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edenfallingSummary: Rabadash and Shezan share a few private words on the eve of his coronation. (575 words)
[ETA: The AO3 crosspost is now up!]
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Before the Dawn
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"I never dreamed that I would mourn his death," Rabadash said as Shezan finished the ancient chant asking Achadith to smooth the change from one Tisroc to the next.
Shezan blew out the last candle, leaving the inner shrine draped in darkness, pierced faintly by the stars and the waning gibbous moon. She knelt at the goddess's feet, barefoot and straight-backed, and said nothing. This time was for Rabadash to face Achadith, the empire's midwife and guardian, and make his peace with her power. It was not Shezan's place to fill his silence.
Rabadash remained still for a long while, only the soft rhythm of his breath to signal his continued presence. Then he shifted in a rustle and clink of heavy, jewel-bedecked robes, moved away from the closed door toward Achadith's statue, which rose strong and shining from her reflecting pool. He sat on the marble rim and trailed his fingers through the water, let a scatter of droplets fall with soft splashes.
"I would have killed him myself," he said.
Shezan watched the ripples in the pool. "Yes."
"I still have no regret for the attempt."
"I know."
"And yet, when I consider that the sun will rise over a world where he no longer squats in his rooms to thwart me, somehow the pleasure of freedom and power is as sand and ashes in my mouth."
"Azaroth's gifts are hard," Shezan agreed. "They come ever with a cost."
"One wonders, in such a case, why they are called gifts at all," Rabadash said, recovering some of the habitual snap to his voice. "Ah, but I have learned my lesson about questioning gods. Fear not, O my sister. I shall paint my face with ash like an obedient son and soon enough life will taste sweet once more."
"As you say, O my brother and O the delight of Tash upon this earth, so it shall be."
"Now you are mocking me," Rabadash grumbled. "Truly it is said, woe unto the man who has sisters, for he shall never know his full measure of respect." He tapped her side with the embroidered toe of his shoe, a token mimicry of chastisement.
"Likewise unto the woman who has brothers, for she shall never know her full measure of peace," Shezan returned, glancing up and sideways to catch his gaze.
Rabadash smiled, a brief twist and flash of his expressive features, quickly subsumed in the mien of grave thought he had adopted in the wake of his curse. "I go now to keep vigil with Tash. Should you repeat my words to any soul -- even to your beloved, upon whose discretion I otherwise rely without reservation -- your death will take days to come and you will greet it with tears of relief. This I promise you, all ties between us notwithstanding."
"I keep Achadith's secrets. Yours are no greater nor lesser a burden," Shezan said. "Go. Nakdeh awaits you in the Courtyard of Bones."
Rabadash rose from his seat and walked swift and sure toward the door of the inner shrine, the gold and jewels of his clothing glinting faintly with reflected starlight. Halfway across the room he paused for one moment, half-turning to face the goddess, but stopped himself with a sharp breath rather than bow or speak any last word of respect.
As Shezan watched, he slid aside the plain gray stone that barred the door, and stepped outward into the start of his reign.
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Inspired by the 6/25/15![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
15_minute_ficlets word #229: grief
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I wrote this ficlet at the public library this afternoon, then revised it at home some hours later. (The problem with trying to write stories in a single interconnected continuity is that I have to keep looking up minor details to make sure I'm not contradicting things I've previously said.)
Also, I would like it to be known that I tried really hard not to write another Problem of Susan ficlet for this prompt, and by gum, I succeeded!
And now for some timeline blather!
I dithered back and forth over whether Rabadash's ascension to the throne came before or after Silence at the Proper Season, but ultimately I think that fic works better after this one. Which means now I have to decide what event is important enough to justify Cor and Aravis's visit to Tashbaan in the year 1023. Rabadash is already crowned. He's almost certainly already married -- I think he had to marry within a year or two of his curse, partly to shore up his position as heir and partly to erase the embarrassment of Susan's rejection. He probably also has at least one child.
So I'm left with either Rabadash finally taking the secondary wives he's entitled to as Tisroc, or Rabadash finally having a son, on the assumption that his first few children were all girls. Honestly, I could believe either. I guess I will continue to leave that detail up in the air until such a time as I get around to writing "A Change of Season" and thereby figure out the exact course of post-HHB Calormene politics.
Anyway, the point of that ramble is that "Before the Dawn" is set in, I think, 1020 -- six years after HHB and two years before The Courting Dance. It's nice to have that pinned down. :-)
[ETA: The AO3 crosspost is now up!]
---------------------------------------------
Before the Dawn
---------------------------------------------
"I never dreamed that I would mourn his death," Rabadash said as Shezan finished the ancient chant asking Achadith to smooth the change from one Tisroc to the next.
Shezan blew out the last candle, leaving the inner shrine draped in darkness, pierced faintly by the stars and the waning gibbous moon. She knelt at the goddess's feet, barefoot and straight-backed, and said nothing. This time was for Rabadash to face Achadith, the empire's midwife and guardian, and make his peace with her power. It was not Shezan's place to fill his silence.
Rabadash remained still for a long while, only the soft rhythm of his breath to signal his continued presence. Then he shifted in a rustle and clink of heavy, jewel-bedecked robes, moved away from the closed door toward Achadith's statue, which rose strong and shining from her reflecting pool. He sat on the marble rim and trailed his fingers through the water, let a scatter of droplets fall with soft splashes.
"I would have killed him myself," he said.
Shezan watched the ripples in the pool. "Yes."
"I still have no regret for the attempt."
"I know."
"And yet, when I consider that the sun will rise over a world where he no longer squats in his rooms to thwart me, somehow the pleasure of freedom and power is as sand and ashes in my mouth."
"Azaroth's gifts are hard," Shezan agreed. "They come ever with a cost."
"One wonders, in such a case, why they are called gifts at all," Rabadash said, recovering some of the habitual snap to his voice. "Ah, but I have learned my lesson about questioning gods. Fear not, O my sister. I shall paint my face with ash like an obedient son and soon enough life will taste sweet once more."
"As you say, O my brother and O the delight of Tash upon this earth, so it shall be."
"Now you are mocking me," Rabadash grumbled. "Truly it is said, woe unto the man who has sisters, for he shall never know his full measure of respect." He tapped her side with the embroidered toe of his shoe, a token mimicry of chastisement.
"Likewise unto the woman who has brothers, for she shall never know her full measure of peace," Shezan returned, glancing up and sideways to catch his gaze.
Rabadash smiled, a brief twist and flash of his expressive features, quickly subsumed in the mien of grave thought he had adopted in the wake of his curse. "I go now to keep vigil with Tash. Should you repeat my words to any soul -- even to your beloved, upon whose discretion I otherwise rely without reservation -- your death will take days to come and you will greet it with tears of relief. This I promise you, all ties between us notwithstanding."
"I keep Achadith's secrets. Yours are no greater nor lesser a burden," Shezan said. "Go. Nakdeh awaits you in the Courtyard of Bones."
Rabadash rose from his seat and walked swift and sure toward the door of the inner shrine, the gold and jewels of his clothing glinting faintly with reflected starlight. Halfway across the room he paused for one moment, half-turning to face the goddess, but stopped himself with a sharp breath rather than bow or speak any last word of respect.
As Shezan watched, he slid aside the plain gray stone that barred the door, and stepped outward into the start of his reign.
---------------------------------------------
Inspired by the 6/25/15
15_minute_ficlets word #229: grief---------------------------------------------
I wrote this ficlet at the public library this afternoon, then revised it at home some hours later. (The problem with trying to write stories in a single interconnected continuity is that I have to keep looking up minor details to make sure I'm not contradicting things I've previously said.)
Also, I would like it to be known that I tried really hard not to write another Problem of Susan ficlet for this prompt, and by gum, I succeeded!
And now for some timeline blather!
I dithered back and forth over whether Rabadash's ascension to the throne came before or after Silence at the Proper Season, but ultimately I think that fic works better after this one. Which means now I have to decide what event is important enough to justify Cor and Aravis's visit to Tashbaan in the year 1023. Rabadash is already crowned. He's almost certainly already married -- I think he had to marry within a year or two of his curse, partly to shore up his position as heir and partly to erase the embarrassment of Susan's rejection. He probably also has at least one child.
So I'm left with either Rabadash finally taking the secondary wives he's entitled to as Tisroc, or Rabadash finally having a son, on the assumption that his first few children were all girls. Honestly, I could believe either. I guess I will continue to leave that detail up in the air until such a time as I get around to writing "A Change of Season" and thereby figure out the exact course of post-HHB Calormene politics.
Anyway, the point of that ramble is that "Before the Dawn" is set in, I think, 1020 -- six years after HHB and two years before The Courting Dance. It's nice to have that pinned down. :-)
(no subject)
Date: 2015-07-22 01:22 pm (UTC)what event is important enough to justify Cor and Aravis's visit to Tashbaan in the year 1023 -- perhaps someone in Aravis' family has passed away (her father maybe) or her younger brother is getting married?
(no subject)
Date: 2015-07-22 07:11 pm (UTC)Hmm. Can't be Aravis's brother's marriage; by my timeline he's only ten years old in 1023. Additionally, I implied in Ancient Lands that they're visiting as part of a major occasion of state and that Corin or Lune would technically also have worked as suitably important representatives, and her family is not that central to the empire.
I suppose a peace treaty or trade agreement is also an option. I suspect Rabadash would like his northern borders stable and secure before he starts doing serious internal reorganization. *ponders*
(no subject)
Date: 2015-07-22 01:27 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2015-07-22 07:11 pm (UTC)