#heliorix

“In any other life, Heliora…”

My illustration for this arc of @nadas-dirthalen's Heliorix story: Knife's Edge Minuet!!

(some Heli close ups under the cut <3 as always, Heliorix belongs to @nadas-dirthalen, I just draw them sometimes!)

Heliora von Valancius

She is, for a moment, a stranger. A figure out of history, or myth. So far from the regicide player who laughs unabashedly at all her many conniving triumphs, Heinrix’s higher faculties left in ribbons on the floor after an hour of enduring her little teases. This, he thinks, is the woman from Heliora’s stories: the one from another life she never quite betrays the details of.

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I am SO thrilled with this amazing piece from @vasiliquemort and how WELL they've captured Heliora!!! The stance, the expression—and especially the way she is backlit, rendering her face in such a way it is harder to remember her distinctive features, harder to pick her out in a lineup... >:) PERFECT crime lord energy, I am utterly in love!

“You could stay,” she argues in a whisper. The suggestion sends a shiver through him—and the caress of a finger near his nape, teasing at a strand of his hair, provokes another. “No one’s here.” No one has to know.

“I want to—to do this the right way.” His eyes meet hers, a dark blur this close. “The way you deserve.”

Chapter 18 of Knife's Edge Minuet is up! Which means I get to post Heliorix softness!! Heinrix's romance scene in Commorragh is so beautiful and tender to me, and as always @nadas-dirthalen absolutely killed it (and me) with their version in prose. Thank you again for letting me work on this for you, buddy <3

(Heliorix belongs to @nadas-dirthalen, I just draw them sometimes!Bonus close up of Yearning(tm) under the cut)

“We need to talk, Heliora,” he manages to murmur, far closer than he intended to the shell of her ear. Rougher than he meant, like he stands in her chamber all over again, on the precipice of falling into the invitation of her smiling mouth. “… Immediately.”

Throne, she has never been more wild, more beautiful, painted in his favourite hue.

@nadas-dirthalen recently finished their series of interludes between the end of Act 2 and the start of Act 3 for Heinrix and Heliora and the final chapter had me feral so I had to draw THEE scene <33

Knife's Edge Minuet | Chapter 21

✨Read on AO3! ✨

Some piece of Heinrix, left so long buried deep in his chest, screams with new life, begging to join them—to place himself bodily in the worst of the harm, to at least die where he can fall against Heliora as he goes. Sentiment, seeded and nourished by—by a stranger. A stranger that, for so long, at the very height of foolishness, he deigned to call his.

Chapter Summary: Bodies have broken in the carnage—and fool Heinrix is, believing loyalties wouldn't be cut down next.

Rating: E

Tags (chapter-applicable tags bolded): Canon-Typical Violence, Canon-Typical Body Horror, Eventual Smut, Hurt/Comfort, Hurt No Comfort, Slow Burn, Angst and Feels, Mutual Pining, Crime Lord Rogue Trader, Canon-Typical Hallucinations, Heinrix van Calox Has a Bad Time, Dual POV, Heinrix POV, Canon-typical PTSD, Angsty Kisses, A Whole Lot of AU Dreamscapes, Explicit Sexual Content, And Now Marazhai is Here!

Word Count: 6,943

I got tagged in WIP Whenever by @annahenriart and @nadas-dirthalen! Thank you for the tags and happy Friday! Here’s a mix of stuff I’ve been chipping away at 💖