"Nimueh." It was important to know the names of people who died. She was always sorry she didn't know the names of the two alien soldiers she'd had to kill. "I saw..." Dinah closed her eyes, partly to hide from Merlin (and why was she scared again? she didn't want to be, why was she?), partly to bring the memory into sharper focus.
"You got there, and Gaius was slumped against the altar, and she-- Nimueh-- had a chalice in her hand. She acted surprised you'd come back, but I don't think she was?" Dinah frowned, the dream's details sharper than her own memories. "And you asked her what she'd done, and she said, a life for a life." Dinah gulped. "No, first that your mom was safe. And wasn't that what you wanted?" And another detail came back, one she hadn't shared with Arthur. "You said you were trading your life for Arthur's, not anyone else's, and she, she..." Dinah hugged herself, shaking her head, face crumpling at Merlin's remembered emotions and how she would have felt if it had been her mom, her friend. "She cheated. She said Gaius was willing and that's the way the Old Magic worked."
Re: Underground Reservoir
"You got there, and Gaius was slumped against the altar, and she-- Nimueh-- had a chalice in her hand. She acted surprised you'd come back, but I don't think she was?" Dinah frowned, the dream's details sharper than her own memories. "And you asked her what she'd done, and she said, a life for a life." Dinah gulped. "No, first that your mom was safe. And wasn't that what you wanted?" And another detail came back, one she hadn't shared with Arthur. "You said you were trading your life for Arthur's, not anyone else's, and she, she..." Dinah hugged herself, shaking her head, face crumpling at Merlin's remembered emotions and how she would have felt if it had been her mom, her friend. "She cheated. She said Gaius was willing and that's the way the Old Magic worked."