Authors Note: Wow, I must say I have been pleasantly surprised by the amount of reviews I have gotten so far. As thanks, I'm uploading the second chapter today. Oh, and just to answer a question I have gotten, yes, both Freya and Lancelot will be appearing in the story.
Disclaimer: No, I don't own Merlin, at least, not yet. *evil laughter*
Everyone was staring at Merlin, and for a he didn't know why, that is, until Arthur spoke.
"Uh, Merlin? How do you know that?" Merlin cursed himself mentally, he'd completely forgotten that mortals weren't suppose to be able to find The Lake of Avalon by themselves, if he hadn't been following Sophie and her father then he would have never found it. Except, well, ever since he had survived the Dorcha's touch, he hadn't really be sure anymore that he counted as mortal. But it wasn't like he could tell Arthur that, and from the way that they were looking at him expectantly he knew that he had to tell them something, he settled on something close to the truth.
"I followed a Sihde there." He explained, though he left out the fact that there had been a tracking spell involved. Out of the corner of his eye he could see Gaius nodding as he realized the occasion that Merlin was referring to, it was obvious that Arthur still didn't quite understand, but he seemed to realize that they had more important things to worry about.
"Well then,' he said, "you can lead us there, and we will figure out what to do from there." Merlin widened his eyes innocently,
"I'd be careful sire, it might involve thinking, and we wouldn't want you to hurt yourself." Arthur glared at him as the knights laughed.
Once the laughter had died down, Elyan, who was wearing a frown spoke up,
"I'm sure I've heard of The Valley of Ysbrydion before, but I can't think where." Gaius looked up from where he was reading the book,
"It's very likely that you have, there are still people who tell stories of it, though most don't know that it's a real place." Arthur looked at him in surprise,
"You mean you've heard of it?" he asked, Gaius nodded,
"Yes, though it has been a long time, The Valley of Ysbrydion was a place of the Old Religion, though it hadn't been used for centuries, even before The Purge. Its name translates to Valley of Ghosts." Gwaine laughed, drinking from a flagon of mead that he had produced,
"Sounds like a lovely place." Gaius raised his eyebrow at him,
"It actually used to be a quite a popular place to go to." He told him
"Why would people want to go to a place called The Valley of the Ghosts?" Arthur asked,
"Because," Gaius informed them, "You could visit with the spirits of the dead."
There was a pause,
"Wait….what?" Arthur finally asked, seeing he would have to explain, Gaius settled into scholarly mode.
"The Valley of Ysbrydion is one of only a few places where the mortal world intersects with the spirit world, in places like these the ghosts of the dead can interact with the mortal world; people would flock there to visit their departed loved ones." He paused, letting them think about this, "the only problem was that not all the ghosts were benevolent, some of them, usually the ghosts of tyrants and other evildoers would try to take advantage of it and cause harm." Arthur frowned,
"If they could harm people, then how it was safe for people to go there?" he asked, Gaius gave him a look,
"I was just getting there, be patient." Merlin struggled to smother a laugh,
"Controlling the ghosts was the reason that the Ring of Souls was created, the ghosts could not disobey the wearer, so all that had to be done, was order them not to harm anyone."
"So why did people stop going there?" Gwaine asked, Gaius's eyes grew sad,
"There was a huge plague one year, nearly all of those who had been appointed as the valley's guardians died, there weren't enough left to keep it safe." Arthur looked at him curiously,
"Who were they?" Gaius met Merlin's eyes as he answered,
"The Dragonlords."
