Morgana was not able to fall asleep again after her terrible dream, so she kept staring at the canopy of her bed, calming down her breathing and reassuring herself that not all her visions would become true. Like the one she had back in Camelot, where Merlin freed the golden dragon and the castle was completely devoured by his flames. As she was pondering, a knock on her door and a cheerful "Morgana" tore her mind from her grave thoughts. The door opened and a smirking Merlin entered with a plate of food.

"Well, you were still asleep, I see. Regrettable. I thought I surprise you while changing your clothes this time around."

"You wish."

Merlin took this playful reply as a sign to step next to her and give her a good morning kiss.

"I brought you food. I do not want to hand you over to Morgause knowing you have not eaten."

"Thanks. I cannot remember the last time I had breakfast in my bed."

While the seer started to eat, Merlin went on with the things he had to say. After he told Morgana about her new teacher, he went back to his sister. Morgause already awaited him.

"I told her. So what am I going to do now? Circling my thumbs and wait for Uther to attack?"

Merlin snarled because he knew that since Morgana will be with his sister from now on, he will get lonely and probably bored.

"No. I have something different for you to do."

Morgause replied nonchalantly, whereupon her brother's eyes started to widen.

"And what exactly do you want me to do?"

"Simple. You will visit all the dukes and earls of our provinces and ready them for the war. Take everyone with sufficient magical power back with you to Namhilrok and train them. We need some functional mage-cadres if we want to have a good chance against the forces of Uther. Well, and the second part why I send you away is Morgana. If you linger around, she will be distracted. I cannot risk any disturbances. I hope you understand my intentions."

Morgause's face displayed a sorrowful expression. She knew that Merlin would be hurt by the fact that she send him away, again, but once more reason has to reign over emotion in order to give her people the best chance. Merlin noticed that his sister was uncomfortable with her decision. He knew that she was right, she always was. The young warlock embraced her, soothing her while whispering in her ear.

"Do not worry. I understand. I will not disappoint you. Not again, I promise. So be at ease, my dear sister."

Morgause was stunned shortly by Merlin's sudden action. She expected him to get angry and shout at her, but she soon dropped these thoughts and reciprocated with a hug, happy that he understood.

"So that is how it is. I will be away for a while."

Merlin scratched the behind of his hand and giggled nervously while he tried to make light of the fact that he was leaving her alone with his sister for the time being. Morgana's frown told him what he needed to know. She was certainly not happy with the fact of him leaving her behind, but he could see a spark of acknowledgement in her beautiful emerald eyes.

"So you brought me the food to gain my favour, before you would drop the news? Well played, I am too full now to be angry at you, so I will settle with that."

The sorcerers took the pillow next to her and threw it, hitting Merlin square in his face. He stood there dumbfounded, hearing his beloved seer giggle before he started to laugh too. It took some moments for them to calm down again and the midnight-haired woman spoke, her voice nearly a whisper.

"I will miss you."

Her glazed eyes were searching his for comfort. He went next to her bed again and sat down. Merlin took her hands in his, before he raised his voice for a reply.

"I will miss you too. There will not be a day in my life without thinking about you. I will try to make my journey as quick as possible, I promise."

"No, do not do that. I do not want to burden myself with the thought that I will once again be responsible for your demise. I thwarted your plans one time. I do not intend to repeat that because you feel like you have to hurry yourself to get back to me and brush your mission aside. You have to focus, promise me."

"Alright, I promise."

Merlin was a prince after all and he knew that what his counterpart said was true. It is the burden of royalty to put their own interests behind the greater good of their nation. He gave her a chaste kiss and bid her farewell, not turning around again because he knew his resolve would crumble under the sight of her pained smile.

After the young seer finished changing into her usual attire, she made her way to Morgause's chambers. She reached the wooden, ironclad door and raised her hand to knock but before she had the chance, the door opened itself and it gave sight of a blond queen sitting expectantly in an ornamented chair surveying the entry to her chambers.

"Welcome, my dear. Please enter and sit down."

Morgause's voice was cold and professional as she gestured at the chair next to her with her hand. Morgana slowly strode to her appointed chair, not leaving the queen, even for a moment, out of her sight. Morgause waited for a minute to collect her thoughts before she talked to her counterpart again.

"Since Merlin thought you the basics of magic, I will take over the part of teaching you the advanced use of your powers, but before we begin your practice, I think it is in order to tell you about how you even got your abilities, assuming non of your ancestors possessed magic. Or did the?"

"I do not think so. My father and all my ancestors before were always proud of the fact that our nation was founded on hard work, discipline and loyalty, not by the evil of magic. So I highly doubt that anyone of them practiced magic. Before my father started his reign, people with magic would be shunned and exiled, but now it became a death sentence. It is saddening."

Morgause gave her an understanding nod, before she resumed explaining her trail of thought.

"You were born after the great dragon got caught and was forever shackled inside a cave beneath Camelot, am I right?"

"Yes."

"Dragons are very old and powerful magical beings. Some of them have the ability to read the flow of time. Kilgharrah, the oldest and by far strongest of his species, is one of them. You have to know that those winged, giant lizards like to shape the future how they want it to be, not concerned by the consequence others have to suffer and which people they have to manipulate in order to get what the want. I think you are one of the victims of his manipulation. Since he was never to be free again, the dragon searched for another way to influence the future. He implanted the seed of magic inside you before you were even born, since an unborn child is pure enough to receive this gift without rejecting it. He knew that you would play a major role when the time comes. I assume it is legitimate to say you are the "pawn" in his greater plan of whatever he thinks he would achieve with that. I thankfully had only once the pleasure to meet a dragon and he only talked in riddles and hidden truths. It is quite impossible to deduce anything from the words of a dragon, furthermore to read his intentions. But I think I figured something out. You will be the key to his freedom. That is why he made you a pure-blooded witch. Like me or Merlin, you were born with magic. Those kind of magical beings are very rare. We owe these sad circumstances to the properties of magic. Great power needs an equivalent vessel to stabilise an equilibrium. Most of the possible witches and warlocks got consumed by their powers at an early age and their magic killed them."

The queen stopped for a moment, noticing that the midnight-haired woman needed some time to process what she got told. It took a while but as Morgana looked at her with a straight and firm gaze. Morgause took that as a sign to continue.

"I know it is a lot of information to take in and I am not quite sure whether my theory is right, but it is the only way to explain all of that. Kilgharrah's rage twenty years ago, most certainly made him use drastic measures. He wanted to see Camelot and especially Uther burn. But he needed to be free to enact his revenge. So he followed the path which held the highest probability for success, you. I do not know how you will fit into his equation, yet, but I will try my best to figure it out. I really hate that scaled, crafty bastard."

The last sentence came with a lot of displeasure and hate from Morgause's slightly pink lips.

Morgana chuckled, amused by the face Morgause showed when she talked about the golden dragon. A dark frown from the blond made Morgana regain her composure instantly.

"I now know about why I have my powers, but why are you telling me that?"

"Most people manipulated by dragons do not know about their destiny because when they know it is possible for them to change the dragon's desired future. The same logic applies to you. Now that you are aware of your position, you have the power to change fate. Further, your ability to foresee the future will come in handy when we have to change the flow of time."

"I understand. I will try my best, I promise."

That was the first time Morgana saw Morgause lips form a smile for her, which made her quite happy. After all she is Merlin's sister and she is a huge part of his life. If she was able to connect with her, Morgana's life would become a lot easier and she would have found a new friend.

"Well, I cannot ask for more, can I? So let us start with your special training. The closest magic we posses to foretelling the future is scrying, something I take a lot of pride in. The easiest way to teach you is by showing you. Pleas come with me."

Morgause gestured Morgana to follow her to a silver bowl ornamented with green leaves. She observed how the blond put some water inside the vessel and chanted some words while her eyes flashed golden. She started to giggle a very un-queen-like giggle and after she took a look at the image conjured by the water she started to laugh too.

Merlin wanted to read through the names of some nobles he was not sure of anymore, but soon after he started he had trouble to keep his eyes open. After two pages his head rested on the book, mouth wide open, droll dripping down on the page he was reading. And now two women were watching his cute indignity from afar.

A/N:

Ok, this is now the 10th chapter and I hit a crossroad. Either I go with Merlin and his mage-scouting journey or I stay with Morgana and her training with Morgause. I have ideas for both but it is far more interesting for the story if I do just one path and leave the other one in the dark. So I leave the choice to you guys. I take the path which gets more points (you just have to write it in a review; no pm; I want it to be an open vote), but it should at least get 5 points for me to consider it. If none of the paths reaches more than 5 points I go with whatever I am in the mood for (if the vote is a tie, I decide by your arguments, why I should take this or the other path).

Well that was everything I had to say. See you guys next chapter ^^