Merlin: Fanfic Rec: The Shoemaker

[ceebee]

Title: The Shoemaker
Author: Anonymous (to be revealed...)
Rating: NC-17
Pairings: Gwen/Freya, Merlin/Arthur
Summary: Historical magical AU. In turn-of-the-century Glastonbury, Freya Lake heads up an orphanage for magical children. And despite all of the seers’ dire warnings, Freya is happy; her infatuation with the shoemaker’s apprentice—who may or may not be a girl underneath his shirt and trousers—is slowly coming to a head. But then a woman claiming to be Morgana le Fay shows up on the orphanage steps, demanding to see Emrys, and Freya is forced to rearrange her priorities.

Thoughts: I still need to leave a review, but AO3 literally JUST went down for maintenance, so I thought I'd make a rec here in the meantime. OH MY GOODNESS, I loved it :3 Really, really adored every sentence. The OCs were particularly awesome, and the setting/magic sort of reminded me a bit of Terry Pratchett XD Idk, there was just something about it. The idea was awesome, and Gwen as a shoemaker/in guy's clothing was *flaps* really quite hot. Freya was lovely too...it must have been fun to write her, because I guess you can really make her your own. I think she was sort of quietly BAMF in this, heheh. 

Another thing that was lovely about it, was the reincarnation aspect...humm, I don't want to give away the plot, but some of my favourite moments involved characters being reunited. 

Merlin in this was endearingly eccentric, and the ending made me melt. Completely. I am currently a puddle, left only with fingers to type with. 

Comments

[jelazakazone]

I adore this fic and plan to record it. Next year:) It's one of the best fics I've read.

[cecilegrey]

Heh, I'm often a bit confused with the way Merlin fandom labels its fic. Like, I never would have considered reincarnation fic would be called AU before I started seeing it here. I'm glad I read your whole review because now that I know it's a reincarnation fic I'm quite interested! Hehe. I <3 reincarnation fics, though admittedly I haven't read many outside of regular Merlin/Arthur. I need to expand my horizons. Bookmarking it now, in my Reading Queue folder.