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The creation of Caelus was a test; an experiment in which the creator had not expected success. Caelus is young, when their creator completes their tests of him – he is but an artificial creation, synthetic material meant to duplicate mortal flesh, sunlight his only necessary sustenance. He is told that his existence was a fluke, that he should have been born when Elio – a mysterious successor – had wished for a vessel.
So he is unleashed upon the world, a pat to his head as his creator instructs him;
Live. Travel the world, experience a life that is worthwhile, that is your own. If your creation is before the script that would have shaped you, you deserve more than waiting millennia to start your life.
Caelus does. He wanders his new planet, does good deeds, good things. He has a talent for helping cure the ails of those who are hurt, those who are in need of care. He loves them, and they love him.
At least, until they learn he does not age.
(The village goes down in ashes and fire; he survives being burned alive, and they claim him an Abomination of existence.)
He travels on his own bare feet, dirty and bloody, burns littering his back and shoulders. The people who find him assume he is a lone survivor, an unfortunate casualty of a group of beings known as raiders, and Caelus is too hurt to say otherwise.
He offers his skills to them here as well, offers his love despite knowing he would be hurt.
They love him.
That is, until they too, learn he does not age.
(They unleash a plague amongst themselves, rather than fire.)
He wanders, he heals, and he is loved until they learn he is ageless. The pain of rejection, multiple times, multiple ways, wears him down until all he owns is carried in a rucksack he holds, his home the winding roads and inns and the occasional cave when other accommodation is unavailable.
When his face and name is too known to the world, he escapes, stowing away on a ship with healing as his choice of currency.
He finds that his healing is loved, but when his existence is revealed to be unchanging, that love becomes hatred and turns into malice.
(Envy)
When he crash-lands upon a planet, the people who take him in know of his immortality before they know of his healing.
They feed him, tend to him, and give him the love he has been denied. He loves them for this – for their unconditional acceptance, their understanding that his heart is wounded and in dire need of their warmth. It startles him when they call him a god. He is no Aeon or Emanator, he says, but they worship him regardless and offer him their love as though it is his by right. He cannot help his tears when they give him the warmth of their devotion, and they are his – precious and dearly protected. He is content to serve them forever, to grant them his love as they have granted him theirs.
They are a nomadic people; their planet is ever-changing, ever-volatile, and he hears from a visitor that they are called a Death Planet. Clearly not, for while the planet is untamed, the people survive it well, and all the better for Caelus’ skills. It is a rare day that Caelus does not tend to his precious humans, healing scrapes, kissing bruises, and carrying newborns who wail thinly for the love of a parent. Caelus provides his love in abundance, as one should for those that love him in return.
He lives a century in peace here, their benevolent caretaker, tending and stoking at the hearth of their love. It makes the inevitable return of his own accursed bad luck all the more disheartening.
He learns, later, that they are known as Raiders of Finality – those who despise the living, who believe stability is a stain on existence. They terrorize his people, hunting them down, and he cannot heal fast enough to save them.
He cries for them; his precious humans, his wonderful people, his safe haven. No matter how many he heals, there are dozen more dying, and thousands in pain.
He cannot protect them. He cannot save them. He screams for help, begs for someone to help him. Caelus alone cannot help them. He is not enough.
It is then that his hated misfortune unleashes an even more horrific response, as he meets the gaze of a being whom – had he been smarter – he should have never called out to for help.
Yaoshi’s gaze is indulgent; loving cruelty, and when Yaoshi touches him, Caelus screams.
Abundance spills with the curse of eternity, his beloved humans rising from the dead as horrific corpses, fire and smoke seeping from their lungs, their hands reaching out to those accursed Raiders and dragging them down to be choked by the smoke of his fiery Abundance.
It is the cruelest method of answering a wish, and Caelus cries harder, forced to put an end to his own, beloved humans alongside the monsters that took his home away from him.
An Emanator – A cruel joke from Yaoshi, for now, his healing would never be of use.
Caelus seeks out his Creator; they are at the end of their life, and are pleased to see him. He begs them to grant him the gift of death; Yaoshi’s gift of Abundance could only be escaped in death –
And Caelus could not die.
Their Creator is ruefully affectionate; if they could, they would, they tell him. They understand his pain, but Caelus’ creation was accidental – whatever trick of fortune that had created him so many millennia earlier had included that immortality and had never been a feature of his conception.
He cannot reverse it.
Caelus curses his Creator then; the being takes this with grace, accepts that they have cursed him, however unintentionally.
They were truly sorry, they say, and Caelus hates them. What use was an apology if nothing could be changed? Their Creator understands, and Caelus hates that they do, but in the end, he offers his Creator the opportunity he is denied, sending them along to the Finality. His Creator refuses – Caelus is their child, the only child they will ever have. To make him kill them… that is beyond cruel. They will pass in due time, they say, and instead, they offer him their ship. They will go nowhere now, and Caelus will need the transport.
Transport in hand, Caelus wanders the wider universe, his heart heavy with the knowledge of his own uselessness. His love for humanity is but smoldering embers now. Humans are nothing to Caelus now; his love for them has burned to the ground, as surely and truly as time itself. His attempts to heal are lackluster; what is a cure for hiccups now makes monsters that steal the breath from lungs. He does not want that for his once-precious humans. His mortals are nothing now; only a reminder of failure, and he refuses to heal, the wound left to fester.
Yaoshi is most displeased with him for that act. He can feel how Yaoshi gives him the condescending look of displeasure, discontent with his defiance. He is gifted with the love of Abundance; how dare he deny that gift? Yaoshi allows Caelus to think he's won for a mere year.
The gift of abundance spills from his very body mere weeks later, the explosion of it mutating everything within his range and turning his temporary home into a monster-ridden hellscape of which he could not escape without eliminating all the abominations he himself created.
It takes him years to eliminate them, to destroy what he has unintentionally wrought, only for it to happen again. And again, and again, bursts of abundance blooming, mutating what is around him, destroying the humanity he had been expected to protect and their very existence.
He hates it all, hates Yaoshi all the more for causing him this suffering. So Caelus burns it all down, leaving nothing behind but ruin.
It is in the ashes that he finds his answer – the uncontrollable Abundance blooming over ruined earth and bringing to him... fragile life. Newer life.
What is infertile is brought back to full fertility, and Caelus realizes this is his chance. This is his chance.
Caelus wanders with purpose now. He finds planets on the cusp of death, humans on the verge of extinction, and infertile lands crawling with the razed ruins of a civilization long past. For each, he finds their solution. He seeks out Death Planets, finding ways to corral his outbursts, bring the land back to lush plenty, improve his skills, and grant life to what has once been abandoned.
No land is too infertile for Caelus’ Abundance Blooms; if one does not do so, then two, or even three, shall. Caelus doggedly finds the worst of the worlds and seeks to provide them with what he once wanted, what he sought for his whole life – life.
He flees each planet when he is done, and hears the whispers of himself in the wake of traveling across his many ships, planets, and lands. They think him a new Aeon – the words make Caelus snort bitterly when he is alone. No. He is but an unlucky Emanator for an Aeon he deems a blight and curse on the world.
He learns to cover himself – a veil over his lower half, shaded scarves to conceal his silver hair; thick robes to hide his skin and gloves to hide his hands. He hides himself away, protects himself from all prying eyes, afraid to be seen, to be perceived. Should his face and name be known, he knows he will be hunted. He finds he can heal his precious humans on the brink of death, but no closer. Seeing them allows him to know more about them than he feels they would find comfort in – their ages, their heights, their lives and diets – and yet, he knows what to prescribe for their ails perfectly, a precious thing he takes advantage of.
He comes across a planet in his travels, seeking a new Death World to cleanse while he tries to find his place. No ship lands upon it, none dares to touch the space within its orbit. He must take a decommissioned spacecraft – for his creator’s ship has long since withered to dust – and make the journey alone.
It is an ocean-world. Hostile and vicious, the water is too salty for most mortals, the plants are carnivorous to all things, and what lives there are feral, mindless creatures with no thought but to tear each other apart, save for the occasional breeding session.
Caelus allows the Abundance to bloom within him, expecting failure.
Salted water clears – the water becomes crystalline, the newness of freshwater without acid. The fish become gentle and soft. As a consequence of such placidity, the newly tamed fish are snapped up by the vicious predators around them. However, it is the coral that interests Caelus the most. The coral becomes vibrant with color, and the water around the structures is fresh and clean. It filters the worst of the world, and Caelus deems it his priority.
The growth of coral is numerous and complex in the many weaves of stone and branch and living organisms; Caelus guesses perhaps a century to cleanse it all. It takes him three; there are deep caves, hidden secrets, and beauties tucked away into this dying planet, and Caelus is nothing if not thorough. He will cleanse it all and provide each part of this world the power it needs to prosper again. He thinks himself done when he finally finds the core of the world – its very heart. Yet what he finds –
‘My children are long gone from this planet,’ the massive corpse tells him. ‘My precious Vidyadhara.’
His name is Long, and he is an Aeon of a single species – a species that even now is slowly dying. The same disease that once infected the planet is gone, but the Vidyadhara host it within their core, and it will one day cause them to wither and to become creatures of endless hatred and suffering.
Long gives him directions to the ship he feels will take Caelus in, even with his accursed status. He praises all of them, but there is one of the Xianzhou that he holds special fondness for. Caelus has heard of the Xianzhou, of course. What Emanator of the accursed Yaoshi would he be had he not? They hunt and curse the Abundance, as they damn well should, and Caelus admires them for their boldness and bravery.
He sets his sights upon the Luofu after listening to Long’s advice, and two days after his Abundance Bloom, he steps aboard.
He is met with a polite greeting and faint skepticism, but he is welcomed. He wonders if they would have killed him had they known what they welcomed aboard.
He wouldn't have minded them trying.
Instead, he greets them, he thanks them, and makes slow and steady progress towards meeting the High Elder of the Vidyadhara, Dan Feng.
There is a new healer aboard the Xianzhou Luofu, according to whispers. Caelus of no known last name. He is unknown in age, but joins the Alchemy commission as a minor pharmacist and prescribes medicine. He takes no patients, heals no ails but for the most severe and dying. When Dan Feng hears of him, there is no comment as to his looks. An inquiry into his looks only bewilders Dan Feng further. He remains unseen, his people tell him. His face is shielded by an elaborate veil, his hair and skin covered over every centimeter, carefully hidden from sight. None could even guess the color of his skin, for how seriously he garbs himself.
He becomes curious enough to inquire to a young Jingliu about the man, when his curiosity can no longer be repressed. She looks bewildered at his inquiry – as well she should, Dan Feng thinks with sarcastic humor. It is rare the High Elder ever deigns to inquire about such frivolities. Affairs beyond Scalegorge were not something that Dan Feng ever bothered to care for, and it is clear his curiosity has roused her own.
"That one?" She asks, sounds vaguely surprised that he's asking. "He's a weird one. Not very nice. He knows exactly what your ills are, prescribes you medicine that he won't hand to you, and then throws you out." Here Jingliu grins. "My kind of pharmacist." At Dan Feng’s raised brow, she elaborates. “He doesn’t wax poetic, he’s here’s what I need, give it, leave.”
Dan Feng's curiousity is well and truly roused by Jingliu’s amused commentary, so he goes to see this mystery pharmacist himself. His pharmacy is well away from the busy intersection of the Alchemy Commision; Aurum Alley is a queer place to put oneself, but he supposes the novelty of such a place hosting a pharmacist finds this Caelus more visitors than not.
He barely makes three steps in when the man appears like a ghost. His robes flow like Dan Feng’s own, long sleeves cinched around his wrist to keep them from dragging into herbs. The gloves he wears are thin, delicate things with metal embellishment, the ends tapered with golden points to make up for the lack of sharp nails to open letters with. His robe is tied equally tight and high against his neck, and a hood covers his ears and hair.
Lastly is the aforementioned veil all remark upon. He had expected it to be some level of decoration, but to see the sheer, dark fabric is almost a letdown. He wears no jewels or gems, and his clothing is dark browns and the occasional russet red. Dan Feng wonders if the man knows how depressing he looks.
As he evaluates the man, Dan Feng too, is being assessed, the veiled head lifting up, then down, before Caelus speaks, pleasant tenor. His fingers swiftly snatch a scrap of fabric up, inkbrush held in his other side, speaking as swiftly as he writes.
“Name,” Caelus says, no hello granted. Dan Feng blinks, but at the seeming irritation of the faceless pharmacist, he obligingly grants it.
“Dan Feng,” He says awkwardly.
"Six grams each of lavender, chamomile, dandelion leaf, and yuzu rind with two fresh-plucked blue lotus flowers provided within twenty-four hours of blooming," the man informs him tartly. "Get out." The prescription is shoved into his hands, and he finds himself unceremoniously booted out, the door slamming shut behind him.
It takes Dan Feng ten seconds to reboot, blinking owlishly at the fine script within his grasp. He unclenches his fist, stares at the slightly aged paper and frowns. It is a trice to procure all of the ingredients, though it takes him almost a day to find freshly bloomed lotus flowers of the appropriate descriptions. Returning, he puts them on the counter, peering about curiously. Caelus appears again like a ghost, and he jumps, a startled mouse to a strange, unknowable predator. The dark visage observes him but for a moment before he speaks.
"Leave them and go. Come back tomorrow," Caelus orders him, and despite his vague annoyance, he does, lest he be kicked out like on his first visit.
A mere day later, Dan Feng is handed a tin of the finest-smelling tea he's ever seen.
"Wha –" Dan Feng is rudely cut off, his body turned, and the pharmacist shoving him out of the door. He resists – naturally – but is inevitably shoved out, no decorum or consideration given.
"One cup before bed until the tin is empty. Procure the ingredients again for a refresher," Caelus says curtly from the entryway. The door slams shut behind Dan Feng again, and next to him, a small drawer pops open. "The price is 1400 Strale."
Dan Feng is left – yet again – staring in bewilderment at the door. He deposits the Strale in the little collection box, watching it snap shut in confusion, and then curiously tries the door.
It does not open, merely rattles petulantly at him. He does not try again, already quite bewildered and frustrated.
He goes home in a bit of a huff, and takes his time, performs his usual nighttime ritual before brewing a cup of tea and taking a sip. It's a lovely, floral drink, and it quiets his busy mind, soothes him so sweetly that he finds himself only just awake enough to put the tea away, wash his dishes, and collapse in bed.
That night is the first restful sleep he's had in almost a century, the insomnia that forever plagued him now but a distant memory.
When his tin is empty, he returns with the ingredients within the metal container. Caelus is busy today; he methodically grinds material to a fine powder with a mortar and pestle – old fashioned, but perhaps charming to those who lament the loss of the olden ways. Caelus looks – er. Maybe – at him.
“Name,” Caelus says, by way of greeting.
… was the man allergic to a hello?
“Dan Feng,” he answers, all but tripping over his own words, bewildered by the lack of manners. Caelus does not soften for him, does not yield, though his relentless brutalization of his herbs seems to slow down some.
“Vidyadhara High Elder,” Caelus agrees, before continuing. “One and a quarter centuries old, one hundred and ninety-five centimeters. Harmony Path, provided a cure for insomnia,” Caelus rattles off; impressive enough, Dan Feng things. “Place your supplies and Strale on the counter and get out.”
Dan Feng blinks, even more thrown. He carefully does so, and asks the question upon his mind.
“... Can I ask for medicine for another?” Dan Feng asks, and Caelus, clearly seeing he is not intending to leave, puts down the pestle. Dan Feng defensively takes a step back.
“No.” Caelus says bluntly. “In person visits only. Now out.” Bemused, Dan Feng obliges, concerned that the man would jump over the counter and throw him out.
It takes him a few days to arrange for the appropriate transport for his sickly Vidyadhara patient. When he arrives, some of the impatient, restless air around the pharmacist seems to soften for his nervous guest. He gestures, and Dan Feng gently encourages his patient, watching Caelus use his gloves’ clawed fingertips to tilt the man’s head up.
“Vidyadhara, former life female, six centuries, current life male two centuries, experiencing hormonal dysfunction and severe temporary blindness from improper cloudhymns used during hatching. Inhalation damage of sodium hypochlorite," Caelus notes blandly. Dan Feng blinks, thrown by how easily Caelus knows that of his patient. "Additional issues include brittle bone disease and leukemia." He looks – er. Maybe looks at Dan Feng. "Out. Return tomorrow for a prescription and ingredients." He stops working on his current one and puts it away.
Dan Feng obliges and returns alone.
He finds a prescription pinned to the noticeboard and when he tries the door, finds it locked. Actually... there are several pinned to the noticeboard upon the pharmacist's door.
Dan Feng. Guest Vidyadhara. Curiosity makes him try to touch one without his name, and he nearly jumps into the air, cursing at the vicious burn against his fingertips. Taking his own allows him to soothe the pain, and he doesn't try again. Looking over the noticeboard, he sees a pinned note that seems to be for everyone.
Out collecting materials. Do not return until XX/XX/XXXX
Caelus is back when he has the necessary materials, putting away various herbs and live materials - are those crabs? Dan Feng isn't sure he wants to know - in their respective drawers.
"Dan Feng," Caelus greets politely. "Your prescription here. Guest Vidyadhara's here. Name?"
"Feiyun." Caelus nods and scribbles it on a much longer prescription note than what he had given Dan Feng. "Fourteen-hundred Strale for yours, Sixty-thousand Strale for Feiyun." Dan Feng nearly chokes at the exorbitant price. Caelus looks – er. Maybe – at him, and softens some. "One thousand for eyedrops to cure temporary blindness, a year's supply of hormone regulator for nine thousand, four thousand for inhalation damage of sodium hypochlorite, and twenty-three thousand each for brittle bone and leukemia cures, to be administered weekly until completed."
... More digestible. He fishes out the necessary Strale and reminds himself to budget his next meal appropriately. Caelus accepts the payment, stares at him, and then shoos him away, a flapping of hands that he obliges.
Dan Feng finds himself kicked out a little more gently this time.
He returns when the prescriptions are done, but this time Caelus does not immediately throw him out.
"... I was wondering... I will be going out on campaign soon," Dan Feng says awkwardly. "Might I bring supplies in bulk to prepare?"
"..." It's deeply discomfiting, and Dan Feng soon finds his concern mounting before Caelus shakes his head.
"No." There's no further elaboration, and Dan Feng waits. When that doesn't send him away, Caelus goes back to – maybe?? – looking at him. A sigh leaves Caelus, and the pharmacist steps out from behind the counter. "Out." Dan Feng finds himself gently pushed out, medicineless and pouting about it.
And so it continues. Caelus is annoying and stubborn and fuck if he didn't ever explain himself despite Dan Feng's many attempts to engage him in some semblance of actual conversation, but he finds himself growing fond of the strange pharmacist, even if he has absolutely no idea what this man looks like or what his personality might even be.
It takes him a few months of acquaintance to screw up the courage to greet him when he sees the pharmacist outside running errands. Caelus walks as swiftly as he speaks – a brisk, no-nonsense stride that sends many scurrying out of his path.
"Caelus," he greets, a touch nervous. (If Jingliu even dares to say such he will punt her into the harbor. It was bad enough that Baiheng was teasing him about it as well, no need for little Jing Yuan to join in too because of his master’s teasing)
"..." Caelus stares – could the man please take the damn veil off – at him. "Dan Feng. I'm busy." Caelus greets, and immediately starts walking away. Oh for Lan's sake – He manages to gently grasp Caelus' arm, the man's head tilting towards it before tilting towards him. Dan Feng has a distinct feeling that if he keeps holding on, Caelus may bite his hand, and he lets go a little hastily.
"Can I help you?" He asks, a touch desperate. He knows nothing of this man but his name, yet he yearns for more, for the chance to learn more of him and his mysterious origins. "Material collection, herb gathering, something, please?" He asks, knows he is desperate.
In the early morning light, Dan Feng can see the faint silhouette of Caelus' profile through the very thin material of his veil. It’s the first time Dan Feng has seen anything of Caelus, and what he is able to see is most tempting.
"... Fine."
That night, Caelus finds himself staring at his face in the mirror. He has finally acquired Dan Feng's attention. He'd hoped that his unusual behavior would have brought him to the man's radar sooner rather than later, and he kneels down, hands clasped to thank Lan and Long both for their generosity in giving Caelus this chance.
He has no intentions of squandering it, not when Caelus is so close, yet so far to his goal.
The next day, he joins Dan Feng on a journey off-planet collecting wild Dragon Eggs – a variety of explosive seed that came from a delightful fruit called the Death Bloom.
(Charming first date, his mind supplies sarcastically)
It's hot, but Caelus ignores his body's complaints, still skittish of the idea of allowing the Vidyadhara to see his skin or face – the rumors of him bringing Abundance to planets has not quite faded from common memory, and he would not want Dan Feng to kill him for believing him faithful to that accursed Yaoshi.
Dan Feng watches him with curiosity, the two of them studying the seeds for the opportunity to snatch some from the flower during their inert state.
They are successful – though the flower attempted to eat Dan Feng’s hair for their crimes – and they return victorious, if slightly singed.
"Thank you. Please leave," Caelus says awkwardly. Dan Feng seems vaguely frustrated but obliges him all the same, though he turns to awkwardly bow at Caelus.
"I hope you allow me to do this with you again," Dan Feng says, and departs before Caelus can throw him out. When the door is firmly shut, Caelus indulges in a rare smile for himself. He is indeed lucky.
The courtship between Dan Feng and Caelus quickly becomes the talk of the town, with many giggling and laughing at how awkward the two seem. Jingliu had laughed about it, and he'd cursed her with a cloudhymn that made constant rain follow over her head, even when she slept, and she'd never dared mention it again.
Jing Yuan – the precocious child – had taken notes, to his amusement.
Caelus is slow to open up to Dan Feng, does not seem interested in the High Elder for lofty things like power, or political gain. They barely chat – which is fine by him – only direct, terse words from Caelus no matter what manner of flattery he tries.
He's not even sure if Caelus realizes he is attempting to woo him, and he carefully waits until they are alone, collecting tiny octopi that Caelus is mercilessly dehydrating to death before he speaks.
"I want to court you." Dan Feng says, and Caelus stops using his Element to fry them alive, turning to look at him skeptically. Or – fuck's sake that stupid veil – he thinks so.
"You haven't even seen my face," Caelus points out. It's an improvement on his usually short sentences, and Dan Feng tries not to let the giddiness show.
"I don't care. I like you." He says. And he does. Caelus was far from verbose, awkward, quiet, but lovely and honest in his actions. He makes Dan Feng tinctures without payment now, offers advice when he is unsure of how to deal with Jing Yuan – precious child – and allows him to watch Caelus make prescriptions.
It is an awkward courtship, yes, but it's still a courtship. He leans in towards Caelus, who leans back, more out of habit than actual intent to hurt him, and he waits patiently for Caelus to stop leaning back. Slowly, Caelus straightens, and his lips catch the curve of a cloth-covered cheek.
"... I think you're an idiot," Caelus says, the words familiarly blunt, but Dan Feng is long used to the affectionate insults. "But fine." A hand comes up, and his heart catches when Caelus gently undoes his veil.
It's almost scandalous, the sight of his bare face, Caelus slowly undoing the ties and slowly, shyly exposing himself for Dan Feng's eyes.
He's beautiful, with soft silver hair tumbling to frame untouched skin, the untouched, delicate flesh of him startlingly pretty. Gold eyes are brilliant, the seductive hue of their enrapturing color glittering like gemstones in the waning sunlight.
"You may try," Caelus tells him. Dan Feng touches his bare skin slowly, the touch making Caelus shiver so prettily for the High Elder.
(That very night, he makes himself a mating scale so as to never forget the feelings Caelus has roused within his heart.)
Their courtship is exceedingly slow. Caelus' body is still much a mystery to him, but he is allowed the rare treat of Caelus' face, the occasional graze of his fingertips without cloth to caress, and even the barest kiss to his skin.
All of these feel like gifts, rare treasures, precious things he could not imagine having been given. He shares them to Dan Feng alone, and the High Elder treasures each one, sips at the offerings like a flower to sunlight. Is this what it feels like? This heady anticipation towards a lover? Every bit of flesh Dan Feng is allowed to see is a gift, a rare show of trust, and only he is granted the right of it.
He cannot wait to see more, to unveil more –
Then the next war against the Abominations came. It's a long slog, painful and excruciating - Dan Feng wants nothing more than to go home and ask Caelus for permission to perhaps hold his hand when it is all said and done.
He returns to find Caelus' store is closed, and all those who are around it are only mildly annoyed by his absence.
"Oh, yes. He left last night in a hurry, muttering about a place. He does that once a year or so, always looks a little like someone's hunting him," the nearby shopkeep informs him before returning to her tasks.
"I see. Thank you." He's not really thankful, but he knows one thing.
He needs to find his boyfriend. Calling in a favor helps him – he's on – a Death Planet? Caelus is not a fighter, whyever would he go to such a condemned space?
Regardless, he finds Caelus, carefully approaches him while he meditates.
"Caelus, my pearl?" He calls, and those pretty golden eyes see him, their gaze widening in alarm.
"Dan Feng – you weren't supposed to be back today!" Caelus gasps, and Dan Feng isn't sure if he should feel hurt or not.
"Jingliu gave me leave to come home a week and a half earl–"
"You need to leave, right now." Caelus says, audibly panicking. "You need to be at least five hundred meters away from me, now!" Caelus' panic is confusing.
And intimately hurtful.
"My pearl, please –" Caelus shoves him harder, his pretty pharmacist struggling to move him, to keep him from whatever poor fate it is.
"Caelus –"
"Please!" Caelus screams the word against his back, almost sobbing in his terror. "Please, you have to go, you have to leave before I hurt you!" Before he - the loss of pressure against his back nearly trips him over his own two feet, Caelus losing his grip on Dan Feng and choking on a sob as he tumbles to his knees, energy spent.
Tears glow and drip down his cheeks, the brilliance of them making him freeze.
"Go! Please, Dan Feng, I'm begging you –" He can't - how could he when his precious pearl is so scared? "I don't want to hurt -" Caelus coughs, and he sees the brightness of ginkgo leaves. No... No, he'd heard that Caelus wasn't a long-life species. He couldn't be experiencing symptoms of Mara-sickness, could he?
No. No no no no please anything but that please merciful Lan do not take his precious pearl –
He's frozen when Caelus loses control, the brilliance of Abundance consuming them both.
He wakes up dizzy, to the feel of soft pillows, the silky touch of a hand to his forehead. His entire body feels as though it was consumed with fever, a yearning hunger for something he doesn't understand. He whines, restless heat pooling in his loins, the sheets sticky and messy and fuck he'd never been so aroused in his life, a hunger to fuck so deep in his bones he might as well die if he doesn't get -
The bed bends next to him, a hand slipping under the sheets to grasp his hard, leaking cocks in their dainty palm.
Caelus. He knows that hand intimately.
"I'm sorry," Caelus whimpers shamefully. "I'm sorry I have to keep doing this to you, please don't hate me." The stroke of a hand over his cock is nothing short of the finest, most exquisite touch he's ever had, cock drooling at the very soft, gentle grasp. He rocks his hips up into the flesh, chasing orgasm and moaning to himself, nothing but a beast in seek of a mate. Caelus' hand strokes him so gently, so sweetly, that he nearly cries at the amount of care given.
He comes messily all over Caelus' hand, but he doesn't soften. It takes several more orgasms before his body calms remotely, and he's able to blink his eyes open to look at his pretty mate, who is disheveled and tired.
"My... pearl..." Dan Feng rasps, and Caelus freezes from where he pulls back, his golden eyes terrified.
Of what? What does his precious mate have to fear?
"I should get your medicine –" Caelus stammers, but his tail is faster than his mate, the appendage slamming the door shut.
... wait. Tail? Dan Feng's new appendage has a mind of its' own, pulling Caelus back, reeling him in, and bringing him to the embrace of the High Elder as he belongs. There is a sense of rightness when Caelus is in his grasp, and he looks at frightened gold with loving concern.
"My pearl..." Dan Feng rasps. "What's wrong?" He asks, confused. "Don't be afraid, my pearl. I'm tired of that already." The reek of Caelus' fear and worry for him is simply too much. "My precious pearl," Dan Feng rasps, laying him on the sheets and hovering over him. "Do not run from me. Let me mate you, call you mine, preciously take care of you. Do you not feel this hunger? This drive to mate?" He smiles sweetly at Caelus, who squeaks desperately when he nuzzles the soft crook of Caelus' neck. "I wish to mate you, to breed you, fill you up -" his body feels possessed, hungry, the craving and desire of sex raw and primal and overwhelming.
He wants so badly to stuff his mate and fill him until he bursts from the love, stretched out and plump, unable to feel the fear that rolls off of him.
"D-Dan Feng, please, wait – you're not thinking right –" Dan Feng growls hungrily, cutting Caelus off.
"I am perfectly coherent, mate," He says sternly, nips at a pretty throat. "This heat does not impede me from desiring you, or wishing to affectionately fuck you until you tell me why my body won't calm the fuck down." Dan Feng growls, his tail whipping excitedly left and right. "I will not condemn you, pretty mate, just because you're afraid you think I am doing this against your will." Hungrier, he adds, "I want to breed you."
Caelus' milky skin blooms with flustered want, embarrassment, and desire, and he growls lovingly, nips at an ear.
"... D-dan Feng..." Caelus whines.
"Let me mate you. I want to feel how you unfold under me," he pants, desperate begging. "Please, please, I'm begging you, my pretty mate." Caelus cannot say no to that.
Dan Feng has never followed his instinct more than this - his body yearns to transform, to take shape, to become a dragon so he may mate and stuff his lover with pearls all for him, all for him to feel and be loved by.
His body stretches and grows, occupying the small bed until his sinuous flesh falls from it, his body vaster than the small form that trembles beneath him. Caelus is tiny below him, and his cocks immediately present themselves for inspection, following instinct and desire. They are extremely plump – one alone will stretch his mate to their breaking point, and he growls again, feeling the way he leaks precum all over Caelus.
It was no wonder his body could not be satisfied by the small orgasms he'd had before - he can feel how pent up his body is, his cocks oozing all over the sheets and ruining Caelus' bed.
He hopes his mate will forgive him.
Caelus is still dressed, and that doesn't please him at all, a grumpy crooning noise leaving him before he moves. His claws stretch to gently take the fabric in his talons and shred it apart.
May I? He asks, and Caelus nods, quivering at his polite request. He happily rips apart the fabric, to see the flesh in its beautiful entirety.
How pretty, his mate. He will mate him full, stuff him to bursting, make him cry tears of pleasure. His beautiful mate is unmarked, soft skin quivering as his talons pet at that milky stomach. His cock is cute and pink, and the dragon extends his neck to lick at it, makes Caelus gasp in surprised delight, a squeal of pleasure leaving him. Opening his fangs, he presents his maw to his mate for inspection. Caelus shivers, and he closes it, confused. Was his mate not pleased with his strength to protect him?
"... I don't think you can fit..." Caelus says, embarrassed bashfulness, and Dan Feng chuckles.
I will fit, pretty mate. I will fit well in you , He promises, moving to slide his tongue over the soft flesh, before rubbing it up and down his thighs in sticky slick. Are you clean enough for me to mate you? Dan Feng asks, and Caelus looks embarrassed.
"Y-ye- hiee!"
Dan Feng's tongue plunges in without further ado, Caelus squealing as the long tongue bullies his tight hole open, the dragon rutting against the sheets messily as he anticipates the great pleasure of Caelus' body that awaits him. Yes, his mate's body was already begging for him, so precious and greedy. His maw closes around the flesh gently, simply to push his tongue deeper, and Caelus squeals for him, sobbing and moaning as he prods around for that spot within that he's heard of. Caelus wails for him when he finds it, and he loves the sound.
Mercilessly, he stabs it again with his tongue. And again. And again, every time listening to Caelus sob and wail for him, to feel those plump thighs quiver in his grasp, to watch him suffer the sexual torment until his body becomes loose and pliant to take his cocks.
Caelus spasms when he comes, that vice grip on his tongue slackening once he collapses from orgasm, and Dan Feng frees himself, his cocks oozing over the sheets. Curling up, Dan Feng allows his tongue free as he prods his cock against Caelus' quivering entrance.
I'm going to stuff you full, mate. I'm going to make you full.
Caelus looks at him dazedly, a weak nod given as permission. It's all he needs, slowly pushing the head of one giant cock in, feeling Caelus sob and squeal, his claws holding his mate hostage so he can breed his mate in earnest. It only takes a few thrusts before Caelus is coming again, clamping down on him, and he loves it, loves how Caelus calls his name and sobs, tightening more and more around Dan Feng's first cock inside of him.
He's not entirely sure how to rut in this form, his body rippling experimentally as he shakily thrusts in and out, Caelus gasping and moaning and sobbing his name, begging him so desperately that he quickly picks up the right method, fucking in and out of him until Caelus is crying, tears dripping down his cheeks.
His mate reeks of more, give more and he does, fucking harder and harder until his first load stuffs itself into Caelus, so much his mate could never hold it all, leaking out of the tight hole and all over the sheets and his mate, even as it swells extremely plump with his desires. It's so pretty, watching how he struggles to move, stuffed to the gills with Dan Feng's love. Slowly, he frees himself and enters his other cock.
Caelus cannot do more than moan for him, adorably helpless, sobbing his name through desperate sips of air, and he fucks his mate even more eagerly, something deep inside howling at him, that his mate will not be fertile for long, fill, fill, fill –
He is only vaguely aware of the sensation of an egg passing through his cock, the instinct to mate consuming all other rational thought or observation, only his animalistic hindbrain rejoicing when Caelus' plump stomach grows ever more fat with his love.
He doesn't remember how many, how much, or even what he does after the eggs are laid, only that Caelus begs him to stay, and he does, his massive body curling around the timid flesh, grooming his messy mate until he's presentable.
Dan Feng wakes in bipedal form again, and upon seeing the extremely fat swell of his mate's stomach, indulges in a bout of panic.
His mate was going to hate him.
No, his mate was going to murder him. He doesn't still quite understand exactly why his pretty mate had asked for him to leave, but considering what he'd done, it's not much of a stretch. Perhaps his species had a strong fertility response? Oh no, that meant his mate was trying to protect him –
"I can smell the smoke," Caelus opines grumpily from where he lays, audible annoyance. It's much more like he’s used to, and Dan Feng rejoices in it, glad his mate is speaking coherently. Dan Feng helps his mate sit up...
And then winces.
The room is trashed. His sheets are shredded, his soft, fluffy mattress has claw marks on it, and even his beloved mate's furniture is turned around.
He supposes he's lucky that Caelus only looks amused by the carnage, if not happy with him for the rest of it. Apologetic, he nuzzles his egg-plumpened mate and moves to extricate the eggs. Caelus stops him, oddly, his pretty lover shaking his head with adorable nervousness.
"My pearl, I need to remove them from you before they harm –"
"They can't harm me," Caelus says quietly. His voice is small. Weak, and that same uncomfortable feeling from before they'd mated returns. "... I'm so sorry Dan Feng. We need to talk."
Dread sinks in his stomach. The softness of his mate's words has never felt so terrifying.
He helps his mate bathe, confused by how his inner dragon continues to croon over Caelus as though his mate had truly become pregnant with his brood, and all of these signs make him wonder even more what he has gotten himself into with this pretty man. Caelus wobbles to his couch, and he lovingly helps his mate lie upon it, his tail returning to softly caress his skin.
"My pearl, please, I won't hate you," he says softly, when Caelus hesitates, hand going to his stomach, fingers trembling with their soft nerves.
"You shouldn't say that," Caelus tells him, quivering anxiously. Then, Caelus begins to speak in hushed shame.
He talks about a childhood of pain; able to heal but condemned for his immortality, wandering endlessly from town to town, before he starts wandering the stars, looking for a place that will love him. He talks about how he'd finally found a place to belong, but was unsuccessful, how the Raiders of Finality had found his little safe haven, and how he, unable to fight, had pleaded for the power to save them.
Dan Feng freezes when he confesses the ultimate sin - the sin of being Yaoshi's Emanator, of raising the dead and being forced to slaughter the villagers he loved so dearly, before escaping again to the stars. Dan Feng has to fetch him water, offer him his palm for Caelus to continue, trembling against him.
Caelus tells him everything, from his first Abundance Bloom, to how he gave up healing with his powers, afraid that he would only make fresh abominations.
And then he tells him about a planet Dan Feng remembers vaguely from dreams. The homeland all Vidyadhara yearn for, all of whom know they miss so dearly. Dan Feng would scoff at the idea of Long asking his precious lover to help them, but the shaky way Caelus trembles tells him it is no joke to him, that this madman thinks he'd truly met Long of the Permeance. Yet, even as logic rebels, the description he speaks reminds him of his home plant, an echo of a long-forgotten memory.
"I... Understand if you hate me," Caelus says tremblingly, quivering like a newborn on shaky legs. "I wanted to tell you after my Abundance Event was over, after you'd returned, but you came back early and I was so scared -" Caelus hiccups, and Dan Feng stares at his lover, at his pearl as he cries.
"I wish to trust you," Dan Feng says softly. "I wish to believe you and appreciate your love, but you must understand how difficult this is." Caelus' head bows, and he nods, obviously expecting rejection. "We will set the eggs aside when you are ready to lay, and you will take me to Long's corpse. If you can take me to my homeland, then I will consider believing you that you are not an agent of Yaoshi here to destroy all I love." Gold eyes snap up to him, wide-eyed, trembling hope. It hurts more than he wishes to admit to see how Caelus yearns for his understanding. He hopes beyond hope that his pearl is right and true and just because if he is not Dan Feng will have to find a way to kill him, and that will kill his desire to love.
"You promise?" Caelus whispers softly, desperate hope in his gaze. Dan Feng tilts his head, leans in. His lips meet soft, warm ones, and he pulls back. He knows he shouldn’t, yet he does, unable to bear the ache in delicate eyes.
"You have my word as the Vidyadhara High Elder," he promises. Then, a hesitant, "and if this proves true, my word as your mate as well."
Dan Feng closes the pharmacy, citing Caelus is ill, and none think to question it. He vanishes so often that none ever really know if it is due to illness or research, and they simply ask him to wish the young pharmacist well.
Dan Feng smiles tightly and goes back inside, tends to his mate gently and sweetly despite the roiling unease. He is already fat and swollen, but the obscene stretch only grows over the course of the next few days, Caelus unable to walk after the third, and difficult to move when Dan Feng is not in dragon-form by the sixth.
It takes ten days for Caelus to be ready to lay, and Dan Feng holds his mate through it all, his sobbing a knife to the heart as he pushes each egg out, each one so fat that Dan Feng is astonished his mate doesn't pass out after each one.
Ten eggs. Ten little new lives, if his mate is right.
(In his head, he already knows that losing his mate will cause nothing but suffering, nothing but pain as his heart and soul has already accepted Caelus and no other to be his.)
He chooses to pamper his beloved mate, though he ought to let Caelus sleep alone, but his tail wraps tight around Caelus' waist and refuses to let him go.
The eggs are carefully put in the absurdly deep bath, Dan Feng singing a cloudhymn to keep them well while he is gone, as well as several to protect the eggs and one more to alert him to intruders.
Then, he informs the Preceptors and the other, necessary government officials that he is taking a brief sabbatical. He does not explain where he is going or why, only that he must, and if all fares well, he will return with good news for their people.
They leave quietly, on a starskiff designed for extremely long voyages.
Thankfully, Caelus does not tarry, instead happy to take over the flight controls - a Foxian, Dan Feng is not.
The journey takes them almost two months, and his heart catches when he sees the beauty of a land he'd thought lost to his people.
He doesn't even need to see Long, not when he can see the familiar coral landscapes, the memory of the type of fish and crab and food his people once controlled so visible.
Even so, Caelus guides him to the corpse of his progenitor.
Long is the entirety of the coral reef Caelus had so gently purified, centuries ago, the world teeming with life once again, the decayed Aeon opening dull eyes to view him.
‘My Emanator ,’ Long greets Dan Feng gently. ‘ I see he's found you.’
"Yes," Dan Feng chokes on his sob. "Yes." Long's love permeates the water they drift in, ever-so-kind and gentle.
‘Take care of him... Cherish him, Long urges. He no more wishes to be part of the accursed abundance than you would. take him as your mate and you can repopulate the losses. Caelus saved me, but he only delayed the inevitable. I will pass on soon.’
"I - I shouldn't be the only one to see you - at least let me call the other High Elders, they deserve to know your resting place –" Dan Feng begs, shameless, pleading. He is a child before his Aeon, and Long rumbles a fond laugh.
‘I won't die quite yet, my little one. Caelus has bought me a few more decades at least. Send your other Elders, and I will bless them with strength. I cannot bless what is closest to my embodiment, for I have sent you a mate. You will be the only one who can mate him,’ Long promises, and Dan Feng nods rapidly. ‘ Now go tell your pretty mate that you love him. I will be here when you bring your brethren.’
They talk at length together. Long is not the Abundance, but Long can alter what an Aeon has done with the last of his power. He bequeaths Caelus fertility, but only during his Abundance Blooms, to prevent the unsavory from daring to take Caelus and forcefully mate him to an unworthy Vidyadhara. (A greater bonus, in Caelus's eyes, is the fact that he can put his Abundance Blooms off, to which Dan Feng kisses him for.)
Caelus' eggs are to be sent to mated pairs - of which only one half must be Vidyadhara - where they will take the features of their caretakers - before the egg will hatch.
Dan Feng can only produce ten eggs a year, and combined with Long's protection, Caelus will never fear his mate leaving him. They part from Long, and return home to spread the good news.
(The discovery of Long's Sanctuary sends ripples across the Xianzhou ships when it becomes known)
Of course, Dan Feng is called away after the eggs are safely distributed, and Caelus is alone.
He still wears his concealing clothing, still hides his face, for he is still rather shy. He loves, however, very deeply and thoroughly. His mate thinks of him when he is away, sending him trinkets from other Xianzhou ships and sending Jing Yuan to play starchess with him when the child is healing from his injuries.
(If one must know, he trounces the boy solidly every time)
The return of his mate is a joyful affair, for when Jing Yuan informs him that he's returning – today, why didn't you say so - Caelus runs out of his store, racing through Starskiff Haven to launch himself into the arms of his beloved mate, Dan Feng, laughing at his eagerness.
For now, all is well.