#lucerna

The bestest of best friends I’ve ever seen 💚🧡❤️

And together they form traffic light 🚦

09-09-25 C2022 Being Luphanie e

Just some quick holiday sketches of a few characters!!

1. Tazza is doing his best to eat the cookies Lucille baked.

2. Bandit and Myra just showing off their little antler headbands (I see them taking a picture together haha!)

3. Luke and Sofia kissing under the mistletoe! (Yes they are a couple!)

4. Fontaine and June talking and enjoying their company!

5. Vincent giving Lucerna a Christmas present! A new book to read!

6. Tyler, Seis and Susy making their way to the Billiard Christmas party, and discussing Seis climbing the tree!

Lucien and @effelants' Vierna are not the marrying type - but Luci certainly is the vowing sort.

Paladin habits die hard.

Vierna Do'Urden/Lucien Tenebris (The Dark Urge) | 1306 words | T

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Vierna had never been vain. She had run as wild as the free creatures of the fields, her hair falling from failing braids and her skin washed with rough soaps, more concerned with functionality than appearance.

The last thing Lucien had expected to see while pausing at the entrance way was her analyzing her body in a mirror, her brows knit together in a deep frown.

"Vierna?" he called hesitantly, still uncertain of his permission to interrupt without notice in the aftermath of his betrayal. Even if she should welcome him, he could not presume; she had already been more generous of herself than he deserved before he had rendered full restitution to her.

The echoes of his oft-broken and remade oaths of vengeance when no justice was forthcoming were not easily dismissed, not even when he was their target.

Though her back was turned to him a spark entered the eyes of her mirror-form at his call; a companion crinkle creased his own eyelids and his steps forward became lighter at the sight. He entered her space — their space — and stood behind her, running a hand down her arm and pressing a kiss to the shoulder that did not shy away from his touch.

In the mirror he cocked his head, his questioning 'why' at her actions left unvoiced.

Rather than take hold of him and pull him closer as she so often had once, she lifted his hand from where it lay and placed it higher, guarding the original spot with her own tightly closed fingers. He could touch her then, but not everywhere.

"She carved herself into my skin," she whispered, choking on unspilled tears.

Ah. Not vanity, not at all. Churning guilt rippled in his gut that he, who ought to have protected her, who had promised no harm would come to her, had failed in his duty toward her. That his misguided devotion to his father could have blinded him and left her so vulnerable that she could be taken to be the plaything of his sister.

He could imagine what she had endured at Orin's hands. It was written on her skin, plain as parchment; nothing so deep as to be deadly, but cruel. Exploratory. Artful, in its way. Every scar left on her marked a wanton spilling of precious blood, a sin paid for with death. His own fault could not be washed away so easily.

"Lucien, you are hurting me." Vierna's words were soft, with no judgement or condemnation, and he realized then that his grip on her arm had tightened beyond bearing.

"I am sorry," he said, flashing open his hand to tuck it away safely, where he could no longer cause her pain. She drew it back to herself. She held onto him and would not allow him to pull away, heedless of risk. Though he might crush her eventually, for now he folded her into his arms and delicately kissed the top of her messily-braided head.

Below, one of the blemishes stared back at him in all of its cruelty, a shallow cut, now healed. Unlike Orin's, those he carved had less needless design and more finesse. They were final, an end and not an interminable middle. They sliced deep and clean — and would heal just the same, under his paladin's hands.

"I may be able to erase them, if you will allow it," he suggested cautiously. "It will be painful-"

"Yes."

[$] A Harmless Greeting

Surely, nothing could go wrong if you answer him...  In-Stream Commission for TheZaffreHammer