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[scinlae]

[ The feed switches on suddenly, image nothing more than blur of images and sounds, it is pure luck that it stills to focuses (haphazardly) on a woman ─ wild eyed and pale, gasping, with leaves still in her hair. She levels the tablet with a dissatisfied look, debating whether or not to toss the cursed thing or inspect it further.

The latter would be harder giving her present condition and any curiosity she may have been feeling has been burnt away by exhaustion and anger.

How dare they ─

The camera jerks suddenly and she lets out a pained cry, tablet falling out of her hand to skid across the ground far from her reach. Though, to be honest, the device is the least of her concerns right now. ]

Emrys. [ She grits her teeth, and pushes herself up from the ground. (off camera)

Too proud to ask for help, too stubborn and angry to realize she needs help. My, what will we do with you, young lady?

So enjoy the view of the top of some house and the sky, for that is all you shall be getting. At least until the feed shuts itself off. ]

Comments

( video )

[graciousness]

[ Gwen has always ever worked for Morgana.

A young girl when she started, she promised herself to work hard and not complain, to keep her lady satisfied so she could have money to buy food with at the market, bread to send with her father to work. So Gwen washed and scrubbed, dusted and cleaned and tidied, fussed about Morgana's gowns (don't let them linger in the water, she would warn the laundry maids, or else the color will fade). And over time, it became more than a job for Gwen. Morgana was her friend and Gwen knew how rare it was to have a noble treat their servants thus. To smile at them every morning and ask after their father and hold their hands and whisper secrets in their ear.

Morgana never quite treated Gwen as a servant, she called her a friend and Gwen loved her, fully and truly, she did. Loved her enough to push Morgana away to safety and take her identity so her lady could be free and loved her enough to mourn her after she was taken away.

Morgana was her duty not because of her work but because she had been Gwen's first friend, her most constant one.

Which is why her eyes go wide her heart clenchesclenches at the sight of her. She looks nothing like Morgana. Too pale, too wild; the pretty locks Gwen would brush every morning and every night tangled but worse than everything, she is hurt and if Gwen knew where she was she'd leave everything behind and rush to help her.

She is uncertain what Emrys is. All she knows is that she left Morgana at one state at home and recieved her in another here.

She is ungraceful with her tablet, Gwen, uncertain still of how to hold it and in her panic, uncaring. So the angle is a bit off, showing some of Gwen's face but mostly her dress. ]

Morgana -

[ and then her panic builds, she's hurt she shouldn't be moving. What if someone will find her like this and not know how to handle her in her anger? It was always Gwen's duty, her first one, to tsk her tongue at those who upset Morgana and comb her hair and sooth away her anger at Uther and his court and his knight and to wipe her tears and hold her after her nightmares until she slept again. It was her duty and this was no different, even if Morgana obviously was. ]

Stay still. Morgana, my lady, can you hear me? where are you - I'll -

[ I'll come and help you, but Gwen is as new here as Morgana and she's uncertain how she'd find her only that she must. ]

Stay still, my lady. You mustn't move.

( video )

[scinlae]

[ Morgana, my lady, can you hear me?

Her's is the last voice she expected to hear and the most damaging, they may as well have been sharpened into a sword all of their own with the way they make her flinch. She remembers swords, she remembers her hand fruitlessly holding back flood as her sword bites at Gwen's, she has to die she has too, if she does not ─ ]

Gwen? [ Disbelief, anger, she forces out her voice half dragging half crawling over to the tablet. Why is her voice coming from that thing? Why is she here?

Even with the off angle, her face mostly obscured, Morgana recognizes her instantly and fights the urge to fling the tablet away. The woman explained what the device is, she had explained everything but Morgana wasn't truly listening, she let her explain until she had no more to say and fled.

She settles for dropping it, the camera pointing straight up again showing the sky and half of her head. If she could shut it off she would, if she could blow it up she would, but Emrys saw to that. He left her weak and vulnerable.

My lady.

She wonders why she says that, wonders why she cares. Even Gwen cannot be so kind-hearted to ignore all of her transgressions against her (she deserved it no less than the others). Is it a slight? IS she toying with her? Does she think it is funny? Let's all laugh at the Lady Morgana, powerful High Priestess reduced to a wounded animal. ]

Stay still? [ Morgana laughs, the sound is as tired as she is. ] So you may call for your precious Arthur and he strike me down where I lay?

( video )

[graciousness]

What are you speaking of? Of course not.

[ There was something odd about Morgana since she returned. A bit more distant, colder. But Gwen reasoned that a year in captivity had taken a toll on her lady and didn't think twice of it.

Now she realizes that something is very wrong with Morgana. Her tone is resentful, cold, angry and Gwen wants to apologize, ask how she wronged her, why would she imply that Arthur would hurt her, he would never.

Your precious Arthur, she says and Gwen frowns, wonders how she knows. Her...feelings for Arthur had mostly remained a secret. She shared them with no one, not even Morgana, for if she'd speak of them, she would long for something she cannot have; Arthur's hand on her own and his warm touch and -

But somehow Morgana knows, so much is clear and Gwen is more confused than ever. ]

Please, Morgana. You - you're hurt, what happened? I only wish to get you to safety.

My lady - I promise, no one would hurt you, no one would do anything to you. We....I just want to help.

( video )

[scinlae]

[ Of course not, she says; no one would hurt you, no one would do anything to you, I just want to help, she says.

Morgana thinks to laugh but the sound never makes it past her lips, she scowls instead, anger and her own confusion taking precedence. If she did not know better she would think that Gwen actually does want to help her, that she is genuinely concerned for her well being ─ yet there is no way that is the case, it can't be not with the memory of kissing swords still fresh in her head.

Gwen is as much an enemy as Arthur, in fact Gwen as dangerous as Arthur. What she will do, her destiny, it is more dangerous than any blade.

And still she sits there, on the other end of an object Morgana barely understands, offering her aid. Whispering words reserved for those dark nights where she wakes in a cold sweat and screams in her throat.

( enemy, enemy, she is dangerous ) ]

Stop. [ She hisses, her head ducking out of the frame. ]

I am not a fool, you cannot trick me with empty promises of aid. [ It is a trick, it has to be, there is no way it can be true. ]

[ima_something]

[Susan the ever helpful couldn't leave someone like that, not when there could be something she could do about it.]

Where are you?

[scinlae]

[ The more voices that come from the device the more Morgana wants to set fire to it, alas she cannot, not right now. ]

On an island, in a street. [ Bitterness drips from her tone like a poison. ]

[ima_something]

[it gets a flat look that is clearly unimpressed. But not threatened.]

Well that's a start, anything more specific we can have?

video;

[sharpe]

It ain't a good idea ta go wand'ring 'bout, ma'am.

video;

[scinlae]

[ Perhaps it is a blessing the tablet slipped from her hand, as whoever this person is cannot see the twisted scowl her pale features have contorted into. ]

You are quiet late with that warning sir.

video;

[sharpe]

[ Probably a blessing, yes, but the poison in her voice makes him raise an eyebrow briefly. ]

Not so late if you can still speak, ma'am. [ A little wryly. ] Do you need an escort?

video

[healplz]

[ well this is a weird and mysterious post. but if there's one thing he took out of it... ]

Are you well? I am a priest — if you're hurt, I'm able to heal you.

video

[scinlae]

I have been healed. [ By a dragon, so white and pure, it captured her heart with that small act. ]

[healplz]

I... forgive me, then, you had seemed pained.

[video]

[futurarex]

[There is no room in him for anything save hate. No matter who she was--no matter that this once would have had him at her side--

Morgana is a traitor, and a witch, and she has been sewing seeds of her own hatred for some time now, plotting her conquest, plotting murder--regicide, but somehow murder is the worse part of it. Uther Pendragon cared for Morgana, Arthur knows that, and she answered his care with cruelty and sorcery and betrayal.

He is not surprised to see her here. Ever since his arrival, he has been looking for her, because of course she would remove him from Camelot, from the battle-- It's all right, Arthur. They're all fine, Merlin insists it, you defeated her, but it's one thing to be told and another to see.

Though this does look like defeat. And she is a prisoner here now (a prisoner too, they are both prisoners, though he hates the thought)--and so he must answer. He will not hide, he will not cower, no matter what she is.]

Morgana.

[His face, as cold as he can make it; his voice colder still. Only her name, but she will answer. His hand is tight on his sword, and not because of fear.]

[video]

[scinlae]

[ She can taste something vile in her mouth, the lingering taste of regrets coated in anger. (you're not as different from Uther as you'd like to think ─ nor are you) She curses the tablet, wishes she could break it into so many pieces it would turn to sand.

Her brother, her enemy. She knew he was here, she knew the moment she heard Gwen's voice. Merlin must be here too, the servant and king are never that far from one another. ]

Arthur.

[ She struggles to get to her feet, swaying and hissing as pain throbs through her legs and hands, yet she does it anyway. Because she must not look weak, she must look stronger than she feels, she will not let him see her as a wounded animal. She is more than that, she is the last High Priestess of the Old Religion. She is the woman who conquered Camelot twice.

Standing achieved she collects the tablet, the camera shaking with the movement until it focuses on her ─ or at least part of her face and her dress.

Strong, not weak, still as dangerous as the entire kingdom has come to know. ]

Hello, dear brother.

[video]

[futurarex]

[Quickly, he makes a study of her face--thinner, colder, crueler, like ice. Twisted, too, seething, and that makes her look less Morgana; that makes it easier to look upon her with equal coldness. What will happen, now that she is here?

He does not give himself time for speculation, or for idle thought, or for anything except answering the challenge her very presence levies.]

So even this kingdom must be cursed with you. [But better here than in Camelot. And with an air of threat, he adds:] You will find your work more difficult here.

[freewoman]

You might be needin' t'see a wise woman. [She's seen people that injured before. Funny what these little devices can catch though. Ygritte doesn't know what the woman speaks, but it matters little. Not in her condition.]

[scinlae]

[ She is calmer when she finally speaks, furious anger dying down to a sharp frustration. This one is not offering aid, regardless it irks her. ]

I'm fine. [ She grits out. ]

[freewoman]

Y' didn't look fine. [But Ygritte can't fault her for reaction. She would do the same.]

text; and i'll be dead before the day is doneeeeeeeeeee

[fe_male]

[ this text is clearly meant just for whenever you, you know, feel like coming back to your tablet. based on network activity surrounding this post, it's pretty obvious you've got some help coming, and in the meantime you look like you could use some distraction, or at least can sate his curiosity re: who you are, where you're from, what you did (as long as you love me) to get into that particular state, etc. He's generally bored, and you seen unboring. So. ]

this would probably have been a bit easier to work with than just growling around outside.

video;

[scinlae]

[ She does not see it for some time, it is only when she manages to collect her tablet that she does and honestly? She frowns at the message. ]

Excuse me?

video; sure, okay, video

[fe_male]

I didn't think it was possible for text-communication to stutter like that.

I'M SORRY THIS IS SO LATE finals are a biiitch | video of course!

[alwaysforhim]

I suppose it was only a matter of time before you came as well.

[He was surprised at first, yes, but that hardly lasted. Of course Morgana survived; of course she managed to find her way here. Merlin shouldn't be as surprised and alarmed as he is; nothing good can last, not even here.

Still, perhaps he can hope for the best. This place is easier on magical folk than their home is; perhaps she'll remember some of her old kindness here.]

IT'S ALRIGHT /snug | video

[scinlae]

Merlin. [ It's a bizarre sort of laugh that leaves her, equal parts bitter and cold as it is relieved and amused. Of course he is here, of course, Arthur is here so it is simply to concluded his servant is as well. The two are never that far apart. ]

Don't sound so happy to see me, someone might get the wrong impression. [ Not that she honestly cares, she is pleased to see him, as pleased as she is displeased. ]

video

[alwaysforhim]

I'd be happier if I knew you weren't going to try anything.

[He glances away at something-- and then back to her, his mouth tight.]

There's no kingdom to take over here, Morgana. No one to betray. So what are you going to do?