Acknowledgments:

I want to thank Stephenie Meyer and her description of Alice Cullen in Twilight which helped me so much with this chapter, although their gifts differ slightly, her description of the future was incredibly useful when writing this chapter. Thank you so much.

I also want to thank all you readers who continue to read this adventure of mine and leave reviews, they always make me smile :D

Chapter 8; The Obedient Friend

Merlin closed the door behind him as he entered Arthur's chamber. The young prince looked up at his man servant and friend and smiled slightly.

"How is she?"

"Alright" Merlin said nodding, omitting the fact that Arthur had killed her friends and she held herself responsible "Gaius said her hand will heal in no time, and he's got her running a few errands to take her mind off it"

"Merlin, I'm so sorry. I feel really bad. I'm a…."

"Prat?" Merlin volunteered.

"No! Merlin, you still haven't quite got the hang of what is appropriate or not yet"

Merlin hung his head in embarrassment, but a cheeky grin soon spread over his face and Arthur simply shook his head in disbelief.

There was a knock on the door and Merlin stepped forward to let a guard through the door.

"Sire, his majesty the king requests your presence"

"Why?"

"He wants to question your opinion over a certain weather matter"

Almost simultaneously Merlin and Arthur's heads turned to look out the window at the pouring rain. Arthur rose from his chair and went to follow the guard to his father, he turned back to look at Merlin.

"Merlin, tidy my room for me, it's a tip!"

He walked forward a few steps then stopped, spinning on his foot.

"On second thoughts, don't. Go and tack up my horse, I think I may need to go and ride to the villages after this meeting"

Merlin nodded, always the obedient friend.

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Rose went over Gaius's directions in her head again; take the first left, then the next right, down a long corridor, up a flight of stairs, across the hallway and up a curved staircase. She reached the top of the staircase and knocked on the appropriate door, it swung open and Rose smiled; she'd got the right place.

"Gaius wanted me to give you this, he thought it migh---"

The end of her sentence was lost as she was abruptly pulled into the room and shoved against the wall; instinctively her hand went to the back of her head that had just been thrashed against the cold, hard surface of a stone wall. She looked straight into the eyes of the person who was holding her wrist tight against the wall.

"I just came to give this to you…Gaius said it would help you sleep"

Her hold on Rose was tight and she refused to let her go. Morgana had always been a feisty girl, and there was no way that she was going to let Merlin's friend out of her sight. She snatched the small vial out of Rose's hand and threw it on to the floor; it did not smash. Morgana look intently at it and her tight grip loosened ever so slightly with her surprise, Rose tried to move the hand that was held above her head, and Morgana suddenly remembered who she held against the wall.

"Gaius thought you might do that" Rose said ever so quietly.

"Why don't you drink it?" Morgana mocked, staring into Rose's blue eyes. Rose stared back absolutely petrified. "Or doesn't Gaius know about you?"

"Let me go!" Rose whispered "I'll leave here, you won't have to hurt anyone, just don't tell his majesty, I beg of you!"

"I'm not letting a seer go!"

Rose swallowed at the name, and from somewhere found a small piece of courage to answer the king's ward back.

"It takes one to know one"

Morgana smiled "I have seen you in my dreams, a seer arrive at Camelot, you are that seer"

"Yes" Rose admitted.

"You can see the future!"

"Yes" Rose nodded again "I can see the future…and the past" Rose did not understand why she trusted Morgana so much, why she was telling this unknown woman her best kept secrets but she had an instinct, and Rose's instincts were something she had learned to trust. As if she felt it too Morgana sighed, releasing Rose's arm. The two seers stood opposite each other.

"You know how it feels, what it is like to see things you don't want to see. You know what it is like to keep a secret that will cost you your life"

"I do"

Morgana looked almost tearful.

"You have no idea how long I have waited for someone like you" Morgana walked over to a chair by her fireplace and Rose followed, sitting on the very edge of the chair next to Morgana's. She looked at the young woman, a few years older than herself, and felt pity for her. In front of her was a seer, just like herself, who lived in the one place where magic was punished the most. A capital offense; death. And Morgana lived right under the King's nose; Rose saw the worry lines which marked the King's ward's forehead, showing the struggle she had to keep her secret under wraps. Rose could not make the dreams stop, she knew that better than anyone, she could not force Morgana to drink Gaius's medicine which would not help. But she could be a friend.

"Does it scare you?" Morgana spoke for the first time in a few minutes, still staring into t he fire. She turned her head to look at Rose.

"No, well, not anymore."

"You are brave"

"Not really, just…used to it"

"How old were you, when you first…" Morgana let the end of her sentence trail, knowing that for the first time she did not have to explain herself.

"About 5 years old. It wasn't long before my parents were killed"

"Your parents could…see too?"

"My mother could, my father could read people's minds. They were both burnt when a spy told his majesty. Then I went travelling."

"And now you are here. To seek revenge?" Morgana guessed.

"No! Not at all, I don't want his majesty to come to any harm."

"That is a noble thing"

Rose shook her head "Hurting him would not bring them back. It would not change anything; in fact I believe it would make things worse. Arthur is not ready to be King. Not yet"

"Do you always see true?"

"No, no one can. The future is not an ascertained thing, it can always change, one person's decision can put the future on a different path; a completely new course. We can only see what people are planning, what might happen. We see the course that will happen based on what decisions people make. It's completely subjective; the future is never set in stone"

Morgana smiled, her sight being explained for the first time. She was not being patronised or helped. Not advised or aided, she was being spoken to as a normal person, by someone who understood what it was like. Who knew how she felt, who could be a source of comfort and reassurance. Who could be an understanding friend.

"You won't leave me, not now?"

Rose smiled "No. I don't see that happening" and the two newly founded friends laughed at her words.

But Morgana knew, she had seen, that Rose's future was not always bright, she could not see everything, but she felt guilty for keeping her in Camelot.

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"This foul weather is ridiculous! Arthur I know you have sorted out the previous storm's consequences but there has to be some answer to this, some hidden person behind all this!"

"Father, it is November, weather is always changing and unpredictable. It just happens that we have been hit with a number of wet storms in a small space of time. It's not unheard of"

"Are you questioning my judgement?"

"No! I just do not think this is a cause for concern. I will go a ride out to check the people if you wish me to" Arthur offered.

"No, I want you to check our people because you want to, not because you have been ordered to. Leave Arthur, just go and enjoy your dinner in your room tonight"

Arthur nodded and bowed at his father's dismissal. He waved to the nearest guard as he got out the door and obediently the walked over to the prince.

"Yes, sire?"

"Go to the stables and fetch Merlin from the rain. Tell him I will not need my horse and that he may have the remainder of the day off"

The guard nodded and marched down the long corridor to relive Merlin of his duties.

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Rose almost laughed when Merlin walked in, completely drenched, and grimacing. She bit her lip and bent her head down to find her place on the page she was reading, her head jerked up as she felt a drip – several drips in fact – on top of her head.

"Still laughing?" Merlin asked as he wrung his sleeve over the top of her head. She squealed like a little girl, slamming her book shut and hitting him as hard as she could with it. He laughed out loud and shook his head, like a dog, and the water sprayed out of his dark hair to cover Rose, the book she was reading and her chair.

"I'm sorry for laughing!" she screamed, to try and stop the 'rain'. He stopped for a moment and then let out a low laugh, almost chuckling, and then began to walk to his room, the bottom of his trousers and socks making a wet trail on the floor. As if the thought had suddenly popped into his head he turned around sharply and looked questioningly at Rose, who had begun to flick through the books pages to find her lost place. She felt his eyes looking at her and looked up, half expecting to be splashed once again.

"Did you not foresee the weather?" Merlin innocently asked "I thought you'd be good at that sort of thing, it would be like having our own little weather girl"

"I did not foresee the rain, though last night I heard it in a dream. The incessant drip of rain." her eyes looked like the were miles away "I normally only dream of things that cause a great effect, something that will – could" she corrected herself " – could have devastating consequences. But I am training my head now, I've been working on it for the past few years, training my mind to see the things I wish it to see, looking out for the fortunes I want to see. I started because I thought it would help me find you, but I heard through word of mouth where you were in the end, but I wonder if I could instruct it to think around a theme rather than a person…" she trailed of, now completely mesmerized in her own thoughts, rather than answering Merlin's original question.

Merlin looked at his friend as she sifted through her own thoughts and murmured to herself, and then began to flick through the book with more purpose, his eyes flicked to the title and realised it was a book about seers. Of course most books of this kind had been destroyed and no seer with any sense would have written down their own knowledge, so she was completely reliant on myths and legends. But as Merlin had found out, these so called myths and legends were not that far from the truth. And he wondered, as he walked off to his room, leaving his friend intently reading a number of pages, if Camelot was home to a number of people who possessed magical powers, whether other places, where there was no laws enforced against magic could be a home to an even greater number of magicians.