Chapter Text
Varian had a big mouth and a bigger ego, and sometimes he really needed to learn when to shut up. Normally he'd resent anyone who said anything like that to him but he knew now that he messed up the second his pride took control of his words.
"If you want to read that scroll you are going to need my translation key!" He had shouted tossing the acidic mixture with a satisfied laugh, destroying the key he'd spent days working on, "-and now that I've destroyed it you will never know what the scroll says because the only translation in earthly existence is locked safely away up here!"
It hadn't hit him immediately after he finished speaking, too busy patting himself on the back for his brilliance to realize just how utterly stupid he was.
Cassandra's expression shifted to a sharp smile and he still didn't understand how much danger he'd just put himself in. Even as a question curled out of her mouth.
"Is that a fact?" Her tone should've tipped him off before the next sentence had even made it to his lips but nevertheless he continued.
"Oh-ho yeah!" It was only when Cass took the first step forward that it caught up to him, "…I should not have said that out loud."
Realization hit him hard and Varian realized the horrible mistake he'd just made, but his sudden regret did nothing to take back the words and Cassandra continued her approach, a threatening glint in her nearly unrecognizable eyes.
"Then I guess you're coming with me."
Fear struck him before the hilt of the sword did, Cassandra shifting suddenly to his left and everything in his body screaming 'run'. He ducked to the ground so fast he ended up just falling, scrambling across the stone floor to avoid the blow.
Cassandra was aiming to knock him out without causing to much damage, which was giving him a minuscule chance to delay until the rest of his friends were able to notice what was going on and help him.
Where were they right now anyways? Glancing to his left he saw Rapunzel being dragged down by the crumbling remains of the Demanitus device and everyone else trying to help pull her free.
Before he could try and pull himself to his feet and run over to them he felt something solid connect with the back of his head and everything exploded into darkness.
As Varian was slowly dragged back to consciousness several things immediately began clawing at his attention. A splitting headache radiated from the back of his head, his hands were tied at an awkward angle around something behind his back and his arms ached at the strain. There was also a strange sensation in the back of his throat, and a menacing figure with electric blue hair sat in front of him.
Awareness was returning to him slowly as he tried to get his bearings, glancing back and forth he was only met with crumbled stone ruins and spikes of black rocks littering their surroundings.
"Huh, wha… Hey where are we?!" Varian asked, the odd feeling in his throat made speaking feel weird somehow. He leveled Cassandra with what he really hoped was a harsh glare but with the headache he couldn't be sure it translated as well as he wanted.
Even before becoming whatever she was now Cass had never particularly listened to what he said so Varian wasn't surprised when his question went unanswered. He honestly wasn't sure why he'd asked at all.
"I need that third incantation, Varian."
"Never." The word was spoken with as much conviction as he could muster.
This scroll, what he was doing was his second chance to prove himself, it was a way to make up for his mistakes and he wasn't going to just give it up. He wouldn't betray his kingdom again.
"I knew you'd say that" Cassandra said, seemingly unfazed as she hooked her fingers around his satchel and held it up "that's why I went through your little bag of tricks"
As she held up what looked like an empty bottle Varian could feel a sliver of dread embed itself within his resolve, he had a lot of things within that bag, a lot of things that could be used in a lot of ways.
"I found something in here that might change your mind."
Cassandra turned towards him and Varian hardened his expression, whatever she did he wasn't going to let her intimidate him, he wasn't going to let her use his own things against him.
Except as she held out the bottle labelled 'Truth Serum' he wasn't sure he was going to be able to stick to that principle.
"Recognize this?" Her tone was cold, expectant.
"Ha! No" He answered too quick.
She may have found it and mixed it into something but he should be fine as long as he doesn't eat or drink anything she offered; which could be an issue should he not be rescued in a timely manner but he'd cross that bridge when he got to it.
However shortly after the words had left his mouth that strange sensation he'd been trying to ignore began to flare, heat began to rise up in the back of his throat and words clawed their way from his mouth along with a unexpected cry of pain.
"Gah! Yes. It's a truth serum of my own design and it compels the drinker to tell the truth and answer any question asked." As soon as the words left his lips the burning in his throat faded back to an uncomfortable tingling.
"Wait but I never drank that!"
"Lucky for me you sleep with your mouth open"
That wasn't good. That wasn't good at all.
When Cass had held up the bottle it was empty, how much had been inside? Why had it been in his things at all he hadn't used it since…
"So let me ask you," Those words alone sent a chill down his spine and rekindled the fire in his throat, but the ones that followed were worse. "What's the third incantation?"
He tried to hold out, let the heavens above and whatever celestial forces he had never believed in know, he tried to bury his response, tried to keep his mouth shut and the words locked tight within him.
He tried, but the fire that consumed every breath he drew only flared hotter. His serum wasn't meant to hurt this much, it wasn't meant to be drank undiluted. As sparks of agony set ablaze to his vocal cords he felt the words trying to rend themselves from his mouth.
Cassandra knelt above, awaiting the inevitable. Varian glanced up at her through the pain, hoping against all he had been told that the Cass he knew was still there, that she wouldn't make him do this, but as his gaze was met with sharp expectant eyes he knew he'd find no friend in them.
The stanzas that eventually broke free from his lips were as scorching as her gaze.
"Crescent high above, evolving as you go… raise what lies beneath and let the darkness grow." Even as they were pulled from him Varian tried to fight the flow of words, tried to change them as they left his mouth but the burning truth allowed no alterations.
Cassandra stood with a satisfied grin, turning away from Varian and raising her hand over the ruins of whatever once stood in this place. Defeat coated Varian's tongue just as heavy as the concoction that had caused it.
Cass began to recite the incantation. The incantation he had given her. The incantation she had used his own creation to get from him.
He'd betrayed Corona once more, potentially doomed it too and it was all his fault.
The ground shook as giant black rocks broke through the surface, growing and rising above even the clouds, protrusions shaped themselves into towers, Varian's head craned upwards as he watched it form under Cassandra's will.
"What is that?…" Varian hadn't meant to vocalize the thought and the way the question was forced out of him gave him chills.
As the stronghold's last spike grew to a point and Cassandra's chant came to an end the crackling energy that had been flowing across her hands and the growing spire converged, sending a shockwave blasting outwards from the peak.
"Home sweet home."
Varian's chest stung as he sat within the cage suspended outside of the giant tower. His lungs burned and his throat ached, he almost wished the blow that had knocked him to the ground had done him the favour of knocking him out as well.
His efforts to reach Cassandra inside had gone horribly, the burning mixture that had been forced on him making the words flow even if he wanted to stop. Truths he didn't want to voice pulling their way from his guilty subconscious.
Even as a barrage of black rocks had barrelled into him, the fire in his throat had made him get back up and continue his plea for Cass to hear him out despite the ache rising in his chest with every sentence. He'd wanted to just lay there after he collided with the ground but in just the few seconds he lay there he felt the horrible fire building.
By the time he was caged and sent out of the tower on a thin black spike he wasn't even sure he could manage another word anyways. He'd said a lot, too much of it involuntarily. The increase in potency and dose of the truth serum seemed to have caused an inability to keep his thoughts to himself.
He was never making that stuff ever again.
A gust of wind whipped through his hair and Varian tried very very hard not to glance down at the ground. He didn't want to know how far up he was right now. He didn't want to think about how if Cassandra wanted it to, his prison could dissolve in an instant, just like the shackles around his wrists had done before.
"It's a good thing the-these rocks are indes-structible,.." As the thought formed itself into words a shiver ran through Varian's huddled form, he tried to stop the train of thought, his voice run ragged already but as the heat flared he rattled off the rest of the sentence that he hadn't intended to voice "-otherwisethelengthandnarrowradiuswouldn'tbeabletoholdthiscageanditwouldhavesnappedoffduetothe-"
He really wanted to stop talking, curse his long rambling thoughts, he didn't even say half of what he was thinking most of the time and he already talked a lot.
He tried lowering his voice, the rest of the sentence spoken in a whisper and ended with a short pained gasp. His chest ached, both from whatever damage Cassandra's rocks had done and the serum sending heat radiating through his lungs with each breath.
"Am I going to have to voice e-every thought I have until this wears o-off?" The wondered question being spoken aloud really just answered itself didn't it.
A strained sigh tumbled past his tired lips, along with a short cough.
"Great, I ca-an't have in-inner thoughts anymore…" Varian muttered unwillingly into the open air. "Maybe it's n-not such a bad thi-ing I'm up here alone."
With a wince he stared up into the sky above, he wanted to give his voice a rest, wanted to just sit in silence and think but apparently that wasn't going to be happening any time soon. Just a few drops of the truth serum in a batch of cookie dough had lasted a whole day, how long was he going to be stuck like this.
"M-maybe I should just-" It kept catching him off guard, how his mouth would move with his thoughts, he'd heard the phrase 'think before you speak' far too many times as a kid and he really wished he could put that into practice now. "-get s-some sleep…"
There was no guarantees this stuff wouldn't make him like, sleep-talk his dreams or something, but being unconscious sounded like a much better idea than suffering through this awake.
Though no matter how he tried to lay within the hard oddly shaped cage it grew no more comfortable, and the aching in his chest and throat did nothing to help. A sharp odd sensation caught in his chest and Varian found himself coughing as his breathing went weird.
The action tore at his already ruined throat and he knew that waking up later was going to suck real bad.
"I wo-onder if the increased potency of the s-serum caused some additional side effects other than just th-he involuntary voicing of thoughts"
Varian couldn't wait til he could wonder things in silence.
Readjusting himself for the millionth time he tried once more to shut his eyes and let everything fade away, tried to ignore the tightness in his throat, the ache in his chest, the soreness of his general being, the… everything of it all.
It was difficult but eventually Varian managed to drift off into a restless sleep.