First We Feel, Then We Fall

Come up with a pair of people who contrast in a pleasing way

Make them really really really want each other

Give them a great reason they must not, under any circumstances, fuck

That this violence is a lasting legacy of the ancient elves. That Solas tries to use new violence to make up for the wounds from old violence and fails and that Rook instead forces or convinces him to not only keep the Veil in place, but tie to his own life.

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Also, she annotated the book with pink sparkle pen to show me her favorite bits and thank me for specifically helping her in certain places.

Amazon US: https://www.amazon.com/Symphony-Starlight-Amy-Zed-ebook/dp/B0DN6Q5C4H

Amazon CA: https://www.amazon.ca/gp/aw/d/B0DN6Q5C4H/

Did you know that most self-published books never sell more than 100 copies? Yeah, that’s a horrible statistic. But Amy is SO close to breaking that number.

I've been thinking though of how Spite would take the blood magic/mind manipulation but specifically though. We do get that fun line at the end game about "You. Hurt. Rook."

But especially when Rook first reveals the mind control to Lucanis? Especially a romanced Lucanis?

Mages using blood magic to warp your very nature is not only a real and intense source of danger for spirits, something they maybe understand even better than mortals, it is a trauma Spite has specifically endured.

Venatori Blood mages pulled Determination unwillingly through the Fade, imprisoned it in Lucanis, and for all Spite seems set in keeping its new name, that was a major source of trauma for it.

Now Pride is somehow also a blood mage and has used Blood Magic to entrap Rook and to alter their mind enough to make them fit into the locks of the Regret Prison. Literally trying to change their sense of self.

Rook, who Spite trusts more than any other human, even Lucanis, who Lucanis loves, who Spite loves in so much as an embodiment of Spite can love, and Pride has tried to hurt them and trap them and change them the way Spite was hurt and trapped and changed. No matter how confusing mortal emotions and pains and existence are that is something Spite can understand and dread/resent.

I've seen a bunch of posts talking about Lucanis being demisexual ever since Mary Kirby mentioned it on her social media. So adding my own contribution is probably superfluous. BUT it is fun (for me at least!) to think about this scene in the context of my own demisexuality - particularly the moment where Rook touches Lucanis.

Physical touch - even intimate touch - doesn't really do much for me. I can feel it physically, obviously, but I don't really feel anything. In a worst-case scenario, I can feel actively repulsed. So when someone touches me and I do feel something, it is absolutely mind-blowing.

For example, I had a friend who I'd known since school - always just friends. But then in our early 20s, we started climbing together multiple times a week and got really very close. One day, when I'd just started a climb, he reached out and touched me on my flank to correct my positioning - something he'd done a hundred times before - and it FELT LIKE I WAS ON FIRE. I'm pretty sure I immediately fell off the wall. I can't remember when I started to feel more for this friend but I will never forget the moment he touched me and my whole body tingled.