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Chapter 16
"Hello, Emrys."
"..."
"Emrys?" The person asked, befuddled by the lack of response.
Then, she took her cloak, revealing her red gown and brown locks, her perfectly sculpted face and piercing blue eyes. Noticing that Merlin and Morgana were fast asleep, Nimueh inhaled deeply and yelled, after she used her magic to stop sounds from leaving the chambers:
"EMRYS!"
The couple jumped out of bed, Morgana, acting based on her fighting training, took the closest object that could be used as a weapon, while Merlin felt unceremoniously on his bottom, completely stunned and naked.
"What?!" The warlock inquired while using his hands to cover his groin.
"Who are you?" Morgana questioned the intruder, keeping her under the aim of a hairbrush, also in her birthing suit.
"I'm Nimueh, High Priestess of the Old Religion." She replied, muffling a laughter when seeing the scene. She added: "I might have come in an improper time, I'll turn and give you time to recompose yourself."
"Oh, how kind of you." Morgana retorted sarcastically and inquired: "What are doing here in the first place?"
"Don't you want to have this conversation being at least presentable?" The High Priestess asked.
The noblewoman grunted, displeased that the woman made sense, though while she dressed her nightgown she glared at the sorceress with distrust.
Merlin found his pants and quickly put them on, whereas he didn't find any sign of his shirt, so he decided to look for it later and deal with the peeping tom.
"What are you doing here, Nimueh? Why are you calling me Emrys?" This time the warlock inquired while he got closer to Morgana, reading himself for a possible confrontation.
"Because that's your name." She answered, spinning to face them and she added: "Isn't it, Merlin?" She smirked at them and Morgana looked confused at her lover. He hadn't mentioned that before.
"That's the name the Druids call me." He projected to her mind.
"So what? Do you know about the prophecies?"
"Oh, please, I'm a High Priestess of the Old Religion!" Nimueh rolled her eyes and continued speaking: "To reach such honor I had to study every known prophecy of this land."
"Yet you sent a beast to cause Arthur's death, more then once!" Merlin countered angrily.
"I was testing destiny, young Merlin." She paused briefly and said grinning and taking a step closer to them: "You have no idea how many times the elements of the 'Once and Future' prophecy where there and yet those involved weren't the ones born under such fate."
"I don't believe in you! That day of the poison should've been enough proof, yet you continued to attack Camelot –"
"Not, exactly, Uther to be more precise." Nimueh retorted.
"and Arthur! You sent the Questing Beast to kill him!" Merlin finished saying.
"Nonetheless he never faced that danger, huh? I believe you had extra help, that apparently warms you at night too."
"That's none of your business!" Morgana snarled indignantly.
"Maybe yes, maybe not." Nimueh said, tilting her head at the seer and raising her brows. Then, she added: "You carry very important beings of the Old Religion in your womb. You all must be properly taught about the Old Ways, mere books and a senile old man that hasn't practiced magic in the last twenty years won't be enough for you to reach your full potential."
"What do you mean by beings?" Merlin asked.
"Haven't you sensed it, Emrys? There's more than one presence there. Three to be more precise." The High Priestess replied.
Morgana gasped in surprise and Merlin was dumbfounded. Three? One magical baby would be enough trouble to have their hands full for the next ten years, imagine three. He started to laugh, a mix of happiness and a nervous laugh.
"How do you know that?" Morgana inquired while her lover had a fit of laughter.
"My training, young seer. There's so much you can do if you have proper education concerning magic, it's a shame to leave your powers underdeveloped because you can't find a proper mentor." Nimueh replied, taking another step closer.
"There must be a catch. I know what you have done against Arthur and Camelot, why didn't you help Merlin in the first place?" The younger woman questioned, rightfully suspicious of the High Priestess.
"I had different plans, I admit. But now I understand that my part in your Fate is to guide you, not seek a fruitless revenge while Fate will inexorably take care of the tyrant."
"I don't trust you!" Merlin said, finally regaining his ground again.
"Neither do I." Morgana reaffirmed his station.
"I want the same thing that you do: magic to be freely practiced in Albion again. I'm tired of having to watch while our kind is slayed like animals due to the crime of merely being born." She tried to reason with them, stating their common goal.
"Killing Uther won't help. It'll only harden Arthur's heart against magic." Merlin countered and after a moment of indecision, Morgana nodded.
"I already told you that'll let destiny follow its course and the tyrant shall find the death that's written in his fate." Nimueh told them, taking one more step closer and stopping close enough to be an arm's length from them.
"Why are you doing this now? Why teach us?" Merlin questioned, tired with all the thinking that Nimueh had suddenly had a change of heart.
"You'll face many threats while protecting Arthur." She said, looking into Merlin's eyes and then swiftly turning her head to stablish eye contact with Morgana, she added: "And your children are a blessing for magic and the Old Religion. If you want to give yourselves and them the best possible chance, you must have deep knowledge about magic and its secrets, something that you certainly won't obtain here."
"And what is there for you in this? What will you gain by helping us?' Merlin asked, still suspicious.
"I serve the Triple Goddess, Emrys. What I gain is the fulfillment of Her wishes, and it's clear as day that you must be properly guided in order to build Albion's long awaited future." The High Priestess replied, grinning at their ingenuity.
"You have threatened our people when you put the afanc in the waters, you have already proved that you have no concern about the means you use to achieve your goals, why should we trust you?" This time Morgana spoke, still distrusting the woman in front of her.
"It was to make your king bend and resort to magic once more to save his people or die along with them. That, young seer, would have spared the lives of many others, those that have magic, like you, and are hunted like criminals for the mere act of being alive." Nimueh replied with a certain tone of annoyance. What else did they want, a full apology? A High Priestess never go so low before, though she was dealing with the most powerful magic wielders in all of Albion – thankfully they didn't know the true extent of their powers yet – and they had already produced children that would be even more powerful than themselves – nonetheless their ignorance was a bliss for her.
"What do you mean by 'once more'?" Morgana asked and Nimueh smirked. Obviously, the coward hadn't told them the origins of Uther's hatred toward magic.
"Hasn't Gaius told you, any of you?" The duo shook their heads in a negative, and Nimueh said:
"Ygraine, the Queen, couldn't conceive by natural means and Uther begged me to use the Gift to give him a male heir. I warned him that such magic - involving life and death – would have a big cost – someone's life to be more precise – he said that he'd pay it, no matter what. It's the Goddess that chooses whose life is taken when such spells are performed and She choose the Queen's life. The rest you must know, he got mad with his grief and has been persecuting and killing us as mere beasts as if we weren't even human to begin with."
Morgana gasped and covered her mouth with her free hand while Merlin gaped like a fish.
"How could he?" Morgana whispered in an almost inaudible voice and Merlin felt anger that the King had condemned so many to a painful death when he had used the same magic to get what he wanted and then turned his back on the ones that had granted his wish when things didn't happen the way he expected.
"Is that why you did everything you did?" Merlin asked the High Priestess, finally letting his guard down around her.
"Yes, Merlin. I wanted to get this land rid of such a cruel man or at least make him resort to magic once more and prove to the people that it isn't the evil he declared it to be. Many lives were taken in my quest, I admit, but they weren't in vain, they served a higher purpose: freedom."
Nimueh smirked inwardly as she waited for them to speak. They were certainly taking their time, thinking deeply about the causes for magic's ban and how it was unfair of Uther to hunt everyone possessing magic when he agreed with the risk he was taking or at least he could have just take his revenge against Nimueh and let the rest of the magical community in peace.
"I still don't know if we can trust you." Morgana said and paused briefly before she added: "though I agree that we won't be able to obtain more knowledge – that could be the difference between life and death – here, while we lurk in forbidden corners of the castle, with outlawed books that could cost our heads for the mere act of having them under our possession."
"But we'll still have the autonomy to choose what we want to learn. Don't you think you can trick us into practicing dark magic." Merlin complemented and Nimueh thought that they were already at that stage in which couples complete each other's sentences.
"Fine, I give you my word that I'll follow your wishes."
"Okay…" Morgana said, narrowing her eyes and Merlin mimicked her action "for now." Then the seer placed her hands on her hip and added, crossly: "And if you'd be a darling and recall a minimum of common courtesy you'd leave my chambers and never again initiate a chat in this inappropriate time of the night."
Nimueh curtsied dramatically exaggerated and replied: "As you wish, milady." And threw an object in the couples direction – which Merlin grabbed as he was improving in taking the right action when things were thrown at him.
"For when you need to contact me or vice-versa." The High Priestess elaborated before turning into a crow and flying away from Camelot, leaving two confused magic beings.
A/N: Basically, this chapter is the one in which Nimueh tries to seduce both Merlin and Morgana with promises of more power.
I think I'll finish this story in 4 or 5 chapters at most. Maybe write random comical events related to this later, but the main plot will end in more or less that. So, if I don't update before Christmas, Merry Christmas, folks, : )