#either Aiden kills Talon later on

[writerfae]

The Knights of the Alder - What if…

…Talon was part of the Knights?

*

When Aiden woke up again, the first thing he noticed was how dry his throat felt. The second thing he noticed was that he wasn’t alone.

The boy from earlier was there, the blonde with the sharp eyes. Talon, if he recalled right.

As the fae noticed that he was awake, he made his way over to the prisoner, perching down in front of him, too close for Aiden’s liking.

“Look who’s finally awake.”

Instinctively Aiden tried to move away, but the rope that tied his hands to the pole behind him held him in place.

Talon smirked. “So you’re the one that caused us all this trouble?”

The boy tilted Aiden’s chin upwards with a finger, amusement shining in his golden eyes.

“I would have expected someone more… impressive.”

Aiden huffed and jerked his head to the side to try and escape the other, but Talon grabbed his chin and turned his head back towards him.

“Did no one tell you that it’s impolite not to look at the person that talks to you?” he scolded.

“Has no one taught you that it is impolite to pester innocent defenseless people?” Aiden pressed through gritted teeth.

Talon regarded him with an expression of mock hurt.

“Pestering you? Oh no. I’m just talking to you, that’s all. Don’t you want to talk? Also,” he let go of Aiden’s chin, letting his finger wander down Aiden’s throat.

“I don’t think you’re as innocent as you claim to be.”

Aiden gulped, suddenly too aware of the dry feeling in his throat. As if the fae had noticed what he was thinking, he stood up and went over to the little desk, returning with a flask in his hand.

“Here.” Standing in front of him, the blonde held out the water bottle.

Aiden’s eyes immediately jumped to the movement of the water inside the clear glass of the flask.

He was thirsty, but he didn’t trust the fae one bit. Who knew what he put in there.

Gathering all his mental strength, he shook his head violently.

Talon rolled his eyes. “You can drink, you idiot.” He nudged Aiden with the flask. “It’s not poisoned or anything. We still need you after all.”

Aiden looked down at the water bottle in the other’s hand. “You could’ve still put something in it,” he mumbled.

The other boy shrugged. “Sure I could have, but I didn’t. If you rather want to dehydrate though, be my guest. I don’t mind.”

With his free hand he reached out and brushed a stray strand of hair out of Aiden’s face. Aiden flinched.

“But you mortals waste away so easily when it comes to things like this, so if I were you I’d drink. Who knows when you’ll get a chance again.”

He held out the flask to Aiden once more. Hesitantly Aiden leaned forwards and drank, eyes not leaving the gold-eyed fae.

The blonde watched him with a smirk. “Good boy.”

After he decided Aiden had enough Talon took the flask away from him and raised it to his own lips to drink.

Aiden’s eyes followed the movement, lingering on the other’s lips for just a second too long, which Talon noted with amusement. He attached the bottle to his belt.

“It’s a shame, really,” he said. “that our lady wants to shed your blood.”

Aiden froze at the mentioning of Morena’s plans for him. The other boy grinned, seeing how his words affected his prisoner, and the look he gave Aiden made him shiver.

“You’re quite cute for an insignificant halfling. What a waste.”

Aiden absolutely refused to blush, not wanting to give that asshole the satisfaction.

His cheeks colored a little anyway and Aiden cursed himself, because there was no way the fae didn’t notice.

Aiden snarled, irritated. He was mad at the fae with the golden eyes, mad at himself for letting him get to him so easily.

“I can’t be that insignificant when you need me to reawaken your stupid king. I bet I am of far more significance for your lady’s plans than you are.”

Talon laughed. “So he does bite back. Who would’ve thought. Maybe there’s more to you than I thought.”

The fae smiled. Leaning down, he whispered close to Aiden’s ear. “Who knows which skills may lie behind this pretty facade.”

“Talon,” a voice from behind them said and Talon pulled away. Aiden couldn’t help but to feel relieved.

“Leave the boy alone,” said a young woman with dark hair that Aiden hadn’t seen before. “And leave, it’s my turn to watch him now.”

“And it was just about to get interesting,” the blonde mumbled, but he turned to the other fae and bowed.

“Very well, Lady Nyx.”

He threw Aiden a mischievous look over his shoulder and winked.

Then he left and Aiden felt like he could finally breathe again.

*

Background info: in this scenario Talon (as well parts of his family) is part of the group who want to reawaken the Alderking (the knights of the Alder).

I had that idea because it might as well be possible, since Talon’s family used to be part of the Alder court before the king fell. And if his father would be interested in getting the family’s former status back, naturally Talon would follow him.

I’m not sure if he’d be fully convinced about the plans though, so it could be possible that something -or someone- could change his mind

wip intro / masterpost

tag list: @gr3y-heron @soupopoireau @harinawa @vibinwiththehomies @elisabethrosewrites @charleeyy @violetcancerian @that-one-potato-blep @imstillherebitch @stardustspiral @thewalkingnerdx @abalonetea @andifthestarsweretodie @myhusbandsasemni @contes-de-rheio @rhikasa @phantasticdomains @thegirlwithnonickname @marewriteblr @kimblewrites @writingbyjillian @write-for-your-life2 @deadlycupid @nora-theteawriter @ladywithalamp @the-writing-avocado @writing-is-a-martial-art @bloodlessheirbyjacques @sleepy-night-child @athenixrose (if you want to be added or removed from the tag list let me know!)

also @pen-of-roses cause you showed interest in this one 🙈

#did I have to make bad guy Talon extra flirty? no #did I do it anyway? yes #cause I firmly believe if it would be like this with everything between them aside he would flirt with Aiden #cause like I said he’s his type #and Aiden is all blushy and so made about it #there’s two possible outcomes of this what if scenario #either Aiden kills Talon later on #or he gets him to join his side #also i accidentally put a spoiler there and not so accidentally left it in #I was thinking about maybe making ‘what if’ a little series of alternate ideas about the story I have/had #like Aiden joining the knights #or Henry being the new Alderking #or other stuff I can’t think of rn #(oh how about a combination of Talon as a knight and Aiden joining them too) #(​it would be like that one song in the Excalibur musical) #(…. the one probably none of you know since it’s a German musical apparently ) #(but since it’s about someone who wants revenge on their brother and helps someone to make him fall so that would be the vibe of this idea #the name of the song is Morgen triffst du den Tod BTW #writer speaks #writeblr #wip: the knights of the alder #what if #what if series (?) #writing #my writing

[lunacanis99]

Mantle Half Angels

Let's 👏 talk 👏 about 👏 half angels! 👏

Gods I love what I've done with half angels in my world. They're another one of those things that originally wasn't going to be as important as it later became, but boy am I happy they became this important.

I suppose I should start with why half angels are so big in my world, and I suppose the big thing is: they're rare. Like really rare.

See, when the gods sealed away Tiamat and Tharizdun they decided they were too powerful to interact with the humans and thus created the Devine gate, this included the overly powerful half angels and Demigods. So they were wiped out then and the trend continued, any angels that did dare to have half angels were highly punished and ostracized and their children were seen as abominations to be hunted down by any holy person. Not only that but a lot of a half angel's bodies (their blood, feathers, excetera) are strong spell components and thus the half angels also end up hunted down by wizards and collectors. So most half angels don't live long, either because they're hunted down or because they're never taught to control their abilities.

So, the main half angels we'll be talking about are:

•Neer: Son of Aiden, head angel of Bane and angel of fear.

•Jet: Son of Shadow, head angel of The Raven Queen and angel of shadows.

•and Robin-Rivers: Child of Sage, angel of Vecna and angel of whispers and the unknown.

An though they'll be the main ones we're talking about there are 4 more in the world. And yes, they are the only other 4 currently in existence.

•Ruby: Daughter of Twist, head angel of Zehir and angel of Toxicity.

•Shimmer: Daughter of Darcey, head angel of Melora and angel of the wilds.

•Callisto: Daughter of Shine, head angel of Avandra and angel of luck.

•Stella: Daughter of Avery, angel of Sahanine and angel of trickery.

Now: currently Stella is a baby (less than a year old) still living with both her parents (as Avery fell to have Stella), Ruby Callisto and Shimmer are living together in a mountain hide away as a makeshift family, Robin-Rivers is living on the Shepard farm under the adoptive protection of Canary, and Neer and Jet are at each other's sides fighting alongside Church and State (the party).

But let's really talk about half angels, starting with those two fighting boys: Jet and Neer. And let's start with their parents:

•Aiden and Vitani: Aiden is the head angel of Bane and the physical embodiment of fear. But he wasn't always Bane's head angel, he used to be head angel to Tharizdun until Bane won a bet and thus won the ability to switch head angels and claimed Aiden as his own. This led to Aiden coming to head with his new companions Sloane and Tamara and often found him in the mortal realm, where he met Vitani. Vitani was a lion hybrid and a skyrate who caught the angel's eye with her recklessness, being too brave and or stupid to have any caution even when making fun of literal fear incarnate. Their connection grew strong and fast and Aiden continued to defy his god's wishes to see her, and continued to do so even after he was found out, especially after he learned of Vitani's pregnancy. Only barely a year after Neer's birth did Bane put his foot down and keep Aiden in the Devine plane under strict guard and stricter punishment, tearing off one of his 2 sets of wings to do so. Around 5 years later a collector Skyrate called Captain Hunter rolled through and learned of Neer, and wanted Neer. Killing Vitani to steal him.

•Shadow and Talon: Talon, a dark skinned teifling, grew up with his friend Meralith. And while Talon found his specially in the wilds with a bow Meralith had an incredibly strong penchant for magic. Too strong in fact. As as he grew older and more powerful he turned his eyes to immortality, and thus to lichdom, and grew a cult-esk following with Talon as his right hand. But Talon still had morals and eventually decided his childhood friend went too far and turned traitor to side with the followers of the Raven Queen trying to prevent Meralith's ascent to lichdom. Only to find Shadow, the head angel of the Raven Queen already helping the clerics and paladins. There was an instant connection between the two that only grew as they fought side by side and risked their lives together. And, when Talon nearly fell to a spell of Meralith, Shadow felt real fear for him and knew she'd fallen in love. It wasn't long after that that Shadow brought Talon his son and her predicament. The Raven Queen obviously found out and told Shadow she was either to give up the child and have no interaction with him or Talon and serve her loyalty, or fall; basically be kicked out of the devine plane with no chance of return and a loss of purpose. And Shadow chose loyalty to her god. Talon raised Jet in secret as long as he could, but the Raven Queen's temple was still after him seeing him as the last member of Meralith's cult and Talon knew they would kill Jet should they find him. So when he found himself stuck between a rock and a hard place he chose to get captured by the ravens instead of letting them find Jet.

But these stories don't end here! (Obviously) So let's move on to their pregame lives-

•Neer: Our favorite half lion half angel boy spent about a year as a basically pet (abused pet) to Captain Hunter before another Skyrate captain: a raccoon hybrid named Captain Reginald saw him and choose to steal him to free him. Only, after he got Neer away from Hunter Neer told him he had no home to be taken back to, so Neer got adopted by Captain Reginald and was raised alongside his own children Sam and Lynn. He was raised strong, being prepared to survive life as a Skyrate and raised proud, to embrace his angel half and learn to master his abilities. As well Aiden eventually defied his orders again to help train Neer, despite Neer's strong hatred for his own father that he saw as abandoning him and his mother. But he still grew up to be an incredibly strong and joyful first mate to his adoptive sister Lynn when she became captain of the ship (after Reginald was killed by the very same Captain Hunter), even if he inherited his mother's ridiculous recklessness.

•Jet: Meanwhile the blood angel was found not long after his father's disappearance and captured by a wizard named Mercury that kept him as a pet and a source of spell components. After many many years of this, while Mercury was moving towers once again, Canary Shepard came across Jet in his cage and unlocked him, taking him with her for a few years before they split paths as well. Jet eventually found his way to a monastery where he learned his penchant for fighting and found an adoptive younger sister named June. He also became a follower, or at least found a respect for the Raven Queen and actually managed to talk to his mom a few times do to his loyalty.

Now you can see obvious differences in how they were raised. The biggest difference being how Neer was raised embracing his angel side and Jet was raised hiding what he was at all costs. Jet is terrified of his own shadow and keeps his wings constantly bound and covered to hide what he is while Neer has no fear and usually just faces any threat that comes for him.

Eventually these two met when Neer tried to lure Captain Hunter in and got himself captured, and Lynn contracted Church and State to help her free him. They both ended up captured and worked their way out of Hunter's lair together, finding themselves well equipped to fight side by side and growing rather close before finally facing Hunter down on the deck of his ship. At which point Jet manages to kill Hunter's first mate, who also happened to be Hunter's fiancé, which means Jet did what he has come to do best and got Hunter to aim specifically for him. Which, considering how much damage Hunter could do in one round, meant Jet was very quickly on very low health. But Neer was after Hunter and (because he's a protection fighter) he was able to shield Jet from many of Hunter's attacks before finishing off Hunter himself. (Adorable right?)

But let's talk about Hunter for a second because he's also important in this. As much as I tried to coax the group into it they never really took an interest in what he was enough to ask the right people (which would have been Ressa or Erabus mind you guys) which is a shame because he's actually really interesting. See when Jet killed his fiancé Kraven Hunter absolutely freaked out and completely changed, he dropped his shield and started floating with sudden golden wings of pure magical energy as well as glowing golden eyes and started doing a crap ton more radiant damage with each hit. These obviously aren't normal abilities especially since Hunter had looked human before but obviously he wasn't. In fact he was a race I called a BrightBorn. Meaning he's the direct descendant of a demigod and a half angel. Because there actually are demigods left in the world since they don't actually age, but they are about ten times as rare as half angels with maybe one or two in existence. However they don't have physical tells like half angels so keep themselves completely hidden away. Which is all very interesting information the group is just now figuring out. (Hi guys)

But anyways, back to what we were talking about and our last important half angel:

•Robin-Rivers. Robin-River's father was an elf and mother an angel of Vecna but other than that not much is known. Robin-Rivers told Canary they never met their mother and though they traveled through the Forbidden Sands with their father for a few years he eventually sold Robin-Rivers to a skyrate captain (surprisingly not Hunter). However, it wasn't long after that Lynn and Neer raided that very same ship and Neer took Robin-River's in as his own. But how Robin-Rivers is different and how they're important is their mother, and how unlike the others she wasn't a head angel. Because of this Robin-Rivers grew up weak and underdeveloped: their wings aren't big or strong enough to carry them and even if they were their lungs are to small to let them fly without provoking an asthma attack. They're even somehow shorter than Canary (who I believe is 5 nothing). Not only physically affected because of this and because they can't strengthen their wings (which is the only way to gain better control of half angel abilities), they also have no ability to control their half angel abilities. Each half angel does inherit some of their parent's abilities: Neer has an aura of fear and Jet will eventually be able to wield shadows as weapons. Robin-Rivers has the ability to hear secrets, hear what others keep hidden. But because they can't control this it manifests as voices in their head, voices that constantly whisper to them things that they don't want to know, more voices the more people and louder the more they want to keep it secret. These voices also only get louder when they try to tune them out, try to not listen. They don't have a choice but to listen. In cities this can be deafening and often painful, in bigger darker cities can even lead to them taking actual damage as their ears and sometimes eyes start bleeding as there's not quite a set radius to this ability, not one anyone knows yet at least. It's a dangerous and powerful ability they wish they could get rid of as it has multiple times led to them getting in trouble for knowing things they shouldn't or confusing what people told them and what the voices told them. This ability is so powerful they can actually know things the others don't sometimes. When they asked Canary what happened to her engagement ring she told them she threw it in the fire, and to her that was the truth, but Robin -Rivers could tell it wasn't. In truth she had given the ring to Aiden then had a modify memory spell (willingly) cast on her to keep her from remembering it. (Just a fun fact) Robin-Rivers currently find themselves most comfortable around people like Canary Tazd and Mairon, people who are open books and don't keep anything hidden, because they're quiet to the half angel, the voices don't scream around them. Meanwhile they're often found complaining each time Alistair and or Althaea are within range because "They're loud..."

Alright. One last tidbit of information about half angels! Angels of different gods actually can't touch each other without both being hurt by it, this was put in place by the gods to try and prevent fighting (which didn't work) and half angels inherited that. Sorta. In truth it's all about connection and intent. If they are fighting it will hurt or burn both of them. But if the half angels are close and trust each other and have no intent to hurt each other with the touching then it won't. Jet and Inari have been looking into this phenomenon recently but here's the answer.

And that's that! Half angels man. This was so much longer than I was planning... whoops. I just... I really like half angels.

#dnd #dungeons and dragons #mantle of flames #mof