Camelot
December, 508 AD
I smirked at the paper aeroplane I was drawing on, feeling proud of how nicely I was managing to make it resemble the Milano from 'Guardians Of The Galaxy' by painting on it with coloured pencils.
Sir Leon's voice as he gave a report to the council had long been drowned out by my brain, and the only things outside my creation that I was somewhat paying attention to were Arthur's side-glance on my figure, the amused half-smile on his lips, and his hand resting on my knee as he rubbed gentle circles with his thumb.
The curly blond knight kept rambling on and I looked up to catch Gwaine's eye – who sat across from me. I gave him a grin and showed him the origami spaceship, earning an impressed smile in return. I winked and promptly flew the plane his way, effectively landing it in his awaiting hands.
Leon stopped talking for a second and he gave me a stunned look.
"Sorry, keep goin'," I mumbled and dropped my head as my cheeks warmed under all the gazes that suddenly fell on me. The knight chuckled under his breath and went back to giving his report.
With the plane parked across the round table, I resorted to doodling on my notebook. At least until the paper aircraft was returned to me. I scrambled to catch it, almost falling on top of Arthur in the process, and then I looked up at my best friend, who was smirking at me. I smiled again and swiftly sent the plane back.
Gwaine was about to return the craft, when a loud bang echoed through the room as the three doors to the council chamber flew open at the same time, startling the crap out of me – and all the people in the room, I assume.
"What the heck?!" I asked, my hand reaching for Arthur's and clutching it tightly while my head turned to Merlin, who stood some ways behind us. He gave me a wide-eyed look, but didn't say or do anything.
The room was quiet for a few minutes as everyone stared at the seemingly animated doors. Then the general shock seemed to wear off and Arthur motioned for Leon to keep talking. The latter barely got half-a-word out before a large chandelier fell on top of the round table and I scrambled out of my seat to get as far away from the jumping debris as possible.
In a flash, I found myself standing next to my very puzzled brother and clutching his arm. "'The Conjuring' is real," I whispered.
Sensibly, the council was dismissed straight after that curious event, and I watched in slight amusement as the knights scrambled out of the room as if it were on fire.
I stuck by Merlin as he also made his way out of the chambers, engaging him in a hushed conversation.
"Was that magic? Did you sense anything?" I inquired.
He gulped before responding, "I am not sure what it was, but I felt a presence. A cold presence."
"A ghost," I gasped.
"This is not 'Supernatural', Astra," he reminded me with a pointed look. "Maybe it was some form of sorcery."
I puffed. "So was it you, or Mordred?"
Merlin gave me a bewildered look and nudged my side in a scolding manner before replying, "Maybe there is a simpler explanation for it."
"Or maybe Artie accidentally set some spirits loose," I countered while raising a challenging eyebrow.
He stopped walking for a second and sighed, then he continued as he answered, "Let us hope that is not the case."
"Merlin!" Arthur's voice echoed loudly through the corridors and brought us to a halt once more. We turned around and waited for him to catch up with us. He instantly put an arm over my shoulders, drawing me close, before addressing my brother, " I want the table repaired before the next council meeting."
"Right," Merlin mumbled, looking slightly uneasy.
"Did you get a terrible fright?" Arthur questioned with the slightest hint of mockery in his tone. I gave him a discreet nudge.
"Yes. My heart nearly jumped out through my mouth," my brother responded, also sounding a bit sarcastic.
"Well, maybe you should have the rest of the day off to put your feet up," the King shot back.
Merlin looked at him more intently and foolishly asked, "Really?"
"You should've just ran with it, buddy," I mumbled under my breath.
"You were joking," he realised while staring at Arthur.
The King paused to give him an unimpressed look, then he rolled his eyes as he walked away. "There really is no limit to your intelligence, is there, Merlin?"
My brother clenched his jaw and turned to look at me. I shrugged and said, "You walked right into that one."
He scoffed. I could tell that he was about to go after Arthur, when his body suddenly tensed up and his eyes darted around us. I tilted my head and looked around as well, not seeing anything unusual. Then a strong gust of wind blew past us, producing a whistling sound and causing the candles around to dance cheerfully.
There are no windows placed in a way that could've made that possible.
A shiver travelled down my spine and I got the strange sensation that someone was watching us.
"Ghosts," I whispered.
Merlin turned back to face me and pressed his lips. He went to say something, when Arthur's voice rang through the corridor as he called his name again.
I patted his arm. "Good luck babysittin'. I'm gonna go see Pops. I said I'd help with dinner."
He let out a faint chuckle and gave me a quick hug before we parted ways.
The smell of cooking mac and cheese filled the room while Gaius and I sat at the kitchen bench with my tablet propped up against a flower vase in front of us.
I had really hoped that introducing the physician to 'House, M. D.' would make him so terrified of what goes on in modern hospitals – y'know, big needles, eerie monotone rooms, bloody surgeries, wild diseases, and the like – that he would become more empathetic towards my hatred of all things medical. However, it simply made him fascinated with the evolution of the practice. So now I'm stuck witnessing him fangirl over the series.
Knowing what was coming, I watched only through a half-open eye as Dr. House and his team rushed a protesting girl into an occupied operating room. I glanced towards Gaius, who sat beside me with his eyes wide in wonder, and I rolled my eye before closing it in anticipation of the bloody scene that follows; though I didn't forget to chuckle at House's sass as he took over the room.
I took out my earbud at the disgusting squishing sound that followed when the doctor asked for a scalpel.
"Oh! That is absurd!" Gaius exclaimed. I simply nodded. "That is unreal! That cannot be true!"
"Unlike the freaking dragons that Merls n' I hang out with on a weekly basis?" I asked in a whisper. He shut up at that and I assume that he continued to watch the scene.
The sound of rushed footsteps outside the real-life room made me scramble to turn off my tablet and hide it under a tablecloth; just in time for the door to burst open and reveal a very pale Percival with a ridiculously bloody shoulder, being supported by Elyan.
My gaze fixed on the crimson liquid cascading down the tall blond's shoulder for a moment before I squeezed my eyes shut again while mumbling, "I miss when the blood was fictional."
Gaius instructed Elyan to help Percival sit on a cot and then he addressed me, "Astra – get me a towel!" I instantly turned away from where I knew the bloody scene was and only opened one eye as I rushed to the cabinet where I know he keeps clean towels, quickly retrieving one and flinging it his way. "Now get me some frankincense and turmeric," the physician instructed next. I swallowed a joke on how I never signed up to be his assistant and shuffled over to a shelf, where he keeps all his herbs and stuff.
Merlin showed up on the scene only seconds later and he was quick to move to my side and start leading the way in preparing a salve for Percival's wound.
"What the heck happened, anyway?" I wondered, still not looking at the injured knight as I fixed my sights on watching how the frankincense melted.
"An axe fell on me," Percival responded, sounding slightly dazed. I wonder why. "It must have fallen off the rack."
"I am surprised that a falling axe would cause such a deep wound," Gaius noted.
'Ghost,' I mouthed when I caught my brother's eye, earning a wary look.
"Not as surprised as I was," Percival responded.
"Quite," Gaius hummed. "You are lucky you were not more severely injured."
Merlin moved to take the newly-made salve to the physician and I remained back. Even if a lot of the blood has been cleaned, there's still the factor of, y'know, a huge open wound on Percival's shoulder-blade!
"Strange," the knight suddenly mumbled while looking off into the distance.
"What's that?" my brother inquired.
Percival frowned slightly and gave a small shake of his head. "Just before it happened, I sensed something... like there was someone there watching me..." Merlin and I shared a concerned glance. "I am sure it was just my mind playing tricks on me."
My eyes widened as I recalled that strange moment in the corridor.
Gaius casted Merlin a worried glance, then he repeated the action on me, and then he returned his attention to Percival as he instructed, "Apply a second poultice in the morning, and no training."
My brother helped the knight get back into his shirt, and then the latter left the room after thanking the three of us. I gave him a wave and a lopsided grin, which fell as soon as he was out. I let out a sigh and turned to my former roomies. "So – shall we break out the EMF readers and proton packs?"
"The what?" Gaius wondered while Merlin gave me a cautionary look.
"Y'know... to bust some ghosts..."
The physician scoffed and gave me an amused side-glance while he folded some unused bandages. "I am sure it was just a freak accident. There are no ghosts in Camelot."
I tilted my head and turned to my brother. "You didn't tell 'em?"
He clenched his jaw.
"Tell me what?" Gaius asked, pausing his movements to let his eyes dart between us in a quizzical manner.
Merlin narrowed his eyes at me.
"Buddy, c'mon. If we're right, he's the only one who really knows how to deal with this stuff," I pressed.
My brother sighed and turned to our guardian as he finally confessed in a deadpan, "We went to the Stones of Nemeton."
"Children! I warned you of the dangers!" Gaius instantly turned half-angry-half-mortified as he began to pace the room.
"I tried to stop Arthur!" Merlin defended. "But he was insistent, and Astra wasn't any help."
I sheepishly averted my gaze when the physician gave me a disapproving look.
Merlin sighed before speaking again, this time sounding a bit spooked, "After the candelabra fell, when we were in the corridor outside the council chambers, I could sense something. It was like Percival said – a presence of some kind."
"I felt it, too," I threw in.
Gaius moved to pull a dusty book out of a shelf and he waved us over to the kitchen bench, atop which he placed the item before starting to page through it as he spoke in a grave tone, "In the days of the Old Religion, the priestesses trained for years before entering into the spirit world. It was fraught with danger. There was one thing they were schooled never do." He paused to look up at us. "As the veil closed, they were never to look back at the spirit."
"You couldn't have told us that before?!" I asked while flailing my arms.
"I did not think anyone would dare to use the horn," the physician defended while giving me a pointed look.
"I think you've known the three of us long enough to know better than to hope for that," I countered.
"What happened if the priestesses did look back at the spirits?" Merlin interjected.
"They would release the spirit into this world," Gaius responded.
My jaw dropped, "So Utah's haunting Camelot!?" Gaius nodded while producing a frightened look. "Crap, I gotta hide all my stuff," I mumbled before grabbing my tablet and rushing out of the apartment and towards my room.
I put my tablet, my phone, my Nintendo Switch and my solar chargers inside my suitcase that has a lock on it and closed that, then I hid it towards the back of my closet and made sure to lock the door as well. I'm not sure if ghost!Uther can traverse walls; but this will have to do, I guess.
Merlin entered my room moments later. "We have to tell Arthur," he stated.
My heart turned upside down. "Uther has hurt him enough. Does he really need to know that he's haunting us? Can't we deal with this by ourselves?"
"Not this time," my brother responded with a sad sigh.
I puffed, then I bit down on my bottom lip and nodded. We linked our arms together and went towards Arthur's room. Our room. Whatever you wanna call it. The point is – that's where we went.
Arthur sat at his dining table. There was a half-eaten plate of chicken breast before him, along with a bowl of grapes. My stomach suddenly growled at the sight, reminding me of the fact that Gaius, Merlin and I didn't get around to eating dinner since the thought of that was overshadowed by, y'know, Percival almost getting murdered by the ghost of my father-in-law.
I hopped to sit on the table and sent my King a half-smile before stealing a fistful of grapes from his bowl.
Merlin gave me a pointed look and motioned towards Arthur with his head. Not this again! Deciding to skip the silent argument, I instantly raised my fist and he rolled his eyes, but complied with engaging me in yet another game of 'rock, paper, scissors'. Sadly, I lost this time around and I sighed in disappointment before turning to my King and ripping off the band-aid, "Artie – there's a ghost haunting Camelot."
I held my breath for a reaction.
"What?" he asked with a frown.
"At the Stones of Nemeton, we think that you may have released your father's spirit," Merlin explained further.
Arthur's shoulders tensed and he glanced between us for a moment before he turned his attention back to his food. "And what makes you think that?"
"Did you look back?" Merlin questioned. My King lifted his gaze again, locking eyes with him, and he seemed to freeze for a few moments. "As the Veil closed, did you look back at your father?"
I watched with a twisting heart as Arthur's eyes switched from puzzlement to mortification, a storm rattling the usual breath-taking cerulean colour in them. He dropped his fork and knife as he stood up. "I may have glanced around for a second," he finally responded in a mumble.
"Darn," I breathed out.
"In that second, you unleashed Uther's spirit," Merlin said. Arthur glanced towards me with a questioning look and I gave him a sad one in return. "All these strange things that have been happening," my brother continued, "the candelabra falling onto the round table–"
"Yes, because the chain broke," Arthur cut him off.
"Perci almost got killed by a flying axe," I noted.
"It was an accident," my King countered.
I shared a semi-annoyed look with Merlin. I really wish we could skip the denial skit and go straight to actually solving the problem. But I guess that the stubborn mule hasn't learnt anything in the past five years.
"Was it?" my brother challenged.
Arthur narrowed his eyes at us as he asked, "Do you really expect me to believe that my father's spirit is responsible for these things?"
"Why would we make this up?" I questioned through gritted teeth.
Merlin gave me a reassuring look before addressing the King again, this time in a more decisive tone, "The round table represents everything that has changed since you became King. You told us how Uther disapproved. He's angry with you and that makes him dangerous."
"I know my father. He would not do these things," Arthur argued, not looking at either of us as he kept his gaze on the window.
I scoffed, "I'm sorry, are we talkin' 'bout the same Uther who almost turned me into a bonfire once?"
The King clenched his jaw.
"I think he would do anything to protect his legacy," Merlin said. "Who knows what he is capable of?"
"Enough! That's enough!" Arthur barked. "Leave me." My brother sighed, not breaking eye-contact under the King's glaring gaze. "Go!"
I hopped off the table and grabbed Merlin's arm, tugging him back. "C'mon, buddy. Let's get back to Pops."
"Astra – wait," Arthur called out just as we were about to cross the door.
I turned back to face him and sighed. "Think about it, Artie. You know that we'd never make up something like this," I told him softly. Then I finally walked out of the room with my brother.
Merlin was gallant enough to walk me back to my room after we finished cleaning up Gaius's apartment following a slightly overcooked dinner. However, we didn't make it to the staircase because an intense burning scent caused us to halt and share a wary look.
"Okay, either someone's roasting marshmallows over their fireplace, or..." I began as we followed the scent, soon finding traces of smoke leading up to the door to the kitchen, "…ghost!Uther has struck again."
We turned to look at each other, our eyes widening simultaneously.
Merlin used his awesome superpowers to force the door to open and we covered our noses while rushing inside, finding the room flooded with smoke and a few little fires littering the space. However, what caused my stomach to fall was finding none other than Gwen passed out on the floor.
"Oh crap!" I exclaimed while dropping to my knees beside her and checking her wrist for a pulse. I sighed in relief when I found that she 's still alive.
"Gwen?!" Merlin cried while kneeling on the ground beside me, a mortified look on his features. "Wake up," he commanded while shaking her desperately.
"We gotta get 'er outta here," I said and pulled on her arm to get her to sit up, but she slumped forward. Merlin nudged me out of the way and picked her up bridal-style in a swift move. I sprinted ahead to clear the path to the door as he power-walked back to Gaius's home.