I was stood waiting to see if Gaius would give me something to do, all this standing around watching was giving me a headache and I felt more useless than ever. Gaius headed towards a table where a red liquid was being heated by a candle and started to hold another bottle of murky liquid above another candle, I was getting confused as to what this crap was.

"What are you doing?" May as well learn something whilst I'm here.

"I'm examining the contents of that mans stomach." He was referring to the man we originally brought here and I was grossed out by the idea of cutting him open and seeing what was inside. Just eww. Gaius started pouring a small amount of the red liquid into the murky liquid and I almost heaved at the smell so asked more questions to take my mind off it.

"Will that tell you who did it?" Please say yes because this is getting beyond a joke. This many people dying because of magick made me wonder if Uther was right and that it was all bad or that the people who used it were.

"No, but it might tell us how it's spread. One thing I do know; this is magick of the darkest kind." I don't understand why people would want to use it like that.

"Why would someone use magick like that?" I hoped Gaius would hold some answers about it because I was starting to worry that I might end up like that if I carried on. I hated the idea of it but if magick is responsible would I even have a choice?

"Magick corrupts; people use it for their own ends."

"But not all magick is bad, is it? You know it isn't." If it was then I would have to stop. I'd have to act normal more so than ever because I'd have to hide it even from myself. I couldn't bear to think of my magick possibly harming the people I wanted to protect; like Gaius, or Gwen, or Morgana or especially Arthur.

"It's neither good nor bad. It's how you use it." The door burst open and I spun to see Arthur and two of his Knights, looked like they didn't find anything in the village then.

"Sorry Gaius, we're searching every room in town." I watched Arthur as he ordered his Knights on where to look, I found him endearing when he took charge like that. He had already grown up a lot from the childish man I had met my second day here in Camelot.

"What for?" Gaius was trying to stop Arthur's searching and I honestly wasn't all that surprised, they always made a mess when searching places.

"A sorcerer." That was obvious really, thankfully I didn't do it so I should be safe, right?

"Why would he be here?" I took over from Gaius and carried on heating the strange mixture as he spoke to Arthur, I caught Arthur glancing at me and smiled a little towards him.

"I'm just doing my job." It wasn't really Arthurs fault so I spoke before Gaius could, I wanted to say something instead of standing here like a moron, besides, surely if I was silent I'd look guiltier.

"Well, we've nothing to hide. Go ahead." I smiled towards Arthur's Knights and they gave a small one back, Arthur, however, hadn't returned my smile earlier so I didn't bother to try with him again. He was in Prince mode and when he was like that I was nothing more than a servant and even though I was currently on a break I knew better than to think he would treat me like anything more. As they went through Gaius' stuff I noticed they were being careful not to make a mess or break anything, more so than they ever would be with someone else. Probably because they wanted to be sure not to ruin any progress we might have made. Arthur was searching through a stack of documents on herbs and their healing properties when he started questioning what they were.

"All these books and papers?" I placed the now boiling mixture onto the table to cool and made my way over to where Arthur and Gaius were stood.

"My life's work dedicated to the understanding of science. You're quite welcome to read through them if you wish." I giggled a little at Arthur's face, he most definitely did not want to read them. He sent a playful glare my way and I bit my lip to stop giggling. He turned away and saw the door to my room.

"What's this room up here?" I spoke up from behind him.

"It's mine." I really didn't want him going through my underwear and Gaius just didn't want him searching around.

"And what do you expect to find in there?" To anyone else, he would just seem a protective guardian who didn't want people going through his ward's things but I knew that he didn't want them to find anything that could link me to the illness.

"I'm looking for material or evidence suggesting the use of enchantments." Gaius turned and whispered in my ear

"What have you done with the magick book I gave you?" Shit! I hurried towards the stairs but Arthur's voice stopped me in my tracks.

"Merlin, come here. Look what I've found." Oh no. My heart was hammering in my chest as I made my way up the stairs. Arthur had his head in an empty cupboard and I breathed a silent sigh of relief. "I've found a place where you can put things, it's called a cupboard." I blushed a little as I noticed the mess my room was in. I let out an embarrassed laugh and he just rolled his eyes.

"Well maybe if I hadn't been so busy cleaning your room I might have had time to sort out my own." He just ignored me and carried on, my eyes scanned the room before landing on the magick book. With a quick glance to check he wasn't watching I used my magick to pull an under-dress over it. I just hoped that he was enough of a gentleman to not touch my underwear, I didn't think he would but my heart still hammered as I hoped that he wouldn't find it. He was over by my desk and picked up another book before starting to flick through, I rushed over and grabbed it off of him.

"Hand it over, Merlin." I stumbled away, red-faced. No chance was he looking in that. It didn't say anything about magick but it held all my other kinds of thoughts, like thoughts about him for example.

"No." I shook my head to emphasize my point and he smirked before stalking towards me.

"What is it?"

"My diary." Please don't ask to check it. Oh please. He was coming closer and I found myself backed into a wall as he continued to stalk me. He was so close now, towering over me, hardly any space between us. He looked down at me and I noticed that his eyes were darker than usual. My breath was coming faster as he leant down… closer… closer… and then the book was out of my grasp and he was flicking through it a few feet away.

"My name's in here quite a lot, isn't it?" My face must have been as red as a tomato as he looked through. I tried to grab it but he just held it above his head and laughed as I tried to reach it. He started to read it above his head as I thought about what to do.

"Does Gaius honestly think I sit around doing nothing? I haven't had the chance to sit around doing nothing since the day I arrived in Camelot. I'm too busy running around after Arthur; do this Merlin, do that Merlin, and when I'm not running around after Arthur I'm doing chores for him and when I'm not doing chores for him I'm fulfilling my destiny. I've lost count of the amount of times I've saved Arthur's fat arse." I kicked him in the shin, causing him to drop the book and my toe to seriously hurt but I grabbed it and shoved it in my cupboard before locking it behind me and hiding the key in the space between my dress and breast. Arthur wouldn't dare try to get it out of there. Once his shin had stopped hurting he turned to me, I was still blushing, of course, it could be much worse. There were many pages in there that was about how I felt attracted to him and if he read that I would never hear the end of it.

"There are two things considerably wrong with that statement; 1.) I am not fat and 2.) You have only saved me once, not that hard to count." He wasn't exactly happy with what I wrote to say the least; he glared down at me and I got angry at his blatant disregard for my saving him.

"There is one thing wrong with your statement; because just off the top of my head I saved you from getting stabbed and two I saved you from Valiant." I glared up at him and I'm sure it was a lot less menacing than he could be, especially when he started to back me into the cupboard. He bent down so he was face to face with me and his lips were only inches away from my own. I swallowed back the lump in my throat and took a shaky breath.

"I think you'll find I was the one who did the saving there." I fought through the haze that surrounded me when he was this close and answered his whisper with one of my own.

"You saved my virtue, I saved your life. I think I win that one." He blinked at my declaration and the truth of it, he knew I'd saved him, he was just too proud to admit it. He opened his mouth to say something but obviously thought better of it as he stood and walked out of my room and back down the stairs. I took a second to straighten myself out before following him. He spoke to his Knights for a few moments before turning to Gaius, who was looking at me quizzically.

"How long do you think it may be until you find a cure?" Might be quicker if you helped instead of hindered, asshole.

"It depends on how many interruptions I get." I smirked at Gaius' answer; I think that Arthur may have got a bit more than he bargained for when he came in here.

"Of course. I'm sorry. We're finished here." He didn't look at me as he left but his Knights gave a smile and a polite bow which I giggled at. Gaius just cocked an eyebrow at me.

"You seem to have Arthur's Knights on your side." Until they find out my secret I'm sure.

"Did they bow because I'm a woman or because I'm nice to them?" He chuckled at my question.

"Probably because you're a very attractive, young lady whom they would like to court." I laughed and shook my head at Gaius as I got back to work. As if!

"On a serious note, we have to hide that book." They've already searched here; it's not like they're coming back.

"No. We must use it." I don't know why I even bothered saying that, there's no chance he'll go for it.

"Don't be stupid." Knew it.

"If I have this legacy then what is it for? You keep telling me it's not for playing tricks." If I can't use it for simple things and I can't use it to save people, then what am I supposed to use it for?

"You want to practice magick whilst the king is looking for sorcerers! Are you mad? Merlin your life is destined for more important things." Like what? Watching people die up until the day I do so myself?

"But if I don't practice how I am supposed to be this great witch?" I was powerful, I knew that, no one else could do the things I could but there was still so much I had to learn, things I hadn't even attempted and I couldn't always trust that luck would be on my side and that I'd master spells just in time like with Valiant, eventually my luck would run out. And when it did, it could be my life or Arthur's on the line.

"There will come a time when your skills will be recognized." When Uther dies and Arthur becomes Kings, yes, but Uther seemed to have at least another twenty years on him.

"Then how long do I have to wait?"

"Patience is a virtue, Merlin." Ugh, I hated waiting.

"What, sitting by and doing nothing is a virtue? Really?" I was starting to get fed up with all of these rules, my mom sent me here so I could become whatever destiny needed me to be, I was supposed to become great and protect Arthur but I couldn't do that by sitting around and waiting.

"Your time will come." By then more people will have died!

"I could cure that man we saw." And all of the others that became ill afterwards.

"I know it's tempting to use the way you find easiest, Merlin –" I cut him off.

"Well, it is when it would save a life."

"It's no good just saving one life. We have to discover how this illness is spreading."

"Arthur is out there right now looking for a sorcerer."

"A sorcerer powerful enough to do this will never be found by searching the town." He was right, I was being ridiculous pushing this. If I got caught, then I could never fulfil my destiny and right now I needed to help Gaius instead of arguing with him. The more time we spent arguing the longer it would be until we found the source and in that time more people would die.

"So what can we do?"

"Hope that science can find the answer before it kills us all." Hey, that's a point. Are we going to get ill? Is Arthur? Will I be allowed to use magick if that happens?