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lit-in-thy-heart · 2 years

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“ are you okay with me touching you? “ with Lancelot and anyone else?

sorry this has taken so long grem and thank you for the prompt!!!

this is inspired by the 'not a shade au' by @lemissingmask but was started before mask finished the au series and is therefore an au of their au...in essence

read below or on ao3

Mithian was accustomed to finding all numbers of injured creatures on her hunting trips. What they were not accustomed to finding, however, was injured strangers. So when they stumbled across a figure sprawled amongst the ferns, her first instinct was to freeze. The stag she’d aimed at was staggering through the foliage a little way off but Mithian paid no mind to it, tentatively approaching the frame curled up amidst the leaves. Her head turned at the distant calls of her companions before their gaze flickered back to the stranger at hand.

They were shrouded in a ragged cloak that obscured most of their body, face eclipsed by a tangle of dark hair, and Mithian tentatively outstretched her hand, fingertips brushing against what seemed to be a shoulder. There was a violent recoil and the figure bolted upright, scrambling backwards against a fallen tree. In the movement, their hair was tossed out of their face and Mithian almost flinched under the intensity of the eyes staring at them.

‘I’m not going to hurt you,’ she whispered. ‘What are you doing out here?’ They didn’t say that the stranger was technically trespassing. On no level would that be helpful. ‘What’s your name?’

The stranger remained where they were, their palms pushed against the ground to steady their quivering body. In the sunlight that gasped through the swaying leaves, their lips were painted with saturated colour as they parted slightly. Mithian instinctively leaned closer, their own fingers buried in the autumn leaves scattered on the ground, and she waited patiently for a response.

Their mouth closed again without a sound from them.

‘I’m Mithian,’ they softly said, adjusting her skirts and studying the stranger’s face. An expression that she couldn’t quite define flashed across their face and she continued. ‘I’m sorry if I startled you at all with the hunting. I wasn’t hunting you.’

Mithian fell silent with a frown. Of course no person would think they were being hunted – unless they were Druids and in the kingdom of Camelot – but the skittishness of the stranger’s gaze and the obvious positioning of their limbs to allow for a quick escape had forced the words out of their mouth. It was when the stranger leaned forwards that the light, which had been absorbed entirely by the gold band at the stranger’s throat, left a trail for Mithian’s eyes just below the jewellery.

The scarlet was layered with tender gilt, the dried blood flaking off like tears rolling down a face, and Mithian was transfixed. Had it not been for the clear clots and beginnings of scabs, then they perhaps might have been able to explain it away as lace attached to the collar. As she turned her head, the sunlight hit the collar again and exposed a chain of symbols carved into the surface.

‘This is magic,’ Mithian whispered, ignoring the calls of their name. She had ways of not being found when they didn’t want to be; her companions wouldn’t discover them until the precise moment she desired it. The stranger, however, was not so accustomed to ignoring shouts and started, the neck of their tunic falling to one side and unveiling part of their chest. ‘You’re a Druid?’

Their hand jumped to the triskelion mark on their skin and, hesitantly, they shook their head.

‘I’m not, either,’ Mithian murmured, removing their gloves. ‘But I can do this.’

A flame, with a single nudge from their eyes, ignited in her palm. The stranger, whom Mithian had been anticipating to flinch, drew towards the fire and the faintest of smiles pinched at their lips. Mithian looked down at the flames in their palm. They’d studied her fire against natural fire and, after many hours of coming very close to incinerating her own hair, Mithian had come to the conclusion that there was a cooler hue to her fire, a sharper quality. It was comforting, particularly on nights alone with their thoughts – and particularly since the Dorocha attack. Not that their magic had helped to defeat the Dorocha: the tale of Sir Lancelot had been scattered throughout the land after the balance had been restored.

Mithian didn’t usually make a habit of revealing her magic to strangers, but the triskelion had drawn an instinctive reaction from them and the stranger was watching the fire with an invested interest, even raising one hand. Mithian hesitated. ‘You want to hold it?’

As the stranger’s fingers brushed against her hand, Mithian tipped the flames delicately into their palm. The fact that they were letting her touch them, if only fleetingly, put them slightly more at ease and they took the opportunity to study the collar when the stranger was distracted. It was magic, that much was certain, but the way that the runes had been sketched out… There was a familiarity to them, in the way that the tails and flicks had been shaped, and they seemed to fall against Mithian’s soul like breath.

Their curiosity was broken by a gargling scream and the fire the stranger had been holding was flung to the ground. At a flash of Mithian’s eyes the tendrils were extinguished and her attention jumped to the stranger, whose trembling hands were hovering by their neck. The collar, which had before been ringed with dried blood, was weeping. Like visible seams, beads of blood trickled down the stranger’s throat in tributaries and they doubled over, alternating between trying to suppress their screams and whimpering.

Not only was it magic, then, but a method of control. Mithian flicked their braid over their shoulder and leaned as close to the stranger as she could without making contact. ‘Can you take it off?’ she urgently asked. At the frantic shake of the head, their mouth set in a thin line. She’d expected as much, but there had been a slim chance of it being easy to handle. ‘Alright. Alright. I might be able to.’ They pushed up her sleeves, hands outstretched. ‘Are you okay with me touching you?’

The hesitancy that flashed in the stranger’s eyes dissipated as they doubled over again, fingers digging into the earth. ‘Yes,’ they gasped out, flinging their head back as the tendons in their neck became more prominent. ‘Please, make it stop.’ There were tears squeezing out of their eyes. ‘Make it stop,’ they whispered.

Weaving their fingers beneath the stranger’s hair, Mithian placed her hands on the collar and hissed as it seared beneath her skin. The touch of the magic was familiar and ripped through to their very soul, but there would be time to analyse that after the collar was removed. Her palm grazed the stranger’s throat and a thin film of blood was drawn across the lines in her skin like a shroud but Mithian ignored it, focusing on the collar. If she could find where the band had been joined, if they could force their magic through the delicate crack in the finework…

The stranger was whimpering again and blood was flowing down Mithian’s wrist. If she couldn’t remove the collar, if they died in her arms without her even knowing their name…

‘Lancelot,’ came a gasp. ‘My name is Lancelot.’

Evidently she had spoken aloud. Tearing their eyes away from the collar for a moment, her lips parted momentarily. It had to be a different Lancelot, it had to be a common name after all, because Sir Lancelot had definitely sacrificed themself and there was no coming back from the veil between the two worlds. Mithian had been taught that well.

‘Alright, Lancelot,’ Mithian softly said. ‘I’m going to try and break the collar. It might hurt, it probably will hurt, but just hold on. It will be over soon.’

One way or another.

Mithian closed their eyes and allowed their magic to trip over the collar, feeling every surface as it stumbled, until it became caught like a finger in a door on a slight imperfection. Beneath her fingers she could feel it pulsing and could almost match the frantic heartbeat to the syllables of a name they had once known well. Mouth hardening, they opened their eyes and focused all her energy into splitting the collar. It fissured like ice beneath their hand and Mithian watched it break apart, golden shards spraying the ground.

The hand that had been buried in the earth flew to Mithian’s leg and Lancelot tried desperately to remain still as the collar around their neck was pulled apart. Through the thin layers of material Mithian could feel the panic Lancelot was pushing into her skin and she spared a moment to send a ribbon of harmless flames down Lancelot’s wrist. Their gaze, once they opened their eyes, settled on the fire and flickered in synchronisation with the flames and Mithian returned to the collar.

Shards that had broken off had been forced into their palms and their blood mingled with Lancelot’s as her skin met theirs. One hand slotted perfectly into the unshielded area she’d created and the jagged edges of the collar’s remains tore at their fingers as Mithian tried to stem the blood flow and remove the rest of the collar. An apology moved their lips senselessly as it was repeated and Lancelot’s forehead finally collided with hers.

‘You’re…doing me…a great service,’ they gasped out with a tone softer than leaves dancing in a summer breeze. ‘Stop apologising.’

‘I haven’t finished just yet,’ Mithian replied grimly, closing her eyes and giving one last push of magic.

A distant scream seemed to ripple through the grass as the collar dropped to the ground and Lancelot sagged forwards, collapsing on Mithian’s shoulder. Mithian wrapped one arm around their back and buried her hand in their hair to support their head, making soothing noises in their ear. The blood on her hand rubbed off in the roots of Lancelot’s hair, becoming entangled in their thick locks, and Mithian quietly exhaled. It was over.

Or perhaps not.

Mithian started as blood trickled down their sleeve, coming from the underside of her arm. She pulled away and saw that the blood from Lancelot’s wounds had not slowed, but was dripping down their body like they’d just emerged from a waterfall. They were a dead weight in her arms and, trying not to give into panic, Mithian carefully turned Lancelot’s body to lay them across her lap before ripping off her sleeves.

‘Lancelot,’ Mithian murmured. ‘Lancelot, can you hear me?’

‘Yeah,’ came the throaty whisper.

‘Look at me, Lancelot, look at me.’ Ever so slowly, Lancelot opened their eyes and tried to raise their hand. Mithian took it, pressing their lips to it. ‘Here’s the thing,’ they softly said, ‘you’re still losing a lot of blood. I know that after wearing that…thing you won’t want anything touching your neck but if I don’t apply pressure to the wound—’

Lancelot squeezed their hand. ‘Do what you have to do.’

Kissing their hand again, Mithian kept hold of it as they used their other to wrap the sleeve around Lancelot’s throat. Her fingers pressed against their neck and became veins to keep their life flowing. Blood blossomed along her sleeve like embroidered roses and Mithian allowed the defences that had prevented their discovery to drop. If Lancelot was to live, then they’d need all the help they could get. The back of their neck was cushioned on her thighs and the blood was seeping through her skirts but Mithian kept a tight grip on Lancelot’s hand and a fierce determination in the pressure on their neck.

‘Stay with me, Lancelot, stay with me.’

Above her own shallow breaths were the calls from her hunting companions, ringing out like a warning cry, and Mithian let out a brief shout before dropping their head to look at Lancelot again. They were watching them intently, eyes drifting across her face as if transforming her features into their epitaph, and the corner of their mouth flickered.

‘Thank you,’ Lancelot whispered. ‘Thank you for releasing me.’

‘You’re not going to be going any further just yet, though,’ replied Mithian, twisting her head to see if help was coming. There were healing spells, but the neck was so fragile and they were not in the best of conditions themself and so much could go wrong… ‘Only place you’ll be going is the palace at Nemeth.’

‘I wouldn’t want to intrude—’

‘You’d be a guest.’ Mithian tore their gaze away from the trees again. ‘And the best physicians in the kingdom can help you to recover, and you’ll be kept safe from Morgana—’

‘How did you—’

‘It’s not difficult to know who magic belongs to when it’s touched your very soul,’ breathed Mithian. The blood was smeared across her palms again. ‘I’m sure, should you ever come across something I’ve enchanted in the future, you’ll be able to know it was me.’

Lancelot’s eyes fluttered shut. ‘Bold of you to assume you’ve touched my soul.’

Despite everything, despite being decorated in violent splatters of Lancelot’s life as they bled out, Mithian quietly laughed. ‘There’ll be time to make sure I do.’

At thundering footsteps, Lancelot stiffened in Mithian’s lap and she turned her head, softly reassuring them when it proved only to be their hunting companions. Lancelot was lifted from the ground and, as they were carried back to the horses with haste, Mithian’s lips refused to part to say goodbye. There would be no farewells, not when they would see Lancelot again at the palace. She ignored the hand offered to them for several moments and took deep breaths, closing their eyes against the image of their body gilded by pieces of Lancelot. It was no use; the engraving remained in their mind. Bloody flowers studded her skirts and the sunset’s spittle formed mosaics across their palms and Lancelot was in her hair, in the folds of their skin, beneath her nails.

Mithian could only hope that Lancelot would be in their life for a little longer.

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angelfacehobi · 6 years

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85 Truths Tag

Tagged by @moonseff who i love (from afar like a total weirdo) w/ all m heart

85 Truths Tag

Tag 20: @gracefully-falling, @taaeeter-tots, @yoongsb, @hobismovingcastle, @beth-is-trash, @lookingforco, @taeonice, @bfjhs, @redheadhobi, @hugsforhobi, @joonbird, @fly-with-hobi ((and im sorry 20 is too ambitious of a number for the likes of me))

1. Last Drink- Water! bc i got roped into impromptu living room yoga with my roommate

2. Phone call- My roommate (I called her from the living room to get her to come have breakfast with me... definitely don’t have codependency issues!)

3. Text message- Dad!

4. Song you listened to- Bad Things by Lizzy Land (to get my angst mood on)

5. Time you cried- Friday night, i got super drunk and cried about my mum and more over missing my grandma 😂😂😂

6. Dated someone twice- Noooooo

7. Kissed someone and regretted it- Nope

8. Been cheated on- Not to my knowledge!

9. Lost someone special- Yeah (aforementioned grandma)

10. Been depressed- For sure

11. Gotten drunk and thrown up- Never thrown up!

Fave colours:

12. Yellow (its so HAPPY!)

13. Purple

14. Blue

In the last year have you:

15. Made new friends- Yes!

16. Fallen out of love- Yes

17. Laughed until you cried- Yes

18. Found out someone was talking about you- Yes! (but in the good way)

19. Met someone who changed you- Yes! IRL and on tumblr too (@gracefully-falling ily)

20. Found out who your true friends are- Kind of?

21. Kissed someone on your facebook friends list- Nope

22. How many of your facebook friends do you know irl?- I’d say 85% of them?

23. Do you have any pets- Noooo BUT I WANT A SNAKE SO BAD BUT MY ROOMMATES HATE THEM :(

24. Do you want to change your name- Used to but now I like Emily

25. What did you do for your last birthday- Had a party which doubled as my ‘goodbye im leaving this city’ party with a bunch of my friends, we played boardgames and video games and drank a lot

26. What time did you wake up today- At 8am cause i needed to do laundry :(

27. What were you doing at midnight last night- WIDE AWAKE and continued to be wide awake till 5AM

28. What is something you can’t wait for- TRAVELLING! I’m going to Iceland and Korea this year!!

30. What are listening to right now-Thief by Ansel Elgort

31. Have you ever talked to a person named Tom- Yes!! One of my best friends!!

32. Something that’s getting on your nerves- Filling out apartment contracts for next year T.T

33. Most visited website- Tumblr probably but also Netflix (I’m basic)

34. Hair colour- Brown dip dyed blonde at the ends

35. Long or short hair- Loooooong (takes me like an hour to brush it ITS SO ANNOYING BUT ALSO SHORT HAIR LOOKS SO BAD ON ME UGHHH)

36. Do you have a crush on someone- Constantly 😂 i love people

37. What do you like about yourself- I’m loyal and compassionate I like to think. I’m always the first one to stand up for my friends. I have bad social anxioety but the minute my friends are upset i get like ‘friend-mum adrenaline’ and go HAM.

38. Want any piercings- I want to get my secondary piercings on my ears

39. Blood type- Idk I think its O but that just what my mum told me... and she probably didn’t know either so just told me the most common 😂

40. Nicknames- Em, Emmie, Snemily (my roommates and I call each other by our names but with a Sn at the front😂) and some embarrasing family nicknames from my dad: Em the Grem and Squem.

41. Relationship status- single pringle too scared to mingle

42. Zodiac - Virgo

43. Pronouns- she/her

 44. Favorite TV Shows: ughh SO MANY but right now it’s probably Jane the Virgin

 45. Tattoos- Have 10 but want more :D

 46. Right or left handed- Right

 47. Ever had a surgery- I’ve had my ears pinned back and my appendix taken out

 48. Piercings- just ears

 49. Sport- Scuba Diving!/Swimming/Kayaking

 50. Vacation- Going to Iceland and Korea this year - next on my bucket list is Fiji!

 51. Trainers- Whaaaat?

 More general

52. Eating- I just had a pizza :3

 53. Drinking- water

 54. I’m about to watch- Flower Boy Ramen Shop for the third time 😂

 55. Waiting for- ICELAND!

 56. Want- Cute dresses pls n thnx

 57. Get married- Maybe? i dont really care but if my S/O wants to then I will

 58. Career- Want to be a photographer (preferably underwater)

 Which is better

59. Hugs or kisses- ALWAYS BOTH THANKS

 60. Lips or eyes- ooooooh tough one. BOTH!

 61. Shorter or taller- I like girls who are not too much shorter than me and not too much taller than me and I like taller guys.

 62. Older or younger- Older!!

 63. Nice arms or stomach- Don’t care :)

 64. Hookup or relationship- Both? Either or? I love both but put more significance into relationships so FINE! Relationships.

 65. Troublemaker or hesitant- Hesitant? mostly?

 Have you ever

66. Kissed a stranger- haha no!

 67. Drank hard liquor- Yes

 68. Lost glasses- Ugh always. The bane of my existence.

 69. Turned someone down- Yes

 70. Sex on first date- Nope

 71. Broken someone’s heart- I think so :(

 72. Had your heart broken- yeah

 73. Been arrested- no

 74. Cried when someone died- yes

 75. Fallen for a friend- Not fully

 Do you believe in

76. Yourself- Yes (and even if i dont i’ll lie to myself until i do believe)

 77. Miracles- no

 78. Love at first sight- A version of it

 79. Santa claus- No

 80. Kiss on first date- If its right its right honey

 81. Angels- No... but spirits that may or may not choose to watch over people yes.

 Other

82. Best friend’s name- (not sure if they want me outing them >.>)

 83. Eye colour- Blue

 84. Fave movie- The Breakfast Club

 85. Fave actor: Lee Min Ho <3

#tagged #answered #moonseff #ty ily

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