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Morgana had run away on a warm August day.
The plan had been simple but long running, and she would be forever grateful to Merlin for his help.
Merlin had been a godsend really, she didn’t want to involve Gwen or Arthur, making them choose between the law and their own safety was not a decision she wanted to put on them. But Merlin was already a sorcerer, had been born into magic, just like she had, though admittedly he was a lot more powerful that she was, and her being magic only added to a long list of truths he was never going to let out.
They had been training together since the previous year’s Yule celebration where Morgana had caught Merlin disposing of some Assassin. Merlin had begged her not to tell anyone and she had laughed and taken his hand and showed him her book on magic that Gaius had given her many a year ago.
From then it had snowballed and, when it became clear to the both of them that Uther would rather kill them both than admit he was wrong about magic, they had planned their escape.
Except, at the last moment, Merlin had turned around. Had said that he couldn’t leave Arthur, not yet, but that one day Camelot would be better, that they could live together and practice magic freely.
Initially, Morgana had be bloody furious, how dare that self-sacrificing idiot leave her to go it alone with a people she had never belonged to and no guidance. But, as she thought on it, she realised that Merlin, despite what he had said, could not leave Arthur because he loved him, and she could forgive that. Not that she wasn’t going to give the young Warlock a piece of her mind next time she saw him.
Guidance came, when she asked for it, a revolutionary new concept. The druids where kind and, in turn for the help they gave her, she helped them where she could.
It was coming up on 6 months when Gwen arrived, and everything changed.
……………………………………….
Gwen had arrived a week ago.
That should have been the first warning that something was up, but as she avoided Morgana like the plague, and only talked to people about setting up in the forge, it was a little difficult to figure out what was going on.
Don’t get it wrong, a woman, who was once integral to the running of Camelot, turning up at the Druid camp did cause a lot of gossip, but Gwen had only ever been a servant, despite who she served, and when she turned up on the outskirts of the camp it was clear that something had gone horribly wrong. Her dress was ripped and dirty, cuts and bruises covering her arms and her feet bare despite how far into the forest she had to have travelled to find them.
That was another question. How, in the whole of Albion, did Gwen manage to stumble across them?
All of this, Morgana desperately wanted answers for, and she intended to get them. In fact she had been on her way to get them when a message, clear as day, rang through her head, sending the other druids into a scramble as they worked to get inside quickly.
Camelot Red near the border.
That was certainly not good.
Making her way to the outskirts of the encampment, Morgana had never been one to hide from a fight, especially if she had been the one to draw the knights their way.
Being in a state of alert, keeping low to the tree’s and holding her breath, Morgana almost sent the culprit flying backwards as someone tugged on her wrist. Luckily, however, she stayed off the instinct in time to see Gwen’s doe brown eyes looking back at her, clearly scared, but wearing the expression she often wore when she knew whatever it was had to be done; she’d often had that expression in the early days of her job at the castle when she had to serve at the royal feasts and be anywhere near Uther.
“What’s going on?” Gwen ducked her gaze, not looking Morgana in the eyes as she asked. Morgana didn’t like it, Gwen had never had an issue telling her when she was being difficult before, why would she become timid now.
“Some knights at the border I think”
Something broke in Gwen’s expression as she looked up to catch Morgana’s gaze, it looked like tears would spill any minute, “Merlin promised me that no one could follow, said Arthur would make sure of it. I don’t want anyone to-“
She cut herself of as Morgana placed her hands on either side of Gwen’s face, desperately trying to avoid tears from the shorter woman.
Morgana never could deal with Gwen’s tears.
“Shhhh. Shhhh. I promise it will all be well. If Merlin is involved with this I am sure it is something entirely different, Merlin knows what he’s doing. He got me out as well.”
Gwen gave her a strange look then but before she could open her mouth, a twig snapped behind them and Morgana clasped her hand over Gwen’s mouth and shook her head, urging her to be as quiet as she could.
“Morgana…”
Morgana would know that voice anywhere, on any battlefield or any banquet hall, but she had never heard it quite so small, or broken as it did then.
Spinning from behind the tree the pair had been ducked behind, Morgana made sure Gwen stayed behind her as he looked at Arthur’s pale form before her.
This image would haunt her for a good long while.
Arthur was barely standing by himself, blood crusted in his shaggy, blonde hair, a cut on his lower lip and a bruise covering the entire left side of his face. He was clutching at his side as he stumbled through the underbrush, and it looked like blood had congealed on his gloved hand.
“Arthur?” Her voice broke as she spoke, she’d never seen her brother like this before, never seen the defeated look in his eye as his battered body kept moving.
Arthur fell at her feet, kneeling down in front of her as his legs finally gave up and his body slumped. With his head bowed like this it looked like he was offering her his head.
“Arthur wha-“
“Please Morgana. Please.” His voice was cracked and breaking, cracked from what sounded like a week without water, and breaking from some emotion that Morgana had never seen on his face before. If she was to guess it would be something like pain, but so much deeper than she thought he would ever experience.
“Morgana you have to” another chocked of sob, “You have to-“
“Arthur I don’t”
“He wouldn’t do it… He wouldn’t but. But I need you to-“
“Arthur” Morgana cupped his face and knelt down with him in the soft moss and twigs of the forest floor, “Arthur, you have to tell me what’s going on, ok? Otherwise I can’t help you.”
“Please” It was becoming clear as tears slipped down Arthurs cheeks, that the young prince probably wouldn’t even be able to tell them where he was, or what had happened, disorientated as he looked. A far of look in his eyes even as they watered and he begged a confused Morgana.
“He killed him.” Arthur sobbed, leaning onto Morgana’s shoulder as she turned to look at Gwen’s pale face behind her. Not noticing, however, Arthur continued, “He killed him, and I need- You have to.”
“Shhhh. Shhhhh. It’s ok, you’re ok.” Arthur dissolved into unintelligible sobs from then on, and continued to despair even as the night air blew through the valley and the druids came from their homes to assess the situation.
Eventually, the young prince passed out and Morgana took him and Gwen back to her house.
She was going to get answers, even if she didn’t want to hear them, even if she could no longer look at the others in the eye again, she would know the truth.
…………………………………………..
Morgana did not hate her brother. Nothing of the sort.
No, she had left because her father only cared for the concept of her. He cared for the idea of a daughter, not the one he actually had, and Morgana did not want to live that way any longer. Not when her magic was growing stronger every day and, one day soon, she might do something that she could not take back.
She did regret leaving Arthur, as she had regretted leaving Gwen, and Leon, and all the others she held close to her heart, but it was safer this way.
Arthur had been asleep for 4 days. A dreamless, cold sleep where, if you didn’t know any better, you may be mistaken into thinking that his corpse was permanently occupying the spare room in Morgana’s makeshift house.
He was not dead, neither was he particularly close to death according to the healers. He was just refusing to wake up.
His wounds had been largely superficial, disregarding the wound on his torso which, though deep, was situated in a place that was not life threatening and, with the help of magic, was not coursing any further issues.
So why wasn’t he waking up?
He wasn’t cursed or enchanted or spelled or anything else that they had checked for. As far as they could tell he just wasn’t waking up.
Morgana sat vigil at his bedside, and if it wasn’t Morgana it was Gwen.
It was hard, watching her little brother sleep on like the world wasn’t begging for him to wake up, hard watching her little brother hurt when she couldn’t help.
It was one such occasion, when Morgana sat at Arthur’s bedside, reading a book on Green healing magic, when Gwen wondered into the room, taking a seat on Arthur’s other side and taking the young princes hand.
They sat in silence for a long while.
“Why- You…” Gwen took a deep breath before trying again, “What… What happened?”
Her brown eyes stared Morgana’s down and the sorceress tried her best not to move under her friends scrutinising gaze.
“When i-“
“When you left, yes?”
“Well, me and Merlin had been practicing magic together for months” at this Gwen perked up, looking to say something but holding herself back as Morgana continued, “and it became clear that no matter who it was, Uther was going to kill us because we have magic. So we made plans to leave, to come here together and learn from the druids, but Merlin turned back once I was safe, said he couldn’t leave Arthur and that he hoped we’d see each other again.”
“You don’t know where Merlin is then?”
“Last I saw him, he was walking back to Camelot, just beyond the edge of the forest.”
Gwen rubbed a tired hand over her face as she smiled sadly down at Arthur.
“Merlin disappeared about 2 months ago.”
Morgana looked up to see Gwen’s eyes, shock and worry travelling quickly across her face, “What do you mean?”
“He just… He just disappeared one day. He didn’t turn up and Gaius hadn’t seen him and Uther had been saying all this stuff about you… Arthur just shut down. He had started going out into the forest in the middle of the night to look for the two of you, he would just wonder off. When he looked at you it was like he was looking straight through you. He never gave up looking for you but Merlin always managed to convince him that you were fine, makes sense now that he knew where you were. After Merlin vanished though, I took over as Arthur’s manservant for a while and it was like Arthur had vanished with Merlin. He haunted the castle. He was so worried and Uther wasn’t helping. It just got worse and worse until…”
“Until?” Morgana was on the edge of her seat as Gwen spoke, head spinning with questions.
“Until a few weeks ago, I was trying to help Arthur feel better, searching some of the woods when he couldn’t to try and give him hope that it wasn’t all lost. Apparently one of the guards saw me doing magic which is impossible as I’ve never actually tried. Anyway, I was arrested and put in the dungeons. I was going to burn.”
Quiet tears rolled down Gwen’s cheeks and Morgana wanted nothing more than to hold her, hold her and never let her go again. Placing her hand on top of Gwen’s as it held Arthurs, Gwen smiled sadly up at Morgana and cleared her throat, “Anyway, I was in the dungeons, Uther had been arresting people daily for witchcraft and the cells where all full. I was placed somewhere very deep and very dark and I could barely see anything.”
She took a deep breath.
“He was down there Morgana. He’d been down there the whole time, even as Arthur had run himself ragged worrying about him Uther had lied and held him down there for months.”
Morgana ran her thumb over Gwen’s knuckles, she knew who Gwen was talking about, but she needed to hear it, needed to hear it to properly understand.
“Who was down there?”
“Merlin” It was barely a whisper but Gwen broke into fresh tears and Morgana joined her, weeping over the treatment of their dear friend.
“What happened?” Morgana finally got the courage to ask after a long silence.
“He looked awful. I don’t know how he wasn’t dead. He’d been starved, that much was obvious but he must have been beaten as well. Arthur came down to free me and snuck me out of the dungeons, Merlin had told me the way out and how to get here. Merlin asked me not to tell Arthur that he was down there and it was so dark that when Merlin didn’t speak Arthur didn’t notice. When we got to the edge of the forest and Arthur was turning back to Camelot, I told him where Merlin was. I know he told me not to but Arthur could help, I’m sure of it. That was the last I saw Arthur, he was running back to Camelot – I’ve never seen him move so fast. He looked like the hero from some fairy tale.” Gwen swept some of Arthur’s hair out of his eyes as she took a deep breath, “That was a few days before I arrived here.”
They sat there in silence, tears drying and the information slowly sinking in.
After a long while, Morgana spoke up, voicing a thought that she desperately wished wasn’t true, “Do you- Do you think Arthur was talking about Merlin? That Merlin was dead?”
“I” Gwen held back a sob, “I think it must be, Arthur didn’t care for anyone as much as he cared for Merlin. I think that’s why he’s not waking up, he just doesn’t want to admit Merlin’s gone.”
Morgana just looked down at her stupid, loving brother; she could finally put a name to the emotion that she saw in the clearing when she held him sobbing – it was heartbreak. Pure, painful heartbreak that she couldn’t do anything to help him with.
………………………………………………
Two weeks had gone by and Arthur had still not woken.
Morgana and Gwen spent less time by his side nowadays, the cold comfort of his hand becoming painful rather than encouraging like it was before.
They were sat next to each other around a dancing fire when Morgana finally asked a question she’d been dwelling over since Gwen told her what happened, “What has Uther been saying about me?”
Gwen gave her an uneasy look before turning her glaze back to the fire.
“Please Gwen” the young sorceress took her hands, calloused from the forges, “I need to know.”
“I know, but I wish I didn’t have to be the one to tell you.” Gwen kept her gaze on the campfire as she began to talk, “At first, no expense was saved in looking for you. To try and see what had happened. Then, when no trace was found, a vigil was set up, then…” Gwen took a deep, steadying, breath, “Rumours started going around that you were a witch, that Uther had killed you. The vigil was destroyed and everyone basically went into a self-imposed lockdown. Uther was imprisoning people even vaguely associated with Magic, it was like the first purge of magic all over again but more thorough. Whole families where put to the pyre, or Uther tried to. He started saying that the rumours must be true and that you were a witch and all this stuff and it was awful. Arthur opposed him at every turn, of course, but it was difficult after Merlin disappeared. I think Arthur always suspected it was Uther’s fault but he never said anything. He was working on stopping people being put to the pyre and trying to organise a system of fair trial. Uther was having none of it. Had the dungeons been any freer I’m sure Uther would have sent Arthur down there.”
“He’s gone mad” It was all Morgana could think to say as she imagined the horrors that had been going on within her own kingdom.
“Completely” Gwen agreed and the pair went back to grimacing at the easy burning fire.
…………………………………….
It was three weeks before 4 knights appeared at the druid camps border, they all looked dishevelled and anxious as Morgana stared them down.
None of them had dared to speak yet, but she was still looking for an answer to her question.
“I will ask again, as you appear incapable of answering, what are you doing here?”
“We…”
Leon couldn’t answer, however, as Gwen bounded past Morgana and into the arms of one of the waiting knights. The knight in question swung her high into the air before holding her close and whispering something into her hair, wet chuckles coming from Gwen as she buried herself closer to Lancelot’s chest.
“We have come looking for Arthur.” Leon answered, seemingly put at ease from the emergence of Gwen and her reunion with Lancelot.
“What happened?”
“Well, he was fighting with the King – they’d been fighting for weeks but this was the worst one yet - they were shouting, then swords where drawn. Arthur won and walked away. He looked a little haunted when Uther was taken to the dungeons and everyone was freed. He was wondering around the dungeon for a while before he went and talked to Uther again and he just… walked into the forest. With everything going on, no one stopped him but Camelot’s been without a King for 3 weeks and we need him back. We’ve been trying our best but… None of us where meant for this.”
“Have- Is” Morgana wasn’t sure what to ask first. That was a lot of amendments she needed to make to her picture of the world she lived in.
Before she could formulate a whole question, Gwen piped up from Lancelot’s side, looking up at his face, “How are you here? I thought you’d be far from here, and certainly not in Camelot red.”
Lancelot just smiled a little sadly, “News of Camelot’s problems have spread and I knew you would need help. I am a friend of Camelot, even if Camelot has not always been a friend of mine. Besides, I was not so far from your own borders when I heard of Arthur taking the throne.”
Gwen chuckled as she leaned into the knight, Morgana only scowled, eyeing the man up and down. He seemed fine, not much next to Gwen’s blinding smile but, fine.
“Arthur is here,” Morgana turned back to Leon, trying to ignore the knowing look on his face, “he was in a bad way when he arrived… You haven’t seen Merlin by any chance recently?”
Despite all the evidence, Morgana hoped. Hoped with everything she had that Merlin had been found alive and well and that she would never had to explain to Arthur that the man he loved? Cared for above all others? Had gone somewhere he could not follow.
All 4 knights looked down once she asked the question, a few suspiciously watery eyes telling her a story she didn’t want to believe.
“He was executed in the early morning a few weeks ago. Gwen had been discovered missing and no one could find Arthur and Uther tied him to the pyre himself.” Leon took a minute as his breath caught, “by the time I came across what had happened it was too late. I- Me and all the knights that had discovered what Uther had done laid down our weapons in the courtyard and left… We could not serve that man anymore, not after everything. Arthur discovered us all as we were leaving the Citadel. He slowed down to shout at us about getting everyone out of the dungeons before he ran to face his father. He was a king we could follow.”
Leon smiled softly before finishing, his smile turning into a grimace, “Arthur disappeared a few hours later and we’ve been trying to keep it together ever since. But… the people are restless, they want justice for all those lost to Uther’s reign and we are not the people to give that to them.”
Morgana nodded, Leon was right, Arthur should be the one to address their people, but Arthur was a bit preoccupied at the moment. What with his not waking up and all.
They needed a plan, and fast.
………………………………………………….
Merlin had been walking for what felt like a lifetime, his feet ached and, despite running checks, he wasn’t entirely sure that his lungs where the same as they had been before he stepped onto that pyre.
Uther had been deranged, the early birds screaming at the paling sky, the fire dancing higher and higher as Merlin’s eyes flickered gold and Uther faltered. Merlin had never seen the king like that, hair askew, eyes wide and a tinge of fear as Merlin stepped, unharmed, from the burning fire, only to disappear in a cloud of perfect, blue butterflies when he heard a battalion of knights rounding the corner to the courtyard.
If he hadn’t had to wait for the fire to melt his restraints, he would have saved everyone the trouble and saved himself from the dungeons a good long while ago.
Anyway, despite the fact he had whisked himself away from the fires of Camelot, and appeared on the shore of a great lake, Merlin had no time to waste, he needed to go find Morgana. It was time she made a return and put an end to this madness.
If Morgana and Arthur both sided against Uther then the problem would be solved. Obviously they would have to deal with who became ruler of Camelot, who wore the crown and who got the duties, but those where all details as, if Uther’s reign continued, there would be no citizens of Camelot left to rule over.
Trudging through the dense forest, Merlin thought of Arthur. If what Gwen had told him was true, his fair prince had not faired too well in Merlin’s absence, he always knew that Clotpole couldn’t properly dress himself. Worry did cloud over his mind though, he really needed Arthur to be ok, to be breathing and healthy and alive so that Merlin could kiss the idiot stupid.
Merlin hadn’t been thinking about directions as he spotted a sea of tents and quickly constructed buildings, his magic instinctively guiding him there, but no sooner had he seen them, a voice rang through his head, calm and familiar as he recognised Iseldir’s voice.
Third tent on the left
He sent a quick thank you as he marched to the correct tent, counting as he went and hoping Morgana wouldn’t shout at him too badly for leaving her the last time they saw each other.
Moving through the front curtain, Merlin moved to where he sensed a presence in the house, shifting towards a back room.
He carefully but noisily moved a second curtain, he didn’t want to scare Morgana in her own home.
The sight that greeted him was not what he was expecting and it almost took his knee’s out from under him.
“Arthur?” His voice broke as he rushed to the young prince’s side, desperately searching for the shallow rise of his chest that proved the stubborn cabbage head was still alive.
Breathing heavily, Merlin let his eyes water as he rested his forehead against the blonde’s, “What have you gotten yourself into?”
He was whispering, not wanting to disturb the strange silence that surrounded Arthur’s limp body.
What do I need to do?
Merlin wasn’t sure who he was asking, but someone in the camp must be listening to him, someone must know what he needed to do, because Merlin was quite certain he would do anything to save Arthur.
Being there is enough
That was not what Merlin was hoping for. This was the way of Druids though, cryptic even if it spelled their own destruction, some people just didn’t change.
He brushed his fingertips down the side of Arthurs face as he practically climbed next to the unconscious prince on the bed, resting his head on Arthurs chest.
It wasn’t long before sleep took the young warlock, tears drying on his cheeks as he drifted off to an uncertain sleep. It was even less time before Arthur’s arms encircled Merlin’s waist, letting all space between them disappear as the pair slept on.
……………………………
“Do you want to come see him? Maybe your presence will do something for him that ours has not?” Morgana was not feeling particularly optimistic as she brought all 4 knights and Gwen back to her humble home. In fact, she was actively constructing a plan in her mind of what she would need to pack should the kingdom fall on her shoulders as they trudged through the tents.
The muddy footprints where not the first things the group noticed, though perhaps they should have been. No, the first thing they all noticed was the characteristic snoring of their new King.
Rushing into the back room, the group couldn’t help the surprise laughs, tears and shouts that escaped them.
Merlin, curled close to Arthurs side, slept on as Arthur carded his hand through the smallers hair, having been woken by the groups entrance into the tent.
“Shhhhh” Arthur gave the group a giddy look before turning his eyes back to Merlin and a besotted look came over his face.
“Don’t you shhh me Arthur Pendragon, I have sat next to your bedside for the last 3 weeks.” Gwen whisper shouted as she stared daggers at the young king.
“Well, clearly, I didn’t mean you Gwen,” Arthur retorted, voice a bit hoarse, “I know you’d be respectful of Merlin’s sleep. The others, I hold no such beliefs for.”
Morgana only looked on the scene with a slight bewilderment, she was sure Gwen’s observation about Merlin’s absence was correct, but she had no idea having the warlock close would work so quickly for Arthur’s condition. She smiled a little stupidly, matching the look on her younger brothers face – he and Merlin where perfect for each other.
…………………………….
“If you ever, and I mean ever, leave me again, I will kill you.” Arthur pressed kisses to Merlin’s face as he mumbled against the Warlocks skin, Merlin giggling and trying to push the king off of him.
“Promise me Merlin, love of my eternal life, that you will never leave me.” Merlin kept giggling as Arthur kissed down his neck and ran his hands along the warlock’s sides.
“I promise, I promise.” Merlin breathed as Arthur relented his tickling and kissed him deeply, hands moving to Merlin’s cheeks before he moved back and rolled to the side, crushing the soft grass under his back and definitely staining the white fabric of his tunic.
Merlin smiled over at him, reaching for Arthurs hand and fiddling with the new ring on his finger.
“Do you think everyone’s having a nice day?”
Arthur smiled back at the warlock, not bothering to look at their friends and citizens around them, not needing to hear the laughter of children or the picnic’s being shared, he nodded and pulled his new husband close, “I think everyone’s having a wonderful time, though even if they weren’t, I could not care less. No with you by my side, husband.”
“Oh, Husband is it? I thought you said nothing would change when we got married.” Merlin laughed again.
“And it hasn’t, I just get to call you husband now and not a single person on this earth can stop me.”
“They wouldn’t have stopped you before.”
“I know that, idiot, but now you can’t stop me either.”
Arthur grinned as Merlin smiled up at him, eventually resting his head on Arthurs arm and staring up at the bright sky above them, blue and breath-taking with clouds of all shapes.
Not so far away, Morgana sat laughing with Gwen in her lap and Leon at her back, Lancelot and Gwaine within reaching distance as the group laughed and ate, basking in the summer sunshine.