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tinypurplewizardfan · 11 months

Text

For Those Below

Summary: Kassadin makes his way towards the heart of Icathyia. He runs into a void creature unlike any he's ever encountered before.

It calls him "Father".

4597 words

Kassadin hissed a breath through his respirator. Something’d been clogged in it for a while but there hadn’t been a clean enough place to remove his mask in days. The last thing he wanted to do was become corrupted, to let his human weakness allow the contamination in to consume his lungs. It felt like he was breathing air up on the mountains surrounding the border with Targon again, but he’d dealt with that sensation before. He’d deal with it again, as long as it took.

There was no other way but forward.

This void tunnel beneath the sands had stretched for miles. The closer he came to Icathyia, the longer and larger the tunnels became. No longer was the digging so erratic as he mapped it. It began to show pattern, even structure. The walls of this tunnel were ringed with what he could only observe were claw marks. Something big had been here; it was frustrating how well it could hide.

The passage ahead began to change. Purple un-light came down from above and skittered in flashing patterns. He extended his blade. The hum of its energy dampened the rumbling in the walls. Yes, the creatures down here knew this blade. The silence it brought never ceased to satisfy.

Four voidspawn crept from the shadows, skittering on far too many legs. A new mutation. Something to sketch after this is over.

He brandished the Nether Blade in front of him, its purple energy warping the void in the air around it. The creatures hesitate, chittering softly, as if asking each other which one wants to die first.

It was not in Kassadin’s nature to strike first. He was only out here because of what the void had taken, after all. The pause gave him time to whisper two familiar names.

The first voidspawn on the left lept forth. He sidestepped and plunged the blade deep into its carapace. He sliced clean through it before pulling back in a defensive stance, waiting for the others to follow in similar fashion, but at the death of their brethren they remained in place with hardly so much as a snarl.

He stood his ground, but then a terrible rumble came from the earth to the side. Time seemed to slow down as the wall to the tunnel began to crumble. He clutched the stone embedded into his left palm and focused his will to a spot some meters away. He blinked from reality and returned just as a rock was sent flying in the spot he’d been.

An entire horde of skittering voidspawn crashed through the wall, being led on by a mockery of the humanoid figure. The figure’s head glowed with two enormous, beady purple eyes; that combined with its plated limbs and vague, wing-like shoulders gave it the appearance of a hideous insect hybrid.

He turned and ran. The sound of the voidspawn’s skittering boomed against the remaining walls of the tunnel. Despite that, a voice called out to him in a mockery of Shuriman, twisted in unnatural vocal chords.

He recalled the formations he’d seen walking up here as he passed them. He wouldn’t be able to outrun a swarm like this for long, even with the rift-walking stone to teleport him past any obstacles. Up ahead were a few pockmarks in the wall he’d found, but they weren’t large enough to maneuver around comfortably should they find him again and instigate a fight.

There was one other formation he’d noted up ahead. A crack in the ground, perhaps only barely large enough for him to slip through. He did not know where it led but he knew the small entrance might bottleneck the swarm enough to give him a chance. He rounded the corner. The crack in the ground looked even smaller than it had before. Still, he dove for it

It wasn’t large enough for his bulky armor. He could, however, see the other side. Clutching the rift-walking stone once more, he teleported through the gap, landing on his hands and knees.

A quick scan- nothing was down here. His head was spinning. His lungs were burning as he tried to heave in enough air through the malfunctioning respirator. He heard screeching from the crack above. The creatures were attempting to shove their way through it, contorting their bodies. Some began to fall down around him. Most got jammed in the tiny entranceway.

However, an explosion blew the crack free of many bodies, and the insectoid void form slid through the crack. Dozens more voidspawn got through before their bodies plugged it again. It was no longer a fair fight.

Instead of continuing to blow the crack open for the rest of the swarm to get through, the insectoid instead turned to him. Its glossy eyes looked lifeless but the tilt of its head betrayed something deeper than instinct. It was studying the situation. Studying him.

It was not in Kassadin’s nature to strike first, but the less time he could give this new void form to study him, the greater his advantage. This creature, unlike its mindless brethren, knew what it meant to be evil. He wondered if it remembered the village it had taken from him. He would make it remember.

He charged forward, Nether blade humming in time with his fury. The insectoid braced, but before he swung, he teleported behind it and stabbed into its back. The blade did not pierce the sickly gray-purple flesh as he had intended. It melted the top layer of scales, and the creature grunted in pain, but it was not enough to even slow the creature’s response.

The insectoid’s shoulder pods swung around and charged with purple un-light. A volley of crystal missiles shot forth. His shield sprung up around him and absorbed the majority of the rain but one of two slipped through and cut between the plates of his armor. As all this happened, the insectoid turned around. Good.

Kassadin teleported around it again to where its flank now was. This time, he charged up the energy within the Nether blade and released a shockwave towards the creature. It stumbled forwards and its flesh writhed. Before he could cut into it, though, it dashed out of reach. He wasn’t fast enough to catch it, not with how little breath he was getting.

The insectoid ran and threw its back against one of the walls of the cavern. It flared its shoulder pods and hissed. The other voidspawns hadn’t been interfering, but now they heard the call of their master and began leaping onto him. He was able to deflect the first one with the blade, and his shield deflected several more, but it quickly failed under the strain. His limbs were heavy and became heavier as the beasts took hold. The ground rushed up to meet him.

His vision was blurring- he couldn’t tell how many of the voidspawn were actually crawling over him rather than being a shimmer of his imagination. He couldn’t breathe. He couldn’t breathe.

Purple explosions rang out around him. He tried to clutch his hand around the rift-walking stone but something was gnawing on his arm and he couldn’t focus. One of the voidspawn on his chest exploded, and a splatter of not-blood sprayed against the lenses of his goggles. Another one followed. One by one the monsters popped like bubbles and the acrid sting of the void filled his nostrils, even through his respirator.

He crawled away. Everywhere he looked seemed to have the body of a voidspawn and he couldn’t tell which ones were still moving, so he sliced through all the ones he could reach with his blade just to make sure. Once he reached the far wall of the cavern, he looked up. The insectoid was staring at him, its shoulder pods losing their glow and its palms smoking.

It held one of its hands out towards him, palm facing the ground. “Easy.”

The word was warped and twisted, but recognizable. Kassadin grabbed the cave wall and used it to pull himself standing again. He did not brandish his blade. The more time he had to recover his breath, the better.

“I don’t want to-”

Another voidspawn fell from the crack in the ceiling, having squeezed through the clog of its brethren. The insectoid jerked. He tensed and brought up what remained of his shield. Instead of aiming towards him, though, the insectoid obliterated the voidspawn with a blast from its palm.

He blinked. “Why?”

His throat was dry and his voice incredibly rusty. It didn’t sound like himself through the filter of the respirator. He drank a little of his precious water reserves through the straw under his mask.

“I’m not one of them, despite the looks.” The insectoid gestured to itself.

“Then why’d you lead them to me?” He looked at the crack in the ceiling still wriggling with bodies.

“I was running. Wasn’t expecting to stumble across someone else like me.”

The implication sent his heart racing. “Human?”

A beat passed. The insectoid stiffened, before a portion of its skin atop its head began to detract. The flesh crawled downwards. Dark hair spilled out. A pair of soft eyes tinged in violet were uncovered, followed by a nose and lips. The gray-violet flesh dispersed itself amongst the remaining void that covered her body.

Yes, it was a her. A young, human-looking woman, despite the strange markings on her face. She looked at him and said, “and you?”

He shook his head. “Can’t- can’t take the mask off here. Too much void.”

The area, and not to mention his own armor, was splattered with the toxic not-blood of the spawn. She, however, looked pristine. Well, other than the sickening pulsating flesh that clung to her body.

“Let’s get out of here. I know a spot half a day’s walk from here. It’s close enough to the surface. You could get a fresh breath and some water.” She offered.

Another voidspawn fell from the crack in the ceiling. The woman flinched and the bug-like helmet enveloped her once more. This time, though, Kassadin stepped forward and sliced it in two with his blade.

He nodded. “Let’s go.”

He took a step forward and nearly tripped over a rock that hid behind a stain on the lenses of his goggles. He retracted his blade and rubbed off the glass with both hands. When he looked up again, the woman was offering a hand. He didn’t take it.

The promise of fresh air was one thing, but the promise of water was too good to be true. He stayed behind her as they walked. They were walking in the direction that he had come from, towards areas he knew and had previously mapped, but this was a deeper tunnel he had no knowledge of. If there were any more sizable gashes in the ceiling then he’d have a potential escape route, but any other exit would lead to only diving deeper into enemy territory. It was likely the being ahead of him knew the tunnels of this area better than he did.

As he walked, his shield recharged from the kinetic motion. The relic providing this important protection was warm against his thigh. The rift-walking stone pulsed softly, having recovered its charges. Finally, the void stone, the dark artifact that warded the corruption, tingled against his forehead from where it was set in his helmet. It was sapping whatever contaminants had made it through his armor and into his bloodstream. The places where the woman’s missiles had pierced and the place where the voidspawn gnawed through the joint of his elbow burned as they were cleansed, but it was nothing he wasn’t used to by now.

He was as close to functioning order as he could be, but whether or not he could take her was still a complete mystery.

The tunnel they journeyed through abruptly ended, spilling out into a ravine that towered above them. The faintest rain of sand spilled down from above, and if he looked up he could see the tiniest splotch of daylight suggesting its source. Scanning the walls of the ravine, he also noticed several other intersecting tunnels. He recognized one- he realized he’d come to this place before but mistaken it for a bottomless abyss. The sand accumulated at the bottom here from above must have dampened the sound of the rock he dropped. He’d mark that down on his map later.

“Change of plan.” The woman said, but her voice was snarled and twisted by her helmet. “I’ve got an idea.”

“What is it?”

“Well, we could take the long way around- long walk, potentially risky- or we could try something.”

She turned to the wall. It was difficult to tell but he assumed she was studying something.

“There’s a couple ledges in the cliff face. Think you can reach that with your teleportation?”

“Yes.” He noticed the pattern. It wouldn’t be too far between each one.

“Okay, do it.”

He scanned the first ledge. There weren’t any holes or cracks near it. The platform looked stable enough. He clutched his hand around the stone and now he was looking down to where she stood.

“Okay, you can do this. . .” she said, dancing from one leg to the other.

Suddenly, her shoulder pods pulsed and flames of void appeared beneath it. She leapt towards him like all the beasts down here did, the insectoid eyes glowing, her hands extended, the void humming in anticipation-

“Good hop! Okay, this’ll work.” She landed beside him. She looked down at his wrist. “Why’s your sword out? Did you see something?”

He looked down. The Nether blade was extended. He retracted it once more.

“Onto the next one.”

He teleported again, and with a similar “hop”, she followed. He still couldn’t help but feel he was being targeted by the eyes of a predator with every leap. After a few jumps they stopped in one of the tunnels that deposited into the ravine. The rift-walking stone vibrated angrily and needed time to recharge. The magical exertion, of course, raised his pulse and therefore the amount of air he needed to pull through his respirator. He leaned against the tunnel wall to catch his breath.

“I scared you back there, didn’t I?” She didn’t state it as a question, more as a fact. “I don’t blame you.”

He didn’t respond.

“Sorry you need to go first. For some reason, these only work if I’m dashing towards something living.” She gestured to the shoulder pods.

So he had been right. Predatory instinct. It was unsettling that she’d admitted it so easily. A bit of dry air caught in his throat and he coughed between his wheezes.

“Are you sick?”

A hypocritical question, coming from a being like herself. She was either a human with the worst of the void overcoming her or a voidspawn too damaged to properly identify itself anymore. Either way she was afflicted, deeply.

He shook his head.

After their rest they continued up the cliffside. The air grew lighter. The light the enchanted glass of his goggles provided was beginning to become redundant and the brightness hurt his eyes, though it was a welcome pain. Finally, they arrived at the chamber at the very top of the ravine.

Sunlight streamed into the chamber from the skylight above. Against the far wall, a trickle of water flowed down the rocks. The air was clear. The rock was only that- rock, solid and steady and most decidedly not pulsing with anything purple.

The woman’s helmet melted from her head, spilling out her hair, which got caught in a light breeze. Clean air. She walked into the center of the clearing where the sun washed down and looked up, closing her eyes. The void covering the rest of her skin shuddered, but what was human of her looked blissful.

He picked a more secluded corner over by the water. He sat upon one of the larger rocks and reached for the latching mechanisms of his helmet. After unlatching several locks, the seal finally popped, sending fresh air flooding into his lungs. He gasped.

He began detaching the tubes of his respirator one by one before finally sliding his helmet off. The last thing to do was detach the drinking straw situated on his lip. He breathed deeply, letting a smell that wasn’t his own fill his nostrils. The bit of desert wind that circulated in here was hot against his face, a refreshing balm from the bitter cold of the void.

He looked back down to his helmet and began inspecting the respirator piece. He quickly found the issue- a bit of the cloth had raveled its way into the filters. A piece of organic material the void had not consumed, much like himself, yet somehow the fellow oddity had managed to cause him problems anyway. It was ironic in a cosmic sense, he supposed.

“Hey, you know you can come and enjoy the sunlight with me if you wa-”

She stopped when he looked her direction, the words frozen on her lips. What she said next caused his very blood to curdle.

“Father?”

He stood, helmet hanging from his hand. “What did you say?”

“There’s no way. . . no. I’ve forgotten a lot of faces but I’d never forget yours.”

She locked eyes with him. She stepped forwards, one foot after the other, closer, closer. Still the void of her body rippled and sheened. The shoulder pods swayed behind her as she walked.

“Stay back!” He shouted. He extended his blade but did not yet point it towards her.

“Father, please!” Her use of the title sent ice through his veins, “Please, it’s me! Kai’sa!”

The name sent him spiraling through memories. Vivid brown eyes reflecting in the sun and dark hair catching sand in the wind. A giggling, eager girl defeating invisible foes with her hunting knife as he warned her not to cut herself.

Eyes that were brown, not violet. Skin that was tanned. A face that was unmarked, untouched, by the void.

“I will not have that name used against me!” He snarled and held up his blade. “I should cut you down for your mockery of my daughter, voidspawn!”

“It’s me. It’s me. Your little explorer. You used to call me that.” Her lip was trembling and the rest of the void that clung to her shuddered in response.

Vivid brown eyes reflecting in the sun and dark hair catching sand in the wind. Eager explorer, always asking when she would be old enough to accompany him on his expeditions. I’m ten, father! I got a knife and everything. Let me protect you. I can do it, she said, bouncing on her heels.

The village, buried beneath the sand, and only the darkness remaining. Utterly consumed. Both her and her mother, gone without the smallest trace.

“What can I say to prove it’s me?”

“Stay back.” His blade wavered.

The woman remained where she was. With her back to the sunlight, he only noticed her tears when one rolled off her cheek and splashed onto the void-flesh below, evaporating with a hiss.

“I will not be tricked,” he said. “Void consumes all, even memory. I’ve heard the voices before.”

Voices of all languages echoed from the walls of the tunnels if one was alone for long enough. His wife’s was always the loudest among them. He would not be fooled. He would not be fooled.

The woman took a step forward. “Please-”

“Stay back, I told you!” He steadied his blade and took a step back, pressing himself against the wall.

His helmet was in his hand. A fight would expose him to contaminants and the last thing he wanted was to fall into the thrall of her lies.

But she, too, noticed his helmet in his hand, and walked backwards. “Right. Sorry. I-I’m not contagious, I don’t think, but. . .”

He retracted the Nether blade and shoved his helmet back on. He re-attached the respirator tubes and latched enough locks to create the seal before turning his attention back to her. She hadn’t moved.

“You at least recognize that I’m human, right?” She asked.

“Debatable.”

Her expression dropped and she looked away. “I’m not going to hurt you.”

“That is. . . evident,” he concluded. If she’d wanted to hurt him, she would have not let him put the respirator back on.

“Then let’s stick together, father-”

“Don’t.”

“Then what should I call you?”

“Kassadin.”

“Okay, ‘Kassadin’.” The syllables left her mouth only with great effort. Her lip trembled again. “Let’s stick together. It’s a lonely world down here. We’ll get farther together.”

“What makes you think I-”

“Come on, I remember you being smarter than this! The void doesn’t care how you feel about me. It wants to destroy us both. Equally.” She hissed. “And I don’t know about you, but I don’t have the luxury of turning down miracles if I’m going to make it to the heart of Icathyia.”

“So you know of the prophet?” He said.

“Yeah, of course I know. He keeps whispering in my ear. The voices, right? I’m going to shut him up permanently. So do you want to come along with or not?”

“How do I know he won’t take control of you, since you’ve let yourself become almost entirely consumed?”

“Because the bastard would have gotten me when I was ten and much more scared of him.” She flicked her hair back, a gesture that sent a flair of recognition through him. Vivid brown eyes. . .

He shook himself out of it. He did not reply.

She shook her head and walked back into the sunlight. “You should at least refill your water while you’re here. I promise it’s not poisoned. Not that you’d believe me.”

He turned around. Against the cave wall, water trickled down through a bed of green moss. He glanced over his shoulder and the woman hadn’t moved. He reached up to his neck and disconnected one edge of the water straw. He held up the delicate tube to the trickle. He felt the waterskin on his back fill, providing a comforting weight.

He also took the moment to unlock his helmet and readjust the tip of the water straw back into his mouth so it would be in position for travel again. He didn’t lock his helmet back just yet. He let himself breathe in the fresh air for a little longer.

Once his waterskin was filled to the brim, he reattached the tube and hid it back among the plating of his armor. He took a sip. The water was cold and vaguely sweet. It was the freshest he’d had in months.

“Finished?”

He stepped away from the trickle. The woman approached. She furrowed her brows and studied the stream, looking at it from several angles.

“. . . how to go about this. . .”

“What seems to be the problem?”

“The moss. If I touch it with this I’ll kill it.” She held up her hand, pulsing with violet. “Don’t want to contaminate the water source in case you need to use it again.”

“Can you uncover your hands like you can your face?”

“Not easily. Takes a lot of coaxing.” She shrugged.

He studied the flow of the water. There was a space where the water dropped large enough to fit her head, but the angle was strange and there was no way for her to position herself without leaning on the moss.

He could drink contaminated water in small portions, if he ever came back to this water source again. The void stone he carried could filter it out of his bloodstream at the small cost of pain. . . and whatever else the artifact was doing to his lifespan, but that didn’t matter right now. Still, the courtesy she extended was unusual to say the least and he wasn’t about to spurn it by mentioning this.

“I could hold you and lower you down to drink.” He offered.

“You’d willingly touch me?”

“My armor is sealed. With it on, there is no risk.”

“Okay. Thanks.”

He locked his helmet, creating the seal, and approached the water trickle. She stepped toward him with exaggerated movements and her palms facing outwards, showing she had nothing to hide. Soon they were chest-to-chest. They were almost the same height. He could look into her eyes. The violet of the void flared within her irises, but for just a single moment, a splotch of brown appeared. It was just his imagination. It had to be.

He placed a firm hand on her back and one on her arm. Slowly, he dipped her backwards. She opened her mouth and he moved her into the path of the falling stream. The water splashed all over her face, causing her to giggle, before she drank.

The voidflesh was cold and squirmed beneath his touch, even through his armored gauntlets. It made his own skin feel like it was crawling, but still he held firm.

“I’m done.” She said.

He pulled her back upright and stepped back. She wiped her mouth with her arm, which didn’t seem to bother her at all, as she wore a hint of a grin.

“Thanks. That was good thinking. You were always good at the spatial stuff, right?” She asked. “That’s what I remember. That’s why the expedition crews kept coming back. They couldn’t do it without you.”

He did not reply.

“Am I wrong?”

He checked to make sure no void lingered on his hands before he retrieved his journal from where it was locked against his hip. He flipped to his most current map of the area, grabbed the nib of graphite hiding in the crook of the pages, and began sketching the new areas they’d come through and updating other details in the places where they’d backtracked. On the side of the page he did a brief sketch of the new voidspawn variant, labeling it with a name based on the number of legs.

He puzzled with where to fit the other necessary drawing. He looked up from the paper towards her for a reference. She was staring back at him.

“Is that a map? That’s a good idea. How did you get a hold of paper?”

“Enchanted pages. From the surface,” he answered.

He began sketching her form.

“Could I see?”

He didn’t stop her from coming and looking at the pages.

“Hey, I recognize this area. . . are you drawing me?”

“I catalog all the void creatures I come across.”

“Hey, me too! I’ve got my own system of- wait, I’m not a void creature.”

He sketched her wing-like shoulder pods and highlighted on them where the crystal missiles emerged.

“Though, I suppose you also sketch out any other oddities, right?”

He finished sketching up to her helmet. Beside the helmet, he doodled another bust of her humanoid features. Now it was time for a label and category. He paused.

“My name is Kai’sa.” She whispered, and reached for the graphite he was holding.

He jerked his journal away from her. “Don’t touch.”

He shut the book and locked it back against his hip. He could decide on a label later. He walked past her, passing through the sunlight for just a moment, and approached the edge overlooking the ravine.

“So, heading back down the same way we came up?” She came up beside him.

He looked at her. “Unless you know of another passage?”

She smiled. She then shook her head. “Lead the way.”

#league of legends #legends of runeterra #kassadin #kai'sa #kassfam #fanfiction #wrote this back in 2022 when I got hit with a bolt from the blue about these two getting a chance to reunite #I haven't kept up to date with the lore since then so if anything's contradictory just know that canon is fake and I don't care #sometimes an introverted tragic dad and an extroverted hopeful daughter can be so personal

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