The camp was alive the people of Camelot sharpening weapons whilst those knights and guards that had escaped prepared for battle. The plan was in place and night was falling. It was almost time. Once they had the darkness as cover Arthur led his knights to the outskirts of the city, Merlin following, ever loyally at his side. "You're sure about this?" asked Arthur. The young warlock paused as he extended his wings in preparation to leave, "I'll be fine, Arthur," he replied before his eyes turned teasing, "I'll go defeat Morgana, you can go play soldiers then I'll come and save your royal backside like I normally do." The King huffed a laugh before he his face turned serious, placing a hand on his friend's shoulder, "Seriously, though, be careful." Merlin smiled and nodded, "You too," he said. Arthur watched the servant turned Court Warlock suddenly remembering a conversation from years ago, "Nervous?" asked he asked. Merlin mouth twitched in reminiscence, "Throats dry."
"Me too," said the King replied, finally removing his hand and Merlin kicked off from the ground, hard and headed for the cover of the night sky, feeling the King's eye's following him as he went.
It didn't take long for him to reach the battlements. He landed softly behind Morgana's guards and quickly and silently made his way to the doorway of the tower leaving two rather confused guards behind him. He stuck to the shadows as he made his way through to the throne room, despite the darkness, he doubted the High Priestess would have retired just yet, not with Arthur nowhere to be found. Sure enough, the Mercenaries where much more concentrated the closer. He was a shadow on the wall moving through the castle's passageways with practised ease. When he finally reached the throne room Merlin muttered the spell to age himself and placed a glamour on his clothes to appear as robes before knocking out the lookouts and storming into the throne room.
The sound of swords being drawn was the first thing he heard as he entered. He rolled his eyes and waved a hand, watching as they all fell to the ground leaving Morgana, Helios and Agravane staring at him in shock at the other end of the room. Morgana's face quickly morphed into a look of pure venom as she slowly rose from her throne, "Emrys," she hissed like an angry snake, lifting an arm towards him. The stone flooring cracked as vines quickly grew towards him before suddenly stopping as they reached him. He smirked at her, "you'll have to do better than that, Morgana," and he fled, running straight back to the battlements, leaving an obvious trail of unconscious Mercenaries behind him as he went. He quickly downed the potion to remove the ageing spell as he ran, thanking the Goddess that he had thought to carry a vial around with him since the fomorroh and removing the glamour as he ran up the steps, two at a time turning around only just in time to see Morgana step out on to the battlements looking murderous.
She stalked towards him sword raised, "Where's Emrys? Tell me!" she shrieked, looking around wildly. "Oh, Morgana," he said causing her to whirl back to him, "I thought you of all people would have noticed a simple ageing spell when you saw one." The High Priestess' eyes widen in shock before quickly turning in rage, "You," she spat. Then her face twisted into a smirk, "Oh, I'm going to enjoy killing you Emrys." and shooting a spell at him. Merlin grinned as the spell sailed by right beneath him as he kicked off the ground and into the air. She stared at him in complete and utter astonishment. She quickly regained her composure and began shooting spell after spell up at him, clearly not at full power, but powerful all the same. Meanwhile, Merlin swooped and soared around her dodging them effortlessly, occasionally adding a little twirl in the air of a loop-the-loop, goading her. "FIGHT BACK YOU COWARD!" she shrieked when her anger finally got the better of her. Merlin laughed as he swooped past her after smoothly diving out of the way of yet another fire ball, "But I don't need to, you're not much of a threat to me down there!" he called to her provokingly. He'd done it.
Morgana crouched, hands placed to the ground as she began to mutter a spell. Suddenly, two black shapes burst through from her back, cutting through the fabric of her dress as easily as a seamstress' scissors. Merlin watched her from a far shocked that it had not taken longer to provoke her. He knew how dangerous it was to manipulate the human body after it had developed into an adult, from books he'd read. Slowly she stood a mad gleam in her eye as she stared up at his. She turned abruptly and sprinted off the battlement spreading her black bat like wings to catch the air beneath her. The fight had begun.