Morgana stood in front of the castle's doors. It had been four years since the last time she had been stepped in Camelot, she didn't miss the place, but still carried a sense of familiarity to it she couldn't completely wash away. Two armored knights stood at each side of it the main entrance, and she couldn't help the smile that rose to her face. It wasn't her home by any means, but the idea that Uther was no longer in there was something she had been hoping for many years. It made the place a little more bearable to be around.
"Good afternoon." She smiled to the knights making a polite bow once she was in front of each of them, both men returned the gesture with a single movement of the head. Their eyes never away from her as she stepped closer to them. "I'm here to see Arthur Pendragon" Morgana put both hands in her waist, looking at the knights up and down, waiting for them to react.
Uther's knights would have probably attacked her already.
"Who's looking for him?" a knight questioned lifting the front of his helmet, he had a scar in his cheek and was lifting a dark eyebrow at her.
A smile lit up in Morgana's features, as she pointed at herself, "I am, can't you see?"
The knights turned their heads to each other, the one with the scar had his eyebrows so knit together it almost seemed like he only had one.
"Who are you?" the other questioned.
Morgana sighed, rolling her eyes. Getting them out of her way would be easy, just a movement of her hand and she could walk through the castle's doors as if it had been wide open just for her. However, no matter how tempting the idea, she didn't want to have to explain why she had forced her way inside, "I'm his sister, and I'm here to see my brother"
"I don't see the resemblance." The knight with the scar leant to look at Morgana closer, whose eyes opened wide as she took a step back putting a hand over her chest. One knight struggled to stifle a laugh.
"How dare you? Can't you see we're identical?" Morganas feigned offence.
"Lady we're not here for jokes, why are you truly here?" The knight's eyebrow twitched. He put his hand in the handle of his sword. Morgana sighed, dropping her arms at each side of her body.
"I told you" she said, "to see Arthur Pendragon".
She understood their questioning. She couldn't help but wonder if that relentless questioning had actually helped them to get anyone who had nefarious intentions to reveal themselves to them. Morgana knew, at least, that if she had the intent to kill Arthur she wouldn't have bothered to check the front door.
"I'll accompany on your way," the knight with the scar sentenced, opening the door.
Morgana made a quick movement with her hand walking past the knights whose eyes remained on her, "Fine, if that makes you feel safer" her voice came in a singing tune before the knights closed the doors behind her and the knight with the scar.
Morgana tried to start a friendly conversation with the knight, she wanted to know about what had happened to Uther, what had Arthur's coronation been like. To know everything Morgause had refused to tell her. All her attempts were futile, and he barely seemed to have any desire to answer any of her questions or to be anywhere near her.
Their path came to a halt once they stepped in front of a closed door. One that Morgana was all too familiar with. She felt the air hitch in her throat at the sight of it, the bare traces of ghosts drawn in wood, yet, it was much less intimidating than what she remembered.
"I'm afraid the king is not available." The knight's voice pulled her attention away from the door. She turned to him.
"What do you mean?" Morgana questioned taking a step closer to the door, brushing her fingers over the wood.
"Whenever this door is closed, it means your majesty is attending important business with Sir Lancelot and the wizard who is always with him. I always forget his name Em... Elyan? No, it's..." Morgana's face lit up as her eyes opened wide. She had waited too long to remain nice and pleasant. She smiled before putting her hands in the door. Her eyes shone bright and blue before the door opened wide in a rush of wind. The knight watched this with taking a step back, withdrawing his sword as he walked behind her.
Three men were standing in the room, six pairs of eyes now staring at Morgana. The knight walking behind her muttering a series of apologies about how he had no idea that she could do such thing, and how remorseful he was for interrupting their utterly important meeting.
Her attention was caught by a pair of bright green eyes who stared at her in shock, mouth slightly open. He looked taller than she remembered, or perhaps he had always been that tall and the time away made her forget about it. He had a slight stubble, his hair was tied back, but a few strands were loose at the front, framing his face. He looked slightly older than what Morgana knew he was, but his eyes still were the same. Despite the apparent surprise they now held, they looked as nice as she remembered. Morgana wanted to run to him, to hold him tight and let him hug her with the same awkward reluctance he always did and ask him if he had missed her just a fraction of what she had missed him. That would have been enough.
Instead her feet hesitated, he probably hadn't missed her at least one bit. She focused her attention on the man standing at the front, head straight and firm posture. An all too familiar set of kind blue eyes with a hint of playful mischief in them staring at Morgana with curiosity, eyebrows slightly furrowed. There was no crown over his blonde hair, but Morgana could see a bit of Uther's ghost in his features despite the fact that Igraine's resemblance was also clear in him.
"Who is this?" questions who Morgana thought Lancelot was withdrawing his sword. He had long hair that reached his chin, a thick accent, his eyes were deep and brown, and he had a slight stubble, on his long face. He had a slight tan and long eyelashes. He was very handsome.
Morgana put up a smile in her face and extended her arms as she gave cautious small steps towards the group.
"Little brother! It's so good to see you, oh you've grown so much! You were so tiny the last time I saw you," Morgana made her hands resembled as if she was holding a baby in her arms. Arthur rose a hand and both the knight and Lancelot returned their swords to their sheaths. Morgana watched Emrys roll his eyes and the smile on her face only grew as she resisted the urge to stick her tongue out at him
Arthur's eyes scanned her, "Who are you?... Morgana?" His eyes opened wide as he stood in front of her barely a couple steps far from her. He stood tall, he was just barely seventeen years old, if Morgana remembered correctly. Morgana let out a more genuine smile this time, turning to the knight who had walked her to the room.
"See? Told you he'll know who I was?" At the confirmation, Arthur's eyes lit up and his arms surrounded Morgana in a tight hug that surprised her, but she just as quickly returned. Once the hug broke apart, he held onto her forearms.
"It's so great to finally meet you, Emrys has told me so much about you," he assured, a smile on his young face.
"Good things I hope." Morgana peered over his shoulder watching Emrys roll his eyes. Arthur chuckled.
"Only the best," he said letting go of her.
"I made sure to let him know you were a banshee" Emrys rose his voice. Morgana noticed Lancelot's furrowed brow as he looked at Emrys who avoided his questioning gaze.
Morgana rolled her eyes, "how lovely of you, Emrys". This time, Arthur let out a natural laugh.
"I can't believe my sister is here!" He gave Morgana a second hug before standing by her side putting one hand in the high of her back, it was the first time Morgana truly noticed how taller than her her was. "I have more family," he mumbled with what sounded like genuine joy. If Morgana had been in a bad mood that would have probably changed it, his joy was naturally contagious
"Are you staying anywhere?" Arthur questioned, staring at Morgana.
"No, I..."
"Wonderful." He interrupted, a wide smile in his face, "then you can stay here, we'll throw you a welcome party, how does tomorrow sound?"
"Tomorrow sounds perfect" Morgana nodded, feeling unable to refuse.
"Great, I'll talk with the seamstress so they can sew you a dress fitting for the occasion, this is amazing. Oh, I almost forgot, Morgana, this is Lancelot" Arthur pointed at the knight, who took a bow in front of Morgana, a charming smile in his face.
"A pleasure to meet you," his voice was low and it had a thick foreigner accent.
"The pleasure is all mine" Morgana answered returning the gesture.
"Lancelot and I will leave so you two can catch up, and later you'll let me know everything about you" Arthur made a movement with his hand, and Lancelot walked to his side, Arthur laughed, patting Lancelot in the back. "Can you believe it Lancelot? Morgana, my sister is here!"
"That's great Arthur" Lancelot nodded, giving Morgana one last gaze, throwing a charming smile her way.
The moment the door closed behind Arthur, Lancelot and the knight that had followed behind them, a silence befell both of them. Morgana wasn't sure what to do, and she looked around the room. The Pendragon banner was hanging from different parts of the room, the exact same banner Uther had carried.
She boots against the stone floor. She turned to see Emrys was walking towards her. Morgana didn't hesitate in following him suit, until both of them met at the middle. They were barely a couple steps away from each other. His bright green eyes seemed slightly different, deeper but they were looking at her with the utmost curiosity, as if a part of him couldn't believe she was standing in front of him.
"Morgana..." he tried. He spoke as if he was whispering the most important of all secrets known to men. Morgana smiled.
"I'm glad to see you too Emrys" she smiled, putting a hand in his cheek, feeling the raspiness that came with it. She saw him sink into the contact his hands brushed hers and he took it away from his face and held it in between his own. Her heart skipped a beat and she inwardly cursed herself, now uncertain she had left all those feelings behind as she had originally thought.
"Where were you?" he questioned, Morgana looked at him up and down.
"That's a secret." She winked.
Emrys let go of her hand, he rolled his eyes, a smile making its way to his lips, "You're back"
"I am" Morgana nodded, trying to hold the smile in her face for as long as she could. She soon discovered; she didn't need to try too hard. "did you tell him..." she rose an eyebrow, her smile faltering for just a second. She watched him tilt his head in confusion before his mouth took the shape of an O
"No, I thought... well, maybe you'd want to tell him that yourself" Emrys shrugged, making a vague movement with the hand. Morgana let out a breath of relief.
"Is he like...?" She felt tempted to ask, her better judgement said he couldn't be. He seemed to be nice and kind, but she knew better than to just trust people would be kind just because they seemed so.
"I'd suggest it's better if you get to know him first, but no, at least not in a way that I could tell"
"Good." Morgana relaxed.
"Hey" she rose an eyebrow "I missed you" Morgana wrapped her arms around him holding him as tight as she could. She felt him awkwardly wrap his arms around her leaning into the hug. It felt right, it felt warm and nice in the way only a good hug could be.
"I missed you too" He whispered in her ear. She could hear the smile in his voice
-.-.-
"Why are we going to the backyard again?" Iman followed Valerie's footsteps as the girl held her lunch. Valerie looked ahead of her avoiding looking at Iman, who was looking at her with a curious eyebrow more likely wondering why she wanted to go outside after it had rained not so long ago.
"Because maybe we'll cross with Philip again, he seemed nice, and he could use the company," Valerie shrugged, avoiding Iman's eyes. Iman nodded.
"And I take this isn't you trying to avoid Audrey and Gabriel again," Iman questioned tilting slightly forward. Valerie turned to her, noticing her lifted eyebrow. She instantly returned to avoid Iman's eyes.
"No, why would you think that?" Valerie paused for a second in front of the door that led outside.
"Just a suspicion" Iman rolled her eyes a knowing smile in her face. Valerie blushed briefly, opening the door.
"Besides, Gabriel went to my house yesterday," Valerie added, trying to push the topic away from her reasons to avoid the cafeteria or any other place where Audrey and Gabriel could be, or lack thereof.
"He did? What happened?" Iman's raised her voice slightly. Valerie could understand her surprise, even Audrey had stopped to relentlessly try to contact her.
Valerie sighed, shrugging at the same time, feeling a strange weight on her chest "He didn't even walk through the front door," she admitted, noticing Iman's furrowed eyebrows "he did try to apologize" she added.
"Oh, you two came back." Philip's voice resonated, he looked at them with genuine surprise written in his features while he lowered his bow and arrow, putting it next to the chair where he was sitting only to pick up his crutches. Iman looked at Valerie up in a way that almost seemed to ask her to tell her the entire story later.
"We weren't supposed to?" Valerie turned to him raising a curious eyebrow, a half smile in her face "Do you need help?"
"No, I'm fine," he assured, leaning into his crutches to help him stand up from the chair. "I'm just done practicing" he tilted his head, using it to point towards the bow and set of arrows that now rested on the hard floor.
"Then we'll have lunch with you." Iman said, as they made their way to sit on the bleachers. Valerie began eating out of her bag of chips watching the other teens take out their lunches and begin to eat.
"It's a shame we didn't get to see you practice the other day" Iman took it upon herself to begin conversation, and Valerie felt deeply grateful by the fact she was there.
"Yeah, I agree," Valerie joined, looking at the aim at the other side of the field were three arrows rested, two as close to each other in the center as they could be, and the other was slightly more to the left. "You have great aim" Valerie complimented.
"I know." he mumbled and blushed, "but thank you"
Valerie smiled, opening her mouth to speak. She felt the ground tremble beneath her feet. Her heart sunk to her chest, while she jumped from the bleachers to stand up so she and Iman could help Philip to do the same. However, the shaking stopped nearly as suddenly as it had begun. Valerie hadn't seen an earthquake in her life, but it felt like it had come and gone too fast. She and Iman helped Philip get on his feet handing him his crutches. Valerie noticed that Philip's hands were trembling, but he held his crutches as tightly as he could.
"An earthquake?" Iman questioned, standing next to them, helping to make sure they were near enough in case of an aftershock. Iman tried to keep her face as straight as possible.
"Probably" Valerie mumbled, her eyebrows furrowed trying to take a deep breath to calm herself down, her heartbeat fast in her chest.
"Should we stay here?" Iman questioned. Valerie didn't move.
She stared at the ground in front of them, her eyebrows furrowing when she noticed the strange way that the floor moved and twisted. Valerie's heart skipped a beat. A figure emerged from the ground, wearing a silver armor. He wasn't as tall as the one made out of wood, but like Bors, he had a metal armor, and remained frozen and still for a brief second.
"No... You've got to be fucking kidding me" Valerie groaned, changing a quick look with Iman before she took off her bracelet so she could hold Excalibur in her hand.
"What is that?" Philip stammered. Valerie saw he pointed at the knight. She began to step forward, raising a hand as if it was enough to stop him and Iman from stepping close to the knight.
"Iman, Philip, stand back, both of you" She commanded, as loud and as firm as she could.
"Valerie, last time..." Iman tried.
"I don't care! I'll be fine! You two have to go, now" Valerie was quick to interrupt, holding her sword up as she walked towards the knight who seemed to have barely noticed their presence and had begun to walk towards them. The knight blocked the first attack that Valerie had tried to make work forcing her to take a step back. Valerie did her best to maintain her balance, dodging the sword that was coming her way.
-.-.-.-
"What the fuck is..." Philip tried; eyes opened wide as his eyes followed Valerie's movements, watching her barely avoid the sword that was coming her way and attack the knight with the sword that had come seemingly out of nowhere.
"Long explanation" Iman made a quick movement of the hand. It wasn't her secret to tell. Philip glared at her.
"I don't fucking care about an explanation, there's a fucking thing that appeared out of nowhere in the middle of the field and Valerie is out there with a sword that came out of fucking nowhere" He let out in a single breath, Iman sighed, giving him an empathetic smile, touching his arm.
"I know it's weird, but I need to get you out before I can help her" Iman glanced at Valerie, watching her fall to the ground and crawl her way out of a sword that was nailed right beside her, her and Philip's faces twisted noticing the girl's now bleeding knee. She began to wonder where Jonathan, Audrey or Gabriel were, she had assumed they all had to be together to make sure Valerie would survive, or at the very least that Jonathan had to be there.
"Fuck no, what am I supposed to do, fucking run for dear life." Philip leaned forward looking up and down. Iman returned her attention to him, her mouth turning into a thin line trying to figure out the easiest and fastest way for them to get out
"No... I,... for fuck's sake," she cursed, giving him a signal with her hand so he would follow her. He stopped midway, Iman stopped when he did, following his eyes until she noticed he kept glancing between her and his archery set.
"I can't leave my things here, do you have any idea of how expensive they are?" He questioned; Iman noticed the growing panic in Phillip's voice. They could come back for the bow and the arrow, and maybe Morgana and Merlin, or if they were lucky enough Jonathan could fix it, but they couldn't risk a life.
"It can wait." she tried, but he did not move "The bow or your life" Iman crossed her arms.
"That bow is my life," he said, walking towards it, Iman reached there faster than him and held it up, he gave her a thankful smile that Iman returned "Is this normal shit for you or..." He leaned his head towards the scene, Iman sighed, giving him a half empathetic smile
"Second time," she admitted, "for me" she added after a pause. Philip's eyes turned to her, and he began to follow her until they stood close to the doorway.
"Is it always you two?" Philip questioned. Iman shook her head.
"No... the other time were these other three, this guy, you've probably seen him, good looking, tall, apparently he's the goalie of the school's soccer team, well he uses magic and..." Iman explained, Philip's eyes opened wide and for a brief instant Iman stopped talking.
"There are people that can do bloody magic?" He questioned, in pure surprise, his voice rising.
-.-.-.-.-
Valerie could feel her heartbeat raising in her chest, as she tried to hit the knight with the sword. She directed a series of insults towards Merlin. 'stab him before he stabs you' that fucking idiot.
However, she was far more concerned about where the rest were. She was still mad at Audrey and Gabriel, but Jonathan was always there, he had to be fine. She hoped they were fine and that at any minute Jonathan would burst through the door. She didn't care about the lack of a shield, she could manage without that, but more about the dreadful feeling that had made its way to the pit of her stomach.
Her phone had been vibrating in the pocket of her skirt nearly since she began fighting the knight. It was a miracle it hadn't broken considering the amount of times she had dropped to the floor in order to avoid the sword. Valerie dodged one of the knight's attacks, raising her sword to try to get a new opportunity to end the knight. The phone in her pocket didn't stop vibrating, and even if the knight had managed to avoid her attack, she managed to scratch the armor.
She was holding Excalibur up, doing her best to block the knight's sword that was pushing over her when she saw an arrow go through the knight and land on the floor. The knight was barely phased by this, but it gave her enough time to push Excalibur through the knight's armor and she watched him vanish in the ground, she turned to see Iman with starry eyes and Philip lowering his bow.
He phone hadn't stopped vibrating. She took it out of her pocket and noticed the messages from her class' group chat, from Audrey and Gabriel. But the thing that stood out the most to her were the missed calls from Jon that shone at the top of her screen. Before she could check the messages, her phone began ringing again, the nickname she had placed for Jon shining at the top.
"Jonathan, yes," she mumbled quickly, holding the phone in between her ear and her shoulder, turning her sword into a bracelet and walking towards Iman and Philip. A part of the weight lifted of her chest just by hearing his voice. "I'm fine. I really am fine! There is what in your what?" Valerie's eyes opened wide, as she rose her voice. She noticed Iman and Philip's curious faces "Fuck! I'm getting there as soon as I can, can you please hold it back while I get there?... I know you've got it. Take care, please..." Her voice came out almost like a plea, but it quickly followed by a short laugh "I'll be fine" she hung up.
"I had it," she turned to Philip, Iman stifled a laugh holding Philip's bow and arrows.
"I don't care if you did, where did that thing came from?" His voice still had panic lingering in it. Valerie would also be delighted to know the answer to that question herself.
"I don't know" Valerie shook her arms "Now, you two come with me, I'll get you two to somewhere safe while I meet with Jonathan," she assured, pushing the door.
Her eyes opened wide when in front of her she encountered an unfamiliar classroom, there were writings in the board and schoolbags of different colors scattered on the seats. Valerie's steps stopped as she tried to look around. She tried to step inside as quietly as possible, touching everything she could get her hands into to make sure what she was seeing was real.
"No, fuck no, for fuck's sake" She complained, the door closing behind them.
"What's going on?" Iman questioned, looking around. Valerie cleaned the words in the board watching it stain her hands.
"I'd like to know as well" She mumbled, eyebrows furrowed, her heart beating quick in her chest.
She walked towards the door, moving past Philip and opened it. This time, the door opened in the hallway on the opposite side of the school of the cafeteria. The frown in her eyebrows deepened, as she tiptoed outside of the classroom, Philip and Iman following her closely.
She felt a tap in her shoulder, she turned to Iman, following her finger. Her eyes now focused on the moving shadows that turned into a knight in front of them. Valerie stared at the knight with wide, surprised eyes. Her hand trembled slightly while as she turned her bracelt back into a Excalibur.
A.N.
Hello! I really hope you like this chapter, if you do, please don't hesitate to leave a comment or a vote (or both) and let me know if there's anything you liked. Have a lovely day!