Morgan Pendragon + Gabriel's... not so Triumphant Return

MERLIN POV:

I opened my eyes to find myself in my room within the Royal Lavin Palace. I got up and dressed thoroughly before stepping outside. As I opened the door, a maid was standing outside of my room.

She flinched for a second before saying, "King Arthur wanted to see you, urgently. His sister with her husband, Lord Urien, is here as well."

Feeling her unease, I gave her a calming smile and said, "Thank you for letting me know. I'll see King Arthur right away."

"Thank you for your understanding," she said with a bow before leaving.

Once she was out of view, I let out an audible sigh. I was worried. I had only just adjusted to the royal palace, yet I'm already going to meet people in the royal family.

"Hey, it could be worse. You could be the guy that you killed in the finals." A voice spoke right next to me.

I turned to my left to see my pet raven, Gabriel, flying next to me. I turned towards him and said, "I'm going, to be honest, I don't think he would be able to even handle the responsibilities."

"It's also not like I left that battle without injuries," I told Gabriel as I put my hand on my neck, which bore a scar.

Gabriel huffed and said, "You know you won that fair and square. Sir Issac's father was just too emotional for his own good."

"He saw his own son, murdered, in front of his eyes. It makes sense to be emotional," I told Gabriel as we walked toward King Arthur's office.

Remembering the way Sir Issac's father reacted after watching his son die made me feel pity for him. Regardless, what's done is now. Can't reverse events now.

I pushed the thoughts out of my head and thought of something else, Arthur's sister.

I told Gabriel, "Not going to lie, Gabriel, but I didn't know Arthur had a sister."

Before Gabriel could get a word out, a voice from behind me coldly told me, "That's King Arthur, to you, Merlin."

I turned back to see the Captain of the Royal Guard, Ilaya, standing behind me with contempt written on her face.

I looked at her and asked her, "If you're here, then it must be something big King Arthur needs from us," while emphasizing the word King.

She scowled at me and sped up past me. Before entering King Arthur's office, she turned to me and said coldly, "If you don't want to take your responsibilities seriously, then that's fine. But don't you dare take King Arthur's title of King lightly."

She walked into Arthur's office, leaving me and Gabriel looking at each other with confusion.

Gabriel was the first between us to speak, asking me, "What the hell is her problem?"

"I don't know, but I for sure know that she definitely woke up on the wrong side of the bed," I stroked my chin while saying, "The question is, what caused it?"

Gabriel gave me what appeared to be a shrug and said, "Let's hurry. We don't want to make King Arthur wait."

"True," I said while making my way toward the door and opening it to see King Arthur sitting in his chair. Ilaya was next to King Arthur, while two people were sitting in chairs in front of his desk.

King Arthur looked at me with eyes that felt like sharp daggers, more particularly, at my clothes. I looked at my outfit to see that I had put on the shirt backward. What made it worse was that it was a buttoned shirt.

Which meant that my mistake couldn't even go unnoticed. The woman and man sitting in front of King Arthur noticed immediately while Ilaya looked at me disapprovingly. King Arthur kept his gaze on me for a few seconds before sighing.

"Come in... Merlin." He said with noticeable disdain in his voice.

I followed his instructions and took the same position as Ilaya, but on the other side of King Arthur. I looked at him closely and realized that the years had not been kind to him.

On King Arthur's black hair, pieces of small white hair were noticeable if paid attention to.

He cleared his throat and said, "Merlin and Ilaya, I called you here today to let you spread the word that a celebration is being held in the royal palace."

Ilaya just nodded, but I was surprised. I asked him, "Your majesty, if I may ask, for what occasion is the royal family having a celebration in the royal palace?"

"My sister has recently gotten married to Lord Urizen. I'd like to announce it to the public so suitors trying to wed her would stop pestering me," King Arthur answered my question with irritation in his voice, showing me he was annoyed at my pestering.

Gabriel suddenly spoke out in the midst of the discussion, complimenting King Arthur, "Smart man."

King Arthur looked surprised at Gabriel for a split second before giving himself an unreadable expression once more. Ilaya's look of shock lingered for a few seconds, as she hadn't known Gabriel could talk. Now that I think about it, Ilaya's look of shock was probably more toward Gabriel intruding on the conversation recklessly.

Well, they have a perfect reason to be surprised. It's not normal for spirits to talk. Spirits are creatures that are summoned through alchemy. Everyone in my family that has served the Pendragon family for generations went through this.

My father increased the amount of training once he saw the spirit I summoned wasn't anything grand like my predecessors. His judgment was wrong.

Gabriel has been of use to me in more ways than my father could have ever accounted for. He may not have been a strong spirit, but he was a spirit that provided me companionship, something more valuable than what my own father meant to me.

Few people know about his ability to talk, so seeing the surprised looks on Ilaya and King Arthur made sense.

Lord Urizen looked at Gabriel with contempt while Arthur's sister was shocked. She asked me, "Amazing. How can he talk?"

"It's best not to get involved with such pity tricks, my love," Lord Urizen responded to his wife with annoyance.

I ignored Lord Urizen and answered his wife's question. "When I summoned him, he could already speak very little of our language. I just needed to teach him our language."

Lord Urizen's wife looked excited and said, "Wow...how amazing. Someday, I wish to be able to use at least half the way you do...er-…what's your name?"

I found the way she blushed as she fumbled over her words cute. I answered her question with "Merlin."

"Merlin, I'm getting hungry. King Arthur told us what we need to do, so let's go grab some grub," Gabriel said to me so loudly that everyone could hear.

I slapped him on the back of his head and said, "I fed you last night."

He cawed and flew onto the edge of King Arthur's desk that faced me. King Arthur looked at Gabriel with his interest peaked while his sister looked amazed.

"Merlin, I will not believe your lies. As far as I'm concerned, it is time for me to feast." He said to me, with utmost confidence.

Though it wasn't visible, I could sense contempt from Lord Urizen towards Gabriel. As I was about to say something about it, King Arthur said, "Merlin and Ilaya show Morgan the royal garden. I have issues to discuss with Lord Urizen here."

Ilaya and I nodded and gestured for Morgan to follow us as we left the room. Gabriel flew off the desk and followed us just a few feet above us. I could only make out a few words of what King Arthur was talking about to Lord Urizen before the door closed.

"What are you planning to do about the via-" which made me ask Ilaya, "Is something happening?"

She shook her head and said, "Possibly. I couldn't tell you. King Arthur leaves me in the dark when it's issues like this. I would have left you without an answer, even if I did know."

"If I may ask Merlin if you were able to teach Gabriel to learn our language, is it possible you could teach other spirits to do the same as well?" Ilaya asked me with curiosity.

I responded with, "Gabriel is a special case because he's a more highly intelligent spirit. Intellect, that's on par with a human."

Ilaya looked at me with confusion and asked, "So you're saying... it's possible he could end up becoming smarter than a human?"

I nodded at her question, which left Ilaya to think in silence about my confirmation.

The walk was...peaceful, to say the least. After answering Ilaya's question, she became quiet. It seemed this also affected Morgan since she hadn't said a word at all.

It made me wonder, is it that I answered yes to such a big deal?

I just don't understand them. If they saw it as a threat, well, I don't really know how they could see that as a threat. They're overthinking it, I thought. The silence was held for a few more seconds as we walked until Ilaya stopped.

"I have to go attend things within the barracks. I trust you can escort Princess Morgan to the Royal Garden?" Ilaya asked me as she walked away from us.

"Yes," I answered and gestured for Morgan to continue following. We made our way into the Royal garden, and it flabbergasted her.

Flowers such as Roses, lilies, and dandelions were neatly organized. What made it beautiful wasn't those flowers, but the cherry blossom trees all around the garden. The cherry blossom trees gave off an effect that would make you think this area is a part of a foreign land.

Even though I've seen them many times, I couldn't help but feel amazed by their extraordinary presence.

"So, how did you manage that?" She asked me.

I looked at her and asked, "What are you talking about?"

She pointed at my backward buttoned shirt and said, "That."

My cheeks began to redden out of embarrassment. I looked away from her to calm myself down and answered in a low tone, "Stress."

"Ah, that makes sense," she said with a chuckle and then told me, "From the stories our mother told me and Arthur, our father's knight underwent so much stress under him that his hair became gray at only thirty."

Ah, yes. That's reassuring, I thought to myself as I imagined what I'd look like with gray hair.

"It's probably why Arthur isn't overworking you as much. It'd look bad for him if the public saw you with luxurious red hair in your first year and gray hair in your fourth." She said while chuckling at the thought.

I chuckled and then became quiet. Captivated by the beauty of the garden that surrounded us. Morgan did the same and broke the silence only a few seconds later.

"Even though I've been here before, I can't help but be dumbstruck. It's truly beautiful, don't you think, Merlin?" Morgan asked me while giving me a smile.

A smile that felt filled with happiness, with a disregard for everything of wicked intent around it. Her smile gave me warmth, something I hadn't felt since my mother's death.

As I was about to say something, King Arthur's words from earlier went through my mind, "My sister had recently gotten married-"

Morgan looked at me in thought and asked me, "Merlin, are you fine?"

"Yeah... I'm fine," I responded to her.

As I looked at her, for a brief moment, I saw a minor wound that seemed recent at the back of her neck. A wound that her hair had covered. I wanted to ask her about it, but I didn't. Though it was wrong to assume, a thought crept into my mind, a thought that spelled out one word; Abuse.

***

GRIM POV:

The memory of meeting Morgan for the first time came flooding back to me. Along with a face that I hadn't seen since I left Lavin in my past life, Gabriel.

After seeing me calm down, the man hit his cane on the floor again. This time, it made a sound on contact and I could speak and move again.

"Morgan Le Fay, the woman you cherished despite her being wedlock, if I may ask, why?" The man asked me with a curious look.

I bitterly answered, "Nothing that happened between me and her is any of your concern."

The man chuckled at me and said, "If you answer my question, I'll let you know who got brought into this world with you."

The answer that I had planned to find out was going to be given to me right here. Why? For what reason does knowing my reason for cherishing Morgan important to him?

Regardless, I didn't even know if he was lying or not. He may know about me, but I know absolutely nothing about him.

"How do I know you're telling the truth?" I asked him, hoping for evidence to back up his claims.

While my hopes sounded desperate, I really wanted them to be true. No, it needed to be true. Being crippled cut the number of opportunities I had in this world. If I'm going to make a difference, I need to use everything to my advantage.

The man sighed and put his hand into his pocket. He searched for something until he found what he was looking for. He pulled out a small wooden box and opened it. Inside was a body of a bird; a bird that seemed to be drained of life.

It took me a few seconds to realize that it was Gabriel!

I wanted to ask the man so many things. How did he get Gabriel? Where did he get him from? How did he bring Gabriel here?

Yet, I didn't; I observed the man to see what he would do.

He walked towards me and then placed the box in my hands.

It confused me until he said, "There's my proof, that's your summon Gabriel, no?"

I nodded and then answered his earlier question. "I loved Morgan because she made me feel warm and special. Lord Urizen didn't deserve her, and Morgan knew it too. That's why we dec-"

I stopped speaking, and memories that I didn't want to revisit started to sneak their way into my head.

I didn't need to continue on as the man seemingly got the gist.

He said, "I see, so she wanted it as much as you, aye?"

I rolled my eyes at his question before asking one myself that was long overdue, "For what reason are you doing this? How does this benefit you?"

"I like how you get straight to the point," he smiled before telling me. "I've come to you on behalf of the gods themselves."