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queen-scribbles · 5 years

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Deep Roots

@pillarspromptsweekly fill #75: Double. Since it’s AU anyway, decided to use the Star Rewritten ‘verse, which turned out to be a very good decision.

Someday she’d learn. It was a matter of averages and consequences that someday, eventually, she would heed the ‘don’t mess with things you don’t understand’ proverb. But that day was not today. Or likely any time soon; Adela had always felt if no messed with things they didn’t understand, they’d never stop being things no one understood. Her curiosity was a matter of public service, really.

The justification earned her knowing chuckles and skeptical looks from most of her friends, a ‘that’s one way to look at it’ and an approving pat on the back from Kana, and a quiet, heartfelt ‘just please be careful’ from Heodan. She did her best, because it was Heodan asking, but some days you needed to take chances and risk making mistakes. Knowledge only came with testing limits, it was just a matter of finding the right balance between testing and being safe.

Today that balance meant letting Heodan come along to watch her back(and if she enjoyed having his company and no one else’s, well, that was just a nice bonus, wasn’t it?) while she more thoroughly examined some of the relics and such in the Endless Paths. After all, what was the point of clearing out all the dangers if she couldn’t explore a little? Today she wanted to get a closer look at Od Nua’s tomb. The lot of them had been... rather antsy the first time through--knowing they were near the end and just wanting this done. She hadn’t stopped to look around.

As Engwithan burial chambers went, it was rather plain, Adela admitted as she walked the edges of the room. But given the circumstances of Od Nua’s death, that was hardly a surprise.

“How long do you think you’ll need, Adi?” Heodan asked, his gaze shifting suspiciously from shadow to shadow. “This part of the place feels.... unsettling.”

“Imagine passing through when it was guarded by the spirit of a mad king,” Adela said breezily as she took a charcoal rubbing of one of the few wall carvings. “It was ten times more nerve-wracking. But I shouldn’t need more than an hour before we can start working our way back up, promise.”

“Why are we doing it like that, anyway?” His tone was all idle curiosity, fingers brushing a carven pillar.

“So if we get tired and call it a day after four or five levels, I don’t have to come as far down to pick back up,” Adela explained. She stowed the rolled-up rubbing in her satchel and moved on to the next section.

“Smart,” Heodan chuckled.

“Thank you.” She focused on the wall more intently, hoping to hide her blush in the flickering torch- and adra-light. (They were such a new development, and she still felt silly going red as a schoolgirl half the time when he complimented her.) There wasn’t much more to be found there, however, and so she turned her attention to the adra column in the center of the chamber, final resting place of Od Nua.

To her surprise, the knobby adra seemed.... brighter than before. It hadn’t been dead after Od Nua’s departure, but it had dimmed significantly without an immediate soul presence sustaining it. Now, though, it appeared to have regained some of its natural glow.

“Interesting...” Adela murmured, walking closer, hand outstretched. Maybe I can feel what’s going on...

“Adi, are you sure that’s a good idea-” Heodan’s cation was lost under a thunderous crack as the adra flashed so bright under her touch for a moment all either of them could see was white.

When they blinked the spots out of their vision, the adra column had cracked, fine splinters littering the floor around both the column and the two kith who now sat sprawled in front of it-- a tanned elf with short, messy brown hair, and a pale, freckled human with long red hair tied up in a messy bun.

“Damn, Rekke,” the elf groaned good-naturedly, rubbing the back of her head. “When I told you to just go for it with hittin’ me, I didn’t mean quite so fuckin’ hard.”

The redhead muttered something in a language Adela didn’t quite recognize and shook his head. “I do not think you can pin this on me, Watcher.”

Watcher? She’s... like me? Adela stared at the new arrivals, then looked over at Heodan, only to find him looking at her as if hoping for an explanation. She didn’t have one; this was hardly an everyday occurrence.

And it got even weirder when the elf broke from gaping at her surrounding to whirl toward Adela’s surprised gasp. Her eyes narrowed at the presence of kith, then flew wide when her gaze landed on Heodan. She physically recoiled, looking like she’d seen a ghost.

“Aren’t you fuckin’ dead?”

Apparently, in her mind, she had.

>O<

The following silence was both awkward and protracted, until Heodan looked down at himself as if to check and then, skeptically, back to the elf. “No?”

She scrambled to her feet, still staring at the two of them, and offered her companion a hand up. “Not tryin’ to imply it’s a bad thing you’re not, it’s just... I thought... the fuckin’ bîaŵac....” She broke off her disjointed train of thought to look around again. “Alright, I’m sorry, where the fuck are we? And who’re you?”

“We’re in the Endless Paths beneath Caed Nua,” Adela replied slowly, equally curious where these kith had come from and how in Wael’s name they’d gotten here. But it was probably a good idea to get this elf less on edge before she drew the sabres hanging at her belt.

Her answer appeared to have the opposite effect, the elf narrowed her eyes. “And what’re you doin’ here? Isn’t it blazin’ dangerous?”

“That’s why I have back-up” --Adela jerked a thumb towards Heodan--”just in case. And I’m down here to explore what’s beneath my keep.”

“Your keep? How the fuck’s it your keep?” The elf crossed her arms.

Galawain’s gaping maw, can she make it through a sentence without swearing? “Because I cleared it out and routed Lord Gathbin and was named the Roadwarden,” Adela said slowly. She inched closer to Heodan at the look on the elf’s face. “What?”

“I did all that,” the elf said, briefly uncrossing her arms to emphatically jab a finger into her own chest. “Five fuckin’ years ago. What’s goin’ on and who. the fuck. are you?”

“Adela Tecali, Watcher, scholar, and Roadwarden,” Adela introduced herself. “Apparently, you... already know Heodan... somehow.” Though you think he’s dead, so I dunno what to make of that. The elf’s muttered words about the bîaŵac came back to her. “Were you part of the caravan?”

“Odema’s? To Gilded Vale?” She paused to wait for Adela’s nod. “Yeah, but I was the only survivor, between the Glanfathans and...” another glance at Heodan, “other things. You got Calisca hidden somewhere around here, too?”

Adela frowned. This was... several different kinds of unsettling. She wished Aloth and Kana were still here to help untangle this mess. “No, she’s dead. Has been for about a year. Who’re you?”

“Oh, where are my manners?” the elf said sarcastically. “I always forget to introduce myself to people I meet in unfamiliar parts of the shithole maze underneath my keep.” She flung one arm out in an aggrandized bow. “Tavi Illani, Watcher, Roadwarden, adventurer.” She nodded at the redhead. “This is Rekke. His Aedyran’s rough but gettin’ better so... talk slow.”

“Oh, really?” Adela fixed Rekke with a curious look. “Where’re you from? What’s your native tongue?” Why’s it sound so close to mine?

“Adi, Adi.” Heodan rested one hand on her shoulder, a smile in his voice despite the bizarre circumstances. “She just said slow. And don’t you think we should figure out what happened before you start interrogating our visitors as to their origins?”

“Right, right, sorry,” Adela winced. “My curiosity gets away from me too easily.”

“Can’t blame ya, under the circumstances,” Tavi shrugged, one side of her mouth tugging up in a smile. “Bet you an’ Kana would get along fuckin’ great.”

“We do. Well, did,” Adela corrected. “He left for Rauatai a couple weeks back.”

“Okay, can this mess get any blazin’ weirder?” Tavi raked her hands through her hair, which did nothing for its messy state.

“Hopefully not,” Adela said wryly. “What were you doing right before you ended up here?”

“We’d stopped on an uninhabited island so we could make ship repairs--fuckin’ pirates, y’know. We beat ‘em, but not easy--an’ Rekke and I decided to pass time by sparrin’. It’s practice and burnin’ off adrenaline at the same time, seemed like a good idea.”

“On your ship or on the island?” Adela bit her lip in thought, already working on a theory.

“The island,” Tavi said. “We were tryin’ to stay out of the way, after all.”

“Is there adra on this island?”

“Yeah,” Tavi said slowly. “Some right near where we were sparrin’, too. This bastard” --she affectionately bumped her fist against Rekke’s shoulder--”clocked me but good an’ I banged against it... You think that’s the reason?”

Adela shrugged. “Id hafta do some digging to be sure” --a lot of digging-- “but we already know adra has deep roots that connect all across Eora. Wouldn’t surprise me if they can do more than that.”

“Great, like I didn’t have enough reason to be wary of that shit,” Tavi groaned.

“That sounds like a story,” Adela said, ears twitching as she rocked up on the balls of her feet. Heodan cleared his throat softly and she added, “which you’d probably be more comfortable telling up in the library? Or Brighthollow? That’s prob’ly better; it’s cozy an’ I have plenty of room since everyone’s gone on their way. Still a couple hours’ trek up, I’m afraid.”

Tavi exchanged a look with Rekke and shrugged. “Better than stayin’ here til we figure out what happened and how to fix it.” Her expression turned sober. “If we can fix it.”

“Oh, there’s gotta be something we can do,” Adela said warmly as the four of them started up the stairs. “We just have to figure out what made it happen in the first place, and use that to work out a way to send you back... wherever you came from.”

“Just like that, huh?” Tavi laughed.

“While I’m sure the actual steps will take longer than the summation made it sound, yeah, that’s basically all we have to do.” Adela twirled the end of her braid around her finger and glanced up at Heodan. “And I’m sure certain people will be happy I’m pursuing something less risky than crawling around the tomb, ossuary, blight forges, and other unsavory domains of a mad Engwithan king.”

Heodan’s lips twitched in a smile, but his eyes were a clear and innocent blue when he looked back at her. “I’m sure I don’t know who you’re talking about.”

“Uh-huh, sure.” Adela ran her thumb over the jewel in her ring. “You’re lucky I find the prospect of days on end reading old books just as enticing as crawling around a multi-layer crypt looking for artifacts.”

“Hylea’s tits, just kiss already,” Tavi muttered behind them, and the two shared a mischievous look.

“If you insist,” Adela said cheerfully, and scampered ahead a few steps to solve the height disparity before leaning in to steal a quick kiss. Heodan obliged with a laugh, holding her close a couple seconds longer than she’d been planning, which made Adela smile. She winked at Tavi over his shoulder when they parted. ”Thanks for giving me an excuse.”

“You’re welcome,” Tavi chuckled. “Damn, way to call my bluff. So where’d you two meet?”

“Odema’s caravan,” Adela said, resuming course for Caed Nua’s basement. “I was traveling from Ixamitl and he was from-”

“-Aedyr, I remember,” Tavi said absently, followed by an awkward silence as ‘Aren’t you fuckin’ dead?’ echoed in their minds. “So, then, a burning question: If Watcher Adela here.and I somehow lived the same fuckin’ events and all... Heodan, how’d you survive for her?”

“I was still in the ruins,” he said, voice soft. “I needed to catch my breath.” Adela didn’t have to look to know he’d pressed one hand against the scars just below his ribs. “A skuldr got me pretty good, and we’d been in a hurry. Adi and Calisca kept going and... I missed all the fun.”

“Heh, fun’s one way to put it,” Tavi muttered. “’Specially if it went down for her like it did for me...”

The rest of their ascent was occupied with Adela and Tavi comparing and contrasting their experiences from Cilant Lîs onward. It was one of the most surreal conversations Adela had ever had in her life.

She couldn’t wait to figure out the driving force behind it.

----------------------------------------

This was originally going to go through the solution and getting Tavi and Rekke back where they belong, but it was getting really crazy long and Adi started sounding like she belonged on The Flash explaining the multiverse or something, so suffice it to say, she’s right about adra, it connects multiple Eoras and they use that to get Tavi and Rekke back . (the cut stuff may show up at some point; there’s Adi being curious about Seki, ofc, and some cute stuff with her and Heodan and easter egg references to other people’s Watchers :3 it’s just another 1.5k and still growing, so I decided to cut here for the sake of my sanity)

#queens fic #pillarspromptsweekly #adela tecali #tavi illani #heodan #rekke #pillars of eternity #heodi

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