Uncle Arthur

[Nguyet Edmondson]

Uncle Arthur is a warlock who is Samantha's uncle and Endora's brother. Arthur is famous for playing practical jokes and using his magic to do mischievous things which annoy Darrin, especially when he uses his witchcraft in front of mortals. Like Aunt Clara, Uncle Arthur likes Darrin.

It is unknown how Arthur is related to some of Samantha's other relatives (Hagatha, Enchantra, Grimalda). In the episode "Endora Moves in for a Spell", Endora says she was an only child until Arthur was born. Since witches are immortal and live for thousands of years, it is possible that Samantha's aunts are many degrees removed from her.

Gaius is waiting up and gives Arthur the evil eyebrow when he enters, but doesn't say anything when he sees Marlin is asleep. Arthur takes Marlin to Merlin's room and sets him on the bed. Marlin only partly wakes up, so Arthur takes the boy's shoes off himself. He pulls back the covers, sets Marlin down, and pulls the covers over him. It feels weird to just turn and leave. Arthur hesitates.

He realizes, afterwards, that it's ridiculous. What right does Arthur have to feel proud of Merlin's child, a child who already has a home and a loving parent and soon, probably, a doting new father? But...

Sometimes, Arthur daydreams about having the boy come live in Camelot. Not - not that Arthur wants anything to happen to his mother, because Arthur could never, not even in a daydream, wish that fate on anyone, especially not a child he loves. But Arthur thinks about watching Merlin raise him, thinks about being an uncle or a second father figure to the boy. Thinks about teasing Merlin by offering to train him as a knight, about giving him terribly extravagant gifts at holidays, about teaching him to read and do math, about hugging him and protecting him and giving him everything he could ever want ... it makes Arthur smile, thinking about raising Merlin's child with him, and spoiling the boy rotten.

It isn't particularly that Arthur wants to be a father, in general. He likes children well enough as an abstract idea, and he obviously intends to have an heir someday - and hopefully a larger family. But his longing to keep Marlin is specifically about the boy himself, and his father. It's about the fact that Arthur has a deep, unconditional love for the both of them, and thinking about Marlin leaving feels like he's being punched in the stomach.

The audiences are much more fun with Marlin there, which makes up for the fact that Marlin makes friends with a goat herder girl from outside the city and Arthur has to give her mother extra money because of it.

Arthur tucks Marlin in at bedtime, because Gaius is too scary to cross. He pulls the blankets up over the boy's shoulders and wishes him a good sleep. But Marlin tugs at Arthur's sleeve before the king can leave.

Arthur's heart pangs. How can he tell Marlin his mother is ill, and he cannot see her for a long time, or perhaps forever? Arthur has too much experience with dying mothers to be the one to break that news to the child.

Arthur sits on the edge of Marlin's bed, unable to leave with those eyes trained on him. An exact copy of Merlin's, filled with worry and trust, although a much more childlike and absolute trust than Merlin's in him. Marlin is like a tiny Merlin and Arthur has never wanted to protect anyone this much.

Arthur thinks of hearing Merlin wish to know his own father. For Merlin's sake he wishes they'd known about the boy sooner. Merlin would've treated the boy well, been a great father. Marlin should know, Arthur decides, that his father is brilliant and brave and strangely wise and the best friend Arthur's ever had.

"Let's see," he tells Marlin. "Well, first of all, you get these ears from him," he says, tugging on one of Marlin's enormous ears. "You're the spitting image of him really - hair, eyes, exactly. He's also the bravest man I've ever known."

Arthur isn't sure how this is possible. He thought magic was something you had to train in, something that required incantations and poultices and other evil gimmicks. Not something that a five-year-old could do with ease, and without any thought, or spells, or doing anything at all but glaring at Arthur.

Arthur is going to tell Merlin. Merlin will need to know his child is a sorcerer. He'll make sure Merlin knows he would never allow Marlin to come to harm because of it. Because of anything. If Merlin wants Marlin to stay in Camelot, Arthur will look into changing the law for his child.

Maybe Gaius should be told as well. Gaius knows about sorcery; he might teach Marlin how to control his powers. Clearly keeping magic secret is bad, as keeping Morgana in the dark ended so badly. They can't let Marlin undergo the same thing.

"Where's Marlin?" Arthur asks, looking around. He's got a toy sword in one hand, which is completely dwarfing it, Merlin notices now, and Merlin can't bear how sad it is, that this toy is meant for a boy Arthur will never see again.

So Merlin isn't hurt because he's jealous when Arthur picks up Marlin's toys and sighs, or when Arthur looks disappointed to see an adult attached to Merlin's ears. He's hurt because Arthur's hurting. And it's worse because Merlin feels guilty. This wouldn't be happening if Merlin was a competent sorcerer. Or if he were an honest friend.

When Merlin finds Arthur actually playing with Marlin's toy soldiers, making the king and the sorcerer fight side by side, he decides that enough is enough. He starts brewing the potion again that night.

They fall back into their routine quickly enough, although Arthur treasures every moment more now that he knows when Marlin will be leaving - Gaius says he has to be sent back to his mother at the end of the week. He teaches Marlin how to use the tiny wooden sword he had made for him, manages to laugh when Marlin makes butterflies in his chambers, and tells Marlin a different bedtime story every night.

Marlin has decided he likes to "help" Arthur run his audiences with the nobles and commoners that come to see him and line up to talk to him. Honestly, having a small child around seems to improve everyone's manners, especially the nobles who come in with their rivals, each demanding Arthur to be entirely on their side. So on audience day, Arthur dresses Marlin in the little suit that he used to wear when he was small and his father let him come to important events. In the throne room, Marlin runs up the dais to the throne ahead of him, and Arthur laughs even as the guards and nobles look uncomfortable at this breach of etiquette by the small boy. Marlin is clearly too full of energy to be trusted to stay still on his own, though, so Arthur picks Marlin up and settles him on his lap when he sits on his throne.

The first audience is a woman seeking healing for her son. Arthur tells her to see Gaius, and Marlin asks how old the son is and then offers the woman a toy soldier he's somehow snuck down from Arthur's room. She takes it and thanks them both for their kindness. Marlin beams up at Arthur like this is the best thing that's ever happened to him.

The second audience is one of Arthur's lords accusing another one of screwing his wife. Normally, Arthur would be unimpressed by this. The thing is though that the lords keep glancing at Marlin and they won't say anything inappropriate in front of the boy. So it takes ten full minutes before Arthur understands what the complaint even is, and then it's all he can do to not laugh at their euphemisms for the next ten. He comes up with a solution for them, which is fair and just and euphemistically presented, and they bow and leave. Marlin giggles.

The third audience is a glaring old man who raises his hand and shouts a word and brings stones crashing out of the walls around them. Marlin screams and his eyes flash gold and the huge boulder that was falling towards Arthur's head is re-directed and goes flying at the sorcerer instead.

The sorcerer falls, and that ends the original spell, but the damage has already been done. Almost everyone in the room has fallen, bleeding or bruised or unconscious or possibly dead already. The throne room is destroyed, the table smashed and ruined. Worse still, the stones in the walls have been loosened by the original falling rocks, and there are still loose rocks flying everywhere.

A couple hit Marlin before Arthur can shield him, one hitting him in the head and the other in the leg. The little boy's eyes roll up in his head and he collapses, barely giving Arthur time to catch him. Merlin's going to kill me, Arthur thinks, as he pulls the boy tightly against his chest and leans over him to protect him from any further debris.

Merlin would normally try to sell Arthur some sort of story. Somehow convince him that Merlin had not, in fact, just transformed from a five-year-old boy into a full-grown man, but had instead very quickly switched places with Marlin. However, given that Arthur had been literally holding onto him throughout the entire transformation, he felt that excuse was unlikely to hold much water.

But then Arthur looks into Merlin's face, and Merlin can't hide his trepidation, his fear, at what Arthur might do and how he might react. Something that Marlin, full of trust and admiration and uncomplicated love, would never feel when faced with Arthur.

Merlin usually loves the way Arthur says his name, teasingly or exasperatedly or exhaustedly or admiringly (if he thinks Merlin isn't listening) but most importantly almost always affectionately. But he could've done without ever hearing Arthur say his name in this particular tone. So hurt and disappointed, even though he hardly sounds surprised.

"Mostly the sorcerer part?" Merlin says weakly. "But, it wasn't like that, Arthur. Marlin wasn't me in disguise, exactly - he was an accident at first. I didn't mean to turn myself into a child, and I lost all my memories of you, but you were so nice - and you missed Marlin so much, I just wanted you to see him again. I didn't know how to tell you any of it, Arthur, I'm so sorry."

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