In the cramped dark tower cell with Ainthusa, her beloved beautiful white dragon she always planned on healing once she got out, she couldn't help but think about what brought her here, lots of soul searching she had 3 years after all. She came to the grand conclusion of… take a guess. That she was a horrible person? That she probably should try to repent? That she was perhaps wrong? Actually it was the opposite as she thought that's what the Others should be doing and justified her actions while in there allowing her mind to lie to itself. But that wasn't the grand conclusion, the grand conclusion was that she was truly alone in the world, most of her kind was slaughtered and hunted down and her only true friend was her sister, Morgause, was gone.

The second she was free she was going to change that, there was one other true friend she had even if she had betrayed her, but Morgana was getting very desperate. Perhaps Guinevere didn't know the full repercussions of her actions, afterall all she could see was her taking over Camelot by force, and the blind teachings that snake Uther Pendragon had told to everyone about magic. They had gotten along well enough once, they could do it again, even if she had to twist Gwen's mind a bit to do it, afterall Gwen was the one who betrayed her first, she deserved a little pain for what she had done.

And she knew exactly how to do it.

Just another day skiving after Arthur or it will be another day in 3...2… 1…

"MERLIN!" yelled Arthur in his usual annoyed tone of voice as I ran towards his room which as usual was a complete mess, which I had to clean, oh goodie…

"Yes sire?" I said, sounding oblivious to what he probably wanted me to do, along with the millions of other tasks, which probably included mucking out the stables.

"Where were you?!" he shouted at me before throwing a goblet at my head which I narrowly avoided, "And if you say tavern," Did Gaius say Taven again? I was beginning to think he had a fascination with it, "One more time I swear,"

"No I wasn't at the tavern, my Lord," I said deciding to say the truth knowing he wouldn't believe me anyways, "I was fighting a few Wyverns, nothing much, saving the day, maybe I should write a book, The Epic Adventures of Merlin, it's going to be very long though,"

Arthur promptly started laughing his head just as I suspected despite me being completely serious, "How much did you drink last night?" he said between laughs as he chucked another thing at my head, clattering by the door as I dodged it.

Just then Guinevere burst into the chambers and Arthur cleared his throat nodding respectfully to his wife turning red in embarrassment, "Oh- Um- sorry I was just scolding the most incompetant manservant on Earth, look at these chambers!

He gestured around wildly the the array of stuff around the floor to which she responded with a small smirk, "Well I think it might be a little cleaner if you stopped throwing stuff at Merlin,"

I chuckled at her comment, completely agreeing before Arthur sent me a look that clearly said, "Shut up Merlin!"

"But I guess if you're too busy throwing things at your Manservant I guess I'll just go ride-" said Gwen thoroughly enjoying watching Arthur turn red as a tomato while I struggled not to smile.

"No of course not," he protested getting up and heading towards the door, "Come on Merlin!"

As he left the room I mouthed thank you to Gwen as she laughed quietly before Arthur swung back in the room, "Plotting against the King is treason you know, come on Merlin, the horses aren't going to saddle themselves!"

I groaned, did I ever get a break? Apparently not.

There they were, the stupied Knights of Camelot along with Gwen, Arthur, and... Merlin all laughing around without a care in the world on their forest trail. Merlin held a special place in my heart, after he poisoned me, tricked me, and thwarted me time and time again.

With what he did I would almost be inclined to think he had Magic! Though he didn't have the right sense… . magic was always oozing out of a person almost like it wanted to be free, Merlin never felt like that he felt as solid as any other short minded being.

She shook herself from her thoughts before they went spiraling down into madness, sometimes she caught herself almost… almost thinking of the good old days. She had learned to block it out even if she had allowed it to fester in her days in torture just to wonder and keep herself going, but they were a posion to what had to be done, there was no other way.

There always seemed like there was no other way.

As they came riding towards her she smiled at what she was about to do before yelling out a spell causing a few snakes to come out of the grass, "Sildrian!"

"Dynt!" she cried as the snakes reared up causing the horses to start neigh loudly and clamp the ground with their hooves wanting to flee as they knocked their riders off and started to make a run for it only just held back by the few riders still on theirs.

"Run! Run!" shouted Gwaine to Gwen as she shook her head stubbornly refusing to move.

"You're still the Queen, get to the trees! Go!" shouted Guinevere's brother desperately.

"Go Gwen we got this!" yelled Arthur jumping off his horse probably in some vain attempt to slice the snakes who had already bitten Percival as she finally took off into the woods riding, I planned to go after her, right after I saw this unfold, she couldn't get far anyways.

"Arthur don't!" yelped Merlin he yelled from the ground being one of the first to get knocked from his horse.

Arthur and Gwaine were the last to fall, struck by a snake as they fell to the ground squirming when the snakes bit them as the venom took effect, promptly knocking them out.

I took one last glance at their bodies before going after Gwen who was still running around on her horse frantically breathing heavily, she was practically asking to get caught. The venom wouldn't last forever and I gave chase after my former friend.

Stepping into the path she was heading to which led back to Camelot, Guinevere promptly had her horse skid to a stop, before trying to run in another direction. It was pitiful. Honestly, did she really think she could outrun me? A High Priestess. Pathetic.

With barely any effort I made a motion with my hand enchanting a spell in my mind yanking her from her horse and hitting the leaf filled ground with a thud as she fell unconscious. I walked over to her body leaning down I said, "Sleep well milady, for it could be some time till you do so again,"

I woke up groggily from what must have been nearly Dusk, what happened? Did Gwaine convince me to go drinking again, he knew I didn't like that. As my mind cleared I could feel a sharp and present pain in my arm as I glanced down at it. I saw two identical holes with veins under my skin outreaching red and swollen, and I felt the uncomfortable squirm of dark magic under it.

After some minutes trying to recall what happened from the blurriness of the dream still haunting my mind, it was a tall dark tower outlooking a Desert with screams, so many screams coming from inside it hurt my head just thinking about it.

I struggled to sit up as I glanced around at the fallen men around me, "Arthur!?" I called panically crawling over to his side, he didn't seem to be in any danger though his breathing was still fine. I knew the snakes had been enchanted by Morgana, she would be the only one who I knew of who still practiced the Dark Arts though there could be plenty of others.

I did a double check of everyone who was there and realized Guinevere wasn't here, thank goodness… unless- unless this is what Morgana wanted, I shot up to my feet hoping Morgana wouldn't come back to finish the job and raced after the horse tracks which led to a seemingly bored Morgana leaning against a tree trunk staring listlessly at Gwen's unmoving body.

And I could do absolutely nothing, Gaius was always telling me the consequences of revealing to people about my magic, I knew this well enough already, but revealing it to Morgana? That was probably even worse than if I had decided to spontaneously summon Uther Pendragon from the dead and start to make the cutlery dance and sing before turning him into a Beast that could tear me to shreds in an instant.

I wondered if there was any spells I could cast that wouldn't alert Morgana to magic being used but I drew a blank with her standing right there as I crept a bit closer trying to stay as quiet as I could which was a difficult task considering the Autumn leaves were threatening to crunch under my feet with every shuffle I made.

My undoing was not a leaf though, it couldn't have been that obvious of a thing, it was a branch, I really was the oaf Arthur thought I was as I stayed as still as possible hoping Morgana would just think it was an animal just my luck though… she didn't.

Right when the branch had snapped her head shot quickly up at where the sound had come from before chanting a spell her eyes flashing gold as she stared at my hiding spot, "Byrst anginn an awefecung pae!"

Before I could register her words I collapsed rolling down the hill before the world faded towards blackness.