A/N- And so, the story continues!

"Where once was light

Now darkness falls

Where once was love

Love is no more" – Gollum's song

He had taken too long with the note. Merlin ran back through the belly of the castle like a cat, and was just about to start running up the stairs, when suddenly he tripped and fell hard onto his side. Wind knocked from him, it took the warlock a moment to regain his balance. A moment, which was just long enough for Tarrian to arrive from around the corner.

"Hey, boy."

Merlin looked at him with an eyebrow raised - "Boy?"

Tarrian smiled and pulled Merlin up from the ground, then looked suspiciously at the crude wooden cup he held.

"Interestin' how you haven't spilled any water from that cup. Almost interestin' enough to make a man wonder what's really inside that cup?"

Merlin stared at the burly guard, clutching the cup as if it would protect him. Tarrian looked behind them, then stepped closer.

"If you're sneakin' notes around, what you really wanna do is put a little bit of water in there, and the note will float on the surface. That way, if you trip or the cup wobbles, you get a nice splashing sound." He poured a little water into the cup from the flask on his belt, and the note quickly rose to the surface. Tarrian smiled, and looked down at Merlin's confused face. "Not all the guards blindly turned to Morgana for leadership when she took over the castle, you know."

His voice had lost its slow-but-menacing-guard quality, and had now become quick and sharp. "In fact, there are many people on your side, young warlock."

Merlin's heart quickened at the last two words.

"We will be looking out for you. You are not alone." With that, Tarrian quickly strode off back to his guard post. The whole exchange had taken little over a minute, but to Merlin it had changed everything.

I'm not alone?

How do I know I can trust him?

Of course you can, stupid boy. You've known him for years.

He can help me! He can help rescue Arthur!

Not wasting any more time thinking, he set off again down the moonlit corridor.

By the time he made it back to the hall ten minutes had passed, double what it usually took him. Morgana would surely be suspicious.

"Emrys! Finally. It took you long enough. Quickly, give the brave Sir Gwaine his drink and get out of the way." Morgana was standing next to her second in command, Ignitrus. He was a tall thin man with dark hair, which he had a habit of running his fingers through when he was stressed. He was doing it now. He leaned over to murmur something into Morgana's ear and she frowned, looking in the direction of the door.

Merlin knelt down next to Gwaine and handed him the water. Spotting the note, Gwaine looked up at his friend. Understanding flashed in his eyes and he quickly took the cup into his hand and drank the water. Merlin saw his jaw move slightly as he took the note into his mouth and stored it under his tongue.

It had been a long day for Gwaine. He stumbled back to his cell with a guard poking a sword in his back all the way, but on this occasion, he couldn't turn around and sting him with a biting rebuke. Why did the guards always consider it necessary to poke him with a sword then throw him into the cell? There was nothing wrong with being polite.

Arthur was lying on the bunk and Gwen sitting beside him stroking his forehead.

"I don't see why I always have to stay here! I'm strong enough to fight!"

"Of course you are, my love. But why not wait a few more days? The knight can manage on their own – can't you?" Gwen looked up with an expression that said say yes, or feel my wrath.

The knights all quickly nodded.

Percival looked up at the sound of the cell door being unlocked. "Gwaine, you're back! How was it? Oh, you're bleeding – not too serious I hope?"

Gwaine shrugged, then looked around to check that the guards had locked the door and left. One of the problems with bars instead of a door was their conversation could be heard by less welcome listeners. He turned back and pulled the note out from the back of his mouth.

"Ugh Gwaine, what's that?! Somebody knock your tooth out?" Gwaine simply smiled at Leon and held up the note.

"This, my friend, is evidence of Merlin's genius."

Everyone in the cell crowded around to try to see the small piece of parchment, blocking out all the light. After much exasperated struggling, Gwaine surrendered the note to Gaius to read.

The old physician cleared his throat and unrolled the note.

"It's just random letters" Gaius said, looking confused. "What could it possibly mean?"

Everyone looked expectantly at him, and he laughed, exclaiming "I have absolutely no idea!"

Arthur sat up from the bunk and looked at them, realisation dawning on his face.

"But I think I do. It's called Atbash Cipher. I told him about it once, but I didn't think he was actually listening. It's a simple substitution cipher - you basically take the alphabet and fold it in half. I leant it from a foreign merchant who sailed here to talk to my father when I was a boy. I need somewhere to write it down..."

After a few minutes, Arthur had scratched the key to decoding the message into a patch of dust on the floor. He stood up, and taking the note from Gaius, he began to painstakingly decode it.

"Right." Arthur said as he finished, with a breath of relief. "Just as I thought. It reads:

I have a plan to kill Morgana. I will contact you again this way when the time is right. The signal will be three owl hoots. Stay strong, my friends."

I'm going to start updating weekly, but I had a surge of inspiration today and just had to write it down! I have a general idea where this is going, but it will probably change. The Atbash cipher is real, so if you're interested you can find out more on Wikipedia. Don't forget, every review, follow or favourite makes me do a little dance of joy! (Really, my family now thinks I'm insane as I randomly jump up and dance)