Chapter Text
AN: So, a friend of mine challenged me. This, I assume, is her version of 'supporting' my return to the world of Fanfiction, lol. She wanted: Poisoned Merlin; Time Travel; OverProtective/Upset Arthur; Ruthless Uther; Merlin's other Secrets. I decided I could make that fit with this series, lol. So…. Here goes… I think I hit them all and still managed to maintain some kind of a plot? Plus, as always, Slash!
MERLIN101010101010101MERLIN
ONE YEAR AGO
Morgana paced, glancing at the package sitting on the table in her hovel. It had been delivered to her by one of her Uncle's men. She had, at first, thought it a missive from Agravaine, though it was unlike him not to come himself.
But there had been something about the man, about the way he shifted his weight back and forth, the way his expression kept flickering between terror and resignation.
"Who is it from?" she asked.
"Your brother sends a message, mi'lady, and this package, with his compliments. It is his hope that once you open it, you will understand who your true enemy is."
She almost regretted killing him. Almost.
Finally, she opened the layers of burlap and waxed cloth, and hissed, drawing back instinctively. Inside were two ears, four fingers, and one whole hand. On the hand, Agravaine's signet ring still sat, painted in blood. It wasn't the grotesque contents that had made her withdraw instinctively. It was the understanding that came with it.
She hadn't thought her brother capable of- but then she had to admit the truth. She knew the boy she had grown up with. Knew what he was capable of to protect those he held dear. The lengths he would go to for those he dared to brave the word 'love' in association with. After all, he had once done much for her.
Soft hearted and trusting. That had been the boy. And then the servant had come. Had begun to shape the man Arthur would become. Something had changed him after the Questing Beast nearly took his life. He'd returned to the world of waking wiser, and while always hopeful, inherently less trusting, less tolerant of what he viewed as the failure of others to uphold his sense of justice.
Though her own betrayal had hurt him, he had never been surprised by it. If anything, he seemed to accept it as a personal, but inevitable, failure on his part. She hadn't realized he still held hope for her until this package. Simple words delivered, but the significance and meaning were clear to her.
If he had been able to send this to her, he knew how to find her. He had deliberately chosen not. Chosen to hold onto hope. His gift to her, as her brother, as her last link to the woman she had once been. Before her soul had blackened with hate and fear.
The remains of their Uncle was another clear message. The uneasy truce was over. Emrys was no longer the enemy she needed to fear. In her attempt at revenge against the servant that had foiled her plans time and again, she had stirred within Arthur the realization of all he was truly capable of. Made known to him exactly where his priorities were. Sometimes justice required a hardened heart in order to protect what kept it human.
She'd made a terrible mistake in underestimating her brother.