#tenley

He hadn't talked to her since they all arrived here, stepping from the time machine once more into the olive grove.

He was among the trees now, the fragrant fruits calming him. Merlin knew Gwaine would love it here. Or would he? It had been so long since he'd seen his old friend, he couldn't remember. He knew he'd definitely love the wine, though.

"I can't promise you anything certain," Arcadia had said to them, in between her hyped-up states. "I can't promise I can save your friends, that I can revive Camelot." She had looked so afraid, so much sadness in her eyes. "But I can promise you I will try. I will do what I can to help you, just as you have helped me."

In the beginning - that is, since they came to him and Arthur in Avalon - they didn't know if they could trust this stranger. Even when she had so seamlessly removed her own sword from the heelstone of the circle by the lake. But when they saw the console room once again, when Arthur and he saw the echoes of memories in that wretched room, when Tenley - a stranger then - gave them that speech, there was no turning back.

That speech hadn't left Merlin's mind since he heard it. It felt all too familiar, yet like something he had only dreamt the outer reaches of.

"Theres something you should know." Tenley had said, looking them in the eyes. "When you travel with Arcadia, the Sundry, whatever you call her, at some point she will tell you to run. in that moment you have two choices. Either heed her words and don't look back, saving everything you are and everything you love, or you stay and stand by her side. 

"And if you do that you will be in for the most dangerous, miraculous, heartbreaking and eye opening adventure you will ever experience. You will become someone else, and learn things. To see the world through the eyes of a child, to love and to trust like you've never done it before and never will again."

There was more he had said. So much more. But the truth of the matter was, she had already told them to run, even before that. But they had stayed. He and Arthur had stayed, and followed her across lands they had never imagined could exist all in the search of something only she knew.

Something she apparently discovered just before they left New York.

"What are you thinking of?" Arthur interrupted the silence, sitting next to him under an olive tree. He nudged him with his shoulder, a curious smile on his face. Oh, how he loved that face.

"I was thinking of that time when I pulled down your royal trousers in that official meeting," he joked.

Arthur looked at him in offence. "How DARE you bring that up again, you cabbagehead!" He grabbed him around the neck and lightly ruffled his hair, the two of them bursting into laughter for a moment. When they settled, the king looked him in the eyes. "Really though. No secrets, remember?"

Merlin nodded sagely, trying to move his hair back into place. "I was thinking about this supposed city that's going to be built." He hesitated, looking at the ground. "I can feel it. Almost like magical construction, rumbling in the earth." Arthur looked off in the direction of the pavilion, eyes narrowing.

The sorcerer knew that expression. "Still hard to trust someone with that much power, sire?" He asked softly.

He clenched his jaw in response, trauma still sewn into the fabric of his soul, even with the magic in his veins. "I trust her, because you do. I just don't understand."