THE WAY TO ALBION
Summary: AU but canon-ish, Good!Morgana. Knight!Merlin. Of-Noble-Blood!Merlin. Lady Morgana of Cornwell - daughter of Sir Gorlois, the Duke of Cornwell - has spent most of her life between the Castles of Tintagel - her home - and Camelot, especially when his father was away in battle. Since she was young, she has been instructed by her father in how to fight and now that Gorlois is dead, she wants to continue her father's mission to protect Camelot and its inhabitants by becoming a knight in his place. Morgana knows that Camelot is a dangerous place to be for someone like her - someone who has magic - but she knows that this is the place where she's supposed to be.
Main Characters: Morgana, Arthur, Merlin, (Older)Mordred, Gwen, Lancelot, Gaius, Uther, Morgause, Gwaine.
Main Couple: Arthur/Morgan/Merlin (Love Triangle). ARTHUR AND MORGANA ARE NOT BROTHER AND SISTER IN THIS STORY, SO NO INCEST.
Side Couples: Lancelot/Guinevere. Some Mordred/Gwen. Mordred/Kara.
Mordred in this story is not a little boy like he is in season 1 and 2, but a man like in season 5. He's the King's Ward and a Knight of Camelot.
This fiction will be a retelling of the TV Show Merlin with a good Morgana in it and a love triangle between Arthur, Morgana and Merlin. So she'll be one of the good guys and not Arthur's sister and the villain of the story.
I never understood why the creators of the show went from Arthur completely in love with Morgana in the first season to Arthur suddenly being in love with Gwen. It didn't make a bunch of sense.
And the chemistry between them - like between Merlin and Morgana - was undeniable and completely ignored by the creators of the show. What a waste!
Morgause and Morgana are not sisters in this story either. Morgana is the daughter of Gorlois and Vivienne like in Canon - kind of since in Canon Morgana is actually Uther's daughter and Arthur's sister - but Morgause is not Vivienne's daughter.
Morgana will be a knight of Camelot in this story - unofficially - and will accompany Arthur and his knights - Merlin included - in his quests.
My fanfiction will follow Canon events but since Morgana is good in this story, things may chance as things get on and of course the most important difference from Canon - apart from Morgana being good - is the fact that both Arthur and Merlin will be in love with Morgana, so no Arthur/Gwen like in Canon.
Prologue
"There are winds of destiny that blow when we least expect them. Sometimes they gust with the fury of a hurricane, sometimes they barely fan one's cheek. But the winds cannot be denied, bringing as they often do a future that is impossible to ignore."
(Nicholas Sparks - Message in a Bottle)
She had ridden for four days, stopping only to sleep a few hours every night. The more distance she put between herself and Tintagel Castle, the better. She still couldn't believe the words from that pompous Lord. She had practically been issued an ultimatum: marry him or leave the castle. He didn't actually put it on these terms, but the deeper meaning was pretty clear. 'Morgana, you are already eighteen years old, it's past the time for you to get married. I allowed you to stay here in the castle until now, but seeing as now you are an adult, you must leave this place behind. I'm sorry to say that this is not your home anymore, it hasn't been for a long time now. Of course, if you wish to stay here, there's a possible solution. Marry me and keep living in this castle for the rest of your life, with me.' He had said. Of course, she had practically laughed in his face at that and the next morning, at dawn, she had left the castle and everything else behind, never to return. She still couldn't accept the fact that she had nothing to her name now, just her 'noble blood', that her home and everything else belong to that idiot, his father's distant cousin, the new Duke of Cornwell. Well, not actually new, he had become Duke when her father had died three years ago and, since that moment, her life had completely changed. Morgana had been brought up only by her father since her mother had died when she was only four years old. Her father, Sir Gorlois, had been a great man and a brave knight. He was the greatest friend and ally with King Uther Pendragon of Camelot and because of this connection, Morgana had spent a lot of time in Camelot while growing up, especially when her father was away in battle. It was because of her father that she knew how to fight better than most men. And it was because of him that she had learned to control her magic. Since she could remember she had always been able to make things float around her and - like her mother before her - she dreamt of the future.
Her father had warned her since she was very young that she had to hide her gifts at all cost, especially because her father's connection to Uther Pendragon meant that she had more opportunity to be around the King than everyone else and that meant that she was more in danger of being found out than anyone else.
Not that Gorlois had prohibited her from using magic in his own castle, no. On the contrary, he had given her her mother's spellbook since the moment she had learnt how to read, so she could learn how to actually control her magic.
Life with a father like Gorlois was idyllic. Morgana had always been headstrong and impulsive, decisive in her opinions and not easily controlled, by anyone. But her father had never tried to put a stop to it, actually, he had encouraged her in everything she wanted to do, fighting especially. Gorlois didn't care that Morgana was a girl, she was extremely talented in sword-fighting and he had always took pleasure in teaching her.
Unfortunately, everything had changed when Gorlois had died, when Morgana was fifteen years old, and the title, Tintagel Castle and the lands around it, had been inherited by a long-distant cousin of his, Lord Bahilin, a noble who had nothing to his name before having inherited her father's fortune. He wasn't even a knight. When Lord Bahilin had taken possession of his new castle, he had allowed Morgana to continue living there but her beloved home too soon became more of a prison for her. Suddenly, she wasn't allowed to do anything that she loved anymore. She wasn't allowed to practice with her sword, she wasn't allowed to go outside with her horse unsupervised or even walk through the garden alone.
And, of course, she had to keep her magic hidden because if there was one thing that Bahilin hated, that was magic. She had even been forced to give up her trips to Camelot.
Unfortunately she had been forced to accept those rules so that she could stay in her home, since she had nowhere else to go. Even if she continued practicing both magic, horse riding and sword-fighting in secret, of course.
However, when Lord Bahilin had practically tried to force her to marry, that was the moment when she had drawn the line.
It was for all of these reasons that she was headed towards Camelot right now. She intended to ask the King to become a knight of Camelot and live in the castle, hoping to find a way to convince him by using her connection with Gorlois. She knew it won't be an easy thing to do, but she was nothing if not stubborn.