CAMELOT CORRIDOR
Merlin was making his way through the corridors towards the royal chamber, when a soft sound of sniffling, and an attempt to fight of tears, could be heard.
He stopped where he was, and in a moment that mirrored one tears previously, when Morgana was dying at his hand, he turned and peered through a slightly open door.
He saw Tanya wiping her eyes, sinking to kneel on the floor as she shakily mopped up the spattered blood on the floor, for it was the room in which Morgana had attacked Gwen.
Merlin swallowed and walked over to her slowly, sinking to crouch down opposite her.
She sniffed and wiped at her eyes, "Merlin… how is the queen?"
He did not answer.
His eyes meant he did not need to.
She swallowed and sun back to sit on her heels where she knelt, as he took the cloth gently from her and took her hands.
His thumbs rubbed over the backs of her palms soothingly.
She stared down at them before up at Merlin.
"I… I know she is the queen but… she is my friend…" She whispered tearily, "It is not fair…"
"No… no it is not fair."
Merlin's voice was rough and grave.
Tanya sniffed and Merlin swallowed, dropping her hands before wrapping his arms around her.
She did not flinch or pull away, but pressed her face to his shoulder and gripped at the back of his jacket.
The material was tight in her fists as her forehead rested against his neck, her head on his shoulder, his arms around her, both of them on their knees in the room in which Morgana had struck hours earlier.
He hushed her gently and held her.
Without thinking he rocked them slightly, soothing them both.
A storm brewed between his eyes and her tears.
Slowly, and without thinking, he moved his lips to press them to her temple.
Tanya remembered with painful clarity the distance she had fought to put between them, for the sake of the subject of Eveline's warning letter to her…
For the sake of his destiny.
"No." She gasped and pulled back sharply.
Merlin stared at her as she swallowed, wiped her eyes and avoided looking at him.
"I am sorry… I… I can't…" She scrambled upright and flew from the room.
Merlin stared after her.
It felt as though she had just let him go.
He didn't realise she had.
A storm was coming.
THE ROYAL CHAMBER
Candles and the fire place made the room flicker with a yellow light, yet Queen Guinevere remained cold and still where she was laying on her back.
Her chest shuddered up and down with shallow and rasping breaths.
The skin was cold on her hands which rested on the mattress either side of her hips.
Dark rings of injury and blood loss bruised beneath her closed eyes.
Her lips were slightly parted as her breaths left her body.
She was slipping from herself.
And all the while her husband, her king, her Arthur, kept vigil at the side of her bed.
The large chair his father had pulled up years before, when it had been him on the verge of death, and struck by the questing beast, was what he was sat on.
He had his elbows resting on his knees where he was leant slightly forwards towards the bed.
Tears were on his cheeks and his eyes were raw with fright.
He couldn't lose her.
Slowly, and with a rasping breath, he reached to gently take one of her hands.
He lifted it between his palms, wrapped safe there, to kiss her knuckles, his elbows still on his knees.
"You are going to be fine…" He choked out.
He spoke through his tears and gritted teeth; such was his desperation for what he said to be true.
"Do you hear me?" He almost hissed, for his voice shook with a sob that wrapped around his heart, "You are going to be fine… because you are strong… stronger than me… and so is our little one…"
Arthur held her still hand between his and kissed it, staring at her with wet and terrified eyes.
"You have to be alright…" His voice was low, rough, and painful, "you have just got too."
GAIUS'S CHAMBERS
Merlin trudged back into the chambers in time to see Gaius clearing away the bloodied instruments he had used to sew Gwen's wound back together.
It stretched from just below her elbow, down her side and along until it reached the bottom of her ribs.
She was ashen and still, and she was fading.
There was nothing more that Gaius could do.
The door closed heavily behind the young warlock and without looking up, Gaius sighed gravely and spoke to him firmly.
"Only your magic can save her Merlin." Gaius said firmly.
Merlin turned his head to stare at the physician before walking past him away from the door back further into the room away from the door towards his own small room between the tables, his hands on the back of his head as he paced.
"It won't work." The young warlock said firmly over his shoulder as he strode further into the room.
Gaius stopped where he was and lifted one eyebrow incredulously, "Are you doubting your powers now?"
"No, not that, me…" Merlin sigh shortly and turned to face him, "How can I use my magic with Arthur there… he will not leave her side and there is no way that I can waltz in there and perform magic with him there."
The young sorcerer wiggled his fingers to illustrate his point in frustration at feeling so powerful and yet so useless.
"He would discover me in an instant." Merlin stated.
"Not if he did not know it was you." Gaius folded his hands on front of him and gave a small knowing smile.
Merlin laughed without humour, "No… no way… it won't work…"
Gaius sighed and straightened.
Merlin stared at him as though he was missing a very basic and obvious point.
"But I used the aging spell to try and heal Uther and it didn't work… Arthur thinks I as good as killed him…"
"But Arthur's attitude to magic is changing Merlin, you know that."
"Not enough!" Merlin cried, "Magic is still outlawed… and if anything happens to Gwen… what if I can't save her…"
"You have no reason to think that you can't." Gaius stated.
There was silence for a moment as Merlin sighed shortly.
It all seemed so hopeless, although he fought to remain determined.
He knew what it would do to Arthur to lose Gwen.
All hope of Albion would die with her, for Arthur would surely lose himself.
"How do we convince Arthur to use magic, and then allow the ancient me to do it?" He asked the old physician.
Gaius smiled slightly, and Merlin knew that he had probably thought this part through already.
"We will talk to him." Gaius said with certainty, "For you know that there is nothing he would not do for her Merlin… and if there is even the slightest chance that she will live… Arthur will not be able to help himself."
THE ROYAL CHAMBERS
Merlin knocked on the door.
"Come in."
Arthur's low and grave voice greeted the young warlock as he entered the still room.
He walked slowly over to the bed, seeing Arthur sat in the chair, his head heavy against the back of it, but his eyes trained on his wife.
"How is she?" Merlin asked as he came to a stop on the other side of the bed to Arthur.
The king did not lift his eyes from his wife.
"She is so still…" His voice was low and rough, and came from a deep effort inside of him, "she is fading…"
There was silence in that moment.
Merlin swallowed and looked down, "I am sorry Arthur…"
"I would sacrifice my place on the throne… for her to see another sun rise…" Arthur murmured, sniffing and shaking his head heavily.
He swallowed painfully, "I cannot lose her…"
Merlin shifted, "If Gaius could do something, he would…"
Arthur said nothing.
The young warlock watched him carefully as he spoke to him.
"But there are limits… to what his healing can do…"
Merlin let his voice trail away, and was careful so that in that moment, when Arthur looked up at him with narrowed eyes, his own were on Gwen's pale face.
"What do you mean?" Arthur asked, his eyes narrow with a hope he dared not place.
Merlin glanced at him and shifted.
"It all depends on just exactly what the limitations of what you will do for Gwen are…"
"Merlin." Arthur snapped, "What are you talking about?"
The young warlock straightened, "You would do anything?"
"Anything." Arthur stated, his eyes flashing to his wife.
Her love had raised him from the dead…
He owed her everything that he had, all that he was.
Merlin stared at him, "Including allowing magic to be used?"
Arthur straightened for a moment.
He drew in a rough breath.
"Perhaps."