She had been a prisoner for a long time, though it was in a castle. She had lost track of exactly how long. All Sadira knew was that she was Uther’s prisoner and, although he tried to be hospitable, she was being treated like one. He would gnaw at her self-esteem and seemed to pound all of her courage out. She didn’t know if she had the will to live anymore. Until that fateful day…

An old witch dressed as a peddler climbed up the tower to Sadira’s bedroom and met her face to face. She offered something that would put her out of her misery: a bottle of slow poison that she would consume whenever she felt like dying. She must not drink too much of it at once or she would be very much closer to death…or possibly die. Sadira was hesitant at first, but then when she heard just about everything, she decided to take the witch up on her offer. So almost every day when Uther had harmed her again, she would take the poison. Since then, she had started to function more slowly.

One day, she went a bit too far.

After a bad falling-out with Uther, she rushed to her bedroom and had consumed the proper amount of poison. But she was at her worst, so she drank from the bottle. Suddenly, she choked as every muscle, bone, and organ stopped functioning. The bottle shattered as it hit the floor and she slumped into her chair. She was…almost dead.

Uther heard the noise and rushed upstairs to check on her. He was very shocked and upset by what he saw. Fearing she might be dead, he summoned the nearby medicine man to check on her. He proclaimed that she was barely alive and would need a cure to revive her. So off they went on their journey, Uther and the medicine man. When they got about every ingredient, the medicine man said they needed one more.

Uther didn’t know what it was when the man checked on Sadira’s mind to find out the cause of her consumption. Finally, the medicine man told Uther, “You did this to her.” Uther refused to believe him, but once he told him everything he learned from Sadira’s mind, he was ashamed with himself. Of course he cared for her, but he was too blind to see what he was doing to her. Thus, the final ingredient was found: tears of true remorse.

While Sadira was still reviving, Uther was too ashamed to bring himself to her. He stayed away from her as much as possible because he was afraid she might kill herself at the sight of him. He thought that if he loved her, he would release her as soon as she was better. Although it hurt him just by thinking about it, he knew that it would insure Sadira’s happiness. And that’s all he wanted since.