#pink moonstone ring

[marsjewellery11]

The Unique Origin Of Larimar Jewelry

Any individual who possesses Larimar adornments might want to know how the gems is being made. Indeed, it is essential to comprehend that the decoration comes from a stone called Larimar consequently the name Larimar jewellery. Larimar rock is just being tracked down in the Dominican Republic, a country in the Caribbean.

The stone has a blue tinge making it very one of a kind in contrast with different rocks. Dominican Republic is popular for the mining of this uncommon stone.

The sort of gems made from this rock is normally profoundly respected. Most decorations from this rock is typically set in silver however there are additionally different tones. White is viewed as the least in quality. There are additionally green and different decorations that come in red spots. One can thusly buy a grade contingent upon their monetary capacity to do as such.

The decoration comes in various structures going from studs to pendants just to specify however a couple. Gems made from this rock ought to be in capable hands by their proprietors in light of tinge. The stones shading happens because of oxidation. The oxidation happens when normal light strikes the blue variety on the stone when it is on a white surface. This decorations should hence not be put on any white surface.

In the Dominican conservative, the adornments produced using this rock isn't however expensive as they may be in different nations. This is on the grounds that the stones are seen as effectively because of the reality they are privately mined. As a matter of fact, the decoration is hand tailored along the roads of the urban communities of Dominican Republic making them promptly accessible to anybody in the country who is keen on trimmings.

This isn't the situation when the it gets to other country. Whenever they are traded to different nations like the US, Joined Realm, Germany and different nations, they are sold out at extreme costs. Generally just the number of inhabitants in the rich can bear the cost of this sort of adornments abroad.

This is an intriguing sort of rock and consequently decorations made from this rock is likewise respected interesting. The main different rocks that are practically identical to this sort of rock are maybe pearl, gold, and the preferences. It isn't exactly clear on how individuals in the Dominican Republic get to mine the stones, obviously there are guidelines that have been set to guarantee that the stone isn't over taken advantage of to the point that it will become non-existent. The public authority has placed in measures with guarantee the guidelines are complied to.

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[gemville]

7.20 Carat Moonstone, 5.60 CTW Tourmaline and 3.05 CTW Diamond Ring by Provident Jewelry

Source: Pinterest

#provident jewelry #moonstone #pink tourmaline #diamonds #moonstone tourmaline diamond ring #moonstone tourmaline diamond jewelry #high jewelry #luxury jewelry #fine jewelry #fine jewellery pieces

[mumblelard]

larvikite or i felt nothing

#moonstones #pink blots #parking lots #broken portals #borgs #brazil #i've got all this ringing in my ears and none on my fingers #inspiring quotes #i've got a good heart but this mouth #i've connected the dots #i've got a broken face #the book of daniel and other false prophets #i like to watch fire turn wood into ashes #larvikite #ley lines #end of messages

[sloanesallow]

lavender haze

Sebastian runs into some...difficulties while brewing a potion. (Previously written in October, not posted to tumblr). ✨Sebastian Sallow x F!MC Tags: NSFW! MDNI! Sexual content (masturbation), character under the influence of Amortentia. 1.7k words [Read on Wattpad] - [Read on Ao3]

Sebastian is distracted.

What should be just another session in the Undercroft is proving to be more difficult than he anticipated. Not because of the subject material, but because of the study partner.

Sloane.

Beautiful and brilliant Sloane.

He sits cross-legged on the stone floor, tension coiled tight in his gut as he watches his friend, his just friend, with a kind of lust that he ought to be ashamed of. Sebastian has always been fond of Sloane, grateful for her companionship and willingness to stick by his side through thick and thin. He is unable to pinpoint exactly when his thoughts about her switched from innocent to debauchery.

There is something different about her, something that stirs his blood and sends his heart into a frenzy. He has seen her every day, has known her for years, the two sharing laughter and tears and everything in between. It is more than infatuation, but he is too afraid to call it love. He settles on an emotion he is more familiar with—desire. He wants Sloane all for himself, the selfish bastard that he is.

Intrusive, wicked thoughts continue to swirl in his mind. He wants her in his bed, wants to fall to his knees and worship at the altar that is her body and soul, wants to devour her until she screams his name—

Oh, he is well and truly fucked.

Sebastian attempts to focus on the small cauldron of bubbling liquid he is slowly stirring but soon finds himself tracking her movements through the dungeon. Sloane's ash-blonde hair has grown out over the years, a few golden strands shimmering under the light of the flickering candles that hang from the ceiling. He openly stares as she bends over to fetch a book from her satchel, the fabric of her skirt moving across the curve of her bottom.

He swallows hard, a surge of heat threatening to swallow him whole. Sebastian shifts, wishing he had his robe to drape over his lap right about now. Sloane sits back down next to him, taking the stirstick and sending a shock through his body as her fingers against his. He snaps his attention to the parchment balancing on his knee, even if he can't for the life of him translate the gibberish that is his handwriting.

"It should be more pink, don't you think?" Sloane asks, softly laughing at her own rhyme.

Sebastian nods, fixated on her lips. "Yeah."

Her tongue pokes out as she bites it in concentration, adding a few more ashwinder eggs to the mixture, completely oblivious to his internal turmoil. There is a faint stain of red on her lips, makeup that her and some of the other seventh-year girls have been experimenting with. All Sebastian can wonder is if she kissed him, would she leave marks behind—on his lips, on his throat, on the sensitive patch on skin just above his hip-bone. He clenches his jaw, fighting the spine-tingling shiver at the thought of her lipstick staining his pillow.

Stop—he silently implores his mind, biting his nails into his palm before the last of his resolve spirals out of control. Sloane speaks again but he cannot hear what she says over the ringing in his ears. He watches the subtle way her throat tightens and relaxes around the words, wanting nothing more than to press his lips there and taste the saltiness of her skin.

"Sebastian."

His name falling from her lips snaps him out of the haze, if only for a moment. With a strangled chuckle, he meets her gaze and flashes a sheepish grin. "Sorry, what?"

"I asked if there were any more rose petals," she says, pointing to the pouch of ingredients nearest to him.

Sebastian startles into action, sifting through the inventory but finding nothing but powdered moonstone and peppermint. "Looks like we used them all."

"That's...not right," Sloane frowns, her brows furrowed in thought. She reaches over and takes the notes from him, nearly causing him to flinch. "Did we forget to add something? Or..." she trails, looking far too adorable as she pouts. "It doesn't look like the potion Professor Sharp brewed today."

Sebastian cannot remember what he had for lunch, let alone the potions lecture from that morning. He frowns, not wanting his distracted mind and wandering eyes to jeopardize their grade. Not when the project will ultimately affect their NEWT scores.

"Should we start over?" he asks, clearing his throat when his voice comes out garbled.

Sloane nods and is suddenly pushing off the ground to stand. She gestures for him to pass her the pouch and she peers inside to see for herself. "I'll be right back. Maybe I can ask the Professor for some advice while restocking."

Before Sebastian can say anything to stop her she is slipping past the iron gates of the Undercroft entrance and disappearing from view. He grumbles to himself, reaching down rather awkwardly to readjust the growing arousal in his trousers. In an effort to keep his mind and hands busy, he flicks through the book Sloane left behind, reading through her neat notes in the margin.

"Love potion," he mutters under his breath. "Pink or red in color."

His eyes glance over the edge of the book to see that whatever is brewing inside the small cauldron, it is not a love potion. Sebastian purses his lips in worry, flicking through the pages for anything that fits the description of what he sees. Somewhere in the back of his mind he already knows, the spiraling steam wafting through the air and invading his senses.

Amortentia.

Sebastian's stomach drops as his heart rate spikes. Only he would find himself in this situation, the accidental creation of the most powerful love potion in the world. He huffed a laugh and wondered—is this the reason for his wild thoughts? But then why wasn't Sloane affected?

Maybe he was a love-struck fool afterall.

Whatever the explanation, Sebastian is unable to form another coherent thought as a silky tendril of the potion sneaks up his nose, instantly setting his soul on fire. It is like every nerve in his body is firing at once, yearning and demanding attention so intensely that it hurts. His pupils dilate and with every staggered breath he can hear the echo of his heart, pounding so loudly in his chest he topples over.

He blinks hard, holding himself up against the nearby chaise. All he can see behind his closed lids is Sloane, her stormy eyes sparkling with mischief as she beckons him with her curved smile and tantalizing tongue.

"Fuck," he curses, snapping open his eyes.

Sebastian gathers enough strength to fight his wobbling legs, collapsing against the cushions as his entire body trembles. He sucks in a breath only to discover Sloane's scent is everywhere, the fabric of her forgotten robe spread out beneath his head. With every blink he can see her, feel her pressing against him, the ghost of her touch prickling his skin.

Frantically, he untucks his dress-shirt from his pants, bunching the fabric up around his torso as he fumbles to unfasten the clasps of his trousers. Sebastian wiggles his hips until he is free from the constricting clothes, his cock twitching as it makes contact with the cool air of the room.

With a shaky hand he grasps himself, hissing as his fingers clench of their own accord. He tries to pace himself, but the Amortentia forces him to focus on nothing but his arousal and deep seeded fantasy of claiming Sloane, fucking her until she is nothing but a whimpering mess beneath him.

God what he wouldn't do to have her right now, to have her delicate hand wrapped around his length, to be buried deep inside her core, not stopping until they both stumble over the edge of ecstasy.

His strokes become even as his hips jerk up to meet his hand, the vivid, imagined vision of Sloane before him—on top of him—making it impossible to hold back. A tiny, desperate plea forms in the back of his throat as he rolls onto his side, wondering if there is some deity that might grant his one desire. Sebastian reaches up with his free hand, grabbing Sloane's robe and pressing it to his face so he can breathe in the sweet smell of her perfume and stifle his groans.

In his fevered delusion, it is almost as if she is really there, her lithe and naked body writhing against him as their moans filled the otherwise empty room. He whispers her name over and over again before the syllables bubble on the tip of his tongue, tumbling out in a cry, "Sloane!"

With a strangled croak he meets his end, spilling onto his fist and the chaise cushions. Sebastian lays there, his whole body tense as the remainder of his release flows through him. The intense passion fades away, dissolving into a deep guilt that sinks his heart into the pit of his stomach. An overwhelming wave of exhaustion hits him before he can do more than tug his pants back into place.

He faints, or at least momentarily loses consciousness.

When he flutters open his eyes, Sebastian isn't sure how much time has passed. For a moment, he doesn't even realize he's still in the Undercroft, or that his head isn't resting against a pillow but Sloane's thigh instead.

He blinks, the feel of her fingers brushing through his hair comforting, if not equally terrifying. What feels like a damp rag passes across his forehead and he glances up to see her face.

"Am I dreaming?"

"No," she answers with a small smile. "I don't think so."

His heart skips a beat. "Did you—did you see?"

"No," she says again but the slight tint to her cheeks speaks volumes. Sebastian is about to question the appearance of her blush when her voice drops into a whisper. "But I heard...everything."

Sebastian briefly wonders if he can end his own life with a killing curse, or at least set himself on fire so he can escape the rush of embarrassment and shame that settles in his bones. He blinks, air wheezing out of his parted lips once he remembers to breathe.

He gulps, the weight of his tongue heavy in his mouth. Reluctantly, he lifts his gaze to her face and is shocked to find her expression is calm. "We have a lot to talk about, don't we?"

At least Sloane is smiling when she says, "yes, we do." 

#hogwarts legacy #sebastian sallow #hogwarts legacy fanfic #sebastian sallow x mc #sebastian sallow fanfic #fanfic #sebastian sallow x f!mc #sebastian sallow smut

[tiredwitchplant]

Everything You Need to Know About Crystals: Carnelian (Red)

Carnelian (The Sunset Stone)

Color: Red, orange, pink, brown

Rarity: Common, easy to obtain

Hardiness: 7

Type: Agate or Chalcedony

Chakra Association: Solar-Plexus, Sacral, Root Chakra

Angels: Michael

Deities: Isis

Astrological Signs: Leo, Taurus, Aries

Element: Fire

Planet: Sun

Origin: Britain, India, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Peru, Iceland, Romania

Powers: Success, Confidence, Motivation, Courage, Sexual Energy, Vitality, Action

Crystals It Works Well With: Aquamarine, Beryl, Super Seven

How It is Created: It is part of the chalcedony family. It is made up of silicon dioxide colored by different levels of iron impurities, with specks, banding, or stripes in many shades of brown or orange-red. The stone itself has a beautiful warm orange color that is best appreciated when it is polished.

History: Since ancient times, carnelian has been polished and worn as jewelry. The Egyptians used it to contrast with onyx and lapis lazuli in the making of collars and necklaces. The Romans were fond of it set in gold, using small beads in earrings or larger polished stones in finger rings for men and women. In the Middle Ages, carnelian was also popular as a healing stone. It was said to dissolve anger or rage, protect the wearer from negative influences, and promote courage.

What It Can Do:

Can be used in spell for success, confidence, and motivation

Can bring a burst of inspiration and energy

Is good for sex magic and sometimes menstrual support

Can cleanse and restore other crystals

Can help those in abusive situations by providing inner strength and movement to the right path

Help with mental preparation with childbirth

Calms angry emotions and puts a stop to mental lethargy

Can restore vitality and remove the fear of death

Was used to protect the dead to their journey to the afterlife

Dispels apathy and motivates success

Improves analytics abilities and clarifies perception

Removes extraneous thoughts in mediation and tunes daydreamers into reality

Can stimulate metabolism and improve your life force

Can influence reproductive organs and increase fertility

How to Get the Best Out Of: Use as a pendant or belt buckle, or place in contact with the skin as appropriate.

How to Cleanse and Charge: You can cleanse and charge carnelian with the sun.

Crystal Grid:

Creativity Grid

Shape: Flower of Life or Vesica Piscis

Mantra: “Creativity flows through me.”

Center Stone: Carnelian sphere or tumbled stone

Secondary Stones: Rainbow moonstone, larimar, kunzite, orange calcite

Moon Phase: Waxing phase or full moon

Day: Wednesday

Sources

#witchblr #witch community #witchcraft #occulltism #paganblr #nature #crystal witch #crystals #gemstone #gems #minerals #crystal grid #geology #spirituality #pagan #goddess isis #witches #witchcraft resources #magick #witches of tumblr #witchcraft 101 #carnelian

[veritas-scribblings]

potion - @bartylusmicrofic - words: 660

Barty sits on the bench watching enthralled as Regulus leans over and reviews the notes he’s taken on how to brew the Draught of Peace. He doesn’t need to do this, Barty knows, because Regulus is incredibly bright and remarkably apt at potions. But Regulus has always been fussy and somewhat of a perfectionist. And Barty has always loved him for this.

Regulus catches Barty staring and blushes. A wonderful pink that colours Regulus’s cheeks and creeps down his neck. He’s holding a quill between his long, slender fingers, which are decorated with an array of silver rings. Familiar silver rings that Barty remembers the feel of, cold on his flushed skin, on hands that are so very, wickedly precise and so very, wonderfully skilled.

The heat of the memory punches Barty in the gut, damned near winding him, and he’s suddenly assaulted by intensity of it and the realisation that he needs to do something about his thoughts before they become obvious to the rest of the class.

And to Slughorn, who is yelling at him to get off the bench and get to work.

‘Do you mind making yourself useful?’ Regulus says as he spreads out the potions ingredients in front of him and organises them into groups, because the boy is worryingly anal retentive. He’s eyeing Barty like he knows exactly what Barty is thinking about, and…well, he probably does.

‘Sure, sure,’ Barty says. He peers over at the line up of ingredients. ‘Use valerian instead of mandrake. Less likely to make the drinker hallucinate. Mandrake is a psychoactive. I mean, unless that’s the effect you’re going for?’

Regulus frowns sceptically. ‘The textbook—and Slughorn—said to use mandrake.’

‘The textbook—and Slughorn—are idiots. Trust me. Valerian root. Grated.’ Barty leans over as Regulus rearranges his potions lineup, clearly conflicted about whether to listen to Barty or whether to proceed with the instructions he’s been given by Slughorn. ‘So,’ Barty says quieter. While he’ll admit he is a bit of an exhibitionist, some things are just meant for him and Regulus. ‘So, Evan told me about this thing we need to try. It’s…a sex thing.’

For a moment, Regulus looks startled, glances around to check if anyone is listening, then when he decides it’s safe to do so. The son of a whore almost laughs and Barty curses the unique talent that Regulus has for making him feel embarrassed in spite of himself. 

Before Barty can make overtures to quickly cover the temporary affliction of that thing called humiliation, Slughorn strides over and barks, ‘Crouch, I told you to get off the bench and get to work!’

‘I’m working with Reg.’

‘It’s an independent assignment.’

Barty groans. Rolls his eyes. ‘What a drag.’ And then slides off the bench all loose-like, flowing like water. When Slughorn is gone, Barty sidles up behind Regulus and whispers, ‘Evan says it’s a sure thing.’

Regulus flushes again. Barty is really not doing himself any favours, especially given that he is a fixed point on Slughorn’s radar, but making Regulus blush in the middle of potions class is really turning him on. And Regulus blushes really pretty.

‘A sure thing for what?’ Regulus says, quiet and low, as he begins grinding the moonstone in slow, measured movements.

‘For making you come so hard you see stars,’ Barty whispers, so close by Regulus’s ear that he can smell the sweet coconut and spicy lemongrass of his shampoo. ‘Teeth-rattling, back-breaking orgasms. Many of them.’

Regulus ducks his head, his hair falling into his eyes, and Barty wants to reach around and brush the locks aside. He’s hiding his face, Barty knows, putting his entire weight into crushing the moonstone. The rings on his fingers clink against the pestle. 

‘Fine,’ he says. His tone is flat, like he’s trying to restrain himself. He shoves Barty backwards, away from him. ‘Tell me about it later. Now go away, brew your potion or something.’

#harry potter #fanfiction #myfanfiction #microfics #bartylus #starkiller #regulus black #barty crouch jr #regulus x barty #mybartylusmicrofics

[thelittlearanarathatcould]

Today, Tomorrow, and All The Days To Come

Neuvillette, Thoma X female reader

Warnings -> Newlywed fluff

Neuvillette💧

A two piece rose gold band that fit your finger like a tiara, adorned with small diamond droplets underlining a large, tear shaped moonstone - that was what he chose as the symbol of his commitment to you.

With a woven basket in hand, a blue and white checkered cloth protecting its contents and delicious smells wafting into the air, you walked through Palais Mermonia on an invisible path well known to your heart. You greeted the staff members you passed by, and couldn’t help but be surprised when they returned your warm wishes and congratulated your recent ceremony.

Correction: the warm wishes and congratulations weren’t surprising; everyone working within Palais Mermonia has always been kind to you. The surprising part was that, unlike before, no one offered to escort you to Neuvillette’s office.

As if the gentle weight on your left ring finger meant that you earned their upmost trust.

A skip found it’s way into your step as you carried on, soon reaching the final stretch to your beloved’s office. “Good afternoon, Sedene.”

The Melusine looked up, her head just making it over the top of her desk. “Good afternoon, Milady.”

She said the new term so casually, you almost missed it. You didn’t, though, and it sent your heart jumping within the confines of your ribcage. “Milady?”

Sedene titled her head, the blue cap she wore managing to stay perfectly in place. Her violet eyes wavered with uncertainty, but her voice maintained a strong confidence. “Of course. You are Monsieur Neuvillette’s wife now, unless… Unless you would like to be called something else?”

To ease her worries, you smiled and shook your head. Your cheeks felt warm, and you hoped she wouldn’t be able to tell. “I don’t mind. I just wasn’t expecting it, that’s all.”

Her small shoulders dropped into a more relaxed position. “I see. In any case, are you here to see Monsieur Neuvillette? He hasn’t left for his break yet.”

“Ah, I’m glad I caught him in time.” You said, giving the basket a gentle tap. “May I go in?”

Sedene waved you off as if your question didn’t need to be answered. She returned to her duties and you approached the grand set of doors that separated you from the man you came to see.

Knocking with the knuckles on the back of your hand, you waited for that deep, silky voice to grant you entry. Though muffled, the sound of his voice ignited fireworks beneath your skin and the jitters of excitement moved through your body as you pushed the heavy door open with ease.

Like a mouse that finally found it’s cheese, you scurried across the rolling blue carpet and up the short steps to his desk, where your husband was organizing a pile of documents.

Neuvillette looked up, those violet-pink eyes of his catching the sunlight pouring in through the massive windows. The muscles in his face softened and the smile his lips curled into was so sweet you had to bite back a squeal, lest you risk embarrassing him at his place of work.

“Ma chérie, to what do I owe the pleasure?” He asked, rising from his chair and stepping around the desk to greet you properly.

“Do I need to reason to come spend your break with you?” You asked, standing on the tips of your toes so you could kiss his cheek. “I brought lunch for us.”

He chuckled and took hold of your hand, lifting it to his lips so he, too, could kiss you hello. “Your timing is as impeccable as ever.”

In no time at all, his desk was cleared and the lunch you made was laid out where his work had once been. The meal was simple: chicken soup with salad and a fresh bun from the bakery on the side. Naturally, you also brought bottles of water imported from Natlan to try.

Lowering the glass, you licked your lips and gathered your thoughts. Describing the taste of water was more your husband’s specialty than your own. “It tastes clear, somehow. Smoother. Maybe even a touch warm?”

Neuvillette chuckled and set his own glass down. “I suspect this water must have been collected from a source where warm rocks cover the river bed. An excellent find, mon amour.”

A lovesick giggle slipped past your lips and you leaned towards him, wanting to be closer. Your eyes happened to catch sight of the clock and, upon realizing it was almost the end of the hour, fought back a frown. You didn’t want to go yet; this was his first day back at work since returning from your honeymoon to Sumeru. But, as Chief Justice, Neuvillette had very important work to do and not even you could be selfish enough to keep him from that.

An entire nation relied on him to uphold justice, after all.

Forcing a smile, you reluctantly got up and started cleaning off the desk. “I should let you get back to it. I can only imagine how many cases have been postponed while you were away.”

Neuvillette stood and began to help. “Thank you for doing this. Your food is as delicious as ever.”

The compliment filled you with so much energy, your body did a little wiggle. “Just wait until you see what I cook up for dinner.”

The man chuckled and, now that everything had been returned to your basket, turned you to face him. Cupping your cheek in his palm, he leaned forward and placed a kiss between your brows. “I am looking forward to it. I will do everything in my power to return home on time.”

Home.

That word had taken a new meaning since you exchanged vows with him that beautiful day. Home wasn’t just a place you returned to at the end of the day; it was a loving space you now shared with the man you’ve come to love, and will love for the remainder of your life.

Warmth bloomed in your chest, and it reflected in your smile. “Yes. I’ll see you at home.”

Thoma 🔥

A gold band crafted specially to fit you, made unique with sculpted golden leaves, small shimmery sakura blossoms, and a soft pink stone blooming top and centre - on this, he swore his love for you.

The house was new but it’s felt like home since the day you moved in. The Kamisato siblings were kind enough to get the essentials ready while you and your husband were honeymooning in Mondstadt, but the smaller details, the things that made this (Y/N) and Thoma’s home, that was all left up to you and him.

Today, you were single-handedly starting the next phase of decorating. Together, you and Thoma had brought life to the kitchen and were slowly adding to the living room, but the hallway leading to the bed and bathrooms was still blank. What better way to welcome him home after his first day returning to work than a surprise revamp of the hallway and a hot dinner and dessert?

It went smoothly in your head, at least. In reality…

“Crap!” You exclaimed, arming yourself with oven mitts before diving in to rescue the muffins. “Please don’t be- Oh for Celestia’s sake.”

Dark as charcoal, and likely harder than coal. There was no saving them, even if you tried.

Letting out a sigh, you scrapped the muffins. Luckily, there was extra batter, you’d just have to make them a little smaller. Mini muffins were just as delicious.

Turning to the sink, you washed the muffin pan out and dried it. It was only when you turned back to grab the bowl of batter that you realized a naughty orange feline had leapt onto the counter and was eating the mix.

“Mango, get down!” You scolded, shooing him off.

As he always when caught doing something he shouldn’t, Mango fled, leaving a splattered trail of light grey paw prints in his wake.

Oh no.

Tossing the pan onto the counter you chased after the cat, hoping to catch him before-

You screeched to a halt in the living room, eyes widening and stomach dropping. Paw prints marked the couch, the tea table, the bookshelf he liked to nap in the empty spaces of. They marked the wall he often tried to scale to swat at the hanging plant and the windowsill he likes to lay in and sun bathe, and the floor…

A glance at the clock left you with no hope of getting everything cleaned up before Thoma got home. He should already be on his way - at the very least, you could catch the cat and clean him off before he made even more of a mess.

~~~

“I’m home!” Thoma’s voice filled the silent house, followed by the lock clicking back into place. “Honey?”

Knowing you couldn’t hide forever, you sheepishly waddled into the living room with Mango cradled in your arms like an infant. You found Thoma looking around the living room with wide eyes, taking in the state of the furniture before finally settling on you and the orange -mostly grey now- feline.

“It looks like you two had an adventure.” Thoma said, crossing the distance until he was close enough to touch your paint plastered cheek. “What happened here?”

Mango, no longer wishing to be held, twisted and wiggled until he was free. Not having the energy for another game of chase, you let him go. There wasn’t much else he could get to that wasn’t already dirty.

Sighing in defeat, you felt your shoulders drop as you spilled your ruined plans. “I wanted to paint the hallway to surprise you. I was also baking muffins, which I forgot about until I smelled them burning.”

“And there’s paint all over the house because…?”

You turned your gaze to the floor. “Because in my panic to try and save the muffins, I left the paint on the floor… and Mango walked through it.”

Thoma sighed quietly above you. “You…” Then he laughed, a sound that relieved the unnecessary anxiety building in your chest. “You are too cute.”

A smile pulled at your lips, and although you already knew the answer, you couldn’t help but ask. “You’re not mad?”

“What’s there to be mad about? It’s just paint. We can clean it up.” Cupping your face between his hands, Thoma trailed a line of kisses down your forehead and nose, ending with a peck to your lips. “What I am worried about, though, is you hurting yourself with the oven. Next time you’re making something, please stay in the kitchen, alright?”

“Okay.” You giggled, bouncing on the balls of your feet. “One more kiss.”

Chuckling, he leaned over and gave what you asked for. “Help me catch our little troublemaker and I’ll give you another one. How does that sound?”

At its core, the love you shared with Thoma remained the same, regardless of what title the relationship was labeled. Boyfriend and girlfriend, husband and wife, no matter what, the man before you was still yours. The ring wrapped around his finger just made it known to the rest of the world.

“Oh!” You exclaimed, catching hold of his jacket before he could chase after the furry gremlin. “I didn’t say it earlier. Welcome home, my love.”

The sun was setting outside but the brightness of his smile made up for it, the pink rising to his cheeks a rival to the sky above. “I’m glad to be back.”

#genshin impact #genshin impact x reader #genshin neuvillette #genshin thoma

[our-lord-satanas]

FREYA / FREYJA

WHO IS SHE?

Freya is the Goddess of love, beauty, fertility, and war in Norse mythology. She is often portrayed as a beautiful and powerful Goddess who rides a chariot pulled by cats. She is known for her immense love, warmth, and affection, especially towards her close friends and loved ones. She is also known for her fierce and protective nature, which she uses to defend her loved ones and those who are innocent and vulnerable.She is one of the main Goddesses, and is associated with several domains of life, and also plays a role in war and wisdom.

BASIC INFO:

Appearance: Freya is described as a beautiful and ethereal goddess, with blonde hair and a slender body. She is often portrayed as a symbol of fertility and femininity, and she is often depicted as wearing a thin scarf or veil called a völva cloak.Sometimes she is described as having red hair and a bright, youthful face. In other depictions, she is described as having long, wavy hair and a delicate, feminine physique.

Personality: she is described as being a very loving, kind, and caring figure, who is associated with fertility and femininity. She is seen as a deity of love and passion, and is often likened to a mother figure. She is also seen as being a very compassionate and generous goddess, who is willing to help and support others.

Symbols: her chariot pulled by cats, brisingamen necklace, the boar Hildisvíni, and cloak of feathers

Goddess of: love, beauty, fertility, sex, war, battle, gold, and sorcery

Culture: Norse

Plants and trees: daisy, linden, snowdrops, lily of the valley, cowslip, columbine, pimpernel, and strawberries

Crystals: amethyst, amazonite, lavender quartz, rose quartz, moonstone, and clear quartz

Animals: horse, cat, falcon, hawk, rabbit, oxen, ladybug, swallow, and boar

Incense: dragons blood, frankincense, lavender, rose, jasmine, and other sweet and/or floral-scents

Colours: gold, yellow, white, green, red, pink, and light blue

Numbers: 9 and 12

Zodiac: Taurus

Tarot: The High Priestess, The Empress, The Lovers, The Chariot, Death, and Suit of Swords

Planets: Venus and Mars

Days: Friday, Tuesday, full or new moon, the spring and summer solstices, and Beltane

Parents: Njörðr and unnamed mother

Siblings: Freyr

Partner: Odin

Children: Hnoss and Gersemi

MISC:

• The moon is a symbol of Freya's divinity.

• The Vanir Queen is a common title given to Freya.

• The völva cloak is a symbol of Freya's power and authority.

• Heifer's milk was traditionally offered to Freya during rituals or spells.

• Freya was associated with the day of Friday.

• Many people have the belief that Freya is a Goddess of nature, but this is not necessarily accurate in Norse mythology.

FACTS ABOUT FREYA:

• In some sources, she is known as the leader of the völva, which are the female seers and mystics of Norse mythology.

• Freya is said to be the creator of the Vanir tribe of gods.

• She has given the gift of fertility to the Vanir.

• In Norse mythology, it is said that Freya received the golden ring Brisingamen from the Dwarves in exchange for her favor, which leads to the story of her affair with Odin.

• Freya is said to have gifted Skádi a necklace called Érfárátr which gives eternal youthful beauty.

HOW TO WORK WITH FREYA:

Working with of Freya involves taking time to set up a sacred space, cleaning and dedicating this space, offering prayers of reverence and gratitude, showing care and thought with offerings, asking for guidance and wisdom with your prayers, being open to messages she may send, and being mindful and attentive throughout the devotion.

PRAYER FOR FREYA:

To begin, you can address her by name and say something like: 

"Mother Freya, Queen of the Vanir and holder of golden Brisingamen, I come to you seeking your guidance and protection.

I respectfully ask for your blessing and your help in whatever I undertake. I offer you our prayers and our devotion, with respect and reverence. Please look upon us with your gentle mercy and your grace. I give myself to you, for I trust you will use me as you see fit. I ask this in your name and I pay this tribute in your honour.”

"Thank you, Mother Freya, for your wisdom and generosity. I have received your blessings and your guidance, and I ask for your continued protection and support. As you see fit, I humbly beg your favor and your grace. I give ourselves to you, and I worship you with devotion and respect. So be it. Hail Mother Freya.”

WHAT ARE SIGNS THAT FREYA WANTS ME TO WORK WITH HER?

If your request to work with Freya has been accepted, here are some signs that you can look for:

• Finding yourself drawn to her energy and feeling a strong connection.

• You feel a strong sense of devotion and reverence towards her.

• You experience synchronicity or signs that seem to indicate her presence.

• You have an urge to work with her, and you feel an overwhelming need to reach out to her.

• Freya comes to you in a dream

• She comes to you in meditation or journeying

• Cats follow you or seem to be everywhere you go

• A ladybug lands on you

• You see ladybugs or cats constantly – on TV, online, etc.

• You hear her name in random conversations or on the radio

• Open a book and her name pops up

• Another witch or psychic tells you Freya is calling you

• She sends you these 3 runes repetitively: Fehu, Berkano, and Sowilo

If your request to work with Freya not been accepted, you may notice the following signs:

• Sense of confusion or uncertainty.

• Lack of direction and purpose.

• A lack of connection and familiarity with her energy.

• A sense of doubt, confusion, or even anger.

• Feeling that something is off, or that something is missing.

• An overwhelming sense of disorientation and helplessness.

• Strong sense of frustration and even despair.

Overall you need to be respectful of deities denying your request.

OFFERINGS:

• Foods and drinks: ale, apples, barley, honey, mead, pork, chocolate, and sweet liquors

• Lavish jewelry

• Perfume

• Feeding stray cats

• Amber

• Roses

• Cinnamon

• Flowers: primrose, mugwort, bird berry, bedstraw, and flax

• Love songs

• Dancing

• Divination

•Weaponry

DEVOTIONAL ACTS FOR FREYA:

• Pray or meditate in her name on a daily basis.

• Keep a journal, record your thoughts and feelings about her.

• Create an altar or sacred space for her.

• Do not declaw her for being a Goddess of love and beauty. Recognize her for the god of war that she is, Queen of the Valkyries, and god of the Vanir.

• Decorate your home or altar with cats, honey combs, horns, or bones.

• Practice self love in it’s totally, look at where you need to grow but recognize and appreciate your strengths.

• Carry the crystals (or keep in your home): amber, rose quartz, snow quartz, gold sheen obsidian, labradorite, orange calcite, tangerine quartz, and peridot.

• Dedicate a piece of jewelry to her in honour of her Brisingamen.

• Drink floral teas like lavender, chamomile, rose, or jasmine with honey.

• Read the stories that mention her: Völuspá, Lokasenna, Oddrúnargrátr, Gylfaginning, Skáldskaparmál, Egils saga, Njáls saga, Hyndluljóð, Hálfs saga ok Hálfsrekka, Grímnismál, Sörla þáttr, and Þrymskviða.

• Use the runes Fehu, Kaunaz, Jera, and Uruz in your craft or altar.

• Plant alder, apple, birch, bramble, elder, vervain, rose, tansy, lavender, yarrow, or belladona.

• Dedicate a leg shakin’ orgasm to her.

• Take a bath in salts, roses, and lavender. Decorate accordingly.

• Enchant your make up to make you feel beautiful, confident, and strong.

• Learn self defense or kick boxing; or just do something to help you stay active and strong in her honor.

• Light incense or candles of rose, honey, jasmine, amber, strawberry, dragon’s blood, or musk.

• Learn about or listen to kulning and Norwegian throat-singing.

• Pray to her for your loved ones in battles whether it’s oversees, a disease, or an abusive relationship.

• Leave her offerings of mead, weed, wine, red velvet, roasted nuts, honey, pork, bread, or chocolate.

• Explore yourself and your body.

• Watch movies/tv shows with strong female leads (preferably with none problematic actors) like Wonder Woman, How To Get Away With Murder, Mowana, Queen of Katwe, etc.

• Spend time in nature, as she is often associated with the natural world.

• Talk to her openly and honestly about your thoughts, feelings, and concerns.

• Read or study books on Norse mythology and the Goddess, Freya.

• Consider growing some of Freya’s holy plants: primrose, mugwort, holly, hemp, or flax

• By adopting a cat (if you don’t already have one), you uplift Freya’s sacred animal. And if you can’t adopt a cat, consider donating cat food, toys, etc. to a local rescue or shelter. OR volunteer. Doing these things in Freya’s name brings her great joy.

IS IT SAFE TO EAT OR DRINK AN OFFERING I GIVE TO HER?

It is generally considered safe to consume offerings given to Freya, as she is a benevolent and merciful goddess. However, you should always proceed with caution and follow proper safety precautions when handling offerings given to deities. If you have any doubts about the safety of eating or drinking anything, it's best to err on the side of caution and not consume it.

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[pretty-little-howtown]

Han Jisung x Idol!Reader

Genre: Suggestive, Fluff, Angust

Warnings: None (I know of, if there are any please let me know)

Word Count: 9569

Masterlist

You are a part of a 6 member girl group (CELESTE) under JYP 

The group has a sort of ethereal almost mythological vibe 

Each member represents, a mythical creature

The group had two previous comebacks before this theme

Mihi (lead dancer and sun vocals): fairy 

The closest to the two previous comebacks

glitter purples pinks 

art deco inspired, ordinary objects are pretty and ornate 

Flowers, petals, some wind motifs as well

Hee-young(main vocalist, visual, makne):angel 

sky heaven themes 

Has a massive pair of wings in the MV 

Gold, light blue

Wind motifs feathers 

Yuri (main dancer, main vocals and sub rapper): elf 

Also, elegant but there are glimpses of something darker 

tree themes (think Galadriel LOTR)

Foresty, vines, some crystals mostly opal diamond selenite moonstone and white howlite 

honestly, Lord of the Rings stylez

Aera (lead vocalist, visual): nymph 

floral themes, water lilies, some more water themes 

Perhaps suggest a sort of rusalka vibes (not explicit, just some sort of implication the nymph may be a vengeful spirit???)

The darker parts are more obvious but with a brighter colour palette that acts as a kind of misdirect

(Sugar Rush TXT vibes)

Y/N (main rapper, main vocals and sub dancer): vampire 

The dark parts are now on full display, and fully embraced 

deep red blues greens

Lace, silver

gothic with a splash of grunge 

Title track has scream’s (dreamcatcher) styling with the lacy dress parts not the magic in the MV lol with a cross between Odd Eye and Nxde (with it’s sampling of classical music)

B side track is the one you got to go crazy on. It’s full rock/ metal think I Miss the Misery by Halestorm with Odd Eye’s styling) 

Nam-Gli (leader and lead rapper): witch 

The dark parts continue with as much elegance, but there’s a certain finality to it 

dark purples, black, gold, and silver 

Misty, foresty but a darker green to Yuri similar to Odd Eye MV

(As an aside: the birth order is Nam-Gli, Y/N, Aera, Mihi, Yuri, Hee-young)

Each comeback is based on one of the mythical creatures of one of the members

The group is very popular, but because comebacks are rarer than for most k-groups not massively successful 

A lot goes into giving the perfect vibe, a lot of you do brand deals and modeling on the side. Aera has two dramas under her belt

You, Yuri and Nam-Gli have your own lil side trio, with you and Yuri being a duo when Nam-Gli is busy. y’all cover your favorite songs usually by other trios

The three of you had covered 3RACHA songs several times and the fans loved it

The three of you settled on the members that complemented your rapping styles with Nam-gli usually covering Han’s lines Yuri Changbin’s and you Bang Chan’s

The fans absolutely adored your little trios 3RACHA covers so JYP had the grand idea of getting your groups together and you started doing more activities with them 

It started off slowly, with the label testing the waters

At first it was just your trio and 3RACHA doing a lyric challenge of sorts where they would have to rap the next line of yours and your group members verses while you would have to do the same with 3RACHA songs 

The atmosphere was really nice and to your surprise you seemed to bounce off Jisung the most 

You didn’t really think much of it at the time, the company probably wanted to strike while the iron was hot and get both groups some more promotion 

You didn’t really think you’d see any of Stray Kids again 

The company, however, had other ideas. After the fan response they knew they struck gold and quickly set up more activities for both groups

Despite initially being shocked to see Stray Kids again you found yourself natural drifting towards Jisung in the group interactions  

Really quickly it was easy to see you and Jisung had wonderful chemistry in the group shows and so you ended up doing separate vlives just the two of you  

The very first one started off a bit strange, the two of you had no idea what to say to each other when it was just the two of you. During group activities, the two of you would sit next to each other either piling on top of one another in fits of laughter when another member said something you found funny; defending something either of you said that you agreed on, or playfully arguing whenever you inevitably disagreed 

One time, both groups were asked if a sauna was burning, what would you rather cover your private parts or your face. You and Jisung collapsed in on each other when Seungmin said the question was probably which would you protect from burning

In short, you could always rely on other members to say something for the two of you to react to 

You both awkwardly asked how your morning was at the same time before bursting out with laughter, slightly diffusing the tension. While the rest of the live was slightly awkward, the initial icebreaker allowed you to joke with each other a little more

From then on, the lives usually consisted of you guys catching up with each other, Jisung excitedly telling you about his busy days while you filled him in on yours

The lives had different vibes depending on where they took place, if it was in the Stray Kids dorm the lives were far more chaotic; one day he threw a pillow at you. You glared at him, beckoning with your finger for him to come over. He looked terrified, and you struggled to keep your grin in. You subtly grasped the pillow he threw at you in your hand and hit him with all your strength, starting a pillow fight which, much to your chagrin, Jisung ended up winning

He would always do mildly annoying things to get a rise out of you, but you dealt with it with a Stoic patience, only occasionally giving in. Every live always ended in laughter 

You would often stay round afterward as both of you had a break, he was remarkably chill when the cameras weren’t on him, it was difficult to get used to but refreshing

After a few hours of being high energy, you were both tired, so you’d either put on a movie or scroll through your phones, showing each other memes and catching each other up on things you couldn’t say on camera 

You told him about all the comebacks for Celeste. He asked more about the groups' concept in general, and you happily explained how with each comeback a certain member is focused on as it’s their theme. Celeste's last comeback was fairy themed, so Mihi was featured the most, and she had more freedom to implement her vision. You joked that for this comeback, she became the group's pseudo leader

Jisung quickly asked when your theme would come up. 

You said not for a while, as the company wants the group to establish themselves with more feminine themes first. You said Yuri’s was next, and you were still super excited by it. The concept she talked you through sounded amazing

“What concept have you got?” Jisung quickly asked. He was leaning towards you on the couch, and he’d put his phone down, listening intently 

You were extremely taken aback, you’d talked at length about it with your group, seeing if they were okay with all your ideas, and they were annoyingly accommodating it made you want to cry a little. 

They’d suggest ways to make your vision come true without compromising it in any way. They said it was because you did the exact same thing with their ideas. It made them really happy, and they wanted to make you happy as well

You shyly started with the mythological creature your theme was about and Jisung’s eyes went wide, “Vampire?! That’s so cool!!”

This boosted your confidence a little and you told him everything. How you wanted it to be inspired by classic vampire literature with a modern rock twist. You listed your inspirations from Dracula and Carmila to Halestorm’s music. You said you wanted the music video set to be in a gothic revival house (you didn’t mind if it was a replica or green screen as long as it fit the vibe) like Strawberry Hill in London. You realized that the rock vibe probably won’t be accepted by the higher ups, but you were sure as hell gonna try 

Jisung looked at you in awe, you were amazing already, but even more so when you talked about your project. The determination in your eyes made him smile

Lives in your groups' dorm were a lot more chilled out, both of you having chill conversations perhaps scrolling through your phones if there was a lull in activity on the vlive but mostly responding to comments made by fans 

This is where the fans really got to see a different side to the both of you. Often you would be working on something while Jisung read out the comments. You stop what you were doing and join in the conversation. Then you would switch, Jisung would put in an ear bud and work on his music while you carried the conversation

Occasionally you would set out vlives where people could just work with the two of you, usually when you had deadlines coming up

In the vlives at your dorm you would always be draped over each other in some way, just general keeping physical contact

For some reason after these vlives Jisung was full of energy and would end up causing a raucous, the two of you had a makeshift lightsaber fight, and you enjoyed it so much the two of you impulsive brought lightsaber replicas after

When yours arrived, you raced over to the Stray Kids dorm ready to challenge Jisung, you burst through his door activating your white lightsaber, but your eyes went wide when you noticed he was in the middle of a live

You blinked a couple times trying to hold back a laugh, “I’m so sorry, I’ll wait” you left the room with your lightsaber making whooshing noises as you left the room and closed the door 

You could hear Jisung burst out laughing as Minho passed you, saying “told you so”

You quickly checked the vlive to make sure the fans weren’t mad that you interpreted, thankfully only a small handful said what you did was really disrespectful, while most were clearly enjoying themselves. There were lots of laughing emojis, with loads asking if it was a lightsaber

Jisung replied smiling saying how after your last vlive together you impulse brought yourselves lightsabers, “mine actually came today” he enthused and took out a purple lightsaber

You laughed as he swooshed it around, hearing the replica make the noise 

Your cheeks heated up when all the comments started saying “lmao y/n’s a massive nerd’ Jisung laughed on your phone screen nodding his head

His eyes seemed to light up as he talked about how much you loved Star Wars and how you knew so many historical facts and how much you knew about architecture

Your stomach pleasantly twisted, causing a shiver to run up your spine

You saw Jisung sign off and quickly pocketed your phone, but not before you saw a comment teasingly saying he ‘shouldn’t keep his girlfriend waiting’ 

You hopped Jisung didn't glimpse that one, you knew he’d overthink your friendship and might stop acting in the same way he did

Besides, you didn’t need him overthinking at the same time as you were

He swung the door open and stared at you, expression unreadable. He took his lightsaber from behind his back and activated it, the purple glow lightly illuminated his upper body 

You activated yours, and you dueled each other throughout the dorm before collapsing on the sofa and watching a movie like usual 

A couple of days later, your two groups had to complete a series of challenges pulled from a challenge pile, you read yours out loud “challenge someone on the opposite team to a lightsaber duel” 

You and Jisung burst out laughing, confusing both of your band members

You fell first. On a separate vlive someone asked how you’d managed to find such a good friend in Jisung, you look at the comment a little shocked, you didn’t know how to answer

Of course the content your groups make was thought of by the company for further promotion and without that you doubt you would have ever met Jisung 

You tell the truth: you’re not sure, “but he always takes care of me. He always checks if I’ve eaten and checks in to see how I’m feeling, and I return the gesture in kind.” He’s always drinking energy drinks, and you’ve been trying to get him to cut back at least a little. “You’ve all seen the vlives I’m sure, and it thinks it’s really easy to tell that we’ve got a good rapport with each other and I think we’re gonna be good friends for a really long time” 

Your heart clenches when you say friend, and you realise you want something more than just friendship 

Jisung takes longer to come to terms with his feelings but where you lacked in action on your end he did not hesitate to initiate 

Every time someone asks about you on one of his vlives his eyes light up as he compliments you to no end “she’s so nice, she always checks in on me, makes sure I’ve eaten. Oh! She’s trying to get me to cut back on energy drinks because the caffeine is bad for you and I drink way too much.” He’ll then go on to talk about your stage presence and how it absolutely mesmerises him and how you were the first member that caught his eye when your group debuted even though the fairy theme is the complete opposite of yours, you killed it 

It takes relentless teasing from his band mates before he realises his feelings for you 

He walks in after one of his vlives and his band mates are all talking about the will they won’t, they between the two do you 

When they mention it to Jisung he obviously denies it saying he’d know if he had feelings for you, and he doesn’t, you’re just friends

Minho looks at him incredulously and pulls out an edit he saw of the two of you made by, clearly a very dedicated fan, “you look at her like you’d look at a girlfriend, and you say you don’t have feelings for her” he scoffs. “I do not look at her like that, and I do not have feelings for her. Can we drop this?”

That same night, he can’t help but reach for his phone and search your names on TikTok 

The more edits he watches, the more he notices how he’s staring at you. His eyes really do betray him, and he remembered back to his vlive how his heart pounded when he talked about you and how he couldn’t stop smiling

He’d fallen hard 

And just in time for your theme to be the centre of your group’s comeback

You kept it from Jisung because you wanted it to be a surprise you knew how excited he was for your theme to come up and every time he said it you willed your heart not to explode 

Loads of your friends were excited, Jisung was no different, you told yourself

The comeback was steeped in deep blues, rich reds and engulfing greens, silver necklaces and black lace. The music’s tone was darker, like something watching from the shadows; it sent a chill down his spine as he watched the MV

You sampled a lot more classical music as well as used more classical instruments (violin especially) to give a more gothic feel to the comeback, all somehow perfectly intertwined with some fully rock songs. 

At the very end, you let out a splendidly sultry laugh, showing off the fangs made especially for the comeback. If you had to be honest you kinda liked them, probably too much

JYP decided it would be good publicity for both groups to have Stray Kids react to your group’s most recent comeback, especially as the two groups were still close despite your groups popularity rising and thus having less activities together 

There were lots of shocked expressions and ‘whoas’ coming from the group in general. They were used to the bright colour palettes and upbeat feelings of your group's songs 

Despite there being a lot of posing and standing, the boys found it endlessly compelling, there were bursts of quick movement where the screen would go blank, and you would end up in a different place on the screen

Similarly, there would be a blur of motion followed by one of the members changing their position in the room

Jisung watched intently whenever, you showed up on screen of the title track’s MV, by the end he was brimming with pride knowing you were the main driving force behind the comeback

He watched you fully sink into the role, more than he’d ever seen you do before, you embodied the vampires of legend, you were dangerous but endlessly enticing

While most of the scenes took place on a set that resembled and old mediaeval castle, the choreography scenes were set inside a hall clearly inspired by Strawberry Hill 

Chan, mostly impressed with the composition of the song, asked who’s theme the comeback was, before someone from behind the camera could answer Jisung beamed and yelled “Y/N’s it was Y/N’s.” 

When the group looked at him questioningly, he said you had told him everything about your vision, he just had no idea it was coming up next. You must have kept it from him as a surprise

The group talked more about what they thought was really good about the comeback’s title track, from the lyrics to the set design

Next, they showed the boys the album’s B-side track; even Jisung, knowing everything he did, was utterly shocked. Like you mentioned, he didn’t think the company would allow you to do a fully rock song 

The lyrics seemed to hit really close to home, the song expressed the frustration in knowing your feelings for someone but not being able to do anything about it, having to hold back every time they’re around you. Not allowing yourself to give in and the hurt that carried with that

Not to mention, the visuals were heartbreakingly beautiful, seeing you laying in a forest with a—very familiar to him—band hoodie and ripped bell bottom jeans just staring at the sky made him feel things!

All he could do was stare at the screen watching the credits roll by, and he kept noticing your name a lot more than in the title track  

Everyone was in awe and thought they’d seen it all

The video ended with the whole of Stray Kids wishing your group the best of luck throughout your promotion and that they’ll see your group at your comeback stage

Needless to say it was an absolute hit, within the first couple hours there were already thousands views on the title track’s MV with the number was steadily growing 

You and your group prepared frantically for the comeback backstage. Everyone was rushing about getting makeup and any clothing alterations done

Yuri rushed over to you to make sure you were okay, judging from your expression you were very anxious, “hey, what are you worried about?” she asked 

You were taken slightly aback that she was able to tell, but realistically, who wouldn’t. It was very clear you had been a ball of stress ever since before the comeback was even released. “I don’t know, just-what if it all goes horribly wrong? It’s on me, I suggested the concept. I picked all the outfits, set the staging, sure the video has enough views, but they’re a meaningless metric of popularity for the company. If they don’t receive a high profit from album sales and promotions, that’s it. It’s the end-” 

You continued rambling until Yuri interrupted you, “you were not the only one, if the company saw something they knew wouldn’t work they wouldn’t have let it happen. Besides, this comeback was awesome! I, for one, loved every second. I don’t think that’s the only reason you're nervous. I think it has something to do with a certain boy group member you often hang out with and his opinion”

You gave her a warning glance, taking a deep breath. Yuri just patted you on the back and let you finish getting ready

Jisung watched the entire comeback stage in awe, his expectations were utterly blown away, you looked stunning in your outfit and the looks you gave on stage were perfect

You brilliantly embodied the essence of enticing but deadly on screen and stage

The red skirt opened and closed around your thighs with every movement, contrasting with the tucked in baggy band T-shirt, that was also in the B-side music video. He smiled, you thought of every detail

God, he wanted to kiss you so bad 

With the very last beat of the stage, fake blood was poured all over you and staying in character you smirked at the camera running your tongue over your teeth as you grinned bringing attention to the fangs you’d worn for the performance 

You got a small break where you promote the album more, telling them there were more performances still to go

You did all that without paying any attention to the blood still dripping down your face, seeping into your clothes and Jisung couldn’t keep the image of you grinning as blood dripped down your face out of his head 

you took one last gulp of water and set yourself in position for the B-Side track performance 

It was just as high energy as the title track but with more intricate group movements usually surrounding you singing your lungs out in the middle 

At the end you all bowed and one of the staff came out in stage whispering in your ear and ushering you off stage 

Everyone was confused until Nam-Gli clarified the staff wanted you to get changed because the dripping blood was a bit of a safety hazard, all while avoiding several pools of fake blood on the floor 

The audience and group laughed at the side steps, but thankfully staff came out with mops cleaning the blood patches 

As they’d finished you ran back on stage and Jisung nearly choked, there was no way you could have looked more stunning on your big day yet here you were. Pulling out surprise after surprise 

The entire outfit was skin tight, a stark contrast from the previous look, under the black jacket's front buckles was a black bustier top that slotted inside the hem of the leather chained and pleated skirt 

Jisung was relieved to see you kept the thigh highs, he’d never admit it, but they were his favourite part of the ensemble 

The stage continued with renditions of previous songs as well as a rehash of the title and B-Side until, tired and ready for bed, your group bid everyone goodbye leaving the stage 

Turns out Stray Kids left early because they were all stood backstage waiting to congratulate you all

Jisung launched himself at you as soon as he saw you, enveloping you and in a tight hug. He breathed in your scent as he buried his face in your neck and refused to let go, until Chan cleared his throat at which point you separated 

After several congratulations and cheers, the conversations started separating off

You stood next to Jisung with Changbin and Yuri, all of you conversing about the coming days both for your group and Stray Kids 

You barely paid attention to their words, hyper focused on how close your hand was to the Jisung’s, you could feel the heat radiating off it

One tiny shift and your pinkies would be intertwined, another small shift, and you’d comfortably fold your hand into his 

Your hand twitched a little at the thought, so desperate to follow through on your desires but ultimately stopping short 

You couldn’t do it, you made up excuses for yourself, he hasn’t given any clear indication he likes you, the dreaded dating ban. Not that you followed all the rules, but this one was just too convenient 

When you left your daze Jisung was staring at you and once you made eye contact he reached for your hand folding it into his own

Your heart jumped, did this mean what you thought it meant ? 

“Can I speak to you?” you saw a small flash of pink dust his cheeks, “privately” 

Your heart lurched again as you nodded, not breaking eye contact 

He dragged you into a dressing room and stood in front of you, this time holding both your hands 

“I wanted to take a moment to congratulate you, personally. You were amazing. I mean, I couldn’t take my eyes off you. You were mesmerising,” he grinned, and you smiled back, your heart swelling with each word. 

“I’m so proud of all you’ve accomplished already, and it’s only the beginning”

Meanwhile, the group were placing bets as to why Jisung pulled you into another room, he wasn’t exactly subtle 

“They’re definitely gonna bone?” Minho deadpanned

“Ew gross, they’re not gonna do that”, exclaimed Mihi 

“No I agree, Jisung’s too much of a chicken, probably hasn’t even kissed her,” Changbin teased 

Felix then chimed in, “it’s weird he’d go for Y/N. I was always under the impression Nam-Gli would be more his type”

“Please,” she dismissed Felix’s claim, “I want someone who can take care of me, I’ve already got my hand full raising these four” 

“What about Y/N?” Chan frowned 

“She’s an equally stressed parent” Nam-Gil smiled and the group laughed 

Back in the dressing room, Jisung continued, “I can’t wait to see my best friend grow and become even more famous!” 

Wuhoh, ‘best friend’ your brain wouldn’t stop repeating the word, it packed onto it and refused to let go 

Jisung regretted it as soon as he said it, it felt so wrong, it made his stomach churn 

You managed a weak smile and replied, “thank you so much,” you slipped your hands from Jisung’s warm hold, “we should probably head back and all go home. It’s late, I don’t want the girls to think I’m doing anything weird” 

“Oh yes, totally, this was just a casual conversation between best friends,” Jisung really couldn’t stop himself. He had no idea what else to say, my crush? A conversation between two people who could possibly grow to have a long and beautiful relationship? Maybe start a family that spans a generation, with each child being more successful than the previous? 

At least ‘best friend’ wouldn’t freak her out as much he thought 

‘Best friend’ that infernal title was stuck with you all the way to your bed, nagging you and telling you we're stupidly misinterpreting the signals. He was just being friendly 

Soon you fell into a flat dreamless sleep

When Jisung got back instead of sleeping, he looked up his and your name again. On TikTok, YouTube, everything. He found several edits that made him smile a little  

Twitter, however, made him blush the most, it was filled with playful ‘wish he looked at me like that’ followed by screenshots of his staring at you in joint lives

Others were from the video filmed of his group's reactions to your comeback. The tweets talked about how absolutely whipped he looked for you, mostly with, ‘we all know who that look’s for ;)’ and ‘jiy/n dating when?’ comments 

Part of him hoped you’d see these and know, he didn’t mean that he only wanted to be best friends but the other hopped to god you didn’t see them to save him the embarrassment

He fell asleep to an edit of the two of you with the classic sickly love song played in the background

You weren’t able to see Jisung as often as you had previously, the comeback schedule was gruelling, but perhaps it was for the better

At least not seeing him meant you didn’t have to hear ‘best friend’ emerge from his lips and painfully lodge itself inside your heart 

Jisung, however, couldn’t help but feel upset. Every time he saw you his heart filled with a strange mix of pride and adoration with an insufferable anxiety because why were you only just texting him back it’s been an hour? 

Your comeback schedule kept you too busy for Jisung’s liking. He understood, he really did, but after the so dubbed ‘best friend’ incident he was constantly on edge seeing you 

Maybe ‘best friend’ did freak you out and your comeback was nothing but a perfectly convenient excuse to ignore him 

You sat on a raised bench behind three of your bandmates in between the other two, there was no missing you 

Each of one of you was given a pointer for your ‘most likely to’ game

You enjoyed some fun ones like, “who’s most likely to stack it on a night out?” “who would not realise they stayed up all night because they were too busy playing video games?” etc.

It was hilarious getting to know new things about your members you never would have before

When the next question got asked, you froze, ‘most likely to fall in love with someone from another group?’ 

Act natural you thought as everyone pointed at you 

You tried to diffuse some of your nerves by delaying your point for comedic effect, the MC laughed, so it must have worked a little 

“Me?” you mock gasped, “I would never!” all the members laughed, and you chuckled along with them

“Oh, are you sure?” Yuri teased, “it seems exactly like something you’d do”

“In all seriousness is it?” the MC asked 

“I mean, if it happens, it happens” your heart skipped a beat thinking of one person in particular. “I’d like to say, I’m aware our group's dating ban isn’t over yet, so I wouldn’t do anything I’m not supposed to. Besides, feelings aren’t always reciprocated” you ended with a bittersweet smile

Feeling the tension you left in the air, you spoke up again, “unless of course your Yuri, who responds to so much fan mail she can barely keep up,” you smiled brightly

Yuri blushed to the backdrop of all the members laughing, “aww don’t be embarrassed, it’s cute” you smiled again, and she shyly smiled back with the rest of the members giving small chuckles at the interaction 

Jisung had finally decided on something to occupy his time with. 

He had been working on lyrics to a new song

The frustration that came with the “best friend” incident gave him a sick sort of inspiration, making him want to write his feelings into song 

One song was about how one person can make you want to be the best version of yourself while the other, he imagined, as a sort of sister track to your comebacks b-side track

He quickly looked up from his notebook to his phone, still pinging with a notification 

He picked it up immediately, hoping it was a text from you

Sadly it was just a YouTube notification for your group’s newest video 

He was curious and couldn’t stop himself from clicking the notification and watching the video 

He laughed a couple of times thinking how he would have probably picked the same members having known them for so long 

All of a sudden, all the pointers are on you

The answer to the question sparked hope in Jisung, if you were most likely to get with someone from another group he could shoot his shot

Perhaps the “best friend” incident was long forgotten, but his heart wrenched when he heard your response 

To him, it was clearly aimed and didn’t miss 

As a result he decided to drop hints like Hansel and Gretel dropped crumbs in your next vlive hopping the trail would lead you to his true feelings

He started the live before you came in so the two of you could get right to it, and he could have your usual alone time with you quicker 

You walked into his dorm room with heavy steps 

You’d rushed over after recording the relay dance for the B-side track and were exhausted, but you really couldn’t miss this opportunity. You hadn’t properly interacted with fans in weeks 

Jisung noticed immediately and asked if you were okay. You just tiredly looked at him and sat down with a lopsided smile that didn’t quite reach your eyes 

You didn’t want to admit in front of fans that you were exhausted 

Jisung noticed and did the first thing he could think of to distract the fans 

“Where's my hug?” he pouted, and you looked at him confused 

Jisung continued his half serious pout, “I really wanted a hug but since you won’t give me one I’ll have to take it!” he grinned and quickly wrapped you up tightly in his arms 

“Jisung come on, let go,” you lightly chuckled 

“Nope, I’m not letting go until you hug me back,” Jisung proudly stated 

You rolled your eyes smiling and wrapped your arms around his neck burying your head in it, and he did the same 

You breathed in his scent and whispered in his ear, “I feel a lot less tired now, thank you” then pulled away and smiled

“You happy now?” You teased out loud 

Jisung’s heart beat so fast in his chest the rest of his body couldn’t seem to keep up, but he smiled nonetheless

He started at you and gave you a killer grin, “I’m always happy when you’re around” 

It was your heart's turn to explode. You bit your lip and turned round to the screen seeing the comments full off, ‘ew guys get a room’ with Jisung quickly replying that they’re already in one making your eyes go wide 

He then quickly and expertly changed the topic asking how everyone was and what they were up to, picking out and responding to the ones he managed to catch in the sea of comments 

The live went by smoothly, and you noticed Jisung would bump your hand with his every so often almost like he wanted to take your hand, god you wanted him to take your hand

He pulled away to switch the song that he’d put it on in the background and carried on talking to the fans 

You really tried to stay in the conversation, but you zoned out singing along to the music under your breath (imagining 2/14 by the band CAMINO) 

Jisung noticed and smiled before joining in 

You both fell into the rhythm of the music, vocals effortlessly moulding together into a beautiful concert 

The fans adored it, with comments of ‘you guys should perform together!’

You smiled at each other and said that maybe one day you’d be able to get it organised

When the live ended, he grasped your hand, fulfilling your deepest want of the moment before leading you away to the sofa when he draped himself over you as soon as you sat down 

“You sure you’re okay?” Jisung asked, “you looked absolutely exhausted.” He looked at you with care and sympathy. You replied that you were better now, just tired from filming 

He, still draped over you on the sofa, tangled your legs together and asked you to tell him what you’d been up to 

You indulged him relaying the events of the day

Jisung didn’t look away for a single moment, his eyes betrayed warmth as he inched closer to you

You drew out the last syllable of your sentence and went silent, looking into Jisung’s eyes 

Your breath hitched, and your eyes were half closed as his face closed in on yours. “Ji,” you breathed, “what are you going?” you whispered smiling and glancing at his lips

“Call me that more,” he sighed, looking up from your lips to meet your eyes; a fire just behind his pupils 

This was it, it was the moment you’d know Jisung didn’t mean the stupid friend comment, there’s no way you could be friends when all he wants to do is kiss you until you were out of breath

There’s no way he could only be friends with you when he wants to nip chains of bruises down your collarbone 

There’s no way he could only be friends when he wanted you to rake your hands through his hair 

Time slowed to a crawl, you were in a parallel universe where time didn’t move and the consequences of a kiss didn’t matter 

A parallel universe with just the two of you, no company, no toxic fans, nothing that would get in the way of your affection for one another; where your connection wouldn’t be denied but accepted and encouraged

You focused on his lips, and you felt his searing breath on your lips 

He was so close, you were impatient 

Before you could launch yourself at him, you heard a sharp knock on the door

The two of you threw yourselves at opposite ends of the sofa as the voice that belong to the knock said “I’m coming in”

The door opens, revealing a mildly annoyed Minho “are you coming or did you forget?”

Jisung stared at him blankly, you could see the cogs moving in his brain, and he yelled apologies

He shot up from the couch, and you knew this was your cue to leave 

You walked to the door but were stopped by Jisung who wrapped his arms around you and quickly whispered “I’ll see you soon” 

Your lips were still blazing on the way back to your dorm 

Your members were enjoying their free time by watching a new drama on Netflix as you walked through the door

You took off, your shoes and sat down next to Aera on the arm of the sofa 

Everyone turned to face you and Nam-Gli asked, “So how was it?” 

You gulped and yelled, “such a normal time!”

“Why are you being weird?” Yuri asked, eyeing you up suspiciously 

“I’m not being weird, you're being weird,” you rapidly released the words 

“Very chill response,” Yuri responded in a flat tone, “now tell us what happened”

“Me and Ji- we,” you took a deep breath, “we nearly kissed. Minho interrupted. Turns out he had to go to an event but forgot about it” 

You looked away as they yelled in surprise

“What are you gonna do when you see him next? You guys have another vlive in about two weeks, don't you?” Mihi asked 

“Honestly, I don’t think I can face him after this. What am I supposed to say? ‘Let's continue where we left off?’” you grimaced 

“YES,” Yuri yelled, “just get together already! Do not use the dating ban excuse, I know for a fact you couldn't care less”

The two of you argued about the importance of the dating ban, with you trying to defend yourself because ‘it’s not just an excuse’ 

“Okay, we get it you disagree,” Nam-Gli quelled the fire. “How about you give yourself until your next vlive together to see him? That way you can put it out of your mind?” 

You nodded, grateful for her intervention, you relaxed and continued watching the drama with the rest of the group

You woke up feeling refreshed until you remembered why you wanted sleep to refresh you 

Your heart started racing, remembering the events of the last day, and you couldn’t help but smile

There was hope after all

Be quickly the hope turned to anxiety, the dating ban was still in effect and would be for another few weeks, and you promised fans you and Jisung would perform together 

That meant weeks of working closely with him every day after the two of you nearly kissed 

You took out the switch you’d saved up for a booted up Legend of Zelda, hoping it would distract you, and it worked for a couple of hours 

You finally found one of Links missing memories and as the cut scene played it was strangely captivating

Usually you would have skipped over it, having played this game to completion several times already. But something about the way Zelda looked at Link was familiar

You couldn’t help it when you reached for the phone you had been religiously ignoring since waking up 

You clicked on his contact, seeing only one unread message when you expected more: ‘how do you want to pitch a song cover to the company?’ 

You couldn’t decide if you were relieved or angry that he said nothing about yesterday’s incident 

You ignored it for as long as your mind would allow you before you huffed and picked up your phone 

You replied with a mostly generic response about how the fans really wanted it and it would give both of your groups exposure 

The two of you texted back and forth until you had a plan of action and before long you decided to meet with the company in a couple days as Jisung already managed to set up a meeting with the execs somehow 

Overall the conversation was painfully professional. Neither of you cracked any jokes or referenced your favourite shows. It was so unlike you 

Despite all of this you still hoped, he set up the meeting way too quickly. 

Of course there was the possibility he wanted this partnership over with as quickly as possible but there was no way that could be true. Not with the fire behind his eyes when he looked at you 

Jisung waited impatiently in the building lobby for you to appear 

You hadn’t brought up the nearly kiss at all and he was worried. Did you think he was weird? Maybe he should have waited and dropped more hints. Was he moving too fast?

He nerves stilled when you walked through the door, despite your smile being slightly awkward it made Jisung feel light 

“So shall we?” you asked 

It was a simple phrase that meant nothing but what was on the tin but it made Jisung soar, he hadn’t heard your voice in longer than you would like 

The two of you talked to the executives who loved your idea

Jisung watched as you professionally presented all the benefits this collaboration would have and how this is something that the company would be able to carry on into the future 

He wasn’t expecting you to say anything about the future especially after the last incident 

As you wrapped up your pitch the execs asked what song the two of you wanted to cover, Jisung hadn’t even thought that far but it seems you had. Immediately with confidence you said ‘PING PONG’ by Hyuna and Dawn 

He could feel heat crawl up his face but despite this he still nodded his head and smiled after seeing your own impossibly infectious grin 

“Great the matter is settled, you guys can work on it in time for the next award show” one of the execs said with a grin 

The next few weeks you and Jisung saw each other every day for at least and hour if not more 

Both of you decided to work on learning the choreography first because at you listened to the song to learn the choreography you’d pick up the lyrics easily

As a result your joint lives were mostly updating fans on how the rehearsal process was going 

Despite your worst fears the vlives weren’t as awkward as you pictured, the energy flowed between the two of you effortlessly

However, you noticed how where previously he’s have a hand on some part of you body be it you are or your knee, he now refused to have any part of him closer than would be considered disrespectful 

You missed his warmth. You were upset because you could tell he was holding himself back 

You could imagine why, but it’s not like you pulled away during the incident. In Fact you distinctly remember yourself moving closer, until Miho barged in

Between the bittersweet lives and standing nearly every spare moment practising with Jisung the award show hd rolled around quicker that you expected 

For some reason you signed yourself and Jisung up to be the opening act for the award show and regretted it 

It hit you that you were supposed to perform a song made for a performed by a couple

Just you and Jisung. Just you and the one person you wished desperately to be in a relationship with but couldn’t  

It was all well and good casually running through all the moves in rehearsal but this was serious 

You felt nervous as you thought about what the fans would say

Most would not doubt enjoy it but you couldn't help but focus on the ones who believed they owned the idols they admire

All of a sudden you were hyper aware of the dating ban that had ended only a couple days prior 

If the two of you were too close it would not doubt cause a scandal 

Your mind spiralled as you imagined the headlines calling you undignified, loose, easy

“Hey, you’re gonna do amazing,” were the words that stopped your spiral, they were soft and reassuring. You knew painfully well who they belonged to 

You took a deep breath and looked Jisung in the eye and he smiled 

It made you insides melt and you were certain he could see it on you face because his eyes darted to you lips for a split second

You recalled how close he was to kissing you in his dorm room and once again thought back to the dating ban 

If it was finished surely there was no harm right?

“Yeah, we’re gonna smash this,” you smiled back. “We’ve rehearsed this song so much it might as well have been made for us to perform,” you joked begging no one noticed the implications of your statement 

Jisung only hummed and his eyes looked to your lips once again, this time they stayed there for longer than they should have 

You licked your lips gently, part of you wanting to make sure they were ready for Jisung to capture them after so long 

The other knew it wouldn’t happen as you saw the PA approach to tell you you were on in less than three minutes 

Just like in the original you started off the show, the train attached to the right side of your body suit swayed along with your body

You felt confident and full of energy until you felt Jisung’s hand trail all the way up your leg confidently brushing your ass

Thankfully you were facing away from the audience allowing you time to collect yourself 

You knew this would be more intense than rehearsals but you didn’t expect Jisung to go this hard 

It fired you up and you decided to give it your all as well 

Jiung could feel the heat crawl up his face as you shake your ass dangerously close to his crotch 

He couldn’t help but smirk as you bit your lip looking him directly in the eye as if to challenge him 

He eagerly accepted and the while performance had a push and pull effect to it 

The two of you goaded each other on stage testing the waters every time your faces got too close to be called innocent 

The built up tension culminated in Jisung dipping you and you holding his face in you hand ready for him to bend don and kiss you as the song ended 

The two of you stayed in that position with massive grins on your faces until you couldn’t hold it anymore and Jisung pulled you up and you buried you face i your neck as he laughed and waved at cheering crowd 

Once you recovered your turned around and waved at them as well smiling widely 

Jisungs hand never left your waist 

The two of you left the stage and you shot like a bullet towards Yuri who was silently screaming and telling you how good you were 

Chan came up to Jisung and clapped him on the back but Jsiung couldn’t keep his eyes off you

He knew this was the moment to tell you. He was sure you must have known but he still gave you your space

He couldn’t lie and say he was entirely confident, there was a part of him that was worried because you hadn’t made any moved 

But he had to tell you 

Jisung walked over to you still smiling and took you hand in his, “can I talk to you, privately?” you glanced at Yuri who nodded and gave you a knowing look 

“Sure,” you replied, content with your hand in his. You could get used to this you thought 

He lead you towards a dressing room and closed the door behind you 

You basked in each others presence just looking at each other 

“You really went for it didn’t you?” you questioned with a smile 

“Sorry, was it too much?” Jisung answered taking several steps closer to you 

“No,” you breathed out, “it was perfect.”

You stayed still for a moment and Jisung admired the grin on your face 

The silence was comfortable and electric, calm and expectant 

“I really hope I haven’t misinterpreted things but I really like you-” 

You cut Jisung off before he could say more, “I know. I really like you too,” you trailed off 

“But?” Jisung asked with a mixture of hurt and frustration. If you liked each other what could possibly be stopping you?

“But, I’m not sure we should do anything right now. My dating ban’s only just been lifted and I don’t want to make things more difficult for either of us” you explained

Jisung was ready to argue, he was ready to present every piece of evidence that supported the two of you dating but this wasn't one he had prepared for

Much to his dismay he couldn’t argue with you on that point 

 Whatever happened he knew, that he would come out unscathed but you on the other hand. Well it would be a lot harder for you 

His mouth opened and closed as you apologised before leaving him in the room alone with his thoughts  

You gulped and went to perform your groups stage, you put on a show for the cameras and tried not to betray heartache in your eyes 

Jisung did the same he finished his group’s stage and after neither of your groups won this particular award he went home disappointed 

The rest of the members were getting slightly worried for him, exchanging glances 

Minho ended up sitting down next to him on the sofa of their dorm

“I’m guessing talking about your feelings didn’t go well?” he asked tentatively 

Jisung choked out a ‘no’ and repeated your exact reasoning 

“That’s bullshit,” Minho stated

Jisung stared at him shocked, waiting for him to explain 

“Sure dating is terrifying but hiding behind the dating ban is nothing but an excuse,” Minho expended

Jisung replied with his reasoning and Minho refused every claim 

Jisung bit his lip, “ok well it’s not like I can do anything now,” he explained how he’d agreed and you would have to be the one who comes to him and tell him you’re ready 

But Minho frustrated mumbled something under his breath and left 

Thanks to your stellar performance the company said you and Jisung can have a break from your activities, that included your collective vlives, much to your relief 

You couldn't imagine facing Jisung after what you told him. Not to mention you had already had an argument with Yuri about what you’d told Jisung 

It was much the same as always; Yuri telling you to stop hiding behind the dating ban and you trying to explain you weren’t hiding behind it and this is the ebay option for everyone 

You reached for yet another tib of ice cream hoping it would stop you from wanting to text Jisung 

Any thought of him was painful but what was more painful was being apart

You missed your vlives, you missed hanging out with him after them, you missed the way his body melted into yours when he was draped over you on the sofa 

Jisung tried taking his mind off the situation but nothing worked, not properly 

Instead he dived back into work and finished the song he started all those months ago 

At least this way he could work through his feelings

He frantically scribbled lyrics rewriting them to fit the beat of your bride track

He wanted the two songs to be connected even though the two of you couldn’t

“But?” Jisung asked with a mixture of hurt and frustration. If you liked each other what could possibly be stopping you?

“But, I’m not sure we should do anything right now. My dating ban’s only just been lifted and I don’t want to make things more difficult for either of us” you explained

Jisung was ready to argue, he was ready to present every piece of evidence that supported the two of you dating but this wasn't one he had prepared for

Much to his dismay he couldn’t argue with you on that point 

 Whatever happened he knew, that he would come out unscathed but you on the other hand. Well it would be a lot harder for you 

His mouth opened and closed as you apologised before leaving him in the room alone with his thoughts  

You gulped and went to perform your groups stage, you put on a show for the cameras and tried not to betray heartache in your eyes 

Jisung did the same he finished his group’s stage and after neither of your groups won this particular award he went home disappointed 

The rest of the members were getting slightly worried for him, exchanging glances 

Minho ended up sitting down next to him on the sofa of their dorm

“I’m guessing talking about your feelings didn’t go well?” he asked tentatively 

Jisung choked out a ‘no’ and repeated your exact reasoning 

“That’s bullshit,” Minho stated

Jisung stared at him shocked, waiting for him to explain 

“Sure dating is terrifying but hiding behind the dating ban is nothing but an excuse,” Minho expended

Jisung replied with his reasoning and Minho refused every claim 

Jisung bit his lip, “ok well it’s not like I can do anything now,” he explained how he’d agreed and you would have to be the one who comes to him and tell him you’re ready 

But Minho frustrated mumbled something under his breath and left 

Thanks to your stellar performance the company said you and Jisung can have a break from your activities, that included your collective vlives, much to your relief 

You couldn't imagine facing Jisung after what you told him. Not to mention you had already had an argument with Yuri about what you’d told Jisung 

It was much the same as always; Yuri telling you to stop hiding behind the dating ban and you trying to explain you weren’t hiding behind it and this is the ebay option for everyone 

You reached for yet another tib of ice cream hoping it would stop you from wanting to text Jisung 

Any thought of him was painful but what was more painful was being apart

You missed your vlives, you missed hanging out with him after them, you missed the way his body melted into yours when he was draped over you on the sofa 

Jisung tried taking his mind off the situation but nothing worked, not properly 

Instead he dived back into work and finished the song he started all those months ago 

At least this way he could work through his feelings

He frantically scribbled lyrics rewriting them to fit the beat of your bride track

He wanted the two songs to be connected even though the two of you couldn’t

You continued, “I heard your song, it was beautiful. It was emotional and heartbreaking and it made me feel a bit hopeless about love. I wanted to talk to my members about it but not matter what it didn’t seem right.” 

Jisung listened intently his heart beating out of his chest 

“That was until I realised there's no one I want to talk about these things with. I was being overly cautious not wanting to lose what we already have, but if we were meant to be then we’ll last.,” you explained, “Ji I really want to date you. I don’t care what  happens, I just know I want to experience it with you.” 

Jisung couldn’t help the grin on his face and he stepped closer. His eyes effortlessly travelled to you lips, down your collarbone and back up again 

He let out a small breath tickling you until you couldn't take it anymore 

He could feel you wanting to get closer, so he wrapped an arm around your waist, cupped your cheek with his hand and his lips finally landed on yours 

You groaned, this was all you wanted and more

No matter how many times you imagined this moment the real thing was better 

He pulled away and with half lidded eyes said “whatever happens we’ll weather the storm together. I promise.”

A/N: The ending is super rushed and I'm very sorry but I have been so close to finishing for so long and I needed this out of my drafts. Either way I hope you guys enjoy it :)

#han jisung x reader #han x reader #han jisung #han jisung imagines #han jisung scenarios #han jisung skz #han jisung stray kids #han jisung x y/n #han jisung angst #han jisung headcanons #han jisung headcanon #stray kids imagines #stray kids han #stray kids jisung

[yandere-writer-momo]

Moonstone (new beginnings) is Katsumi ✨I know, he told me

Now he’s the one who would ask you to move in with him within a month of knowing you and get married in three months! 😂

Yandere Baki Prompts (Short Story)

Moonstone: “I can’t wait to start my life with you.”

Katsumi edition

Female Reader

I tried making this a prompt but it turned into a short sorry because I love him so much 😭😭

Orochi Katsumi

Katsumi adjusted his dress shirt for the fifteenth time in the mirror before checking his hair. He didn’t want a hair out of place or a wrinkle in his shirt. Today had to be perfect. He was going to be proposing to the love of his life today

Katsumi glanced at the small blue box on his dresser. Would you like the ring? He didn’t get anything too flashy but he decided to get you a sober ring with moonstone… to symbolize new beginnings. You wouldn’t think it was corny would you?

Katsumi made his way over to the dresser and stuffed the ring box in his pocket. He took a deep sigh to try to calm his nerves

Katsumi had been wanting to propose in the first month you two were dating but his peers were able to convince him to wait a little longer. His parents on the other hand were over the moon

He already had a house picked out, that he knew you’d love, in his parents’ neighborhood. There was plenty of room for the two of you and your future children… oh god he could hardly wait to have little minnies running about. How many would you want? He thinks two or three are reasonable

“Katsumi?” His heart stopped when he saw you peak from around the corner with a soft smile on your lips. His eyes widening at how the straps on your dress were slightly off your shoulders. “Are you alright?”

Katsumi ran over to you and began to place kisses all over your shoulder and neck. The karateka sighing into your soft skin with a smile on his face

“I love you so much.” Katsumi whispered as you giggled. The young man pressing another kiss to your shoulder before pulling away to lead you out of the door way. “Are you ready to go on our late date, baby?”

You giggled as you gave Katsumi a bright smile. “Of course. I’m always ready to be with you.”

Katsumi’s ears turned pink as his face burst into a pink blush. You smiled at him as he guided you out of his house and towards the park.

“We’re off. Bye, Retsu!” You shouted to his roommate who gave you a thumbs up. Retsu and Katsumi were such an interesting pair of roommates. The complete opposite of each other in every way.

Katsumi lead you towards the park you two usually frequented on picnic dates together. The park was covered in pretty string lights, the lights giving a peaceful ambience to the usually quiet park.

Katsumi lead you over to the center of the park where the most lights were. The young man bouncing in his step as he smiled at you. Katsumi stood with you in the center of all the lights, tears gathering in his eyes

“(Your name), we haven’t been together long but I know in my heart that you’re the person I want to spend the rest of my life with.” You smiled as Katsumi shakily continued. “Will you be my wife?”

Katsumi got down on one knee and pulled out the little blue box. You put your hands over your mouth to stifle a giggle.

“This is so funny, Katsumi.” You reached in your purse and pulled out a little black ring box. A beautiful aquamarine ring shining under the lights. “I was going to propose to you too.”

Katsumi and you both stared at each other before erupting into laughter. The two of you sharing a long kiss and a tight embrace. Katsumi slipping the moonstone ring on your finger as you slipped the aquamarine ring on his.

“I can’t wait to start my life with you…” Katsumi whispered as he pressed his lips to yours again.

“And I can’t wait to start mine with you.”

#baki hanma #baki the grappler #baki x reader #baki son of ogre #yandere #yandere imagine #yandere fic #baki the grappler x reader #female reader #yandere baki #katsumi orochi #katsumi orochi x reader

[cypriathus]

Here is the creatress of the Fajekhomusi!

Tirchelomanus is a fertility and seasonal goddess and the creatress of the Fajekhomusi, possessing a lot of determination that she uses to satisfy her desires. She isn’t easily influenced and controlled by people as she’s fully capable of supporting herself without interference. She places a certain amount of trust in herself and her capabilities, but she has fairly low self-regard and a sense of unworthiness. Her way of communication is direct and honest without being intentionally aggressive, and she’s marked by kindness, courtesy, and tenderness. Tirchelomanus has a bold attitude that possesses a touch of playfulness, and she finds the presence of humans to be quite entertaining. She’s immensely faithful in her personal relationships, especially with her beloved husband. She’s usually benevolent, but she will become perilous if individuals try to harm her people, family, and domain, Eylphruszomita. She has a strongly tempting, free-spirited, and tranquil aura to her charisma, and she occasionally hides her true emotions.

She has a partially round endomorphic body type with broad shoulders, full midsection, narrow hips, large bust, prominent thighs, and upper arms that carry some of her weight. She’s approximately 11’ 7” (353.06 cm) and she has long curled hair with a stunning gradient of gallery white, tacha yellow, cranberry, and vivid violet. Tirchelomanus’ eyes are a sparkling thunderbird red with chestnut rose pupils and her elvish ears are slightly drooping. She has bronze skin with a black mole above her left eye and golden freckles on her face, neck, chest, and hands. She possesses the wings of an orange oakleaf, the furry back of a female sika deer, the legs of a horse, a spike-tipped, arrow-shooting tail, and two prominent fangs. Tirchelomanus wears a high-collared dress with a mermaid cut and the purplish-red plumes of a phoenix. The gauzy white bottom has silvery spots and the collar of her sky blue and lilac Kinsale cloak is adorned with cream, peach, light pink, and lavender roses. She also has a golden torc with a single moonstone in the middle, a necklace of silver bells, and an amethyst engagement ring and ruby band on her right ring finger.

She can convert non-Fajekhomusi into the species she created by rearranging their DNA and psychologically changing their brain. She possesses absolute beauty, regeneration, strength, durability, stamina, accuracy, reflexes, senses, dexterity, agility, intelligence, and wisdom. She can bestow longevity to those who desire it, and she's a master of seduction. She can induce diseases, miracles, and an abundance of food, and she’s physically, emotionally, and mentally in sync with the environment of her domain. She has the ability to manipulate the energy and force that emanates from her creation. Tirchelomanus also has full manipulation of the four seasons, climate, fertility, animal and environmental health, plants, twilight, and magic. She has total control over Eylphruszomita, including all of the deities, Fajekhomusi, and wildlife that resides in her domain. She's able to shapeshift into any Fajekhomusi and animal, turn herself invisible, and drink blood. She can cast permanent illusions on an enormous scale that are realistic to the point where they can confuse all the senses of her target, making it impossible for them to break free without her intervention. She knows everything about plant life and what’s connected to it, and she emanates an aura of constant heat and light.

FAMILY:

Oberszutan (husband)

Bretomaldius Gulsomerita (daughter)

Girtezolanus Tergwalodius (son)

Spregathon Hobaglekinus (adoptive son)

ALIASES/NICKNAMES:

Goddess of the Dreamy Wish

High Queen of the Good Neighbours

Moon of the Youthful Land

Dame of Blooming Flowers

Ruler of the Holy House

Day of the Triple Wood

Her Glorious Dread

The Fairy Midwife

FUN FACTS/EXTRA INFORMATION:

She’s an avatar of J’Tervazoschin and Himanotrude

She’s often followed by foot soldiers of fairies, light elves, dwarves, and fauns, an Equus africanus atlanticus with a flower on its head, a tarasque, a pegasus, and a pack of red wolves.

She enjoys dancing under the full moon, her footsteps weaving fairy patterns into the earth.

She creates natural, shimmering perfumes from the essence of rare flowers.

She collects the first rainfall of each season in a crystal vial, using it to bless her people.

As an Æylphitus, her name means “she of the straining deities, blind punishment or heaven’s revenge”.

#writerscorner #writing #creative writing #original character #personality #physical appearance #outfit #abilities #power #goddess #fairy #fairy queen #fertility #season #four seasons #fun facts #extra information

[an-abyss-of-stars]

✵ It's Visceral And It's Cruel ✵

Certainly it could not be considered fair for him to have to bring such a woman to her knees and find herself manipulated and fallen…on his account. 

Just what type of magic and or abilities did his mother think him capable of?

When had he ever succeeded in attracting a woman of any kind…let alone a woman thought to be one of the most beautiful in all the land…

No…such talk would only lead him to assured failure.

He could and would produce a successful mission from this endeavour. 

Even if…she looked like a goddess sent down to earth...one purposely created and hellbent on torturing Aemond within an inch of his life.

She’d floated into the hall in a pale rosy pink silk-made gown that hugged her torso and her chest rather magnificently in a bowed heart-shaped fashion, white lace sleeve-like wings spun around her biceps and slung down to her wrists with white lace embroidered designs of roses and another flower he could not name coated her bodice. While from her waist down the pink smooth silky material spilled within an inch of the floor, glistening in the candlelight as if the entire dress was covered in jewels of its own. Her silvery-white curls held a sleek damper texture, shimmering as it cascaded down her back in defined glorious springing ringlets, combed away from her face as a few stylishly chosen tendrils were left to fall in front of her ears. It was on closer inspection that he noticed the dozen glittering rose quartz clips that were lined upon her hair. She wore matching waving golden rose quartz encrusted earrings, bracelets, with a few moonstones embedded rings and one that distinctly looked to be of…pink sapphire. 

Surely a most rare gem that could have only come from the Summer Isles as far as Aemond knew of it. 

Yet the thought that lingered in his mind…the word alone…sapphire.

How she wore one too…

Chapter 6: One Long Wretched Day...

#aemond x rhaena #rhaena x aemond #aemond targaryen #rhaena targaryen #rhaemond #hotd fanfic #hotd fic #hotd #jacaerys velaryon #lucerys velaryon #rhaenyra targaryen #daemon targaryen #alicent hightower #viserys targaryen

[nerevar-quote-and-star]

I Didn't Know You Were Keeping Count — Part VI: Salmon

ao3

masterlist

first | previous | next

This one is a long one by I PROMISE we get through Blackreach. Thank you, @elder-dragon-reposes, for betaing! 💕✨

Taglist: @ravenmind2001 @incorrectskyrimquotes @uwuthrad @dark-brohood @owl-screeches @binaominagata @dakatmew @constantfyre

@kurakumi @stormbeyondreality

@blktooth @singleteapot @aardvark-123 @blossom-adventures @hungryswampdweller @argisthebulwark @inkysqueed @average-crazy-fangirl

Content Warnings: No. Bishop is Bishop.

#######

The first creature showed up after they found the second corpse and the broken ramp. Thin, hunched over, and as pale as moonlight, it had eyes – or rather, eye sockets so red and scarred over that they were a mockery of real eyes. Its face was long, narrow, and framed with long ears attuned to the underground caverns and passages. Slanted nostrils sat high on their face, slits in puckered pink skin where noses should be. They looked like elves – if someone asked a child to draw an elf without any reference. These creatures were blind, but words of their danger were written in a jagged script that stretched back to the entrance of Alftand. These white creatures killed an expedition of trained professionals. If Leara and Bishop weren’t careful, they would be killed, too.

Bishop shot the first one, Leara’s spell work concealing the twang of his bowstring.

The creatures began popping up frequently after that.

“Just let me shoot them down,” Bishop hissed. He and Leara were huddled in an alcove encased in the protection of a bubbling Muffle spell. Karnwyr stood between them, his hackles raised and his teeth bared. It seemed the wolf didn’t like the blind creatures any more than his master did.

“If we start killing them, they’ll know we’re here,” Leara explained. “We have no idea how many there are, but if they could take out that expedition, then I’m not inclined to take any chances.”

“Size never stopped you before,” Bishop leered, wagging his eyebrows.

Leara pinched her nose. “Be practical for a moment, won’t you? We have a better chance of sneaking through than we do of taking on an unknown number of these creatures! Do you want to die down here?” she asked bluntly. “Do you want Karnwyr to die? For all Akatosh knows, they would eat him! They might eat us!”

“Now, now, sweetness, don’t get all hysterical on me!” Bishop said, rolling his eyes and placing a hand on her arm. “Fine, we’ll do things your way, but follow my lead. You can’t sneak worth a septim, especially in that silver plate. Let’s go.”

And so, they snuck their way through the ruin. Leara’s hands were frozen and her moonstone ring bit into her finger from the quantities of magicka she pooled into a continuous Muffle. She held a Nighteye rune over her eyes, searching out corners for movement as Bishop crept by them unseeing. Karnwyr glued himself to her side, his body stiff and his head low as he scented the cracked stone floors. He was agitated. She didn’t blame him.

Only once did Leara cast a life detection spell. Where she expected to find whirling clouds of violet smoke, she instead found plumes of pink, pale and quivering with the erratic beats of each creature’s heart. Every one of the creatures had a soul weaker than even Karnwyr’s, and each was bursting with a gnashing, swarming darkness. The chill permeating from the creatures’ souls was unlike any Leara had ever felt either from magic or nature. Although she couldn’t discern the dim memories or chaotic thoughts hidden in the souls, she could sense the discord and pain rolling off them in waves. She endured this for a moment before recoiling, the life detection rune shattering over her eyes like broken glass.

Bishop didn’t notice her jerk back from the sting and she didn’t mention it. They continued in the dark.

At one point Bishop caught her arm, and she whirled to face him. At some point he’d fallen behind her. Leara hadn’t noticed.

“What is it?” she whispered.

“We need to stop.”

“What?”

“We need to stop. You’re dragging your feet,” Bishop said. He almost sounded concerned, save for the sneer she could hear in his voice. “If we don’t stop, you’re going to stumble right into one of those creatures and all your plans about sneaking through undetected are gonna go out the window.”

Akatosh, Leara wished there was a window and sunlight and a breeze down here. “You’re right,” she heard herself say. The words were as dull on her tongue as the exhaustion seeping into her bones.

How long had they been under the earth?

There was no apartment or defensible room where they could make camp, but Bishop found a tunnel branching off the main corridor. There must have been a cave-in at some point as one end of the hall was blocked off. Overhead, a lone Dwemer light fixture flickered, its light fractured and damaged. Under the grey light, Bishop plopped down against one of the larger boulders, his eyes trained back the way they came. “Get some shuteye, sweetness. I’ll keep watch.”

Leara blinked at Bishop. Part of her wondered what made him decide to be so nice, but the rest of her was too tired to care. Using her satchel as a pillow, Leara didn’t bother setting her bedroll out. She fell asleep with her back to the wall and her face toward the corridor beyond. Karnwyr curled against her legs, providing a barrier of warmth from the subterranean chill.

Her dreams were hazy with smoke. Shadows at war with flames. Black wings beat against a starless sky as they clawed at their golden adversary. She stood alone, the crash of the battle above both deafening and devoid of sound. Then a hand grabbed hers, burning and scorching and eating away at her skin and bone.

Thunder cracked overhead.

Leara startled awake.

Silence.

For several moments, she tried to calm her breathing. Her entire body was on edge, cold and shaking in the aftershocks of her dream. Nightmare?

Was that Alduin?

A snore rattled nearby, shaking Leara from her thoughts. Already the dream was fading into a dim haze and all she could recall were black wings and scolding fire. It was about Alduin, she decided. Blasted World-Eater.

Wait. Was Bishop asleep—? Idiot! The bloody idiot!

Springing to her feet, Leara stormed over to where the ranger sat propped against the rubble, snoring away as if he were cuddled up in his own bed and not in the depths of a dwarven ruin surrounded by creatures that would eat him for dinner.

She kicked him in the leg. “Wake up, you sodding blockhead,” she hissed near his ear.

Bishop coughed. Then yawned, his eyes blinking. “Well, hello gorgeous,” he slurred, voice dull with sleep. He rubbed his face, then frowned at Leara, “Hey, when’d you put all that armor on?”

“I never took it off,” Leara bit out. “Get up. We need to keep moving.”

Grumbling about her silver plate and unfinished dreams, Bishop got himself together and the trio was off again a few minutes later.

Before leaving the tunnel, Leara drew a tempus charm on the back of her hand. It was after the third watch. People in decent places were still asleep. But this wasn’t a decent place, she reminded herself as she ran a quick calculation. “Sixty-three hours.”

“What?” Bishop said as he checked over his bow.

“We’ve been down here for sixty-three hours,” she clarified, dismissing the charm.

“Damn.”

Leara sniffed, “Quite.”

·•★•·

Leara winced as the spikes grated against the stone, the sharp shriek of their retraction resonating through the cavern. At once, Karnwyr hunkered down on the floor. Covering his muzzle with his paws, he let out a soft whine.

“And you told me to be quiet!” Bishop snorted.

Leara ignored him. She made her way from the lever platform, stepping through the now-open gate to the wide stairs beyond. Her steps were silent under bubbling Illusion magic as she crept up the dais that dominated the center of the cavern. Bishop grumbled a moan before stomping after her. It had been a while since she’d seen any of the creatures, but Leara knew that didn’t mean none were nearby. If they were, it was almost certain they heard the spikes retracting. Akatosh, she wouldn’t be surprised if Delphine and Esbern heard it all the way back at Sky Haven Temple.

That gave her pause. Did they even miss her? She imagined Esbern did, at least as much as one missed a person they saw briefly after more than thirty years of no contact. The thought soured and sank down into her stomach, leaving a bitter taste in the back of her throat. She needed to contact them soon, even if Delphine acted like a bloody, blasted piece of—

Bishop grunted, his chest colliding with Leara’s gauntlet. “What—”

“Shh!”

A finger to her lips, Leara pointed with her off-hand. The stairs split, both leading to a wide dais, larger than many of the areas they’d passed through before. On either side of the space were large stations of some kind, but it was the contents that caught Leara’s attention.

Dwemer automatons. Huge and golden, they were like armored sentinels – Leara was certain they were bigger than the giants outside of Whiterun – charged with keeping watch over the tower entrance beyond. But one had fallen, whether taken down by some previous explorer, the creatures in the ruin, or by the sands of time, Leara didn’t know. It was the one that remained, the silent guard gazing blindly forward that set her on edge. It seemed the Dwemer had a special knack for getting under her skin. Almost as well as Bishop but far more dangerous.

“What in Oblivion is that?” hissed Bishop. Despite Leara’s look of warning, he crested the stairs to get a closer look. “That’s gotta be the biggest one I’ve ever seen!”

Under a bronzed helmet, a cold facsimile of an elven face turned toward them. Steam hissed and sputtered as the automaton released from its station. It took a lumbering step forward, then another, its feet thundering against the stone in billows of rising steam.

“Bloody Hell!” Leara swore. She sprinted over to the fallen machine, as far from its living counterpart as possible.

The distant twang of Bishop’s bowstring hummed under the pounding steps and hiss of steam. A clatter of steel on bronze. The arrow fell.

Karnwyr barked, loud and echoing through the cavern.

Leara’s knees hit the stone floor. Crouching behind the fallen automaton, she peered over its armored chest. Bishop was nowhere to be seen, but Karnwyr was still barking at the machine. The wolf was running hither-thither in wide circles around it, drawing it to turn in awkward arcs in an attempt to keep up. Leara chewed her lip.

A cloud of dense steam wailed from the automaton's mouth, fathering like smoke after Karnwyr. Karnwyr only just avoided the scalding heat, leaping clear into Leara’s hiding place. He hunkered behind her, his dark eyes blown so wide that she could see the whites of them. He was shaking.

The armored giant stalked near their hiding spot. Leara held her breath as it passed them by, unseeing.

Where in the name of Akatosh and the Divines was Bishop? She could only assume he’d fallen back to a blind spot on the landing below.

From her vantage point, Leara noticed a crack along the side of the fallen machine’s chest cavity. She waited until its counterpart was on the other side of the dais before she slipped her hand inside. She was unsure what she’d find, but if the smaller machines ran off soul gems, then these things surely—

Oil?

Oh! The machine was full of oil!

An idea sprung to life in her mind. A dumb, dangerous sort of idea.

Oil stained her bare forefinger as she traced runes across the chest plate of the fallen machine. Under the distant glow of the dwarven lights, the black stood dark and deep against the dull golden finish of the automaton’s armor.

Then Leara led Karnwyr across the dais to the shadows cast by the surrounding towers. Once there, she threw a rock back at the fallen automaton.

It clattered loud and clear against the bronze haul. Its living twin turned from its search near the stair to investigate. Leara held her breath as it thundered toward her trap. And then it was standing over the broken machine, blindly searching.

Flames pooled across her palm, kissing her skin. Leara hurled the spell.

At the swish of flying fire, the automaton turned its helmet. In that instant, the flames connected with the oily runes crisscrossing the broken machine.

Blinding white. A loud boom! resounded throughout the cavern. Her eyes squeezed shut, Leara covered Karnwyr’s face with her cloak as a wave of intense heat rolled toward them. In defense, she held an icy ward around them, depending on the old Cyrodilic dome style to shield them on all sides. She spared only half a thought to Bishop as the inferno died down in the melted ruins of the two Dwemer machines. If he was as smart as he claimed to be, he’d have found a good hiding place.

Once the strain against her ward was gone, Leara released it and stepped out of hiding.

“What in the thrice-damned HELL was THAT?!”

Ah. There he was.

Bishop stalked toward her, none the worse for wear, though his face was a little red and his eyes were bloodshot. No different than any time she’d seen him get drunk in a tavern.

“I defeated the automaton,” Leara replied coolly. “Where were you?”

Bishop grumbled.

“Pardon?”

“I said,” he groused, “I was trying to rig that mounted bow back there to fire.”

“I see. And did it?”

Bishop rolled his eyes. “Does it look like it did?” Shaking his head, his ruffled hair untouched by the explosion, Bishop jabbed his thumb at the towers. “I guess that’s the way?”

“They had to be guarding something,” Leara reasoned.

The towers were foreboding pillars within the twilight of the cavern, A tall stair led straight to a promenade high overhead. Casting one last look at the destroyed machines, Leara moved quietly up the stairs, Karnwyr beside her and Bishop behind. The stairs were long, and the promenade was longer. It connected the trio of towers together with a wide walk. For a moment, Leara wondered what the Dwemer did here, what it was like for them to actually live in Alftand, and what the city ruins looked like when they did. She could almost imagine it: stone polished like gleaming marble as elven figures in olive and citrine walked by, their dark beards plaited with golden fastenings, Automatons lumbered behind them, passive under the hands of their masters. The air was filled with a distant humming, dreamlike; it resounded deep in her soul, striking notes she had no sheet music for.

Then the image was gone. Leara tasted ash on her tongue.

A golden gate barred the way into the largest tower. Peering between the bars at the empty room beyond, Leara pushed at the door. It swung softly open, soundless in the resounding hush that followed Leara’s explosive spell work. As if the stones themselves were holding their breath. Waiting.

A feeling of unease churned in Leara’s stomach. She pressed forward.

“I have a bad feeling about this,” Bishop said, coming to walk beside her.

A grim line set across Leara’s mouth. She did, too. What could be worse than that dwarven automaton?

The corridor led from the tower gate to a room, divided on either side by tall bronze paneling. Through the doorway, Leara spied what might be an altar, but knowing of the Dwemer’s infamous disdain for religion, she somewhat doubted that it could be an altar. A shadow fell across the not-altar, and Leara froze,

Bishop was stiff at her shoulder, his pale eyes squinting against the dim light. “That’s not one of those machines.”

“No, it’s not,” Leara shook her head. “It’s—” Wait. “Is that – the expedition?”

Creeping closer, Leara heard the whisper of low voices, tones full of anger though their volumes were low. It seemed their fear of the creatures in the dark was stronger than their anger toward each other. For now.

Leara pressed herself against the archway leading into the not-altar room. The sanctum?

“Sulla, let's just get out of here. Hasn't there been enough death?”

Peering into the sanctum, Leara spied a tired Redguard woman in tattered clothes, a bloody shield as her only protection. She stood across from a short, stocky man with a legionnaire’s cropped hair and wild eyes. He was gripping the altar, his knuckles white as he loomed over in the face of his one remaining companion.

“Oh, of course, you want me to leave!” Sulla hissed. “Just waiting for me to turn my back so you can have all the glory for yourself!"

The woman growled, a low mixture of rage and exhaustion. “No, Sulla! I want to go home! Have you forgotten what that is? Haven’t we been through enough?”

Sulla slammed his palms against the not-altar. “Umana, you blasted fool! I’ve come too far and lost too much for you to just lead me back to Cyrodiil like a child!”

“Sulla—"

"No! Blackreach was to be my discovery! Mine!"

In a blur, Sulla leaped at Umana, a dark dagger in his hand. It might have been one of the creatures’, made of purplish black chitin. Umana raised her shield. It was pronged with a cluster of spikes, bursting forward to meet Sulla’s hand and ravage his forearm. The man howled. And then gargled as an arrow pierced through his throat. Huddled behind her shield, Umana gaped wide-eyed at her former companion as he crumpled to the floor, choking up blood. “Is someone there?”

Leara spun around as Bishop released the second arrow. She didn’t have to see it land to know it struck the woman. The low gasp and soft thud of a falling body told her enough.

“What,” the Dragonborn grit out, “was that?”

Bishop lowered his bow, a self-satisfied smirk on his face. “That was putting two animals out of their misery.”

By Akatosh. “Those were people! People from the expedition!”

Bishop rolled his eyes at her. “They were two deranged animals in the middle of a fight, sweetness, and if you’d been caught between them, they would have attacked you, just like any wild animal.” He patted her shoulder as he went by. “Now c’mon. You were so eager to get through here earlier, weren’t you?”

Her hands clenched into frozen fists at her sides, Leara stalked after Bishop. She spared the two fallen a pitying glance as she approached what she was pretty sure was not an altar. The top was inlaid with golden rings, each fitted together in perfect symmetry. Just off the center was a bronze basin, lined with blue crystals of a kind Leara had never seen before. She traced these with her fingers.

“So, what now?” Bishop asked, leaning against another gate at the back of the room. Behind it was a dark shaft with a lever in the middle. Leara looked back at the crystal.

Removing the sphere Septimus Signus gave her, Leara set it into the basin and waited.

Karnwyr coughed, and Leara smiled at him.

“So, what’s supposed to happen?”

Leara frowned at the sphere. “I don’t—”

The rings on the table began to spin. A deep grating sound reverberated through the floor. Leara leaped back as one after another the stone tiles surrounding the control sank down, one after another until a stair led down into the dark.

“That happens,” Leara said faintly as she examined the stairs. “This must lead to Blackreach.”

“That idiot was never going to get in,” Bishop scoffed. Leara looked at him. “He would’ve needed one of those spheres, right?”

“I suppose so,” Leara mused. She grabbed her sphere. If she understood Septimus, it was more like a key than a doorjamb. Nothing happened when she took it, so Leara descended the stairs into the dark, her companions behind her. At the base was a short hallway dominated by a large golden bronze door.

It creaked softly on its hinges. Leara pushed through and stopped.

“By the Nine,” she whispered.

A cool green glow dominated her version. Leara blinked once, twice. Blackreach was a cavern, larger than any she’d ever read about. The green glow that lit the air in an etheric twilight hung over the cavern in a blanket of mist, born from—

“Giant glowing mushrooms,” Bishop deadpanned.

“Bioluminescent,” Leara whispered, gaping at the towering spores. Like a Telvanni experiment gone wrong.

“Bio-what?”

Leara shook her head, her mind whirling.

It was beautiful, in a strange, alien sort of way. As if she stepped from one world and into another. The air was cool and damp, carrying with it a musty wet smell unlaid with the scent of dew on stone. A road of gold-tinted stones led down from the Alftand door, winding into the twilight of the cavern. In the haze, Leara could make out vague shapes that might be dwarven structures, but they could’ve been natural rock formations for all she could tell. An ill sort of melancholy settled over Leara’s shoulders. How big was this place? How much further did they have to go?

“How the Hell are we supposed to find an Elder Scroll down here, anyway?” Bishop asked, voicing Leara’s thoughts.

The elf crossed her arms, her hand on one elbow as the other tapped her chin. “Follow the yellow brick road,” she shrugged. Bishop rolled his eyes.

·•★•·

They rested in the hallway, the door to Blackreach closed behind them. After a meal of dried fish and horker jerky, Leara took the time to make sure all their water skins were full. Frost magic in itself wasn’t dissolvable into drinking water, but there was an old spell from the Imperial Battlemage Academy that altered the aetheric ice into mundane water. She learned it from a nondescript book in the castle library while stationed in Skingrad. Sometimes she wished she’d taken it when she left, but despite being unassuming, something told her that book was valuable to someone. It was a concentrated spell that required a steady hand and more than a passing familiarity with the Alteration school. The results were a flat, tasteless skin of water. She didn’t use it much, but in a place like this, Leara trust her own spell work over any subterranean river or lake.

Bishop took his skin without a word and drained half of it. Leara gave Karnwyr half of hers before refilling both skins. Her hands were cold and damp when she was finished.

They set off a few hours later. The silence of Blackreach was different from that of Alftand: There was a nearly imperceptible humming that tickled the fine hairs on the back of her neck. Sometimes it was a low murmur, others a clear high note. Every so often, Leara glanced over her shoulder, half-expecting someone to be there, following her, but each time there was nothing.

They were alone.

“I don’t like this,” Bishop grumbled after a while.

The road curved left down a slope. Through the mist, Leara spied a low square structure just off from the road. Curiosity drew her forward.

“Hey!” Bishop called out, but Leara ignored him as she mounted the steps – sidestepping just in time to avoid a sphere as it came shooting from a short, gilded box on the porch. Leara spun, her katana ringing through the air as the sphere began to unfold. With a shriek, the upper humanlike mechanics split from the ball. Broken, the sphere clattered down the stairs in pieces.

Bishop coughed,

Leara’s head lulled back, her katana falling loosely to her side. “What.”

“Oh, don’t mind me, ladyship. Just admiring the view.”

“. . . right,”

The door swung silently open with a gentle prod, and Leara found herself in a dusty alchemy laboratory. Which . . . couldn’t be right. The laboratory setup looked modern, surrounded by shriveled piles of ruined ingredients. On the far side of the table were an enchanter’s arcane table and a stack of dusty books. These things were recent. But how? There was a sad hum in the air, almost as if the house were mourning.

“What a dump,” Bishop said, kicking at a tattered old sack. It toppled over and out spilled what may have once been potatoes. Now it was just a pile of shriveled gray-brown rocks.

Karnwyr woofed. Leara turned and her heart clenched in her chest. In the far corner was a rickety cot with a skeleton hanging halfway on it. A black chitin arrow was lodged at an angle in its ribcage.

“Poor bastard,” Bishop said. He yanked the arrow out, examining it. “Not too different from the ones in the body we found.”

“So, the creatures are in Blackreach too. Lovely,” Leara sighed. The mourning notes struck a minor chord. From the corner of her eye, Leara saw a red silhouette rustle, as if sighing. Rounding, Leara came face to face with a Nirnroot. A Nirnroot as bloody red as a rose of passion.

It was the source of the singing.

“Oh my,” Leara whispered, peering closer at the Nirnroot. She knew the plants to sing, but this one was so different and its song so tonally dissimilar to its green cousins that she felt her curiosity piqued. This must be a research laboratory! To study the subvariety of Nirnroots – Leara tore back to the table and shuffled through the stack of books. “No, no, no—”

“Have you gone crazy, bookworm?”

Leara set De Rerum Dirennis down. “I’m looking for research notes. I’m positive this is some kind of laboratory for field research! Someone was studying these Nirnroots!”

“You mean the screaming plants?” Bishop sneered. “Who would want to study those? They’re weeds. Noisy weeds.”

Leara pinched her nose. Do not engage, she told herself. Do not. “They have some alchemical properties of interest,” she settled on, passively.

Bishop rolled his eyes.

Abandoning the worktable, Leara skirted the room, passing over the cold cookpot and moldy food sacks to the cot. She glanced at the small camping table with its crumbling candle stub before reaching the skeleton of the ill-fated alchemist. In their arms was a tattered leatherbound journal. Those had to be the research notes! With delicate fingers and a silent prayer to Arkay, Leara pulled the book from the bones. Her skin itched to read through it, but her rational mind reminded her that she still had a task ahead of her. With a sigh, she slipped the book into her satchel.

“So, that’s it? You wanted to pry a book from a dead man’s hands?”

“I want to preserve knowledge,” Leara explained. “Who knows who could come here next and if the lab will still be intact then.”

After clipping some samples from the red Nirnroot and placing them in a vial, Leara snagged the scattered soul gems and followed an exasperated Bishop back into the churning mists of Blackreach.

·•★•·

Leara calculated the time from the tempus charm. Well over a day since they’d entered Blackreach. Over half a week since entering Alftand. She hadn’t the foggiest idea how far down they were under the earth or where they would pop up if – when they emerged from the earth. She drew a compass rose on the back of her hand. Southwest. Still steadily southwest.

What might have once been a guard post stood on either side of the road, connected overhead with a bridge. They’d stopped there to rest, but the longer they waited in the shadows of the Dwemer stone, the more disquiet Leara felt. She cast a distrustful eye toward the dark towers. Aside from the hum of the red Nirnroots and the rush of nearby water, the cavern was quiet. Eerily so. The feeling of unease that settled on her shoulders when they entered the cavern seeped through the slots in her armor, through her clothes, and into her skin with a chilling tingle.

Karnwyr snuffled at her side. Banishing the runes, Leara scratched the wolf’s head. Bishop emerged from behind a geode mound, his hands tugging the ties of his pants closed. Leara averted her eyes.

“Any idea how much further we need to go?” he asked, wiping his palms on his thighs.

“Not a bit,” she shook her head.

Bishop frowned. “Food’s getting low.”

“I know,” Leara shifted uncomfortable, all too aware of the lightness in the food packs. She missed how heavy it was on her back when they climbed the glacier nearly a week before.

“What’s bugging me,” Bishop said, kicking at a stout little mushroom just alongside the road, The powder blue top popped off and fell to the ground. “Is that we’ve not seen one of those creatures. They’re here. We both know that, but you’d think they’d be, y’know, here!”

“Do you want to run into them?” Leara asked, one chestnut eyebrow raised to a gentle point.

“Are you crazy? No, but it’s kinda strange, you’ve got to admit.”

Leara hummed and knelt beside her food pack. She pulled some horker jerky from its paper and extended it to Karnwyr, who scarfed it up. “Salmon or jerky?” she asked, elbow-deep in the pack.

Soft steps padded closer to here. “I’m not hungry, sweetness. Not for that, at least.”

Leara sat back on her heels, craning her neck back only to find Bishop looming over her, a wolfish grin on his face. She scoffed, “Then starve.”

“Stop playing hard to get, darling,” Bishop smirked. “It’s cold down here. Why don’t you crawl into my bedroll for the night and I’ll keep you warm.”

“I’m warm enough, thank you,” Leara said, biting the end of a salted salmon patty. “If you’re cold, why don’t you cuddle Karnwyr?”

He stared at her. “Are you usually this dense or is all the salt drying out your brain? I want you. Now. In my bedroll. With me.”

Leara sat, crossing her legs in front of her. Why did he always choose the most inopportune time to come on to her? Although, she amended, there would never be an opportune moment for it. She didn’t want him that way. Why couldn’t Bishop see that?

“Listen,” she began.

An arrow appeared in Bishop’s shoulder, burying itself in the thick black leather. The ranger jerked back with a grunt. He yanked it out the next moment, and Leara recognized the black-purple chitin of the creatures’ arrows.

Leara was on her feet, her katana drawn, but the creatures were already on them.

“Hey!” Bishop yelled, as three piled on him. He cut them back with his dagger, only for more to swarm closer.

Leara swung the food pack on her back, barely twisting in time to meet the gnarled blade of one of the creatures. They pushed back and forth before Leara blasted it with a shard of ice. To her horror, while it skewered the creature clean through the sternum, shattering bone, the aetheric ice did not crawl into the flesh. It remained untouched as if the spear were one of wood or steel and not magic.

The creatures were impervious to ice.

Spindly fingers grabbed at her elbows and Leara screamed.

“WULD!”

In a blur, she flew across the dark earth, stumbling to a stop several yards away from the fray. She spun, taking in the pandemonium in a split second: Bishop was fending off several at close quarters, one of the chitin swords in his hands. Karnwyr was low to the ground, snapping at bare ankles and feet. Leara couldn’t count how many creatures were there. A lot was not a definite number, but it was several too many anyway.

A second passed, then bodies began to move toward her. Leara balled her fists together, her katana falling to the grown. Her hands tingled.

Lightning spun in a chain through the air, hitting one creature before jumping to the next. Inhuman shrieks filled the air, shrill against Karnwyr’s deep bark and the electric sizzle pop of destructive magic. The smell of burning flesh filled the air, nauseating and familiar. Karnwyr shot from the fray like an arrow toward her.

“Run!” Leara screamed, snatching her katana from the ground.

Bishop hesitated, staring at the sizzling bodies around him and the number of creatures still teeming toward him. He spun and fled.

With Bishop and Karnwyr on her heels, Leara ran into the dark away from the road, the shrieks and scuttle of the creatures in pursuit. There was running water nearby, right? Half an idea sat in the back of her mind, trying to come together, but Leara’s senses were dominated by a burn in her chest, adrenaline in her limbs, and a thousand thoughts whirling in her head.

Bishop’s longer legs pulled him ahead of her, his form dark as his feet pounded against the earth. Then there was distance between them, growing longer the further they ran. Leara’s knees threatened to buckle. The creatures were gaining on her. Where was Karnwyr? Leara could feel the whisper of spidery hands at her back, grasping and pinching and never letting go. With a grunt, she fell.

Most of the horde passed her by, still after Bishop, still hunting the moving target. Two remained to examine Leara’s prone form, pale hands grasping at her armor. The weight on her back was unbearable, and Leara was pressed harder into the dirt. It was in her mouth, on her tongue. She squeezed her eyes shut, her heart pounding the doom drum. Then the whirlwind in her head stilled.

Fade. Spirit.

Fade. Spirit . . .

She inhaled, dirt coating her tongue. “FEIM ZII!”

Earth fell away from her mouth. Leara rolled, passing through the screeching creatures reaching for her. Their hands passed through her, cold and strange but untouching. Leara rolled to her feet. The dim twilight glow of Blackreach faded, brightening and blanching as if the world passed away and only its ghost remained. Or perhaps Leara was the ghost, ethereal. For a moment she closed her eyes, remembering her quiet meditation with Paarthurnax over Feim, the first word to Become Ethereal. “Su'um ahrk morah. You will find that your spirit will give you more strength.” Breathe and focus. Peace settled over her, banishing her panic. Leara drew her katana.

Her spirit became skin and bone once her katana connected with the creature’s neck. She swung in a wide arc, cleaving the long head from its thin neck. Its fellow screamed and was silenced a moment later as lightning burned a snapping hole through its chest.

Karnwyr darted from the shadows, head bumping into her leg. Leara grunted at the contact, reaching down to caress the wolf’s head before looking around. They were alone. “Oh dear.”

Clairvoyance and an ear to the air led Leara on a tether into the dark after Bishop and the horde of creatures. She would need to try and discover more about them if she ever made it back to the surface world. There was something unnatural and inhuman about them, yes, but something dreadfully broken and melancholic. Their souls were shattered, and Leara wanted to know why.

The distant drone of an underground river that she’d heard from the guard post became a rushing roar somewhere below. So, it ran through a canyon carved through the cavern. Then Leara saw them.

Bishop fought the horde, right on the precipice. The chitin sword was still in his hands, now coated in blood as pale as morning.

“Bishop! Move!”

He looked at her, his eyes wild and his face twisted. He must have seen something in her face, though, because the next moment he fell into a roll, slipping from the immediate grasp of the creatures on the cliff.

Again, Leara inhaled, the earth stilling beneath her feet as though she were a mountain, rooted to its core. “FUS RO DAH!”

Her Shout billowed out, slamming into the horde of creatures several yards away. They went over the cliff, screaming and howling in terror and rage. A shout of surprise and dismay, deeper than the creatures’ wails, echoed through the air almost at once.

As Bishop toppled backward into the abyss, howling at the top of his lungs, Leara realized too late that the full power of Unrelenting Force pushed wider than she thought it would. Crying out, Leara scrambled the remaining half dozen yards to the cliffside, but she was too late. By the time she fell on her stomach to peer over the edge, she could neither see Bishop nor the creatures. Only the distant gleam of murky gray water under the bioluminescence of the towering mushroom forest.

“Bishop! BISHOP!”

Silence.

Karnwyr was at her side, down on his forelegs as he peered down into the river. His ears were flat against his head. Leara met the wolf’s dark brown eyes. “I’m sorry,” she whispered, voice thick. “I’m so sorry.” In response, Karnwyr lowered his head to his paws. The wolf sighed.

Leara turned again to the river, but it was as void of life as before. Her stomach soured and her heart clenched. Bishop was gone. She killed him and now he was dead.

Bishop was dead and, barring Karnwyr, she was alone in the deep dark of Blackreach.

Despite herself, Leara felt tears build at the edges of her vision. He was the most insufferable, disconcerting, and possessive individual she’d ever met, but she didn’t want him dead – at least, she didn’t want to kill him. Especially here when traveling alone could mean death.

It was a while before Leara could bring herself to move. Karnwyr glued himself to her side, and they retreated from the cliff, a clairvoyance spell leading the way back to the road.

·•★•·

The eerie light of an artificial sun mixed with the glow of the mushroom forest, casting citrine, aquamarine, and amethyst shadows over the banks of the river. Leara stood at the head of the bridge, her gaze fixed on the plummeting falls just downriver. Karnwyr pressed into her leg. Before her across the river rose a towering city of silent stones. But it was far from empty. Life detection revealed hundreds of pale pink pinpricks swarming across the ruins like ants in their hill. In the mix were a few dozen dark souls, human souls. A closer look saw hazy memories, glimpses at blood on snow, spidery hands, the descent into the dark, and pain. Pain and fear, constant and without hope of an end.

Leara’s heart bobbed in her throat. She and Karnwyr would not be entering the city.

“I hope the Tower of Mzark isn’t a part of that place,” she whispered to Karnwyr.

Leara retreated back from the bridge, the wolf at her heels. Plopping onto a rock, she pushed her hood back and buried her face in her hands with a weary sigh. “I’m so tired of this place, Karnwyr, aren’t you?”

The wolf’s only answer was to push his head into her lap and sneeze on her war skirt.

“Thanks,” the Dragonborn giggled. She scratched his ears.

Seventeen hours had passed since Bishop fell. Leara and Karnwyr had hunted out a hollow between rocks to sleep in, far enough away from the guard post and the cliffs to avoid being found if any more creatures came skulking around. It was dismal, but it was the most rest she would get while in Blackreach. Karnwyr had the good fortune to be able to sleep anyway, unbothered that his bed and pillow were made of rocks.

Bishop’s bow was across Leara’s back. He’d dropped it before his fall, and she picked it up from the cliff’s edge. She had no arrows – archery was never her strong suit – but she didn’t feel right leaving his bow in the dirt in a place so forgotten by the rest of the world.

Now more than ever, Leara was on edge, her senses tuned to the music of Blackreach. Something else was here. She’d felt it since entering the cavern, but after the ambush at the guard post, the feeling flamed into an inferno that licked at her skin, reaching for her soul. But it did not show itself, slumbering on in the eternal night.

She eyed the silent city. “There’s nothing for it,” she said to Karnwyr. “We have to pass by it at the very least and pray to Akatosh we’re not exposing ourselves.”

Leara approached the bridge, Illusion magic bubbling from her hands to muffle her and Karnwyr’s steps. The bridge was long and without a rail, spanning the entire length of the river. Leara refused to look down. She wasn’t afraid of heights, but the idea of plunging down into the murky waters, so cold and so deep beneath the earth, filled her with unspeakable dread. She couldn’t fathom what Bishop must’ve felt before he hit the water. To realize in a moment that waters never touched by the sun would be his grave. He must have been so scared.

When they reached the opposite side, Leara finally glanced at the expanse beyond the falls. Emptiness, a great dark emptiness void of light or life.

The shadows fluttered.

Leara frowned.

Tension tightened across her shoulders. She walked close to the walls of the city, out of sight from anyone who looked over the parapet. Karnwyr trailed close behind her, his short ears strained against the silence of the city. Leara knew he could hear things she couldn’t. She couldn’t imagine what he heard: the sounds hissing through the ruins, the hush of bare feet on the stone, and the whisper of unknown tongues.

The road stretched around the city, studded with natural rocks of bright teal and fallen debris of dull gray. It brushed tantalizingly close to the cliffs and the dark beyond. Leara kept her eyes pointedly on the road, wary of the threats on either side. It was a slow trek, long and winding. Leara prayed to Akatosh, Kynareth, and the rest for the journey to be near its end. Down in the underground, her sense of time was precariously tied to a tempus charm she cast with increasing frequency. What would she find when she emerged from Mzark with the Elder Scroll? What destruction would Alduin have wrought in her absence?

Dread pooled low in her stomach. She’d been underground so long, was there anything left to return to? Feelings of loss and loneliness clawed up her throat, stinging her eyes, and Leara had to choke back a sob. Why was this so hard on her? Why?

As if sensing her despair, Karnwyr shoved his nose into Leara’s palm, his whiskers tickling her bare fingers. Leara exhaled harshly, forcing her welling emotions back under her careful control. She would be fine, she and Karnwyr. They would retrieve the Elder Scroll and make it out of Mzark and back to Paarthurnax. Then she would learn Dragonrend and defeat Alduin and everything would be fine. Perfectly fine.

·•★•·

The darkness fluttered in the corner of her eye. Leara ignored it.

After several hours, she and Karnwyr were clear of the city. Its silent horror slept on behind them as the Dragonborn and wolf made their way across a dark plateau studded with boulders and crumbling ruins. In the distance, she spied a twisting walkway and a towering pinnacle that she was certain had to be the Tower of Mzark. It was still a few hours' walk away, but the sight of it calmed the anxiety building in her chest. They were nearly there.

The dark fluttered again, and Leara felt her fine hairs stand on end.

A near-silent swoosh overhead and Leara fell into a crouch, Karnwyr lowering beside her. Every nerve was on end, waiting.

The shadow lighted on the path ahead, its dark eyes gleaming with golden fire. It crept forward, unheeding as Leara pulled her katana from its sheath.

It crept closer still. Under the dim light of the artificial sun and the tower mushrooms, the bronzed face of a dragon loomed closer.

Her katana in hand, Leara slipped into the familiar Bretic dualling pose, her left foot back, her right forward, and her sword turned to a stabbing point. Why was there a dragon in Blackreach? How—? No, that didn’t matter right now. What mattered was the dragon ahead of her and the hive of creatures behind her. She needed to defuse one without setting off the other.

The dragon watched her.

“Drem Yol Lok,” said the Dragonborn, her guard arm still raised. She waited.

“Dovahkiin,” said the dragon. His voice was hoarse, as if from disuse. Or damage. “Pruzah grind, zu’u Vulthuryol. Zu’u hon hin Thu’um nau fin su. Zu’u paar wah tinvaak wah hi.”

Leara gaped at him. The droning whisper of his voice carried a memory of power long faded. She didn’t understand what the dragon said, but she recognized her name, Dovahkiin, and tinvaak, Paarthurnax’s word for speaking. Did this dragon – Vulthuryol, her soul hummed – wish to speak to her?

She fell back on what she learned from the Greybeards. “Sky above, Voice within, Vulthuryol.”

Vulthuryol peered closer at her, his eyes aflame. Then he breathed fire.

It did not burn, just as Paarthurnax’s hadn’t, but Leara threw a ward over Karnwyr, nonetheless. She didn’t want to know what the customs of the dov would do to a wolf. “YOL!” she breathed, bathing the bronze dragon in gentle golden flames.

Vulthuryol preened. “Hin Thu’um los mul. Krosis, nuz hi kod fin joor tinvaak. You speak the mortal tongue.”

“Yes,” Leara said slowly. Of all the things she’d expected to encounter in Blackreach, a dragon that wished to speak to her rather than try to consume her was not on her list. “Greetings, Vulthuryol. What do you wish to speak to me about?”

Rearing his neck back, Vulthuryol peered into the darkness of the cavern before returning his gaze to the Dragonborn. “I felt the shift of kosetiid, the sands of time. Has Alduin thuri returned?”

Leara eyed the dragon distrustfully. Hadn’t the dragon in Kynesgrove, Sahloknir, called Alduin thuri? She made a mental note to ask Paarthurnax or at least Master Arngeir what “thuri” meant. Maybe Master Arngeir had a primer on the dragon tongue that she could study. Whatever thuri meant, she didn’t trust it.

“Yes, he has,” she replied evenly.

“Then you are doom-driven, Dovahkiin,” said Vulthuryol in his deep whisper. The Dragonborn was stone=faced. “This is daan, destiny at hand. Alduin thuri lost his suleyksejun long ago.”

At last, Leara lowered her katana, the long hilt held loosely in her hand. “You wish for me to defeat Alduin?” she asked in surprise.

“Geh, you must,” nodded the bronze dragon. “Kogaan tiid, time broke around Alduin, and the world is worse for his folly.” He bowed his head. “I would make a request of you, Dovahkiin, if you would allow it.”

Vulthuryol was very different from Paarthurnax. While the leader of the Greybeards enjoyed long speeches, the bronze dragon, despite being the one to initiate conversation, seemed to be a dovah of few words. “What is it?’ Leara asked.

“When Alduin’s folaasdrah is undone, remember me in my torment.”

Torment? Leara desperately wanted to ask Vulthuryol what he meant, but the words caught on the back of her tongue. She glanced back at the silent specter of the dwarven city, at the huge cavern dominated by the ruins of Dwemer civilization, and she knew somehow that the deep elves were responsible for this dragon’s presence in Blackreach. Somehow, they had broken and diminished his power, and in the millennia since their disappearance, Vulthuryol seemed scarcely to have recovered. She would not shame the remnants of his pride in asking. It was likely difficult for him to approach her in the first place. He wasn’t . . . scared of her, was he?

The idea didn’t sit right. Dragons shouldn’t fear mortals.

But you’re not mortal, her soul whispered. You are Dragonborn.

Her mind was made up.

“I will return for you, Vulthuryol,” she said, voice high and clear. “I will not leave you in Blackreach. You will fly the skies of Tamriel again, on my word as Dovahkiin.”

If dragons could cry, Leara imagined Vulthuryol would have shed a steaming tear, so deep was the look he gave her.

·•★•·

Vulthuryol flew her and Karnwyr to the Tower of Mzark. Getting Karnwyr to sit in her lap while the dragon was in flight had been a nerve-wracking experience for both Leara and the wolf. The hours they’d had left eclipsed in a matter of minutes. Karnwyr shook and whimpered the entire time, but Leara held tightly to him, whispering gentle words of comfort in the wolf’s ears.

From the back of a dragon, Blackreach was a different world. Overhead she could see glittering specks of diamond blue and crystal white gleaming down into the haze of purple-blue-gold light wafting through the cavern. Her soul sang at the sensation, soaring higher than Vulthuryol’s wings could bear her in the confines of Blackreach. It was wonderful. It was right.

It was over far too soon.

Vulthuryol alighted at the top of the ramp, his large wiry body settling with a birdlike lightness. Leara bid the dragon a thankful and respectful farewell, again promising to free him from the cavern. Vulthuryol only bowed his head, his heart reflected in his eyes. He bade the Dragonborn a solemn goodbye and took flight.

Then Leara and Karnwyr entered the Tower of Mzark.

Karnwyr liked the lift as much as he liked flying: that is, not at all. He laid across Leara’s boots as the platform ascended. Leara hummed to herself, anxiety and excitement building in tandem. This was it. This was where she would find the Elder Scroll!

The remnants of a ruined camp greeted them when they stepped off the lift. Leara studied the dusty remains as they entered the chamber. They were old, but not related to the alchemy laboratory near Alftand. Her shoulders relaxed. Good. This meant there was likely an exit from the tower that was unconnected to Blackreach. Leara wasn’t sure what she’d have done if she and Karnwyr had been forced to pass back through miles of ruins to the Alftand entrance. Cry, probably. Starve, most likely.

A handful of soul gems were scattered on one of the shelving units in between piles of twisted dwarven metal. Leara swept these into her satchel, then looked back at the camp. There were stacks of books everywhere, each one ruined and shriveled with damage. A pang for lost knowledge tugged at Leara’s heart. The cold remains of a campfire drew her eye, and Leara frowned. Yes, there was definitely a surface entrance.

Picking up an empty knapsack, Leara made her way to the opposite end of the room where a high arch led into a short passage. At the end was a door, and Leara pushed through this silently.

And stopped.

“By the Nine,” she whispered, crystal eyes wide.

A large domed box of gold and blue crystal, not dissimilar from the alloys that made up Septimus Signus’ lockbox, dominated her vision. To the side was a stone ramp curving along the circular walls of the room. Leara mounted this, her steps growing quicker the further she went until she emerged at the top of the box, her breath knocked from her lungs.

A dim light shone down from high in the ceiling, bouncing off blue-green glass panels mounted on the upper walls. Fastened to rods crisscrossing the ceiling in a golden patchwork were several long spindly arms with great rings on the end fitted with refracted crystal lenses. Each arm stretched down in a graceful arc, forming a protective nest around a series of rings and beams. In the midst of these, just visible, was an oblong capsule of crystal so deep and opaque that Leara could not see what was inside.

This was the Dwemer Oculory, and Leara knew that Elder Scroll was inside that capsule.

On the podium above the oculory, Leara found the controls. She drew sort. A skeleton was propped against the wall, a red leather journal strown across its lap. Hesitant, Leara gave Karnwyr a shrug before crouching beside the skeleton and reaching for the journal. Flipping through it, she frowned at the crude language of the man, Drokt, and his obsession with the ocular array. Then she studied it more closely. Chewing her lip, Leara set the journal aside and approached the controls.

“I’m not very familiar with this at all,” she said over her shoulder to Karnwyr. The wolf sat watching her, his head tilted to the side in curiosity. “But I have an idea it’s not quite as complicated as that man tried to make it. The Dwemer were a highly technical race, thriving off math and science. I’m sure logic is the answer here.”

Karnwyr barked, his tongue lolling out the side of his mouth. Leara laughed softly at him.

Extracting the cube Septimus Signus had given her, she placed it on the far right control where stout little arms latched it into place. At once, covers slid back from the other controls, revealing a series of glowing buttons brighter than the sun in high summer. Overhead, the ceiling opened, and light flooded the chamber, unfocused. Leara studied the buttons, noting the central panel studded with the alignment of Nirn’s skies.

Pressing the first button, Leara held her breath. The apparatus did not move. Nodding to herself, Leara delicately pressed the second button.

It sprang to life at once, arms shifting and lenses redirecting light. At last, progress!

Leara pressed buttons, counting back and forth as the lenses and rings shifted, reflecting light across the room. Trial and error were her bread and butter as she ran through a series of patterns across the panel, focusing and refocusing the oculory,

At some point, Karnwyr fell asleep, but Leara carried on, engrossed in her task. This was the kind of challenge she was suited for. Patterns and information retrieval. Perhaps she should’ve been a librarian instead of a Blade. Maybe when all this was over, she would join the College of Winterhold, see if Urag gro-Shub needed an assistant.

Her mouth set in a grim line. Fat chance if Ancano was still there. Especially after she pulled that stunt on him.

Light flooded the chamber and the machinery sang. With a resounding ring! the lenses slid into place and the capsule lowered to the ground.

With a cry of excitement, Leara flew down the ramp to the capsule, a startled Karnwyr close behind. The capsule hissed open, finished metal sliding against polished glass. A long cylindrical scroll was nestled inside, cocooned in light.

With careful, trembling hands, Leara extracted the Elder Scroll. Holding it to her chest, she breathed a sigh of relief. Then began to laugh. And then she began to sob. She’d done it! She actually found the Elder Scroll!

“Tears, darling? And to think, I’d thought you left me behind.”

Leara’s arms grew rigid around the Elder Scroll. Slowly, oh so slowly she turned around.

Standing with his back against the wall where the upper and lower ramps met beside the oculory, was Bishop. A little worse for wear, with a hole in the dark leather of his armor just below his right shoulder and a black bruise along the left side of his face, was Bishop.

At Leara’s open-mouthed shock, he smirked. Pushing off the wall, he sauntered toward her, a swagger in his step. “Did you miss me?” he said, coming to a halt in front of her.

The musk of fungus and mineral water flooded her nose and clotted her throat. “Bishop,” she whispered as a storm of turmoil thundered through her veins. She’d thought he was dead. He was dead and she kept going despite her guilt. But he was never dead, not really. He was in front of her. Alive.

Leara felt her brain grind to a halt. If she were asked to refocus the oculory now, she wasn’t sure she’d even be able to attach the lexicon to the receptacle, much less retrieve the Elder Scroll.

Bishop smirked at her.

The timeless artifact clattered to the floor as the ranger enfolded a statuesque Leara in his arms. She felt unattached from her body, as if she were drifting through the beams of light flooding the oculory. She couldn’t feel her hands or her feet. If Bishop hadn’t been holding her, Leara knew she would’ve crumpled like paper.

And when, the next moment, Bishop kissed her, one arm locked around her waist and the other hand tangled in her matted red hair, Leara didn’t fight him.

No, she kissed him back.

·•★•·

Vulthuryol’s Dovahzuul:

Pruzah grind, zu’u Vulthuryol. Zu’u hon hin Thu’um nau fin su. Zu’u paar wah tinvaak wah hi. | Well met, I am Vulthuryol. I heard your Thu’um on the air. I desire to speak to you.

Hin Thu’um los mul. Krosis, nuz hi kod fin joor tinvaak. | Your Thu’um is strong. Pardon, but you use the mortal tongue.

Kosetiid | sands of time

Folaasdrah | wrongdoing

#i didn't know you were keeping count #oc: leara roseblade #bishop #karnwyr #elder knowledge #anti bishop #fanfic #ao3 #the elder scrolls #tes #skyrim #blackreach #mod post #last dragonborn

[regalfille]

King Felipe and Queen Letizia of Spain presented the Gold Merits for Fine Arts

Queen Letizia of Spain looked lovely in pink for the presentation of Gold Merits for Fine Arts

Queen Letizia of Spain wore Lady Pipa Antonia Dress in Terrazzo Rosa  with TOUS Ruby Emerald and Moonstone Earrings, Furla Metropolis Shoulder Bag. Coreterno Amor Che Tutto Move Ring and Magrit Marian Pumps to present Gold Merits. More details on RegalFille

#royal news #royal family news #royal family #spanish royal family #queen letizia #spain #king felipe #spanish royal fashion #spanish #the spanish royal family