"You better not not have summoned me just for a hangover, Sir Leon." Gaius says lightly, but with some seriousness as he entered Leon's chambers.
"I'm not not hungover, I didn't even have enough wine to get drunk last night, something is wrong Gaius." Leon quickly says, trying to keep the fear and panic out of his voice, but Gaius notices and immediately turns to serious physician mode. He checks Leon's pulse, it's strong and steady.
"Can you sit up?"
Leon slowly forced his body in a sitting position, groaning from the effort. He looked a bit pale, and breathed heavily to catch his breath. Gaius looked concerned and checked his pulse again. "I think it's best if you lay back down."
Leon obeyed, and took a few minutes to catch his breath again. Gaius looked through his medicine bag and went over possible causes in his head.
"Are you in any pain?"
"My head hurt something fierce, and my chest is uncomfortable."
"Any other symptoms?"
Leon took Gaius through everything he could remember about his symptoms during the night, and the weird episodes he'd been having. By time he finished, he was out of breath again, and Gaius was deep in thought.
"What's wrong with me Gaius? Can you fix it?"
"I'm not quite sure yet Sir Leon, but I will consult my books to determine a cause and a cure. I'll put together a potion to relieve most of your symptoms, and send Merlin by with it. For today at least you are to stay in bed and consume lots of liquids, and only eat a little bit, only if you are are hungry. I'll inform the king that you aren't to attend training, and the kitchens to send you some broth." With that Gaius left, before Leon's sluggish brain could understand all of his words, and formulate a response.
Merlin dropped off a nasty tasting potion, and a maid brought some broth. Leon slowly ate the broth. He had a hard time holding the spoon at first, but as he ate he felt some strength return to him. He drank a few goblets of water, and laid down to rest. He couldn't tell if he actually fell asleep or not, but the longer he laid, the better he felt.
Eventually he decided to go for a walk around his chambers. It took some effort, and it got his heart racing and his lungs working over time, but he felt a little better afterwards.
He could faintly hear the sound of swords clashing on the training field, and he never felt so alone as he did laying there. It was rare in his life to find himself so alone. Growing up, he always had siblings, servants, tutors and trainers nearby. When he was a squire, training to be a knight, he was always with other squires or the knight training him. When he became a knight, he was always training, fighting, hunting and feasting with other knights. Even when he got injured, there was either other injured knights recovering with him, or healthy knights rallying around him. He also often had a squire or two that he was training, only recently had his latest student been knighted, and he had be to busy with Round Table business, adviser duties, and first knight duties to start training another one. All things that kept him surrounded with people. The only time he was alone was when he sleeping or doing paperwork, times he was to busy to let his thoughts wander. He never realized before how much he enjoyed the company of others. How much he didn't like being alone.
As the day went by, Leon started feeling better. And bored. That's why when his friends came to visit him, he was sitting at his desk doing paperwork, instead of laying in bed. He had also finally gotten out of the clothes he had worn to the feast, and consequently all night. He was however wearing his night clothes. He didn't often have reason to wear comfortable night clothes during the day, so he made the most of it.
His friends didn't stay long, they all had busy lives as well, but they stayed long enough for him to convince them that he wasn't terribly ill, that with a little rest and nasty tasting concoctions, he'd be back to his old self.
He didn't know that when Gaius paid a visit to the king, to inform him of Leon's reason for absence at training, Gaius strongly recommended that Leon not be assigned any patrols, or missions, and only do light training until Gaius deemed him completely healthy. The physician suspected there was something wrong with Leon's heart, and was concerned about the possibility he could keel over and die of a heart attack if he got too excited, or over did it.
Gaius poured over his books, and searched the knowledge in his mind all day. Well, as much as he could without abandoning his other patients, and he still wasn't sure exactly what was going on. He mixed up another potion for Leon to take in the evening, and gently broke the news that he wasn't allowed to do just about anything until he was well.
A few weeks later Leon was still unwell. He managed to do light duties some days, usually more paperwork than physical stuff, although they were both almost equal in difficulty, but he no longer left Camelot for patrols and missions. As a result he was rather depressed. He and Gaius had noticed the connection between eating, physical activity, and his attacks of dizziness. Gaius encouraged him to eat, malnutrition is serious, especially when the body is fighting something, but Leon was scared. He'd never admit that of course, but that incident after the feast was seared into his memory. With the combination of not eating much, and very light training, he lost weight. It wasn't overly noticeable yet, he'd had worse amounts of weight loss after difficult missions and quests, but his armour was starting to feel a tad loose, and his close friends noticed. They didn't like to see Leon depressed and losing weight, so they got permission from Gaius, and took Leon on a short hunting trip. Near enough to the city that they could return easily if need be, but far enough away to hopefully pull Leon out of his rut.
It worked quite well! At least a first. Leon had a few scares, his weakened condition made riding a horse much more difficult than usual, but he managed to score a pheasant, and was in a better mood than he had been for weeks. It's good to have friends like the knights, and warlock of the round table. Not that anyone knew of the warlock, save Lancelot and the warlock himself.
They settled around a campfire, sharing tales, trading friendly insults, and eating the fresh catch that Merlin cooked to perfection. The mood was wonderful, a night with good friends, everyone laughing and smiling. Until the outing came to a screeching halt.
Leon had had a good day, the fresh air and time with friends was wonderful. He worked up an appetite, riding and walking through the woods, and laughing. His depressed mode lifted, and by time food was being dished out around the campfire, he was too tired, and high on life to listen to that nagging feeling that said eating too much was a bad idea. He feasted. Hunger makes the best tasting food, and his friends encouraged him to eat, hoping to reverse his weight loss. It was a mistake.
It took a couple minutes to notice something was wrong. Leon wasn't overly loud and noticeable, especially when he was tired, so it wasn't until Gwaine told a particularly good joke that had everyone else laughing, that they all noticed Leon wasn't laughing. Leon wasn't doing much of anything. He sat, hugging his knees, and staring. He was staring at something beside Percival's left shoulder with unnervingly blank eyes. There was nothing there. Just a tree. Not even a particularly interesting tree. Arthur waved his hand in front of Leon's face. He didn't blink. Merlin tried speaking to him, and gently shaking him, but got no response. The knights wouldn't admit it, but Leon's stare was creepy, almost as creepy as when Elyan was possessed by the ghost of a child. His pulse strong, just a tad fast, and his breathing was so shallow it was a difficult to tell he was actually breathing.
Once they established that there was definitely something wrong, the knights made quick work of the campsite, and prepared to head for Camelot, and Gaius. They had some difficulty getting Leon on a horse. He was unnaturally stiff, and dead weight. It took the combined efforts of three knights, and two tries to get Leon on a horse, and somebody had to ride with him so they could be sure he wouldn't fall off.
He closed his eyes at some point during the ride, but didn't lose the stiffness till he was comfortably settled in his bed.
Gaius assumed that the combination of exercise, excitement, and extra food was the reason for Leon's state. The next day he told Gaius that he felt similar, but worse than the incident after the feast. It was two days before he could get out of bed without help.
His friends felt terrible, their attempt to brighten his spirits just made him feel worse. They came to apologize, and Leon forgave them, but he started to withdraw from his friends. He locked himself in his room more and more, and his visits to the training grounds dwindling until they were near nonexistent. When people came to visit, he didn't interact with them much. He often stared listlessly, sometimes because he was having an episode, but also often times because he just didn't have the physical or emotional energy to speak with those who visited him.
Weeks went by. Gaius finally figured out what was wrong. He had spoken with a travelling physician, sharing cases and knowledge as physicians do, when he mentioned Leon's case. By sheer chance, this physician had a patient decades ago with very similar symptoms. He called the illness 'intolerance of standing'. Unfortunately he knew no cure. The patient who's symptoms started decades ago as a girl, still had it. She had managed to make her symptoms lessen somewhat by eating extra salt, but she was still bedridden most days.
Months went by. Leon increased his salt intake, and felt marginally better, but he still spent most of his time in his room. On good days he did paperwork and read, and on bad days he stared at the ceiling. He rarely left the castle, and he never left the city. He feared leaving his room almost as much as he feared eating, not that he would admit it, but it was obvious. He lost a lot of weight. If you didn't know he had been a knight, you would never have guessed. He still held the title of head knight, but Lancelot had unofficially taken over nearly all of his duties.
Sir Leon, knight of Camelot, was a mere shell of his former self.
