Chapter Eleven – The Mark of Nimueh – Saving a Life

Merlin couldn't help but drag her feet as she followed Prince Arthur's voice into her room. It felt eerily like walking to the gallows. Which she very well might be.

"I found a place where you can put things," he said mockingly over his shoulder as he heard her enter. "It's called a cupboard."

The young sorceress released a quiet breath of relief, grateful that the Prince was merely being his usual condescending self, and hadn't actually found the damning evidence of sorcery that he could have found in there.

Yet.

The book in question was right there on the floor, in plain view for anyone who cared to look. She immediately directed the bedsheet from the bed to fall to the floor and cover it, before Arthur turned back around to face the bed.

"How did you manage to mess up your room this bad?" he exclaimed incredulously. "You haven't even been here a month!"

"Too busy cleaning up after you," she retorted under her breath.

The Prince gave up his search after a quick look under the bed – the area lent a whole new meaning to the word 'messy' – and went back out to speak to Gaius.

"How long do you think it may be before you find a cure," he asked the physician.

"It depends on how many interruptions I get," the old man said, piercing the younger man with a stern look and an eyebrow raised in disapproval.

"Of course, I'm sorry," the Prince relented, then gathered his guards and left.

"We have to hide that book," Gaius announced as soon as the door closed behind their uninvited guests.

"No," Merlin countered. "We must use it."

"Don't be stupid," the physician scoffed, brushing off her words without hesitation.

"If I have this legacy then what is it for?" the young sorceress asked, throwing her hands up in frustration. "You keep telling me it's not for playing tricks."

"You want to practice magic when the King is hunting for sorcerers?" he questioned incredulously, trying to stare her down into seeing sense. "Are you mad? Merlin, your life is destined for more important things."

"But if I don't practice, then how will I get to be this great sorceress?" she demanded loudly.

It made complete sense to her. Someone needed her help, and she had the means to do it, then she should. Besides, practice makes perfect, right?

"There will come a time when your skills will be recognised," the old man said with conviction, but some time in the distant future wasn't of much help to her now.

"When?!" she exclaimed impatiently, dissatisfied with his refusal to see her side. "How long do I have to wait?"

"Patience is a virtue, Merlin," her guardian said calmly.

"Sitting by and doing nothing, that's a virtue?" she rebutted doubtfully.

"Your time will come," he said, not wavering the slightest from his opinion.

"I could cure that man we saw," she said in a lower voice, fighting to keep it from breaking.

"I know it's tempting to use the way you find easiest, Merlin," he began with sympathy for her moral dilemma.

"It is when it would save a life," she interrupted insistently.

"It's no good saving just one person," he explained, trying to reason with the impulsive, young girl. "We have to discover how this illness is spreading.

"Arthur is out there right now looking for the sorcerer," she exclaimed, convinced he would have to find something. He had even searched Gaius' chambers, after all.

"A sorcerer who's powerful enough to do this will never be found searching the town," Gaius shouted, finally losing his composure.

Then again, Arthur had completely missed the book of spells right in front of him and in plain sight in her room, so maybe her faith in his chances of finding the sorcerer responsible for the disease was misplaced.

"So what can we do?" she sighed, conceding to his reasoning.

For now, at least.

"Hope that science can find the answer before it kills us all," he said with his usual lack of optimism.

Dawn broke, bright an early.

Another day, another dead body brought down by the mysterious disease.

"What's different about this victim?" Gaius asked his young assistant as they bent over the corpse of a young lady.

"Er, she's a woman," Merlin tried, not really seeing what the physician was getting at.

"Sometimes I do wonder whether your magical talents were given to the right person," he commented, paired with a look that said he thought she was being particularly dense that morning. "Anything else?"

"Erm," she gave the unfortunate woman another searching look before trying again. "She's a courtier."

"Ah," Gaius nodded, letting her know she was on the right track.

"How does that help us?" Merlin asked, not sure where the old physician was going with his hints.

"Courtiers seldom go down to the lower town," he said unhelpfully. She already knew that. "So what does that mean?"

"Erm... That, that she hasn't spoken to any townspeople," she said, offering the first thing that popped into her head.

"Yes," Gaius said with a long-suffering sigh, looking pained at her failure to understand his point. "It suggests that the disease is not spread by contact."

"Oh," she said in realisation. It did make sense when he said it like that. "And they probably ate different food."

"Good," Gaius said, a smile of approval lurking at the corner of his mouth. "Anything else?"

"Erm, I doubt they breathe the same air," she suggested hopefully.

"So what's the only thing they do share?" the physician asked.

"Water," she said slowly, then lit up with excitement. "Water? You think the disease is spread through water?"

"Merlin, you're a prodigy," Gaius declared proudly, then handed her a bucket to go and get some more of it.

The young girl grabbed the bucket and practically ran out of the room to complete her task of getting fresh – or, evidently, not so fresh – water.

Finally they had a real lead to work from.

Merlin's newfound optimism all but evaporated when Gwen ran past her by the well on the lower town, tears streaming down her face. And she could do nothing but listen as the other girl pleaded with the court physician to save her father's life.

The young sorveress had no choice. She could not let Gwen lose her only remaining family. Not when she could so easily spare the kind maid the pain. Even if Gaius didn't approve. He was wrong. Letting an innocent man die could only ever be wrong.

After a failed attempt at making the physician see sense, Merlin returned to her room.

The book would have an answer. She was sure of it.

The girl listened carefully at the door, making sure her guardian was still puttering around at the other end of his chambers, and not on his way to check up on her.

Taking care not to make any suspicious noises, she got out the book of magic and started flipping through the pages in search of a cure.

Gwen's father had less than a day left to live. There had to be something she could use in there.

Making a healing poultice following the instructions from the book was easier than she'd thought it would be.

Gaius seemed to have all thinkable ingredients available in his rooms already, and then all she needed to do was to infuse it with some of her magic.

Even the guards upholding the newly instated curfew were simple enough to distract. There was one guy she'd had to knock out, but that worked out fine in the end too.

And the relief and pure, unabashed happiness in Gwen's voice when her father woke up, free of the dreadful disease, made it all worth it.

She had been too excited to sleep when she got back to her room, drunk on their happy reunion and her own victory.

The next morning she was walking on air. Brimming with optimism and the answer to everyone's prayers.

Even Gaius giving her suspicious looks and questioning her sudden change of mood could not bring her down.

Nothing could that day.

Until it all came crashing down around her in the form of Gwen being dragged through the corridors of the castle, begging for her life and pleading her innocence.

The sound desperation in the young maid's voice was still echoing in Merlin's head as Gaius led her firmly into the physician's chambers and closed the door behind them with the expression of a man who thought it would have been more fitting to slam it shut.

"What've you done?!" he demanded as he turned back around to face the young sorceress.

"What?" she asked in confusion.

"I warned you!" he shouted. "Oh, I understand you thought you were doing good."

"I couldn't let her father die knowing I could cure him," she explained defensively.

Remembering her friend's tears and distress from the day before compared to the relief after her father's remarkable recovery, Merlin could not find it in herself to regret her choice to heal the blacksmith.

"Didn't you think it might look a bit suspicious, the curing of one man?" the old man questioned, the volume of his voice steadily increasing with every word he uttered.

"Well, then all I have to do is," she trailed off, searching for a solution to the problem she had inadvertently caused through her actions. "I'll save everyone! No one will ever have to know it was magic."

"It's too late!" Gaius barked, frustrated by the girl's stubbornness and refusal to acknowledge the seriousness of the situation. "They think Gwen's the sorceress! They think she caused the disease!"

The young girl felt a chill run down her spine.

"But she didn't!" she exclaimed, horrified at the remembrance of what had happened to the person she saw being accused of using magic on the day she arrived in Camelot for the first time.

The chopping block.

The very public spectacle of ending a man's life.

She could not let that happen to Gwen.

She had to stop it. Whatever it took. Gwen was not to blame for any of it. She was entirely innocent.

"Oh, and how are you going to prove that?" Gaius called after her as she rushed out of the room.

She didn't answer him. She had no answer to give.

What could she do? How could she possibly convince the King of Gwen's innocence?

AN: Writing this chapter was like pulling teeth! It didn't help that I got distracted by going to a metal festival and fell in love with a new band (anyone know the band Urfaust? They are blowing my mind!), then Avengers: Endgame was released, and finally, out of nowhere, I suddenly got the urge to rewatch Once Upon a Time... But I actually finished the chapter by my set deadline anyway, so I'll take that as a victory! Even though it's a bit shorter than usual...

Next chapter should be up by: 19th of June (at the latest)