Chapter Twenty-five
"Merlin," Gaius held up a vial to the light and examined the color of the contents.
"Yes?" Merlin looked up from the book he was reading.
"Will you take this to Morgana for me?"
"Sure." Merlin set aside the book and came over to stand beside Gaius. "Is it to help her sleep?"
"Hopefully. But I doubt its effectiveness," said Gaius gravely. "It was not my medicine that helped last time."
Merlin made a noncommittal sound and Gaius looked at him sharply.
"Do you know something Merlin that you are not telling me?"
"So medicine for Morgana right?" Merlin grabbed the vial and made for the exit. "Got to go deliver it."
"Merlin!"
"Bye!" Merlin shut the door behind him and ran across the court yard. Confident that Gaius wasn't going to try following him to continue his questions, Merlin slowed down as he reached the entrance to the castle. He took a nice leisurely pace as he walked through the hallways making his way towards Morgana's room. He was just starting to whistle a tune when he heard his name called. He turned around to look who was speaking and saw Morgana. There was a woman beside her but he didn't initially look at who it was.
He held up the vial as he came closer to her.
"Gaius wanted me to drop this off for you. He said it should help you sleep."
Morgana smiled, albeit wearily. "Tell Gaius thank you. I hope it does." She took the vial. "Merlin, may I introduce to do you the Lady Morgause."
"What?" Merlin looked where Morgana was gesturing and his jaw dropped open. Morgause was standing beside Morgana, smiling and looking for all the world as if she had never seen Merlin before in her life.
"This is Merlin," said Morgana, continuing the introductions. "He's a sort of assistant to our court physician, but more importantly," she smiled at him. "He's a good friend."
"It's a pleasure to make your acquaintance Merlin," said Morgause smiling.
"Why-..what…how-" Merlin was at a loss for words and Morgana glanced at him curiously.
"I was hoping Merlin," said Morgana loudly, trying to get him to stop staring at Morgause. "That you would run down to Gwen's house. I told her she could go home for a little while but I thought maybe she could help attend to Morgause."
"Morgause…" Merlin was still staring.
"Merlin!" said Morgana, a little more loudly and a little more firmly.
"Yes? What?" He said, snapping his attention back to Morgana at last.
"Gwen?"
"Oh right, yes…right away." He started off, but as he made his way down the hall he kept shooting glances over his shoulder back towards the pair.
"I apologize for that," said Morgana, as soon as he was out of sight. "I don't really understand Merlin's behavior."
"It's alright," said Morgause smiling. "I don't mind."
"I think you've found your vocation," said Gwen, standing to one side and examining Arthur's work.
"Yes," said Arthur, grinning at her. "I can put up wooden shelves. Tell me," he said, taking a seat on the chair and pulling Gwen down onto his lap. "How many people do you think need shelves put up in all of Camelot? I could be the shelf-putter-upper."
Gwen laughed and put his arms around his neck. "You're not giving yourself enough credit. You also cut and sanded the wood."
"Ah, well then that makes all the difference." He kissed her.
"But you have to give yourself more credit in general," she said, "You're blacksmithing is getting much better. By providing a cheaper way for the poor people to get their items fixed, you provide a great service to Camelot."
He smiled. "I'm still having a little trouble with making things from scratch however."
"Yes…I heard about the swords you attempted from Merlin."
"He wasn't supposed to tell you that!"
Gwen laughed. Then she looked around the house and sighed contentedly as she laid her head on Arthur's shoulder. Neither seemed to feel it necessary to speak for a long while.
"Arthur," said Gwen after sometime. She ran a hand through his hair. "There's something I-"
There came a loud knock on the door and Merlin burst in. He looked agitated.
"Merlin, you do know you have terrible timing don't you?" asked Arthur as Gwen rose to her feet.
"How are you doing?" Gwen asked, more welcomingly.
"Morgana wants you," said Merlin, "She sent me to fetch you."
"Alright," Gwen leaned down and kissed Arthur and then made towards the door.
"Wait, I'll walk you part of the way and then get back to work," said Arthur standing to his feet.
"No," said Merlin quickly. "I need to talk to you about something."
"About what?"
"Gardening."
"What?" Arthur blinked.
"Just…it's important."
"I'll see you both later then," said Gwen, and left.
Arthur sighed and sitting back down, looked up at Merlin. "Well what is it?"
"You remember," said Merlin talking very fast. "When I told you about the woman I talked about gardening with?"
"Yes."
"Well it wasn't gardening. It was magic."
"Yes," said Arthur, rolling his eyes, "As clever a lie as it was, I did gather as much after I found out about you."
"Alright well," Merlin began to pace. "I met her some time sgo. A few weeks before I met you actually. She just…she showed up and found me. She had magic. And she talked about it with me and shared it with me. I mean the only other person who knew about my magic then was Gaius. But this woman…we'd meet out in the woods at night and sometimes we'd cast spells or sometimes we'd just talk. It was…freeing but it was also…company. I mean before you came to Camelot there weren't that many people I could talk to. And also she made me feel…like there was something good I could do with my magic." Merlin stopped pacing and sunk into a chair opposite Arthur. "I've always felt like I had to have been given magic for a reason but not knowing that reason…I feel lost. But when I was with her, I felt maybe like I did have a destiny. Something important to do. She'd talk about the great era we could create together, the good we could make with our magic, and I believed her. I believed that we had that power."
"What made you stop trusting her?" asked Arthur seriously.
Merlin shrugged. "It was little things at first. Of course two sorcerers, together, meeting in Camelot, we talked about Uther and the ban on magic. It started small, we'd talk about the ban and sometimes some of the stories we'd heard of some of the people caught using magic. Then she started saying how one day there would be change. And she talked about the great things we could do when that day came, then she started talking about how maybe we could bring about that change ourselves…"
Merlin sighed and shook his head. "It happened so slowly, over the course of so many nights, so that suddenly one night she was talking about us stopping Uther together, and I didn't know how we'd gotten there."
"She wanted to kill him?" asked Arthur, alarmed.
"She was definitely making some not so subtle hints in that direction," said Merlin wryly nodding.
Arthur frowned. "Do you think she would really do it?"
"I don't know," said Merlin, standing up and beginning to pace again. "But she would definitely do something. She's here now. She's up at the castle! She's staying as a guest. She was being all friendly with Morgana."
Arthur stood to his feet. "She's here? Do you know what she wants?"
"No. Since you've found out about my magic…well I haven't seen much of her. I think she may suspect that I don't entirely trust her anymore. I'm not sure Morgause would tell me her plans anymore."
"Did you say Morgause?" Arthur asked, shocked.
"Yes. Do you know her?"
"Yes," said Arthur gravely. "Unfortunately I do."