Chapter Text
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The darkness was becoming.
The ground was hard and felt icy, despite the dryness. The human sitting on it had shivered in that wintry cold, white surrounding eir on that boardwalk. The road was out of sight, none would notice the lost wanderer as e found limbs became too heavy to move.
Everything was so much.
The worldly adult felt full of sand, becoming slower and slower, like water was rising from the freezing cold lake to find them. Get up. Get up or you die. Came a weary thought as eir shivering stopped.
The human could not rise, but the waters and the darkness seemed to. Slowly, even the weight on eir chest felt too much. The darkness pressed in. Why didn't anyone believe me? Why did I deserve it? Why couldn't anyone help me? Came one last lucid thought. I'm… sorry I couldn't hold on… Annie-
The numb nothingness reigned.
Then the nothing became. It grasped the soul, holding it close in inky black hands.
Are you a god? Thank you for holding me. I am so happy that you came for me.
There is a second chance that can be offered. New life. Justice to be served.
You'd do that for me? Why?
There is a price, a burden you would take in return. Your original body or name cannot be restored, but something else can.
I'd live? Okay. I'll take that burden.
The name you will find, the true name; keep it close to your heart. It is a powerful magical tool.
That makes sense. Okay. What should I do?
Wake up, little one and live.
I'll try. That's all I can promise.
The human was no more. Metal was under eir back. Strange sensations returned, still feeling heavy in new ways, a shape alien and strange flexing fingers and a set too many of arms and hands. Eir head felt heavy, eir throat felt thick with thirst, e could feel something pulsing in eir body and the soft rhythmic beat of a heart that beat a slightly different tempo.
Too many legs. Same amount of eyes, eir hearing seemed to be good and e could smell the dank wetness of where e was. It wasn't as cold anymore but the metal and surrounding air was fairly cold. Water lapped against the shore.
For a moment, e thought e was simply hallucinating, feeling a flat, slight chest under those strange hands, clawed at the end yet carefully blunted? E also felt a dress or robe on eir shoulders. E groaned out and rolled over, opening eir eyes. Black sand and metal. Eir hands were mostly white, with blackened claws and fingers, grey chasing up eir otherwise pale arms. E pulled eirself tiredly up to the edge of the metal pier. "Wh… what… where am I?" E whispered.
The little bit of ambient light illuminated eir new face-in fact, the light emanated from eir very own self dimly. A mask-like face or masked face looked from the water's reflection, crownlike horns rising from eir head and black pits that were supposedly eyes looked back at eir. E felt at eir face, eir new horns.
"Oh, shit. I'm the Pale King. Oh fuck. When am I? Has there been-!?" E got up in a panic, anxiety driving eir away from the shore to check the grounds. The deep, dark depths told eir all e needed to know:
E was in the Abyss, a place uniquely dangerous to anyone not a vessel or void-touched.
The ground was littered with broken stones, some that looked mask-like but no little masks. No egg shards. "No vessel babies." E whispered aloud. "It's before that happened. What am I going to do?! I don't know how to be a king! I don't know how to be a god! Am I even a god right now? This is so messed up." The reborn began to pace rapidly. "What am I going to say? What can I even do? I can't pretend to be the Pale King! Do I run away? No.. no, I can't do that!"
E went back to the pier and looked at the water. An idea occurred to eir. E reached into the water. "Void is thought to empty and erase, isn't it?"
E noticed this time that eir robe looked ragged and black. "What even happened to the old wyrm? Did the bastard trip and fall into the black sea!?" E pondered, half-hysterical. "Wouldn't that be ironic!"
E cupped the water. "Um… I pray, Lord of Shades, take pity on me and allow me to take what I need, so that I may live. I don't know if you still live but I hope you do. You're really cool and beautiful. Thank you for your refuge. If you do not wish me to drink of the black sea or to be here, please grant me a sign. I pray for mercy and for your wellbeing. I hope… I hope for your happiness." E prayed. "So mote it be."
E daubed the water at eir eyes and the mouth parts under the mask. E was terribly thirsty and the void water was all there was. When it didn't seem to burn or do anything wrong, e took a little bit of a drink. E coughed a little at its strange taste, but it did the trick of satisfying eir thirst. "Thank you, Lord of Shades. For your shelter and the drink." E prayed after the drink.
It was only polite, it was their domain.
The stranger began to pace and flexed eir back muscles. Wings stretched out and lifted them off the ground. "Right… I. I can fly. That's… really cool." E set back down on the ground and set hands to their head. "...why was he here!? Oh, right… the… infection…" E cursed. "I have to fix that. That's the burden that the god probably meant."
E took a moment before realizing fully. "I have to solve the infection!? How am I supposed to do that?! I'm a witch, not even a god! I wasn't even a terribly good Wiccan!"
Panic took hold of the wyrm again and e curled up in a ball and began to weep loudly. This wasn't eir fight! This wasn't eir body! There were sounds from above and e winced as two came, bearing bright lanterns that kept away the cold of the Abyss. "Who are you!? What do you want?" E demanded in fear of the two lights, cowering and hissing at the approaching strangers, trying to contain the sobs that threatened to come out.
The taller of the figures lowered her lantern, double set of antennae and long 'hair' tickling eir memory. Wait… that enormous sword… it looked like the grave for…
"Me'led grace? 'che does not look well. See how 'che weeps the black." Came a beautiful, strong voice.
The other lowered her lantern, a face of leafy green now visible. "...your majesty? It's us, your knights Ze'mer and Isma. Are you feeling alright?"
E stepped out cautiously. "You are… knights?" E sounded nervous but the day caught up fast.
The Pale King tipped over in a dead faint.