Work Text:
Drowned into the thick fog, you walk, the cold biting through the rags you call clothing these days. Since you left, the sun should have risen but yet, you can’t see anything in the gray smog surrounding you. All you can do is hold the lantern higher and hope you haven’t lost your path.
You knew better than to get lost into the woods of the fey realm.
Thankfully, you finally get to your destination. In front of the large silvery gates of this manor, you stop for a second, taking your time to breath and focus. The task you planned on accomplishing will be no easy fit. And yet, you need it to work.
He is your only option.
It’s been a long time since you last saw him. The two of you were never even close to being in good terms, but you were putting all your hope on one thing :
He was one resentful son of a bitch. And, like you, he had been majorly fucked over.
All you knew from his current situation was gossip, little whispers stumbling bit by bit into your ear during your years of thralldom. You knew he was punished after his failure, a public humiliation like the court always loved, and that he ended up here, guarding an empty place that no one cared about, out of sight, out of mind.
You push open the gates, the sound of its creaking resonating through the early morning, and continue to make your way.
Even if you wanted more time to think, you couldn’t risk it, each second away from your position was more time for someone to discover you left. After all this time of planning your revenge, you weren’t about to get killed by a fey folk a little too kin on punishing his human servants.
Hurrying your steps, you’re glad to see the fog lift a little as you get closer to the building. The dark pavements under your shoes aren't the only thing in sight anymore, and you start to see what is around you. It’s a path through the forest, boarded by overgrown bushes and crumbling statues. You can’t help but wonder in what state he must be, to allow himself to live in such an unkempt place.
But losing everything could change someone. You knew that better than anyone.
Aradia warned you that you would end up losing yourself in your grief. But she was gone too, another victim of fey games.
In front of you, you finally see the form of a building through the mist. You heard about it, called a cottage by members of the court, but like everything owned by the Empress, it’s massive .
The walk is tedious, letting you all the time to think over the mistake you are about to commit. Sollux Captor, after every warning ever heeded to him, was about to make a deal with a fey.
It was the first thing your father told you, when he brought you and Mituna to this cursed place. Sure, he talked about all the rules, the way to protect yourself from the tricks the folks could try to play on you. But contracts were the most dangerous thing of them. It was an incredibly strong magic, capable of anything if the fey was powerful enough and the sacrifice big enough. It was a promise no one could break. A bound tying you to the whim of a member of the most cruel species there was.
Growing up in this realm, you had seen it in all its forms, the sadism they inflicted on others creatures or even among themselves. The art of trickery they would call it, the way they manipulated peoples, trapping them into impossible dilemmas, only to punish them in terrible ways when they would break some arbitrary, barely-implied rules. Ruining lives for their entertainment. Those sicks motherfuc-
You stop. It’s slight and discreet, hiding in the fog, but something is there.
Instinctively, your psionics crackles, ready to defend yourself. Since you lost all your protections, you had to use them more than before, and doing it had made it harder and harder to hide their true power. Another reason for you to hurry with your plan.
Red and blue lights spark around the lantern, flying it out of your hands, letting you explore your surroundings without moving places. But all you can see are the half-naked statues twinned in ivy on each side of the path, looking at you blankly with their empty granite eyes.
“I have to admit,” says a voice that you know too well, coming from the fog, “I was expectin’ a more impressive kind of burglar, not a malnourished human in rags.”
“I would be a shitty thief, coming inside using the front gate. Who was unlocked , just so you know.”
“C’mon, Sol’, we both know that place doesn’t need any other kind of protection when I am right there.” Eridan replies, his tone dripping with arrogance.
You hate to hear him again, his voice strange and entrancing, made to lure people away from their home, to lead them astray into his realm. But there is something slightly different about it though. Something’s wrong .
Looking through the gray mist, you feel uneasy. You should be able to see him easily, if he is as close as the sound of his voice lets you believe. But thinking back on all the rumors you heard, you wonder how true they were about the curse that plagued him. It was hard to imagine him different from the time you had known him.
When you met Eridan, you had already seen your fair shares of fey, slowly becoming familiar with the diversity of their appearance. From the cute and delicate wood nymphs hiding in the forest, to the hard corner of the stone giants bodies guarding the door, you thought nothing could surprise you anymore when you met the Empress and her Heiress. Their giant stature, their rows of teeth, their skins covered in slimy colorful scales, … The royal family was a terrifying yet fascinating sight.
You were still taken aback when you saw him.
Your father had explained to you how the myths and legends you heard about in the mortal realm were often inspired by a meeting with a member of the fey folk. Vampires, centaurs, sirens, harpy, … You had quickly made the parallels between the peoples you met there and all those creatures.
Seeing Eridan, you knew where the idea of angels had come from.
Ethereal, was the word you could come up with today to describe him, your vocabulary not being vast enough at the time of your meeting.
Most of the folks, you could tie their characteristics to earthly animals to make sense of their anatomy. Goat-man, horse-man and other animals-man. But even among them, Eridan seemed other, like he didn’t belong with them either.
He was light incarnate. From his eyes, like molten gold behind his cornea, to the radiance of his gilded skin. Even the freckles on his cheek were stars, lightning up his face even more. There was also something delicate about him, from the graceful slope of his nose, to the elegant curve of his pearly horns.
You were never interested in religion but you understood why people would worship angels. There was something captivating in the way his light would reflect on his copper hair or would illuminate the pairs of pure white wings on his back.
It was too bad that this holy appearance was hiding one of the most cruel members of the fey court.
“Funny, I thought that all your troubles came from the fact you weren’t good enough to protect something.”
His silence tells you that your words hurt him. Good. He still got his pride. You also feel proud of the fact that even after six years, you still knew how to ruffle his feathers.
“I don’t know what you tried to accomplish by comin’ here. But I suggest you leave, traitors are not welcome in the Empress domain.”
Biting back words that would compromise your whole mission, all you can do is a weak retort.
“I am not a traitor.”
Yet.
“But treachery flows through your bloodline, doesn’t it ?”
He is still as good as he used to be. Always had an eye for finding a sore spot to make you want to throw yourself at him. Trying to instigate a fight you both knew you weren’t able to win.
“Come on,” you laugh dryly, “I thought you were smarter than that. Do you really think my father was the mastermind they made him to be ?”
“Does it really matter ? Once the Empress told us he was the enemy, there was no hope left for him.”
You close your eyes for a second, trying not to fall into the terrible memories of that night.
But it’s hard not to think back of the cruel smile on the Empress’s face, as she called upon her court or the defeated expression of your father kneeled in the middle of the throne room. Time might have passed, but you still feel the weight of the handcuffs keeping you trapped, powerless, forced to watch that parody of a trial. And you remember the glee of the court, cheering when they listened to the details of the punishment of the Heiress’s killer.
Behind you, you heard footsteps through the grass, slowly making toward you.
This is not the time to wallow in sadness. You couldn’t do anything to stop it. But you could prevent another tragedy like what happened to your family.
You turn around, clutching the lantern in your hand. It's time to reveal your intentions to him and there are not many possible endings : either you leave with a vicious ally or he will kill you on the spot. In front of you, you can see a shape standing in the fog.
Slowly, you make your way to him.
“You’re right, once she decides something, there isn’t much to be done. That’s why I need your help. Eridan, I- ”You hesitate for a second before adding the unforgivable part, “I’m gonna kill the Empress.”
He bursts in incredulous laugh at the same time you finally shine your light upon him. And you can see his expression thorn between pity and amusement while you stare at him blankly, too stunned by what he looks like.
For a second, you had mistaken him for one of the statues, deceived by the ashen color of his skin. As if all light has been taken from him, Eridan has been washed out of all his colors, only felt in a state of unnatural gray-scale. Gone were the liquid gold of his eyes, replaced by deep pools of darkness.
There is something deeply wrong with it, all your magic senses telling you that the thing in front of you is aberrant. It makes much more sense now, his exile here. He wasn’t sent away, he was hidden on purpose. For someone who used to take so much pride in his looks, this was the worst thing that could have happened to him.
Once upon a time, you were curious about this weird pride Eridan had about his appearance and why you never saw anyone who looked like him. So, one day, walking in the garden with Feferi, you asked. Still new to this place, you didn’t knew how preciously guarded those kinds of stories were but you were lucky that she liked you enough, not asking anything back for this information.
She told you the tale of her birth, how her mother asked for each family of the realm to give her something precious, how everyone wanted to please the Empress from the Deep and Everything Above.
She told you about one person who wanted to please her more than anyone, a war general from an almost-extinct clan of incredible fighters, who had already proven himself to her when she conquered the realm but who yearned for more.
She told you of the child he had fathered, only to offer him to his Empress.
“Okay, but that doesn’t tell me why ED is such a bitch when I call him a pigeon, he comes from a pretty cool family, whatever.”
She shook her heard, looking at you like you were asking childish questions.
“You have to understand, he is trying to associate his family with greatness once more.”
“What do you mean ? You just said they were strong and great and incredible. ” You mocked, imitating the high tone of her voice.
“Not long after gifting us Eridan, his father was supposed to act as a diplomat for Mother, visiting a powerful fey. A man is known as the Lord of Chuckles.” You didn’t knew him at the time, not aware yet of his followers lurking around. They didn’t took your brother away from you yet. “But there, the general made a mistake, he deeply insulted his host and for that, he paid the price. So, the Lord ended his line.”
“Why did he kill them all ?” you asked, wondering about what awful crimes might have warranted such violence.
“He couldn’t make the Lord laugh.”
Knowing that, Eridan's insistence in making every one of his achievements known or the way he would try to assert his superiority, physical as well as magical, on every member of the court, you could understand where it all came from.
The sour expression on his face when people asked him for a joke also made a lot more sense.
You could almost have pitied him if he wasn’t spending his time trying to get you killed off, taking advantage of your ignorance of the fey realm.
Now, you did pity him. The man in front of you literally looked like a shadow of himself, all light gone from him, like his very essence was mourning the loss of Feferi. He had changed, it was obvious. Even as he laughs at you, you don’t see any trace of that fire that once animated him, just an underlying coldness that was at the antithesis of everything he was.
“I wasn’t aware your punishment included a loss of memory, Sol’. You were always stupid, but confessin’ your intent of commintin’ high treason to an Empress’s guard ?”, his smile twisted in disbelief as he starts to laugh again. “If you are looking for death, throw yourself into the sea. Don’t come to bother me with that responsibility.”
“Here I thought you would love the opportunity to finally get rid of little ol’ me. Really throwing a wrench into my plans, ED.”
He looks at you, like you’re a child speaking nonsense and you feel the familiar burn of anger pooling your stomach, face to face with the usual contempt the fey hold towards humans. They always think you are not smart enough, not understanding how the magic world works, not capable enough to fend for yourself..
You hate the fact that they are not totally wrong. After all, that’s why you need Eridan’s help.
“I want to make a pact with you,” you say with a hint of desperation you cannot hide, “I can’t do it alone, I need someone to buy me from my current master and to get me into the castle. And you’re the one who is gonna get me there.”
“A pact ? With me ? You have lost your mind Captor.”
He shakes his head, not looking at you anymore, ready to disappear back into the fog. If he thinks of leaving this conversation, you know exactly how to bring him back him.
“So, what ? You’re gonna let Feferi’s assassin walk freely ?”
“This is… a grave accusation.” Eridan says casually, but you notice how his wings twitches ever so slightly, a nervous habit he had when trying to concealed the truth.
“Weird, you would think a good and loyal Empress’s guard would deny it. How could it be possible for your great Empress to kill her own child. Come on, say it, how you can’t believe she could have done it.”
You can’t help the grin on your face. Those stupid fey and their inability to lie.
“What I believe doesn't matter.” And you got him, that’s it.
Eridan was a lot of things, but he wasn’t unaware. You weren’t sure how much he knew, but he was Feferi’s right hand man. Always sniffing around to discover plots and secrets that might put her in danger. You were never that good at playing the court’s game but if you were able to pick up the tension between the Empress and her daughter, he could too.
“Look, you’ve been festerin’ in anger for years, I get it. What happened to your family was unfortunate. But goin’ against the Empress…Forget about this madness.”
With one final look of pity, he turns around, swiftly diving back into the fog.
“Unfortunate ?!” you scream at him, following him away from the path. A bad idea, probably, but you’re too angry to consider the implication of following him into the woods bordering the property. “Accidents are unfortunate ! Diseases are unfortunate ! Disasters are unfortunate ! This was not !”
Your mind is blurred by emotions, filled with thoughts of your father turned into a husk of himself, an endless pit of magic for the Empress to draw from, and your brother, a shadow of who he was once, his mind scrambled into pieces by a careless fey.
How could these people be so cruel and have so little interest in the life they ruined ?
How could Eridan dare ignore you ?
“Stop this Sol’, this is unbecomin’. Even for you.”
Almost out of view, he barely gave you a glance over his shoulders, like he is above this. Like he is above caring for anything.
But you know this isn’t true. There was something Eridan always cared about.
“Was Feferi’s death unfortunate too ?”
He stops dead on his tracks.
“Don’t.” He warns you, his voice low.
“You're right, it’s not. Maybe it’s a good thing, she died.” You don’t believe a word of this, but the sight of Eridan looking at you with an horrified expression is too satisfying to stop. “She wasn’t fit to reign anyway. Too soft. Too weak.”
“Enough.”
“I’m just saying what everyone always thought. That’s why no one is mourning her but you. The only moron who loved her.”
You wonder how painful this must be for him. You used to wonder what he would do without her, a long time ago, when the idea of Feferi not being there was something you couldn’t fathom.
Sometimes, you still think about the day he became an official guard. A ceremony, serious and solemn, a rare sight in a place who place excess and entertainment above all. But pacts were no joking matters.
That day, Eridan didn’t look proud or arrogant. He was the perfect devout, kneeled and bleeding as he pronounced his vows in front of the Empress. But it wasn’t at her he was looking, eyes full of devotion and admiration.
My blood for my Empire. My life for my Empress.
Right now, he looks hurt. You want him to suffer even more.
“But you know what is funny ? You know what everyone is saying ? That you are the reason she died.”
“Really, did the fact I was cursed for my inability to protect her tipped them off ?” he snarls, his wings shivering in uncontrolled anger.
“No, no, you don’t understand. They say you conspired against her.”
Eridan staggers back in shock and you smile even more. This ridiculous theory is not even a lie on your part, just a gross misinterpretation of Eridan’s character that served you just right.
“Sounds logical, you couldn’t take her rejection anymore. Maybe she was even growing bored of your pathetic grasps for her attention, too preoccupied with her silly fights for better treatments of the humans in the realm. You were jealous of me, everyone could see it.”
“Shut up !”
“She was never gonna give you any chance. And you were too possessive and obsessive to let anyone have her but you.”
“Sollux !”
“So you knew what you had to do. You preferred her dead th-”
“I told you to SHUT UP !”
The schilling scream he lets out has nothing humane to it, it’s the roar of a beast about to strike, and strike he does. Next thing you know, you're being slammed against the tree behind you, one of Eridan’s hands wrapped around your throat.
Even if you are both the same size, you have the disadvantage of not being a supernatural beast with the strength to crush stone with your bare hands. So, there is not much you can do as you can already feel your throat bruising from the grasp of Eridan’s hand. Your psionics could help but the flash of a spark might be enough to convince him to snap your neck like a twig.
This isn’t the first time you two ended up in this position, but now, you don’t have the threat of Feferi’s sadness over your death to keep him in line.
So you’re stuck, waiting to see if you will die tonight, without even attempting to avenge your father.
Time seems to stretch as you look at Eridan's furious face. Even cursed, you can still pinpoint all the familiarity with the Eridan you knew. His too-sharp teeth as he snarls, his wings extended behind him in a display of threat, the quiver of his lower lips as he tries to control himself.
This isn’t the first time you consider that dying into the hands of such a pretty creature might be an acceptable way to die.
He let you go.
On the floor, you cough harshly, enjoying the enjoyable feeling of breathing again. You really don’t know how much you can miss that until it is gone.
“You are still the insufferable piece of shit you always have been.”
You don’t answer, still too busy wheezing and coughing.
“Sol’, you should go home.”
“Why-”, you flinch from the pain of your sore throat, “-why don’t you kill me ?”
Looking up to him, it’s like his burst of anger has taken his mask off. He doesn’t even try to hide his exhaustion, shoulders dropped in defeat. He looks almost fragile that way.
Now more than ever, you need to be careful, pity can’t make you forget who he is.
“I’m not interested in your death, neither by my hands or someone else. Just forget your ludicrous plans. Make deals, buy off your liberty and go back to the realm of mortals. Try to live a good life.”
Eridan turns away from you, his voice barely a whisper when he adds, “Fef’ would hate to see someone she liked suffer so much.”
“Yet, here you are.”
“What do you mean ?”
“Don’t you think you meant something to her ?” Even with his back turned, the slight tension of his wing betrays his emotions. “You’ve trapped yourself in here, wallowing in grief for all these years. Do you think that’s something she would have wanted for you ?”
“And you think she would prefer me to dive into an impossible revenge ?”
“I think she would be proud of you for fighting against the woman who has been ruining what should have been Feferi’s empire.”
Both of you stay silent for a minute, this conversation too personal for your usual interactions over the years. You don’t want to be vulnerable in front of him, but it’s the first time since everything happened that you can be truthful, that you have someone who gets it to talk to.
“I made a vow. I can’t harm the royal family. I’m bound to the Empress in ways you cannot comprehend.”
“Isn’t finding loopholes in contracts a thing fey loves to do ?”
You look up and he looks back, both of you grinning in mutual agreement.
You did it.
“I won’t be able to do much once we are there, will you be able to pick up the bulk of the work we need to accomplish ?”
“I’ll be fine. All I need is a little boost of my powers and some help navigating the court.”
Your psionics were already incredible, not that Eridan knew with how careful you’ve concealing them. But to get to the level of the Empress, a woman known for her proficiency with magic, a little help would still be necessary.
“I see, that's why you came to me, then. You know the rules, Captor, pact’s magic is only as strong as what you are willin’ to sacrifice for it. What will you give me ?”
Getting up, you think back of all the warnings you had growing up here. You know every way your words will be twisted to squeeze as much as possible from you. Nights and nights, you had thought about it, what you were ready to give to accomplish your goals. Looking at Eridan, one of the most cruel fey you knew, you were finally sure of what you will give.
“Myself.”
At these words, Eridan doesn’t even pretend to hide his bewilderment, looking at you like he never saw you before. This is the biggest sacrifice of them all, to give up yourself once your wish has been fulfilled. It’s also the most glorious reward a fey can get, the one every pact maker will seek for their entire life.
“Sol’, do you realize what this means for you ?”
For a second, you could almost believe Eridan was concerned for you, if you couldn’t read the burning want on his face. The last psionic in his possession, he couldn’t resist that.
“Help me and after that, you can do anything you want with me. Turn me into a husk or into your eternal servant. Trap my soul into a bottle or kill me on the spot. I need to stop her, I don’t care about what will happen after. I’ll give myself to you, body, mind and power.”
He extends his hand to you, slowly, and you can see his mind rushing through all the possibilities this pact will give him if you ever survive this.
You look at those hands, soft, delicate and capable of killing you in an instant. This was the last moment where doubt was allowed, the last time you could ever go back.
You don’t hesitate to shake his hand.
In the middle of the forest, the fog is lifting around you and you can feel that something has changed. An everlasting bond that won’t let you be free ever again. But you don’t care, either you will get your revenge or die trying.
“We have much to discuss, follow me.” Eridan says his voice laced with satisfaction, holding on the handshake just a few seconds too long.
You can finally as the sun is rising on the horizon so it’s easy to let Eridan guide you deeper into the woods.