DISCLAIMER: I don´t own any of these characters ....there is no use in suing me, since I´m a poor student!!

Notes: Laurelin ...thank you! I´m blushing here! Glad you like! You are party right about where I´m taking this!

HER BOTHER´S KEEPER

Arthur stared into her eyes for a moment as the words sunk in. She was going to survive him, was that what she was saying? Her face was still unreadable, as though everything she felt was hidden inside. She returned his gaze intently, unflinching and Arthur felt as though he might be falling into the depth of those dark eyes, loose himself in her stare.

He stepped back from her instinctively as he heard the clattering of weapons being drawn and yelling from the camp.

" Go...." Morgianna said simply. "They need you now."

His head swivelled back to her, the sister he had long presumed dead. He did not know who or what she had become, but there was a nagging feeling of familiarity he felt. He did believe she was indeed his siste, that he could not deny. He felt drawn to her like the tide felt the pull of the moon, she was all that was left of his family. Suddenly Arthur was worried that if he just left her standing here in the rising mist and the falling snow, she would be lost to him again.

"Will I see you again or will you disappear like a shadow, like Merlin?"

Morgianna´s lips curved upwards in the first real smile and the effect had him mesmerized for a moment, made his breath catch in his throat and his pulse speed up. She was not a beautiful woman in the common sense, her features were too serious for that, but seeing her smile at him like that ....again, after all this time, reminded Arthur why he had thought that his sister was the fairest of all. The smile lit up her whole face, made her eyes sparkle with some dark, uncanny power until her skin seemed to glow from within. Smiling like that, Morgianna was everything that was warm, beautiful and true.

She laid her hands around his face affectionately and leaned in to kiss his forehead; to Arthur it felt almost as though she was giving him benediction. When she stepped back the smile was gone and her face was solemn once more.

"I will be there when you need me, little brother. I will always be there in your hour of need. We will see each other again, this I promise you." The metallic sound of swords thrashing against each other cut through the night.

" Go ......they need you."

"It must be done."

Morgianna sat up on the fur covered bench she had been resting on. For a while she just watched the dancing shadows of flames that the fire of the hearth painted on the skin of the man sitting next to her. The silence grew long, but they had played this game too often and for too long. She knew that Merlin's patience was endless, as endless as his will was strong.

"If I do this....." she finally said quietly. "I will not betray only him. I will betray myself, my own blood."

Merlin looked up, searching her face. The fire in the hearth was the only light in the cavern.

"It is the only way."

She shook her head, defiantly.

"Do you know what it is that you ask of me?"

"It is not I who asks this of you, it is the call of the land. It is the only way"

Morgianna leaned forward, staring into his eyes, her voice a strangled, angry whisper.

"And it will undo us all!"

"It was you who told me that you saw a child in his future."

"Yes"

"His child, not hers, you said!"

"I was a child myself when I told you that, I did not know better ...I did not understand. I could not comprehend!"

"That changes nothing."

Morgianna shook her head, a bitter smile coming to her lips.

"Did you tell her that? Will you tell her? She has a right to know!"

A wave of guilt washed over Merlin´s face, so swiftly that one might have missed it.

"It would only cause her pain." He said after a while.

"It will cause us all so much more pain later. Guinevere is young, strong. She will love Arthur and she will want a family of her own." Morgianna whispered heatedly, pressing her hand to her forehead. "He is my brother!"

"And he will be king!" roared Merlin, rising to his feet. She stared up at him as he towered over her. She was not a small woman, but his sudden outburst made her feel vulnerable. It had been a long time since anybody had dared to raise their voice at her. "He shall be king, that is his place, his path. Everything has its time!"

"And this is my place, my path?" she hissed up at him furiously.

He knelt down in front of her bench, gathering her hands in his own, squeezing them tightly enough to hurt just a little.

"Have you ever not seen true, Morgianna?" he asked her, his voice low and imploring.

"Has the sight ever eluded you, shown you lies just once?"

She stared at him, from up close the harsh lines of his face seemed to deepen even more. He knew the answer, they both knew he did. Morgianna took a shuddering breath, closing her eyes, defeated.

" No....."

Merlin watched her face fall, her features filling with a sadness so profound that it erased everything else as her voice took on a light, dreamlike quality.

"Two things I have seen that must come to pass. Two things that will build an empire and be the ruin of us all."

" He will have need of you, my child."

Morgianna´s eyes snapped open and she stood, pulling her hands out of his grip. He let her go, watched her wander over to the entrance of the cavern. Morgianna took deep, violent breaths, inhaling the cool air. She leaned one hand against the rough stone wall, staring out into the darkness of night.

"But would he be willing to pay the price if he knew the cost? Would he be willing to pay, would you?"

"He will need an heir."

She shook her head. "You cannot have it both ways, old friend. What comes to pass of things to come and what not, is not your choice to make. I have told you what I saw. It will be our undoing, yours, mine ...and his. What makes you think you can change that part of the future, but not the other?"

"There will be time enough to change the child's fate, time enough to turn the tide. Some sacrifices must be made."

"Do not talk to me of sacrifice!"

She turned to face him, crossing her arms in front of her chest to resist the urge to hug herself.

"I know why you fight. I fought this war with you, for the good of this country, for its people, but where will it end, Merlin? Where is the line we draw in the sand, the boarder we will not cross to reach our goals?"

"It must be done, Morgianna. You know it must be done."

She turned her back to him again, looking out into the night. Her voice was a toneless whisper." No matter how high the cost will grow."