Always Be With You - Merthur

Chapter 9

Merlin pov

Merlin's senses were slowly returning to him, every single one painful and battered. The sound of footsteps in the distance, then the echo of a voice. A woman's voice. It was vaguely familiar...

There was a lingering coppery taste that came from his lips- blood. His lip was definitally split, he didn't want to find out what his head looked like and when he tried to get up, there was a loud clanging noise and he found out that his hands were shackled to the floor.

He looked around, barely being able to see anything in the faint flicker of light that a torch provided from outside of the bars. He was in a prison cell. 

Merlin sat up and almost blacked out again- he felt his heart race increase. It was a dungeon, but it was very different from the one in Camelot. He'd been there. No, the large greyish stones were nothing like the sandy red bricks of the Camelot cells.

Merlin carefully looked up and examined his dark surroundings, then allowed himself to slightly panic. How did he get here? Why, and by who? Again, footsteps.

This time, they neared him and he pressed himself as far back into the shadows as he could. Small needles of hay jabbed him in his side and he twisted uncomfortatbly. A cloaked figure came into his vision and curled their fingers elegantly around the bars.

"You're awake!" A voice said. The same woman's voice from earlier. She sounded so familiar, Merlin was certain he'd met her before. Her voice sounded cold and distant, not a hint of emotion. She was standing in front of the torch, making it really hard to see her features. 

"Merlin, isn't it? Do you remember me?" He didn't answer. Instead, he tried to get a glimpse of her face. The woman sighed and Merlin could almost hear her roll her eyes. "Let's see, erm, you and prince Arthur came to me after I paid a visit to Camelot to see my dear sister Morgana," 

Merlin stopped trying to see her better and blinked. Morgana has a sister? Why doesn't she tell us things?  "to speak to his dead mother, does that ring any bells?" She continued without so much as looking at him. Merlin's eyes widened slightly. 

"Morgause." He whispered, voice croaky from the damp air. 

morgause let out a chuckle and cheered softly. "Good," She ignored Merlin's glare. "Now, let's talk."

~o~

Morgana pov

Morgana felt restless. It felt like a part of her was under water, she couldn't really explain it. Outside, Gwen was still probably at home by now. They had been searching for Merlin yesterday all day long, but he was nowhere to be found. I wonder how she explained to Arthur how we knew this.

the thing that was bothering her the most was that she wasn't doing anything right now. She was just waiting for Arthur to come here. He had started searching the moment the sun came up and told them they didn't need to come. 

there wasn't a lot she could be doing, so she was sitting at her dinnertable, staring at nothing in particular, feeling bad.

The weird feeling had gone, so something good must have happened. But now she felt off. It was quite frustrating.

the door opened and Morgana looked up. Lilith stood in the frame, silently asking for premission to enter the room. Morgana gave it to her with a soft noise and let her sit down on the table. "How are you?"

"I'm fine." Morgana answered, not meeting her eyes. Lilith sighed and went to sit cross legged. "Morgana, I know you're not." She said softly, trying to get her to look at her. "You can tell me."

There was no judgement in that sentence, just genuine concern. They sat there for a moment, Lilith patiently waiting for Morgana to talk, who was feeling like she had a heavy weight on her shoulders. 

Besides Merlin, she had another problem. Guinevere. Maybe, if I ignore this feeling, It will go away...

She groaned and cursed herself for liking her best friend. How ironic. She thought to herself. You try to get your ship together and you end up getting feelings for the person you're plotting it with. It was actually quite amusing.

She looked up to see Lilith and was surprised to see that she handn't moved a muscle.

"Alright." Lilith muttered. She jumped off the table and landed almost catlike on her feet without a sound. She stood before Morgana and held out her hand. "May I?" Morgana frowned at her. "Can I hold your hands?" "What for?" Lilith smiled. "I can help." She said, still not moving. Morgana showed her hands and Lilith took them in her own.

It was silent before she muttered something. Morgana didn't understand what she was saying, but watched as her eyes glowed and the weight lessened a bit. When she was done she took a step back and gave Morgana an expectant look. "Did that help?"

"Yes..."

"Good."

"What did you do?"

"In my camp, we learned things like this. Healing magic. this is the most commenly used. It's for the pain, physical and mental. It's like a painkiller."

Morgana looked up from her hands and gave her a hint of a smile. "Thank you." Lilith returned it and sat in a chair. "You know, for such a young person, you certainly know a lot of things." "Oh, I know things, but healing magic was something I thought was really important, so..." She beamed at Morgana, who reached to hug her. "You're very smart." 

There was a knock on the door. "Come in." Morgana said clearly. The door opened. They both looked to see who it was. Gwaine stood there in his armour, his signature grin on his face. 

"Hello ladies." He said. When he only got a soft 'hi' back, he sighed sadly. "We've had no luck so far." Lilith and Morgana looked down. It was quiet now Merlin wasn't Striding through the corridors. "How's Arthur?" Morgana asked softly, tilting her head a bit to see Gwaine. 

He clicked with his tongue. "He's... Dealing with it in his own way." It was clear that Gwaine meant Arthur was not okay and distracted himself with training when he wasn't searching.

She nodded slowly with a thoughtful expression. "Why don't you teach Lilith how to fight?" She suggested, causing Lilith to shoot her a hopeful glance. "Gwen told me about that. But, then I can talk to Arthur." She added. Gwaine's smile returned and he nodded. 

"Of course milady," Lilith walked over to him and pulled her long silver hair in a low ponytail, making Gwaine snigger. 

"The lily flower is ready for anything, I see." "Shut up." "No. Let's go!" They were about to leave the room when Morgana stopped them. "Don't let her use anything too dangerous, like a sword." Lilith glared, but remained silent. "Of course," Gwaine agreed nodding rapidly. 

"They may be too heavy for you, let's start with daggers." Now it was Morgana's turn to glare, but Gwaine was suddenly already at the door and both he and Lilith dissapeared around the corner. Their laughter echoed through the halls and Morgana rolled her eyes, smiling. "Be careful!" Morgana called after them, but they were long gone. She sighed. Let's go see Arthur.

~o~

A/N ~ Hello humans.

I know that I'm not going to be productive in any way after this. Maybe if I open the cupboard for the fourth time today, there will actually be food in there...