Arthur was frustrated, where in the hell was Merlin?
"MERLIN!"
The quarters were empty. Gaius wasn't in either.
I'll try his room then.
"MERLIN!"
Merlin wasn't in there either!
Arthur stepped inside the surprisingly neat room, "Bastard, he can clean up his own room but not mine?"
Arthur looked around the room and stopped when he saw a medium, round wall mirror hung above the dresser.
He stepped closer to find that the mirror could only reflect his face, "Good grief, how can that man stand to have such a small mirror?"
He looked down to see a leather bound book and a silver locket? Curious, Arthur picked it up by its chain and studied the locket.
It was beautiful…
It was oval shaped and it seemed to be made of real silver. On the surface of the necklace, a gorgeous intricate, floral design was engraved.
Arthur's nose twitched when he recognized the scent that was coming off the necklace.
Silver polish…
Arthur only recognized it because Morgana always made sure her silver jewellery was always polished regularly.
Curiosity became the better of him and took the locket in his hands to open it. Inside, he found two locks of hair encased in glass. The one on the right side was a dark brown shade whilst the other one was black.
What does this mean?
Then, the sound of a door creaking open was heard. This startled Arthur, causing him to drop the locket and when it fell, the glass in the locket broke. Good thing for Arthur, the door to Merlin's room was closed so Gaius didn't hear it.
Arthur cussed at his clumsiness and bent down to pick up the locket. He stuffed it into his pocket and kicked the broken glass under the dresser, to hide what he had done.
Now, how am I going to get out of here?
Gaius was outside Merlin's room, there was no way Arthur could miss him if he left through that way…
Unless…
Gwen jumped when her husband landed on his feet right in front of her.
"Good gracious! Arthur! You scared me! Where on earth did you come from?"
Arthur smirked in amusement at his wife's flushed face but he had a situation hence decided he needed to get serious. So on the way back to their chambers, Gwen listened to her husband tell her what had transpired in Merlin's room.
"You left the room through Merlin's window?! Arthur! From Merlin's room to the ground is-!"
"-quite a high jump, yes I know. But there was no other way out was there?"
Gwen sighed, "How now then? You are going to tell Merlin right?"
"What? Of course not! Merlin would be nagging at me about how I shouldn't be touching his things and-"
"Which you shouldn't"
Arthur decided to change the subject, he really did not want to get into a row with his wife at the moment, "But what do you think the lock of brown hair belongs to? I believe the black one is his mother's so maybe-"
"You think the brown one is his father's?" Gwen finished.
"Perhaps? Merlin said he never met his father so maybe the lock of hair was his mothers who gave it to Merlin so that he could have something of his father's?" Arthur reasoned.
"Maybe…or maybe the brown lock of hair belongs to his lover?"
Arthur snorted, "Merlin? Please! Merlin-"
"-is a sweet, kind and honourable young man. What woman wouldn't want someone like Merlin?"
"The man is a buffoon!" laughed the blonde king in disbelief at what his wife was implying.
Gwen shook her head at the husband, "You're the only one that thinks of him that way. Anyway, you should really-"
"Get a servant to send the locket for repair?" Arthur finished. "Gwen! That's brilliant!"
"That wasn't-!"
Arthur kissed her quickly and hurried off to find a servant, not giving his wife a chance to speak further.
Mordred froze suddenly when a servant ran passed him in the corridor.
What was that strong magical presence he felt?
He needed to find out!
"Hey! You there! Stop!"
Merlin returned to the physician quarters exhausted, he had been out the whole morning picking herbs for Gaius. The sun was cruel to him; Gaius noticed the reddening of his skin when he returned so he gave his young ward some ointment to use. Merlin would rather take a bath first as he was rather sweaty and sticky but he needed to bring Arthur his lunch. Gauis was nice enough to give the boy a wet cloth to clean his face with at least.
The warlock then headed over to his room. Standing in front of his wall mirror, he cleaned his face with the cloth.
Much better
Merlin grinned at his reflection and was about to put the cloth on the dresser, ready to leave until he noticed something was wrong.
Where was the Lovelace necklace?
Alarmed, he began searching.
The necklace belonged to his wife; she had told him it was precious to her as it was a family heirloom. In fact, it had been passed down from mother to daughter for centuries once the daughter was of the age of 16.
Layla gave her husband her necklace because she wanted her husband to have something of his family. When their family first started out, Merlin was very homesick so she gave him the necklace as a keepsake of sorts. Inside it, there was a lock of her hair and a lock of their son's.
Merlin wore it or at least kept in his pocket almost every day. He cherished it dearly and always made sure to polish it regularly as Layla's ancestors has done; to ensure that the shine never goes away.
But where the hell was it?!
Merlin grunted in pain and wretched his hand out from under the dresser. He was shocked to find his hand bleeding from several cuts!
What on earth?
Merlin looked underneath the dresser to find some small glass shards underneath. Could it be from the Lovelace necklace?
He picked one small shard up and whispered a spell, his eyes glowing pure gold as he did so. In his mind, he saw images of Arthur with the necklace, shoving it into his pocket.
What could Arthur want with his Lovelace necklace?
Merlin intended to find out.