Of Cures and Consequences
Title: Of Cures and Consequences
Author: Sasusc
Fandom: Merlin
Characters: Merlin, Gaius, Arthur
Words: 1219
Summary: Merlin uses his magic to cure the sick. Set before Season 4 (Part 1/2)
Series: 365 Days of Drabbles, Day Four
Magic and choices, Merlin discovered, could do a many of great things big and small but there was always a price whether it he noticed it or not. As a child he hadn't known about the consequences and probably couldn't fully understand what it meant. As an adult he could weigh those consequences more carefully and try his utmost best to comprehend the consequences of using his magic or the choices he made.
He couldn't deny that he hadn't known about the consequences, or that the choices he made would lead him down this path. He had weighed those as best as he could at the start and knew the outcome by far outweighed the consequences.
It had started off innocently enough. He just wanted to help. Gaius and Arthur were both worried and at their limits with their helpfulness. They couldn't do or give any more to the people. The sickness had infected too many too fast. It had swept through Camelot in the matter of weeks.
Gaius had informed him that it was impossible for magic to be behind this sickness-that there was no magical cure to find for those infected. Merlin went along with it in the beginning, believing Gaius was wiser and would have known for sure if magic was involved. As Gaius was exhausting himself with helping patient after patient and being able to do nothing to help them, Merlin started to observe the sickness around him. Arthur had already released him from his duty at his side so that he could be more of a help to the old physician.
He easily picked up the pattern of the sickness. Gaius had reached the same conclusion as he did except it took him slightly longer. Merlin couldn't fault him for that. He had been busy trying to figure out the best concoction to alleviate his patients' symptoms. It didn't help that different age groups responded differently to his mixtures… A potion that helped a child would cause an adult to worsen.
Gaius had sent him alone to a home to hand out his newest batch of potions. They family consisted of a father, a mother, and their two sons ages eight and five. They were in various stages of the sickness in what Gaius and several other healers had described as phrases one and two. The children were luckily still in phrase one which meant they had a cough and a few red spots. The parents were in phrase two which meant they had a cough, a sore throat, lots of itchy red spots, and were well on their way to not eating. And it was there as he was taking care of them that he could no longer deny the traces of magic that he felt.
He wasn't sure what he did, but he closed his eyes briefly and felt a shift in the air as his magic pushed. It took a few minutes to adjust to his new vision. There were small traces of colors swirling around the family-yellow around the children and blue around the adults. Magic. He knew he was seeing magic. He had to briefly thank Uther for outlawing magic. It made it that much easier to see the magic in the sick. As he went house to house, he saw the magic swelling in the people. He caught a few harmless magical charms and items and a few times discovered someone with magic.
Merlin came upon the fifth person that could use magic when it dawn on him that not a single magic user was sick. The sickness was targeting those without magic. The realization had him running back to Gaius with his theory. Gaius was reluctant to believe him and told him that even if it was true, he could hardly tell that to the king.
Nothing in his magical book could help him figure out exactly what the sickness was nor how to cure it. Merlin took to experimenting…something Gaius had forbidden him to do. Within a week he discovered that he could draw out the magic in the patient. The first time he did this he saw the magic pour out of the patient then hovered around the person before falling back into him. His second attempt had the magic finding a different victim which almost killed its newest host. The magic had to be contained when he released it from a body or else it would find a new body to infect. He tried objects and crystals to shove the magic into. Crystals worked the best, but he didn't have access to many. Various objects proved to be useless. Most shattered or melted under the force of holding onto the magic. The patients who he had successfully transferred the magic sickness into crystals started to response rapidly to Gaius's potions and started to recover.
When he ran out of crystals to store the magic in, he did the only thing he could think to do. He drew the magic into himself. He knew he could contain the magic sickness in his body, trapping it in his own magic. At first his magic was able to extinguish the sickness, but with each new patient he saw and the more magic he took from them the harder it was to fight it. He didn't let Gaius know exactly what he was doing. He knew that Gaius would make him stop. But how could he? He was curing Camelot a little at a time. There was once or twice that he thought Gaius would ask but he would keep his mouth shut and continue working on his potions.
Two weeks into curing the people, Merlin's body started showing signs of physical strain. He found a spell to hide it from everyone. He had to renew the spell every day and every day it got harder and harder to maintain the lie. He nearly collapsed when he reached the last patient. Gaius was at his side and forced him to sit down, reminding him that he needed to take it easy.
"It's gone," he whispered. "All of it."
Gaius had nodded to that. He understood that Merlin had been doing something magical to help cure the people even if he didn't know exactly what he had done. If he had known, he would have forced Merlin to stop. No one could take in that much without some sort of harm…usually death. But he couldn't see past the spell Merlin had been using and thus hadn't realized the danger his young apprentice was in.
So when Gaius had informed the king that the sickness had ran its course and it was merely waiting for people to finish healing, Merlin was given a day to rest before returning to Arthur's side. He lasted two days before succumbed to the sickness.
He had just delivered Arthur his breakfast when he felt his mask slipping. Arthur looked up in alarm when Merlin started hissing in pain and had dropped down onto his knees.
"Merlin? Merlin!" he shouted as his friend toppled over.
"Art'r," he croaked out when Arthur reached his side. "Gaius. S'ry."
"What's wrong?"
Merlin panted on the floor. "Took it all. Need time to fight it," he mentioned to get out before falling unconscious into a healing slumber.
Author: Sasusc
Fandom: Merlin
Characters: Merlin, Gaius, Arthur
Words: 1219
Summary: Merlin uses his magic to cure the sick. Set before Season 4 (Part 1/2)
Series: 365 Days of Drabbles, Day Four
Magic and choices, Merlin discovered, could do a many of great things big and small but there was always a price whether it he noticed it or not. As a child he hadn't known about the consequences and probably couldn't fully understand what it meant. As an adult he could weigh those consequences more carefully and try his utmost best to comprehend the consequences of using his magic or the choices he made.
He couldn't deny that he hadn't known about the consequences, or that the choices he made would lead him down this path. He had weighed those as best as he could at the start and knew the outcome by far outweighed the consequences.
It had started off innocently enough. He just wanted to help. Gaius and Arthur were both worried and at their limits with their helpfulness. They couldn't do or give any more to the people. The sickness had infected too many too fast. It had swept through Camelot in the matter of weeks.
Gaius had informed him that it was impossible for magic to be behind this sickness-that there was no magical cure to find for those infected. Merlin went along with it in the beginning, believing Gaius was wiser and would have known for sure if magic was involved. As Gaius was exhausting himself with helping patient after patient and being able to do nothing to help them, Merlin started to observe the sickness around him. Arthur had already released him from his duty at his side so that he could be more of a help to the old physician.
He easily picked up the pattern of the sickness. Gaius had reached the same conclusion as he did except it took him slightly longer. Merlin couldn't fault him for that. He had been busy trying to figure out the best concoction to alleviate his patients' symptoms. It didn't help that different age groups responded differently to his mixtures… A potion that helped a child would cause an adult to worsen.
Gaius had sent him alone to a home to hand out his newest batch of potions. They family consisted of a father, a mother, and their two sons ages eight and five. They were in various stages of the sickness in what Gaius and several other healers had described as phrases one and two. The children were luckily still in phrase one which meant they had a cough and a few red spots. The parents were in phrase two which meant they had a cough, a sore throat, lots of itchy red spots, and were well on their way to not eating. And it was there as he was taking care of them that he could no longer deny the traces of magic that he felt.
He wasn't sure what he did, but he closed his eyes briefly and felt a shift in the air as his magic pushed. It took a few minutes to adjust to his new vision. There were small traces of colors swirling around the family-yellow around the children and blue around the adults. Magic. He knew he was seeing magic. He had to briefly thank Uther for outlawing magic. It made it that much easier to see the magic in the sick. As he went house to house, he saw the magic swelling in the people. He caught a few harmless magical charms and items and a few times discovered someone with magic.
Merlin came upon the fifth person that could use magic when it dawn on him that not a single magic user was sick. The sickness was targeting those without magic. The realization had him running back to Gaius with his theory. Gaius was reluctant to believe him and told him that even if it was true, he could hardly tell that to the king.
Nothing in his magical book could help him figure out exactly what the sickness was nor how to cure it. Merlin took to experimenting…something Gaius had forbidden him to do. Within a week he discovered that he could draw out the magic in the patient. The first time he did this he saw the magic pour out of the patient then hovered around the person before falling back into him. His second attempt had the magic finding a different victim which almost killed its newest host. The magic had to be contained when he released it from a body or else it would find a new body to infect. He tried objects and crystals to shove the magic into. Crystals worked the best, but he didn't have access to many. Various objects proved to be useless. Most shattered or melted under the force of holding onto the magic. The patients who he had successfully transferred the magic sickness into crystals started to response rapidly to Gaius's potions and started to recover.
When he ran out of crystals to store the magic in, he did the only thing he could think to do. He drew the magic into himself. He knew he could contain the magic sickness in his body, trapping it in his own magic. At first his magic was able to extinguish the sickness, but with each new patient he saw and the more magic he took from them the harder it was to fight it. He didn't let Gaius know exactly what he was doing. He knew that Gaius would make him stop. But how could he? He was curing Camelot a little at a time. There was once or twice that he thought Gaius would ask but he would keep his mouth shut and continue working on his potions.
Two weeks into curing the people, Merlin's body started showing signs of physical strain. He found a spell to hide it from everyone. He had to renew the spell every day and every day it got harder and harder to maintain the lie. He nearly collapsed when he reached the last patient. Gaius was at his side and forced him to sit down, reminding him that he needed to take it easy.
"It's gone," he whispered. "All of it."
Gaius had nodded to that. He understood that Merlin had been doing something magical to help cure the people even if he didn't know exactly what he had done. If he had known, he would have forced Merlin to stop. No one could take in that much without some sort of harm…usually death. But he couldn't see past the spell Merlin had been using and thus hadn't realized the danger his young apprentice was in.
So when Gaius had informed the king that the sickness had ran its course and it was merely waiting for people to finish healing, Merlin was given a day to rest before returning to Arthur's side. He lasted two days before succumbed to the sickness.
He had just delivered Arthur his breakfast when he felt his mask slipping. Arthur looked up in alarm when Merlin started hissing in pain and had dropped down onto his knees.
"Merlin? Merlin!" he shouted as his friend toppled over.
"Art'r," he croaked out when Arthur reached his side. "Gaius. S'ry."
"What's wrong?"
Merlin panted on the floor. "Took it all. Need time to fight it," he mentioned to get out before falling unconscious into a healing slumber.