The eternal suffering

That's not Emrys part 16 (finale)

A.N.:// Random art ahead

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
------------------------------------------------------------------------------

There were quite a few things that needed to be discussed on that hill, right underneath the burned out windows of the old throne room.
First and foremost, Arthur and Merlin had to reintroduce themselves to Sir Lionel. And then explain to him what had happened in the past few centuries.
Turnes out their short term memory was a lot better than the long one.
Who would have guessed.

The next part on that list, was obviously to check, if George was alright. The man was still unconscious, after all.
One may think, how they could prioritize to soothe Sir Lionel's mind. Well... they didn't. Sir Lionel just refused to let him come any closer.
Though, it did kind of come as a surprise to him, who that unconscious man was.
It took a while to convince him to let Merlin run a magic scan on the servant.

It was this very act, this very magic that convinced Sir Lionel that Arthur and Merlin were indeed speaking the truth.
Because he recognized Merlin's magic as the same as Emrys'.
Initially, Arthur had hated the fact that Merlin introduced himself as Emrys. But it was propbably the smarter decision. It gave Lionel a point he could latch on to. It would help him understand the world a little better.

Step four on their to do list was check the burned out throne room for survivors.
Gwen and Morgana gracefully took over that job, while Merlin and Arthur were dealing with their Lionel situation.
When they returned, they shook their heads, however.
Not that there weren't any survivors. There was no one left inside at all. No Beeltheas. No Iseldir.
Gone.
All that remained were broken statues, tons of burned paint, glass shards and debris from the walls.
And lots of dust and smoke.
Arthur had only nodded at this. Seemingly not very surprised.

When Merlin send him a questioning and worried glance, Arthur simply responded: "I may not remember much about magic. But I do remember that Emrys, Lionel and Rosalin all loved to teleport themselves, in my last life. Just to annoy the heck out of me, of course.
I kept expecting them to randomly pop out of nowhere. That's as much as I remember. I know that's not much to go on. But it's not impossible that Iseldir and Beeltheas just .... left, before the explosion."

Merlin had simply stared at him. Not as much as Uther Pendragon though, who was staring daggers at his son.
Perhaps the words: "Teleportation" and "my last life" hit too close to magic for him.

Which brings us to the fourth note on our to do list.
Kicking Uther off the throne. When everyone had calmed down a little and let sink in what had happened with Sir Lionel and what exactly Arthur's stance on magic was in comparison to his father's, the new memories of the town brought upon Uther Pendragon's downfall.

To elaborate on that, one should remember that Uther Pendragon was known for his hatred on magic. For his hatred on magic users. And his strong conviction that anyone related or associated with the subject should be executed.
Now, of course, not many people knew that he used to support magic.
Or rather, they didn't remember.

Uther Pendragon had fought his way to the throne of Camelot through a very simple list that involved the lady Nimue. And a lot of magic.
Him and his knights were camouflaged with magic, to trick the mind of the wraith that was said to protect the castle from all it's enemies.
Naturally, they used disguises to be seen as familiar and worthy of protection of the phoenix of Camelot. That was how they managed to get in the castle and steal the gems. (1)
Or rather, the one true Gem that was of any value to Camelot.
They assumed it was the eye of the Phoenix, but in truth it was the Gem that had just dissolved in George's hand. It was the one Aeris and Emrys had created.
Uther used to assume it was a magical weapon that HE could use to harness magic. So HE could use magic himself.