AN: Shortest chapter yet, I know. But this is one of the tie-ins to TV Magic so it had to happen at some point. If it makes you feel better, the next chapter is three times longer.
The thud of the library doors slamming against the stone walls woke Merlin and Sir William from their slumber. Heavy footsteps told Merlin it was another surprise search ordered by Uther, and he fell back on his bed with a groan.
"What is it?" he heard William ask, very much upset at the disturbance.
"Random search, sir," one of the more polite knights answered. "Is your ward around? We need you both where we can see you while we search."
Before his guardian could start to lie for him, Merlin called down that he was coming and swung his legs out of bed, landing harder than usual so the knights could hear. With a sigh, he pulled his magic tighter inside him and wrapped his threadbare blanket around him for good measure. He hoped it was not one of Uther's more paranoid moods, not that he wasn't always paranoid. But when he was in one of his moods the disks were used on the searches. Seeing as it was the middle of the night, they probably would be.
Standing next to William, they watched silently as the knights investigated the library yet again, waving about the disks to detect magic. Well, Merlin was silent. William was constantly reprimanding them to be careful with the ancient books.
"Please be careful with that one. It's a one of a kind gift from the kingdom of Venta and has been here for two hundred years. And that one, too. It's a record of kings stretching back four hundred and twenty years."
"Yes, I know the shelves over there cause the disks to glow green. They were reinforced with magic when they were first built so they can support the weight of the books. I told that to the last search–yes, the king knows about it."
"For crying out loud, the glow is always brighter there, can't you see the giant mirror? Of course magic made it. It's a single pane of glass. No, it doesn't do anything but reflect the face of the man who can't remember that I explained this the last four times."
What seemed like an hour later, Prince Arthur came into the room and asked for a quick report, making notes on his scroll before marching on without even a glance at Merlin. The report complete, the knights stopped their ransacking, not bothering to replace the books on the shelves.
William shouted at them on the way out. "Yes, please leave. And next time check your records for the anomalies of this room before you start trying to find harmful magic where there is none."
The group of knights left, unperturbed by his harassment. They were trusted members of Uther's court; nothing a retired knight could say would bother them. They were only interested in protecting the kingdom from the evils of magic.
Merlin was glad they didn't get around to checking his room this time. Everything was hidden away, of course, but it was the principle of it. "I can't do this anymore!" he exclaimed, throwing his hands up in exasperation.
Sir William looked over at him with a raised brow. "What can't you do?"
"Hiding all of those books in my chambers; waking up at stupid hours for searches; keeping herbs for potions under the floorboards of my room. Take your pick." He began pacing between the bookshelves in the library. "I don't know if Arthur's noticed yet, but that wretched stone was brighter this time. We can't keep explaining it away as residual magic of the castle architecture. My shields just can't contain the magical auras. Not of the books in the secret rooms nor my own. Morgan said she could still sense mine when we were in the woods."
"What if you moved the books to somewhere the guards would never search?" William suggested.
"Where? I didn't think the library would be searched every time Uther had a fright, and yet, here we are."
"I was thinking somewhere the guards don't know exists. Somewhere underground."
Merlin grinned when he caught William's drift. "I'll go ask him," he said as he leapt to his feet and ran out of the room.
Merlin ran until he reached the clearing where Kilgharrah was already waiting for him. He explained his idea for an underground library in the abandoned cave and Kilgharrah thought it was an excellent idea. He helped Merlin to craft spells to sculpt a room out of the stone in the cave to store his growing collection of magic books. The room would be small and creating it needed to be far more controlled and precise than when he had carved out the underground cavern for the druids. It'd be perfect for becoming a small study of his own.
Merlin worried at first that the natural dampness of the air in the cavern would damage the books. He knew William would be furious with him if the glue ran and ruined the pages. Kilgharrah reminded him that he could place a spell to control the humidity in the room.
He even went one step further and gifted Merlin with a spell to modify the mirror in the library. Where Merlin had previously stepped through the large mirror to a small room beyond that his father had left for him, now a charm spoken before and a rune pressed on the border could change the destination. He had an instant portal to the cavern down below. Another rune on the stone wall below worked in reverse.
The nature of the mirror still meant that only he could use it, but the modification was incredibly useful nonetheless.
