AN: So yes, I finally revised my third chapter and now I'd love you to read and review on it. :) Also I'm sorry for any grammart mistakes you may spot. And I finally promise, that the plot I sumarised does start in the next chapter. ^^ Really, it will.

With thanks to my lovely reviewers.

Chapter Three

Alessia concentrated on the stone wall behind her hardly. She really did, mainly because she was linked to it by an iron chain and didn't want to be anymore. But it was useless. Her affinity lay with living things, not with a bloody wall or a chain.

With a sigh she sunk her hands, which she had pressed onto the stones to find anything she could use to get out. Slowly she began to suppose, that the damn witch Morgana or her sister had summoned some curse to keep her from using magic. But she would have felt that, wouldn't she? Also the two of them hopefully didn't know, that she had magic, thinking that she could do nothing more than "seeing" the future in a set of cards or a crystal ball.

At least that had gone right. Their lack of knowledge would be her way to freedom. Also she still knew the castle of Escetia better than Morgana did – she had lived here all her life after all. But the dungeons weren't her territory either and so she was still seeking for a way out, even with her magic.

Briefly Alessia thought of her brother, who had built this part of the prison. It was shocking, even to her, how little she grieved over his death. They had not been very close, but still... Well, I have other problems right now, she thought, when she heard some guards approach to her cell.

„Where do you take me?", she asked, trying to stay calm, while the men were opening her chains and took her with bound hands out of the dungeon, up the stairs. Alessia quickly recognized the way, they were taking. She was brpught to the thrown room. The young woman shuddered, but the guards didn't react to it. Now she was near to them, Alessia realized, that one of them actually was a woman. It probably was no wonder, as Morgause had taken nearly all the men with her to Camelot, where their immortality had turned out to be not so safe.

Again she shuddered, when she thought of all those soldiers, who had died back then. But she didn't have the time to reflect upon those people and the weird feeling she had, a feeling of them being her subjects somehow. Instead the doors of the throne room were opened with an unnecessarily impressing "thud!".

Morgana sat on the throne, upright, her lips painted in a bright red, her ebony hair falling down in perfect waves. Both women knew, that she looked simply amazing and Alessia suddenly thought of how ragged she must appear after one month in the dungeon with little chances to wash herself and none to change her dress. That probably is the purpose of this show, she thought, being mad at herself for falling for such a trick.

"Ah, Princess Alessia.", Morgana smirked, while she enjoyed her opponents angry look. Morgause had taught her, that hate was some sort of a compliment. It meant you changed people, touched them, made them easier to strike upon. Because when they hated somebody, they would react with their emotions, not with the head. That had been the reason, why her sister had talked to her about hate after all: so that she wouldn't make the same mistake as other people. She would be cool and rational in following her hate.

Meanwhile Alessia had discovered Ansley, who was sitting on the steps to Morganas throne. They had built an impressive looking construct around the old seat Cenred had used. The new lady clearly was skilled in self-presentation. Her prisoner hissed aggressively. "Why so angry, auntie?", Ansley asked with what he thought to be an ironic smirk.

Alessia thought, of how she used to hate it, when Ansley called her "aunt". Now she had different problems, but though... It was not only the fact, that she was only six or seven years his senior. It was the feeling of being old she got, when he called her like that, and yet she had never really lived. She didn't want to be reminded of how old she was for an unmarried woman and of how she had never seen much more than her tower in the castle of Escetia. At least not with her own eyes.

There had always been a raven or a mouse to lend her its eyes to see. But that was not the same thing. She had seen the world. She had observed Cenred, when he dealt with problems regarding his country. She had sighted how Morgause killed him. She had watched with horror when his men headed to Camelot, from where they would never return. But it had always been though the eyes of some inconspicuous animal, whose eyes she had lent herself. It had not been like living in reality.

And she had also observed it, when Ansley disclaimed the crown and gave it to Morgana, who took it, as she said, as an attorney of her sister. Her nephew should have been king, he should have ruled, as he was the nephew of the former king, Cenred, too. But he left his kingdom to those witches. Alessia shuddered with hate. Escetia was a proud country and it was not for sale to any sorceress coming around.

"Have you finally regained your sense, Alessia?", Morgana asked coolly, only to see her opponent straighten herself to shake her head decisively. "Well then", the new regent answered in a tone, which nearly seemed to be happy, "your execution is planned for the day after tomorrow. I suppose you don't have any other appointments." Again Alessia fixed the lady on the throne sharply with her eyes. "Indeed I haven't.", she answered, determined to die with the honor and pride of one, who had true royal blood. She'd show this bastard daughter and her own nephew, what it meant to be of true nobility.

The guards took her to the dungeons again, while Morgana looked at her somewhat sadly. She didn't want to kill Alessia. Of course she was to weak, feeling something like regret at the death of somebody, who opposed her. Morgause would have told her so. But still: She didn't hate the princess, as she hated Uther or Camelot. Also a living Lady Alessia would have been more useful to her.

The people loved that stupid woman. They did so for next to no reason, but nevertheless they probably would have followed her. Or at least some of them. Sometimes she had been standing on a balcony next to her brother, smiling and waving. But the rest of the time she had been shut up in a tower of the castle, where Cenred had kept her with her grandmother. Morgana wondered why she didn't hate her brother and took the possibility to be free in the new regime with Morgause on the throne.

Surely she, herself, would have felt different. Morgana knew very well, how it felt to be betrayed by those you loved. The situation was not quite the same, but yet... the similarities were striking enough for her to linger on her own memories for one moment – one moment to long. The bitter feeling came back, bitter as the poison Merlin had given her.

Merlin... The witch nearly sighed when she thought of him. Still she remembered the tender touch of his lips in her dream. It confused her and she wasn't used to being confused anymore. Morgause had given her security. She had been sure of herself and of her goals and now there was this stupid dream about Merlin and herself and a kiss, that had confused her utterly.

She still hated Merlin for what he had done to her. And still she didn't know why he had tried to poison her. Had he always hated her? Had he always wanted to see her dead? But even if it had been like that, she still asked herself, why he had chosen this exact moment to kill her. Camelot was dying and he thought of nothing else, than poisoning her? Somehow that didn't sound like the Merlin she knew.

Yet it seemed she had not known him at all.

Ansley, that little rat, had noticed her occupation of mind and began with his usual attempts to do some boot-licking on her. "What is it, my queen? May I satisfy a wish of yours to release you from your dark thoughts?", he purred. Morgana turned away disgustedly. "I ain't your queen.", she corrected him harshly, before she left the room abruptly.

She was to visit her sister again, as she did so often, although there never was a change in Morgauses condition. But the quiet in the queens chambers gave her the opportunity to think about things. And it awakened her desire for revenge again... She still didn't know who had done that to her sister, but when she found out, she would kill that person in a very displeasing way to be sure.

Again the Lady Morgana asked herself who the culprit was. There had been no more than three persons in the room: this man, who had once come to Camelot to become a knight and whose name she had forgotten, Gaius and Merlin. In none of them, safe Gaius, she had sensed magic, and the old physician wasn't strong enough to do that to a high priestess of the Old Religion. Morgause had shown her how to open her mind and feel magic around her, which also included magic in other people. She was quite good in it so there had to have been another person in the room.

If she found that other person, he or she would wish he'd never been born.