"Answers!" Kyulds laughed. "You want answers?"
"Yes," Morgana said defiantly. "If you want Merlin dead so strongly, enough that you're willing to turn back time and employ me to do it, then there must be a dam good reason! What did he do to you?! Why are you so hell bent on killing Merlin?!!"
"You have no right-"
"And if I'm not mistaken, you have strictly employed me to do this dirty work for you, which implies one thing: you can't do it yourself. An all powerful being who can manipulate time itself, somehow can't figure out or simply does not have the ability to do his own filthy work! I want to know, why? Why must he employ Morgana Pendragon when he seems perfectly capable himself?"
A gust of wind enveloped them both. Morgana felt herself being pressed up against the wall, Kyulds positioning himself less than an inch from her face, his hands digging into her shoulders. She saw now, the distorted image of what lay under his disguise: the fragmented form of a face with two glowing orbs for eyes.
"And most of all, why do you hide your true form?" She narrowed her eyes in mock sympathy. "Or... is this your true form? Have you forgotten who you are?"
"That's enough!!" He gritted his teeth. "I will return to you within the hour! I am giving you one last chance. If I return and the boy still breaths, I will find you a fate worse than death!!" His voice echoed through the chamber, every surface repelling the sound like it was diseased.
For the first time since Morgana arrived in the past, she felt true primal fear. Not a fear that she would ruin her second chance, not the fear of losing her magic, but the real guttural fear that she would lose her life. Kyulds swirled his cape of shadows, extinguishing all the candles that lit the room. With another gust of wind, his presence escaped through an open window.
Morgana and Morgause stared at the spot where he vanished from their view, wondering if was going to make a sudden reappearance. Morgause was the first to break the silence.
"You should follow his instructions, Morgana."
Morgana narrowed her eyes and stalked around the room, relighting the snuffed candles with a muttered word. "Why should I?"
"He is powerful. He is dangerous..."
"And he is untrustworthy, and he is a liar. I don't know why I ever trusted him in the first place."
"You never trusted him, Morgana, you feared him, and rightly so. In all my years of training I never witnessed a being like that...a being that... I can't even start to describe what kind of being he must be, what power he must possess."
Morgana stopped next to the bed and held onto the bedpost. "I'm not afraid of him, Morgause. I mean, I am... I am afraid of him, but I don't care. He can do what he wants to me... I'm not giving up my free will."
"Morgana-"
"I've gone over it over and over in my head," she said agitated, beginning to pace the distance between the bed and the table. "Merlin... Emrys... myself... everything's connected, everything's... everything's different." She looked directly at her sister. "There's something I was missing, Morgause. Something I was missing after you died and I left the citadel. Something that I didn't realize I was missing until I came back here and found it again."
"Morgana, please-" Morgause tried to reach out to her sister, but Morgana took a step back.
"We were wrong, Morgause, we were wrong. There's so much more than we thought... I... I... it's more complicated than just right and wrong, good and evil." A sudden realization made her legs weak, she crumpled down to sit on the bed. "I... I lost myself. I was gone..." Tears blossomed in her eyes. "I hurt people, innocent people... I murdered, I tortured, I... I-"
"You did what you had to do to stay alive."
Morgana glared at her, the love fading from her eyes. "No. No, that's only what you think. I abandoned love and reason to voyage after something I already had." She thought about the way Arthur spoke to her in the woods, the worry in his eyes as he desperately searched for his missing servant, the heartbreak in his voice when he believed he may never see him again. In her time in hiding, Morgana had always felt pity for herself. No one had cared for her like that. "I always blamed others for leaving me alone in the darkness... but I'm the one who walked into it in the first place. Everyone who I cared about... I pushed them away chasing some idea, some idea that violence could only be defeated with more violence."
"Morgana, please... do not let these foolish thoughts cloud you better judgment! Fate has told you that Emrys is your doom, you mustn't ignore that. Merlin must be dealt with, why do you refuse to understand this?"
"There's nothing I'm not understanding. Quite the contrary actually, I think it's you who has failed to understand."
"Morgana, Emrys must die!"
"Why do you think you know better than me?!"
"I am simply using the information you gave me to make a rational decision!"
"No! No, you're making the decision for your own best interest. You never loved me, you never cared about me-"
"Morgana, that is untrue! You are the only family I have, or will, ever know!"
"Then how could you do that to me?!" She paused, letting the question sink into the air. "Magic didn't make me a monster, it was you, Morgause. Maybe... maybe the reason people like Uther hate magic is because people like you use it to destroy instead of create!"
"You don't get to tell me how to fight for our rights, for our lives. You may have knowledge from the future, but as I said before, I have wisdom from the past and it is more valuable than you could ever know." She took a step forward. "You didn't see it, Morgana. How could you know how to bring justice when you didn't witness what we need to bring justice for? It was a slaughter, a bloodbath. Children were separated from their mothers only to be beheaded alongside them in the streets. Friend betrayed friend, enemy clung to enemy, it was carnation, it was despicable, and we deserve retribution!!"
"It just proves my point! Everyone is capable of great acts of evil. I was more like Uther than I realized. Whatever Kyulds has in store for me if I refuse to kill Emrys, I deserve it."
"No," Morgause began, very quietly. "You must kill him. We deserve happiness."
"Must I kill him for me? or am I killing him for you, Morgause? It doesn't matter to you if I live or die. You know what I've told you. You know that Emrys is the cause of both our deaths. He's your doom too. You're only trying to protect yourself."
"Lies," she whispered.
"No, I don't think so."
"I love you, Morgana."
"But not in the right way."
The sisters stared at the floor for a long tense moment, both digesting what had just happened and asking the same questions about what it meant for their future. Morgause eyed Morgana and slowly picked up Excalibur, which still rested on the table.
"If you are not going to kill Emrys, then you leave me no choice." She approached the wardrobe. "I will kill him myself to save both our futures!"
"Morgause, no!" Morgana tried to stop her, tried to reach her before she did something she couldn't take back, but it was too late. With one fluid motion, Morgause reached the wardrobe and grabbed onto the door. She pulled, preparing to shove the sword forcefully inside, but...
The wardrobe was empty. Morgause stared in shock and horror. She turned back to her sister, rage ablaze in her eyes.
"You let him go!"
"I did not!" Morgana protested.
Morgause hurried around the room, checking every conceivable space where he might be hidden. "Morgana, if you're lying to me-"
"I'm not!"
Morgause came to a halt next to Uther's desk. Morgana had barley noticed her father working away, shuffling through and signing papers. He didn't look up as Morgause approached him.
"Uther..." Morgause growled. " It was you. Where is that boy!?"
"He... I..."
"Morgana! He can't have gone far!" She looked to her sister, a startling fire in her eyes. "Find Merlin!"
<<>>
It was early in the day when Uther decided to act on his plan of escape. It was a risky plan and relied on many circumstances, but if everything went like he hoped it would...
Morgause and Morgana were torturing the boy, asking him questions Uther didn't quite understand. Morgause had ordered him not to listen. Uther did catch a few words though, something about the boy's father and a dragonlord.
Morgana left the room soon after that, leaving Morgause alone to retrieve and shove Merlin's limp form back into the wardrobe. Merlin was getting weaker, Uther thought. If he was going to act, it needed to be now.
Morgause settled herself by the fire once more. Uther got up from his desk and made his way over to her. He couldn't disobey a direct order, that much he had discovered during his time in Morgause's mind prison, but if he could conceivably bend the rules...
Morgause insisted that she review every order that left the kings chambers, this made it impossible to smuggle any sort of cry for help to the outside world, an outside world that believed the king was on a critical bedrest and ordered that he be left alone. Morgause barely allowed him to leave his chambers, only allowing him out once in a while to keep up appearances.
Once he reached the witch, Uther cleared his throat to get her attention. She held out her hand and Uther handed her the parchment on which he had written his executive orders for the day. There weren't very many:
- Deliver food and supplies to the western villages. They are in desperate need of supplies as their harvest for the year was minimal.
- Prince Arthur is to deliver the ceremonial speech for the summer feast.
- A terrible batch of sweating sickness is sweeping its way through the citadel, mostly through the servants from the lower town. To be cautious, servants should be let go for the time being, enough time for the sickness to die out.
Morgause didn't say a word, but nodded and handed the parchment back to the king. Uther gritted his teeth. He could feel the enchantment doing its work. His attempt wasn't enough.
"I wasn't sure about this one," he said, putting the list back in front of the enchantress. He pointed to the last one. "What do you think?"
Morgause glared at him, obviously exhausted from keeping up her enchantment on Uther and restraining a powerful sorcerer in a wardrobe.
"I have ordered you to run things as usual, if that's something that you would normally do, although," she sneered, "I can't imagine any of you nobles living without a servant for a day."
"So, I should let the servants go for the week?"
"I do not care what you do!"
"But in you opinion?"
"Yes, fine, whatever, let the servants go permanently for all I care! Just leave me in peace."
Uther nodded and smiled to himself. It was going to work. He was truly going to take Morgause's command to heart and let all the servants go.
++
He waited until the enchantress fell into a deep slumber, then waited just a few moments longer to be sure she would not easily wake. Uther crept quietly up to the wardrobe and opened the door. When he noticed Merlin's wide eyes from inside the darkened space, he put a finger to his lips, ensuring the boy kept quiet even in his surprise. He looked inquisitively at the king.
"I told you I had a plan, didn't I?" Uther chuckled slightly, trying to find a release from this dire situation. He pulled Merlin out of the wardrobe, giving him the support he needed to stand. "Let's see..." Merlin's mouth was gagged. His hands and legs were chained together, making it impossible for him to stand up straight. Uther examined the restraints. "Can you walk alone?" Uther whispered in a hushed tone?
Merlin nodded and motioned for Uther to let him try. He limped a few steps, struggling against his chained legs.
Uther sighed. "I suppose... it's good enough." Again he examined the chains, confirming it would be impossible to break through them with the time given. Merlin tapped him on the shoulder. "What?" He gestured to the gag in his mouth. "Oh, sorry." He untied the back and removed the cloth.
Merlin took a deep breath. "Thanks."
"I can't leave this room," Uther told him. "Morgause has forbidden it for today. That's what I need you to do. You need to find Arthur and let him know what's going on. Do you understand?"
Merlin nodded. "Yes."
"Do you think you can get there by yourself?"
"I... I think I can do it," Merlin said. Uther looked at the boy. Merlin had dark circles under his eyes. His hair and cloths were filthy and his shirt was covered in something dark that looked like blood.
"Are you sure?"
"It doesn't matter what I think. I have to be able to do it. So, I will."
Uther was impressed by the boy's resilience. "Then you must be going. As quick as you can, before she wakes up!"
Uther helped Merlin hobble to the door and opened it just enough for him to slip through.
"Please," he said. "Be as quick as you can."