Luminescence ✺ Arthur Pendragon

The Darkest Hour [4]

Candlelight illuminated the physicians' chambers which were once more awfully crowded. With it being Mycah's turn to spend the nigh with the physicians, and Dario never appearing for his own plans with Edmund, the Warren was found waiting for him and Arwen in the physicians' chambers along with Gaius and Mycah when the two finally arrived with Gwen.

Gaius was quick to get to work on cleaning her gash, determining it to be no cause for alarm as he worked, the others sitting quietly as they gave him the peace he needed. Not that it lasted too long before he spoke once more. "Welcome back." His words had the rest of the group looking over to the bed in which Gwen lay to find her eyes now open as she took in her surroundings with a confused look on her face.

"What happened? Why am I here?" She asked, unable to come to the conclusion on her own.

"We found you unconscious in the street, Gwen." Arwen said as she made her way over to the bed, sitting beside Gwen while Gaius continued to clean her wound. "Do you remember what happened?"

"I remember the guards walking me to my door. And then..." Gwen spoke, taking a short pause as she tried to think back to their walk through the lower town. "Nothing." She finally concluded with a small shake of her head.

"Just a surface wound." Gaius explained to her. "You were very lucky."

"Everyone talks about the coldness, but I don't feel cold at all." Gwen muttered out with a small sigh.

"You weren't attacked by the Dorocha, Gwen." Dario announced, his tone certain in what he was saying. While the guards who'd accompanied her were in fact killed by the ghostly creatures, Gwen showed no signs of ever encountering them when they found her.

"Then what?" Gwen asked with furrowed brows looking around the faces within the room as she caught them all sharing hesitant looks, all pretty certain they could guess the true cause behind her state even if they did not yet know the culprit.

"We fear someone wanted to do you harm." Gaius was the one who said the words outright.

"Why?"

"We don't know." Arwen said honestly, heaving out a small sigh as the lack of answers was what probably bothered her most. "But once all of this is over, we will find out. I promise you."

"Well, surely if they did want to harm me, they'd have done a better job?" Gwen herself still struggled to believe the suspicion, thinking it all a bit too lacklustre to be true.

"Maybe..." Gaius nodded his head although from the tone of his voice it was clear he wasn't really agreeing with the possibility. "But cold-blooded murder is suspicious. Better to leave you to the Dorocha."

The expression on Guinevere's face changed from confusion to realization rather quickly after that claim, realizing they were right. Someone had left her for dead out in the street as easy pray for the creatures. The thought made her eyes turn to Arwen questioningly. "What were you doing down in the lower town in the dead of night?"

"I instructed the guards accompanying you to tell me when you've gotten home safe." Arwen explained. "They never came."

"We went looking for you." Dario summarised it into a simple story, one which made Gwen's eyes widen in surprise.

"You shouldn't have done that. It was dangerous." The maid gasped out in scolding and surprise, making Arwen and Dario chuckle in amusement at her reaction.

"Maybe so, but it all ended well." Arwen reminded her, pointing to Dario and herself who were standing in the chambers perfectly fine and unharmed.

"Thank you." Gwen said, sending each one of them a soft and grateful smile. "Both of you."