Morgana was tidying up the makeup, humming to herself. She'd worked at Camelot Opera for 8 years ever since Uther had adopted her after her father had died. She'd started off just running small errands for the actors, but then had moved to doing make-up. It wasn't the most appreciated job, but it was important and she enjoyed herself.

"Morgana!" said Uther, bursting in. "Sing for us."

"What?" asked Morgana, startled.

"Sing something for us," repeated Uther.

"Umm, why?"

"Do you know the big aria from act two?"

"Sort of, but…"

"Be on stage in 10 minutes," interrupted Uther. "You will sing it for us."

With that, Uther strode out.

"What on earth was that about?" wondered Morgana.

She quickly finished tidying up the rushed towards the auditorium. On the way she bumped into Gaius.

"Gaius! Do you know what's going on? Uther wants me to sing for him."

"Haven't you heard?"

"Heard what?"

"A chandelier fell on Helen earlier."

"Oh my god. Is she okay?"

" I'm afraid she's dead," said Gaius grimacing.

Morgana drew in a shocked breath.

"You'd better go to Uther. He's probably already pacing."

Sure enough, when Morgana stepped out of the wings onto the stage, Uther was in danger of wearing a grove across the front of the stage.

"Ah, Morgana. Are you ready? Great. Come here and sing."

Morgana walked to the front of the stage, still slightly bemused. Once she was there, Uther nodded at Geoffrey who was seated at the piano, and he began to play.

She'd never sung in front of anyone before, so she was very nervous. She almost missed her entry, only Geoffrey glancing up at her made her come in in time.

"I really hope Emrys was right about this," muttered Uther.

Morgana began to sing, her voice timid, but slowly she grew more confident. By the final verse, she was giving it her all, her voice filling the large space completely. Many of the stagehands had emerged and were listening mouths open wide, as if they had forgotten how to close them. Even the usually stern Geoffrey was beaming.

She held the last note for what seemed like forever, then there was a stunned silence, only broken by Audrey, the costume supervisor, bursting into a round of applause which quickly grew as others joined in.

She glanced over at Uther, not quite sure what reaction to expect. He had a slight smile curving his lips.

"I expect you to do me proud tonight," he said, then turned and left.

Morgana had no idea what to do.

For the first time in ages, Merlin arrived in his box early. He couldn't wait for tonight's performance. He was sure it would be one that would go down in history. Also he felt an almost fatherly pride for Morgana. He remembered the first time he'd heard her singing to herself alone in a dressing room. He had been stunned by her voice. After that, he'd used his magic to encourage her to sing more and her voice had blossomed. Now he was able to show her off.

Something inside him clenched at the thought that she would never know of his support and admiration, but he ignored it. He was used to being invisible by now. He knew he would never be properly acknowledged. Even as Emrys, although Uther had come to respect his opinions, he was never truly acknowledged for all he had done.

Merlin sighed to himself and settled down to watch the performance.

"You were amazing!" said Gwen, once she had found Morgana hiding in her dressing room. "Why did you never tell anyone you could sing like that?"

Morgana hid her face, overjoyed by the praise.

"I never thought Uther would take me seriously," she admitted. "And I'm nowhere near as good as Helen was."

"No. You're a million times better," corrected Gwen. "Where did you learn to sing like that?"

"Nowhere really. I just sing when I'm alone. Sometimes it feels like there's someone there with me, guiding me, but that's just silly. When I was little, I used to have dreams of a tall man with dark hair and blue eyes who taught me to sing, and I've always imagined him there with me. I know it's silly, but it helps me, pretending there's someone there, behind the scenes to support me."

Morgana laughed at herself.

"Like your own angel of music," said Gwen dreamily.

"Exactly" agreed Morgana.

Just then there was a knock on the door.

"Come in," said Morgana.

The door opened to reveal Arthur.

"I just wanted to congratulate you on your performance tonight. You were, well, you were stunning."

"Thank you Arthur. I can see you've changed since I last saw you. Much less of the spoilt brat. Almost a gentleman!" she teased.

Arthur frowned. "Yes, well. Anyway, how would you like to come out to dinner to celebrate?"

"I'm afraid not," said Morgana. "The performance has taken it out of me and I'm planning on an early night. Maybe another time."

She dismissed him with a wave of her hand and turned back to Gwen.

"Would you leave me? I'd just like some time to myself before I go home."

"Of course," said Gwen, smiling. " I'm so proud of you."

With one last smile at Morgana, she turned and left the dressing room, leaving Morgana alone.

Morgana hadn't been lying when she'd said she was exhausted. As soon as she was alone she felt her eyelid start to droop. She tried to resist, but it was futile. She was so tired she didn't even notice how all the candles in the room suddenly extinguished themselves as her eyes closed. She was dead to the world.

Merlin had been watching Morgana through the mirror of her dressing room, feeling the pride swelling. He could see her fatigue and had sent out a small pulse of magic to help her sleep, but he hadn't been expecting the answering pulse that came from Morgana.

He stared speechlessly at the extinguished candles, not sure what to do. All he knew was that someone had extinguished those candles with magic, and it wasn't him, it was Morgana.