timetomakeanewdream
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Unspoken Lies, Unheard Realities by timetomakeanewdream
Fandoms: Ancient Greek Religion & Lore
30 May 2025
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Summary
Apollo is not very good at lying, it goes against his nature, that doesn’t mean that he doesn’t have any secrets.
Or: The story about how Hermes stumbles upon some of Apollo’s Secrets.
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When Merlin gets hit with a powerful spell, he loses his memory. The knights (plus Gwen) each try to help with getting Merlin to remember again in their own unique ways. In the end, though, it is Arthur who finds the breakthrough, and it's not in a way anyone was expecting.
Bookmarked by timetomakeanewdream
25 Apr 2026
Bookmarker's Notes
Merlin looks at where the door closes and clears his throat. “So, uh, do you know what he means with ‘poetry’?”
Arthur shakes his head. “No idea.” He looks around the room and chuckles. “For someone who’s said to be all powerful, you don’t really use your powers to clean.”
“My powers are for you,” Merlin retorts. “I don’t use it for luxuries such as cleaning my own room. Emrys is meant for more than that.”
The king stares at him with a wide grin. “Oh, wise Emrys, do tell me about your infinite knowledge and strength.”
The servant looks over with a small smile. “Do you really want to know?”
“Teach me about Emrys.”
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So we're slaves to any semblance of touch (lord we should quit but we love it too much) by Control_F
Fandoms: Merlin (TV)
19 Jan 2024
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Merlin couldn’t remember the last time he’d hugged or been hugged by someone. He had grown to love Camelot, its landscapes and its people. Camelot had sunken into his bones and had started feeling like home. He had Gaius, he had Gwen, and, sometimes, even Arthur. Yet the loneliness never truly left him.
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Arthur’s father was not a very tactile person, and could not be called affectionate in any breadth or sense of the word when it came to physical touch. While he shared and experienced camaraderie with his knights, it was limited to pats on the shoulder and thumps on the back.
What he had with Merlin… it was different, and he was slightly unsettled by how much he needed it.
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In which Merlin and Arthur suffer seasonal bouts of loneliness, and the combined friction of their pain leads to Merlin confessing his magic to Arthur. (Not without serious emotional subtext, a massage representing the last vestige of Merlin's heterosexuality and a little display of magic).
Bookmarked by timetomakeanewdream
25 Apr 2026
Bookmarker's Notes
In his mind, Merlin willed his powers to fruition and imagined all his love into the palm of his hand. He could tell the exact moment his eyes flashed golden, when Arthur gasped softly as he glimpsed their molten colour. He held out his joined hands, then unfurled them slowly.
Arthur’s gaze was captivated by a tiny, golden dragon of spark and flame atop Merlin’s fingers. It circled once, looked at him, and then burst into a hundred smaller flames. The candles and the fireplace extinguished themselves, and he watched in wonder as each little dragon turned into a small dragon, and they all tittered and skittered about before taking flight around the room in a swooping cloud of bright, sparkling beauty. A mesmerising wave of a thousand lights, so beautiful it could make him weep. They circled once, finally, around the ceiling, then descended gently, slowly onto Arthur's shoulders, and he held his arms up in front of him in reverence and amazement as they disappeared one by one into a wisp, and all that was left for Arthur to see was a shimmering cloud of gold, and Merlin, head bent low beneath his shoulders.
Merlin . He breathed, and knelt in front of his shaking friend, whose shoulders seized, overwhelmed, overcome. Arthur’s hand came down upon his shoulder, gently, tenderly, while the other cupped his damp cheek. Merlin sobbed, and could help himself no longer. He lifted his arms and clung to Arthur like there would be no tomorrow.
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“Ever since we stopped and made camp, I’ve noticed reactions Merlin has been having. He was tense when he returned from collecting wood with Elyan, he flinched when Gwaine held the torch just barely close to his face, he froze and moved away when Percival patted him on the back, and he called Leon ‘Sir’. He’s had all of these reactions to them only, not to you or me, but we weren’t there with them. He only reacted to me when I grabbed him. Something happened. Someone touched him or burned him or hurt him in some way, and I have a feeling that it has something to do with them.” The last word came out with venom.
Or a post Lamia fix-it because we all love to make the knights apologize.Bookmarked by timetomakeanewdream
25 Apr 2026
Bookmarker's Notes
Silence falls again — heavier now, but different. Lancelot speaks without moving from Gwen’s side. “You weren’t yourselves,” Lancelot says. “But they were. And they stood there and took it.”
Gwen finally steps forward. Not to Arthur. Not to the knights. To Merlin. She stands beside him, facing the knights. “I remember all of it,” she says. Her voice is steady, but her hands are shaking. “Every word. Every moment.” She meets their eyes. “What you did… none of you would ever do it if you were in your right mind. You don’t need to be punished. We don’t want you to be.”
No one argues. No one looks away. The fire crackles softly, too loud in the silence it leaves behind.
Arthur exhales slowly. “This,” he says, voice still hard, “is not finished.” His gaze flicks between the knights. “But it will be handled with honesty.” Then, quieter, to Merlin alone: “You don’t have to carry it anymore.”
Merlin nods once. And for the first time since that day, the night feels like it might let them breathe.
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Summary
What if Uther finished what he was about to say before Arthur blows the horn in The Death Song of Uther Pendragon? What if Merlin's magic is revealed when Arthur already knew about it but Merlin didn't know?
Uther reveals Merlin's magic and Merlin has a panic attack in front of Arthur.
Bookmarked by timetomakeanewdream
25 Apr 2026
Bookmarker's Notes
Merlin is starting to raise his voice, almost angry at how calm Arthur was. He had expected an immediate banishment at best, the pyre at worst, but he had never expected Arthur to simply be okay with it all. Merlin had spent his whole life hiding, feeling ashamed of who he was and what he had done. He couldn't understand how Arthur didn't hate him, why Arthur hadn't killed him or thrown him in the dungeon. Merlin knew he deserved the pyre for all his mistakes. How long had Arthur known? How long could he have been free from the heavy burden of lies without having to face death?
“Everyone makes mistakes, Merlin. You've stood by me when I've made plenty.”
Too confused and overwhelmed at having his magic exposed and Arthur's lack of action, Merlin looks at the ground as he sheds a tear.
Arthur is suddenly by his side wiping away the tears until they become too many. Merlin collapses into Arthur who lowers them to the floor as they are. Merlin clings on for dear life as he cries for the second time in Arthur's arms. He cries for all he’s missed while trying to hide his secret, he cries for Arthur accepting him, he cries for the people he hurt, he cries for the ones he lost, and he cries for the friend he pushed over the edge. It's only when the tears dry up and his body stops shaking that Arthur lessen his tight hold and whispers, “You don't owe me anything, not one story, but if you would like to tell me then I'd love to listen.”.
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Summary
Morgause forces Merlin to choose between his secrets and Arthur’s life when Merlin and Arthur are bound by secrets magic. This spell only has two outcomes: it will be broken by the confessions of both Merlin and Arthur’s deepest secrets, or kill them at sunrise.
(Spell based on The Magicians secrets magic ritual in 1x06, but no knowledge of the magicians required!!)