Deviner Captive

Got a Plan

…

Arthur woke up to the sun shining in his eyes. He sighed when he realized his servant should've woken him up half an hour ago. He didn't think he was coming at all.

When Lancelot informed him that Merlin wouldn't be able to perform his duties that day because he was sick he became worried. He had to force himself not to rush and check on him right after practice because it wouldn't be proper.

Now that it was affecting his servant from performing his duties two days in a row he had an excuse the prince thought to himself, as he got dressed.

…

Arthur knocked on the physician's door waiting for confirmation to enter. He heard a muffled come in.

Gaius was sitting at his worktable creating some questionable substance that he probably expected someone to actually drink. "Arthur, I guess you're here to fetch Merlin. I'm afraid to tell you he's still recovering and I've forced him to bed rest for the day, so you'll have to have another servant to fill in for the day."

" What's he sick with?" Arthur asked. His servant had seemed a little out of it the past couple days. Maybe he had some plaque. Was it contagious? He was worried for Merlin.

"I think it's mostly just exhaustion. Lots of rest is the only cure for it." Gaius answered as he placed the substance into a bottle but didn't put a cork in it, meaning that it was going to be consumed almost instantly.

'He hadn't been piling too many chores on Merlin again had he?' Arthur asked himself in his head when he heard it was from exhaustion. The prince was sure that he had actually been cutting back on his servant's responsibilities lately. "Can I at least see him?" Arthur asked.

"I'm not sure if he's awake right now but you can certainly see him." Gaius agreed to his request and made his way over to his wards room.

When the physician opened the door the prince could see his manservant half hanging off the bed like he attempted to get up and dressed but gave up half way. He was only wearing one sock too.

Gaius shook his head. "The prince is here to see you."

Merlin raised his head and looked at his master in confusion. "What are you doing here?" He groggily asked.

"Let's me see. My manservant hasn't shown up to work two days in a row." Arthur pointed out sarcastically.

"Right, sorry. Just haven't been able to sleep." Merlin explained with a yawn. Emphasizing the bags under his eyes.

"Well, sorry, won't get my room cleaned." Arthur mumbled to himself and ended with a pout.

"What'd you say?" Merlin asked his master because he'd only caught the tail end of the sentence.

"Never mind. Just try and get some rest. I'll get someone else to fill in for you in the time being." Arthur gave his servant the day off to recover from whatever was bothering him.

"Sit up and drink this." Gaius demanded his ward, pushing the bottle towards the boy.

Merlin paled even more and had a disgusted look on his face. "What's in it?" He asked suspiciously.

"It's best if you don't know?" The physician suggested.

"Can I at least know what it does?" Merlin asked with a sigh. He knew that meant it was something truly disgusting but he'd have to drink it anyway. Running his fingers through his hair, making it stick up in all different directions instead of flattening his bed head down.

"It's just vitamins and nutrients." Gaius explained with a shrug.

Merlin gave him a suspicious look before taking the bottle and shooting it back like it was a shot of strong alcohol. Within seconds he was out cold. Arthur had to catch him before he fell off the bed. He looked in shock at the physician. "You just lied straight to his face."

"It's for the boys own good. If he won't allow himself to sleep I'll just have to force him to." Gaius waved the young prince's shock away. "Do you want a functioning servant or not?" He asked rhetorically knowing the answer.

Arthur lowered his servant to the bed and put a blanket over him. "I have to go to practice but I'll be back later to check on him." He told the physician as he left the room, shooting one last look back at his sleeping manservant.

…

Arthur told every knight that he would only be observing instead of participating this practice. He went around commenting on everyone's forms. When he was helping Gwaine, Percival, and Elyan he'd lean over and whisper in their ear before going on to another knight. "Meet me in the armory after practice."

"Everyone's dismissed." Arthur yelled mid afternoon. The knights scattered at a fast pace. The day had been hot so everyone was more than glad to go back to their chambers and bathe.

He sat in his manservant's usual spot and took his time taking off his gloves and sipping some water. Stalling while he waited for the armory to empty.

…

Gwaine made his way to the armory with all the other knights as to not get suspicious. He dawdled as he put his sword away. He wasn't surprised to see Percival and Elyan doing the same thing but he was surprised to see both Leon and Lancelot leave. Apparently they didn't receive an invitation to this meeting.

…

Arthur gave it a couple minutes before standing and leisurely making his way inside. When he got there as he expected only the people he had asked to meet with were waiting for him. He closed and locked the door behind himself. The talk shouldn't take long.

"Well, what's this all about?" Gwaine inquired while leaning against a post. Curious because usually when it was knight business they'd meet at the round table, so this must be about something else.

"I've decided we need to do something about the princess, Matilda." Arthur said the name in disdain.

"What do you have in mind?" Elyan asked curiously.

"Just something to put her in her place. Remind her that she is a guest here and we don't appreciate her behavior." Arthur stated.

"You mean against Merlin." Elyan stated the obvious.

"It's mostly about that." Arthur admitted sheepishly. "I've been without my manservant for the past few days because he's been too stressed out over her to sleep." He admitted and sighed in frustration.

"How come Lancelot and Leon aren't included in this? Especially Lance, he cares just as much about Merlin as any of us." Gwaine pointed out.

"Because Lance would just try and talk us out of doing it. He's too noble to participate in this." Arthur rolled his eyes at the other knight's moral code. "And Leon would never do anything against a royal."

"What are we going to be doing exactly?" Percival quietly inquired.

"It's just a little prank I thought up, it's harmless. Are you guys in?" Arthur looked at them and received weary nods of acceptance. " Good, meet me by the kitchen's tomorrow an hour before lunch." The prince then strode out of the room without another word.

...

Gwrthfyr sipped at his wine as he waited in his chambers for his informant to return. He'd sent him out last night and had been waiting all day with no sign of him. He was growing very inpatient.

The door finally swiftly opened and closed behind, Altoris. He was out of breath as he strided over to the table and placed an average sized folder in front of him. "Sorry it took so long. That librarian is very protective of his books so he is on high alert all the time. I don't think the man even sleeps." He apologized when he spotted his lord's frown.

"Why are you out of breath?" The king asked.

"I rushed over as soon as I found what you asked for." Altoris answered.

"What took you so long? Surely an old man didn't cause you so much trouble, if he did I over estimated your abilities." Gwrthfyr raised his eyebrows at him in question.

"I had to dig deep to find this because the folder is considered a closed one because the subject is diseased so it wasn't out on the main shelf like the boys, that has to be edited constantly." Altoris explained his tardiness.

"It's no matter, I have it now. Let's see what the connection is between the two." Gwrthfyr said before flipping open the file. He read to himself about how the man had been persuaded to bring the last dragon to Camelot only to be ordered to be executed but had managed to escape.

The king noticed that there was a section with newer paper that meant it had been added much more recently so he flipped ahead. He read about how they sought the man out to defeat the dragon that was attacking. "... Died before he could manage to complete his task in a bandit attack. How'd they defeat the dragon then? I'm sure the rumors that the prince slayed it are false because only a dragon lord can triumph such a magical creature."

"I am as stumped as you." Altoris commented.

Gwrthfyr flipped back to where he was before he skipped ahead and continued to read. He was missing something here. "…A patrol managed to track the dragon lord down in the village of Eldor." The king read aloud in excitement.

"Does that have a specific meaning?" Altoris asked curiously.

"That one sentence holds all the answers I was looking for." Gwrthfyr received a confused look from his informant. "The boy originally came from this very same village. He is about the same age as how long ago Balinor took refuge there. There is no doubt in my mind that they were father and son."

"How can you be so sure?" Altoris asked in surprise. His lord didn't even take any time to ponder it.

"There is no other explanation for it. If the prince didn't conquer the dragon, that leaves the boy to save the day. We won't know for sure though until we confront him, we'll know our answer from his expression." Gwrthfyr knew his logic was sound and was very confident in his conclusion.

"You do make it sound very plausible my lord." Altoris gave his praise.

"I'm almost ready to make my move." Gwrthfyr said to himself. "I think maybe it is finally time to retrieve my prized possession." The king smirked at his informant's surprised expression.

...

Arthur groined when his curtains were thrown open and the light hit his eyes. "Time to get up." Came his manservant's familiar voice. The prince sat up in his bed and blinked sleepily at him in surprise. "What is it?" Merlin asked.

"I wasn't expecting you to show up today, I thought you'd still be recovering." Arthur answered groggily as he discretely tried to flatten his bed head and hug his pillow to himself.

"It is kinda my job. And you try to stay exhausted when you're knocked out by a potion at 10 in the morning and don't wake up till the next morning. That's more than 12 hours of sleep. I'm feeling perfectly energized now." Merlin proved his point by zooming around the room and picking up all the dirty laundry that had been spread around.

Arthur hadn't expected this turn of events. How was he going to go through with his prank with his manservant around? Though he could keep him busy the rest of the day.

"I thought you said you were going to get another servant to fill in for me while I was out of commission." Merlin asked as he signaled to the disaster of a room. There were dirty dishes and laundry everywhere. It looked like no one had actually cleaned anything since he had last cleaned a couple days ago judging by the layer of dust on the mantle.

"I never got around to it. I've been too busy with my father's guests." Arthur answered with a yawn.

"I'm surprised you even managed to feed and dress yourself without me." Merlin said sarcastically as he started to clear the table that had more than one meal worth of plates on it.

"Thanks to Gaius's potion you're back to full health so now you can catch up on all the chores you missed." Arthur hinted at what was in store for his manservant that day.

"I can't believe you let Gaius give me that." Merlin half-heartedly glared at his master.

"I didn't know what it actually did. What am I, the expert on Gaius' medicines?" Arthur defended himself.

"You should be. That man was present when you were born and has been forcing his potions down your throat your whole life." Merlin answered back.

"I don't ask questions, I just take what the man gives me. I don't want to know what actually goes in them unlike you." Arthur stated still from his bed.

"Some of us like to actually know what they're ingesting." Merlin bantered back as he continued to collect the laundry. "Are you going to get out of bed today?"

"Of course. I have to attend breakfast with my father and the visiting king." The warlock grimaced at the thought of being dragged along. "As you can see this place is a mess since you left, so you'll have to stay here and catch up on your duties while I'm gone."

Merlin wasn't going to argue when his prayers were answered. " Of course my lord. Now up, so that I can make the bed."

Arthur thought his manservant was too happy about having to clean out the stables but he didn't have the time to push any further. "Help me get dressed." The prince commanded as he rolled out from under his covers.

"I'm surprised you even have any clean clothes left. What'd you do, change outfits three times a day?" Merlin mocked as he followed his master to his dressing screen, indicating to the over flowing laundry basket in the middle of the room.

…

"When are you thinking of leaving? Uther asked the other king over the breakfast table. Snapping Arthur back to attention. It seemed his father felt the other royals had begun to over stay their welcome.

"Maybe a few more weeks." Gwrthfyr responded. He didn't know how much longer it would take to gather all the information he would need before he felt it would be safe to continue with his plans.

"I'm expecting another guest in two weeks time and we need a chance to restock our supplies before that time. I don't want you to have you only have half my attention while I deal with another royal quest." Uther said trying to not be offensive.

Arthur thought that his father was hinting that he wanted the other to sign the treaty and leave already, a little strong. 'Double booking are we father' he thought to himself. Though he couldn't remember there being another royal visit so soon. Maybe his father just wanted them to leave as much as he did.

"If that is the case, I won't be staying but a couple more days. We'll sign the treaty before I leave of course." Gwrthfyr assured his host.

"Of course." Uther shared an obviously fake smile to Arthur with the other king.

…TBC