Sjritts: Thank you! Hmm, it could be foreshadowing :P Hope you enjoy this chapter too :)
NarniaPrincess12: Thanks a lot! And don't we all love sassy Morgana? :D
Crazycuz: The next chapter will give you all the answers but you're thinking along the right lines, and thanks for the review :)
Guest: Thank you and here's the update!
Shell22: Here's more and thanks!
Guest: I hope you find this chapter good too!
Wandering Princess: Haha thanks so much! And no sadly the purpose behind costume buying was not kink but necessity! But who knows, in the future maybe ;)
Guest: Thank you! And yes I completely agree that Merlin's blind obsession with destiny and listening to whatever the dragon told him got on my last nerve!
Tried to update a longer chapter since the last two have been so short. As always, please let me know if you find any mistakes and I shall correct them!
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Merlin was dumbfounded. How could have screwed it up this big?
He quickly scanned their surroundings, spotted a clothes' vendor stall but the owner was nowhere to be seen. He grabbed Morgana's arm and pulled her behind the stall.
She had a hard time tearing her eyes away from the King and Queen, they remained fixed on the smiling royals, while Merlin tried to pinpoint where he had gone wrong.
He looked down to see Morgana was still clutching the small piece of paper with the spell in her fist. He unclenched her hand and took the slip. She paid no attention to him. As he read over the spell he felt like kicking himself.
No wonder they had arrived a few decades too early to the party! It wasn't the first time he had messed up spells (lord knows how many tries it took before he perfected his disappearing magic) but this took the cake. He had no one to blame for such an elementary mistake other than his foolish clumsy nature and over excitement about the entire deal which resulted in landing them in Uther's reign. Perfect.
In. Uther's. Reign. The thoughts rolled around in his head as he tried to put a finger on why he was so bothered by that besides the obvious reasons, when it suddenly struck him. Ice shot down his spine.
"Morgana! Morgana this might be much worse than we initially assumed!"
But Morgana didn't even turn to look at him while he practically half yelled in her ear.
A look of wonder and pure joy graced her features as she continued staring at the balcony.
For goodness' sake what was so fascinating about watching Uther when there were much more pressing matters that needed to be dealt with immediately, Merlin thought as he followed her gaze and saw that it wasn't Camelot's rulers who had captured her rapt attention.
A tall handsome young man stood beside the King now wearing Camelot's classic red cape and silver armour. He had dark brown hair, tanned bronze skin and warm eyes crinkled with a grin as he talked to Uther.
"That's my father." Morgana whispered.
Goosebumps covered her skin as she looked at the man she had grown up emulating. The man whose memory was sometimes the only thing that got her through so many terrible days in Camelot. The man she had loved and respected like no other.
Her face lit up with the most beautiful smile. "I never thought I'd see him again."
Merlin smiled back, his worries temporarily forgotten as he saw the familiar emotions flitting across her face. Surprise, tremendous joy, and a little bit of melancholy for all that lost time. After all, he had experienced something very similar when he had met his own father, who he had presumed dead, and that feeling was like no other in the world.
Despite everything, he was happy for her. It made for a nice change that for once his stupid mistakes had caused her to laugh instead of cry. Because no matter what she believed, he never enjoyed causing her so much distress and pain.
A sharp intake of breath beside him brought him out of his musings. Morgana's smile was gone, her eyes somehow even wider than before. The crowd seemed to have a similar reaction only theirs seemed more endearing because appreciative murmurs could be heard all around.
Now what, or rather who, Merlin wondered as he squinted up at the fourth figure who had appeared on the balcony.
As soon as he got a good view his jaw dropped. It was like seeing Morgana for the first time all over again.
The statuesque beauty wore a white gown that shimmered in the sun. With her knee length midnight black hair, ivory complexion and petite body, she was almost identical to Morgana, or perhaps it was the other way around. Except her eyes, which were a deep cerulean blue instead of Morgana's jade green.
She possessed the type of allure that only increased with time instead of fading, so though the audience below had seen her multiple times, they couldn't help but appreciate her loveliness even in such simplicity. And Merlin was no exception.
He was still a little starstruck by the sorceress standing elegantly high above him, but he didn't miss the strong resentment in Morgana's tone when she said, "And that, is my mother. Vivienne."
"Yeah, I gathered that much from her looks alone. I also gather you're not too fond of her?"
"Fond? This woman betrayed the most wonderful man in this god forsaken kingdom to sleep with the worst man she could possibly pick. Forgive me if I don't have the utmost respect for my cheating mother."
Merlin knew that Morgana's hatred of Uther had grown considerably after learning about her true parentage, but he didn't think she harbored such bitter feelings about Vivienne.
"You shouldn't judge her so harshly Morgana. There were extenuating circumstances. Maybe there was some other reason behind her betrayal that you are not aware of. It was a moment of weakness, maybe she was miserable afterwards, maybe she regretted it deeply for the rest of her life."
Morgana was silent for a while.
"What a load of crap!" She fumed finally. "Extenuating circumstances? Oh please! Of course you'd say something like that! It's no surprise you're supporting the betrayer, you're all about stabbing people in the back aren't you? Stop trying to defend her to me, and also stop projecting your own emotions about your own dumb mistakes onto my mother's horrible life choices while you're at it!"
Her little outburst had turned a few heads in their direction so Merlin pulled her further back behind the stall, completely covered from view, before he replied, "By all means, shout a little louder, it's not like we're trying to avoid unwanted attention or anything."
"Also, I'm not projecting anything. I was simply trying to empathize with a woman who must've suffered greatly and thus fell into clinical depression, which led to some unfortunate choices. Completely natural."
"Oh stop with your psychological bullshit-"
"And how come you're pointing fingers when you've done your fair share of lying and deceiving? Her relationship with Uther is most probably the reason she was spared during the Purge, seeing how there's no other way he would not burn such a powerful witch. Sorry powerful priestess, the one you inherited your magic from. So for better or worse, her affair saved her from being reduced to ashes. It all came down to self preservation didn't it? And aren't you all about that?" he finished angrily as he loosened his grip and let go of her arm.
She backed away a few inches, turned to face the other way and seethed silently instead of continuing the useless argument anymore. Clearly they were never going to see eye to eye, but although she wouldn't admit it in a million years, his words did leave an impact on her.
A sudden hush fell over the courtyard and Morgana peaked out to see that Uther ha raised his hand to make a speech.
Apparently Gorlois was being sent off on yet another expedition and although it pained the King to send him away again so soon after his last one, the Kingdom had to do what was necessary to protect its borders.
Or maybe the King just wants to shag his loyal knight's all too willing wife, Morgana thought as she clenched her fists. She looked so livid that Merlin was almost ready to subdue her with a sleeping spell lest she do something completely reckless. But she just continued glaring as the four nobles descended from the castle along with Gorlois' knights.
The crowd parted to make way for them, wishing them well on their journey and praying for a safe return home as well.
And just like that all her rage melted away when she saw Gorlois leading his men away, armor shining under the harsh midday sun, looking every bit the knight in fairytales. She soaked in all the little details about him, the scar below his right cheekbone, the way he nodded to the citizens, how his thumb softly made circles around Vivienne's wrist while he held her hand, just like he used to with a young Morgana, his way of reassuring his girls.
The army reached the horses waiting for them. Vivienne wrapped the white cloth around Gorlois' arm. Her lower lip trembled and she kept her head down in an effort to conceal her tears.
Gorlois tipped her chip up and rested his forehead against hers. Morgana saw his mouth moving with inaudible words, she could guess what was being said though because soon enough Vivienne was laughing through her tears. He wiped them away, clasped her face in his hands and put his lips at her ear, whispering some more. Vivienne sniffed and nodded.
Gorlois turned to bow to his King and Queen, and placed a final kiss on his wife's cheek.
"She may be guilty of many atrocities in your opinion Morgana, but you can't deny that the love she feels for Gorlois is real."
Morgana remained silent as she watched Vivienne's sweet smile fade away and the desolation creep back in her eyes.
The finality of the situation suddenly made Morgana's knees go weak. This was it, the last time she would see her father alive, she couldn't just let him go without even talking to him once.
Although every rational part of her brain screamed at her not to do it, she still grabbed a head scarf and a handkerchief from the pile of clothes beside her, wrapped the scarf around her head and face, and ran right upto Gorlois who had already mounted his horse.
It happened so quickly that to Merlin it felt like one moment a misty eyed Morgana was standing beside him, and the next she was sprinting towards her father, before he could even blink and perform a damn freezing spell to stop her completely ruining their plans.
Morgana came to a halt before Gorlois' horse, slightly out of breath with one hand holding the scarf around her face and the other extending the handkerchief to Gorlois.
"Sir Gorlois, I know I'm a mere peasant and it is not my place, but I simply wanted to express my gratitude for all your sacrifices to keep our Kingdom safe. It's nothing but I just wanted to give you this for good luck."
With trembling hands she handed him the handkerchief. It was dark navy blue painted with lilies and golden borders.
Merlin held his breath with utmost trepidation as Gorlois and everybody else stared at the peasant who randomly interrupted the chief knight to hand him a handkerchief. It was stupid and illogical and so utterly Morgana! He had the vanishing and telekinesis spell at the tip of his tongue, ready to just pull Morgana back and disappear should anything go wrong.
But after a few more seconds of tense silence, Gorlois blinked and smiled graciously.
"Thank you...uh"
"Gwen." Morgana said the first name that popped in her head.
"Thank you dear Gwen. It certainly is not nothing and it means a great deal to me to be appreciated by my people. It's all for you anyway. You are very kind. And I shall keep this very close." he ended awkwardly but Morgana didn't even care. She was on cloud nine. She wanted to do and say so much more, but restrained herself and only smiled back with her eyes at him, bowed and began striding back to Merlin, the crowd including Vivienne, Uther and Ygraine still watching her curiously.
She couldn't help pausing and looking up. Her eyes briefly met her mother's before she turned on her heels and all but jogged back to the supremely pissed off warlock waiting for her.
Removing her scarf from her face she said, " I know you want to kill me. Again."
"Yes, I'm very tempted to do so at the moment. Again."
"And that's completely understandable, but right now I think our priority should be to dematerialize on the spot because mummy dearest is on her way here. To have a nice chat with me I assume."
Merlin looked behind her head to see Vivienne rapidly approaching them and cursed.
"You can kill me later." she said sweetly as he embraced her gruffly and muttered the spell.
Only a trail of dust was left by the time Vivienne reached the stall. She huffed in annoyance. Dumb disappearing spell!
"Did you know this woman Vivienne?" Ygraine asked as she caught up.
"No, I haven't the slightest clue."
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Hope ya'll liked it! Next chapter is half written so hopefully the next update won't take too long! :)
