Got To Start Somewhere (Mumble)

[Mumble]

Mumble didn't have the slightest idea that the not sleeping thing was the result of his own resolution. He'd just assumed that it was magical, and it was bad, and because of that, it came from the same place that the other dark magic in his life originated - Redd Heart.

"Yes," he nodded. "I was there. It was this summer...we were in those...those cage things on the island. I can't...I don't remember if I asked her for it, I think she just gave it to me and then expected something in return, and I didn't have anything to give her, so I..."

Easy there, Mumble. He hadn't asked about that yet.

"She touched me...put her hand around my throat." Mumble lifted his own hand, encircling his throat with it lightly. "And it didn't feel any different, and I didn't hear her say any magical words or anything, but after that, I was singing."

[Merlin Emrys]

"I see..." Merlin mused, frowning thoughtfully. Some people didn't use an incantation, that he knew, and it might seem like it made things more difficult, but it did at least cut out several forms of magic that relied on spoken words or spell ingredients. It did, however, make it a little trickier to work out how to combat it.

"It's... probably not going to have anything backing it up," He suggested, trying to sound more confident than he felt "The way she did it, she probably couldn't have done anything too complex, it would be unlikely to have any loopholes in it, no traps to prevent you undoing it."

Theoretically, and he really hoped he was right.
"So we can just try some general removal spells and see what we can do?"

[Mumble]

Mumble suddenly had a horrible thought. What if what Redd had done wasn't completely magical? Obviously she had used magic to do it, but what if she'd used that magic to actually restructure his vocal cords or something outrageous like that? What if when Merlin tried to undo it, it ended up leaving him without any voice at all?

It didn't matter. Whatever the risk was, he decided, it was worth it. Worth it to be himself again, worth it to be out of her debt and no longer under her influence.

"Do it. Do whatever you know how to do, I don't even...I'm not really standing here with a lot of choices," he admitted. "Magic is how I got myself into this, I think I'm going to have to face it sooner or later to get out of the same mess. Just..." He paused, then shook his head. "Never mind. Just...do it."

[Merlin Emrys]

"Just what?" Merlin asked him calmly, as gently as possible "I know what it feels like to be desperate, I promise I'll do my best to fix this, if what I try now doesn't work then I'll find something else, really, it'll be ok."

He didn't want to be patronising, but he suspected Mumble kind of needed the reassurance, and he was sure he could work it out eventually, even if it involved calling in for some help from his other magically-inclined friends.

"Let's just try a nice simple removal spell first, it might not work because it might need something a little more powerful, but we'll just give it a try, ok?" He explained, edging a little closer to Mumble and lifting his hand "Now, just relax..."

[Mumble]

There was something really comforting about the way this guy seemed to know what he was doing. Probably because Mumble had long since lost sight of what he was doing himself, and wasn't at all sure what direction his life was headed in, so...yeah, it was reassuring to think that someone could do something[i/] that might be able to fix the mess he had gotten himself into.

He wasn't sure how to make himself relax - not because he was really nervous about the magic (honestly, he couldn't think of much this guy would do in the middle of a library in front of all these people that would be worse than what he was going through already) - but because sleep deprivation had left him jittery, uneasy...like he was constantly jolting himself awake.

He closed his eyes, and tried to concentrate on breathing evenly. Just one breath at a time.

"Ready..." he murmured, trying to shut out the world...Guin, it felt so good to just have his eyes shut, even if his mind was going nonstop behind his closed eyelids.

[Merlin Emrys]

Merlin focused on the spell he was attempting and murmured the words, his eyes flashed gold as usual but other than that... nothing much happened. It wasn't just that the spell had no visible effect, Merlin could tell it just hadn't worked, he had almost felt the magic come up against a barrier, repelling it.

Well, he hadn't really expected it to work first try, and worse things could have happened than simply nothing. He clearly needed to focus the spell a little more, make it more specific to the spell he was trying to get rid of.

Not saying anything more to Mumble, he immediately launched into his second attempt, the words coming to him easily - he was getting to the point where using that strange, magical language was becoming even more intuitive than it was before. There were still a lot of things he couldn't do, still things that went wrong or spells he couldn't find without a lot of hard work, but there were plenty of things he'd worked out that he never would have even thought of before.

Speaking the words of the new spell, he closed his eyes and almost followed the magic, envisioning how the two spells were interacting. His spell wound around Redd's, trying to find a way in, to break it. He could almost see the dark light that was Redd's spell beginning to crack, but it wasn't quite going to plan, it seemed to be...releasing something... there was a second spell mixed in there, something designed to get out if someone tried to remove the first.

[Mumble]

Mumble was praying with pretty much every ounce of will he had left in him that this wouldn't kill him. At this point, he was almost sure that the situation he was in was killing him anyway - between the not being able to sleep, and the near-death experiences he'd had with Redd, it was entirely possible that he was in more danger just going about his business every day than he would have been if he'd just walked into a cage of wild wolverines.

Possible, not very likely.

He didn't know the difference between one spell and the next, so for all he knew, the second spell could have been the continuation of the first...aside from the blinding pain that shot through his throat at the initiation of it. It felt like he'd swallowed molten lava...no, like his stomach had suddenly turned to molten lava and was trying to purge itself through his throat.

He gasped, and grabbed the edge of the table violently. Some small, logical part of his mind was trying to convince him that this was just how it felt when you broke evil, dark, magical spells, but the better part of his mind was overruled by the excruciating pain welling up from his lungs.

He found Merlin's eyes, and while he couldn't come up with words amidst the agony, he hoped that maybe just one would come across in the look he was giving the other boy.

Please. Please, stop, or finish it, but whatever you do, do it quickly.

[Merlin Emrys]

Merlin couldn't stop what was already started even as the second spell began to spread, the first spell was so shattered that it was practically finishing falling apart on his own, so he stopped concentrating on the magic for a moment to open his eyes and actually look at Mumble.

Just in time to see the absolute agony on his face.

"Sorry!" He said automatically "It's the spell, I think, the way it's breaking, it's probably designed that way. It won't be much longer..."

He hoped, he had no idea if the second spell was causing the pain or if it was the breaking up of the first as he had said, all he could do at this point was wait - there was no way to stop the second spell spreading, it was moving too fast and he wasn't sure if the same spell would remove it, he didn't have time to find another, he just had to let it go and hope for the best, then remove it once it was in place.

[Mumble]

In his entire life, Mumble could not think of ever having experienced anything that felt this much like dying. He knew, somewhere in his mind he knew that there was not actual lava being poured down his trachea, but that did nothing to alleviate the pain. Merlin's apology was like...like throwing a drinking glass of water into a volcano. He didn't even hear the explanation until finally, the pain started to crack...just slightly, just enough that he didn't want to grab the nearest person and beg them to just kill him and put him out of his misery...but it was enough.

Eyes watering so profusely that he couldn't see, he gripped the edge of the table with both hands, and took deep, painful breaths of air.

Let's never do that, ever again. he....couldn't say. What? He opened his mouth, and he tried to say the words, but it was like the blinding rush of pain came right back up to meet him in a white-hot wall of agony. Blinking the tears out of his eyes, he looked to Merlin questioningly, one hand coming up to feel his own throat as if he could determine what was wrong by touch.

[Merlin Emrys]

Merlin was feeling horribly guilty about the pain, but there was nothing he could do about it - it was possible that there was another way to remove the spell that wouldn't have caused it, but he hadn't known it, so that was really the only choice.

Now there was another problem, as Mumble appeared unable to speak at all - Merlin couldn't figure out what it was, an after-effect of removing the spell? The second spell's effect? Something to do with the pain? He didn't know, but all he could do was press on.

"Don't worry, it'll be ok." He promised, even though he was beginning to worry that, actually, maybe it wouldn't, but he was going to do his best at least, so he dived in to start removing the second spell - once he had worked out the correct incantation.

[Mumble]

It was easy enough to mime the fact that you couldn't talk. All he had to do was mouth "I can't talk" and point frantically at his throat. That part wasn't hard...the hard part was figuring out what horrible thing had been done to his vocal cords...if he even had them anymore.

Merlin was assuring him that it would be all right, and because Mumble probably would have just given in and cried if he didn't believe it at that point, he chose to accept the reassurance. He nodded mutely, and dug in his messenger bag for the notebook he'd brought with him, fishing a pen out of the front pocket.

It feels like I drank boiling water too quickly he wrote, although...well, drinking boiling water at any pace at all would probably be too quickly.

[Merlin Emrys]

The written statement of how Mumble felt didn't exactly fill Merlin with confidence, but all he could do was keep trying as he was.

"I think that might be the second spell..." he murmured. Whether the point of the spell or simply the feel of it taking hold, he wasn't sure, but working that out wasn't going to make any difference, what he needed to do was remove it.

"Just hold on, I'm almost done." He assured Mumbled again, closing his eyes to help him focus on picking apart that second spell as he spoke the correct incantation, visualising the magic once more as the cracks began to appear, slowly at first but eventually gaining speed as the spell began to crumble. Thankfully, there was not a third spell waiting to take over.

[Mumble]

The second spell. The first spell. The third, fourt, eighty-ninth, Mumble didn't know the difference, all he knew was that there was no relief he had ever felt like the relief that slowly settled over his body as Merlin did whatever he was doing. Mumble instinctively relaxed, the muscles in his neck and jaw loosening slightly.

He flexed his jaw, tilting his head back and rocking it from side to side, as if he could somehow stretch out the pain, make it go away by improving the flexibility of his neck. He was a little hesitant to speak, given that speaking had been the cause of such excruciating pain before, but...there wasn't really any other way to be sure that the spell was gone, so he prepared himself for the worst, and tried to think of something to say that was important enough to risk it.

"Thank you," he said, because if it worked, it was definitely warranted, and if it didn't work, well, it wouldn't matter what he tried to say. As it turned out, there was still pain, but it was a lot closer to an average sore throat pain than it was to the blindingly hot pain he'd felt before. "Oh, Guin, that's better. Lots better."

[Merlin Emrys]

Merlin waited, hardly daring to breathe once the spell was gone, in case it would disrupt... something, he wasn't even sure what, but he also needed to know that he hadn't somehow, unwittingly, done any damage to Mumble - he'd never forgive himself for that.

He breathed a sigh of relief when the other boy finally spoke, especially when he said it was lots better. Time would tell if there was any lasting damage, of course, and he really hoped there wasn't, but at least for now it seemed like he'd managed to do the trick.

"I'm glad it worked." He grinned a little back at Mumble.

[Mumble]

Mumble cleared his throat again, and winced. It wasn't bad. He'd had much worse of a sore throat before just from a common cold, but it still felt sort of unnatural, mostly because it had been so sudden. He'd take it, though, if it meant he was free to do what he wanted (namely not burst out into random song at humiliatingly frequent intervals).

He had the feeling Merlin wouldn't take money for what he'd done, and it would just be embarrassing to start throwing around bills in the middle of the library anyway, people would think they were conducting a drug deal or something. So instead, he gave Merlin a very man-to-man sort of nod.

"I owe you one," he said, although he was immediately conscious of the fact that someone who could do the kind of magic Merlin had just done probably wouldn't need any kind of favour that he couldn't do for himself in the blink of an eye. "Guess you probably have your bases covered and all, but if there's anything you need, ever, you just ask me, yeah?"