More Than A Servant

Chapter 5

*SPLASH*

Merlin sputters and coughs as he tries to get his bearings. Clearly he's tied up by his arms; that much he can feel. He can also still feel the open cut on his chest, which isn't helped by being strung up by his arms. He opens his eyes and looks around as he attempts to stand up. The room is very dim and messy. His eyes finally land on the only other person in the room- Morgana.

"Good morning," she says cheerfully.

"Is it?" No. No it is not.

"Oh... don't be like that. You and I have a lot of catching up to do. After all, the last time we saw each other you thwarted another one of my plans and condemned my sister to a slow and painful death."

"Could you do me a favor? Could you tell Arthur that he may still think of me as an underachiever, but I am very proud of those accomplishments. I can die happy."

"Oh you're not going to die," Morgana smirks.
"Like I said, we have a lot to catch up on."

Merlin stops and stares at her, confused. Why wouldn't she want to kill him? That's what she does. Merlin poisoned her, abandoned her, and foiled all of her plans. Could she want information? What could he possibly know that she doesn't?

"What are you playing at Morgana?"

"Oh I just wanted to have a little chat."
She grabs a chair and sits down in front of him.
"It's been so long since we've talked openly with each other hasn't it? How've you been? How's Arthur treating you?"

"I'm not in the mood for your games Morgana," he glares. "What do you want?"

"Like I said: catching up. I believe you may have some information that I want."

Battle plans, maybe? Maybe she wants to know about the knights or something like that. Frankly, Merlin didn't know much useful information about that anyways. Arthur didn't usually discuss it with him, and even when he did Merlin would usually zone out.

"Whatever information you're looking for, you're not going to get it. Do you really think Arthur would tell me anything of use?"

Morgana chuckles at that. Merlin is starting to get worried.

"Oh please, I have other sources that could give me all the information I could possibly know about Camelot. What I want to talk about I doubt Arthur would have any idea about. This is about you."

Merlin freezes. About him? She couldn't possibly know about his magic, could she? At this point Merlin looks down and sees his chest, a giant burn in the middle of it.
Crap. He usually so careful to hide his scars because he knows that someone would ask about them if they saw.

He looks at her dead in the eyes,
"What do you want, Morgana?"

"I want to know how you're still alive!" The smile is wiped off her face. "There no way that you should've survived everything I put you through. And clearly you have plenty of stories to tell. So, we can either do this the easy way or the hard way."

Merlin glares at her, saying nothing

"Okay then! Where should we start... how about the burn on your chest? That looks pretty bad. It's a wonder you're still alive!" She feigns sympathy.

Merlin tried to think fast and not let his panic show.
"I spilled boiling water on myself."

"Liar!" Morgana stands up quickly, knocking the chair over behind her. She clears her throat and regains her composure.
"A burn like that does not come from spilling water on yourself. The angle is wrong and the burn is too deep. Either you can begin to tell me the truth, or I can use some of my other methods to get you to talk."

Merlin gulped. He certainly didn't like the sound of that. But what choice does he have? Morgana cannot find out about his magic. At that moment his chest starts to sting and he winces in pain.

"You know Morgana," he manages to say through the pain, "I am probably going to die soon anyways, so trying to get me to talk is frankly pretty useless."

Again she laughs. Does he actually think that she would let him die when she needs information?

"Oh don't you worry. You're not going to die. I'm not going to make it that easy."

Merlin sighs. Well he knows that this will be a fun couple of days. Somehow he has to get out of here, preferably without Morgana finding out about his magic.

"So," Morgana breaks Merlin away from his thoughts, "let's try again shall we? Where did you get that burn?"