Chapter Text
She sensed him again, the little human that took regular solace within her territory. Ever since she first became aware of him, she'd taken to resting in the Chamber instead of her own nest on the other side of the lake.
Auszet, Queen of All Serpents —Once Matriarch Of The Ehnouc Basilisks and Former Companion to Salazar Slytherin— lifted her head from her resting place and allowed her senses free reign throughout the Chamber and beyond.
Humiliation was his foremost emotion. Then hate, born of the accompanying anger. Loneliness, so ingrained into his being, the young human no longer recognised it as such. And that erroneously labelled human —injury?— called a 'broken heart', derived from the now overused and misrepresented sentiment known as love.
It was the loneliness and the… love… that drew her to the young human. Though it aggrieved her to use that insipid word, it was the shortest way for her to express such sentiments to a human.
Our Souls Are One In The Darkness, Ignited Is Our Mating, or Bond, according to whom you were speaking, didn’t quite roll off the tongue as beautifully as it does in Serpent Whispers — known as Parseltongue to wizards.
The vow was considered a mouthful to humans and would be even longer in her native tongue. She considered this fortunate, as it couldn’t be tossed about like some consolation prize as humans are wont to do.
Auszet had been alone and estranged from her kind for a long time. Many centuries ago, when she'd still been Matriarch of the Ehnouc Basilisks and barely named Queen of All Serpents, Salazar Slytherin had walked into her newly inherited nest. Unafraid, his eyes and mind open to her.
Never had a basilisk —Common, Queen or Matriarch— been the Companion of a wizard. Well, except for that one time many millennia ago, but never again and for good reason. It had been expected of her, as a basilisk, to kill the upstart human, and as Queen Matriarch to rule her den and the world of serpents as is customary and expected for their kind.
The bond between companion and wizard, though, had been instant and unbreakable. The moment her den mates knew of her choice to accept the human, she was quickly stripped of her title as Matriarch and banished.
They'd tried to take her status of Queen as well, but this was a choice made by a higher power that the Serpent World had no say in. However, there was the rogue group —established from her old den— that chose to name a new Queen in her stead, in defiance of The Great Being.
Auszet thought of her home in the Mountains more than two thousand miles away to the southeast, and for the second time, she felt a connection with the young wizard in their shared exclusion. Though, how his loneliness could be so deep-rooted at such a young age? Auszet didn’t yet know, and she ached for the little human.
It happened then, suddenly! Painfully!
The Queen slumped in her resting place and shook her head with a cry of distress, but nothing would chase away the vast amount of images that bombarded her mind's eye at that moment. It had been many years since the last time her gift had activated without her aid, and Auszet had been unprepared. Equally unexpected was the knowledge now flooding her entire being.
Suaxaash…
The images ended, and Auszet gasped for breath as she slowly but steadily regained her strength and balance. Slowly, the Ancient Queen felt stirrings of hope and wonder. Centuries ago, the unforeseen had happened and Auszet had become Salazar's Companion. Now, something equally unpredictable and rare had occurred again.
The boy would become Suaxaash… her chosen one, her Counterpart. Just as The Great Being had inscribed ages gone.
‘ ... and the two will be The One Vessel.’ — Myrrdin Emrys
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Oh, Great Being's fuzzy face!
She'd almost killed her Counterpart!
Auszet gently released the boy of solid-stone from her mouth. She placed him on Salazar's long-abandoned bed in the cavernous room, connected to the rest of the Chamber. Salazar had never been affected by her eyes, and she'd assumed that the same would apply to Suaxaash.
Settling into the shallow pit of her resting place —some distance from the bed that was on a raised surface— the Queen guarded her Petrified Counterpart as she contemplated what to do. The plan had been to inform the young wizard of his new role; to teach him, guide him to becoming Suaxaash—The One. That was going to be impossible if she couldn't even look him in his eyes.
Unless…
Her gaze took in the room. Once a retreat, now turned assigned post —forced upon her by Salazar's very first heir— and a prison for a long time. The round room was lined with packed bookshelves that hugged the curves of the wall.
The ceiling had made her time spent in the room bearable for a few hundred years, as Salazar had enchanted it to look like the sky outside when he'd created the Chamber.
On the other side of her resting spot was another raised dais; a Potions station curved along the edge of her resting spot for a few feet, and a cupboard full of potions was tucked in between two bookshelves against the wall behind the counter.
Auszet knew that one of those potions was the cure for her Counterpart, but an idea so intriguing, and was likely something the young wizard might not agree to, had formed as she looked around. Her vision —more likely, their shared destiny— had been the catalyst that had provoked her into approaching the boy.
This was the only way… but, she would respect her Counterpart’s wishes if he refused her request.
Auszet closed her eyes and in the middle of her forehead, just before her horn-like ridges, a reptilian eye appeared and glowed a bright white. It was time she spoke with Suaxaash.