Chapter Text
Merlin groaned, of course, Morgana and her goons would capture Arthur’s patrol unawares. He had a feeling that today wasn’t a good day, and Arthur just brushed it off.
Now?
The Round Table Knights were all tied up in one place in the clearing, but Merlin was dragged a bit closer to Morgana’s side. So he couldn’t conveniently escape or do the usual magical help from the background. No, he was sitting out in the open. To make things worse, the Knights had the cool shade of the trees above them since they had to be situated in front of Morgana in order to see her usual dramatic monologues.
Oh right, Morgana was saying something, he should pay attention now.
“....But we’re not gathered here today to talk about me, but Merlin here.” Morgana said with a sickly sweet voice, as she gestured to the tied manservant next to her feet.
Oh, this can’t be good.
“Merlin?” Arthur said in disbelief, and all of the other Knights shared the same look of incredulity save for Lancelot.
Lancelot was looking rather pale actually.
Merlin didn’t feel so great either.
“What do you want?” Merlin said wearily, he’s been tortured by Morgana a few times over the years, perhaps for the first time she would do it publicly.
He should’ve drank more from his waterskin when he got the chance, screaming himself hoarse probably wasn’t good for his throat in the long run.
“A little birdie told me,” Morgana smiled but it darkened as she pulled him closer by the throat, “That you’re my doom.”
Okay, this was getting less good by the minute.
Merlin’s eyes narrowed as he realized what she was implying, no doubt that she had tortured it out of Alator or an unfortunate druid. If Morgana knew, then there was no point in donning his foolish mask. However, he would have to be careful, the Knights were watching and maybe he could weasel out of this with his secret intact.
“Morgana.” he said coldly as his magic boiled beneath the surface, only barely refraining from doing drastic. Like breaking her wrist, so she could stop choking him.
“Emrys.” Morgana breathed quietly, and he could tell that she could finally see him for the first time. Her grip on his throat tightened both in anger and fright. Merlin winced, both from the chokehold and the use of his Druidic name.
“Emrys?” Arthur said in curiousity, “Emrys? His name isn’t Emrys, it’s Merlin.”
Merlin so wished that Arthur would stop repeating his name, it was gonna give him a heart attack from the sheer fear. The chances of getting out with his secret intact was getting slimmer now.
“Well, Emrys.” Morgana gave an amused laugh, “I shall make you suffer for your traitorous actions against our kind, and your betrayal. It’s only what you deserve.”
Merlin glanced down at the simple ropes, he could just simply snap them with a word. Morgana saw his quick action, and her grin only grew bigger as she realized he was hesitating because of their audience.
“Restrain him, make sure his wrists and feet are about a foot apart.” Morgana commanded to her men, an icy dangerous tone creeping into it.
Morgana stopped choking him and Merlin took in large and heaving breaths, his momentary lapse of compliance was all the men needed to hold him without struggle.
“Hey!” Gwaine shouted, “What are you doing? Let him go, if you don’t, I swear I’ll kill you!” Gwaine struggled against his bounds but to no avail. Morgana swept off Gwaine’s threats, and she ignored the following yells and pleadings for Merlin’s safety from the other Round Table Knights. She instead walked to her horse and took out four identical manacles, casted of dark iron and with etched runes both inside and outside. None of them were connected with chains or anything of the sort, it was just the band.
She walked back to her stage at the center of the clearing, and presented the circlets for everyone to see. Arthur’s face turned stony as he recognized the marks of the Old Religion lining it, no doubt it would be used for a nefarious purpose. Merlin gulped as her plan became clearer in his mind.
Definitely not good.
At all.
“These manacles subdue magic to the point of nonexistence.” Morgana said plainly, “But unlike other magic dampening shackles, they are so powerful that they can even torture non-magical individuals.”
“What?” Arthur said in confusion, “I’ve never heard of such a thing!”
“Course not.” Morgana sniffed, “Your ignorance of everything to do with magic only proves that. If you learned even of a smidgen of it, you would know that magic courses through everything and everyone.”
“Morgana, don’t do this.” Merlin warned as she took a step toward the group of glaring Knights.
“Allow me to demonstrate, dear brother.” Morgana said gleefully as she took Percival’s wrist, freezing the man with a few murmured words. She then took one of the four manacles and clicked it carefully around his wrist and snapped it shut.
“No!” Arthur said distraught as he saw Percival immediately paling and breathed harsher as if he ran laps around the castle hundreds of times. It was only a few moments later that when Morgana saw a trickle of blood seep from Percival’s nose that she took off the sole manacle. Immediately Percival recovered and his breath calmed down.
“Perry, right?” Morgana said condescendingly, “Just repeat after me, and it’ll only prove to my brother that you don’t have a lick of magic, and how dangerous these are.”
Percival blinked and warily nodded, being insinuated as a sorcerer would never forbade well in Arthur’s kingdom.
“Forbeane.” Morgana commanded with gold eyes, and a flame appeared in her palm. Percival repeated, but nothing happened. Morgana’s satisfied smirk grew and sauntered back to her place next to Merlin, and she was downright beaming when Merlin flinched back from the nearness of such cruel things.
“Now, manacles on sorcerers have completely different reactions. It would drive them beyond the brink of insanity; but depending on how much magic they have, it would take them longer or shorter. Rumors are that all four manacles were used on rogue High Priestesses centuries ago. They died by their own hand within a day. Without exceptions.” Morgana explained as she stared directly at Merlin, and he felt his skin crawl since it was likely that she knew that he was a High Priest himself.
It only sunk in what the implications were, the great Emrys without magic?
Merlin laughed, a nervous and almost deadly one.
“What’s so funny, pray tell?” Morgana sneered as she stood over him threateningly, and Merlin just felt so tired.
“Emrys without magic.” Merlin gave a wide fake smile, “Like the Earth without the ground, the sky without air, the sun without light. It’s just not…….possible.”
Morgana frowned as she thought about it, “With these, anything is possible. And all men must die, even you Emrys.” Her frown cleared into a crazed grin, “You would die slowly and painfully, and perhaps in your insanity you would kill your friends and family with your own bare hands. It would be icing on the cake! Perhaps you wouldn’t even last a day, or even the night.”
Merlin spat on her face, since he already what was going to happen to him once those manacles get on him. If his time was running out, then it was worth it.
His head snapped back with the hard immediate slap from Morgana, she was fuming at the lack of respect from him.
“Untie him.” Morgana commanded the other men who were not holding Merlin or guarding the Knights, “I need three other sorcerers to help me.”
Merlin wished that he was glad that he was free from the rope, but it was more like jumping from the pot and into the fire.
His magic rolled like an angry sea just neath his skin, ready to kill the men holding him and his friends in the span of a blink. Merlin shook his head as he saw the Knights tense as if ready to pitch a last ditch effort to help him. It would not work. Merlin would be the only causality today in the best case scenario if he didn’t manage to escape the manacles. His magic begged to be let free, but Merlin knew it wasn’t the right time. Merlin would most definitely kill Arthur in his later insane state if the king didn’t accept him.
“Stop this Morgana!” Arthur said desperately as he realized that the requirement of three men to help her meant that Morgana was gonna put all four of them on his friend at the same time. If strong Percival looked like he was dying from the use of just one, how could skinny as a twig Merlin survive all four? His fellow Knights had similar looks of despair, and some were resigned to see him suffer since they were powerless to help.
“No.” Everyone startled as they realized the steely voice came from Merlin.
“What?” Morgana said stupefied, all manacles were in place, just waiting to be clicked closed by her and her men at all at the same time. She could see the effects of even having the manacles open on Emrys’ wrists were already causing him to look pale, but his eyes were amused and fierce all the same.
“Go ahead, Morgana.” Merlin dared, “Do it.”
“Ready?” Morgana said as she looked at her paid goons, “When I say go. We must click the shackles shut at the same time for the -ah- full effect, we wouldn’t want to have our guest miss out on the fun, would we?”
Her goons nodded, and even the ones holding Merlin still looked interested in what was going to happen.
“But I’m going to warn you, when I come back.” Emrys said coldly, eyes hard as if what he said was pure fact, “I’m going to be pissed.”
Morgana’s eyes narrowed as she tightened her grip on her manacle on his left wrist, he was simply bluffing. What was the worst could happen? She was a High Priestess of the Old Religion, and one of her favorite childhood stories was the one with David and Goliath. And everyone knew how that story ended. Emrys’ would be the same, he was still a man.
“Go.” she commanded and the clicks of all four manacles echoed as one through the clearing.
Everyone stepped back to see how Emrys would react, even Morgana leaned back. The goons holding him even let him go. She always made sure her dear brother could see what was happening to his precious manservant, so she angled her body so he could see. Arthur and his Knights would also suffer at seeing their friend’s irreversible insanity. Sorrow for a sorrow, only fair.
Morgana was the closest to Merlin, and she was the first to see that something was wrong. Merlin was stock still, and time just slowed alarmingly down in her mind like it did before something terrible happened or is happening. The first thing she noticed was his eyes.
His eyes just went……..dull.
And as quick it came, time snapped back to normal. The next thing she registered was the slow lean to the right, and the muffled thud of his body was all could be heard in the forest. Then, Morgana realized a very unsettling question, when had the forest gone silent? It slowly dawned on everyone that the body was dead, the fish eyes, the unnatural stillness, and muscles lax as if all tension just up and left only proved that.
No one dared to say a word, and even Morgana was shell shocked at how effective her plan was. It seemed even breathing loudly was frightening as everyone processed what happened.
Her mind worked at neck-breaking speeds, and one question came to the forefront of the mind that made her become numb with choking fear. If the amount of magic, determined how long a person would descend into insanity, then what did that say about Emrys? The highest amounts of magic recorded were the High Priestesses and Priests of Old in the peak of the Old Religion, and the full use of the manacles on them made them go insane within a day when usually others took a month or even a year. Emrys was lucky, or unlucky depending on where you’re standing, since that he was so powerful that he just up and died. Whatever insanity he experienced was only for a fraction of a second or practically nonexistent. Morgana was suddenly very glad that Emrys was dead, because she now understood that she would never survive in a fair fight with him.
A roar could be heard in the far distance, wrathful was the only thing that could describe it. Morgana knew that everyone felt a chill go down their spine, even hers included. It sounded horribly familiar, she was sure that she heard echoes of it in her dreams.
Another roar came from another direction, and the distinct sounds of earth and trees being broken could be heard, even all the way here. It was different than the other one, it was more ancient and powerful. And equally furious, if not more so.
Suddenly the air was full of deafening roars from all directions, and more sounds of the earth being pounded, and she realized with a horror that it was as if something was coming from the ground. Not on top of it. The sky darkened and rolled with lightening and it poured rain in bucketfuls. Everyone gasped as they saw gaping maws and fearsome figures illuminated in the shadows whenever the sky lit up with each lightning strike. The clouds also transformed into the shape of tortured indistinct faces in mid-scream before rolling back into dark sky.
Everyone’s attention was distracted from the disturbing sky when they saw a large orange glow in the north, the wrong place for a sunset. Then the screams finally reached them, and to Morgana’s shock, it was where her castle full of her hired men and herself lived. Her breath was punched out of her as the glow moved, and it was the shape of a giant hellish dog.
“I-I can’t do magic!” one of her men exclaimed frightened, and kept muttering forbeane over and over. Morgan shakily stood to her feet, and she walked to him, Tim or something, and shook him harshly and slapped him.
“Don’t be foolish!” Morgana admonished, “Look you’re just scared, see? Forbeane.” She held out her palm to demonstrate, but her palm remained fire free. She muttered it again, more forcefully this time. But it was to no avail. It took everything in her to not stumble back to the forest floor. Her magic was gone. How did she not notice?
Her unease only increased as she realized that she first felt the cold emptiness within in her at the same moment those manacles clicked. No, it isn’t possible. It shouldn’t be! Her magic had just disappeared, gone in a quiet whisper as if it didn’t make up half of her soul.
However, her worldly senses were not yet gone, and she threw her net far and wide all over Albion to see if the same thing was happening everywhere or it was just some strange aftereffects of Emrys’ death.
“It’s all gone.” Morgana said terrified, “Magic is gone from the land.”
“No!” several of her men with magic cried out, and practically shouted their spells in futility. Morgana changed her assessment of her worldly senses from earlier, now that she examined it more closely, it was fading as well with each moment. The earth felt colder and colder beneath her feet, the constant life blood that pumped all throughout the world was trickling to a stop. She desperately threw her senses in the general aim at the source of the earlier roars, and her hands shook as she took out a knife from her belt as her senses came back with its report. She turned toward the Knights still tied up at the edge of the clearing, their faces hidden in the shade.
“The Old Ones have awaken from their slumber. Beasts older than man have woken up, that are wiser than dragons and much more deadly.” Morgana’s voice trembled as the last of her gifted senses left her, “The Old Ones are angry, angry beyond all belief.”
A roar shook the air, and the harsh scrapes of stone against stone could be heard somewhere to the left of them. Everyone turned their sights, and a large shadowed figure could be seen in the almost darkness. Whatever it was, it carried a portion of uprooted forest that looked like grown from its back, and it's glowing green eyes were unsettling even from many leagues away.
“My point exactly.” Morgana said quietly, and her comment seemed to break the trance of her frightened men. They fled in all directions, screaming something about the end of days. And other things about how the world was ending or they were all going to hell.
Well, they weren’t wrong.
“I don’t understand.” Arthur said in a tone reminiscent of a young child at a loss on how to deal with concepts way above their limited understanding.
Another explosion reverberated in the far distance, a little closer than the others.
“Your Merlin is Emrys!” Morgana screeched, “The most powerful warlock to walk the Earth, he has more power than all before and after him.”
“He…..he isn’t.” Arthur said brokenly, and normally Morgana would be absolutely delighted at the sheer pain in her brother’s voice, but bigger fish and all that.
“You were always blind and thick, brother.” Morgana paused and then said honestly, “So am I.”
Arthur stared at her in incredulity, he knew his sister well enough that she would never admit to any faults of her own. Morgana was darkly amused, the world was ending after all.
“Must be a Pendragon thing.” Morgana said in deadpan as she finally closed the distance between her and her brother. She lifted her dagger and she could feel the glares coming from the other Knights in warning. Arthur looked at her too, not one of wariness, but curiousity. Shit, probably her hands were trembling again. It wasn’t because she didn’t want to kill him, she truly did, but it was just that the entire world was wrong. The birdsong was gone, the leaves were grey, and there were terrible and terrifying beasts underfoot that preceded the existence of men.
She cut the ropes binding her brother away, and helped him to his feet with a hand that he took to her surprise. Then, she handed the dagger over to her brother, and this time, Arthur was the one surprised.
“I rather not risk releasing one of your men and they immediately kill me when I’m one of the people that could help fix this.” she explained haughtily, hoping that her brother wouldn’t dwell on the fact that in the worst possible circumstances and pushed into a corner, she would trust him.
He nodded, the slight hint of surprise in his eyes before he turned back to his men. Morgana refused to sigh, it would only add to his amusement. The rest of his Knights stood up from the circle of their cut rope bounds, and walked toward their King. Morgana tensed as their attention fell on her, and she knew that they were also seeing Merlin’s very dead body behind her.
“May I have my dagger back?” she asked innocently.
All the better to stab Arthur in the back later when the world was preferably not ending and Camelot wouldn’t be a pile of ash before she even became Queen.
“No.” Arthur said simply.
“It’s my dagger, Arthur.” Morgana fumed.
“It was mine first,” Arthur retorted sharply, “I gave it to you, Morgana!”
Morgana humphed, and crossed her arms in indignation.
“Enough with the sibling scrabbles.” Gwaine snapped, “Merlin or Emrys or I don’t care whatever his bloody name is! It could King of the Farting Unicorns for all I know, but the point remains is that my bloody friend is dead! Murdered by your psycho sister over here!”
“Gwaine is right.” Elyan said coldly, “Why shouldn’t we murder her right here and right now?”
“I didn’t know you would care so much.” Morgana taunted, “I thought I would have to argue and bargain with you guys, especially Arthur, to help him. He does have magic after all, and it was only fair that he was murdered by his own kind than a Pendragon. Much kinder that way, you see?”
The Knights made to speak again but Morgana interrupted them immediately, this time her tone was darker and more bitter.
“And in the end, your prejudice and blind hate of magic would triumph. And I would drag Merlin’s cold dead body all the way to the other side of Albion because friends don’t help you when it matters.” Morgana kicked at the dirt, hoping it was Merlin’s body instead, “And if he bumps his head on every rock and trunk that I find on the way, so much the better.”
“I would never abandon him!” Lancelot said hotly, and was held back by the other Round Table Knights.
“Let’s just….” Arthur said quietly, voice devoid of all emotion “Think about this rationally. Magic or no magic in all of the lands?”
Everyone whirled around to look at Arthur with the same incredulous and the utmost disappointed face at the King.
“You’re being pretty stupid right now, princess, even for you.” Gwaine said harshly, “That’s the same bloody question of deciding between Merlin and no Merlin. That’s how stupid you sound!”
“You shouldn’t talk to your sovereign in that manner!” Leon growled, despite silently agreeing with the drunkard.
Another explosion rang in the distance, a bit too close for comfort, interrupted their arguing. Right, end of the world as everyone knows it. Morgana would have to swallow her pride and go on a quest with Arthur again, for the first time in years. The manacles would have to opened again with help, help they currently didn’t have. She had no idea of what manner of beasts they would encounter on their journey, and magic was gone from everyone and everything. Their chances of surviving was slim to none, but they had no other choice. Not if they wanted to arrive back to Camelot, with their home whole and safe.
“So where were you planning to drag him to, Morgana?” Arthur asked as he stared at the unsettling storm clouds that spanned the sky in all directions.
Morgana turned to him, and she knew that there was only one place that could possibly still have magic left, since it did not completely reside in the realm of men.
“The Lake of Avalon.”