Gold Coin • Arthur Pendragon

Silver

"You've been acting oddly lately," Morgana commented. Arthur attempted to protest, but Morgana beat him to it. "Don't try to deny it, Arthur. You walk around in a daze as if bewitched, and yesterday, Sir Leon defeated you in a duel in less than twenty seconds!"

"Forty," Arthur corrected. "It was forty seconds."

"Whichever." Morgana waved his correction away. "It was still under your usual time, even when you fight against Leon."

Arthur shrugged. "I just need a vacation, that's all. A good hunt will do me some good."

"Arthur Pendragon," Morgana teased, "need a vacation?" She sauntered across his room and took a seat like she owned the place. "What's really on your mind? Take a moment to think about it. I'll know if you're lying."

Arthur doubted that he was that bad of an actor. He could keep a secret to himself without Morgana knowing. The question was, should he? If he could talk to anyone about his suspicions about his manservant, it would be Morgana, wouldn't it? Morgana was no Uther. She wouldn't immediately seek to have Merlin executed. She wasn't Gaius or Guinevere either, both of whom Arthur guessed would have defended Merlin to their last breaths.

"It's about what happened in Ealdor," He said, making his decision.

Morgana leaned forwards to rest her elbows on Arthur's table, chin resting on her hands. "Go on. Would this be about us women fighting, going out of Camelot lands, or magic?"

There it was, an adequate excuse to draw attention to something else. Arthur could claim he was just concerned about threats from Essetir, if he wanted.

"It's about the magic," he said though.

Morgana nodded. "I thought so."

"What if Will was just covering for Merlin?" Arthur asked. "What if Merlin's a, a, you know."

"Sorcerer?"

"Yes. That."

Morgana didn't answer immediately, and Arthur started to doubt the choice he had made to let her in on his suspicions.

"If," Morgana started, "Merlin does have magic," she tapped her fingers against the wood of an armrest, "then maybe it's alright."

Arthur stared at her.

"Uther can make mistakes like anyone," Morgana continued. "If Merlin has magic, then I say we wait, and we watch. He's our friend, and we should trust that he knows what he's doing."

"But this is magic we're talking about, Morgana, not, not some trivial little crime that he'd go to the stocks for a day for!"

"And sometimes the law is wrong!" Morgana jabbed back. "You've seen it! You've stood by me as children were killed for nothing more than a suspected flash of gold in their eyes! Tell me, is it more important to follow the rules made by one single man, or follow what you know is right?"

Morgana stood abruptly and walked towards Arthur's door.

Arthur leapt across to grab her wrist. "Wait, I'm not done, I still..." I still need her advice, he thought.

"You don't need anything else from me, Arthur." she stopped just before the door. "If it bothers you so much, just ask Merlin."

The door swung to a close behind her and Arthur was left alone, in the same spot he was before. Talk to Merlin, she had said. Couldn't she tell that finding a way to talk to Merlin had been his biggest problem the past week? He couldn't just walk up to the man and ask 'hey, just curious, but do you happen to have magic? Merlin would have to be crazy to admit to it.

But he had admitted to it, hadn't he? When Guinevere had been charged with sorcery when her father had been healed of a disease no one else had recovered from, who had tried to take the blame but Merlin? And then Arthur himself had refuted him. It made sense that Merlin would try to sacrifice himself for a friend, after all, how many times had Arthur been that friend? But what if Merlin's claim had been more than just a rescue attempt?

~~oOo~~

"So, why exactly are we wandering about in the forest in seemingly random directions?"

Admitting that Morgana had a point, Arthur had decided that he would confront Merlin about magic. Right after his conversation with Morgana, he had announced a surprised hunting trip. Him and Merlin only.

It had been an hour since they first entered the woods, and Arthur still hadn't said anything vaguely related to the topic of magic. He had, about half an hour before this point, started to speak, but then rethought his plan.

Had it really been a good idea to head out into the forest alone with a sorcerer? What if as soon as Arthur spoke, Merlin just erased his memories?

What if Merlin had already erased his memories?

What if Merlin could enchant Arthur to believe him when he said he didn't have magic? Arthur could believe that. There had been times in the past when Merlin had been surprisingly convincing, so much so that Arthur had almost labelled him wise. What if that was some unnatural, strange, silver tongue magic that had made Merlin's words so reasonable?

"I'm tracking a deer, Merlin, or hadn't you caught on yet?" Arthur said, even though he wasn't tracking anything at the moment. Truth be told, Arthur was just making a loop around the citadel.

Merlin stopped.

"What do you think you're doing?" Arthur asked.

Merlin waved his arms at the ground beneath their feet. "You're not tracking anything Arthur! I'm not an idiot! Just tell me what we're really doing out here. Is someone in trouble?"

"You are an idiot, Merlin, just maybe not as much of an idiot as I had thought," Arthur responded. "And I don't know if anyone's in trouble. You might be, depending on -" Arthur stopped. He hadn't meant to let out that outburst of truth. Well, he had, but not in that way. He'd wanted to talk to Merlin when it was Arthur that had initiated and had the upper hand, not the other way around.

"Depending on... what?" Merlin asked slowly.

"Nothing," Arthur said sharply and kept walking. Let Merlin keep up with him if he must.

Arthur wasn't walking quietly anymore, not now that he didn't have to keep up the pretence of hunting, but his footsteps were quiet enough that he could hear when Merlin started to follow behind him and therefore wasn't surprised when his manservant sat down next to him on a log once they reached the stream.

"What do you think about magic?" Arthur asked. He avoided Merlin's eyes, afraid that he might see their friendly shade of blue turn to gold as Merlin wiped his memory. But Merlin didn't do anything remotely magical. He just talked."

"What do you want me to say, Arthur?" The question was rhetorical apparently, as Merlin didn't pause long enough for an answer. "That I think it's evil, and should be eradicated at all costs? That I think all the lives destroyed by people fighting magic were justified? That I think Uther's completely right? That he's completely wrong?" Merlin picked up a smooth stone from the river and tossed it in the air. "Do you want me to tell you what you want to hear, or do you want me to tell you the truth?"

Arthur inhaled deeply. So the truth and what Arthur wanted to hear were different. He hardly hesitated in his response. He had spent the past week hesitating, this was it.

"The truth."

"Okay then." Merlin didn't seem to know what to say after that. He dropped the stone and looked at Arthur seriously.

"I don't think magic has to be bad," he said.

"Why?" Arthur pushed.

"It's saved our lives."

Was Merlin talking about Will now, or about something else? Merlin couldn't know about the sphere of light that had guided him out of the caves when Arthur had gone on that quest to save him, and there hadn't been any other occasions when magic had saved him. Had there been?

"It's also almost killed us," Arthur pointed out.

"So have swords."

"What?"

"We've been saved by people who wield swords, and we've almost been killed by them. What makes magic any different?"

"It - I - it just is." Arthur stumbled through, wanting to give more of a protest than that, but finding that he didn't have any off the top of his head. He grimaced. "Okay, so suppose you're right. Magic is like a sword. That means we shouldn't try to get rid of it?"

"Exactly. It's a tool like any other that can be used to help or harm."

"But one person with magic can do so much more harm than a man with a sword can." At last, something had come to Arthurs mind that supported his beliefs.

"Really?"

Merlin was throwing the stone again and avoiding Arthur's eyes. Not that Arthur was trying to meet them.

"Last time I checked," Merlin said, "The guys with the swords killed hundreds of people of all ages just because they might have magic."

Silence.

"Wouldn't you want revenge, Arthur? Can you really blame them? What if someone — no. Will. Will was born with his magic. He never had a choice. It chose him. Would you really condemn him for that?"

Born with it. "I don't believe you," Arthur replied quietly.

"You should. Some people are just born with the ability to —"

" — I didn't mean that I don't believe people can be born with magic. I meant that I don't believe that Will had magic."

Merlin's eyes widened as they met Arthur's, and Arthur would have bet that he wasn't the only one who held his breath for a moment.

"I think it was you."