Beautiful ghosts

Empty chairs at empty tables

The old castle was in front of him, its ruins challenging the sky. Merlin stepped on the old dusty floor. Once his friends had covered the same distance, in step with him. Fear and hope, both in their hearts. An immortal army had waited for them then.. But they'd made it. They'd won the battle. Recovered the castle. Built a new world.

There it was: the old stone table. Now empty and cold. There was no one to sit on its chairs. Only spiders and rats perturbed the motionless sight.

There's a grief that can't be spoken

There's a pain goes on and on

Empty chairs at empty tables

Now my friends are dead and gone

And no one would ever come back to sit there.

At this table, they'd swore their eternal allegiance to the country, to their king. One by one, all those friends left him and those who still lived wouldn't sit there with him.

The chairs had never seemed so heavy. Lonely, he sat down while tears streamed down his face. Once, his soul was full of hope, of thoughts of a better world. Now, that world was dawning before him, but he was the only one left of those who'd fought along with him.

The round table would never be the same without its knights. One day the table would be no more. And the chairs would forget they had once been occupied by brave men. The place would forget all the words spoken. Not even the castle would stand tall in the sky.

Oh my friends, my friends forgive me

That I live and you are gone

There's a grief that can't be spoken

There's a pain goes on and on.

Merlin lifted his head from the table. He didn't know how long he had slept. His lullaby had been the song of the wind. The grief in his soul had taken all the energy left inside him. And so, he'd fallen asleep. Alone and cold on an old, dusty round table.

He felt a presence. It didn't belong to the living world and yet it did. It had been brought by the night. The wind had been its companion.

"Who are you?" His words echoed in the empty chamber, but the presence said no word. It floated around the room. He felt it stop next to him. Merlin dragged a chair and invited the phantom to sit.

They were two at the empty table, but there was a deep silence between them. He didn't know who the phantom was, but it felt nice to have someone to share that silence with him.

Phantom faces at the window

Phantom shadows on the floor

Empty chairs at empty tables

Where my friends will meet no more

The queen sat alone in the cold room. The throne next to hers had already been taken away. It felt so strange not to have it next to her. To reach out for a hand that would never grab hers.

The spots at the round table were almost empty. The chair next to her was deserted, but she didn't have the strength to ask for it to be taken away, too. And so were those of her brother and Sir Gwain and those of so many of the brave knights of Camelot.

Oh my friends, my friends

Don't ask me what your sacrifice was for

Empty chairs at empty tables

Where my friends will sing no more

Lyrics by Herbert Kretzmer / Alain Albert Boublil / Claude Michel Schonberg, Musical Les Miserables