In Merlin's tower the next day, they were all looking at the books, trying to figure out how to free Merlin. There had to be something in one of Merlin's old spell books that gave the answer.

Regina sighed deeply. "Look, if we are ever going to free Merlin, we need witchbane," she said.

"Yeah, but the labels are all faded," Belle said as she turned around after looking at an old wooden bookshelf that had different bottles of potions on them. She didn't know how long they had been sitting there, but seeing as most of the objects in the room had a thick layer of dust covering them, she guessed that it must have been a while.

"Look," Emma said. "Let's forget the decloaking potion. It's not a glamour anyway."

"Are you sure?" Regina asked Emma.

Mary Margaret looked up from the book that she had been reading. "If I'm reading this right, the tree could actually be him transfigured, right?"

"We could find out with a sample," Belle suggested.

"And what would that do?" the Doctor asked. "Snapping a leaf or a twig of that tree might actually be Merlin's finger. Or something else. You can't go around snapping twigs off trees without knowing more about them first."

"Maybe I could wiggle my nose and get him out of the tree?" Emma suggested, thinking back to an old show she watched when she was younger.

"No," Regina answered. "Your magic is dark now. It's not worth it. So I will keep pretending to be the Saviour destined to free Merlin. And then we can do this together."

"Regina's right, Emma," David told his daughter just as the door opened and King Arthur entered the room.

He looked at everyone there. "I heard someone say that a woman is right. But, of course, that's always a safe assumption, isn't it?" King Arthur asked before taking a look at Regina. "How are you progressing, Madam Saviour?"

Regina looked at King Arthur. "Um… progress. Slow but sure."

"It's marvellous having Merlin's books to work with," Belle stated. "It's like talking with the man himself."

Hearing what Belle had said made Mary Margaret think of an idea. However, she didn't know how they would ever accomplish such a task. "What if we could talk to him?"

Emma took a glance over at her mother. "What?" she asked.

"Yes," Regina said with a nod. "You are occasionally a genius."

"And with we talked with Merlin, then he could tell us how to free him," the Doctor added. Then he smiled. "I like this plan already."

Regina reached for a book beside her. She then began to flip through the pages until she came to what she was looking for. A picture of a toadstool. She held it up for everyone to see. However, not everyone seemed impressed by the picture.

"A mushroom?" David asked as he furrowed his brows.

"Toadstool, actually," Regina corrected, placing the book down against the wooden bench again. "Deadly poisonous, but it is instrumental in communicating across barriers. Even through spells. Says here that it's called the Crimson Crown." Then, reaching across the bench for a piece of paper and pen, Regina drew a giant question mark on the paper and placed it in the book to mark the page so she could find it quickly again.

"Yes," King Arthur mused. "I know this name. It's rumoured to grow in Brocéliande, the Forest of Eternal Night. Its existence is the stuff of legend, though. Almost certainly fiction."

"Legends are real," the Doctor pointed out. "There's always truth to the legends."

David nodded. "How far is it?"

"A half day's ride," King Arthur answered. "But if it is there, it'll be protected by magical forces."

Sensing what David was thinking, Mary Margaret shook her head. "No, David. Wait until we know more."

"It's not like I'm needed here," David said, handing Mary Margaret Neal. "And it's a chance. I'm taking it."

However, David didn't leave alone. The Doctor had decided to go with David. And they were both walking through the courtyard when King Arthur came chasing after them.

"Hold!"

The Doctor and David stopped and turned around. "Your majesty, don't try to talk us out of this," David said.

King Arthur shook his head. "I wouldn't dream of it," he said. "I just wanted to propose, if it's quite alright with the both of you, that I come along and lend aid? Come with me, and we can get ourselves outfitted. And then we can quest together as brothers."

The Doctor met David and King Arthur in the round table room after he had summoned his TARDIS. If they were to go on a quest, they needed to be prepared. And what better way than to bring the TARDIS along with them?

The Doctor looked up at the blue exterior of his ship just as King Arthur and David entered.

"What is that thing?" King Arthur asked, his gaze finding the TARDIS.

The Doctor turned around. "It's not a thing. She's a ship. My ship. My TARDIS," he snapped. "And she is how we will find the Crimson Crown. I always come prepared."

"Then that is something we have in common, Doctor," King Arthur said as he turned to a wall behind the table and pushed aside a hidden door – revealing his selection of weaponry.

"Wow," was all David said in reply as he walked over to King Arthur. He took a sword from the wall before handing one to the Doctor.

"No," the Doctor said with a shake of his head. "I still have the sword Regina gave me back on Neverland."

Placing the sword back, David looked at the round table, noticing that one of the chairs had no sigil. "Was that Percival's chair?" he asked, thinking back to the previous night he killed him.

"Yes," King Arthur replied. "But no need for apologies. A leader does what needs to be done. I'll find a man worthy of filling that seat." He then walked around the table to stand behind the tallest chair. "This is the one that will stand empty forever."

"I assume that was your chair," David said. "It's suitable for a king."

King Arthur shook his head. "No. No, no, no. Mine is no different from the others in the same way the table is round. So many at our order are kings and princes in their realms.

"Nonetheless, they are happy to sit shoulder-to-shoulder with the rest of their knights. No one of us above the other, except this one." King Arthur gestured to the tall seat again. "This is the Siege Perilous. Reserved for the knight with the purest heart, the one destined to carry out the most sacred quests. It belonged to a man I trusted more than a brother, but he betrayed me. It's been vacant since."

"Lancelot," the Doctor stated.

King Arthur looked up. "Oh, you've heard of him."

"Oh, everyone's heard of you," the Doctor replied. "Stories that give everyone hope."

"And one of the greatest romances of all time," David added. "Your love for Guinevere was ripped away by your best friend, Lancelot. It's a tragic story that clearly had a happy ending. The two of you seem like all that's in the past now."

"Yes. Lancelot was a good man," King Arthur said. "The situation was difficult."

"I understand. Actually, Snow … Mary Margaret and I, we met him."

"You did? How is he?"

"I'm sorry to tell you this, but we learned he died. I'm sorry."

King Arthur was silent for a moment. "Lancelot failed to resist temptation, but he was a good knight. He tortured himself for his sins far more than I would have done. I wished him happiness. Just not with my wife."

The room was silent until the door opened, and a page entered, carrying a large trunk and placing it on the table. King Arthur looked at it and approached the truck, opening it slowly. "This is our reliquary, containing sacred and magical items our knights' recovered." He pulled out a burning torch and held it up for the others to see.

"I've never seen magic like that," David stated.

"It's the Unquenchable Flame. Said to be part of the burning bush itself. This will light our path," King Arthur said as the Doctor approached him and ripped it from his hands., and he headed for the TARDIS. "But it is not yours."

The Doctor turned around. "You said that the Flame will light our way," the Time Lord said. "I'm only helping to take us where we need to go." Then, turning back to the TARDIS, he unlocked the doors and went inside. Approaching the console, he placed the torch into a holder attached to one of the monitors before watching as King Arthur entered the TARDIS. David was close behind, and he shut the doors behind them.

"What is this place?" King Arthur asked, his gaze moving around the room.

"This is the TARDIS," the Doctor stated. "My TARDIS."

"Is it magic?"

The Doctor shook his head. "No. It's dimensional engineering," he said as he began typing something into the console. Then he flipped the materialisation lever, and the room filled with the sounds of the engines.

"I'll take your word for it," King Arthur said as he took everything in.

"I was the same when I first saw it," David said. "You never really do get used to it."

King Arthur nodded just as the engines stopped. He turned to look at the Doctor, who grabbed the torch from the monitor.

"We're here," the Doctor said, and he opened the doors, looking out towards a dark black lake. And in the middle was an island. He moved to the side and stood in front of a wooden bridge floating on the lake's water.

David exited first, followed by King Arthur. He looked around. "Is it night?"

The Doctor shook his head. "Only a few minutes has passed when we left Camelot. It's still morning."

"You weren't kidding about eternal night. I'm glad we have a torch," David said, taking out an eyeglass and using it to look at the island. Through it, he could see one lone toadstool growing on a rock. "So it is real," he said with delight. "The Crimson Crown." David stepped onto the wooden bridge, which began to sink underwater. "It'll never take all three of us. I'll go."

"We'll wait here," the Doctor said. "Take small movements."

"Let the torch be your beacon back," King Arthur told him.

David nodded. "Thank you," he said, slowly moving along the wooden bridge. However, halfway along, there was a small gap. Looking at the gap, David decided to jump over it, but he fell. He did manage to pick himself up again and began to move along the bridge again. However, he didn't see that scattered along the water, there were pieces of armour floating from long, forgotten knights. Knights that didn't make the journey home.

Reaching the island in the middle of the lake, David stared at the Crimson Crown. Then, he took out a small dagger and cut it from the rock it was growing on. He looked at it in delight before placing it in one of his pouches and began to cross the bridge back to the Doctor and King Arthur.

However, when he started crossing the bridge again, the dead knights in the water rose above the lake's surface. They began to attack David, who held them off for a while. But he could never entirely defeat them. If he cut off their head or a limb, they would put it back on their body again. And it wasn't long until they overwhelmed David and began to pull him under the water.

David struggled to get out of the knights' grasp until he saw two people standing above him. Above the water's surface. The Doctor and King Arthur. They reached down and pulled David back up.

"Thank you," David said, panting and gasping for air.

"Take nothing of it," King Arthur said as he and the Doctor helped David off the bridge and back towards the TARDIS. "It would appear you did it. Well done!"

David reached for the pouch where he placed the Crimson Crown and opened it, only to find that the pouch was empty. Which only meant one thing. He looked towards the lake.

"What's wrong?" the Doctor asked.

"The toadstool is gone," David said. "Either the knights took it, or it was lost in the bog."

"We could search for it," King Arthur suggested.

David shook his head, throwing the pouch towards the ground in frustration. "No. It's gone," he said, then sat down, leaning his back against the TARDIS doors.

King Arthur sighed, turning to look at David. "The word 'quest' means to seek, not to find. It's the seeking that matters."

David looked up at the king. "Do you believe that?"

"Not truly, no. If the finding makes a difference in this world, then that's what I want. I'm sorry."

David nodded slowly; then, he began to laugh. "My father, he drank his life away. My brother accomplished nothing but evil. There was a time I thought I'd be different. Change the world. But I just… I don't want only to be remembered as the man who kissed a sleeping princess awake 30 years ago."

"I understand," King Arthur said with a nod.

"You do?" David asked, watching as King Arthur sat beside him. "You're the king of Camelot."

"Yes, some large rock decided I was a hero. Prophecy fulfilled. But since then, I've had victories, and I've had losses. And I've learned that the losses require us to be brave. So, if anything will make us heroes…."

"It's the never giving up," the Doctor finished, who had been listening. "Even after so many losses. You must wear them like a badge of honour. Holding them tight."

King Arthur nodded. "Indeed, Doctor."

The Doctor helped David up, turned to the doors of the TARDIS, and began to unlock them. "We might as well leave," he said. "Return to Camelot."

David nodded. "There's work to be done."

King Arthur looked at the two of them. "Both of you are good men. But, David, if you want to be part of something, do something that matters. I have a place for a man like you."

That night, David entered the room with the round table and approached the podium that stood King Arthur and Guinevere. He knelt before him, and King Arthur took a step toward him. "I dub thee Sir David of the Enchanted Forest," he said, placing his sword from one shoulder to the other. "Now of the Round Table. I know 'Knight of the Round Table' is pale fire, next to the title of Prince."

David shook his head. "No. I am beyond honoured."

King Arthur nodded. "Then rise, Sir Knight, take your place."

David stood back up and began to head towards Percival's old seat, but King Arthur stopped him and pointed him to the Siege Perilous. He couldn't believe it. "Really?" he asked.

King Arthur nodded. "I never thought I'd find anyone I trust enough to fill that seat. But it's yours." He led David over to the Round Table and took David's shield from Guinevere, placing it on the back of the chair. "It will bear your coat of arms," King Arthur continued and shook David's hand. "Not bad for a shepherd, eh?"

David smiled. "Thank you."

Heading out of the room, the Doctor decided it was time to return to his TARDIS. However, as he walked through the empty halls of Camelot, he thought he saw a shadow move behind him. He stopped and looked around. "Show yourself," he told them.

"It's only me," the figure came, revealing himself to the Doctor. "Lancelot."

"As in Sir Lancelot?" the Doctor asked before remembering what he had heard. "You shouldn't be here. You should be dead."

"That is a long story," Lancelot told him. "But it's not important. What is important is this: there is a villain in Camelot. A terrible villain."

The Doctor nodded. "The Dark One. But she hasn't done anything."

Lancelot shook his head. "No. There's another villain. Arthur."

"Why are you telling me this?"

"Because you know my friends, Snow White and David. I've been watching you since you arrived. And you need to warn them. Camelot is not what it seems."

King Arthur stayed behind in the room alongside Guinevere. Once everyone had left, he turned to his wife and sighed. "Today was a difficult day," he said as he took something from one of his pouches and unwrapped the paper. It was the Crimson Crown. He looked at it. So did Guinevere.

"You lied to him. To David," Guinevere stated.

"And it brought me no pleasure. He's a good man. A noble man, but I must think of my kingdom first."

Guinevere placed a hand on King Arthur's shoulder. "Of course, you must."

"That is always the burden of a king."