Deafening Silence

Written Remedies

Merlin would become incredibly thankful for his thorough nights rest by the next morning.

It seemed that overnight, some of Camelot's citizens in the lower citadel had caught a similar illness to the woman that Gaius had recently treated. Naturally, the court physician was summoned in order to investigate and prescribe remedies to those who needed them, only this time, he would be accompanied by his bed-headed apprentice.

Gaius had arisen Merlin about an hour before his ward was due at the King's chambers and had told him slowly and clearly that they were needed in the lower citadel immediately. Merlin groaned as a response before he started readying himself, tempting Gaius to smack him over the head but the old physician knew better.

By Gaius' predictions, Merlin's hearing was thought to be fully returned by the next day. Already that was becoming more and more likely as he seemed to be much more sharply aware of the sounds of the citadel as the pair trekked along the old paths.

The court physician and his apprentice eventually reached the area they were summoned to and got to work. After only looking at a few citizens, Gaius and Merlin were able to connect certain symptoms and figure out the illness. It was curable but required daily intake of a certain potion that Merlin had luckily packed before they left. Home after home they went, treating men, women, and children alike. Merlin found the day to be insanely repetitive with the more hours they spent stuck in the lower citadel. He couldn't believe that he found himself actually wanting to do Arthur's tedious chores.

"Doing Arthur's laundry would be more thrilling than this." he thought to himself. Yet Merlin knew that on top of being 'the greatest sorcerer to ever walk the Earth' and a dragonlord, his duties as the apprentice to the court physician were also important.

And for once, the people of Camelot would see what he was doing for them, even if it was on a smaller scale than his usual feats.

Before scurrying to the lower part of the city, Gaius instructed George to take a message to his majesty to inform him of his and Merlin's whereabouts as it was likely that Merlin would be unable to perform most of his duties that day.

Merlin had insisted on telling Arthur himself as he hadn't seen him since the banquet but Gaius wasn't having any arguments, citing that they were needed as soon as possible. So, Merlin had to keep reminding himself to thank Arthur later for convincing him to retire early last night. He only hoped the dollop-head wouldn't be too annoyed at George's appearance.

At the same time that Gaius and Merlin were about halfway through the citadel, Arthur heard three neat knocks on his door.

"You can come in, you know." Arthur shouted towards the door, thinking it was just Merlin playing around, carrying on with their banter from the banquet. He was sat at his desk again, this time reading an old speech. The door opened and Arthur waited for Merlin to speak, knowing full well that it would pull him out of his 'concentration'. What he heard instead wasn't what he expected nor was it what he wanted.

"Good morning, Sire." the voice spoke, sounding nothing like Merlin's. Arthur shot a glance upward and saw the familiar expressionless face of George standing in front of the door and felt an odd sense of panic rise within him.

It was not George himself that initiated this reaction but rather the reason why he was here right now in the place of Merlin. Normally, Arthur would've thought that his manservant had just overslept but this time, he was well aware that the circumstances were different.

Had Merlin been injured again? Had his hearing gotten worse overnight? Why wasn't he here? Such questions swaddled Arthur's mind as they grew wilder.

"George," he said with an unenthusiastic tone that he couldn't help. "I wasn't expecting you, where's..." Arthur didn't even have to finish for George to guess what he was going to ask.