A little AU ending for the first-times challenge on pirates500.

Deprived by circumstances of anything else to do, Arthur asks a great deal of questions. Eventually, Merlin answers.

Kris stopped taking slaves to his bed after his father died; he let them think it was grief, and then he let them think it was the burden of ruling, but he'd hated it all along.

It just wasn't like that.

"Megan!" Kris said. "He's my TA. I'm not going to—"

Outside the city walls, the tower stood black against the sky.

The strategy had not included getting drunk himself and losing all sense of timing and being the tawdry and expensive rebound sex.

Stormwings are infuriating, Daine is exhausted, and holding back takes too much effort.

In the not so distant future, Merlin builds a tower. That's not suspicious at all.

The first thing Merlin Emrys thought when he was born, was "Oh, hell no."