Undying Love (Honkai Star Rail: Dan Heng x Fem! OC)

Chap. One: Sapphire Seas, Crystalline Eyes

Within the abyssal depths of that beautiful ocean the passage of time became inconsequential, days bleeding into weeks as my consciousness refused to depart from this world, my mortal body forcing itself into a state of hibernation. It was times like these when I cursed my blood, the blood whose first mistake was coming to existence within this plane. Where even stars have an end, flooding in on themselves and creating a void from which not even light can escape, the Zehravn (ze - RA - ven) have no such end. Praised as gods in some worlds, as immortal demons in others, our bodies are never granted the pleasure of ceasing to exist.

Unlike the Vidyadhara of Xianzhou Alliance who, despite their reincarnations, are indeed capable of dying, the Zehravn has no such liberty. With endless regeneration and the ability to change our physical age at will, we are masters of disguise plagued with one of the weakest minds of the humanoid species. Easy to fall into depression and difficult to form emotional connections, the Zehravn population is controlled by the extreme rarity in which two members meet and fall in love. We are unable to propagate with members of other species, further incapacitating our population, thus inter-specie loves often end in heartbreak. Children are seen as a treasure to the tribe as a whole, but it is rare for the parents to stay together long enough for the child to reach maturity due to their union often being only that of procreation.

When we do happen to fall in love, however, we love with a fierce intensity seldom found in other races. We care not for mortal wounds, undying as we are, thus we would protect our partners with our bodies as necessary. Self-sacrificial actions are commonplace, and even if our feelings are one-sided, we will continue to protect and love the object of our affection. While my feelings for him weren't quite the kind of love depicted in the ancient stories of our people, it was the closest thing that I had ever felt in my 22 years of life. Naivety bred by youth, I'm sure.

Long after all traces of oxygen left my lungs and was replaced by saline water, my mind continued to wander the depths of the ocean. My body, too tired to move, drifted with the currents alongside whatever creatures set out to explore that vast expanse. Predators instinctively avoided me, their survival instinct telling them that I wasn't normal, and treated me like I wasn't even there.

One day, one that I had expected to go by similarly to all the others, my eyelids, which had remained closed for so long, were invaded with a faint light during one of my brief periods of consciousness. Despite my inability to muster the energy to so much as blink, I was comforted by the fairy lights dancing through the delicate skin into my retinas. I had most likely stumbled upon a colony of bioluminescent organisms, surely a beautiful sight that I wished I could have seen. Curious pokes and prods peppered my skin - by the residents of that space, I presumed - and I was lulled into another deep sleep.

~~~

Young one... traveler of stars... why have you stumbled upon my domain? an androgynous voice echoed within my head, shaking me out of my slumber. Strangely enough, I felt no tire, and my eyelids lifted with little effort. I was standing on a large clam shell, a pure white dress flowing around my bare feet as what felt like a light breeze grazed against my bare arms. I curiously gazed up towards the night sky, which contorted as if I was looking at it through a glass of water.

You are indeed looking at the night sky through the ocean, young one, the voice chuckled, a rumbling noise that rippled through my stomach and heart. I turned my head towards the back of the clam shell, where a strange creature was reclining on what looked like a large pearl. Their "face" was covered with a shimmery veil, the delicate cloth floating down their arms and ending near their hips. A grand fish's tail began where the cloth ended, its metallic midnight-blue and violet scales catching the light in a mesmerizing aurora. Wispy cloth-like fins extended from the tip, almost like the dress of a queen at the ballroom.