Feast/Sleepless - tw: uuuuh body horror? A little. Gender affirming surgery mention
Everything was dark. Blacker than black. Shadows upon shadows, it was as if light itself had never penetrated the space. It hadn't had it? This was part of the void, filled with black, monstrous beings beyond Talah's worst nightmares. He could hear the skittering, but he felt it first. Dropped on his belly, they were slimy yet sharp, bulbus yet scurrying. They burrowed into his flesh, slipped under his skin, feasting on his insides and leaving a disease, a corruption behind.
"Javinth! Help-" Talah whimpered, hoarse from his own screams. Something bigger was pinning him down, sharp stabbed through his shoulder, slicing and peeling the muscle from his arm. The more he fought the heavier the feeling on his chest. Tighter. Cutting and cracking… ripping him open and squeezing down on his ribs until they oozed with bile that just as quickly turned into more tiny skittering blobs.
He couldn't breath. It hurt. More than it had all hurt before. More than training, more than dying. He didn't want to die. He didn't want to be corrupted. He just wanted to be himself he and had worked so hard to become himself. "Make it stop… Dad!"
Suddenly something gripped his shoulders. Something real had him making, equally suddenly, the corruption and darkness seem like illusions. The darkness started to fade, to grey, to warm light. Something comforting was calling him name.
"Talah!" Zaer's voice was stern with worry, but not without warmth, matching the grip he had on the boy's shoulders as he tried to rouse him from the first sleep his son had in days. The first sleep he'd managed to get the boy take since surgery. "Wake up." He ordered.
Talah complied with a sudden gasp of air and a sputtering cough after. He hurt. His chest was still tight, still felt like it was skittering, and chewed through, even now awake he could hear the scratching and clawing in the distance until Zaer spoke his name again; demanded his focus. "You're going to pull your stitches."
It had been three years since the last time he died, almost to the day. Three years of black out, medicated sleep. Three years of medicines and shifts in lifestyle. Three years, putting him nearly to eighteen, he should be able to handle trauma from his childhood. In order to get the results he wanted, he had to forgo the potions that kept the nightmares at bay, but after three long years, he was no more prepared for them than when he returned home.
Once Talah was aware of himself, his father, and wasn't going to try to lash out from his dreams, Zaer's hold on him relaxed and the quiet warrior gently brushed the boy's hair back from his forehead to also check his temperature.
"I'm okay… just another bad dream." Talah flopped back against his pillows with an exhausted sigh. He wasn't getting anymore rest, not this morning, and soon enough it would be time to change the bandages wrapping his new pecks and he had to blink back the internal horror that they would be covered on corrupted black veins. It was just a dream. "Coffee? … maybe pancakes? And bacon?" Talah offered big, pleading puppy eyes at his parent, not that he needed to as the old elf got up to start a new day a bit too early.
"Call for me if you need anything, no getting up until you're healed." Was all Zaer offered like he was one more precious whelp to raise and heal and not like he had spent the whole night nearly sleeplessly worried about Talah; watching over him knowing before too long he'd be all grown up and his job would be done.
The air around Javinth and Corandes was dark and thick with the power they channeled. It wasn't the first time they had done this together - but it was when Corandes planned to infect his test subject's guardian. Through the spell Javinth had caught only fogged glimpses over time. The hybrid elf-phoenix Corandes had ranted over had gone to Firelands. The exact reason wasn't known - Corandes was eager to believe it was because they were running scared but Javinth wasn't sure. Even through spellwork usually he could get a feel for someone's emotional state.
Not so with the ones on the other side of Corandes' spell. It was as if something was blocking him - his paranoia normally would have backed off just from that alone. Except the girl and her guardians seemed completely unaware of the tendrils of void Corandes had managed to hide at a soul deep level - mostly because he was channeling through a child himself. A girl whom Javinth had an unshakeable feeling of familiarity whenever he stared at her too long. It was something in the shape of her face, the way she frowned, even the shade of blue of her eyes. He just… couldn't put his finger on it.
Nor did it matter. Corandes needed her as a focal point, nothing more. Their spells didn't even affect her themselves. Javinth kept his mind and his power on their work. Zof was eager to see Corandes' plan through and the augmented power coursed through him, almost euphoric as he twisted it through Corandes' design.
"We have him!" Corandes crowed, triumphant as the surged of void went through the poor child on the other side and slid right through into her guardian. Zof's own joy echoed through Javinth and it was that moment as he traveled with the void power, urging it to hide the seed deep inside that the fog lifted just a moment.
A breathless, horrifying moment where he could see exactly who Corandes was after - and knew without a doubt his own blade had betrayed him. It wasn't their victim that had hidden himself from him. It was Zof.
He ripped himself from the spellwork - too late, much too late. "No - ! Zof, we had a deal!"
Corandes' voice rose but he wasn't paying attention to him anymore. He grasped at the dagger sheathed by his spine and ripped it from its enclosure. Fury and desperation raced through him in equal measure. "The one thing - the one thing I asked from you for decades was that we would leave my siblings out of it!"
'The opportunity was too good to pass up. We can't allow your sentiment for a brother who doesn't even know you to let this pass us by.' Zof sounded faintly annoyed and not at all apologetic. Not that Javinth had really expected it.
"It doesn't matter now," Javinth said, decision weighing him down. "You broke your end of the bargain so I - "
His voice let out mid syllable. His throat no longer moved no matter what he tried to say. Between one blink of Corandes moving toward him and another his vision went gray, then black. He recognized the symptoms - he was the one who sometimes did this to others. He could feel the mental box he had been neatly tucked into, obviously prepared ahead of time. The walls were seamless at first attempt - but there was always a weakness.
'You will do nothing when you're so emotional. You'll stay here until you've calmed down and are thinking rationally. If you believe ending our bargain is so simple as all that then you have not been paying attention my friend.' Zof left him with the mental equivalent to a pat on the head.
Javinth didn't have teeth to grit but the sensation was there, the emotional need to gather himself and lock down his fury still present. He didn't care what his blade said - he certainly wasn't going to stay well behaved in a box in his own mind. No matter how well crafted there was always a weakness.
Zof had taught him that.
It was not the kind of realization that led to feeling a lot of hope.
------------------
Zof'ethazel opened Javinth's eyes to find Corandes staring at him from several paces farther back than he had been last they had seen them. Trying a friendly smile only made the elf lean back and narrow his eyes. A smart one, this favored one of Yogg-Saron's. He spoke before Zof had quite remembered how vocal chords worked. "You're not Javinth."
"No, I've had to take over for him for awhile." Zof flowed to their feet, cocking their head as Corandes took a step back and glanced down to follow his gaze. Ah, right, the legs were used for that. Retracting the ever so helpful tentacles back inside they inspected Javinth's skin to see what gave the changed identity away. The runes on javinth's skin that were invisible the majority of the time were not in the visible spectrum but were - "glowing darkly" was an oxymoron but even the elven language had limits. Yet, that alone couldn't be enough. "How do you know I am not Javinth?"
"Besides the tentacles, the eyes, the fact your skin changed color there for a minute, and the light absorbing runes? Javinth's a fucking priest. Of the void, sure, but he feels like a priest. Belief, faith, the power of something else they all leave marks. He has his own power but he's also very obviously touched by something else. You don't feel touched by something else. You feel like you are that something else." Corandes stepped closer now, thirst for knowledge overriding his survival instincts. "You're not N'zoth, obviously. But you're… more than I've felt off of most of the Faceless and Void creatures."
Zof felt their new elven lips twist into a delighted grin. "Yogg-Saron really lucked out with their favored ones, Corandes. This is why I couldn't let Javinth's little moment there ruin your work. Of course… he'll get out eventually. But until he does you have something much closer to the Void to make use of. We'll have to find you some long term allies a bit less attached to your end goal."
"He… mentioned siblings. Lyren only had a sister." Corandes scowled. "A thankfully dead sister."
"Ah, Javinth was an indiscretion of their shared father's. A lovely young shadow worthy priestess herself, his mother Jamira was just bitter enough about the entire situation to re-enter Javinth's life long enough to tell him all about the twins his father did decide to keep. It didn't work quite how she wanted." Zof's lips curled downward. "On the one hand, they made an easy tool of manipulation. On the other hand… now we have this situation."
"Why does he care if he never even met Lyren?" Corandes demanded, crossing his arms. "He doesn't seem that… easy to get attached to someone."
"He did meet him. Them. A small handful of times while they were growing up. Often disguised." Zof tapped one of the only two rings Javinth wore, the stone a bright glowing gold… now with the tiniest shifting drop of dark purple flicking in the midst. "Long enough. You have no idea how difficult it was to block him from seeing with this on his hands. He should be thanking you - now the mystery of the time it was cracked and dark for several days is perfectly explained."
"That tracks Lyren." Corandes' gaze was intent - and obsessed. Zof chuckled, and shifted left. Ah - a little too far. He appeared on Corandes' other side and the elf jumped back, power roaring up to defend him.
"Peace - an accident. I am not used to having this form to run amuck in." They rolled their shoulders, darkness rolling with their muscles and dripping off their clothes. "Mmm. Interesting. Now, as to the ring - it won't work for you. It won't even work for me, for all that I am using Javinth's body. My wielder is very cunning with the things he feels are precious."
"Given enough time, I could undo it." Corandes sounded very sure. Zof felt a spark of irritation and didn't realize they must have done something until Corandes' eyes went wide and he bowed his head. "Forgive me… Great One. I meant no disrespect."
Zof waited a moment, stared at that bowed head. He had meant disrespect. He felt Javinth was weak because of what Zof had done, his magics easy to unweave. It was tempting, to simply do away with Yogg-Saron's favored for the insult. The Old God might be annoyed at the loss of a minion more useful than the average madman but not enough to truly make an effort. Mere moments and Corandes would know the folly of underestimating Javinth - or Zof.
Ah, but then what would become of his plans for the the phoenixes? Zof's gaze roamed, spotting the female that hadn't moved from where Corandes had ordered her to stay. Despite the going-ons around her she was perfectly obedient. They sighed, turning away from Corandes. "It would be a waste to destroy you now when you have done so much. Gather your focus. We will find you tools of power, allies worthy of your greatness. And… Perhaps introduce you to Javinth's newest little makeshift apprentice along the way. She could use another perspective if Javinth proves… difficult."
"Apprentice?" Corandes muttered but to Zof's pleasure he did go and pack up his things and the girl, ordering her into bird form with only a word and loading her cage onto the small floating disc he was using to transport his things behind their mounts. "I've done well with my brothers' resources and minds so far."
"Of course. And you should continue to use those. But there is more out there, and you will want the best preparations won't you?" In truth Zof only had a vague inkling what they were looking for, a mix of something Javinth's had likely long ago overheard (or more likely picked out from someone's mind) and the intuition of the Void.
It didn't matter that they didn't actually know. All that mattered was Corandes followed, and Javinth stayed in his box. The latter wouldn't last for long.
