To say Morgana was scared was like implying to a child that Fire might hurt.
Morgana was terrified. Horrified even, for the lack of a better word.
Merlin was attacking her. Blatantly – with magic. Right in front of Arthur and the knights.
Sure, yeah. Just a small while ago they had confessed their magic to Arthur. But that idiot thought it was a joke!

He needed a court sorcerer because he feared a rebellion.
Arthur was still scared of magic. And Merlin's behavior was NOT helping.

"Surrender, Morgana. Or we will kill you.", Arthur demanded, slowly coming to his senses. Why did he look more frightened of her than Merlin?

"Yes. Of course. Please – I surrender!", she cried, eyes wide with fear.
"Don't listen to her, Arthur. She is playing with your mind. Use the sword from the stone. That is the only blade that can kill a high priestess of the old religion.", Merlin demanded, surprisingly uncertain when he faced his king.

"High priestess? I'm not a priestess, I am Arthur's sister. Uther's ward! This – you were making me court sorceress only an hour ago! I went into the cave and-"

"Shut up with your lies, Morgana. Arthur made me his court sorcerer, because the people wouldn't accept anyone else. Especially not you!", Merlin interrupted her, eyes fierce, but he waited for Arthur's command.
Arthur, on the other hand looked torn between them.

"Merlin, why are you doing this? We're friends! You helped me get Mordred to the druids, you helped me understand my magic. You -"
"I poisoned you.", Merlin's eyes flickered with shame and guilt, causing Arthur to point his sword between them.

"Seize them, already!", he demanded, causing the knights to approach carefully.

Morgana shivered as she looked at Merlin.
"Why would you say that?", she asked with a deep exhaling breath. "You would never do something like that. I KNOW you, Merlin. You're a good person. You wouldn't. Never -"

At that, Merlin's hand sank a little. Confusion mirrored in his eyes as well as Morgana's.
"You mean – you don't remember?", Merlin asked exasperated.
"That can't be – why -"

At that he already felt cold chains closed on his hands. Merlin looked up in surprise, but a glance at Arthur already told him all he needed to know.
With Morgana like this – Arthur's blatant ignorance and confusion – of course he must believe he was an impostor. An enemy.

Morgana didn't move as ropes were tightened around her hands. Her eyes were wide with fear, her lips were trembling.
"Where is Mordred? He will vouch for me, I'm certain!", she demanded, eyes switching between faces erratically.
Merlin flinched at the implication as he almost charged at her again.
"You will not ally yourself with Mordred! I sent him off! He won't – I won't let him kill Arthur!", he roared, causing the witnesses to gasp.

"Merlin, what the hell are you saying! Mordred is a knight of Camelot! He swore his allegiance to me! He would never turn against me.", Arthur said, still unsure whom to point his sword at.
He didn't know what it was – but something told him that Morgana was not playing this.
Morgana was hungry with power. She was full of revenge fantasies. And her chances to play the innocent maiden were long gone.
Had she lost her memory? But why was she in the cave?

"Actually, we are not so sure about that."
It was Morgana who spoke to him, a pleading look in her eyes. Merlin stared at her in confusion.
"Mordred is destined to kill you. We are doing everything we can to stop him from doing that. But destiny is a fickle thing. We don't know how it will happen, we just know that it will.
But I didn't turn an evil witch just yet so -"
Then her eyes widened. She blinked a few times.

"Unless you think I did?" Her head turned around to find familiar faces.
Someone who would confirm or deny her theory.

"We will talk of this when we are back in Camelot.", Arthur finally decided, motioning for his men to escort Merlin and Morgana.
Neither of which fought against their ropes. Despite them being obviously powerful enough to escape.

With that, they left the confused audiences. The celebrations stuck in their throat. Arthur as well knew that the sudden appearance of Morgana would cause a panic.
Though it would be difficult to explain why he had chained Merlin as well.

"I don't understand. Did something happen, while I was in that cave? Did an impostor appear?
The evil witch? Merlin, you need to tell me?"

Merlin scoffed at her.
"Your soul has turned years ago, Morgana. I'm not going to listen to your lies."

"Why, because you poisoned me?", Morgana asked incredulous. Still disbelieve in her eyes. Merlin? Poisoning her? No way. But Merlin flinched at that.
Clearly he believed it to be true.

"If you truly believe that I'm evil. Why am I alive then? The prophecy states that you will be my doom. Is this it? What are you waiting for?"

Merlin turned at her curiosity. "You feel – different.", he admitted cautiously. Morgana shot him a small smile. "That means you won't kill me just yet?", she asked, eyes flashing with relief.
"If Arthur doesn't kill us first?", Merlin said, but it didn't sound like a confirmation.
Morgana's smile died on her features.

"He won't. If you talk to him. He listens to you. He always does. You are his best friend after all.", she assured. Causing Merlin to look at her, still in suspicion.

Arthur was watching them. And he recognized that look on Merlin's face.
It was the same he shot Mordred most of the time. One that said that he wanted to trust him or Morgana in this case. But he couldn't.

Arthur himself however, he was panicking. And the worst was, he just showed that to the people. He had promised them to make "Emrys" court sorcerer, but as soon as he had used magic to attack Morgana, Arthur had seized him.
He didn't recognize him. This couldn't be Merlin? Or was it? Because apparently he had tried to protect him. Which was just such a Merlin thing to do.
And Morgana? Morgana looked like the girl he knew. She sounded like the girl he knew, but she couldn't be. She should be evil, but somehow she didn't seem the part.

Morgana was scared. Morgana was not supposed to be scared for gods sake!

All this seemed so wrong. There must be some kind of explanation! Just what happened in that cave? What even WAS this cave?

"Sire.", a voice jolted Arthur from his watch post.
Leon was riding next to him, face held high with a stern expression. "I don't think this is the Morgana we know.", he said, barely looking at Arthur as he looked ahead.

Arthur gritted his teeth. "I think she's trying to trick us."

Leon shook his head. "No. I don't think so. The trick would be too obvious. Morgana isn't stupid. I think it must have to do with the cave."

Arthur nodded with relief. "Right, they were both in the cave after all." He kept nodding, as if to reassure himself, but Leon just sighed.
"No. The cave wouldn't have the same effect on Merlin. This is our Merlin."
With that cryptic answer he rode ahead. Baffled, Arthur kicked his horse to catch up with him.

"What are you talking about? This – this Merlin has magic! There is no way he -"

Leon turned his scarred face to Arthur. And for the split of a second he considered if this was Leon at all. Just this morning he had considered asking Leon about his newly appeared old scar. Who was this man?

"Gwaine's game is far more than a game, Sire. He IS connecting the dots.
But Gwaine is also setting the dots in the first place. What he says and does becomes real. Though I'm not sure what rules his prophecies follow, because there are some things that haven't come true or were proven wrong.", Leon carefully started, honesty in his eyes, as Arthur's face crunched at the bare mention of Gwaine.

When leon noticed his reaction he sighed.
"Sire, I have seen a lot in the past thousand years and -"
"Hold on a minute. What the actual hell are you talking about?"

Leon bridged his nose in annoyance. "Your majesty, Gwaine is the son of the triple goddess. What he says is bound to destiny. It's not that things happen and he guesses them right, it's that he makes stuff up and they become real, instead. No matter if past, or present.
Gwaine made up Emrys. He made up Merlin. Merlin is magic itself and when Gwaine told us about the rules of the Crystal cave, that only Emrys can enter and leave in the correct time, he was speaking the truth.
I became immortal because of his shenanigans. I lived through the age of dragons without aging. I spend centuries with a riddling Dragon for gods sake.", Leon sighed, watching Arthur's pupils becoming small, despite the darkness that surrounded them.

"I believe the Morgana that came of the cage might be the Morgana of another timeline.
One were she never became the evil witch we knew. But that could also mean that our Morgana is on the other side now."

Arthur's mouth dropped. Questions were flooding his mind like water an underwater cave.
"Wait a second. Hold on. You are meaning to tell me – this Morgana is good. You are immortal and the overpowered blasting sorcerer there is the Merlin we all know?"

Leon smiled a little at him. "Glad you're catching on, my lord."

"But – should I be worried about Merlin?"

Leon laughed. "No. I don't think that's necessary."
"What about Morgana?"
"Offer her a room. I believe her to be harmless. If I'm right, we should be save from her wrath for now."
"Should I worry about you."
Leon turned his head at Arthur, an unreadable expression painted on his face.
"About Gwaine then?"
"Ah. That.", Leon tilted his head in consideration. "I believe him to be more dangerous when he's drunk. The more drunk he is – the more "canon" as he calls it, his ideas become.
I would advice against telling him that though.
I fear that panic might fuel his powers. Either that of the self confidence of being considered a god." Leon rolled his eyes.

"Either way, I think all of Camelot need to catch their breath right now. You need to resolve the panic around your chained court sorcerer first. Don't worry. I'm sure your biggest problems will be solved with a couple signatures and lots of council meetings."

Leon sounded cheerful about that, as he patted Arthur's shoulder with a surprisingly strong hand.

"Leon, why didn't you tell me sooner?"

"Would you have believed me?"

"I'm still not sure I do now."

"See!"

_______________________________

"Can I come in?"

It was awkward. For Morgana at least. She hadn't slept in an actual bed in ages.
She hadn't felt so at ease either. She actually managed to fall asleep. Okay, not right away, but can you blame her?
She was paranoid. Servants were rushing in and out, bringing her food and drinks she didn't dare touch.
She even projected a magic shield around her room, so she would immediately be alerted when someone entered. At least the bracelet wasn't restricting her magic. Quite the contrary actually. It felt like it was ordering it. Managing it to more efficient use.

"Arthur.", warily, Morgana said up. How long had she been asleep?
Arthur sheepishly put his head through the door. He wore a smile, but looked equally wary as Morgana. Though, apparently for a different reason than her.

Arthur was fiddling with his chain mail. He had no weapon, Morgana noticed. But she could feel a presence outside. Merlin was behind him, waving at her in a friendly manner.
Friendly, Morgana was almost amused.

"So – I talked with Merlin last night. And he told me everything. About – about the destinies and your magic and where it comes from and -
God Morgana I am so sorry for not believing you yesterday. I know you were trying to tell me about your magic and I was stupid enough not to believe you."
Arthur threw his hand up in his hair, swaying slightly, as though he had drunken a lot yesterday. At the feast.
The one Morgana refused to attend. Too many people. Too many witnesses.
These people trusted her. Taking this kingdom would prove to be easy, should she act wisely. Accordingly.

The knights would bow to her, as soon as Arthur was dead. However, nobody was allowed to know who had his head. Unless of course – if this was a trick.
If it was – it was a particularly good concealed one, she must admit.

"I understand, Arthur. Of course. I mean – Uther was very convincing after all."

Arthur nodded with a soft smile. "He was blinded by his hatred. I'm glad we can leave all of this past us now.
I've seen how you use magic. There is no evil in that."

Morgana twitched. "You are more like Uther than you think.", is what queen Annis of Caerlon had said to her. Right after her best warrior and Arthur had fought for a truce between the kingdoms.
Right after she had ditched Morgana's allegiance.

This was the first time since the druids who Merlin had advised to her all those years ago- right before Arthur's men had slaughtered them all, anyone had ever said that to her.

For a moment Morgana felt her heart release itself from the strong grip she held on it.
Arthur didn't say something foolish like she could be good. Nothing like, why did you betray me? Not anything close to: I can help you change.
He said she was good. That was an absolute. It asked no questions.
Because Arthur admitted he was wrong.

This was all she ever wanted. It pained. It hurt to hear this now. Now that she had tossed away her hopes. She hardened her heart once more.
She couldn't allow Arthur to reach her like that.

Especially not when Merlin had nothing better to do than grimace at her. The old her would have laughed at them.
Her current self wanted to kill him this instant. But she didn't know what Merlin was planning. What Arthur was planning.

How long until the Pyre was build?
How much time until they would try to behead her? Not that they could do that anyway. No mortal blade could kill her.
But maybe that was just it. Maybe they had aligned with a dragon and forged the ax in it's breath?
Morgana crossed her arms in defense.

"Well. That's all I wanted to say really. By the way, Balinor is waiting to see you.
He'll help you. It's your first day as court sorceress after all.", he smiled at her, waving at her as he tried to leave the room.

Morgana looked at them in suspicion. "Who's Balinor?", she asked carefully. Not sure whether or not it was a good idea to mention that she had no idea who that was.

"Well, wouldn't you believe? It's the last dragon lord. The one who helped us bann the dragon all those years ago. I'm sorry we never told you about him.
Father forbid to mention him. He's Merlin's father. It seemed he used to be Uther's advisor years ago. In times like this – I asked him to take over once more."

Morgana's eyes glanced at Merlin who looked at her excitedly. He talked to her through his mind.
"Sorry I didn't tell you about him. I wasn't sure I'd ever see him again, after Uther had banned him. He said he never wanted to return.
But he did now! You'll love him!"

Morgana's lips pressed into a thin line.
Somehow she had this feeling that there were a few more people she should be wary of than she had thought before.
Her to-murder-list seemed to be growing by the second. She needed to be careful. So she nodded slowly.

"No need to be nervous. I've told my father about you. He's excited to meet you too.", Merlin said, a wide grin still directed at her.
Morgana was still stiff with caution, but she managed to smile back. This was gonna be harder than she initially thought.