SWM wrote:When I raised the question "Does she think Merlin will keep it a secret as well?", it should have been phrased "Who does she think Merlin will tell?" It is an even more interesting question.
She deliberately did not tell anyone else at the meeting she was just at, but she told Merlin. So she either she didn't want everyone at that meeting to know, or she wanted Merlin to be the one to tell them, or she wanted Merlin to decide which of them to tell. And she didn't tell Merlin which of those cases applied! Apparently she is trusting Merlin's discretion with this information; she expects him to decide what to do with the information. That is very interesting. And leads back to the questions of "Why now?" and "What does she think she knows about Merlin?"
Does she expect him to tell Cayleb? Probably. Other seijin? Maybe (assuming she doesn't know about Merlin's multiple identities), since it could affect their own intelligence gathering. But she might, for some reason having to do with either her plans for Merlin or what she "knows" about Merlin, think Merlin will keep this as a personal confidence between herself and Merlin and tell almost no one. If we knew what Aivah expects Merlin to do with the information, we might have some better guesses to the other questions she didn't answer.
Thoughts?
If Aivah asks him to keep the meeting secret, he could tell her he wouldn't share it with a living soul and still share it with Nimue, Nahrman, and OWL.
Seriously, I imagine that Cayleb and Sharlyn will watch reruns, and Nahrman is fast enough to catch most of it in real time if Merlin's sensors are accessible. I doubt they will add much insight, but you can be sure that Nahrman and OWL will be going over everything they have on her in the finest detail.
I still suspect Aivah's servant of being more than she appears to be.
And why doesn't Aivah have a nano-bug on her all the time?
And did Merlin ever attempt to inject Aivah with the medical nanites? Did he get a copy if her DNA?
-- Bob G