After taking a long bath and dressing in the fine clothes that had been set out for him, Gwaine felt much more prepared for what lay ahead. Still, when one of the servants came and got him to eat dinner with the princesses, an uncomfortable feeling settled over him. He'd never been the best around a woman, and twelve of them? Particularly twelve women who might have something to do with the murder of the original man in their Story.

The servant brought him to the princess' room, and he frowned. Why would they dine in their room? That seemed rather unusual. However, if that was what they wanted, he would obey. Hopefully, this whole escapade would somehow lead to finding his parents, though for the life of him, Gwaine couldn't figure out how.

The princesses all looked basically the same as they stood in a semi-circle in their massive bedroom. All of them had auburn, curly long hair, pale skin, and dark grey eyes. And all were about the same size—average height, less-than-average weight, and they all wore the same purple dresses. A table sat in the middle of their room, their twelve beds circling around the circular room.

One of the princesses approached him. Judging from her face from close-up, Gwaine assumed she was the eldest. She had to be about thirty. "Hello," she said in a strong accent. Gwaine had no idea what kind—all he knew was that it wasn't German. "I am Elena. May I present my sisters Dorani, Hild, Hildur, Katie, Rose, Sophie, Jeanette, Genevieve, Gloria, Robin, and Patricia."

Knowing he would never be able to keep all their names straight, Gwaine smiled nevertheless. He felt like an idiot. "H-hello." He wasn't the stammering brother! That was supposed to be Emrys. "I'm Gwaine."

Elena gave him a sickly-sweet smile. "A pleasure, I'm sure. Would you care to sit down and dine with us?"

"Y-yes," Gwaine managed, feeling tongue-tied. All twelve of the sisters were quite beautiful. Elena laid her hand on his arm and guided him to the seat at the head of the table. The other girls sat down at the other seats, but Elena went to the corner of the room. The girls watched with a strange air of expectance as she brought back a goblet.

Gwaine stared at it as she put it on the table before him. "For you," she said. "If you'll have it."

He looked into the goblet and saw a red wine staring back at him. There was something important he was forgetting. Two important somethings, actually; he had forgotten he'd left his invisibility cloak back in his room. But none of that mattered. Nothing had ever seemed more tempting than that goblet of wine before him, and he didn't even like wine. Or did he? He couldn't remember anymore.

"Go on," Elena said impatiently. "Drink it. Or we'll never get this meal started."

Something about her tone made Gwaine annoyed. Did she think he was so banal and rude that he wouldn't drink it? Grabbing the goblet in his hand, he put his lips on it and drank, upending all the contents into his mouth. Some of the sisters twittered in amusement as he placed the now-empty goblet back on the table. "There!" he said. "Now we can start ..." His voice trailed off, and his hand, lying beside the goblet on the table, seemed to have lost all ability to move on his command. It jerked and knocked the goblet to the floor.

Don't drink the wine. Lana's constant reminders came rushing back to him. How in the world could he have been so stupid? After all the warnings he'd received about not drinking it, he'd not only disobeyed them, he'd drank the entirety of the contents of the wine! Idiot!

Then he had no time to berate himself. All consciousness left him and he slumped over the table.

. . . . . . . . . .

Lana knocked on Gwaine's door tentatively. The knight should have been in bed at this point, yet he didn't respond to her knocking. "Gwaine?" she called. Still no answer. Fighting down a moment of fear, Lana turned the knob. Locked. Instead of panicking, she retrieved her string of keys and tried numerous ones before finding the proper key for his door. It swung open and she stepped inside.

Gwaine's bed had obviously not been slept in. Other than his filthy clothes tossed to the side of his bed—how like a man to be so messy—there was no sign that he'd ever even been in the room. Fighting down more panic, Lana turned and hurried out the door. A servant nearly ran into her. "What are you doing, Fraulein?" he demanded.

"Looking for my friend—master," she quickly adjusted her words. "Do you know where he is?"

"Eating with the princesses, I believe. Three rooms down." The man barely had time to answer her before he was hurrying off.

Lana ducked into Gwaine's room once more and grabbed the cloak off his bed. She assumed it was the invisibility cloak, though how he'd managed to forget it, she had no idea. Once she had it, she ran to the room the servant had indicated for her and knocked.

No response yet again. Confident now that she wouldn't be stopped, Lana opened the door and looked in. Slumped over at the table was Gwaine, a goblet of wine on the floor beside him. She rushed over to him, crying, "Oh, you fool!" How could he have drunk the wine, after all the times he'd been warned not to?

Shaking him proved fruitless. He was out, which left Lana in a conundrum. She could see that one of the princess's headboards had moved, revealing a stairway beyond. But wasn't it supposed to be a man who followed them?

It took her only a moment to come to a decision. Desperate times called for desperate measures. She threw the invisibility cloak around her shoulders and ran for the stairs. They were steeper and rather slick, and she forced herself to slow her steps down. Otherwise, she might end up tipping herself over and down the stairs.

Once Lana reached the bottom of the stairs, she stared ahead of her, her eyes wide. The trees lining the path were a glittering silver, leaves and all. Some of the leaves had fallen to the path below, giving it a likewise silver carpeting. "How beautiful," she breathed. She walked as if in a trance, ignoring how the silver leaves crunched beneath her feet. Nothing could break the beauty of the spell.

Nothing, of course, until she reached the next section of the path. The trees around her on this section were shining gold, sparkling in the light that somehow came in the tunnel. She knelt down and picked one up, examining it. For all appearances, it seemed to be an entirely golden leaf. Untouched by human hands, she slid it into her pocket for later. The others would never believe the beauty she'd found unless she showed them the leaves. On an impulse, she scampered back and retrieved a silver leaf.

Continuing down the path, Lana's eyes widened when she saw the diamond leaves. If possible, they were more beautiful than the other two forests combined. There seemed to be a million sparkles on each leaf, shining in the light, presenting a dance of shining crystals all around. There seemed to be shining lights hanging in the air, and the bard couldn't resist a giggle of glee. Who had made such a breathtaking place? What she wouldn't give to perform here, under the diamond trees!

It took her a moment to remember why she'd come. To follow the princesses. It was no wonder they hid their reasons for coming from their father; such a beautiful place should remain untouched by anyone. But it was pure selfishness that they kept it to themselves. Lana breathed it in before picking up a leaf and hurrying along down the path.

The lake ahead of her took her breath away as well. Lanterns hung, suspended by nothing, above her head, reflecting in the clear, still water below. A castle, shining as much as the trees of diamond, was beyond the lake, lit by an almost ethereal glow. A single rowboat was docked at an ordinary wooden dock that seemed out of place in the beautiful picture before her. However, it was a way for her to get across the lake to the castle beyond. She was most certainly not swimming across.

Apparently, she had to row across, though. She sat down in the boat and grabbed the oars. It definitely took some getting used to, especially since she'd never rowed a boat in her life. After going around in circles for a few minutes, she finally got the hang of it and was able to row in a—mostly—straight line to the other side. One of the servants standing there looked at the boat, his eyes going wide, but of course he didn't see Lana. She was invisible.

She waited until the man hurried off to tell someone before getting out of the boat. It tipped precariously and she narrowly avoided falling into the lake. Invisibility wouldn't do her much good if she was soaked and dripping water all over the floor. Thankfully, she managed to avoid it, and she was grateful to be on dry land once more.

Lana gathered the cloak around her, making sure she was still entirely invisible. A decapitated head would probably get more attention than if she went completely without the cloak. But she wasn't willing to risk that the princesses or—heaven forbid—Nimueh might see her and recognize her. She swallowed past a dry spot in her throat. There had to be a reason for Nimueh to have murdered the soldier from the original Story.

Lana moved swiftly through the castle. She ignored the ballroom; no music echoed through its doors. Whatever the princesses had come for, it wasn't a ball. Not like the original Story. That meant that Nimueh had done more of her tampering. Perhaps she had even mind-controlled the princesses as she had Rampion in the Six Swans Story.

On a hunch, Lana headed for the stairs leading down. She didn't know why. But she had a sneaking suspicion that Nimueh had hid somebody down there, in the dungeons. Perhaps even all their parents. What a hero she would be, if she could save them all! Logic failed to take over and she continued down the stairs, shivering in spite of the cloak around her shoulders. She had exchanged warmth for invisibility, it seemed.

Moisture covered the stairs, making them treacherous. It took all of Lana's concentration and her grace as a dancer to maintain her balance, and she reached the bottom safely. She had no light, and there was no illumination or windows to light her way. Reaching out her hand, Lana grimaced when she saw it become visible as it left the confines of the cloak. She considered taking it off completely, but decided against it. If she heard someone coming, she could simply pull her hand back into the cloak instead of having to put the entire piece of clothing back on.

As she walked down the halls, she couldn't stop herself from making some noise as her heavy boots thudded against the floor. Her heart nearly stopped when she heard someone speak from one of the cells. "If you're here to torture me, I've already had my fill for today."

Lana stopped moving. She didn't recognize the voice, which made her nervous. The man carried on. "Of course, invisibility is new. My tormenters have never come to me invisible before. Or maybe you're a rescuer? That's not much of an option. Come closer."

Deciding instinctively to trust the stranger, Lana tugged off the cloak and stepped toward the cell she could hear the voice from. By the uncertain light of the lanterns shining through the tiny window, she saw a lanky man chained to the wall beneath it. If she could trust her eyes in the gloomy place, he had a mass of red hair. "I'm here," she said, finding her voice at last.

"So I see," he answered. "I think. At least, your outline. I'd get up to greet you, but I'm chained to the wall like a dog. I'm Will Scarlet. Have we met?"

Wordlessly, Lana shook her head. Then, realizing he might not be able to see her, she said, "No. I'm Lana. Lana-a—"

"Dale," Will Scarlet finished. She could hear a smile in his words. "Alan's daughter, right?" She nodded. "Luck seems to be on my side. Are the others with you? Rampion?"

"Rampion's your daughter, isn't she?" Lana blurted out.

"Yes, she is," Will answered. "Mine and Rapunzel's, to be exact. Though I think the hair is a giveaway." He sighed in relief. "I've been sending as many prayers after the lot of you ever since Merlin told us you were coming after us. Thank God they worked."

Lana retrieved her keys and started to reach for the lock. Will hastily stopped her. "No! Nimueh's due back here in a few minutes. You need to go back and tell the others. And don't come back until morning. Nimueh spends hours in here with me. It's not pleasant, but I'll survive. Tell the others to focus on finding and saving Rachel. Just leave me here. If it distracts Nimueh, that's all to the good."

"You want me to just leave you here?" Lana repeated, staring at him. "Are you out of your mind? If she finds out we know you're here, she'll kill you! Rampion will never forgive me. I can't ... I can't just leave you here."

"You must," Will insisted. "Rachel's most important right now. Her and the other Guardians, like Merlin. I'm not a Guardian. I'm not special."

"You are to Rampion," Lana said. "I'll leave for now, but I'm not just abandoning you here. We'll try and get Morph to send you a message."

That got Will's attention. "Morph? Morpheus? You've got Morpheus with you?"

"Yes. He's got the most beautiful wings you've ever seen," Lana said dreamily. He was extremely handsome, particularly with the wings.

She may as well have popped Will's bubble of enthusiasm with a knife. "Wings? Wrong Morpheus, I suppose. It's a pity ..." His voice trailed off for a moment. Then he regained his train of thought. "Get going, Lana. Remember what I told you."

"I'll remember, but we will be back," Lana insisted before replacing the invisibility cloak and hurrying away. We will be back. She didn't know why she cared so much, but she would rescue Will. There was something about him, a strange connection between them. She wouldn't let Nimueh torture him. We'll be back, and we'll stop her and save Rachel too. I swear it on my life.