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Despite the generally terrible standard of guards and knights alike in Camelot, Sir Leon had always been able to count himself as an expert and accomplished guardian of the kingdom. But even the greatest fighter could fall prey to magic (especially when they know nothing about it).
Not that Leon was going to blame Uther for this situation- that would, of course, be treason. No, the people to blame for the situation were very definitely the Druids who had attacked him. And kidnapped him. And- tied him to an altar?
Strange. He'd expected them to kill him. Or maybe torture him for information, seeing as they were sworn enemies. Instead, they were all stood around him in a circle, chanting.
Finally, one stepped forward, his green robes more intricately decorated than his accomplices. "For too long, our people have suffered!" he cried, "Today, we will sacrifice Camelot's First Knight in order to help Emrys on his quest to bring about the Golden Age!"
He lifted his arms in the air as he finished his proclamation, and a resounding cheer went up from the rest of the group.
Leon had never heard of Emrys before, but he seemed to be some kind of god. Did gods really exist? He hoped not, but with the existence of dragons, unicorns, griffins, and all other manner of unlikely creatures, he couldn't rule it out entirely.
Although, now might be a good time to start praying. The Druid leader had drawn a knife from the folds of his robes, and was starting to make his way over to Leon. Ah, so he had been right- they were going kill and/or torture him. Somehow that didn't make him feel a whole lot better. He'd rather be embarrassingly wrong if it meant he would stay alive and well.
Leon started to shake as the Druid reached his side. This wasn't the first time he had been faced with certain death, but it was the first time he had been entirely helpless. A sword may have been useless against the Great Dragon, but at least he was doing something. The rope tying him to the altar kept stuck in place with nothing to do but look his killer straight in the eyes as he raised the knife. A strip of material across his mouth meant he couldn't even plead for his life.
This isn't how he wanted to die. Leon wanted his death to mean something, to die for his kingdom. To die protecting people. Apparently he couldn't even protect himself, though.
He closed his eyes as the Druid brought the knife down on him. The was a brief burst of immense pain, and then... nothing.
* * *
Leon gasped for air as he rushed back to awareness. A round of gasps and shrieks echoed from all around him. He lurched up from where he lay on an uncomfortable surface and squinted into the gloomy surroundings; the sun had now completely set.
Once his eyes adjusted to the light, he could more easily make out the robed Druids backing away from him. From what he could see of their faces in the weak torchlight, all of them had wide eyes and open mouths. Many of them were whispering rapidly to each other.
Leon wondered why they were looking at him with such horror. Glancing down at himself, he saw a dark stain on his otherwise pale tunic. He ran his fingers across the damp material. Holding his hand up to the moonlight, crimson blood glistened back at him. Now it was Leon's turn to gasp.
He scrabbled desperately at his chest, eventually pulling the tunic down, but he couldn't feel or see any wound. Leon now remembered how he had got here. The Druids had kidnapped him, tied him to an altar, and then performed some kind of magic ritual to their god... Emill? Ellis? Oh, Emrys, that was it.
Then they'd stabbed him, but he couldn't find a wound! It had definitely happened. He remembered the sickening squelch and the pain.
A Druid startled him out of his inspection by falling to his knees and wailing, "What have we done?!"
The leader from before looked up at the sky and proclaimed, "Lord Emrys has spoken. He does not want this man dead." Then he, too, fell to his knees. The rest of the circle followed suit. Many of them began praying.
Leon clambered off the altar, wanting to get in a more defensible position. Although what he could do against magic, he had no idea.
"My Lord," the leader said. Leon looked up to find the Druid looking directly at him. "We offer our humblest apologies. We did not see that you were also a follower of our god. Truly, you are a greater servant than we."
For a moment, Leon just gaped at him. But then he shook himself into action. The Druids may be deferring to him for now, but who knows how long it would last? He had to take advantage of it, and fast.
He pulled himself up straight, ripping the remaining ropes from his wrists, "Lord Emrys sent me to test you," he projected in the commanding tone he reserved for the most unruly trainees. "It seems you have failed."
The Druids before him quailed. The leader lowered himself further to the ground, and he voice shook as he talked, "Yes Lord. How would his divineness see us punished?"
Leon sincerely hoped this Emrys didn't actually exist, since he was most likely on a one way track to divine punishment. Obviously, a magic god hadn't actually saved him. Which did beg the question of exactly how he had survived. But that was an investigation better left to a time when he wasn't once again in mortal danger. After all, who knew if he'd wake up a second time?
He took a deep breath, and willed his voice to remained strong, "You will leave, and not return until you have proven yourself able to properly serve Emrys."
"How do we prove ourselves?" another Druid asked.
Leon fixed him with an angry stare, "If you were truly worthy, you would already know. Now leave!"
Some of the Druids looked like they wanted to ask more questions. However, they all followed their leader as he bowed deeply and then backed away into the forest. Some of them made rather more hasty retreats, as if they thought Leon would bring a curse upon their entire family if they spent another moment in his presence. Not an unreasonable reaction, considering Leon was worried they might do the same to him as soon as this terror wore off.
Once all of the Druids had disappeared into the forest, Leon turned and began a poised, but hasty, walk in the other direction. Best not to blow his cover. Once he was far enough away, the knight beat a rather undignified retreat. It was the mark of a great soldier who knows when to fight and when to run. Or so he told himself. And no one would ever know enough about this incident to contradict him.
After the third time he tripped over a branch (this time almost faceplanting the floor) he decided that he was far enough away to slow down. Looking around for the first time, he realised he had no idea where he was.
He leant against a tree to catch his breath. The day had been exhausting even before the kidnapping: meeting after training after meeting. Now the adrenaline rush of the last half an hour had worn off, leaving him shaky and exhausted.
Leon sat down with his back to the tree. There was no point continuing on in this state, especially since he might just be getting farther away from the castle. Hopefully, dawn was not too far away, and then he would be able to see enough to get his bearings.
With nothing else to do, Leon's mind went back to his death- because there was no denying that he had died. Once he let himself think about it, this wasn't the first time. He'd inexplicably been the only member of his troop to survive the Great Dragon. He'd woken alone on the battlefield that time, since he'd been presumed dead. Mere months ago, some other Druids had used the Cup of Life to save him. That one he could attribute to magic, although now that he thought about it, it was strange that he was the only one still alive to receive the treatment. What if the Cup hadn't saved him at all?
Leon stopped his train of thought right there. This all sounded a little too close to sorcery for his liking. He was the First Knight of Camelot- he couldn't be committing such treasonous acts. Even if said act was apparently just living.
So many other sorcerers had seemingly been killed just for living too. Leon didn't necessarily agree with Uther's actions, but surely the king knew enough about magic to know what he was doing? He had to know more than Leon did. And wait- did he just think 'other sorcerers'? Time to stop that train of thought.
Resigning himself to his fate as an unwilling traitor to the crown, Leon told himself firmly that he would not be corrupted, he would not become like those Druids he just met. As long as he didn't die again, he wouldn't have to break the law anymore. Simple. He resolved not to think about it any longer, since a possible angered god was enough worry hanging over his head.
* * *
Some hours later, Leon woke from an unrestful doze to see the first rays of sunlight piercing the trees. Taking a look at his now visible surroundings, he discerned that he, fortunately, was on a commonly used hunting path.
Leon breathed a sigh of relief. He was quite close to the castle, just as he'd hoped. Sensibly, the Druids had run towards Essetir.
Not half an hour later, Leon reached the outer wall to discover two guards sleeping at their posts. He sighed. No wonder a gaggle of knight-stealing magicians held been able to make it so far into the citadel. Was their security really this lacklustre? He'd need to fix that later, but right now it served his purpose. He didn't want to explain to anyone why he was half dressed, covered in blood, and walking around alone in the woods at night.
Fortunately, it was still early enough for everyone to still be asleep. Servants in the castle would likely already be up and getting everything ready for their masters. The lower town, however, remained peaceful.
The barracks were, luckily, not in the castle proper, and Leon successfully snuck back to his quarters unnoticed.
Morning bell was probably not far off, so he wouldn't have any time to sleep, or even take a bath. He resigned himself to stripping off, throwing his clothes haphazardly in the corner- they were a lost cause anyway. Then he picked up a cloth and dipped it in a half empty water bucket. Leon scrubbed viciously at the blood staining his body, to little avail.
He cursed as a bell went off signalling the next shift- his shift- of knights to rise. With practiced ease, he strapped on his armour. Then, he splashed the remaining cold water in his face to try and keep himself awake. He'd have to keep moving during training to not slip off. Luckily, there were no meetings today. Those were liable to put him to sleep even on the average day.
As long as no one worked out he'd become some apparently high ranking member of a magic religion, he should be fine. And really, who'd ever come to that conclusion? Gwaine would probably think he'd been having a more fun night, and for once Leon might not protest about that not being his thing.
* * *
A week later, and Leon realised this whole charade would be significantly easier if the Druids that had kidnapped him weren't so good at sneaking into the castle, while being terrible at subtlety once they were there. Why were they talking to him out in the open?
And once again, they really needed to up their security.
Leon knew he should be turning them in- they were sorcerers, and homicidal ones at that. But several of them had made mention of Emrys being in the vicinity, and he really didn't want to risk angering him anymore than he already had.
Leon's futile hope that the Druids would stay away after his declaration were hopelessly crushed after the fourth Druid in as many days. Not because they had seen through his ruse. No, apparently, this was them proving themselves worthy. All of them had seen 'signs', and Leon couldn't help wondering if Emrys was doing this just to torture him.
He wasn't entirely sure what most of the Druids were doing here. None of them seemed to stick around long, to his relief. The one Druid he had caught doing something of note had given a potion to a sickly child. While Leon's first instinct was to jump in and arrest the Druid, Emrys be damned, the child immediately started improving. Really, Leon thought to himself, the potion might not even have been magic. In fact, it looked just like something Gaius would make.
Later on, the same Druid confessed that Leon's resurrection had inspired him to once again take up healing. He claimed saving lives was more fulfilling than taking them. Leon couldn't really argue with that. Besides, there was no way he could sentence the boy- and he really was just a boy- to the pyre without somehow becoming a worse person than said Druid. Healing was the way, not killing. And he would allow this Druid to heal from his evil ways, with the added bonus of Leon not ending up burnt to death too, for the Druid would surely turn him in if Leon arrested him. Win, win.
Feeling stupidly pleased with himself for a man committing high treason and fraudulently claiming knowledge of a magic god's will, Leon returned to training. After all, practice was sorely needed.
Hopefully, nothing would go wrong. No one had noticed anything weird about Leon's conversation partners so far. There was no good reason that would change. The only one that had seemingly noticed anything was wrong with Leon was Merlin. He'd tentatively asked if Gwaine was still bothering him about asking out a barmaid he supposedly liked. Neither of them had any clue how Gwaine had come to this conclusion.
Leon wasn't sure it was only that which had Merlin concerned for him. He had convincingly told Merlin it wasn't bothering him so much anymore, but Merlin still stared at him knowingly for a few moments before leaving.
This may or may not have had something to do with meeting Merlin down a little used passageway in the middle of the night a few days ago. It was too dark to see properly, but unless Leon had been much mistaken, there had been blood on Merlin. Leon had pretended not to notice. After all, he hadn't wanted anyone to see him in such a situation. It was only right to extend Merlin the same courtesy.
It worried Leon that Merlin had also had a run in with the Druids. Except, what were the chances of both of them, so very different people, being immortal? It must therefore be something else- something which was none of Leon's business. Neither of them mentioned their concerns to each other, for which Leon was grateful. Whatever Merlin was doing couldn't be as bad as Leon's treason. Merlin was a better man than he, he wasn't ashamed to admit.
* * *
Not a day later, and Leon's decision not to have the Druid arrested prove pointless. The boy- Hagel apparently, had been arrested for unleashing a magical plague of frogs in Lord Yamish's chambers. Privately, Leon thought he deserved it. Yamish treated his servants horribly. Not that he was stupid enough to say it out loud.
"I mean, he did kind of deserve it," Gwaine pointed out, tipping a goblet of wine in Arthur's direction.
Arthur glared at him, and Percival had to hold back a seething Lord Yamish.
"I'd thank you not to speak treason, Sir Gwaine," Arthur reprimanded him. Although really, he'd sounded more harsh when Gwaine had spilled ale over his new shoes the other week than he did now. Perhaps the Prince was also thinking some treasonous thoughts. It was somewhat comforting for Leon to know he was in good company.
Much to Yamish's dissatisfaction, the meeting turned swiftly to discussing new defensive strategies. Leon could distract himself momentarily from the fate of poor Hagle by presenting his findings on the lapses in their security. After all, Morgana was still out there, they couldn't afford to have guards sleeping on the job, or people wandering around covered in blood without being stopped, or Druids popping up from every corner. Not that he mentioned those last two.
After the meeting adjourned, Leon was accosted by a Druid in a hall heading to his chambers. He waved his friends on past him and pulled the Druid into an alcove. He stepped back when he noticed tears had started falling. Oh no, he wasn't equipped to deal with something like this. And now anyone walking past was going to think he was a terrible person.
Reaching out his hand, he placed it hesitantly on the girl's shoulder, surreptitiously tilting her away from passers-by, while hopefully offering some comfort.
"What's wrong?" he asked softly. Please let it be something you could actually fix. Leon wasn't sure what he'd do otherwise.
The girl sobbed, "You have to rescue my brother. I can't watch him die!"
Leon frowned, "Your bro- oh," he cut himself off. Hagel. "The Prince hasn't conducted his trial yet," he offered.
This only made the girl sob louder. Fortunately, a quick glance around showed an empty corridor.
"We all know he'll have him executed," she spoke more viciously now.
The thing was, Leon couldn't say with any certainty what Arthur would choose. He would like to think the Prince wouldn't sentence someone so young to such an awful fate, especially for a relatively harmless crime. In fact, like the potion incident, Leon saw no definitive evidence that magic was even at play here. Unfortunately, as Regent, Arthur was still beholden to his father's laws. He could make small changes, yes, but not overturn one of the most major laws in the kingdom. Magic wasn't just a crime, it was treason.
Leon looked at the terrified girl before him. He thought of the child Hagel had saved. All those surely innocent lives lost in the purge. Of himself, and everything he himself had already done, which in Camelot would warrant his death.
Well, if he was going to commit treason, he might as well commit to it.
"I'll help your brother. But I need you and anyone else who's in the city to leave. There'll be guards everywhere when they realise he's gone," Leon told the Druid.
She hesitated before nodding, "Thank you," then she fled down the corridor. Hopefully, no one would think she was suspicious. The guards were on high alert already, looking for possible accomplices.
It amazed Leon the amount of trust she put in him, a man she barely knew. Clearly, her god meant a great deal to her. Leon couldn't help feeling guilty- her trust was based on a false narrative. One of her own people's making, yes, but one that could put her in danger nonetheless.
Leon drew himself up to his full height. He'd just have to earn that trust be saving Hagel's life.
The problem of how to achieve this objective raced through his mind as he made his way to the dungeons. He passed numerous guards and knights on the way, each enacting his new security plans to perfection. Because of course that would come back to bite him. Being a criminal was exhausting.
Each soldier nodded at him as he walked past but they payed no attention to the castle servants
Which gave him an idea!
* * *
Leon marched back towards the cells later that night. While most people were in bed, there way still a few busy people rushing around trying to complete their many duties. Merlin had already hurried past him three times.
His cloak swished out behind him. Not usual attire for indoors, but it was necessary to hide the clothes, platter, and food hidden behind his back. No one would question it though- nobles were well known for making eccentric sartorial choices.
He slowed down as he approached the dungeon entrance. The candle in his hand hadn't burnt to the correct candlemark yet, and he couldn't afford to be early. Time was everything in this plan.
He slowly reached the dungeon entrance, where he swept past the guards with a nod. They didn't question him; as First Knight, he had every right to be here. He didn't talk to them. Lies fell down with the more information you gave- better to say nothing at all.
Hagel was the only prisoner currently in the dungeons, which was fortunate for Leon's plans. Either crime was currently down, or, more likely, criminals were doing a good job at not getting caught. He'd need to work on Castle security even more. But not until he'd finished committing a crime himself.
"Hagel," he whispered, crouching by his cell.
Hagel looked up at him from where he was crouched in the back corner. His eyes brightened immediately upon seeing Leon, and he launched himself towards the bars of the cell.
"My Lord, you came!" he exclaimed, then fell to his knees and starting reciting prayers of thanks to Emrys.
Meanwhile, Leon unlocked the cage door, before opening it slowly so the squeak of the hinges wouldn't be heard by the guards. He placed the platter on the ground and the food on top: bread, cheese, and apples. A simple but hearty meal. Hagel dug in ravenously.
Once he was done, and all that remained were crumbs and apple cores, Leon passed over the clothes he had bought. He instructed Hagel to change into the plain servant's garb, then lay his own clothes back on the straw to make it seem as if he was still there.
Finally, Hagel finished up. And just in time, too, they needed to get moving with the next part of their plan.
Leon placed one hand of Hagel's shoulder, "Very few people know what you look like. The knights arrested you, not the Castle Guards. The guards have just changed shifts, so the new ones won't know only I came in here. Take the platter, pretend you were just a servant delivering the prisoner food, okay?"
Hagel nodded.
"Good," Leon said, "Follow me, and keep your head down".
Leon locked the cell and then walled back up the steps, out of the dungeon. He tried to look as normal as possible, but inside he was shaking. This was the most dangerous part of the plan. If Hagel was recognised, that was the end for both of them. Surprisingly, Leon felt that dying in service to a magic user was not such a shameful way to go. But he'd still prefer it not to happen at all.
The guards didn't even blink as the two of them exited the dungeons. Nor did the few others they passed in the corridors. Eventually, they made it to the catacombs, and a secret passage only the most high ranking members of the court knew of. No one would find them down here.
The passage led all the way to the forest. Leon breathed a sigh of relief when the narrow rock tunnel opened to wildlife.
"Can you find your way from here?" he asked Hagel.
The Druid nodded, "Lida told me where to meet her if anything ever happened."
Leon could only assume Lida was the sister he had talked to earlier. "I have to get back to the castle before anyone notices I'm gone," he said.
At this, Hagel unexpectedly threw himself at Leon, hugging him tightly.
"Thank you, my Lord. Emrys couldn't have a better High Priest!"
High Priest? Before Leon could ask any questions, Hagel had run off into the trees, immediately disappearing from sight.
Leon sighed. Well, with everything else he'd been doing, he might as well become a High Priest of a Druid god. Emrys hadn't struck him down yet.
In fact, it had kind of a nice ring to it: Sir Leon, High Priest of Emrys. With everything he put up with on a day-to-day basis, he really deserved such a grand title.
Turning back towards the castle, he thought of the witch hunt he'd have to lead soon. One for a boy he'd helped escape. Hopefully, his escape wouldn't be noticed until morning and Leon could get some sleep. But you know what they say, no rest for the treasonous.