not with envy nor newness of life (critical role | keyleth/raishan)

[fiachairecht]

not with envy nor newness of life. critical role, keyleth/raishan. keyleth meets raishan in pyrah. 2.7k words, rated e.

The air in Pyrah crackles with life in a way Keyleth hasn't felt since leaving the Earth Ashari. The energies from the elemental planes that cling to the gates at the centre of Ashari settlements is invigorating, something Keyleth always forgets when she spends too long away, and at the edge of the Cindergrove, she feels like she's breathing again for the first time since she left the Underdark.

For all the wind's familiar warmth, she can't sleep after they return from the Fire Plane. She's restless with it, like the fire's come back with her and is still creeping along her skin. Like maybe something else is in the wind, too hot to be Zephra and too still to be Terrah and too strange to be anywhere else.

Sunset comes late to the mountains, and the horizon is still burning red and gold with it when Keyleth disentangles herself from Pike and Vex and slips out of their temporary house to go for a walk. She walks with no particular goal or destination, and it's freeing, if she doesn't think too hard about how unlikely it is she'll be able to do so for much longer.

The Cindergrove whispers around her, gold lights blinking cheerfully from petrified branches. It's not the sort of life she's used to seeing in forests — certainly nothing like the stories Kima had told her about the Vesper Timberlands — but it's a life all the Cindergrove's own, the life of a flame that doesn't know how to go out, and Keyleth shuts her eyes as she walks and lets the light filter through.

It takes longer than she had expected to stumble, and her eyes fly open as she catches herself on a surprisingly smooth tree trunk. She's made her way to the edge of a clearing, one where the ashen dirt has shaded to a deep, rich brown. Flowers grow around the edges, their heady scent almost enough to drown out the sulfur that hangs over Pyrah like another layer of clouds.

A figure sits in the centre, still as a statue except for the breeze brushing through their waterfall of green hair. Keyleth thinks about leaving, an apology for intruding already, on her lips, but something about the figure's presence keeps her still, keeps her silent. She watches as the figure reaches out to the side, digs their fingertips into the dirt. Something brushes against Keyleth's ankle, and she looks down to see another flower climbing from the dirt, this one with deep purple petals and a stem the blinding white of bone.

Keyleth kneels to touch it instinctively, and a woman's laugh breaks the still air of the clearing. "You're not interrupting, you know. Have you come to see Raishan's little world?"

Keyleth gasps, and looks up to see a fine-boned half-elven face smiling at her. "R-Raishan?"

"Me," the woman says simply. She half-turns towards Keyleth, reaching up to lift her hair and let it cascade over one shoulder. The gesture blatantly shows off her breasts, and Keyleth bites her lip. The invitation is unmistakable, even to her.

"I'm Keyleth," she says, before she can think the better of it. "I'm to lead the Air Ashari, in Zephra, after I finish my Aramente."

"Keyleth," she repeats, tongue flickering over her lips like the name is a physical thing she could taste. "Will you sit with me? Or do you have business to get back to?"

Keyleth hesitates only the briefest moment before settling next to Raishan on the blanket the other woman has spread on the ground. Sleep isn't waiting for her back at the village, and druidcrafting flowers has always been soothing. "The flowers are, um. Really nice." Really nice? Kiki, come on. Well, in her defence, Raishan is very naked, and definitely distracting.

Raishan smiles, brilliant in the sunset's light. "I've worked on them for years," she says. "Bringing this sort of life from the dead animals, dead trees, dead ..." She trails off, and Keyleth swallows hard, wondering what other dead things Raishan had been working with. Wondering, Orcus' horn not wholly gone from her mind, if she dares to ask.

"Why —" she starts, but Raishan just laughs, picking up on her nervousness.

"Nothing so dreadful as what you're imagining, Keyleth. Just bringing something new to life's cycle. Look, feel with me." She reaches over and presses her wrist to Keyleth's, and Keyleth feels her heartbeat speed up to match Raishan's. "Fire to cleanse." Raishan laces their fingers together, lifts their hands and Keyleth feels the brief burn of a fireball spell scorch across her skin. "And flowers to live." The fireball explodes across the clearing, shattering into a thousand rose petals that twist and drift across the ground.

"Oh." Kelyeth licks her lips and half-consciously shifts even closer to Raishan. Spellcasting with someone else is always intoxicating, and she can feel the residual energy of the fireball drift around them, melding with the Cindergrove's elemental magic and burning as it settles into her skin. It feels like scrying for the first time with Allura, and she blushes remembering how that had ended.

Raishan's eyes are sparkling. "You feel it too, don't you? The things we could raise, Keyleth, just imagine."

Keyleth shivers and drops her gaze, only to find herself staring at Raishan's breasts, nipples hard and tight in the evening air. "Isn't it dangerous?" She doesn't sound convincing even to herself. "Necromancy ... life needs us to guard, not ..."

Raishan cups her cheek, and Keyleth can feel the energy in every line of her palm. "Of course. That's what makes it fun."

Keyleth meets her eyes, painfully aware of how wet she already is. She's been impatient for ... for something since she tumbled out of the portal from the Fire Plane practically vibrating with adrenaline and the almost incomprehensible feeling of success on a new phase of her Aramente. Here on the ground, the heat of Raishan's body warm like something she could slip into and never leave, Keyleth thinks maybe this is exactly what she was waiting for.

There's half a question in Raishan's eyes, like she knows what Keyleth's answer is going to be even before she asks anything aloud. "Okay," Keyleth says, and then, "okay," again, softer as she leans in to cover Raishan's lips with her own.

Raishan doesn't kiss like fire, and in the back of her mind Keyleth is dimly surprised. The thought hardly flickers through her mind, though, before she decides it doesn't matter, because Raishan's mouth is warm and welcoming underneath hers, Raishan's hand light as it strokes up and down her thigh through the slit in her skirts.

"That was quicker than I expected," Raishan says with amusement when they part. "Is this not unbecoming of a leader?"

A week, a day ago, the teasing might have been enough to make her gather any remaining semblance of dignity she had and flee. Tonight, bold with the fire she's been given to keep, it just sends a pulse of want through her body. "I don't think so at all," she says, and when Raishan presses forward for another kiss, presses still closer so Keyleth has no choice but to lie back, wrap her arms around Raishan's neck and pull her with, she does so happily.

"Future headmistress of the Air Ashari," Raishan says thoughtfully, dragging her teeth along Keyleth's lip as she breaks the kiss. "I like the sound of that. Do you?"

"I —" Keyleth tilts her head to give Raishan better access as she mouths a path down her neck. "Yes. I don't know." She wants the words back as soon as she's said them, but at the same time, the admission feels freeing. Raishan makes her feel like she's allowed to want, almost more than Cerkonos had when he'd given her the sparkstone.

"Good," Raishan says, nipping briefly at Keyleth's collarbone as she continues her descent. "Your magic, the life in you ... you'll make an interesting leader."

Keyleth almost says something about interesting, but Raishan's mouth has found her breast, and focussing on Raishan tonguing at her nipple seems like a much nicer idea. She sighs instead, shuts her eyes and revels in the feeling of Raishan's mouth on her through the thin top of her dress, the friction delightful as Raishan drags her lips to the other breast. She floats for what feels like hours, caught between the wet warmth of Raishan's mouth and the drier heat of the grove's ambient magic, before she comes back to herself to the sound of Raishan's voice.

"Open your eyes," Raishan murmurs. "Look, Keyleth, look at me — look at us."

Her words are almost indistinguishable with her lips pressed against the delicate skin of Keyleth's inner thigh, but Keyleth's eyes fly open at the tone in her voice anyway. Past the dark flushed expanse of her own skin and the mess of her skirts bunched at her waist, all she can see is Raishan's head buried between her legs, the deep green fall of her hair like something new and bright and just waiting for Keyleth's hands.

Raishan lifts her head just enough to meet Keyleth's eyes, and for half a moment Keyleth swears the other woman's eyes flash gold in the fading sunset. "Just like that, sweetling."

Keyleth gives in to the temptation to bury her hands in Raishan's silky hair, whining at the loss of her warm mouth and spreading her legs wider in a silent plea.

"Eager," Raishan laughs, and Keyleth has to bite down on her lip so hard she tastes blood to keep from crying out at the hot rush of Raishan's breath against her cunt. "So deliciously eager, and I've hardly touched you yet."

"Raishan..." But that's all she manages before Raishan's head dips down again, her lips closing around Keyleth's clit with unerring precision. Keyleth gives up on trying to be quiet as her hips jerk upwards, her choked cry not quite drowning out Raishan's hum of satisfaction.

She feels Raishan's hand move to her hip, pressing her back to the ground and holding her open with a hand much colder than Keyleth had expected. "Shh, down you go. Oh, I do so enjoy the taste of you."

Keyleth moans, eyes nearly fluttering shut again with pleasure as Raishan licks at her with single-minded determination. But she finds she can't look away from the sight of Raishan between her thighs, every flick of her tongue against Keyleth's cunt pinning her to the ground. The sight of her dedication is a rush of power unlike anything she's ever known.

Back in Emon, Allura had laid her down on her big soft bed and quieted her restless mind with a gentle mouth and soothing hands, intent on teaching Keyleth new ways to draw pleasure from her body, and how to give in return. Raishan has all of Allura's confidence and none of her gentleness, her tongue hard and insistent as she drags it through Keyleth's folds — and it's exactly what Keyleth wants in the moment. When Raishan returns to suck ruthlessly at Keyleth's clit, Keyleth claps a hand over her mouth to keep from screaming.

"Shh, dear girl," Raishan whispers as she pulls back, and Keyleth sobs at the sudden absence, her cunt clenching on nothing. "This is my little world up here," she continues. "Just the two of us, unless you're so loud you bring all your friends up looking for you."

"Oh — oh gods," Keyleth gasps, closing her eyes tight against the imagery. Pike would come looking for her first, maybe, all sweetness and concern, but Vex would find her first, her clever hunter's instinct leading her straight to this clearing if she set her mind to it.

Raishan's smile is almost feral. "Yes, just like that. Think about them all seeing their sweet princess laid out like this for me. If only they could see what I've done to you. How beautiful you are."

Keyleth keens helplessly behind her hand, reaching the other down to slide her fingers over her slick clit as she feels herself getting even wetter at the thought. She can hardly think, hardly breathe as Raishan's words curl around her, so tightly she thinks they might slice her apart if Raishan doesn't touch her again, hold her together on this edge of pleasure-pain that Allura had never taken her to. "Not enough," she says, and isn't even sure she's spoken aloud over her pulse pounding in her ears. "Raishan — please —"

Raishan laughs and settles down again, pulling Keyleth's hand away from her cunt and licking thoughtfully at her damp fingers. "None of that, sweet. Hold yourself open for me or put your hands out of my way."

The words don't quite pierce the haze of arousal flooding Keyleth's mind and for a moment she just stares, mouth open and hand limp in Raishan's grasp. And then her mind catches up, a moment almost too late, and she cranes her neck to watch desire flare in Raishan's eyes as she spreads the lips of her cunt for her hungry gaze.

"Perfect," Raishan says, and Keyleth whimpers when she presses a kiss to her stomach. "Oh, the things I could do with you, sweet girl."

"Ple —" Keyleth starts, but she doesn't get any further before Raishan slips two fingers into her, and her head falls back to the ground, back arching at the wonderful feeling of finally, finally having Raishan's fingers exactly where she wants them. Raishan's nails are just blunt enough to be on the good edge of almost-pain inside her, and she clenches tight around them, drawing her deeper in.

Despite her eager words, Raishan fucks her almost lazily. Keyleth can feel her smile every time she thinks she does something particularly clever — twisting her fingers inside Keyleth, reaching up to pinch a nipple. Keyleth bites her lip and winds her hand tighter through Raishan's hair, not quite focused enough to guide her but firm enough to keep her trapped between her legs.

"Lovely," Raishan murmurs as Keyleth chases each thrust of her fingers. "Keep yourself spread — yes, just like that, princess, you taste lovely, let's see if I —"

She's been teasing at Keyleth's entrance with the tip of a third finger, and this too Keyleth wants, the thought of being stretched three-full by Raishan's hand making her whole body flush almost impossibly hot. But instead Raishan withdraws her fingers, and Keyleth doesn't even have time to protest before Raishan has her mouth on her again, replacing her fingers with her tongue, and Keyleth comes with a sob, vision going white as she floods Raishan's mouth and chin and Raishan's tongue strokes her through her orgasm.

When she comes back to herself and gets her breathing under control, she's on her side, Raishan's arms wrapped around her and their fingers interlaced on her stomach, doubtless staining the fabric. With the image of Raishan bent to her pleasure in mind, Keyleth finds she minds the idea of bearing Raishan's mark less than she would have thought.

"Thank you," Keyleth says almost inaudibly, staring at their joined hands. In the moonlight, Raishan's skin is green-tinged and nearly translucent, the entrancing pulse of blood through her veins almost black. "Raishan."

"No, my sweet Keyleth." Keyleth feels the soft press of Raishan's lips to the top of her head, even she feels as the other woman's body shiver behind her. "Thank you."

Life, she thinks. For all her misgivings, something has grown between them tonight, the sort of not-death, not-undeath that only the druids knew.

In Raishan's arms, on a bed of flower petals and charred bones, Keyleth drifts off to sleep. In the morning, she wakes alone.

*

Death comes to Emon in a multicoloured blur, but all Keyleth can see is the green of the dragon stalking the remnants of the stage. Green like she's only ever seen once before, and even before the dragon speaks, she knows.

"Delicious cattle." The sound of Raishan's voice hits her like a blow to the chest a moment before the feeling of betrayal sinks into her mind. "Raishan enjoys the taste of fear."

Delicious ... I do so enjoy the taste of you.

Keyleth slams her staff on the ground as the thought of Raishan's blood fills her mouth, and prepares for war.