Chapter Four

Gwaine chose his moment carefully, not wanting to chance anyone else overhearing this conversation, certain that Merlin would have told no one what was going on. So when that night he heard that Gaius was attending to a woman in the lower town who was having a difficult birthing, Gwaine seized his opportunity.

Bracing himself, he slowly opened the door without knocking.

Merlin's eyes flew to the door from his place at the table across the room, relaxing only slightly when he saw Gwaine. He carefully closed the book in front of him.

"Hi Gwaine," he said, putting on a smile that looked much too forced. "If one of Percival's pranks went wrong, Gaius isn't here," he informed the knight.

Gwaine chuckled and shut the door behind him. "I'm not here for Gaius," he admitted, and crossed the room. "I'm actually here to talk to you." Merlin's brow furrowed just slightly, revealing his otherwise very well-concealed worry.

"I'm all ears."

Gwaine put his hands on the table and leaned over the wood. "What does Lord Nigel have on you?"

Merlin visibly jumped in his seat. "W—what?" he managed.

"What does Lord Nigel have on you?" Gwaine repeated patiently, resigning himself to the fact that this was going to take some work. "And don't try to deny it. I heard him threaten you today."

Merlin shakily got to his feet. "Gwaine, don't be ridiculous. He doesn't—I mean, it's not what it sounded like. He's just a stupid stuck up noble who's trying to mess with the king's servant. It's nothing."

"It didn't sound like nothing," Gwaine countered. "It sounded like he was blackmailing you. Plus, you have a rather nasty looking cut on the side of your face, or hadn't you realized?" Merlin's hand went up to trace the cut. Gwaine could guess what it was from. He'd heard the lord backhand him across the face. The stupid noble had probably been wearing a ring when he did it.

"Gwaine, just—I can handle it, all right? Don't worry. It's really not serious."

"Merlin," Gwaine said firmly, "you know you can trust me, don't you?"

Merlin shook his head, but not in denial. "You know I trust you Gwaine, but it really is nothing." His refusal to meet the knight's eyes told an entirely different story.

"If it's nothing, then tell me what's going on."

"Gwaine."

Gwaine was unrelenting. He took a seat at the table. Determined not to leave without an answer. "He's making you steal some sort of amulet from the vaults," Gwaine started, saying aloud the pieces he had slowly gathered in his head. "And I saw you last night, by the way. I know you were the 'intruder' you warned me about. You wanted to make a scene last night. You wanted him to know that you had tried, and failed." That's why he had sounded the alarm.

Merlin remained silent, but picked up a broom and began sweeping to give his white-knuckled hands something to do.

"Merlin," Gwaine implored. He waited until Merlin slowly lifted his eyes to meet his. "How can I help you if you don't tell me what's going on?" Merlin, tight-lipped, merely shook his head, shoulders tense. "What does Nigel have on you?" Gwaine repeated.

"Damn it, Gwaine!" Merlin finally shouted. "I can't tell you!"

At least now they were getting somewhere, Gwaine thought. "Why not?" he asked reasonably. "I'd never breathe a word," he swore.

"It's not about that!" Merlin countered, allowing the broom to drop from his hand as he began to angrily pace. "This has nothing to do with trusting you."

"Then why can't you tell me?"

"Because it's too dangerous!" Merlin shouted, glaring at the knight.

"Because of what he'll do to you if he finds out you told me?" Gwaine guessed.

"No!" Merlin turned away from him abruptly and took two paces away before rounding on him again. "It's too dangerous for you!"

Surprise hit Gwaine like a rock. He was silent for several long moments, processing this new bit of information. "I can take care of myself, Merlin," he said at last. "Don't worry about me."

"You don't get it," Merlin finally whispered. "You really don't get it."

"No, I don't," Gwaine agreed, a hint of impatience growing in his own voice. "Because you won't tell me. Let me worry about myself. Let me help you!"

"There's only one person who knows!" Merlin finally spat out. "And do you know what happened to him? He got kidnapped and tortured because of it! Do you still want to know?" he demanded.

Horror wrapped around Gwaine's heart like ice. It could not be a coincidence. There was only one person they both knew who had been recently abducted. "That's why Gaius was taken, wasn't it?" he asked softly.

Merlin hung his head in defeat, but didn't answer the question. "It's too dangerous," he whispered again. He raised his head again and met Gwaine's eyes in desperation. "No one can know. Please…"

Gwaine stood and slowly stepped forward, feeling like he was approaching a deer who might spook at any moment. He placed his hands on Merlin's shoulders. "Merlin," he said slowly. "If you really just don't trust me, I can accept that. We'll…figure something out. I don't have to know. But if you really are just trying to protect me," he paused, making sure he had Merlin's attention, "you have to let me make that choice. I choose to help you, Merlin. I don't care how dangerous it is. I want to help you. Please let me."

Merlin spun away from his grip, walking several feet away to stare out the window at the dark courtyard below for what seemed like minutes, but was probably only a few seconds. He then spun around again and placed his hands on the table, staring silently down at the unlit candle on the wood's surface, jaw tight as thoughts churned through his head.

Gwaine leaned forward, resting his hands on the other side of the table, simply waiting.

The wait stretched on, and gradually, Gwaine came to the conclusion that Merlin wasn't going to speak. He had made his choice. Gwaine felt the pit of his stomach sink slightly. Maybe Merlin really just didn't trust him, after all.

"Ok," Gwaine said at last, letting his eyes sink to the table as he heaved a great sigh. "Ok..."

"Forbearne."

The candle between them flickered to life, and Gwaine jumped backwards in shock. When at last he managed to pull his eyes away from the innocently flickering light to look at Merlin, he met a pair of careful, dark eyes that were studying him carefully.

Slowly, his eyes sunk back to the candle, and he stepped up to the table again. He raised a hand, but hesitated, glancing uncertainly at Merlin, but he didn't so much as twitch, just continued to stare. So Gwaine hesitantly brought his hand closer to the flame.

The warmth was real. The fire was real.

And it had just sprung to life from nothing but a word.

A word that Merlin had uttered. A strange, foreign word that no one in Camelot had any business knowing.

"You…" Gwaine began, but he couldn't complete his sentence, he could only continue to stare. At last, he became aware of just how tense Merlin was, so the knight swallowed hard. "You have magic," he managed at last.

Merlin still did not answer. He just stood there, in the same position, eyes boring holes into who he hoped was still his friend.

Then Gwaine's eyes widened as realization hit him. "Oh bloody hell," he suddenly exclaimed. Merlin winced. "This is what that piece of scum has on you?"

Merlin lowered his gaze and heaved a great sigh. "Now you know how dangerous this is," he said softly.

"Merlin…" Gwaine began, but paused. "This is bad," he finally surmised.

Merlin snorted. "I hadn't realized," he said sarcastically.

Gwaine slowly stepped around the table. Merlin flinched as though expecting a blow, but otherwise did not move, he merely continued to watch Gwaine with careful, guarded eyes. Gently, Gwaine put a hand on Merlin's shoulder. "We'll figure this out, Merlin," he said at last.

Merlin's eyes suddenly looked a little too moist for Gwaine's comfort. "You don't hate me?" he managed thickly.

Gwaine dropped his hand. "Hate you?" he repeated, as though he had misheard. "Merlin, if it wasn't for Nigel, I'd think this was a bloody brilliant joke! Why are you always traipsing after Arthur, cleaning his dirty socks and scrubbing his floors if you can just flick your fingers and get them done like that?" he snapped his fingers for emphasis.

A relieved smile formed on Merlin's face as he let out the breath he'd been holding. "Well, I do flick my fingers sometimes," Merlin admitted with a slightly sly grin that was much more befitting on him than such fear and doubt, in Gwaine's opinion.

Gwaine paused. "Why was Gaius abducted?" he asked suddenly, that piece not quite making sense to him.

Merlin hesitated. "I…have another name," he admitted at length. "Someone was looking for me, and suspected that Gaius knew who I was."

Gwaine slowly nodded. "What's your name?" he asked finally.

Merlin groaned, knowing that had been coming. "I'm not going to tell you," he said firmly. Gwaine glared at him, but Merlin simply glared back. "No, Gwaine. There's no point in you knowing. It's certainly not going to help this situation any."

At last Gwaine rolled his eyes. "Fine," he muttered.

"And my name is Merlin," he assured him. "The other name…it's more like a title, really."

Gwaine nodded his understanding, then suddenly rubbed his hands together. "So! Down to business. First obvious solution: why don't you turn Lord Dirt-face into a toad?"

A smile tucked at Merlin's lips again. "I don't know any transfiguration spells strong enough," he informed him. "Although I did once manage to turn a stone statue into a living dog…"

Gwaine's eyes widened. "You did?"

"Yes, but in any case. Even if I could turn Nigel into a toad, people would notice if a visiting noble suddenly vanished off the face of the planet."

"So who cares?"

"Uh, Arthur, for one."

"Arthur hates this guy, and you know it."

"Yes, but it would cause too many problems in the court."

Gwaine groaned. "I hate politics. Fine. No toads." He paused shortly. "And I'm assuming just giving this guy the stupid amulet is out of the question?"

Merlin's eyes darkened. "Definitely," he said at last. "That thing is way too dangerous in the wrong hands. In any hands, really. It's made up of very dark magic."

"What's it do?"

"I'm still trying to find out exactly," Merlin admitted. He pulled a book off Gaius's shelf and opened it on the table, showing Gwaine a picture of a purple and silver amulet.

"Are-ollie-geth," Gwaine sounded out carefully.

"Arolygaeth," Merlin corrected. "Somehow it allows the wearer to control other people."

Gwaine whistled. "Ok. No giving the bad guy the evil mind-controlling device. Got it. What if you just told Arthur?"

A deep sorrow filled Merlin's eyes. "I can't," he said at last.

Gwaine paused for a long time, hating the desperation in Merlin's face. "You know," he said at last, unusually reasonable, "Arthur's not the same as his father. You taught me that."

"I know. It's just…it isn't time yet."

"How do you know?"

"It's a long story," Merlin admitted, rubbing the bridge of his nose. "Full of prophecies, and destiny, and what not. When I tell Arthur..." he sighed. "The timing has to be perfect. And…" his eyes darkened again, "there's a lot I'll need to tell him, besides just the magic. And I'm not ready for that yet."

"All right," Gwaine accepted. "Then we just tell him that this guy is scum and that he was the intruder last night. That's more or less true."

Merlin shook his head. "You know what Nigel will do if we do that."

Gwaine groaned again. "Fine! Then we tell Arthur that Nigel is threatening to accuse you of magic if you don't steal for him. He doesn't need to know the accusation is true."

Merlin shook his head again. He'd already thought of that during his first uncomfortable conversation with Nigel. "There are too many of Uther's followers in Arthur's court right now," he repeated Nigel's reasoning. "They'd never take the word of a servant over a noble. It wouldn't matter what Arthur believed or what he decided. I'd never be safe again."

"I'm a noble," Gwaine pointed out.

"Who used to be a commoner. Well…as far as people know," Merlin added as an afterthought.

Gwaine slowly let out a sigh, realizing the truth of the statement. Even if he came clean and admitted to his noble heritage, the "convenience" of such a revelation in the face of Merlin's predicament would not exactly be convincing.

An uncomfortable thought intruded on Gwaine's brain. "We could kill him," he said softly.

Merlin froze, but didn't respond for a long time. After all, he had thought the same thing. "Same problem as the toad," he muttered at last.

"No," Gwaine countered. "He wouldn't disappear, he'd just die. You could…stop his heart or something. Make it look natural." He studied Merlin carefully, but Merlin slowly shook his head.

"Gwaine…" he said at last. "I…can't."

A small bubble of tension popped in Gwiane's stomach and he let out a relieved breath he hadn't been aware of holding, and a soft smile. That's the Merlin he knew.

"All right," Gwaine said as the silence became almost awkward. "What do you plan to do?" he asked at last.

Merlin slumped, but didn't answer. He merely shook his head.

"You could run," Gwaine pointed out. "Leave Camelot. It wouldn't matter what Nigel said if you're just not here." Merlin shook his head again. "I'd come with you."

Merlin's eyes snapped up to meet Gwaine's. "You'd come with me?" he repeated. Gwaine nodded, his own eyes never leaving Merlin's. "But…but you like it here."

"The reason I came to Camelot in the first place was because you needed help, Merlin," Gwaine pointed out. "I'd be happy to leave it for the same reason."

A genuine smile lit Merlin's face, but his eyes remained rather sad. "Thank you," he said sincerely. "You have no idea what that means to me. But I can't leave, either. You see…I'm not really just Arthur's servant."

Gwaine's eyebrows twitched. "Then what are you?"

"I'm more like his body guard," Merlin explained. "You have no idea how many times I've saved that prat's life when he didn't even realize he was in danger. It's my duty to protect him."

Gwaine paused for a moment. "This is another long story, isn't it?" he asked at last.

"Unfortunately, I have a lot of those."

"So what do we do now?"

Merlin tapped the wood under his hand with his fingernails. "I do have one idea, but it's…a bit tricky." Gwaine made a slight gesture with his hand for Merlin to continue. "I'm going to try to alter Nigel's memory."

A/N: Yay! Merlin has a plan! Now some of you might be thinking that's a bit of a convenient solution. But I assure you, altering memories is much more complicated than you might think. (At least in my version it is.) So no, this is far from an easy, convenient solution for him to hatch up. ;)

Originally, this chapter was much longer than it is now. But then I realized just how long it was getting and had to split it, and this was the best place. So you'll find out more about Merlin's new plan next chapter. The good news, though, is that next chapter is already partially written because of that!

Thanks for reading! As always, I would love comments.

~Syd