Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

“Now, Arthur, which of these blocks looks different from the rest?” 

Arthur looked around at the painted wooden blocks that surrounded him as he sat in the middle of his play space. Everything looked to be of similar color. “Grey” he had been told. But one block stood out to him. It was different, shining brightly among dull grey tones. 

“That.” Arthur pointed at the block and his nurse smiled at him before turning to Arthur’s father. 

“His soulmate’s eyes are blue, Your Majesty -” 

“Now that one,” Arthur piped up again. Both the King and Arthur’s nursemaid turned to look at the interruption. Arthur pointed at another block a short distance away from the first as it flickered into a different color before fading. Arthur frowned, confused. “Gone.” 

Arthur’s nursemaid looked nervously at the king. “Blue and gold it seems.” 

Uther’s face turned from pleasant to furious in only a few seconds. “My son with a magical soulmate? Impossible. It can’t possibly be true. All my work to make sure that he would not face the corruptive power of sorcery, and soulmate magic ,” the words twist into a monster when they leave his mouth, “gets in the way!” 

Uther’s fists curled around the armrests of his chair before he turned once more to the Maid. “No one is to know of this, you understand.” 

The maid nodded. “I will not tell a soul, sire.”  

She turned back to look at the small boy who was now gathering all the blocks and stacking them in a tower - the blue and gold ones at the top. It wouldn’t be easy keeping the fact that the prince could see two colors secret, but now, it looked like her life might depend on it. 

Chapter Text

“It wasn’t her?” Morgana asked. 

Arthur and Morgana stood side by side on the balcony overlooking the square where hundreds of people stood around the place of execution. Arthur watched as a young girl was lead to the centre of the square to her death. 

“No. It wasn’t her. And if it was, there could be nothing done about it.” 

Arthur ignored the look Morgana gave him, and his nausea at the thought of having to watch his soulmate be beheaded, hang, or burn. This blue-eyed sorceress hadn’t been the one, but one day Arthur’s soulmate would be caught, surely. 

Even though this girl hadn’t been Arthur’s soulmate, he still hated to see her die. Ever since Uther had found out that Arthur could see both blue and gold, every magic-user with blue eyes had to shake hands with Arthur before they were burned. That way, Arthur would gain the ability to see all colours, even if he couldn’t keep his soulmate. 

Every time Arthur had touched the people that were condemned to die, every time they pleaded with him to save them, to put in a good word… Arthur felt like his heart would burn away with them. 

Arthur tried to ignore the scene in the courtyard below him. Morgana took Arthur’s hand in hers. It was the only time she ever showed any obvious sign of comfort or affection for Arthur, but Arthur could always rely on it. Morgana’s presence as they were once again forced to watch someone burn was a promise between the two of them. Sometimes the promise wasn’t one they could act on right away. Arthur couldn’t stop the executions until he was King, for example. Sometimes the promise was as simple as a pledge to keep each other’s secrets, or an assurance that they would always be there for each other, even if, to outsiders at least, the two never looked to be close. 

Uther’s face was absent of expression as he ordered the axe brought down. It stayed blank until he turned around and walked back into the castle. 

His leave permitted his son and his ward to go back inside as well. 

Arthur and Morgana stopped holding hands, but that didn’t mean that their talk was over. They didn’t need to share a single word to know that they would see each other again before sunset on a tower balcony. 

“What do you think it’s like?” Arthur asked. He stared out at the landscape around him. The view was the same one he had seen since childhood. The rooftops of houses, the wall around Camelot’s citadel, and the forest that never seemed to end. 

“Seeing the sunset?” Morgana clarified. 

“I was thinking more about seeing other colours in general.” 

Morgana leaned onto the wall of the balcony and followed Arthur’s gaze out to the forest. “Probably makes life a lot easier. Every time Geoffrey says ‘now, Nemeth’s flag has red and blue,’ and I have to remind him that I can’t see either it makes me want to gauge his eyes out.” 

Arthur laughed. “Let’s not get violent. But, the other day, one of my knights asked me to toss him the yellow decorated shield.” 

“Let me guess: you challenged him to a duel for speaking with such insensitivity.” 

He only shrugged this time. He had meant to make a joke out of the situation, but Morgana’s remark about insensitivity made the humour disappear. 

“I stared at him for a few seconds until he realized what he’d said. Went all red in the face and started stammering when I handed him the right one. It’s was the only shield with any sort of painted decoration, so I knew which it was.” 

“How civil of you.” The usual bite in Morgana’s words had returned. “I would’ve expected some sort of verbal punishment at least.” 

Arthur chose not to comment. It was true. Normally he would’ve scolded the younger knight for his careless words, but the prospect of meeting another sorceress who could be his soulmate had left him distracted. It wasn’t as if he hadn’t gotten used to those around him being able to see what he couldn’t. The older he got, the more people he associated with had already found their soulmates. Of course, there were always those who would never meet their soulmate, never be able to see colour. 

Some part of him, the side that was terrified of seeing his soulmate die, hoped that they would never meet. But Arthur really wanted to know what all the fuss about colour was about. His knights that could see different colours often found tracking and soldier identification easier to learn than those who couldn’t. 

That didn’t change that Arthur was one of the best sword fighters they had. Colours or no colours, Arthur would not let himself fall behind anyone. 

“Let’s not pretend that colour is the only thing on your mind,” Morgana said after she let Arthur think for a minute. 

“It should be.” Arthur avoided Morgana’s eyes. “I shouldn’t think about them, or I’ll have hope that I’ll get to know them. And you know I won’t.” 

“Neither of us knows, Arthur.” 

“It’s a pretty solid prediction that I won’t.” 

“Maybe you won’t meet him or her until you’re king and can change the law.” 

Changing the law. Until Morgana had told him about her dreams - how they were, in fact, magic - Arthur hadn’t been planning to change the law at all. He didn’t understand how his soulmate could be evil, but all magic users were, so they had to be too. Morgana had changed all of that. 

He couldn’t look at the girl who was basically his sister and see the evil that Uther promised would be there. 

That was when he had started to pay attention to all the hands he had to shake. That was when he started hearing their pleas for his help and actually listening. 

0o0o0o0

“This is insane,” Morgana muttered. 

Arthur nodded. “Executions for magic two days in a row.” 

“And perfect timing too. What better way to celebrate 20 years of ‘peace’ than by showing the people more death?” 

“Let this serve as a lesson to all.” Uther recited a similar, though not exactly the same, speech as he had the day before with the girl. “This man, Thomas James Collins, is adjudged guilty of conspiring to use enchantments and magic. And, pursuant to the laws of Camelot, I, Uther Pendragon, have decreed that such practices are banned on penalty of death. I pride myself as a fair and just king, but for the crime of sorcery, there is but one sentence I can pass.” 

Arthur’s father raised his arm, then lowered it. 

Thomas Collins’ head was severed from his body before Uther’s arm had reached his side again. 

“When I came to this land, this kingdom was mired in chaos, but with the people's help magic was driven from the realm. So I declare a festival to celebrate twenty years since the Great Dragon was captured and Camelot freed from the evil of sorcery. Let the celebrations begin.”

Arthur started to turn to go back inside when he heard the wailing. An old woman had appeared out of nowhere (or maybe she had just been in the crowd, Arthur hadn’t been paying attention) and addressed Camelot’s king. 

“There is only one evil in this land, and it is not magic! It is you! With your hatred and your ignorance! You took my son! And I promise you, before these celebrations are over, you will share my tears. An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, a son for a son.” 

“Seize her!”

She disappeared in a whirl of wind and smoke before anyone could take more than a few steps in her direction. 

Uther stood for a moment, furious, before he turned to his son. 

“She will not succeed. Your protection will be the highest priority. That witch will be caught and brought to justice for her crimes.” 

Arthur winced. For all he believed about the innocence of magic in itself, he did hope that this sorceress was caught. 

He wasn’t quite ready to die yet.

Chapter Text

His fear and confusions about magic manifested in an increased aptitude for irritation, anger and focus. It probably wasn’t a good habit when he wasn’t on a battlefield, and Arthur knew it. 

He also didn’t care much. At least not in the moment. 

He’d made his knights train nearly an hour overtime that morning, and the few still with him were ready for a break. This break, Arthur decided, would be in the form of switching from sword training to throwing daggers. Or, perhaps Arthur really would give them a break and give something amusing instead.

“Where’s the target.” He asked Dorris, the servant who had been directed to bring one out. Morris (what was his name, actually?) had been Arthur’s servant for the past month. Arthur had requested a new one the previous week, but after some verbal punches from Morgana, he had decided to give him another week. 

The knights laughed behind him. 

“There, Sir?” Borris looked back at them, clearly nervous.

Arthur looked where the servant had pointed. “It’s into the sun?”

“But, it’s not that bright,” he protested. 

“A bit like you, then?”

Another titter from the crowd got louder when Arthur joined in and gave them all permission to laugh. 

When the serving boy began to carry the target back towards the wall, Arthur heard one of the youngest knights say “Teach him a lesson!” 

Arthur grinned and whispered back. “This’ll teach him.” 

The group of young knights laughed and eagerly repeated Arthur’s words. Arthur knew that they only wanted to please him and gain a higher standing, but, once again, he didn’t care. He was going to make this an enjoyable day, despite the circumstances. 

He threw the dagger at the still moving target. 

“Hey! Hang on!” Loris yelped, peering over the target with a look that rivaled that of a cornered prey animal.

“Don’t stop!” Arthur commanded with a laugh. 

The servant took a few steps back. 

“Here?” 

“I told you to keep moving!” He threw another dagger at the target still in his servant’s hands. “Come on! Run! We want some moving target practice.”

Morris kept on shuffling towards the wall with the target. Arthur threw more daggers as the laughter continued around him. He grinned. 

It didn’t last as long as Arthur had hoped. The serving boy dropped the target, letting it roll away to land at someone else’s feet. 

The young man with blue eyes - he always noticed when people had blue eyes or blue anything for that matter - held his foot over the target to prevent Arthur’s servant from retrieving it. 

“Hey, come on, that’s enough.” 

“What?” Who in Camelot would dare interrupt him? Everyone knew it could get them a day in the stocks, or even in prison. 

“You’ve had your fun, my friend.” 

He really was an idiot if he thought he could call the Prince of Camelot a ‘friend.’ “Do I know you?” Arthur walked closer to the stranger.

“Er, I’m Merlin.” The boy offered out his hand for Arthur to shake. 

“So I don’t know you.” As expected. The stranger clearly wasn’t from Camelot if he was acting like this. 

Merlin dropped his hand. “No.” 

“Yet you called me ‘friend.’”

“That was my mistake.”

“Yes, I think so.”

“Yeah. I'd never have a friend who could be such an ass.”

Arthur bit back a laugh as Merlin started to walk away. Maybe a bit of good fortune was due to come his way. He would enjoy warning Merlin to be wary of his hero complex.

“Or I one who could be so stupid,” Arthur said, hoping it would get Merlin to stop. 

It did. 

“Tell me, Merlin, do you know how to walk on your knees?”

“No.”

“Would you like me to help you?”

“I wouldn't if I were you.”

Merlin was close enough that Arthur could see his eyes even more clearly. He wished they weren’t so damn blue. He wished he could stop thinking about his soulmate for at least one day. 

Arthur chuckled. “Why? What are you going to do to me?” Merlin really didn’t know who he was dealing with. At all. As if context clues weren’t enough to make a guess at how important Arthur was. As a knight, Arthur was a well-muscled fighter. Merlin wasn’t completely scrawny, but he definitely wasn’t a fighter. He would stand no chance against Arthur. 

“You have no idea.” 

“Be my guest! Come on! Come on!” Arthur held his arms wide, offering a free first shot. “Come oooon.”

He and Merlin had gradually moved closer during their conversation, so it wasn’t so hard for Merlin to prepare to swing at him. Years of combat training didn’t fail Arthur at that moment. He spotted the motion and caught Merlin’s arm. 

The world exploded in colour. 

Out of habit, Arthur kept going, continuing to twist Merlin’s arm behind his back, but his mind wasn’t focused on the task. His mind was focused on all the silvers, browns, greens yellows, and reds that he could finally see, and shit, he’d just met his dumbass soulmate in front of a group of his knights and civilians. 

His knights chorused sounds of surprise and something in Arthur’s gut twisted in fear he’d rarely ever felt previously before he realized that his companions were just surprised that Merlin had actually taken the bait and tried to hit Arthur. They hadn’t noticed Arthur’s entire world change, even though Arthur was pretty sure he had stumbled back a step or two in surprise.

Letting go of Merlin was not an option, it wasn’t something he would have done normally, and he had to act normal or his soulmate would be caught. Quickly, Arthur, what would you have done if this hadn’t happened ? 

“I'll have you thrown in jail for that,” He said. He could only see the side of Merlin’s face, but Arthur could tell he was confused. 

Soulmates weren’t supposed to throw each other in jail. Taking a risk, Arthur leaned in closer and whispered, “If you tell anyone you’re my soulmate you’ll get worse than that.” It wasn’t a threat, exactly. It was a warning. That probably sounded like a threat. Arthur hoped Merlin was smart enough to see past it.

It took a moment for Merlin to respond, and Arthur could see that he’d gotten distracted by looking around at all the new colours, but at last, he said, “What, who do you think you are? The King?”

“No. I'm his son, Arthur.”

Merlin’s eyes went wide with what Arthur thought he recognized as fear before Arthur pushed him down to his knees and let the guards take him. 

He tried not to stare as Merlin was half dragged into the castle but failed. 

When the three men disappeared around a corner, Arthur turned back to his men. 

He’d never have guessed that red would be such a jarring colour, yet he found himself wanting to look at the knights' red shirts instead of their eyes like he normally did. The color felt like a punch in the face, and surrounded by green and brown, it was more than a tad bit disorienting. 

“Er,” he hesitated. “Dismissed until tomorrow.” The knights nodded and walked away slowly, talking and laughing with each other as if nothing had changed.

And nothing had changed, not for them. Arthur knew he wouldn’t be able to focus on much else until his eyes and brain had adjusted, and he still had this whole soulmate thing to figure out. He felt a twinge of guilt for any pain he had caused, and for probably scaring Merlin out of his mind. Was his soulmate now in a cell somewhere thinking that he would be executed? Did Merlin even know how severely magic was punished in Camelot? If so, he sure didn’t act like it. 

Arthur hadn’t acted like it either. He was normally very careful to keep his wits about him whenever he was around someone with blue eyes, no matter the person’s age or gender, but the one time he let himself get carried away… 

So much for good luck. 

When he was younger, before he found out that Morgana had magic and changed his view on everything, he had imagined meeting his soulmate on some heroic quest. His soulmate was always the villain or someone in his way. The quest always ended with Arthur gaining the ability to see colour. Sometimes in his dreams, his soulmate escaped. Sometimes they were brought back to Camelot and given to his father. 

When his views changed, he started to allow a little more hope into his thoughts. His soulmate was a princess from an ally kingdom who had been forced to hide her magic just as Morgana had. It a strange twist of fate, Uther and the other King arranged their marriage, bringing the two together purely by accident. He hadn’t even truly considered the possibility that his soulmate could be male until he talked to Morgana about it and realized that she never referred to her own soulmate as specifically he or she. 

Back in his own room, Arthur collapsed on his bed, still fully dressed, and stared at the canopy above him. Red. Why was every piece of fabric in the castle this brash colour, so different from the cool blues and greys he was used to?

He didn’t really know what he should do. He couldn’t let Merlin out of his cell at least for a few hours or the people who knew him well would suspect something. He also thought he might tear himself to pieces if he just left him there. 

Just one night , he thought. Then you can go talk to him . Then he realized what he was thinking and his stomach fluttered again. He was going to talk to his soulmate . His idiot soulmate who had foolishly challenged a prince, but that act oddly only made him seem more attractive now. 

Arthur would not let him be executed. 

Which meant that he had to convince Merlin to leave, even though it would hurt both of them. What were the chances that Merlin had actually been planning to stay in Camelot anyway? He’d probably just been passing through, and he could continue on his journey. Arthur could send him letters somehow, and they would meet again once Arthur was king. 

Being king never seemed so far away. 

He didn’t remember falling asleep, but the next time he opened his eyes, the sky was clearly darker, and someone was knocking on his door.

“Arthur Pendragon.” The door to his rooms swung open and Morgana marched in. Arthur had forgotten to lock the door. 

“Morgana, not now,” Arthur moaned. 

“Some boy got sent to the dungeons, again! I thought you’d gotten over this phase, you haven’t sent anyone there for months!” 

“Morgana…” 

“At least you look miserable. You deserve it.” 

Arthur turned his head and faced her. By the pattern, Arthur knew she was wearing the dress that was supposed to be purple. He hadn’t seen any purple yet, but it looked much friendlier than red. It looked warm, but cool and calm at the same time -” 

“Why are you looking at me like that?” Morgana crossed her arms defensively over her chest, which Arthur found mildly amusing. Morgana wasn’t normally self-conscious.

Arthur looked back up at the ceiling and sighed. 

“Okay, Arthur, what is it now? Did that boy in the dungeons wound your pride that badly?” 

Arthur shook his head. “Your dress is purple,” he said. 

“Yes, and?” Morgana pressed.

“It’s a nice colour, purple. Not as good as blue, but pretty, all the same.”  

Arthur turned in time to see Morgana’s eyebrows raise and her mouth twitch ever so slightly. 

“You met your soulmate,” she whispered. “Where? When? Does Uther have them? I hadn’t heard about any new sorcerers being brought in, but - oh. Oh, Arthur, you’re so lucky no one figured it out.” 

“I know.” 

“What are you going to do?” 

Arthur sat up. “I’ll go let him out in the morning. I’ll tell him he has to leave, of course. He can’t stay here, he’ll be caught. And then we’ll go our separate ways, for now.” It was what had to be done. 

Morgana turned her head away for a moment before meeting Arthur’s eyes again. “That won’t work?” 

“Why not?” 

“He’s already gotten out of his cell.” 

“What?” The first thing Arthur thought of was magic. Merlin had used it to escape from his cell and was now on the run, and Arthur would never see him again because Merlin would be terrified of him, and why should he be, Arthur had thrown him in the dungeon and threatened him, why hadn’t he gone straight down to see him, it would have been worth the risk - 

“Arthur, calm down,” Morgana said, blocking his route to the door. “He’s fine. Gaius bailed him out.” 

Gaius bailed him out. “Gaius? What the hell does Gaius have to do with anything?” 

“Apparently, your soulmate is Gaius’ new ward.” 

Arthur groaned again and flopped back down on his bed. 

“Of all things, he had to come live in the castle.” 

“Well,” Morgana said, “As long as you keep up the appearance that you can’t see colour, and your soulmate keeps his magic secret, you should be fine.” 

Arthur snorted. “Just you wait, Morgana. He’ll last all of two days. The guy uses magic at least five times a day. There’s no way anyone could miss that.” 

Chapter Text

Merlin figured that Arthur hadn’t told anyone about his magic. Gaius had found it easy enough to get him out of the cells, even if Merlin had a price to pay. Hopefully, that didn’t just mean that Uther was so cruel that sorcerers had to endure an hour of rotten food thrown at their faces before their execution. 

Merlin cursed his luck as he was locked into the stocks to endure his torment. His third day in Camelot wasn’t even over yet and he had already been caught using magic by one person (Gaius), been summoned by some magical mystery voice in the middle of the night, tried to punch his soulmate who happened to be the son of a guy who would have had Merlin killed on sight, spent time in prison, and now, a ten-year-old boy was eyeing Merlin mischievously as he held a rotten tomato, and Merlin could do nothing (nothing legal, at least) to stop him from throwing it. 

This can’t have been what his mother had been thinking of when she had sent him to Camelot. 

With so much to think about, Merlin didn’t notice the girl who had walked up to him until she coughed. 

“I’m Guinevere, but most people call me Gwen.” She held out her hand. “I’m the Lady Morgana’s maid.” 

“Right. I’m Merlin.” He moved his hand so it was closer to hers, and they shook. “Although, most people just call me idiot,” Merlin said jokingly. He wasn’t sure what to expect from Gwen. He hadn’t really done anything to make any friends yet, and he wasn’t sure he should. With Arthur, Prince Arthur, knowing about Merlin, anyone he made friends with would be at risk, right? 

Gwen smiled anyway, not knowing any of Merlin’s inner turmoil. “No, no, I saw what you did. It was so brave.” 

“It was stupid.” 

“Well, I'm glad you walked away. You weren't going to beat him.”

“Oh, I-” I shouldn’t say it - “I can beat him.” Idiot. Why couldn’t he just have some humility and filter his damn words? 

“You think? Because you don't look like one of these big, muscle kind of fellows.” Gwen looked either amused or surprised, but Merlin wasn’t too focused her face because some little kid had just tried to throw some bright yellow vegetable at him and colours moving around still made Merlin’s head spin. 

“Thanks,” he said, regaining his focus. 

“No! No, I'm sure you're stronger than you look. It's just, erm... Arthur's one of these real rough, tough, save the world kind of men, and... well…”

So Gwen thought the Prince was a hero, did she? From what he had seen of the Prince of Camelot, he was a stuck-up idiot, just not stupid enough to have missed the tell-tale flashes of gold that meant your soulmate had magic. Back in Ealdor, Merlin’s friend Will had discovered that he had a magical soulmate. It was part of the reason Merlin had trusted him to keep Merlin’s magic secret. 

However, Will’s soulmate must have been less powerful, or perhaps more careful, than Merlin was, because Will only reported seeing gold every few nights - and yes, nights, not days. Sometimes he’d catch the glimmer of a coin under candlelight or of the fire itself as he was going to bed. He had never once seen the glimmer of gold during the day - only green everywhere. When Hunith had found out, she had suggested that Merlin take a page out of Will’s soulmate’s book and only use magic when it would be more easily hidden. Merlin had not followed this advice, though he had tried for a few months. Weeks. Okay, he had only truly tried for the day. 

“What?”

“You don’t look like that.” 

Merlin waved her closer and whispered, “I’m in disguise.” 

Gwen laughed. “Well, it's great you stood up to him.”

“What? You think so?”

“Arthur's a bully, and everyone thought you were a real hero.”

“Oh, yeah? Is there anything good about the Prince, then?” Might as well find out what he could about his soulmate. 

Gwen shuffled her feet nervously. “I suppose there must be, or the Lady Morgana wouldn’t still be friends with him. She opposes Uther in almost every stance, but she doesn’t ever hate Arthur. She gets mad at him, yes - she yelled at him for having you thrown in the dungeons, but the way - but she doesn’t hate him.” 

“Any ideas why?” 

“I think it’s how he treats others,” Gwen admitted. “He’s a bully, but he’s no Uther. He gives fair trials and cares about what happens to people when there’s less food to go around. And, he doesn’t like executions.” 

“Does anyone like executions?” Merlin mumbled. 

Gwen nodded and then shook her head. “Maybe not, but Uther and some of the nobles look like they’ve won a war every time someone is executed for sorcery. Arthur doesn’t. They say it’s because his soulmate is supposed to have magic, but no one knows for sure.” 

“That’s interesting,” Merlin said with fake enthusiasm. He didn’t know what his response should be to that. He didn’t want to seem too interested. 

“Mm-hmm.” 

Gwen stood there for a moment as the conversation stalled before Merlin saw a familiar face in the crowd again, and this time he’d brought friends. He pointed. 

“I’m afraid you’ll have to excuse me, Guinevere. My fans are waiting.”

Merlin closed his eyes and turned his head to escape the reds, yellows, and greens hurled at his face. 

0o0oGOLDo0o0

“Do you want some vegetables with that?”

Merlin snorted, looking down at his bread and cheese, thankful that he didn’t see any of the familiar red fruit he had only just cleaned off of his face. As humorous as Gaius’ comment had been, the bite behind his uncle’s voice betrayed him. 

“I know you're still angry with me.”

“Your mother asked me to look after you.”

“Yes.” This was something Merlin knew and understood the reasons behind even though he was 18 and was generally responsible for himself. 

“What did your mother say to you about your gifts?”

“That I was special.” That was one of the many things she had said.

“You are special,” Gaius agreed. “The likes of which I have never seen before.”

“What do you mean?”

“Well, magic requires incantations, spells. It takes years to study. What I saw you do was... elemental, instinctive.”

“What's the point if it can't be used?”

“That I do not know.” 

Merlin grimaced. It had been the answer he had been expecting, but he had still had hope. 

“You are a question that has never been posed before, Merlin,” Gaius continued. 

“Did you ever study magic?”

The wrinkles in Gaius’ face pulled tautly. “Uther banned all such work twenty years ago.”

“Why?”

“People used magic for the wrong end at that time. It threw the natural order into chaos. Uther made it his mission to destroy everything from back then, even the dragons.”

“What? All of them?” Up until this point, what Gaius had told him hadn’t been new information. His mother had warned him about Uther before, and news travelled to Ealdor in ways that Hunith wouldn’t have thought to hide him from, but apparently, the destruction of an entire species wasn’t important enough for her to mention. Maybe she hadn’t even known. 

“There was one dragon he chose not to kill, kept it as an example. He imprisoned it in a cave deep beneath the castle where no one can free it. Now, eat up. When you've finished, I need you to take a preparation to Lady Helen. She needs it for her voice.” 

“But I wanted to ask you about soulmate magic, I might -”

“-I’m sure whatever it is will not be more important than Lady Helen’s health.” Gaius shoved the small bottle into Merlin’s hands and whisked away the dishes he had eaten from. 

“I’m sure it’s important for my health,” Merlin muttered under his breath, but when Gaius didn’t hear him, he left to find Lady Helen anyway. If he did a little more looking around than he should have, well, Gaius should have known by now that Merlin would follow his curiosity into whatever basket of trouble it would lead him. 

0o0oGOLDo0o0

It had been more than a day since Merlin had seen Arthur. 

He had always pictured himself meeting his soulmate somewhere less busy, and they would be someone who could easily run off and talk to him, which they would do. His soulmate would be someone easy to talk to, and that first day, or week, or month, or year (Merlin would take things as slow or as fast as seemed comfortable to the both of them) they would tell each other everything about themselves. Merlin’s soulmate would already know he had magic, and wouldn’t care any more than his mother or Will did. 

Instead, they had met in a crowd. They hadn’t even talked for more than a full minute after their meeting, and Merlin was willing to bet it wouldn’t be easy for a prince to escape his duties to run off with some peasant delinquent and spend hours chatting, not to even mention anything else. Imagine if they were caught kissing or, even worse, in bed. It would be a horrifying scandal to any noble, and probably a very juicy bit of gossip to be passed around to all the servants, and then maybe the news would reach his mother at some point after Uther had ordered Merlin’s head chopped off. 

Merlin laughed bitterly just thinking about it. He shouldn’t be thinking about any of this.

As if Merlin’s thoughts had drawn him there, the next voice Merlin heard belonged to Prince Arthur. 

“How's your knee-walking coming along?” 

He was surrounded by his group again. Merlin didn’t remember enough about them to know if it was the same people, but they weren’t anywhere near alone in the public square, so Merlin kept walking. 

“Aw, don't run away!” Arthur’s voice was taunting, not at all what Merlin had thought it would be when they met again. Hadn’t the fact that Arthur had kept his secret meant that Arthur didn’t want Merlin caught? 

“From you?” Merlin called back. 

“Thank God. I thought you were deaf as well as dumb.”

“Look, I've told you you're an ass.” Merlin stopped and looked back. To his surprise, he saw that Arthur looked conflicted. His ‘friends’ or ‘knights’ or whoever they were had clearly been egging him on, otherwise maybe he would have let Merlin be. 

Unfortunately, it was too late to take Arthur’s fake taunts to heard and run away. 

Merlin blinked away his conflicted emotions. “I just didn't realise you were a royal one. Oh, what are you going to do? Get your daddy's men to protect you?”

Arthur laughed. “I could take you apart with one blow.”

“I could take you apart with less than that.”

After a second of Arthur’s surprised silence, he asked, “Are you sure?” 

“Come on, then,” one of the knights sneered. 

“ Fight .” another one insisted. 

Merlin raised an eyebrow, insisting that the next move be Arthur’s. 

“I warn you, I've been trained to kill since birth.”

“Wow, and how long have you been training to be a prat?”

“You can't address me like that.” 

Arthur’s laugh certainly suggested that he would be fine with Merlin’s name-calling if he didn’t have a royal reputation to uphold. 

“I'm sorry. H-How long have you been training to be a prat, My Lord?”

There were a couple of “oohs” from the viewers, but Arthur still didn’t take the mace his knight offered to him. 

“Careful, Merlin,” he warned. “A brave idiot you might be - but a brave idiot is too often a danger to himself.” Arthur turned to his men. “Come on. We’ve got more important things to do.” 

“But, sire, he insulted -” 

“-If every insult were taken as a challenge to war, we’d never see a moment of peace.” 

Merlin watched Arthur walk back towards the castle and thought that maybe having Arthur Pendragon as his soulmate wouldn’t be so bad. It would certainly make life more interesting. 

0o0oGOLDo0o0

“How could you be so foolish?!”

Somehow, and Merlin guessed that Gwen coming to check and make sure Merlin was alright had something to do with it, Gaius hand found out about the confrontation with Arthur that day. 

“He started it,” Merlin pointed out. 

Gaius’ glare made Merlin aware just how childish that sounded.

“I didn’t even use magic! Everything turned out fine. And even if he had noticed anything odd, he probably wouldn’t have turned me in, right? I heard that the Prince has a magical soulmate and doesn’t agree with the laws against magic.” 

“What you heard were rumours , Merlin.” 

“So, you don’t believe them?” If Gaius didn’t believe them, maybe that was a good thing. It would mean less risk for Merlin. 

“It doesn’t matter what I believe,” 

Damn, Gaius did know.

“What matters is that you are making very risky assumptions about the prince. What makes you think that having a soulmate with magic would change Arthur’s opinions to oppose the King’s? Even supposing Arthur was even remotely on your side, there were still others watching you! This is why magic must be studied, mastered, and used for good! Not for idiotic pranks!

“What is there to master? I could move objects like that before I could talk!”

“Then, by now, you should know how to control yourself!”

“I don't want to! If I can't use magic, what have I got? I'm just a nobody, and I always will be. If I can't use magic, I might as well die. And if Arthur doesn’t understand that, then… then.” Merlin stopped. 

“Arthur doesn’t need to understand anything about your magic,” Gaius insisted. “If you’re just a little more careful, he’ll never know.” 

“He already does. I know they’re not just rumours, Gaius. I know because I can see colours now, and I’ve only been able to do that since I tried to hit Arthur.” 

Gaius dropped the vial that had been clenched in his fist and the tiny glass container rolled to the end of the table, teetering on the edge until Merlin slammed it back onto the middle of the table. 

“You shouldn’t still be here.” 

“I have to be here. I don’t have a choice. I didn’t before I met Arthur, and now, I have even less of a choice, don’t you see?” 

Gaius only sighed and sank down into his chair. 

“You don't know why I was born like this, do you?”

“No.”

Merlin sat at the table across from the old physician. “I'm not a monster, am I?” he whispered. 

Gaius looked up again and Met Merlin’s eye. “Don’t ever think that.”

“Then why am I like this? Please, I need to know why. It would be so much easier if I had just been normal like everyone else.” 

“Maybe there's someone with more knowledge than me.”

“If you can't tell me, no one can.”

Chapter Text

Merlin made his way through the castle the next per Gaius’ instructions. As he’d been told by his uncle, there was no use wallowing in misery and trying to avoid Arthur. If that’s all he intended to do with his time, he might as well leave Camelot. And as he had been told by the dragon kept under the castle the previous night — the dragon that absolutely deserved his complete trust after waking him up in the middle of the night multiple evenings in a row just for a two-minute chat — he couldn’t leave Camelot because he and Arthur had some sort of Destiny. 

Henbane, wormwood, and sorrel. Merlin placed a bundle of each herb he had collected on Gaius’ desk hoping he hadn’t forgotten anything and left the room once again to make his final stop: the delivery for the Lady Morgana. 

As far as he knew, Merlin hadn’t ever seen Morgana, nor did he know where he was supposed to be going, but with the help of a few of the maids (Merlin pretended not to notice the look of disappointment in one of the girl’s eyes when their hands touched and she wasn’t given the gift of seeing colour) he figured out where Morgana’s tower was. 

Part of him wanted to meet the King’s ward in person just to see what Gwen liked about her and maybe to thank her for yelling at Arthur on his behalf. Probably not though, that might be considered inappropriate. She opposes Uther in almost every stance, Gwen had said. Uther had left Merlin with a terrible impression of nobles and Merlin didn’t judge his thoughts towards Arthur to be reliable since they were formed more around feelings than logic. But she doesn’t ever hate Arthur. Merlin tried not to put too much hope into this fact. 

Aside from that, Merlin didn’t know much. Gaius said she suffered from nightmares, but Merlin couldn’t see what her nightmares could be about. What was there to fear when you lived most of your life in a palace? Assassins? Would people put that much effort into trying to kill someone not in line for the throne?

Merlin walked through the Griffin Landing and up the curved steps to Morgana’s Chambers. The door was open, so he walked in without knocking. 

“You know, I’ve been thinking about Arthur. I wouldn’t touch him with a lance pole,” Morgana said as she walked behind her changing screen. At least, Merlin assumed it was Morgana. She was in the right rooms. And making orders. And absolutely gorgeous. “Pass me that dress, will you Gwen?” 

Merlin paused, seeing the dress laid out, but not sure what he should do. Merlin could tell that behind the screen Morgana had already started undressing, so the right thing to do would be to give her the dress, wouldn’t it? 

“I mean, the man's a total jouster. And just because I'm the King's ward, that doesn't mean I have to accompany him to the feast, does it?” 

Merlin carefully placed the gown on the screen, careful not to be seen or see anything he shouldn’t, and backed away. 

“Well, does it?” 

Merlin braced himself to make an attempt at mimicking Gwen’s voice after only talking to the girl once, but it wasn’t necessary. Morgana had turned around and looked over the dressing screen. Their eyes met and Merlin was sure he would be spending another few hours in the dungeons. 

“You’re not Gwen.” 

“Er, I just, you just started talking, I mean,” he rushed to take back what could be seen as blaming her. “I’m sorry My Lady. I just came to deliver your sleeping draft. It’s on the table. I’ll leave now.” He turned toward the exit. 

“No. Stay,” Morgana commanded. 

Merlin froze. 

Morgana took only a few moments to slip the dress back on and come out from behind the changing screen. “You’re Merlin, Gaius’ new ward, aren’t you?” She asked. 

“Yes.” 

“It’s nice to meet you.” 

“And the same to you, Lady Morgana,” he said back, even though he was not at all sure it was nice to meet her. Something about the slight smirk on her face made Merlin feel as though he had missed out on a rather important meeting of which he was the subject. 

“Well, anyway,” Morgana continued, “If Arthur wanted me to go with him to the banquet — as friends, of course, I know he’d rather invite you — then he should have invited me and he hasn’t. So, that means I’ll be going by myself.” 

“Of course,” Merlin responded automatically, at first only processing that Morgana truly didn’t seem to be angry at him. Then her words sunk in. “Wait, what?” 

Morgana smiled, no longer looking at Merlin but at two dresses. “Arthur can’t keep secrets from me, Merlin. Don’t worry. I won’t tell. I think you’ll be good for him.” 

Merlin stood, unsure if he had been dismissed, or if he should deny Morgana’s claim that he and Arthur had any connection at all. Merlin had told Gaius about his soulmate, though. Perhaps Morgana was the only one Arthur could go to with the same sort of thing. 

“Thank you, My Lady.” 

“You can call me Morgana when we’re among friends, Merlin.” The door swung slightly and both turned to look. “There you are, Gwen.”

“Yes, sorry if you needed me earlier.” Gwen looked at Merlin curiously, obviously wondering why he was there at all. 

“No need to apologize. Merlin and I had a little chat while we waited.” 

Merlin nodded politely and left, not before hearing Morgana ask Gwen for her opinion between the two gowns she had pulled out. 

0o0oGOLDo0o0

Merlin followed Gaius into the banquet hall after it had started. There were already people everywhere, most of them much higher class than Merlin and Gaius. A few he recognized from doing his rounds for Gaius, but most were unknown until Merlin spotted Arthur. 

He was across the room with some of his buddies from earlier and hadn’t seen Merlin yet. As his face turned more in Merlin’s direction, the beats of Merlin’s heart grew louder until Merlin wasn’t sure how no one but him could hear it. Before Arthur’s gaze made it over to Merlin, though, Morgana made her entrance. 

She had decided on wearing the maroon gown paired with minimal jewellery, and it clearly drew the attention she had been after. The knights around Arthur couldn’t take their eyes off of her, and Arthur himself stepped away from the group to go talk to her. 

“Merlin,” Gaius said before walking away, “Remember, you’re here to work.” 

“Oh, yeah.” Merlin continued to stare at Morgana and Arthur. What kind of relationship did they have? Morgana had yelled at Arthur, but Arthur shared his secrets with her. Almost like siblings, perhaps?

“She looks great, doesn't she?” 

Merlin turned to see that Gwen had come up behind him and was beaming with admiration towards Morgana. 

“Yeah,” he said. 

“Some people are just born to be queen.” 

“No!” 

“I hope so. One day,” Gwen sighed. “Neither of them would ever be allowed to marry their soulmates, even if the rumours about Arthur’s soulmate are false, but each other? I think they’d make a good partnership if nothing else. Not that I’d want to be Morgana. Who'd want to marry Arthur?”

Merlin laughed lightly, wondering if Gwen would remember her words if it ever got out that he, Merlin, was Arthur’s soulmate. “I thought you liked those really rough, tough, save the world kind of men,” he said out loud. 

“No, I like much more ordinary men like you.”

“Gwen, believe me, I'm not ordinary.”

“No, I didn't mean you, obviously. Not you. But just, you know, I like much more ordinary men like you. Obviously, I want to wait and see who my soulmate is, so I wouldn’t be interested in you. ” 

“Thanks.” 

The two turned away from each other rather awkwardly. Gwen soon rushed off to see if Morgana needed anything, and Merlin went to stand next to some of the servants after Gaius ushered him away from following him around. 

At several points, Merlin was sure Arthur had seen him. But he didn’t meet his eye the entire evening, which left Merlin both relieved and disappointed.

Chapter Text

Arthur was doomed. He could hardly believe there had been a time where he had believed sending Merlin away would be a bearable option when it was obviously out of the question. No one dared to refute the Prince’s words or speak in any way that might be considered disrespectful, not since Arthur had been too young to understand his role as a royal. 

And then there was Merlin. 

“How long have you been training to be a prat, My Lord?”  

The guy had bravery, that was for sure. Maybe a little too much bravery. Before he and Merlin had met, Arthur could always tell when magic was being used by his soulmate. Suddenly, the blue in the sky would blink out of existence, and some shimmering golden object would flicker into Arthur’s vision. It could be disorienting sometimes, but Arthur learned to deal with it. Now the flickering gold and blue were gone. There was no doubt about it, colours were beautiful, but seeing them meant he could no longer tell when his soulmate was taking a risk. 

Arthur tried not to worry too much, but the absence of an indication of magic was scarier than knowing every single time his soulmate performed magic. He knew nothing was going on now, of course. Merlin was in the room with him even if Arthur didn’t allow himself to look his way. 

“Are you alright, Sire?” Sir Leon leaned over and whispered to him. 

Arthur blinked. He looked around to see how many people had noticed his out-of-character gazing into the distance. Only two knights had noticed, however, and he easily brushed them off. 

Arthur had only been seated for a few moments. Uther’s entrance and walk through the two centre tables quieted the room and everyone took it as a sign to return to their seats. Lady Helen followed shortly after, greeting the room’s inhabitants with a smile before narrowing her focus to the head table where Camelot’s highest-ranking individuals sat. 

“We have enjoyed twenty years of peace and prosperity. It has brought the kingdom and myself many pleasures, but few can compare with the honour of introducing Lady Helen of Mora!” 

The courtiers applauded as Lady Helen took her place at the front of the room. Arthur wondered how long he would have to sit and politely listen to her singing. It wasn’t that her voice wasn’t nice, but he could think of an endless list of other things he could spend his time doing, the first ten having to do with the man standing just a few paces behind him to the right. Somewhere in his longing for the music to end so he could leave, Arthur’s wishes turned to literal dreams. 

He woke up under a shroud of cobwebs. What he saw next - a fallen chandelier, a Lady Helen withering into the form of the old witch, and a knife thrown straight at him - felt more like a nightmare than real life. In the heat of a battle, just when Arthur thought he might lose (not that he would admit he ever thought he might lose) sometimes his mind would briefly jump to the people he cared about. Morgana, usually. His father. Some of his closer knights. The people of Camelot. 

But seeing the knife fly toward him brought not a single ounce of regret or love. All Arthur could bring himself to feel was surprise. If he had gotten time to speak, he might have said something useless and dumb, like “oh,” as the sharp, grey, piece of metal came closer. At least the last thing he would see wouldn’t be a jarring shade of red. He would have preferred blue, though. 

Of course, if Arthur got enough time to talk, he would have had enough time to move out of the way. Seeing as he had time to do neither, he didn’t really understand how Merlin had the time to leap into action and push Arthur out of harm's way. 

It probably had something to do with magic. 

In the space of a few seconds, the knife pierced through Arthur’s chair, the witch was dead, and the entire audience didn’t even have the time to gasp. 

Merlin pulled away from his arm and got to his feet seconds later, eyeing Uther with unease. The King only had eyes for Arthur at first, patting his shoulder as if to console himself that his heir was truly there and not just a figment of his imagination. Then, he stared at Merlin. 

If Merlin had been a knight, a thank you would have been the limit of Uther’s gratitude. 

“You saved my boy's life.” There was a certain amount of surprise and awe in Uther’s tone, seeing that any such action could come from an unassuming commoner. “A debt must be repaid.”

“Oh, well.” Merlin folded his hands behind his back. 

“Don't be so modest. You shall be rewarded.”

Arthur was starting to wonder what sort of reward his father would consider appropriate. Money, or something of value probably.

“No, honestly,” Merlin said quickly, “you don't have to, Your Highness.”

“No, absolutely. This merits something quite special.”

“Well…” 

“You shall be rewarded with a position in the royal household. You shall be Prince Arthur's manservant.” 

What. Arthur stared at Merlin for a moment, uncomprehending. How the hell had they gotten so lucky? With Merlin as his manservant, Arthur wouldn’t need to worry about when next they could speak to one another. He wouldn’t have to worry as much about Merlin getting caught using magic because Arthur himself could monitor him. 

And then the absurdity hit him in the way such things do: all of a sudden and completely laughable. Uther Pendragon had just assigned a magic user to be his son’s manservant. Said magic user was also his son’s soulmate, a person who was supposed to die upon his first meeting with Arthur. Somewhere in the background people were clapping, but Arthur had to focus all his attention on not laughing. 

He thought he should try for some retort of disgust or frustration, just to show he was still the same person, but if he opened his mouth he might not be able to prevent a grin. 

His father waved an arm again, dismissing the cheers and suggesting everyone leave since a room full of cobwebs with no entertainment was no feast at all, and the celebration would be postponed. 

Looking over at Morgana, Arthur saw something of his own laughter reflected back at him. 

“I can’t believe my father did that,” Arthur said, meaning to start some sort of conversation without making a fool of himself. 

“Maybe luck is on our side after all,” Merlin agreed. Arthur could tell he still wasn’t comfortable around him. Merlin’s eyes kept darting to the servants and guards as they passed through the corridors and was cautious not to seem too friendly with Arthur. 

“You don’t really have to do that much,” Arthur said after a few moments of silence. It would be weird to have his soulmate as a servant. Not as weird as knowing your soulmate lived under the same roof as you but not being able to see them, but weird all the same. “You can delegate a lot of your tasks to other servants and just… your position would just give you an excuse. To be wherever I am.” 

“You think I’d like to spend my days following a prat like you around the castle as you sit in boring meetings and talk about taxes or duel with your arrogant knight friends?” Merlin said in jest. Arthur got to see him smile, just for a moment before it faded and he shook his head. “I was given a job. I should at least try to do some of it.” 

“I’m not sure about that.” A new voice added to the conversation. Sir Leon was standing at the door to Arthur’s chambers, looking as though he’d been waiting for them. “We need to talk.” He opened the door and held it open, watching Arthur and Merlin expectantly. 

“Leon, what’s this about?” Arthur asked. 

Leon looked over at Merlin who still stood awkwardly near the door waiting to see if Leon still wanted him there. 

“I’ll just,” he shuffled back through the doorway, “er, go, then. I’ll be back tomorrow” 

“No. You need to stay.” Leon pulled out one of Arthur’s chairs from the table and gestured for Merlin to sit down. After he had, Leon took a seat himself and waited for Arthur to do the same. 

Leon took a deep breath and began his speech. “I have known you for years now, Sire,” he said. “I watched as you became a squire, and then a knight and an honourable man. But most importantly, I think that in that time I have come to know you well as a person. Better than anyone except, perhaps, Lady Morgana.” 

“I suppose so,” Arthur agreed. “Even with our moments of conflict,” Arthur could see the clear memory of his sword covered in blood as the girl fell to the ground and Leon cried out in shock, “I am grateful to call you a friend now. But I don’t see what this has to do with anything.” 

“My point is, Arthur, that to someone who knows you well, It’s pretty obvious you’ve found your soulmate.” 

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Arthur said quickly. One glance at Leon’s face showed that the knight wasn’t falling for Arthur’s bluff. 

“You’ve been blinking a lot in bright light, wincing when brightly coloured objects move, staring off into the distance with either a worried frown or wistful smile on your face, and you’ve been avoiding talking to anyone but Morgana. It took me a while to piece together who your soulmate was, but the timing of your first meeting with Merlin lined up, and that constipated look you had as you tried not to laugh when the king appointed him as your servant gave it away.” 

“Okay, yes, I can see the colour. What are you going to do about it?” Arthur asked, trying to remain calm for Merlin’s sake. Arthur felt confident that Leon wouldn’t tell Uther, not after their history, but Merlin didn’t know that. He had the same expression he had when he found out his soulmate was Camelot’s prince. 

“I want to help.” Leon set a palm on the table in Merlin’s direction as if to show his peaceful intentions. “Since you don’t seem to want to leave Camelot, we need a fake soulmate.” 

“A what?” Merlin asked. 

“We need Arthur to claim to have met his soulmate and killed them. His vision of colour won’t be seen as strange, and Uther won’t be on the lookout for a sorcerer near his son.” 

Arthur could imagine it: the blue-eyed corpse being brought in to Uther as Arthur exclaimed how wonderful the colour red was. The courtiers applauded his victory over magic while Leon, Gaius, and Merlin, applauded their victory over Uther. There was just one problem: 

“How are we going to be able to make that happen? My father won’t believe me without evidence, and I can’t just go kill an innocent person to substitute for Merlin.” 

“Hopefully, I have a solution.” Leon pulled out a scroll from under the table and unrolled a map. “If everything goes exactly right, Uther will never know your secret.” 

Chapter Text

As it turned out, when Leon said “if everything goes exactly right,” he meant it. The sound plan Arthur wished for remained a dream. However, with no other options, he went along with Leon’s idea and hoped their luck would win out over chance.

The increasingly-notorious mercenary and thief they were going after had been on Arthur’s radar for only a few days but Leon had been on his case for more than a week. Uther had already sent out a few knights to capture him, but never gave Arthur a reason for his capture instead of immediate execution. Anyone attacking Camelot’s outer regions and stealing food and material from Camelot’s villages and known for using magic to aid in his escapes wouldn’t regularly be shown mercy. He should have put two and two together and realized that it must have been reported that the thief had blue eyes. In a world where eye colour was so important to people, Arthur foolishly brushed it aside when not immediately faced with it.

Clearly, Uther saw the thief as a threat, yes, but also a temporary necessity. To avoid conflict between the blue-eyed thief and Arthur, Uther never sent Arthur with the patrols. However, the man would never face execution until he and Arthur were brought together. 

“How do you know he’ll even be there?” Arthur asked Leon. 

“He’ll be there. I’ve been following his group for a while now, and everything points to this town. He’ll be nearby looking to see if there is anything to gain from attacking.” 

The two of them continued on their horses, Arthur twitching at every abnormal movement. They were hours away from the city with only two other knights for backup. If their mission failed, only Merlin had even the slightest idea of Arthur’s plan to put himself right among enemies to deliberately meet the most dangerous one. 

Merlin had insisted on coming along, but Arthur refused his help. 

“You know I’m not useless, Arthur. My magic —” 

“Don’t even say that word here, okay?” Arthur had scanned the stable passageway for anyone who might be in hearing range. “I’m doing this so that I don’t have to lose you. Don’t make this quest a useless one.”

That hadn’t stopped Merlin from trying. However, his lack of a horse and the fact that Sir Gareth started looking at him with confusion the farther he followed them prevented him from getting far. Part of Arthur wondered if he was still there, following somehow with his magic, but he doubted it to be true. Merlin would reason out that his absence would be noticed by someone. 

A few hours later, they found the tracks from a group of people and the remains of a short-lived campsite that matched those previously found. Following the path tread before them, it wasn’t long before they found who they were looking for. Leon stood a few paces away behind another tree while the other two knights crouched in the bushes between them. 

Their leader, Brenan Ravenor, the blue-eyed sorcerer from Mercia was easy to spot. His demeanor and the way others deferred to his opinion immediately gave him away even though the colour of his eyes weren’t in direct view. 

Arthur made a quick count of the number of men in the camp. It was only five. That would make the fight almost completely even with Arthur, Leon, and the four knights accompanying them. 

Leon gestured for the other knights to surround the camp. He and Arthur would take on Ravenor while the others fought his allies. 

Arthur winced when one of the knights snapped a particularly loud twig, alerting their enemies to their presence, but Leon signaled for their attack before they had completely lost the advantage of surprise. 

The six of them launched into action, Arthur heading straight for the sorcerer knowing he had Leon to back him. It was unlikely the other knights would be paying enough attention to see whether or not Arthur’s claim of finding his soulmate was true, but just in case, his first move was pushing Ravenor back with a hand instead of a sword. 

He stumbled back a few steps and then pulled out his sword to defend himself while uttering what Arthur guessed was the beginning of a spell. 

Arthur started to bring his sword up to attack for real this time, but immediately dropped it when he felt the burning. He looked down to see the steam coming off the hilt of his sword where it had turned scalding hot and burned his hand. 

Before Ravenor could finish his second spell, Leon jumped in to distract him. The sorcerer clearly wasn’t used to using his magic in fast-paced battles, because he quickly changed his defense from magic to fighting Leon and Arthur with only his sword. From there on it was easy. Two against one when the one had never been formally trained? Ravenor started on the defensive and never had the chance to gain his footing. 

Leon was the one to disarm him. Only then did everything slow back down to normal speed. Arthur realized they were the last ones still fighting at the same time Ravenor did. 

“You’ll never win this fight, Pendragon,” he hissed. 

“Looks like I already have.” 

The light reflecting off of Ravenor’s pale blue eyes added to the insanity of his smile. “I didn’t mean against me. I meant against us. People with magic. We deserve to rule over the kingdoms, not someone like you.” He lurched into one last attack, reaching for his fallen weapon when Arthur’s sword went through his chest. 

“Is it true?” Uther stared down at his son. Arthur couldn’t tell if the cold look concealed Uther’s rage or his curiosity. Perhaps a little bit of both. 

Arthur raised his face to hold his gaze. “That depends on what you’ve heard.” 

“Don’t play games with me, Arthur. Was Brenan Ravenor your soulmate, or not?” 

Ravenor’s body, all but his face covered by cloth before it would be burned, begged for Arthur’s attention, but he didn’t let his focus drift from his father. “He was.” 

“And now you can see everything.” 

“Everything.” 

Uther nodded. “I’ve half a mind to punish you for going on this mission without permission, but I suppose colour shock may do that for me. Personally, I found green quite exhausting to look at when I first caught a glance at it. Take tomorrow off, if you wish, and in the evening we will celebrate this milestone and the destruction of another enemy.” 

“Yes, father.” 

Arthur walked out of the throne room. Now that he walked the halls and no longer stood in front of the king, his heart pounded in fear. He couldn’t stop picturing Uther jumping out from behind the next corner, screaming about magic and lies, and somehow knowing about Merlin. 

His room was empty when he arrived and cleaner than he’d left it. He supposed maybe Merlin had actually been trying to do his new job, even if it made Arthur feel more than slightly uncomfortable. A few moments later, the man himself walked in without knocking. 

“I could have been meeting with someone,” Arthur pointed out. 

Merlin shook his head. “I knew you weren’t. I asked the guard at the end of the hallway, and I was here a few minutes ago anyway. I… I wanted to thank you. You didn’t have to do all this just for me, and I’m sure part of you wishes that I actually was a murderer or assassin or something just so you wouldn’t have to deal with this. 

Arthur stifled a laugh. “I haven’t wished anything like that in a long time, Merlin. You’re not the only one I know with, er, magic,” he whispered. “And an assassin? Really?”

“An assassin soulmate would make for an interesting story,” Merlin pointed out. “They come in intending to kill the prince, but you wake up before they strike with their dagger,” he made a stabbing motion in the air with an invisible weapon, “and you reach out a hand to stop them, only to have all the colours in the room awaken. Then —”

“-- Then I kill them and show their body to my father? Yes, Merlin, how romantic.” 

“Would you really have done that if I tried to kill you?” 

“If you’d tried to kill me?” Arthur thought back to all the times he’d imagined victory over a magical soulmate, back before he’d started to question the connection between evil and magic. “Probably,” he decided. “Instinct. I’ve trained too much not to just defend myself.” 

Merlin nodded. “That makes sense.” 

They sat in silence for a moment, both of them again realizing how little they had in common and how little they knew about each other. Arthur never spent much time around soulmate couples, but never had they ever seemed so different, so unsure of how to interact. 

“Thanks for deciding to trust me anyway,” Merlin said at last. “And I’ll have to thank Sir Leon too.” 

“I couldn’t do anything but trust you,” Arthur admitted. With Morgana’s encouragement and the fact that their first meeting was one where Merlin stood up for someone else, Arthur hadn’t seen any way to make another decision. “But Leon. He’s a good friend, one of the best I have, and a loyal knight, but.” 

“But?” 

“A part of me thought he might not help as a way to get back at me. I… I killed his soulmate. Some of the knights and I went out because some Druids had made camp too close to Camelot, and, well, I don’t know if you’ve heard about raids on Druid camps since you’re not from Camelot.” 

Merlin’s obvious grimace said that he had and probably guessed where the story was going. 

“Yeah. It wasn’t pretty. Usually, the women and children at least run without putting up a fight, but there was this girl who stayed and fought us with magic. Our weapons would get yanked from our hands when we got close to her, but Leon managed to get close, and I guess he must have touched her because she gasped and froze up, blinking like you do when you first see colour. And I used that moment to get my sword back. She... didn’t recover fast enough to stop me.”

Even though it had been years, Arthur could still hear Leon yelling for him to stop as he struck with his sword and the girl fell backwards into Leon’s arms. Leon hadn’t spoken to him for weeks after that, though he never acted angrily. Just distant, his eyes often focused on something Arthur couldn’t see. And when Arthur realized Leon warned the next few druid camps before they were attacked, he said nothing. After talking to Morgana, he gave Leon extra warning whenever he could so he would have more time to get to them. 

At first, Leon hadn’t realized the extra warning was deliberate, but when he had, their teamwork made the actual capture or murder of Druids almost impossible. The only bad thing is that it had taken Leon’s soulmate for them to start taking action. 

"Arthur?" 

Merlin reached across the table and touched Arthur’s hand, jolting Arthur out of the memory. He’d been staring at his hands for longer than a normal pause. They lay flat on the table, callused from training but free of the blood read that filled his thoughts. 

“You changed. You can make a difference now . That’s what matters.” 

Arthur looked up at Merlin’s face, focusing on the blue eyes that started it all, somehow expecting to see gold as well. 

Then there was a knock on the door and Merlin quickly pulled his hand away. After he was given permission to enter, Leon stepped in. 

He looked between the two of them and pursed his lips. “I’m sorry to keep interrupting the two of you with bad news.” 

Arthur’s heart sank. Uther had found out. What had they missed? Did someone else tell him? 

“It’s a group of people with magic,” Leon continued. “Apparently the only reason they hadn’t attacked the castle is because they believed you having a magical soulmate would change things. Now that they believe that soulmate is dead… there’s no reason for them not to strike. Rumors of a camp started in the forest have already reached me through a few druid contacts.” 

“The Druids don’t support this?” 

“Most only want peace. But Arthur, if we don’t do something about this, there is no way ordinary knights could fight so many with magic.”

Chapter Text

The three of them stared at each other in silence. In only a few days they had gone from seeing grey to seeing in color, from only a few magical attackers to an entire clan. Picturing a group of magical enemies didn’t come easily to Merlin. Picturing anyone but himself using magic at all was always strange, as though in his mind it was him against the law instead of an entire community threatened by Uther. At least, it had been until he’d seen the execution when he entered Camelot.

As thankful as he was that Arthur had gone out of his way to protect him, Merlin couldn’t see him doing the same for an army of sorcerers.

Leon opened the door to Arthur’s chambers again when someone requested entry.

“I see I’m late to the party.” Lady Morgana stepped in gracefully, taking a seat next to Arthur without asking. “I came to warn you about the group of sorcerers, but I’m guessing you already heard from Leon.”

Arthur nodded, his eyes drifting away from Merlin’s and back to his own hands.

“Well, what are we going to do about it?”

“We?” Arthur asked. “What the hell can we do about anything? We can’t very well resurrect Ravenor, can we? And I won’t undo everything by revealing my soulmate is still alive.”

“But if it would save everyone —” Merlin said.

Morgana stopped him before he finished the thought. “It would only save them for a few hours, before Uther would execute you as well and it would start all over again. The solution to this doesn’t involve revealing you, or at least not revealing you to Uther.”

Arthur looked suspiciously over at Morgana. “What do you mean, not revealing him to Uther? If anyone knows he’s my soulmate, my father will find out eventually. It’s too much of a risk.”

Leon shuffled nervously in his seat, having newly discovered that he was not just an “anyone.”

“Present company excluded, of course,” Arthur said, noting Leon’s discomfort.

“We might not have any better options,” Morgana said. “We can’t convince them not to attack without some sort of revelation.”

“Then let it be my own,” Arthur followed. “Some of the places Ravenor attacked were places where Druids stay. Would they really have a problem with his death if he weren’t my soulmate? I’ll just tell them that I have friends with magic and fully intend to change the laws once I’m king.”

“Yeah,” Morgana agreed, “I’d totally believe the words of some narcissistic rich kid trying to save his own ass over my own observations.” She held up a hand to stop Arthur from protesting. “However, you have a point. We don’t have to involve Merlin when I, the king's ward, have magic. As long as the two of us present a joint argument, that should be enough.”

“You… you’re the other person that has magic?” Merlin stammered.

“Wait, you already knew there was another person with magic?” Leon asked. “Why didn’t anyone tell me?”

A few moments of silence passed in which no one had any answer.

Arthur cleared his throat. “Well, how much time do we have?”

“I’d say we give it a day,” Morgana suggested. “They’ll be waiting for reinforcements, and we want to reach a wide enough audience. In the meantime, act normal.”

“Alright,” Arthur agreed. “Business as usual. But meet back here this evening.”

__________________________

It was only once he’d reached the infirmary that Merlin realized that “business as usual” might not have been synonymous with “everyone leave.” He still didn’t really understand how much of serving Arthur was his task, and what smaller things were delegated to other servants, but he probably shouldn’t have just left like that. Still, his heart beat twice as fast just thinking of returning. He stood in the middle of Gaius’s workspace, finally turning to go back to Arthur when the physician himself arrived.

“Ah, Merlin. I was hoping you’d be here. I have ten different people waiting for deliveries, and families I need to visit in the lower town. Everything’s labeled over there.” He pointed at a collection of glass vials and paper parcels. “I’ll take a few with me, and you can deliver the rest around the castle.”

“Actually, I was just —”

“Hanging about in the middle of the room like you had nothing to do,” Gaius said. “I can see perfectly well, despite what you seem to think.” Gaius hustled out of the room with three of the packages and disappeared down the hallway.

“Shit,” Merlin mumbled. He’d been irrationally nervous of going to see his own soulmate, and now that the opportunity had gone, he regretted not leaving immediately.

He searched through the vials, calculating how much time it would take to get all of them hand delivered. He figured there were a couple that could be handed to a castle servant without any issue (as long as Gaius didn’t find out, anyway) and the rest weren’t a far walk. There was even Morgana’s usual drought.

“I wasn’t expecting to see you until this evening,” Morgana pointed out about an hour later. Gwen, having just entered the room, shot Merlin a bewildered look, but didn’t interrupt the conversation.

Merlin shrugged. “I wasn’t either. But Gaius got done with your items early, so here I am!” He gestured awkwardly at himself.

Gwen seemed to buy the excuse, and left again with a basket of Morgana’s clothes.

Morgana watched her go. “I trust her, you know. But it’s better for her, for all of us, if she doesn’t know for now.”

Merlin nodded. “I understand.” Morgana and Gwen were clearly close, and it couldn’t be easy for Morgana to keep her own magic from her. It hadn’t for Merlin when it came to Will. The irony was that here, in Camelot of all places, Morgana had more people to support her than Merlin had back in a kingdom where magic was technically legal. It didn’t make her any less isolated, not when she couldn’t tell her closest friend.

“See you later,” Merlin said, turning to leave.

“Going back to see Arthur now, I hope?”

“Probably, yes.”

“Just probably? Why are you doing this anyway? I thought you were Arthur’s servant now.” 

“I’m still Gaius’ assistant, and live with him, so I kind of have to do what he asks. Also, I kind of didn’t realize Arthur probably wasn’t telling me to leave this morning.”

Morgana snickered. “I should have realized you’d be just as oblivious as Arthur. He most certainly wanted you to stay, even if he never would have said it.”

“Yeah. I just — it’s all so strange. I don’t really know him, and he probably can’t relate to me having grown up with all this.” Merlin gestured around the room, trying to indicate the expense and completeness of it all without it coming across as criticism. Which it sort of was (The sheer amount of stuff the castle had when people elsewhere went starving was ridiculous) but Merlin didn’t want to risk the chance of being friends with Morgana. Not when she was the first person he’d ever met who also had magic.

He never would have guessed that two of the most important people in Camelot, the prince and King’s ward, would turn out to be the ones that made staying in the city so enticing.

“I’m sure Arthur feels the same way,” Morgana mused. “I’m sure most soulmates feel that way, to some extent, though I’m sure it's easier for those that have a similar background. Where are you from, anyway?”

“I —”

“— Nevermind. I don’t care to hear about this right now. Go tell this stuff to Arthur, not me. He’s the one that really should know.”

“Right. Yeah. I’ll, er, do that then.”

On the way to Arthur’s chambers, he dropped off the last potion vial, lingering at the door as he left, just hoping for a moment more of waiting, or maybe one last final push. In the end, he had to be the one to walk himself down the hallway and knock on the door.

“Come in.”

Merlin pushed the door open. Arthur sat at his table, surrounded by stacks of paper. The one directly in front of him was blank, an inkwell and quill ready to use at his side. It took him a moment to look up from what he was reading to the side.

“Merlin!”

“Hi.”

Arthur abruptly got to his feet before changing his mind and sitting back down again. “It’s good you’re here. We have… a lot to talk about.”

 “Of course.” Merlin sat across from him, wondering which topics Arthur wanted to speak of. Magic? Colors? (Merlin had been dying to know if someone else was rather disappointed by the color purple when it had been hyped up so much as being special and for royalty) or was it something more personal.

It was probably something more personal, god, this was going to be weird. He turned (hopefully discreetly) to glance at the door, hoping he’d see it fully closed. It would be just their luck for Leon to randomly walk in again.

“So, I’m sorry to cause you so much trouble,” Merlin started to say.

Arthur waved a hand. “Don’t be stupid. This is probably the best outcome I could’ve hoped for, meeting you now. I just wanted to actually get to know you.”

“Oh.”

“So, Merlin. Where are you from?”

“Wait — what do you know about me already?” It occurred to Merlin that all Arthur probably knew was: tall, somewhat scrawny peasant boy who came to work for Gaius even though he has magic. Not that Merlin knew much about Arthur, but it was still more than that. Merlin knew his birthday, his age, his ability as a knight — the whole kingdom did. And, he had a better idea of what Arthur’s life had been like. The status of ‘prince’ was a whole lot more specific than ‘generic peasant.’ And all it would take is one ask of someone in the palace and Merlin could find out things like what his favorite food was, or which horse he usually rode, and so much more.

Merlin guessed his estimate was probably correct as Arthur looked a little uncomfortable having been asked.

“You’re stupidly reckless, I know that,” he said, surprising Merlin with something that wasn’t an entirely bland fact.

“I don’t know that I’d say stupidly, but I suppose reckless is true.”

“What would you say then? It was no genius move to get into a fight with me when we met, even not knowing who I was”

“I could’ve won.”

“Not the point, idiot. I have no idea how you’re still alive.”

“Honestly, I don’t really know either.”

Arthur unsuccessfully tried to hide a grin behind a hand gesture. “So. We’re back to the first question: where are you from?”

“I’m from Caerleon, technically* a small town near the border with Camelot. It’s called Ealdor.”

“Only technically? Did you not grow up there?”

“I did.” Before coming to Camelot, very few of Merlin’s memories were from anywhere else. “But, Ealdor is close enough to the border that it sometimes falls under debate. So, we follow laws of both Kingdoms, and get support from neither.”

“Right. I’m sorry.” Arthur said this while looking more uncertain than sorry. “That must have been hard. Did your parents ever consider moving elsewhere?”

“My mum was the only healer for the surrounding towns. She would never leave for long. And my father, well, he left before I was born. My mother never talks about it, but I’m pretty sure he’s where I got my magic* from. Uther found out he was there, and I guess he left to protect anyone in Ealdor from being brought in with him.”

Arthur winced. “That’s… unfortunate.”

They fell into an awkward silence. Arthur probably didn’t know what else there was to ask about. Merlin already knew where Arthur was from and what his parents did and all the basics. What else was there?

How did people instantly fall in love?

In the meantime, Arthur had busied himself with papers on his desk. Merlin watched, taking careful note of which papers seemed to have Arthur’s handwriting, and smiling when he realized that quite a few had little drawings etched in the corners. He recognized the view from Arthur’s window in one corner, and a shield in another. A buried piece of scratch paper seemed to have a tiny dragon, ink smeared in a way that seemed to deliberately mimic fire.

“So, you’ve been practicing the art of illustration as well as the art of war?” Merlin asked, pointing.

Arthur quickly brushed aside the doodles. “It’s nothing.”

“Sure. Keep your secrets,” Merlin agreed. “For now. You already knew mine from the start, though. That’s hardly fair.”

“That’s different.”

“Of course. That’s a lot bigger than anything you could be hiding. And when we go to meet the sorcerers tonight –”

“You’re not going.”

“Excuse you. You are not going without me.”

“Merlin. You’re not needed, so you’re not coming.” Arthur said this while stacking his notes, covering up all his secret drawings with pristine speech outlines. “This has to stay secret.”

Merlin said nothing. He wasn’t sure if Arthur was only talking about his magic.

“Not to mention, you have a lot to do tomorrow. Servant stuff to learn so that you fit in and I don’t have to fire you.”

“You have a lot to do tomorrow. It’s not stopping you from going.”

“I’m going out of necessity.”

“So am I.”

“No,” Arthur growled. “You’re not going. That’s an order.”

Merlin rolled his eyes. As if he’d take orders from Arthur concerning his own magical consequences. He’d be there, with or without Arthur’s permission. Not having a horse wouldn’t stop him this time.