Thanks for the reviews. I have got a few new readers so I tried to update it fast. There will be some more Gwaine and Morgana banter but it might be a while yet. Mordred and Aithusa are both in this chapter so enjoy!
Merlin was completely conflicted between the choices. Would he really sacrifice his life's ambition for a girl who hated him and sought him dead? Would he really risk so many lives for this girl? He felt strange every time this girl's name was mentioned but surely that was because he sympathised what she had become, rather than any other reason.
"What are you doing?" called Alexander. "You need to leave now, unless you wish to die."
Merlin dashed out of the room tears streaming down his face. He was going to sacrifice the girl whom he had once been best friends with, for his destiny. The vivid memory of seeing Morgana for the first time filled his brain.
He was walking into Morgana's chambers to give her the sleeping draft Gaius has prepared for her. He smiled to himself at her beauty.
"You know, I've been thinking about Arthur. I wouldn't touch him with a lance pole. Pass me that dress, will you Gwen?" Morgana had said sweetly mistaking him for Gwen. He had hesitated for a second but had decided to pass Morgana her dress.
"I mean, the man's a total jouster. And just because I'm the King's ward, doesn't mean I have to accompany him to the feast, does it?" He had then placed the dress on the screen and quickly hurried away. "Well, does it?"
"Mm-Mmm," he had said in a high pitched impression of Gwen
"If he wants me to go, then he should invite me, and he hasn't. So do you know what that means?"
"Mm-Mmm." He had been completely lost for what to do.
"Where are you?" Morgana had asked.
He had hidden behind one of Morgana's cloaks while she had looked over the screen for Gwen.
"Here," he said in the high pitched voice.
"It means I'm going by myself." He had put down Morgana's cloak and had started to walk out the room until-
"I need some help with this fastening." Then luckily Gwen had come to save him.
Merlin had never dreamt in a thousand years that he would feel like this about sacrificing the enemy but the enemy wasn't just any enemy. The enemy was Morgana Pendragon. The girl whom had the silkiest, raven black hair he had ever seen cascading down her face with a sweet and flowery scent; who had beautiful emerald eyes which he had seen water in sadness and shoot daggers when she had been angry and her pale skin which was as white as snow at times it made her look ghostlike. The vivid memory of her fleeing to Gaius's chamber petrified because she had magic. Merlin felt bad about this because if she had told her he had magic at this point, she might have still been the Morgana that he had once known. He closed his eyes imagining what might have happened if he told Morgana about his magic.
"He won't. I don't want any more remedies. They won't do any good. It's magic, Merlin," he can hear Morgana's worried voice say.
"I know how you are feeling. I went through the same thing. Leoht." a ball of light appeared in his hand.
"You have magic?" Morgana's face had a look of surprise and a hint of excitement on it.
"Yes, I was born with it. Magic isn't something to fear. It is neither good nor bad. It just depends on how the user uses the magic."
"It is something to fear if you have Uther as a guardian."
"I promise I won't let anything happen to you Morgana. I will guard your secret with my life and if Uther finds out your secret I will take you away from here. I am more powerful then you can imagine." Morgana's teary eyes brightened a bit and she managed to let out a small smile.
Well you can't have everything in life and he would just have to cope with it.
Alexander had lain down on the floor to trick his father and the guards into thinking that he had been unconscious when Arthur and his friends had escaped.
"WHERE THE HELL IS ARTHUR!" roared King Gremian. Alexander pretended just to have regained his consciousness, so he was rubbing his eyes and standing up.
"FATHER! ARE YOU ALRIGHT?" screamed Alexander. King Gremian stormed out of the throne room, his feet almost cracking the stone slabs. Alexander followed his father and he ended up in the dungeons.
"By the looks on your faces I can tell that Arthur, Merlin and knights have thwarted you and managed to escape. I want to thank you for removing that monster from the dungeon though. I am finally torture free," Morgana sneered.
"ONE MORE WORD WITCH AND I WILL CUT OFF YOUR TONGUE!" boomed King Gremian. "Just our luck, Alexander. The witch is still captive so her lover and her brother will come back to rescue her." Morgana rolled her eyes at this but didn't dare speak a word.
"Er father, I don't think they will come back for her. Her brother hates her and the person who said he loved her, isn't in love with her. The power hungry witch has apparently tried to take over Camelot numerous times. "
"And what do you know about love? You have never even been in love."
"Well..." muttered Alexander.
"Don't lie to me. That knight was infatuated with Morgana and would never leave without her." Morgana rolled her eyes again, this king was even more stupid then Arthur. It had been so obvious her and Gwaine weren't in love especially since she had been shouting at him the whole time and he had been barely able to restrain his laughter.
"But father, that knight has never been in love with the witch," Alexander said, pleading the King to believe him.
"I know everything about love and that knight was defiantly in love with the witch. You could see in his eyes." This confirmed Alexander's suspicions of his father not knowing anything about love.
"Guards," the King roared. "Give the witch something to eat and drink. Then swear to me that you will make sure she is moved up to the throne room and that she cannot escape. Make sure there are guards on constant watch of her."
"But father th-"
"You will do as I say," ordered King Gremian. Alexander nodded mutely and began to give the guards orders.
"Hurry," the cloaked figure murmured. Arthur (who was carrying Sunnivia) and the knights were running after the cloaked figure and they entered the thicket of the forest.
"Wait," Arthur commanded so everybody stopped in their tracks. "Where the hell is Merlin?"
"I'm here," Merlin panted running towards them.
"Who are you?" asked Arthur to the cloaked figure. "How can we know trust you, as you have magic?"
The figure pulled down his hood to reveal that he was a dark haired teenager. His main feature was his aqua blue eyes that could almost put people into a trance. "My name is Mordred," spoke the figure in barely a whisper.
"Hang on. You look kind of familiar and you name seems very familiar too," Arthur said.
"You saved my life when I was a child. I was the Druid boy that Uther was hunting for but your sister begged you to save me. Out of the kindness of your heart you disobeyed your father and saved me," Mordred said quietly.
"Did you make the dagger drop?" asked Sir Leon curiously.
"Did you blast the guards back?" questioned Gwaine in awe.
"Yes, I did. I wished to save Arthur's life as I am forever in debt to him."
"How did you know we were trapped," Merlin interrogated. Mordred gave Merlin a semi-dark look.
"There was rumour that knights of Camelot were being held captive. I went to rescue the knights as I knew that I could defeat all of the guards easily."
"How do we know that you are not in league with Morgana though," blurted out Merlin. Arthur glared at Merlin.
Nice try Emrys Mordred said telepathically.
"Well if was in league with Morgana then I would have saved her life and rescued her out of that castle's dungeons," Mordred whispered confidently.
"How do you know that?" asked Elyan.
"The guards of the castle were at the nearby tavern and th-"
"Tavern? Where?" demanded Gwaine, excitedly.
"Gwaine, we are in King Gremian's kingdom so walking into a tavern would be equivalent to committing suicide," Arthur mocked, annoyingly rolling his eyes.
"Anyway the guards were arguing over who captured Morgana," Mordred continued. "They debated claiming that they had captured her for some time until another guard came along and said that she had walked in of her own accord. That annoyed the guards so it must have been true."
"We need to go and find food and shelter," Arthur stated. "We shall head away from Camelot until all the knights are completely recovered from being locked in prison. King Gremian will be expecting us to head straight for Camelot so it will probably confuse them. Mordred, I hate to say this but you should make yourself scarce."
"But Arthur what has he done," questioned Gwaine. "Even though he has magic that doesn't mean that he is evil. I have travelled the whole of this country and came across magical people who are good and bad." Gwaine stopped. Something was wrong. Why wasn't Merlin backing him up? Merlin has magic and would probably love to have someone magical around Arthur, to make Arthur think differently about magic. Merlin must not trust Mordred. It was too late; the damage had already been done.
"Let me sleep on it. We need to go right now," Arthur reluctantly orders hauling Sunnivia back over his shoulder.
Why are you here Mordred? Merlin telepathically inquired.
To get my revenge. You tried to kill me when I had done nothing wrong. I thought Alvarr was just trying to make Camelot a haven for magical people.
I won't let you hurt Arthur or Gaius or Gwen or Gwaine or any of my friends.
I would not hurt someone that has saved my life. Why would I want to hurt any of your friends that would just get me into trouble? Relief flooded through Merlin.
What is your revenge?
You shall see.
A couple of days had passed since the calamity of Arthur, Merlin and Sunnivia rescuing the knights. Morgana had been moved to the meeting chambers and was now chained there. Her magic was still being drained by the chains and there was no way to escape. In the day important meetings happened and Morgana overheard what they said. Every time during the day whenever someone passed they would kick out at her. Sometimes though a servant would pass and purposely drop some food as they pitied her. At night the meeting chambers would be deserted and Morgana would be alone except from the odd guard that would check that she hadn't impossibly escaped.
Today King Gremian was holding an important meeting about taking over Callolith, the heart of King Stewart's kingdom. King Stewart was Princess Mithian's father and since King Stewart had had a fatal illness King Gremian had been taking over parts of Stewart's kingdom.
"Ready your cavalry Alexander and make sure the infantry are ready too;" King Gremian commanded powerfully.
"I will father." Alexander made to leave the room.
"Wait Alexander. There hasn't been any word on Arthur being sighted?"
"No, father."
"That has been two days. WITCH! You have permission to speak. Why hasn't Arthur or your lover come to rescue you?"
I tried to tell you two days ago but you wouldn't listen," Morgana eerily said in barely a whisper.
"TELL ME!"
"Well my brother I purely loathe each other and the knight doesn't actually love me. He is a joker and was only trying to annoy me."
"ARE YOU TELLING THE TRUTH?"
"Why would I lie to you? I am completely at your mercy."
"The mind of a witch is an insane and complex thing."
"Well at least it is not straightforward like your mind," Morgana abruptly jeered.
"HOW DARE YOU! I have no use for you so I will kill you painfully," King Gremian roared. "First I will carve out your heart so I can put it on display for all to see. The heart of the witch, Morgana Pendragon." Morgana's face showed a look of terror before changing into a face of pure smugness.
"Well if there is no Gwaine torture involved then it can't be too bad." This remark just infuriated King Gremian and made him approach Morgana at an alarmingly quick pace.
Suddenly there was a rumbling noise from the roof and some of blasted down. A white dragon flew in and said, "Sorry to ruin your party Master whatever your name is. I have a ride for Morgana Pendragon. The seer. The High Priestess of the Old Religion. The person who is said to bring back the old ways." Aithusa breathed on Morgana's chains and suddenly they disintegrated into dust.
"Think twice before you try and kill a WITCH! I will follow Gwaine's rule number one and call you an ugly swine," Morgana yelled laughing. Morgana climbed adeptly onto Aithusa back. "And one last thing. I SHALL HAVE MY REVENGE!
I hope you enjoyed the chapter thanks for reading. Why Aithusa and Mordred helped Morgana and Arthur will be further explored in the next chapter. I was thinking about writing other fanfics about the characters I have made up backgrounds eg. Sunnivia and Alexander. Just like a few chapters because in this fanfic I am not really going to explore their backgrounds. What do you think? Please review.
