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"Arthur—"
"Not now, Merlin—"
"It's important—"
"As you can see, I'm busy—"
"It's relevant!" Merlin insisted. It had been approximately twenty minutes since Arthur had revealed that he had finished his draft of the repeal on the laws on magic, and Merlin had been attempting to get Arthur to sit down for a conversation for all twenty of those minutes. However, Arthur was busy writing up "preparations" for something, and was being a serious pain about allowing Merlin to confess treason to him.
"I really don't see how you stopping me from continuing my preparations for the biggest legal change I have made since becoming king could possibly be relevant," Arthur said, rolling his eyes.
"Trust me, it is."
"Then you can tell me all about it later."
"Trust me, you want to know. Well maybe you don't. But you don't want to not know, so—"
"Yeah, we'll see," Arthur said, distracted. He seemed to be organizing papers in front of him into identical stacks and sealing them together.
Merlin huffed. "Well, when you're all angry later like 'Why didn't you tell me sooner?!' I'm going to remind you that you didn't let me."
That got Arthur's attention. He turned away from the papers in front of him, giving Merlin a wary look. "Merlin. What did you do."
"Nothing bad!" Merlin said quickly. "Well, I mean, kinda."
Now Arthur's attention was fully focused on him. "Alright, Merlin. You wanted to talk, so let's keep this brief. What did you do?"
"Hang on. I didn't think about how I was going to say it."
"Five seconds and then I'm going back to what I was doing. Five… four… three…"
"Magic," Merlin said simply, hoping the admission would buy him enough time to gather the perfect treason-confessing words that would hopefully not ruin their unique friendship forever.
Arthur blinked.
He tilted his head.
"Like, you doing magic?"
Merlin nodded mutely, gathering the strength to launch into his speech. "I know that I lied to you, and that I regret. But—"
"Perfect!" Arthur exclaimed, gathering the sealed packages into his hands. "Then you're the perfect man for this job."
Merlin took a step back, slightly stunned. He had conversational whiplash from how quickly Arthur had accepted the fact that he'd done magic. "Arthur, I'm not sure you fully understand. If you'd allow me to explain—"
"No, it's seriously fine. I mean, I guess it was probably illegal when you did the magic, but I've decided that magic isn't evil in itself, and I can't imagine you doing anything evil." Arthur shrugged as he dumped the packages into Merlin's hands.
"It wasn't a one-time thing, Arthur," Merlin clarified, realizing the miscommunication. "I'm a sorcerer. I always have been."
That gave Arthur slightly more pause. "We… might need to talk about that later," Arthur said slowly, "but for now it actually makes you even better for this job!"
Merlin looked down at the sealed packages he was now holding. "What did you just give me?" Merlin wondered.
"Invitations! I was wondering how I was going to get them out, but if I have a sorcerer friend right here—yeah, that was a little weird to say, give me a minute." Arthur tilted his head back and looked at the cieling blankly for a moment, like he was questioning his entire life. Then he looked back at Merlin, seemingly totally fine again. "Yeah, that's a later problem. So anyway, having a sorcerer friend should make this far easier! I mean, we have to track them down, and then give them the invitations, and convince them it's not a trap, and…"
"Invitations to what?!" Merlin exclaimed.
"The banquet for the legalization of magic! Kind of like an apology to the sorcerers for saying they were all evil," Arthur explained. "Those are invitations for the good sorcerers we know!"
Merlin had a sinking feeling. Arthur didn't know very many "good" sorcerers, since the only one who was really on his side was him…
"First, I'd like you to invite that one druid leader," Arthur said, and Merlin nodded. He didn't love visiting the druids, but at least Arthur hadn't asked him to invite— "Next is that old sorcerer, Dragoon. The one we thought killed my father? Well, Morgana just had to gloat and say she'd reversed all the healing magic to kill him, which means he had good intentions the whole time! Hopefully he'll take this invitation as an apology."
Yikes. Well, he guessed he could disguise himself as Dragoon one last time. Maybe give Arthur a really hard time for not trusting him and believing that he killed his father. Make him feel guilty. It would be fun!"
"Then there's that really old sorceress lady, the Dolma," Arthur continued. "We owe her a great thanks."
Merlin's heart stopped.
He could not be both the Dolma and Dragoon at the same time. Well, he really never wanted to be that woman ever again in his life, but he definitely couldn't split himself into multiple people! Unless there was a spell for that?
"Arthur, I really think we need to talk," Merlin said slowly.
"Not now, Merlin. We'll deal with the whole you-being-a-sorcerer thing later."
"That's not—"
"My next thought is that we should invite this elusive Emrys character," Arthur continued. "The druids seem to know his identity, so if you tell the druid leader that magic is being legalized—maybe use the fact that I know about your magic as an example that I really do view sorcery in a different light now!—maybe they'll reveal who he is. If it's true that he's the one who's been watching over me, making all those lucky coincidences happen…"
"Emrys is probably really busy," Merlin rushed. "You know, being the fulfillment of a prophecy, and all."
"Surely he'd want to celebrate the return of magic to the kingdom, though," Arthur pointed out. "Especially if that's been his goal from the beginning, which it sounds like it was."
Merlin grimaced. "Seriously Arthur, we need to have a conversation now."
"We can have a conversation after you deliver the invitations," Arthur told him firmly. "The last one is for the true last dragonlord, if you can track him down."
Merlin blinked. "You mean Balinor? He's dead, Arthur. You know that!"
"He can't have truly been the last," Arthur pointed out. "I know you said it looked like I killed the dragon, but I was blacked out and the body wasn't there. Whatever you saw… it must have been a trick. A dragonlord had to have killed the dragon. I didn't tell you until now because I didn't want to scare you with the prospect that the dragon might not be dead…"
"I'm not scared. Arthur, we—"
"Good! Besides, Morgana has a young dragon that has to have been hatched in our lifetimes. There must be a true last dragonlord aside from Balinor. Maybe he had a son, or something."
Merlin sighed. Great deduction on Arthur's part, he supposed.
But he couldn't do this. He literally couldn't—it wasn't physically possible. "Arthur, I am being very serious about the need for a conversation."
"Then you'd better get very serious about delivering those invitations," he said, and that was the end of that.
—
"Okay, so I visited all those people you mentioned!" Merlin said a week later, figuring a week should count as enough time to have completed the task. If he said it was too quick, well, he'd blame it on his magic powers somehow, and then they could have that serious conversation about destiny and prophecies and Emrys and stuff. Which seriously needed to happen. "And I got all of their responses."
"Alright," said Arthur. "Let's hear it."
"The druid leader says thank you for the invitation and that he'll save the date!" This was true. Merlin assumed Arthur had been talking about Iseldir, who had in fact thanked Merlin for delivering the message, said he would plan on coming, and given him a little speech about how he was fulfilling his destiny. "Dragoon says he unfortunately can't make it, he has a date. The Dolma is very sick and doesn't think she'll be able to travel. Emrys says he isn't quite ready to reveal his identity to you, and the last dragonlord would rather stay hidden as well. They all thank you for legalizing magic however, and believe it will be very good for the kingdom!"
Merlin waited for Arthur's reaction.
He hoped for resigned disappointment.
That wasn't what he got.
"Tell Dragoon it's no problem, then! We can simply move the date, though we'll have to inform the leader of the druids that the time has changed. Let's put it significantly into the future, too, so that the Dolma will be recovered by then."
Merlin blinked hard and pressed his lips together in agitation. "Right. Of course."
"As for Emrys and the last dragonlord, well, I suppose I can respect their choice," Arthur said, looking troubled, "but I would hope at least Emrys would want to talk to me. Especially now that I'm doing the thing the druids said he's prophesied to help me do."
"Emrys does want to talk to you!" Merlin exclaimed, exasperated.
"Wait, really? When?"
"Now!"
"Oh! Perfect!" Arthur exclaimed. "As soon as possible. Where can I meet him?"
"Here."
"Uh… I don't like that he'd be comfortable just walking into my chambers."
"For the love of all that is good in the world, Arthur! We can talk right now! I am literally dying to!"
"I don't want to talk to you, I want to talk to Emrys." Arthur rolled his eyes. "I'll be adjusting the plans for the banquet. In the meantime, my laundry hasn't been done in a week."
"I was delivering invitations!"
"I know. Well, now you can finish my clothes." With that, he strode out of the room, leaving Merlin to silently scream at the sky in frustration.
—
"I've sent messengers to the druids to deliver the updated date," Arthur told Merlin. "Didn't seem like the kind of task I strictly needed to send a sorcerer on. Rather handy to have you around, though—don't think I didn't notice you using magic to do your chores."
"But then I can do more than one at once."
"Exactly. Perfect for a lazy servant like you," Arthur said with a fond eye roll. "Anyway, I've also sent those poor messengers on trips to visit Dragoon and the Dolma to let them know about the date shift for convenience!"
Merlin stood up straight. "They're visiting the sorcerers. At the locations where you visited them."
"Yes," Arthur confirmed. "Why? Is that a problem?"
"No but I actually just remembered I have to be somewhere right now all of my chores are currently doing themselves don't wait up for me bye!" Merlin rambled as he rushed out of the room.
—
Merlin miraculously managed to be back to Arthur, following him down a corridor, panting slightly, before the return of the messengers. "Hey Arthur," he said, out of breath.
Arthur raised an eyebrow. "Where on Earth have you been?"
"Definitely nowhere. Can we have that talk I mentioned a while ago? About sorcery?"
Arthur rolled his eyes. "I'm trying to plan a banquet right now, Merlin. I don't have time for this. But don't worry, we are definitely going to talk."
Merlin saw the messengers approaching from the other side of the hallway. Well, that was plan B, at least. Perhaps the message they delivered would be enough to get Arthur to finally shut up about his banquet and have a discussion with his destined protector.
"Sire," the two of them said, bowing in sync.
"What responses have the sorcerers asked you to deliver?"
"The druid leader was oddly cryptic but grateful for the information. But the two sorcerers…" he trailed off and looked at the man beside him, who picked up where he'd left off.
"Well, the old man said to tell you that he was also Emrys. And the last dragonlord. And then he asked if we wanted proof about the dragon thing, and we both said no—I hope that's okay. But then the old woman also said to tell you that she was Emrys and the last dragonlord. And we did ask her to prove it. And…" he turned white as a sheet, shuddering slightly. "She proved it, alright."
Merlin didn't understand why they were being such babies about it. Aithusa was adorable. If he wanted to scare them, he'd have called for Kilgharrah.
"Then she took this potion and transformed into the old man," said the other messenger. "And said to tell you to, and I quote, 'have the stupid conversation with your servant already.'"
Arthur slowly turned his head towards Merlin. He continued looking very intently at his servant while he addressed the messengers. "Thank you both. You are dismissed."
"Yes sire." They both bowed before they walked away.
"Merlin."
"Hm?"
"Is there something you want to talk about?"
"YES!" Merlin exclaimed, rubbing his forehead. "Can we go somewhere private first?"
"Oh, absolutely," Arthur said very seriously as they headed back in the direction of his chambers, Arthur's strides so long and quick Merlin could hardly keep up.
"Alright Merlin," Arthur said once the door closed behing them. "Talk."
Merlin suddenly didn't have any actual words.
"You knew," Arthur continued.
"Well… yeah."
"You knew that Dragoon, the Dolma, Emrys, and the last dragonlord were all the same person."
"It gets even crazier than that."
"Don't change the subject! Why didn't you tell me sooner?!" Arthur said, crossing his arms.
"Remember how I said, like, a week ago that when you were like, 'Why didn't you tell me sooner?!' I was going to remind you that you didn't let me?!"
Arthur raised an eyebrow. "I thought that was about you having magic."
"I wasn't done after I said I had magic," Merlin said, exasperated. "I'm not a regular sorcerer, Arthur. And that whole thing about you saying you wanted to talk to Emrys and me saying 'fine, let's talk'? That was supposed to be a confession!"
Arthur blinked.
"Do you still not get it?"
No response.
"I'm Emrys, Arthur."
Arthur stared at him blankly.
"I'm Emrys. And Dragoon. And the Dolma."
Was Arthur even blinking anymore? It was getting a little scary.
"I'm also the last dragonlord. Balinor was my father."
Now there was so much silence that Merlin was beginning to panic. "Look, Arthur, I'm really sorry for all the deception. But I didn't know what to do! Sometimes you just needed to trust magic and I couldn't tell you it was me, because I didn't want to die or get banished or something because as Emrys I needed to protect you and—"
"So you were the woman," Arthur interrupted.
Merlin cocked his head. "Hm?"
"You were the female sorcerer. The Dolma."
"Oh. Yeah." Merlin turned slightly red. "That was Gaius' fault. He's the one who sprung the whole 'because she's a woman' thing on me."
"So all those times I teased you about being a girl—"
"I will turn you into a donkey."
"That would be treason, Merlin."
"I have committed more than enough treason to merit capital punishment, Arthur." Merlin grimaced. "Actually, my mere existence is kind of treason."
"You were literally a woman."
"Why is that the part you're stuck on? I'm also Emrys."
"So wait. Is magic even a good thing, or was every not-evil sorcerer just you?!"
"Hey, there are plently of not-evil sorcerers!" Merlin defended. "I'm just the only one stupid enough to support a king whose laws sentence death to all of our kind! And even then it's just because of destiny."
"Just because of destiny?"
Merlin rolled his eyes. "Oh, so now you want to admit that we're friends. I see."
"So we're friends?"
"Oh for heaven's sake, can you stay on topic?! Yes! You're the one who said we couldn't be friends!" Merlin rubbed his temples. "So, do you or do you not want me to explain everything I've been doing without your knowledge over the past ten years?"
"Could you, like, just transform into a woman right now?"
"ARTHUR!"