AN: Hello to anyone new who's looking at this story. The reason the chapter number for this is not "1" is that the rest of the story is on AO3. Originally, this story lived here, but I moved it in a kind of protest of the site putting ads in the middle of my text with no thought about how I might feel about that. For those of you who are already following the story, I will replace the following text with the newest chapter whenever I am finished one.

If you want to see the rest of this story, go to Archive Of Our Own and search for "What Type of Soul". My username is the same as it is here. If you can't do that, send me a message and I'll see if I can get the rest to you in some way for you to read.

Sorry for any inconvenience, but I hope you still enjoy what I have here.

AN: Sorry for such a late update people, I really hit a brick wall in the story and had no idea where I was supposed to go from the last chapter. But, all's well and ends well, because I've got the next chapter here for you. Two new perspectives in here, so let me know what you think!

Anyways, enjoy!

46 - I Don't Get It

Elyan was not any less confused now than he had been all day. If Merlin wasn't in any danger, he couldn't understand why they had wasted all that time looking for him. They may not have known that their help wasn't needed when they set out, but that was exactly why he was confused. Merlin had disappeared without warning before and they had never done anything to search for him then.

For some reason, Arthur had immediately assumed someone had kidnapped Merlin before wrangling them into helping search for him.

"I don't understand," he said when Gaius finished speaking. "Why did we go after Merlin if he wasn't in danger?"

"The evidence pointed to him having been kidnapped," stated Arthur.

He frowned at the king. "What evidence? That no one knew where he had gone? He's done that before and you've never reacted like this."

Gwen was staring fixedly at Arthur, who was determinedly avoiding her gaze. Gaius looked uncomfortable. He saw Gwaine glare at Arthur, waiting for an answer.

Arthur took his time before he spoke. "We…had…an argument…I was furious with him. When I cooled off and went to find him, he had disappeared."

Gwaine whistled with sing-song mockery. "Must have been some argument Princess," drawled the rouge, picking at his fingernails. "I can't help but wonder what it is you did to him."

He heard the dangerous edge of anger in Gwaine's voice, pointedly at odds with his relaxed posture.

He couldn't help but wonder what the argument had been about. Merlin was forever getting under Arthur's skin. It was a talent of his. But Merlin's every action was tempered by his loyalty. He knew the younger man did respect Arthur, no matter how it may sometimes look. Even when he was ribbing the king, it was part of him showing his friendship. They all knew that if Merlin gave Arthur a compliment, he meant it. The ribbing was also Merlin's way of keeping Arthur's head from getting too big so he was better able to remember his people. The idea that Merlin would be the one to cause a falling out was laughable. But that also meant that Arthur would've had to do something really bad to make Merlin leave. He couldn't have managed that easily.

Arthur's jaw clenched and he shot Gwaine a warning look. Gwiane ignored him, continuing to examine his fingers thoughtfully.

"That's none of your business," snapped the king. "The point is he wouldn't have run off without saying something to someone."

Gwaine hummed, flicking his eyes towards the still tense king.

"Where does this leave us?" asked Leon, the next to break in. "If we allow that Merlin did not leave of his own volition, then someone still has to have taken him."

"We already know this," cut in Gwaine, sounding serious again. "The Varteesians took him."

"But why? What purpose were they serving by it?" he asked.

If the world started making any less sense, his brain was going to implode. Merlin had not left on his own, but the people who kidnapped him had just let him go? Or had he escaped on his own? But if that was the case, why would he send them a letter rather than coming home? 'Why is nothing ever simple with that man? I've never met anyone so convoluted in my life.'

Gwaine splayed his palms out placatingly to them. "The Varteesians didn't take him just for the sake of it. They took him to help him."

"And you know this how?" demanded Arthur incredulously.

Gwaine fixed his eyes on the king, mouth twitching slightly as if he wanted to smile, or sneer. "I happened to come across another Varteesian in that village we stopped at. The ones from here talked to them and asked them to contact home and ask for help. Apparently Merlin had some kind of magical sickness. That was why they took him. They needed magic to heal him, and they couldn't very well do anything in Camelot."

Gaius suddenly sucked in a sharp breath, clutching his chest. Everyone stared at him in concern.

"Gaius? What's wrong?" prodded Gwen at his startled exclamation.

Gaius' eyes were glistening in a way he had never seen before. He wondered if the old man was about to start balling his eyes out in front of them. The thought floated to the front of his mind even as he disregarded it. Gaius was their stalwart support, ever calm. He didn't want to know what it meant if the old man was loosing his control now. 'Maybe he's just worried about Merlin being ill and not being able to help him himself,'

"How did he get a magical sickness?" wondered Leon aloud. "He was completely fine earlier that very day."

None of it made any sense. How had Merlin gotten sick? How did these Varteesians learn about it and why did they decide to help him? He thought he knew why they hadn't said anything. If Merlin really had a magical illness, they wouldn't have been very forthcoming about knowledge of that in Camelot. It would have been easy enough to accuse them of cursing him. He wondered why Gwaine hadn't shared this information before now. By the look Arthur was giving Gwaine, he was thinking the same thing.

"And your only sharing this with us now!?" demanded the king.

Gwaine gazed steadily across the table. He leaned back to get out of the way of the two men's ferocity. He was starting to get the feeling that he was missing something important.

"Didn't see how it was going to make a difference when the evil sorcerers still took him."

It was a statement posed almost like a challenge. Arthur's reaction wasn't what he expected. His training under Uther allowed him to keep most of his true feelings under wraps in situations like these. That didn't mean you wouldn't be able to tell what he was thinking if you knew him well enough. He saw Arthur tense, and something like guilt flicker through his eyes before the king-mask managed to cover it. 'Why would Arthur be feeling guilty?'

"You should not have kept information pertaining to our quest to yourself. I would have gone about things differently had I known this earlier," said Arthur.

Gwaine raised an eyebrow. "Would you really? They're sorcerers, and we all know there's only one way to deal with magicians."

A long silence greeted them before Leon cleared his throat loudly. "If this is true, Merlin will likely return on his own when he recovers."

"No." The entire table startled at Percival's forceful tone.

Gwiane's face was unreadable. He saw Gwen bite her lip nervously. She seemed to agree with Percival's statement. Gaius' physicians mask cracked around his too-bright eyes. Arthur was still as a statue, trying his hardest not to show them any emotion. Leon looked just as confused as he was.

Of course Merlin would come back when he was better, he was beyond loyal. The thought of him not returning to the city was ridiculous. And yet it looked like only he and Leon shared that view.

" 'No'? You think Merlin won't come back?" questioned Leon, completely out of his depth.

"Magic is not evil, as the law says," was Percival's only response.

Hours latter Leon lay awake in bed, gazing out at the shinning moon. He couldn't understand how so many of the others seemed to believe that Merlin was fine, and wasn't coming back.

Out of all the other knights, he had known Merlin the longest. He was the only one of them who had been there through the formative years of Merlin and Arthur's friendship. He knew how loyal Merlin was, and how he would do anything to protect the people he cared for. The concept of him not returning was unfathomable. Yet Gaius didn't seem to share that view.

Merlin was a friendly person, but he was also very private. As much as he was always chattering away, he didn't often say much. The only way he had ever found to get Merlin to really talk was to have a genuine conversation while alone with him. Everyone knew Merlin, but he believed Gaius was the only one who knew him. And now Gaius seemed to think he wasn't coming back, that he had left because of some fight with Arthur.

These Varteesian's healed him from some obscure sickness with magic, when he was a stranger to them living in the kingdom most well-known for it's hatred of magic. If magic could heal, it wasn't all evil. Uther's harsh stance on the law against magic had never sat well with Merlin. If Uther had been wrong, he wouldn't let it go. But that alone wouldn't be enough of a reason for Merlin to stay away. It would make more sense for such an experience to prompt the younger man to return and try his hardest to get Arthur to change the law. He would use his own experience as his proof that not all magic was bad. But that wasn't what was going on.

He couldn't fathom what disagreement between Arthur and Merlin could have driven the younger man away, but it had to have been something serious.