"Chapter One Says to Love Her" — Merlin — Gwen/Morgana

fandom: Merlin
rating: general audiences
characters/pairings: Gwen/Morgana
length: ~950 words
content notices: none!
summary: pre-series fluff in which Gwen’s historically-unlikely literacy is explained
notes: written for the kinkme_merlin prompt “Gwen/Morgana. Right, so apparently Gwen knows how to read! Want maybe Morgana teaching her, or Gwen reading something bawdy in bed, please. :)” (I, continuing to fail to grasp the purpose of a kinkmeme, went with the former option), for #08 (“Learning”) of the Women Are Awesome prompt table at hooked_on_heroines, and for #13 (“island of light”) of my buffet table from fc_smorgasbord. I forgot we had information on Gwen’s childhood in canon, so consider this a(n accidental) canon AU. I should probably also mention I know nothing about adult literacy education and Google was really unhelpful, so I apologize for any errors/inaccuracies. title from the Monotones’ “Book of Love”, and the passage Gwen and Morgana are reading at the end is from (Patricia Terry’s translation of) Marie de France’s “Chevrefoil” because historical accuracy is something that happens to other people.
ao3 crosspost: here

( Somewhere along the way, Gwen’s lady becomes Lady Morgana, and then just Morgana. )