#azul aurellyn

[chaoticcomposition]

nepenthe and vierna's wayward, chaotic good daughter! she's a redemption paladin of the archeart who likes rainy days and smoking her pipe

her base outfit on the left & bangs are from an adoptable from meowtownpolice!

[iironwreath]

Sooth [Nepenthe]

“You’re picking at your food, bluebell,” Nepenthe said.

Azul blinked, coming to. Her spoon was perilously close to slipping from her fingers. “Huh?”

Nepenthe gestured to Azul’s bowl—she’d prepared her favourite surface dish, a stew made from mushrooms and the boiled spit of a horizonback turtle. The mushrooms were easy to come by and plentiful, but horizonback turtles cost a leg to import, with Dumaran being so removed from the surface. Azul normally savoured it, but she’d been pushing chunks of mushroom around since Nepenthe had served her.

Vierna sat across from Nepenthe and their daughter made up the head of the table, creating the three sides of a triangle. Vierna paused as well, laying her spoon aside.

“Something on your mind?” Nepenthe asked. “I can get you something else if you don’t want it.”

“Oh, I—“ Azul scooped a spoonful of broth and let it drip back into the bowl. “You know how Sister Athalia has an aunt? Do I have any extended family? Aunts or uncles? Grandparents?”

Nepenthe’s gaze flicked to her wife. Vierna’s lips thinned.

“The Children of Malice is our family,” Nepenthe said, unsure how much to divulge. While answers could sate, they could also beget more questions and Nepenthe didn’t want Azul to go searching. “Blood relations aren’t everything.”

“I know that, but I’m just curious, because if they were living here, I’d know about them already, right?”

Nepenthe slowly lowered her silverware, her appetite withering. “I can’t speak for your mother, but in sooth, you do have aunts, uncles, and grandparents on my side. They live on the surface.”

“Oh? Where?”

Nepenthe crushed her molars together, anger flaring—not at her daughter, but the memory of her family and how they’d wrenched away from each other. “I can tell you, bluebell, but you have to promise me not to seek them out without understanding the risks. They worship the Luxon.”

A collective shudder passed over the table.

Azul quickly shook her head. “I promise. That means it’s a place to avoid, right?”

“Not exactly. It’s the Many Hosts of Igrathad. It’s not that they’re all bad, it’s just that my family fell victim to the Dynasty’s proselytizing. Not everyone in Igrathad did.” Her family was unique—most of the townspeople had no interest in the Luxon or the Dynasty's affairs.

Nepenthe didn’t often ruminate about where she would be if her family hadn’t thrown themselves at the Luxon. She liked to think she still would have ended up by Lolth’s side, but her path to the Spider Queen was partially paved by her personal vendetta against the Dynasty.

Azul nodded, intent now, bracing against the table.

“My family was quite large. So, you have grandparents and four aunts and uncles on my side, if they’re alive.” 

“Each?”

“No, altogether. Two aunts, two uncles.” Nepenthe gave Vierna another glance, her feelings kindling warmer, with hope. “Maybe it’s not too late to give them a visit and see if they’d be interested in joining our side.”

Vierna's expression wrinkled. “I would say it depends on what’s happened since you left.”

“It’s been some time,” Nepenthe agreed. She smiled at Azul. “I’ll keep them in mind next I’m on the surface, if I have the time. But remember, you don’t need them when your real family is here.”

Azul swung her gaze onto her mother, bright-eyed and expectant. “What about you, mother?”

Vierna twitched, a shadow passing over her face. Nepenthe watched her chew over what to share, like she had—sorting through the memories that inevitably floated up.

“I wouldn’t spare them your thoughts, love,” Vierna said coolly. She picked up her spoon. “I doubt any of them are left alive.”

[chaoticcomposition]

"If all goes according to plan, I’ll be home for supper.”

trying to explain to your daughter how what you're doing for lolth & the children of malice might be lethal but you can't specify what it is so you have to say goodbye in case you don't come home xoxo

[chaoticcomposition]

quick bust of the goil

[iironwreath]

Moribund [Nepenthe]

moribund: adjective. (of a person) at the point of death.

Nepenthe understood the necessity of withholding the truth. She didn’t like to deceive her daughter, but there were truths that couldn’t be told in full for her protection. Sensitive information was a weapon, and any weapon brought to a fight was one that could be used against you. Secrets had a habit of slipping away—the fewer people knew, the less likely they were to reach ears they weren’t meant to reach. Azul wasn’t old or strong enough to carry that responsibility.

But Nepenthe also couldn’t leave saying nothing. She had to try.

She knocked on Azul’s door. A muffled “come in” sounded and Nepenthe slipped inside. Azul was tucked into bed, but had a single lantern lit at her side and a book spread in her lap. She didn’t need the flame to read; it was more for colour and ambiance, spilling warm light in a room decorated with cool purples, blues, and silvers. Cookie crouched in the crevice between the far wall and ceiling, tracking Nepenthe as she moved to the bed, otherwise still as death.

“Hi,” Azul greeted, closing the book and setting it beside the lantern. “Been a while since you said goodnight. I missed you.”

Nepenthe sat by Azul’s hip. “I’m sorry, bluebell, we’ve been busy. We never forget, we just haven’t had time.”

“I know. It’s okay.”

Nepenthe chewed her piercing from inside her lip, considering. Vierna would’ve had a hundred and one variations on what to say and how to say it, but ultimately decided it was for Nepenthe to broach. Vierna could phrase it as tactfully as she liked, but her delivery was often clinical and dispassionate even if she felt the opposite. Azul knew how to feel Vierna’s warmth, but Vierna was the reason Nepenthe was in line to become a drider. Vierna felt responsible, she had said, and worried about Azul’s resentment if Nepenthe died.

Nepenthe tried to assure her that their shared grief should bring them closer together, but they had talked in circles, never reaching a conclusion beyond ‘just do it.’ 

“You know how I’m doing something important tomorrow, right?” Nepenthe asked slowly.

“Right,” Azul confirmed, waiting.

“I don’t know if we’ve conveyed the actual gravity of it.” Nepenthe figured a direct approach would work with her daughter when she could reinforce it with patience and compassion. “What I’m doing is very dangerous. It could kill me.”

Azul frowned, the words not quite landing. “What?”

“I’m saying what we’re doing tomorrow may kill me,” Nepenthe repeated. “It’s a possibility, that’s all. Not a guarantee.”

“What? No. Mom—”

Nepenthe held up a hand. “But every time I leave, my death is always a possibility, so this isn’t so different from normal.”

“But—you don’t warn me the same way when you leave, so this is different.” Azul ricocheted between expressions; she had the dawning look of someone who’d never had to think of a parent’s death with any sort of tangibility before. She stared down at her hands, covers clenched into folds in her fists. “Why are you telling me this now? I had no idea.”

Nepenthe shook her head. “Our reasons won’t satisfy you, but we didn’t want to worry or distract you, above all.”

“But now I will worry. Why can’t I be there?”

“I've already told you, it’s not safe. Your life is too precious.”

“If it’s as dangerous as you say out there, then leaving the house poses the same risk. Leaving Dumaran would.”

“You’re capable enough to defend yourself outside of Dumaran, and safe inside it.” This wasn’t strictly true, either—there were dangerous parts of Dumaran, but they were off-limits to youth and adults alike; they weren’t even allowed to know those dangers existed to keep them from prying. It was no different from warning your child away from a cliff’s edge or too-deep water. Curiosity was natural, so keeping people unaware never gave it room to seed and they could live as normal. “This kind of danger isn’t commonly found. I won’t risk it.”

Azul’s shoulders hitched, tears glinting in her eyes as they caught the light. “I don’t—I don’t want to accept it.”

Nepenthe reached for her, guiding her into her arms and cradling her head. “You don’t have to accept it, but it won’t change whatever happens.” She pet her hair, imbuing as much love and confidence as she could into her touch. If there was something that would keep her holding onto life tomorrow beyond Lolth and her own strength, it was the promise of seeing her wife and daughter again.

Azul cried into her chest. Nepenthe rocked her.

—

Four hours later, plus the time it took Nepenthe and her family to get ready, Azul and Cookie met them at the front doors. There were deep blue half-moons under Azul’s eyes. Her eyelids were swollen and her complexion was wan. Vierna stroked Azul’s cheek with her thumb, saying nothing, before she stepped outside.

Nepenthe couldn’t help a bittersweet smile. Azul had Vierna’s height, but she had Nepenthe’s eyes, her hair, her structure—she was a warrior with divine magic rather than one who wielded spellbooks. If Nepenthe succumbed to madness or died to Vierna’s antidote, this was Nepenthe’s last time seeing her as much as it was Azul’s. She always looked on her daughter with pride, but it peaked in that moment, singing under her skin.

Azul lurched forward, crashing into her with a hug. “Don’t go,” she whispered. “I still need you.”

“Your mother will protect you, too.”

Azul squeezed her fiercely. Nepenthe thought she might cry again, but her voice sounded dry and wrung out. “Not like that.”

Nepenthe stroked the back of her neck. “I know, I know. With time, Azul, I think you’ll be even stronger than me. You make me proud.” She gently pried Azul away from her but kept hold of her upper arms. Azul folded over on herself. “I’ll be fighting the same as I always do, so have faith in me, and faith in Lolth. If all goes according to plan, I’ll be home for supper.”

Azul tried to smile, but all that came out was a grim line that thinned her lips. Nepenthe brushed aside Azul’s bangs to plant a kiss on her forehead. She relished it.

She did come home, but she came back changed.

[iironwreath]

playlists [aurellyn]

nepenthe aurellyn nepenthe (instrumental)

vierna aurellyn vierna (instrumental)

azul “bryony” aurellyn

lolth

main tracklists:

nepenthe aurellyn:

daughters of darkness - halestorm

superbeast - rob zombie

bloody mary - lady gaga

beautiful is boring - BONES UK

main theme: the addams family (instrumental)

love you to death - type o negative

I am...all of me - crush 40

breath of life - florence + the machine

strange girl - halestorm

scream - from ffxiv

spider dance cover - toby fox and ferdk

infinity edge - pentakill

the fire within - within temptation

patient number 9 - ozzy osbourne, jeff beck

see the light - ghost

can you feel my heart - MOTHICA

is there anything so endearing as a daughter - from arcane

the snake - lana lubany

the unholy mother - jonathan young

all I ask of you - from phantom of the opera

vierna aurellyn:

blood countess - karliene

the steeple - halestorm

darkness settles in - five finger death punch

poor unfortunate souls - the little mermaid

somebody’s watching me - rockwell

bloody city - sam tinnesz

NOCTURNAL - MOTHICA

feed the demon - yenne

eternal life - palaye royale

rats - ghost

alive - ozzy osbourne

filthy freaks - BONES UK

frankenstein - rina sawayama

morticia’s theme - the addam’s family

maneater - nelly furtado

cult leader - KiNG MALA

consummation of evil - jamie christopherson

everything you ever - neil patrick harris

hurt incantation - rapunzel’s tangled adventure

azul “bryony” aurellyn:

minor feelings - rina sawayama

good life - kc roberts & the live revolution

live through the night - dear rouge

my house - PVRIS

scary world - night club

the search - NF

dead man’s plate - pentakill

hey you - disturbed

holy (til you let me go) - rina sawayama

land locked heart - the midnight

these streets - bastille

better tomorrows - ewan mcgregor

all the dying - mother mother

you make me feel like it’s halloween - muse

no escape from now - ozzy osbourne

daffodil - florence + the machine

mountains - message to bears

I wanted to leave - SYML

to rage - daughter

buy the stars - MARINA