48Title: These Are Our Lives
Fandom: Merlin
Rating: T
Pairings/Characters: vague Leon/OC, Gaius
Spoilers: Not unless you haven't seen Series 4
Warnings: Murder and mayhem.
Disclaimer: If you're looking for the owners of Merlinin this corner, I'll tell ya right now: go fish.
Summary: When Sir Leon was told that Lady Elbereth had died under . . . interesting circumstances, he knew - oh, he knew! - that no good would come of it.
AN: By all rights, this should have been posted yesterday, since it's a Halloween-ish sort of fic, but hey! It's only a day late, right? ;) Anyway, enjoy!
Chapter Two: Why Didn't They Ask Evangeline?
Sometimes being a knight was not fun. Especially when you were called upon to investigate mysterious deaths. When Sir Leon was told that Lady Elbereth had died under . . . interesting circumstances, he knew - oh, he knew! - that no good would come of it.
Gaius wasn't letting anyone look at the body, but he gave his medical opinion on it.
"Yes, I do believe it was murder," the old physician told Leon. "There is no other explanation for the injuries."
And so began the investigation. The lady's family was baying for blood, but after three days of interrogations, spying, and detective work, Leon was no closer to finding the killer than before. He knew Lord Elbereth was becoming impatient with the lack of progress, but what was Sir Leon to do? The lady had been stabbed in a deserted corridor at noon. It was not unheard of, but usually there were clear suspects! As far as the knight could tell, Lady Elbereth was an uncommon woman: she never offended anyone, and was loved by all. So why the knife in her back? He might have suspected her husband, if he didn't know the man like the back of his hand. But who else would that the motivation?
He must have been meant to find out, because Sir Leon always looked where he was going. Except for the day he met Evangeline.
Well, okay. More like her laundry basket met his stomach. The devil is in the details, after all. But even after being subject to a frontal assault, Leon knelt down to help gather the scattered clothes.
As he placed them back in the basket, he noticed something very strange: many of the clothes had dark red spots on them. As he looked closer, he realized what it was.
"Is that blood?" he asked in alarm.
The woman leaned forward to see. "Oh yes," she replied, looking a little embarrassed. "I got cut quite badly, and bled all over the basket."
Leon knew how that was. "That'll be difficult to get out," he observed, then felt a little idiotic for pointing out the obvious. She just smiled though.
"Yes. I'm a little worried though, because I've never tried to clean blood out before," she confessed.
Leon took a moment to really look at her. She appeared to be his age or a little older, with long brown hair and dark eyes. As she looked at the laundry, a look came into her eye, one of sadness and pain, as if it had reminded her of something. His knight's heart went out to her.
"You know the king's manservant, Merlin?" he asked. She looked confused, but nodded. "He's adept at getting blood out of clothes, perhaps he could help?"
She looked at him for a second, as if expecting him continue, then she nodded and stood. "Thank you for your help, sir knight."
"Wait!" he protested, touching her arm. "What is your name? Whom do you serve?"
The woman blinked, and blushed a little. "I am Evangeline, sir," she said, then her voice grew serious. "I served the late Lady Elbereth."
The pained look was back, but Leon barely noticed it. "Lady Elbereth!" he cried in astonishment. "But-how can this be? I was tasked with finding her killer, why did no one tell me of you? I didn't even think to ask for her personal maid."
Evangeline smiled a little. "No, no one asked me about what happened when my lady died. I am only a servant; why should they?"
Leon managed to restrain his snort with difficulty. "No matter what anyone may consider you to only be, you should have been asked." He snapped to attention. "May I walk you to the laundry, and enquire on the way?"
The maidservant Evangeline smiled sweetly. "Of course, Sir Leon."
Evangeline didn't have a whole lot to tell. As far as she knew, her mistress had had no enemies - which Leon had already been told.
"But I can tell you this," she said. "That hallway that she was found in? My lady always feared to go down there, because three years ago, her mother died in that very same place."
Sir Leon stared in astonishment, not sure whether to believe. "Stabbed?"
"Oh no, just a sudden distress of the heart, but Lady Elbereth sometimes said she could feel the ghost of her mother in that corridor . . ."
Evangeline laughed lightly to show her feelings on Lady Elbereth's fears, but Leon had seen enough to know that he should at least investigate the possibility. Though it didn't explain how a ghost could catch hold of a knife. They passed through the very corridor on the way to the laundry. Evangeline became quiet. "I pass through here all the time, with my mistress's clothes. To think that she died here . . ."
But then she just shook her head and walked faster.
When they reached the washing rooms, now chatting amicably about nothing in particular, Leon smiled warmly and said, "Thank you for your help, Evangeline. You may yet help me catch a murderer."
"That would be a great deed for a maidservant, m'lord," she told him, hitching basket higher up on her hip. "But we'll see. We'll see."
"I hope we meet again," he said as he left, and found he meant it. He looked back one last time, but she had already disappeared.
He went to Gaius with the new information. Although he was not a superstitious man, Leon had been taught to trust his instincts - and they were whispering to him now, telling him that maybe he was on the right track at last.
The old physician, after he had heard Leon's piece, sat down slowly and thought for a minute. "It is true," he confessed, "that Lady Cornelia suffered from a serious heart condition, one that she eventually died of, and it is also true that she collapsed in the very hallway that her daughter lately met her Maker."
Here Gaius paused, looking at Leon as if appraising him. It seemed he was pleased with what he saw, for he nodded and continued. "You may not have known this - few did - but Lady Cornelia was actually a practitioner of magic before the Purge."
Leon let this sink in before venturing to say, awkwardly: "But you were too, weren't you?"
"Yes, and we were both allowed to live as long as we abandoned our dabblings. It was very generous of Uther: very few were given the offer, and even fewer accepted it. Lady Cornelia, even though she agreed, was perhaps not as contented with her lot as some of the rest of us. I cannot be sure, of course, but it is my belief that she may have continued her hobby in secret. It is possible even her husband didn't know."
Leon sucked in a breath. "But if she were a sorceress, than her ghost-"
"Let me finish," Gaius reprimanded sharply. "Lady Elbereth was a firm believer in Uther's laws; there was a deep rift between her and her mother because of them. If you are right, Sir Leon, then this could all be because of that, because of a mother that resented her life, and perhaps associated her daughter with everything that had gone wrong in it. She might have carried that resentment into death. And yes, as a sorceress, her influence on the physical world would be . . . noticeable. Even as a ghost."
The knight sighed softly. "Well then . . . But how do I prove it? If it's a ghost-"
Gaius shook his head. "I'm not sure how you could. If there is a ghost, we'll have to do something about it, of course."
He sighed, frowning, and Leon looked at him properly. There was something in the old man's face. Something that was not satisfied.
"Do you have doubts, Gaius?" Leon asked. "What are they?"
"It's just this:" Gaius said, looking frustrated, "that even a powerful ghost would have trouble controlling the dagger for one blow on one person. But then to pull it out and strike a second person? It doesn't seem possible that any spirit could accomplish it!"
Leon's brow furrowed. "A second person?" he asked, confused.
"Yes, the maid," Gaius said. At the knight's uncomprehending look, he said, "What, didn't you know that Lady Elbereth was with her maid when she died? They were both killed. The wound on the maid was shabbily done, just like a ghost's aim; it was her cries that drew people to the scene."
He didn't notice the odd look on Leon's face, nor could he have known about the chill that fingered down his spine. How could he not have known that there was a second victim? The idea seemed impossible, and yet somehow it had happened. No one had told him about the maid . . .
Suddenly desperate, he stood. "What was her name? The maid, what was her name?"
Gaius raised his eyebrow, noticing Sir Leon's strange mood. "Her name, I believe," he said, "was Evangeline."
"You wondered why no one asked me."
Leon, heading back to his chambers in a daze of confused thoughts, froze. The voice was calm, but full of the same pain that he had heard earlier.
"Right now you're probably wondering why nobody told you about me. Well, I'm used to it; I'm just a maidservant. When there was Lady Elbereth's death to worry about, why should anyone worry about Evangeline's?"
He turned around, eyeing the woman before him. She still held her laundry basket. There was still blood on the clothes. He wondered if some of it was Lady Elbereth's.
"I'm sorry," he said. He was sure what else to say. Evangeline didn't smile, but she shook her head.
"You're a good man, Sir Leon," she told him firmly. "You were willing to listen to me. And now you know what happened. Or . . . you think you do."
Leon moved closer. "Why don't you tell me?" he asked. "Afterall, you were there."
Evangeline looked at him out of the corner of her eye. There was fear there, alongside the pain.
"I'll be straight with you, Sir Leon. It's possibly the only way I can move on. The only way to atone for what I've done . . .
"Lady Cornelia did die in that corridor. Her ghost did linger there, filled with hate and anger towards so many people, but especially towards her daughter. You must understand that once someone dies, they do not change: they're stuck the way they were when they died. Even though you might expect a ghost to get over its old feelings, Lady Cornelia did not. She was bitter and angry. So she decided to do something about it. She decided her daughter must die."
Leon didn't understand what this had to do with Evangeline, but she gave him a look and continued.
"As I told you, I passed down that hallway so many times, going to the laundry. It didn't take long for her to start working on me. They can get inside your head, you know, they can whisper things. They can't make you do anything, or change your thoughts - but they can plant them. She whispered to me of all Lady Elbereth's failings, of terrible things and forgotten deeds. She argued that she knew her daughter better than anyone . . . so shouldn't I agree with her assessment?"
The maidservant's eyes, so dark and deep and endless, had gone dull and flat with the remembering. "I was a fool. I should have realized what was happening. But then it was too late. She had me in her thrall, and I was her prisoner. I was so eaten up with the thoughts she had put into me, that I could only do what I was told. I lured my lady into the same corridor, and, goaded by Lady Cornelia, I stabbed her in the back. She never even knew what happened."
Evangeline stopped talking, and swallowed heavily, almost gulping. She did not seem to be capable of tears, but even as a ghost, her emotions were strong. In fact, Leon could have sworn he felt it too. Maybe that was part of 'putting thoughts into people's heads'?
"What happened after that?" he prompted.
She looked at him again, and smiled bitterly. "The remorse always comes after the action. It's just the way of life. I guess we all hope our consciences will stop us.
"Once the full realization of my actions had come over me, I was horrified. Lady Elbereth had been a good mistress, almost a friend. And I had killed her. So, I ran. I'm not sure what I would have done. Probably run away, then returned and confessed. Oh yes, I'm sure I would have given myself up eventually: I was not totally lost, and in that moment I shook Cornelia's influence off of me. But she decided to go the whole hog, I suppose, and got me as I tried to escape."
Evangeline took a deep breath and tucked her hair behind her ears. "And there you have it," she said matter-of-factly. "The truth. The whole truth. Nothing but the truth."
"Thank you so much for telling me this," Leon said sincerely, and reached out to touch her arm-but his hand passed right through her. His stomach lurched slightly at the sight. Evangeline almost smiled a little.
"My time in this world is ending," she said. "I think I'd better move on."
She took a step backwards, and curtsied. "Thank you, Sir Leon. It's been a pleasure."
Through stiff lips, he replied: "No, Evangeline; the pleasure has been all mine."
Evangeline raised her eyebrow, looking amused. "You obviously don't have a very high opinion of your company, Sir Leon," she told him.
Then she was gone.
Two days later, Lady Cornelia was gone, exorcised through some mysterious ritual that Gaius that spoken of in very vague terms. The haunted hallway was now just a hallway.
There was a funeral for Lady Elbereth, and another, smaller one for Evangeline. He had told no one but Gaius about the spirit he saw.
He wondered, later, what might have happened had he known Evangeline before she died. It did no good to dwell on the might-have-beens, or the past, but he'd enjoyed speaking with her: maybe they might have been friends.
Or maybe even something more.
"If you seek revenge, it means you're scared or you feel guilty for what happened in some way. It's okay to be angry with someone, but don't think about revenge. It's like a disease that eats you up."
― David Miller
How did that sit with you? I'd love to hear what you think!