@merthurmicrofic prompt Exile (364 words)
Canon era | angst | magic reveal AU
Fear? No. That was not what he felt now.
Shock? No. He had known already. Had always suspected, but had preferred to turn a blind eye.
Hatred? Of course not. Where would it have come from? They had lived through too much together. Suffered too much.
Then what was it that he felt?
Sorrow? Grief?
Despair.
He was the king. Camelot’s sovereign ruler.
He was a man with his back to the wall, trapped by his father’s short-sightedness and cruelty.
How? How was he supposed to find a way through this without being branded an ungrateful heir, a clumsy youth with no respect for the laws of his own land? Without making himself look a coward? Arthur did not know.
But he knew with absolute certainty that he would sooner cut down any man where he stood for calling for Merlin’s execution than condemn Merlin to death himself.
That course was impossible. Simply unimaginable.
But what was he to do? He could not merely pretend nothing had happened. The witnesses — this time there had been too many…
Which was worse: to betray the one he loved, or those he had sworn to serve? The one to whom he owed his life, or those who had entrusted him with theirs? Damn it.