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Saying Arthur was bored was an understatement, he was seconds away from pulling his hair out just to feel something.
He had been listening to his father and the council drown on about taxes for two hours now, two whole hours! Merlin beside him seemed to be faring a lot better than him and looked almost peaceful in his corner.
Merlin had no real reason to be here, but Arthur had commanded him to come anyway because – while Arthur would rather die than admit it to Merlin – having him there makes the counsel meetings a bit more bearable. His manservant also looked particularly exhausted today, so Arthur figured he wouldn’t put up a big fuss about having to listen to the counsel.
Just when they were nearing the third excruciating hour, there was a knock on the door.
“Come in!” Uther called somewhat annoyed.
Upon the approval, sir Newyn’s head peaked out from the door. This was odd because Sir Newyn’s patrol shouldn't have gotten back until nightfall. Meaning something happened, meaning Arthur was a lot more awake now. He heard Merlin groan quietly but paid it no mind.
Before Sir Newyn could start with his briefing Arthur questioned concernedly “What happened, did something go wrong?”
Well…” Sir Newyn answered.
“Well, what” Arthur continued bitingly, not in the mood to beat around the bush.
“Well, nothing went wrong but we encountered something in the woods and decided to take it with us.”
Arthur pinched the bridge of his nose with his fingers, praying the knights didn’t bring back some weird magical artifact with them. He did not have the energy for that today. Before Arthur or Uther for that matter could continue questioning the knight about it, the laugh of a young child followed by footsteps and more squealing could be heard from the corridor.
As the footsteps and laughter neared, Sir Newyn looked increasingly awkward, Arthur also didn’t miss Merlin beside him growing very stiff and looking very alarmed and a bit pale.
“What’s the meaning of this,” demanded Uther.
“Well,” Sir Newyn began as the door opened “We found a chi- “, “Daddy!”
The child and all the eyes in the room immediately turned to…Merlin, who finally seemed to unfreeze.
“Elyra! What on earth are you doing here, does your grandmother know about this!” Merlin questioned the girl sternly as she climbed into her fathers(?) arms.
“Granny went out to gather some herbs and left me at home, but I missed you so when I saw the red capes you told me about, I thought they could bring me to you. And it worked! I found you, Daddy”.
“Arthur!” Uther’s shout echoed through the silent room,” What is going on here!”
Arthur who currently had a lot of trouble processing the scene unfolding in front of him and what it meant, could only bring out confused stuttering. Uther who looked quite unpleased turned back to Sir Newyn when it became clear his son wasn’t going to be much help, who shook himself out of his stupor:
“Euh ehm”, sir Newyn cleared his throat,
” We were watering our horses when we were halfway through the forest when this girl came up to us and told us to bring her to her father. We asked who he was, but she wouldn’t tell us anything. So, we asked if he was in Camelot, she said yes, and we took her here hoping we could find her father and…we did”.
He finished a little dumbstruck. Uther turned back to Arthur who forced his brain to turn back on and leave the incoming freakout for later.
“Father, may I have a word with my manservant, please? A private matter has seemed to have come up.”
Arthur finished with a harsh glare at the servant in question who at least had the decency to look sheepish but kept the stubborn, protective set of his jaw.
“Yes, you may go. It is better you sort this out quickly.”
Without taking his eyes off Merlin, Arthur nodded
“Thank you, sire,” then in a harsher, darker tone: “Merlin, my chambers, now.”
Merlin obeyed immediately but didn’t look at all intimidated, which only served to feed Arthur’s fury.
And because the idiot had devoted himself to giving Arthur a nervous breakdown, he and his offspring calmly climbed up the stairs while the girl was telling a story about a bird she saw in the woods, with Merlin chiming in occasionally.
When they got to his chambers and Arthur was about ready to jump out of the first available window, Merlin just opened the door and placed his daughter on the carpet before the fireplace that he then started lighting, like it wasn’t revealed he had a CHILD.
A child well into toddlerhood that he’d been hiding for all that time. Not to mention anything about the mother of this child, where she is, or who she could even be.
After a few minutes of Arthur standing in the doorway, frozen and in the middle of an existential crisis, the girl began another story and Merlin now also sitting on the rug, appeared to have no plans to start explaining this.
Arthur forced his brain to function for a second time in just 10 minutes.
“Plan on telling me what is going on here, Merlin?”
“I don’t know what I need to tell you. I think the situation is quite self-explanatory”.
Merlin replied infuriatingly calm, totally unbefitting to Arthurs’s current state of mind.
So, Arthur continued less calmly “What do you mean self-explanatory! Merlin, I’m your master, you can’t just hide a child from me, I need to know these things!”
“Well, I thought my arrangement was working pretty well actually.”
“The manservant of the Crowned Prince can’t be running around having bastards! Think about the disgrace this puts upon my father and me!” Arthur shouted, trying to make Merlin understand how bad the situation really is.
. “She’s not a bastard!” Merlin shouted back now also starting to get angry.
“Something you would have known if you had paid any attention to me the past five years. I had a lot of good reasons not to tell you about her. The same reasons why I won’t tell you now.”
At that Arthur’s thoughts slammed to a screeching hold, was Merlin trying to tell him he’s married? How and when did that happen? And why couldn’t he tell him?
“So, you’re not going to tell me anything, you’re just going to continue hiding her in the woods? Where does she live anyways?” Arthur finished incredulously.
“She lives with my mother in a cabin by the lake of Avalon. I know it’s not great but it’s the safest option.”
Merlin’s tone had gotten a bit somber at that and his eyes looked distant like he was thinking about something.
Merlin shook his head and then a small voice pipped up “I have to miss you again, but I just found you.”
Tears started forming in the young girl’s eyes. Arthur was starting to feel bad for the kid now and could understand even less why Merlin (and his wife) choose to isolate her like that.
Merlin’s face went through multiple emotions and landed on a conflicted expression.
But then suddenly the fire in the fireplace went out and tears streamed down Elyra’s face as gold faded from her eyes.
Arthur’s expression hardened as Merlin’s went from horrified to completely blank in protectiveness.
“What was that” Arthur said voice ice cold with an expression hard as stone.
Merlin tried to cover it up with a laugh but when he spoke his voice had a nervous undertone. “It must have been the wind; don’t worry I’ll relight it.”
All the windows were closed, there was no way it was the wind.
“Are you sure it was the wind Merlin,” Arthur asked threateningly, “Because I think it looks a lot like magic. Could you maybe explain to me why this child, your child knows magic and why I shouldn’t call the guards right now?”
Merlin pulled his daughter into a tight embrace but stayed silent.
“Merlin where did your daughter learn magic,” Arthur spoke again tone unchanged.
Merlin remained silent again, but Arthur wasn’t in the mood for sparing Merlin’s feelings.
“Merin, now!”
Merlin visually steeled himself and with his eyes fixed on the fireplace, he finally spoke softly.
“She was born with magic.”
“I don’t have time for this Merin you can’t be born with magic. Now answer my question.” Arthur responded irritated.
“She was. She was born with magic because,” Merlin hesitated “because her mother was”.
Merlin hesitated again while staring a hole in the fireplace and tightening his grip on Ellynn. During this pause Arthur decided he needed to sit down.
“As was her father.” Merlin finished.
Arthur looked up towards Merlin, feeling a million things he couldn’t make sense of. Merlin kept staring into the fireplace expression unreadable.
“Are… are you telling me you have magic? That you were born with magic?”
Arthur felt betrayed, shocked, and angry, but he couldn’t bring himself to call the guards. To arrest Merlin, Merlin wasn’t, couldn’t be evil. But he has magic, and so does his wife for God’s sake!
Arthur should definitely be calling the guards right now because Merlin has magic, so Merlin must be evil, right?
But it’s Merlin, sweet thoughtful clumsy Merlin, who cries when they go on hunts and visits Camelot’s elderly every Sunday to cheer them up.
He knows Merlin, but Merlin lied to him so does he really know him? But then again if Merlin were evil why would he put his life in danger for Arthur time and time again?
Not finding answers to the questions running through his mind, he noticed Merlin hadn’t answered his question yet.
“Well, do you?”
Merlin looked strangely resigned as he spoke.
“Yes, I have magic and yes I was born with it,” Merlin said slowly, carefully.
“How?” Arthur asked.
“I don’t know, but according to my mother, I was barely an hour old when my eyes glowed and objects started floating around the room, I was in. Ellynn did the same thing.” Merlin finished with a small simile looking at his daughter.
Arthur didn’t know what to do with that and Merlin still hadn’t looked at him.
“What about her mother? How did she have magic and how did you meet her?”
“If I tell you the whole story, will you kill me?” Merlin asked.
“Depends on how your story goes,” Arthur responded.
Merlin smiled again and finally looked back at Arthur. His eyes looked far away as began telling his tale.
“Her name is, was Freya,” Arthur caught the mistake but decided not to comment on it, the look on Merlin’s face said enough.
“She was a druid who got caught by a bounty hunter planning to sell her in Camelot, I managed to free her, but it turned out she was cursed. She had killed the son of a sorceress to defend herself, the woman then cursed her to ‘kill forever more’.”
Merlin paused and looked down at Elyra who had drifted off to sleep in his lap at some point. He continued with a somber smile gracing his lips.
“That’s how you met her actually.” Merlin looked back up at Arthur who was surprised by that resolution.
“Remember the Bastet?”
That did ring a bell somewhere, the flying beast tormenting the villagers at night, but didn’t he- “Didn’t I kill the Bastet?” Arthur questioned.
“Almost, you certainly got close.” Merlin let out a small laugh, Arthur didn’t share the sentiment.
He had almost killed Merlin’s lover and Merlin just forgave him for it. How could Arthur even consider this man to be evil and needed to be killed?
“I got her to the Lake of Avalon where I could heal and even cure her of the curse.”
“With your magic,” Arthur asked. “With my magic, yeah” Right because Merlin had magic, quite powerful magic apparently.
“Anyways, we found a cottage near the lake and that’s where she stayed for the most part with me fisting whenever I could.”
“Ah, so that’s where you keep disappearing to.” Arthur worked out.
“Well, yes, that and fending off evil sorcerers plotting to kill you.” Merlin retorted with a laugh.
That made Arthur pause again, and when he thought about the disappearances and the mysterious injuries Merlin thought Arthur didn’t notice but did. Of course, Merlin would be fighting sorcerers wanting to kill him.
“I’ve been underestimating you haven’t I.”
“Evidently” Merlin smirked, before continuing. “We were happy like that, and we got married, registered and everything.”
Wait, you’re telling me you registered your marriage in Camelot, and I didn’t find out?” Arthur asked a little baffled.
“Sometimes you give yourself too much credit my Lord.” Merlin shot back.
“Soon after that Freya got pregnant and we couldn't be happier, but…” Merlin cleared his throat.
“But something went wrong during the birth and Freya didn’t… I-we couldn’t save her.”
Merlin’s eyes were shining.
“I’m sorry,” Arthur said.
“Don’t be,” Merlin said wiping his eyes, Arthur didn’t comment on it.
“So,” Merin began, “are you going to kill me or not.”
That kinda caught Arthur off guard but was there ever really any doubt?
“No, I don’t think so. Who else is going to wash my dirty socks!”
“Thank you,” Merlin said sincerely and looked back down at the sleeping child.
“She can stay, you know,” Arthur said, Merlin, looked at him questioningly.
“Elyra, you can keep her with you in the castle. You don’t have to send her back to the woods, she didn’t seem so happy about it.” Arthur explained.
“Yeah, I think you’re right,” Merlin responded.
“Of course, I’m right, I’m the prince,” Arthur said.
“Just watch that big head of yours, prat.” Merlin chuckled.
“What was that?” Arthur asks sternly.
“Nothing” Merlin responded, an innocent look in his eyes.
And now engaging in their usual banter, Arthur knew everything would be fine.