Stalking Darkness - Chapter Forty Seven
Feb. 3rd, 2024 10:26 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
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i_read_whatSo last time, Alec escaped! Thero had a noble sacrifice! And Beka continues to be quietly competent.
So we're back with Alec. The point of view here is a little uneven, since, technically, Alec doesn't have much of a point of view. The narrator does help explain what's going on though.
See:
Cries rang out behind him as Alec fled the little clearing. The voices of the Man and the Other mingled for a moment, then were silent. An inchoate sense of confusion stirred again, but his animal consciousness drove him on, deeper into the forest and away from the carrion reek. He scented other Men in the forest around him but they were easy enough to evade.
The first time Nysander had cast the spell of intrinsic nature on him, all those months ago in the safety of the Oreska garden, Alec’s conscious identity had been so totally overwhelmed by that of his beast form that Nysander had hastily changed him back before he could harm himself or anyone else in the resulting confusion.
It was the same this time, and it had been his overpowering animal flight instinct that had undoubtedly saved his life.
To be honest, I'm not sure we needed the little explanation paragraph at all. I mean, it's probably helpful to have the context for readers who might not have read Luck in the Shadows first. But the mindless animal thing is pretty clear in context.
So poor deer-brained Alec keeps running. He's got a bit of awareness going on, definitely enough to get freaked out by the sight of the comet. He also hears some kind of call in the distance - not outloud, more of an instinctive thing. It's calling him north.
Ah, Nysander's trick. Nice!
Anyway, Alec keeps running. There's some nice description of the environment here.
The familiar scents of sea and forest took on a new richness beyond human perception. Pausing to drink at a flowing spring, he couldn’t resist the aroma of young mallow shoots growing around it. The wet green taste of them filled his mouth like honeycomb. A little grey owl winged across his path with a soft rush of feathers as he set off again.
The coastline grew more desolate as he moved north, and in the distance he could see a solitary peak jutting up against the stars. The ledges were broader here, extending out into the sea and cleft with crevasses and bands of darker stone. Farther up, where rock met grassland, mats of crowberry and lichen sent up a sweet aroma as he trampled across.
The sea slowly retreated down the rocks toward the low mark, leaving behind glistening tide pools that shone like black mirrors in the darkness. The moon sank into the sea and the stars danced toward home. As the wind shifted and night scents began to fade he smelled horses and men.
Eventually, at "the first ray of true dawn", mid leap for the record, Alec turns back into a thin, naked youth. Fortunately, momentum lets him finish the leap.
He doesn't take long to reorient and realizes that he's still got the ivory vial that he'd stolen from Vargul Ashnazai. He opens it, finding some wood slivers. Immediately the poor kid has some kind of flashback:
A blinding flash of memory rocked him—Ashnazai toying with the vial as he wove his tortures aboard the Kormados, the look of satisfaction on his face when he cut Seregil’s throat, There’s last despairing cry as it mingled with the howl of whatever had been unleashed against them after their escape. With a choked sob, he flung the pieces into the sea and screamed his sorrow after them.
Aw. He can still feel the summons north though. Fainter, but still there.
We switch scenes to the others. Micum is on watch and spots some Plenimarian scouts heading north. Nysander, helpful as always, notes that it's good they're keeping to the road. They ask why and...
Nysander sighed heavily, then looked up at his two companions. “Alec is on his way to us. He is keeping to the shoreline, so it is fortunate that the Plenimarans take the road.”
...I get why you didn't tell them last night, but really dude?
Nysander explains that Alec was too far away to help. He notes that Thero seems to have helped in the escape. Seregil snaps, calling Thero a traitorous bastard and for ONCE, Nysander ACTUALLY defends his apprentice:
“Stop it, Seregil!” Nysander ordered, finally giving rein to his own anger. It flashed across his face, startling as lightning from a clear sky. “Whatever Thero’s past actions may have been, it would appear that he used his own magic to aid Alec’s escape, quite possibly at the expense of his own life. Alec is alone. This has brought him closer to us than losing either of you would have. If Mardus’ scouts have reached us already, then the man himself cannot be far behind.”
You know, I feel like if Nysander had done that more often, then maybe, just MAYBE, things might not have been so tense with his apprentice?
Anyway, Nysander was able to put some magic protections on Alec, so Mardus can't track him by magic. He sends Seregil off to go get Alec now. He's coming from the south.
Seregil, rather understandably, snarks something about being the Guide after all. But he calms down pretty quickly when he realizes that Alec is alive and a reunion is eminent.
It actually takes a while to find him. Seregil's starting to get worried when:
“I’ll find him,” Seregil sighed aloud, resting his head in his hands. “He’s here and I’ll find him.” The gull regarded him with one skeptical yellow eye, then flapped off with a derisive jeer.
Turning his head to watch it, Seregil froze in disbelief. A wan, battered spector stood looking down at him from a shelf of rock not twenty feet away.
“Alec!”
Thin, bruised, and naked, Alec swayed visibly as the wind buffeted him. Despite his obvious exhaustion, however, he was poised for flight.
...well, um. There is maybe a bit of a complicating factor here. Thanks, Nysander. You sent the one dude that Alec thinks is dead.
And indeed, Alec's kind of freaking out:
Alec shivered miserably as the wind whipped his hair across his pale face. “How do I know it’s you?” he mumbled faintly.
“What are you talking about?” Seregil asked in growing confusion. “What did they do to you? It’s me! I’m coming up to you now, all right? Don’t be afraid.”
To his amazement, Alec turned and fled.
Scrambling up the rocks, Seregil dashed after him and caught him in his arms, holding Alec tightly as he struggled.
But fortunately, Seregil knows proper hug therapy. And we get...EMOTIONS.
“Easy, now! What’s wrong?” He could feel Alec’s heart hammering beneath his ribs. Panting, Alec twisted around and gripped the side of Seregil’s face in one hand. Fighting back his own sudden fear, Seregil loosened his hold.
Alec gingerly touched his hair, shoulders, and arms, his expression almost feral in its intensity and distrust. After a moment, however, the look disappeared, replaced by the most wondrous look of relief Seregil had ever seen.
“O Illior, it is you. You’re alive,” Alec gasped, tears welling in his eyes. “That bastard! I should have guessed, but the blood, your voice, everything. But you’re alive!”
Shuddering, he grabbed Seregil in a fierce embrace.
Aw.
So the poor kid is trembling. Seregil, gentlemanly, takes off his cloak to wrap around him. Alec finally gets a chance to vent and cry. His story is "broken and confused", but Seregil gets the gist. Alec explains the worst part: the trick involving Seregil's death, and the implication that Seregil had died believing Alec betrayed him.
Seregil reassures him: if it had been him, he'd never have believed that. He knows Alec so well.
And well...
“And I never told you—” Alec’s pale face flushed crimson. “I don’t understand it, but I—“
He faltered and Seregil pulled him closer. “I know, tali. I know.”
It was Alec who brought their lips together.
Seregil’s first reaction was disbelief. But Alec was insistent, clumsy but determined. It lasted an instant, an eternity, that one awkward kiss, and it spoke silent volumes of bewildered honesty.
The moment that followed was too fragile for words.
Well, FINALLY.
I mean, look, Alec's still a little young for this. At most, by this point, he's seventeen. But fuck it. What point ethics when I've been dealing with two books of this unresolved sexual tension.
It's probably not the best time for banging though. And Seregil notes that the poor kid's exhausted, confused, and recently tortured. But he also remembers that Oracle's message and well...
He decides whatever grows between them, it'll be enough.
Alec is, at heart, always practical. He suggests they keep going, if he sleeps now, they probably won't be able to wake him up again in time. Mardus is coming.
Seregil takes off his tunic, so that Alec can have something resembling actual clothes. He finds the dagger. He'd been saving it for Alec. And we end the chapter with a bit of rather unsubtle symbolism:
Taking the knife out, Seregil unwrapped the scarf he’d wound around it. He held it a moment, his symbol of both defeat and hope through the long days of their separation. At last he tugged the knotted hank of hair loose from the hilt and let the wind snatch the golden strands from his fingers, scattering them over the rocks and into the sea.
Aw. Well, normally I'd include the next chapter, but the poor kid's been through enough. Let's give him a breather and resume next week. (Thero better be okay or we riot!)
So we're back with Alec. The point of view here is a little uneven, since, technically, Alec doesn't have much of a point of view. The narrator does help explain what's going on though.
See:
Cries rang out behind him as Alec fled the little clearing. The voices of the Man and the Other mingled for a moment, then were silent. An inchoate sense of confusion stirred again, but his animal consciousness drove him on, deeper into the forest and away from the carrion reek. He scented other Men in the forest around him but they were easy enough to evade.
The first time Nysander had cast the spell of intrinsic nature on him, all those months ago in the safety of the Oreska garden, Alec’s conscious identity had been so totally overwhelmed by that of his beast form that Nysander had hastily changed him back before he could harm himself or anyone else in the resulting confusion.
It was the same this time, and it had been his overpowering animal flight instinct that had undoubtedly saved his life.
To be honest, I'm not sure we needed the little explanation paragraph at all. I mean, it's probably helpful to have the context for readers who might not have read Luck in the Shadows first. But the mindless animal thing is pretty clear in context.
So poor deer-brained Alec keeps running. He's got a bit of awareness going on, definitely enough to get freaked out by the sight of the comet. He also hears some kind of call in the distance - not outloud, more of an instinctive thing. It's calling him north.
Ah, Nysander's trick. Nice!
Anyway, Alec keeps running. There's some nice description of the environment here.
The familiar scents of sea and forest took on a new richness beyond human perception. Pausing to drink at a flowing spring, he couldn’t resist the aroma of young mallow shoots growing around it. The wet green taste of them filled his mouth like honeycomb. A little grey owl winged across his path with a soft rush of feathers as he set off again.
The coastline grew more desolate as he moved north, and in the distance he could see a solitary peak jutting up against the stars. The ledges were broader here, extending out into the sea and cleft with crevasses and bands of darker stone. Farther up, where rock met grassland, mats of crowberry and lichen sent up a sweet aroma as he trampled across.
The sea slowly retreated down the rocks toward the low mark, leaving behind glistening tide pools that shone like black mirrors in the darkness. The moon sank into the sea and the stars danced toward home. As the wind shifted and night scents began to fade he smelled horses and men.
Eventually, at "the first ray of true dawn", mid leap for the record, Alec turns back into a thin, naked youth. Fortunately, momentum lets him finish the leap.
He doesn't take long to reorient and realizes that he's still got the ivory vial that he'd stolen from Vargul Ashnazai. He opens it, finding some wood slivers. Immediately the poor kid has some kind of flashback:
A blinding flash of memory rocked him—Ashnazai toying with the vial as he wove his tortures aboard the Kormados, the look of satisfaction on his face when he cut Seregil’s throat, There’s last despairing cry as it mingled with the howl of whatever had been unleashed against them after their escape. With a choked sob, he flung the pieces into the sea and screamed his sorrow after them.
Aw. He can still feel the summons north though. Fainter, but still there.
We switch scenes to the others. Micum is on watch and spots some Plenimarian scouts heading north. Nysander, helpful as always, notes that it's good they're keeping to the road. They ask why and...
Nysander sighed heavily, then looked up at his two companions. “Alec is on his way to us. He is keeping to the shoreline, so it is fortunate that the Plenimarans take the road.”
...I get why you didn't tell them last night, but really dude?
Nysander explains that Alec was too far away to help. He notes that Thero seems to have helped in the escape. Seregil snaps, calling Thero a traitorous bastard and for ONCE, Nysander ACTUALLY defends his apprentice:
“Stop it, Seregil!” Nysander ordered, finally giving rein to his own anger. It flashed across his face, startling as lightning from a clear sky. “Whatever Thero’s past actions may have been, it would appear that he used his own magic to aid Alec’s escape, quite possibly at the expense of his own life. Alec is alone. This has brought him closer to us than losing either of you would have. If Mardus’ scouts have reached us already, then the man himself cannot be far behind.”
You know, I feel like if Nysander had done that more often, then maybe, just MAYBE, things might not have been so tense with his apprentice?
Anyway, Nysander was able to put some magic protections on Alec, so Mardus can't track him by magic. He sends Seregil off to go get Alec now. He's coming from the south.
Seregil, rather understandably, snarks something about being the Guide after all. But he calms down pretty quickly when he realizes that Alec is alive and a reunion is eminent.
It actually takes a while to find him. Seregil's starting to get worried when:
“I’ll find him,” Seregil sighed aloud, resting his head in his hands. “He’s here and I’ll find him.” The gull regarded him with one skeptical yellow eye, then flapped off with a derisive jeer.
Turning his head to watch it, Seregil froze in disbelief. A wan, battered spector stood looking down at him from a shelf of rock not twenty feet away.
“Alec!”
Thin, bruised, and naked, Alec swayed visibly as the wind buffeted him. Despite his obvious exhaustion, however, he was poised for flight.
...well, um. There is maybe a bit of a complicating factor here. Thanks, Nysander. You sent the one dude that Alec thinks is dead.
And indeed, Alec's kind of freaking out:
Alec shivered miserably as the wind whipped his hair across his pale face. “How do I know it’s you?” he mumbled faintly.
“What are you talking about?” Seregil asked in growing confusion. “What did they do to you? It’s me! I’m coming up to you now, all right? Don’t be afraid.”
To his amazement, Alec turned and fled.
Scrambling up the rocks, Seregil dashed after him and caught him in his arms, holding Alec tightly as he struggled.
But fortunately, Seregil knows proper hug therapy. And we get...EMOTIONS.
“Easy, now! What’s wrong?” He could feel Alec’s heart hammering beneath his ribs. Panting, Alec twisted around and gripped the side of Seregil’s face in one hand. Fighting back his own sudden fear, Seregil loosened his hold.
Alec gingerly touched his hair, shoulders, and arms, his expression almost feral in its intensity and distrust. After a moment, however, the look disappeared, replaced by the most wondrous look of relief Seregil had ever seen.
“O Illior, it is you. You’re alive,” Alec gasped, tears welling in his eyes. “That bastard! I should have guessed, but the blood, your voice, everything. But you’re alive!”
Shuddering, he grabbed Seregil in a fierce embrace.
Aw.
So the poor kid is trembling. Seregil, gentlemanly, takes off his cloak to wrap around him. Alec finally gets a chance to vent and cry. His story is "broken and confused", but Seregil gets the gist. Alec explains the worst part: the trick involving Seregil's death, and the implication that Seregil had died believing Alec betrayed him.
Seregil reassures him: if it had been him, he'd never have believed that. He knows Alec so well.
And well...
“And I never told you—” Alec’s pale face flushed crimson. “I don’t understand it, but I—“
He faltered and Seregil pulled him closer. “I know, tali. I know.”
It was Alec who brought their lips together.
Seregil’s first reaction was disbelief. But Alec was insistent, clumsy but determined. It lasted an instant, an eternity, that one awkward kiss, and it spoke silent volumes of bewildered honesty.
The moment that followed was too fragile for words.
Well, FINALLY.
I mean, look, Alec's still a little young for this. At most, by this point, he's seventeen. But fuck it. What point ethics when I've been dealing with two books of this unresolved sexual tension.
It's probably not the best time for banging though. And Seregil notes that the poor kid's exhausted, confused, and recently tortured. But he also remembers that Oracle's message and well...
He decides whatever grows between them, it'll be enough.
Alec is, at heart, always practical. He suggests they keep going, if he sleeps now, they probably won't be able to wake him up again in time. Mardus is coming.
Seregil takes off his tunic, so that Alec can have something resembling actual clothes. He finds the dagger. He'd been saving it for Alec. And we end the chapter with a bit of rather unsubtle symbolism:
Taking the knife out, Seregil unwrapped the scarf he’d wound around it. He held it a moment, his symbol of both defeat and hope through the long days of their separation. At last he tugged the knotted hank of hair loose from the hilt and let the wind snatch the golden strands from his fingers, scattering them over the rocks and into the sea.
Aw. Well, normally I'd include the next chapter, but the poor kid's been through enough. Let's give him a breather and resume next week. (Thero better be okay or we riot!)