#lilanwe

TES Pinup Challenge August 10-12: Worm Cult

some solstice auredils + lily :)

TES fest day 6: abandoned

A Variation of the Truth

Auredil knows how it feels to fall. He knows the vertigo of being at the top and looking down, how it feels to hit the ground.

Rating: Mature

Words: 26,000

Chapters: 7/7

Relationships: Prince Naemon/Vestige, King Laloriaran Dynar/Vestige, Vestige/OC

(CW: death (both temporary & permanent), substance abuse & addiction, depression & suicidal ideation)

Auredil smells like the sea. Not in a poetic way, Lindir muses, no; he smells like brine and sand and waterlogged wood, like washed-up kelp that's been drying too long in the sun. He's not unlike a sailor, soaked in seawater and whiskey and gods-know-what-else.

Lindir nods to himself, scribbles that down in the journal in front of him. A few feet away, he watches fiery hair hit the wood of the bar counter, fingers loosening around the tankard he once held, and he frowns.

Auredil is no sailor, Lindir knows, though he certainly drinks like one. He rolls a gold coin to Fatima, giving her an apologetic glance. Why he keeps paying Auredil's tab, he doesn't know. Maybe it's out of pity – or maybe he hopes to someday win his trust and solve his mysteries.

Or maybe he's just gone soft. It would be foolish to deny that under the sand and grime and poor coping mechanisms lies what could have once been a handsome High Elf; and it would be foolish to deny that he's a little bit interested.

And, Auredil’s nice to him, under the snark and deflection. He actually listens to his stories and poems with quiet interest, and laughs at his jokes when he’s drunk enough.

He's like seaglass, Lindir thinks; perhaps he was once a finely-crafted bottle, but now he's aged and corroded, dashed on the rocks and the waves until fragments are all that's left.

But there is something left. It may not be its purest form, or its most sculpted, but there's something beautiful about it nonetheless. He writes that down as well.

In quiet moments like this, Lindir wonders who Auredil used to be, when he sees small glimmers of the glass peek through. He wonders how far he's drifted, the shores he's washed up on.