Solivagency - Empires SMP

I

A/N: this fanfiction is only available on Wattpad and Archive of Our Own. If you are reading this anywhere else, you may be on a data phising site.

Xornoth opened their eyes.

They were blurred by something watery that swam in and out of the view of their vision, and when they blinked it only clouded it more. It was a weird feeling, and it threatened to spill down their face and to dim the rest of their senses.

It wasn't until they brought up a shaking hand to wipe the blur off that they realised what it was. Tears.

With trembling breaths, they tried to push themselves up. They failed miserably, only managing to slightly roll over onto their side, where the ocean was gently lapping their skin. Why were their clothes soaking?

It was the waters glittering reflection that made them gasp, jerk straight upright. Their skin was no longer the colour of the black void but their original pale pink. Their eyes were still red, but it was just the iris this time, not the pupil or whites. Horns remained - but elven antlers, not the corrupted, thick stubs of something resembling a dragon.

They knew their reflection had changed, but it was something they hadn't been able to see beyond the movement of their hands. Nobody had given them a mirror, despite the amount of self reflection they were told to do, and if it hadn't been for their hands then they would had forgotten that their appearence had changed at all.

Xornoth reached out to touch the water, but stopped suddenly. Memories of the dreadful night before came crashing onto them.

Screaming, screaming, screaming-

The ocean clogged their nostrils and their throat, making breathing a chore-

Nails snapped out of sharp points scrabbled at sea soaked wood-

They had seen the opportunity and tried to take it, but maybe they shouldn't have because this was the nightmare death their parents had warned them about, the way elven sailors had been smashed to pieces by the force of the waves-

Xornoths hands clawed at their wrists, their chest, their legs to see if the shackles were still there. A few were, iron bands fastened on cruelly tight around the wrists and ankles and bringing tiny beads of blood up, binding around the skin immovably.

The sun stared down upon them, daring them to stand up and run. Xornoth didn't even consider it. Surely one of the elves would find them soon and take them back to Scott - for what was one demon (demon, they suppressed the shudder. They were a demon) compared to the war crimes they'd committed against the entire world? Entire towns and cities destroyed, the Cod Empire in ruins, the Overgrown poisoned, Sovereign Shrubs home world destroyed. 

But the area was not the Rivendell mountains. There were tall rock structures yes, but not the peaks of Rivendell, or the looming faces of the Crystal Cliffs, or the borders of the Grimlands, or the ant hill of Pixandria. These rock structures were of clay rock and red sandstone, stained with colours of gold and brown and red.

Xornoth let their eyes slip shut instantly. Mezalea. Also known as the Empire ruled by King Joel, who was married to Scott's sister in law. 

(...Ocean Queen Lizzie was their sister in law too, but that wasn't important. She'd probably murder them for so much as touching a hair on her baby brothers head, and they had. Multiple times.)

So Xornoth rested their head on the warm sand beneath them. Mezelea wasn't so far from the Lost Empire, from Joey- no. They refused to think of going to him for help. Surely Joey's love had been fueled purely by corruption; he would never love them now he had woken up from Exor's spell. And he had reinstated alliances with Rivendell. That option had been out the window for a long time.