"Moving where?"Arthur asked groggily as he wandered over to join them, stealing a kiss and tea from Merlin.After Merlin had explained everything, which wasn't really much, he said, "Get everyone up.I think we're going into the fog no matter what, unless we retreat beyond some unknowable border, which isn't worth figuring out as the whole point is the castle anyway."
"Retreating could give us time to better determine what we're up again," Lancelot said.
Merlin replied, "It could also give whatever is in the fog more time to learn us and become an even greater problem.Clearly it's aware enough to know we're here and come find us.There's no telling what else it's capable of."
"Wake everyone up, and we'll work it out from there," Arthur said.
Resigned to facing the fog head on, Lancelot helped rouse the others, until they were gathered around the fire.
"I agree with Lancelot," Gawain said."Better to retreat and learn."
"Don't know that we have time for that," Morgan said."It's suspicious enough that we can't leave, despite how long we've been here, when normally we're locked in the pocket dimension for a mere few hours at a time."
The discussion went back and forth across the group for several minutes, equally divided on whether to flee or fight.
Arthur finally held up his hands for silence."Though I detest taking the path that seems like I couldn't make up my mind, I think divide and conquer is our best option.Dred, Lancelot, Galahad, and Morgan with me.The rest of you retreat, determine where the fog stops, and if it can be affected, preferably destroyed, from that position."
"Fine," Merlin said, clearly not happy, "but if you take more than a couple of hours to come back out of there, we're coming after you."
"Two hours," Arthur agreed."Be careful, stay safe."
"You're the one going into that fog, heed your own words," Merlin retorted before kissing him and then Morgan."Keep him out of trouble."
"Never fear, sweetheart."
Morgan stepped back to Dred and Galahad, as Arthur gave final instructions to the stay-behind group.Merlin, Gwen, Elaine, and Gawain.A formidable team, to be certain.Magic heavy, but Gawain could more than cover them while the mages did what they did best, should it come to a fight.
Lancelot grasped his arm, then hugged him."Hold fast, swing true, brother."
"Drown the lot of them," Gawain replied.
"It's what fish boy does best," Dred said."Let's get this over with."
"As your lordship commands."Lancelot bid the others farewell, drew his sword and buckler, and after giving Arthur a warning look, took the lead as they crossed the remaining stretch of clear field.To his left was Dred, to his right was Galahad.Arthur took up the rear and Morgan, their only dedicated mage in this fight, was safely in the middle.
When they reached the edge of the fog, Dred cast a wash of flame—and sighed when it was simply absorbed like nothing."So magic absorbent.That's annoying."
Lancelot tried his own magic, reaching out to the miniscule droplets of water that composed fog, but he was met with a wall of resistance, solid as rock.Except, of course, that if there was enough water involved, then rock meant nothing to him."Won't even respond to me."
Arthur grimaced."Bad day when water doesn't respond to water."Every single member of their group had some sort of elemental affinity, though how they came by those powers differed.Some had the power bestowed upon them like Arthur, others born with it like Merlin or Dred, or acquired through many years of work and sacrifice, like Morgan and her shadow magic.
Only Lancelot, though, was water elemental, the rarest of all the elements.He was also a true elemental, a living embodiment of water, incredibly rare in someone who'd technically been born a plain, unremarkable human.Discarded by his birth parents, thrown into the lake like refuse, he'd been taken in by the Queen of the Waters in a rare show of pity when often she had little to no patience for the humans who invaded and mistreated her great and fathomless kingdom.Despite all precedent and logic, she had loved him as her own, given him all she had to give, including her own great and terrible power.
Ifhecould not break through this fog, there was a serious problem indeed.
Lancelot tried again, eyes falling shut as he focused all his attention on the matter.After a few minutes, as the fog crept ever closer, barely a finger's length away now, he said, "It's not real fog.I mean, it's not made of water.Even if we were still in the game, not the pocket universe, that would be mentioned.It's made of magic, not water."
Before the others could reply, the fog was enfolding them.It was like being wrapped in tentacles of ice, the cold reaching places it shouldn't be able to beneath his multitude of overlapping layers.Nevermind he was usually relatively immune to cold."Fuck this," he said, teeth actually chattering for a moment."Dred, I don't suppose you could at least warm us up?"
Instead of a vaguely dirty reply to that from Galahad before Dred playfully thumped him and called up fire, there was only silence.
Lancelot stopped, looked around—and found he was entirely alone."Arthur?Dred?Galahad?Morgan?"
For a single moment, he thought he saw a flash of golden light, the brilliant sunlight that was Arthur's wholly unique subset of earth magic.
Then nothing.
The fog had pulled them apart.No way out but forward.Assuming he could figure out which direction was forward.Closing his eyes, he cast out for water.They were in the middle of a large valley that was surrounded by dense forest framed by mountains on two and a half sides.So lots of water, but… Yes, there it was.The water he'd sensed before around where the castle was, and he still thought it was probably a lake, his favorite kind of water.Camelot had been built by a river, giving it easy access to the rest of the kingdom and a straight shot to the open sea.It hadn't had a moat, though, because of the secret tunnels Arthur had insisted on as emergency exits.
