Chapter Text
Morgana looks up from the contemplation of her bracelet when she hears a door open and footsteps follow.
Her sister comes into view. She takes off her cloak and puts a satchel on the table she had been studying (previously, before she lost herself into the contemplation of the bracelet she mentioned). Morgause opens her satchel and shows off a book as ancient looking at the ones already lying in wait for Morgana to read.
'I brought this for you,' she says, handing it to her.
Morgana musters a faint smile in thanks and takes the book from her sister. The cover reads Love spells and potions.
Morgana holds back a sigh.
It is not that she is ungrateful for all that Morgause is doing for her; teaching her everything she was taught by the High Priestesses, guiding her through the lectures of her magic books as well as through the history of their kind, and going on journeys to retrieve more books on magic. Morgana is actually grateful for everything Morgause does for her.
It's only that... To Morgana, it feels like magic is all that Morgause will allow them to share.
Morgause is Morgana's sister. She is Gorlois Le Fay and Vivienne du Lac's daughter. They come from the same family, have the same ancestry. They have the same blood running through their veins and share the same magic. They are family.
Yet, in the four months Morgana has spent in her sister's company, it seems like everything they have done is share a roof and talk about magic.
At first, she had thought things had been going well. Morgause has brought her home after Merlin (that traitorous, lying, back-stabber mongrel) dared poison her, brought her back to health and took care of her. And once Morgana had understood why they could not have been close to each other before, she has thought they could have the relationship they were always meant to have (would have had if Uther had not banished magic and taken their father from them).
She is certain that things had been going well.
Then Morgause had gone away for a few days only to come back changed. She started keeping her distance from her, putting a wall between them as thick as those of her castle. She treated her not like a long lost sibling but like a student. She disappeared more and more, sometimes on the pretence of visiting Cenred, sometimes not even bothering with an excuse for leaving her behind.
All the while, Morgana waits and worries.
(What if the reason for Morgause's change is because she sees not Gorlois and Vivienne's daughter, her own sister in her, but Uther Pendragon's ward?)
'I'm afraid I won't be able to stay here for long,' her sister says, cutting in her thoughts. 'Something came up. I must leave again and I don't know when I'll return.'
You never do, she can't help but think unkind.
Morgana raises her head from the book she had been mindlessly staring at. Now that she is looking, she notices Morgause had placed something else on the table. An innocuous box. Morgana does not even realize she has moved toward it until the box lies opened in front of her.
'The Eye of the Pheonix,' she hears her sister say next to her.
Morgana startles, caught by surprised.
Morgause glances at her, something like genuine amusement in her eyes. Morgana feels warmed hearted by the sight.
While it lasts, at least.
Too quickly, Morgause goes back to being an impregnable fortress and loses any trace of fondness for her.
She looks at the bracelet.
Morgana holds back another sigh.
Morgause carefully pulls the bracelet from the box. She tilts it right, left, right again, letting the amber stone gets hit by sunrays, before she tilts it Morgana's way.
'What does it do?'
'It sips the life force of its wearer.'
'Where did you get it?,' she breathes, awed.
(Half in awe, half in discomfort.
That second feeling is not something she will address.
If her sister decides that obtaining this magical artifact is a good thing, then Morgana knows her to be right.)
(Morgause is her blood, she reminds herself. She is everything that is left of her family. She is everything that she has. She will do everything to keep her.)
'Cenred had an inventory made of his vaults. One of his sorcerers found it. He gifted it to me.'
(Right. Another thing Morgana won't address, yet. The relationship her sister entertains with the king of Essetir.)
Morgana nods. 'Are you going to bring it with you... Wherever it is you're going now?'
Morgause shakes her head. She puts the bracelet back in its box. 'No, I have no need for it.'
'I think you should bring it with you,' she declares, more forcefully and very much against her will.
Morgause faces her fully and stares at her. She seems to search for something Morgana wishes she could give her.
Slowly, ever so slowly, Morgause nods. 'I will.'
She leaves before Morgana can add anything else. To prepare for another quest Morgana knows nothing about and probably never will.
But she took her words into consideration and even agreed to take the bracelet with her. It must mean something, right?
Small steps, she thinks to herself.
(One day, she promises, Morgause will see her for what she truly is. Not Uther Pendragon's anything. But Morgana Le Fay. Her sister and a magic user in her own right.)