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softquietsteadylove · 1 year

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3rd- Kro has been keeping his eyes on Gil and noticed Gil on the market, he told Gil that he saw her with a lady— Gil said that it was her sister Sersi. But Kro insisted and described the lady with a blonde hair, pale skin, every detail that made Gil clench his fist. He said that although he was using his binoculars he could see how beautiful that lady is. Kro also described to him the treasure he caught days ago and it happens that how he described it is the same how he described the lady he said was with Gil and that made Gil even more mad.

Gilgamesh tried to mess with him asking if the treasure he caught was a human because he describes it very humanly, but Kro just laughed cornering Gil with the question where is the lady that he's with days ago. And then Thena suddenly submerging walking through Gil's back, she cameback and she went with the plan Gil instructed to her earlier ago (you decide what plan that is and reveal it here). Luckily Gil and Thena had manage to stay with the plan without getting suspicious. Kro walked through Gilgamesh and Thena tried hissing at him but Gil managed to soothe her for Kro not to notice something unusual with her. Kro said that he'll keep an eye on him but he's looking at Thena, and then they left.

I THINK IT'S A LOT, SO SORRY😭 AND THANK YOU!✨♥️

"Gil."

"Kro."

Gil grunted as Kro shoved him aside, marching into the house again. He wasn't here to dance around the subject, though. He had a wire in hand already, "where is she?"

Gil shut the door, keeping an eye on the muscleheads Kro had brought with him. "This again?"

"Nice try, Gil," Kro snarled at him, not waiting to get in his face this time. "I saw you."

"You're seeing me now, aren't you?" Gil sighed. He really didn't have any fight left in him.

Kro grabbed the front of Gil's shirt, shaking him, "at the market. I know it was you and your little catch, Gil--my catch."

Gil just looked at Kro.

Kro released him, taking up that same, sickening grin that made Gil's skin crawl the last time they had talked. "She is quite a catch, too, isn't she?"

Gil remained silent, watching as Kro walked around the kitchen. Just like before, nothing was out of place; Gil had made sure to put away any extras of anything. There wasn't another plate at the table, there wasn't another mug in the sink. Nothing that would give him the impression that someone else was there.

"Quite a beautiful thing, she is," Kro chuckled to himself. He ran his fingers along the wire looped around into the shape of a noose. "You can see why I'm looking for her, can't you? I don't see why you're fighting so hard when you clearly haven't sold her anywhere, either."

"Sold her?"

"Waiting for the right offer?" Kro postulated, skipping right over the horrific implication he was making. "I thought about calling some aquariums for it, but they would probably just pull the 'animal cruelty' card. But some of those water parks with the whale shows are still up and running. Maybe the big one in Florida would pay the right amount for her."

Gil gripped his fists so tight they ached. "You...were going to sell her?--to an amusement park?"

"Oh, did I hurt your feelings?" Kro laughed in his face. "Come now, Gil--a catch like her could make us billionaires!"

"Us?" Gil raised a brow at him.

"Look," Kro raised his hands to him, although the wire noose stayed around his elbow. "I know you're hiding her. I'm willing to make a deal. You surrender her to me, and I'll split the money for her with you. I'll even give you the five hundred thousand reward; consider it a deposit."

"I don't want your money."

"Everyone says that before they have it," Kro shrugged, still convinced that Gil had a price, all he had to do was find it. "You're telling me you're happy to drag yourself out to sea everyday of your life?"

"What I'm telling you-" Gil moved forward, grasping Kro's shirt this time. "Is that I'm not going to let you hunt down Thena for sport."

"Oh," Kro's eyes sparked in amusement. "You've fallen for the fish?"

"She's not a fish."

"A whale, then?" Kro cackled. "Or is she more like a dolphin?"

"She's a person, Kro," Gil released him, his eyes darting out the window towards his dock. "And she's back from work."

"What?"

Gil walked out of the house, freely ignoring the wall of muscle Kro had brought as backup. He continued his easy pace, even as Kro shot out of the house and ran ahead of him.

Sersi guided Gil's dinghy to the dock at a gentle pace. She secured its knot easily, although she had to grip the sides as Thena shot to her feet and scrambled out of the boat and onto the dock, "careful!"

Kro's jaw dropped as he watched Thena walk over to them, a dress floating around her legs, her feet bare and plain to see. "How-"

"Hey, Sweetheart," Gil smiled, although Kro would never be able to perceive the tentative nature of it. He breathed out a shaky sigh as Thena ran to him, allowing him to fold his arms around her. He buried his nose in her hair, "I missed you."

"This is impossible!" Kro snarled at them. He raised a hand to inspect the mirage before him but Gil pulled her closer to him.

"Hey man, you can't just touch women you don't know," Gil chided as he would if they were in a petty squabble in the pub. He grasped Thena's shoulder.

"Kro," Sersi greeted rather dryly as she also walked up the dock towards them. "I see you've beaten yet another illegal poaching charge."

"What did you do?" Kro turned on her, ready to tower over her as he pleased.

"Hey!" Gil moved to block his sister from the monster of a man, only for Thena to beat him to it.

Sersi smiled as the blonde planted herself next to her. "I see you've met my colleague, Thena. She works at one of the marine wildlife posts in the Bering Sea. It's awfully lonely out there, but her year long outpost is finally over."

"Her what?"

Sersi held Thena's hands in hers. "I was so happy to be able to visit her and Gil here. I even met her friends."

"Friends?"

"Oi!"

Kro leaned over the side of the dock, further aghast at the two people seated in Gil's dinghy. One was a lithe little woman, her legs stretched out at odd angles in soft looking yoga pants, and a menacing grin on her face. The other was a man, with a blanket over his legs but with boots and a heavy jacket on. "Wh-"

Ikaris glared up at him, "you givin' my sister a hard time up 'ere?"

Kro looked from the two in the boat back to Thena, whose legs were also undeniably there and functional. "This is impossible."

"What is?" Thena tilted her head at him (worsening Gil and Sersi's underlying anxiety about the whole thing).

Kro stood, walking back over to them. Gil and Sersi flanked her but Thena held his eyes. "I know it was you. You looked at me just like this when you were in that net."

Gil's fist tightened at Thena's back.

Thena tipped her chin up, though, a far ways away from cowering from him. She withheld herself from hissing at him, though. "Are you in the habit of stringing up human women in nets?"

"That sounds awfully suspicious, Kro," Sersi asserted as firmly as she could. "I would hate to have to tell people that you're an entirely different kind of predator."

"I wouldn't," Gil added.

Kro backed up just a step, but it was a step in the right direction. "I will get you for this. I don't know how you did it, but I will find you again, and you won't get away next time."

"What the fuck is wrong with you?" Gil shook his head at him, "don't say stuff like that to people!"

Kro turned, storming back up the hill and towards the far side of the island where he had parked his own motorboat. The wall of muscle followed him, seeing they wouldn't be transporting anything.

Gil and Sersi both let out positively gut-deep sighs of relief. Thena blinked at both of them.

Sersi held onto Thena, her knees wobbling, "that's enough excitement for one lifetime."

"I can't take this," Gil gasped on Thena's other shoulder.

"Is he gone?!"

Thena smiled letting the fretful siblings lean on each other and ride out the adrenaline in their systems. She leaned over to look down at her own fretful sibling. "He's gone."

Ikaris threw himself in the water without a second of hesitation. They never did manage to get pants on him, since his legs were just barely formed enough anyway. He had protested that he wasn't exactly given much time to learn and practice!

Makkari also descended back to the water and let her legs form back into her red scaled tail. She resurfaced, looking around her at the remains of the yoga pants Thena had wrestled onto her. Sorry.

Sersi rejoined Thena, waving, "don't worry, they served their purpose. Thank you for all your help."

Makkari smiled and waved at the rather funny and agreeable human. She had enjoyed the boat ride over chatting with Sersi. She looked at Ikaris, well, Loverboy?

He hissed at her. Thena raised her brows as he looked at Sersi in a peculiar way. "Thank you for helping to protect my sister. I am indebted to you."

Ikaris and Makkari both swam off, not particularly eager to stick around.

Sersi waved until they disappeared from view. She looked at Thena, "he seems rather nice."

Thena gave her a positively baffled look, "Ikaris?"

Gil rolled his eyes behind her, "speaking of rather nice, how is Dane?"

"Oh!" Sersi shot to her feet, dusting off her knees with a sheepish smile, "h-he's good--asked me to say hello."

"Hm," Gil smirked at his flustered sister, although she swatted at him for it. He wrapped an arm around her shoulder, forcing her to endure a side hug from him, "thanks for coming, Serse."

Sersi sighed from within the coil of his arm, "of course I would! I can't believe you didn't tell me about this sooner!"

"Thinks he can handle everything by himself."

Sersi grinned at Gil's look of devastation at Thena's jab. She pulled Thena into a hug, "he does, doesn't he?"

"Stick around, join us for dinner," Gil gave his sister's shoulder a little pat. He nodded behind him at the house.

Sersi looked between the two and nodded, heading up to the cabin by herself.

Gil, finally alone with Thena, sighed. He tilted his head, trying to get a look at her, "Angelfish?"

She looked down at her feet, wiggling her toes. "Your plan worked."

"Well," he sighed, daring to stretch out a hand to her. She let him take hers, and immediately she felt some of his muscles loosen. "Bringing Sersi with you was what really made it work."

Thena accepted the truth of it silently, waiting for more.

Gil moved closer, "I'm so sorry, Thena. I should have asked you from the beginning what you wanted to do. Neither of us would have had to go through this."

Thena swayed on the spot. She had been waiting to hear those words, but her chest tightened, like after she would let Ikaris swim into a particularly dangerous set of caves. "I...understand why you did what you did."

Gil pulled her closer by the waist, fully holding her in his arms. She sighed into his chest, having missed the warmth of him, the scent of his shirt, the solidity of his arms around her. "Still, you were right, and I won't forget that."

Thena happily melted into him, having gotten the apology she wanted. "I missed you too."

Gil nuzzled into her, "Angelfish, you have no idea how much I missed you. It's so lonely here; I don't know how I lived out here before you."

Thena soaked up his affectionate words like a happy little seasponge. She purred, "poor, lonely Mister Human."

"I know, I know," he chuckled, not separating from her much to look at her as he spoke. "No more, though. I want you here, with me."

Thena dashed her eyes to the end of the dock coyly, "what if I rather liked being able to swim freely again?"

"Then you can," Gil rushed to promise, burying his face in her neck again. "I'll keep a light at the end of the dock and I'll keep your safe box stocked for you, always. But-"

"Gil," Thena laughed, tipping his head up again. He looked frightened, "I want to be here, too--with you."

He pressed a kiss to her forehead, and she inhaled at the sensation she had been dreaming of feeling for the last few days. She blinked as he moved his lips from her forehead to her cheek. It felt different, but in kind of a nice way.

"Come on," he said gently, holding her hand ever so delicately in his, like when she was first getting used to being on land. "I'm making your favourites, and there are plenty of sardine snacks."

Thena happily joined him in walking up the hill, hand in hand. She caught Sersi's head - clearly watching them from the kitchen window - ducking down to avoid them. She felt her cheeks warm.

"I was going to go get some mangoes," Gil started, and she immediately looked at him with excitement. He offered a sheepish shrug, "but I thought...maybe you could come with me to get them?"

"Go to the market again?" Thena bounced on her toes (she had come a long way in her balance on land).

"Yep," he grinned at her enthusiasm, pulling her hand up to his lips. "We can take our time and enjoy the day in town, I can show you some more of the sights. What do you think?"

Thena leaned up, mimicking what Gil had done previously and touched her lips to his cheek. It turned a charming pink colour; maybe the nerves in the body could tell when lips touched different parts? "It sounds perfect!"

#Thenamesh Mermaid AU #pt 3 #the happy resolution!#because we all know I wasn't going to break them up #thank you so much for this amazing set of asks!!!!#but man did writing that part two hurt...#things work out though!!!#as soon as Thena left with Makkari and Ikaris #well immediately she went and curled up and lamented her dumb human boy troubles #then she immediately went out to find Sersi #poor Sersi just trying to have lunch at the aquatic centre where she works #gets scared to death by a familiar head of hair swimming up to the edge of the rockwall #Thena tells her about everything and Sersi is like my brother is dumb #here's what we're going to do #to his credit Gil is blind with worry okay?#anyway Sersi is like can you show Ikaris and Makkari how to make legs?#THena's like they might not be good but we can try #Sersi is the one who brings the clothes from the lost and found for them to wear #she throws a blanket over Ikaris since his legs aren't right and jesus he has to wear something #anyway she gets to visit with her brother and arguably one of her best friends and practically her sister-in-law #he's so happy now that Thena is back #it's a little manic at first but the more he can feel Thena settling back into their shared routine at home the more he relaxes #Sersi and her salad witness the whole thing

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valeriefauxnom · 8 months

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If Only We Could Lead Painless Futures

So, I wrote this in two days, and it's kinda supposed to be set in what would be a collection of 'bad ends other worlds experienced in the course of all the canonical multiverse in Dragalia', but uh, yeah, it quickly grew out of hand and I'm not sure I'd want to publish it right now on AO3, so for now, I'm putting it here. Of course, being written in two days, it might be a bit less polished than anything else I'm writing or have written (I promise I'm still working on Control, Fundamentals, and Scaling!!)

Being a bad end, it's understandably not a happy read. Warnings, if I were to put this on my AO3, are only 'major character death.' That being said, hopefully someone might gain some enjoyment out of my sad nonsense.

So here's a 5.5k angsty oneshot I have no idea where it came from.

“Let me through!” A voice all but yelled at the door, before the ornate wooden doors all but swung open. The guards instantly readied their polearms, swords, or other weapons of choice, and he laid a protective arm in front of Leonidas’ chest while his other hand drew near his sword.

But the intruder happened to be none other than a messenger of the kingdom, clad in the blue and green outfit that heralded their order. “Your Majesty! Urgent news- an attack on the Sacris Lucitania National Cathedral- there was a bomb-!"

"What?!" He roared, already drawing parallels to the similar attacks against the royal family a year back, "Get the capital guard and medics there as soon as their legs can carry them. You summon my children inside the castle and order them to a safe spot-"

Then he stopped, wind suddenly vanishing from his chest as he did a quick headcount of where his children were. Leonidas was here, learning firsthand and by example how meetings could go. Chelle was likely in the gardens for tea break and private study. Valyx in studies, Emile right there with him. Though the twins still were young enough to not have particularly intensive studies and plenty of play, today the High Priestess had wanted to further get a gauge on Zethia's aptitude for the holy magics. She and the other clergy agreed she might even have the power to become the Auspex, one day. He had permitted it, under heavy guard, outside of the castle’s safety as she were and untrained in self-defense.

She was supposed to be there, in the national cathedral, right now.

Sensing the opening, the messenger continued. "Sir Harle and company is already on scene. But Princess Zethia- early reports are she was injured to an unknown degree and is being brought back here as we speak. There's no other signs of imminent attack as it appears targeted to the cathedral. This is all current news, Your Majesty."

Sweet little Zethia, injured by a bomb?

…He still couldn’t take the chance with the rest of his children.

"Go to a safe room, Leonidas, now. And don't leave until I call you, understood?"

"Father, I could find Chelle and bring her-" His eldest son was taking the immediate chaos very well, coldly collected even at the news of his baby sister.

"No. Go." It wasn't a matter of valuing one of his children over the others, but simply getting any of them to safety as quickly as possible if this were a mass attack on the royal family.

Thankfully his boy didn't choose to argue any more, fleeing out a back door. He could only pray that the boy would heed his instructions.

Why this, why now? And not two years since Phares' death. It seemed as if the world had conspired to rob him of his children's joy, health and very lives of late.

Until Zethia arrived, though, he had to maintain composure as King Aurelius, the Sage-King.

---

It hurt.

It had been fun, playing up the shy and quiet side to Zethia when she was with strangers in a bid to stop himself from revealing his true identity. The guards hadn't suspected a thing, leading him around the cathedral by the hand and chuckling about how quiet the twin princess was compared to her outgoing twin brother.

But as they approached the main altar (bigger than him!) he started to hear a strange clicking noise. It kinda sounded like a clock, but that didn't make sense. Leonidas once whispered to him during some boring long assembly they all had to go to that they never kept any clocks in church to make you forget what time it was so they could 'sink their greedy claws into the party...itiners’? hearts'. Whatever 'partyitioners' were, it had earned an elbow from Chelle.

He still didn't know what partyitioners were, but it sounded fun, and he had locked his big brother's words into his mind.

So what was the ticking?

"What's that ticking?" He asked while fiddling with Zethia’s ribbons on her dress, for interrupting the guards' and church peoples' talk. He wasn’t supposed to interrupt adults, he had learned, even if most didn’t seem to mind it.

"Ticking? I don't hear anything, kid." Said one. He didn't wait for Euden to catch up when guiding him, which Euden found rude. Besides, why wasn’t he calling him ‘Your Hi-nis’? That was apparently important, Chelle had told him when he complained nobody besides his family seemed to call him by his name. He liked his name!

"Youth certainly have active imaginations, no? She must be so used to the clocks in the busy castle that she’s filling in the silence. Quite precious, really, how well they learn about the environment," added a holy woman, "Come now, Your Highness, we'll need to head up to that altar right there to see how strong your mana is! Isn't that exciting?"

Uh-oh. He didn't know much about mana at all. He was going to get caught if there was a test. Maybe he should've asked Zethia about it before agreeing to switch places, but as soon as he had seen his twin upset with how much she didn't want to go today with strangers outside the castle, all questions vanished from his mind.

All they had to do was wear the other's clothes and go about their day. Surely they could get through one day without anyone suspecting?

That was what led him here, in Zethia's place. All in all, it had been pretty fun until then. He got to go outside the castle! See all the people out there!

But right as they started getting closer to the big rock thing they called an altar, everything got way too loud.

And then it hurt.

Thankfully, all his children were quickly found and taken to a safe room to be heavily guarded. All that is, save Zethia, until another messenger relayed that she'd been brought back home.

He took a breath to steady himself. His daughter was still alive.

With all haste, he moved to the private infirmary where they would have moved his daughter to.

It was easy to identify the room where his poor daughter had been taken, by the hustle of healers and doctors in and out the room as yet more stood just outside. The red dots coloring a path on the stone also caught his attention, but he ignored it.

“Okay, looks like Sain’s healing fixed the ear bleeding but not much else.”

"Why isn't the rest of the bleeding stopping?"

“Different cause, I’d wager. The blast force itself caused this, but whatever is making these damn puncture wounds so stubborn is another matter.”

Came the hints of discussion he heard as he raced over.

"Your Majesty! We're doing our best, but to put it harshly, we can't have people getting in the way. Please let us work and we'll call you as soon as we can."

"I'll stand in a corner, just please- I need to see my child-!" He all but pleaded.

Swallowing in disapproval, the doctor ushered him into the corner. His eyes quickly found his child, looking so small on such a big bed meant for adults. The castle hardly had any children in it, after all, why prepare valuable infirmary beds for a veritable nonentity? Most injuries were training accidents among soldiers, anyways.

…But something wasn't right.

Then it hit him after only a second.

This was not Zethia, despite what all reason would tell him. Something deep in his fatherly senses told him that this was not Zethia… but her twin. He knew all his children well, and had no trouble distinguishing between the twins.

The twins- they've done this before, but not recently- I thought they'd grown out of it. That means Zethia must actually be safe with the rest of her siblings…

Regardless of what he thought, Euden lay unconscious as several healers and doctors did their best to treat his child.

Namely, trying to bandage those small puncture wounds all over his son's small body, despite the fact they seemed to bleed through all too quickly and forcing them to add more on top of the ever-growing number of layers.

The only small mercy thus far was that no fragments seemed to have struck his head or hit vital organs in any serious capacity. He simply was bleeding in too many places.

“Doesn’t seem like there was any smoke damage involved, he’s breathing fine.” Muttered one to his cohorts as he checked his son’s breathing.

“Yeah, it seems like it was more of a projectile bomb. Vicious in their own way, and if we can’t get this bleeding stopped, the kid's going to die of exsanguination.”

After the currently attending professionals realized that the King was in the room, that he had indeed heard what they said, he was all but forced out so they could work in peace.

—

When he finally was summoned over again by a doctor, her face was grim. “Your Majesty…the situation is not looking good. Despite everything we tried, he won’t stop bleeding. You said you’re sure he doesn’t have a blood disorder, especially a clotting one? Has he ever bled for longer than you think he should for minor injuries?”

“No, none of my children do, nor is there a history of it in the family.” He recalled Euden’s tendency to acquire small injuries, and none of them gave any hint there might be something wrong.

Another person, this one a healer-mage, walked up to the doctor. “We just got the analysis done regarding the shrapnel extracted as a sample. It’s been carefully warped, mana-wise, to interrupt certain functions of the human body. Specifically, it’s designed to absorb all the mana that would otherwise aid in clotting. That’s why he’s been bleeding so long without a sign of pause or abatement.”

How heinous, not only to construct a bomb and plant it in a church, but to go to so much trouble to make it all that more deadly…And now his child was suffering for it.

“What can be done, then, now that we know why he hasn’t stopped bleeding?” Aurelius asked, looking for the endgame in this where his son was alright.

“...We’ll do our absolute best to go about restoring the proper mana flows in his body, but with so many pieces lodged inside him, he very well might not make it with how long he’s been bleeding already.”

With that simultaneous hope and fear, he was shooed away again. Left to wait, he briefly had the instinct to go back and do paperwork as a distraction to do something productive so he didn’t pace a hole in the floor, but he dismissed that idea. Instead, he went to visit his other children to update them on the situation. Though their reactions ranged from shock to numbness to utter terror, all were physically okay for now, and so back to waiting he went.

—

The second time he was summoned after being shooed away, Aurelius knew it wasn’t for a good outcome by the scared faces fearing retribution as he approached.

“Your Majesty…there’s no elegant way to say this besides we’re losing him. He’s continuing to lose just enough blood he can’t replenish, even though we’ve stopped the worst of it now. He most likely won’t last the night. But the prince has woken up recently, and we’ve already given him painkillers. Please, go visit with him.”

The room felt colder, all of a sudden. He was losing a third son, again to horrible bouts of luck.

“Could he be moved, then, to his room? I want my boy to be as content as possible.” Surely his bedroom would be more comfortable than the cold environs of an infirmary.

“It’s…possible. We can get on it, if you truly wish. He’s still bleeding, though, Your Majesty, if you don’t want him potentially making a mess of things, then I would suggest-”

“Do it. I don’t care about messes. If he’s dying, let the boy do so in peace without making him feel he’s doing wrong. And send a messenger to my children, let them know to come to Euden’s room and why.” Other kings and queens throughout history may well have thrown a fit at the idea of a ‘royal room’ being dirtied and heeded her words, but Aurelius would not. Decorum was important. His children’s safety and happiness, even more so.

With that, Euden was carefully gathered up and placed on a stretcher to be carried upstairs. The boy was confused about the whole thing, peppering Aurelius with question after question as he tried to make sense of the matter, why he was being carried upstairs, -that was weird-, why it hurt, why why why.

He’d always been an inquisitive lad eager to explore the world, so much so that most of the times Euden wound up in trouble were due to his curiosity leading him to do things that weren’t approved of. This time, though, Aurelius had no true answer for him that he could voice, so he gave half-truths about how he had been hurt and was being looked after and needed to rest now in a bid to get him to settle down and not aggravate his wounds.

After they made it up, Aurelius himself deposited his son into his softer bed and dismissed most of the staff, save one to occasionally check in on him.

“Father…it hurts. They gave me something gross and said it would help, but it’s not.” Euden admitted, fidgeting slightly. Aurelius laid a hand lightly over him to still him, even if most of the shrapnel had been removed in their attempts to restore his mana flow. No, Euden would not accidentally drive the metal pieces into organs or harm himself further that way, but he should save his energy.

“...It will be over soon, my boy. You won’t hurt again.”

“Really?” That perked his son up, as much as he could, half-lidded eyes still drowsy springing back to life with hope.

And so, even though it felt sick to deceive such pure, trusting innocence, Aurelius fell deeper into the truthful lies he had started spinning to his dying child as he awaited his other children's arrival.

“Yes, after today you won’t hurt at all. And tomorrow, there will be a celebration, and you’ll be the center of attention.”

“A party? For me? What did I do? I thought I was in trouble- for being Zethia…” His meaning was clear even with the slight error in word choice, and Aurelius wasn’t going to go about correcting his son’s speech now. He tucked a blanket over him instead and watched him nestle into the softness with a small smile.

“No, you’re not in trouble. We’re going to be celebrating you, after all.” He most definitely would have been in trouble in any other case, but it all was of little import in the face of the impending death that otherwise would have likely killed his sister. The only important thing now was keeping him happy and comfortable.

“...Will there be cake? The strawberry one like Mother made?” He asked hesitantly, as if voicing this request would cancel the party altogether for being perceived as demanding, something Aurelius had done his best to ensure his children weren’t. But nothing save direct divine intervention at this point would halt that celebration tomorrow.

After all, it would be his son’s wake. A celebration of the bright little boy whose light was snuffed too soon in the course of silly childhood antics that led to him assuming what would have been his twin’s fate. Oh, if only he hadn’t permitted them to go in the first place…but the past could not be changed.

“Yes, one just like it, and all your favorite foods,” he swallowed, before thinking the better of it, “...and if you want, I will bend the rules so you can have some soon.” If that was one last thing he could do for Euden and to assuage his guilt that his son would not truly be present for the promised celebration, he would do anything to make it reality.

“Mmm…that sounds good, but I’m not hungry. I’m…tired.”

He recognized that for the sign it was: his blood loss was approaching enough to herald the kind of unconsciousness that would lead to death, and his ever-so-slightly increasing pallor only backed up this idea. At once he felt the desire to urge Euden to stay awake, for his siblings to have at least a last conscious moment with him, and soothe him into falling into that sleep he’d likely never wake from.

“That’s good, you’ll need all your energy for tomorrow. But your siblings are almost here to- to say goodnight to you, do you think you can stay up just a touch longer?” He did his best to speak calmly, to keep a waver out of his voice.

“I can try…why are they coming here? They never come into my room to say goodnight.” Evidently he was still cogent enough to notice the abnormality.

“To say goodnight, as I said. They-”

He never got to finish this idea, because the door swung open and his children rushed in.

“Father! Surely it’s not true-” They cried.

“Shh. We’re here to say goodnight to Euden, and yelling won’t help him go to sleep, understood?”

They did, judging by the way they froze to look over to their brother at last, then back to Aurelius. They always were smart children, and ones already too familiar with death and the words people used to talk around it. He shuffled a bit to make more room on the one side of his bed for some of the children to gather around. Zethia took the spot right next to him, latching onto Aurelius’ arm mutely. She still was in the tunic and shorts Euden preferred to romp about in.

“Did- did you guys know there’s going to be a party tomorrow?! There’s going to be cake!” Euden exclaimed, before he sobered a bit, “...Oh. Was it supposed to be a surprise?”

“Is that so?” Leonidas looked instead at Aurelius with a weighty gaze across the bed, already putting together the true meaning behind his words.

“Yeah! You should get to sleep soon too, so we can have fun together. It’s not fair you get to stay up so much later.”

“I think we’ll be up for a while longer yet, dear. How are you doing?” Chelle said, right there with Leonidas in understanding.

Indeed, it was still daytime, night long yet to come (and oh, what a long night it would be, Aurelius predicted). To Euden, though, who still wasn’t quite perfect in reading the clocks with the old Draconic numerals all throughout the castle, all he understood was that he was tired and that when he was tired it was usually nighttime and time to sleep.

“I’m…okay. Tired. It still hurts to move, a bit. But it’ll be better tomorrow.”

“Euden,” Valyx said, before chewing his lip in contemplation, eventually proffering his precious stuffed animal bear he’d brought as one of his long-treasured gifts Aurelius had given him years ago, “Here…maybe this’ll help.”

He briefly pulled back the cover a bit, eyes darting to the bandages and gauze all across his little brother’s chest, as he put the bear into Euden’s arm, and his brother wrapped a protective, slow arm around it to keep it to his chest.

“Th-thank you. It’s soft…and warm…It’s cold in here…”

It wasn’t. Still in late spring as they were, the temperatures were perfect, not too high or too low even for younger children like the twins.

“Put on another blanket, then!” Emile said, as if it was obvious. Not yet mature enough to fully understand all the principles of tact or that Euden wasn’t feeling well or motivated enough to rectify such minor woes himself now. Maybe Aurelius should have explained better his condition privately, with it now largely being hidden under blankets and bandages. At Euden’s lack of movement, he sighed and fetched a blanket, throwing it over him casually, but his face betrayed his comprehension of the implications of Euden’s words.

“Thank you, Emile…” His voice became a touch softer, “Zethia, Father said we’re not in trouble!”

She jolted at Aurelius’ side at being called out. He nudged her forward. No doubt this had to be the worst for her, and he didn’t want her growing up with such deep regrets that she never properly said goodbye to her twin.

“O-oh, really?” She looked back at him, and as he nodded, Zethia turned her attention back to Euden giving a weak smile.

“No, we’re not. So maybe we can do it- again- soon…oops. Shouldn’ta said…that…” He managed between breaths growing increasingly laborious, as he realized how he just betrayed his ‘plot’.

“Euden!” She wailed as she leaned in to hug him before Aurelius could remind her to be careful.

“Ah!” He huffed in pain, prompting her to back off and gingerly take his bandaged hand as if it were fragile glass. Aurelius paid only a brief glance to the blue-purple tint to his fingertips.

“I’m sorry- I’m so sorry! Because of me, you’re-” She started, unable to finish. Like Aurelius, the eight-year old was unable to fully accept the fact her twin was dying, or likewise share with him this understanding.

“It’s alright…I’ll be fine…”

The room fell into mournful silence, then, amid the occasional sniffles from some of his children, trying to hide their emotions and the running lie they were now complicit in presenting to their brother. Euden paid this no mind, as he seemed to alternate between looking at them and staring off, absent-minded. Aurelius almost was wondering if he was about to drift off for good. That is, until he spoke again, in a daze.

“...Where's...Phares? Haven't seen him… in a while.” He gasped, breathing yet more ragged as his eyes flicked about his room in search.

Aurelius swallowed, again thrust into a matter he did not know how to address. Euden seemed to have forgotten that Phares was long dead of wyrmscale, but bringing that fact to light was something he didn’t wish to do, either.

“He’s still in the castle. You’ll see him soon. In fact, you’ll be the first to see him, so be sure to give our regards,” Leonidas stepped up to continue the lies Aurelius had begun, disturbingly even for such a young teenager as he was, until he continued, “Tell…tell him Leonidas says hello, alright? Can you manage that much, little brother?”

“Tell him yourself! I shouldn’t…have to do all your work…”

Despite it all, the fundamental misunderstanding going on between Leonidas and Euden sparked a choked bark of laughter from several of them, Leonidas included. The unexpected humor of Euden, -eight years old, -telling off his teenage eldest brother for any reason with such authority was just too powerful.

“You’d be doing us a great, important favor, Euden. Can you please say hi, for us?”

The others muttered agreements to Chelle’s request. Euden, in turn, murmured something indistinguishable in assent, though it sounded suspiciously like it might have been a drawn out, dramatic ‘fiiiiinnnne’. No doubt this had to be ridiculous to him, who labored under the impression Phares was still alive and the rest of his siblings were being lazy by shoving all their greetings for him to say.

He then blinked, long and slow, like he had to contemplate whether or not to open his eyes again. Regardless of whatever excitement having all his remaining siblings there for him brought to Euden, the fatigue setting in was a losing battle. Aurelius was grateful he’d endured this long to let his siblings talk with him. His children were all fighters. Stubborn, too. Maybe he shouldn’t be surprised.

But no matter how much one fought, some fights were unwinnable, and life was one of them.

It was time for Euden to go to his rest.

"Are you wanting to go to sleep now, Euden? Do you need us to leave so you can fall asleep?" Aurelius asked softly.

"No...I like it when you're with me…but you still haven't said good night…"

"Good night then, my dear son. Rest well. We love you ever so much."

In turn, his children chimed in with their own farewells, one by one.

"Good night, little brother."

"Good night, Euden."

"Sleep well."

"...Good night, you little insect."

"Euden…Thank you! For being my brother." She was half laying across his bed now, right beside him but still careful not to jostle him and hurt him any more.

"No, thank you…for being my twin. See you tomorrow, everyone…love you. Good...night."

With that last shaky exhalation, he fell unconscious, head drooping ever so slightly and closing his eyes. Everyone else gave an unsteady breath after that, too, at some of the tension easing out of the room.

Euden yet lived, though it was doubtful he’d wake before he died. With no way to replenish his blood enough in time, the slow exsanguination would claim him today. They sat (or laid, for Zethia) in contemplative silence for a long, long while, though it felt timeless. Nothing else seemed to matter at this moment.

- - -

…Prince Euden died that night, indeed never waking up again.

It was said that no member of the royal family left that room or slept that night, but none have commented on it or verified such speculation, even years later.

It is a royal custom in Alberia to house the remains of a few close generations in one mausoleum, so that princes and princesses and kings and queens can rest with those they knew. This tradition was followed, the young prince joining his elder brothers who already lay in the small, austere, and yet perfectly upkept mausoleum at the very edges of the royal castle’s memorial garden. Unprecedented was its construction on actual castle territory, previous monarchs directing them quite some distance away so that elaborate structures could be built, but it is said that King Alberius could not stand to be parted at length from any of his children, even the newborn Prince Beren, who lived not a month.

What was once a humble temple to the fragility of the newborn grew all too fast as Prince Phares joined his brother in death some years later from wyrmscale, and Prince Euden not two years after that from what became known as the ‘Dark Day’ among royal parlance in Draconic, from certain Draconic-studied nobles of the time.

The conspirators: violent revolutionists who detested the church’s power over the monarchy in the delicate balance that Alberia has run on since its inception. All conspirators claimed not to have ever intended the monarchy as a target, upon their inevitable incarceration at this grievous offense, but the fact remained that a prince not yet hit double-digits perished from their cruel plot.

All four were summarily executed with greatest dishonor. Some civilians speculated at the time that this was a secret denial of fair trial via pressure from the royal family, but all records of the time seem to indicate a marked indifference to pay any whit of attention to the ones that killed their family member, not even attending said executions, believing them not worth the time of day. No, the abnormally quick trials seemed more to originate from the passive terror of drawing the royal family’s eyes if they delayed judgment too long.

One curiosity remained, between the direction of the royal family and the conspirators, however…Despite the vehement, justified backlash against those that killed a prince…

They’d unintentionally won their ideological war through this martyrdom, no further act required.

- - -

“...It is done, brother,” Zethia said to the monument that marked Euden’s place in the mausoleum, “You can rest easier now, knowing the church won’t cause any more harm to our family through their negligence.”

Oh, they’d kicked and screamed over the course of a decade, but the march of progress would not be stopped. The fact was, the former National Cathedral had failed to properly protect its vaunted halls even knowing a member of the royal family was due to visit. Such a sin was unforgivable, and her twin had died because of it. He’d saved her, and it was her family’s duty to pass on that torch to the next generations. The trusted covenant between the church and state was shattered with that single act of laziness. No longer could the church be a shield for the country if it couldn’t even protect its sovereigns.

So as their rights and deep entanglement in the state slowly bled away (as fitting a death as possible, Zethia believed), first as their jurisdiction over who was exiled and disinherited in the royal family nullified, to the decreasing appearances and backing of the church by her family, she only had grown more sure in her convictions. When both sentiment among nobility and commoners alike was potent enough, and the damning edict passed that henceforth the church was no longer officially endorsed, protected, or provided special rights in the Kingdom of Alberia, her family rejoiced as the priests blustered.

A child had died with more dignity and composure than they had, and theirs was only metaphorical.

She was no longer a child, though, and her work was not done.

Supposedly, the Auspex of Grams was starting to fuss at the church’s separation from the state, and sending letter after letter demanding their reinstatement, ‘to remain holy in the eyes of Ilia’. Leonidas had scoffed and passed her the letter with a smirk, knowing well she was the perfect answer to the whining.

After all, why pay any mind to a ‘Goddess’ who would permit such cruelties in the world? Her elder brothers, snatched away all too soon from the world, none justly. Beren, for no offense other than his birth, Phares, for happening to develop wyrmscale (and, as Leonidas later regaled, stopped from consulting ‘heretical’ texts that nonetheless may have helped him by the very same church), and Euden, killed whilst visiting one of Her holy places.

Thus, she was set to ‘negotiate’ with the representatives of the Northern church and its supporting countries soon regarding the international incident brewing, and Zethia had quite a few choice words for them. Chelle would support from afar, her kittens told to inform Zethia of any plot against her as well as provide her with unflattering snippets the Northern Church might not like to have revealed to the public. Valyx, too, would be sending along a contingent of his elite troops to help guard her, though she was more than capable with the sword now.

It’d been a needed outlet, after Euden’s death. Something to direct her efforts to, and something she had more than enough support in the form of Leonidas and Valyx helping her learn. Euden had always remarked how cool swords were when they were kids, and it served an additional way to honor him, just as the miniature capelet he hated wearing at formal ceremonies that she used as a decorative sash was or the bear coat of arms Valyx used in inspiration of the teddy bear marked with a single drop of blood that had worked through his bandages, that day.

Even Emile was purportedly scheming something, alluded to per Chelle. She suspected an elaborate propaganda campaign collaboration with Chelle and/or artistic masterpiece to drive hearts and minds of the northern lands away from their church, but would let him keep the surprise.

It would serve a wonderful gift whenever it came to fruition; she would not let her curiosity spoil the wonder. A pick-me-up, if the Northern Church proved too aggravating. Regardless, they were not walking in unprepared. Northern countries often liked to pretend they were morally supreme from the ‘spoiled cur’ that was Alberia, given all it needed resource-wise and allowed to thrive, but they were about to learn that just because the land was bountiful did not mean they were complacent in their might.

Were the northern representatives truly so obstinate and hostile to Alberia’s increasing departure from the faith, they were fully prepared to wage war against the entirety of North Grastea combined, and they would win. It was just a matter if said countries saw sense or not, soon.

“...I’ll be back soon, Brother. Wait for me until then. …Goodnight.”

She rose, before briefly touching the well-worn rock they all seemed to use as a place of contact. Her round of the family crypts complete, Zethia parted, but not before brightening the candles burning perpetually over the tombs with light and fire magic.

Zethia didn’t see how the one dimmer candle she’d missed cast a unique shadow of what looked like a boy on the wall, watching her go with a faint aura of sadness.

#dragalia lost fic #dragalia lost #I've no idea where this came from #but the urge to share this nonsense is too strong #'King Dad is very King Sad' -my best friend upon reading snippets of this I sent when writing this. 'Uuuughhhh feels' -also my best friend #he's cursed to lose like at least 3 kids before himself it seems sometimes. I'm just doing my contracted duty I swear officer #alternative title: 'Leo corrupts his siblings eventually as they all are unhealthily mourning and probably starts a continental war' yaaay #angst

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