Summary:

Characters in this prompt: Gwynevere Queen of Lothric/Oceiros the consumed king

Gwynevere visits her husband in his solitary confinement after she forcefully tries to reverse his dragon transformation.

(Author's note: This is set in an AU in which Oceiros slowly transforms in his dragon state, but Gwynevere gets note of it and tries to reverse the process. It is the AU of my requester, but I have put my own spin and headcanons on these characters as usual. I hope you enjoy.)

He had found true enlightenment.

When Oceiros had stumbled upon these books, describing an ancient magic based on crystals, he instantly knew he had found something great. He had moved these books in his garden, spending almost every waking hour devouring their content until he felt that even this knowledge wasn't enough anymore.

These books, all carried together by a dragon from an age long ago, weren't enough. He felt that he was so close to actually get it, to understand what it was about, but at the same vein it slipped through his fingers. That was when he found the ancient texts about the Path of the Dragon. So Oceiros decided to become one.

The transformation was a lot slower than he had expected though. It started out with some scales slowly growing in, a very itchy experience. And so it didn't take Gwynevere long to find out what he was up to.

And instead of helping him finding true enlightenment, she was horrified. She didn't understand at all. She didn't want to see him becoming a dragon, so she forcefully intervened and tried to reverse the transformation. And it was after one of this painful treatments, that Oceiros had been chained into his room, his body covered with bandages where the growing in scales had been ripped out.

Oceiros felt weak and was shivering, he only wanted her to understand. He was so close to find enlightenment, he could be such a better king, to help them all, maybe even ending the constant binding of the flame. Instead, he was chained into his room in the dungeon, forcefully stripped from the power he searched out. He wasn't even allowed to see his own children.

The door opened and Oceiros head perked up. It was too early for another treatment, but Gwynevere only sat down on his bed.

"Have you finally understood that what you are doing is wrong?", she asked.

"Gwynevere, I am so close to find it. I know it. Why do you take it away from me?", Oceiros hissed as an answer.

"Oceiros, please, I need you to understand.", Gwynevere pleaded. "You are slipping away from my, from our grasps. Don't you think I have seen enough suffering to know when something is serious?"

Oceiros stayed silent, just staring at her. Then he slowly lifted his arm, intending to reach out to her, but it dropped back on the blankets, blood seeping through it. Gwynevere shot the arm a glance.

"Oh, the wounds started to bleed again. I will get some fresh bandages, just wait for me, my love."

On her way to the needed supplies, Gwynevere's thoughts raced in her head. It was true, she had seen a lot of suffering already. Starting with the fall of Anor Londo and she had to admit, she had copped out from it. After her father had went to bind the flame and never returned, Gwynevere had ruled as the princess of sunlight for a while before taken the first marriage offer and left to marry a god of flame and rule with him over his realm. It still hurt her a bit that all of the knights of Gwyn had chosen to stay behind in Anor Londo, at least a few of the silver knights had followed, but they had been given new armour and names, fitting for the kingdom of flames they now lived in.

But this kingdom couldn't hold itself up. And once again Gwynevere witnessed a downfall. She never had received children from her husband, so leaving this place was an easy decision. Eventually she made her way back to what once had been her home country, to see that Gwyndolin had took over Anor Londo. Luckily for her, the kingdom of Lothric, that had been built on the ruins of Lordran, already had a king in search of a wife. And while her reasons may have been a bit selfish at first, the king turned out to be really resonating with her and the both of them fell into a pure and mutual love with each other.

So seeing him like this... it was destroying her. She realized that she had stand before the door for a while now, one hand on her stomach. She knew she was pregnant with their third child. She hadn't told anyone but the old Emma about this for now, Gwynevere felt like the high priestess was the only one she could trust about this in the current state of the kingdom. Everyone else was starting to fall out of her grasp, her husband trying to turn into a dragon, her sons were spending more and more time with the Pontiff Sulyvahn, a man she held a deep mistrust for. She really needed her husband to be there for her in this dire times.

She finally had opened the door and got the bandages she needed. On her way back she really wished her brother was here. Not Gwyndolin, they were at good terms and they were busy ruling over Anor Londo, which they apparently had rebuild from scratch after even the last knight of Gwyn had left. It was Gwynfor who she longed for. He had been so fascinated by dragons that he gave up everything to be with them. She didn't had a clue what she was doing, she was just trying to reverse Oceiros transformation by trying out different things based on her knowledge about dragons. But... maybe it was better that Gwynfor wasn't here, he may have actually encouraged Oceiros into completing the path of the dragon.

Gwynevere finally re-entered Oceiros' room. The king shifted his gaze to her, saying: "Gw.. Gwynevere, you were gone for so long."

"I am sorry, I didn't want to make you worry.", Gwynevere said and inspected the bandage that had bled through. She cringed by looking at it, the bandages were soaked in red and needed to get changed quickly. She silently got to work, removing the drenched bandage and taking a look at the wound the scales had left.

"You know, Osi.", she said, wiping away the blood from the wound. "My father had a dragon as one of his closest consultants. He was called Seath. He betrayed his race. He did it because he lacked something they had."

"What are you trying to say..?", Oceiros asked.

"The 'knowledge' you talked about, the things that make you want to walk the path of the dragon. They sound very similar to Seath's research." She sighed. "And Seath didn't gain anything from it. My brother told me that he had gone completely mad and had to be put out of his misery."

She finished applying the bandages and the lowered her head, so that she could look into Oceiros eyes: "Please don't do this. The kingdom needs you. Our sons need you. I need you. We don't need a man that has got mad..." A tear formed in her eye.

"Oh, Gwynevere...", Oceiros said. "I.. I am sorry, I didn't knew how you feel. What have I done? My.. our sons. Lorian, Lothric. Where are they? Can I see them?"

Gwynevere shook her head: "I am afraid I can't allow them to see you in this state by now. But maybe there is another thing I can do for you? Speak your wish."

"Then.. let me just lay my head on your lap..." Gwynevere could hear the disappointment in his voice, but she knew it was too early for Oceiros to see his sons. He had completely neglected both of them during his "studies" and they had gotten close to that awful priest, Sulyvahn. She really hoped that he would snap out of it soon and help her winning their sons back and prevent the kingdom from being taken over.

Gwynevere slid to the site and made her lap available for Oceiros to lay his head in. As a goddess of bounty and fertility her body was quite matching to this title and she had a very comfortable lap to offer. Oceiros laid her head into it and she stroked his hair, having an eye on the bandages, hoping that no other wound would bleed through.

They stayed in comfortable silence for a while until Oceiros shifted more on her stomach. She did had an uncomplicated pregnancy so far, but this sudden weight made her feel slightly nauseous.

"Osi, please, don't shift your weight on my stomach...", she whispered.

Oceiros raised his head, looking at her with worried eyes. "My love, is something wrong? Are you sick? Or hurt?"

There he was, bandaged from the treatment she had put him through, still weak and he was worrying about her. "I am not sick.", she said. "And I am not hurt either... It is... something else..."

A small sigh escaped her lips. "I know I should have told you this, but... I wanted to stay quiet about it for now. There is barely anyone that knows yet. I am carrying another child."

Oceiros' eyes first showed signs of confusion, then they lit up and he pulled himself up as much as the chains allowed him to give her a gently hug.

"Oh, my love, hearing this makes me so happy.", he said. "This time... this time we won't do anything wrong. We will raise them with all the love and care we can give."

"And we will surely get Lothric and Lorian back from this accursed priest.", Gwynevere said, returning the hug. "But you know... doing this would be so much easier when you are not a dragon." She released him and he sank bed onto the bed. "So please, think about it. For me, for our sons, for our unborn child."

Oceiros eyes locked to hers. "I want to, I really want to. But, enlightenment. I am so close to it. I can't. Please don't take this away from me."

Gwynevere just stared at him with a sad look. She had been so close. So close to snap it out of him. But at least, it had been some progress.

"I think you should try and get some sleep now, my dear.", she said. "I will stay with you until you have calmed down."

Oceiros laid his head back down in her lap again, carefully avoiding to upset her stomach. Gwynevere stroked his hair until she could hear the regular breathing of him having fallen asleep. She sighed, then slowly stood up, getting a blanket for her husband and headed for the door.

At least she had gathered enough strength to face another day defending her kingdom from the corruption within.

(Author's note: Requested by talesofmetalandmagic on tumblr)