It took very little time for Merlin to be found. He had been pacing back and forth between a wide hallway. He no longer thought of the note, his one thought was the image of Arthur's look of fear.

"Merlin-" Gwaine's features were tight. "Are you alright?"

Merlin shook his head as he recalled the sound of Arthur's rapidly beating heart. "How's Arthur?"

"You care?"

Any other time the question could have been approached as a joke, but not currently. It was clear to Merlin now that Arthur's words had rung true. There had been an enchantment placed on him.

The implications behind that were chilling. Merlin was not one to succumb easily to enchantments. To be able to entirely shift his perspective of the one person he had sworn to protect with his life raised the questions of who they were dealing with and just how powerful they were.

"He was right," Merlin said simply. "There's a spell affecting my thinking and I had no idea."

"It has been suggested that whoever enchanted the wyverns also cast this spell."

It made complete sense. Both spells had been strong and would have require intricate spell work. A sorcerer doesn't go to such great length to bend another will to

But above attempting to discover who was at fault, Merlin felt weighed down by guilt. He looked to Gwaine offered no condemnation for his actions. He appeared concerned for him.

"I was awful to him." He admitted. "What I said-" He took a heavy halting breath. "What I almost did-"

"Arthur experienced no injury." Gwaine clapped a hand on his shoulder. "You were stronger than them."

Merlin shook out of his grasp as his thinking shifted again back to the note. "There were names, Gwaine." Merlin turned on the knight. "Names of children. Is it expected of me to forget that and go on normally?"

"Absolutely not, Merlin" Gwaine affirmed. "Camelot has a long way to go to address the wrongs of the past."

"It may never be enough." Merlin countered. "We can't bring back those who've been lost."

"You're right. There is a long journey ahead of all of us, including Arthur." The way Gwaine spoke as though he were testing the waters was foreign to Merlin. He stepped toward him again slowly as if he were afraid he may spook him. "We need Arthur to lead us if there is any hope to redeem Camelot."

"I believe he will." Merlin nodded. "Redeem Camelot, that is."

"That's more than you could say of him when we first found you."

Merlin nodded. "I feel less set in thinking. Its effects are waning."

"Let us count ourselves lucky that you were able to overcome the spell," Steven stated. Merlin glanced at the man having forgotten he had arrived with Gwaine.

"We should head back and regroup," Gwaine suggested.

"I worry it may begin again if he were to be nearby the king," Steven stated. "Perhaps we should wait to not endanger the king."

Merlin turned around to hide his shame, with the only thought in his mind being the fearful look on Arthur's face.

"I believe Gwaine is correct."

"He has no knowledge of enchantments-" Steven was quick to point out.

"I do," Merlin stated. "And I agree that it would be best to remain together as a group during this time when we are unsure of allegiances."

"As you wish," Stephen said, clearly displeased with his choice. "Shall I lead the way?"

Merlin snorted knowing full well he would be lost quickly in the multitude of hallways. "Definitely."

"It can be easy to get turned around here," Stephen assured.

As they began walking, Merlin could think of nothing but what he would say to Arthur. His words had been cruel and dealt with the intent to cause harm. He should have fought against it hard.

Maybe he would have had he realized he had been under an enchantment, to begin with.

That was the point that caused him the most alarm. Merlin had seen the irrational behavior from others who had been enchanted in the past. His magic had sheltered him from magic before this point as well leading him to believe that there was something larger at play here. They had arrived in this complex and not everyone had been pleased to see them. Merlin had naively hoped that their continuing presence had been enough to shift some of their minds. It seemed that some anger was rooted deeper than he originally thought.

His mind wandered to what Arthur could be thinking of him. After the lengths they had gone to in mending the hurt from both sides, this whole situation dredged up unspoken words that at their core were aimed to kill.

Merlin glanced up and saw the long expanse of a hallway with Stephen opening a door. He walked inside, mind filled with racing thoughts that drew his attention. The door shut with a loud bang that echoed across the large expanse of space. Merlin realized as he stepped further into the room that they were on the backside of the hall where Arthur and the knights had been brought initially. The room seemed larger now that it was empty. It was dim, lit by torches on the wall rather than the magic that brightly lit the rest of the complex. The shadows expanded upward into the darkening ceiling. The large doors stood heavily in front of them across the long expanse of space.

"Did we get turned around?"

Stephen did not answer as he continued to make his way into the room. Merlin and Gwaine caught each other's gaze, Gwaine held a wary expression that broke when a voice that could only be described as sweet came from deep inside the hall.

"I am pleased that you made it here."

He glanced further down as saw a woman from the day prior, Anne. She was standing facing away from him.

She had one hand on the crystal that held the power for the enchantments in the complex.

"I apologize," Merlin said stepping forward. "I've met many people recently and fail to recall your name."

"Anne." She offered nothing further and turned around while keeping her hand on the crystal. When she was fully facing them, Merlin saw her eyes were golden, but there was something off. They were brighter than what was typical for a sorcerer, and he felt power spilling off her. It radiated like heat from the sun. Gwaine stepped forward at his side.

"It's a miraculous item, is it not?"

Merlin nodded, not taking his eyes off her. "It is astounding how you all have continued to adapt magic."

"Adapt." She said the word like it was sticky. "We've adapted without you."

"Merlin-" Gwaine's tone was one of warning. His hand moved slightly toward his sword. Merlin bristled at her last statement too, recalling Markus's words when he laid on the cool stone in the cavern after falling in here.

I want a world where we are not controlled by prophecies that have no valid hold on reality.

Markus had not been the only one to share that sentiment it would seem. Another realization jumped into his mind as he felt the power in the room swell to a nauseating amount.

"You've been leeching power from the enchantments keeping this place together?"

"Yes. I suppose that would affect those enchantments. You contribution though has helped tremendously."

In all the good innovative magic had brought their people, they had been blind to the dangerous implications of it being used for ill intent. Merlin knew the power she had coursing through her was intense and potentially more than he could handle.

"You're destroying your home and your people's home." Merlin was feeling more and more edgy as the power of the room continued to swell. The ceiling of the room shifted loudly in its lack of magical support, raining dust over their heads. "To what end?"

She smiled widely and eerily as her eyes shone their brightest yet. "Yours of course."

At that, Gwaine removed his sword and stepped slightly in front of Merlin.

Anne laughed in the face of his antics, it was light as though joking with a friend. It unsettled Merlin further and seemingly Gwaine as he shifted back and forth ever so slightly on the balls of his feet.

She held her hand out in front of her. Gold tendrils of power snaked around her fingers. "I wonder, is this how you always feel?"

Merlin had been expecting an attack, but failed to fully anticipate her next move. She shot her power out, and Merlin had no time to react before the spell hit Gwaine. It pulled him toward her and hovered him horizontally at nearly her height off the ground. The sword gripped tightly in his hand had been ripped from it and held underneath Gwaine with its point aiming right at his heart.

Merlin took a step forward but stopped as Gwaine dropped to a point where the sword tip was nearly touching him.

"Stay there or your friend dies immediately." Anne threatened.

Any movement against them could have the knight impaled and dead on his sword before he could even blink.

Merlin lowered his arms slowly to his sides. It was then that he noticed Stephen walking forward toward Anne, spiking panic in his chest for Gwaine who was one wrong move away from a certain and quick death. He knew Stephen at least knew Anne enough to socialize in the tavern. His walk was confident and maybe he thought he could negotiate with her to right the satiation.

"Such a pity," Stephen said without turning around. "You put up much less of a fight than we had expected."

Scratch that.

Merlin barely had time to think before he felt his arms wrenched behind him as if manacles had been clapped around his wrist from behind and pulled directly upward. The force of the spell was strong enough to drop him to his knees. He hissed at the sudden fiery pain. His head was forced down so much that he strained to be able to look up at the two. Beyond them he saw Gwaine, who for his part was fighting against the spell at much as he could. Merlin could see him struggling to move his leg as if to kick the sword from beneath him to allow Merlin to fight without the stress of Gwaine falling onto his death.

Stephen walked forward, with a slow and confident stride. Merlin felt his arms pulled higher and doubled his efforts to fight against the spell she had over him.

"The two of you have been working together to what end?" Gwaine shouted. "Causing Merlin to get angry with the king?"

"No," Stephen dropped down on a knee as his left and at a point where Merlin could stare him directly in the eyes. "You see, it was never about King Arthur."

"MERLIN!" Gwaine shouted in warning.

Merlin just heard shifting on his other side when a familiar pain, one that he had nearly forgotten, erupted in the back of his neck at two points.

In hindsight, Merlin knew he had lost control as his magic reacted by exploding from his chest. He threw it out in all directions in a burst of magic powerful enough to make his ears pop. It caught the three inhabitants in the room immediately. Gwaine was thrown forcefully from over the sword that had fallen to the ground. Anne's spell had been disrupted by tossing her against the back wall where she connected solidly. Stephen made a loud grunt as he landed on his back and skidded along the ground for several feet where he didn't move.

Merlin blinked through his watering eyes brought on by the pain and got clumsily to his feet and ran to Gwaine's side, passing the fallen and unmoving sorcerers. Merlin hated to admit that the knight was standing slowly and painfully after the spell. He helped him fully upright, but the knight remained hunched over and breathing as though he ran a far distance.

"I'm grateful, but give me a softer landing next time."

Merlin scoffed and clapped a hand on his shoulder. "You're as bad as Arthur."

Gwaine raised his eyebrows disbelievingly, but he immediately refocused on the situation. A glance at Stephen and Anne showed they were both unmoving in the room.

"You're bleeding," Gwaine stated, pulling at Merlin's shirt. The fabric around his neck had grown wet with blood. He spun Merlin around.

"What the hell," Gwaine said in confusion.

Merlin brought a hand to his neck and felt a smooth metal bar about half the length of his thumb.

In his periphery he saw Anne stumbling to her feet with a spell on her lips. Merlin conjured a shield before she completed her first word.

"Astige ðu wyrm fah ond geþéowe ðæt mod ðisse þeowes."

For a moment, Merlin realized he recognized the spell from a time where his memory was patchy in some areas and nonexistent in others. A smirk was all he saw before being blinded by a new pain in his neck. It was as though barbs fanned out from the bar at each end. He fell into the wall gracelessly, barely hearing Gwaine shout his name frantically across the bell tower ringing in his ears. He struggled to remain upright as Gwaine moved in front of him with the dagger he kept at his ankle held out defensively in front of him.

"Any movement and I will not hesitate to act," Gwaine said gruffly.

"You still believe you have the ability to fight us." Anne barked a laugh and stared unblinkingly at Merlin.

"I guess you do, but dear Emrys will find otherwise."

"What the hell did you do to him?"

Merlin had a sinking feeling that he knew.

"It's impossible." Merlin barked.

"Is it?" Anne smirked at him. "I see Emrys already knows the answer."

Merlin faltered again, knowing it read on his face.

"Care to test it out?"

There was a reason Merlin recognized the spell and he was terrified because it had been the one spell that had been so totally encompassing that he remembered nothing from his time under it. He only knew about it from what had been told to him by Gaius and Gwen as they had followed him around preventing him from killing his king.

It was the spell Morgana had used on him with the fomorrah.

"Merlin, call for Catherine as you did earlier."

"No!" Anne shouted suddenly. "Do not reach out to anyone through your mind or voice."

"You're not really in the position to make orders," Gwaine said again.

She stared into Gwaine's eyes with a smugness that Merlin hadn't seen since the last time he had been near Morgana.

"Gwaine, get out of here," Merlin ordered with a shout.

"That is exactly the position I am in, knight," Anne said cooly.

"Merlin!" Gwaine said again.

Merlin began to reach out when he felt a strong pull to look at Anne. He watched her carefully as a smugness set further in her features.

"You will not try to remove the artifact. If someone were to try to remove it you will stop them without hesitation." Ann smirked. His attention was brought immediately to the stabbing pain at the back of his neck. Merlin watched and waited as Anne circled them like a bird of prey with an abandoned fawn. Gwaine followed her, holding his sword out at the ready.

"Merlin!" Gwaine shouted again, but his booming shout was not without a concern becoming heavily evident. Merlin's was deeper, and chilled him right through to his bones.

"Move him away from us," Anne ordered.

"Gwaine, move," He commanded promptly, no hesitation. His lips had moved on their own accord. It was very hard to keep his panic at bay as grew with each passing second.

"Now I'm sure Emrys has more convincing ways." Ann's lips curled. "What if you used your magic."

"Why the hell would he do that?" Gwaine shouted.

"Do it." She ordered.

Instantaneously, Gwaine was sent skidding across the floor, the golden light of his own magic fading in his wide eyes.

"Hold him fast."

His power left him and pinned Gwaine in a rough shove back onto the ground he had just been trying to get upright from. The knight's expression was bleak and held the same look Arthur's had only minutes prior because of his magic.

There was the fast beat of terror coursing through his ears. His mind shifted through the number of ways where he could leave this room with Gwaine's heart no longer beating if they chose it.

"I'm sorry-" Merlin began.

"Shut up." Anne shot out. Merlin didn't bother to try to fight her order, knowing from the warmth in the back of his neck that however they had managed to create this spell it would be as strong as if the snake itself was still slithering under his skin. She walked up to him and trailed her hand up along his chest to his neck and lightly followed it around to the back as she walked.

"Magic was advancing every second you wasted with that Pendragon." Anne leaned in to speak in his ear. "We have outgrown the prophecies and more importantly we have outgrown you."

Merlin bristled at the venom in her voice.

"Merlin" Gwaine growled from his prone position on the ground. "You are stronger than this."

Steven stepped forward pompously. "I don't know about that."

"Stop his breathing," Steven suggested.

Merlin glanced to Gwaine who took a shaky nervous breath and nodded at him encouragingly. The faith his friend had in his power was palpable.

Merlin didn't share the sentiment.

She raised an eyebrow at him. "You heard the man."

No matter how hard he tried, he could not draw breath into his lungs. He stared at Steven in horror and distantly heard Gwaine shouting at him to breathe, but the power over him held fast. His body panicked, heart racing, but it refused to listen to its burning for air.

Anne continued the order despite proving Gwaine wrong. Pain tore through his chest adding to the agony of suffocating while surrounded by air. As the seconds dragged on, the aching intensified to sharp pain. His mouth was open, but no sound could be made and not breath could be taken.

Merlin felt the hold he had on Gwaine loosen for a fraction of a second. He saw the knight jerk forward as his magic released him at that moment. Despite his panicked mind, he saw that neither Anne nor Steven seemed to pay any attention, their focus entirely on him.

His vision blackened and that was when his power retreated entirely from Gwaine. In that second, Gwaine raced from the room and toward the door. Stephen shouted what could only be a spell after him, but it did not take whatever effect he had wanted. Through the darkening edges of his vision, Merlin saw Gwaine dip out of the room, the door slamming loudly behind him.

Merlin never heard the order to breathe as air rushed into his lungs, although it was safe to assume he had received one. All shadow of a doubt was extinguished as Merlin laid still on the cool floor that the order would have continued its impervious hold over his will until life left his body.

His head rushed from the sudden change and the world around him tilted. He screwed his eyes shut in an attempt to improve the feeling. He heard Anne shouting at Steven about being careless with the plan, but he could barely focus on it. His mind opted instead to swirl around the simple fact that he could have died and been unable to do anything. His power had only retreated because it was leaving with his life.

"Get up."

Merlin felt a swift kick to his side that did nothing to aid his breathing. He began to get to his feet, feeling physically unable to do so, yet obeying regardless. He stumbled and automatically began getting up again. Merlin fought a smile knowing that right now Gwaine was off telling everyone and their mother what was happening.

"You're a fool, we need to be rational with the orders. How did you expect him to use magic if he can't even stay conscious."

"You had every opportunity to stop him, but you chose not to." Steven countered spitefully. "You're at just as much fault."

Anne's gaze turned venomous and Merlin heard her speak in his mind.

'Hurt him.'

Merlin knew very little about spells meant for torture. The pages in his book had touched on them briefly, but from what he knew of them one had to feel the desire to harm the other. They had to do more than brush over the pool of vindictiveness and rage, one would have to fully submerge themselves in it.

At the order, his mind turned darker than it had been under the enchantment with the note and Arthur. He'd felt rage before, like when Nimueh had nearly killed Gaius and thought that was the furthest one could go, but there were deeper layers to these emotions than he even had begun to imagine.

Steven collapsed the second his spell was released. His mouth was captured by his power in a silent scream as he convulsed wildly. The spell grew stronger as Merlin sickly began to relish in the pain he was causing as each second slowly passed.

"Enough."

The magic sucked itself back inside of him. Even though he heard in his mind the order to stop, the feelings didn't subside immediately. He sat there with them as they clung thickly to his skin. The emotions were sticky tree sap and seemed just as hard to wash away.

Anne walked slowly to Steven and took her time as she lowered herself to his fallen frame. He twitched ever so slightly.

"Remember your place," Anne said slowly and calmly.

Steven closed his mouth and set his eyes on Merlin almost jealously. Merlin wondered then if he had been too weak to perform the spell. In the lingering effects of Anne's order, he felt a sick satisfaction that he was as powerless in this situation as he was.

"It is done," Anne stated simply. She stared at Merlin who hadn't been ordered to smile at her so he chose to glare intensely.

"We simply must move faster."