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video ♛ sᴇᴇ ɪ ᴡᴀs ᴅᴇᴀᴅ ᴡʜᴇɴ ɪ ᴡᴏᴋᴇ ᴜᴘ ᴛʜɪs ᴍᴏʀɴɪɴɢ

[ 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. ]

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[ 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.

[ 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?

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.

[ 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. ]

When have I ever -

[ There is a shade of hurt mixed in all her confusion. She had never tricked Morgana. The Morgana she remembers would say she cannot trick her if she tried (something about the way she bites her nails after she lies). There is some anger in her, to be accused of doing something she never did, to trick Morgana to her death as if it is something Gwen would ever wish for.

But then she remembers being told, this is the future, and Morgana looks so different. And for one, fleeting second, Gwen wonders if -

But no. She would never wish for Morgana's death. She wouldn't. She would never. ]

Morgana - you are hurt and - you don't know this city. If anyone wanted to harm you, they would have done so by now.

[ and she says it with all the authority she could master. ]

You can't see yourself to safety, you can barely stand. Please, my lady. Let one of the others - there are many in this city. If you do not trust me.

[ and it hurts. it hurts to think Morgana doesn't trust her, that their friendship has somehow been so damaged. ]

Choose one of them and they can bring you to safety. You need not see us if you do not wish to but you must see someone.

[ It's a struggle, for Gwen. To let someone else take care of Morgana, especially since she doesn't know people around this city yet to determine who can be trusted. It's her job, always has been. But Morgana never denied her before. ]

But if I had wronged you - I have no memories of it - but if I had, I'm sorry.

[ even though, lord help her, she doesn't know what she's apologizing for. ]

[ Her head spins, whether from the blood she lost or Gwen's words she cannot tell. She clings to her anger like a child clings to a toy on a dark stormy night, she dismisses the gentleness and seemingly genuine caring in the other woman's voice ─ as thinking she is telling the truth hurts and confuses too much.

But if I had wronged you - I have no memories of it - but if I had, I'm sorry.

How could she have no memory of it? How could she? ]

Gwen ─ [ The words flee before she can could grab a hold of them, leaving her with a half began sentence and little clue to what she wanted to say. What she was going to say.

(enemy)

An empty apology, it has to be, words to appease her to disarm her. She cannot mean it, she simply cannot. Gwen turned on her along with the others, abandoned her to be at Arthur's side and in such cemented what she will do in the future. The future Morgana would rather die than see, the future that she is sure already came to pass. ]

Why are you acting like this, if not to trick me?

[ She calls her Gwen and it is an odd comfort. A little less livid than the first time, laced with something else that Gwen cannot put her finger on. Still, she calls her Gwen and it is comforting.

But there is a deep confusion that never rests. She watches how Morgana is greeted by the others and it only becomes worse. A distant storm that grows and is already at bay. She had left them all as friends, she is certain of it. She had left with Morgana back and the others rejoicing on having her back. They were four; four turned three and it felt so wrong and she had gotten Morgana back but now everything feels as broken as it did when they lost her.

There is far too much information in the angry words that are traded between Arthur, Merlin and Morgana and far too little logic. As if Gwen had started hearing a story only to walk for a room, only for a minute and return to a different tale altogether.

She could weep for this, for how little logic this is making. The anger and the hate behind Morgana's eyes. ]

What would you have me do? I don't understand, my Lady.

[ She tries to imagine herself tossing angry and bitter words at Morgana but doesn't manage it. It is all wrong, all of it. Gwen loves her, loves her as truly as a simple servant can love a mistress turned friend. ]

What happened? Morgana, I promise, whatever happened to make you resent me so I have no memories of it.

[ Throw it away, throw it away.

Her hands do not listen, she would push it away if she could, burn it, throw it, but her hands do not listen. They are too heavy with exhaustion, too heavy with anger (not regret, not guilt) that they do not listen.

Curse them, curse her hands, curse her arms. They are as traitorous as her eyes. ]

I would have you ─ [ Ah, she would have her act as she is supposed to. She would have her look upon her with hurt and betrayal, see her as a lost cause as they all do. Not like this, not with tears in her eyes, with hope and the yearning for the friend she has lost.

This is not right, none of it is right. ]

Everything. [ A poor explanation that she hisses through her teeth. ] You picked the wrong side. [ She had offered, she had she had and it was thrown in her face, just as she expected it to be. But the sting did not hurt any less. ]

There are no sides!

[ or at least, there weren't any sides when she had left. They were all friends as they were before; she can't have misjudged the situation, they were fine and whole and now they're broken. ]

How can you fault me for something I have no memories of?

[ she's reminded, suddenly, of the time Uther blamed her of being a sorceress and poisoning the city's waters, how Morgana defended her to the king in front of the whole court. She remembers Morgana's hands, her wrists red and angry after spending a night in the dungeons after defending her father. It can't all be gone, Gwen cannot and will not believe that. ]

I'm not on any side, I love you all, you must know this. You could not have forgotten.

[ She flinches, eyes wide as if Gwen reached through the device and slapped her in the face.

Gwen had always been there for her, even during the worst of times. She hasn't forgotten, part of her refused to even as she dug a hole so deep in her soul that she could not see the bottom. She had been there when she first suspect having magic, she supported her regardless of what it could mean for them both.

─ No. She is a danger, a threat, this is no more than a trick. She cannot let herself think otherwise. ]

Stop it, I will not listen to this anymore.

You would have me lie?

[ Gwen would do a lot for Morgana, quite a lot since she is a friend, but not this. This is where she puts her foot down if to judge by the scolding look on her features; not one she often directs at Morgana, of all people. ]

I would not lie to you, Morgana, even if you request or command it. You cannot truly expect me to, we both know you loathe being lied to.

[ Haha how sharp the truth sounds coming from her mouth. She does, she loathes is immensely, she always has and she always will ─ yet right now she would prefer the servant to be lying to her. She this all to be nothing more than a lie. ]

I said stop.

If you will not lie ─ [ They are all lies, they have to be. ] ─ then say nothing at all, I do not want to hear it.

[ The feed shakes as she attempts to turn off the camera, though in her desperate attempt she does little more than hit buttons she does not understand.

Only to hit the one she needs in one last frustrated attempt. ]

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video ♛ sᴇᴇ ɪ ᴡᴀs ᴅᴇᴀᴅ ᴡʜᴇɴ ɪ ᴡᴏᴋᴇ ᴜᴘ ᴛʜɪs ᴍᴏʀɴɪɴɢ

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