Luminescence ✺ Arthur Pendragon

Valiant [2]

Night had fallen, and the second day of the tournament had ended long ago, but Arwen hadn't seen the rest of it. Instead, her day had been confined to the physician's chambers as she did her best to keep the fever which had taken over Sir Ewan's body at bay. She was dabbing his brow with a cold cloth in the moment that Merlin entered the chambers and set aside all of the armour he was carrying in his hands.

"How is he?" The sorcerer asked as he approached the cot and stood beside his sister. In his opinion, Sir Ewan looked even worse than he had when he was taken away from the tournament.

"It's most odd. See these two small wounds on his neck? Looks like a snake bite." Gaius said from his spot by the shelves as he was looking for something other than a snake being the possible cause of this. In his place, Arwen pointed out the small circular wounds on Sir Ewan's neck to Merlin, soon after continuing with what she was doing before.

"How could he have been bitten by a snake? He was injured in the sword fight." Merlin questioned in confusion, and the same question had been going through Arwen's mind throughout the day. She wanted to believe she was overthinking things, after all, it could only be a coincidence, and there was no other possible explanation. Unless Valiant was carrying a snake in his pockets, which she suspected would've been noticed by someone by now.

"But the symptoms are consistent with poisoning: slow pulse, fever, paralysis." Gaius listed off, explaining why it couldn't be just a mere injury sustained in a fight. It wouldn't be causing these symptoms.

"Can you heal him?" Merlin asked worriedly. Nobody was really supposed to die in these tournaments.

"A snake bite can only be cured by using the venom of the snake itself. So if that is what this is, we would need to know where the snake had come from." Arwen replied as she dipped the cloth into the bucket of cold water which lay beside her feet.

"What happens if he doesn't get the antidote?" Merlin asked again. Unlike his sister, he understood nothing about medicine or healing, so his hope was misplaced.

"Then I'm afraid there's nothing more we can do for him. He's going to die." Gaius was the one to reply this time.

"He was fighting Knight Valiant." Merlin muttered, and while Gaius didn't quite distinguish the words, Arwen had been around Merlin's muttering enough times to be able to understand it. Merlin didn't bother answering Gaius' questions of what he had said as he ran out of the chambers, and worrying that he might do something terribly stupid, Arwen rushed after him, leaving Gaius to watch after them in wonder.

"Merlin!" She called out to him as quietly as possible, since night had long ago fallen over Camelot. He stopped once he realized she was following after him. "You don't think Valiant could have done this, do you? I mean, how could he?" She questioned her brother, but the look on his face led her to believe that he may know more than she did.

"This morning, when I was getting Arthur's armour before the tournament, I thought I saw one of the snakes on Valiant's shield move, but I was convinced it was just a flash of light." Merlin whispered to her, his eyes scanning through the halls around them in case someone walked by or could hear them.

"And what is it that you plan on doing now?" Arwen raised her eyebrow at him, because from the way he had ran out of the physician's chambers, she could only guess he had some grand idea in his mind.

"I'm not really sure, but the first step would be to check his chambers." Merlin said, although it sounded more like a question as he himself was unsure of how to actually prove his suspicions.

"Then to his chambers we go." Arwen stated and began moving once again when Merlin's hand reached out to her to stop her from walking any further as he tried to protest her coming with him. However, he barely got a word out before she interrupted him. "Merlin, I'm coming with you and that is not up to discussion." With that she began to move and he begrudgingly followed.