More Than A Servant

Chapter 20

"What can you really do?"

Merlin smiles to himself, thinking. It's weird to be able to use his power to it's full extent. Then, he thinks of a more complicated spell.

"Mae blodau tyfu o gwempas."

His eyes flash gold, and all around him flowers start to spring up. He smiles seeing that the spell worked. He looks up to see Morgana's reaction and finds her smiling.

"What is it with you and the flowers?" She giggles.

"They make me think of you," he says without really thinking.

Both Merlin and Morgana look down awkwardly realizing what he just said.  Morgana considers asking about it. Instead, she clears her throat.

"So umm... anything else?"

"Hmm... Gwindt a mellt!"

Merlin's eyes flash and he lifts his hand pointing at a spot about 10 feet away from them. A huge whirlwind starts to appear out of nowhere. The wind is so strong that Merlin has to brace himself to keep from falling. Lighting starts to strike within the whirlwind and Morgana loses her footing. She falls straight into Merlin, effectively knocking him over.

The wind stops abruptly as they are both in a heap on the ground. They both trying to untangle themselves from each other as Merlin's also trying to check Morgana over.

"Oh my gosh, are you okay?!" Merlin exclaims.

Morgana manages to get herself off of Merlin and looks at him for a second. Then, she bursts out laughing. Full on laughing, for like a minute! Merlin can't help but smile, even though he's still concerned and confused. Eventually he joins her seeing the humor in the situation. After a bit their laughing dies down allowing them both to catch their breath. He meets her smiling eyes. He hasn't seen Morgana this happy and carefree in years.  Suddenly feelings that he hadn't felt in years start to bubble up within him. He loves her. He may have never stopped loving her.

"Imagine if it was like this all the time," Merlin starts. "You and I, we had something special. We could make a pretty good team."

She tries to look like she's deep in thought, but she can't hide the smile from her face. Is this actually what he's implying? Could he actually like her after all this time? She pushes those thoughts away, suddenly becoming bold.

"Maybe it's destiny," she smirks at him.

Then she leans in and kisses him. At first he's shocked and doesn't know how to react. Then he kisses her back. The air around them seems to vibrate. They can both feel magic coursing through their veins. Unbeknownst to both of them, they are glowing. Golden light shines all around them. When they break apart they both open their eyes, and see the golden light dancing around them that is also reflected in their irises. After a moment the effect wears off and they are both left staring at each other breathless.

"Looks like you're right," Merlin responds to her previous statement.

"So now what?" She asks after catching her breath.

"I don't know... let's just enjoy this day first."

His eyes flash gold and a beautiful dragon made from sparked starts flying above them. Morgana laughs and looking up at the dragon, mesmerized by the sight. He looks down at her beautiful smiling face. This is how it should be.

***

After about ten minutes of riding, the knights notice a clearing up ahead. Arthur, Gwen and the knights dismount their horses to approach slowly. They all crouch down and sneak up to the edge of the clearing behind a bush. Arthur peaks up over the edge of the bush and sees Morgana standing next to Merlin. He doesn't take the time to try and see what they're doing. He gathers the knights out and lays out the plan.

"Okay. So you all are going to spread out around the perimeter. Gwen you'll stay with me. Make sure you stay hidden until my signal. Then, if you can, sneak up on Morgana and try to knock her out. If things go south, you have my permission to do whatever it takes to protect yourselves and Merlin. Stay safe."

"You too." Gwaine says as he pats Arthur on the shoulder.

The knights head out in opposite directions to surround the clearing. Gwen stays put with Arthur. As the men are clearing, Gwen peaks through the bushes at Merlin and Morgana. They're just standing there talking. Merlin doesn't seem frightened or anything. Then she notices what looks like flowers growing up around Merlin. She half expects the earth around him to start attacking him, but nothing happens. They just continue talking.

"What?" She mutters under her breath.

"What is it?" Arthur turns to her. He was distracted, so he has no idea what Gwen was seeing.

"I mean, there's nothing happening. Why? He's her prisoner, and they're just standing there talking. Shouldn't be at least be, you know, handcuffed?"

He looks over the bush.
"It's certainly very strange..."

He looks down deep in thought. Why isn't he in chains? Could he have found a way to negotiate with her? Arthur is broken out of his thoughts by the sound of wind and lightening. He looks back up at the pair and sees a whirlwind about ten feet from them. As he observes closer he sees Merlin's hand outstretched toward the whirlwind- almost like he's causing it. Suddenly Morgana seems to fall into Merlin and the whirlwind stops. At this point Arthur is too shocked to react.

"No way..." Arthur mutters to himself as he turns around and sits to think.

Guinevere is shocked and confused, but she continues to watch. Arthur on the other hand has his head in hands and is trying to interpret what he just saw. There's no way that was Merlin. Merlin doesn't have magic! Magic is evil, and Merlin's not evil! If he had magic, surely he would've been caught by now, right? Morgana has to have cast that spell. But what were they doing? Was she threatening him?

Meanwhile, Gwen is watching intently. They seem to be laughing together. What on earth happened? Merlin was tied up just a couple days ago... there's got to be more to this story than meets the eye.  Just then, she sees Morgana lean into Merlin and kiss him. The air around them starts to glow and she lets out an involuntary gasp. This must mean- Merlin has magic.

"What?" Arthur looks at her. She forgot he was there.
"What is happening?"

He begins to get up and turn to look at them. Gwen tries to protest and stop him knowing how he'll react. However, Arthur looks past her just as the two are separating, the air around them still glowing.

"No," he mutters. "She must've enchanted him or something. There's no way... those two... what?"

Arthur still is not comprehending what he's seeing. Merlin is good. Merlin is his friend. Merlin is-

He breaks out of his thoughts to see Merlin's eyes glow gold. A dragon appears above Merlin's and Morgana's heads. Morgana is smiling looking at the dragon, while Merlin looks at her. Arthur's eyes grow wide in realization.

Merlin is a sorcerer.
He has magic.