Canon AU -- Merlin's death is only the beginning; with no-one to protect the kingdom, Camelot falls to an enemy sorcerer and Arthur is forced to serve in the court that he once ruled. When an escape attempt goes horribly wrong, Arthur is rescued by someone he never expected to see again -- and it's their destiny to put things right.

Arthur stares at him. It's not the incredulous stare or the how-are-you-so-stupid stare or the Merlin,-sometimes-you-are-wise-and-it-unnerves-me stare.

It might, possibly, be the speak-quickly-or-I-will-kill-you stare.

The king has been ever more obsessed since Merlin. Searching through the surrounding villages, posting guards at the castle gates to check anyone who enters. The executioner has been kept busy these last few months.

He wasn’t supposed to find out like this. He wasn’t supposed to find out at all. But, Merlin thought desperately as his hands strained to hold together the seams of magic, if there was a way for him to find out, there was no better way.

Closing his eyes, Merlin sucked in a breath. "Kill me, Arthur," he said.

Or, How in his tenth year of rule King Arthur chose a man to take the role of Court's Magician, and how Arthur made his decision.

"Like I was really eager to go in the first place." He half-laughs. "But I can't anyway. Destiny, and all that."

Fear is the resting place between relief and momentum. Merlin is fine. There is no poison. Merlin is falling. The cup was poisoned after all. Arthur has to get to Merlin; Arthur has to get Merlin somewhere safe; Arthur has to do something.

Five ways the secret isn't revealed.

Arthur thanked providence, or whatever looked out for fools and the princes that cared for them, that his father hadn’t sent anyone to check Merlin’s room for magical items. Yet.

She isn’t exaggerating when she says that there have been rumors about her and Arthur since she was a child, but none of them have ever been true before.

Five times Uther knew Merlin was using magic and chose to ignore it.

"Twelve sorcerors," he said. "All of them—" and the black smoke suddenly dived back into his throat and he stiffened, mouth and eyes frozen into rictus, and died.

"How long do you think it will be, before Uther learns the truth and both your lives are forfeit? Come with me and he will keep his life. By all the ancient gods I swear it."

From the lowest dungeon Merlin imagines he can hear them building the platform, driving iron nails. The ring of the axe being sharpened haunts him like a faint echo, like keen-edged memories. The day rushes past with a sickening lurch. The dark lonely hours before dawn have closed in when he hears the sound of hurrying footsteps. Arthur's hands are slippery with blood, the key stained red. He tosses a small pouch, heavy with coins, that Merlin almost doesn't catch.

Uther knows. He's known since the black knight, when the manservant put up a fight over the sword. Was confirmed when the sword, the sword that was meant for Arthur, killed the black knight, for whom only magic could kill.

"The sorceress has a destiny that must be fulfilled. She shall return. She will be called Nyneve, and she will be given another chance. Are we in agreement?"

Arthur and Morgana are Metropolitan police officers drawn into a strange case involving robbery of ancient artifacts. Merlin is a graduate student at Imperial College studying the healing plants of Ancient Britain under Gaius – or at least that's what he tells everyone. Soon they, along with Gwen, Lancelot and Uther, will be facing a battle for the future of the country. Can they defend the realm from those who would seek to destroy it?

Uther fears his son's power, and Merlin has helped Arthur flee to escape imprisonment. Now the two of them must fight to regain Arthur's rightful place in Camelot.

A Merlin-Supernatural Fusion. After a bitter parting and four years of silence, Merlin is contacted by Arthur to help find Uther, who has disappeared on the trail of Nimueh. Merlin is drawn back into the hunt, criss-crossing Britain in a vintage Jag with Arthur at his side, tracking ghosts, spirits, fantastic beasts, and Nimueh, the being responsible for the deaths of Ygraine and Hunith, years before. As well as the hunt, they must deal with their own relationship, and Merlin's special gifts that have begun to re-emerge.

"No! Arthur. You're straight, all right? You're completely and entirely straight. Because if you're anything else, if you're gay or bi or even curious or what the fuck ever, Arthur, you will ruin my entire fucking life."

Arthur in Ealdor was like a tame lion at the dinner table: you weren't necessarily worried you were going to get torn to pieces, but it was still dangerous, decidedly out of place, and made the neighbors nervous.

He leans his forehead against the trunk of the tree and breathes slowly until Hallow flies down and calls for him to 'hurry, have courage.' It has taken three months and a lifetime to get here after being summoned from so far away, and his courage is hanging by a thread.