Work Text:
It wouldn't be quite right to call the sensation he felt hunger. The feeling wasn't isolated to his stomach, and he could tell that no amount of food would alleviate it. There was an emptiness inside him, cold, numbing, and growing ever larger. It gnawed at his senses, left him aching for something, anything, that would fill the stagnant void in his chest, in his mind, in his soul.
As he adjusted to this overwhelming, unnameable absence, he gradually became aware of his surroundings again. Making sense of them was another matter. It had been bright out before, but now everywhere he looked, the light was blinding. He squeezed his eyes shut, but his eyelids did nothing to block out the light. He rose to his feet, stumbling his way through the searing brightness.
He didn't know how long he spent like that. He tried at first to count his paces, to time his journey by the gentle thud of his footfalls. But that clawing emptiness distracted him, overwriting his thoughts with nothingness, hollowing out his mind along with the rest of him.
He could scarcely believe it when he finally saw something silhouetted against the light. A tangle of colors danced and swirled in a tight bundle a few feet off the ground. As he came closer, he felt the air around him shift, charged and alive around this new something in front of him.
Instinctively, he felt that this was the answer. If he could just reach out and take it, gorge himself on it, it might soothe the aching nothing inside of him. He pushed himself to walk faster, closing the gap between himself and the shape that tantalized him. He broke into a frenzied sprint. Closer. Closer. So close. He reached out an arm to grab at the shifting flurry of color and felt his hand sink deep into something solid and warm. A familiar voice cried out, gasping in pain and shock.
"B-… B'dum?"
That was his name, wasn't it? The colors dissipated, and he felt an energy flood into him, tingling, warm. For a brief moment, the aching emptiness abated, and his vision cleared. He saw his arm, glowing and brilliant, half-buried in the chest of a young elezen. His eyes widened in horrified recognition. Alphinaud.
"I'm sorry… we couldn't save you…" he sputtered.
B'dum tried to speak, to apologize, but all that came out was a twisted, anguished wail. Alphinaud's body went slack against his, still warm, but fading fast. B'dum held him close, shuddering under the weight of what he'd just done.
As quickly as the light had receded, it suddenly came flooding back across his field of vision. Bright, white nothingness engulfed him, and he felt that blank void spreading inside of him again. The brief moment of relief that Alphinaud's aether had bought him was already over. Already he needed more. Already he knew nothing would ever be enough.