It took Arthur some time to notice the absence of his manservant. In fact, it wasn't until the next day when the sun was shining into his room and his stomach rumbled unhappily that he realized that he hadn't seen the boy since sending him off with Lady Elaine. Well the two couldn't have liked each other that much, could they have? So much that Merlin would forsake seeing to the welfare of his own king? If Merlin didn't end up in the stocks for this it would be because he had too horrible a concussion from one of Arthur's heaviest goblets. That was a promise.

Angrily, Arthur pulled on his clothes and shouted out at a servant to fetch him some breakfast. He didn't know exactly how late that idiot had let him sleep in, but judging by the position of the sun it was far later than it was supposed to be. By the time Arthur arrived on the training fields he was practically steaming through the nose. Gwaine was the first to notice, and seemed to be quite amused by the king's annoyance. This, of course, only served to annoy him further.

"Good morning princess!" The knight chirped. "Although it's closer to noon by now. What's kept you?" Arthur scowled and picked up his sword.

"A lack of a certain idiot arriving in my chambers is what kept me." He growled. Gwaine let out chuckle.

"Right, where is Merlin? At the taverns? If he is, I envy the boy. I'd rather be served a nice cool drink by a pretty wench then be knocked about by her royal highness's sword all day." The knight smirked at Arthur who, in return raised his sword menacingly into the air. He let the metal swing itself around his hand a few times as if that proved the amount of business he meant.

"No, actually, I believe he is prancing about with the lady Elaine. Apparently she finds the company of my servants more important than signing a treaty." Gwaine raised an eyebrow in question.

"Sire." Sir Leon broke in. "Lady Elaine left Camelot yesterday morning- right after your meeting. I assure you that Merlin is not with her." Arthur turned around to meet the gaze of his oldest knight. A flicker of confusion crossed the king's eyes.

"Yesterday morning? But I haven't seen Merlin since then- and I certainly don't remember giving him a day off. I swear, if he was in the taverns-" Gwaine flicked his hair back and shook his head.

"No, he wasn't at the tavern. I should know. See, I was there last night. There was a girl there named Ellen, pretty thing. She gave me a whole ton of stew for free, said that I had pretty eyes…. Well, I would go on, but judging by your particularly livid expression, I would rather not." Elyan stepped forward and made sure that no one else planned on speaking before offering up his bit of knowledge.

"Sire, I haven't seen Merlin since the day before yesterday. Since Gaius is gone it's impossible that he was sent to fetch herbs or anything of the like. Perhaps we should be worried?" Arthur hesitated for a moment before slowly shaking his head.

"No, he's probably just in his chambers. I'm going to go fetch him. He'd better hope that he's in the taverns, because if I find him in his room, well…." The king's voice trailed off as he disappeared in the direction of the palace. The knights all stood for a moment, staring at each other. There were two options in front of them- go on training like any professional knight would, or go watch Merlin defend himself from an angry king. Gwaine's lips turned up and a glint in his eyes suggested that the men would be much better off attending to the latter.

Merlin's mind woke up before his eyes did. There was a flash of memory in which he remembered his fingers grazing silver, and after that- nothing. The warlock let out a moan and let his eyes flutter open. He was inside a room that he had never seen before. Of course he couldn't be sure- it was dark and he could barely make anything out. The boy's head throbbed as if he'd just been recovering from a particularly brutal training session with Arthur- except training sessions were never accompanied by such a terrible sense of foreboding. The warlock raised his hands to his head, and that was when he felt it.

Heavy metal encased his wrists, a short length of chains connecting the shackles. But worse than that- Merlin felt empty. He felt like no more than a shell, emptied and useless, serving no purpose other than to just lie there and rot. A horrible panic spread throughout Merlin's body. He didn't feel the familiar flow of magic coursing through his veins. He felt cold. He felt unnatural.

So this is what Gwaine must feel like when he is sober. He thought with a weak smile. But the joke failed to calm him. He had no magic. He had no magic. And without magic- what was there for him to do? How could he expect to escape?

Merlin began to tremble furiously. He didn't know where he was, he was trapped, he was powerless. He was nothing other than an ordinary servant. The warlock bit down hard on his lip and tried to will his powers to awaken inside him. As he expected, nothing inside him rose to meet his commands. The boy let his head back and from his throat ripped a horrifying roar. He waited for someone to answer.

Silence.

Merlin let out another cry, and another, but there was no one to answer. There was no magic that rushed to his aid. He was alone, he was weak, and all there was to do was wait.

"Did you find him, Princess?" Gwaine called out. The knight ran inside Gaius's room to meet the king. They had expected to hear the angry shouts from yards away, but to their surprise there was nothing.

"Arthur?" Leon asked as he ascended the stairs to Merlin's room. Arthur stood in the doorway with raised eyebrows.

"What is that?" He asked, pointing ahead. Standing right in front of Merlin's bed was a large mirror. A guffaw escaped Percival's lips.

"That cannot be Merlin's!" He exclaimed. Gwaine bobbed his head in agreement.

"Perhaps it is a gift for a lady. If Arthur is to be believed, Merlin is quite popular with the womenfolk as of late."

"Oh, don't be such idiots." Arthur demanded with a roll of his eyes. He walked into the room and called out his manservant's name.

"I don't think he's here." Elyan noted. Arthur furrowed his brows.

"But that makes no sense. Unless he and that woman decided within hours that they wanted to pull off some sort of crazy elopement-." Arthur cut off and shook his head. "Except Merlin isn't that idiotic. Perhaps he is off studying herbs or something, hoping to impress Gaius when he returns." Arthur approached the mirror and cocked his head to the side. He'd been in Merlin's room to yell at him plenty of times before and he had never seen this… object. He would assume that it was new, but Merlin couldn't afford something so extravagant as a mirror- besides, the boy had more important things that he could spend his frugal savings on.

Arthur sucked his cheeks in and pinched the bridge of his nose. He didn't really want to admit it- especially not in front of his knights- but an odd sense of worry had begun to spring up inside his chest. There was a knowledge that came with knowing his servant for years that told him plenty about the boy's character. Merlin disappeared once in a while, but never for very long. And when he did disappear the tavern was always the natural excuse. But Gwaine had said- Wait. Gwaine. Speaking of the knight, the man's never-ending chattering had been cut short seconds ago. Wasn't he in the middle of talking about the time he had tried to pair Merlin up with one of the kitchen maids? What on earth could cause him to fall silent in the middle of such a riveting tale?

Arthur spun around to meet the confused gazes of his knights. Gwaine's eyes bore right into his, searching for answers.

"Sire." He breathed "What are these?"

The knight held up an book that resembled those of the old religion and a suspicious looking staff.

Items of magic.

Holy follows Batman! No, really, this story got around 15 follows for its first chapter! I'm pretty shocked considering that this is a 'doodle' story. I was so excited that I wrote this chapter- sorry, but the main action doesn't start until chapter three. So… that's coming. Please forgive the truly terrible cliffhanger. Obviously I don't know what I am doing.