All the Light I Cannot See

In this AU, Merlin has stumbled through the centuries alone, clinging desperately to the hope that, one day, the Once and Future King will rise again, when Albion needs him most. Which is all very well and good, except Merlin has been through personal hells, each one worse than the last, so he begins to dread the catastrophe that will finally reunite them.

This is Merlin's third time being blind. The previous two were self-inflicted, because of the disguises they offered. No one bothers an old blind man during the Salem Witch Trials. No one suspects a little girl with lopsided pigtails during wartime. People are so tied up with their own issues that the ill-meaning ignored him and the kind offered him very little. But this time was different. There was another war, there were too many things happening at once, and there was a bomb.

Merlin woke up to a black screen.

He hasn't bothered to change it back.

What's the point in seeing if the world's still dark?