A/N: Sorry this took so long! Goodness gracious . . . I had this done two days ago, but my laptop, for whatever reason, is having issues with google accounts, which makes signing in through email very difficult. So . . . I'm using this lovely snow day to utilize my parent's laptop to get the job done.
This chapter may been a little choppy, sorry. It's one of those 'I need to get to a certain place but getting there is hard' kind of chapters.
This chapter is dedicated to my lone reviewer, namelessandgameless. I'm so happy you took the time.
Gwen POV
After her talk with Morgana, Gwen walked her back to her chambers. Morgana seemed distraught, enough so that the next stop the soon-to-be queen made was to the physician's chambers. When Merlin had been upset in the past week, he had retreated there more than to his own quarters. It made sense; Merlin was such a social creature.
Sure enough, when she opened the door, the new Court Sorcerer was sitting at the long table, hands in his hair as he stared at the pages of a thick book of magical knowledge. Stared without seeing, Gwen thought, narrowing her eyes at the tenseness of his shoulders.
"Hi Gwen," Merlin said without turning, and his voice sounded breathless, as if he'd been running.
"Are you alright?" Gwen asked quietly, stepping to stand at his side.
"Fine," Merlin said quietly, but his left fingers touched his right sleeve briefly, almost absent-mindedly. Gwen noticed that the book was about healing magic, and the page he had been staring at was the beginning of a chapter on ridding oneself of scars.
"Oh, Merlin," Gwen said, heart breaking.
"I'm fine," Merlin said again, still looking resolutely at the paper. "Just . . . wish that I would stop being reminded of it."
"It's only been a week," Gwen said gently. "It'll get better."
"But it will never completely heal," Merlin said as Gwen reached forward to gently close the book. "It would be easier if I could forget about it."
"Give it time, Merlin," Gwen said, gently drawing the young man in for a hug. He wound his arms around her waist loosely as she gently drew him up to lay his head against her shoulder. "You just need time."
She felt him nod his head against her shoulder. "I feel so silly," he sniffed.
Gwen laughed. "You've always been a bit silly my friend." He laughed as well as he pulled back, smile stretching across his face.
"You always manage to cheer me up, Gwen. You'll make a wonderful Queen."
"Hush!" Gwen said with another laugh. "That's not public knowledge yet!"
"Come on," Merlin groaned, picking up the book to place it in the bag that hung from his shoulder. "You need to tell the people eventually, I'm sure there's already a couple rumors going around."
"Just a bit more time," Gwen said. "The people are still getting used to magic being legal, let's not add a new ruler into the mix."
"Excuses, excuses," Merlin teased, shaking his head as he began walking towards the door that Gwen had left open.
"But legitimate excuses," Gwen said, catching up with her friend. Merlin simply smiled in response. "How are you adjusting?" Merlin's life had changed rather dramatically in the last few days, he now had rooms near Arthur's, and he no longer lived in fear of his magic being discovered. Add in the fact that he was no longer a servant and so had almost all of his time to himself, and Gwen had been wondering how her erstwhile friend had been faring.
"I'm alright, reeling a bit, but . . . yeah." Merlin's voice petered out as he bit at his lower lip. "I am doing my best, but half of the time in the morning I wake up wondering why Gaius let me sleep in." He smiled wryly. "It appears that my life in general will get itself put back together in time."
Gwen left Merlin at his door to go back to her own rooms, but first, she needed to check on Morgana.
Her knock on the door went unanswered, but she could hear Morgana's voice within, so she pushed the door open. Apparently, the young woman had taken her advice, and was now resting. Or, had been. Now, however, the seer was tossing and turning on her bed, letting out small noises of distress.
Gwen hurried to her once-friend's side and shook the woman's shoulder gently, attempting to wake her. Attempting, and failing. Perhaps it was because she was seeing something in the dream, perhaps Morgana was simply a heavier sleeper than she had been in the past. Either way, Gwen would stay until she awoke.
It wasn't long before Morgana jolted upright with a cry, startling Gwen into standing from the chair she had taken by the bed.
"Are you alright?" she asked, settling back into the chair as Morgana took several deep breaths.
"I don't know," the young woman answered. "I . . . the dream was confusing. They often are but . . . usually I can tell what they mean. This one I . . . someone was screaming, a girl. She was scared, and someone was cackling. An older person, though I can't rightly remember why I have that impression. After that everything blurred together, though I think I saw Gwain's face, and Arthur's and Merlin's. I can't remember their expressions though . . . which . . . I don't even know what to do to stop whatever it is from happening!"
"Do you usually?"
"I tried to warn Arthur a number of times of things I saw in my dreams before I left," Morgana answered, and continued with a small eye roll, "but he never listened. So I have no idea if it would have stopped anything. I like to think so."
"Do any of your dreams ever come back?"
"You mean do I ever dream the same thing again? Sometimes, if it's important enough. Sometimes if bits of the dream have been fulfilled but there are still some things that need to happen."
"Your dreams," Gwen asked, "do they always come true?"
"So far they have, all but one. Merlin and Yara say that that will not always be the case, and I sincerely want to believe them. My dreams are often horrible, and there is one that has not yet come to pass that . . . I do not wish to think about."
"Oh?" Gwen didn't want to pry, not necessarily, but talking with Morgana like this again, like a friend, felt . . . good.
"I . . . Merlin says that this dream was more of a warning, something that could have happened had I stayed on my path of darkness." Morgana took a deep breath before continuing. "I was to be killed by Emrys."
"But . . . isn't Merlin Emrys?"
Morgana nodded. "Apparently, the Great Dragon-"
"The what?" Gwen interrupted.
"The Great Dragon," Morgana repeated. "Kilghara, the dragon that was chained up under Camelot for a long time, he has prophetic abilities. Apparently he told Merlin that Mordred and I would bring about Arthur's death."
"He told Merlin . . . Merlin talks to dragons? Dragons can talk?"
"I'm not going to explain it if he hasn't already," Morgana said, shaking her head. "It's the kind of secret that is his to keep. It is . . . something situated deep in his soul, his very being, as I understand it. Besides, did you not just hear a word I said? I was prophesized to bring about my brother's death!"
"I heard you," Gwen said gently, pushing aside her feelings about Merlin still having kept a secret. That could be dealt with later, when she had time to analyze that fact. "I also heard you say that Emrys was supposed to kill you. And as I don't believe that that will happen, I think that we don't have to be too worried about it."
"Gwen, don't be hard on him. Merlin has a lot on his mind, and it has not been long. Just give him time. It's likely that he won't even remember that you don't know until something he does makes you aware of it."
"That would be just like Merlin," Gwen agreed with a smile.
For the first time in a long time, the two young women shared a laugh.
A/N: Review please? Reviews make me happy. And they make me more likely to try to fit writing into my schedule. :)
