Hello all! OMG I'm so chuffed about the amazing responses to the first chapter! I hope you'll like the rest of the story as much. Here's chapter 2, enjoy!
Chapter 2
Arthur was speaking to him again! As in, he said things like 'pass me my tunic' and 'where is my sword' and 'how come you're such a terrible servant even with magic'. However, he refused to listen to anything that was more than three words long. If Merlin were to even think of broaching the subject of magic it would be 'shut up, Merlin' even if the only thing Merlin had done was open his mouth to speak.
So even if going on patrol was not Merlin's favourite activity – but hey, at least it wasn't hunting – Merlin was glad Arthur had remembered to take him along. Especially when out of nowhere the forest darkened to a near pitch-black and a fireball came hurtling out of the treeline straight towards Arthur.
It was so sudden Merlin didn't have time to react; luckily Arthur had legendary reflexes and leaned all the way back to evade it without even a singed hair. He even managed to keep his horse from doing more than snort uneasily. The knights were shouting in alarm, but because of the black fog it was hard to locate anyone who wasn't a couple of feet away – hopefully that fireball hadn't hit someone else in head.
And then another fireball came at them from straight ahead. "Merlin, do something!" Arthur yelled, and Merlin's instinct was to say something along the lines of 'what do you want me to do, I'm just a servant' when he remembered he wasn't just a servant anymore. It was all right to be a warlock too, now.
With an outstretched hand Merlin caught the fireball and sent it back the way it came. There was a yelp, and the darkness fled before the light of midday. On the road an old man was, well, on fire. Merlin doused him with a thought while Arthur jumped off his horse and drew his sword.
Right, a sorcerer. Wait, no—
"Arthur, don't! He's not a sorcerer!"
Arthur's sword stopped inches above the man's arms, outstretched to protect his head as he knelt in the dirt. "He just threw a fireball at me! What else could he be?"
Merlin quickly slid off his horse to join him. He took his time looking the man over and peering at his half hidden face. "He's a mage, of course. And I can make fireballs too, you know. That doesn't mean anything."
"A mage. A mage! And how do you know that?" Merlin was pretty sure that if Arthur hadn't been pointing his sword at the man he would have petulantly crossed his arms; that's what the tone of his voice suggested, anyway.
"Well, he has white hair," Merlin said, which once he'd said it sounded like the lamest possible reason to be a mage.
Arthur thought so too. "A lot of sorcerers have white hair!"
Merlin shook his head. "Not as many as you'd think, Sire. Besides, I can tell he's a mage, since I'm a warlock."
The man let his arms fall. "You're a warlock?" he asked, incredulous – why did no one ever believe him when he told people to their face that he had magic?
"Tss, obviously a mage. He can't even tell a warlock from a servant. Mages are stupid."
"I'm not stupid!" the man said indignantly. As if Merlin wasn't trying to save his life here! Merlin glared at him.
"You're a mage, of course you're stupid. Don't listen to him, Sire, he might confound you with his idiocy."
The man was gaping, and in truth so was Arthur, but Merlin kept his thoughts – like, the 'mage' had obviously already infected Arthur with his idiocy – to himself. Really, giving his regular idiocy, Arthur must have met a 'mage' at birth.
"This is insane," Arthur muttered.
"Oh no, it's already started," Merlin said in an alarmed tone. He grabbed onto Arthur's shoulders and shook him. "Stay with me, Arthur. Don't let him get to you!"
"It's not me he's got in his spell, it's you," Arthur said with an eye-roll.
"Ah, it's not a spell. Idiocy is not magical, but it is contagious."
"Don't worry, I'm immune. I've survived years of your service after all," Arthur said with a wicked smirk.
Merlin smiled brightly – it was nice seeing Arthur acting normal again – but he did also want to kick Arthur where it hurt most. It was Merlin who had survived years of being in Arthur's service, not the other way around.
"So what do I do with a mage who attacked me, then, if he's not a sorcerer?"
"Well, what would you do with a bandit who tried to steal your money?"
"I wasn't tr—" the man started to say, but Merlin's glare shut him up real quick. Gods, this man was an idiot!
"Imprisonment," Arthur said with narrowed eyes. "But pray tell, Merlin, how do you imprison someone who can throw fireballs?"
"Oh, don't worry your pretty head about that, Arthur. As your resident warlock I'll take care of it."
The man was arrested and bound by the knights, and back towards Camelot they went. Which meant Merlin had to think up a way to keep magic-using criminals inside a cell. He really needed to get Gaius to tell him how people dealt with magical offenders before Uther came along to muck it all up.
OOOoooOOO
If Merlin had thought Arthur would be a bit less evasive after saving his glorious blond locks from a fireball, he would have been sorely disappointed. Luckily, Merlin was a bit of a pessimist these days, so the lack of Arthur all around didn't hurt as much as it could have. Besides, he had a lot of work to do, what with making a cell in the dungeons magic proof, and that on top of his normal duties.
Not seeing Arthur did get on his nerves, though. It must be his usual paranoia. (It wasn't like he was missing Arthur's stellar personality, right?) After all, Arthur always managed to get into trouble when Merlin wasn't around.
It gave Merlin a funny feeling in his chest, not knowing where Arthur was. So a couple of days after the mage debacle – once said 'mage' was secured in a cell with magic-dampening shackles – Merlin decided to take the day off and go Arthur-hunting.
While he was looking for the magic-blocking spells, he'd come across a nifty-looking concealment enchantment. It took him a couple of tries, but soon his body blended in with the background, akin to what his book called a chameleon, whatever that may be.
When he crossed Gaius' chambers, the old man looked up with a frown and soon followed Merlin's location with his eyes. "Merlin?" he called.
Merlin sighed. "Can you see me? I really thought this would make me invisible."
"What are you up to now?"
"Nothing. Just going to stalk Arthur because he's evading me. But if this isn't working I'll have to find something else."
Gaius smirked. "It works. This invisibility spell is really effective when you are immobile, and it distorted colours when you move. Also, it can make you invisible, but it by no means makes you silent."
"Ah." Not the most practical enchantment for stalking people, then. It was more a fly-on-the-wall kind of thing, then. "Do you happen to know an invisibility spell that makes you properly invisible?"
"Not if you intend to become visible again, no."
"Ah."
"Good luck, my boy."
So Merlin kept to the emptiest corridors, hugging the walls, ready to freeze in place at any time and staying as quiet as he could. He happened upon Arthur outside the council room and followed him from afar, first to the throne room where he spoke with a noble, then to the stables where he petted his favourite horse.
Arthur seemed tense. He kept glancing around, and more than once Merlin thought Arthur might have noticed him, but his eyes swept over Merlin without seeing him.
Merlin followed him up to the battlements where they stood for a while, watching the people of Camelot go about their lives. Merlin almost missed it when Arthur slipped through the door and down the tower steps and he hurried after him.
Arthur was already way down the corridor and Merlin risked a tip-toed jog to catch up to him. When he turned the corner, there was Arthur, and there was Excalibur – Merlin barely managed to stop in time not to impale himself. In one swift movement Arthur had shouldered him against the wall, and the sword stopped dangerously close to Merlin's invisible throat.
"Show yourself," Arthur barked.
"Hey! Hey, wait! It's me! It's me!"
The pressure on Merlin's ribcage eased a fraction. "Merlin. What are you doing?"
"Uhm…"
"Did some sorcerer curse you?"
"Ah, no, I made myself invisible."
Arthur rolled his eyes and let go of Merlin. "Well can you make yourself not invisible?"
"Yeah, just, give me a second." It took Merlin three tries to be able to see his arms again – three tries during which Arthur, arms crossed, looked more and more impatient at Merlin's most recent shenanigans.
Merlin checked as much of his own body as he could. "Do I look normal again?"
"Define normal."
"Very funny."
"You look fine."
Silence fell in the deserted corridor. Arthur looked forbidding, and Merlin did his best to look confident despite his sheepishness. Arthur sighed loudly.
"Don't you have work to do?"
Merlin crossed his arms, mirroring Arthur. "I took the day off. So did you it seems."
"I can't take a day off, I'm always the king. And you need my authorisation to take the day off. You can't just do whatever you want, Merlin."
"Well I could hardly ask you since you were nowhere to be found."
Arthur's eyebrows lifted. "Looks like you found me easily enough."
"Only because you didn't see me, you mean."
"I'm pretty sure I just proved I could see you pretty well," Arthur said, gesturing at the wall Merlin had been pinned against not five minutes ago.
"You didn't know it was me. Doesn't count."
"Fine. And why were you following me on your unauthorised day off?"
Merlin's mouth opened to answer with a very clever comeback, he was sure, except no sound came out because he didn't have one. He hadn't expected to be found out by Arthur. 'I had a funny feeling' wasn't the kind of excuse that Arthur would appreciate.
Besides, Merlin's funny feeling was not like the funny feelings he got when something actually bad was going to happen. It was more that he'd been missing Arthur, really. But he wouldn't tell Arthur that either.
"Just checking you were still in one piece, really. I mean, I've been doing it for years, I just used to be able to do it while visible."
"I don't need your protection, Merlin."
"Don't you, though? I could tell you of many occasions when—"
"No. No, you don't get to do that. Claim like you secretly harbouring magic was a good thing all for my benefit. Don't follow me again. I'm sure you have actual duties to attend to."
"But Arthur—"
"If I ever need your expertise, Merlin, I'll be sure to let you know."
Arthur turned on his heels and walked away without a single glance back. The funny feeling in Merlin's chest returned, except now it felt more like something scratching away at his very soul.
Good job, Merlin. You made it all worse. He leaned against the wall and banged his head against it a couple of times to clear it. He should have known following Arthur was a bad idea. It was always better to let Arthur come to him once he cooled down. He was such an idiot.
Merlin swiped at his cheeks, put on his best impassible manservant face and headed to the armoury. Arthur's chain-mail needed mending.
Is it me or is this getting more and more ridiculous? Sorry, can't help it! That's just how the story decided to write itself ;)
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