The Gates of Avalon
When Arthur becomes besotted with a mysterious girl, he stands to lose more than just his heart. Morgana has a terrible nightmare showing Arthur's death at the hands of a strange but beautiful girl. She does not fully understand what it is about, but the intensity of the dream scares her. While hunting in the forest, Merlin and Arthur come across a girl, Sophia, and her father, Aulfric, under attack from bandits. The prince wades in and, with a little covert magical help from Merlin, successfully sees off the vagabonds. Seeing the rescued couple are shaken, Arthur offers them refuge in Camelot. It becomes apparent that Arthur is quite taken with the beautiful Sophia, but when Morgana sees her she is far from happy – this is the girl from her nightmare; Arthur must not trust her. Morgana tells Gaius of her dream and, wary, he sneaks into the guest chambers where he finds Aulfric's staff, which has ancient scripture carved into it. Before he can investigate further, Aulfric returns. Gaius makes his excuses to an angry Aulfric and leaves, but not before he notices a red flicker in the stranger's eyes...Convinced that the guests are up to no good, Gaius confides his suspicions in Merlin. The young warlock follows Aulfric to a lake where their concerns are verified: Merlin's powers allow him to see a gathering of magical people hovering over the water. Aulfric converses with them, begging passage back to Avalon, the land of eternal life, from which he and his daughter have been banished. The elders refuse – Aulfric can never return. His daughter's passage may only be bought with the life of a mortal prince – so Aulfric promises to bring Arthur as payment. A stunned Merlin rushes back to Camelot to tell Gaius what he saw. The pair work out that Sophia and Aulfric must be Sidhe, a magical people with the gift of enchantment. Merlin knows he must warn Arthur. But it might be too late...
