on recent discoveries

[unflinchable]

Merlin has magic and you expect me to just accept the fact he's been lying to me? I don't care even if he has saved me life, he lied to me and is a potential danger.

[even if he doesn't really believe the danger part, it is only Merlin after all]

Comments

[sixthanimorph]

Yeah, sure. You're gonna face everything on your own, huh? Some king you are.

[unflinchable]

If I cannot protect my people I do not deserve to be king.

[sixthanimorph]

You've never played chess, have you?

[unflinchable]

Chess? No.

[sixthanimorph]

You ought to. It's a game about what you do. And the king's the most important piece on the board. The king gets taken, that's game over. But the king's limited. That's why he has to have knights and bishops and pawns. You think you can protect a whole kingdom by yourself? Good luck with that when the other guy's army shows up.

[unflinchable]

I know that having an army is important, I'm not daft, I know they are loyal and wish to protect me, but I wish to protect them as well.

[sixthanimorph]

So protect them. Just don't get mad when they protect you. It's a two-way kinda thing. And, you know something? You're damn lucky to have people who care about whether you live or die enough to protect you. Not everyone's got that.

[unflinchable]

It is their duty to protect me but I think highly of them and don't want them to die. I am a king and I understand that my life is seen as more important, but that does not mean I need to like that. I trust my knights, and Merlin, with my life, and he did not trust me.

[sixthanimorph]

Hello? Do you listen to yourself? Of course he didn't trust you. With all that talk about how magic's evil and dangerous, who could blame him? He's probably afraid of getting burned at the stake for witchcraft or something.

[unflinchable]

But he's not evil or dangerous, I know that and I've told him multiple times. If he thinks that I would harm him as such then we were never friends.

[sixthanimorph]

Or maybe he was just afraid, did you think about that? I don't think you did. Someone like you can't imagine what it's like to be different. You don't know what it's like.

[unflinchable]

Of course I know what it's like to be different, people have always treated me differently because of my position, but I know that is not what you mean.

[sixthanimorph]

No. It's not. I'm talking about being the outsider, being in a room and being the only one out of place. The one the others don't really know, the one carrying around something that'd change everything if they knew. I'm talking about being different in a way that makes other people turn on you - even the ones that are supposed to be your friends. That's the kind of different I'm talking about.

[unflinchable]

Others never bothered to get to know me, they thought they knew me because of my position, very few actually bothered to get to know me, and all of them have betrayed me at one point or another. [Morgana, Gwen, Merlin...] I am different but not an outcast.

I will not turn on him, but I have a right to be upset at being lied at for four years!

[sixthanimorph]

Maybe they were afraid of you. Maybe they just wanted to be in charge. That's the problem with being king, everyone wants your crown.

But from what you've told me, he's been your friend for four years, saved your life, and did it with a power everyone in your kingdom thinks is evil. Be upset if you've gotta be, but I'd have done the same thing if I were him.

... No. Wait. Scratch that. I wouldn't have even stuck around. So he's twice as good a friend as you're giving him credit for.

[unflinchable]

I have faced those who want my crown, I am positive that my knights are loyal.

[Arthur wants ignores the rest, because he doesn't understand why Merlin stuck around, Merlin, who on his first day in Camelot saw someone be beheaded under suspicion of sorcery]

Merlin is an idiot.

[sixthanimorph]

Yeah? Maybe you're right.

[That's what he ought to think. He, who turned on his allies and his enemies both and tried to fight a whole war on his own side. Loyalty only gets you killed for someone else, doesn't it? Maybe. Maybe not.]

But you'd fight to protect him with your life, so maybe you're wrong.

[unflinchable]

[Arthur knows that he's wrong. He knows that the opinion of magic that he has been brought up on is wrong, but it will take a while for him to accept that]

I don't know what to think anymore.

[sixthanimorph]

[It's gonna take David quite a bit longer to come to terms with what he's wrestling with. This Arthur's leagues apart from the one he knew, he can see that, but reaching it's quite a different matter. It'd require him to change pretty much the way he looks at the whole world.]

I don't know what to tell you. I'm not anyone's king or servant. I'm just someone who knows what it's like to be the outsider.

[unflinchable]

If you had a bit secret that could get you killed, but had someone you trusted with your life, would you tell them?

[sixthanimorph]

I don't know. I've never had anyone I trusted with my life. I don't know what that's like.

[unflinchable]

[He's startled but the response is full of honesty] I'm sorry.

[sixthanimorph]

[His eyes harden; sympathy feels like wet spit on his cheek. He'd rather someone hate him than feel sorry for him.] Don't be. I can take care of myself.

[unflinchable]

Did you not just tell me that it is okay to let others protect you? Is it not the same thing?

[sixthanimorph]

No. It's not. You're a king. I'm just a nobody. I'm not even on the board.