Abyssal (ManxMan)

Father's Tale

The next chapter is already up on Ritoria. 

Father's Tale

Kai let out a slow, long breath. He closed his eyes, counted to ten, and then opened them. "I want you to listen to me very carefully," he began with a sharpness in his voice, staring at the Golden Merman in all his otherworldly beauty. "If you so much as think about insulting my mother, you can forget about any peace between the two of us. Forever." Just the thought of the holier-than-thou Spirit criticizing his mother made his blood boil. The pool rippled, once.

The Spirit smiled, a certain light glistening in his eyes. Easy, my Prince. I mean your mother no offense or criticism. I merely wish to tell your father's tale. And then the Spirit slyly added: That is, if you wish to hear it.

Of course Kai wanted to hear it, enough that his bristling anger quickly deflated. He wanted to know more about his father, to understand him better -as much as a half-breed son could hope to understand his dead full-fledged merman father.

"Tell me," he said. "And then take me to my mother. I doubt Marius is going to sit around cursing his bad luck and do nothing." Knowing Marius the Conqueror as well as he thought he did, the Nostrazian King was probably already on the hunt for Kai. Marius was going to feed Kai his own heart and liver for abandoning their partnership to save the merworld.

He could just imagine the King's black fury... He shuddered and quickly banished the image to the back of his mind. For the time being, he didn't have to worry about Marius.

Your father fell for your mother the moment he first saw her.

"Let me guess: she drowned in the sea, he saved her and they immediately fell in love and had me?"

... No.

"Oh. Carry on, then."

The Spirit cast Kai a silencing look. He couldn't really blame Kai for taking a guess, could he? Besides, it was a good, classic guess. He was almost sure that was the case.

Your mother ran her boat over your father. The lake rippled angrily.

"She what?!"

The propeller severed his arm. The lake rippled again.

"What?! Wait, wait-"

For the first time in centuries, Kaerus' life was in danger, and I was forced to intervene and save him from the substantial blood loss caused by the loss of his left arm. The lake started boiling, like an underwater volcano was about to erupt.

Kai felt like he needed to sit down. He scrubbed a hand down his face; he felt overwhelmed, and the Spirit's blunt storytelling wasn't helping matters. Of all the ways for his parents to meet, he never imagined it would be like this!

Since when did his mother know how to drive a boat?!

Despite feeling overwhelmed, he was eager to hear more of his parents' first -and catastrophic- meeting. "Then?"

I reattached Kaerus' arm, but the human -your mother- saw it all. In my urgency to save Kaerus, I had unwittingly glowed with the light of a golden star as I concentrated on reattaching and reanimating your father's hand, so bright I'd illuminated the sea depths. Your mother, horror-stricken and transfixed, watched from on top her boat, peering down at me while I worked, and seeing your father for what he was: a merman. Not human.

I proposed to eliminate her to preserve Kaerus' identity, but your father... refused. Adamantly. He proclaimed to have fallen for your mother and offered her his hand in marriage despite what she did to him. I... did not understand. I... stilldo not understand.

In truth, neither did Kai.

Their first meeting was more traumatic than romantic, but it was certainly 'love at first sight', at least in his father's case.

Knowing his mother though, he imagined she wasn't very thrilled to have discovered the existence of merfolk and been offered a merman's hand in marriage all in one day. But this was a story he'd rather hear from his own mother's lips. He regretted making the Spirit of the Sea tell him.

"Take us to my mother."

****

Erasmus crawled through the portal and collapsed onto the ground. His ribs contracted and he coughed dark blood onto the cave's ground. Fuck. His left lung was filled with blood and was on the verge of collapsing.

Ryodan wasn't in any better condition, either. In fact, he was significantly worse; he'd taken the brunt of Marius' ungodly rage. He was out cold, drenched in a pool of his own blood and still on the other side of the portal.

Gritting his teeth against the ensuing pain, he grunted and forced himself up on his knees, then turned around and reached for Ryodan. He grabbed him by the ankle and pulled him through the portal with his last remaining bit of strength. The moment all of the General was through, he coughed another cloud of blood and fell beside the unconscious Ryodan.

Erasmus' felt the power draining from him. With no power left to sustain his transformation, he felt himself reverting to his true form.

Heavy-lidded, he stared at his cave's ceiling. Every time he blinked, it took him longer to reopen his eyes. He could feel himself losing consciousness soon. Then what? With his lungs failing, he'd drown in his own blood -literally.

How darkly amusing; he'd lived for so long, accomplished so much, only to die a wretched death while still being banished from court for once being Kareus' right hand. None would attend his funeral. His name - the Fabled Erasmus- would be wiped from the annals of his people's history, just like that bastard Zolban always wanted.

At least Kai was out of his reach, even if it meant he was now out of theirs. Perhaps this was for the best. Perhaps Kai was never meant to inherit Astria's throne.

In his last moments, Kaerus' face appeared in his line of vision.

Erasmus smiled -barely. "You came, old friend," he grunted.

Kaerus glared at him and demanded, "Who are you?"

*~~~~~~~~~~~~~~*

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