When Merlin awoke, he was lying on his back but this time his head pounded, he shook off the wave of nausea that arose within him. Before he rolled to his side but his bed beneath him wouldn't afford him any comfort. He couldn't remember a time when his bed was this uncomfortable. He opened his eyes only to see his cupboards. Merlin, blinked a couple of times, trying to remember when exactly he moved his bed next to the cupboards. "Merlin." a tentative voice came from the direction of his bed. Wait bed! It then dawned on Merlin that he was on the floor.
He sat up straight to see Gaius sat by his bed, "Gaius, why are you in my room? Wait why I am on the floor?" Then a sharp piercing sensation went through his head.
"Do you remember anything?" Gaius concerned voice floated around his ears.
"I remember…" Merlin's shock sent him to his feet aggravating his back which was about to send him tumbling down if it was not for Gaius grip on his wrist keeping upright.
"Merlin what's going on?" Merlin opened his mouth to explain what had happened but Merlin just couldn't find the words to explain what he had just seen. How could I possibly begin to explain what I've seen? "Merlin?"
Using Gaius as an aid, they walked to Gaius's chambers together. Where Merlin told the whole story. From the moment he first faced The Viper, when he first saw Morgana in the halls in her green dress before concluding with the moment he awoke in the chambers on the floor. Gaius sat in stone cold silence just listening to what he said, "So? What is it? Am I finally going insane?" Gaius didn't say anything for a few moments, he just stared at Merlin before he sighed.
"No. You are not going insane, Merlin. Your hypothesis about why our 'boils' cure failed is correct. You experiencing its side effects."
"I've never heard of such side effects." Merlin challenged. He was by no means Gaius's equal in his knowledge in chemistry, nor did he have the experience Gaius had, but he knew that what was happening to him wasn't ordinary.
"The history of chemistry is old and its recordings are very young, Merlin. There are things I've seen that has not been recorded. Things my mentor saw which has not been recorded. Things that have been done but struggled to be replicated." Gaius was talking in circles.
"Meaning?"
"Meaning if a substance cannot be replicated easily enough then it will be forgotten. There has also been some talk in the circles of physicians, that we humans react differently to substances. That whilst a substance may be able to cure a man of an illness, it might also damn another of the same illness. Though all this early talk and nothing conclusive has been published or confirmed. However, I, for one, am inclined to agree with that hypothesis."
"So what? I am an anomaly." Merlin said with tight grin that almost resembled a grimace.
"Would it be that surprising?" Merlin didn't say anything. Gaius was right and it annoyed Merlin. In secret, Merlin had clawed for a sense of common with people. But the longer he lived, the longer the list of difference grew and the shorter the list of similarity became.
"No." Merlin rubbed his eyes, "How do I make it go away?"
"Go away?"
"The side effects Gaius." Merlin already knew what Gaius was going to say before he even said it. But he wanted to hear Gaius confirm it.
"Time, Merlin. All you need is time and the drug will fade out of your body."
Merlin nodded. He reached for jug of water and a cup, "Since I'm an anomaly you can't say anything else. Or prescribe anything else, can you? Eh?" He placed the cup in front of him and as he went to pour, he realised his hand was shaking. He looked down at it, trying to will his hand to stop but yet it still shook.
He looked to Gaius for an answer, "Just give it time. The shakes… the hallucinations, they will all stop and you'll be back to normal." Merlin sighed.
"Sure." He put the jug back on the table and held his shaking left hand in his right.
