"Oh...fine. Just fine," Merlin said, trying to act casual despite the fact that he had no idea what he was talking about. And he'd thought that having a dragon making annoying cryptic remarks about 'destiny' all the time had been irritating - Merlin was soon discovering that that was nothing compared to having lots of other people from 'the future' knowing all this stuff about someone who may or may not be him and assuming that he knew...whatever it is that he's meant to do.

Or maybe it wasn't him? Maybe there really was some...other Merlin out there, in the future or the past or whenever that just also happened to be a sorcerer. Except he was the one that became famous and that everyone kept talking about. Yes, that was exactly it.

Or at least Merlin would pretend that was the case to anyone who brought the subject up, and deny all other possible interpretations.

"I haven't got my ear stuck to a wall, so how could I hear anything?" Merlin said, finding himself hoping they would talk more about strange noises in meat walls and less about him.