500 Days of Freya (Merlin)

Lamia

Chapter 25

Warning/s: None.

Disclaimer: I don't own Merlin.

A/N: I've just started sixth form and already I'm going to die from the work load

Prompt: ruapilot02 – "the lamia could not affect Merlin because of his feelings for Freya."

The Lamia was facing him down, her eyes slitted like a snake's. She was licking her lips almost furiously, obviously puzzled why she wasn't brainwashing him. "How?" she hissed eventually, half in the form of her snake and half like a normal girl.

Merlin smiled. It hurt to remember Freya, and it wasn't usually a good hurt, but this time it was. Because Freya was saving him from this creature. "The Lady of the Lake," he muttered back, the shadows making his face menacing and ghostly.

"You know her?" the Lamia questioned, looking suddenly curious. "Has she protected you?

"No; we love each other," Merlin replied. "I love her so much that you can't penetrate my soul."

The Lamia hissed and lunged towards him, obviously deciding that if she couldn't entrance him, she would just kill him. Merlin was defenceless, and panicked a little, but then a sword swooped across his vision and the Lamia, in her pure snake form, fell in two.

"Thanks, Gwen."

"The knights told me what happened," Arthur said softly. Merlin looked over his shoulder, taking a break from scrubbing the floor.

"Sorry?" he asked, eyebrows creasing in confusion.

"With the Lamia," Arthur clarified. "About how they were all taken in."

"Oh, yeah," Merlin said dismissively, turning back to scrubbing the floor. Honestly, if Arthur kept coming in without taking his muddy boots off first...

"They said you weren't affected by it?"

"No, I wasn't." Merlin scrubbed a bit harder, starting to sweat a little. "Are you going to ask why?" That was the only question he had been getting for the past week, ever since they had returned from battling the Lamia.

"Yes, I am." Arthur had sensed the bitterness in Merlin's tone, and had guessed correctly that he was tired of the question. "I'm sorry, but nobody has been able to give me a straight answer."

"I don't know either, Arthur," Merlin said untruthfully. "Maybe because I'm not a knight?"

"No, that can't be it..." Arthur tapped his hand on the table thoughtfully. "I mean, Gwaine and Elyan and Percival, they're not of noble blood; so that wouldn't separate you from them. It must be something else."

"None of the knights are in love," Merlin said quietly. He half-hoped that Arthur would hear him and half hoped that he wouldn't.

There was silence, and Merlin wasn't sure whether he had heard him and was processing, or had simply not heard him.

"You're in love?" he finally asked his manservant.

"Yes. Freya."

"How long?"

"Not too long. We fell in love quickly but she died about three years ago."

"Oh...Merlin, I am so sorry."

"It was not your fault, Arthur." Technically he supposed that it was, because Arthur had killed her, but he wasn't to know, and she was a giant killing cat at the time.

"I know, but..." He could hear Arthur shift uncomfortably in his seat. "I can't even imagine what it would be like to lose Gwen in that way."

"I wouldn't wish it on anyone," Merlin said quietly.

There was silence between the two of them for a few seconds, interrupted only by Merlin's scrubbing brush, before Arthur spoke again. "Tell me about Freya."

Merlin swallowed. "She was...beautiful. Funny, clever, beautiful, unique and unusual, I guess. She was unlike anyone else I've ever met; she fit me perfectly. Like we were two puzzle pieces made for each other."

"Do you believe in soulmates?"

"Yes. Freya was my soulmate." Merlin felt tears rushing to his eyes and quickly blinked them back, thankful that he was facing away from Arthur.

"And you think the Lamia couldn't affect you because you're still in love with her?"

"Definitely."

When Arthur next spoke, about fifteen minutes later, Merlin was relieved to find that it was about what other chores he could be doing.

A/N: i'm dying i have a sore throat