The next morning, as the dark lake glimmered under the rising sun, it almost seemed like the world was immersed in bliss.

The war raging in Arthur's sleeping mind said otherwise.

He was running through a forest- the same forest he had played on the brink of as a child, with his disgraced sister, Morgana. However now he was alone, and it wasn't the same atmosphere he felt back in the day. Now it was dark and ominous.

As he sprinted through the thick trees and stinging branches, he could hear voices all around him. Voices of those he loved. Guinevere, his father, his knights, his people.

Their faces flew in and out of sight too, their forms fleeting in the distance and disappearing just before he got to them, like the end of a rainbow. He could hear them moaning. He could hear them calling his names. But it was never in love or rejoice, welcoming him back or leading him to a brighter place.

They were all voices of grief, and condoning betrayal.

Suddenly everything vanished and Arthur felt himself falling. All went dark. Arthur hated the dark- it was all he could see and feel when he felt himself drift away those so many years ago on the bank of the Lake, which felt like mere moments ago to him-

It was bound to happen, you know.

Arthur could hear Merlin's voice, in his head... but it was different. Older, heavier.

Hs feet found hard ground and suddenly there he was- Merlin, his comrade.

Except it wasn't him. Somehow Arthur knew who the old white quivering man was. With a jolt he realised he recognized who it was, but it was as someone different from Merlin.

It was Emrys.

Hunched on a rock and leaning on an old cane, wearing dark drapes around him like a god. He was looking down at his hidden feet, but Arthur knew his eyes would be a stormy grey.

"What do you mean?" questioned Arthur desperately, almost as if every breath he took depended on it, "what was bound to happen?"

There was a long silence, before Emrys slowly raised his heavy head and looked Arthur square in the eye, sending chills down his spine and a burning fever in his chest he guessed was fear.

It's a tragedy they're gone, Emrys spoke in his head, but it was bound to happen eventually.

"What was? What was bound to happen?"

Loss.

Arthur's eyes flew open.

The pain that shot through his pupils was one welcoming bright light. He realised he had shot upright as he had woken up. He raised his heavy arms to rub his eyes.

He dropped his arms after some furious rubbing and took a deep breath, and finally opened his eyes completely.

He very suddenly realized that Essie was standing at the foot of his bed.

He leapt up and grabbed his sheets to his bare chest, shouting, "WHAT THE DEVIL, WOMAN?!"

Essie jumped back in fright as well, but her straight face remained, as she held up her hands.

"I was just putting back some of your clothes, they came out of the wash!"

"What?!"

"The wash!" she assured in a softer tone, as Arthur glared at her from his nest of twisted sheets.

He then asked her indignantly, "How long have you been there?"

She shuffled nervously, before she replied sheepishly, "about five minutes..."

Arthur sent her a dead but threatening stare and she hurried to explain.

"I was just coming in to put back your shirt and pants, and as I was leaving you started muttering and moaning... things," she continued, "and then you started to sort of yell..."

There was a dragged silence, as Arthur digested this with narrowed eyes.

It was with a different expression when Essie timidly added, "You know... Merlin may not be the same Merlin you know... but he is essentially the same person under it all."

There was another shot of silence before Arthur demanded roughly, "Why do you say that?"

Essie gulped and looked down at her shuffling feet, then muttered, "I- well- you were... I just had a strange... feeling you needed to hear it..."

She finished this thought and slowly raised her eyes to Arthur's icy ones. For a few moments Arthur had an even stranger feeling that somehow she knew exactly what he had dreamed.

Before he could ask, however, she said loudly, "Get up and get ready, we're leaving for Gillan Pond after breakfast."

With that she power-walked out the small room.