AN: Still not the owner of Merlin. Not IRL, anyway.

Yes, the slacker is back! And this time the story is actually going somewhere :) I'm kind of excited. And for those of you wondering, Merlin will come in in the next chapter or two.

For a moment, Arthur could only stare at the spot where his father had been. Then his head snapped up to look at the witches.

"What did you do?!"

A smirk curved onto Morgana's once kind face. "He's gone, dear brother."

"Gone? What do you mean, gone?" Arthur asked roughly, dread starting to set in. What kind of magic was it that could make the dead be 'gone'?

"It's just what it sounds like," Morgause said smoothly. "He's been forced out of Avalon, of the afterlife. He's back in the world of the living, a mere ghost in a place where the dead don't belong until his spirit fades from the world completely. Give it a few centuries, and he will cease to exist."

If Arthur had still had a body, his heart would have been racing. Even though he had no such adrenaline rush now, he still felt anger bubbling below the surface.

"What, his death wasn't enough for you?" he snarled.

"No," Morgana spat back. "Especially now that I can see that was hardly a punishment."

He struggled more, and she took a moment to compose herself.

"And now, you will share his fate. You've chosen to follow his murderous path."

He couldn't help the little laugh that escaped him. "I'm the murderous one?"

"Enough." Morgause interrupted them. "Do it, sister. He will only try to sway you. He doesn't understand, and he never will."

Morgana nodded in agreement. She raised her hand and stared at her half brother. The words flowed off her tongue, and once again, Arthur felt magic surround him. It closed in on him, encasing him in an iron fist of energy. He struggled, but every move resulted in a sharp pain shooting through his whole body.

And then he heard a scream of rage and it stopped.

Blinking, he looked up. Morgana and wore a matching deadly expression, one her sister's had been matching before she collapsed from a blow from an unseen assailant. Looking around for his rescuer, Arthur saw another sorceress just behind him, this one unfamiliar and standing next to Freya.

"You used to be just an annoyance but now you are starting to get on my last nerve," the sorceress said coolly to Morgana.

"Nimueh," Morgana spat. "Never thought you would side with our murderers."

The name sounded familiar to Arthur, but he couldn't remember where from, and he was distracted from trying to remember by Nimueh's retort.

"Will you ever stop complaining? If you had stopped acting so wounded you would have made a great High Priestess."

Morgana visibly seethed.

"I am twice the High Priestess you are! You were killed by an amateur sorcerer!"

Nimueh merely smirked coldly. "If you were a true Priestess, you would respect the prophecies rather than oppose me. And, forgive me if I'm wrong, but you were killed by a sword when your back was turned, were you not!"

Morgana's fury broke loose in a scream, but a flick of Nimueh's hand and her attack was deflected. The second High Priestess sent the enraged witch flying backwards. Translucent bonds, not unlike the ones she had found Freya in moments before, held Morgana in place.

Arthur broke the following silence.

"Thank you."

She turned her gaze on him, and though it wasn't angry, it was cool and calculating. "Do not thank me. I owe your mother for taking her life. And if I am quite honest I had gotten tired of Morgana's constant plotting."

She turned to leave.

"Wait!"

Arthur got hastily to his feet. She turned to face him once more.

"Can you help me get my father back?"