Using that strange sensory magic he still didn't understand fully, Merlin sent it deep into the stone, reaching down to the earth underneath, searching. He knelt down, spreading his hands across the stone, not seeing anything but feeling with every ounce of concentration under the city. He froze, not daring to focus any further, realising he'd just found what he'd been looking and dreading for.

Deep under the city of Camelot were the dungeons, the vaults and the crypt. He hadn't realised that under all that were a series of tunnels, much like an ants nest that spread through the whole city. In those tunnels, a dark force stirred. Merlin's golden eyes widened as he gazed in horror at the foundations of Camelot, feeling the poison that ran through it all this time.

"Merlin?" an irritated voice sounded. Merlin snapped up, his senses rocketing back into him with an impact that almost made him dizzy, his eyes returning to their normal blue in time to meet Arthur's gaze. The king of Camelot looked at him with a mix of concern and irritation that only he could pull off.

"What's wrong?" he demanded noticing with unease that the servant seemed shaken by something.

"Ants," Merlin blurted out. He bit his lip, watching Arthur uneasily.

"Ants," Arthur repeated flatly. Merlin nodded.

"They're everywhere. Under the stones, they're all over Camelot." Arthur gazed carefully at him, detecting no lie in his voice. This only made the king worry more about the sanity of his servant. He looked genuinely disturbed at the insect population of the city.

"I'm sure you have some method to deal with it. I'll leave this matter to your…expertise." Arthur slowly edged away from the man, realising that this was one of the numerous times that Merlin became involved with something he didn't want to know about.

Merlin watched as the king all but fled the courtyard and frowned. He did worry about the king sometimes. He took too many of Merlin's feeble excuses to heart.