them. He had duties. I did too, technically, but with Merlin the way he was no one really cared if the sixteen-year-old Prince showed up to train the dogs. On the fifth day Father had showed up at Roger's chambers to give me a tired lecture about strength and responsibilities, but his heart clearly wasn't in it. I made sure to report to meals and training after that, but otherwise absented myself from the rest of the castle.

It was on the tenth day that everything changed.

Morning training had just ended, with me begging off due to some made-up injury that absolutely necessitated that I go to Roger's, and the knights had let me get away with it. The physician's was three corridors away when I heard distant crashing noises. Crashing things were not at all uncommon, but with Uncle Merlin more or less comatose, I had no idea what could be causing it. I followed the noise of the commotion until I realized with a jolt that they were coming from Roger's.

I was there in less than thirty seconds, my sword drawn. From inside I could hear glass shattering and wood splintering amidst the clanging of metal against stone. The door was shuddering in its hinges, and I hesitated for just a second before approaching it. What in the name of all that was holy–

The door flung itself open violently and I found myself unable to move and, though I would never admit it, absolutely terrified. I couldn't run, I couldn't fight, could barely even breathe. My sword was frozen half-extended in front of me. I was helpless.

My father's eyes locked on mine from behind a swirling cloud of debris. "Will!" came the muffled shout – if I hadn't seen his lips moving, I wouldn't have known it came from him. "Stay back!"

Well. A little late for that.

One of the benefits of my sudden capture was an unrestricted view of the chaos that reigned in Roger's chambers. It was as if a miniature hurricane had been unleashed – winds howled and objects hurtled in spirals in mid-air, crashing against walls and tables, which had levitated themselves. In the center of it all I could see two figures, one on his knees with hands extended towards the second, the other huddled against the wall in a blind panic with one hand thrown haphazardly over his face. His eyes glowed molten gold as his lips moved in a constant stream of indecipherable pleas.

It took me less than a second to understand what had happened. Uncle Merlin must have woken up and panicked, and when he panicked, so did his magic. The only other time I'd seen something like this, he accidentally leveled half of the wall surrounding the lower town.

I like to think that seeing that justifies the rush of fear that went through me as his eyes snapped to mine – my uncle wouldn't hurt me, I knew that, but the scared, huddled man in the corner wasn't my uncle, not really. He wasn't in his right mind.

I heard, vaguely, my father yelling at Merlin to calm down, that he was safe, but the warlock kept staring at me with wide eyes, like he couldn't believe it was me he was seeing. I couldn't speak to reassure him, couldn't even smile.

Then all at once my body was my own. Not expecting the sudden return of control, I collapsed as everything in Roger's chambers stilled in mid-air, hanging suspended around the sorcerer and the king. It was as if time had stopped. "Arthur?" Merlin said in a small voice. "Will?"

"Yes, you idiot, now put the table down," Father said, relief coloring his tone. "You're in the physician's chambers, you're safe."

The table, along with the rest of the room, floated gently to the ground. Uncle Merlin uncoiled a bit, and Father hesitantly waved me in. Honestly, I was still a little scared, but to be fair to myself, what else was I supposed to feel after such a display of raw power? But that was beside the point. The danger had passed, and now it would do more harm than good to show the remnants of my fear. Kings are strong. "Hey," I said quietly, as I would to a startled horse, "How are you feeling?"

Merlin deflated shakily. "Gods, Arthur, I'm sorry, I didn't realize where I was. I didn't mean to-"

"I understand," Father said. "I've done it too, as you very well know."

The warlock adopted a faint grin. "You ran halfway around the castle without a shirt."

"I did not!" Father retorted with mock indignation, but I saw his shoulders relax. "Your memory must be failing you, Merlin, you never were the brightest."

"Oh, you wish. I recorded the whole memory for Gwen's enjoyment." Uncle Merlin threw me a cheeky wink, and an answering wave of relief rushed through me. He was okay. He was really okay. "Remind me to show it to you sometime, Will. The prat here was absolutely hilarious, shouting nonsense the entire time-"

"Don't you dare-"

"Or better yet, I'll levitate a projection of it in the dining hall every time you get too annoying."

"I don't care if you are Court Sorcerer, if you do anything of the sorts I will slap you in the stocks so fast you won't know what's hit you."

I laughed. I was half-giddy with how normal it all was, the threats and the name-calling, even if Uncle Merlin hasn't moved from the corner and Father was still on his haunches a good six feet away from him. Father, who glared at me. "It is most certainly not funny," he said in his best "king" voice, but he ended up sounding more like a petulant child than anything else. "How am I supposed to be respected as a ruler when my own court is turning against me?"

"Don't annoy me, then," Merlin finished with a laugh, but it soon fell to hacking coughs. He sounded bloody awful, and I stepped towards him automatically only to be stopped by Father's raised hand – it was a bit of a relief, as I'm not sure what I would have done, anyway. "Go on, Will. You can see him later. Go report to the knights," Father said. "Tell them that he woke, but not to come until later tonight. I'm afraid any more people right now might wear him out."

" 'He' is right here," Merlin said testily, but he didn't stop me as I said a quiet goodbye and made for the door.

Yay, I think confrontation time is coming in a few chapters! I'm really excited to write it.

As always, reviews are my soul food! See you all soon!