enchanted | a. pendragon [on hold]

vi | a remedy to cure all ills

"merlin, i respect that you are her best friend, but if you ever make lia cry again, i will make sure you regret it."

[1.6 — A Remedy to Cure All Ills]

It seemed as if the whole of Camelot was dying as Lady Morgana slowly did. There was no cheer to be found, nor did many people have hope. She had fallen ill so suddenly, and neither Gaius nor Lia knew how to help her. The King's Ward seemed as good as dead, and word of it had quickly spread throughout Camelot through gossip.

King Uther had hardly left her bedside, just sitting and watching the unresponsive girl who was as close to him as a daughter. When Gaius told him that he was unable to heal her, his heart broke, for she was one of the only things he cared about along with his son. As the second day of her illness approached, everyone worried more and more. If she stayed unresponsive for much longer, she would die.

Like Gaius, Lia had no idea how to heal Morgana. Uther had even asked her for her professional opinion, though it wasn't what he so desperately wanted to hear. Her body had closed down and the infliction was to her brain, something that they did not have the tools to treat. It made Lia feel awful and she knew that Morgana's time was growing near.

The only thing that Gaius and Lia could do for the girl was to make her comfortable. They had been prescribing rosemary and yarrow to Morgana to try and keep her brain stimulated despite the fact that she wasn't conscious. That was what Lia was doing now — searching for more herbs in the woods just outside the walls of Camelot.

She could've just sent Merlin — Arthur had barely requested anything of him in the last few days, too upset to bother. Perhaps Lia was using it as an excuse to get away from the dark cloud that was hovering over everyone at the castle. She'd rather not be surrounded by everyone waiting around for Morgana to either recover or die.

It seemed she wasn't the only one with the idea to get out of the castle. Arthur was the one to find her, sitting in a field and collecting different colored herbs in a basket. He hadn't been expecting to find anyone in the woods — his whole point had been that he would be alone. Though that did not stop him from joining her.

When she heard someone approaching, Lia looked up from the yarrow she had been cutting off the stem and saw Arthur slowly approaching her. His hands were shoved in his pockets and he kept his eyes on the grass with a despondent look on his face. Then, without saying a word, he sank down to the ground, sitting across from her.

Lia didn't say anything, figuring that he would talk if he wanted to. He appreciated the gesture as she just continued cutting the herbs that were meant to help Morgana the best they could.

"She's going to die, isn't she?" When he finally spoke, Arthur's voice cracked. He had spoken very little in the past few days. There were unshed tears in his eyes, but Lia knew him enough to know that they would not fall. He wouldn't have even allowed himself to get so emotional inside the walls of Camelot.