Chapter Text
Merlin woke up to pain radiating from the back of his skull. He groaned, wanting the sensation to go away. When that did not happen, Merlin slowly opened his eyes. Wherever he was, it was dark aside from two torches on the walls. It took him a few moments to realize that he was in a cave of some sorts. Specifically in a cell, indicated by door in front of him that had two sliders on it: one big enough to put food through, and the other at eye level for visitors.
How am I here again?
Right, he had been searching throughout the Darkling Woods for the “Monster of the Month”, as Merlin had dubbed it. Something had been spotted attacking the outlying village of Greenswood during the night. The people living there could not catch a break from monster attacks. Merlin was surprised that the villagers stayed there for as long as they did, opting to rebuild the village each time it got destroyed. If he was in their shoes, Merlin would have moved after the village got destroyed the first time by the griffin.
The point was that Arthur had traveled there with Merlin and the Knights of the Round Table in search of the mysterious beast, but had no luck finding it. Interviewing the villagers did not provide much answers as to what the beast could be. Eventually, they were forced to go back to Camelot. Although Arthur offered and provided compensation to the village before leaving.
However, after reading through some of Gaius’s books, Merlin had a hutch on what happened. Within the cover of the night, Merlin trekked to the area of the woods that was the closest to the village in search of the beast. He had been trying to examine what he thought were footprints on the ground before suddenly receiving a blow to the head, knocking him out instantly.
And now he was in an unknown cave. The sound of rattling chain echoed against the cavern walls when Merlin moved his arms. He looked down to see that he was chained to the wall behind him with cuffs on his wrists. The chain was rather short: Merlin could only stretch his arms out halfway in front of him before the chains went taut.
Chains were not a problem. He could break himself out and escape. Merlin summoned his magic to send towards the cuffs…but there was no magic to send. The cuffs were made of cold iron. Merlin’s eyes widened at the realization. How he missed the feeling of slight emptiness upon waking up, he did not know. Whoever captured him knew what they were doing. With the additional incentive to escape, Merlin doubled his efforts to summon his magic. He felt a sliver of magic gather within his core, which was enough to send towards the cuffs. However, all that did was produce an intense burning sensation on Merlin’s wrists. Merlin’s eyes watered as he tried to fight through the pain to break the cuffs. He only stopped when he saw glowing light emit from the cuffs. The source of the light was engraved runes on the cuffs. Merlin tried to read the runes, but it was too hard to do so when teary eyed.
He waited for the burning sensation to fade. By the time it did, the runes stopped emitting light, making them too dark for Merlin to decipher. The light provided by the torches was too dim to be much of help. He wiped the tears from his eyes with his hands.
Merlin took a few moments to focus on his breathing; it would help him clear his head. He needed to think clearly if he wanted to get out of there.
Meanwhile, back in Camelot…
Arthur knew in the back of his mind that something was terribly wrong when he woke up that morning. Call it a gut instinct. It was brighter than usual in the room, making the king shut his eyes again on reflex. Slowly, he adjusted, and in the process realized that he must have slept in. He shot out of bed and peeked outside the window. Sure enough, it was well past dawn. He could see Camelot’s citizens go about their daily tasks in the courtyard.
Only now did Arthur look around his chambers. Upon not seeing Merlin, he scowled. What was his manservant up to this time?
“I swear if that idiot was ‘at the tavern’ again…” With a huff, Arthur got dressed. He knew well enough that Merlin was rarely ever at the tavern, because he had gone there multiple times in search for his manservant per Gaius's word. But where Merlin was truly at during the night was still a mystery. Arthur could easily use his status as king to order the truth out of Merlin, but every time that he thought about doing it, it left him ill in the stomach. Forcing Merlin in a position like that just felt…wrong.
When Arthur was going to leave his chambers, there was a knock on the door.
“Breakfast, your majesty.” A servant’s voice was heard through the door.
“Enter.”
A serving girl whom Arthur did not recognize entered the room with a tray of food. She set the tray down on the table and turned to leave.
“Have you seen Merlin this morning, by chance?” Arthur took his usual seat at the table.
“I have not, your majesty.” She replied. “Are you looking for him?”
“I will be needing his services.” Arthur poked at a sausage with his fork. “If you see him, tell him that I request his presence in my chambers.”
“I will.” She promised. “Is there anything else, your majesty?”
“No. You’re dismissed.”
The serving girl left the room without another word. Arthur was alone with his thoughts as he tried to eat breakfast. He purposely waited to eat the remaining of his sausages in case Merlin suddenly walked through the door. When Arthur had eaten everything else on his plate and there was still no Merlin, he reluctantly ate the extra sausages. The now empty tray was set to the side for a servant to collect later.
In the meantime, Arthur did not know how long it would take for someone to find Merlin. The instinct that told him something was wrong from when he first woke up was still present. In fact, worrying over Merlin's wellbeing only seemed to make it worse.
Arthur repeatedly told himself that everything was going to be fine. This was not the first time that Merlin had disappeared during the night like this. All the other times, Merlin came back to the castle alive.
Although that would be ignoring some of the cases in which Merlin was only brought back because someone went after him. Usually it was either himself or one of the knights if they did not go after him as a group. Even Morgana went out one time to fetch Merlin, which surprised everyone back then. Arthur did not like to think about those close calls, as each incident had given him a mini heart attack. He was afraid that all of the stress would land himself a fate similar to Uther's: the former king got ill more frequently while he aged from being stressed all the time; and it eventually contributed to his body being too weak to last long enough in a duel, which resulted in a fatal stab wound.
To prevent his mind from falling into the familiar rabbit hole, he retrieved the paperwork locked inside the table drawer. Said paperwork was a draft of the law that would repeal the magic ban Uther enacted upon Camelot all those years ago. Arthur disagreed with Uther on quite a bit of things when it came to running a kingdom, much to everyone's surprise based on Arthur's upbringing. However, what most of the kingdom did not know was that Arthur had differing views on magic compared to his father: magic wasn't entirely evil. There was magic for healing, growing crops, self-defense, and even for getting chores done in a more efficient manner. Of course, Arthur could not ignore the more harmful methods in which magic has been used for. Examples included curses, using magic as a weapon to purposefully attack others, and fraudulent financial gain. After all, he experienced some of magic’s negative effects firsthand (Arthur will absolutely not talk about the horrendous donkey ears he had to endure that one time with anyone, not even Merlin or Gwen or Morgana). There would be regulations in place to ensure that less harm was inflected within the kingdom.
Anyway, most of the kingdom assumed that Arthur shared Uther's view on magic because the only people who knew of Arthur's true feelings on the topic were those in his inner circle: Merlin, Gwen, Morgana, Gaius, and the Knights of the Round Table. Out of all of them, Morgana was the first to know the truth. The day that Arthur found out about Morgana's magic was the time she fetched Merlin after the servant had performed another escapade during the night. Arthur remembered how he confronted Morgana in private later that day, wanting to know how she knew so quickly where Merlin was and that he was in trouble. That was when Morgana confessed to Arthur about her magic, not able to come up with a believable excuse. She had multiple visions over the course of a few nights long before the particular incident, and those gave her enough information to rescue Merlin herself.
During the same conversation, she confirmed Arthur's suspicion that Merlin had magic. In addition, she told Arthur how Merlin helped her understand her abilities as a seer, and to better control her magic. All of it was done in secret, of course, as it started when Uther was alive. Neither Morgana or Merlin told Arthur about it because they were afraid that he was like his father when it came to magic. Arthur was quick to debunk that line of logic, reassuring Morgana that he would not tell a soul about her magic unless she wanted him to, and that she would be safe in Camelot while he was king. After that heart-to-heart, Morgana's magic became known to those who were close with Arthur, except Uther for obvious reasons.
However, Merlin's magic was still kept a secret. As much as Arthur wanted to confront Merlin about it, Morgana begged him to keep his mouth shut for the time being. She reasoned that everyone would be better off in the long term if Merlin came to Arthur himself. He agreed after taking some time to think about it, coming to the realization that using his kingly position to force Merlin into confessing about his magic gave Arthur the same icky feeling in his stomach as his desire for forcing Merlin to explain the nighttime escapades.
It was absurd to Arthur how Merlin thought he was so sneaky in hiding his magic. Too many conveniently falling tree branches during skirmishes was what initially gave Arthur the idea about Merlin having magic. There was also how Merlin always seemed to know when something sketchy was occurring within the castle before he did. Additionally, Merlin having magic would explain numerous events he had witnessed while as a prince and as a king. One time, Arthur could have sworn that he saw Merlin's eyes glow gold. He wondered if his servant took him for an idiot. Although for the time being, he believed acting like said idiot was the best course of action to keeping Merlin's magic a secret. It was easier if no one else aside from Morgana knew that Arthur was aware of Merlin's magic, and had been for years.
There was the court and older nobles to worry about too when it came to magic. While Arthur had chosen people to fill some positions, a good number of them were still from Uther's reign. Arthur had no doubts enough of them would be against repealing the magic ban to cause issues with getting the repeal into law. He did not believe any of them had figured out about Merlin's or Morgana's magic yet, as there had not been any fuss so far. For now, Arthur wanted to keep it that way.
Then there was Agravaine. Just thinking about his uncle made Arthur shiver.
Arthur looked down at the draft in front of him again, his mind coming back to reality after getting lost in the past. He always seemed to think about Merlin and Morgana whenever he worked on the repeal of the magic ban. Originally, he was doing it for Merlin, but now he was doing it for Morgana too, along with all the other innocent magic users scattered across Camelot.
A knock on the door made Arthur jump in his chair. He quickly placed the draft back in the drawer. Decoy paperwork was spread out on the table in its place.
"Enter."
The door opened to reveal Morgana. Arthur let out a quiet sigh of relief. He worried for nothing.
Morgana did not say anything until the door was shut again. "Good morning, brother dear."
"Morgana." Arthur thought that something was bothering her. In private, the half-siblings were nowhere near as formal that royal etiquette required of them.
Instead of saying anything, Morgana moved from her spot by the door to approach the table that Arthur was sitting at. She read the paperwork that displayed outdated inventory on various supplies stored within the castle. "Working on that again? Make any progress?"
He knew what Morgana was truly referring to. "Not really. At least not since the last time you read it."
"I would get it done sooner rather than later if I were you. And not just for my sake either."
"I'm trying, thank you." It was just difficult to concentrate this morning, that was all.
"And after it goes into law," a smirk formed on Morgana's face, "maybe you can tell a certain clumsy manservant how you feel."
Unfortunately for Arthur, he could not stop the blush that came to his face. "Shut it, harpy."
"I could tell him for you if you want me to." Morgana put a finger to her lips. She pretended to think about it. "Although he may appreciate it more coming directly from you."
"You will not say a word." On multiple occasions, Arthur regretted telling Morgana about his crush on Merlin. Now was one such occasion.
"Or maybe you should tell him before the ban is repealed."
"What did you really come here for?" Morgana's behavior confirmed to Arthur that something was bothering her. She did not come by just to tease him (unless he did something incredibly stupid in a hilarious (“hilarious” to Morgana and others, not Arthur) way at his own suffering, which Arthur could not remember doing anything that fit the description these past few weeks).
Morgana glanced back at the closed door for a few moments before returning her gaze towards Arthur. Her voice went quiet while she spoke. "I had a vision last night. Even though I don't know what it means, it left me unable to go back to sleep."
"What did you see?" Arthur lowered his own volume to match.
"I got a glimpse of some type of dungeon? Cave? Something of the sorts. A torch nearby allowed me to see someone chained up against the wall. I couldn't tell who it was by the time I woke up."
Arthur went into thought. The vision could be a sign of various possible events. The significance of the vision, and the details in general, were too uncertain to act upon right now. Although the common denominator in the several scenarios that Arthur came up with was that the event would be a bad one.
"We'll have to keep it in mind for now." Was what Arthur settled on saying.
Morgana nodded in agreement. "I wish I could tell you more details."
Arthur shook his head in response. "All I care about is that you told me. You know that I will always be grateful for your warnings."
"Thank you." Morgana took Arthur's hand and gave it a quick squeeze.
"By the way, have you seen Merlin this morning?"
"No. Why? Did he not come and wake you up today?"
"He hasn't been here yet. I already asked a servant to look for him."
Morgana frowned. "Surely he'll be here soon."
He thought of the vision that Morgana shared earlier. They looked at each other for a few silent moments.
"Surely indeed." Arthur broke eye contact first.
"Then I'll go take a look around myself." Morgana walked back towards the door. "I'll let you know of any updates."
"Thank you."
Once again, Arthur was left alone with his thoughts. He took back out the magic ban repeal draft and resumed working.
2 hours later…
Arthur read over all of the progress made on the draft so far for the day. He thought it was good for this point in the process. He would definitely need Morgana to read it over. Although he really wished he could also get Merlin's opinion too. For now, the draft went back into the drawer, kept under lock and key.
On cue, a knock rang on his door again. Arthur felt better from not having to hide anything.
"Enter."
This time, Gwen came into the room. She carried a tray of food. "Your lunch, my lord."
Arthur smiled at her in greeting. "Guinevere."
She smiled back at him while setting the tray down. In the process of doing so, she tapped her nail against the metal three times.
"Would you make my bed while you're here? Merlin hasn't come by yet." Arthur indicated for the guards to close the door.
"Yes, my lord." Gwen started to walk towards the bed. When the chamber door was firmly shut, she stopped and turned around. Any formalities between the two disappeared.
"So, what's the news?" Arthur looked back at Gwen.
"Morgana recruited me in searching for Merlin throughout the castle. Then we got the knights to help as well. We couldn't find him in either the castle or the lower town. The knights also checked the perimeter of the town gate with no success." She sat across from Arthur at the table. "You think he went out at night again?"
"At this point it feels confirmed." Arthur tried to eat some of the food. Having a lot of things on his mind was not the best for his appetite. He gestured for Gwen to take some food for herself too.
"I think so too." Unlike Arthur, Gwen felt hungry enough to eat. "We also tried to find Gaius while running around. But we couldn't find him anywhere."
"He wasn't in the physician's tower or in the library with Geoffrey?"
Gwen shook her head. "And neither in the lower town."
The gut instinct was at its worst for Arthur. "You can give the rest of the food to the servants. I don't think I can eat anymore."
"You're going to look for him." Gwen didn't phrase it as a question, already knowing the answer.
"There was that monster sighting in Greenswood recently. I bet Merlin went to handle it alone like the idiotic person that he is." Arthur did not get to see the look of realization dawn on Gwen's face as he was already out in the hallway.
Determined to find his manservant, Arthur headed straight for Gaius’s rooms to search for the physician himself. It was definitely the afternoon hours by now, as the castle was bustling with activity from the various servants and other patrons. He did not spare a glance to any of them as they cleared the way for the king. This was an urgent matter.
Arthur let himself in without knocking when he got to Gaius's room. "Gaius?"
"My lord." Gaius flinched at the sudden noise caused by Arthur. "May I help you?"
"Have you seen Merlin today?"
"I have not." He put down the vial of medicine that he had been inspecting prior to the interruption. "I have been picking herbs and making deliveries to the lower town all morning. I only got back here a few minutes ago."
"He did go somewhere last night, yes?"
"He did. He wasn't here when I woke up."
"Then he still hasn't returned, since no one in Camelot seems to have seen him since yesterday." Arthur could feel a headache coming.
Gaius frowned. "Last I heard, he planned on going to the Darkling Woods."
Wonder why the Darkling Woods and not Greenswood. At least that isn't far from here.
"Keep an eye out for Merlin for me, would you Gaius?"
"Of course, sire."
With that information in mind, Arthur beelined for the knight's quarters. However, when he got there, his knights were nowhere to be seen. It seemed like he would be going alone then. He felt that he did not have the time to go out of his way to search for them. As far as he knew, Merlin could be dying somewhere. Helpless. Alone. Afraid. Arthur shook the thoughts from his head.
At the armory, Arthur did not find any knights either. He wondered for a brief moment what they were doing, but the thought left him as quickly as it came. While putting on his armor, Arthur noticed that it must have been polished recently. The metal lacked the markings left behind from yesterday's training session with the knights. It appeared that Merlin actually did his chores before going missing.
I wonder if Merlin polished it by hand or used magic.
Another detail that led to Arthur figuring out about Merlin's magic was how quickly the manservant was able to finish his assigned chores. Sure, Arthur initially gave him so many as a way to mess with Merlin when he first got the job, but Merlin managed to do them all anyway. All done perhaps a bit too efficiently. Although later on, Arthur lowered the number of chores down to a more reasonable amount. He kept it that way even after finding out about the magic.
Sword and shield in hand, Arthur left for the stables. When the king got there, he was greeted by the Knights of the Round Table all waiting for him, standing in a half-circle. Leon stood in the center. Lancelot and Elyan were to his right while Gwaine and Percival were on the left.
"What are you all doing here?" Arthur was momentarily caught off guard.
"Waiting for you, my lord." Leon answered for them all. "Gwen and Lady Morgana told us what happened."
"We knew you'd go out at some point to search for Merlin." Gwaine said. "We want to help find him too."
"It's also more dangerous for you go out alone as king." Elyan added.
Arthur took a moment to regard the knights. "All of you have supplies?"
"Enough to last for the rest of the day if needed." Lancelot answered. Percival gestured towards the bags containing said supplies.
"Then we're off to the Darkling Woods." Arthur got on his horse. The knights mirrored the action. "That's where Gaius said Merlin was going before he went missing."
The knights were content to follow Arthur to the Darkling Woods. The six of them rode out of the city in search of Merlin.
Several hours later…
It was the middle of the night and still no Merlin. Arthur and the knights went back to the castle because they did not encounter any clues on where Merlin could have gone. Morale was at a low point.
Arthur swore that they managed to search the entirety of the woods, not just the area closest to Greenswood. He knew that himself and each of the knights had scoured through their section of the woods immensely. The fact that they did not even find one thing to follow up on worried everyone.
Despite it being very late, Arthur was not sure if he could manage to sleep tonight. His mind kept racing through various scenarios that Merlin could have been put in, and none of them were good.
Inside his chambers, Arthur found Morgana standing by the window. She had been looking outside, only turning around upon hearing him enter the room. The two looked at each other while the door shut.
"Any luck in finding him?" Morgana asked as she stepped away from the window.
"No. We couldn't find anything." He told her what happened while out in the woods. "I fear that Merlin may have been abducted, and that the people responsible knew how to cover their tracks."
"I'm thinking the same thing. He never returned while you were out. I tried reaching out to him with my magic earlier and couldn't link up with him." Morgana glanced at the closed doors for a few moments. She dropped her voice to a near whisper. "Although I also noticed that Agravaine was nowhere to be seen today either."
"No one knew where he went?" Arthur furrowed his brows.
"All that's known is that he left Camelot at some point. Several guards saw him leave. The reason he gave one of them was 'visiting some of the nobles'. Supposedly he left early in the morning."
"Has he returned?"
"Shortly before you did. I was waiting for you, but saw him too from here."
"You don't think he's involved with Merlin's disappearance?"
"There's not enough evidence that says he is." Morgana frowned. "I tried taking a nap earlier to see if I could get another vision, but I came up with nothing."
"There's nothing we can do at the moment." Arthur stretched. "Go get some rest tonight."
"Same to you." Morgana made her way to the door. "Good night, Arthur."
"Good night."
Although rest felt like something that would be impossible to get.