From: vengeful_fay	Date: 11/13/2007 22:58:27

Night was the surest time to catch a damsel. Morgan undid the clasp of her cloak and laid it gently over the bench along the alongside the large dining table in the empty great hall. She clucked her tongue at the pitiful sight. Not a single thrush lay against the wall. However did Guinevere spend her time?

Morgan tucked a loose curl of hair behind her ear as she headed towards the archway leading towards the servant's quarters. A lovelorn maiden always hid in the least predictable spots, although Morgan knew the castle like the back of her hand.

It did not take as long as she had hoped to find her grieving niece. A good chase was always more fun than this, but she supposed it was only fitting that dear, sweet Guinevere didn't know of her arrival.

She coughed politely once before entering the room fully. It had long since been abandoned, one only needed so much space for the servants.

	From: ladyguinevere	Date: 11/13/2007 23:05:33

Guinevere had closed her eyes against the chill wind, hoping that she could imagine Arthur to be with her, when she heard a small cough from behind her. At first she was startled - nobody would have expected the king's betrothed to be wandering the servant's quarters at sunset - but it was apparent upon second thought that there was, indeed, a person in the castle who would search her out at the most inconvenient of times.

Turning from the window, Guinevere looked across the empty room and saw the small figure of Morgan le Fay. Her first instinct was to back away in disgust, but Guinevere held her ground. The last thing that she wished to be was intimidated by the sorceress who had betrayed both herself and Arthur.

"Good evening," Guinevere began curtly, hoping that Morgan would decide against a verbal spar for the time being.

	From: vengeful_fay	Date: 11/13/2007 23:23:53

"It is, isn't it?" Morgan agreed. A small smirk played at her lips as she strolled sedately across the room. It seemed she had been right about her dearest niece. "It is positively freezing up here," she murmured, lacing her arm through the younger woman's.

Morgan found it was easier to learn about people by doing this. The strong ones never flinched, never batted an eyelash at the intimate gesture. Guinevere was never a strong one.

False intimacy was an art form, and it was one Morgan had become well versed in. Half the time she did not know if she enjoyed seeing people twitch or marveling at human dexterity and how even the most hated of enemies could pull of a charade of close, friendly discussion.

	From: ladyguinevere	Date: 11/14/2007 23:19:24

Guinevere never wanted to appear weak, or at least, anything but strongwilled and graceful. However, when Morgan laced her arm through that of Guinevere, the younger woman could not hold back a natural shift away, almost a flinch. Everything about the enchantress made her shy away in disgust, and Guinevere knew that Morgan was aware of it. It was why she tried so hard to be misleading, just to see the poised wife of her half-brother emit anxiety.

"I'm afraid it will only grow colder if you stay," Guinevere mused coolly, never afraid to counter harsh words with more of them. Of course, she put up the facade of loveliness and purity if it was necessary, but with Morgan it was far from needed. They were beyond the years of being cordial for Arthur's sake. If anything, Guinevere knew that he, too, would have scathing words for his half-sister.

Pulling away, Guinevere walked closer to the open window, crossing her arms on the stone balustrade, the wind blowing her hair about and rustling even the heavy fabric of her dress. Brushing a particularly long lock of hair away from her face, Guinevere lowered her eyes to the battlements and then looked around to her back, seeing the older woman behind her and watching her intently out of her warm brown eyes.

	From: vengeful_fay	Date: 11/14/2007 23:28:51

Morgan schooled her features into a model of concern. The icy words rolled over her and a thrill of pleasure shot through her. This Guinevere was not new to her, but the backbone that suddenly emerged from beneath those layers of silken fabric never ceased to make her burn.

"You mistake my intentions here, dear niece," she mused, slowly circling about the room, instead of making a direct movement in Guinevere's direction. "I am merely concerned that you shall catch a chill and wish to invite you to dinner.'

	From: ladyguinevere	Date: 11/14/2007 23:34:17

Guinevere raised her eyes elegantly to look more fully upon Morgan. She had always relied on her subtleties as her strong suit, the arch of her brows, the twitch of her lips, the nod of her head, and this was no exception. Her gaze moved in a graceful arc up to meet the cold eyes of the enchantress.

With a loaded, sarcastic chuckle, but no less gracious, Guinevere said evenly, "You presume to call me your niece when I've not yet wed that nephew of yours?" She didn't dare say Mordred's name aloud; it felt like a dirty word on her lips, the name of a husband she'd never acknowledge as hers, regardless of Morgan's plans for her. Guinevere altogether ignored the invitation to dinner; Morgan did not deserve any satisfaction.

	From: vengeful_fay	Date: 11/14/2007 23:38:11

"I think it hardly matters at this point, don't you?" Morgan tipped her head to the side in false innocence. A small smile tugged at the corner of her lips as she came to a halt beside Guinevere. "It it truly only a matter of time. But since it bothers you so, I shall try and only call you sister."

	From: ladyguinevere	Date: 11/14/2007 23:42:25

Pursing her lips, Guinevere countered, "Call me indecisive, madam, but I'd rather die than be sister to you." Perhaps the words were harsh, but they were certainly characteristic of her feelings towards Morgan. She'd intended upon first meeting her, years ago, to accomodate her within Camelot, be every bit the charming hostess. But that was a familiarity attempted in vain. "At least then I might be with someone that I do love," she added bitingly, hoping for the desired shock at mention of Arthur.

	From: vengeful_fay	Date: 11/14/2007 23:46:48

"Love?" Morgan pursed her lips and grasped Guinevere's chin between forefinger and thumb. Her eyes hardened into glittering pieces of coal as she looked into the angered eyes of her half-brother's wife. "Tell me, was it truly a love match you had with our poor, deceased Arthur? Can you speak of him, madame, as if he had such a profound spot in your being?"

	From: ladyguinevere	Date: 11/14/2007 23:52:48

Guinevere didn't dare look away. Both she and Morgan knew that it was a lie, for she had not loved Arthur for many years of their marriage. It was such a divide, of course, that led to the clandestine affair with Lancelot, and Morgan's initial pursuit of revealing Guinevere's deceptions. But now? Why, of course she loved Arthur. She loved no other.

"I loved him before your wicked nephew killed him. And I love him still. Every minute, every second that I live, awake or asleep, I think about him," Guinevere said, her voice quiet but heavy, and she moved closer to Morgan, "and, by God, I hold no love in my heart for anybody who has hurt him." Her eyes flashed, speckled with gold in the setting sun.

	From: vengeful_fay	Date: 11/14/2007 23:57:50

Morgan's eyes fluttered closed and a pleased smile blossomed on her lips. "Ah, your pain is divine," she murmured, squeezing Guinevere's jaw once, giving it a little shake before releasing her. "So much emotion, my dear, I do so wonder how you can stand to stay inside with such passion."

Morgan gasped and brought a hand to her lips, eyes glittering. "I may have said too much."

	From: ladyguinevere	Date: 11/15/2007 00:03:46

Guinevere raised her chin when Morgan released her, and though her height did not much exceed that of the older woman, she did not hide that she was trying to appear taller, to have more presence. "I don't have much interest sadism, I'm afraid, dear sister," Guinevere responded mockingly, crossing her arms over her chest against the cold.

Sighing, she added, "Your false innocence grows tiring, you know."

	From: vengeful_fay	Date: 11/15/2007 00:06:07

"And yet you continue to wear said guise," Morgan pointed out, licking her lower lip in thought. She wondered how hard she would need to push before the young queen resorted to less savory means of dispelling Morgan from her sight. "You always have been a hypocritical child."

	From: ladyguinevere	Date: 11/15/2007 00:11:58

Guinevere's eyes narrowed, her agitation more than apparent. It was Morgan's way, she knew, to be sarcastic and cold and manipulative, much as it was Guinevere's own, but never did she allow the eternal grace that she had committed herself to to falter. Morgan did not shy away from unnecessary cruelty.

"A child, madam? I do recall that it is I who was queen of Camelot, who acted on behalf of its king, and who successfully banished any threats to our prosperity. I should hardly think that childish, or hypocritical." Guinevere's mood soured as she spoke, however, for she knew in her heart that her expulsion of Morgan was, indeed, hypocrisy in its purest form, for after all, it was she who betrayed Arthur's trust in lying with Lancelot.

	From: vengeful_fay	Date: 11/15/2007 00:16:13

"Is that what we shall be calling it then. It does have such a lovely sound to it too. 'Threat to our prosperity.'" Morgan hummed and gazed out into the night air with a lazy smirk. Such insults didn't faze her as they had when first uttered. Being shunned from her family had been a blow she had thought never to recover from, but the abuse at the hands of her husband for her disloyalty, and then Merlin's subsequent abandonment of her, hurt far worse than anything Guinevere had said or done.

Yet, yet...it was entirely this woman's fault, and forgiveness or acceptance of her circumstances hardly ever crossed Morgan's mind.

	From: ladyguinevere	Date: 11/15/2007 00:21:00

As Morgan spoke, Guinevere had a distinct urge to bring up what had happened between them in Arthur's absence, the chase throughout the citadel to see who would be the first to uncover the other's affair. But it was not in her nature; she was harsh, but never cruel.

"You and your tricks are what keep me now from the man I love, madam," she responded icily, "and I can never forgive that. Banished once at my hand or not, you have never left us be." She paused, holding back the desire to scream her anger over Morgan's treatment of her own half-brother, her own blood. "He is dead, Morgana. What more is it that you want from us?"

	From: vengeful_fay	Date: 11/15/2007 00:24:35

Morgan's expression softened for a moment. "Is it too much to want another's company. As you so happily pointed out not too long ago, my nephew is suffering in an enchanted sleep. People in enchanted sleeps do not make for the best conversationalists."

She bit a fingernail and eyed Guinevere once over. "I am sure the night sky gives you no more conversation than my nephew does me."

	From: ladyguinevere	Date: 11/15/2007 00:30:43

"Indeed, they do not," Guinevere agreed with a slight nod of her head, "though I must wonder at your intellect if you found conversation with your nephew to be at all appealing. He was never quite that intriguing," she added coldly. It was never more effective than to see one's tricks thrown back at her, and Guinevere thought she was doing an impeccable job of using Morgan's own wit and logic against her.

She continued, "It is not as if he was some great scholar, a champion rhetorician, a great and noble king, an..." she trailed off, and in the moment of contemplativeness, Guinevere was unable to resist the words that fell from her lips, a whispered prayer to the darkening sky, "...an Arthur."