Ashes to Flames (Merlin fanfiction)

Flames

It was night. Well, not yet. Canis Lupus, as she had been taught. Too dark to tell if it was a dog or a wolf.

Slipping out of the room, she could see Merlin lying on the floor under a thick blanket. He muttered "I don't want to be the target again" in his sleep and she almost smiled. Opening her palm, she revealed a orange flame suspended an inch above her hand.

It was dark as she walked through the courtyard to the lower town. The guards didn't notice a shadow slipping around the market and there it was, she was back at the old house. Wooden, small and warm. Mara might have remembered the bright yellow flowers with long green stalks on the table or the woollen scarves hanging up behind the door.

The fear - or was it worry? - was odd. Her mouth was dry and she there was butterflies in her stomach, but she didn't feel any of it. They were present but didn't affect Mara. The part that was her was shouting. But she wasn't in control.

Mara opened the door and her mother dropped a bowl of water. She ran forwards and hugged her daughter, tears in her eyes.

"Ego credebam te mortuis," she whispered in Latin. "I thought you were dead."

"So did I."

There, over her mother's shoulder, she saw a small boy. "Robert?"

He nodded, walked over and she gathered her small sibling into her arms, green eyes filling with tears threatening to spill over, just like her brother's. "Why did you come back?" Her mother asked.

"The lowlife lost it's appeal, I suppose and I was tired of walking the forest." They all hugged, the three of them, and Mara felt the happiest she had been in six years.

Suddenly, she drew back from her family and surveyed them with a cold gaze. Her eyes became a glowing amber and burned with a cold fire. Her will was not her own again. The part of her that was her own whispered softly. "Coming back here was a game, wasn't it? One last goodbye before you all perish in the flames. A brief glimpse. Say farewell, then. You've got everything to lose now."

"Sum ita paenitet ipsum," she said quietly. Then louder: "I'm so very sorry." She turned and walked out of the door, boots tapping on the wooden floor.

There was an old wood shed. Placing her right hand on the side, black stains spread up the side. Then there the flame that spread it's way to the homes on either side.

Mara, her work done, fell to the ground like a puppet with it's strings cut. In the last seconds of consciousness she saw in her mind the High Priestess wait to collect the map of Camelot's passages. It would be the end for the people who had helped her.

An putas, quia per te traherent?

Gwaine and Percival were the last out of the tavern. Still swaying slightly, they both jumped slightly when the cry went out. "Fire! Fire in the lower town!"

Percival reacted first, running off to tell Arthur and the other knights. Gwaine filled a bucket with water from the well and headed to where the smoke was thickest. Here the heat of the fire was ferocious. He coughed several times from the smoke while the he felt the heat almost burning his hair. It dried out his clothes and took his breath from him. Through the fire, he saw a figure on the ground. Ducking under the plume of smoke and dodging a burning log near his feet, he ran to the person.

They turned their face towards him and he recognised her; Mara, the girl Merlin was looking after. But the first thing her saw was the fire on her shirt. Pouring the water over her, she shook her head. Still awake. Beyond crying or shouting. Surely in dreadful pain. How long had she been like this?

Gwaine helped Mara up and the fire almost engulfed them. 'Smoke is what kills you; it isn't the fire' Merlin had once told him. He clearly hadn't seen a fire like this.

Mara tried to stand up, almost fell over and a tear dropped down her face. Leaning on Gwaine, they walked clumsily through the smoke.

It seemed to take an eternity. Her back and shoulders pained her. She was beyond calling out. The smoke was making it hard for her to breathe. But finally they were away from the danger.

Mara collapsed and gasped for breath, the blood beating wildly through her head. Gwaine tried to help her up but she refused.

"No, Gwaine. I'm dying, I think. Leave me alone, don't try to wake me because I soon will be gone. Please. Deep in my heart I really want to go."

He shook his head. "Don't say that. Gaius will look after you and it'll be fine."

She shook her head and cried a bit from the pain on her back. "Look at me, Sir Knight. Gasping, dying but somehow still alive. All those people out there. Robert. Dead and it's all my fault. Leave me alone. This is the fierce last stand of all I am."

Mara gritted her teeth and, visibly in pain, walked away into the fire. She placed a handful of flame on the ground so Gwaine couldn't follow her. It would take her the rest of the night to reach the outskirts of Camelot again.

Percival reached the courtyard and alerted the guards quickly. Walking upstairs to wake the other knights, he spotted a woman that looked a lot like Morgana cross the courtyard towards a small door. He shook his head, regretting trying to out drink Gwaine in mead.

Merlin, who had been around the castle looking for Mara, noticed the glow of the fire from a window. He changed direction and ran to inform Arthur. He was almost hoping to taste the disturbance of disaster on the air.