The Rising Son

by Xenutia

Summary:

When Merlin is caught trying to help a wrongly convicted man, Arthur claims responsibility and takes the punishment for him. While Merlin struggles to process what Arthur has sacrificed for him, Arthur finds himself having to reconsider his relationship with his father, his kingdom, and the people he has sworn to protect.

OR

The guards took this as their cue, and on Uther’s order Merlin felt his shirt torn from his body with a sound all too much like tearing flesh for comfort. Stood only in his worn brown breeches and weathered boots, he could feel for the first time how fiercely the sun beat down on his bare skin: how exposed he was, with nothing but air between his unprotected back and the whip.

And he was terrified.

It was then that another voice was raised above the crowd: one voice, in all that discontented hush, that dared to ring out above the rest.

“Father! It was me. I ordered him to do it.”

Notes:

A NOTE ON MERTHUR
I have very strong feelings regarding this matter, and it’s best I say so up front: Merlin and Arthur love each other. However, I think it’s entirely up to the interpretation of the viewer (or reader, in this case) to decide what form that love might take. I’ve written this from the standpoint of platonic soulmates, but there’s probably more than enough material in here to suggest pre-slash if that’s how you want to read it. They just . . . do it themselves, dammit.

TIMELINE: This takes place one week after episode 2x08, “The Sins of the Father”. I had the Dickens of a time figuring out where this might fit within the show, and changed my mind more than once. Ideally I would have liked to place this after 2x11, “The Witch’s Quickening”, because of Arthur’s threat to clap Merlin in irons himself should he ever be forced to cover for his servant again – but unfortunately, that episode clearly took place in autumn/early winter. I needed a point in the season where a heatwave seemed likely, and since Arthur was seen sleeping topless quite often in the mid-season episodes, and the leaves on the trees were dense and green, that was the obvious choice.

Chapter 1: Cover Art