Title: Lying is a game you play to win
Pairing: Arthur and Morgana (and bits of Arthur and Gwen)
Synopsis: AU. After a few years of marriage, Arthur and Morgana's union is falling apart. When he dares to invite his new mistress and his wife's greatest rival, Guinevere, to Camelot's court, Morgana refuses to keep quite any longer. She soon realizes that there's more than just her marriage and her honor at stakes since Guinevere appears to be plotting against her life in order to take her place as queen. All the more, the couple has to face a tragic event that will contribute to destroy their marriage even more. With the help of her confident, Merlin, she will fight to keep her place on the throne. As Arthur is struggling to choose between the girl of his dreams and the love of his life, he has to face exterior enemies when war breaks out on Camelot.
AN: Hey guys ! This is my first story, and it's ArMor ! I fell in love with them in season 1 and i was so disappointed to see what the writers did with them (bro and sis, seriously?). Anyway, i'm a bit of a perfectionist so i may take a lot of time to upload but please be patient xD I pretty much know where this story is going to go but if you have suggestions, please share them :) I really hope you'll like it because i put a lot of time and effort in it. And I did it for you guys :)
Morgana was on a little road connecting the castle to one of the outlying villages. She did not know how she got there, nor where she was heading to. It was morning, that much she knew. She recognized the scent, and the cold breeze of Camelot's winter mornings. She desperately tried to look around her but she was hopelessly blinded by mist. She took a few steps in a random direction, in the hope of finding someone to help her, when suddenly she tripped on something. Something big, and cold. It felt like metal. Yes, it was metal. An armour.
Still lying face down on the cold ground, she turned her head to look at the mysterious object. In less than a second she was on her feet, shaking and screaming. It was indeed an armour, an armour with a dead body inside of it. After a few minutes, she finally managed to calm herself and looked at the corpse. She did not know the man, but she recognized his emblem, for she knew it too well. A golden dragon. He must have been one of Arthur's knights, she thought. But what he was doing here, she had no clue.
Kneeling on the ground beside the dead man, she saw the gaping wound going from his right shoulder to the left side of his hip, and she saw the blood, still flooding and warm. He hadn't been dead for long. Morgana took a deep breath, and with all her strength she managed to stand on her feeble legs. She didn't move for a while and kept on watching the rotting corpse as she desperately tried to make sense of all this. "What happened? How did she get there? Where was everybody?"
She had been so focused on her thoughts that she hadn't even realized that the mist was almost gone now. She lifted her eyes from the dead knight and looked right in front of her. The shock of what she saw made her feel like she had just been stabbed in her chest and she almost fell to the ground. Bodies, everywhere. As far as the eye can see. And blood. Oh God, so much blood. She wanted to scream but no sound could come out of her mouth. She wanted to run, but her legs could no longer carry her.
She did manage to make a few steps backwards, though, but was stopped when her heels met another body. She instinctively turned around to examine the obstacle. With all her might, she tried to forget about the blood and the fact that the knight's head was almost detached from the rest of the body, and she focused on something far more interesting. The emblem. This time it wasn't the golden dragon worn by Camelot's Knights, but it was the long black snake with red eyes and golden dots on it that the knights of Escetia bore.
Escetia was a powerful kingdom ruled by King Cenred that lied near Camelot. Though the two realms were officially at peace, they were more foes than friends and the relationship between the two kings were everything but warm. Morgana was perfectly aware that Arthur didn't trust Cenred and had a few informants inside Cenred's court. And she strongly suspected Escetia's King to have sent some of his men to Camelot as well. As Arthur told her many times "you can't trust anyone. When you're King, you've got no friends, only rivals."
She was brought out of her reverie by a painful neigh followed by the noise of hoofs meeting the cold hard ground. Before she could even realize what was happening, the horse brushed past her and kept on galloping towards the dark, thick woods. In a few brief seconds, the animal was out of sight but Morgana could still hear its gut-wrenching song. For the first time in her life, she realized how similar the neigh of a horse was to a screaming human.
Morgana felt the urge to run home, at least what was rest of it. Camelot was standing here, right in front of, but the once strong and proud castle was just a ruin now, a shadow of what it was, and a light smoke escaped from the remains. "The citadel is impregnable," Arthur kept saying. She swore she would have laughed thinking of the irony of the situation if she wasn't washed out of energy. She just vaguely smiled instead and started walking towards the castle.
The path wasn't easy, Morgana had to wend her way between the dead bodies and she stumbled on her long dress a few times. Though she had only been walking for an hour, she felt like she had been for days, and hunger and thirst weakened her all the more. She had now reached the lower town and the citadel wasn't far anymore. Soon, she thought, everything would get better, she would see Arthur and he would explain her everything. Even if there was a great chance that he had flew the castle or, worse, that he had been killed in the fight, she hold on to the idea that she would soon be with him, because right now, that idea was the only hope she had left.
She was completely absorbed in her thoughts when a sound coming from behind her made her start.
"Morgana…" whispered a voice. She quickly turned around but there was nothing to see.
She opened her mouth, and with a trembling voice asked "Who's there? Show yourself." There was no answer.
Morgana walked to the nearest body, and with a feeble hand, she took the dead man's sword right out of his cold hand. There was blood on it, but she didn't mind. She felt better now, more confident. She was good with a sword, she could protect herself. She refused to waste more time and started walking again.
"You didn't hear anything. There's no one here. The thirst makes you hallucinate, that's all," she tried to convince herself. But still, she was moving more slowly now, paying attention to every detail, to every noise, and ready to defend herself if someone attacked her.
She was in the citadel's court when she heard the voice again. "Morgana…" it said. She was sure this time, it wasn't the thirst, or the hunger, or the tiredness talking. There was someone there. All her members were shaking, but she was ready for a fight if needs be. Her sword was raised and she had adopted a solid posture.
"Who's here?" she managed to say. "Stop hiding, I know you're here."
She pricked up her ear, in the hope of finally getting an answer. But she heard nothing but the wind.
She was about to climb the steps in front of the entrance when she was swallowed by a strange feeling. She felt like a presence, like she was being watched from behind. She slowly turned around, still holding on to her sword, to face whoever was there. Morgana had thought it would be a knight, or a bandit, but she hadn't expected that.
"Hello, Morgana," said the old friend.
"Guinevere?" Morgana said in surprise. "What are you doing here?"
The two women hadn't seen each other in years, six more precisely. Guinevere was the only daughter of Uther's closest friend and confident, Sir William More and she had been living in Camelot during her entire childhood and adolescence. Though they had spent an awful lot of time together when they were younger, the two girls hated each other. There had always been a kind of sick competition between them, especially for Arthur's affection, and it had become more and more obvious as they grew older. Eventually, to Morgana's great pleasure, Arthur had chosen her and they had gotten married. But she had had little time to savor her victory since, only two weeks after their marriage, Sir More had died and Guinevere had left Camelot. To Morgana's knowledge, she had spent the last six years in the land of the Franks to study their language and find a strategic husband. And now she was standing here, in Camelot's court, holding a beautiful chalice in her hand.
"Morgana, you must drink," said Guinevere and she stretched out her arm so that the cup was only inches away from Morgana.
It gave her the chance to have a closer look: the beaker was in gold and adorned with sapphires and rubies. It truly was a magnificent object.
"What is it?" Morgana asked.
Guinevere ignored the question and simply repeated "You must drink," as she gave her a shy smile.
She had no idea why but Morgana felt attracted to the chalice, and seemed to not be able to take her eyes off of it. She reached out her hand to seize the object and the closer her fingers got to it the better she felt. She was submerged by this strange but amazing feeling of freedom and peace.
Nothing else mattered; she forgot the world around her and focused on the cup. Her fingers were almost touching it now, but before they could stroke the cold metal, a familiar voice made itself heard from the entrance of the castle.
"Don't drink."
Morgana jolted in surprise and quickly retracted her arm. She was now facing a little five year old boy, her son. His large blue eyes were looking right into her emerald ones, and tears were streaming down his face. The feeling of joy that Morgana felt moments ago faded away and no matter how hard she had tried to hold on to it, it was gone now.
The realization that her five year old son was standing right in front of her at the center of a battlefield, crying, smacked her in the face and she climbed the few steps between them. As soon as she reached him, she took him in her arms and she held him. She held him as if a storm would have swept him away if she hadn't. She finally let go of him and inspected him from head to toe.
"Tommy? What are you doing here alone?" the mother said to her son. "Honey, are you okay? Are you hurt?"
The boy didn't answer but kept staring at his mother with tears-filled eyes. She put her hand on his cheek and the contact made her shiver. His skin was so cold, deadly cold.
"Where's your father?" Morgana asked softly, still desperately hoping to find her husband.
When the word "father" came out of her mouth, she saw something in her son's eyes. It was a strange mix of sadness, anger, and something else too. Something she couldn't quite identify. Compassion, it seemed. Yes, compassion.
That's when she understood, her son hadn't answer yet, but she understood. She swore she felt her heart break in thousands little pieces, just like glass. Her vision was blurred by the tears forming in her eyes but she was still able to see what her son did next.
Without looking away from his mother, Thomas Pendragon lifted is arm and pointed at something behind Morgana. She packed up her courage and turned around. The next second she was running down the steps, and through the court.
Her race ended when she reached the cold and inert corpse of her husband and knelt beside him. She let out a scream that broke the unbearable silence left by the dead bodies all around her. Tears were streaming down Morgana's face and left a salty taste on her lips.
Arthur had been stabbed in the stomach but apart from that he didn't seem too scratched. His face, particularly, was intact, and if you focused on it and it only, you could swear he was sleeping.
His eyes were closed, and Morgana was grateful, she couldn't have borne to see them so empty, so dull, so… dead. Whenever he had asked her what she liked the most in him, she had always answered his eyes. And when he had asked her why, she had said: "Because when I look in them, I don't see a King, or a Knight. I see a little boy in a man's body." He hated that.
She put a hand on Arthur's cheek and approached her face to leave a gentle kiss on his cold lips. The last one, she thought.
The sound of a sword being drawn froze her to the bone, she felt her heart stop and for a second she let the fear swallow her. One second, that's all she was going to give it. When she eventually got on her feet and turned around, she saw a hooded man behind her son, holding a sword to his throat.
"Don't drink, mom," Morgana heard him say.
She ran towards him, desperate to stop what was about to happen but the mysterious man was quicker and stroked Thomas' neck with his sword. Blood spilt out of the wound and Morgana felt her world collapsing all around her.
"NO!" she screamed as she fell to the ground, unable to stand anymore.
She couldn't bring herself to watch her son's body so she just closed her eyes and cried, hoping that God would put an end to her misery.
Morgana had never been a religious person. She remembered that when they were little, Arthur and she had to go to church and learn all about Christianity with an old preacher. His name was Father Lewis, and they hated him. He kept telling Morgana that she would be punished for her sins someday. Though she had always thought it was a bunch of lies, she was now beginning to think that he was right.
When she finally reopened her eyes, after what seemed like hours, she noticed that nothing had changed around her, except that the sun was beating down now.
"Such waste…" Guinevere said from behind her.
The woman was beside Arthur's body, and was stroking his hair as if she wanted to tidy it. Morgana felt a hint of jealousy but she was too numb to even pull up a fight.
Guinevere stood up and after she made sure that her dress wasn't too crumpled, walked towards Morgana, still holding the chalice in her hand. When the two women were only inches away from each other, Gwen offered her hand to her old friend who accepted it.
They were now both standing and facing each other, but none of them was talking.
Morgana finally broke the silence and between to sobs said: "I don't understand. What's going on? What do you want from me?"
"I'm here to help you. You must drink."
Morgana was highly doubtful but the cup seemed to have some kind of power over her.
"What do you have to lose?"
She was right, everything and everyone she cared about was either destroyed or dead. She turned to see her husband's body, and then her son's. Thomas tried to warn her, but maybe he was mistaking.
"If you drink this, you will be with them. I promise you." Guinevere continued.
Suddenly, Morgana took the chalice in her hand and Guinevere's voice echoed in her head "What do you have to lose?" But there was another voice too, a friendly voice, and it said "it will kill you." Merlin's voice.
Merlin was one of her closest friends and a great advisor to Arthur. His position at court had never been really clear, but he seemed to not care about it at all. Some thought he was a servant, other thought he was a knight, while other believed he was a sorcerer working for the King. For Morgana, he was just her friend Merlin.
The queen lifted the cup to her lips and drank, ignoring her son's prayers and Merlin's warning. After all, hadn't she spent the last hours crying and praying God to end her life?
She took one sip, then a second, and a third. When she finished the chalice, she dropped it to the floor and waited. She waited but nothing seemed to happen. She looked at Guinevere who was smiling now, but her smile was everything but warm. Morgana took a few steps backwards.
"What did you do to me?" she asked her rival.
Breathing seemed harder now, and every inspiration was more painful than the last. She instinctively brought her hand to her throat but there was nothing she could do, not anymore. And as she was slipping into the abyss, she heard Guinevere's laugh. God, she hated that laugh.
The last thing she saw was the cloud-free sky and then nothing. Darkness. But she could still hear Merlin's voice calling her name. "Morgana" he said, "Morgana!"
The voice was louder now, as if he was right beside her. The pain was gone, she realized, and the sun wasn't so hot anymore.
"Morgana!" Merlin screamed, and she felt someone shaking her.
When she opened her eyes, the sky was gone, and had been replaced by a ceiling made out of stone. It was her chambers'.
"My lady, are you awake?" Merlin said, still shaking her a little.
"Merlin?" she managed to asked.
"You had a bad dream, Morgana. I was walking through the corridors when I heard you screaming, so I thought I'd wake you up."
It took Morgana a while to register what he was saying, but as soon as she understood she sat up on her bed, now fully awake. Still a bit shook up by her dream, her heart was beating hard in her chest and her head was pounding.
Nightmares weren't something new to her. For as long as she could remember, she had always suffered from a troubled sleep and though Gaius, the court physician, did his best to help her, dreams kept haunting her at night.
Morgana turned to her right but found that the other side of the bed was empty.
"Where's Arthur?" she asked Merlin softly, half awake, half asleep.
Morgana felt the need to share every one of her nightmares with Arthur, because he was the only one who could understand, and he was the only one who knew, just as well as her, that they were always more than dreams, though he would have never admitted it.
"A council." Merlin replied shyly, perfectly aware that this answer would never satisfy his Queen.
"In the middle of the night?" Morgana retorted as she got out of bed.
Merlin tried to figure out the best way to answer this question, but he knew that whatever he'd say, she'd go after Arthur anyway.
He opted for a simple "Yes, urgent matters."
Morgana looked at him with a little smile and raised one of her eyebrows.
"You really are awful at this, you know." she said as she brushed past him and headed to the door.
Merlin knew he had to stop her from leaving her chambers. Arthur's orders were clear. "I don't care what you do, but keep Morgana away from the dining room, keep her busy." he had said. But it was hopeless, Morgana did as she pleased and nobody could command her.
Merlin gave up; he didn't even understand why Arthur had asked him that in the first place. It's not like he was with one of his mistresses, he really had a council. And as far as Merlin knew, Morgana was very involved in Camelot's politics and attended to most of the meetings. He didn't see any reason to keep this one a secret. Unless, there were things Arthur didn't want his wife to know.
"There's nothing I can say to keep you from going?" he tried one last time.
"You know there's not." she replied.
Then she walked through the door, barefoot and wearing nothing but her nightgown.
The corridors were empty, and the only sound that made itself heard was Morgana's steps on the cold ground.
Still a little shook up by her dream, she decided to stop by her son's chambers. She needed to make sure he was okay. "They're never just dreams" she thought.
When she reached the door, she slowly opened it and made sure she didn't wake him up. There was very little light be she could still see him. He seemed to be sleeping peacefully. Morgana felt the urge to hold him in her arms but she refrained from doing so. Instead, she watched him for a little while.
It didn't matter that her marriage was a disaster, her and Arthur had at least succeeded in making something good. He was her pride and joy, and she wouldn't give him away for the world.
"Don't, worry, I'm not gonna let anything happen to you." she whispered softly, so softly that it was barely audible.
After a few minutes, she walked away and closed the door without a noise.
Morgana was now heading to the dining room where most of the councils took place, desperate to finally discover what Merlin had tried to hide her. "Probably another mistress," she thought. She was used to it now, after six years. And oddly enough, she appreciated the fact that Arthur did his best to always keep it a secret.
The dining room was at the junction of two corridors that formed a "T". Morgana wasn't far now – the room was on her right a few meters away – and as she got closer to it, she noticed that the doors were open and she slowed down to focus on the conversation going on inside. Of course, from that distance the voices were almost inaudible – it was more of a buzzing – but as she slowly approached, she managed to identify some of them. There were three men, maybe four, and she easily recognized Arthur among them. "So he really was in a meeting," she thought.
She pricked her ear up and understood a few bits of the conversation: "… post them at the boarder…", "…don't do anything until I tell you to…", "…doesn't come out of this room…"
Morgana stopped walking when she reached the dining room, and turned her head to the right so she could have a look inside.
There were indeed four men, including Arthur who was, as usual, sitting on his royal chair at the end of the table. She recognized two of the men with Arthur: one was Sir Godwin, the most influential member of the King's council; the other was Sir Ellis, the informant in chief at Cenred's court. The third man was unknown to her but he bore the Pendragon emblem. Mysterious documents and what seemed to be a map were on the table.
The three knights were all looking at Arthur, as if they were waiting for him to talk, but the King remained silent, thoughtful, his body resting against the back of his chair, his right elbow on the arm-rest and his index stroking his mouth. The unknown man was standing on his left, while Sir Ellis was sitting on a chair on the right side of the table. Sir Godwin had a hand on the right arm-rest of the king's chair and was leaning towards him to whisper in his ear.
Morgana had a knot in her stomach and fear took hold of her. She didn't like that, not at all.
Suddenly, Arthur looked up at her. He was followed by Sir Godwin, then the stranger and finally Sir Ellis turned his head to look at her, but she kept gazing at her husband and he didn't look away either. Of course, the conversation had ended the second he realized she was here and the atmosphere was now palpable.
The couple kept on looking at each other for a few more seconds until Arthur rose from his chair and walked towards her. When Arthur reached her, he gave her a vague smile before he put his hands on each side of the double door and closed it, locking his wife out.
So, what did you think ? I know the fact that the whole chapter was a dream is a bit disappointing because the story is not moving forward. But i gave you a lot of hints of what's to come in the following chapters (Gwen, the war, and other stuff that i'm not going to mention because it would ruin it). Anyway, please review, it would mean the world to me :) One last thing, if i made some english mistakes, please tell me :)