Chapter Text
Erin woke up to an itch at the back of his brain. He scrunched his eyes before wearily opening them, confused at his sudden wakefulness.
"Good morning Erin" The void dragon spoke into his head.
Erin sighed deeply, and then whispered into his empty stone tent "Let me guess, there's a cave opening nearby that you'd be remiss to let slip by?"
"You always were an astute boy. It would be best if you could go back to sleep"
"You know fully well that that's not an option" Erin strained as he got out of bed, and started digging through his bag for some kind of blanket or his thermos of hotbrew. He pulled the blanket around him and left the tent into the frigid desert night.
They were travelling through the Rauan desert, and the nights were almost as cold as the days were hot, so he was glad for the blanket and warm drink.
He sat down on the sandy floor, that was somehow both hard and soft, and idly and simply stared out at the endless rolling dunes, only scarcely visible from the gentle light of the moon, and occasionally sipped from his thermos…
"I'm not going anywhere. Not this time, not anymore" The void dragon piped up.
"Hmm, I gathered"
"Is your plan just to wait me out then?"
"What else?"
"Fine. Let us see who falters first."
"…"
An hour or so passed in complete silence, Erin simply staring into the darkness of night, thinking up new plans and pondering things he'd had previously shelved for a later date, all the while the Void dragon waited uneasily at the back of his mind.
"Why do you do this?"
"You're going to have to be more specific"
"Why do you hurt yourself simply to keep me at bay? Compliance would be blissful —"
"What other option is there? Your perfect nothing? Tch, no thanks. You would stop at nothing to enact your plans, I simply do the same to make sure you don't."
"I can afford to, I have the power and the time. You are much more fragile in comparison"
"Are you afraid I'll break myself before you get a chance to use me?
The void dragon chuckled, it reverberated inside Erin's skull strangely. He understands why though, if push came to shove the void dragon would probably puppet Erin's mangled corpse down to the caves if he had too.
The conversation lulled and Erin stared towards the sky, an endless pool of darkness and uncountable stars, the Void dragons one desire.
There are few things still beyond the understanding of Aseran mages and scientists, stars being one of them. If myth is to be believed, then they were present alongside the primordials , and so couldn't have been created with their souls like all else, and there's no way to reach them or even calculate how far they are…
When Erin looked at them, he saw endless floating question marks. When the void dragon looked at them…
"Are you still there?" He asked
"Naturally"
"May I ask a question?"
"You may"
"What do stars taste like?"
The void dragon hummed fondly "I thought it would be obvious"
"Not at all. I'm imagining something burning hot and dry"
"Then you really have no idea…"
The void dragon paused, seemingly in thought, then said
"They taste like endless warmth and comfort, as if the feeling of affection were distilled into a clear and perfect nectar. I think it tastes like love"
"Love? I didn't think you knew that emotion"
"Only like this"
Erin continued to stare above, and tried to imagine the taste… imagining it coating his mouth and dripping down his throat and lips. It's decadent and absolutely avaricious…
He thinks he understands the dragon a bit better now, and hopes he never tastes something like that…