The Descendant

Yes! Two one-shots in one week!

Disclaimer: I don't own Homestuck and am making no money off of this.

Tyrian bloods were rare. Since The Condesce became Empress only a hundred or so had been hatched. Each one had been taken from their lusus and brought to the palace, where The Empress had grown up, for 'their own safety.' They were treated fantastically until The Condesce came back from storming the beaches of other planets when she would kill them. Therefore ensuring her unchallenged reign.

Feferi had been taken to the palace when she was 3 sweeps old. Before then she had relied on a few fronds to keep her safe and hidden. She hadn't seen them since. She didn't know how The Condesce had found her. And no matter how selfish she knew it was, she wanted to sea them again. She wanted to be able to swim freely rather than sneak down into the depths of the castle to stare at underground pool which she was too small to reach.

The hallways of the palace were a dark and gleaming purple. They were nearly always empty. Only the Jade bloods resided in the palace and they stayed near the mother grubs chamber so they could care for her. But today was an exception. Today the palace was filled with royals, nobles, and their low blooded servants.

Feferi peered outside of her assigned room and absconded. Hooded black figures bowed quickly, sloppily, as she darted through the waves of blue and purple dressed trolls. All these adults had traveled far through space for today. It was so rare that The Condesce would hold court, and such a special occasion like this had never occurred before.

Unnoticed Feferi slipped into the throne room. At the far end The Condesce lounged upon her throne, grinning wickedly as troll after troll presented her with gifts: treasures from conquered planets and skulls of those killed in what they claimed was her honor. The Heiress watched her observed her ancestor. Currently she was no match against the wiry muscles and sharp claws The Condesce possessed, and that wasn't even including her trident.

Luckily The Condesce wasn't here to impale her.

No, someone else was much more important than another unwanted heir. Someone much rarer was the reason for this visit. Someone who was, in a way, much more of a threat.

There had only ever been one troll who had stood equal to The Condescension, who may have even surpassed her influence. He had built a following of loyal trolls that had over flown the castes and ideas that flooded all of society. Armies had been raised and trolls had thrown down their weapons in his name. He had been hailed as a savior, a god. And the same power would same to his descendant.

A crash came from the entryway.

Feferi scurried away from the crowd and to a slightly higher vantage point. The crowd parted leaving a pathway to the throne. Then slowly the doors groaned and opened. A group of big, muscled, and heavily armed guards were all that was visible. Still a wave of sound rose from them. They were all so excited to see The Descendant.

Feferi was the first to glimpse the troll, or at least the top of their head. She hadn't expected someone so important to be so small.

Slowly, dramatically, the guards moved towards The Condesce.

When they reached the foot of the throne The Condesce sat up with a sharp grin and waved them away. Again the crowd began to talk loudly. A few screams of excitement mixed into the babble. One of the blue blooded ladies swooned. The troll that caused the ruckus didn't seem affected.

The Descendant stood as still as possible; hands clenched and face turned downwards. The troll had been dressed in a bright red cloak with The Suffers sign stretched out in black on the back. But the thing that most struck Feferi was how small the troll was. He or she clearly wasn't an adult and if she had to guess Feferi would say that they were probably the same age, give or take a sweep. Regardless, at that age the troll was definitely too young to be away from its lusus.

The Condesce obviously wasn't shocked by this. She grasped her golden trident and stood up. No one made a sound. She sauntered forward. She stopped in front of the young troll with her hip cocked to the side. She twirled her trident absentmindedly and stopped it at The Descendant's throat. The tridents prongs rested against the troll's throat. The crowd tensed.

With one small movement, a simple flick of her fingers, The Descendant would die and all his potential would be lost. Or she could decide to spare him, keeping him helpless under her watchful eyes. Either way his followers would be unquestionably hers.

The Condesce moved.

She brought the golden trident upwards until the trolls face was completely visible to only her. The clock covered it from everyone else. But Feferi could see The Condescension's. Her tyrian filled eyes devoured The Descendant's face. Compared it to The Sufferer's, searched it for some sign of rebellion and after a short eternity she smiled. Feferi knew it was a practiced smile made to be as warm as something as cold blooded as The Condesce could produce. But it could only resemble the smile of a beast knowing its prey was trapped. Only predatory triumph shone in her eyes.

The Condescension flicked her fingers and twirled her trident up so that the tines left their breathless resting place and pointed straight to the stars. A splotch of bright red blood, the same shade as The Descendant's cloak, was smeared across one tine. The trident was lifted higher so that it became visible to even the farthest in the crowd. In response the crowd leaned forward but never crossed into that invisible boundary they had made. After all, their empress could spill their blood just as gracefully as she had done moments before, although they were far less likely to only be nicked.

Feferi's eyes darted back to The Descendant. She still couldn't see a face. Yet The Descendant was still in the same position as before, now staring at their blood. The Imperious Condescension began to speak.

"Long ago a troll rose to power that was unlike any other. He was hailed as a leader, a savior, a god." She paused as if trapped in a net of her memory. "But rash trolls proved that he was as mortal as any troll" Feferi's eyebrows arched up from behind her goggles. Why didn't she mention her slimy hand in his death? The Condesce loved to boast about those she had executed.

"But I have before me one that came from his very own slurry. And as you have all seen his blood flows just as hotly through his veins as it did from his ancestors. Likewise, some trolls will want to taste this descendant's fluids." The Condesce reached up to gather some of the blood from the tip of her trident. She rolled it over her fingers as if it were a fine cream. "That will not be allowed. As Empress of all trolls and the treasures they possess I am uniquely qualified to tell when a particular troll washes up to me if it's worth polishing. And I say this rare gem will be a lovely addition to my crown. The Descendant will be raised similarly to his ancestor, in the care of the jade bloods who care for the Mother Grub. And any who seek to interfere with this decree will be krillled."

The crowd roared its approval as Feferi's digestive organs froze and fell. Without thought she let her body slip down from her position and out the room. The echo of The Condescension's crackle followed her back towards her rooms.

The wind whipped Feferi's hair around, blocking her eyesight several times and ensnaring her arms. It threatened her balance more than the narrow ledge her was perched upon. She really hoped she had heard the servants correctly and that she wasn't risking this trip on the palace walls for nothing. There was also the risk that she would sneak into some crazed indigo's room by mistake. Her goal, of course, was The Descendants room.

If she understood her ancestor's speech correctly, and how couldn't she have, The Condesce intended to use The Descendant as a puppet. It was a brilliant plan but it had disastrous consequences for Feferi. She needed an opening and supporters to seize the throne and, as separated as she was, this could be her only chance.

Feferi carefully crouched down on her ledge. The room directly below her was supposed to be the one. She grasped the rocky edge and slowly began to slip off. Her arms protested and the ledge dug painfully into her skin but she did not loosen her grip. Even when her whole body was stretched out and dangling towards her destination she was still out of reach. There was only roughly a foot between her feet and the ledge below her but slipping this high up would send her crashing to the unforgiving sea. There was no way she could survive that impact at her age. She would have to risk it.

With a deep breath and a short prayer she let go. As soon as she felt the her feet touch the ledge she threw her weight towards the window. Her feet slipped over the edge and her head hit the window pane. But she stayed upon the ledge. Her head swam for a few minutes so she rested. When she felt that she had enough balance she turned her body so she could peer inside the room. Everything was in The Condesce's shade of tyrian. The room was richly decorated but not the point of gaudiness that all the guest rooms had. The Descendant was here to stay.

Finally Feferi spotted her target. The young troll was lying on top of soft pile of cushions which had four posts surrounding it and gold bars running between each post. A large amount of fabric lay on the ground surrounding the pile.

She examined the window. It was firmly latched from the inside at the bottom to keep out…trolls like her, she supposed. She would have to have The Descendant open it for her. She knocked her fist on the window pane and The Descendant's head lifted up. She knocked again and again until he spotted her.

Feferi found that she had guessed correctly. The troll was about her age only a bit short. His teeth were slightly rounded. His horns were too and almost hidden by his hair. She would have said he wasn't threatening at all if it hadn't been for his glaring eyes.

She gestured down to the latch but he looked towards the door. All he had to do was open that door and callout; the guards would come and her ancestor would remember that she could save a trip and remove her from the line of succession, from existence. How did she get so carried away as to forget that?

She quickly knocked again. This time he came to the window. He kneeled down on the window seat and flung the window open. He leapt backwards to allow her in while keeping some distance between them. He waited until she was steady before interrogating her. Thankfully he kept his voice soft enough not to be overheard.

"What the fuck do you think you're doing here?"

"Hi! I'm Feferi, the heir apparent to the throne."

"I don't give a fuck- the heir?" His eyes had gone wide. It must not be common knowledge that there was a living heir on Alternia.

"Yep and you're The Descendant. Nice to meet you." He moved away from her offered hand while crossing his arms across his body. Whether that gesture was meant to offend her, protect his innards, or unconscious she didn't guess.

"Yeah really fucking nice. But I don't care. Now what do you want?" He said the last part slower than the rest.

"I thought we could be fronds."

"Fronds?"

"Friends." He gave her a strange look. "It's a habit."

"Why would I want something as useless and compromising as friends?"

"I don't think friends are useless, not in a situation like ours. The Condesce is very powerful. And I know she say's you're valuable now but she doesn't think you're any more useful than her helmsman. She'll use every last drop of power you have and she'll throw away your husk when she's done."

"Oh like I don't know that already, I'm not some brain dead little grub." He turned away from her and stomped back to his pile. She followed at a distance. Now noticing that the fabric around it wasn't a fancy rug but curtains he had ripped down from the poles. He roughly kicked them away.

Feferi grasped a strand of her hair and twirled it around a finger. She couldn't let him turn her down. She bit her lip.

"She took me away from my lusus too."

The Descendant tensed. Slowly he turned to look back at her with an even fiercer glare. One that said he wanted to strangle her with her own long tubular digestive organ. He chose to hiss at her again.

"She killed my lusus."

All of Feferi's breathing apparatuses froze. Her lusus was shared with her ancestor. But The Condesce had no connection to any other lusus. She had no reason to spare them.

"I'm sorry," she whispered to him. Neither of them moved or spoke. Finally desperation pushed Feferi to act. "What did your lusus name you?"

"Karkat."

Feferi moved towards him smoothly but slowly. She tried to be as soothing as possible. "So what do you plan to do now that your lusus is gone Karkat?"

He sighed, all the tension leaving him. "Why don't you just tell me what you have in mind since it's fucking obvious that's what you came for?"

She smiled unapologetically. "I propose an allegiance."

His eyebrows rose. For the first she saw him without a scowl on his face. "Wow you move fast. Not even giving a troll time to mourn."

She grinned and wagged her eyebrows in response.

"If we're going to do this you have to fucking promise to never do that again, not in a thousand damn sweeps , not even if we're on a faraway planet filled with sweaty meaty aliens. I'm not into mixing quadrants."

Still he held out his hand to her without pausing, She giggled and hugged him instead.

AN:

Yes I'm implying that they enter a moirallegience to save themselves. Feferi didn't use many puns and Karkat didn't swear as much as normal because I was working under the assumption that they were both scared and stressed and therefore not acting like themselves. Also the Condesce talked more formally to suppress the masses.

Anyways, this story was conceived under the idea that Karkat's blood color is so rare that it's really important, like a sign from the gods or something. However, as I'm sure you've realized, this was done a bit differently. I would like to do more of this, like a full on story, but I have other stuff to finish and it'd need a lot of work.

If you could take a moment to review, or point out anything I missed while editing, I'd be really grateful.