nyxelestia (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
nyxelestia) wrote2010-11-05 05:30 am
nyxelestia) wrote2010-11-05 05:30 am
Journey Through A Broken Soul - Chapter 03
Title: Journey Through a Broken Soul
Summary: It has been months since Arthur's capture and disappearance, and Merlin has spent that time looking for him - and finally found. What he found, though, was a broken prince.
Rating: R (may bump up to NC-17 later on, depending on where the storytakes me goes)
Word Count: 1900
Pairings/Character: Arthur/Merlin, Lancelot
Warnings/Content: Violence, (past) non-con, mental trauma, mentions of slavery
Beta: none
Notes: Epically late Episode 308 Review is epically late :( so I give you fic to make up for it! :D
1.) Yes, I intend for this to be epic road trip fic. Medieval epic road trip fic. :P
2.) Eire is the Irish word for Ireland today, and in the past was the single name for Ireland, like Albion was for Britain.
3.) I am also using this map of Eire/Ireland from c. 800, seeing as BBC is already using c. 800 political boundaries for their Arthurian geography, anyway. While Albion would already be heavily under Germanic and Roman influence by now, including the prevalence of the New Religion, these influences are only just seeping into Ireland, which is still under Celtic and Old Religion influences. Look at me and all my geeking out. And maps! I love maps! :D
4.) I'll try to stick to accurate history as much as possible. That said, this is legend, and BBC is already screwing up the timelines, anyway, so I'mna just fudge things up a bit. Mostly, it'll be right events, but wrong time. Hey, if BBC can do it, so can I. :P
~*~
Master Post
<< Previous Chapter
The next morning, Arthur kept his head down, refusing to look at either of them head on. For now, Merlin and Lancelot let him have this retreat without fuss.
Arthur mounted the horse, wincing, his ribs still tender, and rested his arm close to his body.
Otherwise, he seemed...determined, at least. Though the chainmail turned out to be too heavy for his fractured ribs to handle, right now, he stubbornly insisted on wearing the sword as he rode, even though he wouldn't be able to use it if the situation arose like that. Lancelot had given Merlin a curious look as he helped Arthur belt the sword around his waist, but he then looked at Arthur's expression and nodded. He understood.
Good, because Merlin didn't.
They made it to a southern port of Fara, and found the smallest vessel there, and found there was still room for the three of them.
"I ain't to be mindin' takin' you to Albion," the ship's captain said. "But not till tomorrow, or the day after. Word says a storm's comin' in."
Lancelot gave Merlin a look, and Arthur mirrored it, though in a rather confused and speculative manner.
"If I can clear the weather, will you take us?" Merlin asked.
"And with our horses free?" Lancelot added. Merlin gave him an almost alarmed glance, but Lancelot was focused on the captain. Well, he did have more bartering experience...
The captain laughed. "Clear the weather?"
"I'm a sorcerer," Merlin said simply. Arthur seemed to choke at that. He was still trying to get over the 'Merlin had magic' thing.
The captain eyed him warily. "I don't know much n'bout magic, but messing with nature...I think tha's powerful stuff, innit?"
He didn't seem to believe Merlin could do it.
Merlin nodded. "It takes powerful magic. I'm a powerful sorcerer."
The man laughed, eying Merlin derisively. "You?"
"Me," Merlin said. "Well?"
The man laughed, pointing towards the low, dark clouds.
"You can clear this up, you and your horses can come for free!" the man said, laughing.
Less than an hour later later, he stared dumbfounded as Merlin, Lancelot, and Arthur led the two horses up the plank and onto the ship in the light of the bright, glimmering sun.
~*~
Within a few hours of boarding the ship, Arthur and Lancelot amused and worried themselves as they stood on either side of Merlin as he was bent over the rails, puking up his lunch into the ocean.
"Flying is easier!" Merlin declared after he put a spell on himself to settle his stomach, which didn't appear to help as much as Merlin wanted it to.
"Can you fly?" Arthur asked.
He wisely didn't comment when Merlin's place at the rail was taken by a sea gull glaring at him.
Lancelot laughed, looking at the gull as Merlin spread his wings and took off. The captain and a few other passengers nearby gaped as Merlin flew overhead amongst the sails.
Arthur laughed as he watched Merlin move. It wasn't exactl graceful, but Merlin still looked smooth and in control as he flew, before he landed and became human again. Arthur smiled.
He didn't care what his heart told him - he resolutely was not envious of the happy and carefree expression on Merlin's face.
~*~
"So," Lancelot said as the crouched over one of their maps after dinner on the ship (and after Merlin had vomited again and ate some bread to settle his stomach). "We're landing in Fortriu, in Thurso. North Fortriu is going to be fine to travel - we can go southeast to Wick and hug the coast from there. It's the Picts territory I'm worried about."
Arthur frowned. "Before I was kidnapped, I knew there was some tension between the Norther and Southern Picts..."
"The tensions's become conflict," Merlin said. "By the time we get there, it will be broken skirmishes at best, and probably outright war."
Arthur bent over the map between Merlin and Lancelot. "Perhaps when we reach Strathpeffer, we can cut to Applecross, sail all around Dal Riata, straight into Strathclyde?"
Merlin looked ill at the thought.
"That would work, but it would take far too long," Lancelot said. "By boat, through all the isles? We'd be stopping all the time going through, or even around. And besides, all the boats in that area go to Eire, first."
"How about riding through Dal Riata?" Merlin asked.
"The isles would slow us down on that front, and the inland parts are due for Pict invasion," Arthur murmured. "If the Picts are on a warpath, that's where they will go - lots of trading and supplies there."
"The Picts are already there," Lancelot said. "And, it's going to be conflict the whole way down - when Uther sent soldiers into Northumbria to search for you, Cendred used it as an excuse to break the peace talks. There isn't war, yet..."
"...but my presence could start one," Arthur finished. "So Pict territory would be walking straight into a near war zone...there has to be some safer places there, people live there!"
"And those people are dying there," Merlin said. "It's too risky - the death toll rises every day this war goes on, and not much of it is just soldiers."
Arthur swallowed grimly, shining eyes fixed on the Pict territory in the map. "Those are innocent people..."
Merlin sighed, resting a gentle hand on Arthur's forearm. "We know. If we thought it would do any good to barge in there and help people, we would." Merlin wouldn't, he wouldn't allow it, not with the way Arthur was right now. "But the war is too widespread, there are no centers or headquarters for the armies, barely any political entities...for once, this isn't just kings versus kings, but people versus people...and those wars are a lot harder to stop single handedly."
Arthur bit his lip, but nodded, shutting his eyes with a slightly pained look as he leaned into Merlin's shoulder, unhappy with his inability to help.
"So," Lancelot said. "Pict territory - no. We need to aim for Strathclyde - the Picts are ignoring it, it's safe from Cendred's influence..." He paused, then sighed. "We would still have to go through Northumbria...well, Cendred isn't being too thorough - if we stick to the coast...not as risky, no where near it. But I'm not seeing a way around it, otherwise."
"Well, it's just Arthur's identification we need to worry about, so maybe a disguise-"
"I do."
Merlin and Lancelot's heads snapped up to face Arthur, who pushed himself off Merlin to lean against the table with the map, swaying dangerously with the rocking motion of the boat. "I see a way around all this."
They gave him an expectant look. "Eire."
"...you mean, travel through Eire?" Lancelot asked.
"Yes," Arthur said.
"I...I don't know much of their politics, or wars," Lancelot muttered.
"We don't have to decide immediately," Merlin said. "We're going to have to get to the lower borders of North Fortriu either way, and probably across the southern edge to Applecross - we can find some more maps and information there and figure it out as we go along.
"Right, so," Lancelot said. "Land at Thurso, southeast to Wick, keep going south along the coast until Strathpeffer, then west to Applecross."
With that decided, they quickly rolled and folded up the maps and packed them away before anyone else saw them and tried to steal them.
~*~
Arthur was speculative, later that evening, as he looked into the satchel of parchments and vellums in Merlin's bag.
"What is all this?" he asked. "All maps?"
"Maps, charts, notes, things like that," Merlin said. "Trying to find one person among slavers' crop is tricky business, especially so during wartime. On the bright side, lots of notes on medicine and magic, too, along with happenings across the land - information is an useful commodity, nowadays."
"But how could you afford all this?!" Arthur asked.
"...I didn't," Merlin said. "I can copy things magically, anything - that's how I made that false seal for Lancelot. I just get the blank papers or whatever, put the original next to it...I don't even have to read it to copy it."
Arthur's eyes widened as he looked through everything Merlin had. "This is...Merlin, if you were to utilize this, you could make a small fortune."
Merlin shrugged. "I've done that every now and then for money, when I had to. But I was too focused on finding you to care much about all this."
Arthur looked around - they were beneath the deck, and their little corner was curtained off like everyone else's. Lancelot was in his hammock, their things all piled into the one below his. Arthur was in his, and Merlin was in the one below him.
Climbing down to sit by Merlin, Arthur spilled out the contents of the bag across their laps, unrolling and unfolding everything. There were maps of every kingdom in Albion, often more than one, and charts dictating various trade and tax routes, and crop and artisan rotations, and political situations, maps detailing fiefs, cities, and land marks, and notes and notes on slavers' paths and names of different towns and inns with trading posts or good inns or food that Merlin has come across, and rolls of parchments with medicine and spells and news and directions and astrology and cartography and magic and...and...
"You did all this to find me?" Arthur asked, looking at the wealth of information. Some people might spend years, decades, getting information like this. Merlin has managed it in barely six months. "Me?"
Merlin's heart wrenched at the broken sound of Arthur's voice. "Of course I did!" He reached over and tilted Arthur's head to face him. The confusion in his eyes was twisted something deep inside Merlin's chest, and made him wrap his arms around Arthur and pull him close in a tight hug he just couldn't help. Arthur pressed his forehead against Merlin's neck as Merlin cradled Arthur's head with his hand. "I would have spent my life searching for you if that's what it took. I wasn't going to leave you with them."
"Thank you," Arthur said in an unsteady voice. "I...I thought I was going to die in there...I even-"
Arthur cut himself off with a choked sound, and Merlin soothingly rubbed his hand up and down Arthur's back.
"I will never leave your side, not if I have anything to say about it," Merlin said. Arthur nodded, and Merlin hoped he believed it, sincerely. "Like I said, you're stuck with me."
"...I suppose if you haven't left by now, nothing will," Arthur mumbled into the skin of Merlin's shoulder.
Pressing his lips against Arthur's forehead, Merlin said, "Exactly."
Merlin had to spell the bag and all the maps into the hammock above him and Arthur. He didn't know how long they stayed like that, but it was well into the night, that much he knew. Arthur started drifting off, and slowly lay down in the hammock, pulling Merlin with him.
He wanted to ask if Arthur was truly all right with this, but Arthur looked about ready to shatter, and Merlin wasn't so sure what asking him would do. Instead, he pulled Arthur close with promises to guard his sleep, and Arthur, satisfied with Merlin's word, finally drifted off, head pillowed on Merlin's shoulder and eyes fluttering shut on his vision of Merlin's face.
~*~
Next Chapter >>
Master Post
Summary: It has been months since Arthur's capture and disappearance, and Merlin has spent that time looking for him - and finally found. What he found, though, was a broken prince.
Rating: R (may bump up to NC-17 later on, depending on where the story
Word Count: 1900
Pairings/Character: Arthur/Merlin, Lancelot
Warnings/Content: Violence, (past) non-con, mental trauma, mentions of slavery
Beta: none
Notes: Epically late Episode 308 Review is epically late :( so I give you fic to make up for it! :D
1.) Yes, I intend for this to be epic road trip fic. Medieval epic road trip fic. :P
2.) Eire is the Irish word for Ireland today, and in the past was the single name for Ireland, like Albion was for Britain.
3.) I am also using this map of Eire/Ireland from c. 800, seeing as BBC is already using c. 800 political boundaries for their Arthurian geography, anyway. While Albion would already be heavily under Germanic and Roman influence by now, including the prevalence of the New Religion, these influences are only just seeping into Ireland, which is still under Celtic and Old Religion influences. Look at me and all my geeking out. And maps! I love maps! :D
4.) I'll try to stick to accurate history as much as possible. That said, this is legend, and BBC is already screwing up the timelines, anyway, so I'mna just fudge things up a bit. Mostly, it'll be right events, but wrong time. Hey, if BBC can do it, so can I. :P
The next morning, Arthur kept his head down, refusing to look at either of them head on. For now, Merlin and Lancelot let him have this retreat without fuss.
Arthur mounted the horse, wincing, his ribs still tender, and rested his arm close to his body.
Otherwise, he seemed...determined, at least. Though the chainmail turned out to be too heavy for his fractured ribs to handle, right now, he stubbornly insisted on wearing the sword as he rode, even though he wouldn't be able to use it if the situation arose like that. Lancelot had given Merlin a curious look as he helped Arthur belt the sword around his waist, but he then looked at Arthur's expression and nodded. He understood.
Good, because Merlin didn't.
They made it to a southern port of Fara, and found the smallest vessel there, and found there was still room for the three of them.
"I ain't to be mindin' takin' you to Albion," the ship's captain said. "But not till tomorrow, or the day after. Word says a storm's comin' in."
Lancelot gave Merlin a look, and Arthur mirrored it, though in a rather confused and speculative manner.
"If I can clear the weather, will you take us?" Merlin asked.
"And with our horses free?" Lancelot added. Merlin gave him an almost alarmed glance, but Lancelot was focused on the captain. Well, he did have more bartering experience...
The captain laughed. "Clear the weather?"
"I'm a sorcerer," Merlin said simply. Arthur seemed to choke at that. He was still trying to get over the 'Merlin had magic' thing.
The captain eyed him warily. "I don't know much n'bout magic, but messing with nature...I think tha's powerful stuff, innit?"
He didn't seem to believe Merlin could do it.
Merlin nodded. "It takes powerful magic. I'm a powerful sorcerer."
The man laughed, eying Merlin derisively. "You?"
"Me," Merlin said. "Well?"
The man laughed, pointing towards the low, dark clouds.
"You can clear this up, you and your horses can come for free!" the man said, laughing.
Less than an hour later later, he stared dumbfounded as Merlin, Lancelot, and Arthur led the two horses up the plank and onto the ship in the light of the bright, glimmering sun.
Within a few hours of boarding the ship, Arthur and Lancelot amused and worried themselves as they stood on either side of Merlin as he was bent over the rails, puking up his lunch into the ocean.
"Flying is easier!" Merlin declared after he put a spell on himself to settle his stomach, which didn't appear to help as much as Merlin wanted it to.
"Can you fly?" Arthur asked.
He wisely didn't comment when Merlin's place at the rail was taken by a sea gull glaring at him.
Lancelot laughed, looking at the gull as Merlin spread his wings and took off. The captain and a few other passengers nearby gaped as Merlin flew overhead amongst the sails.
Arthur laughed as he watched Merlin move. It wasn't exactl graceful, but Merlin still looked smooth and in control as he flew, before he landed and became human again. Arthur smiled.
He didn't care what his heart told him - he resolutely was not envious of the happy and carefree expression on Merlin's face.
"So," Lancelot said as the crouched over one of their maps after dinner on the ship (and after Merlin had vomited again and ate some bread to settle his stomach). "We're landing in Fortriu, in Thurso. North Fortriu is going to be fine to travel - we can go southeast to Wick and hug the coast from there. It's the Picts territory I'm worried about."
Arthur frowned. "Before I was kidnapped, I knew there was some tension between the Norther and Southern Picts..."
"The tensions's become conflict," Merlin said. "By the time we get there, it will be broken skirmishes at best, and probably outright war."
Arthur bent over the map between Merlin and Lancelot. "Perhaps when we reach Strathpeffer, we can cut to Applecross, sail all around Dal Riata, straight into Strathclyde?"
Merlin looked ill at the thought.
"That would work, but it would take far too long," Lancelot said. "By boat, through all the isles? We'd be stopping all the time going through, or even around. And besides, all the boats in that area go to Eire, first."
"How about riding through Dal Riata?" Merlin asked.
"The isles would slow us down on that front, and the inland parts are due for Pict invasion," Arthur murmured. "If the Picts are on a warpath, that's where they will go - lots of trading and supplies there."
"The Picts are already there," Lancelot said. "And, it's going to be conflict the whole way down - when Uther sent soldiers into Northumbria to search for you, Cendred used it as an excuse to break the peace talks. There isn't war, yet..."
"...but my presence could start one," Arthur finished. "So Pict territory would be walking straight into a near war zone...there has to be some safer places there, people live there!"
"And those people are dying there," Merlin said. "It's too risky - the death toll rises every day this war goes on, and not much of it is just soldiers."
Arthur swallowed grimly, shining eyes fixed on the Pict territory in the map. "Those are innocent people..."
Merlin sighed, resting a gentle hand on Arthur's forearm. "We know. If we thought it would do any good to barge in there and help people, we would." Merlin wouldn't, he wouldn't allow it, not with the way Arthur was right now. "But the war is too widespread, there are no centers or headquarters for the armies, barely any political entities...for once, this isn't just kings versus kings, but people versus people...and those wars are a lot harder to stop single handedly."
Arthur bit his lip, but nodded, shutting his eyes with a slightly pained look as he leaned into Merlin's shoulder, unhappy with his inability to help.
"So," Lancelot said. "Pict territory - no. We need to aim for Strathclyde - the Picts are ignoring it, it's safe from Cendred's influence..." He paused, then sighed. "We would still have to go through Northumbria...well, Cendred isn't being too thorough - if we stick to the coast...not as risky, no where near it. But I'm not seeing a way around it, otherwise."
"Well, it's just Arthur's identification we need to worry about, so maybe a disguise-"
"I do."
Merlin and Lancelot's heads snapped up to face Arthur, who pushed himself off Merlin to lean against the table with the map, swaying dangerously with the rocking motion of the boat. "I see a way around all this."
They gave him an expectant look. "Eire."
"...you mean, travel through Eire?" Lancelot asked.
"Yes," Arthur said.
"I...I don't know much of their politics, or wars," Lancelot muttered.
"We don't have to decide immediately," Merlin said. "We're going to have to get to the lower borders of North Fortriu either way, and probably across the southern edge to Applecross - we can find some more maps and information there and figure it out as we go along.
"Right, so," Lancelot said. "Land at Thurso, southeast to Wick, keep going south along the coast until Strathpeffer, then west to Applecross."
With that decided, they quickly rolled and folded up the maps and packed them away before anyone else saw them and tried to steal them.
Arthur was speculative, later that evening, as he looked into the satchel of parchments and vellums in Merlin's bag.
"What is all this?" he asked. "All maps?"
"Maps, charts, notes, things like that," Merlin said. "Trying to find one person among slavers' crop is tricky business, especially so during wartime. On the bright side, lots of notes on medicine and magic, too, along with happenings across the land - information is an useful commodity, nowadays."
"But how could you afford all this?!" Arthur asked.
"...I didn't," Merlin said. "I can copy things magically, anything - that's how I made that false seal for Lancelot. I just get the blank papers or whatever, put the original next to it...I don't even have to read it to copy it."
Arthur's eyes widened as he looked through everything Merlin had. "This is...Merlin, if you were to utilize this, you could make a small fortune."
Merlin shrugged. "I've done that every now and then for money, when I had to. But I was too focused on finding you to care much about all this."
Arthur looked around - they were beneath the deck, and their little corner was curtained off like everyone else's. Lancelot was in his hammock, their things all piled into the one below his. Arthur was in his, and Merlin was in the one below him.
Climbing down to sit by Merlin, Arthur spilled out the contents of the bag across their laps, unrolling and unfolding everything. There were maps of every kingdom in Albion, often more than one, and charts dictating various trade and tax routes, and crop and artisan rotations, and political situations, maps detailing fiefs, cities, and land marks, and notes and notes on slavers' paths and names of different towns and inns with trading posts or good inns or food that Merlin has come across, and rolls of parchments with medicine and spells and news and directions and astrology and cartography and magic and...and...
"You did all this to find me?" Arthur asked, looking at the wealth of information. Some people might spend years, decades, getting information like this. Merlin has managed it in barely six months. "Me?"
Merlin's heart wrenched at the broken sound of Arthur's voice. "Of course I did!" He reached over and tilted Arthur's head to face him. The confusion in his eyes was twisted something deep inside Merlin's chest, and made him wrap his arms around Arthur and pull him close in a tight hug he just couldn't help. Arthur pressed his forehead against Merlin's neck as Merlin cradled Arthur's head with his hand. "I would have spent my life searching for you if that's what it took. I wasn't going to leave you with them."
"Thank you," Arthur said in an unsteady voice. "I...I thought I was going to die in there...I even-"
Arthur cut himself off with a choked sound, and Merlin soothingly rubbed his hand up and down Arthur's back.
"I will never leave your side, not if I have anything to say about it," Merlin said. Arthur nodded, and Merlin hoped he believed it, sincerely. "Like I said, you're stuck with me."
"...I suppose if you haven't left by now, nothing will," Arthur mumbled into the skin of Merlin's shoulder.
Pressing his lips against Arthur's forehead, Merlin said, "Exactly."
Merlin had to spell the bag and all the maps into the hammock above him and Arthur. He didn't know how long they stayed like that, but it was well into the night, that much he knew. Arthur started drifting off, and slowly lay down in the hammock, pulling Merlin with him.
He wanted to ask if Arthur was truly all right with this, but Arthur looked about ready to shatter, and Merlin wasn't so sure what asking him would do. Instead, he pulled Arthur close with promises to guard his sleep, and Arthur, satisfied with Merlin's word, finally drifted off, head pillowed on Merlin's shoulder and eyes fluttering shut on his vision of Merlin's face.
Master Post