She paced on the room, her feet stomping on the floor making it look like if the dress was struggling to catch up with her pace. Morgause rolled her eyes, sighing, looking at the room around her, it wasn't as nice as the room she shared with her husband, but it was a significant improvement to the treatment they had to endure as children.

Her steps came to a halt and stopped in front of her sister "I just don't understand it Morgause" She finally gathered to say "How could you do something as wretched as that? He is your brother. Our younger brother"

Morgause let out a bitter laugh, her brown eyes glistening.

"Don't be like that Ana" She laughed "It was only a misstep; everyone has that every once in a while. I thought you would be understanding, aren't you filled with rage too? Don't you hate Uther?"

Morgana's mouth opened for a second, and then was closed again, words struggled to come out and she took a step back when Morgause raised from her chair.

"Uther is long gone Morgause, and any possibility of revenge died with him. Arthur has never done anything wrong, how could you do this, he just got married not too long ago"

"Oh, relax, he wasn't married when we did it, and as far as he is concerned, he spent the time with that lovely princess of his. Such a sweetheart, isn't she? So understanding. Don't you think so?"

Morgana turned her eyes to the ground and cleared her throat before her hands wondered to the side of her skirt pinching and letting go over and over again. Morgause smiled at this.

"Arthur has done no wrong" Morgause mocked "You know his very birth is why our father died, why our mother condemned her last days to an unhappy marriage and why you and me both were pulled apart and ended who knows where. I had a dream, this child will be the very reason of his downfall and I hope he is, I hope when Arthur dies, regrets he was even born." Moraguse condemned "And you will have to choose a side Morgana, and it scares me to think you already did"

"What if I did?" Morgana spat back, eyes shooting venom to the sister she thought she would feel nothing but happiness when she saw her "It doesn't change the fact that you did the very thing Uther did. You pretended to be someone else, you deceived someone and made them think you were someone precious to them to fulfill some heinous purpose. How does that make you any better than him?"

She felt a sting in her cheek, and Morgana lifted her hand to her face, feeling the warmth of the impact. Morgause was looking at her, her face stern and not a trace of regret in her eyes. Morgana knew that just like her if Morgause had wanted her she would be nothing but mere dust.

"If you compare me to that monster again I will make sure you are gone so fast that wizard friend of yours won't even know who you are" Morgana froze, swallowing hard.

"I hope you have a healthy child and that you don't get to regret what you've done" Morgana stood straight. Morgause felt a chill on her back, but turned away onn her sister, walking away from the bedroom.

There was something newfound about fencing that made it more relaxing now, maybe it was the fact that a swing of the sword didn't put her life in danger, or perhaps that during those few minutes she went against someone, she didn't have the reminder that there was some destiny to fulfill behind her; nevertheless, she found delight in the people she had known since she was a child.

"The fun is ruined, everyone. Valerie has arrived" Michael spat, removing his helmet his red hair looking closer to copper due to the light on the place.

"I'll tell you to go fuck yourself, but I'm afraid not even you have such low standards". Valerie rolled her eyes.

"Pendleton, put your helmet on and go against Bailey!" The coach lifted his eyes from the child he was teaching to the pair of teens. Valerie groaned, putting her helmet on grabbing a sabre and nearly dragging her feet until she was in front of Michael.

Michael was the same age as her, he had red hair kept in an undercut that Valerie mentioned made him look like a fuckboy the first day he arrived to fencing class with it. He was in the school a couple months before she was, and at first had decided he would be the one to teach her everything he knew, this soon ended after Valerie defeated him shortly after her arrival.

"Ready to lose?" Michael asked, thanks to the helmet it almost came muffled, but audible enough for Valerie to understand "Pardon me, I forgot you are acquitted on the topic already" Valerie rolled her eyes and mocked him.

"And yet, the score remains in my favor when I go against you, what does that say about you, Bailey?" She spat back before they got into combat position.

With one call from their coach, they began sparring, Valerie was the first one to launch forward, and even though Michael managed to avoid the first hit, she ended up getting the first point anyway. She heard Michael complain and she laughed.

"I thought you were going to defeat me today, Bailey." Valerie returning to her initial position.

"Two out of three, Pendleton?"

"For that to work you would actually have to score at least one in the first place, Michael" Valerie spat back while Michael adjusted himself, ready to fight back.

Their coach stopped to observe both of them, allowing the children he had previously been teaching how to properly hold the foil to take a small break. Valerie smiled with pride, she currently had the record of most wins in a row against him and a total score of 1695-1317 since they were children, Morgana at some point had been pretty sure it was a made up number, but she was surprised when Michael had said the exact same amount without a blink, face covered in disappointment, mouth twisted. Valerie beamed in pride every time, and Michael recoiled, especially when he was remembered Valerie had a current undefeated streak against him in the last couple years.

"Not fair!" Michael claimed removing his helmet ruffling his red hair in the process. Some of Valerie's classmates laughed at his complaint. "Make it three out of five! Next time I won't go easy on you Claudia"

Valerie passed by the fact that he had called her by her middle name.

"Whatever you say" Valerie rolled her eyes.

As soon as the sparring continued, she landed the third blow almost instantly.

"And yet, I remain undefeated" This time, she removed the helmet and turned, ready to ask Elizabeth, a girl of seventeen years, who was the coach's nice if she wanted to go against her. Elizabeth visited them from time to time now that she was getting prepared to go to university, she was very skillful and Valerie always admired her and enjoyed going against her, she was quick to correct Valerie's mistakes, less so now that they were far less frequent and had been the first to congratulate Valerie when she won for the first time.

Elizabeth had agreed to go against her without any fuss, and both of them began a pleasant conversation while they went against each other. The older one congratulated the teen on her improvement when Valerie got the first point.

Before Valerie fully realized it, instead of Elizabeth in front of her was a knight dressed fully in armor, launching at her with his sword ready to strike a deadly blow. Valerie yelped, moving to the side and covering herself to avoid the knight's sword, moving her feet underneath the knights allowing his weight to drop to the ground and swiftly moved her saber allowing it to make contact against the knight's chest.

"I didn't know you could do that" Elizabeth said visibly impressed. Valerie let out a breath of air suddenly feeling everyone's eyes on her. She extended her arm to Elizabeth, helping her to stand up, in the back of her mind, the words her coach had spoken barely a few days ago still resonated in her mind.

'Pendleton, one day you'll no longer hold yourself from everything you can do. I know you have potential, you have proven it to me over and over again. I hope, one day you'll no longer feel the pressure to not do your absolute best"

"Sorry" Valerie apologized giving Elizabeth an awkward smile "I don't know what happened to me" Elizabeth laughed, her smile nearly closed her brown eyes.

"Hey, it's fine" Elizabeth laughed rubbing the girl's shoulder. "You should probably teach me to do that. It was amazing! Have you been taking any self-defense classes?"

"Not really, no" Valerie blushed slightly and looked at the floor, Elizabeth shrugged.

"Ready to go again?"

Valerie nodded, getting in position to continue. Shaking her head to avoid any other intrusive thought

-.-.-.-.-.-.-

Valerie opened the door of her house slowly, since the incident with Merlin the day before the furniture had returned to its regular position and the teenage girl had been done her best to avoid him only crossing him in a very awkward diner in which both tried to keep appearances in front of Morgana who was eager to know about everyone's day.

Hay tanto que quiero contarte

Hay tanto que quiero saber de ti

Ya podemos empezar poco a poco

The sound of the music greeting her and the smell of lasagna made it strikingly obvious to Valerie that her aunt was home, and probably in a good mood. She approached the kitchen where she found the woman leaning over the oven taking a lasagna out of it while she wore a pair of kitchen gloves and her hair was tied back, Merlin was by her side, his shirt stained of tomato sauce and his eyebrows furrowed. He told something to Morgana, and she laughed in response before saying something back to him. Valerie couldn't listen to anything in the kind of exchange she was already used to happening between the two, but the tenderness in Merlin's eyes when he looked at Morgana when she turned to leave the dinner over the counter didn't go amiss for the teenager.

"Valerie, how long have you been there?" Aunt Morgana questioned, pure curiosity in her voice while Merlin cleaned his throat avoiding the girl's eyes.

"I just got here" Valerie said simple, Morgana nodded.

"Well, go and take a shower before you come down to dinner. Merlin is going to put the plates"

Valerie nodded, rushing upstairs, the water was warm and she put her pajamas as soon as she was out of the shower since she had no interest in leaving her house in what remained of the day, she looked at herself in the mirror for a second before leaving her bedroom and nearly dragging her feet downstairs.

She took her usual seat at the table, right in front of her aunt in the table was made for six chairs. Now Valerie was sitting in front of Morgana and Merlin was between them, taking the seat at the head of the table.

"Anything interesting happened today Valerie?" Morgana questioned right after she and Merlin served and sat at the table.

"I won against Michael, again" Valerie commented, out of the corner of her eye she saw Merlin frowning as he looked at the plate in front of him poking it with the fork. Having seen the man trying to adjust at the passing of time was more amusing than what Valerie wanted to admit especially now, she and Morgana had to explain him as lousily as either of them understood how the pipelines worked and why there was no need for him to wake up and go to the lake for water to survive the day. They also had to clarify to him that spending a long amount of time without taking a bath was no longer acceptable and had turned into something frowned upon.

"Who is Michael?" Merlin's voice raised and Valerie saw him lift his eyes from the lasagna on his plate. Valerie's jaw clenched as she took a deep breath.

"A guy in my fencing class" She said with a sharp tone "He thinks he is better than me because he wins competitions and that sort of stuff"

"He wins competitions, but Valerie always defeats him when they go one on one. The score has consistently kept on her side in recent years" Morgana felt the need to explain, taking a bite from her own lasagna. Merlin simply nodded in silence; eyes furrowed.

While the rest of the meal passed in relative silence, with Morgana talking about her occurrences in the day and how she had to fight tooth and nail to sell a collector a painting on its proper price instead of giving in when he tried to bargain. Valerie couldn't help but notice the occasional glances Merlin and Morgana stole from each other, she didn't comment on it, but while she was happy that her aunt had someone she could relate to, she also thought her aunt deserved better. Probably there were fairy men somewhere in the world.

"Why don't you help me with the dishes, Valerie?" Morgana's voice resonated. Valerie nodded, standing next to her aunt with a cloth in hand to dry the dishes and put them in their cabinet.

They've always done that, and Merlin's arrival to the house shouldn't mark any difference on that. He had other chores to help in not to mention adjust to do things the normal way to not alert those who looked through the window about a broom moving by itself.

"Your birthday will be in little more than a month, are you sure you don't want to do anything about it?" Morgana questioned, beginning the conversation and handing Valerie the first clean plate the teen meditated her answer while she dried the plate.

"Not really, nothing special" Valerie shrugged standing on her tiptoes to reach where the plate was supposed to go.

When she was a child the idea of a quinceañera had seemed exciting for a while, she loved the idea of walking into a room wearing a gigantic dress after she saw the album with the pictures of her mother doing the exact same thing. Not to mention, getting multiple gifts, money amongst them was a far too tempting idea for any child. She would even tell Jonathan he would be the boy to accompany her and she would talk about it with her mother mentioning colors, and desserts and how she would want a rock band and her friends there, she had even made a mental list of all of her friends she wanted to go with her. Without her mother around, the idea didn't feel a fraction as glamorous and wonderful as she had dreamed of and had restored those ideas far away.

"When I was a child, it was normal for young ladies of royal birth to have these big parties where they were introduced to society. If I'm honest with you, all of us knew it was an excuse to parade us in front of any possible high-born suitor but no one could take the fun and the dances" Morgana smiled softly "I never had my own, neither did my sister as far as I know"

"Do you wish you had one?" Valerie questioned watching her aunt continue cleaning the plate she had stopped when she talked about her life.

"I had something similar, Arthur threw a party in my honor once, it wasn't the same, it still was a lot of fun nonetheless. And there was also the party my grandmother made in my honor and my father's memory when I first got to the country of fairies"

"Do you miss your father?" Valerie hesitated to ask, Morgana stopped for a second, eyes scanning the empty wall in front of her as the water ran down.

"Sometimes" Morgana admitted "I've had longer than anyone to heal I suppose. I was a child, I recall he was a great king and an even better father, he would sit me in his lap why he would settle matters between the people. My mother was also a wise woman, she was excellent at 'playing dumb while mentally figuring out a way to defeat you' sadly it wasn't a kind time for women, even less for smart ones"

"And your sister, what was she like?"

Morgana sighed "Morgause was... something to behold. She had our parents' brain, but not always the best of intentions. She had so much anger in her, and since she was a child she was sent into an unfavorable situation, which only made it worse. Merlin, she and I used to play together but I lost contact with her for many years, when I saw her again, she was changed. She was very beautiful, and confident"

"What did you guys play?"

"I made Merlin and Morgause pretend they were knights, wizards or royalty, and we also played hide and seek. Merlin seemed to love that game in particular. I think they just were being kind to me, but we had a lot of fun together, at least I know I did, moments like those were some of the highlights of my childhood"

Valerie smiled in silence, putting the last plate on its place. The dishwasher was clean, and Morgana relied against it drying her hands with a piece of clothing, her hair tied in a high ponytail.

"Did I ever tell about the time your father shut your grandparents down?"

Valerie turned to her, eyes wide open. "No..."

"I didn't? That's strange, it's one of my favorite things your father has done"

"I believe I need more details" Valerie murmured, Morgana threw her head back, laughing.

"Well, your grandmother and grandfather weren't eager to know your mother, since they weren't exactly the best of people and thought your father had to marry a woman born on England of British parents, not your mother, a proud immigrant who would ramble in Spanish when too excited or too angry. Your father found this logic stupid, and of course, so did I, especially when your mother was a delight. I listened to your father complain about this and come to the resolution he would continue dating your mom, but not tell his parents. I told him I was there if he needed anything, of course, and waited to see how this would unfold. I already knew he loved her, true love is often hard to hide and he made it amusingly obvious.

A while later, I was having an afternoon tea with your grandparents when your father showed up, looking all proud.

'Due to comically foreseen circumstances I have decided I want to and I will marry Isabel, I did not come here to ask for your blessing, nor your authorization, and based on the disgustingly impolite behavior you exhibited in her presence you might as well push your opinions on the matter so far up your asshole it ends up in your mouth, which is apparently what it usually happens anyways.

Your grandmother nearly choked in her tea. Me too, if I'm being honest, but because I couldn't stop laughing. Your father was a kind man most of the time, relatively calm and not quite what you would expect of someone who draws on children's books for a living. Hearing something like that come out of his mouth was golden.

'But William, there are so many lovely English ladies out there, why would you want to marry some woman who probably only wants you to make her a citizen and makes you talk to me like that?'

I still recall the complete seriousness in your father's face when he answered without a beat, no hesitation, with the face of a true king.

'Mother, I couldn't give less than a single fuck. I love that woman with all my heart, if she told me let's go to live in Mexico I would jump on the next plane with her. I know bloody shit about Spanish, but it would be a thousand times better than hearing you talking shit about her. At least, that way I wouldn't know if I'm the one getting shit-talked. She heard everything you said about her, and it made me realize it's not worth it. I will marry her, I knew it from the moment I heard explain to me the way the neurons connect between each other. I do not need your approval for that, and unless you begin treating my future wife with the basic respect of a human being, then you have no son'

He just left.

At that time, I didn't live with them anymore, but the next day he called me all excited talking about this plan he had to propose to your mother. I assured him he had my entire support on everything. A week later he called me excited saying he would marry her and he needed help. Your mother invited as many relative from Mexico as she could and insisted that out of courtesy, they should invite your grandparents, of course they didn't go. No one expected them to."

"That's... wild" Valerie spoke after a few seconds of silence.

"You take a bit after him" Morgana smiled, sighing afterwards "I might owe you an apology. I should have been honest with you about what could happen, or at the very least tell you what I really was. I love you, out of all the girls I have known you remain my favorite one lohikonnie."

"There's nothing to forgive. No more secrers from now on, aunt?" Valerie questioned; Morgana smiled.

"No more secrets" She assured, and Valerie felt closer to her aunt.

"Speaking of no more secrets, I never told you what happened at the school the other day"

"Oh?" Morgana raised an eyebrow, amused smile on her face.

"There was a knight..." Morgana's eyes opened wide as Valerie began her tale, looking at her up and down.

A.N.

Hello! It's been a while! How have you been? This story recently reached 100 reads and I wanted to thank all of those who take the time to stop and read this story! What did you think about this chapter? Did you like it? If you did, please consider taking the time to leave a small vote and comment I would really apreciate it, thank you and have a wonderful day!