Title: A Study in Natural Philosophy
Fandom: Merlin
Pairing: Arthur/Merlin
Categories: Fusion, AU
Length: Medium (~13,000 words)
Warnings:

Author on LJ: mad_maudlin
Website: 10leaguesbeyond or Mad_Maudlin

Summary: It wasn't all that unusual for people to hide their daemons; Merlin, however, seems to be taking it a little far.

Review:
I loved His Dark Materials as a kid (and as an adult), so it tickled me pink to find this fic. mad_maudlin is a wonderfully prolific writer, and I've enjoyed her SGA and Sherlock fic, so it stands to reason that her Merlin fic should be just as good (and it is :D). I loved how the two universes collide, and how bird daemons (basically, animal spirits that represent your soul) are viewed in Camelot. Witches in the HDM-verse have exclusively avian daemons, so in Camelot, having a bird daemon is highly suspect in the "are you an evil sorcerer?" department. Merlin's solution to the problem of being found out (and burned at the stake) is really interesting, but I won't spoil anything here. Arthur's daemon, Amaranth, is so very charming, and I loved how she and Arthur interacted with Merlin and with each other. One of the reasons I love HDM crossovers is that daemons can confront their humans about their internal conflicts, which really speeds things along if, say, your internal conflict is wanting to bone your manservant. Authors can really probe their characters' inner depths with a daemon, because the characters are, in essence, talking to themselves, and there aren't any of the traditional personal boundaries one gets when talking to another. So...yay metaphysical constructs! Yay fantasy!

A Study in Natural Philosophy