Work Text:
Merlin was gone for three days.
Merlin was gone for three days, and when he finally returned, he looked like he'd been dragged behind a horse for 6 miles (and through a pond). Arthur couldn't conceive how he could possibly think the tavern excuse would work this time, but then again, one of the things Arthur enjoyed about Merlin was that he constantly made Arthur wonder how a person like him could actually exist.
Still, Arthur wished Merlin would just be honest.
Sometimes Arthur wished to shake him and say, You idiot, I know about your magic and-
- well, Arthur didn't know what came after that.
Because he wasn't quite sure why Merlin hadn't told him.
He thought it was possibly that Merlin was afraid of being killed, which made Arthur sad, because he thought Merlin really should know by now that Arthur was just as loyal to him as Merlin was to Arthur.
Although Arthur would admit that he was not as great at expressing it. Still, Merlin could read him like a book, usually.
He thought it was possibly that Merlin thought he would be shocked and angered and throw Merlin out of Camelot.
Which, okay, Arthur had been shocked. And he had treated Merlin quite badly for a time, until he had come to grips with the situation.
(It had not been as difficult as Arthur would have previously suspected. He had been able to understand why Merlin couldn't tell Arthur when he first arrived in Camelot, and Arthur had been a part of Court long enough to understand how lies could grow and tangle and hold you prisoner.
For all that he'd been raised to believe magic was evil, he'd never been able to equate that with Merlin. For all his lies (and really, it was just the one big one), Merlin had what Arthur had once heard a bard call a good and true heart. Arthur knew that Merlin would never use his magic in a self-serving way if it meant that someone else would be hurt.
And Merlin had more spine that many of the knights, so good luck to anyone who wanted to use Merlin's magic for sinister ends.)
There was, Arthur had to concede, also the possibility that Merlin wasn't telling him about the magic for some reason completely unknown to Arthur. But Arthur didn't like the idea that there was a part of Merlin that he knew nothing of, so he tried not to think about it too much.
Regardless, the point was that Arthur didn't know what he needed to say after he revealed that he knew about Merlin's magic to make things alright again between them. So he'd decided to wait and let Merlin tell him on his own, although it was getting more and more difficult to keep his mouth shut.
---
Camelot may have eschewed all things magical, but they could never get the people to stop celebrating festivals rooted in it, so they took another tack and hosted their own celebrations around the same time.
And so it was that Merlin ended up helping Arthur get back to his chambers from a Winter Feast That Was Not For Winter Solstice. Once he had settled Arthur on the edge of his bed, he pressed a small object wrapped in linen into his hands.
Arthur shook his head once to clear it a little, and looked up at Merlin for an explanation. But all he found were Merlin's drop-dead blue eyes and fond smile.
"Go on," Merlin said.
Arthur peeled back the linen to find a medallion attached to a long, intricate chain. It was a necklace he hadn't seen in many years.
The medallion was beautiful, engraved with an image of two birds whose feathers were an interlocking patter of flowers and stars. On the other side was a brilliant sun whose rays seemed to curl around and radiate out endlessly.
It had been his mother's.
It had been given to Arthur by his mother's sister, he'd been told, on the day she had left Camelot and vowed never to return. As a child, Arthur had taken it out to look at and wonder about his mother- a few objects of hers and bits and pieces of stories about her goodness were all he had. One day, however, Uther had noticed it and taken it away from him, saying it was possible that the medallion had been ensorcelled. When he was older, Arthur had snuck into the vaults below Camelot where all the valuable magical items were kept and tried to find it; he'd had no luck and given up.
"Where did you get this?" Arthur whispered, "How did you know-" he cuts himself off, ducking his head down as tears prick the corners of his eyes.
Merlin shrugged and waved a hand dismissively, which Arthur had come to realize meant that Merlin was about to lie.
"Oh, Gaius told me about it and I thought, hey, maybe it's still down in the vaults and so I went to look one night - had to bribe the guards of course, really should get better security- and managed to find it."
Arthur felt torn between hitting something, tearing his hair out, and sending Merlin away so he could sleep and forget about this whole thing.
Before he could do any of those things, however, realization hit him: this might be an opportunity, if he seized it right. So he stood and slapped the medallion sharply onto his desk. He advanced on Merlin, who suddenly looked wary and took a step back.
"Contrary to popular belief, Merlin, I am aware of the many awful things my father did while he was king."
(And he was. Uther was Arthur's father, but he had very little hand in raising him, kingship aside. Some of Arthur's nannies and tutors had shielded him from the truth, but others had been unwilling to do so, when he asked. )
"Very few people know of this, but there were some items -some truly magical, others only suspected- my father did not wish to keep in the castle, no matter their value. He had a vault prepared in a cave and sent some soldiers with the items, which they deposited before sealing up the cave. When they returned, however, my father found reasons to have them all killed so that he alone knew the location of that vault."
Merlin had gone pale and guarded. Arthur took another step toward him, and he tried to move back again, but the wall at his back prevented him from doing so.
"So I'm going to ask you again, Merlin. Where and how did you get this medallion?"
Arthur took one final step in, so that they were so close that all Merlin could see was Arthur and vice versa.
"Please stop lying to me," Arthur pleaded in a whisper.
Merlin bowed his head and took a deep shuddering breath. He then lifted his eyes to meet Arthur's, and they were watery but determined. He nodded once.
"The first thing I did was call the Great Dragon..."