- Merlin heads over to Ambrosius' rooms to face the music. But he also wants to check in about the whole parental issue.
- Ambrosius confronts Merlin about the trip out to druids' island. Merlin decides that telling the absolute truth is the way to go.
- Merlin tells Ambrosius about the man Belasius killed and about the cover-up planned by the druids.
- Merlin has a vision of his mother and Ambrosius meeting in the fields (think back to the scene in the Prologue)—which sparks an interesting convo with Ambrosius.
- Ambrosius gives Merlin the details: he'd been 18 and in Wales trying to gather intelligence for his cousin Budec when his troop got caught in battle.
- Enter Niniane, Merlin's mom. She found Ambrosius unconscious on the ground and brought him to what would be Galapas' cave to save his life.
- So it happened that Niniane and Ambrosius hooked up, and little Merlin happened. But here's a crucial detail: Ambrosius wanted Niniane to go back to Brittany with him. She refused.
- Ambrosius didn't know about Merlin and thought that Niniane was later betrothed to someone else.
- It's clear to Merlin that his mom kept Ambrosius in the dark to protect him. If her hot-blooded father had known that Ambrosius was Niniane's baby daddy, there'd have been hell to pay.
- Ambrosius is wracked with guilt for leaving Merlin to fend for himself all that time—but Merlin gets it. He knows it wasn't Ambrosius' fault.
- And—get out the hankies, people—Merlin tells Ambrosius that if he had a choice, he would have picked him for a dad, anyway. Aww.
- Merlin makes a backhanded prophecy by saying that any boy would choose the King of All Britain as his dad.
- Ambrosius is pretty freaked by this, but Merlin doesn't realize the importance of what he's said to his newly minted daddy-o.
- There's a new problem to deal with: Uther will still expect to be king after Ambrosius dies. But by rights, Merlin should be next to rule.
- Merlin tells his dad that he doesn't want to be king, so Uther has no worries. He says that maybe between himself and Uther, they would make one good king.
- Ambrosius is thinking the same thing and wonders if his son has started reading his mind.
- Ambrosius also tells Merlin that he must hang on with Belasius, because the creep really does have some useful things to teach him.
- Merlin tells Ambrosius that he has no prob with this. In fact, he's going to go to the next druid meeting. He's got to take that power, however weird it is. Ambrosius agrees.
- Ambrosius wraps up the father-son lovefest by telling Merlin that his second name—Emrys—means the same as Ambrosius. So Merlin becomes "Merlinus Ambrosius" from that moment on.
- Ambrosius asks Merlin to look in the fire and try to see something for him. But Merlin has to apologize—the power doesn't just come whenever you ask for it.
- But Merlin does have a dream that night, featuring himself as an old man back at Galapas' cave with another Niniane (not his mom).