Chapter Text
The cave was cold, dark and harsh, much like a cell.
Viren shifted his weight uncomfortably against the stone wall in which he was supported, the rough sensation made his resented muscles ache, a reminder of his actual situation. Slowly, he opened his eyes, unable to rest. He hadn't been able to sleep since his daughter brought him back from the dead. A reasonable thing to keep him awake—
He had died.
It was everywhere around him. The broken crown still tainted with his blood. His clothes dirty with red stains contrasting the white fabric to emphasize how low, how broken.
Looking at his hands, Viren thought bitterly about how the room he occupied in his brief period as King never gave him any rest, just like a prison and the place where he hid. The more things change, the more they don't.
But he had died. And Viren could feel it on his bones— The absence of poison, the intoxicating power he learned to take to himself from the pulse of others. Such a little price to pay, Viren had thought of it. As if they didn't eat meat every day. His vitality had seemed cheap compared to the benefits. For the kingdom. For humanity.
It felt as if a whole life had lapsed in seconds.
Death wasn't only present in the absence of the damage dark magic did to his body. He could feel death creeping in every empty corner of that cold cave, crawling over him, manifesting in the shape of dispersed memories, coming back to his mind almost randomly.
He was a scholar, a man of study and endless lectures. Viren knew things didn't happen without a reason. He fell. He died. And now he was there, with every inch of his body aching, but alive.
The thought formed itself shapelessly on his mind when he lifted his head. In front of him, Aaravo's coccus emitted a dim purple light. It was almost relaxing.
Viren took a deep breath. Air filling his lungs, his chest rising with it. The pain was also a reminder. He wasn't the kind of person who would only mourn about his failures. He was used to frustration eating him from inside out, but he always did something with it. With the rage, the ache, the rightful indignation. But also with the loss, loneliness, and desperation.
Claudia was about to arrive after an afternoon searching for food and water. The cave was dark enough for him to not know if the sun was up, but it made no difference. Viren could perfectly imagine Aaravo's voice telling him to get up and look presentable. It made him smirk.
It was time for him to stand up.
Claudia came back with clean clothes, bread, and fruits. It wasn't much, but Viren wasn't in any position to complain. Imprisonment had toughened him up.
"This will make you feel better, dad," Claudia said, offering him the new clothes and a tired smile. The bags under her eyes and the strands of white hair talked about a weariness impossible to describe.
Viren didn't know how to address it. There was so much to talk about, but he could only nod weakly and accept what his daughter offered him. He wasn't sure if there existed any words to speak about what happened while she was alone with his mangled body, doing the impossible to bring him back.
Claudia looked at him for a second, moving her hands anxiously without knowing if it would hurt his pride, even more, to assist him.
He didn't ask for help to get up, calculating every one of his movements from leaning towards the wall to gain impulse to walking towards a more private place in the small, damp cave.
In the end, she just waited, peeling apples illuminated by the cocoon's faint light.
"I will need something to trim my beard," Viren said, appearing from behind the rocks with what looked like a much more casual outfit, a long cape covering his shoulders. The hair messy and his beard untamed.
"It looks good on you, dad. You know... from someone coming back from—" She couldn't finish the sentence, instead Claudia gave him an awkward smile, instinctively moving the white hair behind her ear.
"It could be useful. After all, we are fugitives now." Viren answered, the voice rough, making a noticeable effort to make it sound natural.
Silence installed itself between them, cold like the stones under their feet. They were fugitives. He had lost. It was too obvious to be a good metaphor, and yet there he was, at the end of the fall.
All they could do was to keep moving forward. That's what they always did. After the divorce, after every one of Viren's failures and losses. Even after the first deaths struck them. Queen Sarai, King Harrow— And now, his son's betrayal and his own fall added to a growing list.
Claudia looked at him searching for reassurement as little kids did while tugging their parent's sleeves. If there was something she knew for sure, was that Viren always had a second plan. Since she was little, her father's knowledge and confidence were a constant in her life. In Soren's life.
What could a dead man offer? He thought. But she was still his little girl, so he cleared his throat and spoke.
"I'm sure you know that our situation is precarious at best. I still need to recover my strength and you also need to rest. Also, we will be executed if found."
"That's not alarming at all." Claudia tried to laugh a bit, the sound hoarse and forced, her smile resigned. She knew that after what they did, there would be no forgiveness.
Viren wasn't interested in something so cheap as forgiveness. It was easier for Katolis to ignore politics turmoils with centuries of history than to understand his reasons.
"It shouldn't be. We still have something they don't." Viren's gaze fixated on the glowing cocoon that had been developing in front of their eyes for the past days, a company they became accustomed to.
Claudia followed his eyes and made a knowing noise. Finally, she whispered.
"I think it's time for you to tell me more about your little bug pal, dad."
"Yes, it's time. Sit and listen, Claudia."
At first, Claudia was hurt her father didn't tell her about the secret of the mirror before. They were working together to decipher its mysteries for such a long time, the fair thing was for her to know about the shiny elf too.
But after the King's fall, everything had been chaos. A fast succession of events that left no place for explanations. Or that's how Viren justified keeping Aaravos' existence as a secret.
It didn't matter anymore. It was enough they had an ace under their sleeves. The tingling sensation of relief of still having a father to get mad at was also there, even after days of coming to terms with what they did and where it left them.
They didn't talk about the resurrection or its price. Not a word about bent bones or other broken things. It was only about what was next. Both of them knew wounds closed themselves if you leave them alone, even when they don't.
Viren had the advantage of his presumed death. Claudia was a fugitive and Aaravos an existence nobody still alive knew about. They were ghosts, and that's how they would have to move forward.
"So, we will wait for him to hatch or whatever it is that shiny elves do?"
"Yes, I think that's the most sensate thing to do."
"Because you are a pragmatist, right."
"That's right, Claudia."
"Nothing more?"
"I have no idea what are you suggesting."
Claudia arched an eyebrow, doubt showing on her expression, but she decided to drop the topic and focus on her next revitalizing potion. Viren was grateful for it because he wasn't so sure anymore what was about pragmatism and what was about his repressed desires.
With a heavy sigh, he thought that it was the first time he accepted it. The desires were there, buried deep within what was left of his heart, but there.
It must have been a heavy fall.
The decision was made. That cave would be their hideaway until the right time. It was only fair to wait for Aaravos after everything he did for him, Viren didn't tell Claudia about that thought, maybe the first kind action made in a long time.
But it was also about pragmatism. Viren kept looking at the humanoid form in front of him, his faint glow covering the stone walls, the pale rays of light touching his body. Who knew what would he be capable of outside of his captivity. They couldn't just leave him there. It was a strategic move.
Claudia hummed a song Viren recognized as the old lullaby he and his ex-wife would sing to her to sleep. It was a soothing sound and with it, he closed his eyes again.
It was obvious what Viren's sleep would be full of. A normal reaction. Dreams about falling to oblivion without ever touching the ground, absorbed in the never-ending darkness. It didn't come as something new.
There was also the memory of him trying to reach the weird purple creature while falling, what a weird thing to do before dying.
He recognized the feelings that crushed his chest. Viren realized that the desperation, rage, and fear he felt while falling to his inexorable death were things he had felt many times before. Just pieces by pieces.
Viren discovered dying wasn't as painful as living.
A part of his consciousness scoffed bitterly. What a coward Harrow had been back then, choosing to die with his untouched pride that weighed even more than the crown, instead of living stripped of it, as Viren discovered he was now.
Life was painful indeed. But he refused to choose death.
With that thought in mind, Viren opened his eyes. Nothing had changed. The cocoon pulsing in front of them and Claudia mixing herbs and bugs at his side.
"Good morning, dad. Or should I say good night? I have no idea what time is inside of this ugly place," she said smiling, still tired but her strength was unparalleled. Viren was equally proud and worried.
"Time doesn't matter. But you should double the amount of moth powder, the effect will last more."
"Do you still remember how...?"
"Of course I do. That's the thing with dark magic, daughter. They can't take the knowledge from you. Not even death can do that."
He remembered spells, potions, and dark magic theory, but didn't feel the traces of it on his body to recreate every charm. It was disconcerting, like being naked with the cold wind against his skin, but it cracked no more.
It was always insulting when people talked of dark magic being a shortcut as if he didn't study for years to know every procedure, every right ingredient and amount of life force it would require to do a certain spell. Nights he spent awake for the good of the kingdom. To help Harrow. For humanity.
That's why now, stripped of the intoxicating power once flowed through his veins and even deeper, without the power he breathed into his lungs, he still had his knowledge.
His fingers moved absently, the wounds on his skin still fresh under the bandages but different from the lingering marks he used to wear before the fall.
Viren was certain Aaravos would have an answer, he would just have to wait.
What a dependant man had he become, he thought while looking at his daughter mix ingredients for another potion, illuminated by the purple bright of what otherwise would be a completely dark cave.
It happened suddenly. In an instant.
From the cocoon, a liquid drop. Something that looked like a melted galaxy. Stars dripping from his skin, washing away the darkness from the cave.
Neither Viren nor Claudia could make any sound, their eyes fixated in what was happening just in front of them. Forgetting everything they were doing before.
An unexpected flash blinded them long enough for him to emerge. The same way stars are born, naked and majestic. Surrounded in mystery and magic. A bit terrifying, too.
With that unknown substance covering his bright body, Aaravos looked like something from another world. Even Xadia was too earthly for him.
Nobody moved for the seconds Aaravos took to adjust himself in front of them. The electrifying sensation of magic older than time filled the cave. Viren was sure Claudia could sense it too, how the universe itself shifted with Aaravos' presence.
How, despite the stars and the galaxies forming before their eyes, something was suddenly off just because he walked on this earth again.
Viren remembered the initial disgust he felt when the purple creature crawled on top of him, how eventually he became used to the sensation always pulsing against his ear. Xadia would also have to accustom to the sensation.
With a paused movement of his hand, Viren stopped Claudia from touching the substance that covered the cave's floor. She made a disappointed noise but kept her fingers away from it. Viren wished he could be more disturbed than fascinated by the view.
In the center of the cave, still illuminated by the pieces of the now broken cocoon and in the middle of a pool of stars, Aaravos stretched like a languid cat. His long hair felt in waves against his body, touching the floor in which he sat lazily.
The seconds Aaravos took to finally open his eyes were a whole lifetime to Viren. He was sure his heart was no longer beating so that the sound wouldn't disrupt the scene.
And then, like the first start that fell from the sky, he spoke:
"And beware not to lift up your eyes to heaven and worship the stars."
"Or what?" Viren defiantly interrupted, possessed by his own curiosity.
"Or I will appear," Aaravos answered, a sly smile across his face.
Suddenly the cave felt colder. But also it felt enormous.