So be it

It was victory. But she couldn't imagine where Mordred were. It was he who was supposed to see Arthur suffer. Arthur had to die at his hand, so the witch let him live, to live chained in the darkness of the dungeon.

The new queen sat down on her throne, waiting for the prisoners to be brought. Their courage and determination had already started to drive her crazy. Yet, neither the former king, nor the knight were willing to let her win. Even in chains they dared to defy her, even on their knees they stood proud. But the High Priestess laughed. Nothing could save them any more.

"Your Highness" A young soldier tried to get her attention, his voice was fainted as fear invaded him. "Someone has asked for an audience with the queen." And the soldier bowed, hoping the High Priestess was happy enough with her victory that he would excused his clumsiness.

"Bring him here" Her voice was cold. As she met her brother's glance, Morgana put on a content smirk. "What has happened, dear brother? Not so mighty now?"

The war had weakened him. Still he hadn't suffered as much as she wanted. Soon he would be dead. The very thought made her feel powerful, much more powerful than she had ever been. Finally, she'd won.

"And he asked me to deliver this to you." The soldier dared to speak again and he gave her a little, white, wild flower.

The witch took the little flower and watched it surprised. It'd been a very long time since she'd received flowers, there was only one person who used to bring her that type of flowers. Merlin.

Morgana let the flower fall down on the ground, but still she couldn't take her eyes away from it. It both scared and thrilled her.

The door broke down with a strong bang, catching her attention. He stood for a moment, defiant and mighty, dark and misty like a ghost. He was alone. It was the first thing she notice. Then he stepped in, walking like he'd owned the world. His face was hidden under the dark hood of his cloak.

The stranger displayed no fear in front of her. In fact, he took the goblet from her hand and sipped from her wine. The witch watched him with mixture of surprise, intimidation and hatred. Even the knights were shocked. It was clear the cloaked stranger was no friend of Morgana and his self confidence was annoying her to the point she was about to burst out. Eventually, the dark queen regained her firm posture.

"What are you doing here?" Morgana demanded to know. The stranger was hardly impressed by her tone. He picked up the flower from the ground while he kept ignoring the queen. "I think I've asked you something. What are…."

"I see you seem to consider such flowers unworthy of you attention, My Lady." The stranger's voice was filled with sarcasm. His eyes shone gold and the flower turned into a scarlet rose. "May I dare to think it suits your taste, My Lady or do you prefer gold and gems?"

"Who are you?" Morgana raised her tone, sicked of his sarcasm.

"Gold should be then." And the petals of the rose were soon covered in gold. The stranger offered the rose to Morgana again. "Is it suit for a queen, My Lady?"

The queen watched him for a moment, unable to decide if she should accept the gift.

"What do you want in return?" She spoke, convinced that such a gift wouldn't come without a price.

"For the scarlet rose I might have asked for a kiss; the wild flower would have cost you a genuine laugh, but this, this is for free."

"But this is gold?!"

"And it's cold and lifeless. When I was a kid I used to watch flowers blooming in the spring. It pained me to see then dying just a couple of days after, but I guess it made me love them even more. Have you never done it, My Lady?"

"Would you stop calling me like that?"

"Like what, My Lady?"

"Calling me "my lady" in this way of you." The stranger smirked or at least Morgana thought she'd seen a smirk on his face.

"Has no one given such flower to you? Little, fragile flowers, but fresh and so full of live. Flowers which scented the entire room with their perfume."

"What do you want?" Somehow his words had reached an area she prefered to stay untouched. "Those flowers are long dead and so is the friendship that used to bind us."

"May I ask what happened?" The stranger's question made her acknowledged she'd already said too much.

"No, you may not." The witch cut him harshly.

"And yet I insist."

"He lied to me, betrayed me." She threw at him "but this is not your business."

"And you never asked why he did it? Have you been honest with him? Have you been loyal to him?"

"I told him more than he needed to know."

"Do you really? It means you thought him unworthy of attention if you considered a single petty secret being too much for a friend. Have you ever asked yourself how he must have felt when you chose a complete stranger upon him?"

"Morgause?! But she was my sister."

"You didn't know it at time."

"She had magic."

"So having magic meant more for you than a friend who decided to guard your secret even if he didn't have magic? Even if he couldn't understand."

"She was like me. I couldn't have known he is…" and she stopped before say "sorcerer". The witch didn't know why, but she simply couldn't say aloud. It seemed strange. The High Priestess couldn't imagine Merlin having magic.

All those times she'd thought he'd been vulnerable; all those times she'd considered she had the upper hand. If Mordred was right, if he was Emrys and he was, Merlin could have killed her for the start. But why didn't he do it? Yet Morgana refused to think about it. It would made her feel weak and she wasn't weak. Not anymore.

In fact, he was the weak one because he allowed his feeling stay in his way, wasn't he? Sensing the stranger's glance directed to her, Morgana felt uncovered.

She scolded herself for even allowing those thoughts to run in her mind. And feelings. Which feelings? He'd poisoned her. Why the very thought he could have killed her any time and yet he let her live made her feel weaker than him? Why had that bloody stranger to arise so many questions in her mind. The witch had never wanted to know. It was enough he'd betrayed her. She didn't need to know more.

"So you considered that him not having magic made him unworthy of being your friend, didn't it?"

"What do you know about it?" The witch replied furious.

"Sorry, it took me so long." he interrupted her, "a mad witch decided to collapse the roof of a cave on my head." Morgana let a shadow of fear to darken her face, but she was quickly back in check with her feelings. "And your soldiers weren't really friendly."

"Emrys." She muttered, then as she pressed her nails in the arms of the throne to control her emotions, Morgana went on more confident this time. "Where are they?"

"Dead." Merlin added simply.

"Mordred." She already knew the answer.

"Mordred, too." His calm killed her. That hurt. It wasn't supposed to happen.

"He was only a child." The witch allowed him to see her pain. This wasn't the Merlin she'd used to know, the compassionate friend ready to sacrifice himself for others and even as enemies he'd showed her mercy. It was wrong, terribly wrong. When had he changed so much? Had he always been like that and she'd been too blind to see it? The witch couldn't think about it. The very thought would bring back the memory of him poisoning her. She'd been an idiot to allow his questions turn her world upside down. She was an idiot to think it might have been her fault too. Morgana instinctively raised her hands to her neck as she couldn't breath properly.

"How many kids have you killed?" Morgana didn't answer. What could she say?

"What do you want?"

"To kill you. I guess." That was too much. The witch casted a spell and threw it on him, but the warlock blocked it with a petty blink of an eye.

"Impressive. Not impressive enough, though. Thanks for making me enter that cave. I've finally found who I really am. I walk in the light. "

Morgana tried to run away, but he blocked her way.

"Sit down, please! We need to have a talk. Like two grown-ups."

"You have no idea how much you've changed. Where is the boy that used to care for everybody?"

"Where is the girl that used to care for everybody?"

For a moment it was silence.

"You killed her."

"You broke his heart." Merlin answered to her remark. Now, they were face to face. She could feel his eyes piercing her, even behind his hood.

"I blame myself for what you've become. There were times I wonder if you had been here as a friend, should I have chosen differently."

"But you hadn't." The witch threw at him. He had no idea how many nights she'd spent thinking about the way her life would have been, if he'd been at her side. Why had he to choose Arthur?

"It wasn't easy."

"Yet it wasn't impossible." The High Priestess argued.

Arthur should have tried to find a way out of there, but somehow the conversation captivated him. He threw a glance to Gwen and he noticed she was listening too. Who was he? At first he'd thought it was Merlin, but then the former king realized it couldn't be. So someone Morgana had trusted had betrayed her. He couldn't know what happened, but definitely it had affected her more than she allowed them to see.

As Arthur listened more he understood that the stranger, the one she'd called Emrys, was the same man who'd hurt her. But she'd hurt him, too and… Why had they to be so idiots and failed to notice the obvious? It was too complicated, though.

Whatever had happened, Arthur found out he knew nothing about Morgana.

"I'm not an expert, but wouldn't be easy to forgive each other and admit you're in love? I mean you hurt each other enough?" The two magic beings watched Arthur surprised.

"Good idea, princess." Gwaine mocked him. "Like Morgana isn't powerful enough alone. She needs another powerful sorcerer as mad as her. Honestly, I don't want to see the day they unite their forces."