IKA

@optimisticgrey tagged me over a month ago 😬 (sorry babe) but here is something I am working on. Following on from my Lae'zel prequel, and inspired by the Astarion book announcement...

Here is a snippet of my prequel story for the person who deserves it most, the babe of frontiers.

"You do not lie to me,” Ulder said. “Do you understand?”

“Yes, sir.”

“Laziness can be trained out of you. Lying cannot.”

Wyll stayed silent.

“There is nothing more frustrating than wasted potential,” his father went on. “I see it every day. Strong recruits. Bright futures. All squandered.” His voice hardened. “Because they will not listen. Because they will not learn.”

“I want to learn,” Wyll said, the words escaping before he could stop them. He looked up, meeting his father’s eyes.

“There are no shortcuts to victory.”

“I know.”

“I will not have you expecting an easy life because you are my son.”

“I know.”

“Everything you become, you will earn.” Ulder gestured around the room. “I had none of this. Not your comforts. Not your advantages. I was a blacksmith’s boy in the Lower City. I practiced swordsmanship with a worn-down poker.”

“I know,” Wyll said again, bold enough to roll his eyes“I know.”

Ulder’s jaw tightened. His foot struck the dragon miniature, and Ansur, Heart of the Gate, flew across the room, shattering into broken little pieces against the far wall.

Wyll’s vision blurred, and he blinked hard, willing the tears back.

“You know very little.”

Pairing: Andarateia Cantori x Viago De Riva

Tags: 18+, smut, post-Veilguard, glove kink, masquerade ball

Preview: Viago's fingers lingered on hers, tracing the length of her glove. "These are new."

Teia slipped closer, felt the hitch of his breath against her hair. "Good eye." They were dark as shadow, the ends flaring like petals at her wrist. Another deliberate choice for the evening.

He cleared his throat just a fraction too loudly. "Not what I would have expected with such a bold choice of dress."

"Oh I know." She let her answer fall as slow and surely as blood from the tip of a blade. "They match what's underneath."

The heat that spread under his mask was her first victory of the evening. It was not quite a blush, but still a colour that only belonged to her. Maker how she'd missed it.

He turned her hand in a slow caress of leather on lace. "Is that so?"

She reached up and pulled one curl from his perfectly styled hold. A line tested. Pushed. The edge of another breath followed as her forefinger relearned the caress past his beard, his cravat, down to the centre of his shirt.

AKA: I finally finished my masquerade fic. Please enjoy some gratuitous glove porn.

my second commission of merrick from @alsoika

And those who slept, the ancient ones, awoke, For their dreams had been devoured By a demon that prowled the Fade As a wolf hunts a herd of deer. Taking first the weakest and frailest of hopes, And when there was nothing left, Destroying the bright and bold By subtlety and ambush and cruel arts.