The eternal suffering

That's not Emrys part 8

A.N.://

now guess who will offer their memories.

Hint: You probably guessed it.
Or did you?

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The light had vanished with Leon's fall. And just like that, Arthur, Merlin, Lancelot and Gwen were surrounded by darkness, molten stone and dead bodies.
Except.... Beeltheas was still alive.

They could hear his breathing. He must have sunken on his knees, still completely overwhelmed by the fact that Leon had not harmed him.

"Merlin, light a torch.", Arthur ordered, his voice shaking.

He could hear soft steps echoing on the floor as Merlin obeyed his wish. There, where last remnants of the wall were still standing, lay splinters of furniture around.
The explosion must have destroyed quite a bunch of the interior mobilar from Alastor's room.

Arthur didn't know how Merlin did it, but within a few moments a flickering light echoed on to the walls and left giant shadows where objects and people lay on the floor.

Gwen didn't hesitate for another second. She hurried to Leon's side and moved him on to his back to check for a pulse.
"He's alive.", she explained. A relieved breath escaped her lips as she send a smile in Arthur's and Lancelot's direction.
Lancelot, on the other hand, had also grabbed for a piece of wood and targeted Beeltheas, who was still staring at the corpse of his master. Then his eyes switched to Leon's unconscious form.

"He's a wraith.", Merlin said all of a sudden, turning everyone's attention to him.

"Yeah, that's what he said.", Arthur rolled his eyes. 'I am thy wraith.' was literally what Leon had said while he recited that strange enchantment.

Merlin shook his head. "This means, Leon is undead. He probably always was.", he explained and then joined Gwen at Leon's side and also checked for something.
Maybe wounds or other indicators that something on him had changed.

"You don't mean undead like that immortal knight that challenged my father to battle over life and death now, do you?"

"Exactly like that.", Merlin answered. "No. Not quite. Leon bleeds. The dark knight didn't.", Merlin commented. Though that did not ease Arthur's worry at all.
Leon's head was split open, where his head had hit the ground unguarded. And a small trail of blood ran down on the side of his forehead.

"Do you think Leon is here to kill my father?", Arthur asked, concern evident in his voice, but the looks he received for that were more pitying than accusing.

"Leon literally said he was fighting for Camelot. If anyone wanted to kill your father, I'm sure it was THAT guy.", Gwen said and pointed at the dead king in the corner.

Their eyes all snapped in the direction Gwen mentioned and from there they could see how Lancelot pointed his wooden stick at Beeltheas, before he turned to George and Iseldir and loosened their chains as he realized the sorcerer was basically paralyzed with fear.
George sighed in relief, as the gag was removed from his mouth. Iseldir had already been freed from it, so he was more busy rubbing the wounded skin on his wrist.

When George was unchained though, he immediately hurried to his feet and went to check if king Alastor was really dead. Before he smiled in relief and then turned to Leon to check for wounds as well.

"Neither of you.... seem surprised.", Arthur finally pointed out. He was the only one still unmoving. To be fair, it was a lot to process for him.

"Well. Iseldir is a druid. He knew about Leon.", George explained, before bowing to the prince.
However, when he looked up, he offered no explanation as to how HE knew about Leon.
Not that they needed any.
Gwen had already told them that George grew up in Leon's household as well. But George couldn't have known that.