A Knight of Two Masters

by TheOnceAndFutureNerd

Summary:

"It had all started out as a normal, midsummer morning. Gwaine had gone about his usual morning routine, sat through some mind-numbingly boring meeting, and spent some time training with the other knights. Now, it was dark out, he was in a strange hut in the middle of the forest with his hands tied to the ceiling above him, and he had absolutely no memory of how he'd ended up here. But the longer he focused, the more the details started to come back to him..."

Gwaine is kidnapped by Morgana, who hopes to enchant him and send him back to Camelot where she can use him as a way of killing Arthur and Arthur's ridiculously loyal servant, Merlin. Will her plans be successful? Will Gwaine be framed and executed? Or, will he be found out and unenchanted before he hurts anyone?

Chapter 1: Gwaine

It had all started out as a normal, midsummer morning. Gwaine had gone about his usual morning routine, sat through some mind-numbingly boring meeting, and spent some time training with the other knights. Now, it was dark out, he was in a strange hut in the middle of the forest with his hands tied to the ceiling above him, and he had absolutely no memory of how he'd ended up here. But the longer he focused, the more the details started to come back to him...

 

---

 

Gwaine was less than pleased when Lord Agravaine approached him while he'd been in the midst of a conversation with Aderyn near the training grounds. He wasn't this bloke's biggest fan, and he had a feeling Aggravaine knew, but he didn't care.

"Sir Gwaine," Agravaine greet him civilly. "We've received word that there was a disturbance in the Darkling Woods, I think you'd better go investigate. It'd be best to go alone but if you need to take someone with you please do, just make sure to be stealthy."

"Do you have any details on what kind of disturbance?" Gwaine asked, not too happy about the lack of details. "What am I looking for?"

"We're not quite sure, possibly some kind of magical creature."

"Ah, wonderful," Gwaine said. "I'll get right on that."

"Please do," Agravaine said, nodding once at Aderyn and then stalking away.

"Sounds fun," Aderyn scoffed. "Mind if I tag along?"

Gwaine knew better than to pull the 'I don't want you to get hurt' card on Aderyn, she'd proven herself time and again that she could handle herself quite well, so he stayed quiet.

"Yeah, sure. I could use some backup, I think."

"It's hard to tell how much backup you'd need when you aren't given any bloody details," Aderyn griped. "Honestly, what is it with that man? He's always so..."

"Aggravating? Aggravating Agravaine?" Gwaine smirked.

"Sure," Aderyn laughed as they made their way down to the armory. "That works. I was thinking something much more disrespectful, but God forbid I disrespect the high and mighty Lord Migraine."

They continued to joke around on their way to the armory. After gathering their weapons they headed to the stables to get their horses and then after that they set off towards the forest.

"I hope the creature's gone and drowned itself or something," Aderyn sighed as they rode through the fields to get to the forest. "This better not take all day, I had some maps I needed to go over."

"I'd take a battle over going over maps any day of the week," Gwaine replied, wrinkling his nose in distaste. "Sounds like a boring way to spend a night. I could think of a few much more interesting ways to spend a night."

"I'm sure you could," Aderyn said. "Like going and getting drunk, I suppose."

"Nah, that's something you do with your mates, I was thinking something more like—" but Gwaine was cut off as Aderyn spurred her horse on, having noticed something in the distance.

"What's wrong?" Gwaine asked, catching up to her and trying to follow her line of sight.

"I dunno, I thought I saw smoke coming from the forest," Aderyn squinted. "Maybe it was just a trick of the light or something."

"That's odd," Gwaine frowned. "The Darkling Woods aren't really all that inhabited."

"I was probably just seeing things, it's fine. Just be careful in there, I have a bad feeling about this."

"Oh Ryn, lighten up, it's probably nothing. We'll just ride about in the woods for a bit to appease Agravaine and then go back."

"This is why you can't go anywhere alone," Aderyn sighed, tossing her braid over her shoulder. "You never take anything seriously."

"Maybe you take things too seriously," Gwaine challenged playfully.

"One of us has to," Aderyn rolled her eyes.

They continued on into the woods. It was quite a beautiful day out, the sun was shining through the canopy of leaves above, dappling the ground with spots of golden sunshine. It was warm out but there was a nice breeze out, rustling the trees and ferns all around. The birds were singing, putting up quite a cacophony in fact.

That was until they fell silent. Completely silent. A silent forest is never a good thing, and although Gwaine was still trying to act nonchalant, he was on guard. He rested one hand on the hilt of his sword, peering around to try and see if he could spot what might have scared the birds off.

Gwaine and Aderyn remained silent as well, not wanting to alert anything to their presence. The only sound was the slight rustling caused by the breeze and the hoofsteps of their horses.

"Ryn," Gwaine whispered as he slowly dismounted his horse. "I'm going to go check this out, I think I saw something through the trees over here."

"Right, I'll go with you," Aderyn dismounted as well, drawing an arrow from her quiver and nocking it to her bow. "It'd be a bad idea to split up."

Gwaine nodded in agreement and they set off into the forest.

After a few minutes, something pricked Gwaine in the neck. Thinking it to be a bug or something, he reached up to swat it away. But instead of finding a bug, he came away with a small, black dart of sorts. It looked like an oversized thorn or something.

Whatever it had been laced with was already setting in, his vision was growing blurry and his limbs weaker.

"Shit," he groaned.

"What's wrong?" Aderyn asked, appearing at his shoulder.

"Ryn," Gwaine, despite the drug's effects, tried to shield Aderyn from the direction in which the dart had come. "You've got to go back, I..." but he trailed off, unable to piece together a full sentence. He needed to tell her to turn back, to get to safety, but he couldn't find the words.

Unable to fight off the drug, Gwaine collapsed. He could faintly hear Aderyn's voice, but everything was growing more and more distant until finally, he lost consciousness.

Notes:

Yeah, yeah...another fic in which Gwaine goes missing, sue me. I was going to branch out a bit but then I found an old document from like a year ago in which I'd planned out a fic but never written it or posted it and I liked the idea and wanted to revamp it so here we are, hope you enjoy!

Chapter 2: Aderyn

Aderyn had hoped her bad feeling was just that; a meaningless little worry, after all, she worried a lot. But spending as much time with Gwaine as she did gave her ample reason to worry, he was so reckless and had no regard for his personal safety. Plus, nothing ever seemed to go to plan in Camelot, even in just the few months she'd been there and taken up her job as a ranger, things were always going wrong left and right. But couldn't just a simple patrol go well for once?

"Shit," Gwaine hissed, his hand flying up to his neck.

"What's wrong?" Aderyn asked, instantly alert.

"Ryn," Gwaine mumbled, sounding disoriented as he stared at something in his hand. He looked up at her with panic in his eyes, grabbing her by the shoulder and shielding her on one side. "You've gotta go back, I..." he trailed off, staggering backward.

"Gwaine, what's wrong?" Aderyn demanded. "Look at me, what—"

But without warning, Gwaine collapsed. Aderyn cursed, looking around the trees for the source of...whatever had just happened. But she didn't see anything. She knelt next to Gwaine. There was a small puncture wound in his next, and the thing he'd been holding had fallen out of his hand. It was a dart.

"Damn it," Aderyn cursed.

They needed to get out of there, but Aderyn knew she probably didn't have time. She didn't care though, she was going to do her best to get Gwaine out of there.

But before she could try to drag Gwaine to the horses, she was thrown into the air by an immeasurably strong, invisible force. She slammed into the ground, the breath leaving her lungs in a whoosh right before she blacked out.

 

---

 

When Aderyn awoke, it was dusk. She lay there on the forest floor, staring up at the sky for a few moments, her memory still hazy. It wasn't until Gwaine's horse's nose appeared above her out of nowhere that she was fully brought back to awareness.

"Oh, no, no, no," she groaned, pushing the horse's head to the side and sitting up, clutching her own head as it ached relentlessly. She stood unsteadily, surveying the rapidly darkening forest. There was no sign of Gwaine. She knew she needed to get back to Camelot to organize a search party, staying in the woods after dark alone after her companion had already been taken who knows where by who knew what— well, that was a terrible idea. But Aderyn was loathe to leave the forest without Gwaine. She debated with herself for a few moments before deciding to turn back. Realistically, she'd do Gwaine more good by going back and getting help. And a few torches, she needed light.

She found her own horse grazing peacefully nearby and quickly mounted up and rode out of the forest, leading Gwaine's horse along with her.

Upon making it back to the castle, she was greeted by a very worried Merlin.

"Where've you been?" he demanded, and then as he noticed Gwaine's riderless horse behind her: "Where's Gwaine?"

Aderyn dismounted, wincing as the sudden movement aggravated her headache.

"I don't know, we were attacked in the forest. Gwaine was struck by some sort of dart and he passed out. I was going to try and get us both out of there but before I could..." she hesitated, knowing what she was about to say was going to sound crazy. "Well, I don't know exactly what happened. It was like something hit me and threw me into the air— but I didn't see anything. When I woke up, Gwaine was gone."

"You'd better tell Arthur," Merlin said, his expression grim. "I'll take the horses to the stable for you."

"Thanks, Merlin," Aderyn said. "You don't happen to know where Arthur is, do you?"

"I think he's in his chambers, if not just ask around; someone will have seen him."

"Thanks."

Aderyn strode into the castle, dread coiling in her stomach. She couldn't stop thinking about Gwaine, was he alright? Was he even alive? What—or who—had taken him? He had to still be alive, he was out there. They'd find him sooner or later, everything would be fine.

"Aderyn, what's wrong?" Arthur asked as he opened the door. "Has something happened?"

"Gwaine went missing on patrol," Aderyn blurted. "We were in the woods, Agravaine reported a disturbance so we went to go check things out and then Gwaine got hit by a dart and then something knocked me out and when I woke up he was gone and—"

"Woah, woah, slow down," Arthur said. "A dart? Did you see who shot him?"

"No, that's just it. There was no one. I don't even know what knocked me out, it was just this...this invisible force that slammed into me, it was mad."

"Magic," Arthur whispered. "It was probably someone using magic. Dammit. Well, give me a minute to get ready and then we'll organize a search party."

"I'll help look," Aderyn replied.

"Are you sure? You don't look well."

"I'm fine," she insisted. "I'm going with you."

"Alright, alright," Arthur sighed. "Go and gather the knights for me then, will you? Just Leon, Elyan, Lancelot, and Percival should be sufficient."

"I'll do that," Aderyn turned on her heel, starting off into the castle to track down the knights.

 

Chapter 3: Gwaine

Gwaine had tried struggling against the ropes, but it was no use. He was tied just high enough that it was uncomfortable, the strain wearing on his shoulders, but not so high that he was suspended above the ground. He groaned in frustration, letting his head hang back.

He didn't like waiting under the best of circumstances, and now was most definitely not the best of circumstances. If someone was going to kill him they might as well hurry up and do it, not just leave him here to rot. Whoever inhabited the hut didn't seem to be home though, as no one had responded to his shouted insults and barrages of swear words.

So there he stood, out of breath and in pain. His shoulders were killing him and whatever that blasted dart had been laced with had given him a terrible headache.

The creak of a floorboard caught his attention, and he jerked his head up. The hut was so dark that he couldn't see much, but at that moment every candle in the room flared up as though by magic. Then, his captor was revealed.

A pale woman with a mane of dark hair clad in all black strode regally across the floor, a cruel smile playing at her lips.

"Well hello there, Sir Gwaine," she said, looking up from the delicate dagger she was holding.

"Morgana," Gwaine snarled, flinching away as she drew uncomfortably close to him.

She reached out and traced a finger along his jawline. "Such a shame that someone as handsome as you is so loyal to my idiot brother."

She trailed a finger along Gwaine's jawline, trailing down his throat, and placing her hand on his bare chest.

"Get away from me," he growled, his skin burning in the wake of her touch. He was all too aware that he was helpless in this situation— he hated being helpless. He felt like a caged animal.

"So rude," Morgana hissed. "You should really apologize; no knight should treat his future queen like that."

"You will never be queen," Gwaine breathed. 

"How dare you?" she seethed. "Take that back this instant."

Gwaine remained defiantly silent.

Morgana drew a dagger from her belt, pressing it to Gwaine's throat with such force that it broke through his skin. A thin line of blood made its way down his neck to his collarbone, but Gwaine refused to apologize or take back what he had said. But it wasn't in Gwaine's nature to remain silent for long or think through things before he said them.

"Go to Hell, maybe the devil will take you as his queen, although even he might not be able to stand you."

Morgana stepped back, practically trembling with rage. She looked as though she were considering skinning him alive, but instead, she whispered an incantation, not taking her eyes away from Gwaine's as she did so.

As soon as she finished, pain tore through Gwaine like wildfire. It was so intense that his vision whited out; it was as though every inch of him was being stabbed over and over, his chest seized up and he could hardly breathe, it felt like all the oxygen had left the room. The pain went on for an eternity before finally letting up. Gwaine's chest heaved as he struggled for breath. His head hung down, his hair hanging down in front of his face. Spots danced in front of his vision, which was beginning to fade to black.

But Morgana was not content to just let him pass out, as he soon found out. The shock of ice-cold water making contact with his skin brought him back from the brink of unconsciousness.

"You don't get to rest yet," Morgana smirked, tossing the bucket into the corner of the room. "I have questions. Questions that for your sake you had better have the answers to."

Chapter 4: Aderyn

"You're sure this is where you were patrolling?" Arthur asked, raising his torch higher to illuminate the surrounding forest.

"Yes, I'm sure," Aderyn bit out. "But I told you, I didn't see anything. Or anyone for that matter, there was nothing. I've no idea where he could have gone."

"Right, everyone spread out in groups," Arthur ordered. "Merlin, this way."

The rest of the knights paired up as best they could. Lancelot and Aderyn ended up together while the remaining three went off in a different direction, torches held aloft.

"He'll be alright," Lancelot spoke up. "I know we're all worried, but we'll find him."

"Yeah, you're right," Aderyn agreed.

That was about as far as the conversation got. They continued on in silence, unsure of what they were really looking for. It wasn't as though Gwaine was just going to pop out of the brush and shout surprise. Aderyn was getting to be quite the tracker, however, so she was hoping she'd be able to spot signs that someone had passed this way. You couldn't just drag an unconscious knight dressed in chain mail through a forest and not leave a trace.

Finally, after about half an hour, she found something.

"Lancelot, look at this," she crouched down, peering at the ground. She was pretty sure it was a footprint, but it was hard to tell without a light.

Lancelot walked over and with the light from his torch, Aderyn was able to properly identify the marking in the ground.

"A bootprint, maybe," Lancelot remarked.

They followed what turned out to be a bit of a trail, finding broken branches and markings in the dirt until they found...not Gwaine, unfortunately, but his armor and sword. Everything had been dumped in a pile by a nearby tree.

"We should go get the others," Lancelot said. "If we're getting close, we'll want the rest of the group."

"True," Aderyn mused.

She didn't want to turn back now, what if something happened and they lost the trail? But it would be a bad idea to split up, so she went along with Lancelot as they tried to find the rest of the party. It took longer than Aderyn would have liked since the other two groups had gone off in different directions, but eventually, they found everyone and were able to find the armor again.

"This is good, right?" Merlin asked. "I mean, since it's just his armor he's probably still alive."

"Probably so," Arthur agreed. "My guess is they wanted to get rid of the armor because of how heavy it was. Transporting an unconscious man is hard enough even without adding armor to the equation."

"That sounds logical," Leon agreed. "Should we carry on, then?"

"Yes," Arthur nodded.

They did their best, but the trail grew fainter after that and they weren't able to make much progress. After a few hours of nothing, everyone was growing tired and tensions were high. Aderyn was loathe to leave the forest without Gwaine but Arthur was insistent that they needed to go and regroup, get some rest, and make a plan. In the end, Arthur won out— as usual, and a fuming Aderyn followed him and the rest of the knights back to the castle.

She didn't sleep much that night, she'd given up after a couple hours of tossing and turning. After that she'd gone down to the kitchens to snag some food before returning to her quarters, scouring maps of the forest in an attempt to get a better idea of what direction Gwaine could have been taken. However, she didn't make it very far before dozing off at her desk.

Chapter 5: Gwaine

The sun had already started to rise by the time Morgana gave Gwaine a break from the questioning. All night she'd been interrogating him, asking questions about Arthur, what were Arthur's plans for the future, was Arthur planning any quests in which he'd be out of the castle, things like that. Gwaine had kept his mouth shut despite Morgana's torture methods.

Blood had dripped down his neck from where Morgana had cut him again, drying on the silver chain he always wore. The gashes weren't deep enough that he was going to bleed out, in fact they'd stopped bleeding hours ago, but that didn't mean they didn't hurt like hell. But Morgana's main torture method had been spells. She'd caused him to have terrifyingly vivid hallucinations, go through agonizing pain, she'd even stopped him being able to breathe for...well he wasn't sure how long, he'd passed out for a moment. But Morgana had woken him shortly after, making sure he didn't have any time to rest. She was wearing him down very effectively, he wasn't sure how much longer he'd last.

Gwaine hung from the ceiling, covered in sweat and blood, breathing shallowly and fighting off unconsciousness. Whatever Morgana had done to mess with his mind had really taken him for a loop. His heart was beating a tattoo against his ribcage, anxiety gnawing away at his mind. He could barely distinguish what was reality and what wasn't, had his friends really come to save him only to be killed by a chimera— or was that just a nightmare? He squeezed his eyes shut, trying to put a stop to the torrent of worries swirling around his head.

"Oh Gwaine," Morgana purred, placing a hand on his shoulder and shaking him.

Gwaine groaned, the sudden movement aggravating his sore muscles.

"Come now," she pouted. "It's morning, you wouldn't want to sleep in. You and I have more talking to do."

Gwaine glared at Morgana, so exhausted he could barely keep his eyes open.

Gwaine glared at Morgana, so exhausted he could barely keep his eyes open.

"You really are a tough one to crack," Morgana mused, scowling as she started to pace about the room. "If I didn't need you alive and moderately functional I'd keep going, but as it is..." she trailed off.

He didn't know if she was talking to him or herself but as long as she was distracted he didn't care.

"I suppose getting information out of you isn't really the main purpose of your visit here," she

thought aloud. "No, I suppose we'll just go ahead with stage two of the plan. Any thoughts, Sir Gwaine? Or are you so determined to stay silent? Funny, I never did have you pegged as the strong and silent type."

"How about you untie me and we'll see who's the stronger one here," Gwaine's voice was painfully raspy, his throat raw and dry.

"He speaks," Morgana smirked. "Is that a threat or are you flirting with me?"

Gwaine scowled in disgust, wanting nothing more than to chuck this annoying witch off the nearest cliff he could find.

"Ah, a threat then. Disappointing. No matter, I am getting rather pressed for time so we'd best move along. Try not to doze off while I go and find supplies," she ordered as she started out of the room.

Gwaine watched her leave the room apprehensively. He might not be all there mentally at the moment but he was willing to bet this 'stage two' of her twisted plan wasn't going to be any better than whatever this mad first half of her plan. He looked up at the ropes binding his wrists above his head, trying to see if he could feel any give in the ropes at all. He couldn't, and the ropes were so rough they'd rubbed his wrists raw. Rivulets of blood had stained his forearms.

Things weren't looking up for Gwaine, he could only hope his friends would get there soon.With Morgana gone Gwaine no longer felt the need to try and stay awake and shortly after his brief struggle with the ropes he passed out from sheer exhaustion.

---

"Gwaine, hey," a voice weasled into Gwaine's subconscious. "Wake up."

Gwaine tried to say something but all that came out was a strangled moan.

"Thank God," the voice sighed. "Gwaine, open your eyes for me, yeah?"

"No," Gwaine whispered, panic seeping through him. It was Morgana, she was back. She was going to— to what, kill him? Maybe. Or worse, start up her questioning again. He tried to pull away from the voice, but his wrists were still bound above his head, reminding him that he was still trapped. Still helpless. His struggles against the ropes did nothing but aggravate the wounds on his wrists yet again.

"No, get away—"

"Gwaine, look— it's me," the voice was pleading now, but Gwaine was still too confused to recognize whoever it was.

His vision was fuzzy and try as he might, he couldn't focus.

"Please," his voice came out as a pained whisper now. He didn't know what he was asking, really. Please leave him alone? Just kill him and be done with it? Either worked.

A hand brushed against his cheek, the touch gentle and very unlike Morgana's.

"It's Aderyn," the voice said. "You're safe now, we're going to untie you, alright?"

"Aderyn?" he echoed hollowly, not comprehending what was being said to him.

"Yeah, that's right. Listen, I've got to get the others, I will be right back alright? I promise."

"She'll be back," he mumbled. "She's...planning..."

"It's alright," Aderyn tried to reassure him. "Just a moment, I'll be right back."

And then she was gone and Gwaine was left alone with his convoluted thoughts yet again.

Chapter 6: Aderyn

Aderyn had been woken by Gwen earlier that morning, as she'd slept past the time Arthur had organized for them to meet. She was already ready to go though, having not unpacked anything from the knight before. Dashing through the castle, she met the knights and Merlin in the courtyard.

The ride to the forest was quiet, Gwaine's absence all too obvious. The sun had barely started to rise as they left the castle, but the beautiful sunrise view they had on the way to the woods was lost on Aderyn.

There was some dispute over which way they had gone the night before, but Aderyn had marked up a map as soon as she'd gotten back to the castle so that cleared things up. Her map was a little off, as it turned out, but not enough that it caused any real problems. They found the armor from the night before (they had chosen to leave it there the night before, hoping it would work as a sort of landmark for them).

The trail after that, although fainter, was easier to make out in the daylight. They decided to split up into groups again, hoping to cover more ground. They stuck to the same groups as before, Lancelot and Aderyn following what Aderyn thought to be the continuation of the trail from before while the other two groups branched off in different directions.

Now that it was daytime, they were a little less paranoid, although still on the watch since it had been the middle of the day when Gwaine had been taken.

"I'm going to check out this area," Aderyn said, pointing off into the woods. "I saw something through the trees, I think. If you want to just keep going I'll meet you back in a minute."

"I dunno," Lancelot frowned. "Is it a good idea to split up?"

"It'll be fine," Aderyn assured him. "I'll be right nearby, if something happens I'll just give you a shout."

"Alright," Lancelot conceded. "Be careful."

"I will be," Aderyn replied, starting off in the direction of...well she wasn't sure what. She'd thought she'd seen smoke again.

Maybe someone had set a fire— it could just be travelers, but maybe it was something more. After a few minutes of tramping through the brush, using her dagger to hack at the vines. This area of the forest was annoyingly overgrown, but it wasn't anything they couldn't handle. Sadly it did slow them down quite a bit and make stealth much harder.

To Aderyn's surprise, after about ten minutes or so, she stumbled across a small cabin of sorts. The thing looked liable to come crashing down at any moment but there was smoke coming from the chimney, so Aderyn decided to check it out.

The door just about fell off in her hands and Aderyn cursed, hoping nobody dangerous was inside because there went her element of surprise. But the first room she came upon seemed empty. But upon coming into the next room, Aderyn froze.

There was someone hanging from the ceiling. If not for the chain dangling around the man's bloodied neck, she might not have recognized him as Gwaine right away.

Aderyn rushed over, panic causing her heart to skip a beat. But upon checking for a pulse, she found that Gwaine was still alive. His pulse was weak but mostly steady. However, he was unconscious and looked to be pretty badly off. There was a gash across one side of his neck, and another, more shallow cut across his throat. His wrists were tied above his head and she could see that blood had dripped down his arms.

"Gwaine?" Aderyn whispered, not wanting to startle him awake. "You there, mate?"

Gwaine didn't have any sort of reaction so Aderyn tried again, a little louder this time.

"Gwaine, hey. Wake up."

Gwaine stirred slightly, his eyelids fluttering slightly. A strangled moan left his lips and his face contorted into a pained expression.

"Thank God," Aderyn breathed, relieved that Gwaine was alive, although it pained her to see him like this. "Gwaine, open your eyes for me, yeah?"

"No," Gwaine's voice was a barely audible whisper, his voice painfully hoarse. "No, get away—"

He tensed up, trying to lean away from Aderyn, struggling at the ropes, his chest heaving as he struggled to breathe— the position he was in looked like it was making it difficult for him to breathe freely.

"Gwaine look, it's me," Aderyn said, trying not to sound too panicky. She needed to untie him, but she needed Lancelot's help to make sure Gwaine didn't just collapse and worsen his injuries as the ropes were undone.

"Please," Gwaine whispered, squeezing his eyes shut. The defeat in his tone was heartbreaking, and Aderyn felt utterly helpless to comfort him.

"It's Aderyn," she choked out. "You're safe now, we're going to untie you, alright?"

"Aderyn?" he repeated, his struggles lessening at that. Although he'd opened his eyes, his gaze was vacant, focused on a point off to Aderyn's left.

"Yeah, that's right," Aderyn tried to sound upbeat and encouraging. Letting on to Gwaine just how worried she was wouldn't help matters any. "Listen, I've got to get the others, I will be right back alright? I promise."

"She'll be back," Gwaine mumbled, staring down at the floor. "She's...planning..."

"It's alright," Aderyn soothed. "Just a moment, I'll be right back."

She was reluctant to leave Gwaine, but she needed Lancelot. Luckily, he must have gotten worried and followed her instead of going along his own trail because Aderyn found him a few yards away from the cabin.

"Lancelot," she called. "I've found him. He's in here."

"Is he alright?" Lancelot demanded, jogging over.

"I— I don't know. He...He looks pretty badly off, I need your help untying him."

Lancelot nodded resolutely, following Aderyn into the cabin. He paled visibly upon seeing Gwaine.

"Oh, Gwaine," he whispered. "What's happened to you?"

"We've got to get him down," Aderyn said, quite unnecessarily. "You're taller than me, can you cut him down?"

"Yeah," Lancelot said, taking the dagger Aderyn offered him. "Make sure he doesn't fall."

Gwaine mumbled something incoherent as Aderyn drew nearer. She hugged him round the torso, hoping to be able to support his weight when the support from the ropes was taken away.

Lancelot filled the silence, trying to comfort Gwaine as he did his best to undo the ropes around his wrist, which seemed to be causing Gwaine pain. In the end, Lancelot had to cut the rope further up from his wrists.

Gwaine groaned in pain as he lurched forward, his shoulders and arms probably burning from all the tension having been put on them for however long he'd been tied there. He was trembling all over but still only just barely conscious. Aderyn hoped him not being fully there was keeping him from feeling the full force of his injuries.

Lancelot helped Aderyn lay Gwaine on the floor, where she was able to undo the knots. To her and Lancelot's shared horror, Gwaine's wrists had been rubbed raw and were covered in blood. The skin around the wounds was red and inflamed, almost definitely infected.

"Damn it," Lancelot hissed. "When we catch whoever did this, they're going to pay."

"We can worry about that later; right now we need to get him out of here. Gaius can help him," Aderyn said.

"You're right, yeah. I don't know if we'll be able to get him out of here without a horse. Or Percival, we could fetch him. It's so overgrown out there."

"I'll run and fetch them if you want to stay here and guard him," Aderyn offered.

"If you're alright with going out there alone..." Lancelot hesitated.

Aderyn was starting to understand how Gwaine felt about worriers now.

"I'll be fast," Aderyn reassured him.

And she was, managing to find Percival, Leon, and Elyan within ten minutes. They all followed Aderyn to the cabin and then they sent Elyan back to find Merlin and Arthur.

"He's been asking for you," Lancelot informed Aderyn as she and the other knights filed into the room. "I think he's delirious or something, he's not making sense, but one thing he's been consistent on is asking for you."

Aderyn knelt next to Gwaine, taking one of his hands in hers. Lancelot stood, walking to the other knights who looked equally as shocked and concerned as Aderyn was feeling. They spoke in hushed tones, wondering if it was safe to transport him, who'd done this to him, etc. etc.

But Aderyn wasn't focused on them, unable to tear her attention away from Gwaine.

"You're gonna be alright," she murmured. "We're gonna take you back home."

Gwaine opened his eyes, squinting up at Aderyn.

"Is this...really happening?" he croaked.

"Yeah, 'course it is," she assured him, giving his hand a reassuring squeeze. "The knights are all here, Merlin and Arthur are on their way, we're getting you out of here."

"No," he groaned. "No, you...you can't...not Arthur..."

"Not Arthur? What are you talking about?" Aderyn asked, frowning slightly.

"I can't...she said she's making me—"

"She? Who's she?"

"Mor—" Gwaine started, but before he could finish whatever he was about to say, he was racked by spasms, arching his neck in pain and biting back a groan.

"Gwaine— woah, what's wrong?" Aderyn couldn't tell what had caused the sudden pain Gwaine seemed to be experiencing, but just as soon as it had started, it ended; leaving him struggling for breath.

Gwaine shook his head, mumbling something Aderyn couldn't make out.

"Shh, it's alright, just try to rest. You can tell us about everything later."

"What's wrong with him?" Leon asked, crouching next to Aderyn.

"I don't know, exactly. I think he's been tortured somehow."

"Gaius will take care of him," Leon said. "Gwaine's strong, he'll make it."

"We're here," a voice announced from the door, and Aderyn turned to see Arthur and Merlin

The room was quite cramped at this point, and Merlin ordered everyone but himself, Aderyn, and Percival out of the room. After making sure Gwaine wasn't suffering from any immediately fatal injuries, Merlin deemed it safe to transport him back to Camelot. He was suffering from a fever, likely from the infected wounds around his wrists, and needed treatment as soon as possible. 

Merlin had Percival help him get Gwaine up onto a horse, where Merlin rode behind him to make sure he didn't fall off.

It was a somber ride back to the castle, but not as depressing as the one there. At least now they had Gwaine back— battered and delirious as he was, at least he was alive.

Chapter 7: Gwaine

Gwaine drifted in and out of consciousness, vaguely aware that he was on a horse with somebody, going...somewhere. After a while he ended up indoors again and had a moment of panic in which he thought he was back in Morgana's cabin. Hyperventilating and racked with chills he'd tried to stand and make an escape but he'd collapsed, his shoulders trembling with effort as he pushed himself back into a sitting position, leaning against the bed.

Merlin appeared in front of him and Gwaine flinched in surprise, eyes wide with panic.

"It's just me," Merlin held up his hands, looking apologetic. "Sorry. Listen, how about we get you back in bed?"

"Merlin," Gwaine gasped. "Merlin, listen— you've got to get me out of here."

"What, why?" Merlin's brow creased with worry. "You're sick, you need to rest."

"No," he groaned weakly, letting his head loll back against the mattress. "She—" but there it was again, as soon as he remembered what she'd done to him, it was gone. He couldn't remember what he was about to say, and even when he did start to remember if he thought too hard about it that pain in his chest flared up again.

That scared him. It wasn't often that Gwaine was truly scared by something but this whole situation had shaken him badly, and the fact that he'd lost a good chunk of memories made things even worse.

"Gwaine, old friend, I think you're delirious. Here, let me help you," Merlin took one of Gwaine's arms around his shoulder, helping Gwaine back onto his bed.

Gwaine bit back a pained sound as his shoulders protested loudly at the sudden movement.

Merlin turned to a nearby table.

"Don't...don't leave," Gwaine pleaded, his voice pitifully weak.

"I won't," Merlin promised. "I'm staying right here, don't worry. I was just looking for some medicine that'll help you feel better."

Merlin walked back to Gwaine's bedside, holding a cup in one hand and a rag in the other.

"Here, drink this."

Gwaine did so, wincing as the bitter taste of whatever Merlin had put in the cup filled his mouth.

"Sorry, I know it's nasty," Merlin apologized. "But hopefully it'll help."

Gwaine laid back down, still shivering despite his raging fever. Merlin placed the cool, wet rag on his forehead. That provided some comfort, at least. And whatever medicine he had taken had started to alleviate the various pain he was feeling. Slowly, he started to relax, eventually drifting off into sleep.

However, his sleep was interspersed with nightmares and he alternated between burning up from heat and trying to kick his blankets off to feeling as though he were freezing to death.

One of his nightmares felt particularly real, almost as though he had lived through it before...

 

---

 

"I suppose you're wondering what the second part of my plan is?" the witch asked, toying with that blasted dagger.

"I suppose even if I'm not, you're going to tell me," Gwaine retorted, although his voice betrayed how weak he was feeling.

"Exactly," she grinned. "You, sir knight, are going to be the downfall of Camelot. Do you feel honored? You should."

Gwaine barked out an incredulous laugh. "How do you figure?"

"Well, since you're so blindly loyal to my bastard of a brother, I've decided it's useless to try to convert you to my noble cause. So instead, you will be my unwitting assassin. You see, with the power of magic, I can enchant you to do my bidding. I can control you from afar like a puppet. Isn't it brilliant?"

Gwaine's blood ran cold. Surely she was just bluffing, she couldn't really do that.

"You don't believe me?"

"No."

"You soon will. And the best part is, you won't be able to tell anyone. If I'm lucky, you'll have killed your beloved king and his annoying manservant within the week and I can finally take back my rightful place on the throne."

"The throne was never yours and it never will be," Gwaine snapped. "I would rather die than kill Arthur and Merlin."

"Oh trust me, you shall. Not only will you kill them, but I will kill you once you are of no use to me. Now, relax, Sir Gwaine. Here comes the fun part."

She stepped closer, her eyes shining with a familiar golden glow as she began to chant words he did not understand.

And then— everything went dark.

 

---

 

Gwaine awoke in a frenzy, despite his weakened state he put up quite the fight as someone tried to hold him down. He couldn't hear anything over the sound of his own screaming, but he soon ran out of breath. He groaned in pain, slowly relaxing into the mattress. Everything hurt and he was so exhausted he barely had the energy to move, but the anxiety caused by his nightmare had let up a bit.

"—just a nightmare," a familiar voice was saying. "You're safe, it was just a nightmare."

The person who'd been trying to restrain him turned out to be Merlin.

"No, it...it wasn't," Gwaine breathed. "It...Merlin you've got to...to..."

Got to what? He was going to warn Merlin about something, he remembered that much, but whatever he was going to say had left his mind without a trace. "Damn it," he groaned weakly. 

"It's alright," Merlin said, although he looked quite concerned.

"Sorry," Gwaine mumbled.

"Don't be, it's alright. Just try to relax, I think your fever is letting up. Do you feel any better?"

"Yeah," Gwaine lied, not wanting to worry Merlin any more than he already had.

"You better not be lying," Merlin warned, seeing right through him— as he usually did.

"Maybe...just a little."

"Oh Gwaine," Merlin sighed, shaking his head.

"How is he?" Gaius appeared at Merlin's shoulder, peering down at Gwaine.

"I'm alright," Gwaine croaked, although he sure as hell didn't feel alright.

"He's lying," Merlin corrected. "But his fever is getting better, I think."

"I thought I heard shouting," Gaius said.

"He was having a nightmare, that's all."

"Nothing a little rest won't fix," Gaius said. "Merlin, I've got to go see to some things in town, will you be alright here?"

"Yes, I've got it."

"Are you sure?"

"Yeah, Gaius, go do whatever you need to do. I'll be alright, so will Gwaine."

"Well, if you're sure..." Gaius hobbled out of Gwaine's line of sight.

"Gwaine, seriously. Are you alright?"

"I will be, I just...I'm just tired, is all."

"Right. You want some more sleeping tonic?"

Gwaine hesitated. More sleep likely meant more nightmares and that was not an appealing thought at all. But awake, he was anxious, in pain, and couldn't stop thinking about his most recent nightmare. He considered telling Merlin about it, opening his mouth to say something, but a white-hot jolt of pain shot through his chest before he could say anything.

He groaned, clutching at his chest and arching his back, but it didn't let up. Merlin was saying something, but he couldn't make it out. After a minute or so, it let up.

"What just happened?" Merlin asked.

"I— I don't know," Gwaine gasped.

"Right, more tonic it is," Merlin decided. "You need rest, that's probably it."

"Yeah," Gwaine agreed, although he didn't really believe it. "That's...it."

He was handed another cup of the poisonous-tasting stuff and downed it in one gulp. In just a few minutes, he'd fallen back asleep.

Chapter 8: Aderyn

Aderyn walked into the physician's chamber just as Merlin had finished chanting something. She walked up behind him, still unnoticed by Merlin who was focused on an unconscious Gwaine.

"You know, you really need to be more careful when you're doing that sort of thing," Aderyn remarked.

Merlin jumped about a foot but relaxed upon seeing it was Aderyn.

"Good Lord," he breathed, a hand on his chest. "You're going to give me a heart attack one of these days, why are you always so quiet?"

"We can't all be blundering oafs, that's the knight's job," Aderyn shrugged. "Good thing I wasn't one of them, or all of Camelot would know about your little secret by now."

"Oh be quiet, I was just distracted trying to help Gwaine," Merlin protested. "This blasted fever is so persistent, he needed some...extra help."

"How is he?" Aderyn asked her tone more serious now.

Gwaine looked peaceful now, but he had been anything but that when she'd seen him earlier. The gashes on his neck had been cleaned, and the deeper of the two had been stitched up. His wrists had been carefully cleaned and bandaged as well, but he still didn't seem to be doing any better.

"I don't know," Merlin frowned. "He's been having terrible nightmares. And he keeps trying to...warn me, I think. But he always forgets what he was about to say and the last time he tried to say something it was as though he'd just been stabbed or something, he was in a lot of pain."

"The same thing happened back in the cabin," Aderyn pointed out. "He'd said something odd," she trailed off, trying to remember. "He was babbling about Arthur, it was like he didn't want to be around Arthur, and then he said that 'she' was going to make him do something."

"Did he say who 'she' was?" Merlin asked.

"No, he'd started to say something but the same thing happened— it was like...I don't know, he was just suddenly in a lot of pain, he couldn't talk it was so bad."

"I have a bad feeling about this," Merlin murmured.

"Something's not right," Aderyn agreed.

"We'll just...keep an eye on him, see if he gets better. When Gaius gets back I'll tell him everything."

"Good idea. Oh, also. Arthur was asking for you, something about polishing his armor."

"That blasted dollop-head," Merlin exclaimed. "He knows I'm busy, he can polish his own damn armor."

"If you'd like, I can stay with Gwaine for a bit," Aderyn offered. "If you need to go see to your...manservant-ly duties."

"I'd better," Merlin sighed. "Or Arthur will have my head."

"Good luck," Aderyn called after him as he reluctantly strode across the room. "You're gonna need it."

"Thanks," Merlin groused. "Come and get me if Gwaine gets worse."

"I will," Aderyn assured him.

Merlin's spell seemed to have done its job, Gwaine's fever had soon left him altogether.

He slept peacefully for a while before awakening with a start out of nowhere.

"No, Morgana—" he gasped, looking around wildly until he saw Aderyn. "Ryn?"

"Yeah, it's me, lay back down you moron, you're hurt," Aderyn instructed. "Are you alright?"

"I just— it was just...a dream," he mumbled, still a little out of sorts.

"About...Morgana?" Aderyn had heard all about Morgana since moving to Camelot.

Merlin and many others had told her the stories of when she'd briefly taken over Camelot with an army of undead soldiers and somehow traumatized Uther so badly as to reduce him to a shell of his former self (which Aderyn thought might not be a terrible thing, seeing as Uther's former self had been a crazed murderer).

A look of pain briefly clouded Gwaine's expression. "Uh...what?" he blinked, looking blankly at Aderyn.

"I was just asking if your dream was about Morgana?" Aderyn pressed.

There it was again, pain— and then nothing. Then fear, as though he knew something was wrong but couldn't place it.

"Just a nightmare," he said, his voice shaky. "I don't...I don't remember what it was about."

"That's alright," Aderyn tried her best to sound comforting. Bedside manner wasn't always her strong suit. "You're safe now, in Camelot."

"Wait a moment," Gwaine squinted at her. "You're alright, then?"

"Well yeah, why wouldn't I be?"

"It's just— in the forest, I was worried...I thought you might have gotten hurt after I was knocked out."

"No, I don't know why but whoever took you left me behind. I didn't see what happened to you though, I got knocked out. When I woke up you were gone. Can you tell me what happened to you? Do you remember?"

"Yeah," Gwaine's expression cleared. "I woke up in that hut, no idea how I got there— and Morgana was there," he absentmindedly traced one of the cuts on his neck as he remembered what had happened. "She was asking questions about...about Arthur. When I wouldn't tell her anything she..." he trailed off, his expression darkening.

Aderyn's heart ached for Gwaine, she hated seeing him like this. "You don't have to talk about it, if you'd rather not."

"Thanks," Gwaine looked away.

"I could make tea," Aderyn offered. "Does that sound good?"

"That sounds great, actually," Gwaine offered up a small smile.

"Right then, I'll be right back," she said smiling brightly and turning away to find the kettle.

As soon as Gwaine couldn't see her though, she dropped the fake smile. Just let this Morgana person try anything on Gwaine again and she'd have her to answer to.

 

---

 

Later that evening, Aderyn was wandering the castle, on her way back to her chambers. As she passed the throne room, she was distracted by the voices coming from inside— someone had left the doors slightly ajar.

"...just have a bad feeling about this 'Gwaine'," a voice was saying. Aderyn was pretty sure it was Lord Agravaine's voice.

"Uncle," Arthur sighed, confirming Aderyn's suspicion. "Gwaine has been my loyal friend and knight for a long time. He's saved my life many times, I trust him completely. Why are you so suspicious of him of all people all of a sudden?"

"I just find it strange that he escaped in such good health from the witch," Agravaine hissed. "You did hear, did you not, that it was Morgana who found him in the woods?"

"Merlin said something of the sort earlier," Arthur admitted. "But saying he got away in good health is a bit much, he's been delirious with fever nearly all day and she was torturing him for information, did you miss that part?"

"I did not miss that part, but having escaped from Morgana with only a fever seems...I don't know, almost as though she wanted him to get back to us. Like maybe—"

"Uncle, I'm sorry but I'm stopping you right there. You know I trust you and value your advice, but I won't hear you speak badly of Gwaine— or any of my men for that matter. Gwaine has suffered greatly at the hands of my sister for my sake and for that, he has my respect and deepest gratitude. Now, if you'll excuse me..."

Aderyn realized with a start that Arthur meant to exit the throne room and quickly strode away down the hall, hoping to look inconspicious but inwardly she was reeling. How dare Agravaine try to sow seeds of suspicion in Arthur's mind against Gwaine? It was ridiculous, sure Agravaine hadn't seemed to like Gwaine all that much but to go so far as suspect him of working with Morgana? She was relieved that Arthur had put an end to it though. She'd noticed he was prone to fall for his Uncle's rather manipulative advice a lot of the time, but at least he remained steadfast when it came to his knights.

Honestly, one of these days these ridiculous nobles were going to drive her over the edge.

Notes:

Just FYI my logic behind Gwaine being able to tell Aderyn what happened to him is that I think Morgana would have used that as a sort of cover-up. Like hey, Gwaine can remember what happened and he was tortured for information but that's all that happened, he definitely wasn't enchanted or anything...
And this enchantment she's used isn't like the Fommoroh thing used on Merlin, I wanted to try something different. The way I thought it out is that somehow she can control what Gwaine does from afar with her mind, it's a sort of connection between them that can allow her to make him do things or say things or hurt him all while staying away from Camelot.

Chapter 9: Gwaine/Merlin

Gwaine was hearing the voice again.

She kept saying the same thing over and over, droning on and on. It was almost hypnotic.

Kill Arthur, kill Arthur, kill Arthur...

He'd been tossing and turning for ages, trying to get to sleep so the voice would go away. But as he'd started to nod off the voice had grown louder and louder. He groaned, sitting up and cradling his head in his hands.

Kill Arthur, kill Arthur, KILL ARTHUR!

It felt as though his head were being cleaved in two. He stood, walked over to the corner of his room, and grabbed his sword.

He distantly wondered why he'd done that— he hadn't meant to. It was as though he were watching himself from afar, with no control over his actions. The voice in his head—Morgana— had taken over, he was powerless to do anything as he strode out of his darkened chambers and into the castle.

Part of Gwaine's mind was still his own, although barely. That part of him was panicking. What was going on? Inwardly, he tried to struggle against the iron grip the voice had on his mind, but it was useless. Try as he might, he continued on, sword in hand, navigating the castle to Arthur's chambers.

"Gwaine?" Merlin's voice echoed through the empty corridor.

Gwaine froze, his grip on the sword tightening as he turned.

No, no, no. Not Merlin, Gwaine pleaded but he was forced to watch in horror as he raised the sword.

"Gwaine, what...what're you doing?" Merlin backed up, looking confused. "Why've you got a sword?"

"Merlin," he choked out but was unable to say anything else.

Gwaine's heart sank as against his will he charged Merlin, his best friend, as though to strike him down.

But Merlin somehow dodged out of the way. Before Gwaine could redirect, he heard a strange whispering sound and then all the strength left his body, he crashed to the floor, unable to move. Finally, he was given a respite from the voice as he fell unconscious.

 

---

 

"Uh, Merlin?"

Merlin cursed under his breath. Now was not the time for him to be held up by anyone. He'd been trying to drag Gwaine through the corridors, he needed to get him to Gaius— he would know what was going on, surely.

"Ah, Gwen!" Merlin beamed, turning to face her. "What...uh, what are you doing up and about at this time of night?"

"I could ask you the same thing," Gwen frowned, looking from Gwaine's unconscious body to Merlin. "Is he alright?"

"Oh yeah, he's just had a bit too much to drink," Merlin lied.

"I thought he was supposed to be resting?"

"Oh, yeah," Merlin laughed, although it sounded forced even to his own ears. "You know Gwaine...he's got a mind of his own."

"Right," Gwen frowned. "Well, you're both alright then?"

"Yeah, just great," Merlin smiled. "Just gonna get this idiot to bed and call it a night."

"Oh, well. Goodnight then," Gwen said, smiling in a rather confused manner and walking off down the corridor.

Merlin sighed in relief and then resumed trying to drag Gwaine through the corridor but only made it a few yards before he was intercepted again, this time by Aderyn.

"Did one of you lose a sword?" she asked.

"Yeah, Gwaine," Merlin said, straightening slightly to meet Aderyn's grim gaze. "He...I think he just tried to kill me. But...I don't think it was him, doing it— if that makes sense. Listen, I'm trying to get him to Gaius before he wakes up so we can sort everything out."

"I'll help," Adeyn offered.

"Thanks," Merlin said, and together they made their way to Gaius's chambers.

Aderyn helped Merlin to tie Gwaine to a chair just in case he were to wake up again. Then Merlin rushed to wake up Gaius, who was none too pleased to be woken up in the middle of the night.

"Right, so," Merlin took a breath, trying to make sense of the rather sparse details he had so far. "Aderyn and I were talking the other day, right? And we realized Gwaine's been acting weird, since he was taken— like when Aderyn first found him and said Arthur was coming, he started to panic, as though he didn't want to be around Arthur. He said 'she' was going to make him do something, but when Aderyn asked who 'she' was. Gwaine started to respond but before he could it was like...like he was being stabbed or something, he was just suddenly in loads of pain."

"That's...odd," Gaius frowned.

"It gets worse," Merlin crossed his arms, pacing back and forth a bit. "He kept having nightmares, one time he woke up and kept saying it hadn't been just a nightmare, or something. Then it was as though he was trying to warn me about something but the same thing happened, he was suddenly in pain and then forgot whatever he was about to say."

"Did something happen just now, then? Is that why you've tied him up?" Gaius asked.

"Right, just now I passed Gwaine out there and he had a sword. He looked...I dunno, weird. Not like himself. He said my name, just 'Merlin', he sounded terrible. And then he charged me with the damn sword, which is definitely not something the normal Gwaine would do. Gaius, I think Morgana did something to him, enchanted him, maybe."

Gaius frowned, processing what Merlin had just told him.

"It sounds as though Morgana may have used dark magic to somehow...perhaps link her mind to Gwaine's. I have heard of things like this happening before, but I've never personally dealt with anything like this before, I don't know how to break the spell."

"We'll research it," Merlin said, looking determined. "There's got to be a way."

"And in the meantime, we'll keep him away from...well, everyone, I suppose."

"I'm going to take a wild guess and say that Morgana is going to try to use Gwaine to kill Arthur," Merlin said.

"That sounds like Morgana," Aderyn scowled.

A groan from Gwaine's direction drew their attention. He straightened up in the chair, looking confused as he saw the ropes and then the people gathered in front of him.

"Merlin," he sighed with relief. "I thought...I thought she'd— damn it," he hissed, pain contorting his expression. "Just bloody kill me and be done with it."

"We're not going to kill you, Gwaine," Aderyn reassured him. "We're going to help you, alright?"

"Wait, Aderyn, over here," Merlin and Gaius had stood off in a corner, a bit further away from Gwaine. Aderyn stood and joined them.

"If Morgana has created a link between herself and Gwaine," Gaius started. "Then we've got to be careful what we say, she will most likely have access to anything in Gwaine's mind."

"Right," Aderyn nodded.

"Should we just keep him sedated, or something?" Merlin frowned.

"I don't know..." Gaius murmured. "Maybe for tonight. We can sleep on things and figure everything out in the morning, yes?"

"Sounds like a plan," Aderyn agreed. "Do you need me to stay here tonight or should I go?"

"You should go rest," Gaius answered. "We're going to need all the rest we can get."

Notes:

Just a reminder: Aderyn found out about Merlin's magic in my other fic, The Search, so that's why she's not questioning him trying to help break this enchantment or anything.

Chapter 10: Merlin

Despite Gaius's advice, Merlin didn't sleep a wink that night. He spent the hours in a much more productive way; breaking into the library to try and research dark magic. Unfortunately, he hadn't found what he was looking for as soon as he would have liked. Eventually, he thought he found a lead.

Some sort of blood magic, something Merlin hadn't really come across before. One could infuse an object, usually a crystal of some sort, with their own blood with the help of magic. Then, if they buried it in the flesh of their target, they would be able to control the person's mind.

Merlin felt nauseous as he read the instructions, trying his best to ignore the graphic illustrations decorating the pages. With a start, he realized he'd completely lost track of time. Arthur was going to kill him. He slammed the book shut, reshelving it, and sneaking out of the library as quickly as he could.

He rushed through the castle, bursting into Arthur's room and skidding to a stop.

"Wha— who—" Arthur, who had been deeply asleep until Merlin busted in, jerked awake with a start.

"Oh, uh... good morning, sire!" Merlin grinned, carefully staying outside of Arthur's reach as he set about tidying Arthur's desk in an effort to look busy.

"Merlin," Arthur growled. "I know I've asked this thousands of times but I feel like I need to reiterate— what the hell is wrong with you?"

"Plenty of things," Merlin muttered. "Such as having to deal with such a prat every day."

"What was that?"

"Sorry, I meant royal prat," Merlin corrected himself.

"I'll have you put in the stocks," Arthur grumbled, flopping back onto the bed.

"Do that, and you'll have no one to bring you breakfast," Merlin pointed out, flinging the curtains open.

Arthur groaned in protest, pulling the covers over his head. "Then I'll do it after breakfast, won't I? Speaking of breakfast, where is it?"

"I was just about to fetch it," Merlin said, bowing out of the room.

 

---

 

After appeasing Arthur with food Merlin rushed to Gwaine's chambers, where they'd moved Gwaine. He remained tied to a chair, a vacant look in his eyes.

Aderyn was pacing listlessly around the room, her auburn hair unbraided and falling in messy waves down her shoulders. She looked as though she'd slept about as much as Merlin had.

"Merlin," she said, upon noticing him. "Did you find anything?"

"Yeah," Merlin said. "Come this way."

Aderyn withdrew into the hallway outside with Merlin. After making sure they couldn't be overheard, he divulged his findings to Aderyn.

"You mean she's...shoved her blood inside him somehow?" Aderyn asked, looking disgusted.

"Sort of, but it'll be a crystal of sorts. If we can just...cut it out of him, he'll be right as rain again."

"Well," Aderyn threw her hands up, her tone heavy with sarcasm. "Let's just do that, shall we? Skin him alive or something, it'll be easy."

"Maybe easier than you're thinking, the book I read said that there are certain spots on the human body where blood magic supposedly has the best effect. The neck, and the wrists.

Aderyn frowned. "I really don't like this."

"Nor do I," Merlin agreed. "But it must be done."

"Alright, I'll be here," Aderyn said, placing her hand on the door handle.

Merlin made another mad dash through the castle, nearly giving Gaius a heart attack as he hurtled into the room.

"Merlin!" he squawked. "Where have you been? You missed breakfast!"

"I haven't the time," Merlin called, grabbing his satchel, filling it with bandages, and scouring the messy desks scattered around the room for a knife. "I've found out how Morgana did it— blood magic."

"Care to explain?"

Merlin did his best to explain as quickly as he could while still making sense— which essentially ended up in him babbling and stumbling over his words until Gaius ordered him to start over, slower this time, which he did. After Gaius understood what was going on and practically forced a piece of toast down Merlin's throat he sent him on his way, warning him to be careful.

Merlin, winded from all his rushing around, didn't bother trying to sprint through the castle this time. When he finally arrived back in Gwaine's chambers, Aderyn was waiting perched on the edge of the bed.

"I hate this," she seethed. "Merlin, it's like he's...it's like he's not even there. I mean, look at him. He hasn't spoken a word all day, it's like she's taken him away somehow."

"We're going to get him back," Merlin assured her, dumping his satchel at the foot of the bed and extracting the knife.

"How are you going to go about this?" Aderyn asked. "Just slit him open until you find the damned crystal or whatever it is we're looking for?"

"No, I'm going to be more careful than that, I don't want him to bleed out. My guess is, we'll be able to feel the crystal through his skin, and she's already slit his neck open, so maybe she's made things easy for us."

Aderyn barked out a humorless laugh. "Yeah, I'm sure."

Merlin frowned down at the delicate knife he'd found. He really didn't like the idea of doing his friend even more harm, but in the end, it was for his own good. Hopefully, this would all be over soon and Gwaine would be right as rain. But since when did things ever go the way Merlin hoped they would?

 

Notes:

I don't think this kind of blood magic ever comes up in the show, I just made it up a while ago for a novel I was working on and forgot about it until just now so I thought I'd use it.

Ps. Ik I posted a chapter after this but I took it down bc I had an idea that would add way more to the fic and allow me to draw it out longer, so I didn't get to post as mixh as I wanted but in the long run it'll be better trust me... Well not better for Gwaine but... Ykwim

Chapter 11: Merlin/Arthur

Despite Gaius's advice, Merlin didn't sleep a wink that night. He spent the hours in a much more productive way; breaking into the library to try and research dark magic. Unfortunately, he hadn't found what he was looking for as soon as he would have liked. Eventually, he thought he found a lead.

Some sort of blood magic, something Merlin hadn't really come across before. One could infuse an object, usually a crystal of some sort, with their own blood with the help of magic. Then, if they buried it in the flesh of their target, they would be able to control the person's mind.

Merlin felt nauseous as he read the instructions, trying his best to ignore the graphic illustrations decorating the pages. With a start, he realized he'd completely lost track of time. Arthur was going to kill him. He slammed the book shut, reshelving it, and sneaking out of the library as quickly as he could.

He rushed through the castle, bursting into Arthur's room and skidding to a stop.

"Wha— who—" Arthur, who had been deeply asleep until Merlin busted in, jerked awake with a start.

"Oh, uh...good morning, sire!" Merlin grinned, carefully staying outside of Arthur's reach as he set about tidying Arthur's desk in an effort to look busy.

"Merlin," Arthur growled. "I know I've asked this thousands of times but I feel like I need to reiterate— what the hell is wrong with you?"

"Plenty of things," Merlin muttered. "Such as having to deal with such a prat every day."

"What was that?"

"Sorry, I meant royal prat," Merlin corrected himself.

"I'll have you put in the stocks," Arthur grumbled, flopping back onto the bed.

"Do that, and you'll have no one to bring you breakfast," Merlin pointed out, flinging the curtains open.

Arthur groaned in protest, pulling the covers over his head. "Then I'll do it after breakfast, won't I? Speaking of breakfast, where is it?"

"I was just about to fetch it," Merlin said, bowing out of the room.

 

---

 

After appeasing Arthur with food Merlin rushed to Gwaine's chambers, where they'd moved Gwaine at some point early that morning. He remained tied to a chair, a vacant look in his eyes.

Aderyn was pacing listlessly around the room, her auburn hair unbraided and falling in messy waves down her shoulders. She looked as though she'd slept about as much as Merlin had.

"Merlin," she said, upon noticing him. "Did you find anything?"

"Yeah," Merlin said. "Come this way."

Aderyn withdrew into the hallway outside with Merlin. After making sure they couldn't be overheard, he divulged his findings to Aderyn.

"You mean she's...shoved her blood inside him somehow?" Aderyn asked, looking disgusted.

"Sort of, but it'll be a crystal of sorts. If we can just...cut it out of him, he'll be right as rain again."

"Well," Aderyn threw her hands up, her tone heavy with sarcasm. "Let's just do that, shall we? Skin him alive or something, it'll be easy."

"Maybe easier than you're thinking, the book I read said that there are certain spots on the human body where the blood magic supposedly has the best effect, the neck, and the wrists."

Aderyn frowned. "I really don't like this."

"Nor do I," Merlin agreed, fiddling with the strap of his satchel nervously. "But it must be done."

"Better get on with it then," Aderyn sighed.

They made their way back to Gwaine's room only to find the door slightly ajar and upon entering the room finding Gwaine...not there.

"Oh bloody hell," Aderyn groaned, raking a hand through her hair in frustration. "He's gone. How did just...there is no way he untied those ropes by himself."

"Maybe Moragana somehow...magic-ed the ropes undone," Merlin suggested. "But that's not the issue right now. He'll be trying to get to Arthur, we need to find him."

"Right, let's go. Should we split up?" Aderyn stood from where she'd been inspecting the ropes that had previously been holding Gwaine to the chair.

"Good idea, we'll want to cover more ground."

Merlin set off in one direction while Aderyn went the other way. He dodged around other servants in the hall, trying to go as fast as he could without looking too suspicious.

As he neared the throne room—which is where he guessed Gwaine would have gone under Morgana's direction—he could hear a commotion but as he drew nearer, the crowd of knights around the doorway cut off his line of vision.

Lord Agravaine's voice rang out across the crowd.

"Knights, arrest this man! Take him to the dungeons, he shall be dealt with later."

A pathway cleared and two knights emerged, dragging Gwaine between them. He looked barely conscious, that vacant look back in his eyes. He didn't struggle at all as he was led away but to Merlin's horror, he saw blood soaking the sleeve of his shirt.

"No," Merlin whispered, his heart sinking. "No, no, no."

He rushed into the throne room, the knights recognized him as Arthur's manservant and did not bother to stop him.

"Arthur!" Merlin blurted as he rushed up. "Are you alright?"

Arthur looked shaken and confused, but otherwise fine.

"I'm alright," Arthur assured him.

"Sir Gwaine has just tried to assassinate him," Agravaine informed Merlin.

Merlin knew he needed to explain to Arthur that Gwaine was enchanted before Agravaine got too far into his head and convinced him that he needed to do something crazy, like execute Gwaine, but he also knew there was no way he could explain everything in front of Agravaine. Merlin didn't trust him as far as he could throw him— although after what he'd done to Gaius he would have enjoyed throwing him off a cliff.

"Arthur, maybe you should go to your chambers and rest," Merlin suggested. "I could make tea."

"I have...things to see to," Arthur sighed, swiping a hand across his face.

"They can wait, you look terrible. C'mon, you need to rest," Merlin insisted.

"Merlin, I'm fine," Arthur snapped.

"My Lord," Agravaine said. "Perhaps he is right. After all, one of your most trusted knights did just try to— "

"Don't finish that sentence," Arthur snapped. "I don't want to hear it. But fine," he threw his hands up in the air. "Fine, I'll go."

Merlin winced. This was not going to be easy.

 

---

 

"You're telling me...Morgana took a crystal...put her blood in it? And then somehow used that to control Gwaine's mind?" Arthur said, squinting at Merlin as he tried to process the story he'd just blurted out. "Did I hear that right?"

"Yes," Merlin said. "That's what I said— listen I know it sounds crazy, but it all adds up. There's no way Morgana would have let us rescue Gwaine that easily if he wasn't enchanted or something. Do you really think Gwaine would try to kill you?"

Arthur frowned down at his desk.

"It's Gwaine," Merlin pleaded. "He's saved your life so many times— he's your friend. He'd never do this on his own, he has no reason to. Think of all the times he's risked his own life for yours, why would he now try to kill you?"

"You're right," Arthur said. "He wouldn't. Uncle said...he thought..."

"Agravaine is...paranoid," Merlin hesitated.

"He wants what's best for me," Arthur defended his Uncle, even though he wasn't very happy with him right now. "He just wants to keep me safe."

"Yeah, but right now— we need to help Gwaine. If we can get the crystal out of him then I think he'll be alright."

"How do you know all this?" Arthur asked.

"I found a book in the library," Merlin winced. "I know, I'm sorry. But it was to help Gwaine, I—"

"You did the right thing," Arthur cut him off. "So you're saying you know how to help him?"

Merlin nodded.

"Then let's go."

They rushed down to the dungeons, where they found Gwaine locked in a cell. Arthur dismissed the guard, who had been reluctant to leave but didn't dare to defy his prince. That left Arthur, Merlin, and Gwaine alone.They remained outside the cell for a moment as they talked.

"Should we get Gaius?" Arthur asked, suddenly uneasy.

"Maybe when this is over," Merlin said. "We should probably hurry, I don't know...I don't know how much power Morgana has over him. I'm worried that she might be able to...hurt him."

Or kill him, Arthur could tell that was what Merlin was implying, he just couldn't bring himself to say it.

Arthur's blood ran cold at that.

"Alright. So, how do we do this? Just...cut him up until we find it?"

"No, I'm going to be more careful than that; I don't want him to bleed out. My guess is that we'll be able to feel the crystal through his skin, and she's already slit his neck open, so maybe she's made things easy for us."

"Right," Arthur barked out a humorless laugh. "That's something she'd do."

Merlin shrugged. "Maybe this won't be so bad."

"Well, now that you've said that, it's going to go terribly," Arthur pointed out.

"With that attitude, it might," Merlin retorted.

"Let's just get on with it." 

Notes:

Idk if Arthur seems out of character here, but I feel like he would have been willing to try to help Gwaine and the remedy to the enchantment doesn't involve magic in and of itself, you just rid the person of the magic, so it's a little more up his alley.

Chapter 12: Gwaine/Arthur

Gwaine was pretty sure he had officially lost his mind. Not in an 'oh no, I've gone insane' sort of way (well honestly that might not be far off either) but in a 'there's a crazy witch in my head and she somehow took over my mind' sort of way. He'd been so close, so close to killing Arthur. It was terrifying. Morgana's voice had been in his head the whole time, urging him on, screaming at him when he'd failed. He'd managed to redirect his sword at the last moment despite Morgana's iron grip on his mind. After that, it was like he'd relinquished the last bit of his remaining strength, unable to put up any fight against Morgana. He'd barely been able to before, it was only when Arthur's life was on the line that he'd found the strength.

Gwaine had been oblivious to pretty much everything as he'd been dragged down to the dungeon and locked up. He had no idea how much time had passed since he got to the cell. But when Merlin and Arthur appeared in front of him, Morgana flared up. Anger— Morgana's anger, flooded through him as Morgana saw through Gwaine's eyes both of her targets right there, and was unable to do anything as Gwaine's hands were chained together, the shackles aggravating his raw wrists.

Merlin and Arthur were talking, but Gwaine was too out of it to process what they were saying. Arthur circled behind Gwaine, kneeling down and holding him back. Merlin prodded at Gwaine's neck and then his forearms. The pain in his wrists flared up slightly as Merlin checked them for...what exactly? He didn't know. Morgana didn't seem to care enough about what was going on to make Gwaine try anything, but when the knife Merlin was holding made contact with the skin of his left forearm, Morgana took action.

He struggled against Arthur, but Arthur was stronger than Gwaine in his weakened state and overpowered him.

It was all-consuming, mind-numbing agony, starting in his chest and exploding outwards. He could hear his own ragged screams reverberating around the room, and feel the pain burning through his veins like acid, but there was nothing he could to do stop it.

But as Merlin retracted his arm—and with it the treacherous knife—the pain let up.

Gwaine's chest heaved as he gasped for breath, tears of pain stinging his eyes. Suddenly he felt so weak, it was as though he'd just spent two hours straight training with Arthur. And then he was rushing back into his own mind, it was the strangest feeling. He could still feel Morgana's presence in his mind, but he had slightly more control now. Whatever Merlin was doing was weakening Morgana's grip on him.

Merlin was trying to talk to him, to calm him down, but it was lost on Gwaine— who was barely a shred of being in his own mind.

When the struggling didn't work and Merlin persisted with the knife, starting to make an incision into Gwaine's arm, the pain started.

"Merlin," he gasped, lifting his head to look his friend in the eyes. "Please— keep going...I...I can't..."

"You're hurt," Merlin said helplessly.

"Just...just do it," Gwaine groaned as the pain started to grow again and Morgana began to take her rage out on the only person she had access to.

Merlin nodded resolutely, finishing the incision. As he worked the cut open to get to the crystal, the pain came back all at once— twice as bad as before. Gwaine was unable even to scream as his lungs had decided to stop working as the pain coursed through him. He arched his neck in pain, every muscle in his body tensed to breaking. As it grew worse and worse, Morgana's angry screams started up in his mind. It was overwhelming and he could feel himself starting to lose consciousness. Or maybe he was just dying. He couldn't really bring himself to care, Morgana's tortures having whited out his thoughts. There was only pain...that, and the screams increasing in volume until...there was nothing.

 

---

 

"I've got it," Merlin announced after an agonizing moment of feeling around in Gwaine's arm, holding up a small crystal, his hand covered in blood.

Gwaine, who'd obviously been in immense pain just a moment ago, relaxed suddenly, his eyes fluttering closed and his head lolling back against Arthur. Merlin stood up, squinting at the evil-looking crystal. It was a dark red color, maybe because of the blood, but there was a strange light pulsating on it from inside.

"Fire," he said. "I need a fire; we've got to burn this."

"The guard room," Arthur supplied as he checked Gwaine's pulse. "There's a fireplace in there; it's up the stairs."

"Right, brilliant," Merlin dashed out of the cell, leaving Arthur alone with Gwaine.

Arthur laid Gwaine down on his side then fumbling around in Merlin's satchel until he found some bandages which he used to try to stop the bleeding in Gwaine's arm. Merlin had cut a pretty deep gash in his arm, and since he'd had to feel around inside Gwaine's flesh which only worsened the gash.

Merlin returned after a few minutes, crouching next to Gwaine across from Arthur.

"Here, I'll deal with his arm," Merlin said. "It needs stitches."

"Right, should we take him to his room?" Arthur asked, but before Merlin could answer, Agravaine burst into the dungeon.

"Arthur, I've been looking all over for you— what on earth are you doing?"

"Uncle," Arthur stood. "We've found out that Gwaine was cursed by Morgana, that's why he did what he did."

"Oh."

Agravaine looked taken aback— almost...disappointed? No, that wasn't right.

"That's wonderful, is he going to be alright?" Agravaine asked.

"Yes," Merlin snapped—he was probably just stressed out, or else he would have been more polite to Agravaine surely. "He's going to be just fine."

"Wonderful, well. I'm off to...do business. Arthur, be careful," Agravaine strode off, Arthur frowning at his receding back.

"That was...odd."

"Can we take these shackles off Gwaine?" Merlin asked.

"Of course," Arthur said, getting his keys and unlocking the shackles, wincing as he saw that the bandages around Gwaine's wrists were soaked with blood. They must have gotten reopened when he got roughed around by the other knights.

Merlin set about cleaning and stitching Gwaine's arm right then and there, wrapping it when he was done and then studying his unconscious friend with a worried gaze.

"He looks terrible," Arthur murmured.

"He'll be alright," Merlin insisted. "Morgana can't hurt him anymore, there's no way. He's safe."

Are you trying to convince me or yourself? Arthur wondered but kept quiet.

Chapter 13: Morgana/Aderyn

"My Lady," Agravaine hesitated and Morgana knew it was because he was afraid of her.

"I lost him— they figured it out, didn't they?" Morgana seethed. "I was so close. So close."

Agravaine nodded, unable to meet her piercing gaze. "Arthur somehow found out about the crystal. He and his manservant cut it from his body."

"Merlin," Morgana practically snarled. "Damn him. Gwaine will pay for this— I want you to kill him."

"My Lady, I—"

"Shut up, just shut up," Morgana began to pace back and forth across the cramped room. "I will provide you with the poison; all you have to do is slip it to Gwaine somehow. Arthur and Merlin will be forced to watch him suffer and then die. And then, I will figure out how to take out Arthur."

Agravaine seemed to have accepted the idea now. "Yes, of course."

"Stay here," Morgana ordered, stalking away into the back of the cabin. "I'm going to find the poison."

"Yes, my Lady," Agravaine replied like the pathetic little lapdog he was.

 

---

 

"Merlin!" Aderyn exclaimed, bursting unannounced into Gwaine's chambers. "I heard what happened is Gwaine—" she cut herself off as she saw Gwaine, unconscious on the bed. He looked awful, he was pale and one of his arms had been bandaged.  "Oh God, is he alright?"

"We found the crystal and destroyed it," Merlin said. "He's going to be alright, Morgana did a number on him as we were trying to get the crystal out, but I'm pretty sure he's alright."

"Oh, thank heavens," Aderyn sighed. "Has he woken up at all?"

"No," Merlin shook his head. "Not yet."

"I can stay with him if you need to go see to Arthur. I've got nothing to do for a while."

"If you don't mind," Merlin winced. "Arthur did mention he has a list of chores he needs done. I'll check back with you later though, see if Gwaine needs anything."

"See you," Aderyn called as Merlin exited the room.

She sat next to the bed, feeling about ready to pass out herself but forcing herself to stay awake in case Gwaine was to wake up. She reached out, taking one of Gwaine's hands in her own.

Eventually, despite her best efforts, she ended up leaning forward and using her free arm as a pillow, her eyes fluttering closed.

However, she didn't remain asleep for long. When she awoke, she found Gwaine looking over at her, a smile playing at his lips. She realized with a start that she was still holding his hand, he hadn't pulled away. Reluctantly, she pulled her hand away, sitting up and running a hand through her hair to clear it from her face.

"Gwaine," she mumbled, clearing her throat. "You're awake."

"Yeah," his voice was painfully raspy, even worse than before. "So are you."

"How are you feeling?"

"Uh...alive?"

"Better than dead," Aderyn said. "I...I was kinda worried about you there for a bit."

"Didn't know you cared," Gwaine smirked.

"You know I care about you, Gwaine," Aderyn said, dead serious despite Gwaine's joking tone. "I know sometimes I'm...sarcastic, maybe? But I do...uh...care about you, I mean."

"And you know I...care about you too," Gwaine replied, lingering on the word 'care'.

Aderyn refused to read too far into that, knowing Gwaine was...well, Gwaine. He didn't settle down, he didn't commit. She looked down, cracking her knuckles— it was a nervous habit of hers.

"Is there anything you need? Water? Food?"

"Uh, water, thanks."

Aderyn complied with Gwaine's request, fetching a cup and a pitcher of water. 

A little while later Gaius paid them a visit, checking over Gwaine to make sure he was alright.

"Well, you'll survive," Gaius concluded. "Don't do anything too strenuous, I would recommend a few days of bed rest, at least."

"I'll...take your recommendation into consideration," Gwaine said, obviously trying to get out of actually agreeing to stay in bed. Gaius could probably see right through him but didn't bother pushing the issue.

"Right," he murmured. "Well, I must go see to another patient now."

"Bye, Gaius."

"Well, glad that's all over," Gwaine sighed, leaning back against the headboard. "It's nice not being possessed. That was...not fun."

"Not fun? That's all you've got?"

"I'm not exactly a scholar. I've never been good with words," Gwaine shrugged. "Swords were always easier."

Aderyn scoffed, shaking her head in bemusement. "You're such a knight."

After that, Gwaine assured Aderyn he didn't need watching over, and reluctantly Aderyn left him to rest, instructing him not to do anything stupid.

"I couldn't even if I wanted to," Gwaine retorted. "Being possessed takes a lot out of a person."

 

Notes:

sorry this one is so short, I've got more coming tomorrow though, don't worry.

Chapter 14: Gwaine/Agravaine

Gwaine hardly slept at all that night. The couple of times he had managed to doze off, night terrors had plagued his sleep, and he'd woken up screaming; convinced Morgana had found a way back into his mind again. He'd given up after a while, busying himself with watching the sunrise through his window.

He was startled by a knock on the door later in the morning.

"It's Merlin," Merlin called from outside the door.

"Come in," he called, sitting up and running a hand through his tousled hair.

"Come in," he called, sitting up and running a hand through his tousled hair.

"Gaius sent me to see how you were doing; do you need anything?" Merlin asked, then, taking in Gwaine's haggard appearance. "You look...exhausted. Did you sleep at all?"

"A little bit," Gwaine mumbled, stifling a yawn. "I uh...kept having dreams. Couldn't sleep much after that."

Merlin frowned. "I'll have Gaius make you a sleeping tonic tonight, maybe that will help. In the meantime, just try to rest today, don't do anything strenuous."

"Thanks," Gwaine replied. "Merlin, listen. You're smart, yeah?"

Merlin raised an eyebrow. "I don't get that a lot, actually. Why?"

"Well, I was just...wondering. There's no way that Morgana could...get back in my head? Not now that you've destroyed that crystal and all. She can't, right?"

Merlin quickly shook his head. "No, don't worry. As far as I'm aware, that'd be impossible. And trust me, I broke into the forbidden bit of the library to research that."

"You what?" Gwaine asked, looking impressed. "Really? I didn't even know there was a forbidden bit of the library."

"Maybe don't go spreading that around," Merlin winced.

"C'mon, you know me," Gwaine smiled reassuringly. "I can keep a secret."

"Thanks," Merlin grinned. "I've got to go do something for Arthur now, but is there anything you need before I go?"

"Nah, I'm alright," Gwaine replied. "I'll just be here."

"Right, no running off to the tavern, got it?"

"Come now," Gwaine pretended to be affronted. "I would never, how could you think such a thing of me?"

"My sincerest apologies," Merlin rolled his eyes. "I'm off now, just send for me if you need anything."

"Thanks," Gwaine called as the door closed behind Merlin.

The prospect of staying in his room all day was not appealing at all, so he decided he wasn't going to do it. After picking at the breakfast he was brought shortly after Merlin left, Gwaine did the same— leaving his chambers and starting out into the castle. He needed to stretch his legs a bit.

He noticed as he passed through the halls that some of the servants made it very obvious that they were trying their best to avoid them. Arthur had told him at some point the day before that he'd cleared up the whole attempted assassination thing, but apparently not everyone believed it.

As he wandered about the castle, he ran into Percival. Almost literally, as he hadn't been paying attention as to where he'd been going.

"Aren't you supposed to be resting?" Percival asked, looking down at his friend with a skeptical gaze.

"Ah, y'know..." Gwaine shrugged evasively. "I just needed to get out for a bit. Who's to say a walk isn't resting?"

"Fair enough," Percival didn't push the issue and instead walked with Gwaine along the corridor. "Arthur told us what happened. Are you...alright?"

"Been better, but at least Morgana isn't trying to make me kill anyone anymore."

"We're all glad to have you back," Percival clapped Gwaine on the shoulder— much more lightly than he usually would have. After all, Gwaine looked like a stiff wind could take him out right now.

 

---

 

"Gaius?" Agravaine called, knocking lightly on the door to the physician's chambers.

No answer, perfect.

He let himself in, peering around the dimly lit room in hopes of finding something that would help him carry out Morgana's plan. Perhaps some sort of medicine to be delivered to Gwaine, something that wouldn't tie back to Agravaine. He didn't dare disobey Morgana, but he wished she had someone else to do her dirty work sometimes, he didn't like putting his reputation and life on the line time and time again. But, oh well.

To his delight, he didn't even have to search for more than five minutes before finding a vial labeled 'Sleeping Tonic—Gwaine'.

Agravaine pulled out the vial of poison Morgana had given him. He pulled out both the corks, letting a few drops of the poison fall into the tonic. Morgana had instructed him not to pour in the whole vial all at once, that would just kill Gwaine immediately, and in her words 'that would be no fun'. If Agravaine had things his way, that's what he'd do; just get it over with as quickly as possible to make sure the job got done. But Morgana was always one for the dramatics; she needed to draw things out.

After accomplishing what he'd come there to do he exited the room, hurrying down the hallway after making sure there was no one around. Soon, this whole ordeal would be done with and maybe Morgana would lay low for a while and give Agravaine a break.

Chapter 15: Gwaine/Morgana

Summary:

The first chapter was posted on June 11th--the updated chapter was posted on June 15th, so sorry for any confusion but this chapter just wasn't doing it for me and in order to make the plot better (I hope) and the fic even longer I had to change this in order to work with this new idea.
(This is yet another sign that I need to start spending more time outlining stories instead of just going off ideas and vibes lmao)

Gwaine hadn't ended up needing Merlin's sleeping tonic the second night, as he'd been so exhausted that by the time Merlin had arrived late in the evening, he was already deeply asleep. Merlin had left the sleeping tonic in the room just in case, but he'd slept through the night— for the most part. He'd awoken early in the morning from a nightmare. The nightmares had gotten a little better as the week went on, but only slightly. But as the week dragged on, Gwaine's physical recovery actually progressed relatively well.

He'd gotten back into his normal groove for the most part, although Arthur still insisted he not go out on patrols or training sessions yet. Gwaine was getting tired of all the attention he was still getting— he was fine, why couldn't everyone see that?

"Gwaine? Hello?"

Gwaine's head snapped back up, looking around the table in confusion. They were in the middle of a meeting, and Arthur was looking at him expectantly.

"Sorry," Gwaine cleared his throat. "What was the question?"

The meeting progressed, and Gwaine did his best to stay awake. Sure, he hadn't slept much last night, but it hadn't been that bad. At least, not by his new sleep schedule standards, which were practically on the ground, they were so low.

After the meeting, Gwaine had to appease yet another worried friend.

"Lancelot, I'm fine, really," he insisted. "It's been ages, I'm better now."

"It's not even been two weeks," Lancelot pointed out. "You're allowed to take more time than that to recover. You don't need to lie to us to protect your reputation, you know that right?"

"I'm not lying," Gwaine scoffed.

Lancelot pestered Gwaine for a little longer before finally giving up, seeing that it was useless. They eventually parted ways, Lancelot having to go meet with Leon and a couple of other knights to plan something, and Gwaine not really sure what he was going to do. Maybe go down to the stables and visit his horse, Alder. And maybe see Aderyn; she often hung around the stables as well.

On his way out of the castle, Gwaine passed Agravaine in the hallways. Maybe he was just biased, but the look Agravaine gave him seemed unusually hateful. Gwaine glared right back, but neither of them said anything. Something was off about that man; Gwaine had never trusted him. Even if Arthur did trust him (a bit too much, in Gwaine's opinion) it was common knowledge that Arthur was a bit of an idiot at times.

 

---

 

Morgana was fuming. How could Agravaine have botched a poisoning that was supposed to be so easy? She'd practically done all the work for him and he'd still made a mess of things and that damned knight was still alive. But not for much longer, no. She would deal with him, only now she had even more of a vengeance toward him. Morgana would make him pay for the stress she had caused him, she was going to make him wish he'd never been born.

But how? Should she go through with another poisoning attempt? Another abduction? No, that would be too much work. Agravaine had informed her that Arthur had reinforced the castle's defenses since Gwaine's abduction and he had started sending out larger patrols, presumably for safety reasons and also to look for Morgana. No, poisoning would be a safer bet. She wouldn't get to personally witness Gwaine's suffering, but just knowing he was in pain would satisfy her enough. 

While Morgana waited for Agravaine to visit she worked on concocting a new poison. Well, not a new poison. A very ancient poison, in fact, but she had gathered all the ingredients used to create the substance and was putting them together. The recipe had been hiding in the pages of an old book on dark magic she had come across at some point. Finding it had been a pleasant surprise, she'd been waiting for the perfect opportunity to use it— she wanted to make sure the first person she used it on deserved it. 

And Gwaine definitely deserved it, she thought as she savagely crushed some leaves with a stone pestle. 

Chapter 16: Gwaine

Gwaine paused mid-spar with Lancelot, a sudden wave of vertigo washing over him. He pinched the bridge of his nose, squinting and trying to shake the feeling. He'd felt off all day, more tired than usual, and a headache had plagued him all morning. But he'd pushed through, going about his business and training while brushing aside his friend's worries. Leon had thought he should go rest if he was so tired—which was ridiculous—and Arthur had almost kicked him out of practice but Gwaine insisted he was fine. And he was, really. Just kind of tired, he'd been having trouble sleeping these past couple of weeks. But his wrists had pretty much healed up so Gaius had reluctantly given him approval to get back to his knightly duties.

"You alright there?" Lancelot asked, lowering his training sword.

"Yeah," Gwaine muttered. "Just...uh...bad headache, that's all."

"Maybe you should—"

"I'm alright, really. Everyone can stop acting like I'm made of glass now, I'm alright."

"Right, right," Lancelot nodded, but he didn't look as though he really believed Gwaine.

Gwaine sighed, gripping his sword tighter and rolling his wrist, making the sword fly in a circle before gripping it with both hands.

"Ready?"

"As long as you promise not to pass out on me," Lancelot joked.

As it turned out, Gwaine was not able to keep that promise.

He continued to spar with Lancelot, his movements becoming increasingly slower and clumsier as his headache increased. He was starting to feel weak and shaky, but he didn't want to let Lancelot know, or else he'd just have even more reason to worry. He was probably just hungry or something; it was nothing. Gwaine was wrong, it was not fine. As Lancelot swung at him (slower than he usually would have, as he had noticed the odd state his friend was in) Gwaine stumbled back, the vertigo hitting him again all at once. His legs gave out and he collapsed to the ground with a groan as pain shot through his chest.

"Gwaine!" Lancelot appeared at Gwaine's side.

Gwaine moved to sit up but that just made things worse; the pain in his chest spiked and he let out a low groan.

"What's wrong?" Lancelot asked, sounding worried. Gwaine couldn't actually make out his expression, his vision was growing blurry.

He opened his mouth to say something, but all that came out was a hacking cough. After the coughing finally subsided, Lancelot helped Gwaine up, insisting they go see Gaius. Gwaine didn't protest, he was too busy trying not to pass out. Lancelot had quickly shooed away the other knights crowding around, and Merlin had appeared from somewhere, he took Gwaine's other arm and helped Lancelot practically carry Gwaine to Gaius's chambers.

Gwaine wasn't very aware of what was going on around him for a while. Lancelot took him to his room, where he instructed him to wait while he went and fetched Gaius. Gwaine shifted on the bed. The pain in his chest had dulled, but it was still there. He wanted to let himself fall asleep right then and there, but he knew he needed to wait for Gaius and Lancelot.

They arrived a few minutes later, with Merlin in tow.

He did his best to explain how he'd been feeling that morning, but he could tell he wasn't really making sense, his thoughts were like molasses and it was hard to piece together sentences.

He was told to just rest and wait while Gaius...did something, Gwaine didn't catch what. But Lancelot and Gaius left while Merlin stayed in the room with him. Gwaine ended up falling asleep shortly after Gaius and Merlin left.

But almost as soon as he fell asleep, the dreams started up.

 

Notes:

Ik this one's short...I'm sorry 😭 After about fifty pages of this my brain has decided to hate on and cringe at every word I write but I'm gonna push through 💀

Chapter 17: Merlin/Gwaine

Notes:

I made up the poison Morgana used here so if any of what Gwaine is about to go through isn't accurate with normal poisoning symptoms that's bc this is fantasy fanfiction and I made it up 😌
"Pythonenum" you can pronounce it however but the way I say it in my head is 'py-tho-ne-num"

Merlin paced back and forth across Gwaine's room, his mind racing. Had Gwaine been poisoned? That had been Gaius's first guess, and right now, it did seem the most logical. What else could explain this? He'd been doing much better, physically at least. Merlin could tell that Gwaine was still not sleeping well, he always looked exhausted, but whenever Merlin expressed his concerns, Gwaine just laughed it off. Typical Gwaine.

Merlin had tried a couple of spells to alleviate Gwaine's pain or maybe even cure him, but nothing seemed to be working. He liked to think Gwaine looked a little more peaceful afterward, but that might just be Merlin hoping he'd done something to help, who knew?

As Merlin started his umpteenth lap across the room, someone knocked on the door. It was Aderyn; she had heard of the news of Gwiane's mysterious sickness from Lancelot.

"Is he alright? I mean, I know he's not but..." Aderyn trailed off. "How bad is he?"

"We don't know," Merlin sighed. "Gaius is going to try to figure out what's wrong with him, we suspect poisoning but we don't know what kind. Listen, I'm sorry to ask but would you mind waiting with him for a bit? I need to help Gaius, if he wakes up or anything just come fetch one of us."

"Of course," Aderyn nodded. "Good luck, you'll figure it out."

"Thank you, and I hope so," Merlin said, practically dashing out the door.

He just about gave Gaius a heart attack as he burst through the doors, skidding to a stop and carefully closing the door behind him. He turned around, smiling sheepishly.

"Merlin, is everything quite alright?" Gaius asked.

"Yeah, sorry. I was just in a hurry. Aderyn's with Gwaine; I wanted to come and help you."

"Well, thank you," Gaius said. "You can take one of these and flip through it."

"What are we looking for?" Merlin asked.

"I'm not entirely sure," Gaius admitted. "It's so early I can't quite tell what we're looking for. Perhaps you should take some of these and you and Aderyn can tend to Gwaine and report back to me on your findings."

"That's not a bad idea," Merlin said, scooping up a few of the books and starting towards the door.

"Don't fall," Gaius called after him as Merlin stumbled out the door, almost dropping the books.

Merlin made the trek back to Gwaine's chambers, trying to ignore the feeling of dread coiling in his stomach. Fate—or more likely, Morgana—really seemed to have it out for Gwaine for some reason. What if this time the odds got the best of Gwaine?

 

---

 

Gwaine felt as though he were burning alive; like molten metal was flowing through his veins. Even in sleep, in the midst of his nightmares, the pain had been present. But now now that he was awake it was twice as bad.

There was a figure above him—Morgana? He was having trouble focusing his vision. He flinched away from the figure, pushing himself into a sitting position. He clenched his jaw as his head spun. Nausea threatened to overwhelm him, but he remained focused on the person in front of him.

"Stay back," he groaned.

"Calm down," the figure said, his voice tantalizingly familiar but Gwaine's foggy mind was unable to put two and two together. "It's me— it's Merlin."

Merlin? No, it was a trick. Just Morgana toying with his mind again. He wouldn't fall for it this time, he wouldn't give her the satisfaction of seeing his hopes crushed yet again.

"No," Gwaine shook his head, struggling to stay upright. "No, you're...you're not real."

He needed to get off this bed, to get out of this room, but just staying upright was a struggle at the moment.

"You were having a nightmare, you're safe now," the not-Merlin said. "I promise, it's just me. And Aderyn."

"Not...falling for that...again," Gwaine mumbled. "Not again."

A new figure joined the not-Merlin at the side of the bed and a feminine voice spoke up.

"Gwaine, it's Aderyn. Do you recognize me?"

Oh, so now she'd brought Aderyn in on this?

"Not real," Gwaine murmured nonsensically, blinking the spots from his vision.

He was shivering, he realized. He still felt overwhelmingly hot, and yet also as though he were freezing to death at the same time.

Aderyn drew nearer and Gwaine was able to focus on her face. She looked real, but that was part of the illusion. But...the hallucinations he'd had looked off, Aderyn didn't. She looked...well, perfect— in Gwaine's eyes. She reached out, pressing her palm to his forehead—frowning as she felt the heat emanating from his skin. She cradled his face for a moment, and he didn't pull away. This felt real, surely Morgana couldn't create such a realistic illusion. His panic slowly subsided, his breathing slowing to a normal rate as Aderyn comforted him. He couldn't even focus on what she was saying, but her voice lulled him into a sense of security.

"Aderyn?" he asked after a moment or two.

"That's my name alright," Aderyn smiled. "You're sick, you were just hallucinating, you're safe now. But you need to rest, can you lay back down?"

Gwaine nodded numbly, practically collapsing back onto the bed.

"How do you feel?" Aderyn asked.

"Like hell. Am...am I dying?"

"No, you're not dying," Aderyn assured him. "You're gonna feel better soon, just try to sleep."

"But...the nightmares," Gwaine whispered, looking over at Aderyn. He was too exhausted to hide the fear in his eyes.

"You'll be alright, we can get you a sleeping tonic," Aderyn said, still sitting at the edge of his bed. "And I'll be right here with you; I won't leave until you're better."

"Promise you're real?" he asked, still paranoid that Morgana was somehow involved here.

"I promise, idiot," Aderyn reached out, squeezing Gwaine's hand in her own. "That's real enough, isn't it?"

Gwaine nodded, not letting go of her hand. He closed his eyes, feeling slightly comforted and safe enough to try to sleep again despite the lingering anxiety from his hallucinations. Merlin—the real Merlin—arrived with a sleeping tonic a few moments later.

 

Notes:

Sorry if this is feeling like a repetitive storyline at this point idk what I'm doing lol

Chapter 18: Merlin/Aderyn

"Pythonenum," Merlin burst into Gaius's chambers the next morning, clutching one of the books he'd taken earlier. "I think that's what he's been poisoned with; it all lines up."

He rushed over to the table where Gaius was studying another book, a few candles scattered across it to provide lighting. Merlin slammed the book down, pointing to the page where the poison was listed.

"Merlin, slow down!" Gaius scolded as Merlin nearly knocked one of the candles over. Thankfully, he'd managed to catch it although wax had spilled across the tabletop.

"Sorry," Merlin winced, pulling up a stool and sitting next to Gaius.

"Have you rested at all? You look awful."

"No, I was too busy," Merlin said.

Merlin had been up all night trying to figure out what was going on with Gwaine and helping Aderyn try to get his fever down. It had been a chaotic night, Gaius had been there for part of it when Gwaine had gotten really bad but Merlin had insisted on staying even when Gaius had to leave to resume his research.

"Anyway, look at this, all his symptoms line up and— just look, this is definitely something Morgana would use to poison someone, read it."

"I'm trying," Gaius raised an eyebrow. "If you would be quiet for a few moments."

"Right, sorry."

"I have heard of this poison before," Gaius said, leaning back from the book and frowning. "I have seen a couple of cases of it in my time."

"But there's a cure, it can be cured, can't it?"

"It can," Gaius hesitated. "However, it is incredibly hard to find."

"Why are the bloody cures always so hard to find?" Merlin exclaimed. "Every time, there's always a catch, it's ridiculous."

"All is not lost," Gaius consoled his apprentice. "We'll do our best for Gwaine."

"What if that's not enough?" Merlin, sleep-deprived and beyond worried for his best friend, was deteriorating.
"Merlin, calm yourself," Gaius stepped in. "We will do our best. The cure is found in a plant that may be in the Darkling forest. It has been a while since any recorded findings of it but that's because most people can't make it into the heart of the forest."

"I'll find Arthur," Merlin said, his voice significantly steadier than before. "He'll know how to get there. How long do we have?"

How long do we have until Gwaine's too far gone for any cure to help him? Merlin refrained from saying all that, sticking to the sugarcoated version.

Gaius frowned. "Four days...maybe more. It is a slow poison and I will be able to slow its progress with some of the medicines we have here."

Merlin nodded. "Alright, four days. We can do that."

"Do what?" a voice asked from the doorway.

Merlin turned to see Arthur descending the few steps down into the room.

"I've just come from seeing Gwaine," Arthur said. "Aderyn told me you were down here," he turned his attention to Gaius, his expression solemn. "Is there any hope for him?"

Gaius explained the situation to Arthur, who listened intently.

"Right. Merlin, pack up. We'll leave today. You know what we're looking for, correct?"

"That's right."

"You two need to be careful, the Darkling Woods are dangerous," Gaius warned. "And now we have all the more reason to believe that Morgana could be hiding in there."

"We'll be careful, Gaius," Arthur said. "As careful as we can, anyway."

 

---

 

Aderyn was startled awake as someone knocked on the door. She realized she'd fallen asleep sitting at the edge of Gwaine's bed, leaning against the headboard. Gwaine was still asleep, thankfully.

She got up, stifling a yawn as she answered the door.

"Oh, hello Gaius," she said, holding the door open wider so he could enter. "He's asleep."

"Good, good," Gaius nodded.

"Did Merlin tell you what he found out?"

"He did," Gaius replied, setting his satchel down on the desk. "He and Arthur are going to try to find the cure in the Darkling Woods."

"There's a cure?" Aderyn brightened slightly at that. "So, he'll be alright?"

Gaius hesitated. He was never one to give false hope where it wasn't warranted. "There is hope, but the cure is rare. However, Merlin and Arthur have at least four days to find it. The poison that is afflicting Gwaine takes effect slowly and I believe I can slow it down."

"Oh, well...that's not terrible, right?"

"No, not at all," Gaius offered up a slight smile. "Has Gwaine's fever improved at all?"

"I think it's gone now, Merlin did something before he left that helped."

"That's good," Gaius said, pulling a couple of vials out of his bag and inspecting them. "Are you going to stay here or attempt to go with Merlin and Arthur?"

Aderyn hesitated. While she wanted to make sure the cure was found, she knew Arthur and Merlin had it under control, and anyway, she promised Gwaine she'd stay with him.

"I'll stay here, I promised Gwaine."

Gaius nodded, still focused on the vials. He was measuring out something, Aderyn didn't really know what he was doing. She sat across the desk from him, staring off into space and trying not to let her thoughts wander down a dark path. 

Chapter 19: Arthur/Aderyn

Arthur and Merlin packed quicker than they ever had before. Well, Merlin did most of the packing, to be fair. But that's because Arthur had to look over the maps and figure out where they were going. Actually, Merlin did most of that too— as he was the one who knew what they were looking for and where it was. He said he didn't know exactly where it was, but he had a good idea and that was all they had for now.

The weather outside matched Arthur's mood. Dark clouds had covered the sky, a chill wind blowing across the fields as they rode toward the forest. He wasn't in a talkative mood and Merlin wasn't either so they spent most of the time in silence, the usual banter that filled their trips together painfully absent.

Unfortunately, this left room for Arthur's thoughts to roam free. He'd already gone through thinking Gwaine was going to die so recently, and now they were right back where they had started? Maybe even worse? The situation felt more and more hopeless by the hour. Arthur felt responsible for the whole thing. Morgana was targeting Gwaine because she wasn't able to get directly at Arthur— he knew that and the knowledge was eating him alive. If Gwaine died, he would feel responsible. Even if he wasn't the one who'd done the poisoning, he felt as though it was his fault.

Hell, even if Gwaine did survive this Arthur felt guilty. No one deserved to go through that, especially not one of his closest friends. Gwaine had sworn to be loyal to Arthur and where had that gotten him? Nowhere good, so far.

"Arthur?" Merlin asked, his voice laden with concern. "Are you alright?"

"I'm just worried," Arthur murmured.

"We'll find the cure; Gwaine will be alright," Merlin insisted.

"I know," Arthur agreed.

Neither of them sounded convinced, and they both knew it although neither dared acknowledge it. The trek into the forest was a long and tedious one. They traveled on as it started to grow dark, desperate to cover as much ground as they could before they stopped to make camp. After covering about half of the trail they set up camp.

"I'll take the first watch," Arthur offered.

"Are you sure? I don't mind," Merlin replied.

"I've got it," Arthur said. "I don't feel like sleeping."

Merlin nodded and left Arthur to it.

A chilly wind howled through the forest, and the clouds persistently covered the sky, blocking out any potential light from the moon. Rain was the last thing they needed right now; Arthur hoped it wouldn't rain.

Although he really didn't want to sleep, he was too full of thoughts to rest, he knew he needed to at least try. So after a few hours he woke up Merlin who took over the watch.

He settled in as best as he could with nothing but a couple of blankets and prepared himself for a long night.

 

---

 

Aderyn had fallen asleep at Gwaine's desk, her head cradled in her arms, auburn hair spilling out around her like a fiery halo. She'd stayed up all night tending to a feverish Gwaine. He'd been awake on and off all night, leaving Aderyn little time to rest. More often than not, when he was awake, he wasn't lucid. Even if he recognized Aderyn, he didn't seem to know what was going on.

Aderyn awoke with a start as Gaius laid a hand on her shoulder. She looked around, confused as to where she was for a moment before remembering everything.

"Is Gwaine alright?" she blurted.

"He's sleeping, I gave him a sleeping draught," Gaius assured her. "Would you like some tea?"

"Oh, sure. Thank you, Gaius," Aderyn said as Gaius set a teapot and two cups on the table.

"Perhaps you should try to get some rest

She gratefully took a cup of tea from Gaius, maybe this would wake her up a bit.

"You're as bad as Merlin," Gaius sighed.

"I'll rest once Gwaine is cured," Aderyn said. "I said I'd stay, I don't want him to wake up and think I've left."

And I don't want to leave and never see him again if he doesn't wake up again, she added mentally, instantly regretting the thought afterward.

Gaius nodded thoughtfully, looking as though he were about to say something, but holding back.

"I don't want to leave you here alone for long, but I fear there is another pressing case I must see to in the castle. I shouldn't be gone for too long, if Gwaine wakes up again and is in pain you can give him some more of the medicine I left out. If things become urgent just send someone to find me, I won't be far."

"Got it," Aderyn nodded. "I'm sure everything will be fine."

"Of course," Gaius nodded, moving to get up and go on his way.

Aderyn sighed, staring down into her teacup. Would everything be fine? Could Gwaine pull through this time? Really everything depended on Arthur and Merlin finding the cure. What if they were too late? Or, what if they made it and it didn't work? What if Gwaine— nope, she wasn't going to think about that.

Everything would be fine, it had to be.

Notes:

I've got a longer chapter (possibly the final one 👀) coming soon, this is just a bit of a filler chapter in the meantime :-)

Chapter 20: Gwaine/Merlin

Notes:

This is my last update for a little while because I'm leaving for summer camp this weekend, but I'll be back with more chapters before too long.

Gwaine was pretty sure he was dying. He had no idea how long he'd been sick— no, how long he had been poisoned? He vaguely remembered someone had told him he'd been poisoned before. Or had that been a dream? No, he didn't think so. He had been reliving most of what Morgana had put him through via nightmares for the past...however long he'd been like this. But every time he woke up Aderyn was there; waiting for him like some kind of guardian angel. He'd wake up terrified from nightmares that were growing steadily worse and worse, and she would comfort him.

Well, at least if he died, she'd be the last person he saw. That was a somewhat consoling thought. There was something nagging at the back of his mind, something he wanted to tell Aderyn. He kept forgetting what it was, and when he was lucid enough to remember he started having second thoughts.

"You're awake," Aderyn observed, interrupting Gwaine's inner monologue— to his relief.

"Yeah," Gwaine tried for a smile but it came out as more of a pained grimace.

"Your fever let up a while ago, do you feel any better?"

"A bit," Gwaine lied.

Gwaine was in no place to talk, seeing as he looked like death warmed over, but he noticed that Aderyn looked exhausted; like she hadn't slept in days

"You should rest," he said. "You look...uh...you look tired."

"I'm fine," Aderyn brushed off his concern. "You're the one who needs to rest, you should try to sleep again."

"I dunno," Gwaine murmured. "I...I don't want to...sleep and not wake up again."

Although he always put on a brave facade, Gwaine didn't want to die. In times of battle he'd never really been scared of dying, fear rarely got the best of him. That was probably the reason he was always so reckless, rushing into things headfirst without and never thinking before he leaped. But now, here he was. Unable to do anything but think, when he wasn't dreaming or hallucinating, and it was driving him insane.

"Don't say that, you're not going die," Aderyn scolded him from her perch at the edge of his bed.

Gwaine shrugged as well as he could while lying down.

"At least I won't die alone. I always hated the idea of dying alone."

"Stop it with this dying nonsense," Aderyn snapped. "You're going to be alright, Merlin and Arthur are probably already riding back here with the cure. You'll be fine."

"You're right," Gwaine mostly agreed for Aderyn's sake. He didn't like seeing her worried. "I can't die, you'd be heartbroken without me."

He'd meant it as a joke, but Aderyn's expression remained serious.

"You're not wrong," she looked down, fiddling with the blanket. "Now stop talking, just rest."

"Alright. You should...you should do the same," he winced as the pain in his chest spiked, making it hard for him to breathe for a moment.

"I don't want to leave you alone," Aderyn said. "Don't worry about me, I'm not that tired."

 

---

 

The journey had been an all around miserable one, and Merlin was pretty sure they had almost died twice already although Arthur contested the fact. But that was just because he was an idiot— getting ambushed by bandits and then running into a bear counted as two near-death experiences in Merlin's book. But they had come out alright eventually and were now so close to attaining what they had come all this way for.

"We're close, keep an eye out," Merlin instructed, folding up the map and stuffing it in his satchel.

He dismounted his horse to better inspect the nearby foliage.

"Can you show me what the blasted thing is supposed to look like again?" Arthur asked, following Merlin's lead and dismounting.

Merlin sighed, pulling out the journal in which he'd copied down the illustrations of the flower from Gaius's book for the fifth time to show Arthur. He inspected it for a moment before nodding and stepping back.

"Right, let's get a move on."

They did their best, but the forest was so overgrown it was hard to distinguish one plant from another. After an hour or so of this, Merlin grew impatient. Looking around, he saw that Arthur had strayed far enough away from him that he could only make out the occasional glint of silver from his chainmail through the trees. This meant Arthur would have a hard time seeing Merlin, which in turn meant Merlin was willing to risk a spell or two to help along their search.

His eyes glowed gold as he whispered a spell. A breeze suddenly blew through the plants, clearing a path through the surrounding foliage. After glancing over his shoulder one last time to make sure Arthur wasn't paying attention, Merlin followed the path created by his spell. It led him a short distance further into the woods, stopping in a clearing. The clearing was almost a perfect circle, which was a little unsettling for some reason. Even more unsettling was the fact that as soon as Merlin crossed the treeline into the clearing, the entire forest went silent.

It was as though every bug had suddenly died. He could see the wind rustling the tree branches and ferns around him but not a single leaf could be heard rustling. A tingle ran down Merlin's spine, but he continued into the clearing. There was a plant directly in the center of the clearing. Upon approaching it, Merlin found that it was the plant that they had come all this way for— the cure to Gwaine's ailment.

Merlin knelt next to the plant and carefully cut it at the base, leaving the roots in the ground so that it could grow back.

"Merlin!"

Merlin flinched and whipped around, nearly toppling backward.

"Arthur!" he yelped. "What the hell was that for? You nearly gave me a heart attack."

He stood, brushing the dirt from his pants with his free hand.

"I've been calling you for about ten minutes now," Arthur seethed. "Where have you been?"

"Finding the cure," Merlin held up the plant, brandishing it in Arthur's face. "Where were you?"

"Looking for you, I thought you'd been eaten or something— seeing as you have no self-preservation instincts."

"That's funny, I could say the same thing about you," Merlin muttered, storing the plant carefully in a pouch he'd brought along for the purpose of keeping the plant safe.

"I can't believe you didn't hear me," Arthur frowned. "Is your hearing quite alright?"

Merlin sighed, latching his satchel closed. "Didn't you notice, sir expert hunter and wilderness expert? Everything's quiet here; no birds, no bugs, nothing."

Arthur frowned, cocking his head to one side. "You're right. That's...odd."

"Very," Merlin nodded. "Now come on, let's get out of here. We need to move."

Arthur, for once, decided to shut up and do what he was told, to Merlin's relief. After all, Gwaine was waiting on them— probably deteriorating with each passing day. The sooner they returned to the castle the better.

Chapter 21: Gwaine

Notes:

I hath returned, a little later than promised but I'll try to make up for my absence with more writing. This is a little short but it's just to tide you over until the next one, call it a bit of a filler chapter, I've got more coming soon dw.

He had to get away, he had to run, had to hide. Or else she would find him— she would make him hurt his friends. The only way to protect them was to run away.

The delusion had taken hold of him after a particularly bad nightmare. After he'd woken up he hadn't recognized Aderyn, when he'd finally come around he had been so shaken that he'd asked Aderyn to leave the room. He'd wanted to hurt her, to be fair he had thought she was Morgana but still. She had refused to leave him and Gwaine had been too tired to argue, but it wasn't long before Aderyn had nodded off to sleep in a nearby chair.

The odds were not in Gwaine's favor in this strange venture, although this was nothing new for Gwaine. As he stood, the room spun and he nearly collapsed on the spot. However, he pressed through, blinking the spots out of his eyes and swallowing down the rising nausea as he tried to navigate past Aderyn without waking her.

Getting out of bed was one of the worst ideas Gwaine had thought of in a very long time, but he was too delirious to take the time to think logically about anything— which wasn't a thing he made a habit of even when he wasn't in the act of slowly dying.

Miraculously, Gwaine made it out of his room and almost all the way down the corridor before the pain and exhaustion got the better of him. He staggered to a stop, leaning against a nearby wall as the pain in his chest spiked, momentarily paralyzing him. He slid down the wall, unable to stay on his feet for any longer. A sheen of sweat covered Gwaine's clammy skin and chills racked his body.

He hunched over, clutching at his chest as the pain started up again. Each breath was a struggle and he was starting to feel more and more feverish. The cool stone wall was a slight reprieve against the heat of his skin. Exhaustion rolled over Gwaine in waves and it became harder and harder to keep his eyes open.

Was this how he died? Alone in the cold corridors of the place he had come to call home? He supposed it was a better place to die than some of the places he'd nearly died. Camelot was much better than the Perilous Lands, although at least there, nobody would be hurt by his death. Well, maybe it was a good thing that he had friends to mourn him. He couldn't make up his mind on that.

But his deep thoughts were interrupted as someone crouched in front of him and an all-too-familiar voice snapped him back to reality.

"Gwaine, what on earth are you doing out here?"

Percival crouched in front of Gwaine, dwarfing his friend as he lay slumped against the wall, his tousled hair falling in front of his face.

Gwaine lifted his head with an effort, making eye contact with Percival. The ghost of a smile flitted across his lips as he recognized the giant before him.

"You're supposed to be in bed," Percival stated the obvious.

"I know..." Gwaine mumbled, trying to make sense of his jumbled thoughts. "I had to...to get out. Morgana...she was gonna—"

"Morgana can't hurt you here," Percival assured him. "I'm going to help you back to bed, alright?"

Gwaine nodded. Percival was a grounding force in this strange situation, despite the delirium Gwaine knew that he was safe. Percival had that effect on people, he'd noticed.

The way back to Gwaine's room only took a couple of minutes but Gwaine nearly passed out anyway, Percival's voice was the only thing keeping him awake. He was barely aware of being tucked into bed, he was too tired to even complain about Aderyn being a mother hen as she fussed over him.

"You're sick, you need to be resting or—"

"Ryn," he mumbled, subconsciously reaching out toward where she was standing at the end of the bed.

There was something he wanted to tell her— something he'd been meaning to tell her for a long time but was having trouble remembering it. He needed to remember before he fell asleep again. But he was so tired and his head hurt so much it was hard to think.

Aderyn leaned against the edge of the bed, taking his hand in hers as she studied him with her piercing green eyes.

"Don't talk," she said. "Just try to sleep, alright?"

If Gwaine hadn't already been half-asleep he would have protested. As it was, he just distantly hoped that he would remember whatever he'd wanted to tell Aderyn when he woke up. Before it was too late.

Notes:

I'm trying to get better with descriptions and imagery so if this is overly descriptive I apologize.
(notice how I referenced Gwaine's time in the Perilous Lands -which is referenced by Gwaine himself in S3 E8 'The Eye of the Phoenix- I might have a fic centered around that coming soon...)

Chapter 22: Arthur

Although the weather perfectly fit Arthur's mood, a thunderstorm was not exactly ideal travelling weather. Thanks to the muddied forest floor they weren't able to move as fast, and it was raining so hard that it was hard to see very far in front of them. But Arthur pressed on, dragging a miserable yet patient Merlin along with him.

"Arthur," Merlin broke the silence after a particularly loud thunder crash. "We're of no use to Gwaine if we die during a storm."

"We're not going to die," Arthur snapped. "Break an ankle maybe—if you're stupid—but not die. We'll be fine."

"Or get horribly sick."

"In that case we probably won't die until after we arrive back at the castle, it'll be fine."

Merlin seemed to have given up the mother-henning after that, to Arthur's relief. He knew Merlin was probably right but he wouldn't be able to live with himself if they took a break for their own safety only to arrive back home to a dead Gwaine.

No, no, no. He wasn't going to think about that.

Fortunately, a distraction came rather quickly to take Arthur's mind off of his ailing friend. Unfortunately, the distraction came in the form of lightning. Even more unfortunately, it decided to strike a tree that was scarily close to Arthur and Merlin. Arthur's horse spooked and reared up, kicking its front legs in a panic. Merlin's horse had a similar reaction, but Merlin was unable to stay on the horse. Arthur heard a shout as he finally got his horse to calm down. He pulled on the reins, turning to see Merlin's horse galloping away into the forest and Merlin laying on the ground, unmoving.

The tree that had been struck had briefly caught fire but the driving rain had put a stop to it. The air now smelled of burnt...something. It wasn't pleasant, but at least none of them had been struck.

Arthur sighed, deciding Merlin's theatrics had gone on long enough. Sure, he was tired of traveling in the rain but playing dead wasn't going to help anything, it was downright childish.

"Merlin, get up."

No answer.

"Merlin?"

Still, nothing. Maybe Merlin wasn't just trying to mess with him. Cursing under his breath, Arthur dismounted. Crouching next to Merlin he realized that his manservant was in fact, knocked out cold. The side of his head was bloodied but thanks to the mud and rain Arthur couldn't tell how badly he was hurt. But he was alive and breathing, so that was something.

"Shit," he hissed.

Slapping Merlin did nothing to wake him, so Arthur's only choice was to try to carry his friend until he could find sufficient shelter. The day before they had passed a cave, if his observations weren't completely skewed from the rain then they should be getting close to it. Sadly, there was still no sign of Merlin's horse. This quest had been doomed from the start. But he'd been on worse and still come out alright, so he was sure they would be fine.

He threw Merlin across his shoulders, standing shakily as he tried not to slip in the mud. He led his horse along with them, squinting through the rain as he tried to make out his surroundings. Artthur's luck took a turn for the better as it wasn't long until he stumbled across the cave. About time too, as Arthur was getting worn out quickly from the deadweight of his manservant slung across his shoulders and the added effort of trying to made his way through the muddy forest without tripping and losing his skittish horse.

Arthur carefully deposited Merlin on the damp cave ground, making sure not to knock his already damaged cranium against the ground. Merlin shifted, groaning softly as Arthur tried to wipe the blood from the side of his head. He blinked, looking up at Arthur with a confused expression.

"Sleeping beauty finally awakes," Arthur remarked, doing his best to hide his relief.

"Ow," Merlin winced as he sat up, gingerly feeling at his head.

"You're lucky; it could have been much worse," Arthur remarked. "How many fingers am I holding up?"

"Two," Merlin scowled. "I've got a headache, I'm not blind."

"That's the spirit, you'll be alright," Arthur said, clapping Merlin on the shoulder. "Only problem now is, we've only got one horse. We won't be able to move as quickly."

"I'm sorry, the horse just went wild," Merlin frowned.

"It wasn't your fault," Arthur dismissed Merlin's apology with a wave of his hand. "I've been thinking, it might be faster if I just sent you on ahead. You know the way back and you'll be of more use to Gaius. I can follow on foot I'll just be a little slower."

"No," Merlin replied, almost before Arthur was done speaking. "I can't leave you here alone, it's too dangerous."

Arthur scoffed. "What could you do to protect me? I'm the knight, remember?"

Merlin nodded slowly, looking skeptical. "Yeah...but still, I—"

"No, no buts. If you move fast you'll reach Camelot before nightfall, maybe a little after. Gwaine is depending on us; this is the only way."

Arthur studied Merlin. His gaze looked slightly off, like his eyes were out of focus. It was more than likely that he'd suffered a concussion— hopefully not a serious. It might not be a wonderful idea to send him back alone but it was much better than leaving him here to fight his way through the forest on foot. All in all, this was the best plan Arthur had come up with on the walk from where they'd lost the horse.

"You should rest for a few minutes and then set out," Arthur said after a brief silence. "The rain is getting a little better."

Merlin nodded, looking rather pensive. "Alright."

"Just try not to fall off of this horse, yeah?" Arthur joked, lightly punching Merlin in the shoulder. The manservant was being so quiet it was a little worrying.

Merlin rolled his eyes in response, getting to hise feet slowly. For a moment Arthur worried he might pass out but he remained upright.

"Merlin," Arthur stopped his friend as he started for his horse. "Are you alright? You're not actually badly hurt?"

"I'm fine," Merlin promised, then added with a smirk. "Unfortunately for you, I'm afraid I'll live."

"Jokes aside, please be careful Merlin," Arthur's expression remained uncharacteristically serious.

"I know, I know," Merlin sighed as he grabbed the horse's reins. "Gwaine—"

"Yes, be careful and get the cure to Gwaine," Arthur cut in. "But I also don't want you hurt."

Before Merlin could reply, Arthur threw in a joke for good measure. After all, he didn't want the conversation to get too heavy.

"If I get back to Camelot and find you've been hurt I'll kill you," he grinned.

"I'll keep that in mind," Merlin swung up into the saddle. "If you don't make it back to Camelot in one piece, I'm afraid I'll have to do the same."

"You can't kill me, I'm royalty. I'd have you thrown in the stocks."

"Well, you'd be dead; so you'd do no such thing," Merlin pointed out. "We can avoid regicide altogether if you just keep up that tough knight act and make it to Camelot in one piece."

Before Arthur could think up a witty reply, Merlin had already started off into the forest. For some reason Arthur was geniunely worried. It was unsettling, sending Merlin off on his own. Somehow the clumsy servant had survived a lot by Arthur's side but sending him off, defenseless and along, it gave Arthur reason to worry.

He decided to wait in the cave for a bit longer until the rain let up. He didn't want to waste time even though he wasn't the one with the cure anymore. But he was exhausted, cold, and soaking wet; so a little rest wouldn't hurt.

Chapter 23: Merlin

Mud had never looked so comfortable, Merlin thought as he studied the ground beneath him. Anything was better than staying upright, he would much rather have been lying down and resting. He'd taken his fair share of knocks to the head before; he was no stranger to headaches. But damn, this one was doing a number on him. But he pushed through, spurring the horse on through the muddy forest.

His headache was a minor problem compared to his dying friend who was still miles away. Thankfully, it wasn't long before he left the forest in the distance behind him. Now there was just an expanse of rolling green fields to get through before he would arrive at Camelot. If he hurried he might be there within the next two hours. He was still worried about Arthur, though. He didn't like the idea of leaving the prince on his own in the forest to find his way back on foot. Arthur knew the way back to Camelot just fine— getting lost wouldn't be a problem. But what if he were to run into danger with Merlin not there to protect him?

Well, there was nothing he could do about that now. It was best to worry about one thing at a time, and the most pressing thing at the moment was to get the cure for Gwaine. But Merlin found his mind wandering back to Arthur. What if he ran into Morgana or a band of robbers? The forest was a dangerous place, after all.

The next two hours were spent worrying about Arthur and trying to distract himself from the headache that refused to let up. Unfortunately, worrying is not the cure for a headache. The rain had started to let up to a slight drizzle by the time he entered the castle though. However, he was still sopping wet and cold so he wasn't too appreciative of the weather.

As soon as he reached the castle stairs he leaped off the horse and rushed into the castle, dodging around servants and knights alike as he made for Gaius's chambers. He burst through the door without knocking, almost falling over himself as he skidded to a stop.

"I've got it!" he exclaimed, whipping off his satchel and slamming it down on the table with a wet thump.

Gaius stared at Merlin in disbelief for a moment before taking in what he'd just shouted.

Merlin had already riffled through the bag and come up with the pouch containing the plant and shoved it at Gaius. He took it, opened it, and inspected the slightly wilted plant.

"Perfect," he said. "This is wonderful, you're just in time."

"He's still— he's alright?" Merlin gasped.

"Yes, he's strong. He's been hanging in there."

"How long does it take to make the cure from this?" Merlin demanded.

"Perhaps a little longer than it will take you to change into dry clothes," Gaius eyed Merlin up and down dourly. "You're dripping all over the floor."

"Oh, right. Sorry, I've only been traveling in the bloody rain all day to get here in time, I'll go clean up."

"Thank you," Gaius called good-naturedly as Merlin stalked toward his room.

He changed in lightning speed, resisting the urge to lie down on his bed for a rest while Gaius made the cure and instead sat out at the desk with him. He knew if he laid down now he'd probably sleep for the rest of the day.

Gaius had concocted some kind of...liquid from the plant. Merlin wasn't sure what it was, exactly. It was green and a little murky looking. Gaius carefully poured it into a vial and stopped it up with a cork.

After that they hurried to Gwaine's room where they found Aderyn slumped over Gwaine's bed sound asleep, holding the ailing knight's hand. Percival was sitting at Gwaine's desk, looking like he was about to fall asleep himself. But he perked up as Gaius and Merlin entered the room.

"How has he been?" Gaius asked.

"He tried to make a run for it earlier," Percival sighed. "Aderyn said he woke up and was hallucinating or something, then got freaked out and thought he was going to hurt someone— like Morgana was going to control him again. I found him out in the hallway and brought him back."

Gaius frowned. "I'm surprised he even made it out of bed."

"Do you have the cure?" Percival asked, looking from Gaius to Merlin with wide, worried eyes.

Merlin nodded. "We've got it."

Gaius had walked over to the bed and gently woke Aderyn. She looked around, confused for a minute before her eyes landed on Merlin.

"Merlin!" she blurted. "Did you—"

"Yes, yes. We've got it right here," Gaius assured her.

Aderyn looked as though she might start crying, she was so relieved.

As Merlin leaned across the bed to wake Gwaine, he worried that he might have died in his sleep. But he was breathing, although so shallowly that it was barely discernable.

"Gwaine, wake up," Merlin lightly shook his friend's shoulder but to no avail.

Gwaine shifted slightly but didn't wake up. It took a moment of coaxing and prodding, but Gwaine finally awoke. He didn't seem to realize what was going on or even recognize Merlin and they had a hard time getting him to drink the tonic, but in the end, he did.

"That's...not ale," he winced after downing the green drink.

"No, it's better for you than ale," Merlin said.

"If you say so," Gwaine murmured. "Are you lot...just going to stare at me while I sleep, then?"

"No," the group said in unison.

It was decided that Aderyn and Gaius would stay, Merlin would go rest (although he protested profusely, Gaius eventually won out by promising to send for him if Gwaine made any developments) and Percival left of his own volition.

Merlin wasn't sure if he would be able to sleep while worrying about both Gwaine and Arthur, but he was out like a light as soon as he hit the pillow. The past few days had taken quite a toll on him.

Notes:

There, see? I gave Merlin and everyone else a bit of a break, no cliffhangers this time...
Man, I wonder how Arthur's doing though.

Chapter 24: Arthur/Agravaine/Aderyn

Notes:

Ik I tagged this slow burn but Aderyn and Gwaine had so much more chemistry in my little daydream scenarios and idk how I'm gonna work that into my fics yet but I might try a little harder in the future ;-;

Arthur ended up sleeping for longer than he had intended. Upon waking up and looking around his surroundings, he saw that the rain had finally let up. With a sigh, he got to his feet and stretched, his mail armor clinking and echoing throughout the small cave as he did so. Although he was cold and exhausted from his rushed journey across the past few days, he pushed on with the rest of his journey home.

It felt wrong traveling without his sword— he hated feeling defenseless. But he'd be fine, it wasn't a long walk back to Camelot. He started on the walk back home and was glad to find that the weather was much more pleasant now, although the ground was rather muddy.

But Arthur was unable to enjoy the wonderful weather as his thoughts were preoccupied by worrying about not one; but two of his friends. Had Merlin made it back in time to save Gwaine? Or had he been attacked by bandits on his journey back?

Worrying won't solve anything, Arthur berated himself. He was being ridiculous— if he kept this up he'd become worse than Merlin and Gwen.

After what felt like an eternity, the castle appeared on the horizon. After a slightly shorter eternity, he made it to the castle itself. Although he was exhausted, he rushed straight to Gwaine's room, dodging concerned passersby left and right.

Arthur burst into the room, stopping dead in his tracks as he saw Gaius seated on a stool at Gwaine's bedside. Gwaine lay unmoving— dead? No, surely he was just asleep.

"Is he—"

"He's only sleeping," Gaius assured the worried prince. "He'll be alright, Merlin arrived before you with the cure."

"He's alright too, then?" Arthur's shoulders slumped in relief, the tension leaving his body.

"Quite alright, he's resting. As you should be."

Arthur nodded. "Right. I will. But Gwaine— you're sure he'll be alright?"

"We're sure, you needn't worry about him anymore. It might take a little bit for him to fully recover his strength but he's no longer in any danger."

"Thank God," Arthur sighed, his voice ragged. "Do the rest of the knights know?"

"Yes, I believe Aderyn spread the word," Gaius nodded.

Arthur nodded then retreated from the room, heading to his own quarters. Now that all the madness was over he needed to nap for a week.

 

---

 

"What do you mean he's not dead?" Morgana demanded, her tone dripping with venom. 

Agravaine bowed his head, wincing as her shrill voice echoed off the hut walls.

"Arthur managed to find a cure. It was delivered to the knight at the last moment. You nearly succeeded—"

"Nearly isn't good enough," Morgana seethed, clenching her fists to stop her hands shaking from rage. "Damn my brother, and Gwaine as well. And the manservant— surely he played a part in this."

"I believe he accompanied Arthur on his journey to find the cure."

Morgana sneered. "Of course he did. One day I will put them all in their graves, I swear it."

Agravaine nodded placatingly. "Yes, of course you will. I shall be happy to assist you in any way possible."

"Yes," Morgana snapped. "You will. And right now you can assist me by getting out of my sight. I need to plan."

"Yes, My Lady," Agravaine bowed, secretly relieved to be leaving. Being in the same room as an enraged Morgana was not for the faint of heart.

 

---

 

This wasn't the first time Gwaine had awoken after a near-death experience to Aderyn sitting at his bedside (and with a track record like his it probably wouldn't be the last) but this time he was pretty sure he was in his right mind. The anxiety and dread had left him completely and while he still felt pretty tired he didn't feel like he was dying.

But wait, maybe that meant he had already died. He was in his own room, sure, and Aderyn was there, but maybe for some strange reason that was what his afterlife looked like. He sat up, running a hand through his hair as he squinted around at his surroundings— trying to figure out if this was all an elaborate hallucination or not.

"You're awake," Aderyn's voice sounded real enough, but was it?

"Am I alive?" Gwaine asked, looking so genuinely confused that Aderyn had to stifle a laugh.

"Yes, you're alive. How does it feel?"

Gwaine thought for a moment. "Good, I don't feel like I'm going crazy anymore."

"That's a blessing," Aderyn said. "You had us all quite worried."

"Aw," Gwaine smirked, leaning back and crossing his arms behind his head. "I didn't know you cared."

"Yes you did, idiot," Aderyn rolled her eyes. "Maybe you actually have gone crazy."

"Hey now, that's no way to talk to a man who's just been on his deathbed," he protested. "You should be showering me with praise for my bravery and persevering...ness."

"Perserveringness?" Aderyn repeated cocking an eyebrow. "I think you should rest a little bit more, you're still speaking nonsense."

"I think that's you, actually. How long have you been here, anyway? You look terrible."

"Thank you," Aderyn replied dryly.

"No— that's not what I meant," Gwaine rushed to fix his previous statement. "You look as beautiful as always, just a little tired, I was caring about your well-being."

Aderyn actually did laugh this time, her face lighting up in a smile. Gwaine smiled back, relieved that she wasn't actually angry.

"I know, calm down," she replied. "If you're sure you'll be alright by yourself then I'll go. I am rather tired, I suppose."

"I think I can survive without your presence, although it'll be a struggle," Gwaine reassured her.

"Right, don't do anything stupid. If I catch you trying to sneak out I'll murder you myself."

"Aderyn," Gwaine looked affronted. "I would never do a thing like that. I'm ill, remember?"

"You'd better not lie to me," Aderyn warned as she made her way to the door.

"You dare question a knight's word?"

"Yes, I do," Aderyn nodded.

Gwaine shook his head, chuckling ruefully as Aderyn closed the door behind her. He was sorry to have worried her, but he hadn't realized just how much she'd cared for him. She'd barely left his bedside the whole time. But surely she was just helping Gaius, she couldn't be harboring feelings for Gwaine. Not that he was averse to the idea, but it was hard to read Aderyn. She could be sarcastic and abrasive one second and then caring and soft the next.

He dozed off with thoughts of Aderyn on his mind. Would he ever figure her out? Who knew. At least he'd have the chance to now that his life wasn't about to end. He needed a break from all this adventurous madness. Surely his life hadn't been this insane before he'd come to Camelot. Well...no, maybe it had. Gwaine wasn't one for a calm or peaceful life.

Notes:

Thanks to everyone who left comments and kudos it really means a lot! I hope you guys enjoyed reading this as much as I enjoyed writing it! I hope to have more Merlin fics (hopefully more Gwaine fics specifically-- I'm sorry he's my favorite) soon. If anyone has literally any ideas/prompts for any stories I would love to hear them below in the comments :-)

Series this work belongs to:

• Part 2 of Tales From The Round Table