a line in the hand

This is an extension on Dragon Age lore! Elves and Humans are able to have children together ("Elf-blooded", which Alistair actually is.) Elf-blooded offspring are functionally Human; in order to make viable offspring cross-species, Elven magic completely represses the Elven genome.

In AMYU, I tweaked this for story drama reasons-- the people with enough magic to make this happen are Elven mages. Ambient Elven magic is generally speaking not enough to reproduce with a Human. Weak mages can make it work, but not so much non-mages.

From the start, Isolde is fully aware (based on interactions with Alienage prostitutes) that she and Emmrich will never be able to have children. Early on, when she figures that Emmrich will be moving on quickly, it doesn't matter much. But later, when she realizes she can actually keep him...

But there's a twist to this lore modification!!! It is possible, in exceptionally rare cases, to produce a Human-blooded child: a sufficiently powerful Human mage has a very slim chance of successfully reproducing with an Elf by the same genome-suppression trick. While Elf-blooded children are common enough that they're general knowledge, Human-blooded ones are so rare that few people know about them.

Except that Emmrich and Isolde get very lucky.

When Isolde first realizes she's pregnant, about six weeks in, she knows that she can't tell Emmrich. She can't let him get attached to this little life that they won't get to keep.

But nine weeks in-- exhausted and periodically nauseous but trying so hard to hide it-- she goes and takes a midday nap. When Emmrich comes to wake her, nuzzling up to her, she flinches-- her breasts are too tender.

Realization dawns in his eyes, and he tells her she may be pregnant.

She panics-- "No!"

"You weren’t supposed to know yet. I’m only going to lose it," Isolde says, in a small, upset voice. "The thought of you getting so excited, only to…" Emmrich places a warm, tender hand on her belly. "I will love it for however long it is with us, whether a day or a lifetime," Emmrich says.

But she doesn't lose it. Against all odds, their child grows.

At some point-- right around the time that the baby starts moving in ways Emmrich can feel-- Emmrich realizes that it has a spark of magic.

A spark of magic that feels just. like. his.

Their firstborn-- and ironically, their youngest, given the children they adopt later-- is their one and only biological child. When she's born, a species-healthy 2kg/5.5lb, Emmrich weeps for an hour straight.

First thing about this is that it's canon in As Mountains Yet Unseen that Bellara has a massive crush on Emmrich, and maybe an itty bitty one Isolde. If you pay close attention when Bellara's around, you can see it happening in the background!

The second thing is mostly that I'm just haunted by the idea of Emmrich, having spent months attentively learning all the quirks of Elven women's bodies, unleashing all that on Bellara. She is NOT prepared for him to know exactly the angle to hit the Elven g-spot or for him to gentle bite her ear when she's getting close.

I'm also haunted by Visions, like. So it's canon in AMYU that Humans have substantially larger penises than Elves, and while Emmrich is pretty average for a Human, good lord that's a lot of dick from Elven perspective. Bellara is even less prepared than Isolde was, the first time. Emmrich would be so patient and sweet 🥺 murmuring sweet nothings and encouragements in her ear as they go so, so slow, Bellara's eyes shut tight, her cheeks flushed, her ears down and pink at the tips...

Also. Can you IMAGINE Bellara going down on Isolde for the first time and having Emmrich walk her through it. With that stupid sexy voice of his. His cock in his hand. I'm going to combust.

LET MY GIRL TOP BELLARA ALSO SHE'D BE SO GOOD AT IT

Mentioned for No Reason At All No Sir: Emmrich and Isolde are functionally infertile, given that Isolde has no magic. This does not apply to Bellara, who does have magic. I have a number of very loud thoughts about this but I shan't go on.

It's also just. Having Emmrich with Bellara AND Isolde makes for some cute dynamics that really get me going. It's extra funny that Emmrich is dating two Elven women and they're BOTH amazons (they're both just about the maximum height that Elven women reach.) Isolde is actually bisexual, but she's just never really figured it out on account of living in, you know, medieval times-- I think it'd be fun for her to get to explore that. Bellara and Emmrich would have such interesting discussions about research and Isolde would very much enjoy listening to them! They'd all be very healing for each other, I think-- Emmrich for his feelings of not being good enough for anyone to stay, both Bellara and Emmrich's feeling of being "annoying" and talking too much, Isolde's feeling of being someone not worth putting any effort into/not being all that interesting or attractive... overall, their dynamic with each other would be so sweet and tender and cute (in between discovering kinky amazing sex the likes of which the world has rarely seen.)

Sounds like commercial branding...

Ha, I'm right! Coneflower. Wow they look ridiculous

This was in our hotel room last month. My mother and I nearly gave ourselves hernias trying to pronounce it and I IMMEDIATELY texted it to by German bestie who informed me that it translates to ‘Arab Engagement Celebrations’. I wish I could forward you the audio of her saying it. It sounds so beautiful, and not at all like the abuse of vowels and consonants it appears to be in writing 🤭

Emmrich is might to need to use ‘verlobungsfeierlichkeiten’ when he and Isolde start making plans in chapter 7,549 of AMYU 😛🥰

Ha! Yes, much softer than people would assume, [ɑˈraːbiʃə fɛɐ̯ˈloːbʊŋsfaɪ̯ɐlɪçkaɪ̯tn̩]. Sometimes people characterize German as harsh, but ironically, to me it more often sounds like a language with a light lisp 😂hope you had a nice trip!

This seems like a fun game to play! Mine are:

Lois McMaster Bujold

J.K. Rowling (unfortunately)

Naomi Novik

Kristin Cashore

that one random neopets article writer who wrote a piece on writing characters that changed my life

***

Idly, Isolde plucked the puffy little heads of clover from the lawn beside them and wove the flowers into each of Emmrich’s buttonholes. It wasn’t until she’d nestled the fourth into place that Emmrich noticed. He broke off his explanation of the particulars of routing magic through circuits.

“Ah, but I’ve gone on quite long enough about such tedious matters,” Emmrich said, and clearly began searching for a new topic of conversation.

“Tedious?” Isolde repeated, slipping another clover head in. “It’s very interesting.”

“Kind of you to say so,” Emmrich said, without any indication he believed her. “Does the mixed seasonality of Arlathan mean that you have access to all sorts of fruit year-round?”

“Yes, so long as we’re willing to travel for it,” Isolde said. “I was enjoying what you were saying. I like hearing you talk.”

“On the rare instances I remember to be brief, I’m sure,” Emmrich said with a self-conscious laugh. “You must be firm, Isolde, in telling me when I’ve spoken too long. I do forget myself.”

Isolde’s brow furrowed. It was clear he was dismissing her words entirely.

“Why would I do that? You always have such interesting things to say.”

This time it appeared to get through to him. Emmrich blinked a few times, his mouth hanging open.

“You—oh,” he said, gobsmacked.

He looked as openly shocked as he’d been at her insistence that she didn’t need a lavish picnic spread—so taken aback that it seemed he might never have heard another person say it. Isolde had a moment of scandalized indignation. Had his previous lovers abused Emmrich’s uncommon kindness and generosity, without even appreciating what an exceptional man he was?

Emmrich leaned forward, kissing Isolde gently. The delicate way he kissed, without any hint of heat, had been strange at first. But as Isolde was coming to find that she liked it, just as much as she liked his other idiosyncrasies. His way was surpassingly sweet; charming and tender, as if he’d plucked a flower and presented it to her.

When they broke apart, Isolde put a hand to his face, touching his cheek. As he had at the opera, Emmrich melted into the touch.

It was only as his eyes softened that Isolde realized she’d meant the gesture affectionately. She’d been ready, as for any other man, to make as if it meant nothing—an unimportant touch, without any particular feeling behind it. But Emmrich wasn’t a man to mock feelings. In the absence of the usual jeering and scorn, it was surprising just how different it felt to express how she liked him. Safe. Comfortable.