Truth.

[Spellblades 749]

Spoiler

Please do not Meta any information in this post, thank you :)

 

 

The sky was darker that night.

 

“Aelyn, don’t run off too far!"

 A familiar voice called out to him as he ran through the streets of the Imperial Capital, the memory distant and hazy, as if it had happened lifetimes ago.

God, Aelyn wished he had listened.

 

 

Aelyn had grown up different; he had always known this fact even before he could speak.

His earliest memory was being taught sign language as a tool for both himself and his mother. 

When she randomly came home smelling of alcohol, she often talked in sign as if speaking was a burden. 

 

A burden was all he thought of himself. The Maehr sought comfort away from this fact through innocent pranks and general mischief, but that sinking feeling in his chest never went away. 

 

Aelyn would never forget the first time he saw another one of his kind, free-spirited and carefree, as if the weight of the world wasn’t crushing them. He was jealous, so very jealous.

So he tried practicing the ways of his ancestors, following the religious aspects of Luara, respecting the creeds of the Maehr, but it never felt enough like something was missing. 

 

Family.

 

 

It was an average day in Perduran when Aelyn got a feeling in his stomach, forming like a knot that wouldn’t be loosened, but he ignored it. Guarding the Diarch in the Throne room like he should, trying to ignore this feeling until he couldn’t take it anymore. The Maehr abandoned his post as he walked out of the room, his stride uneasy as he reached the tavern.

 

“Spike, I got a surprise for you.” His Uncle said beside two others by the doorway.

 

“What is it?” he asked, removing his mask. Soon, a familiar face stepped out from behind him.

 

“Aelyn!” His mother exclaimed, gesturing for him to come closer for a hug. It took him a while to register that she was standing in front of him after so many years apart; he could never figure out whose fault it was for the distance, his or his mother’s. Perhaps he never cared to face the truth; not many things terrified the Maehr, but facing that fact scared him more than any monster.

 

As Aelyn stood in his mother’s embrace, he couldn’t help but conjure a whirlwind of questions in his head, but he failed to voice them; he just wanted to enjoy this moment.

 

“Adrian, can you bring them to the palace gardens? I’ll be right behind you.” His Uncle inquired

 

“Ai, come on, you two.” he replied

 

As they reached the top floor’s gardens, the wind greeted them warmly, the calm and warm breeze rushing through his ashen hair.

 

“So how have you been?” 

 

‘Oh, you know, hopping from tavern to tavern.”

 

Aelyn frowned at the answer but didn’t say anything about his concern. Maybe he should’ve.

“How are your studies? I hear from Aedric that you’ve become quite powerful in recent years, Aelyn.” A smug expression on her face as she tried to climb over the railing of the gardens

 

“Ai, I have-” Aelyn was interrupted as he heard the door close next to him. Adrian stepped into the area with Aedric behind him

 

“Sorry that took so long, I had to talk with Peter.”

 

Time passed slowly as the four continued to talk until a commanding voice broke through the reunion

 

“Aedric, come see me!” The Diarch shouted from the throne room downstairs

 

“It seems I am needed, I’ll try to make it quick.” The man then walked out without another word

 

His mother began coughing into her hand thereafter. The Maehr turned to her with a worried expression, “Are you okay?” He asked, taking a singular step forward

“I’m alright, don’t worry.” she waved dismissively 

 

But he knew she wasn’t alright, the silence was almost deafening before he broke it. 

 

“Ma, do you mind if I check something? I’m a medic,” he said.

 

Avarine complied as she sat on the edge of a growing beetroot farm.

 

Aelyn had done this a thousand times at this point. He connected to the void, the feeling washing over him. He soon conjured a small ball of flame 

 

“Follow the light.” he instructed quietly as Adrian stood in the back. Aelyn wondered what he was thinking.

 

His mother followed the light with a delayed response. He frowned at that, but he continued testing.

“This is going to hurt a bit.” His mother nodded as he pressed down on her hand, watching for a reaction… “Do you feel that?” He asked 

“Feel what? Did you already do the test?” Avarine inquired

 

Aelyn looked back at Adrian with a sour expression. He wanted to try one more test. Praying to his patron that he was wrong. He pressed down on her hand once more with little force this time, bruising just from that small contact. 

 

“Adrian, I can’t heal this…” he muttered, trying to keep his composure. Adrian looked at him with a shocked expression before his gaze gathered back to Avarine. No words were said, but I think they all understood.

 

“Ma, no more drinking. I mean it.” his expression serious as he turned back to her

 

“What, why?” she asked in a non-serious tone, a huff escaping her lips

 

“I don’t think your body can handle any more alcohol.”

 

Aelyn wanted to just curl into a ball as he did in his youth and hide away from this, but he knew deep down there was no hiding from this. 

His mother was going to die.

 

 

 

 

 

A letter arrived for him a few months later, so much had happened in such a short span that days seemed to blend. A bird landed on Aelyn’s shoulder while he was fast asleep in his office, almost causing him to instinctively connect to the void, but luckily for both of them, he didn't.

 

“I really need to start closing my windows…” The ‘ker muttered as he took the sealed letter from the bird, rubbing his eyes as he climbed onto his windowsill, his legs dangling out into the open air as he slowly opened it. His half-awake brain was failing to register the information the first time around, but he soon found himself scanning over the letter 3 more times to make sure he wasn’t seeing things. 

 

“No… NO, NO!” he shouted into the late-night air, uncaring if he woke anyone up as he scrambled back into his office.

 

“I SHOULD’VE CHECKED ON HER, I SHOULD-” he paused, connecting to the void as he started blasting everything in sight, books broken on the floor, his armor in a disorganized pile.

 

Minutes passed, or were they hours? Aelyn couldn’t tell anymore as he sat on the floor, clutching the last words and final gift he would ever get from his mother

 

“To you, I give my greatsword.” -Avarine Greye

 

The Maehr picked himself up, storing the note in an empty cabinet next to his desk. Aelyn locked it tightly. Time seemed to accelerate as he found himself looking at the rising sun

 

He wept for so very long; he would have to let his mother down once more. He could not carry the sword entrusted to him, another burden. 

Why was the world so fond of giving him so many of them?

 

“I’m sorry, Ma.”

 His voice broke as he eventually fell asleep, surrounded by the destruction his despair had caused.

 

 

 

 

Spoiler

@OwlofMiracles Thank you for playing Aelyn's Alcoholic mother, even if you weren't always around on the character Avarine did shape his character

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Yeetboy0206 1574]

Spoiler

GOD DANG IT I WASN'T PLANNING ON CRYING TONIGHT! GOSH DARN IT MAN! ;-;

 

Spoiler

GOD DANG IT I WASN'T PLANNING ON CRYING TONIGHT! GOSH DARN IT MAN! ;-;

 

[EmiliainWonderland 2309]

Alexandria remembered being a conversation with Aelyn when he was suddenly pulled away. "What's wrong?" She called towards Aedric as he walked off with Aelyn. "It's Avarine." He said to her in response. "Just keep me updated." Alex said. 

 

 "There's nothing to be updated about." 

 

At first, she thought perhaps Aedric was just being short with her, but it didn't take her long to finally understand. Avarine was gone. Alex would pray for the woman's soul that night, hoping that her family would have some comfort, even despite the fact she didn't always get along with most of them. She'd prayed mostly for Aelyn that night. The man who'd lost his mother.

[WhimsicalOwl 268]

Avarine Greye was born different, or so she had always thought. Her brothers, so lively and social - happy. Why were they always so happy when Avarine could only ever be sad? It wasn't fair. Life wasn't fair. It never would be, not to her, never to her. She could still remember all of their faces, the older she got - not just her pa and brothers, but Astrid, Auntie Jo, Mons, Rylee. . . she may have avoided the war that would tear her home apart, but they did not. Their absence would haunt her, adding to that list of regrets as if to mock her.

 

You never got to say goodbye to them, Avarine. You abandoned them. Disappointment.

 

Words her conscience whispered to her in the dark hours of night would forever leave her shaken - and so she drank. Hoping, praying, to forget. 

Lotharia, she had found, was awful in her humble opinion. Was it the people? The location? She didn't know - but seeing her family there, again after so many years apart. . . guilt ate at her like a parasite. She couldn't live with them if she wished to keep her sanity, she just couldn't. Avarine Greye was better to be known from a distance, for the ugly parts of herself were far too plain to see up close.

 

You killed them. You did it, Avarine, but why does your mother still not wish to return with you?

 

A cry from the trees, an infant in a basket dangling so helplessly from a branch. Avarine had considered leaving him there - she wasn't fit to raise a child, always running from the sadness she would never be able to escape. Yet, those big eyes of a child far too young to be left alone almost seemed to hold the same sadness that she did, made her heart ache. Life wasn't fair to him either.

 

I'll name you. . . Aelyn. Is that a bona name for an elf?

 

Avarine kept the young elf close, within the walls of her home. The Imperial Capital probably wasn't the best place for an elf, or so at the time, but it was better than the wilderness in which she used to camp. Better than the suffocating feeling of guilt. She taught him everything she had known - how to survive, how to be strong. Was that all she knew though? To survive? Had she truly ever lived?

 

Then as he grew older, bonding with her siblings - proud was she to see them welcome the young 'ker into their fold. Proud that even if it had the only thing she had ever done right, it was that her son was loved. Yet still, those whispers of doubt within her mind kept haunting her, and her drinks became stronger. Distance, she needed more distance. They were all too close again.
 

So distant she once again became.

 

───── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ─────

 

"I'll always be proud of you." whispered an eternally sad woman from her place in the skies, "Forgive me, Aelyn. Forgive me."