Arthur was sitting at his desk, feet propped up on the table, twirling a quill in his fingers absently. He was supposed to be writing a report to present to the council that evening about the new time-travelers in Camelot. However, the subject had gotten him thinking, which had stopped him from writing, which had given him opportunity to watch Merlin from across the room. Alright, watching might not have been accurate. If Merlin were conscious of the attention enough to look over at the prince, he would probably labeled the expression with a word more like glaring. Still, it wasn't an exactly threatening stare. Unsettling, yes, but not threatening.

As it was, Merlin couldn't have had an opinion either way, because he was too busy sticking his nose beneath Arthur's bed in search of dirty laundry. Eventually, Arthur's thoughts came to a head and he broke the silence in the room,

"Merlin?"

The manservant in question bumped his head lightly as he straightened up. "Hmm?" He asked, sorting a pile of trousers and socks.

"What do you think about magic?"

Merlin nearly choked on his shock. He looked down at his armful of laundry with wide eyes. He would never mention to Arthur that he would associate dirty laundry with questions on magic for the next two fortnights. "Magic?" He asked, trying to remain calm, "Why do you ask?"

"Something Merlin… Future You said to me earlier."

Merlin's heart was beating fast. What had he done? "What did he say?"

"You haven't answered the question, Merlin."

Damn. "Uh, well, I…" He stopped suddenly and looked up at Arthur. The prince was watching him expectantly, but Merlin wanted to make sure whatever he was about to say, he said it right. "Magic…" he sighed. "I know it's… illegal, and all…"

"Laws aside," Arthur got this strange look on his face, "what do you think of it?"

"Laws aside?" Merlin aside, eyebrows high.

"Yes." Arthur paused, and then added somewhat thoughtfully, "Whatever you say won't hurt you, Merlin."

Don't be so sure about that, he thought, but said: "Well, I think that… magic's not nearly so bad as people think," and he thought it sounded lame. Arthur's brows twitched up.

"Not so bad?" He asked incredulously. "Nimueh? Morgause? Sigan? Dragon attack? Any of those ring a little bell, Merlin?"

Merlin flushed in anger, although Arthur saw it as embarrassment. "Yes, they're all people, Arthur. Magic people, but people, nonetheless." When he saw Arthur didn't understand his point, he lowered his voice seriously and explained: "They all had personal reasons for attacking Camelot. They were out for blood, vengeance. That is what makes them evil, that is what makes them our enemies. The magic… well, it's just the power they use to get their vengeance. It'd be all the same to us if they were warlords, or foreign armies, or even princes like you. The magic doesn't really have anything to do with their being evil." He finished and turned away, not willing to look back at the prince. He sorted clothing in silence until Arthur said,

"You're saying that magic isn't evil?"

Merlin bit his lip. "I'm saying… it isn't… it isn't anything." He finally looked up, and Arthur was watching him with his face set in deep thought. "Gaius used to practice magic, you know," Merlin said, and the Prince shot him a warning look. Merlin shrugged. "I'm just saying: d'you really think he'd turn evil if he started using healing spells again?" And Arthur looked like he was about to cut Merlin off, but the servant mustered some boldness and continued, "Arthur, the man has dedicated his life to helping people. And I don't care how many deranged sorcerers and vengeful monsters you throw at me, there is nothing that could convince me magic in the hands of man like Gaius could ever be bad."

When Arthur just sat there, staring at him, Merlin felt a blush rise to his cheeks as he realized just how close they were to his topic. How close he could have been, just now, to revealing his secret. To being killed. Eventually, Arthur nodded, and sat back, looking thoughtful. Merlin watched him carefully for a while. When he remained silent and picked up his quill to resume writing, Merlin finally asked,

"What did my older self tell you, anyway?"

Arthur was scribbling away, but when he caught Merlin staring, looked up. "What are you standing there for? I'll need my robes cleaned for council meeting tonight," which was as good as a dismissal. Merlin pursed his lips and glared, but obediently gathered the laundry together and left the Prince's room, wondering what, exactly, might have been going through Arthur's head.

It was actually during the council meeting itself when Older Merlin decided to make his move. The nobles – including Geoffrey – were all away in the great hall in council. The castle staff were busy providing them with their food, and perhaps most importantly, the guards always let down their defences around dusk: full on dinner and near the end of their shifts, they became easy to sneak past.

He donned his cloak and snuck out of his quarters a half hour or so after he heard the castle bells chime six o'clock. From there, it was easy work to make his way down to the archives. The hardest bit, he found, was making his staff look as inconspicuous as possible. It'd been rather loud for the first leg of his journey, but then he'd remembered with some glee that he had a small amount of magic to tap into. He muffled the staff's impact with a word, and couldn't help but smile like an idiot at the wonderful rush of magic that came with it. God bless whoever invented borrower's brew.

He found the archives just as he left them: locked, empty, dusty, and only somewhat organized. He opened the door with some more slight magic, and let himself into the collection of spell books. He lit the torches, and dove right back into searching.

The rest of the night was a lonely one. Merlin wasn't unaccustomed to long hours researching in his library, but back home, he had a family to give him needed conversation, friends to pop by and make sure he was eating and sleeping. Deep in the archives in a quiet and unfamiliar world, it was enough to make even a seclusion-prone warlock lonesome.

He'd picked out a few texts which he found vague references to time travel, and one in the Old Tongue that had some spells that looked useful. He suspected that they had nothing to do with time travel, and more to do with a time-slowing spell that had become one of his favorites as a youth, but Merlin took them up anyway to follow all possible leads.

He'd been about ready to call it a night when he came across something that piqued his interest. It was a small book, but it looked eerily familiar. He picked it up and studied it, soft leather cover, stained pages, bound by a leather cord. He squinted at it, and then suddenly remembered why he knew it: Morgana had been holding this book, when she left the archives days ago. Blinking, he mentally re-ran the memory of that moment, and nodded to himself as he confirmed it as the same volume.

But why was Morgana – young Morgana, taking magic books from the forbidden section of the archives? And perhaps more importantly, why was she putting them back?

Curious, Merlin undid the binding and folded back the cover. When he saw the first page, he thought his heart might have stopped. There, handwritten in ink:

Herein is contained the personal life, work, and studies of Eoran Golcar

When Gaius and Merlin returned to their chambers after council meeting, they found not one, but two time travelers waiting for them, and the one with the dark hair looked positively giddy.

The story was out of Merlin's mouth in a jumbled mess of words in under minute, before either Gaius or his younger self could question his presence. Thankfully, King Arthur was there to translate, and by the time they'd gotten the word across and Merlin had shown Gaius the journal, they were huddled around Gaius' table in a circle of lively conversation.

"You say Morgana had it with her?" Gaius asked, flipping the pages almost reverently.

"Yes. I don't know why, yet, but I'm… curious. If she did find it,"

"Then she knows about this time travelling business," Young Merlin put in.

"And she's decided to disregard whatever this Eoran fellow has to say on the matter."

Older Merlin grunted. "Or, she's found what she was after and had no further use for his advice."

"Speaking of, what does he say about time travel?" Gaius asked.

"I don't know yet," Merlin took the journal back. "I haven't read it yet. But don't worry, plenty of time to read when you're imprisoned." He made a face. "If you could believe it, I think it's harder to escape from Uther's house than it is his dungeons."

Younger Merlin snorted, Arthur smiled, but Gaius remained unmoved from their topic.

"If she did find whatever she was looking for in this journal, do you suppose she'll… try anything?"

Merlin bit the side of his lip. "Maybe," He said at length, "but I don't know what. I have no idea what she could be planning." He made a face an shook his head. "And young Morgana, too, I don't have an idea how she got wrapped up in all this."

"It's no secret to the castle that you have travelled through time," Gaius said, shrugging. "Perhaps she was curious."

"Perhaps, but even then: how did she get the book? How did she know what to look for? And why would wouldn't she just keep the journal after all she must've done to obtain it?"

"Do you think it's Our Morgana?" Arthur asked quietly. All eyes turned to him. "In disguise, I mean?"

Merlin seemed to consider it, but shook his head. "No… No, I don't think so. Morgana is a good actress, but I don't think she knew herself well enough in this time to reenact the part now." He frowned. "No, it's young Morgana, of that I am sure."

"Merlin is right," Gaius said, "I've been keeping a close eye on her as of late, as you might have guessed. If it is an act, it is a seamless one, from before you arrived until now."

Arthur was frowning deeper. "So then she – young Morgana – she's a concern now, too?"

"Her interests could be harmless," Gaius tried to be optimistic, even though he new it was useless.

"She did try to kill me – er, Merlin," Young Merlin put in. His older self nodded.

"But how?" Arthur sat up and raised his hands in a shrug. "how did she learn about time travel so quickly, narrow down a source, gather information, and do it all without us noticing? It's all we've been doing for two and a half weeks, and we've only just been able to break through, with four people on the job – two of us from the future! You'd think it'd be a simpler job than a single noblewoman working on her own."

"You'd think," Older Merlin muttered, staring at nothing in particular. His eyebrows were low over his eyes.

"You don't suppose…" Young Merlin began, and stopped, unsure of how to explain his idea. "that… Morgana – our Morgana, young Morgana – you don't suppose that she's somehow gone into cahoots with herself, do you? Her older self?"

The silence was deafening. Merlin met the gaze of his older counterpart, and knew suddenly that he was right. He felt his stomach fall out.

"No," King Arthur was shaking his head. "No, she wouldn't have had the time. She couldn't have possibly been persuaded to someone else's side in that short of a time,"

"Even if it was her own?" Gaius asked.

"No, I know her, she'd be suspicious for weeks before she'd agree to anything."

"She might have had weeks," Merlin muttered. Arthur rounded on him.

"What?"

"When we first arrived here, it was because I interrupted her spell. The whole reason we passed out when we landed was because we didn't go with Morgana all the way. We were thrown out of her transportation spell too early." He paused. "She could have gone back farther, fostered an… an agreement with her younger counterpart."

Gaius was frowning. "Well, if that is the case, she has not been seen in Camelot. If she was here, she is gone now, or else hiding very keenly."

"But she could have had the time to recruit our Morgana?" Young Merlin asked.

"If she is in concert with herself, why on earth would she do the heavy lifting when she's got a nigh all-powerful witch on her side? I know Morgana, and she would sooner launch a conquest on her own castle than sit around and read books all day." Arthur still looked unconvinced.

"A bargaining chip," Older Merlin said. "She's been promised something, in return for her work."

Arthur scoffed. "Why would you bargain with yourself? It's absurd!"

"Yes," Merlin said, his theme growing, "unless she doesn't know who it is."

Arthur opened his mouth, but was hit by a sudden expression of surprise, and only stared instead. A silent conversation of looks passed between king and Warlock.

"But… Where is the older Morgana?" Young Merlin felt the need to ask.

"I don't know," Older Merlin said. "But if she's working through her younger self, we'll need to tread lightly. One Morgana is shrewd enough. Two…?" He looked over at Arthur. The king sighed heavily and shook himself.

"Tread lightly, indeed. And what will you do about this book?" He gestured to the journal still sitting in the middle of the table.

"Read it," Merlin said easily. "If she did find what she was looking for in here, I'd surely like to know what Eoran has to say." He took the book and pocketed it. "Knowledge is power."

"In that case, we'll need all the knowledge we can get," Arthur said, and added under his breath: "in the hopes that she won't have more."

Young Merlin sent the king a worried glance, and looked back to himself for confirmation. Older Merlin was looking off into nowhere, his expression strangely sad. Young Merlin frowned, wanting to comment, but didn't.

Gaius was the first to rise from the table. "So get to it straightaway." He glanced out the window, which was dark. "You'll be wanting to head back to your cell, too, before Uther sicks his guard dogs on you."

Merlin jumped out of his trance and forced a smile. "Of course. I'll be in touch." He rose, donned his cloak once more, and slunk back off to the castle. After he was gone, Arthur rose from his seat.

"I suppose the only upside of having two of Morganas skulking around is that we've got one better."

Merlin looked up at him. "How do you mean?"

Arthur gave him a smile. "We've got two of you." He slapped him on the back and headed to Merlin's room to his cot.

Merlin wasn't sure that made him feel any better.