#also totally not foreshadowing the fates of the three paragons | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

tea-and-conspiracy · 4 years

Text

Prompt 24: Beam

Azem had this uncanny way of knowing when Emet-Selch was in the middle of something.

She’d summoned him from a nap too many times to count. Once, she’d summoned him when he was holding up a ladder for Hythlodaeus. Today she summoned him out of the bath tub. That wasn’t the bad part -- after all, either of them could solve it in a snap and it wasn’t anything she hadn’t seen before. Nor was it the fact that his unceremoniously naked appearance set her into delighted giggle-fits. No, the real rub was that this time, Azem had summoned him not because anyone was in danger, not because she needed his insight, but because she had found a petrified head hanging from a tree.

He didn’t even bother re-conjuring his mask because his need to facepalm was too great. WHY did he find this so endearing? That was most frustrating of all.

“Guess what this is!” She was practically bouncing on her toes. “Come on, guess.”

“Why is it singing?”

“Look at it, Hades!”

“Yes, it’s quite a lovely head.” He hadn’t even noticed her using his real name.

“No,” came Azem’s careful reply. “Look.”

Oh. She meant that sight. Emet-Selch blinked and stepped forward, squinting at the head. He’d thought it painstakingly carved from marble -- a beautiful, curly-haired youth, the textbook definition of Adonis. But beneath unmasked, alabaster flesh came an anemic glimmer, the faintest shiver of yellow light.

“It has a soul?!” He stepped back in horror.

“Mhm.” Azem gave a melancholic smile. “I’ve been searching for him forever. This is Orpheus, the third Azem, who died attempting to save his beloved Eurydice.”

Emet-Selch shook his head, sweeping forward to touch the man’s cheek. “No, dear, he’s not dead. Not while some fragment of him lingers here. The third Azem, you say? Then he has lingered in purgatory for....”

Azems rarely lasted long. There had only been fourteen Emet-Selchs but there had been thirty-two Azems. By all in mournful Creation, that was an unfathomably long time.

“That’s why I called you,” came her soft response.

Of course. The Shepherd to the Stars needed the Shepherd of the Dead. That wasn’t even his Seat and yet it had become his job more often than not. This was...new, though. Emet-Selch couldn’t recall a time he’d seen Creation magic used with such murderous intent. Who had this Azem managed to anger? Had the past truly been so barbarous?

“Help me, my dear?”

“Of course.”

He didn’t need to explain; she understood.

As he weakened the stone, turned it to putty, she summoned the sliver of soul from it. She could not see them, not as he could, but the pull of her Traveler’s stone told her it was there. When at last it was free, Emet-Selch reached for the soul -- and smothered it, crushing it back into the Lifestream. And in that lingering silence, Orpheus was finally free.

“...Thank you, my love,” she whispered, her eyes upon the stars. “I know it’s grim work.”

Emet-Selch gazed back at the tree. “Certainly less unpleasant than being denied rebirth. I cannot imagine what an effect that would come to have upon a soul. Amnesia? Depression? Perhaps simple madness.”

“Maybe. But the important part is he’s free. Isn’t that worth being happy about?” She smiled, laying a hand upon his cheek. “Besides, you are very much alive. You have no excuse to be depressed.”

“I have to deal with Nabriales in the morning, that’s plenty depressing.” He smirked.

“Nabriales, hm...?” And Azem got that look. He knew that look; she wore it almost as often as Hythlodaeus did. With a melodramatic flourish, the Traveler moved to where she’d dropped her belongings in excitement nearby. “You know? I think I forgot how to send you home all the sudden. Maybe Nabriales will have to wait a few more days. What do you think?”

Azem glanced over her shoulder, and beamed.

#ffxivwrite2020 #5.3 spoilers #emet-selch #azem #technically hades and persephone both saved and THEN damned Orpheus #in some versions persephone screws him over deliberately #but we'll ignore that <.<#i'm moody and i loves me some greek mythology ok #also totally not foreshadowing the fates of the three paragons #nope #not at all #*rattles her cage*

29 notes · View notes