The Nature of the Void
Lir arrived just after dark, stepping into the pack house with the quiet confidence of someone who had walked through worse places than this. The leopard’s void mark showed faintly along the side of his cheek under the hallway light, appearing like a tear shape carved out of his fur but with a purple/blue energy in it, sometimes subtle and hard to notice, and not as bright as Cass' void energy eyes. Remi gave him a short nod from the couch. Stark, the young deer, watched him with open curiosity. "Well met, cougar."
"Leopard..." Lir corrected. Stark smiled at his own lame, low effort jab.
Movie night had already started. Someone had put on an old action film that no one was really watching, easy to consume while their real attention is usually on each other. Bottles and cans cluttered the coffee table, every animal at least three drinks deep. The air smelled like beer, popcorn, and the warm, lived-in scent of the pack.
It did not take long for the usual habits to surface.
Roan had Cass tucked firmly on the big couch, one thick arm around the midnight wolf’s waist. Every so often he leaned in and nosed under Cass’s jaw, breathing him in like he still needed the reminder that he was solid and safe.
Whatever dangers the pack faces, they always have this to come back to. The quiet and feel of each other, the warmth of the bodies they share.
Cass tilted his head to give him better access, a soft sound leaving him when Roan’s tongue dragged slowly over the side of his throat.
“You’re clingy tonight,” Cass murmured, though there was no complaint in it.
“Deal with it,” Roan answered against his fur, voice low and warm. His paw slid under the hem of Cass’s shirt and settled on bare fur, thumb stroking slow circles. “You’re warm. I like you warm.”
Cass huffed a quiet laugh and turned enough to press a lazy kiss to the corner of Roan’s muzzle. “Sap.”
“Your sap,” Roan corrected, and bit him gently just below the ear.
Across the room Kiran had claimed Zariel completely, as usual. The little red fox was draped across the big white wolf’s lap like he belonged there, legs tucked to one side, cheek resting on Zariel’s broad chest. Zariel’s heavy paw moved up and down Kiran’s back in long, idle strokes, occasionally dipping lower to squeeze one cheek of his ass through his shorts. Every time he did it, Kiran’s tail gave a pleased little flick.
“You’re in a good mood,” Kiran mumbled into his fur.
“You’re soft and quiet for once,” Zariel replied, voice a deep rumble. “I’m enjoying it while it lasts.”
Kiran tipped his head up, eyes half-lidded and fond. “You love when I’m noisy.”
“I love when you’re mine.” Zariel leaned down and licked a slow stripe up the side of Kiran’s face, then kissed the top of his head. “Stay put.”
Kiran melted further into him with a happy sound and obeyed.
Khepri sat cross-legged on the floor with a drink, watching the pairs with lazy amusement and making no effort to hide that he was half-hard. Remi stayed on the far end of the couch with his arms crossed, ears angled slightly back. Stark kept his eyes mostly on the screen, though his ears flicked every time Roan murmured something low against Cass’s neck or Kiran let out a small, content noise.
"I can't wait till the others find someone... awwwwkward," Cass whispered to Roan. Though the pack has no problem sexually pleasuring Khepri, the poor young hyena is still the odd one out and doesn't have what they consider 'a mate' like the other four members do.
Lir accepted a beer from Khepri and settled into an armchair, observing the room like he was cataloguing it. He did not join the casual touching. Neither did Remi or Stark. They focused on the movie, making jokes and just enjoying the evening. Stark didn't intend to start heavy Dream Walker training just yet, not tonight.
A little later, when the movie had mostly become background noise and Roan was nosing lazily along Cass’s shoulder, Lir’s gaze settled on the midnight wolf.
“Do you remember me?” he asked.
Cass blinked, ears lifting. Roan’s arm tightened around him protectively. “Should I?”
The room quieted a little. Zariel’s golden eyes narrowed with interest. Kiran lifted his head from Zariel’s chest, still half-curled in his lap. Even Remi’s ears tipped forward.
Lir studied Cass’s face for a long moment, then gave a small, unreadable smile.
“No,” he said. “I suppose you wouldn’t.”
Cass frowned. “That’s not cryptic at all.”
Kiran sat up straighter in Zariel’s lap, though the white wolf’s paw stayed firmly on his hip. “Okay, wait. What does that mean? Have you two met before?”
“In a manner of speaking,” Lir replied, still watching Cass. “But not in a way that would leave clear memories on his side.”
Remi’s ears flicked. Stark leaned in slightly, antlers catching the lamplight.
Roan’s voice came low, his thumb still stroking absently over Cass’s stomach under the shirt. “Explain.”
Lir took a slow drink from his bottle, then rested it on his knee. The void mark on his cheek seemed a little darker under the warm light.
“I will,” he said. “But first you should understand that the Void does not work the way most of you have been told. And Cass…” His eyes returned to the midnight wolf. “You are not the first person to come back changed by it. You are just one of the more notable ones. The council talks about you more than you know.”
Cass stared at him, purple-tinged eyes reflecting the television light. Roan pressed a quiet kiss to his temple and kept him close. Across the room Zariel’s fingers flexed once on Kiran’s hip, grounding them both as the casual heat in the room cooled into something sharper and more focused.
Lir glanced around at all of them, then at Remi and Stark.
“You might as well hear this too. It concerns anyone who plans on staying near him.”
Lir leaned back in the armchair, bottle resting on his knee, and looked around at the listening faces.
“Void infection only happens when someone comes into direct contact with a Void Tear,” he began. “It’s rare. Most people who touch one just get sick for a few days and recover. A small number come back changed.”
Kiran tilted his head from his place in Zariel’s lap. “Changed how?”
“Depends on what the Tear decides to take from,” Lir said. “The Void isn’t a single place. It’s layered with other versions of reality. Some people think they’re real alternate universes. Others say they’re only illusions, strong visions of what could have been. Either way, the Tear reaches into one of them and pulls.”
Cass frowned, still tucked under Roan’s arm. “Pulls what?”
“Whatever is missing. Or whatever it decides should be there instead.” Lir’s gaze settled on him again. “When you transformed, the Tear didn’t just give you fur and a muzzle. It found a version of reality where you had been born a wolf, and it rebuilt you from that. That’s why the change was so complete. Your body was over-written by the void to match your body in another reality. One which might not exist, like I said, and I don't think the original from that reality is effected.”
Roan’s paw flexed against Cass’s side. “And the black fur? The purple in his eyes? The things he can do?”
Lir shook his head once. “That was not part of the normal process. Most transformations come out looking like ordinary anthros of whatever species the Tear chose, assisted by Roan mating with the subject during the process, it chose a reality where Cass most closely matches Roan. You coulda been made into a fox if you wanted. But that aside, Cass came out marked. The Void left its fingerprints on him. And it can happen without his knowledge, in a split second, but trust me, during that one instant in time, Cass' consciousness, maybe his spirit, wandered, went somewhere else... for much longer than an instant. Somewhere in the void.”
"I didn't feel anything like that," Cass said.
"You wouldn't," Lir replied.
Zariel’s voice was low. “You said you lost a leg.”
“I did.” Lir’s ears tipped back slightly at the memory. “Combat. Clean loss. Ordinary regeneration could not bring it back once the limb was completely gone. They used a Void Tear to restore it. The Tear found a reality where I still had that leg and rebuilt it from there. That was the first time I was exposed. The power came after.”
Stark spoke up from his seat, voice quiet but curious. “So the Tear is basically… copying from another version of the world?”
“Something like that,” Lir said. “When Cass turned the wall of that armored truck into wood, he wasn’t destroying the metal. He was reaching into a reality where that same vehicle had been built as a simple wooden truck instead. The spray-painted logos, the grain of the wood, the address printed on it… those details already existed in that other version. He just pulled them through. The void knew he wanted a way through that armor, so it searched for something softer to replace it.”
Cass stared down at his own paws for a moment, flexing his fingers. Roan leaned in and pressed a slow kiss to his temple, murmuring against his fur, “Still here. Still you.”
Cass leaned into it with a small breath.
Kiran looked between them, then back at Lir. “Okay, but why does any of this care about dicks?”
A couple of soft laughs moved through the room. Lir’s mouth twitched.
“Void power is fueled by the prostate,” he said plainly. “We don’t know why. Women don’t carry void power at all. And during orgasm the energy fluctuates in ways no one has been able to map. It spikes, drops, sometimes lashes out. It’s one of the reasons void-touched individuals are watched so carefully.”
Khepri raised his eyebrows. “So every time one of you finishes, the Void gets a little… wobble?”
“Something like that.”
Remi’s ears were angled forward now, his earlier reserve cracked by interest. “And the blue temples?”
Lir’s expression darkened a fraction. “If you ever step fully into the Void, you’ll see them. Admist a landscape of desolation, sometimes beauty, sometimes unspeakable nightmares, there exist gateways, they appear to YOU when you are there. Like they are stalking you. They look almost like the white stone temples on this side, but blue. They try to trap you inside one of those alternate versions of yourself. Make you forget which reality you belong to. I’ve walked through enough of them to know better than to linger.”
Silence sat for a few seconds after that.
"Kiran..." Lir started, but Kiran cut him off rapidly with "Nope, nope, nope. Stop it."
Everyone was confused, except Roan and Zariel.
Roan spoke up when it was clear nobody was moving past this. "Kiran has walked the void, he's been in the blue temples, but he's not going to talk about it, at all. It's uncomfortable and it won't help our understanding any at this point."
"Thanks, Alpha." Kiran seemed disturbed. Cass had no idea... the red fox had been IN THE VOID?
"It's not like being in the temple, like Zariel and Roan and I were. Wherever a temple forms on this side, it exists on the edge of the void. One could even end up in there theoretically. But there are other ways into the void, tears in reality, and the ones that have been found are closely guarded by the resistance and other factions, so you wouldn't be allowed in even if you wanted to go."
"I found a tear, well I kinda found it, that's how I got in, but that's been closed up now by the guardians in the void." Kiran hugged Zariel tighter. "And that's all I'm saying..."
Cass finally spoke, voice quieter than before. “When you asked if I remembered you…”
Lir met his eyes. “There are versions of reality where we have already met. Some of them more than once. You wouldn’t carry those memories on this side. I only asked to see if any of it had bled through.”
Cass shook his head slowly. “Nothing.”
“Good,” Lir said. “It’s cleaner that way.”
Roan gave a quiet snort next to Cass' ear. It was a hidden signal. The leopard was lying! Or at least ommitting some truth. Roan was very good at picking up on untruths. They politely let it slide for now.
Roan pulled Cass a little closer and rested his chin on top of the midnight wolf’s head. Across the room Zariel’s paw resumed its slow path up and down Kiran’s back, grounding them both. The movie was long forgotten. The room stayed quiet, the weight of new knowledge settling over all of them.
Lir cracked open a glass bottle of Heineken. "Couple drinks then I'm out of here. Was just here to explain that bit of info. You see why the council is interested in Cass. Expect more surprises."
"The temple guardians in the water temple altered Cass in a way."
"Void cock?" Lir said, smiling.
"Jeeez, they know everything," Cass said.
Lir continued. "I suppose the guardians also told you to run the void trials. Yeah... they told that to me too, and I did, and it was... unpleasant at times, horrible, dangerous. I'd suggest not doing it, the odds of survival are low especially for void touched animals..."
They questioned Lir about his innate power and his void power. Lir only told them both were earned when he ran the temple trials. But he doesn't explain what either power is. The night continues on, the matters settled for now. The weight of everything was heavy, but Cass hugged close to the warm fur of his Alpha.
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