Merlin's magic (Oneshots) 1

Emrys means immortal

It was bound to happen eventually.
Arthur should have seen this coming. He cursed himself that he didn't. Or maybe he did and just told himself it would never come to this.
But really Arthur?
You take an unarmed servant with you on a hunt?
Without offering him to learn self defense, without bothering to give him anything to protect himself with?

You just – take him with you – knowing you were marching into bandit territory. Knowing you were at the border of Cendred's kingdom, who had a bounty on your head.

You even encourage his foul mouth at you and now you're surprised he's dead?
The thought manifested itself in Arthur's mind as he looked at the corpse.

If it was a stab wound, maybe poisoning, if maybe Merlin was moving – maybe he would have doubted himself.
But he had yet to see a man return from the dead after they were beheaded.

They held Arthur and his knights captive. They were worth quite the money to Morgana. But Merlin? A simple servant?
Killing him would break their moral, is what the bandits decided to believe.
To Arthur's dismay they were right.

He could see Merlin's decapitated head rolling from the rest of his body. Eyes cold and still, just like his limbs.
His body wasn't even shaking with an afterthought, he was just – still. Unmoving. Dead.
Arthur tried to refuse the tears, but his eyes felt empty either way.

His best friend, his best council, his unofficial advisor – gone. His support, his everything – gone.
After all they've been through.
And Merlin's last words? Of course. It was so Merlin.
"What are you going to do? Behead me?"

And they did. They just did.

The man who held Arthur captive laughed at his frozen expression, his broken soul.
It felt like someone had ripped his soul in half. Like his other half had been taken away.
Barely Arthur managed to hear Gwaine's screams, Percival's struggles to break free.

"You want to check on him. Maybe there are some life signs left in him.", the old man spat in Arthur's ear, but he took him on his offer.
Struggling to get on his feet, he stumbled over to his friends corpse.

When had he started crying? Was what he thought when he took Merlin's head hin his hands, looking into the last grin Merlin had gifted the world with.
Like a maniac Arthur reattached the head to Merlin's body.
"You're done?", the bandit asked bored. He must have seen things like this a lot.

"Merlin, please don't leave me!", how could Arthur's heart still hope, when his brain already knew!
How dared his conscience wait for Merlin to stand up again to grand him one more joke.
To just move like this happened to him every day.
"You look like you've seen a ghost.", is what Merlin would say. And Arthur would laugh and everything would be okay.
In this moment, Arthur would do anything to have that. But like many people before him, Arthur knew there was no second chance.
He closed his eyes.

Morgana could have him. What was the point in being king when he couldn't even protect his best friend.
When did he start screaming? His breath was leaving him.

The bandit pulled him by the chain mail. Seemingly annoyed by his behavior and all the blood that he would have to explain in front of Morgana.

Just as Arthur's head turned around, dreaded acceptance settling in him, a sudden blue light blinded their captors.
Arthur could have used this moment to break free, but his eyes widened instead as his head snapped to the light.
His knights shouted in disbelief.

A man stood in the midst of the light, only his gold eyes visible as the night returned to the forest.
Merlin cracked his neck, feeling the blood on his hands, as he bend down to retrieve his scarf.

Arthur's mouth dropped open.
Merlin felt his jaw, after he brushed of the blood, binding his scarf around his scarred neck.
Scarred?

"Have you guys lost your mind?", he ironically asked as though nothing had just happened. But despite the humor and amusement in the servants voice, his eyes shone with fury as he raised his hands.
Without as much as a word, the bandits were thrown against the next tree.

Magic... Arthur's mind unhelpfully explained. That was so not the point right now.
Arthur had seen sorcerers beheaded before. They didn't get back up. They never did. They couldn't.
How was the mere fact that Merlin was a sorcerer more concerning right now than him surviving his head chopped off!!!!

"Damn this hurts.", Merlin's voice sounded hoarse.
"Arthur, honestly, when you sentence me to death later, make sure to use the sword from the stone.
I've lost my head once, I'm not eager for it to be reattached again. That freaking hurts, god damn it."

Arthur blinked. Right... punishment. Punishment for being a sorcerer... for using magic – for – being immortal apparently. The sword? What about the sword?

Merlin guiltily locked eyes with his silent king who had yet to awake from his trance.
The knights were no different. How could they be?
The bandits were knocked out cold and with as much as a movement from his wrist, Merlin had undone the chains of the knights.
"I didn't really plan for you to find out like this, honestly. But you know – even I can't make up an excuse for – that.", he vaguely wove at the bandits and the ax that was still covered in Merlin's blood.

"Why my sword?", Arthur finally managed to ask.
Merlin blinked. Before he realized he had to explain how the sword would kill him.
"Yeah, you would need the sword to properly kill me. It kill the undead. I never really wanted to test that theory, but seems like the druids were right.
I really am immortal. Thanks for returning my head to me, by the way.", Merlin smiled at Arthur.

"What are you guys looking at? You look like you've seen a ghost."

Arthur couldn't help it. This couldn't be real. He laughed. Loud, with tears in his eyes.
No. Absolutely not. He fainted soon after.