Revenge A Mergana Story

Bandits

Merlin was shocked he nearly choked on his apple. He couldn't believe what he was hearing. How was this even possible. Alas, they didn't have any more time to discuss because as soon as Arthur had divulged his secret Percival told Arthur that they should leave before it got to be too late. Merlin had wanted to continue the conversation, but Arthur said, "Wait until we have privacy"

The Inn was still a ways away so this gave Merlin plenty of time to think. If Morgana was the true heir to the throne then surely she should know. But what would that mean for them? Was that selfish of Merlin to think? Could Morgana even be queen now? Everyone thought she was dead, so Arthur had taken the throne. Actually, no body was even aware of the fact that the throne was Morgana's. 

This meant that Arthur and Morgana had to be siblings. Which was unsettling for a number of reasons. First because in Merlin's early days at Camelot Arthur and Morgana flirted. A lot. In fact, he was pretty sure that everyone thought that Arthur would be king and Morgana would be his queen. Which now seems disgusting. But also did this mean that Morgana was Uther's child? Is that why he had taken care of her like a daughter? Did Morgana know? Morgana rarely spoke about her father Merlin remembered. But when he got her to open up about him she spoke with such tenderness and compassion that there was no way that she knew that he wasn't her true father.

Eventually, they reached the Inn. The Knights had found a local tavern and were occupying themselves there, but Arthur had to devise a plan for what they would do about the bandits in Castellum so he stayed back. Merlin said he was tired and stayed back, but he just wanted to talk to Arthur.

They were sharing a room, but Arthur told Merlin to make sure the horses were okay because he didn't trust the innkeeper. Merlin thought Arthur was just being paranoid, but he still did it. As annoying as he was Arthur still was King. 

The horses seemed fine to Merlin, but he wasn't really checking them. He had too much on his mind.

When he came back into the room Arthur was poring over some maps.

"Do you know what you're going to do yet?" Merlin asked

Arthur sighed, "I talked to some of the people here and I fear the problem is worse than we suspected," Arthur sat on his bed and rubbed his face, "The locals say that they've had minor bandit problems here and we're still quite far from Castellum. They say they're sure that the bandits come from Castellum. If that's the case then Castellum must be ruined if the bandits can't even use them anymore. We stationed Knights there a month ago, but moved them because Castellum had no use for them anymore I don't understand how the issue became this big so quickly,"

Merlin did not envy Arthur at all. Things like this made Merlin feel bad for complaining. His job was to clean and help people who were ill, but Arthur had to solve problems like this or hundreds of people would die. So many people want to be sovereign for the power, but with power comes so many consequences that it didn't seem worth it. Especially because after Arthur became King he seemed unhealthy.

"Castellum's on the edge of Camelot, right?" Merlin asked

"Yeah," Arthur asked not sure what that had to do with anything

Merlin pointed on the map to the neighboring kingdom of Plouguer. "The King of Plougher was just overthrown last month or so. Do you remember? That's when all those sick people came to Camelot because the new ruler was too harsh and they all fell ill," Merlin explained

"That's right!" Arthur exclaimed understanding where Merlin was heading "And we gave them some of the woodlands to start a village in,"

"Yeah, what if some of the people who didn't fall ill resulted to thievery in order to survive," Merlin continued

"So do you think if we offer them land to live in they'd be peaceful?" Arthur asked

Merlin shrugged "It's worth a shot. Chances are they're refugees not robbers," 

Arthur smiled at Merlin in awe. "Merlin I know I make fun of you a lot, but you really are quite clever. I've been staring at this map for ages," 

Merlin simply smiled. 

"I guess you'll be wanting to know about Morgana now," Arthur said