To the ends of the earth.

Chapter two.

The crowd is gathered in the banquet hall, food piling up on many platters from deer to rabbit, duck to chicken. All the foods delicious and ready to be eaten by the many guests in the hall, there to celebrate the anniversary of the war of Camlann.

"Today marks the anniversary of three years peace since the winning of Camlann. We will celebrate tonight in honour of the many who have fallen for us to life forth. To the men and women who gave their lives for us." Arthur says, raising his goblet up high to the crowd.

The knights and guests stand with the king, raising their goblets of wine in the air themselves with a cheer. "To the fallen!" They praise the dead. Celebrating the once that had given their lives with many honour. Drink on the ones that had given their lives for others to survive and life on.

Soon all the food is dished out and served to everyone. Gaius is to is left, eating small bits of meat while looking like a shell of a man that he had been before Merlin had been...no, before Merlin had left Camelot. The man had never been the same since, in some way it had made him feel guilty that he had done this to the old man.

Gaius had seemed to have aged many years since, his hair had grown longer and more wrinkles had formed on his face. Arthur was sure that the physician had stopped allowing anyone in his chambers if they weren't injured or patients in need for his assistance.

He takes a bite, his eyes towards Lancelot and Gwen holding hands while feeding each other food with laughter and smiles. Being happy and lovely dovely with each other.

His marriage with Gwen had soon fallen flat three years ago. Unfortunately he just couldn't compete with the love of Lancelot, she had always been madly in love with the knight that he recently had learned to only be alive today if it wasn't for Merlin's magic and a spell that he had used to turn him from this shadow into a living and breathing human.

Some of his knights, Lancelot and Gwaine mostly, had taken the banishment of Merlin rather harshly. The fun bantering and goofy side of their trips and whenever they were near each other had disappeared with the sorcerer. Voicing out their displeasure about it and Lancelot had many times corrected Arthur upon the fact that Merlin was a warlock, not a sorcerer.

At first when Merlin had been ban...no, when Merlin had left, Arthur had thought that the s̶o̶r̶c̶e̶r̶e̶r̶, warlock had placed a spell upon Gaius, Lancelot and Gwaine when they kept so loyal to Merlin and defended him in the court when they were deciding his fate.

Arthur at first had been furious at the warlock for having lied to him all these years, throwing him in jail like a criminal. He felt awful when he saw the state that Merlin had been in when he saw the young boy curled up in the cell, not even acknowledging him nor did it look like he had acknowledged the food that had been brought to him, sitting untouched on the floor buy the bars.

But he had felt so betrayed and afraid of the young s̶o̶r̶c̶e̶r̶e̶r̶ warlock, that he felt the need to throw him in there and hate on him for having lied more then he had been against the idea of Merlin having magic. And so he instead of hanging him or burning him at the stake, he had banished him out of anger and fear of him, rather then hating him.

Soon after the banishment and the idea of Gaius, Lancelot and Gwaine being under a spell by Merlin had left his thoughts and weeks had passed since Merlin had been b̶a̶n̶i̶s̶h̶e̶d̶, left. After his marriage had failed weeks after too. He couldn't blame Gwen nor Lancelot for it.

When he had come to his senses, he was already silently murdering George in his mind for being so boring and annoying that he realised that magic wasn't the evil thing that his father had made it out to be. When he came to that realisation, he went to Gaius to find out to what extent Merlin had been using magic and how much he had laid down his life for him.