AN:
It's getting a bit difficult to find the time to write but here's the next chapter.
Think About It
The prison cell was cold. Prison bars separated her from the world but it was the absence of magic that kept her inside. The bed, a pathetic stack of hay, would not be enough for her to get to sleep at all. Regardless, sleeping would be the very last thing she would do. No matter how hopeless the situation, Morgana refused to give up. It would only be a matter of time before Agravaine arrived and he might have a plan to get her out. If he could stall the execution then that might be enough time for her to regain her strength, her magic. Her first priority was escape but they did bring her into the very heart of Camelot. Could she bring destruction to them from the inside out?
Her musings were interrupted by the door leading to the dungeon slamming shut. Morgana smirked at the sound of just one pair of footsteps. Agravaine would fret with milady and sorry and she would tell him to stall the execution. Then the man came into view and it wasn't him, it was Merlin.
"Expecting someone else?" He picked up on her surprise.
"One scream and the guards will come." Morgana bluffed.
"I don't think they care about what happens to you."
She swallowed nervously. He wasn't going to hurt her, was he?
"When you see Arthur, tell him to check his right pocket." He said as he turned around to leave.
"Merlin?" Her words caused him to stop walking but he didn't turn around.
Morgana figured that this might well be the last time they talked. She could say one last thing to him. There was a lot of history between them, so many moments that could have changed the world. She could insult him or taunt him one last time but she didn't. What would be the point of it? The sorceress chose put her pride aside and take responsibility for what she had done.
"I'm sorry for letting you down."
She couldn't see that one of his hands was shaking. He was on the verge of changing his mind. He had been holding onto his anger to keep emotions at bay and it had worked so well until now. Morgana was the first person to say she was sorry but it wasn't an apology in general. She was apologizing to him. She seemed to be the only one with a heart. She spoke as if she owed him something. The darkness inside him said that she did but the other side of him, that joyous boy with the heart-warming smile, said that she had been punished enough.
A mere moment had passed in the waking world and Merlin resumed walking away from her. As he was about to walk up the flight of stairs, the door opened to reveal Agravaine.
"Merlin." He nearly gasped but the boy managed to hide his surprise.
"Serve Morgana if you want to see him dead. Serve me if you want to see him suffer." The warlock stated as he moved past Arthur's uncle.
Morgana had heard the few words they had spoken. He hadn't accepted the offer but neither had he refused it. The witch could hear him come closer and pretend to be sleeping in the hay. It wasn't a believable act on its own but Merlin had enchanted her with a sleeping spell before. The sharp sound of a ring meeting metal pulled her out of her 'sleep'.
"Milady." Agravaine greeted a startled Morgana.
"Merlin was here." She stated and noticed that he feigned surprise. Either he was considering his offer or he had already decided to take it.
"When?" He asked and his fakes surprise stung her.
Apparently Agravaine's loyalty didn't reach as far as she thought it did.
"I... He cast a sleeping spell on me." The hesitation was part of her act. She had to keep everything secret from him from this point onwards but she did hope he was willing to share. "Do you have a plan, milord?"
"Unfortunately not." He replied and Morgana believed to have seen an odd glint in his eye.
Morgana reasoned that Merlin's offer had caused Agravaine to play a game of his own and it was a game she could not afford to lose.
"Then tell my dear brother I request an audience with him."
It didn't take long for Arthur to have Morgana dragged to the throne room despite it being the middle of the night. Perhaps his conscience plagued him more than he dare admit.
"You asked for an audience?" Arthur pretended to be gracious as means of taunting her.
"Merlin is here." She told him.
Arthur shook his head with a smile. He believed she was trying taking him for a fool.
"Let me guess, this is the part where you tell me that only you can stop him."
"He told me to send you a message." She remained serious though the King seemed rather amused.
"And what would that be?"
"To look in your right pocket."
Arthur frowned and reached into his pocket. It was small but he could feel that it had many surfaces. Pulling it out for his eyes to see, his breath faltered. It was a Blood Crystal. The King's face turned to one of terror. Merlin had put this in his pocket. He was in Camelot and the sorcerer even had access to his clothing!
Morgana smirked at Arthur's dismay and couldn't help but admire Merlin's intrepid deed.
"I can't defeat him but I can protect you from him." She lied.
She had no intention of keeping him safe whatsoever. Morgana planned to kill him and use her power and influence as Queen to keep herself safe from the sorcerer.
"You'll betray me." He refused to believe her.
"Very well. I'll tell you who my spy is." In the corner of her eye she could already see Agravaine's hand grip his sword.
"But you will never take my word for it." She added.
"You're not making a very strong argument."
"Could Sir Gwaine convince you otherwise?" Asked Morgana and, at the sight of Arthur's pensive look, Agravaine interrupted them.
"I'll go and get him for you, Sire." Said the traitor who chose to act rather than wait for the King to accept his offer.
Once the door shut behind him, Morgana turned her gaze towards Arthur once more.
"Agravaine is my spy. Send someone after him or Gwaine may die." The face she wore was tense, mainly because she couldn't control the situation very well.
"What is this ridiculous-" Arthur began but she interrupted him.
"Listen to the voice of reason. Whether I'm right or wrong, sending another man won't hurt anyone."
When reason was so simple it took Arthur but a moment to send another man after him.
"Leon." The Knight nodded and Arthur continued. "If it's true, how did you get to him?"
Morgana smirked at his assumption that she turned him against him.
"He blames you and your father for the death of his sister and his brother." She explained.
Arthur was silent for a moment. "I genuinely fail to see how blame befalls me."
"If you hadn't been born..." Morgana stated with an annoyance indicating she didn't really agree with it either.
"And Gwaine?"
"Gwaine interrupted his attempt to kill Gaius but passed it off as checking whether he was alive." Explained Morgana.
"And this is how you reward loyalty." Arthur mocked her as he did not believe her.
"He struck a deal with Merlin. Apparently he thinks me deaf."
There was a noise outside and Morgana thought it safe to assume that Agravaine would soon return as being a prisoner.
"Here they come. Listen closely. You'll notice he calls me 'milady'." She spat with disgust.
The whole milady thing lost its charm even before he bargained with Merlin.
One of the guards took the liberty of opening the door prematurely and Agravaine was almost thrown inside by a seriously angry Leon and Gwaine. The traitor tried to stand up but Leon brought a hand to his shoulder to keep him on his knees.
"He tried to kill Gwaine." Sir Leon confirmed Morgana's accusation.
"She has enchanted me! Arthur, you have to believe me!"
Already his uncle's words did not make sense. Morgana didn't have magic at her disposal and when would she have enchanted him?
"How did you know Gaius was in the iron mine?" Asked Arthur.
He remained silent as an excuse did not immediately come to mind.
"Uncle-" Arthur started to seriously doubt him but Agravaine interjected.
"Smugglers occasionally use it." He said.
Gwaine shook his head and asked a question of his own.
"So when Gaius goes missing you go to a smuggler's hideout?"
Morgana saw Agravaine having difficulty answering and she decided to take it up a notch.
"Did I mention he's in league with Merlin?"
Agravaine looked as if he had just been stabbed. He knew that he had failed her but he didn't understand why she was doing this. Surely she didn't believe that this would mend her relationship with Arthur? The King, in turn, noticed how upset his uncle was.
"Why would you say such a thing? What have I ever done to you, milady?"
Arthur's eyes widened as not only did Agravaine just call her exactly what she said he would, but he also didn't refute the allegation. It wasn't common courtesy for him to call a woman milady and neither was it because of habit. As far as Arthur knew, the two had never met. How did Morgana know what he'd call her? Treachery came to mind.
"Take him to the dungeon." Arthur regrettably decided to have him imprisoned.
The traitor did not speak a word as he got carried off to his cell but Arthur saw the hatred in his eyes. Even if he wasn't Morgana's spy, there was something vile beneath the surface.
"Have we a deal?" Asked Morgana once the door had close.
"No, you're still going to be executed tomorrow."
"I told you who my spy was!" She said in outrage.
"And I never agreed to anything. I blame you for Merlin."
Morgana's anger surged even stronger than before because he was the one that betrayed Merlin, not her.
"You can blame yourself! You're the one that sentenced him to death, not I!"
"When Morgause took you, he was grief-stricken. Then you came back and betrayed us."
Arthur accused her of destroying Merlin's hopes. She knew that she had but Arthur didn't know what the boy had done to her even before that happened, what he had done for him. This was why she hated him so much. He believed himself to be so knowledgeable but in reality he knew nothing. He didn't know what had happened between Merlin and her and yet he accused her of being the devil as if his intended execution had nothing to do with it. He had NO RIGHT to speak of matters he didn't understand.
"Before Morgause took me, he had to choose between you and me. He chose you while I was in love with him!"
Arthur was dumbstruck by this. He knew Merlin had feelings for her but not that she had them for him as well and neither did he know that he had picked him over her somewhere along the way.
"You always do this. Whenever something good happens, you destroy it." She kept moping as tears made their way across her cheeks. "Just once I'm better at sword fighting and you deny it ever happened. I had a maid that I thought I could trust and she's more loyal to you than me. Finally I find a man to whom I'd give my heart. He shared my views on magic, he cared about my nightmares while you ignore them and he listened to what I had to say rather than make witty remarks. He made the worst days bearable and you took him away from me."
She was a sobbing wreck by the end of it but she had one last thing to say.
"Then you tried to execute him. Physically, he escaped but part of him died that day. The part of him that I loved died. I blame you for being your father."
"Take her away." Arthur didn't want to hear any more of it.
Merlin rested his back against the wall in one of the alcoves. He felt the armour tightly hug the body that wasn't his and it was suffocating. He could hear his heart pound against the metal but he was the only one that could. His mind was rebelling against the plot that had formed in his mind earlier, the plot that was currently in motion. He was there when Morgana gave the heartfelt confession that she had been in love with him... and he poisoned her. She was crying her eyes out in front of everyone and she didn't care that people were looking. She wanted to make a point. It could all have been an act but it was too real. There was a moment in her hovel right after he said he had been in love with her. In that moment she was silent. She didn't attempt to persuade him on those feelings but she did have a worried or pained look on her face.
Although her love might have been lost over time, her tears proved to him that it still bothered her. The fact that she still cared changed things. Past events that didn't make sense changed. The Fomorroh had been elaborate and now he knew why she'd done it. It meant that he could live. If he had killed Arthur then the people may well have followed her and perhaps he would have come to his senses. His stomach twisted and turned as it reminded him of something else. When she woke the dead she had been reluctant to fight him despite the fact that he was the enemy. Morgause had trained her and planted dark thoughts in her mind but why did she hesitate to fight the man that poisoned her?
That's when the tears began to fall. She had targeted Arthur, Gwen and even Gaius but never him. He thwarted her plans time and again but never did she try to harm him. She still cherished some sort of love for him but it went even deeper than he suspected. Think about it. After all the darkness and the pain he had brought her she still cared. She only ever fought him when he confronted her and all other times weren't about hurting him. She had healed him once and other times she asked him to join her. Goddess, how could he have been so blind? Triple Goddess, what was he doing?
