The Man in The Cave

Chapter 32

Morgana stood next to a wall with bows and arrows hanging above her; her eyebrows narrowed deep in thought, her mind somehow still trying to process how everything had happened the last few days. From Guinevere's infidelity and Lancelot's betrayal coming to light to Mordred taking over Camelot with the help of Agravaine and a few other knights, some from Camelot, others from Lothien. Morgana had sent a letter to Lot to check if he and Morgause were aware of what their knights were up to, but she had yet to get a response and no way of knowing if she would ever get one.

Emrys was passing back and forth, and she could notice how his mind was pulling the same turns as hers was. They had enchanted the room for as long as their conversation lasted, him from the outside to make the door disappear and her from the inside to prevent the sound of their voices from being heard by anyone but them. The magic would be strong enough to repel Mordred's.

"We should have tried harder to convince him not to go," Morgana finally spoke, Emrys stopped and stepped towards her nodding, solemn. Just a couple of days before Mordred's take over, Arthur had gotten news about Lancelot's whereabouts and decided to go to talk to him about the situation.

"We know how hotheaded he is, but I didn't think..."

"That Mordred would try to take the opportunity as a chance to take over." Morgana finished, giving a deeper thought to her initial plan, "Remind me again why we can't take the kingdom back in Arthur's name on our own?"

"For starters, none of us is a Pendragon nor officially a knight, you are a duchess and I'm 'The Merlin'" Emrys spoke, "But most importantly because we don't have an army, quite a large group of knights left with Arthur and others joined Mordred's cause, the remaining ones are either protecting Aethel or Guinevere or the people in the town, I doubt they'll stop what they're doing to help two people with powers to take over the kingdom despite it being in self-defense, and even leaving those two scenarios out, Lot's knights only came in a small amount, us attacking Mordred and Agravaine in Arthur's name would give your sister the perfect reason to attack Camelot under the guise of rescuing her poor innocent boy from our clutches, which in a larger scale would only lead to a far bigger issue; just to name a few, I'd like to add that, if it wasn't for the overwhelming list of reasons I'd be delighted to send that kid back to his mother as a rat"

Morgana sighed in defeat, perhaps it was the first time Emrys' skill to see the worst out of any given situation served as some sort of advantage. A small smile escaped her lips. She dwelled on the details of the back-up plan she had envisioned. If she couldn't get Mordred out, at the very least she had to find a way to protect the people inside.

"We already managed to safely hide most of the people that live in the castle, you have to take Aethel out," Morgana began, Emrys furrowed his eyebrows, "I'll take Guinevere and we'll meet in the stables in a couple of minutes, alright?"

"Why are you taking Guinevere?"

Morgana understood his confusion, at least partly, "Mordred has spies, and it's easier to believe that I'll want to take Aethel out than that I'll want to be anywhere close to Guinevere, which I don't, but it's better than having the possibility of Mordred getting the chance to execute her, if I didn't get the chance, neither will that kid." she half-joked, a small smile escaped Emrys's lips as he took a step away from the wall.

"Very well, I'll see you in the stables, be safe," he nodded, putting a hand in her arm, there was a plea in his eyes.

"You act as if you didn't know me." Morgana rolled her eyes.

Morgana's eyes glowed as she reappeared in the roof above Guinevere's room. She felt bad for the servants who had to take the stairs all the way up to the tower where Guinevere was being held just to bring her food three times a day.