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aishuu, I wrote Darkangel trilogy fic for you! It's about Irrylath roughly two decades after the ending, and it has lots of reference to Aeriel.
Unfortunately, it is also fairly depressing and contains implied preparation for suicide, though nobody actually dies within the bounds of the story. I was trying to do a 'reunited lovers' thing, but apparently my subconscious does not want to impose a standard happy ending on Pierce's story. *shrug* (400 words)
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That Which We Are, We Are Forever
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It took Irrylath nearly a decade to realize he had stopped ageing.
Sabr noticed first -- she noticed everything about him, almost obsessively. Sometimes he found her attention suffocating, but mostly he welcomed it. He used her love to bind himself to his life and his land. He used her sensitivity to his slightest quirks to correct his thoughts and actions when he drifted away from compassion and justice. He used their children to remind himself he was human.
Irrylath wondered at first why Sabr had refrained from mentioning his frozen appearance. Then he laughed, bitterly. Of course she had held her tongue. She wanted him normal, living, only marked out by human honors: king, general, hero. Sabr wanted no part of darkness or magic. She abhorred the icarus. She suppressed Oriencor's incestuous son. She denied Aeriel's heart-bound husband.
But time flows only forward. No transformation can be perfectly reversed. No rebirth leaves a man without scars.
Aeriel had given him her heart to make him human. Then she had given him back his own, freed from its leaden prison. She had given him life to fill his empty veins. She had given him hope to water his desiccated soul. She had given him love to light his midnight world.
But she couldn't take away the years Oriencor had spent shaping his body. She couldn't take away his memories -- couldn't erase his body's memory of magic, power, stasis. His body knew the trick of immortality, and somewhere in the final battle, some of the Ancients' magic had seeped from Winterock into him and followed the pattern his vampire years had laid down in his bones.
Irrylath was not ageing. His blood was cooling. Last daymonth, he found silver in his hair and a black feather in his sheets.
Sabr still said nothing, but she gathered their children close. Now that he knew he was changing, Irrylath realized she had not left them alone with him for over a year. He saw that she no longer smiled with her heart and soul, but only with her teeth.
Their eldest son was seventeen, as old as Irrylath when Aeriel restored him to life. That was old enough to do a man's work, to shoulder a king's burden.
Irrylath left his crown in his empty room and walked into the desert, alone. Either Aeriel and her sword-sister would find him and fix him, or he would force the Pendarlon to slay him before more of Oriencor's poison could return to his veins.
He had died before, years ago. He was not afraid to die again.
He only hoped to see Aeriel once more before he closed his eyes forever.
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Inspired by the 8/4/09![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-community.gif)
15_minute_fic word #118: change
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In other news, I still hate writing Hagrid, but I have successfully gotten the tea poured and Ginny's moved from talking about guilt and Tom to talking about the Hogwarts grounds, so I think I see a light at the end of the tunnel? *crosses fingers*
aishuu, I wrote Darkangel trilogy fic for you! It's about Irrylath roughly two decades after the ending, and it has lots of reference to Aeriel.Unfortunately, it is also fairly depressing and contains implied preparation for suicide, though nobody actually dies within the bounds of the story. I was trying to do a 'reunited lovers' thing, but apparently my subconscious does not want to impose a standard happy ending on Pierce's story. *shrug* (400 words)
---------------------------------------------
That Which We Are, We Are Forever
---------------------------------------------
It took Irrylath nearly a decade to realize he had stopped ageing.
Sabr noticed first -- she noticed everything about him, almost obsessively. Sometimes he found her attention suffocating, but mostly he welcomed it. He used her love to bind himself to his life and his land. He used her sensitivity to his slightest quirks to correct his thoughts and actions when he drifted away from compassion and justice. He used their children to remind himself he was human.
Irrylath wondered at first why Sabr had refrained from mentioning his frozen appearance. Then he laughed, bitterly. Of course she had held her tongue. She wanted him normal, living, only marked out by human honors: king, general, hero. Sabr wanted no part of darkness or magic. She abhorred the icarus. She suppressed Oriencor's incestuous son. She denied Aeriel's heart-bound husband.
But time flows only forward. No transformation can be perfectly reversed. No rebirth leaves a man without scars.
Aeriel had given him her heart to make him human. Then she had given him back his own, freed from its leaden prison. She had given him life to fill his empty veins. She had given him hope to water his desiccated soul. She had given him love to light his midnight world.
But she couldn't take away the years Oriencor had spent shaping his body. She couldn't take away his memories -- couldn't erase his body's memory of magic, power, stasis. His body knew the trick of immortality, and somewhere in the final battle, some of the Ancients' magic had seeped from Winterock into him and followed the pattern his vampire years had laid down in his bones.
Irrylath was not ageing. His blood was cooling. Last daymonth, he found silver in his hair and a black feather in his sheets.
Sabr still said nothing, but she gathered their children close. Now that he knew he was changing, Irrylath realized she had not left them alone with him for over a year. He saw that she no longer smiled with her heart and soul, but only with her teeth.
Their eldest son was seventeen, as old as Irrylath when Aeriel restored him to life. That was old enough to do a man's work, to shoulder a king's burden.
Irrylath left his crown in his empty room and walked into the desert, alone. Either Aeriel and her sword-sister would find him and fix him, or he would force the Pendarlon to slay him before more of Oriencor's poison could return to his veins.
He had died before, years ago. He was not afraid to die again.
He only hoped to see Aeriel once more before he closed his eyes forever.
---------------------------------------------
Inspired by the 8/4/09
15_minute_fic word #118: change---------------------------------------------
In other news, I still hate writing Hagrid, but I have successfully gotten the tea poured and Ginny's moved from talking about guilt and Tom to talking about the Hogwarts grounds, so I think I see a light at the end of the tunnel? *crosses fingers*
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(no subject)
Date: 2009-08-06 12:10 am (UTC)Oh, Irrylath. This makes a hell of a lot of sense and fits into the tonality of the books really well. Suicide by swordgirl.
It's interesting we both see Irrylath as staying only as long as he has to (and leaving his heir behind). I almost wonder if he COULD have a happy ending with Sabr.
Wonder why he wouldn't seek Avarclon to do the slaying, though. Vengeance and such.
what do i owe you in exchange?
(no subject)
Date: 2009-08-06 06:07 am (UTC)About the only way I see to avoid an eventual separation is for Irrylath to tell Sabr about his childhood, his years with Oriencor, and his time as an icarus -- and for her to listen and accept it without trying to deny the past by means of the present. (In other words, she can't say, "But that was then and now you're different, so it doesn't matter," because for Irrylath all that stuff matters very much.) And given that Irrylath internalizes things and doesn't talk even to Aeriel or his mother, and that Sabr seems reluctant to deal with the darkness in his past (and is also, um, kind of clingy and jealous), I don't think that's likely.
As for Irrylath's choice of lon, I am not completely sure of my motives in using the Pendarlon. Insofar as I had any (beyond 'it feels right') I figure he doesn't want to foist more of his problems onto the Avarclon, and also that the star-horse might see that as breaking his promise to be Avaric's king in restitution for his crimes as a vampire -- and he also knows the Pendarlon had no problem fighting him in the past, so it's simpler to ask the lion. Also, maybe he associates Aeriel with the desert, since that's where she fled when she left his castle? But really, I am not sure. It would make sense to ask either of them.
Do you read Robin McKinley, Patricia McKillip, or Guy Gavriel Kay? If so, is there any chance of Damar fic, The Outlaws of Sherwood fic, Riddle-Master fic, Song for the Basilisk fic, The Lions of Al-Rassan fic, or A Song for Arbonne fic? If not, maybe an update on "Brightly Burning" or "Something Wicked This Way Comes" -- I am always thrilled by those!
(no subject)
Date: 2009-08-06 08:58 pm (UTC)Irrylath is very badly broken, and I doubt he'll ever be healed. His love for Aeriel, in some ways, is very childish. He only wants the toy when it's about to be taken away. In that line, I don't really like Irrylath much, although my heart goes out to him. I do think the whole incest thing has totally warped his views on love and sex... but something in him desperately wants to love Aeriel, because she is so good. Her very goodness, though, is anathema to how he sees himself.
So while I think he loves Aeriel, it's not a healthy love. Perhaps he could learn to love Sabr - that would be a much more real relationship, a relationship between equals. It's very much stressed that Sabr is all Irrylath should be, had the witch not taken him. Though it's even more interesting to think on the fact that Irrylath is really old enough to be both Aeriel's and Sabr's father... so I'd be curious to see a world where that idea was explored.
Despite their powerful positions, both Irrylath and Sabr are emotionally teenagers, so I think they could manage to grow up somewhat. Sabr might have to embrace Irrylath's past... though I do agree that Irrylath is unlikely to ever be very open about the abuses he suffered, because he's a PTSD case.
I can see the Pendarlon being a good choice, from your thoughts. Pendarlon is uncorrupted, unlike the rest of the lons.
I've already written a Damar fic, Ever After (http://community.livejournal.com/100fandomhell/11732.html) and I don't feel comfortable enough with the rest of RM's work to do anything else. I don't remember Riddle-Master well enough to write, and GGK never caught on for me. I could do SWTWC if you really want (though that does strike me as a cop-out on my behalf since I've got it halfway done... you sure you don't want something a bit more... unique?)
(no subject)
Date: 2009-08-07 04:20 am (UTC)Well, random other things that don't have big fandoms (or any fandom at all, in some cases) but that I think have potential for interesting fic: Lloyd Alexander's Westmark trilogy or the Chronicles of Prydain; Matthew Stover's Heroes Die duology; Roger Zelazny's Changeling duology or This Immortal (I would love to know about Conrad's previous lives and families); Janny Wurts's Cycle of Fire trilogy (the world-building is crying out to be explored in more depth); Joan D. Vinge's Psion trilogy; Patricia C. Wrede's Enchanted Forest Chronicles (especially genfic about Morwen and/or Kazul, or some Morwen/Telemain); Mervyn Peake's Gormenghast trilogy (Steerpike fascinates me); Eve Forward's Villains By Necessity (Sam is my woobie); Barry Hughart's Chronicles of Master Li and Number Ten Ox; Madeleine L'Engle's Murry-O'Keefe series (specifically A Wrinkle in Time, A Wind in the Door, A Swiftly Tilting Planet, and Many Waters, which are my favorites -- I am especially curious about Sandy and Dennys, who are the 'normal' members of the family).
Or, if you read American comics as well as manga, maybe Mike Carey's Lucifer? I love that series so damn much.
(no subject)
Date: 2009-08-06 01:47 am (UTC)♥!!
(no subject)
Date: 2009-08-06 05:42 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2009-10-28 07:15 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2009-10-28 05:33 pm (UTC)Good; then the story worked. :-)