I promise this didn't take more than 20 minute away from my writing of By Blow. I just needed to get this idea out of my head, and break my heart all over again.
Here is to Morgana, who deserved so much better.
It was one of the more accurate retellings.
Or so Merlin thought. If he was being perfectly honest, he didn't remember what was the truth and what was fiction anymore. As far as Merlin knew Gwen and Lancelot never were really a thing, so then why did all the stories say they were? Morgause had been Morgana's half sister through their mother, not Uther, right? Merlin wasn't old back then; he knew that. Age had gripped him with time, but Dragoon was old, not Merlin. He was sure of it. Well, almost sure of it. Really, in a thousand years it was hard to be sure of anything. He was sure Arthur had been raised a prince though. He hadn't been illegitimate and sent away; Merlin would have remembered that. He would have remembered if Arthur was only a boy when they met; Merlin knew it. There was no way all his memories were made up. They just couldn't be.
No, Merlin was almost sure the legends were wrong. Authors picked the things they thought made the best story, and eventually it was a different story all together. Merlin knew of the game telephone; it was just like that. People had changed things accidentally, or on purpose, but the end result was the same. Now, a thousand years later, the 'true' story of Arthur was lost.
Well, there was the BBC show that Merlin had written and sent to a friend for production. The show was based on his memories, but even that had been changed. It showed Merlin and Arthur's relationship the best of any story, but Morgana…Morgana it just didn't do justice. How could it, when Merlin himself never really understood what happened to the girl's kind soul?
Morgana, the reason Merlin was having this mental debate. He'd just found this new version of the tale, one that was really quite accurate. It was the first in which Merlin was portrayed as younger than Arthur; that was for sure. Really, the whole story was on point. It described Merlin having to hide his magic. It showed how flawed Arthur had been as he followed his father's example. It talked about how Mordred felt betrayed after Kara's death, and how the druid never realized it was just a misunderstanding. It showed Camlann, how Merlin was minutes too late, how the sword went through Arthur. The book spoke about Merlin and Arthur's journey to Avalon, how they went from enemies to best friends on the ride. It even knew Arthur's last words, the haunting thank you that broke Merlin's heart.
There was just one thing the book was missing, and, much to his shame, it took until Merlin reached the footnotes at the end that he realized what it was.
4. It should be noted that the forces at Camlann were actually led by Morgana Pendragon, sometimes known as Morgan La Fey, and that Mordred just happened to be the first to reach Arthur. Morgana was later killed by Merlin on the shores of Avalon, and it was that fight which stalled Merlin long enough for the King to die.
Until that moment, there hadn't been a single mention of the girl who wanted to be Queen. Three hundred pages had come and passed without a single mention of the girl who, in life, was Arthur's ultimate foe, and yet the story had seemed very much like Merlin remembered. Morgana's whole existence was summed up in only 60 words. In the end, the complex woman who defined Arthur's life was nothing more than a footnote.