Merthur Oneshots

The Light Is Always Ours To Find (1st Chapter)

(A/N)

Hiya y'all! This is the first chapter of my After Camlann Big Bang submission for this year! The whole fic can be found on AO3 under the same title.

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The Camelot Herald, Dated 23rd April 2020, Page 1

Uther Pendragon Passes Away At 57, Kingdom Mourns The Death Of A King

Uther Pendragon, the latest in a long line of Monarchs dating from the Middle Ages, passed away Tuesday night just after 21 years of reign. He had been suffering from pancreatic cancer for the past five years, which had taken a turn for the worse a month and a half ago rendering him bedridden. He succumbed to his illness at half past ten on Tuesday according to our sources.

The nation held a candlelight vigil on Wednesday evening, with thousands of tiny flares lighting up the main courtyard and gardens of the palace as women and men alike came together to mourn the passing of the king. Leading the procession was Princess Morgana, her brother Prince Arthur not far behind. The flames lit up the sky till well past midnight, as many Members of the Council gave speeches in the remembrance of the now late king.

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Opinion Piece From Camelot Political magazine, Dated 24th April 2020.

Uther Pendragon: Angel or Tyrant? By Jeanne Cortelli

History books and the media have painted our (now late) King Uther Pendragon as a strong ruler devoted to his people, but is he really deserving of the title? If you ask this to anyone who wasn't in his pocket, or afraid of him, the answer would staunchly be in the negative.

Unfortunately, there are very few people which fulfill both those conditions.

Nevertheless, Uther had let down and disappointed almost all of the people of Camelot at least once during his relatively short reign, something that tells us a lot about him as a leader, and as a ruler.

Unfortunately, the media had failed to report his shortcomings, and all of his failures had primarily been circulated by the web. These people who did so were punished, and I am sure that all of us remember the barrage of laudatory headlines that greeted us in the morning after the king had enacted a particularly ill-advised policy.

This erasure of facts was helped by his personal censors, who suppressed every instance of someone speaking up against him, pulling away the freedom of expression of the people. A grand total of at least 32 reporters and journalists went missing during his rule of two decades, all suspiciously just after they had broadcasted a particularly revealing or analytical piece about his actions. I am pretty sure we have all heard the name and story of Ruadan Green, who had conveniently gone missing the night he had been scheduled to perform a live telecast about an action taken by the king in regards to the Magical Registration laws. His information was never recovered nor revealed, but hardly a month later an amendment made it illegal for any direct descendants of any magical creatures to live in Camelot. Thousands had to flee before they were killed.

I do not know if my piece would even be published, or whether the king's censors would still be doing their work now that he is gone, but what I do know is that I have lost all faith in the Pendragon dynasty. I sincerely hope that Prince Arthur, the successor to the Throne, will not follow in his father's footsteps, but if he does, I think I can safely say that no one in Camelot would be surprised.

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Excerpt from Uther Pendragon's Legacy, a novella by Charles Pierce.