#shasi sas intemperatus

[starcunning]

8. Rencounter

To lay down their reckless heads

For @sea-wolf-coast-to-coast‘s FFXIVWrite 2019. Free days are for AUs. Shasi sas Intemperatus. [Title] [AO3 mirror]

Livia sas Junius is dead; the last major casualty of the Eorzean campaign. Her killer walks in the procession, and that is the only thing about these proceedings that holds any interest for Zenos. He sits at his father’s right hand; to the left of him is Zenos’s great-grandsire, rheumy and wheezing.

Solus zos Galvus will not survive another winter in Garlemald. Perhaps this is what made the Black Wolf bold. Zenos considers it, and decides that in the end he would have done the same. His Radiance has not yet decided to name an heir. It is for this reason and no other that Zenos has been dragged into the public eye—he is a prince of the blood, and proof perhaps of Varis yae Galvus’s readiness to rule.

But Zenos finds little savor in politics; in the intrigues of court. He cares little for the corpse laid in state, and less for the bust the Black Wolf carries of his martyred pup. Sas Junius is—was—some few years Zenos’s senior, but her features are too soft, too girlish. Little wonder she hid them so often behind that ivory helm of hers.

The Black Wolf’s face, too, is a mask of anguish. Zenos ponders this for a moment. He tries to imagine his own father mourning so openly, should Zenos be killed. It is an impossibility—Prince Varis has never had anything but contempt for him, though not enough to act with his own hands. His father is a coward and a bore.

Zenos looks then at the murderess—the eikon-slayer herself. Van Baelsar’s reports to the capital have been incomplete, to say the least, but even so her legend has reached the Empire’s ears. It is because of her that Eorzea has fallen, and the Black Wolf must answer for the murder of his adopted daughter by making her killer the Viceroy of that god-blighted land.

She is smaller than Zenos expected, though in comparison to the tales they tell, anyone would be. There are scars across her face, and when she lifts her gaze to regard the throne as she passes, he notes that the injury has taken her left eye.

Then she turns her face away, and the procession moves on. The pyre is further along the viaduct, and they approach it with slow, measured steps. The central column of mourners is flanked on either side by a more general press of bodies that ambles along with it—soldiers of the XIVth, mostly, though there are civilians as well. Something about the churn of the crowd strikes Zenos as unusual, and alertness returns to him.

The eikon-slayer’s ruined eye is turned away from him, where he sits on the royal balcony. On her far side—her blind side—he can see someone cutting through the crowd, sluicing through others like he’s in a hurry. If the mourners find this odd, they make no comment. Perhaps, Zenos considers, nobody will much care if the eikon-slayer is murdered in her turn. The assassin steps into the column, matching pace evenly.

The eikon-slayer turns, then, and her right hand closes around his throat. Her blind eye is toward Zenos now, her scar-twisted face distorting any emotion that might show there. He thinks she may crush the man’s windpipe, but instead she shoves him back. He stumbles a few steps, goes down, and it’s only then that Zenos sees the bloodstained steel in her left hand. Even from this distance, Zenos knows the shape of the knife—it’s Garlean make, and common among Frumentarium agents. She casts it aside a moment later, turns back, and resumes her place at the Black Wolf’s back as though unperturbed by this.

Zenos wonders how she knew he was there. It ought to have been clean, by his reckoning. She should be dead. Instead she marches on, head held high. Zenos watches her. Alertness has turned to intrigue; to fascination. He wonders what it would be like to try his blade against her. Perhaps she could stand against him for more time than it takes for him to fill his lungs with breath.

“That one,” he says at length. “The eikon-slayer. What do they call her?” Only silence answers him a long moment. His Radiance seems not to have heard the question nor had the faculties to answer, and his royal father has no inclination to illuminate him. “Intemperatus,” one of the servants answers at last. “Shasi sas Intemperatus.”

[starcunning]

𝕾ʜᴀsɪ sᴀs 𝕴ɴᴛᴇᴍᴘᴇʀᴀᴛᴜs Vɪᴄᴇʀᴏʏ ᴏғ Eᴏʀᴢᴇᴀ

When X’shasi Kilntreader penetrated to the heart of the Praetorium within Castrum Meridianum, the Black Wolf met her not with violence, but with an offer of alliance. Stripped of almost every key ally she had made before Operation Archon, she came to accept an impossible truth: that the only way to save the realm was to rule it. Appointed as Gaius van Baelsar’s viceroy and given command of Castrum Centri, the hero once lauded as the Warrior of Light brought stability back to Eorzea—along with Garlean rule. They hailed her by another name beneath the ivory standard: the Untempered; thus she was given the name Shasi sas Intemperatus.

[starcunning]

10. Who would love the other no matter how evil the other became. (Shasi-related pls?)

Thancred goe Marinus

He remembered her.Even without his inculcated Echo, he remembered her—as theKilntreader. A friend. A confidante. His killer.

She had not becomethat by choice; that much he still recalled. He—not he—had takenher eye in the struggle, and she had lost more since. He could seethat, when he looked. Could see why she made him; why she made himthis. Why she had made herself the Viceroy of Eorzea. The Prince’sbride.

He loved her. Heloved her, and she loved him, and she had killed him. And he wouldhave to kill her, too.

[starcunning]

Day Sixteen, Heroes and Villains

An AU in which your OTP has super powers. Are they a hero/sidekick duo? Are they archenemies? Are they both villains? From the 30-Day OTP Challenge.

So ... they’re basically already superpowered vigilantes in the main universe (or at least Shasi is superpowered). There’s another AU prompt that’s redundant (what if they had magic? i hate to tell you this, but magic is already in the setting), so you’re getting two glimpses into a timeline where the Warrior of Light becomes someone else.

Shasi sas Intemperatus. (She might be a villain, too.)

“Do you believe in Eorzea?”

It was the sort of question that demanded a ready answer, asked of X’shasi by the sort of man who would brook no less. As the lights of the Praetorium played over her face and his mask, the silence hung between them.

Was there a united Eorzea left to believe in? Would it long survive this operation? Ul’dah was in upheaval—and it was not merely the Sultana who had been lost to treachery in the Fragrant Chamber. The Syndicate had bullied its way into the war preparations and Teledji Adeledji’s hired killer had dispatched with the young monarch and her strong right arm.

And the Scions—what Scions were not lost in the attack on the Waking Sands or yet in the grip of the foe. That she had killed Adeledji and his assassins was cold comfort for the loss of her allies.

Raubahn’s successor, Eline Roaille, had been adamant that despite these setbacks—despite the aetherial readings on the Rhotano; despite a sickness in the Shroud the Hearers refused to intervene and curb—the Alliance must come together and act.

So she had acted, more alone than ever, and when the moment had come that Gaius van Baelsar asked her to speak, X’shasi Kilntreader found she had little to say.

“Yes,” she said, because it was what was expected of her. “If that were true, you would not have taken this long to say so,” the Black Wolf laughed. “I believe in it enough to fight for it,” X’shasi told him, the heel of her hand resting against the pommel of her blade. “Eorzea’s unity is forged of falsehoods, and its city-states built on deceit. To believe in Eorzea is to believe in nothing,” he said, his tone a lofty scolding. “To die for Eorzea is to die for nothing.” “But to kill—” “And to kill for it is to kill for nothing, too, girl,” the legatus said. “Pay attention.” He advanced, unhurried, his gunblade still at his back. “What happens when you kill me?” Gaius van Baelsar asked her. “I descend to the heart of this wretched place and I destroy your weapon. I dispatch Lahabrea,” X’shasi told him, setting her teeth. “And then what?” Gaius asked her. “And then you return the conquering hero, no doubt. Perhaps your homeland awaits your coming, every roadway lined with parades. But when they have tired of feasting at your victory table, what happens?” She looked at him with eyes as blue as ceruleum flames, and said nothing. “Ul’dah returns to its internal warring, no doubt,” Gaius said. “The vipers crawl over one another to the throne and whichever one wins floods the streets with poison. Perhaps the Admiral can strike a treaty with the sahagin before they succeed in summoning their eikon, but she will break her word in time. The Elder Seedseer watches her nation rot because her gods will not give her leave to act, and she is not strong enough to defy them. Are you?” “Am I what?” X’shasi asked, bewildered. “Are you strong enough to defy your masters? Nothing else will save Eorzea now,” he told her.

“Do you think yourself the answer to all of Eorzea’s ills?’ X’shasi demanded to know. “I was the answer to Ala Mhigo’s,” he said, laughing. “Better to peddle order and stability than madness and deceit.” “You would be hard-pressed to find a willing buyer in Eorzea after the destruction the Empire wrought at Carteneau,” X’shasi told him. Her knuckles were white around the grip of her blade. “I sought to spare Eorzea from the depredations of the White Raven,” van Baelsar told her. “She would have razed this place for spite’s sake. This realm deserved a better class of conqueror. But you are right; to bring Eorzea under my heel carries too dear a cost to bear.” “But you have not drawn on me,” X’shasi said, “so you yet carry some hope.” “The very same hope that all Eorzea rallies behind.” “Surely not,” X’shasi protested. “They would follow you. And you would lead them far better than they have managed.”

That had the ring of truth to it, she realized, watching that pallid mask. The lights of the Praetorium no longer swept over him—the lift had rumbled to a stop long before, she realized. The air around them was still, and thick with aether, dripping with it, like blood, like pitch; in the silence she could hear the whispers and the distant screams of the beleaguered dead. She could feel in this place a pulsing haze, and felt the lights grow dim; the aether rippled, and—

“Lahabrea,” she breathed. She felt the oppressive weight of the darkness, the quickening of long-dead magics. “The Ultima Weapon ...” “What of it?” Gaius van Baelsar asked her. When X’shasi answered, she knew not where the words came from; heard and felt and thought, and spoken, though foreign to her tongue. “It is not what the Dark Minion has told you,” she warned; “it is more. The destruction it wreaks makes this star tremble, from seventh hell to highest heaven.” “What?!” Gaius demanded. “I don’t know,” X’shasi muttered. “But we have to stop it.” “A truce, then,” the legatus said. “For now.”

They emerged together onto the platform that housed the Ultima Weapon. Its black carapace was aglow already in deepest crimson and brilliant azure, creating a sickly violet light that barely cut through the shadows gathering in the chamber. Lahabrea saw them coming and only laughed, a cruel sound from a friend’s throat. “Behold the Heart of Sabik,” he said, “the core of your Ultima Weapon.” His sneering tone laid bare his contempt for his erstwhile ally. “Behold a fraction of the one true god’s power!” “Lahabrea,” the Black Wolf growled back. “Your faith has blinded you.” “And have you come to grant me clarity?” “No,” X’shasi said, drawing her blade and beginning to channel her aether along its length. “The only thing I intend to grant you is death.” That made him laugh, raucous and mocking. “Kill me and you kill him,” Lahabrea told her.

His mockery was cut short by the crack of a rifle’s report at Shasi’s shoulder. She glanced aside to see that Gaius van Baelsar had drawn his weapon at last. Lahabrea stumbled forward a step and rose, undeterred, and the legatus charged him to engage with a stroke of his blade. The Ascian caught it with the silver-shod claws of his gauntlets, shadows rising from where he stood in a writhing, flailing mass.

Watching the pair tangle, X’shasi swung back her blade and brought forth her focus to spew a gout of flame, letting the gust of hot air dry her unshed tears. Blackness pooled on the platform, thick as tar, and Shasi had to step lively to keep it from grasping at her ankles. She could still hear the keening anguish at Ultima’s heart or perhaps at her own—or perhaps that was just the scream of cermite on steel as Lahabrea repulsed his attacker.

Skidding to a stop, Gaius lifted his gunblade, emptying the ceruleum reserves in a series of criss-cross strokes as he dashed toward the Ultima’s feet. They ignited in sequence, raking across the platform in a blaze of blue heat, leaving trails of flame behind. Shasi could have cursed him for abandoning her, but she watched him climbing the thing’s frame, calling for Nero tol Scaeva. The Paragon turned and lifted a hand, fell words tumbling from his lips, and Shasi sprinted forward to tackle him.

She heard the crack of bones as she took him to the ground, and when he rolled to his back, those dark eyes fixed upon her. Shasi had not the room to make use of her arts, so she simply hauled back and punched him, pummeling Lahabrea with blows as he cackled and writhed beneath her, struggling beneath her weight. He worked one hand free and raked her face with his claws. Her world went red with blood; it filled her nose and seeped between her lips until it was all she could taste. She spit it back at him in a glob of crimson, trying to get her hands around his neck.

Shasi pressed her thumbs against his throat, digging into those tattoos—Thancred’s tattoos—as though she could throttle him out, blinking blood from her eyes. His gurgling laughter still sounded in her ears, louder and louder as the room seemed to quiet. She looked away, unable to bear the sight any longer, and saw Ultima still and black, its limbs slack and inactive.

Whatever magic the Heart of Sabik held, then, it would not loose. At least there was that small mercy.

“Purge the tank,” Shasi called, rising to her feet, hauling Lahabrea up by the neck. “What?” Gaius asked. “The ceruleum tank! Purge the fuel!” she howled. A moment later, the fuel vented in a ripple of heat nearly invisible but for the blue at its edges. She let go of Lahabrea’s throat and kicked him in the chest instead. He stumbled backward, and X’shasi made herself watch as flesh blackened and hair crisped, flesh sloughing from bone until only darkness clung there.

And then, as it had done with the essence of the primals, Ultima’s heart drunk deep of the lingering essence of Lahabrea. A veil of rime spread over the black steel, evaporating in the last flames of ceruleum. There was a terrible stillness in the chamber then, Shasi’s last ally crumbling to ash.

Well, not her last. “So you do know the value of sacrifice,” Gaius van Baelsar said, emerging from the cockpit to regard her. She looked up at him, blood streaking her face. “Yes,” Shasi said. “I do.”

[starcunning]

Day Twenty-Eight, The Power of Two

Your OTP accomplishing a goal that neither of them would’ve been capable of doing alone. From the 30-Day OTP Challenge.

“But every time you embrace what you have become—when you feel the glory of your violent nature, when your blood sings and you smile, you will remember: you were happy, once. And now you never will be again.”

Shasi sas Intemperatus.

Zenos yae Galvus would do anything to make her happy. This, Shasi knows. It is beyond reason that he has wedded her. His great-uncle knows better than to gainsay him; he is after all of Gaius van Baelsar’s faction now, and, through his ties to Shasi, bound to him, as she is bound to the distant Imperator, who yet has no heir to succeed him but Zenos.

Anything, he has promised; together they explore the ruins of Allag, together they plunder its ancient secrets. She is unwelcome in the capital, and he will not go without her; he brings its bounty to her Castrum instead. Nero nan Scaeva returns, for the first time since the rediscovery of Azys Lla; Allag has always been his particular fascination, and there are none better equipped to use the knowledge they find.

House Galvus knows something of replicae, he tells her. Nero nan Scaeva confirms for her that the emperor of legend, Xande, was restored to life long after his reign, all his memories and faculties intact. Zenos would do anything to make her happy, even reintroduce a potential rival—to his affections, to his rule; it matters not.

Shasi has no expertise to lend the project, but she haunts the lab just the same. It is strange to watch a new life—an old life—taking shape; rapidly the thing grows from a little mass of cells she can barely perceive with her naked eye. Soon it has limbs, flipper-like, then features; in a matter of weeks she can recognize him.

This is what Thancred looked like as a child, she realizes.

She puts her hand to the glass, sometimes, as though she cannot bear not to touch him. For as long as she has been without him, the period left her to wait is brief; for as soon as the day will come, it seems too distant. Shasi wir Galvus longs, and her husband countenances it as best he can.

Without Thancred goe Marinus she is incomplete. Only together can they be happy.

[starcunning]

Some familiar faces in different contexts.

Shasi sas Intemperatus and Thancred goe Marinus.

[starcunning]

@canalstreetbaker replied to your post …

Did you miss these bad boys when I wrote them in September? I need to go back to the well on this.

Ishgard awaits, after all. >:) But before that, perhaps a trip to the capital to see what passes for a funeral in Garlemald …

[starcunning]

A slender volume of poetry

FFXIVWrite2019

Thirty days begat thirty entries. The final tally:

X’shasi Kilntreader × Edna St. Vincent Millay: 11 entries

Odette de Dzemael × Marceline Desbordes-Valmore: 5 entries

Caelina Valeria ×  Alexander Pushkin: 3 entries

Zenos yae Galvus × Aleksandr Blok: 3 entries

Emet-Selch × Christopher Marlowe: 2 entries

Aris Greensorrow × Lisa Bellear: 1 entry

Fray Myste × Paul Verlaine: 1 entry

Gaius van Baelsar × Nikolai Nekrasov: 1 entry

Melloria Hathaar × Taliesin the bard: 1 entry

Menelaus × Euripedes: 1 entry

Sidurgu Orl × L. Khuushaan: 1 entry

Indexed below. Also available on AO3.

1. My heart, being hungry ("Voracious") X'shasi Kilntreader (a miqo'te Warrior of Light) & X'moru Tia (a miqo'te adventurer) × "My heart, being hungry, feeds on food" by Edna St. Vincent Millay 

2. With greater wit, or better, wealth ("Bargain") Caelina Valeria (a Garlean Warrior of Light) ♦ Nero Scaeva × "The Bronze Cavalier" by Alexander Pushkin

3. Why should you worship her? Her you surpass ("Lost") Emet-Selch & Warrior of Light; Emet-Selch/Warrior of Light × "Hero and Leander" by Christopher Marlowe An AU where the Fourteenth Councilmember's shade was found upon a reflection and uplifted to their previous station, as befits an Ascian.

4. And to knock at my heart is to beat on my grave ("Shifting Blame") Fray Myste/Odette de Dzemael (an elezen Warrior of Light) × "Parted" by Marceline Desbordes-Valmore

5. A Fear that in the deep night starts awake ("Vault") X'shasi Kilntreader/Baro Llyonesse (a legacy-only miqo'te Warrior of Light); past X'shasi Kilntreader/Haurchefant Greystone × "Interim" by Edna St. Vincent Millay 

6. Go, therefore, like the eye of an angel to awaken his courage ("First Steps") Odette de Dzemael & Colette de Dzemael (an elezen Warrior of Light; Odette's younger twin); Aymeric de Borel/Odette de Dzemael × "The Water Flower" by Marceline Desbordes-Valmore CW: body shaming; fatphobia; narcissistic mothers.

7. returned, to your place of dreaming ("Forgiven") Aris Greensorrow (a viera adventurer) × "Dear Dja Baby Boori" by Lisa Bellear

8. To lay down their reckless heads ("Rencounter"; a free-prompt day) Zenos yae Galvus × "Twelve" by Aleksandr Blok "Shasi sas Intemperatus," an AU where by necessity X'shasi joins forces with Gaius van Baelsar to defeat Lahabrea and is declared Viceroy of Eorzea.

9. Daisies spring from damnèd seeds ("Hesitate") X'shasi Kilntreader ♦ Urianger Augurelt × "Weeds" by Edna St. Vincent Millay

10. Now flooded with moonlight ("Foster") Gaius van Baelsar/Midas nan Garlond × "Who is Happy in Russia?" by Nikolai Nekrasov

11. I breathed my soul back into me ("Snuff") X'shasi Kilntreader/V'jaela Firebird (an Echo-blessed miqo'te adventurer) × "Renascence" by Edna St. Vincent Millay CW: Drug use; breath play; adult content.

12. And not in vain you’ve sent me light ("Fingers Crossed") Caelina Valeria ♦ Nero Scaeva × "Angel" by Alexander Pushkin

13. We shall die apart, shall we not? That is what you wanted! ("Wax") Odette de Dzemael & Colette de Dzemael; past Fray Myste/Odette de Dzemael × "Elegy (You, who have taken all)" by Marceline Desbordes-Valmore

14. Who will measure Uffern? ("Scour") Melloria Hathaar (a miqo'te Warrior of Light) × "The First Address of Taliesin" by Taliesin the bard

15. To be flame in the heat ("Travail"; a free-prompt day) Sidurgu Orl/Warrior of Light × "It's an Honour to be Human" by L. Khuushaan A roleswap AU where Fray lives and Sid dies, becoming the player's Dark Knight mentor.

16. And find me at dawn in a desolate place ("Jitter") X'shasi Kilntreader & Regula van Hydrus × "Departure" by Edna St. Vincent Millay

17. Brought to earth the arrogant brow ("Obeisant") X'shasi Silverhair (an Echo-blessed miqo'te adventurer who is not yet the Warrior of Light) × "Dirge" by Edna St. Vincent Millay

18. You're gone away, and I'm in desert ("Wilt") X'shasi Kilntreader/Zenos yae Galvus × "You're Gone Away" by Aleksandr Blok

19. And we will all the pleasures prove ("Radiant") "Solus zos Galvus"/Aquila jen Novius (a Garlean engineer who will later incarnate as Caelina Valeria) × "The Passionate Shepherd to His Love" by Christopher Marlowe

20. Thy mark is on me! I am not the same ("Bisect") X'shasi Kilntreader × "The Suicide" by Edna St. Vincent Millay

21. Your other sister and my other soul ("Crunch") X'shasi Kilntreader & "Minfilia" (Ryne Waters) × "Ode to Silence" by Edna St. Vincent Millay

22. This red gown will make a shroud ("Detritus"; a free-prompt day) X'shasi Kilntreader & Fray Myste × "The Shroud" by Edna St. Vincent Millay An AU where the mysterious voice heard beginning in "Prelude in Violet" belongs to a different benefactor: one who allows the Warrior of Light to rewrite history.

23. And where her glances fall, there cities burn ("Parched") Menelaus (an Ancient and member of the Convocation of Fourteen who will one day incarnate as X'shasi Kilntreader) × "Helen" by Euripedes

24. A look all veiled in blue ("Unctuous") Aymeric de Borel/Odette de Dzemael × "Flower of Childhood" by Marceline Desbordes-Valmore

25. I knew her for a little ghost ("Trust") X'shasi Kilntreader & Lensha Hathaar (a legacy miqo'te Warrior of Light from a timeline where she failed in her duties) × "The Little Ghost" by Edna St. Vincent Millay

26. And all have gone to sea in the wind ("Slosh") Carvallain de Gorgagne/Odette de Dzemael × "The Roses of Saadi" by Marceline Desbordes-Valmore

27. The easy shadow of night is softly laid ("Palaver") Emet-Selch/Caelina Valeria × "Remembrance" by Alexander Pushkin

28. My needle to your north abruptly swerved ("Attune") X'shasi Kilntreader/Baro Llyonesse × "Sonnet III (No lack of counsel)" by Edna St. Vincent Millay

29. To live again, undying! Aye ("Deleterious"; a free-prompt day) Fray Myste × "Last Hope" by Paul Verlaine Archive Warning: Major character death.

30. And You're afar—but are you real there? ("Darkness") Zenos yae Galvus & Estinien Wyrmblood × "I seek salvation" by Aleksandr Blok

[starcunning]

Shasi wir Galvus, Praefectus Castorum of Castrum Centri, bride to the Imperial Prince.

[starcunning]

𝕊𝕙𝕒𝕤𝕚 𝕤𝕒𝕤 𝕀𝕟𝕥𝕖𝕞𝕡𝕖𝕣𝕒𝕥𝕦𝕤 || 𝕊𝕙𝕒𝕤𝕚 𝕨𝕚𝕣 𝔾𝕒𝕝𝕧𝕦𝕤