Sorry for the wait; it's finals and thus time for all college students to slowly suffocate under mountains of work and stress and papers, but I wanted to get this to you before I die of my four exams next week. I hope y'all enjoy it!
Chapter 10
The silence that echoed through the chamber could have been a scream it was so loud. Morgana's smile was replaced a mere half second later by a look of immediate concern and worry. Arthur didn't seem to grasp what was happening for a moment. Merlin's mind went into overdrive. Nimueh. It had to be. And she wasn't working alone... but Cenred wasn't a sorcerer himself, so she must have an ally... Morgause. If it had taken him this long to figure it out, he was certain Morgana would soon if she hadn't already. Her face was impenetrable, a perfect mask of concern and fear as she gazed at Arthur. She was a very good actor.
"Cenred cannot possibly hope to attack us successfully," Arthur scoffed after a moment.
"My L- I mean, Your Highness, he's gathering a huge force. We don't know how long they've been coming together but our scouts tell us we have reason to be afraid."
"Camelot has not fallen, nor will it," Arthur said.
"There's more." Sir Leon looked warily at Arthur, as though he feared how the king would respond. "We found an Escetian spy on our land, not a half a day ago. We have put her in the dungeons, but wanted to know what you wanted done before we did anything else."
The dungeon. Merlin knew what a horrible jail it was and resisted the urge to glance at Morgana. If Nimueh and Morgause were involved, it was entirely possible that the spy was himself a magic user. The dungeons would be even more useless, the guards worse than paper dolls. He needed to find a way to ensure that the spy wouldn't escape, but now was not the time. He filed it away in his head and fixed his eyes on Sir Leon and tried to focus on what the knight was saying.
"-their forces are growing, much larger than we ever anticipated Escetian forces could be. My lord, we must react somehow, or Cenred will get the better of us."
Merlin's eyes shifted to Arthur. The young king looked like he was struggling to wrap his mind around what was going on. Morgana's body language said she was all sympathy and fear, but Merlin imagined he could see glee barely held in check behind her concerned words and gestures.
"Oh, Arthur, this is horrible!" Merlin wanted to vomit at her simpering tone but somehow managed to keep control of himself. "What are you going to do?"
He looked at her for a second before speaking. "We will send an envoy to Cenred's court. And in the meanwhile we will prepare for war. He has never been a peaceful king, so I doubt any olive branch we offer will be accepted, but I must try it."
"Of course, your highness." Leon bowed and started to back out of the room, but was recalled by Arthur's voice.
"Oh, and Sir Leon, post twice the number of guards in the dungeons and have a rotating watch outside of his door every hour of the day. After the last breakout, I'm not going to be taking any chances."
Merlin hoped the woman wasn't a sorcerer, or Camelot was in for the breakout of the age. The doors slammed shut, and Sir Leon was gone again.
"What do you mean, prepare for war?" Morgana asked, genuine curiosity getting the better of her.
Arthur sat heavily in his seat. "We will rally all the knights of Camelot together, and gather villagers to train and serve as infantry. Stores of food will be collected. Standard war stuff."
"And you?"
The king did not respond.
"You should move the coronation up, sire," Merlin broke in. "You still need to be made king officially, and while I know the customs are for grand affairs..." he paused before finishing. "It might be wiser simply to keep it small. Camelot will need a strong leader if it comes to war."
"You are probably right Merlin," Arthur said tiredly, slumping backward against his high-backed chair.
"Perhaps you should concentrate first on preparing a defense," Morgana said. Though her words were directed to Arthur, her eyes were on the warlock across from her. "The whole country cannot doubt your right to the throne. A coronation is timely."
Merlin lowered his eyebrows in confusion. What game was she playing here? Encouraging Arthur to build an army and defend Camelot? He couldn't see any sort of advantage in that, but he knew there was one. Morgana didn't do anything unless there was a purpose to it. He just needed to figure out what it was.
"A fierce suggestion, Lady Morgana. Though I suppose I should have suspected no less from you." Arthur gave Morgana a glance that set Merlin's stomach churning. It was a look filled with... affection. And it reminded him of what Morgana had told him, that Arthur had been flirting with her. Anger and frustration boiled inside of him. This was Morgana's plan. It was clever, that was for sure, and there was almost nothing he could do to stop it.
Merlin cursed himself quietly. His alert spell hadn't gone off because it was designed only to detect people meaning the prince immediate harm, not false affection and adoration.
"But no, Camelot will need a king if it comes to war, not an uncrowned prince. As much as I hate to take the crown so quickly after my father's death, I fear it's necessary."
Merlin met Morgana's eyes over the table. They shone with the fervor of the converted, bright and dangerous.
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The castle guards were massing in the courtyard below Merlin's window; he could hear them shouting and clanging around, trying to prepare for the war. The torches held the dark at bay, but it crept over the rest of the castle like a fog. Merlin paced the floor in circles, trying to decide what to do. The war was a mixed blessing. With all that it would take to prepare his army and country for war, Arthur was unlikely to have time to spend on romantic pursuits. So while Morgana was not out of the picture by any means she was perhaps less of a threat than Merlin had feared she would be. But he would rather have feared her over Nimueh and Morgause. At least with her, he felt that he could change her, that he held some sort of sway over her still. Nimueh had never been trustworthy to him, even as a child he knew not to put his faith in her, and it had been years since he'd last seen Morgause and they'd never been close anyway. Both of them were powerful sorceresses in their own rights, and he knew he couldn't defeat them alone. And Cenred... he was a power hungry king, in command of a large army and with the power of both Morgause and Nimueh behind him, he could not fail.
He heard footsteps tapping in the corridor outside his door. He recognized those footsteps. In a few long strides he had crossed the floor of his room and pulled open his door. Morgana's black hair shone in the torchlight as she passed to her room.
"Morgana," he called softly. She turned, face unreadable again.
"We need to talk."
"What about? I thought we cleared everything up already."
"No, Morgana, I'm serious."
Rolling her eyes, she crossed to his door, barely brushing the front of his tunic as she entered. "What, Merlin?"
He closed the door and turned to face her. She stood by the table in the center of his room, one pale, slender hand resting against its polished surface. Merlin looked at her for a moment without speaking.
"Well? I'm waiting." She trailed her fingers along the table. "If you're going to try to persuade me not to kill Arthur, it's not going to work. He's just as vile as his father, every second of time spent with him is nauseating."
"No, Morgana, listen. This thing with Cenred-"
"Is brilliant, it was Nimueh's plan all along," Morgana cut him off. "Cenred has always been fair to magic users, he does not punish those who use magic well, only those use it for evil ends."
"No, Morgana, you don't see what's going on." Merlin needed to make her understand, or at least give her the chance to understand.
"What am I not seeing?" She set her mouth in a thin line, her face haughty and challenging.
"Nimueh was planning to invade Camelot from the beginning. She told us that we would take over and make Camelot into a safe place again, depose a violent and unfair ruling line, but this... don't you see? She never planned to let us do what we thought was right. Once we had killed Uther and Arthur and Camelot fell into chaos, she and Morgause would sweep over the land with Cenred's army and depose us. She was using us to gain power. We're nothing but pawns to her." The whole time Merlin spoke, Morgana's face remained stony and impassive. He wished anger didn't turn her into such a hard person. She was much easier to read, easier to understand when she was happy or sad or even afraid.
"That's ridiculous," she finally said. "Nimueh would never do that to us; we are like children to her, her children."
"Morgana, it all makes sense now."
"No!" And suddenly she was visibly angry, her body stiffening and straightening. "You can't play your mind games with me, Merlin. Arthur will be just as bad as his father and Nimueh is right to want him gone. She wouldn't lie to us."
Merlin felt himself growing angry as well at her fierce denial of the facts, of the truth that was staring her in the face. He had handed it to her on a silver platter and she still couldn't see it. Or wouldn't see it – he knew Morgana was smart enough, she was smarter even than him, but so proud. She would never admit she'd made a mistake, not unless the world was ending, not unless it was the only thing that could save her. Merlin couldn't let her make this mistake, couldn't sit by and watch the only person he'd ever really cared for destroy herself.
"Goodnight, Merlin," she said, her voice as hard as her face. "Don't address me again unless you come to your senses. I'll see myself out."
The door slammed behind her, the sound heavy and final. Merlin wanted to scream, to throw things, to tie Morgana to a chair until he could force her to understand. Before, it had just been about Arthur's life, but she was in danger now too. He knew she was still good, somewhere inside, and he needed to protect her too.
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Morgana's room felt small as she paced in circles around it. The walls seemed to close in around her, trap her in their little box. She missed the misty halls on the Isles of the Blessed, missed looking up at the moon and knowing her place in the world. Merlin had shaken her, shaken her confidence and her faith.
She needed to get out, to stand under the stars in open air again. The courtyard was still busy with men and shouting, even at this hour of night, and so Morgana made her way through the twisty halls of the castle. The battlements seemed like a good enough place, far enough away from the inner courtyard to keep the noise away, and they weren't usually heavily patrolled. Even with the threat of war looming on the horizon, she doubted they would have upped the guard. Most of Camelot's men seemed to be in the inner courtyard, making ungodly amounts of noise like it was their job. Which, she supposed, it was, in a way.
Just as she suspected, the wide white stone walkway was mostly deserted. Morgana made her way along them, away from the castle and the door that had brought her there. The lights of the city couldn't reach the sky out here, and the stars and moon hung bright above her. She took a deep breath of the cold night air, feeling freer, like she could spread her arms and just soar away.
She rested her arms against the pale stones, almost feeling like she could sense the history behind them, all the kings and wars and magic they had seen. Merlin's words floated through her mind again and for a brief moment she considered them. Although she could see the logic behind them, she wanted to trust Nimueh. And Morgause, her sister. Her blood sister, closer than Merlin at least, though it had been years since they'd seen each other. For a second she felt like Merlin was right. His eyes had been so fearful and honest. He'd looked so angry when she left him, and she hated being the cause of such a feeling within him. She wished they were still close, still working as a unit. She missed him more than she realized.
"Lady Morgana." The voice startled her out of her reverie. "I didn't expect to find you out here at such an hour. May I join you?"
"Of course, my lord," she replied out of habit.
Arthur put his arms next to hers, his red tunic like blood on the walls. "What brings you out at this time of night?"
"Oh, lots of things." There was silence for a minute, but not tense silence as she would have expected it to be, rather a calm, almost companionable silence. "Merlin and I had an argument." The words slipped out, unbidden.
"I'm sorry, that can be hard. Do you want to tell me about it."
"Not really. It's just hard to not get along with him all the time." Morgana didn't know where all of this was coming from, and wished she could just keep her mouth shut. She closed it like a trap, telling herself to keep it inside.
"That's fine. It's hard to argue with people you care about." Arthur took a deep breath and let it out. "My father and I didn't always get along. We didn't agree about everything and sometimes... well sometimes I felt like he wasn't always making the right choices. But now he's dead and I'll never see him again."
"Do you miss him?" Morgana asked, even though she didn't really care. It would be better to keep him talking than to continue to talk herself.
"Yes. But it's changed my perspective. In some ways I can see the wisdom in his decisions, in the battles he chose to fight. I haven't even been King for a week, and everyone already expects so much of me. I can't imagine doing it for my whole life."
Morgana looked at him, looking out over the trees, trying to think of something to say.
"Sometimes I just want to run away," he said. "Take my horse and sword and just ride away and leave it all behind."
"Why don't you?" This time Morgana was actually curious.
He turned his head and looked at her. "I have duties. To Camelot, to my father, to my people. And I can't abandon them."
Her mind went to her own duties, to the truths that had been hammered into her for as long as she could remember. Her duties were to her family, to Nimueh and Morgause and Merlin. Yet her duties were to people too, to her people, to magic users who had been murdered and chased for decades.
"We all have duties," she said finally, and they fell into silence again, under the stars and the shadow of war.
So I hope it made sense and they were all in character and stuff. I've also been considering turning it into an M-rated fic at some point, but that depends on how long I end up making it and so I wanted your input. Would you prefer that I keep it PG-13 or would you be interested in upping the rating to R? And the higher the rating, the longer it will probably be. So please let me know! I always love to hear from you because without you, this would be nothing.