Time has never got along so slowly.
Arthur is sitting on the hard bench in the cell into which he was thrown by the guards. Not thrown really; he is royalty. He holds the life-saving flower he risked his life for in his hands and looks at it, thinking.
I'm forced to sit idly while my manservant could be breathing his last. Manservant. Father spoke of a right way and a wrong way to do things. Is saving a lowly servant not the right way to do things? That's all Merlin is: a servant. But he has saved my life twice, does that not make him more?
He slowly spins the flower between his fingers as he contemplates his situation. He has been in the cell for hours now. Merlin could be gone any moment.
No matter his position, I must save him. Servant or not. But Father has made sure that will not happen. Merlin is my servant and I am his future King, he has earned my protection. ...right ways and wrong ways. What is wrong with bringing him a flower to save his life?
The sun rose in the sky, shifting the square of bright yellow light cast on the floor from the window to Arthur's left.
There is such beauty in this flower. Of course it is all deception. Merlin can attest to that. A flower that can kill with it's petals and save with it's leaves. Life and death in the form of a flower. The most beautiful flower... Merlin.
The sun continued on its path across the sky and slid closer to Arthur's left boot, above which he was twirling the flower with a look of slight pain set on his facial features. The light moved ever closer to the flower.
What? Merlin is my servant, nothing more. Yet there is something more. I can't place it, maybe I don't want to understand. No, I don't need to understand. There is nothing more to understand. I must save Merlin because he is my servant. He is my servant. Merlin is...
Bright yellow light hit the flower as Arthur gazed intently at it, deep in thought. Every trace of yellow and orange on the flower's petals were enhanced to a brilliant radiance as if the sun's rays had set them alight with sparkling fire.
...mine. He's mine. I will save him. Somehow.
He heard someone talking to a guard and quickly hid the flower in his palms seconds before Guinevere turned the corner with a plate of food. He would save Merlin.