"It wasn't my fault, Gaius. She touched me with her magic, and, and, my body just responded," Merlin stammered, red-faced.
Gaius rolled his eyes in disgust and sighed, "Merlin, you idiot. You need to learn to control yourself, especially around a highborn lady. Have you no shame?"
Morgana stifled a laugh. "I already knew, Gaius. I learned it from my dream. And I'm glad for it. Because in my dream, I didn't learn Merlin had magic until the very end, when I was at war with Arthur, and hated them both. I don't want that dream to come true. Maybe now I can change everything. Use my magic for good," Morgana said, her eyes full of hope.
"Milady," Gaius frowned. "If the King ever found out…"
"He'll find out sooner if I don't learn to control my magic. I just… I don't want to live in fear any more."
"The fear doesn't go away," Merlin said, quietly. "The fear of discovery is always there."
"That's why I must learn. To protect myself. To protect others. I want my magic to be good, not the kind of magic I saw in my dream," she said, looking haunted. "I… have a sister."
"A sister? Where is she?" Merlin asked. Gaius looked shamefaced.
"I expect we'll be seeing her soon. She was sent away as a child, taught the old religion. She's a very powerful sorceress and she hates Uther."
Gaius frowned. "What else did you learn from your dreams, Milady?"
"I found out about Merlin's power, of course. And… that Uther is my true father."
Gaius sighed deeply. "If true, it would explain a great deal."
Merlin frowned. "You're older. You would be the heir, not Arthur."
Morgana gave a sad smile. "Trueborn sons inherit before bastard daughters. It makes no difference for me, other than if Arthur died without an heir. And I don't want that. At least not now, I don't. But I did, very much, in my dream. I fear that dream will become reality," she shivered.
Merlin put a hand to calm her shaking wrist, and refilled her wine.
She took a grateful sip. "Gaius, I need you and Merlin to teach me. Will you?"
"Of course, Milady," he sighed. "But how will you explain your time spent away from Court?"
"I thought you could accept me as your apprentice, to learn the art of healing. I could learn that too, in addition to magic. It will be useful in the battles to come."
"But will Uther allow it?" Gaius asked.
"Leave that to me," she said, thoughtfully.
Merlin nodded. "Morgana, I thought for tonight, we might work on a spell that would start fire and extinguish fire. You know. Just in case…"
Gaius got up to latch the door, in case anyone came looking for the Lady Morgana, or for either of them.
Merlin pulled out a bowl and filled it with parchment. To Morgana's delight, with only a word, the parchment was alight.
"Baerne," he had commanded.
"So that's how you did it!" Morgana laughed. Merlin and Gaius looked puzzled, so she explained, "In your village, when I was trying to light the fire. The wood was too damp, I knew it wasn't my lack of skill with a flint. I heard you whisper something. To be frank, I thought it was an expletive."
Merlin grinned, sheepishly.
The smile left Morgana's lips. "Oh. Your friend Will. He wasn't a sorcerer at all, was he?"
Merlin's smile softened. "No, but he knew I was. He died saving Arthur, and he saved me too."
Morgana gasped with delight as Merlin extinguished the flame with a counter spell.
"Your turn, Milady," Merlin said, dumping the ash and refilling the parchment.
It took her a few tries until she could light it, but she was ecstatic when she finally did. It was far harder to extinguish the fire, however. She was relieved when it finally worked.
"Now, for the hard part," Merlin said, and she watched in awe as Merlin pieced the ashes back together to make the parchment as good as new.
"Could you fix anything? Or is it just the power to undo your own spells?" Morgana asked.
"I'm not really sure. I haven't tried. I'm still learning myself," Merlin said, destroying the parchment again.
By the end of the evening, Morgana still couldn't fully repair the parchment, but Merlin assured her that it had taken him days of trying to accomplish the spell to master it, and she'd made far greater progress than he had in an evening.
"It's getting late, Milady. How about we resume tomorrow?" Gaius suggested as Merlin began to yawn while Morgana flipped through his spell book.
"Of course, you both need your rest. I bid you goodnight," she said, closing the book and running her hand across the cover lovingly.
"I'll walk you back to your chambers," Merlin said, getting up to stretch. They walked together in silence until they reached her door.
"Thank you so much for this evening, I feel I've learned so much already," Morgana said.
"I'm glad to do it. It's nice to have someone to study with, it makes me feel less…"
"Alone," she finished for him. "Thank you for that too, that I don't have to feel alone anymore."
"I too am glad we're not alone anymore," he said.
She bid him goodnight, closing the door behind her.
That night her dreams were calm and happy. A memory of reading with her father, swordplay with Arthur as children, and the horse she was gifted on her sixteenth birthday. Her happy dream ended when she woke up needing to use the chamber pot. She returned to bed, still thinking on her beautiful silver filly and drifted back to sleep.
But that's when her dream shifted. She was in a cave, tied up. Her sister was forcing her to drink a potion. There were these dripping, oozing doll-like objects hanging all around her. The hatred growing in her heart for Uther, for Arthur, for Merlin. She hated them. They'd taken everything from her. She would kill them all and take what was hers!
She sat up in bed with a start. She didn't know why that hatred existed only when she drank the potion. Could it be an enchantment? Could it be that she can't avoid her destiny even if she wants to?