Arthur's problem is Camelot's problem

When Merlin finally came back from the woods he had to attend to Arthur. Harry helped him clean Arthur's armor with a rather efficient cleaning spell. Merlin had been so surprised to see him do magic so openly, even if they had been in an unused anti-chamber of an old empty room in the west wing of the castle. Afterwards, Harry had suggested to go help Gaius instead and had left the room where Merlin was working.

When Merlin came back from the armory with Arthur's armor, chainmail and ceremony sword in his hands, he was welcome by a silver cup flying past his nose.

"Where-the-hell-have you been?"

"In the armoury, sire. Working on your armor."

"No, you haven't. I went to the armoury during the afternoon, Three times. You weren't there."

Arthur's tone was bitter and dry.

"Well I've also been running around the castle doing other chores so maybe you missed me."

"Which kinds of chores? The stables are still dirty, my chambers are a mess, the laundry hasn't been done and all the shirts I requested you to mend still have holes!

"What's got into you these past few days? I do almost every chore you demand me every day and still you act like a jerk!"

"One more comment like that and I swear you'll spend the night in the dungeons." retorted Arthur coldly.

There was way too much seriousness in Arthur's voice, so Merlin decided to give it a rest (again) and proceeded in collecting some clothes on the stone floor. They weren't particularly dirty, but if Arthur was angry, it was clear he was going to work out his anger on Merlin by giving him extra things to do.

"Don't mind the clothes, you're accompanying me on patrol around the town until nightfall."

"Nightfall? Do you want some er... snack before we go out? Otherwise you'll dine late."

"Nevermind that. There... there has been an incredibly high amount of flames lighting up randomly in the town these past two months, and it has increased since that obvious attack some nights ago. My father wants me to investigate it. We're going to collect testimonials and maybe after Geoffrey will be able to find what kind of creature is hiding inside our city."

"Okay."

"Again, don't talk to me like that."

"What? Okay." Merlin frowned, but didn't say anything. Normally he would have had the guts to ask Arthur why he was so upset but something kept him from doing it. He would have time later... or maybe not, since he had already told himself the same thing at least twice since they had found the trio.

Merlin followed Arthur to the lower town. The sun was already digging his way down the sky. They would probably be investigating for an hour or two before the sun came down entirely.

Arthur was very professional and knightly while talking to the peasants in the lower town. He seemed as serious and noble as he generally was on a normal-to-good day. Except each time he turned to Merlin his face his expression turned to one of anger and disgust.

They spent more time talking to the people in the lower town than originally planned. By the time they reached the castle courtyard, the sky was black and stars could be seen between vaporous clouds.

"Why is it you're so upset these days?" Merlin tried. Arthur seemed tensed, but not as much as before.

"Shut up."

"It would be much nicer if you just told me. That way I could try and make things better."

"Like hell. You would certainly make it worse."

"Try me." said Merlin in the most casual voice he could sound.

"Don't."

"I said, try me."

"No." Arthur simply said.

They walked through the castle in silence until they reached the prince's quarters. Then, Merlin proceeded to help Arthur out of his clothes and then went to fetch the prince's meal in the kitchens. Merlin bumped into a very shy Hermione along the way:

"Oh sorry, Merlin! Er...what are you up to?"

"Getting Arthur his marvelous dinner."

"This late?"

"We've been searching for traces of that mysterious erm...thing... Harry and I talked about during the afternoon. Seems like the king has heard rumors about it too."

"Off you go, then."

When Merlin came back to Arthur chambers with a plate of food and a jug of wine, he found the room to be empty. Arthur wasn't there.

Great, Merlin thought. It certainly won't be my fault if it gets cold.

Then he heard it. A sort of Bang outside the castle. He ran to the window, opened it and peaked outside carefully.

He couldn't see the source, but there was definitely some sort of light coming from the roof of the castle. Yellow light, actually. People were peaking their heads out of the windows, like him, and people were standing in the courtyard.

Oh no.

No no no no no.

He spotted Arthur along with several knights including Sir Kay and Sir Leon, trying to calm people in the courtyard. Oh god. Arthur wasn't even wearing his chainmail and armour. The light was getting brighter now, Merlin could see its reflection on other windows of the castle. Merlin quickly got every piece of Arthur's armour out, placed it on the table in a rush, and sprinted out of the room to Gaius's quarters.

The warlock bumped into Hermione along his way up to the physician chambers. She was worried, now.

"Tell me you saw the fire."

"It really is a fire then? I only saw the light."

They kept conversation to a minimum until they reached Gaius's quarters. There, they found the plate empty. Gaius was surely in the hall setting things up in case they the fire on the roof turned into an attack.

"I can't believe we just spent three hours talking to people in the lower town and ended up missing something on the roof." Merlin said.

But Hermione wasn't listening to him.

"...Ron, Harry? You in there?"

They heard footstep coming from Merlin's room.

"Yeah, Harry just climbed on the rooftop. He's trying to have some visual on the Salamancer."

Merlin and Hermione entered the messy room that was Merlin's bedroom.

"Please, Ron, we've got at least 1000 years of knowledge ahead of him." Hermione stated in Merlin's defence.

"What's a Salamancer?"

"The sorcerer who's controlling the salamander burning up your castle roof, for god's sake!"

"Who's god?" asked Merlin.

"Oh bloody hell!" exclaimed Ron. "No god at this time in history? Well, it should never have been created anyway."

Behind them, Hermione was emptying her magic pouch, throwing books on Merlin's bed as if it was perfectly normal to have a bag greater on the inside. Merlin climbed up the window. The height was frightening, but right now all he hoped was not to be seen by the citizens who were looking for the fire on the other extremity of the castle.

Harry lay flat on the rooftop. He was so pressed against it that Merlin wouldn't probably had noticed him if he hadn't been searching for him. He wasn't wearing the red shirt Merlin had lent to him, but a black shirt with sleeves cut mid-arm and a round collar. He wore a pair of those blue pants he was wearing when he and his friends had been found. And those strange shoes with laces and colors and a strange fabric.

"I bet Arthur wasn't in a very good mood after we returned from the woods." Muttered Harry as Merlin laid down beside him, not bothering looking away fromwhatever he was looking at. There was a way in which Harry investigated that Merlin liked. Hermione was really cleverer than him, but Harry had the leadership of the warrior. He was there, lying on his belly, eyes fixed on something Merlin couldn't see yet, and whatever it was, it seemed important.

Harry had a bit of Arthur's personality in him, Merlin thought. He tried to melt himself in the pieces of the rooftop like Harry, but the boy stopped him.

"Don't move, or we'll be caught!"

"What are you looking at?"

Harry moved slowly, his arms up to his nose and pointed in a direction right across them. Not 10 feet away, a man was standing his back facing Harry and Merlin, his black cloak swirling and floating in the wind.

"Oh my..."

"Shush!" Harry breathed.

Merlin could feel the heat of the fire growing not far from their hiding place. He looked at the burning flames. People were already there, trying to put it out with water. It wasn't working, because whenever a bucket of water was emptied, another fire was lit somewhere else around the area. Merlin spotted a tiny lizard, measuring only one foot approximately, scotched on one of the castle wall below the fire. "

"That's a salamander?"

Harry didn't respond, because the sorcerer made a sudden move. He looked behind him, as if he had heard Merlin. But he wasn't quite looking in their direction. After a moment, he turned his head back to the show that was offering Camelot's guards with their attempt at extinguishing the fire.

"I need to trap the salamander" Harry declared.

"What?" jerked Merlin.

"It's the easiest way to trap the Salamancer."

There was a silence, during which the two of them looked at the Salamancer, who was now much far away from them.

"How do you know so much about those sorcerers?"

"We studied them, responded Harry, in a Defence Against the Dark Arts course during our third year. Well, we mostly studied salamanders, but since Salamancers are connected, we read on them too."

"How do you bring them down?"

Harry smirked and laughed.

"It's quite easy in fact, but let's get going, I'm sure your Prince can handle the sit..."

He didn't get the time to finish his sentence, as an explosion caused a part of the roof to collapse.

"Arthur!" Merlin cried, panicked. Before he knew what he was doing, he was up on his feet, and his arms were stretched, knocking down the Salamancer and blowing a fearful amount of wind that put out the fire - well, most of it.

He could see the shadow of Arthur's body moving behind the curtain of fog and smoke.

"He's okay now Merlin. Let's go."

Merlin searched for the Salamancer, but where he should have been, there was nothing. And the salamander was gone as well.

"He vanished? How can he flee like that? No one can disappear through thin air! "

"Actually, people can!" Harry exclaimed, still laying down on his stomach, but he was now at the edge of the roof at the top of Merlin's bedroom. It was more than time to get back between the castle walls. Soldiers and knights were rushing toward them, but didn't seem to have noticed them, surely because of the smoke. They were standing opposite to the moon, of course they couldn't. It was what had permitted Merlin to see Arthur's shadow.

Back in Merlin's bedroom, they could hear people running on the rooftop. Dust fell on them as people passed. Harry had made sure to erase every trace of their presence on the roof before getting back into the room. There they stood, silent, as Camelot's peacekeepers passed.

Sometime later, several books were opened on Merlin's bed, and Hermione was silently studying them. Her hands brushed the pages softly, and she closed one book, putting him on a pile on the floor.

"What are you searching for?" Merlin asked once he was sure no more guards or knights were close enough to the room to overhear them.

"A way to get back home." She replied, still concentrated on the book laying on her lap.

"I thought you said there wasn't anything useful in your books?"

"I am searching information about house elves magic, actually. I noted down what Ron know about them, but it's not enough."

"What purpose does it serve?"

Hermione looked at him intensely. She was shy.

"You are the most powerful sorcerer the world has ever known, Merlin. If I can find a match between your abilities and house elves magic, we'll be able to find our way to the 21st century. I only need a procedure house elves uses to interfere with time and space for you to reproduce."

Merlin stared at her in shock.

"You really think I will be able to do this? What if I end up crushing you to death into space?"

"You won't."

In her eyes, he could see all the trust she put in him. Ron, still weak, joined her and continued to search the books with her. Merlin and Harry joined them after a moment.

And they sat like this in silence all night, until, not long after dawn illuminated the sky, Ron cried in triumph.


Okay! so only one (long) chapter to go! I hope you enjoyed that one, because it really gave me a headache to write it. I really wanted to connect Arthur's behavior to the sorcerer, and even if there is some explanation left to do, I hope you understand that Arthur had been searching for the source of fires for a while or something like that.

Please write reviews, it really help me write and improve my storytelling!