The next day my workload practically doubled as I took on both Leala's work and my
own.
"Meeeeerlin!" Arthur called, and I quickly ran into the room.
"Yes?" I answered, out of breath.
"Honestly Merlin, where have you been? I've needed you for the past hour."
"Been busy." I muttered.
"With what? You work for me, and you haven't been here. Never mind that, polish my
armor. Come on, hurry up then." He thrust the metal chest plate and helmet at me, along with
his boots, and I went straight to work.
That night, I decided to check up on Leala. Not that I was worried, I just had to make
sure she'd remembered to take her potion, after all, it was easy to forget with a concussion. I
knocked on her front door, no answer. With a slight push, it easily fell open and a peeked my
head in.
"Leala? Are you in here?" I heard a small whimper from the corner of the room. "Leala?"
I entered, slowly making my way to the figure in the shadows.
"Stay back. I can't control it." Her voice strained with fear.
"Control what? What is it?"
"Just… go. Please." She began to sob.
"Let me help you."
"You can't help me-" She clutched her head in pain. When she looked up at me, her dark
green eyes flashed gold and a pot came flying at me. "NO!" She screamed, and a vase across
the room shattered. I held up my palm to the pot and stopped it with a quick incantation.
She must have seen the magic in my eyes because she fell silent. "Merlin…" she
whispered. I came up to her and rested a hand on her shoulder.
"It's alright, Leala, I understand."
"I don't!" She cried, shaking.
"I can help you, but you have to calm down first." She took a deep breath and looked up
at me. "You don't have to be afraid. You're just fine. Now, what just happened was magic, but
you already know that, don't you?" She nodded. "People like you and I are born with it. I guess
the concussion triggered your magic to begin. Magic can be a wonderful thing, Leala. Look," I
held out my hand and said a few soft words, and the vase that had shattered repaired itself,
and it would have been impossible to tell it had ever been anything but whole. She stared at me
in awe, and I smiled at her.
"But if Uther-"
"He won't find out unless you use magic near him. You've just gotta learn to control it. I
can help you."
"Thank you… I'm scared Merlin." I put my arms around her.
"I know. I can't promise you it's going to be easy, because it won't be." I sat with her for
a large portion of the night, soothing her and explaining what it is to have magic, the joys and
sacrifices that must be made.
"Maybe you should take tomorrow off to Leala. I don't think you've got enough control
over your powers yet, and the concussion isn't completely gone. I'll do your work for you, don't
worry."
"Thank you so much."
"No problem. I'll stop by afterwards, but for now I should probably get going." After a
short goodbye, I made my way back to Gaius's. He was already asleep, so I just went to my
chambers and went to sleep.
Leala had a lot more duties that day then the one before. "Meeeeerlin!" Arthur called.
"Coming!" I pushed aside the sponge and bucket and ran to his room.
"Where have you been?!" He demanded.
"Er… I'm helping out a friend. They're not well."
"And how exactly are you helping them?"
"Just… doing what they would normally do until they're better."
"I see… this wouldn't happen to be a lady friend, would it?"
"Well, um… I-" Arthur began to laugh.
"You're sucking up to a girl! To be honest, Merlin, I didn't think you had it in you."
"No… well, you see, it's kind of my fault she's not able to work, and I, um-"
"What on earth did you do?" I explained to him about the water and her falling.
"Merlin! I really need to teach you a thing or two about women. Lesson one: Do not be the
cause of her head wound."
"Oh, shut up."
"Well, get to work. This room needs to be cleaned."
"Of course, I'll get right on it." Arthur made fun of me as I ran place to place around the
castle, trying to complete the workload, as he gave me more and more things to do.
Hours later, I finally finished. It was later than usual, and I was exhausted. However, I
had promised Leala I would go and see her. Arriving at her house, I found her asleep, so I
decided to let her do so, and left. Gaius gave me my dinner, not forgetting to ask about Leala.
"How would I know?"
"I thought you went to see her."
"Why would you think that?"
"You're awfully late."
"I was busy, I was doing her work today too. She wasn't ready to come back to work
yet."
"And how did you know that?" I sighed. He had won. "So how is she, anyhow?"
"She was sleeping when I went over tonight."
"Was something wrong yesterday? Did the headache potion work well?"
"She was fine, just… tired."
"Merlin, you are the worst of liars. Come now, give me the truth." I froze, uncertain.
Then again, this was Gaius.
"She… er-she um…"
"Spit it out!"
"She has magic, Gaius!" He fell silent for several moments, processing the information.
"I figure the concussion triggered it."
"I see. Yes, that's quite possible, all things considered."
"What do you mean?"
"Often times, those that possess magic lose control during periods of weakness. If she
hadn't discovered her gift, then it would have been a shock to her when things started
happening that she couldn't explain. With her emotions unstable like that, she's lucky you
arrived, she could've ended up being killed by some random object."
I was at a loss for words. Gaius spoke again. "Does she know your secret?" I nodded,
explaining before he could answer about having to stop the pot flying towards my head. Finally,
he accepted it, and we went to sleep.
Author's Note: Please review! Constructive criticism is welcome!