Disclaimer: I am not affiliated in any way with the BBC and I do not own Merlin or any of its characters. I am using them for entertainment purposes under the fair use and/or transformative works clause.

Morgana is already leaning over a large sheet of parchment on the table when Merlin strides into her chamber, arms full of books. Arthur had been surprisingly easily convinced of Gwen's need for immediate rescue; his face had gone almost grey at Morgana's words, and he is now pacing the room anxiously. Looking at the worried expressions on the two men's faces, which Morgana is sure are mirrored by her own visage, she stifles a wry smile. We make a fine collection, don't we? she thinks.

As Merlin places the books on the table and stands awkwardly, lip clenched between teeth, Morgana is moved by the concern in his eyes. She straightens and goes to him without thinking, her soft hand drawn comfortingly along his arm. "We'll get her back," Morgana reassures quietly, trying to ignore the stomach churning jolt of her hand brushing his cloth covered skin. Merlin gives her a grateful smile.

Arthur glares. "Where's my comforting words, Morgana?" he complains, stomping over to the table and flicking through the books at random.

"Well, you looked likely to bite my head off if I got too close, so you'll just have to manage on your own," Morgana says sweetly, taking a book from the stack. It is heavy and dark, rich blue covers hiding parchment soft as feathers, with neat black ink drawings all over the pages. She flips through, unsure what she is looking for.

"What did Gaius have to say?" Arthur growls at Merlin.

"Do you want the bad news or the bad news first?" Merlin quips back.

"Definitely the bad news," Morgana tells him. He sends an absent smile her way.

"First part of the bad news is that he's heard of the Wolf King, and what he's heard isn't good. Nobody's ever seen this Wolf King, but he's believed to live alone in the Castle of Lupine. Our friend was telling the truth, it is right beside the village of Pataglen. There are stories: they say the Wolf King has the power to turn anyone he likes into a werewolf. They also say..." Merlin stops and clears his throat.

"They also say that he lives inside shadow, inside the shadows in his castle: and only inside the shadow; pretty much he cannot be destroyed because the shadow acts as a shield. Shadow can't disappear completely, it just moves. The Wolf King is virtually indestructible."

"I'm sure we'll find a way. We'll have to," mumbles Arthur, flinging down his heavy brown book and picking up a flimsy sketchbook filled with pencil drawings of the moon.

"Second piece of bad news..." Merlin continues.

"God, you included about five different bad things in the first piece, isn't it over yet?" Arthur gripes, hands tensing so hard against the paper that he looks about ready to tear it in two.

Morgana shakes her head reprovingly at the prince. "Let him finish talking," she defends Merlin, who gives her...was that a wink? Morgana raises her eyebrows at his audacity and is gratified as Merlin blushes slightly, probably regretting his bold action.

"Second piece of bad news," Merlin continues hastily, "Is that the full moon is in two days. Even if we leave now, we won't get to the castle till this time tomorrow, which would give us only a day and a half to defeat the king and lift the curse."

Silence follows this pronouncement as the three look outside at the sun, already beginning to lower from its position in the centre of the heavens.

"Gaius says it's a blue moon - second full moon in a month. The magic will be stronger than usual and the werewolves more vicious," Merlin adds helpfully. "If we don't lift the curse before they let Gwen go, they'll kill her, there won't be anything we can do to stop it."

This time both Arthur and Morgana glare at him. "Right little ray of sunshine, today, aren't you?" Arthur mutters. Morgana turns to the window and leans heavily on the edge, looking out to where she's seen Gwen wander so many times. "Poor Gwen. She must be so frightened," she murmurs.

'It'll be okay, Morgana. We'll find her.' Merlin's voice reaches her, sounding slightly distorted. As though he's talking through a wall or something, with a slight echo following the words. Morgana turns, puzzled by the sound.

"Thank you, Merlin," she murmurs, allowing a bright smile to momentarily cross her features. "It's nice to see someone can respond sympathetically to fear, mine and Gwen's."

It's hard to say who looks more surprised by her words, Arthur or Merlin. Merlin's mouth hangs slightly open and Arthur has a bewildered expression crossing his features. "What?" Morgana frowns.

"Er, Merlin didn't say anything, Morgana," Arthur says. "So unless the two of you have some sort of psychic connection going on, he's no more sympathetic than I am." Arthur's gaze crosses suspiciously from his shuffling manservant to his frowning foster sister.

"Oh," Morgana returns to the window. I'm sure I heard him. Things really must be bad if I'm beginning to hear voices in my head...

'Morgana,' comes the same almost-Merlin's voice. Morgana whips around again, looking at him. Dust motes fire in the air between them, disturbed by Morgana's swinging hair.

"Yes?"

"He didn't say anything, Morgana!" Arthur exclaims, flinging his hands up in a gesture of despair. "Can we please make some sort of plan so that we can go and find Gwen?"

Morgana stares for a moment, beginning to be seriously confused and more than a little annoyed. If they're playing a game, it's not funny. Am I losing my mind? She takes a deep breath and picks up a book from the table, heart thumping. The bright, fever yellow hardback does little to soothe her agitated nerves.

'Morgana.'

Now Morgana is seriously annoyed. Her head snaps up and she glares at both men. "Whatever game you two are playing, it's not funny! Stop it, we need to leave as soon as we can, we don't have time for this."

Arthur looks about as annoyed as Morgana feels. He opens his mouth to make some exasperated comment, but before he can, Morgana hears Merlin's voice again. 'Morgana, if you can hear me, get rid of Arthur, we need to talk.'

She stares. She certainly heard something, but...Merlin hadn't opened his mouth. What is happening to her? Morgana's erratic heartbeat calms slightly as she registers Merlin's tiny nod towards her. Okay. Get rid of Arthur. That she can do. She turns to the irritated blond prince.

"Arthur, we need you to go and see if there are any maps of this Castle of Lupine in the library," she tells him.

"Make Merlin go and get them, he's the servant. I'm the one who knows about strategy, we should start making a plan," Arthur argues with her.

"No, it...it sounds like the Wolf King is magical," Morgana invents, "So Geoffrey may not release the maps to anyone without authority. Come on, Arthur. I know you think yourself above such menial actions, but big men are made from small kindnesses," she finishes with sarcasm.

Arthur shakes his head, then spins on his heel and begins to leave the room. "Fine. You two saddle the horses and pack some food, I'll meet you at the stables. We can plan on the way, hurry up, will you? And tie my saddle girth properly this time, Merlin!"

With Arthur gone, Morgana turns determinately back to Merlin, who has moved to the table and is carefully sorting the books, stacking any he thinks they may need. He looks up, eyes locking with hers, his cerulean orbs holding a strange mixture of hesitancy tinged with excitement.

"What's this all about, Merlin?" Morgana wants to know, hands on hips.

He continues to look at her intensely. 'Can you hear this, Morgana?' she hears, although the boy's mouth is still closed.

"Yes, I can hear it! What are you doing, just explain it to me!" Morgana explodes, closing the distance between them.

Merlin takes a step back from her and Morgana remembers just before her hands push at his chest that she should not touch him. Any proximity at all is, in fact, probably a bad thing.

'I'm talking inside your head. From inside my head.'

"What?" Morgana lets out a small gasp, and stares, confused and shocked. He's inside her head? This is probably not a good place for him to be, but aside from that, how is it possible?

He shakes his head slightly, lips shut tightly, and Morgana hears, 'Not out loud. Answer me inside your mind. Think the words and push them towards me,' he tells her.

Morgana looks at him with disbelief. Needing to do something with her hands, she picks up the stack of books and cradles them, stepping backwards to reduce the distraction of his body heat. With intense concentration, Morgana forms the words in her mind. Not normal thoughts, but ink black words lodged inside her imagination, focused on far harder than she normally does in speech. She looks at Merlin and tries hard to lift the words from her own mind and push them into his. 'Like...this?'

A grin cracks Merlin's face. "Yep," he says aloud.

"But how...why...how?" Morgana sputters, exhilarated now by the almost magical communication, but still extremely confused.

Merlin takes the edge of her wide sleeve unconsciously in a pincer grip and strides towards the door, taking her with him. "Come on. We can talk on the way to the stables," he says, glancing back at her. Morgana nods and scurries to keep up. Her heart, which had threatened to halt its staccato rhythm, has begun to race once more.

As they hurry through the corridors, Merlin looks around nervously, making sure nobody is in hearing distance before he begins to explain. Morgana is disappointed to find that he's let go of her sleeve. "I don't know why it's happening. Before, when you said Gwen must be afraid, you sounded upset: I though the words 'it'll be okay' but I didn't say them. Arthur would probably have executed me then and there for being sappy. But when you turned around, I knew you must have heard them, so I tried it again."

"Yes, well, in future please don't do things that make me think I'm losing my mind," Morgana can't help warning him.

His face softens. He obviously hasn't remembered how confused and frightened the uncontrollable parts of the supernatural make her. "I'm sorry. I wanted to make sure it worked before I spoke to you about it. But I'm sorry."

They turn down a new hallway, yellow stone casting shadows over the floor. "Why us? Arthur obviously couldn't hear it. Why you and me?" Morgana questions him.

Merlin seems to hesitate, as though there's something he's not telling her. "I don't know," he shrugs. "But it might be because you and I were the ones who saved the Druid boy. That's how...that's how he called to me, when I found him, in my head. Maybe it's some kind of Druid magic."

They emerge out into the sunlight and whisk into the stables, the door creaking open. Morgana drops the books into a saddle bag and gently strokes her own horse's nose, untying the snorting animal as she considers Merlin's words. "So the Druid boy gave us this...ability. I still don't understand why Arthur can't do it too. He helped the boy also. And why now? It's been months."

Merlin is focused on saddling two of the other horses, fastening the girth tightly under their bellies. "Maybe we could have done it since then, we just didn't try?" he suggests. "Anyway, it could come in useful."

Morgana cautiously voices the question she's been concerned about. "So, can you hear...all my thoughts?"

Merlin lifts his head, giving her a rogueish grin underneath sparkling eyes. "Why, got things you'd rather not share, my lady?"

Morgana can't help flushing slightly, but he continues before she finds words in her own defence. "Don't worry. It seems like we can only hear what we send to each other. Just be careful what thoughts you form and how...loud they are, I suppose."

Morgana nods and glances at the sun, continuing to lower to its afternoon vantage point. "I'll wait with the horses. You go and get whatever else we need," she changes the topic. They need to hurry. God knows how terrified Gwen is right now.

As Merlin walks away, she forms more words in her mind and sends them out to him. 'I like...this...how we can...talk.'

'Me too,' she hears back, as Merlin disappears from sight.