A/N: So, I spent far too much time working on this chapter today, when I really should have been studying for school, but that's okay :) Writing is way more fun than memorizing biochemical reactions anyway. Enjoy!

It was silent in the royal chambers as king and manservant continued to stare at each other for several long seconds. Merlin watched with wide eyes as Arthur regarded him from the doorway with an expression that seemed to be a cross between annoyance and concern. Or perhaps it was annoyance and confusion. Either way, Merlin was pretty sure that the king was annoyed with him.

The warlock tried to collect his thoughts; tried to assemble some sort of explanation in his mind for what could possibly be going on. But nothing that had happened in the past minute or so, or at least what felt like a minute to Merlin, made sense. And attempting to clear the fog away from his mind was proving to be very difficult at the moment. Especially since Arthur had now begun to stride towards him, never once taking his gaze off of Merlin.

The warlock shrunk back, his eyes growing even wider as Arthur came to a stop directly in front of him. The king raised his eyebrows at the action, and continued to watch his manservant's face carefully as he reached around the younger man to snatch up the gloves that he had left on his desk before heading down to the training field.

"What is wrong with you?" Arthur finally asked, pulling his arm back, his gloves clutched firmly now in one fist.

Merlin struggled to find an answer. He didn't know what to say, or what to do. He still had absolutely no idea what was happening.

Arthur frowned at the look of fear and uncertainty on the younger man's face. "Merlin, what is going on?" he asked, this time in a far more commanding tone. "What have you been doing all this time?"

Merlin felt his stomach clench in nervousness. He needed to get out of here. To go someplace where he could just sit and work through his thoughts. To figure out what was going on.

And then suddenly Arthur was glaring at him. "Don't tell me you fainted again!"

Merlin blinked as he thought about that for a moment. Maybe he had passed out. He had certainly been exhausted enough. But what had happened before that? Because apparently Arthur had sent him off to look for his gloves. Only he didn't remember that. At all. Merlin's head began to pound relentlessly, and the air in the royal chambers was suddenly stifling. He just wanted to get out of there.

And so, with a deep breath, Merlin finally nodded.

Arthur shook his head. "Just when I begin to think that you couldn't be any more of an idiot, Merlin, you pull a stunt like this. I thought I had made it clear that you weren't to be skipping any more meals."

Merlin kept silent, deciding not to mention the fact that he hadn't been skipping any meals, and instead allowed the king to continue on.

"The sooner Gaius gets back, the better," Arthur was saying. "I mean, really, Merlin. This is just getting ridiculous. Your work has been far worse than usual this week. You look like you haven't slept in days. And now I find out that you're still not eating properly. I don't have time for this. Are you really so incapable of taking care of yourself?"

Merlin shook his head slowly. "Sorry, Sire. I guess I'm just not feeling well today."

"So you're still sick then?" the king demanded.

Merlin's hand moved subconsciously to his chest at those words. But there was no tightness there, no cold, icy feeling. No, he wasn't still sick. He couldn't be. The book was gone, destroyed. And now he was feeling better. A little tired, maybe. But better. It was over. Wasn't it? It had to be over.

Apparently, Merlin's silence was enough to confirm Arthur's suspicions. "Go," he commanded, pointing towards the door. "Take some time off to get some rest. And as soon as Gaius gets back, I am going to make sure that he gives you a full examination. You are not to return to work until he decides that you are capable."

"But Arthur-" Merlin began to protest weakly. It would still be a couple days before Gaius got back. He couldn't just sit in his chambers, doing nothing until then.

"No, Merlin. You cannot work if you are ill. Now go."

There was nothing else to be done. Merlin let out a sigh as he slid past the king and headed for the exit. At least now he would have some time to think about what had just happened. Because there had to be some sort of logical explanation. He just needed to stay calm and allow things to fall into place in his mind.

But as he walked through the corridors on his way to the physician's chambers, Merlin's headache only seemed to increase as he tried to recall all that had happened that morning. He rubbed at the back of his neck then, before forcing himself to go over everything that he could remember.

He had been doing chores in Arthur's chambers. And then Arthur had come in. No...the boy had been first. The boy with no name had come to deliver the message from Gaius. Then Arthur had come in, and had told Merlin to take the breakfast dishes away and to bring him his armor. And so Merlin had. Except that when he got back to the room, Arthur hadn't been there, but had burst through the doors a second later wearing his armor and demanding to know where Merlin had been with his gloves.

Merlin shook his head, still trying to clear it of the fog. Arthur's words and behavior clearly suggested that he had already been down at the training field, and clearly the king had been under the impression that Merlin had gone with him, as he had then sent him off to go find his gloves.

Which wasn't all that unusual, when Merlin thought about it. Arthur often left things behind for him to go back and retrieve after they had already reached their destination. It was something Merlin suspected the king of doing on purpose most of the time, just so that he would have an excuse to make Merlin run around.

But why couldn't Merlin remember it? Getting Arthur into his armor? Accompanying him down to the training ground? And then going back to Arthur's chambers to retrieve his gloves? Any of it?

Merlin arrived at the physician's chambers at last. Once inside, he immediately crossed the main chamber and headed straight for his room, closing the door behind him. He looked at his bed, but made no move to go towards it. Instead, he slid down until he was sitting on the ground, his back against the door and his legs drawn up to his chest, with his arms wrapped tightly around them. He then lowered his head so that he was just staring at his knees.

What was happening to him? As far as he could tell, he had to have gone down to the training field with Arthur. Only there seemed to be a gap in his memory that was preventing him from recalling it. But why the gap was there, he just couldn't say. He could only guess that it may have something to do with feeling so utterly exhausted lately, despite getting what should have been more than enough sleep at night.

There was a small part of him at the back of his mind that was beginning to think that this was all connected back to that incident in the vaults. Back to that dark magic book, and all the terrible power it contained.

But he silenced that part of his brain almost immediately. That book was gone. Unable to do him any more harm. This had to be something else. Hopefully something that would be a bit easier to cure.

Merlin could feel the exhaustion beginning to descend on him once more. He closed his eyes with the intention of resting them for just a moment. That's all he would need. Then he could figure out what was going on. And fix it.

A knocking sound penetrated Merlin's mind and seemed to echo around inside his skull. The warlock groaned as he opened his eyes and looked around. Judging by the amount of light that was currently filtering into his room through the window, he would guess that it was now sometime in the mid-afternoon.

Another few seconds passed. And then Merlin finally realized that he was currently sitting on the floor, and that he had fallen asleep against his bedroom door.

The door. Someone was knocking on his door.

Merlin scrambled to his feet as the knock came again.

"Merlin? Are you in there?"

Merlin took a moment to rub at his pounding head before opening his bedroom door.

"Percival?" he asked uncertainly, when he saw the large man standing before him. "What are you-?"

"I'm sorry to bother you, Merlin. Arthur said that you would be resting."

"Is something wrong?" Merlin asked nervously.

Percival just nodded. "There is a woman in the lower town. She seems to be severely ill, and with Gaius gone-"

"I'll see her," Merlin said, pushing past Percival and down into the main chamber to begin gathering up supplies to put in the medicine bag. "What are her symptoms? Fever? Shivering? Is she conscious?"

Percival paused for a moment. "She's awake, but she doesn't respond much when anyone tries to talk to her. And she's very...cold. Like ice."

Merlin frowned, remembering that icy feeling in his chest that had been a result of that book. Then he shook his head and continued to prepare his bag, ignoring the persistent pounding in his head and the ache behind his eyes.

As soon as he was satisfied that he had everything he would need, the warlock nodded towards Percival, and, with the medicine bag slung over his shoulder, proceeded to follow the knight from the room, hurrying down staircases and through the corridors of the castle in the direction of the lower town.

They were almost to the courtyard when Merlin suddenly had to pause for a moment to catch his breath.

"Are you alright?" Percival asked urgently when he saw the young man leaning heavily against the wall of the corridor.

Merlin nodded. "Just a headache," he said quickly. "I'm fine."

"Are you sure?" the large knight asked.

"Yes, let's go," Merlin answered, pushing away from the wall.

The worried look did not disappear from the knight's face, but he nodded and agreed to continue on.

Despite the sun shining brightly outside, the tiny little house that Percival and Merlin entered in the lower town was dark. The shutters had been closed tight so that only a small amount of light was able to peer in through the cracks around the window frame, and only a few candles were lit in one corner of the room, where a small bed was pushed up against the wall.

There were several people sitting in chairs, or else standing against the walls, near the bed. They all looked up at Percival and Merlin's entrance. And then one of the men stood up, and moved forward to meet them.

"Will you be able to help her?" he asked immediately, staring straight at Merlin and not even bothering to give a formal greeting.

Merlin gripped the strap of his medicine bag tightly as he replied. "I'll do my best."

The man nodded and then quickly motioned for the others to move away from the bed so that Merlin would have better access to the young woman lying there motionless on the mattress under a large pile of blankets. Only her pale face was visible, and her eyes seemed to be half-closed.

"When did this start?" Merlin asked, setting down his bag.

"She had just gone for a walk," a young girl began tearfully. "She was just fine before she left. But then she collapsed in the marketplace."

"How long ago was that?" Merlin asked, resisting the urge to rub at his head.

"A couple of hours," the man who had already spoken replied. "Now she's as cold as ice, and she doesn't seem to hear us when we talk to her, even though her eyes are open. Please help her."

Merlin moved closer to the bed then, so that he was now directly in front of the woman. He wasn't sure that he was going to be able to do anything to help her. She needed Gaius. An experienced physician.

But Merlin knew he had to try.

The warlock frowned when he got a better look at the woman's face. He had seen her before, he was sure. But the memory that he had of her seemed to be stuck somewhere in the back of his brain, where Merlin was unable to access it at the moment. And he really didn't have time to dwell on it.

His headache was getting worse, but the warlock knew that he had no choice but to ignore it.

Merlin reached out then to press his fingers to the side of the familiar woman's neck. And he could sense all eyes in the room on his back as he did so.

But a second later, he snatched his hand back involuntarily.

He could hear everyone in the room surging forward at the action, but their alarmed voices sounded muffled in Merlin's ears.

The warlock hadn't expected her skin to be so cold. And that had been shocking enough. But it was more than that, though. It had felt so...strange. The woman was alive, and yet when Merlin had brushed his fingers against her skin, he had had this overwhelming feeling of emptiness. Like something was missing.

Merlin heard someone, probably Percival, calling his name.

But it was at that moment that the edges of Merlin's vision began to go dark. The exhaustion had finally caught up to him again, and this time, he was unable to hold it off.

He could feel himself falling, and then strong arms catching him, before the darkness finally claimed him, and he knew no more.

A/N: So is there anyone out there who is not thoroughly confused yet? Don't worry if you are. I promise you that everything will come together in the end. Until next time! :)