So, I ended up not updating last weekend - it was the holidays and I was working a lot and I just didn't have the energy to work on much of anything. So, I apologize for the delay.
This is the shortest of my chapters so far, and is mostly a transitional chapter to get us through to the next without just dragging on and on...but there is definitely good information that comes out.
Review if you have any comments or suggestions! Enjoy!
~*~*~*~*~*~ Chapter Three
Half an hour later after much deliberation, Arthur's bewilderment watching Kilgharrah fly away, and another slow trek across the courtyard, the pair found themselves in the grand entrance to the old castle. Merlin's arm was still slung around Arthur's shoulder as they looked around, taking in their surroundings before just rushing in.
The castle, while far smaller than Camelot's, had clearly been quite impressive in it's day. There was a huge staircase going upstairs, parts of the stairs were chipped and the stone railings were crumbled in places. There were several large rooms off to either side of the entrance, and it could only be assumed that a kitchen and dining area lay beyond.
Arthur was not looking forward to searching this place. "So, Mr 'Knows-What-He's-Looking-For'. Where do we start?"
Merlin glanced around, "We'll need to split up. The two of us trying to search this place together will take forever."
Arthur shook his head, "There's no way I'm leaving you alone in here. Not in your state."
Merlin smirked, "What, are you suddenly worried about me? Don't worry, if I get into trouble I'll be sure to scream."
"Merlin, seriously, I'm not ok with this."
"Well, you don't have to be." Merlin sighed and lifted himself off of his comrade. "If we stick together it will take us days to search this place. Do you really want to be stuck here for days?"
Arthur shrugged, "I don't see why not. There's shelter, probably a little food if she truly was here long term. We aren't expected back at Camelot for at least a few more days. You can rest up a bit before we make the journey back - IF we can even find horses. And even aside from that, we can't reverse this until the next Full Moon anyway so it really isn't like we are in a rush."
Merlin found himself smirking again, "You really don't want to leave me alone."
Arthur groaned, "Of course I don't! Do I really have to say it!? I can't have you running around wearing yourself out and getting into all sorts of dangers without any means of protecting yourself."
Merlin was still smirking. "You never thought I had any means of protecting myself before either, but that never bothered you."
Arthur sighed. "Yeah, well. I know differently now. I'm not leaving you here alone until we are confident there are no hidden dangers."
Merlin nodded, the smirk still plastered on his face. "Alright, Sire. You win."
"Thank you." Arthur gloated, "Now, what do you say we look around down here before trudging up the stairs, yeah?"
Merlin looked at the stairs, not at all liking the idea of having to walk up them. "Yeah, that sounds fine."
And so the two wondered around the main floor. All of the rooms were in various states of disarray. It was very clear that no one had been in most of them in many many years, and Merlin was beginning to doubt that the witch had been living here. Maybe she just brought them here to throw them off her trail.
It was when they reached the kitchen that they began to have a little hope - for there were several signs of recent activity. There was a cauldron hanging over a fireplace, and fresh vegetables and herbs, jars on shelves containing any number of...oddities...and even dishes that had clearly been used within the past couple of days.
"Well," Arthur started with no small amount of satisfaction. "There has definitely been SOMEONE here recently. Hopefully our Sorceress."
Merlin nodded, "With all the herbs strewn about, creepy jars on those shelves, and the cauldron? Most likely."
"Well, I think that covers most of the main floor. Now what?" Arthur asked.
"Now," Merlin said as he inched towards a stool. "I need a break. Just a short one, I promise."
Arthur nodded, "That's fine, here, have a carrot."
He picked up a carrot that had been laying on the table and tossed it to him, Merlin barely managed to catch it and Arthur sighed. "Sorry."
Merlin shrugged as he took a bite, "No worries. Hey, why don't you see if you can find an entrance to a lower level? If not we'll head upstairs in a few minutes."
Arthur gave him a quick glare, obviously not wanting to leave him alone. Merlin almost laughed, "Arthur, I'm fine. We've already searched through the entire ground floor with no issues. You're the one venturing into a potentially dangerous and creepy basement."
Arthur hesitated only a moment but finally nodded. "Alright, fine, but I'll be back in ten minutes."
Arthur gave him one last glance before turning and disappearing through a small hallway, leaving Merlin alone.
Merlin sighed and leaned over the counter, resting all of his upper body weight on one arm and held the other out in front of him, his hand open and level with his face. "Leoth."
Nothing. Nothing happened. No little orb of light. No surge of energy. No flash of his eyes. He sighed and slumped down the rest of the way to the counter. It was true then. His magic was truly gone.
In hindsight, he couldn't believe Arthur was still talking to him. True, Arthur had been mad initially, furious even...but the anger seemed to have subsided for the most part. Maybe the king was just repressing it until they got this situation sorted. Merlin gave a slight nod, yes, that was probably what it was. As much as Merlin wanted his magic back, he was terrified to think what would happen once he did.
Downstairs, Arthur was thinking along similar lines as he explored what seemed to be a maze of dungeons. He had found a torch, luckily, and had managed to light it. It was true, he was mostly just repressing his anger at the moment. The fact that Merlin had magic seemed like a small problem in comparison to the fact that ARTHUR now had magic. And besides - Merlin was like a shell. Just looking at him you could see how much the loss of his magic was affecting him. Arthur was far too worried about him to stay angry for too long, he cared about his servant too much for that.
Arthur was deep in thought when the smell hit him - he knew the smell instantly and really didn't want to go any further...but he needed to confirm. He covered his nose with his arm as he continued along the hall he was currently walking down.
After a few more seconds, it emptied into a room. The little light from his torch was enough to verify the king's fears. Bodies littered the room, in varying states of decay. Most of the older ones had very clear wounds on their chest, suspiciously like knife wounds. Some of the newer ones had no wounds, but Arthur had a feeling he knew exactly what had caused it. With a heavy sigh he crept backwards out of the room, and headed back towards Merlin.
Just a few minutes later had him walking back into the kitchen. "I found something, nothing helpful, but -"
The king paused as Merlin jumped up from his slumped position, quickly wiping his face with his hands. Arthur sighed, "Merlin…"
Merlin shook his head, pleading with Arthur not to prod. "What did you find?"
Arthur hesitated, torn between allowing his servant time to grieve his obvious loss, tormenting him on it as he would have done in the past, or just ignoring it altogether and getting on with things….he opted for the latter. "You aren't going to like it."
Merlin lifted an eyebrow and nodded, urging the king to continue. So he did, "In the furthest point of the dungeon, is a room. Merlin, it was terrible, it was completely full of bodies. My guess would be the failed experiments."
He watched as a sadness came over Merlin, and he realized that the people below had all been people like him, people with magic. They had all died in the witch's attempt to perfect the spell she had used on Merlin. She had clearly been planning this for a long, long time, and those people had paid for it with their lives.
"There's one thing I don't understand." He asked aloud.
Merlin smirked, "Only one thing?"
Arthur ignored the jab and continued - "If you're so powerful, why did she give your magic to me? Why not take it for herself and become even more powerful?"
Merlin sighed, "To me it's obvious. She wanted me to live with having lost someone I care for. She wanted you to learn of my magic in the worst way possible. She wanted you to hate me, and she wanted you to kill me. Or, at the very least, banish me from Camelot so that I could live out my days alone and without magic. She wanted revenge."
"For what?"
Merlin hesitated, only for a moment, and took a deep breath before he continued. "For Nimueh."
The look of confusion that crossed Arthur's face was clear. "Nimueh?"
Merlin nodded. "I killed her."
Arthur was silent as he considered this. Merlin felt the need to explain further. "When you were bitten by the questing beast, I -"
"But Gaius healed me from that."
Merlin smirked, "Not exactly. There is a place called the Isle of the Blessed. I travelled there to bargain for your life."
Arthur's eyes widened, and he moved to sit at the stool opposite Merlin. "You? Why? We had only known each other a few months."
Merlin nodded, "You were meant to be a king Arthur, and much more. You were not destined to die so young. I couldn't allow it."
"So, what did you bargain?"
"You're not going to like it."
Arthur rolled his eyes, "I'm so tired of that phrase. Merlin. WHAT did you bargain?"
Merlin looked down at the wooden counter, and traced the grain in the wood with his finger. "In order to save a life, a life must be given. The world must maintain balance. I had to save your life."
Arthur's gaze had turned into a glare now. "Whose life did you bargain Merlin? Whose!?"
"My own."
Arthur's fist came down on the table and Merlin jumped, "Damnit Merlin, why would you do that!?"
Merlin shrunk into himself, "I couldn't let you die! You're life is worth ten of mine."
Arthur groaned, "Just because you're a servant? Merlin you have magic. That must be worth something."
Merlin shook his head, "Not if you die. My whole purpose for having and using magic has been to serve and protect you. If you die, then I might as well not have it anymore."
Arthur was shocked, to say the least. He opened his mouth a few times to comment but it was several seconds before he found the words, "You...You truly believe that?"
Merlin nodded instantly, "I do."
They sat in silence for a few seconds, before Merlin decided to continue. "Anyways. I gladly accepted the price to save your life, believing the life given would be my own. But the next day my mother arrived in Camelot. She was dying."
Merlin paused here for comment from Arthur, but Arthur only nodded for him to continue. "I couldn't let her die either, not for me. So I prepared to return to the Isle of the Blessed. I even came to say goodbye to you, although I'm not sure if you would remember."
"I remember." The king said instantly. "You said that I needed to learn to listen, and that you'd be happy to serve me until you died."
Merlin nodded. "Right."
"Do you still feel that way?"
Merlin hesitated - "about which part?"
Arthur shrugged, "Any of it, I suppose."
Merlin gave a small smile, "Well, you have gotten a bit better at listening. You still are a stubborn prat, but you at least listen when other people give you advice. And yes, I would still be happy to serve you until I die...if you still let me after all of this."
Merlin said the last bit in hopes of gaining a semblance of an idea to what his king was thinking regarding everything, but that hope quickly faded when the king pointedly ignored the statement. "Ok, so, continue."
Merlin sighed, but did as requested. "I went up to tell Gaius goodbye, only to find he'd already left. He was determined to sacrifice himself to keep me from having to...and I couldn't very well allow that either. So I returned to the Isle only to find that I was too late, Nimueh had already taken Gaius' life as payment."
"But, Gaius -" Arthur started
"Let me finish," Merlin interrupted him, and to his surprise the kind only nodded. "I attacked Nimueh. She retaliated and hit me with a ball of fire and -"
"Is that how you got that scar?" The king interrupted again.
"...What?"
"The scar, on your chest - I saw it when I was checking for the knife wound. Is that how you got it?"
Merlin slowly nodded, "Y-Yes...anyway...I managed to kill her with a bolt of lightning. Thereby restoring the balance of life and death and Gaius was allowed to live."
"Ok.." Arthur nodded, "But, what does that have to do with our sorceress?"
"She claims she was Nimueh's mother." Merlin looked down at the counter again.
Arthur leaned heavily on his stool. "All of that was so long ago, she's been planning this for quite some time."
Merlin gave a sigh, "And with the body count to prove it."
Arthur nodded slowly, before standing abruptly, unwilling to allow Merlin anymore time to dwell on the matter. "Come, let's head upstairs."
Merlin nodded and stood slowly, testing his balance. When he found he could stand on his own he waved off Arthur's help, and headed out of the kitchen and back towards the grand staircase.
Arthur smiled, glad that his friend was able to walk on his own again, even if he was a little slower than usual. He stayed nearby though incase Merlin's strength gave out - but it proved unnecessary as they approached the staircase. He frowned when he heard Merlin sigh, "I...may need your help getting up this."
Arthur nodded, "Couldn't I just magic you up there?"
Merlin actually snorted, "Well, I mean it's possible. But you haven't even had it a day yet, I think we should probably start you off with something simpler than flying me up a staircase."
Arthur huffed, but nodded. "Fine then, let's go."
It only took them a couple minutes to reach the top of the staircase, and when they did Merlin pushed off of Arthur to stand on his own. "That wasn't so bad. Maybe I'm getting used to feeling like this."
He meant it as a positive thing, but automatically he felt himself deflate. He didn't want to have to get used to this. Arthur sighed and clasped his friend's shoulder.
"Come on, Merlin." He said as he headed to the first room. "Let's find out how to fix this. Her research has to be up here somewhere."
"Not necessarily." Merlin said as he slowly followed, "Being a sorceress she would probably want to be in one of the most difficult places to reach, in case someone came looking for her. It could be up in one of the towers."
Arthur nodded, "Well, sure, but she was also old. I can't imagine her voluntarily going all the way up into the towers when she could choose any room on a lower level."
Merlin supposed that was true. He knew Gaius was getting tired of traversing the stairs up into the tower, doing his best to take everything he needed in one go so as to avoid multiple trips up and down every day.
Merlin was brought from his thoughts when he nearly ran into Arthur, who had stopped in the large open doorway. "Arthur? What is it?"
Merlin moved around to get a view, and froze as well. Arthur's suspicions were confirmed, this had to have been the main living area of the witch. There were shelves and shelves of books, some thrown about on the floor, and papers scattered everywhere. There was a bed in the corner that was old and looked as if it would break if you poked it too hard.
"Well," he said as he took a step into the room. "We'd better get started. This is going to take a while."
