A/N: Hello everyone. This idea started out as a reveal one-shot, but then Morgana replaced Arthur and turned it into a much longer story. Because seriously, good!Morgana was awesome and deserved better than to become a generic, cartoonishly evil villain. This story will parallel season 1, though I'll be straying much farther from canon than my previous Merlin AUs.

I know I said it in the summary, but I'll say it again: this is not a Mergana fic. I will not budge on that. As an aroace person, I don't particularly enjoy writing or reading romance, and I much prefer writing platonic relationships. There will be a bit of Gwen/Lancelot and Balinor/Hunith on the side, but they are the only pairings.

For the record, I am not opposed to writing bromance in general, but this story will be told exclusively from Morgana's POV and therefore Arthur and Merlin's bromance will be largely offscreen. Sorry.

I plan to stick to a weekly update schedule, updating on Friday nights/Saturday mornings (depending on where on the globe you are). And I do not own Merlin.

Morgana scowled as the musicians began playing. Under any other circumstances, she'd have been happy to listen to Lady Helen's beautiful singing, but not tonight. Uther might have forced her to attend the feast, but he couldn't force her to feel happy about two decades of slaughter. Idly, she wondered whether that poor man's mother would be offended if Morgana tried to secretly offer some small compensation.

Wait a minute. Why were the lights dimming? Morgana suddenly noticed a look of rage in Lady Helen's eyes. She thought she should be more bothered by that, but she felt surprisingly drowsy. The song was incredibly soothing. A nap sounded really nice right now…

No. Uther would throw her in the cells if she had the audacity to sleep through the performance. Morgana propped her head up on her hands, subtly covering her ears, and instantly found herself more alert—enough to notice cobwebs growing over the court. Lady Helen had drawn a dagger, her furious gaze locked on something to Morgana's right. Morgana fearfully turned her head and saw that Arthur seemed to be the target of the lady's ire—and that he was fast asleep. Morgana tried to silently will him to wake up; as annoying as Arthur might be, she certainly didn't want him dead.

Fortunately, a loud crash solved this problem. Morgana whirled back to Lady Helen and saw the woman now crushed underneath a massive chandelier. Except, she wasn't Lady Helen any more. She was the elderly mother for whom Morgana had just been feeling sympathy. Had she been a fool to think that Uther might be wrong about magic's corrupting influence?

Unfortunately, the woman had not been killed instantly, and she lifted up her dagger to throw it again. Morgana turned back to Arthur, prepared to call out a warning, but her voice died in her throat. She distinctly saw Gwen's new friend's eyes flash gold. One moment he was standing by the door, the next he was tackling Arthur to the ground. The witch's dagger embedded itself in the back of Arthur's chair.

Morgana was sure her heart leaped into her throat. The whole court was staring at the poor boy now, including Uther. The boy seemed to hunch in on himself in a futile effort to avoid scrutiny. Morgana opened her mouth, prepared to defend the boy even knowing it would be useless, but Uther spoke first.

"You saved my boy's life. A debt must be repaid."

Morgana stood frozen. Was it possible Uther really hadn't noticed? But the entire court had been waking up. Surely someone else would have seen. Surely someone would point it out.

But the boy himself was the only person to respond. "Oh, well…" he said, clearly trying to deflect attention from his heroism.

"Don't be so modest," Uther continued. "You shall be rewarded."

"No, honestly, you don't have to, your highness," the boy insisted.

"No, absolutely. This merits something quite special."

"Well…" The boy seemed to relax as it became apparent that no one had noticed (or intended to reveal) his moment of magic.

"You shall be rewarded a position in the royal household," Uther said proudly, as if bestowing a tremendous honor. "You shall be Prince Arthur's manservant."

Relieved, Morgana joined in the court's applause, just barely restraining the urge to laugh at Arthur and the boy's identical expressions of horror.

Lying in bed that night, Morgana mulled over the boy—Merlin, Gwen had said his name was—and his magic. That poor mother might not have been as innocent as Morgana had wanted to believe, but then Merlin had used his magic to save Arthur. Right under the nose of the king! It was brave verging on foolhardy, and went against everything Uther claimed about sorcerers. Morgana supposed that perhaps Merlin was simply too new at magic to have become corrupted yet…but she didn't want to believe that. She'd seen far too many sorcerers executed for harmless or even outright beneficial magic; she couldn't believe that. How could magic be evil, when it could be used to save lives? No, Morgana decided, Merlin was not evil. His secret was safe with her.

That being said, Morgana had never before encountered a sorcerer who wasn't already under arrest and set to be executed. For the first time in her life, she might have a chance to actually talk to a sorcerer about magic, and hear his side of the story. But she would have to be careful. The conversation would need to be private, and a lady of the court could hardly go around having private conversations with manservants. Even if Merlin didn't get arrested for magic, he might get arrested for inappropriate behavior with the king's ward.

Perhaps Gwen could help. A maidservant could easily talk to a manservant without arousing suspicions, and Gwen was already on speaking terms with Merlin. But first, Morgana would have to make sure Gwen would not turn Merlin in.

In the morning, Morgana picked at her breakfast, trying to figure out a way to broach the subject with her friend. "Gwen…" she finally began. "Do you believe that all magic is evil?"

Gwen gave her a wary look. "The king says it corrupts the soul."

Morgana shook her head. "I'm not asking what the king believes. I'm asking what you believe. I swear on my father's grave, whatever you say will be held in strictest confidence."

Gwen swallowed, still hesitant. When she finally spoke, it was in a voice barely above a whisper. "No. I don't. Thomas and his mother were my neighbors. Thomas was one of the most kind-hearted men I've ever known, he often gave us a bit of extra firewood in the winter. He never hurt anyone. And he wasn't the first person like that to fall to the executioner's axe. People have been executed for healing spells. How…how can that be worthy of death?"

"I agree," Morgana said quietly. "Time and again, I've told Uther that his methods are nothing short of brutality, but he dismisses my counsel." She snorted bitterly, then shook her head again and forced herself to refocus. "Gwen…if you knew someone had used magic to save a life, and hadn't seen them use it for any ill, would you report them?"

Gwen gave her mistress a calculating look, obviously recognizing that there was a story behind the question. "No. Not if they'd done nothing truly wrong. Why do you ask?"

Morgana took a deep breath. "I saw Merlin last night. He was nowhere near Arthur, and then the woman threw the dagger, and suddenly he was tackling Arthur to the ground. And I saw his eyes. For a moment, they were gold. Somehow, he used magic to reach Arthur in time. He used magic to save Arthur's life. And I…I really want to ask him why."

Gwen's mouth had fallen open in shock. "You…Merlin? You're sure?"

"Positive."

Gwen swallowed hard, then her eyes widened. "Believe me, I'm not ordinary," she murmured. "He really meant that. And—disguise. The first time we met, he said he was in disguise. And that he could take Arthur in a fight." Gwen frowned. "My god, he's going to get himself killed!"

Morgana grimaced. "All the more reason we really need to talk to him about this. As grateful as I am that Arthur is alive, he really needs to be more subtle. He's going to be practically under Uther's nose from now on!"

"You…you want to talk to Merlin about his magic?" Gwen asked hesitantly.

"Yes," Morgana confirmed. "But I can't exactly summon Arthur's manservant to my chambers without attracting attention, which is precisely what we want to avoid. So, I need you to help me arrange a meeting."

Unfortunately, Arthur kept Merlin very busy the next day, affording no time for a meeting. On the other hand, Merlin's new job did provide an opportunity—Gwen invited him to come to her house the following morning, ostensibly to teach him about armor. As the appointed hour approached, both Gwen and Morgana waited in Gwen's house.

Merlin certainly looked a sight as he stumbled in carrying Arthur's armor. He was so focused on trying (and failing) not to drop the armor in a heap that he failed to notice Morgana's presence. Morgana suppressed a snort; deflecting suspicion from Merlin might not be so difficult after all.

"Thank you so much, Gwen," Merlin said, finally managing to put everything on the table. "As you can see, I am totally hopeless."

"Well, I wouldn't say that," Morgana said lightly, badly startling Merlin. "After all, you did save Arthur's life. With magic."

"What?!" Merlin yelped, his voice rising a full octave. "No, I—I don't know what you mean!"

"Not to worry, Merlin," Morgana assured. "Unlike the king, I don't believe that saving a life is a crime worthy of death. Your secret is safe with me."

"And me," Gwen added.

"I don't have a secret!" Merlin protested.

"I saw you, Merlin," Morgana persisted. "No need to be so modest."

"Actually, there is every need," Gwen retorted, giving Morgana a pointed look. "Really, Merlin, looking back on it now I realize you've hinted at your magic in nearly every conversation we've had. You can't keep doing that, especially not now that you're Arthur's servant! You're going to get yourself killed!"

"I…" Merlin swallowed. "I know. Having everyone stare at me, after I saved Arthur…I knew that was too close. Trust me, I'm being more careful now. Not soon enough, apparently. Gaius is going to kill me…" He muttered that last bit under his breath.

"Does Gaius know?" Gwen asked hesitantly.

Merlin nodded. "Yeah. The first time I walked into his chambers, I startled him into falling off his balcony and I used magic to save him. God, I'm really bad at this…"

Morgana raised her eyebrows. "Well. Apparently you keep slipping up by saving people's lives, which only further convinces me that Uther is wrong about magic, but that does still leave me with one very big question. Why come to Camelot in the first place? Surely you knew how dangerous it would be for you here."

Merlin swallowed again. "I come from a small border village. Small enough that everybody knows everybody. Only one person had actually found out about my magic—well, one person apart from my mother—but there were rumors of strange things happening around me, and the rumors just kept getting worse. Mother thought I'd be safer in a big city, where I could keep my head down and blend into the masses. That certainly worked well…"

"Yes, but why Camelot of all cities?" Gwen demanded. "Aren't there kingdoms where magic is legal?"

"Gaius is my great-uncle," Merlin explained. "Mother trusted him to look after me and keep me out of trouble."

Morgana snorted. "And a fine job he's done. I suppose Gwen and I will just have to help."

"You…you'd do that?" Merlin asked nervously. "You'd help me?"

Morgana grinned wickedly. "Oh, I'm sure I could come up with some very good cover stories if you need them. But I do want one thing in return."

"What's that?"

"I want to know more about magic," Morgana said earnestly. "Not the rubbish that Uther spouts—the truth, from someone who actually knows what they're talking about. Please."

"Uh, sure," Merlin replied, looking uncertain. "I guess I can do that. Just, uh…"

"What?" Gwen asked warily.

"I don't actually know much," Merlin said sheepishly. "I never studied, I was born like this. Gaius gave me a book of magic two nights ago, but I haven't had much time to read it yet."

Morgana held up a hand. "Wait. Born like this?"

"Yeah. Which, according to Gaius, is impossible. Apparently, I'm some sort of freak…" Merlin stared miserably at his feet.

"Hey," Gwen said softly, putting a hand on his shoulder. "I don't know what you are, but you are not a freak. You're too sweet for that."

"Besides, I don't think you're quite so unique as all that," Morgana added thoughtfully. Her voice hardened. "There have been children executed for magic in the past. I don't doubt that some were falsely accused, but I shouldn't be surprised if some of them were like you."

"There. You see? You're not a freak," Gwen soothed. "You simply came from too small a village to encounter anyone else like you. Let's just make sure you don't share those children's fate."

"Right," Merlin said uncertainly, still looking somewhat lost. He looked at the pile of armor. "Right, this has been very enlightening and all, and I'm really grateful you're both keeping my secret, but I really do need to learn how to put Arthur's armor on before the tournament."

"Right," Gwen agreed. "We can continue this later. Assuming you can avoid revealing yourself to anyone else."

"Thanks, that makes me feel loads better," Merlin said flatly.

"I'll leave you to it," Morgana stated. She made to leave, but paused and turned back. "Oh, and Merlin…if Arthur tries to bully you, let me know. I'll remind him what it means to protect his people."

"Thanks, but I think I can handle that much myself," Merlin replied. Morgana raised her eyebrows, and he sighed. "Yes, without magic."

"Good. I can't have you getting executed before you've told me everything in that book, hm?" Morgana smiled at him, then finally departed Gwen's house and returned to the castle.