#cyrus wotr

[thedragonagelesbian]

reverence

Fandom: Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous

Pairing: M!CommanderXThe Hand of the Inheritor

Rating: T

Length: 3,046 words

Summary: Knight Commander Cyrus, formerly a martyr paladin wielding the Light of Heaven, now a legend struggling to redefine himself, knows all too well the grief and guilt that come with failing to live up to divine expectation. So when he finds his dear angelic friend in the heart of Baphomet's labyrinth, he's desperate to convince him to stay.

Fight it, and I will save you.

I do not need to be saved.

Cyrus let his guard slip. Not enough to expose anything vital. Just raising his shield, catching a blow from the Assertion of Dominance and revealing his left hip in the process, leaving it open to the Hand of the Inheritor— or rather, the husk that Baphomet had made of him, harried by rays and arrows and daggers but still possessing enough strength to bury his blade into the tiefling’s pelvis. He was prepared for the pain, demanded not only by this gambit but by his role in life, front line of the Fifth Crusade and self-appointed defender of those who could not defend themselves. It had only recently started to worry him, how good he was at being hurt, but it seemed unavoidable now, required to pull the Hand of the Inheritor in close.

What he was not prepared for was the intensity, gasping and groaning as the sword pierced him. Deep. Down to the hilt and bursting through his thigh, nearly pinning him in place as whatever foulness Baphomet had poured into the Hand through the hole in his heart bled into him too.

In the cracked helm bearing down above him, he saw only the reflection of his own agony. No triumph. No sympathy. Just smooth metal.

And still, Cyrus whispered, “I’m sorry,” before he moved. With every ounce of force he could muster, he threw himself to the side. The sword wrenched out of the Hand’s grasp as he spun, twisting around the angel’s body. One blow to the back of the neck with a shield was all it took to make his knees buckle, and then that helm was in reach, the throat beneath caught against Cyrus’ longsword.

“Surrender.” He pressed on the blade, just until he could smell more of that noxious black ichor. “…Please.”

“The end is near,” the Hand replied flatly. He dropped to one knee, a gesture not of piety or submission but of simple fact. “You will kill me, and it will break something in you to do so. As Baphomet expected.”

“I am not beholden to the expectations of any demon lord.”

Keep reading on Ao3

[rigaudon]

i forgot how NUMBERS pf1e is.

... ehehe.

[thedragonagelesbian]

oh my god. i love the legend path so much............... knowing what it meant for areelu to not merely watch her 'creation' undo her work but deliberately sever the threads by which she was trying to bring her son back to life................................................ and cyrus, a son who left his mother before the game began and broke her heart in doing so... the final option to step into the worldwound with the shadow, to lay him gently to rest, to live & make himself whole & close the worldwound without any additional sacrifices, just mending those threads

and the epilogue slides were short but sweet, i love the mentions of companions staying in touch with one another, and i really bawled reading sosiel's and trever's.............................................. i love a 'good man gone to war' story, i love how they were both adamant before threshold that after this they'd never pick up a weapon again, i love these disciples of the goddess of beauty who endured such immense trauma and tragedy and suffering trying to find peace as a family again, i love that sosiel got married and i love his insistence that he will never tell romanticized stories of war, that there is no beauty to be found there. i'm so excited to have him in the party more with kyr bc im love him so very very very much...

AND SPEAKING OF LOVE

this? this is the most beautiful thingggggggggggggg everything about it jfc the callback to the 'love is a shipwreck' conversation, the emphasis on the sincerity of daeran's expression of that love, 'that love came to be an integral part of his being' HELLO HELLO HELLO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 'YOU'RE GOING TO RUIN ME' BUT TO BE RUINED IS TO BE REMADE TO BUILD ONESELF AGAIN IN THE UNCERTAINTY OF A NEW LIFE AND TO MAKE LOVE A CORNERSTONE OF IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

i'm so immensely satisfied yippeeeeeeeeeeeee

[thedragonagelesbian]

on the other hand it is immensely satisfying that cyrus is so terrifying that goddamn demon lords tremble before him.

[thedragonagelesbian]

knight commander of the fifth crusade, made with this picrew

[thedragonagelesbian]

Bloodrage stays ON during sex

[thedragonagelesbian]

Gay angels will hopefully be posted friday btw

[thedragonagelesbian]

happy pride

“Be at peace, my dear, holy friend.”

Friend maybe wasn’t the word for it. For that night in the Abyss when the truth of his powers was revealed and they crashed together in their grief and anger and passion. For two not-quite and fallen angels who had been praying to one another since their separation. But it would suffice.

The heart pulsed, slow and steady as it had been since he found it, but quickening now. Beat, beat, beat faster still when the cracked helm that obscured the Hand’s visage glanced down, thrumming between Cyrus’ hands before—

It slipped through his fingers and rushed like a shooting star through the molten gash in the Hand’s breastplate. Light burst from his chest. No longer the hungry flames of the Abyss but the cleansing glow of Heaven. The Hand gasped and slumped down on all fours. In contrast to his sharp, methodical motions before, he writhed now, agonizingly alive. With a shudder, the flayed skin of his demon’s wings burned away. The spindles of golden light settled in the form of feathers once more, save for those spokes which coalesced behind his head in the familiar sunburst of his halo.

Cyrus let out a breath.

The Hand of the Inheritor was okay. Everything was okay.

But the Hand remained doubled over, clutching at his chest, and suddenly he moaned, “What is this…? Why does it hurt so much? Why…? My own betrayal is tearing at my heart!”

“It’s alright,” Cyrus said quickly. “It’s okay, you’re safe now, I promise.” He took the angel’s head between his hands, not to move him but simply to hold him. “I have you.”

“Champion… No, Cyrus…” His name broke in the herald’s throat, the syllables soft and aching as he lifted his head. “My true friend. Is it really you standing before me? You do not look as I remember you. Can it be that you have restored life to the one who doubted you in the darkest hour? But…” The metal shivered, and when Cyrus’ fingers hooked underneath the helm to touch the feverish skin beneath, he felt hot tears on the Hand’s neck. “Why? I deserve no forgiveness.”

“There is nothing to forgive.”

The Hand shook his head. “I treated you harshly.”

“We both had our faith shaken.” Cyrus smothered a wince at the memory of their fight. The way he lashed out too, so desperate to be seen as something other than Nocticula’s weapon or Vorlesh’s experiment or heaven’s Champion. To be a person, not a tool. “But you stayed by my side regardless, to save Eliandra and to fight Hepzamirah. I forgave you then. I will forgive you again now if you need to hear the words. You are forgiven.”

The angel lifted a hand as if to touch Cyrus, only to see the bloody gnarl in his hip and stop. “I do not deserve you… and I cannot forgive myself. I let a lord of the Abyss turn me into a tool for evil.”

“You didn’t let him,” Cyrus said with a frown, but the Hand scarcely seemed to hear him.

“I will not easily rid myself of this shame. I cannot return to my lady now!”

“Then return with me.”

[thedragonagelesbian]

[thedragonagelesbian]

wip wednesday thursday

tyty @ghostwise for the tag!! i don't so much have a dedicated wip rn as i have a bunch of pathfinder-colored pingpong balls bouncing around my mind, but here's a snippet of cyrusXdaeran post-battlebliss hurt/comfort

Cyrus rubbed his neck. Tilting his head to the side ever so slightly, Daeran caught a glimpse of a scar— a burn, by the look of it, but razor-thin and intricate where a rune had dug into his skin. He thought of Irmangaleth putting his hand on Cyrus’ shoulder. Of Cyrus slumping down like a marionette with its strings cut. Of the wild glint in his eyes when he brought a blood-slicked hand to his throat and crushed the collar between his fist. “What about skipping to the part that comes after?”

“It’s hard to get much of an afterglow without that which comes first.”

“I mean…” Cyrus cast his eyes down. “Cuddling. I know we don’t usually do. That. Just that, but I…” Daeran had only seen him like this once before, not merely small but fragile, shoulders slumped and shuddering. Fallen. As he had been after the Echo kidnapped Eliandra, confessing that his paladin’s oath had faltered. “I don’t want to sleep alone tonight.”

Dearan chewed the inside of his cheek, so dangerously close to saying something foolish, like he almost had back in the Arena. Like I won’t let them hurt you again. Like I’ll take care of you. Like I care about you.

“Then you won’t.”

[thedragonagelesbian]

i do love the idea of cyrus losing his pally levels immediately after finishing the first angel mythic quest... going to pulura, seeing how empty yet heavy a life of endless sacrificial service can be & experiencing that flicker of doubt.........................................

[thedragonagelesbian]

augh ok i definitely made the right choice.......

to have this question posed of cyrus, whose sense of self is so easily fractured by duty & expectation, who has such a hard time untangling his identity from the sacrifice staying on the angelic path would've required of him.............................. ack!!!!!!!!

[thedragonagelesbian]

mentally im here

[thedragonagelesbian]

silly hat.......

[thedragonagelesbian]

Man wotr is lucky the rest of it has been so good so far bc the defending the tavern fight was one of the most tedious things ive ever done in a video game...

[thedragonagelesbian]

i really do get so giddy thinking about act 5 cyrus... he's been through so many horrors, but he's never been more certain of himself & his direction, nor able to see so clearly past the line of duty toward what life might look like with daeran on the other side. he's reclaimed his soul, he's defeated the other, he's saved the hand of the inheritor, and despite the tremendous tasks yet ahead of him, he feels more at ease than he has since before the game even began. for as much as this world has taken from him, he's been able to claw a lot of it back for himself, and it's just!!! so good!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!