Merlyn's Only Hope

To Kill the King P3

Morgana was consumed by hatred, every fibre of her being driven by her mission: to kill the king. She knew that, as always at this time of night, Uther would be dining alone in his throne room, surrounded by empty chairs, haunted by the lost ghosts of his dearest friends. Part of her felt a certain sorrow for the mad king: it must've been hard to be so alone.

Morgana opened the door herself, thanking the kind guard stationed outside the hall. The king looked up from his plate, opening his mouth, revealing the gristle stuck between his teeth as he greeted Morgana.

"I did not expect to see you here. You wish to say something." he said frostily, biting into some rich meat as he watched her approach the table.

"I came to apologise, my lord." She lied through her teeth, doing her best to make her expression match her tone. In reality, she was outraged, spitting the words out as if they were poison. Luckily, Uther, caught up in his own self-righteousness, didn't seemed to register her disgust.

"Good."

She stepped forward again, trying to seem sincere despite his lack of empathy. "I didn't mean to rile you. I thought only of Gwen." she averted her eyes, as if ashamed. "The poor girl's all alone in the world."

"It was not my intention to hurt your maid." Uther took another sip of his wine, barely pretending to sound sincere.

"But now she suffers and I know how she must feel. I know what it's like to lose a father." Morgana wiped an imaginary tear from her cheek, knowing that the subject would play on the king's guilt.

"That was a terrible day. Your father was a great friend." Uther murmured. "I had no part in his death."

The ward wasn't sure if he was trying to convince her, or himself. "You sent him into battle and promised him reinforcements but gave him none. You sent him to his death."

Uther's eyes widened. "It was never my intention-"

"But it happened!" Morgana interrupted, her voice laced with anger. "And it keeps on happening."

"Morgana..." The king's guilt was all over his face.

"My lord." she curtseyed insincerely before rushing off, leaving a rather confused king in her wake.

∆

Merlyn had been battling her thoughts all morning, conflicted, stuck between what she should do and what she would. She sat on a bench in Gaius' chambers, twisting a sharpened dagger between her hands. Of course she'd killed people before, but that had always been a split second decision, without a thought. There was nothing in her long history of death surrounding premeditated murder, let alone that of a monarch.

"Do you think Uther's a good king?" she asked Gaius, who looked up from whatever potion was currently boiling. His concern was hardly a surprise: such questions certainly didn't come out of nowhere.

"Sorry?" he furrowed of his eyebrows, obviously thinking, or hoping, that he'd misheard.

Merlyn cleared her throat. "Do you think that Uther is good for the kingdom?"

Gaius returned his gaze to his concoction, taking it off the heat, the green liquid bubbling lazily in the blackened pot.

"Yes. Yes I do." he paused again. "In the light of recent events, you may find that hard to believe."

"Hard? No. Impossible? Definitely." She almost cracked a smile, but her expression turned sour as she pondered her predicament.

"Merlyn-" the physician started, but she cut him off.