The Speechless Sea

Chapter 12

"Is it?" then he tutted, his disappointment rolling off him, and his jaunted eyebrow the way placidity sat on a summer lake.

He was right. Merlin still had a chance. He threw himself out of his sulk and grabbed the fine linens that hung casually on the back of his chair. Belting up his trousers, he did up a blue, slightly crumpled shirt, that made his eyes sparkle like a daydream. His pale skin and hair stared back at him as he looked in the mirror as he screwed his courage to its sticking place. With a curt nod he turned on his heel, ensconced in its strong boot, and strode manfully towards the great banquet hall, where the wedding preparation and

Merlin's beloved groom lay.

The doors slammed open with the force of a tidal wave, and Merlin felt the eyes of every member of the court pierce him but he stood firm. Emotion welled up in him seeing Arthur in his ceremonial suit -a navy jacket with gold epaulettes and medals, and his gleaming ceremonial sword. With it he also felt a familiar tingling - like waves drawing away from pebbles of seafoam bubbles cracking against his skin. He had no voice, but he had magic.

Nimue stood at the alter, a human, swatched in luxurious white silks and smirking at him darkly. He held out a hand and willed the fizzing under his skin into a crackling, whining electricity that shot from his fingertips hitting her squarely int he chest and knocking her to the ground.

Like a gasp of fresh air he felt his voice return to him. It danced in his larynx like freedom. At the alter, Arthur frowned and shook his head as if to shake off an annoying bug, and when he looked at Merlin, he really looked, startled and amazed at the man fore him, his eyes now clear of Nimueh's cloud.

"Arhtur," he spoke, his voice cracking with disuse and love. Arthur's head whipped around, his eyes shinging bright with hope, it sparkled in them. He looked amazed and disbeliefing as he took a cautious step towards the familiar, impossible voice.

"Merlin? It was you...." he whirspered in awe. Merlin smiled back. Their hands reached for each other until they touched, a feeling like being struck by lightning.

"Hi," he said gently as a kitten.

"Merlin! You can talk! Why didn't you say so before?" he asked. Merlin raised and eyebrow at him. The pair staired at each other, longing painted in their eyes, a portrait of desire.

A crash screeched behind them, booming like a canon, alerting their attention. They turned suddenly, Nimueh was there, no more the engenue with the stolen voice but the hulking, deadly sea octopus, her face contrted with rage, the contents of the alter tipped across the floor, her once beautiful face foul with fury as she screamed like a howling wind. With a lunge she grabbed the hilt of Gwaine's sword where he stood as best man and hurled it towards Arethur, the blade aiming directly at his chest. Time seemed to slow around Merlin like water around a hagfish.

"Hoʻomaha!" Merlin cast and the weapon froze in mid air. With a flick of his wrist a flash of his eyes that made Arthur's breath catch in his chest the sword vanished.

"That's enough, Nimueh." Merlin announced boldy, his voice much sronger with conviction now.

"Nimueh! Guards, arrest her at once!" cried Uther, jumping to his feet in unctious rage, his face apoplexic with fury.

"You cannot touch me, human!" Nimueah cried and with a sweep of her arm sent the guards crashing to the walls of the chapel.

"Seize her!" Uther howled, like an animal, caught in a trap, debating in agony whether to claw off a limb or starve. With a wave of her tentacle, the guards fell to the floor, and Nimueh cackled.

"You have not power, over me, Uther Pendregon. You and your little petty men dressed up in their tin outfits, playing at being soldiers, but they cannot protect you from me. All the armies in the world can't save you from your conscience, not that you have one! I have waited twenty four long years, alone, robbed of all my love-" She rages.

"Nimueh-" Uther interjected softly.

"Nimeuh?! You dare to call me by that name, you, UTher Pendragon, you worm, you scoundrel. You told me that you loved me, until I couldn't give you a son. And then what did you do? You bargained my humanity away so we could have a child, my beautiful golden Arthur" she turned to Arthur- the octopuses son- tears gleaming in her eyes. He stare back at her, all words escaped from his mind in shock.

"My mother's dead." he asked.

"NO! That's what he, that poisonous leech, would have you believe. He told me he'd found a way to complete our family, and then he waited until you were born and stole you away from me, and the ocean dragged me down into her depths, and changed me, and made me Nimueh - transforming me into a monster, though not as monstrous as him, that maggot, that larvae. I was Ygraine and I loved you, and Uther, the whelk, and he betrayed me. But the ocean is kind and gave me a gift, the gift of magic, to revenge myself on him, as he cut down all of merkind to hide his sin. You're my son Athur: the son of an octopus and that eely bastard!" she screeched in hysterical rage.

"Father is this true?" Arthur turned to his father sternly faced, his eyes like altalnitc storms, churning theith emotion and dark. Merlin looke don worriedly.

"The mer-folk and all their kind are savages and liars!" Uther spat thrught his teeth, his ragin eyes not leaving Nimueh as if you would attack if he were to look away.

"If you really care for Merlin you would see hoe evil this man truly is!" Nimueh hissed persuasively, ignoring Uther's intense burning stare. Arthur looked at his father and ther rage on his face; the man who had raised him. And Nimueh; his mother, had become this twisted creature before him. He looked into her eyes and saw only malice reflected there.

"I see evil here but it is you!" stab. She dissolve into a puddle.

"Arthur I'm..." Merlin staggered next to him, falling ontot one knee. Shooting pains rocketed through his legs as sthe sun slid futher below the far distant horizon through the stained glass window. Arthur swiflty knelt beside him, his blonde arms encircling him with love.

"Merlin" Arthur whispered, his voice a soft and cooling summer breeze. The gentle air that skitters over the sea, caressing its waves.

"Kiss me." Arthur whispered and Merlin smiled, his eyes alight with the love of a new hope.

"I though you'd never ask" He replied, his mer-heart lighter than he had ever known it as their two lips met in a blissful quadrill. The pain eased immediately, and a feeling of euphoria overcame them both, their souls danced together as one. The enchanement was broke - and Merlin was human.

"Will you marry me?" asked the prince, an expression of wild spontaneity on his handsome blonde face.

"Oh Arthur. Of ourse I will" Merlin nodded as Arthur pulled him to his feet and towards the alter, which wolves itself back together, Merlin's love for Arthur a catalyst for his magic as it repaired the chapel.

"Now?!" Merlin barked in shock.

"Do you see any reason to wait?" Arthur asked, his calm outside masking his torrid interior.

"No, no reason at all, Arthur." Merlin answered, enjoying the way the other man's name sounded on his lips, breathed into the salty sea air. The vicar looked nervous, unsure what to do, he glanced towards the dishevelled King.

"Continue, if you don't he'll doubtless just find another fish to marry" he said placidly with a wave of his hand. The vicar smiled and looked at the couple that were staring deeply into eachothers eyes as he took a deep breath and began the next chapter in their lives.

"Dearly beloved, we are gathered here today..." he said.

FIN (hah)