YEAH, YOU KNOW THE DRILL. NO ONE ON THIS SITES OWNS Merlin, ARTHUR AND THE LOT BUT FOR SOME REASON WE HAVE TO GIVE CREDIT TO THE BBC FOR OWNING THE ENTIRETY OF WHAT MIGHT BE CONFUSED FOR THEIR PROPERTY… ::SIGH:: SO YEAH. I OWN THE STORY AND IDEAS PRESENTED AND IF THE BBC WANTS THEY CAN BUY IT ALL OFF OF ME… THE PRICE? COLIN MORGAN AND BRADLEY JAMES MUST BE MINE FOREVER.

Story: "Love Struck"

Chapter 1

"Is there anything else that you require of me tonight milady?" The maidservant asked the King's ward.

The Lady Morgana turned facing the maid and with innocent eyes but a sinister grin replied "No. That will be all Gwen. Thank you. I will be fine."

And with that Gwen curtsied and turned to leave the chambers and head back to her home for the evening.

Morgana, waiting only a long enough for Gwen to be far enough away not to notice her, grabbed her heavy blue cloak and headed to her chamber door. Looking down the hall in both directions she confirmed that the coast was clear before she began navigating the labyrinth of back halls and antechambers that best concealed her leaving the castle citadel.

Upon crossing the threshold of the large masonry building she began ducking and hiding behind thatch roofed houses and carts and creates making her way to the castle wall gate.

Gwen was halfway home when she realized that she left over cloak in the Lady Morgana's servants quarters. And since earlier Gaius told her that he was beginning to sense a coming rain in his joints she thought it best to grab the cloak now incase she were to wake to a downpour tomorrow morning. As she walked back to the citadel she thought that she saw the side profile of Lady Morgana's face partially hidden under a heavy cloak as the mysterious person walked in the shadows. The whole scene was a little scary to Gwen. Was this actually her Lady or was it a stranger of which the guards should be notified? Gwen not feeling too sure of what to do leaned more towards the safety of Camelot and looked quickly for the nearest night guard.

"Guard!" Gwen called. A large man in royal armor and carrying a pike turned into the direction of the voice and saw Gwen pointing in the direction of the shadow that she had seen the shadowy figure. "There was a stranger hiding in the shadows over there by that cart."

The Guard ran to that location and just as he turned the corner he caught a glimpse of a shadowy figure disappearing through the gate in the castle wall. He gave chase to the shadow but by the time he was through the wall himself he saw nothing but the softly swaying grasses of the fields surrounding Camelot being eerily lit by the light of an almost full moon.

Morgana had been feeling quite sure of her hidden escape and was wondering why Uther was paying these knights so much gold to guard if she could escape so easily? She thought that until she heard the voice of her maid calling for the guard to give chase to Morgana. 'I suspect the gold should really go to Gwen this time. The Guards were useless until the observant royal maid did not only her own job but that of a knight as well.'

Morgana didn't give up she simply was more determined to get out of Camelot without being caught. Instead of taking the time to hide along the way, she simply made a straight dash for the castle gate. She arrived and headed through it looking over her shoulder looking to see which guard was the one in pursuit of her. 'Leon. It would be you.'

The King's Ward pulled the sides of the cloak in tight across her front, spoke a few foreign words under her breath and flashed her eyes a bright copper, casting an illusion between her and the castle gate. Within seconds Leon threw himself through the small gateway and stared in tensely looking in all directions scouring the field for any sign of life.

Morgana seeing that she was in fact growing in her powers of magic and trickery smirked and headed as quickly as she could to the forest cover.

Just as she was about to reach the safety of the forest cover she heard another voice from the castle wall call down to Leon "over there!"

Leon looked up to where the archer was pointing and saw a strange slightly transparent figure moving by the trees. Leon bolted outside of the castle and made his way as fast as he could to where he saw the figure moving.

Morgana seeing that her magic wasn't as great as she thought it was began searching for a place to hide while Leon made his way closer and closer to her location.

Leon reached the edge of the woods and stopped and began looking once again for the illusive figure. Standing as still as stone Leon and Morgana both didn't dare move a muscle as Leon wanted to listen for movement and Morgana didn't want to give any more assistance to the searching knight.

Just than a fawn and deer pranced into the small clearing to Leon's right distracting him. He watched them both look at him and then startle off into the dark wooded cover. Morgana saw the opportunity and took it. She saw a slightly worn path to the right of some of the trees that were in front of her. He began running along the path and noticed it offered an ideal cover from where Leon was standing. She made her escape successfully while Leon was still trying to listen for a clue as to where the stranger might be.

Leon stood a few moments longer when his nose caught whiff of a rather familiar and favorite scent. "Morgana!" Leon's heart both swam in excitement and sunk in concern when he realized that the Lady was outside of the protection of the castle and of him.

Meanwhile while all of this was happening Gwen had run in full sprint back to her Lady's chamber hoping that Gwen's suspicions were wrong—that she hadn't actually seen Morgana sneaking out of the castle. She did her best to run down the castle halls without tripping over the candle stands in the narrower passages and avoiding running into anyone else that might be patrolling or fulfilling some request of the royal family.

Just as she was to head into the hall off of which was the Lady Morgana's chamber she was Merlin, Prince Arthur's manservant heading down a few steps that left the hall in which the Prince's chambers were located.

"Gwen! What's the rush?" Merlin said with a goofy grin.

"Um, I'm not sure yet. I need to go check on something." And with out giving Merlin much more than a concerned smile she continued to run to Morgana's chambers.

Merlin was now a bit intrigued and even maybe a bit concerned but not too much since he no longer trusted the Lady Morgana.

Gwen headed into the chamber in the most dignified manner she could muster just in case this had all been a misunderstanding and she would then be interrupting a resting Lady Morgana. Gwen entered the room and saw that nothing had changed since the moment she had left the Lady earlier. Gwen's face showed that of shock and concern as she realized that her suspicions might very well have been accurate and that the Lady Morgana had snuck out of the castle.

"Has Morgana left the castle?" Merlin spoke from behind the shocked Gwen.

"I, I…" Gwen wasn't sure what to say yet. The Lady obviously wanted to get out of the castle in secret, and Gwen could think of no reason why the need of secrecy but… "I suspect she might have taken a walk through the gardens… she hadn't been feeling too well when I left her." Gwen lied.

Merlin reading the lie on Gwen's face decided to let her off the hook. But took this to mean that Morgana was up to something. "Well, okay. Good night then Gwen."

"Good night Merlin." Gwen took one last look around the room before grabbing her over cloak from the back of the work table chair in the servants quarters and then headed back to her home. Just before leaving she thought to turn and take note of the heights of the burning candlesticks. Tomorrow morning if Morgana is back the candles will help Gwen figure out how long she might have been gone.

Deep in the heart of the heavily wooded part of the forest Morgana's figured ducked down below a tall root into a concealed cavern. She made her way as best she could in the Lady's castle slippers, she really should have changed these and put on her boots before she did this little mission. She had a lot to learn. Stepping over moist mossy rocks and in between muddy puddles on the mostly smooth rock floor, Morgana made her way through the almost familiar spaces of the cave until reaching the backside of a dark figure.

"Morgause." Morgana smiled big and extended her open arms to embrace her beloved sister.

"Sister! It is good to see you made it. Was there any trouble?"

"A little but I wasn't followed."

"Anyone know that you aren't in the castle right now?"

"Possibly my maidservant and maybe Sir Leon but I have him wrapped around my little finger and Gwen can be so daft that I can usually get her to believe anything that I want."

"Good. Then did you bring it?"

"Yes. It was just where you said it would be." Morgana reaching into her cloak and pulled out a small bag that had been tied to her waist. Handing it to Morgause.

"Excellent." Morgause' eye's flashed a bit of copper before opening the bag. She spoke a few incantations of magic and then reached her index finger and thumb in pulling out an old carved wooden vile. She then opened the vile dipped it into the stone basin from which she had been brewing since midday. Continuing to speak the ancient words into the experience she pulled the oaken vile back out of the basin. She then reached for a red cloth that was lying next to the basin—Merlin's neckerchief that had been stolen earlier that day by Morgause in the market square. She located a short hair from the neckerchief and carefully slipped it into the vile once again her eyes flashed copper. "It is done." Morgause spoke handing the oaken vile to Morgana. "Make sure to pour the entirety of this vile into Arthur's water pitcher. He must drink at least a portion of it for the magic to work fully. Right now Merlin is under its power but until someone else drinks it the infatuation will remain without a target.

Morgana smiled big to herself thinking about what was about to happen inside the walls of the castle. Merlin was going to become intoxicated in love with Arthur. The mere thought made her laugh with joy and evil. Arthur will be so distracted by Merlin's love that he won't even notice the other changes that Morgause and Morgana had planned.

"With your delivering of this potion to Arthur the first phase of our plan will be complete. Go quickly and return before its discovered that you are gone. And Morgana, be careful." Morgause smiled sweetly to her sister. "I love you. I don't want you being harmed by that wicked Uther."

"I love your too dear sister and I will be fine. Uther is an idiot and he hasn't a clue what is happening in his own castle, in his own home, to his own family. He is a pathetic man."

The two women embraced and then Morgana left and began making her way back to the castle. She decided to enter back in through the wall nearest the castle gardens offering her more of an excuse as to why she might be discovered out of her chambers so lately in the day.

As she entered in the castle wall she ducked in under the large vine covered outdoor hallway that was the perimeter of the large hedge and knot garden with a statue to Uther standing in the middle. She was half way to the exit that led to the closest hallway that would then lead to the portion of the castle that her chambers were when an excited and intence Leon began walking towards her.

"There you are! Do you have any idea how much I have been looking for you?" Leon took hold of the Lady's forearm firmly and stared intensely in the Lady's eyes. He hadn't really even realized the inappropriateness of his touch yet since he was so focused in concern and fear for her safety and now also for her secrecy.

"Leon." Morgana spoke in an a innocent and shocked tone trying to play the part of a confused simple Lady unknowing what the over reacting knight was doing. "Please, you hand. It hurts." It didn't really but she needed as much sympathy on her side as possible in order to pull this off.

Leon took a moment before recognizing the meaning of her words and then it dawned on him that he was touching the Lady, quite firmly at that. "A, I'm sorry milady. I didn't mean…" Leon blushed in embarrassment until he remembered his initial concerns. Sternness returning to his face he looked once again to the Lady's. "What were you thinking escaping the protection of the castle? And why the secrecy? Are you in some sort of trouble?" Leon's eyes changing more to sincere loving tender concern for the safety of Morgana.

Morgana smiled her innocent eyes again. "I was fine. I simply needed time away. It can be quite suffocating in these walls. Surely you can understand that."

Leon did understand that. "That may be, but I can not play a part in this, I can not let you risk your life for an, an escape! If you must sneak away from this place and it's people you must at least let the King know and you must always have an escort."

Morgana was pleased that her misdirection had worked simply reached her soft pale hand out to the rough face of Leon and palmed his cheek lightly. "If you really insist. I suppose I can do that… for you Leon." Morgana smiling flirtatiously with Leon melting him like butter on a hit skillet. And with that she turned and left heading back to her chambers leaving a weak kneed Leon behind in the shadow of the garden ivy hallway.

Morgana reached the hall that led to her chamber unknowingly passing by a hidden Merlin standing in a dark enclave behind an extinguished candle stand. She entered her chambers removed her cloak and gown and dressed in her nightwear and then proceeded to extinguish the candles in the room. She took the oaken vile that Morgause had given her and placed it in a drawer near her bed. Closing her eyes she slipped quickly into sleep.

Merlin standing quietly in the shadows of the servant's quarters looked in on the sleeping Morgana and made his way to her bedside table. He slowly slid the drawer open, pausing shortly after a squeak came from the wooden frame and then proceeding to take the oaken vile out of the drawer and closing it once again. He quickly yet silently made his way back to the servant's quarters and then made his way back to the tower rooms of the Court Physician's quarters.

Merlin hadn't a clue what was in the oaken vile but he figured it would be safer with him that in the hands of Morgana. He placed the vile under the floorboards of his room next to the Grimoire that Gaius had given him years earlier. He then stripped down and dressed himself in his night clothes and slipped in under the covers.