Hello everyone,
So here it is, chap 11 corrected!
Thank to my lovely beta and for all the reviewers to.
Enjoy ^^
Chapter 11.
Arthur arrived expressly at Gaius' apartments, unannounced, as he had already done these... last same days. He put Merlin's feet gently to the ground, took him by the shoulders and forced him to sit on the stool just next to him, saying a "Sit! Don't move. Don't talk!"
The King stood up, went back to the front door, blocked the bolt, took one of the benches just behind him, and a chair, then a small wooden furniture, a cabinet, shelves and an extremely heavy trunk and used it to barricade the opening. He finally turned around and found himself facing two distraught and static heads which were staring at him strangely.
- "That is just to make sure that nobody will bother us!" The Sovereign replied as a poor explanation.
- "...Indeed..."The physician answered always immutably freeze of incomprehension.
- "Gaius, you have to believe what I am going to say..." Arthur began heading towards Merlin "What... I'll tell you will seem very improbable... but... it's the truth!" He said, pretending to look for something in the apartments.
The young warlock grimaced, staring at his friend who turned around him. The way he behaved didn't bode well. His fears were confirmed when his Sovereign squatted in front of him, his look falsely invalidated, eyes fixed, a half-measure smile masked by an unconcealed grimace, and a handkerchief in each hand. He had barely time to hear a "Sorry Merlin but I cannot let you hear what I'm going to tell!" Before nonchalantly felt the two damn clothes into his ears. He tried to protest but his friend shook his head, with his authoritarian eyes, to dissuade him. He could just hear a low buzzing in background in his ears, to his utter confusion and spite.
The alarm bell began to ring but Arthur took no notice of it. He cried just a "Leave us alone, it's an order!" To the guard who had not even knocked on the door yet. Then he turned round to Gaius who had not moved an inch, the latter always solemnly inquisitor and disturbed.
- "Well, let's start again!
- ... Because we had already started something,Sire?
- Yes,yesterday and before yesterday and the day before this last one...but you do not remember it, because in fact it was today..."
The doctor stared at his monarch completely lost, his mouth open as if words failed him ... What?
- "So, to cut a long story short: I relive that day over and over again... and again, and I cannot stop it. It is the fault of that spectre, or whatever it is, whom we met with Merlin in this cave, this 'Ankou' ... he is a Collector of souls and when he touched him the first time, he has sentenced him to death within twenty-four hours, that is to say: today. But the first time Merlin ...died, I broke the stick of this'sorcerer' in two pieces trying to kill him, and as it was the object that allowed him to control time,I blocked the course of history... So I wake up every morning of the same day hoping to find a way to make me pass to tomorrow without that idiot of manservant dies, because this damn day ends inexorably by his loss...! "
Arthur breathed in greatly, trying to resume a normal breathing after the tirade he had made in one go.
Gaius looked at him a moment, perplexed. But it seemed obvious that the young Sovereign knew things that himself didn't know, and his story, however strange it was, explained the behavior and sudden knowledge of the King.
- "If what you say is true...
- It is Gaius, I can swear it ...on Merlin's head... uh bad idea.
- ... How many time loops have you gone through, sire?
- I don't know, I've lost count!" Arthur said, walking towards the physician "But yesterday I found something in one of your books that could help us, but I have not had time to set it out... Merlin has... well he... before I... you understand?
- Yes, I'm afraid so, My Lord..." Gaius was sadly watching his ward, still sitting on his stool, staring intensely at the two men. "If we relive this day and that the death of Merlin is the end of it, why do not you tell him what's going on?
- How could I, Gaius? I saw him die so many times, in my arms, in such horrible ways, ... just watching him, it was painful... I can't, ... I can't tell him that this day will be the last for him, I can't tell him that I did not manage to save him all those times, I can't make him suffer unnecessarily by telling him that the situation seems hopeless, I can't, Gaius, ... just...I can't anymore..." Arthur finished, sitting tired and depressed on the little bench.
- "I fear, Sire, that this is not Merlin's reaction face to the events that disturb you the most, I fear it may be yours ..."
The Sovereign looked up, pale and listless; he knew very well what the doctor was trying to make him say.
- "You're afraid to express to Merlin how much you like him when you'll tell him that he will maybe die ... you can't stand his distress and you can't stand the thought of losing him..."
Arthur remained silent. Obviously he did not want to lose him, but he was the King and him, was his servant. Why was it s odifficult to admit to that idiot, this weakling serving boy, this wretched manservant, this clumsy grouch,that he was actually the closest friend he ever had, the most loyal, the most sincere, ... probably even the wisest, more than an adviser, more than a friend, in short, almost a brother... No,definitely, inevitably, he could not lose him...but by his royal pride, he could not tell him either.
- "I think it's more right to admit that you do not want to tell him, not that you can't..."The old man continued, studying the behavior of his Sovereign."You grant him so little credit, I believe that Merlin can help us to resolve this ... situation... "
Arthur got up and turned to face his servant who continued tirelessly to stare at them, probably trying to decipher the words from their mouths. He showed an annoyed smile despite himself, how could he give credit to this idiot when he looked like to an abandoned puppy with his two handkerchiefs hanging up from his ears?
- "You really think that telling him he will die is a good idea Gaius?" The king said, emphasizing every word, still looking at Merlin, uncertain of this decision.
- "WHAT? WHAT DO YOU MEAN, I'M GOING TO DIE?"
'Oh, no, he finally managed to read my lips'
- "I WANT TO KNOW WHAT'S GOING ON!
- Stop screaming Merlin ...
- WHAT?
- I said ... stop screaming." Arthur blew, removing the handkerchiefs of the ears of his friend.
The two young men stared at each other for a moment before that the eyes of the magician became more persistent, meaning: 'So? I'm waiting!' responded by a Royal grimace stating: 'Uh, I do not know where to start and I do not want to anyway'.
It was Gaius who spoke then, seeing that the two boys were in a silent conflict.
- "Merlin, I think that Arthur and you are in a monumental mess, my boy ...
- For a change...
- Yes, but this time the situation is... delicate.
- Because I... die? This is what you said? ... My Lord!"
The above-named acquiesced with a nod, could not get out a word, diverting his gaze from the one of his servant as if nothing had happened, faking his concern.
- "Apparently, according to Arthur, we perpetually reliving the same day, and at the end of it you... well, you..." Gaius continued, seeing that his Sovereign was still silent.
- "Yes, I understand the picture!" Merlin answered, swallowing with sound. Hard to believe this story to relive the same day, but he still had that feeling of déjà vu himself and he had never seen Arthur in this state of disrepair before, so he could maybe give him the benefit of the doubt. "Uh how?...I mean how is that possible?
- Ankou!" The King replied promptly, but always avoiding the eyes of his friend.
- "The man we me tyesterday in the cave?
- Yes, that one...
- But ...
- This is acollector of souls and he condemned you to death within twenty-four hours by touching you." Arthur said, in a tone which was as detached and disinterested as possible.
Merlin grew tense and took time to digest the news, he was actually going to die, and doesn't have long left. He tried to capture the look of his friend to know what he might feel but the eyes of his King remained hopelessly shifty.
- "Clearly, this man carried a stick..." Gaius intervened who had also difficulty controlling the distress of the two men.
- "Yes, I remember, it was gray with an onyx stone on top." The young warlock muttered, stared at the ground now, as if the whole weight of the world came to fall on his shoulders.
- "Arthur has clearly broken it and that is what triggered this 'time loop'." The old physician continued, beginning his research among his books.
- "I do not remember that you breaking it..." Merlin said, raising his head towards his Sovereign.
- "I did not break it when we were in the cave. It happened when...when he appeared the second time...
- You mean the first time I died, right?" The boy asked, a bit overwhelmed by the events, but really curious to know the whole truth.
But his friend could not answer; his throat was inevitably tied by his unbearable memories. He preferred to turn his back completely to his valet pretending not to hear his last sentence.
- "It is useless to look in this book Gaius...there is no information that could help us in it! Change of subject: done." The King said, closing the book of the old man's hands "But, I found an entire text of the control of time, ... what I tried to tell you earlier..., and there was the drawing of the famous stick inside...
- Do you remember in what book it was?
- Well, we have fully read those of this shelf, and ... this one..." Arthur explained by looking at the various stalls "...It's that one! Fourth shelf, the sixth book! "
The doctor remained speechless before the sudden dexterity of his young monarch. However, he turned to catch the book on tiptoe. Merlin joined the two men who began to leaf through the book expressly.
That's when someone knocked at the entrance and apparently banged on the barricaded door.
- "Later Gwen!" The Sovereign shouted, who did not even bother to look up the book, continuing to flip hard the pages.
Gaius and his pupil stared at each other for a moment, perplexed.
- "There! It's that one,I'm sure of it!" Arthur exclaimed, pointing to the drawing of the stick to the doctor.
- "It is noted: 'sceptrum oberour ar maro' : the scepter of the Death's worker." The old man translated in a serious tone before continuing "Conceived at the time of the Old Religion, adorned with a Crystal of Neatid…
- The Crystal of Neatid is white, and the stone on the stick was black, I'm pretty sure of it..." Merlin intervened, listening carefully to his mentor.
- "But it seems that the stone has been heated up, making it black onyx..." Gaius continued in his reading.
- "So we know how Ankou could control the time, The Crystal of Neatidis renowned for its magical power over the past, present and future ..." The young warlock muttered, anxious.
- "But I thought that this crystal was here in Camelot, in the vaults of the castle. My father had confiscated it during the Great Purge, and recovered from that incident with Alvarr (*). Is it possible that a piece of this stone was used to make the stick?" Arthur asked, confused.
- "I don't think so." The doctor replied, suspicious "There is a cave inside the valley of the Fallen Kings, it has an indecipherable number of these crystals in there, very few have had the chance to see this place..." He finished, turning towards Merlin, who him, had had the 'luck' (**), so to speak.
- "Is there many of them then?" Arthur muttered thoughtfully "So it can actually be it..." He continued "But if it is this stone which has the powers to control time, I do not see how the fact of breaking the scepter could damage the crystal?
- I fear that the power of the stone is bound by an enchantment with the stick itself, so if the scepter is broken, the time inevitably goes wrong..." Gaius announced, watching his demoralized ward sit on one of the chairs behind him.
- "How do we fix it, then?" The sovereign insisted, irascible.
- "Wel lthe stick was assembled by magic, so I fear that there is only the magic that could forge it again... "
There was a heavy silence, weighing on the shoulders of the three men, who were all exhausted and discouraged.
Arthur started walking to and fro, pacing, his hand over his mouth, like every time he pondered long, just before an important decision.
- "In this case, I think I have just one thing to do: ... learn magic!" The king said, assured, with a serious and reassured face, shaking his shoulders.
And Merlin fell off his chair. 'What did he just say?'
TBC.
(*) Épisode 2x11.
(**) Épisode 3x05.