Merlin and Arthur in Lockdown

Five

Arthur narrowed his eyes at the large glass jar. 'What are you doing?'

Merlin had his sleeves rolled up. He took a boiled egg and squeezed it into a gap of boiled eggs inside the jar. He looked up at Arthur. 'Pickled eggs! Your favourite, right?'

'Sure. If it's done right.' Arthur eyed the nearly filled jar of eggs sceptically.

'People are making all kinds of things to pass the time at home. So I thought, why not?' He finished putting in the last egg. Then he poured the flavoured pickling liquid into the jar carefully. 'I mean they must be your favourite food if you won a pickled egg eating competition.' Merlin closed the jar tightly then paused. 'Oh wait, that's you doing it just to brag. You probably would have eaten pretty much anything in that case.'

'No, Merlin, I wouldn't have. I do like them, actually. But just don't go around on the Internet, telling people that's my favourite food.'

'Why? Because you're too cool for that?' Merlin smiled.

'It's not that. Let 's just say I once let out I was a "dog person" and all but live animals were mailed to my door.' At the back of Arthur's mind he was impressed that Merlin was attempting to make the pickled eggs. More importantly, he didn't want to admit he was touched Merlin remembered the story about the competition. Or the fact that he picked up on Arthur's choice of this side dish.

'Right,' said Merlin, 'smothered by fan mail. Must have been very difficult.'

Arthur grabbed an apple from the fruit bowl and munched into it. 'Well they better taste good. Or else you'll have to finish the whole jar by yourself.'

<<>>

Arthur didn't know if he should be honoured to be invited to the meeting or disappointed because it meant sitting still, being serious and contemplative for nearly two hours. At least this was a virtual meeting, so when he pressed 'Leave' on the screen it would mean he could leave for good. As opposed to staying back to mingle with ministers and his father's "influential" friends. He didn't even bother changing from his jeans, just putting on a formal shirt since he had to have his video 'On' during the meeting.

On Arthur's computer screen, the rectangle showing Uther's video lit up its border. 'The investigation is under way,' he said. 'They have already gathered intelligence on around a dozen persons of interest.'

Arthur sat up a little straighter. His father was talking about the supernatural origins of the plague and those who might be connected to it.

From another corner of the screen Lady Annis Spoke. 'I don't think we should be publicising any of this until we have definitive proof. We have teams of researchers on this as well. There may be another chain of events that led to this situation which does not involve sorcery.'

Uther looked unblinkingly at his camera. 'Conversations have been found on the Dark Web about the Druids causing an uprising,' said the king, 'something to bring countries to their knees. Is it that far from what is currently happening? I have announced a taskforce to investigate the suspects in connection to the plague.'

The meeting moved through its agenda. Arthur felt an unease lift as his father's cause was no longer in the spotlight, and attention turned to logistics around the lockdown situation.

After the meeting ended, Uther called Arthur into a private video call. 'I've had word to change the bodyguard situation,' informed Uther. 'They will only accompany you and Morgana in high-risk settings.'

Arthur gave a nod. 'Thanks, Father.'

'There was one other thing I wanted to discuss. I've arranged for you to get some work experience with the task force.'

Arthur was quiet for a second.

'You'll be accompanied by highly trained professionals at all times. So there's nothing to worry about, should the sorcerers retaliate.'

Arthur didn't like where this was going. 'Do they really have enough evidence to zero-in on these people?'

'I've been assured they do.'

'Perhaps it's valid. But at this time maybe we need to put more focus on what we should do in response to the health situation.'

'The government is doing all they can on that front. We need some representation on this mission.' Meaning Arthur had to be the Royal face of this campaign. 'You're not a teenager any more, Arthur. You need to do a bit better than YouTube videos with a couple of Likes and fan comments.'

Arthur ground his teeth together. That shut him up as Uther intended.