Merlin: The Depth of Secrets

9-Druid

The party returned to Camelot and to outsiders viewing the bunch, they would have never noticed the enormous change. Merlin resorted back to hiding his magic as Arthur slowly built the court up to his proposal of lowering the punishment for magic.

A few weeks after the return from the forest and it was finally the day. The day where Arthur Pendragon would demand the court changes it's law on magic from punishable by death to punishable by whatever is required from what the person has done. If someone kills another person or plots against Camelot then the punishment would be larger yet if someone merely produces a rose from thin air to give to their significant other no one should blink an eye.

Arthur was in no way prepared for this day. And he didn't have anyone to prepare him either. Merlin had been forced to flee a week back. A few of the old cranky councilmen had caught on to Merlin having magic and decided to take it into their hands to kill him. The council man decided to surprise Merlin from around a bend in the corridor and bind him with magic-restricting cuffs.

____________________A week ago______________

Merlin was walking down the hallway carrying Arthur's newly washed clothes for the next day. He wasn't paying much attention to his surroundings and this is were he was at fault. He never saw the ambush coming,and he especially never saw it coming from the three oldest men of Arthur's council. He was just turning a bend in the corridor when he ran into one of the men straight on. This man was the youngest out of the three by a few years but those years gave him the most strength out of the three. The man pushed Merlin backward roughly and Merlin fell onto the floor still holding onto Arthur's clothes. When two others rushed at him he had half the mind the produce a spell to push them back. The men were thrown back a few feet but somehow caught themselves better than their age should have allowed them to. Of course Merlin hadn't used the strongest magic with the spell because accidentally killing any of the council members would certainly leave no room for getting off easily. Then the first man kicked Merlin in his side as he saw Merlin's eyes flash gold. This gave the other two men time to get closer. And before Merlin had time to retaliate a second time, one of the men shut the shackles around his wrists and he started to writhe in pain. After only a few seconds in the shackles the light faded to black and Merlin went unconscious still writhing on the ground.

The men smiled at each other, proud of their accomplishment over the sorcerer. And they agreed that going to Arthur would be foolish as the king had been soft to sorcerers since returning from his last hunting trip. All of them were acquainted with Arthur's manservant on a level of some sort but felt no unease watching the young man convulse in pain beneath them. They had plans of their own to take him off to the forest where they would behead him quickly but all of it was put a stop to when one of Arthur's knights found them carrying Merlin's body throughout one of the back passages of the castle.

Percival had rounded a corner in the back passages of the castles and saw three older councilmen carrying Merlin between them down the hall towards Percival. His eyes widened and he ran toward the bunch quickly. When he got there the three men smiled up at Percival as if he would be proud of them for binding Merlin. One of them even started to speak," Sir Percival we have caught and cuffed a sorcerer." Apparently one of them quickly noticed Percival's horror filled face but that was to late as the knight carefully tore Merlin from between them. Hastely one of the men began to reply,"Yes it would be much better if you carried him to the dungeons for us." But Percival paid no attention to them and said," Where's the key!?" The youngest man produced a rusted key from his pocket and handed it to Percival. Then with nothing else between them Percival ran with the convulsing Merlin to Arthur's chambers and on the way passed a guard who Percival told to quickly bring Gaisus to Arthur's room.

When Percival reached Arthur's chambers Merlin was deathly pale and still writhing. Percival didn't even knock as he entered. When Arthur turned around from the window he had been looking out of and saw Percival carrying Merlin,Arthur's eyes widened in fear. He quickly asked Percival what had happened but Percival responded," No time." Percival quickly laid Merlin on Arthur's bed and attempted to use the key to unlock the cuffs. The key was in such disrepair that it broke. In to three pieces to be exact. Whenever he tried to turn the key, it shattered. The bottom portion of the key was left in the lock hole. Percival locked eyes with Arthur and then they both went back to staring at Merlin's pale convulsing body. Percival then said," Gaisus should be on his way but we have no idea how much time that should take what do we do?" Arthur hesitated to think before responding," I'd say get another key but all of the keys to the magic restraining shackles were made differently so as to stop escape. " He then continued after a moment of silence," What happened?" And this time Percival told him," I rounded a corner in the back passages of the castles and saw three of the older councilman carrying Merlin through the halls. They must have found out about his magic and planned to take care of it themselves."