A/N: This is my last update for a couple days. I'm going to a Potter-A-Thon at my local theatre where they are showing all 8 movies in 2 days! I'm kind of excited! Lol Anyway, hope you enjoy the chapter!
Disclaimer: The show doesn't belong to me!
She smirked evilly. "Good to see you too, brother." Arthur winced inwardly at the word. "Merlin," the name came out like poison. "So you have magic." She almost appeared surprised… almost. "I would never have imaged that. No matter. Your petty magic can't stop me this time!" Her tone was surprisingly not caring, dismissing the new information to the winds. Her deep green dress blew in the wind as she glared hostilely at Merlin.
Merlin pushed Arthur behind him, which the prince was not used to. "I won't let you hurt him, Morgana!"
The Lady Morgana's smirk disappeared. "It will take more than household tricks to be able to fight me, Merlin. Surely you know that." She turned towards her half brother. "Now, Arthur, won't daddy be disappointed when he finds out you're protecting a sorcerer?"
"You underestimate me," Merlin snapped, not wanting her to trigger Arthur's anger. He could feel Arthur's eyes on his back. The prince had never seen this side of Merlin, but it's about time he does!
She raised a dark eyebrow. "Do I?"
Arthur stepped forward, folding his arms and, Merlin could tell seeing Morgana again was hard on him. "Tell me, Morgana, have you ever heard of Emrys?"
Her eyes narrowed. "What do you know of Emrys?"
The prince looked at his warlock friend. "I'll take that as a yes." He looked back at Morgana. "What do you know of him?"
Morgana looked confused. "The Druids had predicted that he's the most power – Stop! We aren't having this conversation! I'm supposed to be killing you!" The blunt outburst shocked the two men, but pretended not to be phased by her words.
"You need to be quicker when trying to make your point, Arthur. She's impatient," Merlin commented, not trying to keep his voice down.
Arthur put his hand over his heart sarcastically. "My apologies." They looked back at Morgana to see her fuming. "You see, Merlin here is Emrys," Arthur finished. Morgana broke out laughing, just like Arthur had when Merlin had informed the prince that he was Emrys not too long ago.
Merlin shook his head. "You Pendragons are all the same," he mumbled before getting serious again. "Leave now, Morgana, and I promise you won't get hurt."
"You can't be Emrys! You're Merlin!"
"Actually," Arthur spoke up. "The two are the same person." Merlin grinned proudly at his friend. "And you would be wise not to cross him."
Morgana laughed darkly at her half brother and glanced back at Merlin who was standing not ten feet from her. Merlin improved his posture and stood up to his full height, hoping he could come across as a bit intimidating. Seeing Arthur through his peripheral vision, the prince looked very shocked at Merlin, which only made him grin evilly.
The smirk that Merlin thought was plastered on Morgana's face disappeared. "You being Emrys, now that is something not even Morgause could foresee." She frowned angrily.
"What's wrong, Morgana? Hoping to recruit Emrys into your cause?" Merlin countered. Judging by the blank expression on her face, that's exactly what they were planning. "Well, I'm not sorry to inform you that that won't be happening."
Her rage was boiling and blood rushed to her cheeks. As her tempered rose, Merlin could feel her magic coming forth, and apparently, so could Arthur. The prince leaned into the warlock and whispered. "Got any other ideas?"
"I might," he answered back in a hushed tone. "Astrice" Merlin cried, holding his hand out, expecting Morgana to go flying backwards. Instead, she laughed.
There was no Morgana being flung through the air with her feet above her head. His magic hadn't worked for him.
"Some Emrys you are," Morgana taunted. "You can't even preform the simplest of spells."
"Hey!" Merlin barked, Arthur jumping slightly. "That's not a 'simple spell!' Alltudia 'i chan 'm drem" he shouted in a deep voice. To his horror, his magic failed him once again. Merlin's heart pounded in his chest as his fear was confirmed. Arthur stared at Merlin with disbelief. Yep, when the Prince of Camelot was shocked that you couldn't do magic, something was wrong.
"M-Merlin?" Arthur muttered. "What's going on with you?"
He shook his violently. "I don't know!"
Turning their attention back to the witch, her smirk had reappeared. "Forberenon" she exclaimed and a fireball materialized in her hand.
Grabbing Arthur by the arm, Merlin yelled. "RUN!"
Not hesitating or resisting, Arthur ran for his life at Merlin's side. Quickly, Merlin snatched up his book and bolted. As the two raced through the trees, Merlin could tell Morgana was close behind them- her horse's hooves clog-clogging forcefully. The tree directly next to Merlin's head got hit by one of Morgana's fireballs, and Merlin unintentionally ducked, but kept running.
Unexpectedly, Arthur snatched Merlin and pushed him over a fallen tree trunk. Both boys fell to the ground, leaves sticking to every inch of their clothes. They snuck a peek over the top of the moss-covered wood. Morgana was sitting with much authority on her white horse – how ironic – and scanned the scene. "This isn't over!" she shouted into the forest before backtracking, leaving Merlin and Arthur to breathe out their held breaths.
"She'll be back," Arthur whispered, sitting with his back against the trunk. Merlin joined him.
"I know," the warlock sighed.
Then, after a long period of silence – partly to make sure Morgana wasn't tricking them – Arthur asked, "What was going on back there? Is that… normal for…" but he couldn't bring himself to say it.
Catching on, Merlin shook his head. "No, it's not. I really don't know what happened. It's like… my magic just stopped working, and I have no idea why!"
"And that's never happened before?"
"Not to this extent," Merlin concluded. "I don't think it was this bad even when I was Drago…" but he trailed off, forgetting for a moment that Arthur only knew of his magic, not of everything he has done. "It's nothing," he said quickly upon Arthur's suspicious looks. "I'll tell you more later. Right now…"
"We need to get back to Camelot," Arthur finished for him. He helped the warlock off the ground, and they both shook the dirt off of themselves. "Then, we need to see Gaius."
Merlin cocked his head. "Why?"
Arthur rolled his eyes and smacked Merlin on the back of the head. "To see what's wrong with you, and why your magic isn't working."
The warlock raised an eyebrow. "Are you saying you're actually concerned about my magic? That you're wanting me to be able to use magic?"
The prince turned his back and began walking towards Camelot. "Don't push it, Merlin," he called. Merlin rolled his eyes and caught up with his friend. Well, he was one step closer to acceptance. At least it wasn't fear.
Eventually, both boys reached Arthur's horse, and the prince took the reins, leading the animal back to Camelot. They entered the market and Merlin tried his best to hide the book. Arthur took note and walked closely next to Merlin to hide the thing from view. A guard saw them and took the horse back to the stables.
The two pressed onwards until they reached the steps of the castle, and the moment Merlin placed his foot on the first step, he wavered backwards. Arthur's instincts kicked in and he caught him before Merlin could fall flat on his backside, or worse, his head. And Merlin was thankful. He needed his head. He'd managed to keep it firmly attached to his shoulders so far; he damn well wasn't going to lose it by falling on the ground.
Just as Arthur steadied him, Merlin felt as if the wind got knocked out of him. The poor man felt nearly faint. He blinked a few times to focus his swirling vision. Merlin could hear Arthur trying to talk to him, but the prince's voice was just a faint echo, until finally…
"Merlin!" Arthur shouted. Merlin's head snapped up, looking lost. "That's it," he concluded and flung one of Merlin's arms over his shoulder, lugging him up the stairs and down the hall to Gaius' chambers. Merlin could feel his feet being dragged along the stone floor. It wasn't exactly what he would call comfortable.
After knocking on the door with his foot, for Arthur had to now support his manservant with both hands, Gaius opened up. "Merlin?" he said exasperated at the sight of his ward in such a frail condition. "What's happened?" The old physician rushed the two inside. Merlin clutched his book even tighter.
"I'm find, Gaius," Merlin insisted.
Gaius folded his arms. "You're 'find'?"
Merlin laughed once, trying to cover up the fact that he was balancing himself with a chair. "Ha, I mean, I'm fine!"
"No, he's not," Arthur provided as Merlin glared. Merlin was about to protest when Arthur quickly added, "I'm your prince and I say you're not fine."
"Yeah, well, I'm your warlock," said Merlin and collapsed in a chair and slammed the magic book on the table. "And I'm just tired. Stress."
Arthur snorted. "Stress, right, because it's so hard to protect me, seeing as I'm so incapable."
"You have no idea how incapable you really are," Merlin croaked out. No matter how shocked Gaius was by the casual conversation, taking place between prince and warlock, the physician didn't seem to show any emotion, only maybe a bit of annoyance.
Forcing Merlin to get up, he gestured for him to lie down on the patients' bed. "Merlin, sit down," he ordered, which the prince enforced by shoving the thin man down onto the mattress. "Tell me what happened." Merlin opened his mouth to answer, but no words came out. He tried again, but the thought of sleep was overwhelming and it was draining him of all of his energy. The next moment, he was pulled under.
~(o)~
Standing with arms folded, Arthur silently panicked when Merlin passed out on Gaius' bed, but the old man didn't seem too concerned. He got up from leaning over his ward's unconscious body and stared hard at the prince. "What happened to him?"
Arthur pinched the tip of his nose. "I found him in the forest doing… but the spell wasn't working. And his eyes didn't… change color." Deciding to skip over the whole apology scene, Arthur continued on. "That's when Morgana showed up…" and he explained everything up to the point of entering the castle. "… and that's when he just lost his balance on the steps."
By the look on Gaius' face, Arthur could tell that this was definitely not normal for… for someone like Merlin. Why couldn't he just say those two words and 'Merlin' in the same sentence?
"Do you recall the spell he was using the first time it didn't work?" Gaius quizzed. Arthur blinked, a bit taken aback by the question. Realizing that he wasn't getting an answer, Gaius asked, "Do you remember what it sounded like?"
"Um," Arthur thought hard. "It was something, ad me at car alert all demolish eggodrion."
Gaius gave the prince the Eyebrow. Arthur knew that probably didn't sound like any spell. Really, what kind of word was 'car'? His hopes sank. How was he supposed to help Merlin? He was the only witness there – the only one would cares about helping – and he couldn't tell Gaius anything advantageous.
"Wait," Gaius suddenly said, interrupting Arthur's thoughts. The man flipped through Merlin's magic book obviously knowing what he was looking for. Finally, he came to rest on a familiar page. "Ad 'm at ca 'r allu at deimlo 'ch egwyddorion?" Gaius asked.
Arthur nodded his head to the side. "Yeah, that's it."
Gaius folded his arms. "'Car alert all demolish'?"
"It sounds different when you're hiding in the trees!" he defended hostilely. No it doesn't, Arthur thought.
"Of course, My Lord," he said absentmindedly, reading the spell's description through prudently. "Oh, dear," Gaius muttered and glanced nervously at Merlin. Arthur was instantly at the old man's side. He didn't have to ask; Gaius was already explaining. "This spell requires a lot of both mental and physical energy for it to work." Arthur could have made a joke… if it was the right time. "Not to mention the amount of power…" and he muttered to himself, still staring at the book. "One of the side effects -"
"Spells have side effects?" Arthur asked without thinking.
The old man nodded. "Some do, yes. This spell has many risks. One of them including loss of one's magic."
Arthur's eyes widened. Leave it to Merlin to not fully read the dangers involved. "How long does it last?" he asked, staring at his friend with some worry.
Sighing, Gaius looked at Arthur full on. "The impact of the spell depends upon how much power the sorcerer has. However, unlike most spells where the impact is less if one has more power, this spell…" he trailed off for a moment. "The more powerful the person, the bigger the impact is going to be. If, say I were to preform such an enchantment, I might lose my power for a week, but Merlin…"
"Gaius, what are you saying?" Arthur asked bluntly after a moment, getting impatient.
"Merlin's power loss could possibly be… permanent."
A/N: Dun, dun, DUN!
Don't worry, I haven't forgotten about Leon knowing. And will Morgana return? Review!