He had to be more careful around her. Giving her the dress was supposed to be something harmless and helpful, something new for her to wear and enjoy since her old gown was falling apart. It was designed to be simple. And yet she was stunning in it. So stunning he'd had a hard time taking his eyes off of her in the days that followed. It made her happy, effected her attitude to the point that she appeared to be glowing and that light she let off…it was addictive. Soon he found himself doing the same trick with some other things just to see that glow again. He granted her a couple of pairs of shoes, an apron or two, and more dresses, each one different, each one simpler than the last, just to be safe. But he discovered it didn't matter what she wore. Simple or not, she was radiant in anything. And admitting that he had thoughts like that about someone who lived so close, after the fiascoes with his other maids, was dangerous. But at least it gave him some warning. At least he was able to recognize that he had those thoughts and come to the conclusion that the best thing to do about them…was leave.

Distance. Distance was the best thing he could do. He took refuge first in his bedroom each night, seeking a quiet place where he knew there was no chance she would disturb him. After several nights of doing nothing but spinning, he had finally sat back in his chair, and let the Seer speak to him. It was a crazy thing that little power of his. Just when he was coming to think he understood and even controlled it, everything seemed to have gone haywire with it. He couldn't get a vision of Belle to save his life, save for the one he carried in his mind of her in that blue dress. However, night after night, visions of other things, important things, came to him. The Seer wouldn't give him an answer about Belle, but she did grant him an escape. Soon he found himself going out on short trips around the Kingdom again, making deals, happily leaving Belle behind. Sometimes, when he left, he hoped that she'd run away. Either for the thrill of the hunt or to put more distance between them, he wasn't sure. All he really knew was that he enjoyed being away, he enjoyed collecting, and when he returned, she was always there waiting for him with a clean table and supper in hand. He hated to admit it, but sometimes that only made the going away even better.

She was a perfectionist. And he didn't know if he was annoyed by that, or relieved. Or if it was both. He liked to think it was annoyance that drove him to his bedroom at night, that forced him to close his eyes and focus on the Seer and the future. That was usually where he became grateful for her, because that was when he came home with something spectacular.

He needed the be alone again tonight. Though he felt like he'd only just returned from one trip, she'd worn the blue dress again tonight at dinner, and he couldn't get the image out of his head. Her eating by the fire with rosy cheeks and a book in her lap was a sight not easy to forget. So much so that when he sat down in his chair by the window and closed his eyes, that was the first image that came to mind.

Frustrated, he cleared his mind, breathed deep…and pictured the smirk on her face when he'd sat down for dinner, and she realized he was home.

Not helpful.

He bit his tongue, focused on the pain, cast his vision to the future…and found a forbidden image of Belle, laughing at something he'd said.

Irritating.

He sat up, readjusted himself in his seat, cleared his throat, and took another deep breath. This time, he wasn't going to let himself think of her. This time…

This time a vision came to him. A vision so clear that at first he thought it was a memory for he knew the place he was in well enough. Camelot. But this, this was no memory he'd ever had before, nor a memory that belonged to another Dark One. It couldn't be. The images that flashed in front of his eyes found him in the woods of Camelot, standing before Excalibur sheathed in its stone. He watched as a man with dark hair and dressed in chain mail pulled it free from its prison.

The man's name was Arthur. He knew that plain as he knew it was evening. And he was now King Arthur…but King of what? Images passed in front of his eyes.

King Arthur returning to a Kingdom that was broken, in shambles because no true King had been there for a very long time. King Arthur, down on one knee with a woman's hand between his own. Guinevere, the woman he would one day call wife and Camelot would call Queen. King Arthur before a rounded table where knights of his Kingdom sat, no one at a head, no one at a right for they were all important to him and given equal status. Or so he said, for he could see one that was more important than the others. A tall dark-skinned man sat in his chair, admiring the King and Queen, applauding and smiling at them both. King Arthur, alone in a tower, Merlin's Tower, looking through books, rummaging through potions. And then a sketch of his dagger, Merlin's own design. He was searching for it, for the missing piece of his sword. And in the background, the woman he'd married, unhappy, sitting alone, talking to the Knight who Arthur loved most.

"The dagger is only a day's ride from here. By this time tomorrow, I will hold it in my hand."

The scene changed once more, and now he saw the Queen talking with the Knight again only now he knew that it wasn't just Arthur who loved him most…but someone else as well. For as the Queen spoke in the dead of night with the same Knight, he could see something between them that he'd seen before in his visions, it was a cord. Between them was an invisible rope that neither could see, connecting the pair of them, the meaning obvious to him as it always was. The King's wife and his favorite Knight…unrequited love. Interesting.

"I'm going to find the dagger myself!" Guinevere explained to him. "I broke into Merlin's tower and took this, a magic gauntlet, it has shown me the true location of the dagger. He would never think to use it because he believes the dagger will be his strength, and this gauntlet, it leads you to a person's greatest weakness. So, I'm going to finish this damned quest and get back the man I love."

It led her to a vault, one that Nimue had crafted for herself, the first vault. It was the one that he'd appeared out of once. Guinevere and Lancelot gained access to it. Inside there was a rush of darkness. Then a doorway made of dark wood and iron. And then the dagger sitting upon a gray pedestal with black tentacles keeping it off the ground.

He opened his eyes with a gasp, his heart racing, his mind, for once, on something other than Belle. No, now his mind was on the Seer, her words were ringing loud and true in his mind.

"The future is a puzzle with many pieces to be sorted. In time, you will learn to separate what can be, from what will be."

Yes. Sometimes he was better at that skill than he was at other times. But this particular vision would have been the best to practice on for he knew that some of what he'd seen had come to pass and some was the future. The vault, the Queen and the Knight going after the dagger, even Arthur's proposed trip to find the dagger, he was very confident that all that was to take place in the future. The very near future! It was disturbing. His dagger in a place that it shouldn't be, at risk…that was something he couldn't allow, something that he would have to fix.

It may have been disturbing, but there was something far more shocking that he'd seen in that vision, something he hadn't been prepared for. It was at the root of the entire vision. Excalibur was no longer in its stone. And he needed to get to Camelot.

But he wasn't about to do it half-assed, especially not with the dagger at stake.

He spent the night and most of the next day in preparation, staring into his cauldron, looking into the past through his crystal ball, identifying key players, and how they interacted. Camelot was not the Kingdom it had been in Merlin's time. Far from it. But it also wasn't a Kingdom that was entirely broken either. And from what he learned that wasn't Arthur's doing, but his wife's. In every image he'd seen of the pair that was the common thread. While Arthur was in Merlin's Tower researching, Guinevere was out among the people, planting seeds. While Arthur was obsessing over the missing tip to his sword, Guinevere was overseeing the building of homes. As Arthur poured over books and maps and writings that he would kill to get his hands on, Guinevere kept the Kingdom together, she oversaw judgments on criminals, watched training exercises and participated with their small army. She even attended meetings with the knights, including Lancelot.

Though Arthur was King, it was clear his obsession for uniting the dagger and the sword had separated him from the Kingdom he was to care for and left his Queen in charge. Ordinarily, he wouldn't have a problem with that, given the remarkable job that she was doing. But Arthur was after the dagger, and his vision showed Guinevere going after it for him because she was tired of his hunting. He had no doubt that if she got it, she'd hand it right over to Arthur, and that was not a man he wanted to have his dearest possession.

So, that day, in addition to making sure the dagger was in his boot every other second, he also turned to the Chronicles. He checked through Nimue's scattered writings to learn all he could about the inner workings of the vaults he'd never needed to personally investigate. In his mind, that vault was where everything was meant to come together. That was where he would stop Guinevere and her Knight in shining armor. It felt meant to be.

For a few brief moments, he thought he might go off early and simply leave Belle behind to discover that he was gone. It was the Queen's Birthday tonight and he wanted to investigate the swordless stone and the vault. But he hadn't done something like that to Belle yet, and when he tried to do it, he found he couldn't. That was how he found himself cursing under his breath as he walked down to the kitchen's where Belle was bound to be working. He had to prepare himself for visits like these. Remind himself not to be too comfortable or inviting, certainly not to take too much interest. And, for the sake of all the Dark One's who had come before him, not to let himself stare at her! Get in, get it done, get out, that was the best way to deal with his maid.

"I'm off for a few days, dearie!" he announced sneaking up behind her. "Try not to drown in dust while I'm gone!"

She jumped when he entered, her back had been to him. It appeared she'd been stirring something over the fire that sloshed and smelled so good he was tempted to stay for dinner. If he had to guess, it was soup. There was a cookbook laying out on the table, if he could angle himself just right, he might be able to see what she was making.

"Where to this time?" she asked, setting a ladle aside before wiping her hands on an apron he'd left out for her. He tried to remain focused on the ladle and not the object tied about her waist. Ladle meant soup. Soup meant warm. Warm meant comfortable. Suddenly the only place he really wanted to be was upstairs eating with her again.

But that wasn't going to happen because he had a dagger to protect. And that took precedence over her cooking. It took precedence over everything.

"Ever heard of a quaint little Kingdom called…Camelot?" he answered.

Of course, she had. Her eyes widened the instant that he mentioned the name. For someone who had been trained to be a Queen, he would have thought she'd learn how to bluff a little bit better.

"Yes…yes, of course! Camelot is…"

"Don't get your hopes up! You're not coming," he snapped before she could come up with a word to describe it. He hadn't needed her response, but it did tell him one important thing. While he'd been busy making arrangements to get back to Baelfire, Camelot had been making a name for itself, which meant that Arthur hadn't pulled Excalibur from the stone yesterday. Nimue would be very disappointed, but that would only have been a problem if he cared what she thought. All he wanted was to keep the dagger safe so he could get back to his son.

"When should I expect you back?" she asked with a knowing smirk. It drove him mad. "Knowing smirks" suggested there was something to be known, and he couldn't figure out what she knew. What was there to know? There was no reason for a smile like that, not now.

"When I get back!" he responded with a laugh of his own. "Knowing smirks" irritated him. Giving riddles and half-answers irritated her. Fair was fair.

Her smirk disappeared as she sighed and glanced over at whatever she had cooking over the fire. "Well…I made dinner. When will you be leaving?"

It was tempting to tell her after dinner. It was tempting to go and sit upstairs with her one last time and watch her eat and then depart to take care of business. It was tempting. And that was why he waved his hands in the air, let loose a laugh, and stated "now!" before allowing himself to be taken up in a cloud of magic.

This chapter ushers us into the Camelot chapters. They were fun because they were an interesting combination of a season 3 episode and a season 5 episode. The story flows fairly well together with few issues. Up next, we get to see the return of a fan favorite!

Thank you Grace5231973, Fox24, and Jennifer Baratta for your reviews on the last chapter. Glad you enjoyed all that progress. As you can see here not only are we entering into Camelot, but we're also entering into a new phase with Rumple that I like to call "Boi, you got it bad!" I think even he realizes he's in that phase, he's just trying hard not to admit it. Peace and Happy Reading!