[Merlin nods. He's been turning much the same things over in his mind, and if Charles agrees then that makes them correct - which was honestly what threw him so hard when Charles said that maybe he'd been wrong about thinking of Arthur as a worthy king.]

He will. I know he will. He's a different man to the one I met, a better man. But that change has...had a cost. He's not his father's son any more, he can't rely on Uther's approval - he has to look for other ways to prove to himself that he's a good man. I just wish that he could acknowledge what our friendship has been all along and not think less of himself because of it.