The Winter Kings Erysimum: Chapter Summaries Chapter One: Be Warm Inside and Out Arthur besieges his

father to take on Merlin for the co-op. Enter Merlin, who is rushing to school and meets none other than Gwaine, troublemaker extraordinaire and her new friend. Merlin finds out about her co-op assignment and questions Morgana and Arthur, with Arthur clearly the guilty party. They try to reassure her that their father doesnt hate her, but shes not so sure. Going to her assignment, she comes face to face with Uther Pendragon himself, and settles in quite easily as his secretary. She works hard and impresses him, and Uther offers to drive her home. There, Cenred Essetir is waiting for her, and unhappily does her best to make him happy. Chapter Two: Its Your Poison Merlin hangs out with her oldest (literally too) best friend, Edwin Muirden, at his coffee shop, where he teases her and banters as he gifts her with a lemon meringue. Cenred calls, and Edwin doesnt want her to answer. She doesnt because he took her phone away, and then she has to rush to work. She brings Uther coffee, who muses on her (and of movies and coffee), and gives her the days instructions while giving her company work tools. She works diligently, before Uther drags her out to lunch. They run into Cenred there, who has Merlin shying away and Uther suspicious. When she makes excuses and rushes back to the office, Uther comes back and notes her odd position upon his return. Subtly prodding, he tries to see what her connection to Cenred is. At the end of the day, a phone call from her regular phone has him on edge and guessing correctly about Cenreds involvement. He offers to let her sleepover for his kids, and when she has to wait up for Cenred for first, he waits and then picks her up. He has an uncomfortable thought about her, that hes had once before and tried to forget. Chapter Three: Junk Sick Uther brings her back home after she stayed with him and his family, and accidentally watches a video made by Cenred between the two of them. It inceses him, but he pretends not to have seen it when Merlin comes back. Cenred drags her to a party, and hands her some kind of substance. She reluctantly takes it and feels horrible. She goes into work feeling sick and throws up in the midst of work, with Uther panicking and trying to help. She successfully throws off his questions for then, but when shes gets worse after work, she sickly and blindly rushes to his home, where he takes care of her. She reluctantly tells him what happened and that she cant go to the hospital, and he demands she tell him about her and Cenred. Chapter Four: Lonely and Lovesick Merlin reluctantly tells Uther the truth, and has a horrible nightmare of the past with Cenred. She wakes up heaving and wanting to throw up, and stumbles towards the nearest bathroom. She doesnt make it and is found by Uther, who continues to take care of her and cleans up her mess. Chapter Five: Just Cause Youre Broken Uther must have a business meeting with Cenred, not sure if he can keep himself under control, now that he knows about the other mans leisure activities with his young intern secretary. The meeting goes as well as it can be, however, doing a lull and break for the meeting, Uther stumbles and chances upon Cenred eagerly taking advantage of Merlin in his office. He almost

steps in, but knows he cant make himself known just yet, so he angrily and reluctantly withdraws. Chapter Six: Youre Dreaming the Pinprick Cenred drugs her up again and this time its some kind of drug that induces her hormones to act up. She cant get rid of it unless she orgasms, and she doesnt even know about the drug in the first place. In fact, shes really out of it. Uther recognizes it and is horrified, more so when he realizes what he needs to do for her to help her out. He feels extremely guilty and doesnt how hell act around her from then on. Chapter Seven: Dont You Hear Them Calling Merlin drifts in and out of her life in a daze, utterly miserable and depressed. The only times shes feeling happy are when shes working with Uther and when she spends time with Gwaine, who introduces her to his other friends and whom she quickly becomes friends with. Uther continues to worry about her, and is anxious on how to help her when he doesnt know the whole situation and what he could do for her. He contacts Tristan and Isolde, old friends of his who are private detectives, to look into the matter. Chapter Eight: When Youre Fallin Merlin continues to spiral into a depression, and withdraws into herself more. Arthur and Morgana are frustrated at not knowing the matter, and have continuously getting jealous over her finding new friends and spending time with others other than them. They hostilely confront Gwaine, who they blame everything on. Gwaine flirts with Morgana for a bit, gets affronted by the accusations, and fires back at them. Merlin cant sleep that night and ends up calling Uther late at night, who patiently and fondly talks to her and soothes her the entre night, eventually helping her fall asleep. He drives over and tucks her in, making sure she and her place are taken cared of. Chapter Nine: Youre Bruised and Battered Cenred reluctantly gets an offer to use Merlin for a night, but he is extremely hesitant. He eventually agrees, since it would mean a great business opportunity for him. He changes his mind, but the client was early and was extremely violent in his efforts towards Merlin. Angrily and upset, Cenred cleans her up and tries to fix her up as best he can without having to bring her to the hospital. He tries to be extremely tender and shower her with affection, trying to make it up to her. When they both leave for work the next day, Uther is appalled at her appearance and makes her tell him what happened. Angrily, he takes her and skips work, rushing to his home. Chapter Ten: Youre Empty and Shattered Uther further takes care of her, and spends materially and affectionate measures on her wellbeing, spoiling her for the day. They have a hurt/comfort time together, with him trying to comfort the hurt girl as much as he can. The light in her eyes slowly sparks back, and Uther feels rlieved and happy that it is, and that more so hes the cause of it. Chapter Eleven: Though Your Heart is Breaking Uther, after what happened, determinedly and more forcefully tries to convince Merlin that she needs to keep away from Cenred. She doesnt know how she can, especially since he has her

mother under watch and all those pictures he has on her. Uther reveals that he has found her mother and taken her somewhere safe. While hes still working on finding out more on Cenred, h has located the pictures and destroyed them. He offers his home as sanctuary, and she hesitantly agrees. He helps her move quickly, and shes soon gone from her old apartment, practically without a trace. Chapter Twelve: Youre Not Forsaken Arthur and Morgana are ecstatic that shes going to live there, but she finally tells them what is going on and theyre upset that she didnt tell them and of whats happened. Uther finds out more information about whats going on, including the involvement of her deceased father, and tracks it down to an Edwin Muirden, who he knows from Merlin is a close friend. He tells Uther what he does know, that hes supposed to keep watch over Merlin, and that if he could have he would have killed Cenred a long time ago (being that hes an assassin). A whole underground seedy operation is slowly unraveling, and Uther is a little over his head. Gwaine finds out Merlin is being kept from school, and pesters Morgana about it until she brings him over to see Merlin, who is happy to see him. Chapter Thirteen: Doesnt Mean You Need It So Much Cenred repeatedly calls Merlin on her cell phone, and she gets upset and cant help hearing his messages. When she actually listens to him and talks to him, because she actually did care for him in some way, Uther confiscates that phone and gets her a new one, and tells her she doesnt need Cenred and he isnt good for her. Edwin moves in and reiterates that fact over and over, and does his best in cheering her up, and his abrasive personality and constant presence in her life soothes her and reassures her. Uther realizes hes jealous, and reluctantly confirms to himself that he is more than a little fond for Merlin.