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

[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."

And what he meant was: It isn't worth it. My wrongs are irreparable, the debt too great. What he meant was: Let me serve as a lesson, and learn to be better, with all the freedom that not yet having lived so long, and made so many choices, gives you. What he meant was: Let me, let the parent, pay penance for my own sins, and you yours.

He scowled. "It is not your place."

[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.

Somewhere, deep, deep inside him, something that had broken the night he watched his parents murder an innocent girl fused messily back together. There were pieces missing, gaps that still needed to be filled but the structure was standing again.

"I'm sorry..." Chase's head fell against Uther's shoulder. He could feel Old Lace move close to comfort him, soothing concern flooding enough of his mind to form words. "No one around me ever wanted to take responsibility for anything. Even the so called 'heroes' who found us after we had to kill our parents they didn't... stick around to clean up they didn't even look for us after we ran away." Chase was babbling but the words wouldn't stop. They'd been a long time coming. "I was the oldest I had to take responsibility, we all had to make it right it was the only way. No one else would. We were kids, goddamnit we were children we didn't know any better, I'm so sorry...." Chase clutched Uther desperately, for the first time validated in a belief he'd held so tightly to but never dared voice aloud, save for once.

'But I'm innocent, I know I am.'

[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.

"Yeah... no problem..." A shiver ran through Chase that wasn't entirely him. Old Lace stamped taloned feet into the dirt and craned her long next beckoning back towards the castle. "How about we take some of this wood in and get your ankle looked at?" Nico and Karolina were usually the ones to play nurse, but Chase had picked up enough to handle a bum ankle. Reaching down he threw a sort of harness blanket over Old Lace's back, usually used for the horses to help carry firewood and loaded it up.

The lights inside the castle told them that Arthur and Merlin were likely preparing dinner and looking after the twins, so if they went in through the side door they could get to the hearthside without drawing much attention. The light of the fire and gone down enough to need a bit of rebuilding.

Moving so he had an arm around Uther's shoulder to brace him up, the two hobbled back to the welcoming warmth and light of home.