A/N: Also not part of the Lily verse. Next one though!


Chapter 1

Merlin sat at the table in the council chambers, trying to resist the urge to make some fire balls to play with while they waited for the Council meeting to start. Even though he'd been court sorcerer for several months now, his magic still unnerved some of the older nobles, and he enjoyed agitating them on occasion. Arthur, however, didn't appreciate the immaturity, so Merlin refrained. Most of the time.

But especially today since Arthur was already getting impatient. One of the council members was extremely late.

Arthur finally huffed and straightened in his seat at the head of the table. "Let's start without Lord Guilis. What is the first order of business?"

One of the members opened his mouth to speak but didn't get a word out before the doors banged open and a guard came bursting in.

"Sire," he said urgently. "Lord Guilis is dead."

Arthur's expression slackened in shock. "What? How?"

"A servant found him in his chambers."

Arthur got to his feet and immediately followed the guard out. Merlin hurried after him. They made their way up to the nobleman's chambers where they found him lying in bed, eyes frozen open. He looked as though he had died in his sleep, though he wasn't that old. Gaius was already there examining him.

"He's cold," Gaius reported. "He must have passed late last night."

"From what?" Arthur asked.

"I'm not sure. It seems his heart just stopped."

"Isn't he a little young for that?" Merlin put in.

Gaius canted his head in agreement but said, "It's not unheard of."

Arthur nodded solemnly and turned to the servants huddled in the corner. "Make arrangements for the funeral," he instructed. "And someone inform the Council our meeting is postponed until afterward."

The servants scattered to see it done.

With the meeting cancelled, Merlin was free to head off to do his own thing. He never enjoyed the Council sessions, but this was a bad way to get out of it.

He ran into Gwaine and Lancelot in the corridor.

"We heard what happened," Lancelot said. "Was it foul play?"

Merlin shook his head. "Looks like just an untimely natural death."

"Well, since you're free now," Gwaine said, "want to come train with us?"

Merlin huffed. "I don't know why you keep insisting I train when I have my magic to defend myself."

"One can never have too many tools available to him," Lancelot pointed out. "Besides, we both know there have been times when your magic hasn't worked."

Merlin's expression soured at the reminder, but he nodded in resignation and followed his friends out to the training field. He'd thought that as court sorcerer he'd no longer have to play the target, but that wasn't the case.


The next morning, Merlin was awoken by a loud banging on Gaius's door. He groaned and dragged himself out of bed to see what the commotion was about. It could have been for him or Gaius, since they both had such prominent positions within the court now. Arthur had offered to give Merlin his own chambers, but Merlin had declined. He felt comfortable where he was, and he still helped Gaius with his work, so it was just easier.

Gaius had still been asleep himself and was just shuffling his way to the door as Merlin emerged. A guard was standing on the other side.

"There's been another death," he said.

Merlin bounded down the steps to accompany Gaius to investigate. The guard led them to Sir Caelen's room where they found the knight in the same position as Lord Guilis had been—lying in bed, looking asleep save for the obvious cold tinge to his skin.

Leon was standing off to the side, arms crossed and expression pinched. "His eyes were open," he told Gaius. "I closed them because…" He broke off.

Merlin knew Sir Caelen was a friend of Leon's, that they had grown up together. "You found him?" he asked.

Leon nodded. "He was late for duty this morning, which is unusual. I came to check on him."

"Was anything out of place?" Gaius asked as he examined the body.

"I don't think so," Leon replied, sounding distraught at the implication.

Arthur and Gwen arrived. They took one look at Sir Caelen, and then Gwen immediately went to Leon while Arthur turned to Gaius.

"A single mysterious death is one thing, but two?"

Gaius canted his head in agreement. "I can't be sure, but given the identical nature of the passings, it could be some kind of poison."

Leon visibly stiffened at that.

"Who would want Sir Caelen and Lord Guilis dead?" Gwen asked.

"We'll find out," Arthur replied staunchly. "Is there any way to identify the poison?"

"After the fact? Not very likely," Gaius said regretfully.

"I'll start questioning people," Leon said.

"I'll help," Merlin said, quickly following his friend out of the room. Once out in the hall, he asked, "Did Caelen have any enemies?"

Leon shook his head. "He got along with everyone."

"Did he have any connection to Lord Guilis?" Merlin, at least, wasn't aware of one.

Leon shook his head again. "I don't think so. I don't know why anyone would do this."

"Hey, we'll get to the bottom of it," Merlin promised. "I'll talk to the servants who attended him. We overhear a lot."

"You're not a servant anymore," Leon reminded him.

"Yeah, but I'm still friends with them. So is Gwen. Someone must know something."

Unfortunately, their initial investigation failed to uncover anything. Sir Caelen was well-liked and respected, didn't hold on to some of the old prejudices regarding commoner knights and magic. Neither had Lord Guilis, though he hadn't been in favor of those things. But he'd at least accepted his king's ruling on the matters. Gaius hadn't discovered any physical sign of contact with poison, which suggested the victims had ingested it. But questioning the kitchen staff didn't reveal anything either. Those people had all worked there for years and Merlin knew them all. No one seemed off or acted suspicious, nor were there any poisons hidden in the kitchen somewhere. They were at a loss.

And then the following morning came the report of a third victim, a servant this time. Merlin and Gaius looked over the body while Arthur, Gwen, and the knights of Arthur's inner circle stood by and watched.

"Someone tying up loose ends before you got too close?" Elyan speculated.

"Except he didn't work in the kitchen or attend the first two victims," Merlin replied.

"He could have still gotten around," Gwaine pointed out.

Gwen shook her head. "I knew him. He would never do something like that. Could it be a sickness?"

Gaius pursed his mouth in consideration. "If so, I've never seen anything like it before, and no one is presenting with any kind of symptoms beforehand. That would make it a very fast acting pathogen."

"Or magic," Arthur put in grimly and looked to Merlin for an answer.

But he didn't have one. Like Gaius, he'd never seen anything like this. "I'll start looking through the books."

"And I'll continue making inquiries," Leon said. "In case this is a conspiracy."

Arthur nodded. They had a lot of avenues to pursue, but only vague ones.

Merlin and Gaius went back to his chambers to dig out their books on magic and start researching. Merlin didn't really know what to look for, though. Dying in one's sleep wasn't really a magical kind of thing, though the circumstances and frequency was definitely suspect.

Leon came by later that evening to ask if they'd found anything, but they hadn't. Neither had he. Merlin assured him they'd keep looking.

Gaius eventually went to bed while Merlin stayed up, determined not to let everyone down. If he'd felt the burden of protecting Camelot secretly, he felt the weight of it more now that everyone knew about his magic and expected him to be their hero when it came to magical attacks. But as the night wore on and the candle wicks burned down, he worried whether there would be a fourth death by morning that he failed to prevent.

He was so tired, he tried to rest his eyes for just a moment, but ended up falling asleep. He was woken later by the sounds of Gaius moaning in his sleep. Merlin lifted his head off the book that'd become his pillow, the page slightly crinkled as a result. A smudged shape in his peripheral vision caught his attention, and he rubbed his eyes as he turned toward Gaius's bed. He went rigid at the sight of a hideous creature with wiry bristled fur and a plump body sitting right on Gaius's chest. It had a long snout with a rubbery nose, and two long tusks—which had pierced Gaius through both shoulders.

Merlin leaped to his feet, scraping the bench seat backward across the floor. "Gaius!"

The creature snapped its gaze to him, looking startled.

Merlin raised a hand, his magic flooding to the surface, but he didn't want to risk hurting Gaius with an offensive spell. "Get away from him!" he shouted instead.

The monster backed up, extracting its tusks. Merlin uttered a spell, but the beast was faster and jumped off the bed before it was hit. The magical force struck the back wall with a concussive whomp.

Merlin swung around to follow the creature as it went scampering across the floor and then leaped out the open window. Merlin darted over and looked out, but there was no sign of it. He spun and rushed over to Gaius.

"Gaius!"

Gaius was still moaning and tossing his head side to side. Merlin frantically gripped his shoulders to inspect the wounds, but there was no blood, no puncture marks at all. He was chilled to the touch, though. Merlin shook him urgently.

Gaius came awake with a gargled gasp, eyes wide and frightened. "Merlin," he choked and reached up to grip his arms hard, like he was holding on for dear life.

"Are you okay?" Merlin asked worriedly.

Gaius looked disturbed for another second, then schooled his expression and patted Merlin's arm. "Of course. It was just a nightmare. Sorry if I woke you."

Merlin shook his head. "It wasn't a nightmare. I know what's been killing people in their sleep."