exsilium | 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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[Hers is not a face he'd thought he would hate--and yet he must; and yet his stomach wrenches when he sees the curl of her lip, and it must be hate that he feels. There is room for nothing else.]

Enough to know what evil you will work, given the chance--but you will see no such chance here. These people will not know your betrayal, or your sorcery, and Camelot will be safe from you. I swear it.

[Who knows what she will do? But she will be stopped. No matter the cost.]

[ Twisted amusement turns to anger quickly enough and her fingers tighten around the tablet. ]

You know nothing, and to think I once thought you a better man than Uther ─ [ The hatred in her voice as she spits his name is almost palpable. ] You're are just as blind and ignorant as he was.

Do not speak of him-- not when he was right about your kind all along. There is no ignorance in wariness--a wariness that he was right to have, given your betrayal.

You are at fault here. My father has nothing to do with what you turned to.

He has everything to do with it! [ Anger flares and it shows on her face, eyes widening and expression twisting. ]

How was it my fault I was born with magic?! How was it my fault that I was ignored and denied, that I suffered in silence and fear!? Uther had as much of a hand in making me who I am today as everything else, you are a fool if you think he is blameless.

[ Yes, she ignores that she did indeed prove Uther right. That everything he did validated the teachings he drilled into her and Arthur since they were children. It doesn't matter, she thinks, Uther was wrong and Uther was a tyrant. He deserved his fate. He deserved to die. ]

He raised you as his ward! [His tone is steel; there is no emotion to spare on her. And he does not think of what remains unsaid there, that they were raised together.] You were given everything, and if you chose to abandon that life for your sorcery, that is no fault of my father's! That was your choice alone, and you must suffer the consequences--both of your choice, and your betrayal.

It is you who made you what you are. You, and your sorcery.

And how quickly would he have ripped it all away if he knew!? [ For all the emotion he does no spare, hers can be heard in every syllable. Anger, hurt, distress, they come tumbling out like rocks down a hill, she could not stop them even if she tried. ] How quickly would have he built a pyre to have me burnt!? Or removed me of my head!? Everything he gave me was empty, everything he said was even more so.

I abandoned nothing, my sister showed me the truth, she pulled the wool from my eyes. She helped me where you failed to. [ She does not think, she does not remember that she pulled away from him, that she never told him. She was to scared too, she thought he would hate her. Funny because looking at him now, through this device she device she does not understand, it looks like he does. ]

[The truth of those last three words stings. You failed to--he did fail, though perhaps they do not mean the words in the same way. If she succumbed to sorcery, it is her own fault. But she could have been saved.

But he hardens his heart; he hardens his eyes. He will not be swayed. She might have been saved, but this does not change the truth of her betrayal--and now here they are, worlds away from Camelot, and his hand is very tight on the strange tablet, as if he might break it.]

You would not have been harmed if you had kept away from magic. You were not forced to turn to sorcery, but you did, and you chose evil. You abandoned Camelot. You betrayed everything-- [--everyone--] --and you have let your magic twist you into this.

You deserve no mercy, and you deserve no pity.

[ There was a time she would have run to him, there was a time long ago that she did when the nightmares were too much and she would run to his room hysterical.

I thought we were friends.

The words echo in her head and she flinches at the look in his eyes, only to return it with one of her own. She spent a year hardening her heart, one long year burning bridges and burying the girl under a mountain of ash. She cannot let him affect her now, when even the slightest of slips could spell her doom.

(Would he run her through? She wonders. Would he kill his own flesh and blood? The only family he has left in this world and their own.) ]

You do not know that! How do you keep from something that courses through your own veins!? You cannot, I would have been found out eventually, one day Uther would know his precious ward had magic, not only that she could dream of the future! [ She hisses out the word, or perhaps spits it out, it should not be hard for him to connect the dots. Or so she hopes. ] Magic has no place in Camelot and neither did I, it had abandoned me long before Morgause saved me.

Oh you ignorant fool, you understand nothing. Everything you believe is a lie twisted by a man who refused to take the blame for what he had done.

Camelot did not abandon you. You abandoned Camelot.

[I would sacrifice my place on the throne for her to see another sunrise. The memory of those words run through him, and he does not soften his gaze--especially not when she insults his father--but looks away instead. He cannot reconcile this Morgana with the one he knew so well, she is too different.

And he must answer, for the sake of his father. Even here, he must defend Uther Pendragon--especially from the likes of Morgana, she who plotted against him, who sought to take his throne, to kill him--and she cannot be trusted. Her magic has changed her, twisted her (it has to be so; she is lost to this new Morgana)--

But there is one second, one flicker in his expression--a lie, yes, and he knows what lie that is. He thinks of he shade of his mother--he thinks of his father, and his sword at his throat--and then it is gone, and he banishes the very thought.]

I tell you again, do not speak of my father. I understand what you have become. I understand that you have let yourself become undone by--

[What does she know of the future? Did she know, then, what she would become? She would kill you too, surely she would--but it is difficult still to reconcile that. Her betrayal feels fresher when he is face-to-face with her, even though they are separated by this device. How could she know of the future? But he rallies, and continues:]

--by magic. If this is the path that you chose, then so be it. But I will not abandon Camelot to you. And I will not let you spread your treachery here, Morgana.

[ Cracks begin to show, fiery anger and icy cruelty giving way to frustrations and exhaustion. Her condition is starting to catch up with her, stripping her bare for him to see.

He doesn't understand, how can he understand? He did not live in fear, he never entertained thoughts of how her caring guardian would kill her, he never had to deal with watching her dreams play out in front of her (he never dreamed of his own death night after night and then watch it almost happen).

You abandoned me! She wants to scream at him, she wants to obliterate him. He is just like Uther, so ignorant and foolish, he is his father's son. Stupid, stupid, stupid. ]

I am magic! [ She all but hisses, her grip on her tablet turning her knuckles paler than they already were. ] For all your apparent understanding you know little brother, nor will you ever understand! You will not stop me, you cannot stop me, I will tear Camelot down if I must. I will have what is mine and not even your precious Emrys will save you from the fires of my wrath.

[ Upset, angry, frustrated, and exhausted all at once she flings the tablet away from herself watching it hit the ground with a loud clutter.

Nothing they can do will stop her, nothing at all. ]

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