The Aftermath (Merlin)

Chapter Thirty-One: What are you doing?

Merlin sprung awake in bed, quickly stumbling to his feet and getting his clothes on before running into Gaius' chambers. To his surprise it wasn't just the Physician in the room, The Queen was sitting down at the dinning table surrounded by books and pieces of parchment, Gaius and Leon were at the work bench looking at some herbs and mixing some potions, Percival was in the kitchen area seemingly cooking some food and Arthur? He was doing the unexpected... He was pacing across the room whilst reading a book. As the Raven halted at the sight before him, none of the others had noticed his presence so he loudly cleared his throat causing all 5 of his friends to snap their head in his direction.

"Merlin?!" Arthur shouted, a huge smile grew on his face as he walked towards his friend. The servant met his King at the bottom of the stairs before being brought into a hug.

The boy retracted "Ermm... nice to see you too?"

Seemingly following their Kings lead the Physician, Queen and Knights made their way towards Merlin. Gaius was quick to check his ward up and down "How are you feeling my boy?"

"I feel good" The Raven answered, and for the first time in a long time he wasn't completely lying, he was wide awake and he felt better than he had in a long time (despite the continuous numb pain in his chest but he had grown used to that now).

"You look it" Percival smiled down at his friends whose complexion was more coloured and his eyes less sunken with dark bags.

The boy grinned in return, but also looked past his friends and headed towards the pieces of parchments Gwen had been looking at "What's going on?"

"Oh... that" Leon replied as he followed the servant.

The Warlock picked up a book and read the page it had been left on 'The mysteries of terror induced sleep', placing it down and reading the titles of other parchments:

'Waking up the unconscious'

'Uncontrollable nightmares '

'Remedies of the sleeping'

"I... what is this?" The Raven looked back up to his friends.

"We were researching your dreams" The elder Knight answered.

"All night? Didn't you go back to your rooms to get some sleep?"

The five members of the court looked between each other.

"What?" The boy queried in confusion.

Arthur stepped forward "Merlin... You've been asleep for the past 4 days, we've been trying every remedy, every book, everything to get you to wake, nothing worked. You really had us all worrying."

"Oh..." suddenly his friends reactions to his awakening made a lot more sense.

"Not that it matters anymore, you finally decided to wake your lazy ass up." The King remarked, causing Merlin to chuckle.

"Speaking of which, how was your dreams? Your magic didn't seem to play up and you were pretty much silent the entire time" Gwen spoke softly.

As if brought back to the very reason he had been so swiftly heading out of his room, he muttered "It was fine, I could control the fire and I wasn't burnt alive so that's a positive." Merlin started towards Gaius' cupboards, pulling blankets and medical supplies out and stuffing it into a satchel.

"Merrrrlin, what the hell are you doing?" Arthur asked confused.

"Packing"

The boy's attention was based purely on packing and he started running all around the Physician's chambers grabbing items from here and there.

"I can see that" The blonde place his hands on his hips.

Merlin went back into his own room, grabbing some extra clothes before going to the dining table and placing his bag down.

"Why are you packing?" The King's face contorted to one that looked to be almost of disgust.

"Places to go, people to see" The servant now went to Gaius' bookshelf searching for a book but quickly turned around upon not finding it, he sighed and went to another book shelf. No luck.

"Merlin?"

And another...

"Merlin?"

and another.

"Ughhh where is it?!"

"Merlin!" Arthur was getting annoyed now.

"Gaius do you know where my book of magic is?" When the old man didn't reply straight away the boy quickly continued "You know the one you gifted me a couple years back about ancient rituals and spells?"

"Errr have you checked under your floorboards?" The confused old man responded.

Merlin smacked his head "Of course! How could I have forgotten" the boy turned on his heels and ran into his room.

Arthur followed his manservant into his bedroom where he saw the boy lying down reaching into a hole in the floor which a plank of wood once covered. He was throwing the items behind him not caring about were they landed, the King was forced to dodge the peculiar items. Just as the blonde was going to speak Merlin shouted

"AHA!" The boy pulled out the staff which had once belonged to an outcast member of the Sidhe, he quickly stood and handed it over to Arthur who held it with reluctance.

"Merlin what are you doing?"

The servant took no notice of his friend's face and went straight back to searching in the secret hole "Back when Magic was outlawed I needed a place to hide all the artefacts and books I had collected... it's not the most organised of places."

The King was looking down at all the things Merlin had thrown "What are you looking for?"

"Just a minute.... I ... Yes! Found it!" The boy got up from his knees and threw the large book on his bed and whispered an incantation causing the pages to rapidly turn open to the page he required. Merlin scanned over the writing and ripped it from the spine.

For a brief moment the blatant use of magic surprised the King but he quickly recomposed himself before saying "Look Merlin as much as I like the fact that you feel better and the nightmares have gone and that you no longer look like a walking corpse, you need to tell me what's going on."

The Warlock put the papers in his pocket and took the staff from Arthur's grasp. "It wasn't a nightmare, it was a purgatory of sorts... I suppose... anyway I learnt something and I have to check it out"

"And you have to do this right now?" The blonde couldn't even begin to start asking about this purgatory.

"Yes, they are waiting for me"

"Whose they?"

"Just some friends"

"Merlin?!"

"You wouldn't believe me if I told you."

"MERLiiiiN"

"Alright, alright its Lancelot.... And Elyan... And Gwaine"

The Young King's face matured into one of sadness and pity.

"Merlin..." the blonde placed his hand onto the boy's shoulder to comfort him "Lancelot, Elyan, Gwaine... they're not going to show up... they're... they're..."

"Dead." The Raven finished. "I know, but I have to go... it may be my only chance." Merlin now walked past Arthur.

"You're only chance to what?" The King queried as he turned to watch Merlin leave the his room.

"To bring them back."