TANYA'S HOUSE
Stood beside her house in its shadow, Tanya ripped the letter Eveline had once written to her, months ago, from her skirt, remembering having torn it from the draw where she had shoved it all that time past.
She gritted her teeth through her tears and shaking hands and read the front hurriedly, "Tanya, Open this when you feel the time is right. Eveline."
Tanya swallowed and ripped open the letter.
She read and her heart broke.
Tears dripped down her face and she sunk to her knees as they shook, her hands covering her face.
Eveline's written words made her heart break.
I am writing you to advise you on your path, which I see most clearly… and also, tell you of your role in Merlin's future, or rather, the role you do not play.
Tanya choked out a sob and shoved the letter into the folds of her skirt.
GWEN'S DAY CHAMBERS
Outside the evening sky was crimson.
The fire burned brightly in the fire place.
It helped the flickering candles fill the room with the warm loving glow that lingered on the skin of the woman sat at the desk, inking a message onto a piece of parchment.
Gwen's personal 'day' chambers were devoid of the armour on the walls that even hung in the shared royal chamber.
It made the room far for feminine, and was a constant reminder to Gwen that it had been the room that the more traditional nobles had expected her to sleep in, when she was not in the kings bed upon his request.
It was also the room that she would be expected to live out her pregnancy and confinement in away from the king, for a pregnancy was not something he was expected to share with her.
She swallowed and signed her name at the bottom of the letter, folding it and lifting the small well of ink to pour it onto the parchment.
She blew on it for a moment before stamping her signet ring through it firmly.
Her eyes fluttered closed for a moment and she sighed.
A knock came upon the door.
She looked up, "Come."
The door opened and a young serving boy entered.
She could barely see him around the large vase of flowers he carried carefully.
Gwen sighed and stood as he placed them on the long table that dominated one end of the room.
"These are from the king my lady."
"Of course they are." She sighed and looked down at the parchment on her desk.
She swallowed and lifted it, standing and walking towards the young boy.
"I would like you to give this to Sir Elyan and ask him to find a messenger to deliver it to Queen Annis of Carleon."
"Of course." The young boy narrowed his eyes slightly in confusion, but knew better than to ask any questions.
Gwen handed it to him and he bowed, before rushing from the room and closing it behind him.
She sighed and turned back to the flowers lifting one hand to touch the petals of the lilies delicately.
Gwen swallowed and sighed, lifting one hand to cover her eyes at how heartbroken she felt.
TANYA'S HOUSE
Tanya made sure to close the door loudly when she returned.
She wiped at her eyes and set the bucket of water down by the door.
She swallowed and tried to stop her hands from shaking as she crossed the room and into the smaller one that her father was in.
Merlin had stayed at his side as he had promised, as she knew he would.
She sniffed and barely cast him a glance.
She couldn't look at him.
"Thank you Merlin… you can go…" She whispered.
Her father stirred; his breathing shallow and raspy.
Merlin stared at her in shock.
He was seeing her for the first time.
"Are you sure…"
"The king and queen need someone to attend to their needs." She stated.
She wouldn't swallow, and she would not cry over him.
"I am sure that they don't need me to attend to their needs…" Merlin muttered and looked at her.
She did not look at him.
She didn't smile in the way she normally did whenever he spoke in such a way.
She was pale.
He swallowed and leant close.
"Tanya…"
His hand hovered at her shoulder but she flinched away, her hands tightening around the one of her fathers that she held.
"Please just go." She whispered, "Thank you for sitting with him."
Merlin pulled back and straightened.
It should not have hurt the way it did.
He swallowed and stood, nodding his head and walking from the room.
He walked from the head.
His head spun and his heart shook from all he had found out.
Tanya couldn't be a druid, or couldn't have been a druid… could she?
Surely he would have known…
He shook his head and let the door close behind him.
The second it closed Tanya turned her eyes on her father.
His breathing was shallow and irregular.
"Why did you tell him?" She whispered, although it was more of a hiss through her tears.
His face stirred and his eyes opened slightly and he smiled an impossibly small amount.
"I should have known you would have been listening…"
"Why?" She demanded quietly.
"He needed to know." He whispered, for he had very few breaths left in him.
"No he didn't." She hissed as tears fell down her face, "We had a life where I was normal, for years we have not spoken of it…"
"But you aren't normal." He breathed almost silently, "Although I may be biased… for you have always been special to me."
She sniffed and swallowed.
"I am so proud of you…" Henry croaked.
His hand loosened around hers.
His eyes closed.
In the same moment that the breath left his body Tanya felt her heart break.
He was gone.
THE ROYAL CHAMBERS
Arthur was sat at his desk fiddling with a quill, tapping it on the table, staring at the blank piece of parchment before him.
The room was filled with candles and the flames of the fire glowed, but he knew that he would get very little, if in fact no sleep that night.
A soft knock on the door made his eyes snap up.
"Yes?"
The door opened and a familiar figure stepped in.
Her skirt swished around her and he immediately stood upright.
"Guinevere…"
She walked towards him, face blank, with her hands folded in front of her.
He walked towards her, eyes wide and pleading for forgiveness.
"I got your flowers, thank you." She inclined her head slightly, staring up at him with a squirming heart, "They are beautiful…"
"Oh… oh, it is alight. I cannot deny you anything, you know that." He muttered, tapping his fingers on the top of the long wooden table that they stood beside between it and the fire.
She looked down at her hands briefly.
"I have given Elyan a letter from em to Queen Annis… he has already dispatched it with a messenger." She told him quietly.
Arthur stared down at her, "Annis?"
She nodded, not looking at him.
Her heart was breaking.
"I… I am writing to tell her of my arrival in a few days… where I will stay with her until…"
"You are leaving?" Arthur gasped, staring down at her.
She swallowed and stared at him, "Arthur… I need time… time to think all that has happened through… Eveline dying, you wanting to give up your life… and… and the fact that we still haven't conceived… it has all just been too much…"
"You can't leave." He gasped again, "You can't, you are my wife…"
"I won't be gone forever Arthur… I just need time." She pressed.
"I know you hate me for what I was going to do, the choice I made… putting Camelot above everything, but I did it for you…"
"You are the king and I know you have to put the kingdom and its safety before me…" She swallowed thickly.
"But I don't want to." He grabbed the tops of her arms, "Please Guinevere…"
"I just… I can't live with it." She whispered.
Her words made him fall silent.
He stared at her with wide and teary eyes.
She drew in a stuttering breath, "I cannot look on you, and think about… all that has happened… I just… I need time… please Arthur…"
His hands were shaking against her shoulders.
She swallowed and took his wrists in her hands, pulling his hands away from her body.
"I leave for Carleon in the morning." She stated roughly, her eyes sore with tears she would not let fall.
Arthur was rooted to the spot by his heavy heart as she turned and swept to the door, letting it close silently behind her.
The sound snapped in Arthur's head and he lifted his hands to his hair, gripping at it as he should have held onto her.
Now she had slipped through his fingers.
GWEN'S DAY CHAMBERS
Gwen was stood at the side of the bed, folding her dresses into a travelling trunk which sat on the mattress on her side of the bed, when someone knocked at the door and entered without her calling.
She glanced up with red rimmed eyes to see Gaius leave the door slightly open behind him and walk towards her.
"Gaius." She swallowed and wiped at her eyes, turning to lift another dress from her wardrobe.
"Forgive me; I have much to get packed before…"
"I heard about you choosing to leave Camelot to stay with Queen Annis." He stated sadly.
Gwen sniffed slightly and shakily folded the dress over her arm, "It is for the best, I just need time…"
"Should you really be travelling?" The old physician walked closer, his hands folded in front of himself gravely.
Gwen stiffened and glanced at him, "What do you mean?"
"You know what I mean." Gaius said sternly, as a parent would, "I take it that you have not told Arthur…"
"There is nothing to tell him." She pushed her hair away from her face and put the dress in the trunk.
"Gwen." Gaius sighed shortly.
She drew in a stuttering breath at the pain in her heart and braced her hands either side of the travelling trunk, her back muscles rippling and her eyes screwing up shut.
Gaius walked slightly closer, "I have treated you since you were but a girl my lady… and since you were a woman…"
Gwen sniffed, "It is true then."
Her voice was almost silent and shaking.
Gaius sighed and walked to rest a hand on the base of her spine where she remained braced over the trunk on the mattress.
"Have you seen Fira from the lower town?" He asked gently.
Gwen nodded, drawing in rasping breaths as she fought not to cry.
Gaius watched her carefully, "And what did she say?"
"I can't tell him…" Gwen shook her head as tears fell down her face, "How can I… after all he was going to do… if he had only waited, then he would have known as I do that…"
Gaius sighed in understanding, "So that is why you are leaving, because…"
"After all that has happened these last few days it… this… it is just too much." Her voice cracked painfully and she looked up at him with frightened eyes.
"Running away to Annis's is not going to change what will happen… Arthur needs to be told Gwen, before you leave." Gaius stated.
Gwen looked down at herself and folded her hands over her belly, sobbing and lifting them to then cover her face.
Gaius wrapped his arms around her and she tucked her head under his chin, sobbing into his shoulder.
"I just… it is all too much…" She cried quietly.
"I know…" Gaius hushed her gently, rubbing her back.
Outside in the corridor, Arthur stopped walking at the sound of her tears.
HE stopped in the doorway that Gaius had left open to stare, heartbroken, at his wife being comforted in Gaius's arms.
He swallowed and watched as Gaius kissed her hair gently in a father's embrace.
Arthur closed his eyes bitterly at the pain in his heart and turned to stride further down the corridor.