OK so Baul and Lilias friendship lives in my mind rent free, so I think that a few days after silver gets sick for the first time and mama and papa zigvolt manage to teach lilia the proper way to care for a sick infant after he comes over to their house tembling with poorly restrained panic, Baul goes over with v little persuasion from his daughter to check up on them.
What he sees is a happy and healthy Silver just quietly smiling up at him from Lilias arms while Lilia is passed out in his rocking chair fevered and red from catching baby's first cold.
Baul immediately assigns himself caretaker duties, doesn't even bother trying to move Silver from Lilias arms and instead just picks them both up to deposit them both in Lilias bed for a proper nap before checking the fridge for tomato soup ingredients.
When he first heard from his daughter that Lilia— Lilia Vanrouge, the once General of the Right, feared commander of the fae armies and scourge of humankind— had adopted a human child and had been caring for it for several months now, Baul had roared with laughter so hard that he split a scale wide open on his cheek.
It was certainly a poor excuse for a joke, the very kind of rumor that the castle fae still bitter over Lilia's persistent existence four hundred years later might spread. The very idea that Lilia, Lilia Vanrouge, would debase himself to care for a human child not of his blood, to stoop so low as to toil over its screeching and wailing demands when he had bathed in the screams of its own kind with a mad vengeance after the tragedy of Lady Meleanor . . . not even four hundred years of honeyed peace was enough to sweeten that wound.
Time, it seemed, had forgotten what was so cruelly emblazoned in the very depths of Baul's mind, in Lilia's own memories, and the nightmares of all those surviving fae who stalked the forests during those blood-soaked nights. Those born in kinder years had never known the horror of human avarice, and even his own daughter had taken up residence with one of their kind despite her father's immense displeasure, simpering, soft-hearted fool that her husband was.
At least, to Baul's proud credit, their lineage rippled strong and true through his grandchildren— and with his daughter due any day under the weight of a third, he's only too certain for another healthy, bouncing, scaled Zigvolt.
So when she had simply stared back at him with crossed arms and an arched brow while he had laughed and laughed and laughed, a sinking kind of horror began to creep into his heart— surely . . . she wasn't serious?
Months— hardly the blink of an eye for faekind, but everything to humans. Months, Lilia had kept a child for several months, and not once had tried to rid himself of it? Not once tried to deposit it upon the stoop of a human village and wipe his hands clean of the responsibility of child-rearing? He had been taking advice from Baul's daughter and her wisp of a husband on how to pacify and coddle it? He had barged into their home, fretful beyond measure with a colicky babe clutched in his arms, and all but demanded them to cure the child?
("Or what?" Baul found himself asking, utterly bewildered and needing to find some kernel of normalcy in the fact that surely Lilia had menaced his daughter's husband some into obeying his whims.
"Or nothing, Father," she said, the taunting ghost of a knowing smile playing about her lips. "In all the years that I've known him, I've never seen him quite so distraught. He stayed by the crib all night, frozen— we had to tell him it was alright to breathe and to hold Silver's hand if he wanted, it was as if he was afraid to hurt him.")
Silver? Lilia, afraid? Holding the hand of some human child?
It simply couldn't be true.
It couldn't be, this had to be some elaborate, poorly executed prank.
He clung to that belief even as his daughter shoved a bundle of medicine, food, and knitted blankets into his arms with the stern instruction to deliver them to Lilia's home (Home! He had never heard the forest cottage to be described in such terms! The place was a hovel, a storage shed for Lilia to dump his treasures before venturing off to the next location, how could it be considered a home?).
He clung to it even as he emerged from the woods to the path that led up to the cottage's door, casting unnerved glances to the strange and new abundance of woodland creatures skulking about the thatched roof and scampering along the thick tree trunk supporting the cottage like a lean-to, soft little animals that would have darted away in fright from Lilia's presence before Baul's own.
He clung to it until he could no more, when he threw open the cottage door with an odd tightness in his chest to see his oldest friend collapsed on a worn and lumpy armchair with a honest-to-goodness human baby snuggled safely within his arms and sucking happily on a stray piece of ruby-stained hair. Beyond them, a soothing glow flickered in the fireplace where a kettle of milk quietly steamed, and the scattered presence of cloth toys littered the living room floor along with (Baul shuddered) well-thumbed pamphlets, their covers illustrated with the cheerful faces of frolicking human children.
What had this child done to Lilia Vanrouge?
89 notes
·
View notes
I am sooo tempted to read the novel just so I can write a fic with Lloyd and Javier in a happy relationship with a mutual benefits agreement with Alicia and Silluria (who are of course also in a happy relationship) with the right characterizations.
honestly. that's such a fun dynamic. putting all of them in a happy polycule resolves so many issues at once and gives us such insane possibilities. i am now obsessed with this concept.
but also i'm bi so like. in my head. this is their arrangement.
lloyd and alicia get married so he can have the tax benefits of being the royal consort and she can get rid of the annoying people she needs to be married and have someone to make an heir with, but he still lives in the frontera estate and they see each other every weekend when alicia gets visitation rights to yongyong because they share custody of him. once charlotte is born, she alternates between spending two weeks in the palace, one with only alicia and the other with both alicia and lloyd, and then one at the frontera estate with only lloyd.
as for why javier and silurian get married it's mostly so she can also get rid of the people who think that if she's her father's heir then she should at least be married so she can have an heir of her own. and well they spend a reasonable amount of time together, when they meet in the capital while accompanying their respective lovers so. yeah why not. they have two babies, the eldest a namaran and the youngest an asrahan, who spent two weeks at the palace, one at the frontera estate and then visit their grandfather at namaran one week every two months.
all four of them are Stressing™ about all those trips and poor yongyong and ggoming get so much work out but they're committed to giving their kids the chance to get to experience everything they have to offer them. but also they run a tight schedule and trying to organize anything is a nightmare, they get the hang of it eventually but the first couple years were An Ordeal.
everyone in court pretends not to know about their arrangement but it's really hard when the royal consort only spends two weeks out of three at the palace, bringing and taking with him lady namaran's husband, while lady namaran lives almost permanently in the capital with the queen.
that and also all three kids call alicia 'mom', silurian 'mama', lloyd 'appa' and javier 'papa'. so like. it's an open secret.
the facts its rumored that more often than not lord frontera and sir asrahan will share a room, while the queen and lady namaran have rooms next to one another, that may or may not have a secret passage between them and that more than once all four of them have been seen going in and out of the royal chamber is really not anyone's business either.
i do want to say this does not solve the fact that lloyd emphatically did not want to marry into a position of power and that silurian had a whole arc about not needing to marry, but. it is much funnier and gayer than the original ending so i'm a lot happier ajksdhjkahfkjds
of course this is just. what came out of my brain once you oppened that possibility ajskdhjkafds
please do try it out your own way, i'm sure you have some truly wonderful ideas!!! please. give us gays everything we want <333
74 notes
·
View notes
Nico who has been deified after his death. Nico who's sure, after all this time, he's finally managed to let go of his older sister's death, of course, it still hurts, and of course, he will never forget her, but that fiery hatred and overtaking sadness, has finally been put to rest.
Nico knows and understands that his sister chose to move on without him, and that's okay, no it's never gonna be okay but he's made his peace with that too, and now, that he's an inmortal himself he never expects to see Bianca again.
Nico lives easy. He works for his father, he sleeps for a couple decades at a time, sometimes he goes back to Camp, takes care of some kids during their quests here and there, but for the most part, he's a chain-free roaming God.
And then, one day at Camp Nico meets her, a tiny little girl, with how long he has lived, time has become almost impossible for Nico to really track down anymore, but he's sure this girl can't be more than 10.
And something about her eyes, her dark, void-like eyes, and her long black hair, and her proud stance. It really reminds him of somebody else.
The girl is all alone, no little brother or older sister of her own, no parents either, apparently, she's a child of Hekate, but that really doesn't matter.
Something about the girl's every move, about the way she approaches the darkness without fear, about the way she approaches him, like she's known him all his life, the way she uses her whole body when talking.
It reminds Nico of Bianca. This girl's soul is just like Bianca's.
And Nico supposes it's no longer a fatal flaw, but he still doesn't know how to let go.
Nico immediately claims her on the spot, lets her sleep on the Hades Cabin, helps her out with everything, takes care of her for years and years.
It's the first time in centuries, that Nico as a God feels connected to his mortal side.
When the little girl cuddles against him, because she's had yet another nightmare about manticores and huge robots, while Nico quietly tries to hug her, and reassure her she's going to be fine, he even starts thinking that maybe his family has grown, yet again.
And then, she's send off on a Quest, Nico loudly protests against it, because he knows how those end.
Because, he still remembers waking up screaming and trashing, in the middle of the night, inside the Hermes Cabin, surrounded by strangers and shadows, as he felt Bianca's soul perish away.
But it's no use, the Oracle of her time had already issued her prophecy, this new girl, Rachel having long since passed away, who Nico feels almost comfortable cursing in the spot, just like his father had done so many centuries ago.
The little girl leaves, and Nico now has nobody to swear to keep her protected. Nico knows it's useless to try to convince her to stay, but he still does, it doesn't work, it never has worked
But truth is, she doesn't even look scared.
She's excited, and ready, and determined, and Nico has to wonder if this is how Bianca looked like, during her last week on Earth, too.
The girl leaves and she doesn't come back.
Nico thinks, it should be easier by now. It isn't, it's never gonna be it
Hades catches Nico roaming mindlessly around Elysium, after noticing his absence from The House, for what's either days, or years.
Hades mournfully reassures Nico that Bianca is not there anymore. No, not this time, not last time, not next time either.
After that, Nico chooses to abandon Camp fully, once again, he doesn't come back for another few centuries, until Hermes asks him for help getting his children to satefy at Camp.
Nico swallows the bile, that he's sure a Godly body like his own, shouldn't be able to produce anymore, shakes Hermes's hands, and tells his cousin his children will make it through, just fine.
Nico rescues the kids, regretfully send them off to live all cramped up together at their Father's Cabin forever, but one of the boys of the bunch, just has such dark eyes, like a black hole consuming souls.
And he stands so proud, and Nico just knows once more, and all at once, because he would recognize Bianca's soul anywhere.
In life, in death, at the end of the world, in a Hekate's daughter, in an Hermes's son, it doesn't matter, the person standing in front of him, is simply Bianca in another skin.
Bianca, being a wild hero once more, and Nico has to wonder if she can see him as clearly as he can see her.
Bianca is the only one after all, who has known him all his life, Bianca knew his name before it was even his own. Nico was born knowing her.
If she can see him, or if she can't, Nico doesn't even know which one would hurt more.
Time passes, and if Nico let's the boy sleep at the Hades Cabin, because the nightmares about manticores, giant robots, and magic are too much to bear, and he can't even scream in peace inside the Hermes Cabin, well, that's only Nico's own business to know about.
Nico realizes, after a few ages of Godhood, that The Fates like repeating their own stories.
Nico knows he hates all of them, deeply and purposefully.
The Oracle comes up to the boy, Nico is sure she must be a new girl, but all the girls Apollo chooses all look the same, and she is the same, she gives the hero the prophecy that will bury him.
And, it doesn't even take Nico a glance to know, that this is where that boy's life thread is cut.
Nico wants to sneer, this would be Bianca's third death, and if a hero dies three times they get the special prize, and yet.
Nico begs the boy to not go, because they both know he's not gonna make it back.
Bianca never has. Bianca never does. This is Bianca's fate. She was already dead before the story even began.
But the boy doesn't even break eye contact with Nico, as he tells Nico that he's very kind, and that he loves him too, but no way.
He's gonna go, and so, the boy does.
The boy leaves and he doesn't come back, and Nico has to crawl at his Godly skin, and remember the sensations, of back when there was human flesh, and blood running through his veins.
And that's just the thing isn't it, that Bianca is never going to stay by his side, because she doesn't want to.
242 notes
·
View notes