Friends to Be Feared

Chaper 1: Caught

I could hear voices. They were muffled, but not quiet. I could hear the words, the sounds, but I couldn't make out the words. I could feel warmth, but there was something wrong. I could feel the warmth but I was cold, so cold. There was such a deep silence, emptiness. It pulled me down, down, down. I fought to open my eyes. Light. Fire. There were colors, red and silver. Orange and brown. It was all dull, unfocused. The sounds stopped. Then there was just one voice.

"Wake up sorcerer."

Sorcerer?

Images came rushing back, permeating the fog that had entered my mind. Yelling, swords, faces full of shock and anger. "Run Emrys!" Running, a River. "Sorcerer!"

With that my eyes were finally able to focus, the sounds became clearer, people, voices. Everything still seemed dull and empty but at least I could now understand what was going on. At least, most of what was going on. The knights, Arthur. They found out. They knew, Arthur tried to kill me. He tried to kill me. And someone saved me. I looked around, it didn't look like I was in a dungeon, it looked like a cave. Storm. There was a storm, I was running... they must have camped out. It took me a minute to realize that Arthur was speaking to me, so not as coherent as I thought I was.

"...rlin. Merlin. Are you even listening to me?" I forced myself to focus on him, he almost sounded teasing, as if I wasn't a sorcerer, as if yesterday never happened. Almost. There was a harshness to his voice that hadn't been there before. A harshness directed at me.

I forced myself to move my head, to nod. The movement sent streaks of pain through my skull but I ignored it, instead using all my energy to focus on what Arthur was saying.

"A storm has hit and we are currently residing in a cave. We are waiting out the storm until we can make it back to Camelot where you will be put on trial for the crimes of sorcery."

The crimes of sorcery. Of course. That's what it comes down to. That's what it always comes down to. It doesn't matter who you are, or what you've done. Magic is evil.

I looked around the cave, everyone was studiously avoiding looking in his direction. All the Knights of the Round Table. My friends. All of them except Gwaine... and Lancelot. A pang of loss shot through me. Oh, what I wouldn't give to have Lance with me right now. A well of bitterness, separate from the nothingness, rose within me. I looked back at Arthur, his face hard and cold.

"Oh, and don't bother using any magic, those chains prevent it." He said this with such a hard edge to his tone that for a moment I wondered if we wasn't just going to kill me then and there. Then it clicked.

Chains.

I looked down. There. Dark and blood-flecked. I tried to lift my arms, but they were too heavy. For the first time I realized I was sitting against the cave wall. Propped up. Every part of my body was aching and heavy. The emptiness... I could only stare. Stare at the abhorrent rune covered metal. It radiated menace, how could they not feel it? My magic! Desperately I reached for it, there was just the nothingness, nothing. I pushed around, not even aware of my surroundings anymore. I had to find it.

There! A flicker. I reached for it, desperate. All of the sudden the most intense pain I had ever felt ripped through me, my magic started burning, tearing, ripping. I thought I was screaming but I couldn't concentrate on anything, nothing mattered. Nothing. Slowly blackness filtered in, the emptiness slowly started to fill me up, replacing the pain. Taunting me. The last thought that passed through my head was,

"I wish the pain would stay."