Gǽst

[pendraeg]

Who: Uther and Chase (what, again?)
What: Monster plot!
When: Night
Where: The castle yard
Rating: C for creepy, possibly actually scary
Status: Private, complete (!)

Comments

[pendraeg]

When the effigy released him, when it took Chase, Uther suddenly felt as though he had been frozen and hadn't known it. Suddenly, he was free to move and speak and act of his own accord. And he could think.

He did not like what he witnessed.

And first, it was a matter of role reversal, of the fight shifting, their foe turning its attention from one to the other. Good practice said he should now defend Chase, support him, and also take advantage of any opportunity to attack their now-divided opponent.

But this attack was one of words, and the words that Uther heard shook him. He wanted to understand, he wanted an explanation. This was Chase! Honorable, decent, life-valuing Chase, who was determined to believe that heredity was not destiny. Chase who had talked him through so much, even just now

[chaseandoldlace]

"It happened, jesus it was real." Chase murmured, pressing harder and harder in his eyes until they ached for light. "I wasn't sure...didn't want to be so I just tried to forget. Because if it was real it was my fault."

Back then, so much had been his fault: he wasn't smart enough, he wasn't good enough; he was the son his father was stuck with not the one he wanted.

And yet...

"They were going to burn the world for you, they loved you so much... and you burned your world once. You succeeded where they failed." The child said to Uther. "And you say you can face that? That'll be a first." It's face had shifted again to accommodate aspects of both of them, a grotesque, continual morphing. "Prove it."Burning. The world shimmered around them, a narrow shadow falling over them-- Chase could feel it before he saw it, the soft chill of shade casting over him and he finally looked up

[pendraeg]

And now, Uther's memories. And now, Uther's dreams. The things he had tried so hard to deny had ever been real enough to have been things he had actually seen, things he had actually heard, and smelled, and felt, and done. Burning flesh is sweet, like pork, or mutton. Wool is acrid, and becomes indiscernible from human hair. Wood, straw, kindling, those are also the smell of the fire in the hall at night, keeping the beasts at bay. Over it all, bitter, stinging, sharp, the taste of char, ashes that cling to eyelashes and settle underneath the tongue, in the back of the throat...

What you never see in a painting of a martyr is what remains when the pyre is burnt out, what must be cut down, brittle and collapsing, to be buried, how soot covers everything, and after rain, is slick and gritty underfoot. How the water becomes undrinkable, and you have to send men out with barrels, wagonloads of water passing wagonloads of bodies on the rutted road.

The axe is quick; people scream when they are on fire

[chaseandoldlace]

"Nico!"

The smell was the first thing that hit him, before it even occurred to him whether it was real or not. It was real enough.

He sprinted to the pyre, climbing through--into-- the flames tearing at the binding rope that for some reason didn't burn away like Chase believed it should have. Though he knew he shouldn't have been able to hear anything over Nico's screaming, there was a scuffle in the yard where Uther and the child-monster-man stood

[pendraeg]

Uther was afraid. Uther had always been afraid. He was young, and he had the strength, and the energy, and distractions and plans with which to pretend he wasn't, but the years would wear on him. Unaddressed, fear would grow, and become everything

[chaseandoldlace]

Under Uther's power alone the ropes gave way and Chase found himself outside the flames: hale hearty and whole again.

"Uther, no!"

But he wasn't alone. Nico was there, holding him as he burned. The form changed a thousand times, blinking through different faces... young, old, men, women, children, finally settling back on it's first form, the child version of Uther himself. The boy clung to Uther as the fire raged over them both.

Old Lace, who had not known what to do, slowly sniffed her way closer and closer to the pyre as the flames eased away, sinking into the ground; pulled back to hell itself until Uther alone stood under the first stars of evening.

Cast out of the illusion the dark that enveloped them was shockingly peaceful. Whatever malice the spirit brought with it had vanished with the flames, and perhaps in it they'd both been forged anew.

Chase took two cautious steps toward Uther before concern won out and he embraced him, relief and gratitude flooding through him in waves.

"You didn't need to do that you idiot.

[pendraeg]

His heart pounded like it had pumped a lifetime's worth of blood. His throat was raw like he had cried every one of the cries he himself had caused. His face was streaked with tears.

His eyes stung, and he didn't know if it was salt or the memory of smoke, or the afterimage as the searing illusion faded and left only Aternaville, left only this gift. A sort of afterlife.

The night seemed brighter now.

Uther allowed Chase to embrace him, half needing the support to hold him upright. After a time, he grasped Chase by the shoulders so that he could look at him.

"I did. But you--" Uther suddenly realised he was livid. "Don't ever put yourself in that kind of danger for me again

[chaseandoldlace]

Not for the first time, Chase heard what Uther meant, not just what he said. It was an odd feeling, like being tamed from some previously feral state where words and meaning interacted very differently than they normally would.

Also not for the first time Chase realized how old Uther was and it almost frightened him... but no, that wasn't it... it wasn't the decades locked in his eyes as they gazed steadfastly at each other, it was the intent of that age, what it meant....

'My parents wanted to burn the world to protect me from it, but Uther burned himself he took responsibility.' The realization hit Chase like a fist to the gut. Here was the first....person Chase had ever known... a father, a king an adult to own up to his sins, to refuse to let his sins be visited on another

[pendraeg]

"Yes," Uther said at last. He let Chase's words settle, let them take their time. "Stay that way. Within reason."

A half-smile worked its way across his face.

Then, when time had passed he shifted, abashed with himself. "I do appreciate your help. That...thing..."

He shuddered, disturbed by that emptiness in his own eyes. The spite.

[chaseandoldlace]

The irony of it was that Chase had never really believed he had a childhood, and therefore could never have been a child until that moment. Suddenly he remembered his first night at the castle, and telling Uther that his new-found youth was a chance to do things differently.

He hadn't realized that might apply to him one day as well, let alone because of Uther. Again there was the sense that this place, Aternaville had been waiting for him; that the universe put him and Old Lace in that stable for a reason.

For a moment there was an up-surge of that old cynicism that wanted to tell Uther it was too late-- he wasn't a child anymore he could never return to that comparatively blissful ignorance but he could, one day trust again, if enough proof was there that it was deserved