Calm Before the Storm

Chapter Six

05. One Bad Thing After Another

Magdelena wakes to Arthur entering the chambers with what appears to be an old Merlin behind him. Something in the way they entered and perhaps the small shock and fear in Arthur's eye made her excuse herself. Leaving to go get some clean, cold water to dab on Uther's head, arriving back she opened the chamber doors to see Arthur standing watching his father and the old sorcerer, "He's dead," old Merlin says shocking Magdelena who allows the basin to drop as water sloshes everywhere, the two stared at her Arthur's eye seemed unfocused as he tried to comprehend what had happened.

"No... He can't be..." Arthur grabs Uther and shakes him slightly Magdelena moves forward placing a hand on his shoulder. She looks around the room trying to see if she could find the ghost of Uther but he wasn't anywhere in the room, "Father... Father!?" Suddenly he turns shoving her hand off of his shoulder as he turns to the Old man his face full of hate and anger.

"What have you done?" Arthur asks the anger and hatred seeping into his tone as he spoke.

The old Merlin looked confused and sounded confused, "This was not supposed to happen."

"You gave me your word," Arthur says glaring harshly at the sorcerer, "You-- you have killed him... You killed him!"

"No-"

Arthur draws his sword ready to kill the old sorcerer, "You'll die for what you've done!" Magdelena watches as his eyes flash gold and with a quick spell Arthur is thrown backward, he sits on the floor, Magdelena stares at the old man a small nod goes unnoticed, the same spell leaves his mouth sending Magdelena flying toward Arthur who catches her as the old sorcerer leaves, "Mags are you alright?"

"I should be asking you that question," she says standing and offering her hand to the Prince, who stares over at his father. She hesitates for a moment but grabs his hand squeezing it tightly, "I'm so sorry Arthur."

Gaius enters walking over to the king, doing his usual thing when faced with a dead body, he carefully closes Uther's eyes. At the sound of the door, Magdelena turns to see Merlin who looked off and she offered him a small smile "I'm sorry, Arthur... The King is dead."

Magdelena turned to Arthur shocked to find tears streaming down his face her heart breaks at the sight of the Prince crying. Gaius and Merlin take their leave and Magdelena moves to stand in front of Arthur her hand cupping his cheek rubbing it with her thumb, "Arthur, I think you should head back to your chambers," she says softly trying to get him to look away from his dead father, "Standing here staring at him is only going to hurt you."

"Magdelena is her really dead?" he asks finally moving to look down at her and away from Uther, "Please tell me this is not real."

"Come with me Arthur," she says moving toward the chamber doors, tugging gently on his hand which was still gripping hers. In silence, she leads him toward his chambers but he stops in the middle of the hallway forcing her to stop as well, "Arthur? What is it?"

"I shouldn't have used magic to try and save him," he says his voice was weak and soft she stared at him placing a hand on his chest near his heart while she smiles at him softly.

"Arthur, Uther was going to die either way," she says sending a small cringing smile, "Magic didn't do anything that wasn't going to already happen. It just made it happen sooner than was expected, which was probably better than letting him slowly die from internal bleeding."

Arthur stared down at her his tears had stopped, he quickly pulled her into a tight embrace, her arms wrapped around him, her hands rubbing his back gently, "What if I am not ready to be King?"

"Arthur you have been ready to be King for some time," she says smiling into the hug slightly, "You have been ready for some time, and you will be a great King."

"I should go," he says pulling away from her looking down at her, "Thank you for being there for me Mags, I wouldn't be in my right head if you weren't here to direct me in the right direction."

Magdelena smiles sadly watching him head back to his father's chambers, once he was out of sight she turned and headed to find Merlin, who was probably feeling slightly responsible for what happened to Uther. Entering the chambers she was shocked to find Gaius holding up a necklace oozing magic, "Who did this."

"I was thinking Morgana but how would she get in Camelot and past you two without noticing her?" Gaius says staring at her and she suddenly looks very guilty as she licks her lips hesitating to answer. 

"Sorry. I should go see if I can help Arthur."

Magdelena leaves the two males in search of the other male, she asked a few knights and wasn't surprised to learn he was in his chambers. She knocked on the door a little louder than she normally would, "Come in," his voice said softly and she opened the door and closed it behind her, he was sitting in a chair staring at a wall blankly nothing, he turned slowly she assumed he expected Merlin he smiled slightly at the sight of her, "Mags."

"I'm really sorry about your father Arthur," she says staring at the floor not wanting to make eye contact with him at the moment, "He was proud of you though."

"He was near impossible to please Mags," Arthur points out making her glance up at him, he looked heartbroken yet numb at the same time like he was feeling nothing yet everything.

"I was his servant Arthur. He may not have seemed it but he was very proud of you," she says, "You could tell, I think that is why he sends you to your death so often. He truly thinks that you can defeat these beasts and on occasions, you have done just that. This is the point of my visit."

"Then what is the point of your visit Mags?" he asks as she finally looks up making eye contact with him for the first time since she entered the chambers.

"I wanted to see how you were," she says softly, "A lot has happened and is about to happen. I wanted to make sure that you were alright."

Arthur looked at her for a moment, "Why did he have to die? I mean he was getting better," Arthur says his voice cracking as he held back the tears she knew were threatening to come, "What did he do to deserve that kind of death? Death by the one thing he hated."

"He didn't hate magic Arthur, he feared it and he feared the secrets that it held for him," she says staring at him she had to bite her tongue keeping back the list of things Uther had done to deserve the death he received.

Arthur's eyes narrowed slightly, "You dare assume you know the King's mind!" he snapped shocking her, "Mags you mean the world to me but you are just a servant, Uther was the King. He would never reveal anything to you."

She nodded hoping that he didn't see how much the words did hurt her, "I should go," she says smiling across the room at him his glare still on his face as he looked across the room at her.

"Magic is evil Mags. I can see that clearly now, I can see what Uther had been trying to teach me since day one," Arthur says sternly, "Its users are just as evil as the thing itself. I don't see a time when magic will be legal in Camelot."

"Then you have damned us," she whispers he furrows his eyebrows going to ask what she had said but Magdelena quickly turned leaving his chambers in a hurry which worried him slightly.