Work Text:
CAW!
Vax lurched upright out of sleep, gasping for breath. The nightmare that had once again plagued him still swirled in his thoughts. Vex, dead, limp. A shadowy figure approaches. He hadn't had a good night's rest in forever, it seemed. Hands shaking, he wiped the sweat from his face.
Caw!
Startled, Vax's eyes leapt to the window. It was open and there was a raven sitting on the windowsill, looking at him. The window shouldn't be open. He had started closing the window out of fear of this very situation.
Suddenly, the raven sprang toward him, appearing to burst into a storm of black feathers. Vax held up his hands to protect his face as the feathers swirled around him. Everything went dark.
The darkness broke as the feathers spun away, reforming into a raven sitting upon an altar. The raven still stared at him.
Vax was not in his bedroom anymore. Quickly glancing about, despite the lack of lit lanterns or candles, Vax quickly saw that he was standing in a temple. Based on the raven motif, he could easily figure out whose.
“Your nightmares disturb me.”
From behind the altar, a shadow approached, resolving into the figure of the Raven Queen. She was adorned with black, feather-covered robes. Her hooded face was somehow blurred, indistinct; just like in the tomb. Her pale hand reached out and stroked the raven, which turned to her and pressed against her hand.
And here I am in my bedclothes. No knives, no armor, no cloak. Just great. Vax positioned himself defensively. “What do you fucking want, bitch?”
Still petting the raven, the goddess rocked the index finger of her other hand back and forth at Vax. “Now, now – language.” Surprisingly, the Raven Queen's voice did not sound like the rough cry of a raven, or the scraping of tombstones, or rusty door hinges. It was – soft, melodious, soothing even. “I have invited you to speak with me so many times. Each time you have refused my request.”
“You mean those ravens that sit on rooftops or in trees and squawk at me? Yeah, I tried to ignore them.” Vax wanted to look for a way out, but he didn't dare take his eyes off of the Goddess of Death. Vax slowly backed up, hoping he would spot something in his peripheral vision.
“Why won't you speak with me, Vax?” The Raven Queen sounded – hurt?
“You know why!” Vax screamed at her, putting all of his fear, his anxiety, his hopelessness, his brokenness into his voice. “I! Will! Not! Kill! For! You!” Vax stood there, shaking.
The raven jumped at Vax's exclamation. Soothing the raven, the goddess said, “There is no need to fear me, Vax.” Sighing, the Raven Queen moved around the altar. “Night after night, you dream of how I have ruined, and will continue to ruin, your life.”
Vax began to back up again. “Because you killed my sister, forcing me to make a deal with you! And you want me to be your assassin, instead of killing me like I expected you to!” Vax bumped into the back wall. Apparently this altar room was quite small. And without any obvious doors.
The Raven Queen moved closer. “First, I did not kill your sister. Your friend, Percy, did when he set off that necrotic energy trap. The trap was there to keep fools and the undeserving from acquiring a very powerful artifact. My artifact. The trap was made in my name, to protect my artifact, using magic gifted by me to shape necrotic energy. But the necrotic energy was not mine. I do not own necrotic energy. No god or goddess does. It just exists. I did not set the trap, I did not trigger the trap. I did not kill your sister.” The goddess stopped approaching, just out of reach.
Trapped, Vax shook even more. “Then why were you there?”
“Well, it was my temple and the tomb of my greatest champion. And, I am at every death. I am the Goddess of Death. Death is my domain.” The goddess made no other movement. She just stood there, looking at Vax with blurred eyes. “I have been at every death you have caused. At every death of a loved one, I was there.” Her voice was soft, compassionate.
“Speaking of deaths you have caused, you have been an assassin before. Why does it trouble you now?” The goddess's head tilted to the side in question.
“I… I'm trying to change.” Vax's voice was broken. “I don't want to be that any more.”
The Raven Queen's head nodded. “Your morals have shifted and plague you with guilt. And you are trying to be worthy of your love, Keyleth.” The goddess turned to inspect the decorations on the wall. “It may surprise you to learn that I approve of this change.”
“W-what?!”
The goddess nodded again. “I approve of this change. It should lead to a more fulfilling life for you.” She turned her head back to Vax. “And I want my champion to have a good life.”
Shocked, Vax stood with his mouth gaping.
The Raven Queen picked up a raven-themed bauble in her hand, turning it to look at it better. “As for assassination, I'm not going to have you to go kill everyone in a village or town. I'm not about wholesale slaughter.”
“But...! But, you're the Goddess of Death! You want to cause death! To everybody!” Vax couldn't believe what he was hearing.
The Raven Queen sighed, put the bauble back in its place, and turned to Vax. “And now we come to your central misunderstanding about me. I really wish you had visited my temple in Vasselheim. My priests would have explained it to you long ago.
“Kashaw's goddess wife, Vesh, is determined to kill all life, for a reason only she knows. She is a goddess of indiscriminate, reckless massacre. But she is not the Goddess of Death.
“I am the Goddess of Death. I maintain and guard the boundary between life and the various afterlifes the gods and goddesses have established. I am at each death, where I carefully and compassionately collect the soul and escort it to its afterlife. I established the rules for resurrection, limiting it to only so long after the body has died, so that the soul doesn't return to a too-far-decayed body and endless pain. I do not seek to cause the death of anyone.
“Well, almost anyone. Undeath is an anathema to me. It violates the boundary of death and can pull souls from their afterlife, tearing and shredding them, and force them into pain-filled servitude.” The Raven Queen's voice was resonant with anger.
“Necromancy and those that practice it or promote it, are what I fight against.” The goddess pointed her finger at Vax. “I am disappointed that you did not try to stop that blue dragonborn necromancer, Gern.” She sighed. “But you did not know. Next time you meet Gern, kill him.
“That is what I want you for. To stop necromancy and kill those that practice it. Necromancers, undead like vampires and zombies, and followers of Orcus, the Demon Prince of the Undead, I want you to end them all. When you fought and killed the Briarwoods, you were doing the kind of work I want you to continue doing.
“You've already been doing the work. I just want you to do it in my name, so I can give you better weapons, powers, and protections while you do it – make you better at it.”
She paused, gauging his reception of her words, then continued. “And I am not in favor of mass murders. In this, I oppose Vesh and that Chroma Conclave. I usually don't care how or why people die. Or even how many people die in a particular incident. Only that death's boundary stays intact. I try to stay neutral.
“But those that kill so many, in such huge numbers, threaten the balance of death. If everything died, there would be no reason to maintain the boundary of death. My domain would disappear. With nothing left to die, death would cease to exist. In order to protect my domain, I must protect the majority of the life that helps define it.
“Also, such wanton death seems to breed necromancers. With so much death, and so many dead about, somehow people suddenly see a resource and use the dead, now undead, for their own ends. This must be stopped, so the killers must be stopped.
“In this task, I permit you to use my armor. I will allow you to use my gifts for the purpose of stopping the Chroma Conclave. Just remember that I have first claim on your effort and time, similar to how Sarenrae has claims on your friend, Pike. If you come across, or near, necromancy, I will demand that you take care of it then and there. You are my servant now. But, I won't be a horrible master.
“Those are my conditions of our agreement, why I didn't take your sister's soul across the boundary of death. If you do not accept my conditions, I can kill you now - do the bargain as you had originally envisioned it: take your soul and leave hers. Or, you can live and help me fight the evil of necromancy, and maybe save your world. The choice is yours.”
Vax stared at the Raven Queen, reorganizing his thoughts. She didn't want him to be an indiscriminate killer. She wanted him to be her champion, fighting against necromancy. This wasn't anti-life, as he had feared. She wasn't anti-life! This – this he could live with. He had hoped he could align himself with Sarenrae, like Pike, whom he respected greatly. But, this wasn't bad, wasn't evil. He could do this.
Very aware that he was standing before a goddess, Vax dropped to one knee and bowed his head. “I accept your conditions, my goddess, my queen. I will be your champion. Forgive me for my confusion and misunderstanding. I am just beginning to comprehend, but if you will have me, I am yours.”
The Raven Queen reached out and cupped Vax's cheek, lifting his head. Vax didn't even flinch. “I am proud of you, my champion,” she said in her soft voice. Vax now realized her voice needed to be soft and comforting because she used it to calm the recently dead souls that she escorted to their afterlifes. “You faced your fears admirably and were still open to new thoughts. Your mind was not closed in your fear. You are flexible in thought, adaptable in spirit, yet can be resolute in purpose. You will make a fine champion.
“Now go, rest.”
With the goddess's words, Vax was enveloped in black feathers and darkness again.
The darkness broke apart into feathers that flowed into the form of a raven on his bedroom windowsill. The raven nodded to Vax, then flew off.
Vax was exhausted. That had been terrifying at the start. But, as he began to understand, hope blossomed. And with hope, the spinning thoughts in his mind had settled. Vax climbed into bed and quickly fell into an deep sleep, undisturbed by worries or nightmares.
You could say that he slept like the dead.