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edenfallingSummary: Ri-Lady Lourdés Rodelay receives bad news from home. Tom does what he can to be there for her. (525 words)
Note: I started writing this in 2011, presumably in response to a 15-minute fic prompt, but I neglected to write down the actual prompt word or which particular prompt blog it came from. Also, the ficlet obviously took me more than fifteen minutes to write. *headdesk*
It's set about a year before A Dream of Snow and A Dream of Heat, when Tom and Tab are sixteen. Lourdés is a year older than Tom.
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Correspondence
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Tom found Lourdés on the curtain wall between the Students' Tower and the armory. She had climbed into a crenel and sat facing outward, her legs dangling free a good sixty feet above the stony ground.
Tom stepped louder than usual, not wanting to startle her.
"You don't have to walk like Skajie in plate armor," Lourdés said without turning. "I won't fall."
"Fair enough." Tom took the last three steps to lean against the merlon to her left.
They watched high, gauzy clouds inch across the pale summer sky for several minutes, wrapped in companionable silence. Now and again, a songbird called out in clear trills from the distant scrub, or a trainer's voice raised in an exasperated shout from a practice ground behind them.
Eventually Lourdés sighed and shifted to her right, making space for Tom. He climbed into the crenel and let his legs swing free, knocking his bare heels lightly against the stones.
"I had a letter from home this morning," Lourdés said.
Tom let his shoulder brush hers.
"Donaké was taken by the Water-Snake three days ago. They caught him and his tutor on their way home from one of our border keeps. They haven't asked for ransom." Her voice was flat, her body trapped in artificial calm.
"The Water-Snake can't kill him while you're pledged to the Tower," Tom said, pressing the side of his foot against her boot.
"While I'm pledged, he's safe," Lourdés agreed. "But I can't get to the Domains before word arrives that we've received our marks of mastery. The Water-Snake will send me my brother's head as a homecoming gift."
Tom said nothing. What was there to say? If Tab were caught in a trap like that, he might as well be dead. Lourdés loved Donaké in the same fierce, desperate way that Tom loved his sister. His capture would be like a blade in her heart: aching with every breath she took, and yet it was the removal that would kill her.
"Is there any way--" he asked after a moment.
"Shape change takes hours to set up and the less calm you are, the greater the risk of losing yourself in the shift," Lourdés said. "And there's no way to know how long a dragon would take to answer a summoning, or what price it would claim in return."
She had clearly thought about both options.
Tom shifted a bit closer, until the heat of her body against his was like a brand.
They sat in silence again while the sun slipped in and out of the thin screen of clouds. Presently the midafternoon bell rang from the watchtower, marking time for lesson changes.
"Master Word is expecting me," Tom said over the distant sound of weapons being replaced on racks and hundreds of people moving through courtyards and corridors, "but I'll skip if you want company. I'm hardly his only chance to study wild magic."
Lourdés said nothing, but she tipped her head sideways to rest on Tom's shoulder, wordlessly pinning him in place.
They stayed there until Skajie and Haman came to fetch them for dinner.
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End of Ficlet
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One of these days I really should sit down and actually plot out the epic saga I built this world to support, if only so I can assign suitably awesome subplots to the various friends, classmates, and family members I've created for Tab and Tom.
Note: I started writing this in 2011, presumably in response to a 15-minute fic prompt, but I neglected to write down the actual prompt word or which particular prompt blog it came from. Also, the ficlet obviously took me more than fifteen minutes to write. *headdesk*
It's set about a year before A Dream of Snow and A Dream of Heat, when Tom and Tab are sixteen. Lourdés is a year older than Tom.
---------------------------------------------
Correspondence
---------------------------------------------
Tom found Lourdés on the curtain wall between the Students' Tower and the armory. She had climbed into a crenel and sat facing outward, her legs dangling free a good sixty feet above the stony ground.
Tom stepped louder than usual, not wanting to startle her.
"You don't have to walk like Skajie in plate armor," Lourdés said without turning. "I won't fall."
"Fair enough." Tom took the last three steps to lean against the merlon to her left.
They watched high, gauzy clouds inch across the pale summer sky for several minutes, wrapped in companionable silence. Now and again, a songbird called out in clear trills from the distant scrub, or a trainer's voice raised in an exasperated shout from a practice ground behind them.
Eventually Lourdés sighed and shifted to her right, making space for Tom. He climbed into the crenel and let his legs swing free, knocking his bare heels lightly against the stones.
"I had a letter from home this morning," Lourdés said.
Tom let his shoulder brush hers.
"Donaké was taken by the Water-Snake three days ago. They caught him and his tutor on their way home from one of our border keeps. They haven't asked for ransom." Her voice was flat, her body trapped in artificial calm.
"The Water-Snake can't kill him while you're pledged to the Tower," Tom said, pressing the side of his foot against her boot.
"While I'm pledged, he's safe," Lourdés agreed. "But I can't get to the Domains before word arrives that we've received our marks of mastery. The Water-Snake will send me my brother's head as a homecoming gift."
Tom said nothing. What was there to say? If Tab were caught in a trap like that, he might as well be dead. Lourdés loved Donaké in the same fierce, desperate way that Tom loved his sister. His capture would be like a blade in her heart: aching with every breath she took, and yet it was the removal that would kill her.
"Is there any way--" he asked after a moment.
"Shape change takes hours to set up and the less calm you are, the greater the risk of losing yourself in the shift," Lourdés said. "And there's no way to know how long a dragon would take to answer a summoning, or what price it would claim in return."
She had clearly thought about both options.
Tom shifted a bit closer, until the heat of her body against his was like a brand.
They sat in silence again while the sun slipped in and out of the thin screen of clouds. Presently the midafternoon bell rang from the watchtower, marking time for lesson changes.
"Master Word is expecting me," Tom said over the distant sound of weapons being replaced on racks and hundreds of people moving through courtyards and corridors, "but I'll skip if you want company. I'm hardly his only chance to study wild magic."
Lourdés said nothing, but she tipped her head sideways to rest on Tom's shoulder, wordlessly pinning him in place.
They stayed there until Skajie and Haman came to fetch them for dinner.
---------------------------------------------
End of Ficlet
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One of these days I really should sit down and actually plot out the epic saga I built this world to support, if only so I can assign suitably awesome subplots to the various friends, classmates, and family members I've created for Tab and Tom.
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(no subject)
Date: 2015-11-20 07:06 am (UTC)(This and the two 'Dream' pieces are all I've seen of this - is there more posted somewhere?)
(no subject)
Date: 2015-11-20 07:20 am (UTC)(For reference, the Domains of Killian is the region/country that Tab and Tom's grandmother disliked so much that she abandoned her entire universe to get away from it.)
There's a post with some world-building and a couple posts that mention some plot ideas in passing under the intarre tag, but no further story pieces online. I have some really terrible drafts of the opening chapters I wrote back in my teens, and a couple attempts at writing a first meeting between Vek and Signy (two of Tom's friends who have not yet appeared on-page), but they're not in any shape to be posted in public.
(no subject)
Date: 2015-11-23 01:09 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2015-11-23 03:38 am (UTC)(Honestly, I think it might work best as a TV miniseries or British-style limited series, because for whatever reason, this is the only one of my worlds that has ever come to me with a significant visual element. But I see it -- and I really do 'see' it -- as a series of disconnected Cool Scenes, and filling in the narrative and logical gaps between them is often an exercise in extreme frustration.)