#balinore

"NO!" Moira screamed, as Drogar emptied his pistol into the Dark Iron Emperor, finally avenging his clan's suffering from Dagran's plotting. Far from breaking free of the control, Drogar watched, dumbfounded, as she fell to her knees, cradling the un-moving form of Dagran Thaurissan. "Thaurissan was a great and honorable dwarf," she sobbed, "You ruined my life and the life of my unborn child!"

With a sigh, he tenderly and methodically disassembled the pistol piece by piece, giving each component a proper cleaning and oiling. Lorellai had used it extensively in her adventures, and taken fine care of it, but it had been one of his first successes in gun-making, and had accompanied him throughout his adventuring career. He'd made other, more effective and ornate weapons, but this one bore the weight of history. It was important that he be the one to give it a proper deep clean.

"Drogar, reinforcements are coming in, and they've got more of those fire lizards at their back, we have to go!" the mage had yelled, beginning to cast his portal.

Moira had looked at him with hate in her eyes, Thaurissan's blood staining her dress as it pooled beneath him. "Return to Ironforge and tell my father that the heir to the Kingdom of Ironforge will be a Dark Iron dwarf. Whether he approves or not, it shall be."

Piece by piece, he restored the pistol to its functional state, clean and ready to be loaded and used again. It felt heavier in recent years, though he knew nothing had changed physically.

Some weights weren't physical.

The blue light of the teleportation spell surrounded Drogar and his allies as they made good their escape ahead of the howling cries of the dark iron soldiers and their fiery masters. Moira stared daggers at Drogar, helpless to do anything but cradle her beloved husband's corpse. Everyone else was looking elsewhere, but their gazes were fixed on each other as Drogar raised the pistol once more, pointing it at Moira.

Click.

And they were back in Ironforge, mission complete, if not successful. Thaurissan was dead, but Moira had not been rescued. "We're going to need to tell the King what happened, come on everyone," his friends had said, as Drogar lowered the pistol, staring at the empty space where moments ago and miles away he'd seen Moira Thaurissan.

Drogar set the pistol on the table, and sighed. In hindsight, it had been damn lucky the weapon had been empty. Despite his hatred for the dark irons, and the difficulties of the Cataclysm, Moira and her loyalists had not only saved Ironforge, but strengthened his home. The Council of Three Hammers had done well by his people, and their future was bright. He'd done what he was commanded to do. He'd assassinated the ruler of the enemy who warred against them. He'd avenged his uncles, aunts, cousins and more who had died to Dark Iron machinations. And only now, with success and family and everything he'd ever have wanted, was he able to appreciate the cost of what he'd done.

"Th' Butcher of Blackrock. Cannae believe I used t' take pride in it, eh boy?" he asked, gently scratching behind Balinore's ears. The great bear huffed at the disturbance, but leaned into the attention.

A noise from the stairs interrupted his reverie. He turned to see Lorellai coming down the stairs, holding her pack in one hand and looking worried. "Hey Da', do yeh have a minute t' talk?"

Hours later, the sun had risen over icy Dun Morogh, and Lorellai was saying her goodbyes. That minute had turned into hours as they'd learned that Lorellai wasn't the only meddler having the visions, and the decision had been made for those hearing the call to join Dolraan in Dalaran to lend their aid to Khadgar.

"Lass, one last thing," Drogar said, holding his daughter's hand as he drew forth the pistol. "Got it all cleaned up for yeh. May it continue t' keep yeh safe. I love yeh, lass."

Lorellai took the pistol and casually slid it into her her shoulder holster, under her coat. "Thanks Da', we'll both be back before you know it, I'm sure!" she declared, giving her dad a kiss on the nose before hoisting her pack and stepping towards the portal. Moments later, Drogar stood in a smaller crowd that began to break up and return to their work.

And wow, Balinor not being dead just opens up a door of so much opportunity for Merlin. Bc now, now he actually has someone to teach him how to use magic and cast spells and actually heal, bc we all know that Merlin had long since surpassed Gaius. It also gives Merlin another person that he can turn to when it comes to magic related things, so he no longer so isolated and alone and has more than two opinions of what he can and should do.

And omg, Balinor would be pissed about how Gaius and Kilgarrah are having Merlin handle his magic and destiny. He'd make one of those faces of disgusted confusion and just be like, "why are you giving my son such crap advice??? I'm taking over his teaching now so that he can actually learn how to think for himself." Although he would tell Merlin to be more truthful about things. Like Merlin should tell Arthur that Balinor is his dad, and as soon as it seems safe he should tell Arthur about his magic. Bc Balinor knows about Merlin's destiny now, and how does Gaius and Kilgarrah expect Merlin to help magic become accepted if Arthur has no way to humanize it in his mind. But Balinor would be 100% for Merlin telling more people about his magic because heavens knows that Merlin needs to so that he doesn't feel so alone (and Gwen probably become one of the first people that Merlin tells).

Merlin would probably try to ease Arthur into the idea that magic isn't so bad and that hey maybe it's actually good. But he'd probably end up blurting out important details like Balinore is his dad instead of slowly working Arthur up to the idea (because we all know that Merlin sucks at being discreet without being cryptic). Probably because of this Arthur would take notice of all the helpful 'coincidences' and connect the dots that Merlin is a sorcerer far before Merlin works up the nerve to tell him. (Arthur would be more adamant about Merlin learning how to fight with a sword bc his useless manservant is going to get himself stuck on the pyre is kept being so obvious.)

And oh gosh, Balinor would probably be extra pissed about the whole Morgana situation. Like why would they not let Merlin tell Morgana about his magic? Gaius was so adamant about Merlin not feeling like a monster, but he was perfectly willing to let Morgana feel that way??? Like, no that just isn't right. So he tells Merlin he should tell Morgana about his magic and apologize about poisoning her and not telling her sooner once he sees her again. Bc she probably still feels afraid and alone and needs emotional support and reassurance that she isn't a monster and that there's nothing wring with her.

Then when Morgana does come back, Merlin is one of the first to go see her, and he immediately apologizes to her, like without her prompting or anything. He feels awful about the whole poisoning thing, he really does, and he starts to ramble about how he thought he had no choice bc of what the dragon said, but now he knows that he always has a choice and nothing is set in stone (he learned that from Balinor who is still pissed at Kilgarrah). Throughout the explanation Morgana would have been so confused bc unless one knew all the details about what happened, it really wouldn't have made sense. She can tell he is sincere, though, and she doesn't feel quite so bitter at him anymore.

That's when Merlin drops the bomb.

He tells her about his magic and once again begins to apologize profusely for not telling her sooner. And he's basically putting his fate in her hands. She can tell Uther about him if she really wanted to, and without a doubt Uther would listen and sentence Merlin to death. Morgana doesn't know what to think at first bc she feels betrayed that Merlin didn't tell her before, especially when she really needed someone to turn to. Merlin knew and he just sent her to the druids. Morgana asks why Merlin didn't tell her sooner, and he tried to explain the best he can why he didn't without dropping Gaius' name or his destiny. Then he decides screw it, he's going to tell her, and she's a lot more responsive and accepting towards it than he thought she was going to be.

But just. imagine Morgana and Merlin hanging out. Late night magic sessions, sharing gossip, and just enjoying each other's company and the fact they can rely on each other. Oh gosh, I bet they'd also get magic lessons from both Morgause and Balinore. Morgause would teach about the more ritual sided of the Old Religion and using enchanted objects while Balinore would most likely teach about healing spells and spells that only require an incantation.