ties that bind
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these violent delights by wytch-lyghts (flight_on_broken_wings)
Fandoms: Critical Role (Web Series)
10 Aug 2021
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Summary
He had planned meticulously every detail of the theft of the beacons. He had arranged so carefully his exchange with the Assembly, their resources and the research he could not perform for his access. But the Scourger they sent to keep him in line, making subtle demands and subtler promises, he was not part of Essek's plan. He threatened to drag him in deeper than Essek had ever intended to go. He just has yet to decide whether he'll regret it.
Series
- Part 1 of ties that bind
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let not light see by wytch-lyghts (flight_on_broken_wings)
Fandoms: Critical Role (Web Series)
03 Sep 2021
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Summary
Bren heaved in another breath. He shrugged his good shoulder again as best he was able, a smear of red on the wall behind him. Red everywhere; soaking his clothing, painting his hands, matted in his hair where he tried again to push it out of his face, red on everything he’d ever touched. He let his head drop back against the wall. Gave up on trying to watch Essek make sense of him through heavy eyelids that grew too difficult to keep open.
He cleared his throat gently. Rasped, dangerously honest in a way that only occurred to him after the words left his mouth, “I didn’t know where else to go. I—”
And grimaced, swallowing his words and choking on them.
Series
- Part 2 of ties that bind
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your smiles, nothing but teeth by wytch-lyghts (flight_on_broken_wings)
Fandoms: Critical Role (Web Series)
25 Sep 2021
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Summary
His stomach swooped low like gravity had been upended as Essek’s soft voice crept in between his ears.
“I apologize, I know this… isn’t how this is done,” Essek’s words faded out for a breath, and it wasn’t. For all they circled, hearing Essek’s lilting accent in his head, in Rexxentrum, slipping too easily behind all the walls and rituals and pretense, it felt intimate. Felt damning. Despite himself, Bren glanced furtively past the open archway of his secluded alcove toward the library beyond, as if anyone were at risk of overhearing the words whispered inside his skull. “I hope you’re well,” Essek continued, words uncharacteristically blunt and few but such was the limitation of the spell. There was close to a question in his tone, but not one he’d dare ask. “We need to speak.” Bren’s heart tripped over itself in its haste. “You know where to find me.”
He exhaled slowly, silently, the trailing end of the spell awaiting his reply settling around him like a noose. Bren drew in a short breath to formulate a reply.
Series
- Part 3 of ties that bind
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a little while in silence by wytch-lyghts (flight_on_broken_wings)
Fandoms: Critical Role (Web Series)
08 Nov 2021
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Summary
“What are you waiting for, Herr Thelyss?” Bren rasped thickly, his eyes hooded, head tipped back invitingly. “You seem to know what you’re after.”
A light huff of breath tickled his throat, a smile teasing over his pulse, tongue flashing out to taste and setting off sparks at the base of his skull. Essek's lips pulled into a smirk, and Bren felt more than heard a short phrase murmured against his skin, his stomach flipping as gravity suddenly, predictably, upended itself.
Series
- Part 4 of ties that bind
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indelible friend by wytch-lyghts (flight_on_broken_wings)
Fandoms: Critical Role (Web Series)
07 Feb 2022
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Summary
The heavy silence that followed rang loudly in Essek’s ears. Sending spell dissipating, Essek hurried through the verbal component, hands moving through the gestures without their usual grace but with all the necessary precision to draw his own gossamer thread between them, reverberating with each breath. "But you need not explain, of course, if it is beyond you tonight or would invite suspicion.” The next breath steadied him. “In which case, goodnight, Bren. Rest well.”
There passed a long enough moment of silence that Essek wondered if Bren might let the spell abate altogether without reply. Finally, though, the thread drawn between them plucked and rippled with a quiet hum.
“I couldn’t stay… but, I could come.”
Series
- Part 5 of ties that bind
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the eyrie where you perch by wytch-lyghts (flight_on_broken_wings)
Fandoms: Critical Role (Web Series)
03 Jun 2022
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Summary
He hadn’t a hope of it actually succeeding. Either the amulet around Bren’s neck or one around the necks of his compatriots or torturers or masters would most certainly shunt the scry sensor away, or wards around wherever he was being kept would accomplish the same, and Essek would snap back to himself with nothing to show for it but the wasted spell. But he was going to try, possibly twice, because Essek Thelyss did not abide helplessness, even if it was fruitless.
He hadn’t a hope in any of the nine hells of it actually succeeding. And so the floor dropped out from under him when it actually did.
Series
- Part 6 of ties that bind
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I'll be your slaughterhouse, your killing floor by wytch-lyghts (flight_on_broken_wings)
Fandoms: Critical Role (Web Series)
17 Jan 2023
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Summary
It was dangerous, that feeling Essek was beginning to grow comfortable with, no longer a fledgling thing, and more dangerous the more comfortably it nestled inside his chest. He was well past denying the existence of the thing, but even named phenomena with a proclivity to kill were no less dangerous for being known.
* * *
Felderwin took them all by surprise; an Empire alchemist languishes in Rosohna's dungeon. An unknown element, but not an unuseful one, oversees his interrogation. There is an opportunity to be had here, and many eyes on Rosohna of late. Perhaps on their enemies also.
Series
- Part 7 of ties that bind