#opp: morgana pendragon

[uniasus]

Morgana curls her hand, a fireball forming above her palm. "My death was clean, sword through the heart. I kinda expected that. From you though, brother. Not Merlin. He's always been a little more sneaky."

"What are you talking about?" Arthur pushes his hair off his forehead. Here under the lake, it won't stay still.

He's actually very impressed, and worried, Morgana can summon fire underwater.

"Oh, he tried to kill me many times before he succeeded."

Arthur pursues his lips. He knows, knows, Merlin hid a lot. He has questions, so many. But the only way to get answers is to leave the lake. Drag himself out of Avalon step by step. "Out of the way, Morgana. There's no reason for us to fight."

She cuts him a glare. "You were told the journey would have challenges?"

He tightens his grip on his sword.

"You have to fight every person he sent down here."

"What?"

"I'm just the first, the one whose death was closest to yours. But for every person Emrys killed, you will have to defeat them. And you can tell yourself as many times as you want, Arthur, that our deaths were necessary to protect the kingdom, but that's false. He wasn't Camelot's guardian, he was *yours*".

Morgana steps aside and behind her, briefly, he sees a line of people. It's at least a hundred.

Arthur pales.

"Just like Merlin killed all of us to keep you, you have to defeat all of us to return. He certainly thought you were worth it. Is the feeling mutual?"

After Arthur dies, he has to face all the people Merlin has killed in the afterlife.

Only when he's defeated them all, will he return.

[lockwords]

It was lucky perhaps that Morgause had left Morgana behind after undoing the curse, and even luckier that Gaius recovered fast enough to get her the antidote on time. Every time he thought about how he had managed to poison her, he shuddered. It had been an impossible situation and he had been left with no choice, but now that it was over the curse didn’t seem as perilous as it had been. But his actions seemed unforgivable. When had he become this? When had killing become an option for him? He knew something was changing in Morgana, she wasn’t the same person she used to be. Fear was changing her, making her irrational -- but that was not an excuse enough for him wanting her dead. Despite knowing that he had done what had to be done to save Camelot, he didn't know if he would have ever forgiven himself had Morgana really died. It was a few days since she had woken up, and Merlin had systematically avoided her as best as he could. Even when Gaius asked him to deliver her medicines, he sent it to her through Gwen instead of going into her chambers himself. It was one of those visits did he find himself waiting before her door, but there was no sign of Gwen nearby, and he began to pace up and down the corridor for her to show up because there was no way he was going in there himself. @tashaonebyone​