The Once and Future King

The Kindness of Strangers

        "Hey, you there!" Arthur was yelling, pointing at one of his servants. "Come, here, be all the fielders for cricket!" This poor, unfortunate soul who now had to play most of the positions in the 22-player game was Merlin, naturally. But it was the first real interaction between the two since Merlin had taken up his position at Anglesey, so he smiled. 

        At the end of the next hour, the only thank you Merlin received was the question: What is your name?

        "Merlin," he answered.

        "Merlin? As in, the wizard?"

        "Precisely." At this, Arthur only shook his head. 

        "You're an odd one, aren't you?"

        "An odd what?" said Merlin.

        "Never mind." Arthur glanced up and saw his brother over the hill. He grinned and ran to greet him, leaving Merlin to his thoughts. 

        He was thinking of how he was going to introduce himself. Merlin knew that by Arthur's reaction, he would not take kindly to magic, much like before. Merlin was also thinking about memories. Since this Arthur was a reincarnation of his friend, he should be able to give this Arthur past memories. Right? He would just have to find one of Gaius's old magic books. He missed Gaius. 

        But that was beside the point. At the moment, Merlin had to focus on Arthur. Breaking the news to Arthur would not be an easy task, so he had to ease the burden by giving him a few memories at a time. 

        Later that night, Merlin went to his room and brought out his magic book- the large brown one with intricate metal clasps. He looked up a spell for Memory Recall, double- and triple-checking that it was possible for reincarnations. The book stated that it was exteremely difficult- but not impossible. And since he was the most powerful sorcerer ever to walk the earth, Merlin felt he could manage. He wondered if, when his task was done, and he could finally die, would he be reincarnated with Arthur again? The Great Dragon had not told him this. 

        Merlin only wanted to bring back certain memories. So he began that night on casting the spell. 

        "Beþencan manian Éadmund áncorlíf brýdhlóp." And with a sharp crack and a flash of light, the spell was enacted.