Sorry this took so long to upload. Enjoy!
Arthur woke up late the next morning and was very glad that he had nowhere to be in a hurry. He dragged himself out of bed, padded across the cold, stone floor and pulled apart the heavy curtains covering the window, allowing a beam of bright late morning sunshine to enter the room. The dust motes caught the light and swirled in the air around him. With a groan he turned away from the window and went about preparing himself for the day without the help of Merlin.
He smiled fondly to himself as he recalled how Merlin had managed to keep himself on as his manservant. When Merlin had returned to Camelot and defeated Morgana and Morgause, Arthur had within hours named him a court advisor, much to the man's discomfort. That was why when Merlin had shown up in his chambers the next morning to wake him up after his three month absence he had been more than a little surprised.
"You don't have to do this any more," Arthur had told him.
"I want to," Merlin had said as he crouched to pick something up off the floor.
"In that case I order you to go do something else and stop performing your duties as my manservant for god's sake."
Merlin had stood and smirked at him. "If you do that you won't have a manservant at all. I think we both know how that would go."
Arthur had shivered at the thought. "What about Henry? He took over while you were gone." In fact it had been strange that he hadn't been there already seeing as Merlin was late, as usual.
"I believe you will find that he no longer has any desire to work for you. In fact, I have a strong feeling that you will not be able to find anyone who is interested in becoming your manservant."
"Merlin, what did you do?"
The man had grinned at him. "I made sure that not everything about my life will change."
Back in the present, Arthur was ready to go and face the day. He glanced around the room and was a bit surprised at just how messy it was. He had been so tired when he finally got in last knight that he had just let things fall where they may. With a heavy sigh he stooped to pick up at least some of the mess for himself.
The door opened with a click and creak. Arthur didn't bother looking up to see who it was. The only people who were allowed into his room without announcing themselves were Merlin and Guinevere. The two guards posted outside his door at all hours made sure that the rule was strictly enforced.
"Hello Guinevere, I'll be with you in a moment. I am just trying to tidy things up."
He heard a tray set down on the table, then Merlin said with a great deal of amusement, "If you are going to call me a girl you could certainly choose an example that is more insulting than Gwen. The fact that you would compare me to her is almost flattering."
Arthur shot up. "Merlin!"
Merlin picked an apple up from the tray and tossed it to him. "I thought you might like some breakfast…well at this hour it's really lunch."
Arthur deftly caught the apple and absentmindedly took a bite out of it. "Gaius said there was no way you would be better by today." He was happy the physician had been wrong.
Merlin turned away from him and began picking up Arthur's mess. "Well here I am, right as rain."
Arthur picked up a pair of pants and threw it at the back of Merlin's head. He didn't anticipate that the cloth would pass through Merlin and land on the ground in front of the man.
Merlin stood up and spun around. He fixed Arthur with a hard glare.
"What on Earth?" Arthur breathed.
"Okay, so I am not exactly better yet."
"It passed through you!" Arthur's voice cracked. He was glad no one heard it but Merlin.
"Yes," Merlin said, trying to hide a smile, "It did."
Arthur shook his head to clear it. "You should still be in your room, recovering."
"I am in my room."
Great, Arthur thought, now I have to worry about his sanity and his solidity. "No. You are in my room."
"No. I am not." A sound began to fade into hearing as though starting out far away and quickly coming closer until it could clearly be identified. Someone was knocking on the door.
"Merlin," Gaius said, "Open the door."
Arthur, still very confused, walked around Merlin to the door. The man made no move to stop him. He pulled it open to find…no one. No one was there. Impossibly, the knocking sounded again. Arthur turned on Merlin. What was going on?
"Merlin!" he heard Gaius call again.
"I'm not coming out Gaius, and it is too dangerous for you to come in," Merlin called loudly.
"Let me help you, my boy," Gaius pleaded.
"You can't help. I'm busy right now."
The sounds faded away into oblivion.
"Merlin," Arthur said slowly, "what is going on?"
Merlin sat down, except he wasn't actually sitting on anything. His body position made it clear that he was sitting on something solid, but there simply was nothing there. Merlin seemed to notice Arthur's stare and he disappeared and reappeared a few feet from his original position, now sitting on Arthur's bed.
"Well to start, what I told Gaius about it being too dangerous for him to come into my room to see me was true. It is far too dangerous for me to be around anyone right now. I'm not completely sure how long that will be the case."
"But you are with me right now," Arthur insisted.
Merlin shook his head. "No, this is just a projection. I'm in my room. This is just an image of what I am doing in there."
"But you are talking to me." It was easier for Arthur to believe Merlin insane than accept some of the things he could do.
Merlin raised an eyebrow. "Well, I can see and hear what is going on around the projection, otherwise what would be the point of it?"
"But you touched things, picked them up."
"Magic," Merlin said. Even Arthur had to admit he should have figured that one out on his own. "The projection had no mass to it. It is just light."
Arthur opened the door again and said to one of the guards standing there. "Can you please find Guinevere and bring her here?" The man rushed off to do as he had been asked and Arthur closed the door once more and sat down. He wanted Gwen there when he talked to Merlin about the most important thing they had to do at the moment- find where Morgana had taken Hunith and get her back.
Merlin and Arthur sat in an awkward stretch of silence for a few minutes. Finally unable to sit still any longer, Arthur got up and started trying, once again, to do some cleaning. Merlin sighed and waved a hand. All the clutter made its own way back to where it belonged. Arthur sat back down and the uncomfortable silence returned. Neither of the men thought they had ever been more happy to see Guinevere than the moment when she finally walked into that room.
She was clearly surprised to see Merlin but she didn't say anything about it. "You wanted me sire?"
"Come on Guinevere, it's just Merlin. He knows everything anyway," Arthur said, smiling.
Gwen smiled in return and sat on his lap. Merlin gave them both his small sad smile in return and got a faraway look in his eyes. Arthur remembered once more what had happened to him with Freya, how the two of them had been with each other yesterday…was it really only yesterday?...he felt bad that he and Gwen got to have each other and Merlin had lost the only person he had really loved in that way. The very least he could do was get Merlin back the person that it was within his power to retrieve- his mother.
"I am going to send out scouts all across the kingdom as well as messengers to the surrounding lands to see if anyone has spotted Morgana," Arthur said.
"That won't be needed," Merlin said. His blue eyes were hard with determination. "I will whip up a tracking spell as soon as I am able."
"Still," Arthur insisted, "I will send them out, just to be on the safe side."
Merlin nodded but didn't say anything. He was staring off into space looking fearful and worried. Gwen made to get up to go over to Merlin and comfort him but Arthur held her back. There was no need to go through the projection discussion again, especially under current circumstances.
"We will get her back," Gwen said, "You can be sure of it."
Merlin frowned. "I know," he said, "It's what they will do to her in the mean time that worries me."
There were some unintelligible shouts in the hallway and then the door to the room burst open to reveal Elyan.
"Sire, Merlin, Gwen," he said, "You all need to get to the council room. Now."
Arthur rose, still holding Guinevere. "What happened?" As though things aren't already bad enough.
"It's the witches sire. They have…" Elyan swallowed audibly. His eyes were wide and he was pale under his dark colouring. "They have taken the children sire… all of them. Every child under the age of twelve has vanished."
Arthur's eyes were as wide as they could go. "Thank you, Elyan," he said in a monotone. "We will be there as soon as we can. You may go."
Elyan left the room and the door swung closed behind him. Merlin said something very un-Merlin-like and jumped off the bed. The only problem was that his feet were not touching the floor.
"Merlin," Arthur said, pointing.
"Damn, your bed is taller than mine," he said, more to himself than to Arthur or Guinevere, and placed himself back on the floor.
To Gwen's credit she once again made no comment. She was far too worried about the children to be concerned by Merlin's sudden hovering. "Come on, we need to get going."
They walked out of the room together and headed towards the council chambers. Merlin had the fun of walking in circles around his small room to make his stride appear continuous as they rushed down the oddly empty halls.
The first servant they passed Arthur stopped. "I need you to go to Gaius and tell him to come to the council meeting immediately. Also I need you to give him a message with these exact words. Ready?" The servant nodded. "Arthur is perfectly aware of what is going on with Merlin, but it is far more important that you come to the meeting immediately. Got it?" The servant nodded and shot an odd glance to Merlin before rushing off to relay the message.
"I don't think I have ever dreaded a council meeting more in my life than I do right now," Arthur said.
"That's good," Merlin said.
"How is that good?" Gwen asked incredulously.
"Because if he had dreaded another one more than this I would probably have to sock him."