(*_*) (*_*) (*_*) CHAPTER SEVEN (*_*) (*_*) (*_*)

This routine that the two of them had fallen into changed one day, five months after Merlin had left Camelot.

Gwen had given up being in the room next to Morgana and would now leave a gown and some slippers by the bed so she could slip them on easily before going to Merlin's room.

Morgana woke up screaming – Uther had just thrust his sword through Merlin's stomach on their wedding day, his blood splattering all over her white dress.

She cried for her Emrys knowing that he wouldn't come when he stepped out of the shadows and enveloped her in his arms.

"I'm here Gana." a calming voiced told her.

"Em?" She hiccupped "You're not real." She shock her head.

"I am Gana I promise. I'm here, took a long time. But I finally learnt how to do it."

"Do what?" Morgana asked, even if this was just a bit of grief whatever-this-was smelt and felt like Merlin and she enjoyed being in its arms.

"I can jump from spot to spot using magic now" She looked up at him and saw his eyes flash gold. Next minute they were in his old room before they flashed gold again and they were back on Morgana's bed. "See, this way Uther will never know. And I can stay in Camelot, with you and Arthur."

"You're really here."

He kissed her on the crown of her head. "I'm really here Gana. Now go to sleep."

"And you'll be here when I wake up?" She questioned him not wanting this to be a dream and him not here.

"As long as the king doesn't come in or the guards. If Arthur or Gwen come in. I'll still be here and if I'm not it's because I was nearly caught. But I'll try and be here when you wake up."

"Promise?"

He laughed "Promise, now sleep."

"What about my nightmare's, my visions." She asked again scared that when she slept she would see him die again.

"Not going to happen. I promise."

"But…"

"Morgana," Merlin laughed again "Sleep, you look like you've not slept properly for months."

"I haven't, you've not been here" She murmured as she cuddled closer to her warlock.

"Well now I am and you can." He replied as he lent against the wall at the head of the bed.

"Love you Merlin" She said sneaking one kiss before she went to sleep

"Love you too Morgana" He replied before sing a lullaby in Gaelic in her head.

'That's nice' was the last comprehensible thing he heard her say before she fell into her first deep slumber in five months, feeling safe and happy.


The next morning Gwen walked into her lady's room ready to see an empty bed. Instead she saw Morgana fully dressed laughing with Merlin.

"Merlin?"

"Hey Gwen!" Merlin looked up and gave her a lopsided grin as if he never left.

"You're not allowed to be in Camelot on pain of death. If Uther see you he will have you killed!"

"Good thing he wont see me then."

"What?"

Merlin and Morgana stood up, she clung to his side and he stuck an arm around her waist and pulled her even closer, he looked up and offered his hand to Gwen.

"Do you trust me?" He asked simply

"With my life." She replied honestly not knowing why Merlin asked..

"Then take me hand."

The maid looked at his face, his eyes begging her to take it. She looked at Morgana who nodded and, with a gulp, she took the warlock's hand.

"Hold on tight." Merlin said, Gwen squeezed his hand tightly and watched Merlin's eyes flash gold and the three had vanished.


"What the HELL?" Arthur cursed as Gwen, Morgana and… Merlin appeared in him rooms. How the hell did they appear in his room?

"Hey Arthur, long time no see" Merlin replied.

"What are YOU doing here?" was the other thing Arthur can think of asking Merlin.

"Why is everyone asking me that, I can go if you want" Merlin suggested.

"NO!" Arthur and Gwen yelled.

"Don't you dare Em." Morgana said threateningly.

Merlin laughed at them and soon they joined in. "How did you do that?" Arthur asked him.

"Do you remember Anhora, Arthur?" Merlin asked.

"Keeper of the unicorns, what, about – ahhh" Arthur understood suddenly.

"You've got it." Merlin smiled.

"Can you explain to us?" Gwen asked tersely.

"Anhora could vanish into thin air and appear somewhere else, I can do that and turn invisible as well." Merlin explained. "It's pretty much all I've been working on since I left, now I can stay by Gana and Arthur." Gwen gave him a look and he quickly added "and you Gwen of course, and no one will know."

"Gana? Em?" Arthur asked, "I understand Gana. That makes sense seeing as her name is Morgana. But your name is Merlin. Where did Morgana get Em from?" It had been annoying him for sometime as he couldn't work it out and he didn't think it would be a good idea to ask the king's ward, not in the state she had been in earlier.

"Damn," Whispered Merlin

'Sorry, I didn't think when your name became Em. It just seemed right.'Morgana apologized in her head.

'No problem, I like it. A mix of man and Magic. Like me. We just won't tell him'

'But…'

'Gana. I can get away without telling him.'

"She just did." Merlin said, the conversation in his and Morgana's head taking only a few seconds.

"Come on tell me. Stop pretending to be interesting." Arthur persisted before the metaphorically penny dropped "Merlin when did you start learning magic?"

"Didn't I tell you before I left?" Merlin tried to back out of a corner he just found himself in. Cursing loudly in his mind, causing the king's ward who was still leant against him to giggle.

"No." Gwen joined in the questioning, "The first time I knew you could do magic was just now. And your eyes flashed gold."

"Do they really?" Merlin was interested.

"You didn't know?" Morgana asked "Em did you really not know your eyes flash gold whenever you use magic?"

"Nope" He replied popping the 'p' "I never thought the glamour would fall."

"Glamour?" Arthur asked.

"Ahh damn, can we start this again and pretend I didn't tell you that I can do magic?" Merlin requested hopefully

"Not a chance in hell. Answer the questions, glamour?"

"Well the glamour is what keeps my eyes from being permanently gold."

"So why do they flash gold?" Gwen asked pointing out the obvious.

"I never knew they did," Merlin ran his spare hand through his messy black hair. "Evidently the two different spells cancel each other out."

"And the magic…"

"Well… that's slightly more complicated" Merlin tried to get away from this line of questioning, scared that they would find out about Morgana's secret

"Tell" Arthur ordered him, Merlin recognized it as an order from his king and so he did but not before warning Morgana.

I've got to tell him, that was an order from my king. I'm not going to mention you so don't worry, I'll just say that the druids didn't like me because I was better at magic than them. I'll keep you out of it'

'Emrys you don't have to do that'

'Gana they have no need to know about you.'

'I think they do.'

'It's your choice, Gana just don't regret it afterwards'

"Have you ever done anything on complete impulse Arthur?"

"What's this got to do with magic?" Arthur was confused.

"Just answer the question" Merlin replied tiredly.

"Yes, fighting."

"No, I mean. When you first picked up the sword did you know how to do things with it before any training."

"Well no, that's ridiculous. Everyone needs training, I knew how to do some things but they were simple things, like I had watched my father do them and I tried to repeat them."

"Ok, if you had never seen your father use the sword, or anyone. You didn't really know what a sword was, would you have been able to perform complex maneuvers with it – the first time you picked it up."

"No" Arthur replied "But-"

"Gwen." Merlin interpreted him "Same question."

"No." She replied truthfully.

"Right, imagine magic like the sword. Anyone could do it with proper training. The best people are those who have seen their parents use it and want to copy them. Like Arthur with the sword, the younger the better" He nodded his head towards the prince and sat on the table, Morgana immediately sat on his lap and he moved his arms around her waist and breathed in her scent. "Are you following so far?"

The two listeners nodded and Morgana turned around and looked at Merlin in surprise.

'How are you doing that?'

Merlin had been singing in her head again, while he was still talking to the others.

'Practice.' He continued to sing to her and went back to his conversation.

"Imagine a child who has never seen the sword before, didn't really know what it was but picked it up and performed flawless maneuvers with it. The things that people struggled with making complete sense to him and the simple things needing more effort. As this young swordsmen grew up he would be able to watch someone fight and after a few tries was able to repeat the actions. Sometimes when he was under pressure it was more difficult because he would be trying to hard, but when it was needed he would pull through. Replace the sword for magic and I'm that child." He took a breath and answered Arthur other question.

"The glamour was something I put on without thinking much about it. I was three-ish and I have a faint memory of being teased for the colour of my eyes the next morning they were blue. I think people forgot about them being gold, no ones ever mentioned it before."

"Merlin…"

"Since I've come to Camelot, I've made a promise to myself so many times and for the first time I'll say that promise out loud. I, Emrys Merlin, promise that my magic will not be used against Camelot or against Arthur Pendragon, my king. I promise that I will do everything I can to help my king in everything he does. On my magic so I now swear." His eyes flashed gold again and Gwen, Morgana and Arthur saw the threads of magic tie themselves between the crown prince and the warlock.

Before anyone could say anything he continued "I was born with this innate ability, I've even been prophesied about. I'm sure if you look at some of the old legends you'll find the name Emrys in there. You have to understand, I am Magic and as such I've been named twice but my correct one is Emrys. I've tried denying it for so long, but Merlin is Emrys and Emrys is everything Merlin is and more." Merlin stopped and looked at his king but still didn't stop singing to Morgana.

"Stop singing Merlin." Morgana said after a few minutes.

Arthur looked at his sister "Merlin's not singing Morgana."

"Actually Arthur…" Morgana spoke but Merlin quickly spoke over her.

"Sorry Gana."

"You were singing Merlin?" Gwen asked not understanding how Merlin can sing without moving his lips.

"To Morgana yeah," He answered.

"But I didn't hear anything" Gwen was confused, Merlin grinned and then started to sing again but this time to Gwen as well as Morgana. At the same time he spoke.

"I mean every word Gana."

"You understand that?" The maidservant couldn't help but ask.

"Gaelic? Yeah, it flows off my tongue as easily as magic."

Morgana spoke next. "I love you too Emrys"

Arthur looked between the three of them, before speaking again "I'm missing something here. For a start I didn't hear any singing, I didn't see Merlin move his mouth. Secondly Gaelic?"

Merlin joined with the crown prince's mind allowing him to hear his song. "It's an old Gaelic song." He explained as though he was speaking over someone performing. "It basically translates to I love you whenever I see you smile, I love you when you enter a room, I love you when the sun shines, when the rain falls, when thunder and lightening clash in the sky. I love your eyes, you have my heart, I love you forever." He smiled at the women in his arms "Well that's the basic translation, it's lost some of the rhythm, and the feelings. But I do mean every single word."

Arthur looked at the two of them who seemed to be drowning in each others eyes. The song from Merlin stopped and Arthur couldn't help but feel an aching sense of loss and Merlin spoke again.

"If your sure Gana" and for the first time in his life he dropped the glamour that kept his eyes blue. They changed to a sparkling gold which were full of magic. A few minutes or hours, Arthur couldn't tell, later they heard a knock at the door.

Arthur quickly called out "In a minute." Before looking at Merlin, before he could say anything Merlin offered his hand to Gwen and with a smile the three of them disappeared from Arthur's chambers only to land in Merlin's old room.

(*_*) (*_*) (*_*) END OF CHAPTER SEVEN (*_*) (*_*) (*_*)

A/N: YEY a long chapter to make up for the really short ones!!!!

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