A/N: Thanks for all the reviews! I'm so glad people like the story ^_^ I'm always looking forward to the review alerts in my inbox after I update, hahaha. Anyway, enough about that. On with the fic!

Lady of Magic

Chapter Four

"Well," Merlin stated when informed that Morgana's body could not be found, "I suppose I didn't go far enough. At least you dealt with the magical artifact that allowed her to terrorize everyone in the first place."

Said artifact had been cleaved in half by Lancelot, while Merlin had been unconscious. Since Morgana was not actually dead, the guards of Camelot were all still enthralled, and without Merlin's magic it had been much tougher to get past them. Arthur's knights were, however, among the best fighters, such that the guards could not ever compete against. Without Morgana, they had found the artifact eventually and restored Camelot to its previous state while Merlin was at the healer's.

She was surprisingly lenient with the druid healer when he told her she was confined to a chair. Arthur suspected that Merlin made for a much better healer than him, but she did not want to show him up. He found himself impressed with her tolerance, since he himself would have lashed out at the healer in annoyance, but Merlin simply accepted the matter with a forbidding scowl and swallowed any remarks she might have made about the matter. For some reason, she did not attempt to heal herself, nor did the healer suggest it; it must not have been a good idea.

"She'll be back, I suspect," Merlin went on, "And all the more enraged because how dare I try to kill her—it's all the same with these people." She took a sip of hot water and grimaced after she swallowed.

"Will you stay?" Gwen asked, sitting beside her, "In case she comes back?"

Again, whatever snarky comments Merlin might have made were absent. It seemed no one could possibly be irritated at Gwen. "How long will that take, I wonder," The sorceress grimaced again, "Though from my recollection, Morgana was never the patient sort."

"It was horrible, when she came here," Gwen looked away. She was not harmed, as far as Arthur was able to glean, but there were other wounds that do not show on the surface, and having a mad witch like Morgana in control of Camelot was enough to traumatize anyone.

"I have a clinic," Merlin told her unhappily, "I have appointments that I am going to miss already."

"Bring them here," Gwen suggested, "You can set up shop here. At least for the time being…or however long you want. Arthur would not mind."

"She's not going to attack for a while," Merlin sipped some more water. "I can go take care of my patients and come back later."

Arthur silently thanked the Heavens for Gwen, because Merlin certainly was not doing this for him. She had yet to even look at him yet.

"She was patient this time around," He said. "She had not attacked Camelot for nearly a year and a half, though this one was the closest."

"The artifact," Merlin still did not look at him, "Let me have a look."

Gwen went to retrieve it and brought it back in a satchel. Merlin took out the two pieces. They looked like two fairly unimpressive lumps of burnt wood, since as soon as Lancelot sliced through it, it had burst into flames.

"Ugh, I can't use magic," Merlin grumbled, turning the pieces this way and that. Her eyes suddenly became very sharp and intense as she focused on the wood as if it were a patient, and it was like seeing Gaius's spirit when he worked, with the same level of mental discipline and tenacity. It startled Arthur to realize that the bumbling, shy servant had been completely replaced by this confident woman who did not need any looking after whatsoever. "Wood looks like pine, smells like it," She brushed her finger along one side and sniffed at it, making a face. "Looks like this is the whole trunk. Kind of small…a root, maybe? If so this thing probably was absorbing something magical as it grew. An item that has everyone enthralled. Hm. Maybe the druids know."

Arthur was not entirely certain why this mattered, but when the druid healer returned with one of his companions, Merlin made it clear.

"Can I use this thing as medicine?" She asked him.

The druid than said something that Arthur could not comprehend at all; it was a lot of magical jargon, but Merlin nodded, looking a bit disappointed. "Well some poisons are potent medicines in the right conditions. I think I shall take it to my clinic nonetheless. I'm very tired," She then said pointedly, "I think I shall rest now. Gwen, do you mind helping me?"

Gwen hesitated. "No, of course not."

Arthur stepped away, watching Gwen help Merlin out of the chair, feeling like he had been dismissed and unable to really react to it. When the druids turned to leave, however, he managed to pull himself out of his stupor and follow them.

He really wanted the old Merlin back.

"Morning Sire!"

"Ugh!" Arthur grumbled several oaths that would not stand in polite company, but Merlin was hardly one of those. "Must you sound so…chipper at this ungodly hour? And will you ever knock?"

"It's morning, Sire, hardly ungodly. And how am I supposed to knock when I'm carrying this tray?"

Arthur sat up with a disgruntled huff.

"Breakfast is served," Merlin gestured while setting the plates out of the tray, "Pig out."

"Get out of my sight, Merlin."

Merlin chuckled, looking far too pleased with the situation. The manservant always had an extraordinarily sweet smile—Arthur use to tease about it, claiming that Merlin should try on a dress and see how many knights would come try their luck. Some men, the prince decided, were just not very manly. "Best get rid of that foul mood fast, Sire; we have visitors, friends for you to play with! You ought to be on your best behavior, or His Majesty will have to revoke playtime!"

His servant than skipped out before Arthur could come up with a retort.

"Cheeky idiot!" He snarled at no one in particular, "How can he be in such a good mood so early in the morning?" He moved to the table where his breakfast was laid out. "Oh. And he stole my food. Merlin!"

Watching Merlin in the castle clinic was very surreal.

"No, you can't use spells to determine if it's a direct or indirect hernia," Merlin said adamantly to the druid healer, while Arthur stared baffled from his hiding place at the man who had his pants down—normally no one would dare be so audacious in front of the King, but he was still outside the clinic and had not been announced so no one inside knew he was there. "You need to push your finger into the superficial ring and have the man cough. If his bowels protrude then you will feel it and it's an indirect hernia. The spell does not differentiate between direct or indirect, it just tells you the general path of the hernia which is not at all useful. Sir, you look a little pale, are you feeling alright? Nauseous? Pain? Are you feeling sick? If you are do not try to hide it from us." The bewildered patient shook his head while the druid healer looked faintly frustrated. "I'm surprised you haven't treated inguinal hernias here in Camelot. They tend to be quite common. Sir, have you tried to put everything back? We're going to see if we can put it back."

Then Merlin, Healer Emrys, the manservant-who-is-actually-a-woman and the most powerful sorceress of all of Albion, got down on her knees from the chair and placed her hands on the patient's enlarged testicles before the man could even react. The patient squeaked and stepped back, stammering anxiously while begging for God's mercy.

"Stay still!" Merlin snapped at him, looking annoyed at the patient because of course, how outrageous was it that the man was unnerved by a strange nubile young woman touching his private parts outside an intercourse setting "Don't go jumping about. I don't want your bowels to strangulate—you can die from that. We're going to try to put it back. Does it hurt when I do this?"

Good grief, 'Does it hurt when I touch your testicles.' Are you kidding me Merlin? A normal man's private parts would have made Arthur cringe, let alone this man's. At least in some areas you are still the same dense idiotic Merlin we always knew.

"Maybe I should do it," The druid healer said with a frown, "It is not proper—"

"I don't want you to do it wrong," Merlin interrupted, "You need to push the bowels back from the testes and into his abdomen very carefully and this can take a while. Does it hurt sir? Do you feel nauseous when I do this? I think some of it went back in, let me see if we can get all of it."

Arthur rubbed his face at the sight. This was so wrong on so many levels…and bowels in the testes? What?

"Alright, it's definitely a reversible hernia," Merlin said, "Just stay calm and relax, please, this can take a while. Come over here," She ordered the druid, "See how I am doing it? Little by little. From the looks of it we might take about ten minutes to put everything back, the weakened area is sort of trapping his intestine so you have to slide it carefully. I'm going back to the chair."

She looked pale as the druid helped her up and sat her back down, but continued to supervise once she was settled. "Once you get it back try to see where it is going, if it is going through the superficial ring and to the deep ring, then you need to seal off the deep ring—and only the deep ring! Don't seal off the superficial ring because very important things go through there. If it's not going through the superficial ring then it's probably going on the other side of the epigastric vessels so you need to seal that entire area."

She sounded so experienced that Arthur wondered how many such cases she had to treat at her clinic. The idea was not a favorable one. She looked up with her brilliant blue eyes and caught sight of Arthur hiding behind the door. One dark eyebrow raised, though somehow Merlin managed to look so unamused that Arthur actually felt a little ashamed. He did not say anything, nor did she, since that would startle her patient.

She went back to instructing the druid. "There are three types of hernias…" She went on to list them in a way that went completely over Arthur's head. "…The patient will feel pain and sickness even without touching—it will be fairly obvious. If that's the case, that is an extreme emergency and you have to operate as soon as possible—and I don't mean tomorrow, I mean why aren't you picking up a scalpel and setting the patient up for surgery right this moment. This cannot be done with spells, you have to do it the non-magical way because you need to replace the hernia before you do any healing. I'll go into how you do the operation when I'm feeling better. Unstrangulated reversible hernias you can wait for some time, this patient must have been going through it for years, is that right sir?"

The patient, who was bright red a moment earlier, was starting to look a little more normal, though this could not be a comfortable experience.

"Once you put it back, then you can use magic," Said Merlin.

"Yes Healer," Said the druid.

A silence fell as the druid continued to work. Arthur tried to make sense of this woman he once saw every day and almost could not get rid of. He stepped away from the doors of the clinic before Merlin could look up and glare at him again.

"Well, I was supposed to be a healer apprentice, as opposed to a sword-swinging buffoon," Merlin scoffed while struggling awkwardly to rise, slim body almost weighed down by the armor itself. Arthur rolled his eyes at the display of sheer incompetence; his manservant must have less masculinity than any man he had ever met, and possibly some women.

"Just because you are a healer doesn't mean you should be completely hopeless at defending yourself, Merlin. Again."

"For crying out loud," Merlin whined, "Can't you do this with your knights who are more than happy to bash their skulls on the hilt of your sword? Why must you torment me?"

"Because if you know how to defend yourself better, I wouldn't have to spend all of my time guarding your sorry behind when we go out. Ready?" He struck, and Merlin blocked awkwardly, as always.

"Can't you just not bring me?"

"No." He struck again. Three blows in, and his manservant was down again.

He groaned. "Aren't healers supposed to have some coordination, for things like surgeries and stuff?"

"Surgery hardly involves being pommeled by someone who might as well be a giant boar," His manservant complained while getting up again, panting, "You're as fat as one, that's for sure."

Merlin had frankly made so many comments about Arthur's weight due to the prince's rich diet that Arthur hardly even registered them anymore. He was far more displeased with the pout issuing from Merlin's face.

"Seriously, Merlin, you're such a girl."

"If I admit it, will you stop hitting me?"

"No." Inside, Arthur was trying to repress a smile. Merlin also had that talent for making him want to laugh even when Arthur really really did not want to. In a way, part of Merlin's charm was how the servant was able to take any slights in that area in a stride. Denial would have seemed pathetic, but that calm acceptance and even good humor in the face of such insults was not something easily maintained, and in that area Merlin might be better than the most noble of knights.

All the more reason to teach the idiot some self-defense.

"Aw come on Arthur—"

"Ready!" Arthur barked, and struck.

"I don't want patients here," Merlin said sharply to the druids while the King tried to quell his developing headache from sheer force of will, "No, You managed for five years without me, you can keep doing that. How am I supposed to do this if I have patients here? I cannot be in two places at once, whatever you might think of magic."

"But we need you here," The druid healer pointed out, "Camelot is becoming a busy trading site, every year more and more people pass through. Your Majesty, surely—"

"I am not moving back to Camelot and that is that," Merlin's face contorted into a fearsome scowl, one he had never seen on his manservant, at least. "So you can stop trying. I already stayed here for far too long as it is."

Arthur sighed. It was so hard, to see a person he had pined after for years and not recognize her at all.

"We can authorize the building of roads," He stated quietly.

Merlin blinked at him, reminding him of a bird. "What?"

He answered carefully, "Camelot is located more conveniently than your current clini, Healer Emrys. If you set up the clinic here, I can authorize the building of roads, to make it easier for patients to come."

"That is absurd," Merlin snapped, "You make it easier for invaders to come to Camelot as well. Are you stupid?"

"Invaders hardly need roads," Arthur pointed out, "And if we localize them to travel by road, they would be easier to monitor with guards. It is really not a big deal."

"And beyond Camelot's borders?"

"That is what diplomacy is for," Arthur replied, "We can make agreements for this. It's a start, and better than having your clinic stationed in Griton."

Merlin's eyes flickered back and forth rapidly and she looked both angry and terrified at the same time. It was interesting how Arthur was able to read her even though her face was like a mask; he could almost sense her fear and frustration. She really did not want to stay, but as things were presented, it really was better for her to establish her clinic at Camelot instead, and to reject it on the basis of her personal issues was petty.

Merlin was never petty. Not even as his manservant.

"I am due to recover in three days," She told him at last, and Arthur resisted the urge to remind her that all the taxing on her body she had been doing was likely to drag that out even longer. "You have until that time to prove to me that this will happen. Otherwise, you will not see me again. Are we clear?"

Arthur inclined his head. "Yes, milady."

Startled, Merlin blinked owlishly at him, but Arthur was already turning around before she could change her mind.

Small steps, one step at a time, He thought. He did not harbor much hope that he and Merlin will go back to how they once were, but at least there was a chance that she would stay after all. It was better than what he had before.