Betrayed and Broken

Fighting

AAAAAA

It had been almost a month since they had come to train at Freya's clearing. Merlin spent the vast majority of his time talking with Freya and on the days that she was busy, he would sit at the edge of the lake and stare off into the deep waters.

He was doing it now, his golden gaze seeming to see past the azure waters and into the land of the dead which waited just beyond it. It made Arthur wonder something and for the first time since finding his manservant again, the blonde king started a conversation with the man simply to talk. He asked, "Do you... do you ever... would you ever purposefully die to be with her?"

Merlin closed his eyes and let his face contort into one of pure grief. Arthur had to look away. Finally, the younger man answered, "I tried, actually. It's not something I'm proud of, but it happened. It was a few days after she died and I was not in the right state of mind. Another sorcerer had just been executed for helping his neighbor's crops to grow stronger. I went to the top of the east tower and stood at the edge. I lifted up a foot and tried to step off, but I couldn't. It wasn't my resolve that stopped me. My resolve was firm and I wanted to do it; I really did. My magic wouldn't let me. It literally pulled me back and onto the parapet. Destiny was telling me that I still needed to complete it and that I could not stop it."

He paused for a moment and Arthur almost said something before he continued, "I don't know why I didn't go through with it after you left me bleeding in the forest. You had broken the bonds of destiny, so there was nothing holding me back anymore. Destiny tried to convince me that there was, but it couldn't hold me." The sorcerer laughed humorlessly, "Nothing can hold me..."

Arthur tried to say something again, but this time Leon interrupted them by calling out, "Sire! We are gathering to train right now!" The king sighed and stood up to walk over to them, only glancing back at the despondent man sitting in the gently lapping water once.

When he got to the group of knights standing together in ragged clothing that could only be mended so much with their limited supplies, he noticed that Gwaine, Lancelot, and Percival were all staring at Merlin with concern scrawled across their faces. The blonde haired man sighed before calling out, "Merlin! Come here."

Merlin called back moodily, "I don't want to!"

Arthur rolled his eyes and said, "Well I'm the King, so you're going to!"

A few of the knights froze for a moment, waiting to see what Merlin's reaction was going to be. After a tense pause, Merlin stood up and meandered his way over to the group. Arthur looked at his former manservant for a moment. There were the obvious differences like the scar the crawled across his face or the golden eyes set under his black eyebrows. Then there were the subtler differences like the change in clothing color, the royal cloak that swept behind him as he walked, and the sword that dangled tantalizingly at his waist. Finally, there were the minute differences that only his closest friends could see: the proud set of his shoulders, the finally relaxed muscles, the power that radiated off of him in waves, and, most significant, the darkness the swirled beneath the golden hue of his irises.

Then Merlin was standing before him, a slight smirk twisting his lips at the corners. He raised an eyebrow in an impressive rendition of Gaius and asked mockingly, "Yes my lord?"

The Lord in question just gritted his teeth and shot the sorcerer a forced smiled, saying, "I was thinking about that sword that you have. You said that you learned how to fight from other countries. It stands to reason that they would have alternate fighting techniques and I figured that you might be able to show us some of these techniques so we could better defend ourselves when we overtake the castle." Truthfully, Arthur had an ulterior motive in mind. He wanted to get a look at Merlin's new fighting style so that when the time came to kill him, he could be a little better prepared. Arthur froze when Merlin's eyes narrowed dangerously at the king, almost as if the raven haired man knew what he was thinking.