"Merlin!" Lady Úna leapt up from her desk, the box she had been studying closed hastily and shoved out of the way.
What happened? She had not been expecting visitors. After dinner she had expressly told them to leave her be. The trip had been exhausting and she had matters to attend to. Thoughts she must arrange. Plans.
There was no reason that she should be interrupted. Least of all by her hosts manservant. Worries flooded her mind. Was something wrong? Something in the castle? Someone even? An unconscious boy on her floor was a fair enough warning. But no sound echoed from the corridor. No footsteps of fleeing men. He came alone.
"Merlin! MERLIN!" The woman's cries heightened in worry. She knelt down beside him, rolling the figure onto his back. His skin was tinged grey, his cheeks sunken. His head lolled limply on her lap, raven hair curtaining his forehead. He looked weak. Úna shook him gently by the shoulders, trying in vain to wake the servant. "Merlin, wake up. Merlin"
The boy did not stir from is unconscious slumber. She didn't even know the boy. The maternal instincts of a woman compelled her to care for the sick youth that had literally collapsed into her chambers. Does Arthur know where he is? The noble gazed down at the grey servant. His skin was stretched tight over his features. Sharp cheekbones threatened to tear the thin layer they hid beneath. Merlin's breaths came in short sharp pants. Shallow enough that they barely lifted his chest. Úna would have feared him dead had it not been for his eyes. Even closed, the Lady could see Merlin's eyes darting around wildly beneath his eyelids. They were frantic, as if searching for something. The unconscious boy looked panicked.
The noble brushed his hair carefully off his forehead, stroking him softly. "Merlin ssssshhhhh. Come on now, wake up. Merlin, please." She tried to calm him. Soothe him. Perhaps less frantic the boy would finally wake? What caused him to fall into this state in the first place? What could have possibly happened?
Tears were forming in her eyes as she held the limp servant. Nobles weren't supposed to care over their workers, it wasn't proper. But Úna wasn't just any noble. She was Lady Úna of Dungal. She wasn't just a woman born to follow orders. She was made to break them. She dreamed of equality. Of peace and prosper. Not only in Dungal but in all lands.
She cast her mind back. What was happening? Did I miss something? She tried to remember what she had been doing before the intrusion. Her hair. Úna's eyes flicked to the hairbrush lying nonchalantly on her desk. She had been brushing her hair, thinking… About Arthur and his proposal. About her plans….
The box! Úna's heart froze somewhere in the base of her throat. A sheet of ice consumed her. The small, ornate box lay shut on her desk. Memories of her panicked rush to hide it after the servant tumbled in flooded her mind. I was holding the box. I had the box. But only…"
Úna's thoughts fought to arrange themselves into some kind of desperate order, not to any avail. She felt like she was drowning. Too much time had gone into this. Too much for it to be disrupted now.
NO! Úna fought to dismiss the thought that had just invaded her mind. No, he can't….. Not here…. Her eyes flickered back to the desk. The hypothesis still refusing to leave her.
"mm—ggff" A short, quiet groan broke through the nobles scattered thoughts. The raven haired boy slowly rocked his head so it lolled limply on his left shoulder, closed eyelids fluttering meekly.
"Merlin?" Úna's voice was softer now. She gently stroked his forehead, prising the bangs from his eyes.
"mmmff" Merlin's groan was stronger now. Not by much but enough to reassure the torn noble. Úna looked on with baited breath as two bright green eyes appeared from their grey shutters. Merlin jumped, startled the sight of the flawless face that gazed down at him.
"What!? Where -?" A wave of dizziness crashed over the servant, dragging with it a pounding just below his temple. He collapsed back onto the floor reluctantly, eyes rolling back into his skull. He clenched them shut, concentrating hard on the headache.
"Are you ok? Merlin stay with me." Strong hands shook his shoulders and pried his hands from his eyes. "Come on now, I need you to stay awake."
Awake? Merlin had never felt so exhausted. He had been tired before. Unimaginably tired. Sometimes, being forced to stay awake for days on end while on quests with Arthur. They had gone into battle, fought off creatures, gone on rescue missions to the far ends of the earth all with the minimum amount of sleep and food possible to survive on. Coming back from that Merlin thought he knew what tiredness was. He had been blind.
"Merlin, MERLIN! Come on, don't sleep yet…"
Yet? The voice said yet? So he could sleep? The voice would let him sleep if he woke up first…. Ok…..
There were two fairly important occurrences that were scratching somewhere at the back of his mind begging for attention. First: Where was he? Merlin's mind whirled through recently acquired images. The banquet… for Lady Úna? Then Gaius… I talked to Gaius… And Percival… then the tiredness. But wh-
Merlin sat up far too quickly. His head twirled in about five hundred different directions at once. His eyes glanced around the room, squinting against the harsh light from the window. He was lying in the floor, barely a few paces from a large oak door. Pillars soared up to the stone ceiling ending in soft arches supporting the roof. Next to the west wall resided a grand four-poster bed decorated elaborately with regal sheets like a crimson sea cascading over the sides to the (not stone cold) floor. The dresser was hidden discretely behind a furnished desk that overflowed with various paraphernalia such as reams of paper, ink wells, small jewellery boxes, perfume bottles, hair brushes…
Merlin eyed the hairbrushes.. Ok so he wasn't in Arthur's room. Gwaine's?
"Merlin?" Merlin flinched at the sound of his name. Lady Úna. He had collapsed in the chambers of the visiting noble. Brilliant.
"M'lady…" Merlin stammered out an apology as he attempted to clamour to his feet, shaking limbs barely supporting him.
"No sit, you need to sit" Úna pushed him back onto the floor shoving a feather pillow behind his head as the servant relaxed against the door. "Are you ok? You gave me such a shock. What happened? Were you running?"
Merlin groaned under the weight of his interrogation. He pressed a hand to his forehead in an attempt to dispel the dizziness threatening to overpower him. What do I say? I can't tell her. That wasn't natural. Nothing could make you feel so tired and come from nature. But I didn't sense any magic? If it was magic I would have sensed it. Wouldn't I?
"Yeah… I was running. I had to give you this before you retired." Merlin tugged the tiny vial from his trouser pocket. Mercifully it hadn't shattered on his unexpected trip to the floor. "It's a draught, from Gaius. He said you'd know what it was?" He placed the vial into Úna's hand. Her eyes studied the bottle from all angles, a small smile tickling the side of her lips.
A few minutes of thick silence sat between the unlikely couple. One noble gazing at a tiny bottle, crouching beside a semi-conscious servant who was gazing at the noble beneath lidded eyes. His hand moulding a very stubborn headache.
"Thank you Merlin." Lady Úna's voice was barely a whisper as she arose from the floor, the vial tucked inside her slender hand. The servant, sensing his cue to leave, stood up slowly, the stone wall providing an unbreachable support. His headache was waning fast and each movement of his limbs was rewarded by a new ounce of strength.
"Goodnight m'Lady. Thank you…" Merlin stood awkwardly by the door. Lady Úna stood beside her desk holding Gaius's vial upwards towards the light and gazing inside, her back towards him. She seemed lost in its contents. Merlin crept out of the chambers and into the shadowed corridor without as much as a breath.
Merlin tried to ward of the questions that threatened to drown his mind. He raced down the desolate corridor as fast as he dared. He may feel stronger than he had before but that didn't mean he'd be able to outrun a guard wondering why he was wandering around the guest wing of the castle after hours. He could feel his magic awakening inside him but that didn't mean it would be willing to cooperate should he need it.
Not after that freaky ordeal.
What had happened? It was as if his strength was leaving him. As if every fibre of energy was being sapped from his body. The part of him that caused him to be strong, powerful, was being drawn thread by thread by some unknown force. He had felt weak.
Merlin knew he wasn't as muscular as the knights. He was not as carefree as Gwaine nor as battle worn as Leon. He didn't have the skillset that Elyon carried and he was definitely nowhere near as intimidating as Percival. But that didn't mean Merlin wasn't strong. He had fought off more powerful beings than all of the Knights of Camelot put together. He had survived poison, capture, torture, Arthur even. He may not have been strong but Merlin was tough. Even in the most dire of occasions when the light was all but diminished, Merlin had always found a way. He had never felt truly vulnerable. Never truly alone.
Merlin had never felt weak. Until today.
He turned down into a familiar hallway. Second floor. A voice whispered in his head. Gaius' chambers are just up ahead. He powerwalked up through the darkness towards his home. Maybe Gaius will know what caused it….
Merlin stopped dead. A thought had just floated into his head that caused his to stumble in realisation. Could he tell Gaius? Everything he felt today had been caused on his way to go see Lady Úna. He knew that much. Something had caused his energy to be sapped from him. But if it was her, if she had something that could do that much damage to a person then I must be powerful. Powerful enough to affect him. Something with that much energy could only be magical.
But if it was magical then surely he would have sensed something as soon as she had gotten close to him? Even remembering the feeling of the unknown source was enough to make his stomach writhe and his head empty. If it had caused him to faint not ten minutes ago then why did he feel nothing before? Merlin cast his mind back to the morning, to the noble arriving with a delicate prowess astride a dusky grey steed. He tried to remember feeling ill, feeling wrong, feeling weak. Nothing. He had felt fine. At the feast? No again he was still fine. I bit weary sure but he had just carried the entirety of the Nobles luggage on a yomp around the castle so it was forgivable. Nothing to suggest that something was out of the ordinary.
So what had caused it?
Sorcery. At the moment that was the only certainty in Merlin questions. Whatever the problem was it had been sorcery. The warlocks mind fought to create links. Ok so sorcery. And it had happened near Lady Úna's chambers. But Lady Úna and sorcery? That can't be… Dungal is not a kingdom open to the old religion. How could she know of sorcery? That can't be the link, there must be another explanation.
Merlin came to a halt outside the physician's chambers, his mind still ringing with unordered questions. Can I ask Gaius? He knew her as a child surely he must know something? Anything that could give me answers. I need to find out Arthur could be in danger.
A quiet image of his guardian floated across the servants eyes. He had seemed so peaceful remembering Lady Úna. What if he didn't know anything? What if Merlin was wrong and the noble wasn't the cause of the lethargy? Could he do that to his guardian? Accuse someone so obviously precious to him of a crime punishable by death? Could he live with the pain he could cause the old physician if he were wrong? Merlin leaned his aching head against the cold stone wall. The conflict was tearing his soul apart. Trapped in an unending spiral to do what was right or what was kind.
He sucked in a mouthful of icy air and attempted to slow his frantic heart. Muffled sounds of chinking glass and grinding stone seeped through the wooden door. Merlin sighed. His brain and his heart still locked in an epic battle of morality. His instinct refereeing the fight, a sense still insure of who would reign victorious.
Closing his eyes, the servant pushed the wood. It was his choice to see where fate would lead him next.
A/N: Dun Duuuun! To be honest I'm not even sure what Merlin is going to do! His choice will decide what route the story will take so I'm a little bit scared to write the next chapter….. What do you think he should do? Or are you all just completely confused by everything? I honestly dont blame you... Thanks for reading it and I hope your all enjoying it! Things will start to pick up now as we go into the actual plot!
Adios!