As time drifted by the situation became a lot more worrying. Merlin had lost consciousness soon after arriving back and Leon hadn’t responded to his friend’s anxious attempts to rouse him. Percival had taken to his bed and even though he was conscious he wasn’t moving and the only hint of life was the occasional groan coming from his cell.

Arthur looked over to Percival’s cell and saw that he had finally drifted off. He looked to Gwaine who was the only other person left awake. Gwaine smiled but there was something obviously wrong. As Arthur watched him, all the colour left his face and he clutched the bars of his cell. “Gwaine?”, Arthur said “Gwaine, are you alright?”

“Yeah, I’m fine”, Gwaine said but as he did so his legs gave way and he grabbed the bars even tighter. Gwaine slid down to the floor and he clutched his arm, his eyes screwed shut in pain. It didn’t take long for him to lose consciousness.

Suddenly Arthur heard footsteps coming towards him and Morgana appeared. She walked over to his cell and looked at him. “It seems we are alone at last”, she said “It took them all long enough. You’d think a magic spell that increases the effects on them would be faster than that”

“What do you want Morgana?”, Arthur asked

“I only want what is rightfully mine”, Morgana said, her eyes flaring with hatred. Suddenly she rubbed her head as if she was in pain and she looked away from Arthur, muttering to someone Arthur couldn’t see. She recovered and turned her attention back to her prisoner. “This isn’t you Morgana”, Arthur said “I remember when you were my friend, you seemed content. You had everything a person could ask for. Food, a home, friends, people who loved you. Why did you throw it all away?”

“Because that wasn’t where I belonged”, Morgana said

“Where do you belong?”, Arthur asked.

“Enough questions!!”, Morgana snapped “You are my prisoner, I do not have to answer your questions!”. She began to storm from the cells but she stopped and turned around. “I have arranged some more entertainment for you. You may wish to prepare in some way however I will warn you that it is not quite what you expect. Goodbye dear brother”. And with that she turned and walked away.

Arthur sat down on his bed and rested his head in his hands. What did Morgana mean? What was going to happen next? He fought to keep calm.

Gwaine came to lying on the hard, cold floor. It was a sensation he had hoped he had seen the last of, he had been wrong. He groaned as he sat up, rubbing his head. He looked to the cells next to him. Percival, Merlin and Leon were all unconscious but Arthur was sitting on his bed with his head in his hands. He looked up at the sound of Gwaine’s groaning. Arthur seemed about to say something but then he thought better of it and looked at the ground. His face was pale and he was biting his lip the way he did when he was worried but trying to hide it because he had to figure something out.

Gradually, everyone came around but Merlin’s face was pale and he was obviously struggling to deal with whatever pain Morgana was causing him. Leon’s face was slightly green and he looked like he was about to be violently sick. Percival lay on the floor having spent several minutes drifting in and out of consciousness trying desperately to stay awake before finally regaining consciousness but being unable to even sit up without the world spinning into a dizzying blur.

Arthur stood and looked at his friends for a moment before gathering his thoughts and speaking up.

“Morgana came to me earlier”, he said and he immediately had everyone’s attention “She hinted that we will be facing some new challenge that none of us have yet experienced”

“Did she say what sort of thing?”, Merlin asked.

“No, only that it will be something that we don’t expect”

“Well that’s useful”, Gwaine said with heavy sarcasm in his voice. At lease Gwaine is more like his old self, Arthur thought with a sigh of relief.

Everyone fell silent, considering what was to come. Percival lay still but with his eyes open, staring at the ceiling, caught in an endless tunnel of pain and dark. He could almost feel the snake venom coursing through his veins, the thought made him feel sick so he turned his mind to Merlin instead who was groaning quietly in his cell.

Gwaine felt almost like his old self again. The pain in his arm was gone and his head was clear, meaning he could think straight for the first time in far too long. Unfortunately he couldn’t enjoy his new found relief because Merlin was moaning and the noise was one of a tortured soal experiencing pain he had never felt before. To think what Merlin was going through made Gwaine feel ill and to know that there was nothing he could do made him feel so small and so helpless, like a squirrel trapped in a box.

After far too much time of this Morgana and her guards apeared and unlocked the cells. By now they were all familiar with the drill and offered no resistance as they were taken to the hall. What they found was defintely nothing that they had expected. There was a table in the middle of the hall and on the table were two silver goblets. The guards threw everyone to the floor near the table and stood over them accept for arthur who was taken to the table where Morgana awaited him. He was forced to his knees and then the guards backed off.

“Well Arthur, it’s nice to see you out of those retched cells”, she said.

“What do you want Morgana?”, Arthur asked.

“Oh, I thought we could play a liitle game”, she said “The rules are simple really. There are two goblets each contains wine however one of them also contains poison” Arthur felt his stomach lurch at the thought of what could be coming. “You pick one goblet and drink from it. If you drink poison we send you all back to the cells and the only one any worse for wear, is you. If you don’t drink poison all your friends here take a beating they will remember for the rest of their lives, however short that may be. And if you do nothing we beat them anyway, starting with my dear Sir Gwaine”

Morgana looked at Arthur “I will give you some time to compose your thoughts before we begin”, she said.

Arthur looked around the room. How could he do it? He knew that he was going to try and find the poison, he had no other choice but there was one problem with that plan, the goblets and their contents were identical in every way.

“Right, that’s enough thinking”, Morgana said “Time to make your decision Arthur”. She simled at the destress Arthur was battling to hide.

Arthur stared at the goblets, racking his brains for a solution. “I’m tired of waiting Arthur”, Morgana said, cutting through his thoughts “Perhaps I should give you some insentive to choose. Guards!”. At Morgana’s comand the guards standing next to Gwaine raised their fists and beat him hard. Gwaine fell to the floor hard as one of the guards hit his head with the hilt of his sword. Gwaine shook his head to clear it and then looked up at Morgana, a hint of a smile on his face. Morgana seemed annoyed at first but she composed herself and looked back at Gwaine smiling sweetly. “Of course. Sir Gwaine would do anything for his King, he would die for him”. Arthur looked to Gwaine who was on his knees, being held there by three guards and being beaten hard but another. His eyes were beginning to roll back up inside his head but he controlled it and looked to Arthur. He shook his head at Arthur and gave him a look that said “Don’t, I’ll be fine”. Arthur shook his head. He couldn’t figure out how to choose the right goblet but he couldn’t continue doing nothing. “Oh of course!”, Morgana purred “Perhaps I should try a different target”. She nodded to the guards by Percival and they set about beating the barely conscious knight. Percival was too weak to withstand the attack and cried out involuntarily. As Arthur watched, helpless, he recalled a time when he had killed a unicorn. He had faced a similar choice. Two identical goblets, one with poison one without. He had solved it by pouring the liquid from both cups into one of them and that way he had been sure which cup the poison was in.

Arhur copied what he had done back then, picked up the full goblet and downed the contents in two gulps. The wine burned the back of his throat and he had to fight the erge to retch.

Gwaine watched as Arthur poured the contents of one goblet into the other. It occurred to him what Arthur was doing and an icy hand clutched his heart. “No Arthur!”, He yelled but it was too late. Arthur downed the wine and looked at Gwaine with a note of triumph in his eyes before he clutched the table and that was all Gwaine saw before the pounding in his head from the guards became too much and he closed his eyes and lay on the floor.

Arthur watched Gwaine for a moment as he put the goblet down. Suddenly, he felt a clutch of pain in his stomach and he clutched the table in an attempt to keep upright. There was another sharp pain, this time in his chest and his knees buckled. The only thing keeping him up now was his grip on the table. Pain expolded in his head and he cried out and fell to the ground. The last thing he saw before he finally lost consciousness was Morgana leaning over him, stroking his face and saying “Dear, dear brother. If only you didn’t care so much. That is your real downfall” The world began to blur and darken and finally Arthur couldn’t hold on any longer “M, Morgana”, He stammered as the icy cold of unconsciousness took him.

They were all taken back to te cells and trown inside. Wen Gwaine hit the floor hard and bashed his head, adding to his already awful headache. He groaned and tried to sit up but the room span. He was determined to wake up on his bed and not on the floor so he grabbed the bars and dragged himself upwards before stumbling to his bed and colapsing on the matress.