The Other Side of the Abyss
The Other Side of the Abyss
Rating: PG-12 for mild yaoi, violence, and some dark themes.
Pairing: Rahab/OC
Fandom: Legacy of Kain
Disclaimer: Non-profit fanfiction.
Dedicated: to syvia, for her unending patience at my retardedly slow production of her challenge fics.
Notes: in terms of evolution, this is just a teensy bit before the main part of Soul Reaver, so Rahab almost has fins, but not quite yet.
In his dreams he is falling, he falls through oblivion and a thousand hells and he never, ever stops. Every time he is woken by a fledgling or by his own thrashing, gasping for air he does not need. He thinks that in these dreams he is drowning. But he knows it is not he who drowns when he wakes.
Rahab was not given to sympathy or even to regret, but those dreams haunted him in his waking hours. More so now, now that the webbing between his legs was thickening and his hips seemed to lack the sideways flexibility they had once owned. Not that it mattered much, his changes of direction in water tending to be controlled more by his arms than anything else these days.
Rahabim did not drown. They had long ago lost the mammalian need to breathe through their lungs - that had gone with their humanity. But their ability to live underwater had not been passed onto their other brethren, and there was only one vampire left who lacked Rahabim heritage but had not died instants after hitting water.
It made sense of course. Raziel was Kain's son after all.
"Wake," came a gentle voice accompanied by a firm hand from his side. Normally Rahab would never spend more than a decade with a lover, the vampire lifespan making even the most talented partners feel dull after a few years. Thus far, Sulai had lasted seventy. Fair features as yet unwarped by excessive evolution and a talent for knowing when to keep silence had extended his longevity.
"Was I dreaming?"
"Yes. You did not scream this time."
Rahab sat up carefully, shifted his legs around to hang off the edge of the bed. Curiously, his feet did not appear so much to be growing webbing as to be actually fusing together; it seemed he would soon have to give up the luxury of a bed, unless some underwater equivalent were to be developed.
"I need a helping hand, master," Sulai reminded Rahab quietly, careful not to demand so blatantly as to anger his introspective lord.
"And if I want you to wait there until my return?"
Sulai was silent for a while, measuring his lord's mood carefully before answering, "I obey your orders, sire."
A brief flight of fancy drew Rahab's attention from his dream at last, a vision of Sulai gutted like a fish, blood the colour of seaweed drenching the sheets. He entertained it a moment longer before touching webbed claws to his fledgling's lips. So beautiful; dark lips, dark hair. Stark against his green-white skin and irises. "Open wide and hold still." Sulai's lips parted, revealing a black tongue laden with the poison of vipers, strong enough to kill any mortal. Rahab took a decorative bowl from the bed-side stand before hissing, attracting the attention of the dazed mortal strung to his wall. She had been fleshy enough to feed him well, but being fed upon regularly and delirium from her experiences had left her barely able to provide enough for herself. Still, all good things must come to an end.
Rahab positioned the bowl against her leg and stabbed into the flesh of her thigh, what should have been a major arterial spray reduced to the pathetic welling up of a lice to the arm. She slumped forward as he returned to Sulai with the filled bowl, trusting his chamber guardians to take care of any waste. Sulai swallowed the first drips instinctively, before pressing the tip of his tongue to the roof of his mouth to suppress the instinct as Rahab emptied the contents of the bowl into him. Vampire saliva had long developed the ability to stop coagulation.
"Perfect," Rahab hissed before covering Sulai's mouth with his own. It had been a long time since he last did this, and Rahab's often dormant appetites never ceased to wake up in response to the act. It carried traits of so many pleasures - killing, dominating, sex.
He pulled away after deciding he had fed enough, licking any spillage from the blackened lips and stroking Sulai's throat as the fledgling swallowed. All too reminiscent of one particular luxury Rahab had lost.
They were still lovers, of course. It was simply that certain activities had become too impractical for Rahab during the change.
Sulai took Rahab's hand when it was offered, allowing his maker to help him up. There was a certain grace to getting out of the bed and ready to dive that somehow avoided being diminished by the help required, a grace only acquired through many years of practise. Rahab remembered with some disdain a younger Sulai attempting to get out of the water and looking to all intents and purposes like a struggling fish, having been one of the very first fledglings to lose the ability to walk.
"Get in," Rahab ordered, watching Sulai press his feet lightly against the edge of the pool at the bedside before rocking up and using the momentum to propel himself forward into the water. Some day all his children would have fully developed fins instead of legs, and all would cease worrying about diving, because there would be no need to rise above the water's surface. Contact with his brothers had faded away over the years, Dumah long silenced by his own stupidity and the rest living in solitude much like himself. Even Kain had long cease demanding the lieutenants attend meetings, had secluded himself from others in Sanctuary.
As he too slipped beneath the water, Rahab heard the soft clicking of Anya, Sulai's friend and their lover on occasion. She sounded anxious as ever, never trusting Rahab to return Sulai in one piece despite the fact he had yet to execute a lover who hadn't committed treason. Since the end of the war with the humans, there had been no point in executing fledglings on account of suspicions; evidence was necessary to maintain the timid peace.
Sulai was more active now, flitting in circles around Rahab in excited familiarity with the water. It was a pleasant distraction, and one unique only to his younger fledglings. Those who had been around since before the evolution to resist water still tended to treat it with care and respect, as if their evolution might backtrack on itself if they dared take it for granted.
Rahab had neither retained a wariness of water, nor grown arrogant with the use of his gift. It was worth noticing that each of the brothers had developed in ways appropriate to their personalities; the retiring, self-hating Melchiah had become a hulking, hideous monstrosity, sealed away within the confines of the Necropolis. Zephon, cautious and suspicious and secretive, had been left to his own devices in the silence cathedral. Everyone knew the Zephonim no longer came out unless to find fresh meat, and only tales of clicking, whispering, scuttling sounds remained to suggest anything of their appearances. As to the other lieutenants, only rumours and whispers remained of their evolutions. Deaths and secret histories covered the land as thickly as any other plague. It was part and parcel of Rahab's affinity with water.
Water never changed. Be it slicking Sulai's playful hands as they glided over his skin, or crashing into the unknown depths of the abyss, water never changed. Only the lands, the life around and underneath it changed. Nosgoth's water tasted the same on his lips now as it had when it first stopped burning them.
:: Anya wants to play,:: Sulai clicked, the soft bubbles of trapped air from his mouth tickling Rahab's ear before Sulai let the black length of his tongue trace the same path. :: Join or watch us, sire? ::
:: Be alone together, I have a journey to make. Be here when I return. ::
Sulai slipped his arms around Rahab's waist and nipped his master's ear between his teeth briefly before speeding off in the direction of Anya's calls.
Rahab relaxed in the quiet of the empty chamber before smiling thinly, somewhat bitterly. Your ghost will not leave me, will it brother? He thought to himself before beginning his journey towards the abyss. It was not the first time he had made the journey, and it would not be the last, but viewing the source of his dreams often helped him to rest. His fledglings, at least, would be there for him when he returned.
End
Rating: PG-12 for mild yaoi, violence, and some dark themes.
Pairing: Rahab/OC
Fandom: Legacy of Kain
Disclaimer: Non-profit fanfiction.
Dedicated: to syvia, for her unending patience at my retardedly slow production of her challenge fics.
Notes: in terms of evolution, this is just a teensy bit before the main part of Soul Reaver, so Rahab almost has fins, but not quite yet.
In his dreams he is falling, he falls through oblivion and a thousand hells and he never, ever stops. Every time he is woken by a fledgling or by his own thrashing, gasping for air he does not need. He thinks that in these dreams he is drowning. But he knows it is not he who drowns when he wakes.
Rahab was not given to sympathy or even to regret, but those dreams haunted him in his waking hours. More so now, now that the webbing between his legs was thickening and his hips seemed to lack the sideways flexibility they had once owned. Not that it mattered much, his changes of direction in water tending to be controlled more by his arms than anything else these days.
Rahabim did not drown. They had long ago lost the mammalian need to breathe through their lungs - that had gone with their humanity. But their ability to live underwater had not been passed onto their other brethren, and there was only one vampire left who lacked Rahabim heritage but had not died instants after hitting water.
It made sense of course. Raziel was Kain's son after all.
"Wake," came a gentle voice accompanied by a firm hand from his side. Normally Rahab would never spend more than a decade with a lover, the vampire lifespan making even the most talented partners feel dull after a few years. Thus far, Sulai had lasted seventy. Fair features as yet unwarped by excessive evolution and a talent for knowing when to keep silence had extended his longevity.
"Was I dreaming?"
"Yes. You did not scream this time."
Rahab sat up carefully, shifted his legs around to hang off the edge of the bed. Curiously, his feet did not appear so much to be growing webbing as to be actually fusing together; it seemed he would soon have to give up the luxury of a bed, unless some underwater equivalent were to be developed.
"I need a helping hand, master," Sulai reminded Rahab quietly, careful not to demand so blatantly as to anger his introspective lord.
"And if I want you to wait there until my return?"
Sulai was silent for a while, measuring his lord's mood carefully before answering, "I obey your orders, sire."
A brief flight of fancy drew Rahab's attention from his dream at last, a vision of Sulai gutted like a fish, blood the colour of seaweed drenching the sheets. He entertained it a moment longer before touching webbed claws to his fledgling's lips. So beautiful; dark lips, dark hair. Stark against his green-white skin and irises. "Open wide and hold still." Sulai's lips parted, revealing a black tongue laden with the poison of vipers, strong enough to kill any mortal. Rahab took a decorative bowl from the bed-side stand before hissing, attracting the attention of the dazed mortal strung to his wall. She had been fleshy enough to feed him well, but being fed upon regularly and delirium from her experiences had left her barely able to provide enough for herself. Still, all good things must come to an end.
Rahab positioned the bowl against her leg and stabbed into the flesh of her thigh, what should have been a major arterial spray reduced to the pathetic welling up of a lice to the arm. She slumped forward as he returned to Sulai with the filled bowl, trusting his chamber guardians to take care of any waste. Sulai swallowed the first drips instinctively, before pressing the tip of his tongue to the roof of his mouth to suppress the instinct as Rahab emptied the contents of the bowl into him. Vampire saliva had long developed the ability to stop coagulation.
"Perfect," Rahab hissed before covering Sulai's mouth with his own. It had been a long time since he last did this, and Rahab's often dormant appetites never ceased to wake up in response to the act. It carried traits of so many pleasures - killing, dominating, sex.
He pulled away after deciding he had fed enough, licking any spillage from the blackened lips and stroking Sulai's throat as the fledgling swallowed. All too reminiscent of one particular luxury Rahab had lost.
They were still lovers, of course. It was simply that certain activities had become too impractical for Rahab during the change.
Sulai took Rahab's hand when it was offered, allowing his maker to help him up. There was a certain grace to getting out of the bed and ready to dive that somehow avoided being diminished by the help required, a grace only acquired through many years of practise. Rahab remembered with some disdain a younger Sulai attempting to get out of the water and looking to all intents and purposes like a struggling fish, having been one of the very first fledglings to lose the ability to walk.
"Get in," Rahab ordered, watching Sulai press his feet lightly against the edge of the pool at the bedside before rocking up and using the momentum to propel himself forward into the water. Some day all his children would have fully developed fins instead of legs, and all would cease worrying about diving, because there would be no need to rise above the water's surface. Contact with his brothers had faded away over the years, Dumah long silenced by his own stupidity and the rest living in solitude much like himself. Even Kain had long cease demanding the lieutenants attend meetings, had secluded himself from others in Sanctuary.
As he too slipped beneath the water, Rahab heard the soft clicking of Anya, Sulai's friend and their lover on occasion. She sounded anxious as ever, never trusting Rahab to return Sulai in one piece despite the fact he had yet to execute a lover who hadn't committed treason. Since the end of the war with the humans, there had been no point in executing fledglings on account of suspicions; evidence was necessary to maintain the timid peace.
Sulai was more active now, flitting in circles around Rahab in excited familiarity with the water. It was a pleasant distraction, and one unique only to his younger fledglings. Those who had been around since before the evolution to resist water still tended to treat it with care and respect, as if their evolution might backtrack on itself if they dared take it for granted.
Rahab had neither retained a wariness of water, nor grown arrogant with the use of his gift. It was worth noticing that each of the brothers had developed in ways appropriate to their personalities; the retiring, self-hating Melchiah had become a hulking, hideous monstrosity, sealed away within the confines of the Necropolis. Zephon, cautious and suspicious and secretive, had been left to his own devices in the silence cathedral. Everyone knew the Zephonim no longer came out unless to find fresh meat, and only tales of clicking, whispering, scuttling sounds remained to suggest anything of their appearances. As to the other lieutenants, only rumours and whispers remained of their evolutions. Deaths and secret histories covered the land as thickly as any other plague. It was part and parcel of Rahab's affinity with water.
Water never changed. Be it slicking Sulai's playful hands as they glided over his skin, or crashing into the unknown depths of the abyss, water never changed. Only the lands, the life around and underneath it changed. Nosgoth's water tasted the same on his lips now as it had when it first stopped burning them.
:: Anya wants to play,:: Sulai clicked, the soft bubbles of trapped air from his mouth tickling Rahab's ear before Sulai let the black length of his tongue trace the same path. :: Join or watch us, sire? ::
:: Be alone together, I have a journey to make. Be here when I return. ::
Sulai slipped his arms around Rahab's waist and nipped his master's ear between his teeth briefly before speeding off in the direction of Anya's calls.
Rahab relaxed in the quiet of the empty chamber before smiling thinly, somewhat bitterly. Your ghost will not leave me, will it brother? He thought to himself before beginning his journey towards the abyss. It was not the first time he had made the journey, and it would not be the last, but viewing the source of his dreams often helped him to rest. His fledglings, at least, would be there for him when he returned.
End