A/N: The previous chapter, which is now the prologue, got re-posted a while ago, make sure you saw it. I had to adjust a few things after re-watching the episode in question. At least I finally got my muse back on this story!

A few hours after Morgana left Gaius's chambers, Merlin was awoken from his uneasy sleep by an insistent call. "Merlin." It was the voice of the dragon, just like the first night he had stayed in the castle. "Merlin!" Sighing, he got out of bed and got dressed, sneaking past Gaius and down to the cave where the great dragon was kept.

"What?" he asked irritably when he got there. He had finally gotten to sleep, and was actually having a good dream for once, and was rather cross with the dragon for taking him from it.

"You are meddling with things that ought not to be meddled with, young warlock," the dragon told him. "All of Albion is at stake, and your course of action will lead to its destruction."

"I don't know what you're talking about," Merlin responded, stalling for time. He knew this had something to do with Morgana, he just didn't know what. The dragon had echoed Gaius, when Gaius had warned him to "stay out of it," in regards to Morgana's fears and suspicions. And Merlin hadn't stayed out of it. But he wasn't about to regret it.

"I have lived for over a thousand years. I have seen civilizations rise and fall. Do not believe you can lie to me, Merlin."

"Fine. Gaius told me not to mess with something, and I did anyway. I helped a friend who was in need, what's so wrong about that?"

The great dragon narrowed its eyes, "You speak of the witch, the Lady Morgana."

"Hey, don't call her that!" Although he knew she had magic, "witch" had always been used to describe evil users of magic, in the same category of word as hag and seductress. Morgana was too good for that.

"She cannot be trusted, Merlin."

"She has a good heart. I trust her."

"It would be better if the witch never knew the full extent of her powers."

"And why not?" Merlin asked hotly. The dragon was beginning to make him angry. "Since you obviously already know, yes, I told her it was magic. So what? She would have figured it out on her own anyway, she already had! And if she didn't get the confirmation from me then she might have gone to some extraordinary lengths only to be told the same thing, putting herself in danger in the process." He didn't mention yet the part where he revealed his own secret to Morgana; if the dragon didn't know about that yet he wasn't about to tell him. "What's so bad about Morgana learning about her powers? You know something, something you're not telling me. And Gaius knows it too."

"She is destined to be Arthur's downfall. The witch will be your undoing, and if she triumphs, Albion will never come to pass."

A shiver went down Merlin's spine at the thought, before he roughly rejected it. Morgana was a good person; she would never use magic for ill purpose. "You're wrong," he told the dragon. "Morgana wouldn't turn to evil. Your prophesy is wrong."

"Nevertheless, it is so. Morgana is destined for great evil. You have failed to heed my advice in the past, Merlin, and it brought grave consequences. If you continue in this course of action you put Arthur's life, and all of Albion, in peril."

"I will not abandon her to walk this path alone. You would have her be kept in the dark, alone and afraid, isolated from all who would help her see the good in magic. If anything were to turn someone to the dark, that would. Next time you try to judge someone on actions they haven't yet committed, maybe you should think whether your prescribed course of action is likely to cause the very actions you fear." With that, Merlin walked away from the great dragon, up the stairs and all the way back to his own bed.

Not until he had thrown off his boots again and climbed under his blanket did his anger ebb enough for him to feel a stab of fear. What would it mean if the dragon were right, if Morgana did turn against him, against Arthur? She knew his secret now, she could turn him in, and no one would believe his word against hers. If Morgana ever did turn dark, this would give her a much easier path to defeat him. Merlin shook his head. He had to trust in something, and if he couldn't trust his heart, what could he trust?

Merlin was absentmindedly scrubbing Arthur's chain mail the next morning when Arthur and Sir Leon came in. They began talking about all the people they were going to arrest on suspicion of committing the act of magic, or of consorting with those who did. Merlin's eyebrows furrowed, and he continued his work, scrubbing harder as he tried to drown them out. He almost didn't hear when Arthur began addressing him.

"Huh?" he said. "I didn't quite hear you."

"I said," Arthur replied a bit impatiently, "that I thought you did that yesterday."

"Oh, this. I didn't have time, I was cleaning the stables."

"That's strange. Because a little bird told me you were somewhere else."

"Mucking out the stables is strange and a talking bird isn't?" Merlin quipped, trying to not sound dour.

"Merlin, what have we said about you trying to be funny?"

"I shouldn't."

Arthur smiled condescendingly as if to congratulate him on getting the right answer, then said, "So where are my flowers?"

He had to think for a second. "Your flowers?"

"I heard Morgana got some." Now Merlin remembered. After talking to Morgana the night before and his conversation with the dragon, he had completely forgotten anything that had happened previously. Arthur went on. "I assumed you'd be putting them in all the rooms. Or is she the only one receiving a token of your affections?" So he wasn't trying to be subtle, he was just trying to embarrass Merlin.

"No, or well, yes, but –"

Arthur raised his eyebrows.

"It's not a token of anything, affection or otherwise," he attempted to explain.

"I see. So why were you trying to hide them from me yesterday?"

"You see, I wasn't trying to hide them from you, well I was I suppose, I just didn't want you to get the wrong impression."

"And what's the right impression?"

"That I was trying to cheer her up after the fire."

"Pick them yourself?"

Merlin had, in fact. "Maybe," he hedged.

Arthur continued to stare at him.

"I was only trying to be nice," he said, a little aggravated.

"Sword," Arthur prompted him.

Merlin handed it to him, suddenly reminded of what it might be used for later that day, and was heading out the door even before Arthur dismissed him.

He was heading for the stables (since he had not, in fact, cleaned them the day prior) when Morgana called out to him in the corridor. He turned, and she beckoned for him to follow her. She led him to an out-of-the-way niche, where he joined her.

"What is it?" he asked in a low tone.

"Merlin, we have to do something. Uther's men are rounding up all the people they suspect of using magic as we speak, and all because of me! Those people didn't do anything wrong. Even if they are sorcerers, they might be good people, people like you and me. We can't just sit by and do nothing!" Merlin was amazed, remembering the dragon's words. How could he think that this girl in front of him would ever turn evil? Nevertheless, she did have a tendency to not think things through.

"And what do you expect us to do?"

"Break them out, of course!"

"And how do you propose to do that?"

"With magic," she whispered, after looking around to be sure there were no listeners.

"It's not actually that easy," he said wearily. He was starting to realize how Gaius must feel having to deal with him all the time. Was he usually this impulsive?

"You won't have to do it alone." She waited, but when he said nothing she continued more vehemently. "Wasn't it you who was telling me about how magic can be a force for good? That it doesn't corrupt people, it just depends on how you use it? Was that all talk or did you really mean it? This is something important to both of us. People's lives are at stake, Merlin. What else is magic for but to help people?"

"We don't actually know he's going to kill them," Merlin said, trying to calm her down and not show how much he had been moved by her words. "He might just let them go with a warning." It was a half-hearted attempt.

She snorted derisively. "You've seen how Uther is about magic. We both know that'll never happen. He might give them a farce of a trial, then most of them will be convicted and sentenced to death. Some of them might have never even touched magic in their lives, but he won't care to listen. Not when he thinks that someone's attacked his precious ward." This last was spoken even more bitterly than the rest, as she thought of the irony of Uther attacking magic out of love for her, when, if he knew, he would hate her most of all. It made Merlin shiver, the look of poison on her face. He shook it off.

"If there's a mass breakout, the whole city will be put on lock down. Everyone will be under scrutiny. How will we get them out?" He paused as someone walked by, and continued even quieter, "Where will they even go?"

"What about the druids? We can send them there. Surely one of them will know how to get there. Anyway, once they're all out of Camelot Uther will have no one left to suspect. We'll be fine."

"As long as we don't get caught," he muttered. He sighed as he realized he was actually going to go along with this. "Alright, but if we get caught don't blame me."

A/N: Sorry about it being almost word for word from the episode there, earlier. I kind of hate it when authors do that, just post pretty much the exact same story but with a few minor changes or extra descriptions. My changes haven't affected the timestream all that much yet. Once they do, I promise it will get more original.

Anyway, next there will be a huge breakout. I haven't planned it out yet, but I have a couple of vague ideas.

No matter how long it takes me to update, I promise I have not abandoned this fic!