Merlin couldn't shake the anxiety, whatever had happened out last time had slightly changed the dynamic between the Prince and Gwaine, they'd spent the past two nights together, which they'd never done before. Not that they'd ever displayed any particular antipathy towards each other off the training field, but this was different.
When he realised the man was going up the second time he had found himself asking what it was about and all Gwaine had said was "Keeping a promise." Then clasped his shoulder and stared intently at him before adding "Both of them." He hadn't really known what to say to that.
It took him until he had finished everything, and made the salves and decoctions for the morning that wouldn't keep long to stop long enough to remember those.
He hadn't told either Prince or king of the effect their ordeal had had on Gaius.
He could still function in his role, certainly, and Merlin needed his knowledge and experience, but it had weakened him, and he'd no doubt that that was enough for Uther to remove Gaius as Court Physician. While he also wouldn't allow anyone except Gaius to treat him. Nonsense dealing with the king was now just a part of Merlin's daily life.
It probably was a little abnormal that he felt almost a sense of relief when the odd chill of last night ran through him, he turned round and smiled, noticing that despite the fact she was floating, he was taller than her. "Eileen." He sat down so that he wasn't looking towering over her, "I wasn't sure you'd come."
She looked at the bed and stool and frowned. "Of course I came back. Ugh, stupid things." She grumbled, glaring at the stool.
He raised an eyebrow, and she rolled her eyes. "They are like doors. I can't sit down, and well, it feels awkward to have one of standing and the other not- which is not something I am used to any more." Merlin thought for a moment. "What about me?"
Eileen looked at him strangely. "What?"
"You can touch me, I can sit down, and you weigh nothing, is there a reason sitting on my lap wouldn't work? Or is that too awkward for the ghost who wanders unannounced into men's bedrooms at night?"
"Shut up Merlin. You knew it was me."
"A surprising number of people say that, but yes I did. You are, so far, the only returning ghost I've met."
She decided to test his theory anyway, it had been a long time, and she seriously doubted anyone else was going to offer the same thing, leaving her a long time to regret turning it down. She couldn't help smiling brightly when it worked.
He looked at her carefully, "How old are you, Eileen?"
"Fifteen, or thirty-eight, depending on how you count it."
Merlin huffed, "Wow, yeah, I guess that must get complicated to track. No one to count birthdays."
"It's not that bad. I count Samhains 're easy to notice."
"Again, that's not creepy at all."
"You invited a ghost to sit on your knee."
"Fair point. It's been a long day. Well, long week really. So how did your first night of haunting Uther go?"
She grinned. "I figured it would be useful to experiment a bit. Did you know he's afraid of spiders?"
"That's… No, no I did not."
"Yep. Something about a giant one years ago living in a cave, venomous. I thought it was quite pretty."
"You would."
"Did you know that spiders spin silk?"
Merlin chuckled, "No, but I doubt one spider can make enough for a dress, or every woman at court would be farming the things."
"Oh, absolutely! It feels amazing, the queen used to have one, she let me feel one time."
"Ok, well I don't have the space or patience for spider farming, so I'm afraid you're out of luck."
The ghost tilted her head to look at him properly, "Has anyone ever told you you're a little odd, Merlin?"
"All the time. I'm still not the ghost chatting in the bedroom of a man she's met only once before."
"I guess so. Anyway, giant spiders, he doesn't care about blood, I really wish he did, it's rather upsetting. He doesn't like the dark closing in. Oh, and you were in his dream."
"That is- that is not something I ever wanted to know Eileen."
"Ew, no. Although he thinks you are Arthur's anyway."
Not the first time he'd the theory but still… "Again, ew, no."
Eileen shrugged, "Well, each to their own I guess. Arthur's hot."
"Eileen, if you ever say those words again in my bedroom I swear I will find a way to ghost-lock the bit of dead tree."
"Right, well anyway, he was yelling at you for something."
Merlin nodded, relieved, "Ok, that sounds more like the Uther I know."
"He hates dragons."
"Not a surprise, they hate him back. Can't blame them at all."
"No. Me neither. Did you know that they couldn't burn the Dragonlords. It doesn't work. Fireproof you see? At least normal, unmagical fire."
"Uh… that information is extremely unsettling and more useful that you could possibly know. Or maybe you could, I suppose- where have you been for the last twenty years?" She shrugged.
"Here and there. I avoided the dungeons though, and the vaults. They upset me and I get ragey."
"Yeah, I know that one. Is there anything more than spiders, oppressive darkness, and dragons you can give me to work with?"
"In one night? No. I thought that was pretty good work for my first night!"
Merlin hurriedly tried to reassure the girl, "Oh, yeah, I mean that's great, I can totally work with this. If you want, you could come one night to dinner when I'm serving, just stand silently in the corner where he can see you, and say nothing you creepy woman. Maybe a feast sometime. He'll be stuck, as leaving would mean admitting you exist and are there. I mean, if I was a bored ghost, and only one person could see me, I'd be tempted to pester them in company not just when they were alone. Unless someone else takes day shift already."
Eileen grimaced, "No, most of them are a bit anti-social after so long, and stuffy nobles often don't make the best company."
Merlin shrugged. "Try the knight's table. There are a few peasanty-common ones there now, and you might overhear a few jokes, or at least gossip. For gossip, try Leon. He's a noble, but he gossips like an old biddy."
"Huh. Well, no one has told me any jokes for a long time."
"Sorry. I can't think of any right now. Next time maybe." He realised belatedly that he's essentially invited the girl back again. Yep. There was definitely something wrong with him. It wasn't an issue he could ask for advice for though. Gwaine would be insufferable if he asked for jokes suitable to tell a girl. Arthur would look at him, tell him he was an idiot, and that clearly he had too much time on his hands if he was worried about non x-rated jokes, and Percival- well he didn't think he'd ever heard the man joke. He could possibly ask Lance, but then he'd have to answer questions about why he was entertaining ghosts, and why he wasn't trying to ghost-proof his chambers. Since he honestly did know all of the answers himself beyond 'she knows about my magic, and likes it.' that wasn't really an option. Plus, Lancelot was already worried about him, and it was getting annoying. He loved Lance, really, he did, but sometimes he appeared to forget that Merlin was a full grown human, who survived insane shit all the time, and it was sometimes just nice to talk to someone who got the fact the world was bigger. Which Lancelot… Lancelot still didn't really.
"Look, you're going to be late if you don't get a move on, do you remember the way?"
"Yes, thank you Merlin." She used his shoulder to steady herself as she stood, it not being a movement she was familiar with after over twenty years out of practice. "You just make sure spiders or dragons crop up tonight, alright?" He winked. This could be fun.
Sure, he couldn't actually kill Arthur's father, and as Gwen had said, that would be kind of the same as Uther's revenge slaughter, and Merlin had felt terrible after losing control with Nimue. He could screw with him a little bit though, surely?
If he was careful.
Suppressing his grin when a couple of unusually large spiders crawled over Uther's hand at dinner that evening, and the elaborate web decorated the corners of his chamber doors later was not easy. He was careful to keep it subtle enough that no one could claim sorcery, no matter how tempting it was to have a thousand or so spiders erupt from his goblet. He figured that might be a little too obvious to miss. Even here.
Now he just had to settle on how to work in the dragons.