The Autistic Wizard

part one / part two / part three (fullview for better quality!)

this is a scene from @laallomri‘s fic just come to me once!! they are an amazing writer and this scene made me feel so warm I wanted to just. draw the whole thing. so I did haha

Miscast

Renard Solairien Duskmere wakes up in someone else's body, in someone else's world, an year before his own execution.

He recognizes the room before he recognizes his own face in the mirror because he's read this story before. He is the villain of Sword and Shadow cold, calculating, doomed. Second son turned heir and — according to every page he can still recall — dead by chapter forty, executed in the capital square for treason he hasn't committed yet.

His plan is simple, or as simple as anything gets for a man who thinks five moves ahead: become useful instead of feared. Apologize to everyone he's wronged. Push the story's true hero, Caelum Rivenhart Halebright, toward the original female lead, Adelysia Valenwood, and get out of the narrative's way entirely. If he can't undo what he's done, he can at least stop making it worse, and if he plays his part well enough, maybe the story lets him live in the margins instead of on the executioner's block.

What he doesn't plan for is Caelum actually liking him.

What he plans for even less is becoming, the person occupying the space where the female lead was supposed to stand. Not by scheming, not by seduction, just by being present, competent, and steady in all the ways the story apparently required, until one day the shape of the narrative has rearranged itself around him instead of around Adelysia.

And a story that has lost its villain to redemption does not simply let the role sit empty.

Cast

Renard Solairien Duskmere —

Marquess.Transmigrated villain, strategist, professional deflector of sincerity. Witty enough to survive a court that wants him dead, self-loathing enough to believe he deserves to. Plans five steps ahead in everything except his own worth.

Caelum Rivenhart Halebright —

Duke, First Blade of the Crown's Circle. Destined hero of the original story, protective and earnest on the surface, volatile underneath. Falls for Renard without ever meaning to, and doesn't know how to want something the story never promised him.

Adelysia Valenwood —

Countess. The original female lead, quietly aware that her own story has been rearranged around her without her consent. a person watching her narrative slot get occupied by someone else, deciding what she actually wants once the plot stops writing it for her.

A short update.

KATIE FOR THE WIN XDahahahhaha she does’t like Lotor at all.