A/N: Thank you GuestM Live and PadrePedro for reviewing! Time for the reveal...
Chapter 8
"Father?" Arthur breathed.
The ghost narrowed his eyes on them. "Who are you that you walk in this realm of the dead?" he demanded.
Arthur swallowed hard. "I am King Arthur of Camelot."
The ghost faltered. "Arthur? I had a son called Arthur. But surely he cannot be this grown."
Arthur pulled out the signet ring he wore around his neck and held it up on its chain. The ghost's eyes widened.
"My son…" The ghost took a step toward him, and Arthur recoiled. The ghost's expression shifted as though hurt. "I am your father, Arthur."
"You're Uther Pendragon," Gwaine said with clear disdain.
Uther straightened, eyes hardening as he shifted his attention to Gwaine. "I am. Now answer my question: how has the living come to be in this place?" His gaze dropped a fraction to the rope of light around them. "What sorcery is this?"
No one answered. Arthur, still stricken by suddenly coming face to face with his long-dead father, couldn't help but blurt,
"You destroyed the world."
Uther snapped his attention back to him. "I was deceived," he claimed. "And this is my punishment." He spread his translucent arms to encompass the wasteland around them.
"You knew exactly what you were doing," Arthur rejoined. "You were warned, and you went through with it anyway."
"I was trying to bring back your mother! Does that mean nothing to you?"
"No! Because in the process I lost both my parents, my home, and my entire future! Do you know what the world is like now because of what you did? It's darkness and death and Wraiths that feed upon every living thing." Arthur jerked his arm out at this realm his father considered a personal hell. "It's this!"
Uther's jaw ticked, but he made no response, expressed no remorse or regret for what he'd wrought.
Arthur went cold and asked in a hard tone, "Whom did you sacrifice to open the Veil?"
Uther narrowed his eyes at that.
"Whom did you kill?" Arthur pressed angrily. "Who was the life for a life?"
Uther still didn't answer, and there were several tense moments of a standoff between them.
"Arthur," Lancelot whispered.
Arthur flicked a look back at his friend and found him staring at something else. Following his gaze, he spotted another ghost that had appeared several yards away. It was a little girl, four or five years old, with dark hair cascading down her back. She was staring at them with unnerving intensity.
Uther turned to look as well, his expression shifting into distress. "Leave me be!" he yelled at the girl.
She opened her mouth and let out an inhuman shriek. Her eyes went black as pits, her jaw widening beyond humanly possible. In that moment, she seemed more Wraith than girl, and she abruptly launched herself at Uther. The two spirits turned to blurs as they tangled in bursts and spritzs of mist. Then the larger one managed to throw the smaller one away, and Uther reformed. He turned to Arthur urgently.
"Take me with you."
Arthur's jaw slackened in astonishment. …Was that even possible?
Uther moved closer. "Arthur, you must take me with you."
Gwaine stepped forward protectively. "We didn't come here for you," he snarled.
Uther sneered at him, but then shifted his pleading gaze back to Arthur. "Whatever brought you here, it was fate that we should find each other. Arthur, think about it. You were meant to save me."
"Why?" Elyan put in. "You destroyed the world. You don't deserve to be saved."
The flash of fury in Uther's eye was gone the next instant as he continued to plead with Arthur. The desperation was just as real, and Arthur found himself torn as to what to do. Did he actually want to be reunited with his father? This man he'd never known but who was still his father… But he couldn't forget what Uther had done.
Arthur drew his shoulders back and stood his ground. "Whom did you sacrifice to open the Veil?" he asked again firmly. "Tell me the truth!"
Uther's gaze flicked toward the little girl, now creeping along the outskirts and glaring like a crazed creature lusting for blood.
Arthur's veins froze at the obvious tell. "A child? You sacrificed a child?" he spat in horror and revulsion.
"It was necessary!" Uther snapped. "The sacrifice had to be someone important to me, or I would have taken any commoner off the street."
Arthur gaped at his father in stupefaction, as though being willing to sacrifice any random person was any better. But then it hit him—someone important. He shifted his gaze to the small child. "Who is she?" he asked tremulously.
Uther grimaced. "Your sister."
Arthur mentally reeled.
"Half sister only," Uther emphasized. "She was the mistake of a mistake, and one I regret for how much it hurt your mother. It was a necessary sacrifice."
"It was barbaric and inhumane!" Arthur yelled back. He stared at this man in horror, once again reminded of his shame for being of his bloodline. "You're a monster."
"You wouldn't understand," Uther scowled.
"I understand well enough what it means to lead people," Arthur rejoined. "To be responsible for them in a shattered world. And I would not sacrifice a single one to repair it."
Uther scoffed. "I think you would, if you claim to be so noble."
Arthur shook his head. "No. If it was as easy as sacrificing a life to repair what you broke, I would give my own."
"Arthur," Merlin put in quietly. "We need to go."
He glanced around and saw the other spirits were getting closer, still growing in number.
"They saw you put the girl back in her body," Uther said. "They want out of this place." He stepped closer again, making Arthur tense. "We must hurry."
"Yes, we must," Arthur agreed, chest tightening. "But you're not coming with us."
Uther's eyes blazed white with rage, and before Arthur could usher his friends around to the Rift, Uther grabbed the light rope that would lead them out. His ghostly hand didn't pass through, but appeared to become solid upon contact. The light rope flared and juddered, and Arthur looked at the Lightspinners in alarm.
The other ghosts swarmed in at that, plunging straight through their bodies and out the other side. Arthur doubled over with a gasp of pain as bitter frost coursed through him. Another ghost shot through him, bringing him to one knee. His friends tried to spin light in response, but every time they got a sliver formed, a spirit would slam through them and snuff it out. They were all brought to the ground as the ghosts bombarded them, pushing as though trying to dislodge their own souls from their bodies.
Gwen screamed as several fought over hers, and Arthur lunged to try batting them away. But of course his arms sailed right through their amorphous forms, and they turned their attention on him. The light rope was keeping their spirits in place, but the more the ghosts assaulted them, the more Arthur felt something fraying… They couldn't fight the intangible, and they couldn't move. Another spirit plunged into Arthur's chest, stealing his breath and making something inside him quiver. The mist wafting off his body thickened as though coming free. Several feet away, Uther was clinging to the light rope and dragging himself toward the Rift.
But then a blazing giant cat with webbed wings came charging through from the other side. It immediately swiped now corporeal claws at Uther, knocking him away from the rope. He screamed as he went flying. The cat then turned its nova gaze to the spirits and charged forward, snapping its jaws and batting massive paws at the ghosts. The light animal did not pass through the spirits but physically flung them away from the group. The rest shrieked and scattered under the assault.
"Run!" Percival grunted.
Arthur grabbed Gwen and they hobbled toward the rippling crack in the air, finally stumbling through to the other side. It was like coming up for air after being underwater too long. The cool air burned Arthur's lungs as he gulped in desperate breaths. Now that they were out, when he and Gwen collapsed forward to the ground, they fell through the rope of light that had been around their waists.
The others staggered out as well, followed by the winged cat of light, which also became incorporeal again. Percival kept urging them to move, and they scrambled away from the Rift, chests heaving as they watched fearfully. But nothing followed. Nothing could without a physical form to hitch a ride in, Arthur imagined.
"What happened?" Leon asked worriedly.
Freya ran to Lancelot, and the light animal dissipated as it returned to her.
Arthur was too shaken to answer Leon's question.
"We ran into the ghost of Uther Pendragon," Gwaine said. "Not to mention a bunch of other ghosts that attacked us."
Leon's brows rose sharply, and he turned to Arthur in concern. "Are you all right?" he asked tentatively.
"No," Arthur said, straightening. "No, I'm not all right."
He stared at the Rift, unable to see through to the other side where he'd left the ghost of his father, perhaps wounded by Freya's light animal, perhaps victim to the other spirits…tormented by the ghost of the little girl he'd murdered.
"I had a sister," he went on. "And my- he sacrificed her to open the Veil. I've always known he was a horrible man, but learning the full truth…" He couldn't say it. Gaius had to have known, and that was why he hadn't wanted to answer Arthur when he'd asked.
"Morgana," Leon uttered in surprise.
Arthur whipped his gaze up. "What?"
He blinked in shock. "I remember her now. We were the same age in the court. After the Veil opened…I must have just assumed she'd died in the chaos, like so many. I had no idea."
Leon looked just as devastated as Arthur felt.
"Her ghost was there as well," Merlin spoke up solemnly. "She couldn't have been more than five when…" He trailed off with a wince.
Arthur turned back to the Rift, grief-stricken. "I want to save her," he abruptly declared.
His friends exchanged dubious looks.
"Arthur, what?" Gwen said.
"We know how to get into the Veil now," he said. "We can find Morgana's soul, help her—"
"Help her how?" Merlin interrupted. "We can't take her out of the Veil without a body."
"Maybe we can."
"So she can be a ghost out here?" Merlin pressed. "For all we know, she'll just become a Wraith."
"I have to do something," Arthur insisted.
"That little girl's spirit already looked half Wraith," Gwaine put in. "She's probably beyond saving."
"She's not the villain!" Arthur snapped. "She's the victim!" He whirled toward Lancelot. "You of all people should understand—you just got your sister back after thinking she was dead!"
Lancelot's expression was pained as he met Arthur's eyes with regret. "But Morgana is dead," he said gently. "I'm sorry, Arthur. If I thought there was any chance we could help her, I would be right there with you. But she died twenty years ago. And what we saw in there…" He grimaced. "Gwaine is right. Besides, what would you do? Find a body for her to trade places with? Condemn someone else to the Veil?"
Arthur flinched like he'd been slapped. He looked around at each of his friends, beseeching them to come up with something. But no one said anything, and Arthur didn't have an actual idea. He felt his entire being sag in wretched defeat.
Gwaine cleared his throat. "At least it looks like she's going to be spending eternity tormenting Uther for what he did. It's the least he deserves."
Arthur didn't find that as comforting as Gwaine intended.
Gwen tentatively approached Arthur and slid her hand into his. "I'm so sorry, Arthur," she said sincerely.
His heart continued to break, but he squeezed back. "I'm glad we could save you," he replied softly.
And he was. He would not trade Gwen's or any of their lives to bring his sister's spirit back from the dead. That was the thing his father couldn't accept, the reason the world they lived in was one of death and darkness. Pursuing this would make Arthur no better than Uther.
So he nodded in mute resignation, and they moved on once more.