Luminescence ✺ Arthur Pendragon

To Kill the King [1]

Arwen was more than aware of the small smile which spread over her lips in the dead of night. But it wasn't something she had any reason to mind. After a long day of gathering supplies, sorting them, mixing ingredients, preparing salves and all kinds of other duties she'd spent her day doing, her happiness over how comfortable and pleasantly cold her pillow was, was completely understandable.

By the time she was pleasantly settled, Arwen was already half asleep, ready to let the dreams take control of her mind. But, of course, nothing ever went as planned, even a thing so simple as sleep. It started slow at first, a small rustle she could easily ignore. But then it persisted and continued, and Arwen let out an irritated groan as she sat up in her bed.

"Will you quit squirming?" She whisper yelled at Merlin, unsure whether Gaius had already gone to bed himself and not wanting to risk waking him if he had. In the darkness, Merlin couldn't see the glare his sister was sending him, but he could certainly imagine it quite well solely by the tone of her voice.

"Sorry, it's just..." Merlin hesitated for a moment, unsure of whether he should tell his sister what was keeping him up. It could just be a feeling, nothing special to it. His pause seemed to last too long for her liking, something made clear as she whispered out his name again, bringing him out of his thoughts and making him continue. "I have this feeling." Maybe he shouldn't have said anything. He didn't even know how exactly to describe it, after all.

"Magical feeling?" Arwen questioned curiously, listening as Merlin murmured out a confirmation. "Bad or good magical feeling?" She couldn't help but ask. If Merlin was feeling magic which was not his own, she felt like it was more than reasonable to ask.

"Bad." Merlin said, but it still managed to sound more like a question due to his own uncertainty. But it was enough to make Arwen heave out a heavy sigh, pushing her covers away and throwing her legs over the side of the bed.

"Well, I guess that's it for my idea of getting some sleep." She announced, somewhat disappointedly. "Either we'll be hearing warning bells, or chaos descends upon us... Again." She said, and while Merlin wanted to try and tell her to just go back to bed, he realized that she did have somewhat of a point. And if nothing happened soon enough, then they could just prescribe it to an oddity and return to bed.

Arwen wrapped a light blanket around her shoulders before following her brother out of their bedroom and into the main room of the physician's quarters which was still lit up with candles all around. Arwen couldn't help but shake her head in disapproval as she watched Gaius still hard at work despite his promise that he was heading to bed right after her.

"Can't sleep?" Gaius' curious eyes turned to the siblings as they walked out of their quarters, watching as Arwen poured them both a cup of water.

"Something woke me." Merlin explained, his voice still distant and aloof as he looked around as if he'd find the source of the feeling right there in the physician's chambers. He didn't, of course, and instead simply accepted the cup his sister handed him. "A feeling."

"What kind of feeling?" Gaius basically asked the same question as Arwen had. Only this time, after feeling it for longer and having more time to think on it, Merlin actually thought he might have an answer.

"Powerful magic, here, in Camelot." He explained.

The sigh Arwen gave out was a hard one to miss. Anyone using powerful magic in Camelot didn't sit well with her. She had yet to find someone doing it to be friendly. Something told the red head that by tomorrow morning, they'd certainly be dealing with a new problem on their hands. If only the time was as long as her prediction made her believe. Instead, the problem came within moments.