Chapter 21: Snakes and Dragons

She was running across a field next to a river, heading towards a dark wood on the horizon. Merlin and Mordred were standing outside their tent, calling her name, pleading with her to come with them, but she knew she could not. They had abandoned her, just as everyone else had, and now she was on her own.

Alone and afraid.

"I've been here before," she realised. "I've dreamt this before. Am I still dreaming?"

"There are no dragons and no snakes," Merlin had said but they were everywhere now; some of them winding their way up her legs whilst numerous miniature dragons flew around her head, breathing fire.

"I told you this was real," she said.

"No, it's just a dream."

She turned back, looking down at the hundreds of snakes, and then up, but now there was only one small, white dragon flitting around her head. The others had all turned back to moths.

"Just a dream?" she wondered.

"No, I'm real," the white dragon replied, looking slightly offended. "My name is Aithusa, I'm yours and I promise I won't let them hurt you."

"I don't know where I am, Aithusa," she said. "I don't know where this is."

"It is here," the dragon replied, unhelpfully.

She was in the wood one minute, then suddenly in Camelot's laboratory and after that a small, cosy living room with a real wood fire.

"Can you hear a buzz?" she asked then, shaking her head.

"It's the snakes," the dragon replied from her place on the fireside mat. "They hiss."

"No, it's everywhere. It's in my ears and vibrating all through my body."

"It's that snake," Aithusa said, pointing with her muzzle. "The purple one around your wrist."

Morgana stared at it as it flickered between the image of a snake and a Gauntlet. "The prison around my wrist," she whispered.

"Yes."

"Merlin will rescue me again."

"Will he?"

"He said he loved me."

"Are you sure?"

She paused, trying to remember. "No. Not really."

Morgana looked up to find she was back in the wood with snakes all around her and the little white dragon now sitting on a nearby tree stump. As she looked at her wrist, the flickering image settled to a very clear metal Gauntlet and she tried to make some sense of it all.

"They put a purple Gauntlet on me," she remembered. "Am I dead?"

"It's hard to tell," Aithusa replied, unemotionally. "Perhaps."

"Merlin said it kills people."

"Some people, yes."

"It killed his childhood sweetheart and, if he loses me this way too..." She shook her head. "It'll break his heart."

"They're taking you home," Aithusa continued. "Taking you back."

"Dad will take it off then. Or Gauis. They'll lower the setting."

"Are you sure?"

She shook her head. "I'm not even sure if this is real. I don't even know if I'm alive."

~o~0~o~

Morgana started to become aware of the movement of a vehicle and, for a while, imagined she was back with Merlin and Mordred, driving through the countryside with the window wound down and her sunglasses on. She closed her eyes and felt the sun on her face and the breeze through her hair. It was perfect. She didn't think she could ever remember a time when she had felt so content.

However, as she opened her eyes, her surroundings betrayed her, as did the presence of a small, white dragon sitting in the corner of the prison van which was transporting her.

"They're taking me back to Camelot," she said with a sigh.

"If you make it that far." Aithusa came over and nudged at the Gauntlet again. "You need to do something about this."

"How? It's Purple and I don't have any tools."

"You're wearing a brooch, aren't you?"

"Of course!"

Morgana quickly unpinned the little dragon from her shirt and stared at it for a moment, trying to reconcile the image of that and the apparently real white dragon sitting on the floor in front of her. Shaking her head in an attempt to overcome the confusion, she placed the pin of the brooch in-between her fingers and started to work it against the points on the Gauntlet, as she'd been shown.

"I only just started to learn this stuff and I'm finding it really hard to concentrate."

"Don't try to remove it," the dragon instructed. "You'll only set off the alarms. Just lower the setting a bit. You remember what Edwin showed you?"

"I'm not sure… I'm feeling very dizzy."

"Try. Press that point and push with your magic at the same time."

"Magic? With this on?"

"You're Silver. Try."

"Okay."

She pushed and winced, waiting for an alarm to sound. Fortunately only silence greeted her along with a slight decrease in the pain.

"I did it?"

"Perhaps you could try again?" Aithusa suggested. "Drop it even further?"

"I don't think I have the energy," Morgana admitted. "All I want to do now is sleep."

~o~0~o~

She had no idea how long she'd slept for, but it felt as if it had been a long time, somewhere dark, deep and warm. She heard her name called several times but, at first, it was far too difficult to respond. Slowly, painfully, she tried to wake herself up and reply.

"Morgana?"

She forced her eyes open to see a vaguely familiar blur in front of her, but the bright lights all around the figure made her head throb and she quickly closed them again.

"Please," she begged. "The pain..."

"The Knights have put her on a Purple setting," a second, familiar voice said. "Isn't that dangerous?"

"It can be, yes."

"The you must drop it down."

There was a pause and Morgana forced her eyes open to see the first blurred face was now much closer. She blinked as grey hair slowly came into focus. "Gaius?"

"Yes, I'm here. Did you change this setting, Morgana?"

"I tried to. It hurt."

"She changed it? How could she change it?"

"Arthur?"

"Yes, it's me. Gaius… if it's true what she and Merlin said, then you can't keep her on this colour. Dad wouldn't want her to suffer like this."

"Like what?" Morgana heard Uther's familiar voice and winced, instinctively pulling away as he approached. "Morgana! How are you? Why did no-one tell me she had returned?"

"The Knights weren't very clear with their message," Gaius explained. "I wasn't sure who was coming in. I called for you as soon as I realised."

Her father came closer still and Morgana whimpered fearfully, pulling her knees up onto the chair.

"What is she acting like that? Why is she in this chair? Where is the real criminal?"

"Ah, as I said, the Knights didn't really say..."

"Get Aredian in here now! I need to know what happened and I need to have that boy caught. First he seduces my daughter and then radicalises her. He's the one who should be wearing Purple, not her."

"I was just about to reduce the setting," Gaius said.

"Then do so."

"I'm just not sure how low to take it. I don't know what level she is."

"Silver," Morgana mumbled.

"What's she on about?" Uther pushed. "Why is she acting like this?"

"Shh, you're not supposed to tell them," Aithusa warned. "It's a secret, remember?" Morgana looked up and blinked, surprised to hear that particular voice in Camelot's laboratory. She giggled and pointed towards the nearest computer screen.

"What?" Gaius looked around, confused.

"There's a dragon on your work top," she declared.

The three men exchanged a confused and concerned look. "Drop it down now!" Uther ordered, an edge of desperation in his voice.

"I'll put it down to Blue and see what happens," Gaius said, scurrying forwards quickly. "It's half-way towards that setting anyway."

Of course, this new Gauntlet had been placed on her left wrist and so, with everyone's attention focused on what Gaius was doing, it was fairly inevitable that someone was going to notice the other piece of jewellery she was wearing.

"What is that?" Uther said. "Is that a… wedding ring?"

"What? It can't be," Arthur said. "When would they have had the time?"

"Explain!" Uther demanded of her. "Why are you wearing this ring?"

But as he came close she reacted instinctively trying to pull her hand back away, shaking her head furiously.

"You sent for me, Uther?"

Morgana would recognise that sinister voice anywhere. She whimpered as Aredian strode into the room, tucking her legs up even closer and pressing her head against knees, only her left hand now sticking out, held firmly in Gaius' grasp.

"I wouldn't adjust that, if I were you," the Knight said. "Very powerful sorceress that one. Managed to perform several spells whilst in close proximity to our Shields."

"How is that possible?" Arthur asked.

"She was wearing a modified Gauntlet," Aredian said. "It seemed to react normally, but we were only able to fully subdue her once it was removed."

"You have it?" Gaius asked.

"I do," the man said, handing it over. "And there were others in her bag. I'm assuming her two accomplices were wearing something similar."

"But how?" Arthur asked. "How could she adjust them without official equipment?"

"It shouldn't be possible," Gaius agreed. "Gauntlets are designed to block any attempts to modify them or use magic to modify others."

"It must have been the other one," Uther insisted. "It must have been this Merlin."

"Dad, I've told you. He's a Red and anyway…. It's just Merlin."

Despite her fear and confusion, Morgana couldn't help but feel amused by Arthur's determination not to see what was right in front of him. Her reaction may not have been obvious, but her brother apparently saw Gaius and Aredian's expressions. "What?"

"He transported himself and the boy away," Aredian explained. "Transportation whilst wearing a Gauntlet and standing right next to a Knights' Shield. Morgana here managed a few impressive spells, but she wasn't able to transport as they did."

"But I've seen her do that disappearing trick before," Arthur said. "She must have been allowing Merlin and the boy escape."

"I can't transport," she mumbled. "Merlin hadn't got around to teaching me yet."

"Merlin hadn't?"

"I told you, it's all him," Uther insisted. "Morgana's innocent of no other crime than falling under his spell."

The Knight shook his head. "They both have magic, Uther. I saw it with my own eyes and have the bruises to prove it. My whole team were witnesses too, along with about a hundred bystanders."

"But you let him escape?" Uther continued.

"We will capture him and the boy, never fear. We have already alerted our teams in Wales and will be travelling back out there first thing tomorrow."

"Thank you for passing this on," Gaius said. "Your information was very useful, as was this haul of adjusted Gauntlets."

The man almost imperceptibly tipped his head and then left, smirking at the sight of Morgana still cowering in the chair. She raised a hand towards him then, hissing, and was rewarded by seeing a flicker of fear appear on the man's normally smarmy features. Aithusa then chased after him then, breathing fire.

It was such a shame she wasn't real.

"Merlin has magic?" Arthur repeated, almost to himself.

"Equal partners, as he said," Morgana replied, her head starting to become a little clearer now the setting had been dropped down to Blue. "Bonnie and Clyde. Although he is actually a lot more powerful than I am."

Gaius was shaking his head. "To be able to transport in that situation though..."

"Well, it would certainly explain how the prisoners escaped," Uther said. "I want him found and brought back here for trial."

"No! You won't touch him," Morgana snarled. "You couldn't anyway. He's far too powerful. None of you would stand a chance. I love him and I agree with everything he's trying to do."

So much for her promise to pretend she was the victim in all of this.

"The Blue setting is obviously helping her to become more coherent," Gaius said. "But I'm not sure we can fully trust her words or her judgement whilst it's still set so high."

"I will not believe she is to blame here and I refuse to let her stay in a cell," Uther said. "She will be released to my care. Under house arrest. Her PA can look after her and you, Gaius, can check on her and help undo all the enchantments that sorcerer has employed."

"Enchantments?" the old man asked.

"He has radicalised her, as I said, but I shall not lose her to his evil. She will be looked after and cared for until she returns to her right mind."

Morgana gave a slightly manic giggle.

"Go along with it," Aithusa suggested. "Anything to get that setting lowered further."

"Right," Gaius said, looking up from her Gauntlet. "I think that's good enough for now. I'd better go with her to your house, Uther, if that's where you want her kept, and perhaps Arthur can come too?"

"Yes, a good idea. Take her PA too, ah..."

"Her name's Gwen," Arthur supplied, with a touch of impatience in his voice. "Then what?"

"Well, I just want to monitor her really," Gaius continued. "And perhaps lower the setting a little more after I've seen how she reacts to this level."

"You should let him," Aithusa said. "But continue to act meek and confused. Then, hopefully it'll drop low enough for you to unlock it."

"And get my own Gauntlet back."

"I'm going to have to study that," Gaius said and Morgana realised that she'd accidentally spoken out loud. "Perhaps when you're feeling better you can explain the modifications that have been made to it."

"Perhaps," she replied, non-committally.

She was released from the chair then and asked to stand, although she was unable to do so without Arthur's help, still exceptionally disorientated from the Gauntlet's still high setting.

"Perhaps it would be best if I went to fetch Gwen," Gaius suggested as he noticed how much support Morgana was needing. "Then we can both meet you at the car to be driven to Uther's house?"

"Yes, do that now," her father said. "I have a meeting to get back to, but I'll certainly give the three of you the rest of the day off in order to see her settled." He moved closer, obviously intending to offer some affectionate gesture, but Morgana was still a slave to her instincts and couldn't help but back away. At least she managed to stop herself from hissing as she had when faced with Aredian.

Fortunately she tripped then, hopefully disguising her reaction and Arthur took hold of her arm a little more firmly and offered her some encouraging comments.

Aithusa was right, Morgana realised. She had to try to act meekly and exaggerate her incapacity until her senses fully returned and she was able to plan her escape.

~o~0~o~