A Bannerfall AU where Arthur never really died because the poison wasn’t strong enough and he had built up a tolerance over the years, but it still knocked him out long enough for Owain to be blamed and exiled for murder.
When Arthur awoke, his son was gone and no one had any idea what direction he went off in. Arthur searched for years for Owain; he personally went to any kingdom he could think of and asked about a young knight with a very specific scar on his face. Eventually—close to giving up and on one of the last kingdoms he could think of—Arthur arrived in the war-torn kingdom of Bannerfall.
He had been dreading the possibility of Owain traveling to Bannerfall, the fear mounting more and more as years passed. After almost a decade, Owain could be long dead, especially if he had settled in a place like Bannerfall. One of the only things Arthur could recall about Bannerfall was the amount of dead knights that arrived in Walesland from it.
King Arthur was greeted by a rather eccentric young knight by the name of Kitty. When the knight denied ever seeing such a knight in Bannerfall, he almost went back to his horse, but was stopped by the feline-like individual who insisted he ask some of the others on account of them only being there a few months.
Kitty led King Arthur to the side dubbed the “Blue Kingdom” and introduced him to a few very kind individuals—and a knight Arthur did not trust at all—before finally showing him to a water mage known as Shandrea. When the mage heard his description, her eyes went wide and she looked rather confused. ‘You know Owain?’ She asked hesitantly. With that, Arthur knew, he had found his son, for he had never given anyone the name of his lost prince.
And when Owain returned from his daily duties outside of the kingdom’s walls, he had a blessing from the gods waiting for him, a reward for all his sacrifice, and a confirmation that he had never failed, but he himself had been failed.