#kidravos

[kradogsrats]

ha ha yeah I'm not okay

[raayllum]

Aaravos had prepared her for this, a bit.

He'd said that if they destroyed his body, he would return, but not quite the same. Claudia had prepared herself for something far more gruelling, piecing her father together again with everything she could give. Aaravos emerging squalling after birth and blood and tears will have always been easier than collecting the scattered pieces of her father's corpse beneath the Storm Spire.

(Viren hadn't come back the same, either. She hadn't been able to keep him with her no matter how much she'd bled or begged or given. Claudia refuses to let the same thing happen to Aaravos.)

He grows quickly, too, from newborn to toddler to maybe four or five years old in a matter of weeks. She holds his little four-fingered hand and tries not to think about how Sir Sparklepuff had moved in a similar fashion, always wanting to be close, till she'd taken his hand and pinned him down with her knife at his throat.

She teaches him about magic by firelight. His eyes light up when she talks about the primals. His mouth twists when she talks about dark magic, and why he can't do it yet.

"But I want to help you," he says, still sounding strangely young.

Claudia, you must go. But I can help you! I can—

She shakes her head and tucks his hair back behind his ears. "Not yet. The first time you do dark magic can be dangerous. Plunge you into a dream state."

Nevermind the first time she'd done dark magic, she'd been around his age. It hadn't felt so young at the time, from her six year old body — she'd felt very grown up, determined to prove she could be like her dad, whatever her dreams had been a hazy blur (or so she tells herself) — but it feels different, now she's seeing it on someone else's youth.

"But you said my soul is the same," Aaravos says. "And that dark magic permanently damages the soul, so—"

"Changes the soul," Claudia corrects. The darkness provides enlightenment—power, agency.

She purses her lips. It's times like these she wishes Aaravos had come back with all his Startouch knowledge in tact, rather than leaving both of them to stumble around together in the dark. At least they're stumbling through together.

"We don't know for sure that you'll have a dream coma if you do dark magic again," she acknowledges. "But we don't know that you won't, so just let me handle the dark magic spells for now, 'kay?"

"Okay." He shuffles closer after a beat, then leans against her side.

She wraps an arm around him as the fire burns. She tosses another log on so it burns hotter and brighter, heat radiating as she draws up her prosthetic so a stray spark doesn't catch it. The smoke blocks out the sky.

Aaravos buries his face in her collarbone. "Can you put the fire out?" he asks. "I want to see the stars."

"Oh. Um." Claudia reaches for a dousing lily, water springing from her palm after she crushes it. "Sure."

Aaravos stares at the stars with a smile on his face as he falls asleep.

Tomorrow, she'll teach him why he shouldn't.