The student with the oldest eyes.

Professor Camlannson

This has been bothering me for a while.

I'm a professor at the University of Oxford, I teach a class on the Arthurian legends. Half my class seems perpetually bored of my teachings, most likely forced to go to university by rich, big-league parents and saw this as an easy, no-effort way to go through. However, one of my students is very different; he's always eager to learn every legend, even if I know that he's heard and studied it before, he memorizes them in explicit detail and can recount each one and each version of it to the letter. Sometimes, I feel as though he knows more about Camelot and it's citizens than I ever will, but that's obviously absurd. Despite this, I do find myself looking to him if a detail of the legends slips my mind occasionally, and he is always more than happy to endulge me, I've also had some intreaging debates when I get him to emerge from his shell and openly talk to me regarding the topic he is so obviously fascinated with.

The shell, as I dubbed it, is more of a wall really,  a wall that seems to separate him from his fellow students. Never have I seen him simply socializing with a friend, of course he is kind to everyone he meets and helps all those he can, especially if it is concerning a project. The funny thing is, it doesn't seem to matter what the project is on, I've seen him helping a third year science masters student with a project that I know would confuse even some of the lecturers here and then moving on to help an arts student with a particularly confusing research project. Stunning, that's what it is, it doesn't seem to matter what field or topic, he is well versed in everything, I witnessed him talking to a medeaval and modern poetry professor once and was later told my said professor, much to my amazement, that the boy had been more knowledgable and known more about the topic than him and most of the experts he knew. After that the professor had shamlessly attempted to get the boy to sign up for his class, but he remained adament that he was only here for the Arthurian class, he did however relent when the professor informed him that there was a class on medeaval poetry in particular which originated from Camelot's golden age. I believe the boy's-the student's-words when he initially turned down th class were, 'I seek as much knowledge in my life as I can gain, however, at this time, I am simply in pursuit of Camelot once more.' He spoke as if he had been studying for a long time, and what was more perplexing was the way he spoke with such familiarity of Camelot, as if he'd witnessed the great, mythical city with his own blue eyes.

I went off on quite a tangent (a habit I've developed in the last decade of lecturing), as I was originally saying, he never makes any close friends, he socalizes and is kind to all, but he hasn't made any close bonds. I worry somewhat, but he seems perfectly happy so I regret to say that I have become quite lax in my vigil of him.

His work was astounding when he originally came to my class, and it has just improved with every lecture, with every conversation and with every debate shared. I am aware that the student flew through the course on medeaval poetry in record time, it was designed to take any normal student three years, but took him just under one and he is getting close to finishing mine just as easily, I'm beginning to doubt that he is a normal student. It is my suspicion that the only reason he hasn't completed my class with honours yet is because he enjoys it and, although this sounds absurd even in just my thoughts, but he simply joined for the chance to talk to someone about the subject he is so very passionate about. Undoubtedly, I've seen him jump at the chance to talk with any expert I bring in; I've found myself summoning my colleages simply to get them to talk with and experience a discusion wwith this remarkable student.

I am hesitant to continue refering to him as a boy, even in my thoughts, as he seems so strangely old. He posessess the outward appearance of a youth of 21, but has the contenance and mind of a man well beyond his years, additionally it is his eyes with make me so uncomfortably with his youth. Those cerulean eyes look so old and world-weary, so full of wisdom that, when you look into their depths for long enough, you find yourself able to believe that he has seen the rise and fall of humanity for millenia, but again, that's absurd. He is 21. He says so. It says so on his student file and that is how old he looks, how old he appears...

Nevermind though, this perplexing student shall remain an enigma I fear my old mind will never solve. Graduation is looming and I am preparing to award him with the highest honours and masters possible in this field. Weird as it seems. The student calls himself Myriddian Ambrosious, maybe that is what sparked his interest in the field, in some legends the great Warlock, Merlin Emry's father was called Balinor Ambrosious after all, however that is simply in some, almost forgotten legends, in which Merlin is far from the silver-haired elder of myth and is reffered to as a young man of Myriddian's age, younger than Arthur at the time, in fact being the great King's manservant since his days as crowned prince. These legends are practically forgotten though, as I said, with stories so clearly of magic within them and so contradictory to the classic myths that most scolars disregard them or loath to stray form the traditional stories, Myriddian however, seems more impassioned by these tales than those of the old wizard, he wrote his disertation on the possability of magic, The Old Religion as it was reffered to, being real in the days of Camelot, the stories of the Great Purge and Mythical beasts being real and most ardently the tale of Merlin Emrys, elegedly most powerful being ever to walk the earth, starting out as younger than King Arthur himself.

This riddlesom student provoked such a curiosety in my old bones with his seemingly boundless knowledge that I decided to research his name in universities' records, he couldn't have gotten the knowledge from no where. My findings however, were more confusing than the original questions, the name Myriddina Ambrosious has reportedly popped up repeatedly in various global universities over the past few centuries, the fist occurance being in the first year of Oxford's founding, at the time he appeared as both a student and a founder of Oxford itself. In addition to this multiple variations of the name and names like it have been reported many times, the first, one Merlin Le'Fray, being recorded in the first year of the world's first modern university, again being both a pupil and esteemed professor. But this was stupid, it couldn't be the same lad with a good few dozen centuries and hints at this unothodox trend going back farther and the amount of qualifications and knowledge which would have accumalated would be unfathomable. So many years of pure study. But again, I was endulging by imagination, it was an imposility. The names just seemed so alike and the one factor which linked them all together was the fascination with Camelot...

A/n:

This plot has been buging me for the past two days and since my imagination has sadly sucumned to writer's block recently and caused me to neglect my other stories for a time (which I apologise profusely for) I decided it was worth it to write this out even if it did simply end up a oneshot, although I may be tempted to write more with this Professor Camlannson actually talking to Merlin (if you hadn't guessed then you are not a true Merlin fan) and the like, it's just too good a story to miss.

Poor Merlin, after all this time, still so lonely. *stops the train of thought before she is reduced to sobs*

If you liked it please tell me, comments are really, really, really appreciated but flames will be completely discarded (sorry) so please help me out nd I hope you enjoyed my work. :)

-Samantha2611