"Morgana, please, tell me what's wrong," Merlin begged. Morgana clenched her teeth, hoping the action would be enough to stop her screaming at Arthur's manservant. She stopped and listened as he caught up with her in the darkened corridor, flinching as he took her elbow and turned her to face him. "You've been avoiding me for a week," Merlin stated, releasing his grip on her thin arm. "If I've done something to upset you, I promise I never meant -"

"- You lied to me," she whispered, unable to hold back the single tear that escaped from her right eye. She watched Merlin's face cloud over with confusion, refusing to elaborate any further on her interruption. His eyebrows knitted together as he tried to make some sense of what she was telling him and she could see in his large, blue eyes that he had no idea what she was talking about. That only made it worse.

"Morgana, I -" he began, shaking his head, obviously about to deny what she accused him of. Not that she blamed him; as far as he knew he'd done nothing wrong. But again, that only made it worse.

Morgana had known from the beginning that any sort of relationship with Merlin was dangerous, not just for him but for her as well. But she'd never expected this…

"I trusted you and you lied to me," she explained a little louder, her voice shaking as her body began to tremble. She had to get away from him before she lost control – his innocent face only served to increase her anger; allowing her torrent of built up emotions to escape her would not be wise in the middle of the corridor where anyone could walk past.

She blinked, letting more tears fall down her cheeks, before whirling around and hurrying down the rest of the corridor. Hopefully he at least knew her well enough not to follow, not yet…

Six months earlier…

Gaius couldn't deny it, not this time. It was too much to be a coincidence. Morgana marched through the castle, fully intent on finding Gaius and demanding that he believe her – she had magic, she just knew it. Gaius may not have counted what she'd already told him as evidence but she didn't need any, she could feel it inside her and it made her feel sick to her stomach with fright.

Scurrying through the large, mainly vacant halls, Morgana swallowed down her tears. While her face may have displayed a confident, determined young woman, deep down she was terrified. Having magic was certainly going to be no picnic, she knew that. Magic was banned in Camelot, punishable only by death, and she wasn't sure that being the King's ward would save her head from the chopping block, or her body from the flames. The normally confident, carefree woman shuddered, trying her hardest to push those sickening thoughts from her mind.

On reaching the court physician's chambers, Morgana barged through the door in a most unladylike manner, all thoughts of knocking politely vanishing in her haste for answers. She stopped, not able to see anyone immediately.

"Gaius?" she called out. The raven-haired boy who poked his head out from behind a shelf was not Gaius but Merlin. "Oh, Merlin," she stuttered, a little flustered. When marching all the way over to the physician's chambers with her mind set so firmly, she hadn't thought of an excuse in the possible – and now very real – event that Merlin would be there instead of Gaius. "I was looking for Gaius," she pointed out, feeling a bit stupid seeing as she had just called his name.

"I figured," he grinned, his mouth forming a lopsided smile that Morgana had never noticed before.

"Where is he?" she asked; she couldn't let herself get distracted.

"He's tending the King," Arthur's manservant replied. "What's wrong, Morgana? If it's a sleeping potion you need, I'm sure I can make one for you," he offered, retreating back behind the shelf holding bottles containing different potions. A potion! Why didn't you think of that excuse before? she asked herself silently. However, she didn't need to listen to the little voice in her head to know the answer. She'd been too tied up in her thoughts of magic and the terror associated with them to think straight. Terror which crept up on her so suddenly and so violently that she couldn't control the sobs that suddenly escaped from her mouth.

"I don't need a sleeping draught!" she cried, flouncing down dramatically on the wooden bench beside her. "I don't understand anything. I'm so confused, Merlin," she admitted, not entirely sure why she was telling him this. Really, he was the last person she should be talking to about her problem, yet she felt comfortable with him somehow; she guessed she could even, maybe, call him a friend.

"You can trust me, Morgana, you know that," he told her softly, appearing once again from behind the shelf. His lopsided grin had disappeared and been replaced by a genuine look of concern.

"What's happening to me… Merlin, I think it's magic," she whispered. She should have regretted her sudden bout of truthfulness instantly but she couldn't. How could she when Merlin's immediate reaction was to walk over to her and place a comforting, if hesitant hand on her shoulder. "Tell me you believe me," she beseeched him. When he didn't answer, she looked up at him only to see what she believed to be doubt in his eyes. "Merlin, please!" she all but shrieked. She needed someone to believe her, even if it was only a servant. Servant. What are you doing? she reproached herself, the possible consequences of her latest actions suddenly hitting home.

"I'm sorry, Merlin. I'm talking nonsense, don't listen to me. I'm just tired because I haven't been sleeping." Morgana's words tumbled out in her hurry to rectify her mistake. In an attempt to make her exit more dignified than her entrance, she muttered "excuse me" and walked as fast as she possibly could without actually running to the big wooden door.

"Morgana?" Merlin's voice made her pause just long enough to hear him say three words. "I believe you." She sighed; whether it was with relief or more fear than before, Morgana did not know.

"Thank you," she murmured just as the heavy door closed behind her. Her weary body wanted nothing more at that point than to slump against the wood blocking the pair from each other's view, but her mind knew better than to linger where she was. The last thing she wanted was for Merlin to follow her out and find her still there.

She spent the journey back to her own, more luxurious quarters mentally chastising herself for what she'd just done. Never mind the fact that she secretly had magic – which was bad enough on its own – she'd gone and told a servant of all people! No matter how much of a 'friend' she considered Arthur's manservant, Merlin was still just that, a servant. But Arthur tells Gwen things, the little voice inside her head reminded her. It was true, Arthur was extremely close to her maidservant, Guinevere, too close she sometimes thought. And that is exactly what makes their predicament different, the other, more sensible voice argued back. Arthur and Guinevere clearly loved each other – the rights and wrongs of it were not important at this point – whereas Morgana and Merlin had no such relationship, nor did either of them intend to start one. Then why didn't Morgana feel nearly as bad as she should have for confiding in him her biggest, most precious and dangerous secret?

Upon finally reaching the privacy of her room, Morgana slammed the door behind her, probably with slightly more force than necessary. On any other day she might have been impressed with herself – her door was very heavy and slamming it the way she just had required quite a bit of strength for someone of her small build – yet she barely noticed. Turning the key, she locked it, hoping to lock out her secret, Merlin and the rest of the world at least for a little while. She needed time to think and, for that, Morgana needed to be alone.

The young woman crossed her room and threw herself most unceremoniously down on her bed, burying her head in her arms, hoping it would be a comfortable enough position to think out her situation properly. However, it seemed her brain had other ideas. No sooner than she closed her eyes to shut out the light – it was beginning to irritating her aching head – Morgana fell asleep and whether it was the relief of finally having someone believe her or purely because she was very worn out, the troubled woman slept soundly throughout the night, not even stirring when Guinevere knocked to see why she hadn't attended supper. Her problems would have to wait until the morning before she could even think about how to sort them.

A/N: Hello everyone! I'm back with what I hope is going to be a full-length Merlin/Morgana story. I say 'hope' because I know exactly where I want this story to go but I don't know how to get it there. I'm asking, no, begging, for some feedback on this. Feedback will fuel more chapters…

If you have already read my previous Merlin/Morgana story (Coming To terms With Magic), I am well aware that this one starts at roughly the same time but I do plan on going somewhere different with this, I promise. If you haven't read that yet and you get some spare time, please do read it – I'm rather proud of it.

Anyway, hope you enjoy this and let me know what you think. If I could send you all cakes in exchange for reviewing, I would, but I can't so please settle for my gratitude?

P.S. I do not own any of the characters, etc, blah blah blah, and any mistakes are completely my own, for which I can only apologise and hope they're not too major!