i'm so in love with essek thelyss i can't

For that particular vintage of hurt-comfort fics with hurt caleb and protective essek with a proportionate (or disproportionate and very hinged) response and im like smiling-cat-in-front-of-plate-of-pancakes dot jpeg

Please check fic warnings as appropriate before reading. General warnings for blood/injury, descriptions of canon-typical violence etc. The Night Where Dark Stars Rise by onyxshinagami

An unknown magician tries to ensnare Caleb. Essek reminds the fool why he was once a Shadowhand.

In the hope of open hands by SkyScribbles

Essek extends a hand towards the base of Caleb’s neck. Then freezes, as if he doesn't quite dare to touch. His fingertips hover over Caleb’s throat, a breath away from the pale streak of a scar, the place where a Scourger’s shiv struck home and sprayed blood over the walls of the Dungeon of Penance. ‘I did this,’ Essek says. His voice is quiet enough to scrape in his throat. ‘I allowed this to happen.’

bow shock by SaltCore * (AO3-locked)

Adventuring might be behind Caleb, but danger is not. Late in the night, someone comes to settle a score with him on behalf of their mutual teacher. They did not account for Caleb playing host to someone with very strong opinions about that, and the magic to back them up.

Paper, Ink by aeli_kindara

“I would like you to know me,” Caleb says. It feels like a secret. Like the darkest part of him cracked open; all his months and years of hiding, of wrapping his arms and scratching the bindings, of not loving, not loving anything but an unkillable cat — it’s unraveling around him. He feels naked. He feels the way he did the first time Pumat Sol spelled him clean. “I find that — I would like you to know me,” he says, again.

Fear Won't Keep You Safe by athena_crikey

Caleb feels his hair falling heavily over one shoulder, loose at the back. He reaches up, manacle clanking, and feels that Essek has woven braids into his hair on one side, some large and chunky, some thin and delicate. His eyebrows climb and he looks at the drow who seems almost to… blush? “Apologies – you were in pain and I… I do not deal well with being helpless. You can take them out, I know they are not an Empire style.”

of things yet to come by ghostsquidswrites

Wizards kissing at the doorway.

dont ask