ᴛᴀᴋᴇ ᴛʜɪs sɪɴᴋɪɴɢ ʙᴏᴀᴛ ᴀɴᴅ ᴘᴏɪɴᴛ ɪᴛ ʜᴏᴍᴇ

[impetuous]

Morgana.

[ He doesn't think she will need anything else. ]

Comments

[impetuous]

[ There's no point in lying. ]

The bread wasn't all that good. Could have got a better show if you'd had cheese too.

[scinlae]

I would apologize but empty words cannot do anything to heal wounds.

[impetuous]

I'd rather not talk about it out here. [ Or anywhere. ] I'm still cold, you know. This is all Allen could give me.

...Well. All I could borrow without him knowing.

[scinlae]

[ She takes a hold of his wrist without really thinking. ]

I have a fire already stoked, come with me. [ She nods towards the castle, yeah she's actually staying in her own bloody room... for the moment anyway. ]

[impetuous]

[ He'd joke about preferring someone else's fire, but he has a feeling that won't go over well. Instead, he offers his arm gallantly. ]

Of course. Shall we, my lady?

[scinlae]

[ She takes it without hesitation, leading him into the castle, through the lobby and towards her room. The door she opens with magic and closes with it, letting go of his arm once inside.

It is only then that she realizes she has no idea where to go from here. She removes her cloak to brush the snow and mud from the edge, hanging it over on of the chairs.

Much has changed since he left and so has he. ]

[impetuous]

[ He mimics her actions, stepping up behind her to leave his cloak over hers. He touches her shoulder. ]

Come here.

[scinlae]

[ She shifts her weight, turning her face him. It feels as if all the relief and joy that had filled her chest drained away for uncertainty to twist her stomach uncomfortably. ]

[impetuous]

[ He pushes her chin up. ]

I'm still yours, you know. That's not changed.

[scinlae]

It hasn't? Even after... [ She trails off, he knows what he speaks of. He has experienced it now, that long week of fighting for meager scrapes so his friends don't starve. He heard Elyan's screams when she tortured him with the Nathair.

And still he is hers? ]

[impetuous]

[ There's still an ugly twisting each time he remembers. Elyan is his friend. He'd been tortured; they both had been humiliated. All for Morgana's pleasure.

But he's always been a selfish idiot and he cannot help but crave her company. The woman he met so many months ago was not the same he had seen gloating at him. If not for her insistence at bringing it up, it'd be too easy to picture them as wholly separate. ]

I promised you, didn't I? [ He opts for not answering her question. ] I'm a man of my word.

[scinlae]

[ She can't ignore it, no more than she can ignore her own selfish feelings for him. They may no longer be the same person (torn, fractured, two factions waring over who she is supposed to be) but those acts were committed by her hands.

Her hands find his chest, fingers curling around fabric. ]

I am sorry. [ The words will not change things, they will not fix the wounds she had inflicted but she says them anyway. Resting her forehead on his chest. ] I am sorry.

[impetuous]

I know.

[ only reason he has not stabbed her, lbr here. wait until someone drops the bomb later.

He rests his cheek on top of her head and breathes deeply. Uncomfortable, he tries for levity. ]

What a lovely picture we must make, hmm? I have to say, considering all the times this place has dropped me in your bed, I am sorely disappointed today it didn't.

[scinlae]

[ WHY WOULD YOU SAY THAT?

She attempts a laugh, but it is pathetic both in sound and strength. ]

Perhaps it forgot.

[ What matter is that he is here now. And he ─ ]

Gwaine. [ She lifts her head suddenly. ] You still, you still want us, do you not?

[impetuous]

[ He frowns. Is this a trick question? ]

I'd have thought it obvious.

[scinlae]

[ She nods, pleased by his answer. ]

While you were gone Arthur he ─ he lost his memories of Paradisa, permanently. [ Both a blessing and a curse, it leaves her the only one with almost five years worth of memories but it also means he no longer remembers what happened before Gwaine left. ]

What he did, what he said, none of it is valid anymore. You are still his knight.

We will have to tell him about us ourselves and soon.

[impetuous]

[ You must

be joking ]

How? What happened to Arthur?

[ ALLEN. WHAT DID YOU NOT TELL HIM. ]

[scinlae]

[ Look at her face? Does she appear like she is joking? ]

I don't know, one day he simply woke and no longer remembered any of it.

I had been staying with him at the time, I heard nothing that night, it simply happened.

[impetuous]

Where's he staying now? Do you know?

[scinlae]

I do, providing he has not moved again. [ Which would not surprise her, their relationship is on unsteady ground. ]

[impetuous]

I'll talk to him.

[ A pause and he clarifies: ] I'll talk to him first.

[scinlae]

[ She opens her mouth to protest before closing it again and nodding. ]

Very well.

[impetuous]

Let's sit. You can tell me what else I've missed.

[scinlae]

Little else. [ Nevertheless she takes his hand and leads him to the bed, to sit of course. ]

There are two Merlin's, one of our Camelot and one of another. The second is older, vastly different than the one we know. [ A beat. ] And Igraine, Arthur's mother though only in name, she has come from the second Merlin's world and Arthur has accepted her as his mother.

[impetuous]

[ 'We know?' ]

Who's Merlin?