onthewillowsthere: (serious business)
Galahad son of Lancelot ([personal profile] onthewillowsthere) wrote2024-07-22 01:40 pm
Entry tags:

[closed post -- training]

The day after Evil Twin Magnus leaves, Galahad shows up for his training with Lan Wangji exactly as he always does (although later in the day, because Lan Wangji asked him to wait until afternoon to meet) -- if Lan Wangji were going solely on his appearance, he'd see absolutely nothing out of order. He throws himself into the sword forms with his usual focus. But he's gripping the hilt of his sword too tightly, and his movements are tense; he's never graceful, but today he's almost clumsy, and each failure or misstep only seems to pull him tighter, like an overwound watch.
lightbearinglord: (profile)

[personal profile] lightbearinglord 2024-08-01 06:41 pm (UTC)(link)
As long as Galahad knows -- but he already would have, given their similarity. Lan Wangji nods, resettles himself where he sits, and takes his cup of tea in his hands anew. "Ishgard is an isolated country. It spent a thousand years at war, battling dragons. Claudius had left it behind."
lightbearinglord: (moonlight)

[personal profile] lightbearinglord 2024-08-03 05:05 pm (UTC)(link)
Lan Wangji catches the smile, and without mirroring it, mirrors the sentiment. He takes a slow drink of his tea and assembles his memory of his walk with that other Claudius. "He had found steadfast companions and was known as the Warrior of Light." That title still comes near to snagging his face into a smile after all. "In a place called Ul'dah, he was accused of murder by poison." He meets Galahad's gaze there, well aware of the irony of that detail of the story.
lightbearinglord: (at peace)

[personal profile] lightbearinglord 2024-08-06 02:45 am (UTC)(link)
"Not this time. He had been framed." He hesitates, if not for long. He can't help but be glad of this part of the story, as much as Claudius seemed to regret how beloved he was. He suspects Galahad will feel the same. "His companions came to his defense and secured his freedom."
lightbearinglord: (hanguang-jun)

[personal profile] lightbearinglord 2024-08-07 01:02 am (UTC)(link)
There it is. Lan Wangji sips his tea again, warm with that, too, and continues. "His band of warriors came apart in the aftermath, but he saved a sixteen-year-old boy, Alphinaud. They went to Ishgard. Claudius had been determined never to return, but Alphinaud needed protection. They sought shelter with Haurchefant, a knight who welcomed them." This is a warming thought, too, though he knows how little Claudius wanted to cross Ishgard's borders at all.
lightbearinglord: (ornamented)

[personal profile] lightbearinglord 2024-08-08 08:28 am (UTC)(link)
The way that Claudius described Haurchefant, with an exasperation that could mean nothing but powerful fondness, will be impossible to capture in his own words. Lan Wangji pauses, then tries. "Haurchefant was loud," he says. He hears the echo of Claudius saying the same, his eloquent emphases, and wishes he could convey that, but his own voice is as low and calm as it ever is. "He was proud to have Claudius and Alphinaud in his home."
lightbearinglord: (yunmeng)

[personal profile] lightbearinglord 2024-08-09 02:49 pm (UTC)(link)
Lan Wangji feels that understanding, instinct more than any evidence of his own eyes. "Any sympathy or communication with dragons was heresy in Ishgard." If he ever rolled his eyes, he might do so here. "Claudius was receiving visits from a dragon visible to no one else. The reincarnation of Midgardsormr, who fathered the first dragons on his world."
lightbearinglord: (zoom out)

[personal profile] lightbearinglord 2024-08-09 03:43 pm (UTC)(link)
"I believe he was." He didn't say it in so many words, but of course he would not. "Only Alphinaud had some idea, but he didn't know everything." Here, he feels some secondhand fondness for Alphinaud, another person he has never met and yet will continue to remember. "Alphinaud wanted to end the war with diplomacy. It had gone so long that no Ishgardian could recall its origin."
lightbearinglord: (hanguang-jun)

[personal profile] lightbearinglord 2024-08-09 06:53 pm (UTC)(link)
"The war had been going on so long that no one would think to. Alphinaud was an outsider."
lightbearinglord: (pensive with bunny)

[personal profile] lightbearinglord 2024-08-10 08:50 pm (UTC)(link)
"To end the war, they sought to discover its origin." Because this is the last of the tea, he is drinking it slowly, savoring it along with the story. It's as he warned Galahad; he can't tell this half as evocatively as Claudius did. But recounting it makes him fond of the man who told it to him anyway. "They contacted Lady Iceheart, the leader of a group of heretics who were on the side of the dragons."
lightbearinglord: (where the chaos is)

[personal profile] lightbearinglord 2024-08-11 11:12 pm (UTC)(link)
"Through Lady Iceheart, they discovered some of the truth. She could invoke the memories of a woman named Shiva, who was a saint to those heretics and a sinner to most Ishgardians. Before the war, she had loved, and lain with, a dragon called Hraesvelgr."
lightbearinglord: (yunmeng)

[personal profile] lightbearinglord 2024-08-12 03:04 am (UTC)(link)
"Yes." If he had felt able to be so straightforward with his own teachers when he was younger, perhaps he would have been better off.
lightbearinglord: (peerless)

[personal profile] lightbearinglord 2024-08-12 03:37 am (UTC)(link)
"He would. He did." Lan Wangji does, too, truthfully.

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