Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Ardbert came awake like the tide: slow, waves of sensation rolling over him, rolling through him, inexorable. At first even breathing was too much, and he nearly choked on his own spot. Then it was all the complex muscle motions involved in swallowing, remembering that his tongue had weight -

"Is he all right?"

- Ears. Sounds. Of course, he never lost the ability to hear, but he hadn't heard his own heart beat in a hundred years. It was shocking how loud his blood was. How soft his pillow, how smooth and hard the surface beneath him.

"He's fine," said a dry, amused, identical voice from almost directly above him. "A little high, I think, on having a body again. Ardbert, love? Say something?"

"Something," Ardbert said.

There was a moment of silence, and then a huff of laughter somewhere off to the side. "Well, then. I consider myself corrected!"

"Is there a reason he hasn't opened his eyes?" asked someone else, young, male, Elven.

"Keeping the number of sensations down," said Ardbert, and, "I'm - alive?"

"So far as doth our perception reach," said the another voice, an adult Elf, "verily."

"And some of your perception goes quite far," agreed Ardbert. And then, "Thancred?"

" . . . here."

"I'm sorry."

"Sorry?"

"About Minfilia."

There was a fabricy noise, like someone had just stood up suddenly, and then the clump of retreating boots.

"Thancred!" yelped someone young and female, and then a much faster patter of feet running to catch up.

"Perhaps not the most tactful thing to say to him, first thing," suggested Egbert, from above him.

"It couldn't wait," said Ardbert.

"He didn't punch you," pointed out Y'shtola. "It will be well. Do you want us to stay, or go?"

"I'd like - an explanation. Last I remember we were fighting Emet-Selch, in the memory of Amaurot. Weren't we?"

"We were," said Egbert. "You decided to - join back with me, give me the extra strength of your Blessing to contain the Light. Which worked! We did win, the Ardor was prevented, and I even survived."

Ardbert relaxed, consciously, from his subconscious tension. "Then. Then how am I . . . ?"

"A lot of hard work, and a lot of luck," said Egbert. "I'll explain it all properly later, I promise, but, uh. Beq Lugg here needs to check you over, first. I was in a rush at the end there, and they need to be certain I didn't make any mistakes."

"None that I can see so far," said another voice, this one a person Ardbert genuinely did not know. He had, however, met someone with the same sort of perpetual-hay-fever voice. "Would you care to open your eyes?"

"Er. Is it day or night?"

"'Tis close to dawn, now," said Urianger. "The clouds hath parted, and the stars doth shine."

Ardbert opened his eyes.

The first thing he saw was the identical, beloved face of Egbert, upside-down because his head was in Egbert's lap. Beyond that, the fading stars shone over the Elflands - Lakeland - and towards the east, the sky was growing rosy. Off to his left, the Scions, less Thancred and Ryne, and to his right, the Nu Mou Beq Lugg. "Can you see?" asked the Nu Mou.

"Yes," said Ardbert.

"Good. Follow the tip of my finger with your eyes." He obeyed as they moved their hand around, watching him closely. "And how do you feel?"

"Like I was run over by a charging amaro, honestly," said Ardbert.

The Nu Mou chuckled. "That, I believe. You've had quite a shock. Quite a few shocks. Even so, all appears to be in order. Your soul is seated properly, and I sense no discordance. You merely need rest and recuperation. Both of you."

"And the other issue?" asked Egbert. "The missing memories?"

"No such beast, I'm afraid," said Beq Lugg. "In a very real sense, Ardbert, you have not existed for the last four months. You don't remember because there was no you to form the memories!"

"Ah," said Ardbert, very confused. Obviously he hadn't existed? He hadn't expected to ever exist, as an independent entity, again. "About that - "

"Elidibus dug up your body, fixed it, and started wearing it around," said Alisaie.

"He what?" demanded Ardbert, attempting to sit up. Gentle hands on his shoulders held him down as a wave of dizziness passed through him.

"Yes, thank you, Alisaie."

"What? He's . . . as dead as he's going to get, isn't he?"

Egbert blew out an exasperated breath. "Yes, and not nearly so dead as I'd prefer. But, well. He wasn't in your body anymore, and it was alive but dying fast, so I had to make a decision. Which I did."

On the one hand, Ardbert did understand why Egbert wanted to ease him in, and tell him about that a bit later. On the other . . . "Thank you, Alisaie," he said, meaning it sincerely. And, to Beq Lugg, "Is it safe for me to get up?"

"Safe, yes, but you'll want someone to help you just in case."

"I will," said Egbert, almost before the Nu Mou finished speaking.

"You will not," said Y'shtola. "You will go straight to bed, you overgrown child, and for once in your life, get some rest. Healer's orders."

"Seconded," agreed Alphinaud.

"Hear, hear," added Urianger.

"But - " began Egbert.

"Yes, ma'am," said Ardbert. "He'll help me get to bed safely, and I'll make sure he sleeps in it. I don't - I don't think I want to get too far from. Um."

"The rest of you," said Beq Lugg, not unkindly.

Y'shtola looked at him full-on, with her eyes that only saw aether. It was a disconcerting feeling, before she said, "Probably for the best. Alphinaud, Alisaie? Would you mind escorting me down?"

Down was fine. Walking was a challenge. Ardbert seemed to have misplaced his sense of balance, and Egbert really was exhausted, exhausted enough to show it. If they'd had to climb the stairs instead of descend, they could never have made it. As it was, the doors to Egbert's room in the Pendants looked like the gates to Light's Haven by the time they reached them.

Of course, as soon as the doors closed behind them, Egbert had him pinned against them, kissing and sucking and nibbling at his lips.

"Oh absolutely not," said Ardbert, voice only slightly muffled.

"No?" asked Egbert against his lips like a prayer.

"You think either of us is going to be able to do anything tonight? That isn't just 'collapse into bed?'"

" . . . I needed to kiss you," admitted Egbert. "This feels like a dream, and I keep expecting to wake up."

"How do you think I feel?"

"When you put it like that," said Egbert, and started moving them again.

Around the privacy screen and at the foot of the bed, Ardbert let himself fall horizontal. He was pressed into the mattress a moment later, safely held down by Egbert's protective weight.

They passed out.

Ardbert woke on a sudden startle as his blanket rolled out of bed. He made a questioning noise.

"Shh," soothed Egbert, fabric rustling nearby. "Just getting into something more comfortable."

Ardbert thought about this for a while. He might've fallen back to sleep for a bit. Eventually he decided that, yes, Egbert had a point, and full armor wasn't exactly the best sleepwear. "Mmme too."

"Then let me take care of you," said Egbert.

Ardbert let his head flop down. He'd always been the one doing the caretaking, because manifesting a body for him took so much out of Egbert. There was something unbelievably nice in being the one being cared for. Egbert pulled off his boots and gauntlets, unbuckled his pauldrons and tassets and threw them aside. "I'll need your cooperation for the cuirass," he said, voice barely more than a whisper. Ardbert pushed himself up, and between the two of them they got him out of that, too, leaving only his arming gambison and trousers. These were apparently sufficiently soft that Egbert didn't object to it, since he rolled to the side and snuggled in behind, pulling a blanket up over them both.

When Ardbert next woke, he was lying flat on his back, one arm wrapped firmly around Egbert. His other self was lying half on him, using his chest as a pillow. Also idly thrusting his - extremely present - erection against his hip, teasing.

Teasing Ardbert too, free hand inside of his unlaced breeches and wrapped around him.

"Good morning," said Ardbert. They'd never been able to wake up together before, but - yes, this was exactly what he'd have expected from the two of them.

"I think we missed that entirely," said Egbert.

"Must've needed the sleep, then." Ardbert waited a moment, but when he didn't get even a sarcastic response, asked, "I'm awake. How do you want me, love?"

That got him a moan and another roll of his hips. "I want - I want to try - slow."

"Slow?" They'd never done slow. Or rather, now that he was thinking about it, they'd never had the opportunity for slow. There was always somewhere else for the Warrior of Darkness to be, something else to be doing. Also, although they'd never actually spoken about it out loud, it wasn't like Egbert could stay conscious long enough for slow after building a body for Ardbert. "If you like. You can ride me, like you wanted." He reached with the arm holding Egbert, patted that perfect arse. "Up. Let's get everything off."

Egbert went, removing the hand from his breeches and sitting up enough for Ardbert to reclaim his arm. Fully awake, he could see that the arming gambeson was a complete loss, and wasted no time pulling it over his head and throwing it off the bed. Egbert watched with almost uncanny interest. "What? I've nothing you haven't seen." The trick that allowed Egbert to make a simulacrum for him only worked at all because they were copies, from identical aether down to their smallest toes.

"Yes," said Egbert, and, "Your scars."

Oh. Well. Yes. "The marks of different lives lived, and all that," he said. Egbert actually had very few scars, for all his brushes with death. Of all his magickal disciplines, he'd learned healing first, and best. Ardbert . . . had not been so lucky.

"Can I touch?" asked Egbert, like that was more intimate than pinning him against a door. Or, for that matter, expending truly ludicrous amounts of aether so they could kiss, nevermind everything else.

"Of course," said Ardbert.

Egbert reached out, fingertips running down his chest, cataloging the scars he'd earned from a life well-lived. They were long-healed and didn't hurt, and besides the pads of Egbert's fingers were soft and gentle. He wasn't expecting the simmering heat in his veins to roar up in response to that touch, for his cock to twitch. It just felt so good, the other part of his soul touching him. It always did. He groaned with it.

Egbert echoed him, and pulled his hands back with some real reluctance. "Pants off," he said with the same determination that killed Lightwardens and, apparently, Ascians.

They got their pants and smalls off, thrown to land haphazardly with the rest of the armor pile. Then Egbert's hands were back on him, one on each shoulder pushing him to lie back down. Ardbert was not loath to obey, or to recenter himself on the bed when Egbert swung a leg over his hips.

He tilted his head, and didn't have to say any words at all to have lips pressing to his, Egbert's body full-length against his own. Ardbert opened his mouth for the tongue and sucked gently while Egbert licked at him. He rocked his hips up, hardness against hardness, and that earned him a shudder. Ardbert did it again, just for how good it felt, and again, starting a rhythm. They kissed like that for long minutes, lips and teeth and tongues, sharing breath and saliva and sensation. There was no hurry.

Eventually, though, Egbert pushed himself up far enough to ask, "How close are you?"

"Very," admitted Ardbert. "But - "

"Let me," interrupted Egbert. "Unless you don't think you'll be able to go another round?"

Ardbert felt himself twitch again for the concept of another round. "If - you want?"

"I want," said Egbert, already starting to slide down his body. He nipped a little on his way: the peak of a nipple, the dip of a muscle, and Ardbert jerked beneath him for each one. Egbert urged him to open his legs wider, to accommodate the full breadth of his shoulders, and he let his legs just fan right open.

Egbert licked him, a single stripe all the way up his cock from root to tip. He jerked again, unable to prevent himself from seeking more friction, no matter how rude it was. Egbert chuckled softly and murmured, "You needn't hide from me, my own."

Ardbert took a shuddering breath. They had, actually, talked about this, when it became apparent that Egbert was as attracted to him as he was to Egbert. The man was no fool: he knew what it meant to Ardbert, to be called 'my own.' To be wanted in his own right. He didn't use the endearment often, or for anything unimportant.

"So please don't," added Egbert, and lowered his head to press a kiss against the tip. It started almost chaste before very quickly becoming not at all mistakable for anything other than absolutely filthy. Ardbert would have shoved his own fingers in his mouth to keep himself quiet, would have held tremblingly still, except that Egbert wanted - him. Instead, he let himself thrust up into that hot waiting mouth even if it wasn't polite. Even if it made Egbert gag and retch and perfectly massage him with soft palate and throat. To show his appreciation, he reached down with both hands, gently scratching at Egbert's scalp the way he liked. Egbert actually moaned for that, which felt amazing.

They were both panting when Egbert finally pulled off, if for different reasons. Egbert coughed once, and swallowed several times, and then managed to rasp out, "Ardbert, talk," a plea and a command.

Before Egbert, Ardbert hadn't really liked bedroom talk. He hadn't disliked it either, exactly, but rather had not seen the point. He'd learned better, during the early part of their relationship, when words were all they had.

Accordingly, he swallowed around the lump in his throat and said, in almost conversational tones, "What do you think the people of the Crystarium would do, if they knew their Warrior of Darkness likes choking on cock?" He gently tugged at Egbert's hair, suggesting without forcing that he get back to it. Egbert moaned, and took the suggestion. "That you come without even a hand on you, just from sucking me." Ardbert continued, pressing in and in and in. Egbert started to retch again, and forestalled it by swallowing. Ardbert really wasn't going to last much longer. "Although I suppose that's to be expected from the man who's good at everything, isn't it?" He moved one hand from Egbert's hair to the line of his jaw, tugging gently until he could meet those eyes, bright blue and just then blazing with the intensity found at the heart of a fire. "You feel fantastic, you know. Hot and wet and tight - " He moved his hand a little, to press tenderly at the line of Egbert's straining throat. Tears sprang up in Egbert's eyes, sheening them in moisture, and he swallowed, again and again. " - just for me. My perfect cocksucker." Egbert closed his eyes, acknowledging and perfectly trusting, and Ardbert was gone.

Egbert swallowed reflexively and breathed in sharply as, presumably, the aetheric resonance dragged his own orgasm out. Then things got a little hazy for a while, as the resonance bound them together in an intense feedback loop. Ardbert felt Egbert keep swallowing until that turned almost painful. Then he pulled back and sucked, not enough to really hurt but enough to prolong it even further. Ardbert weakly moaned, a plea for Egbert to let up. Which, after one last filthy lick off, he did, crawling up to lie on him.

It was quiet for a bit.

"You said slow," accused Ardbert without any heat.

"We wouldn't have lasted," said Egbert, which was true. They never did, once they got started. "But now . . . "

"Good luck getting me hard again."

"Mm. We can talk in the meantime," said Egbert, ever-practical. "Eat, too."

"Talk," stated Ardbert blankly.

Egbert kissed him, right on the corner of his mouth, and rolled off. "You must have questions. I'd have all the questions, were I in your place." He started by opening the shutters, heedless of his nudity. Then he padded over to the pile of metal and leather that was his armor, and started picking it up. There wasn't a proper armor stand anywhere in the room, but it could at least be put in rough order on the dresser.

"You should just burn my gambeson," said Ardbert. "But, sure. If you're answering questions: what, and I mean this with every bit of love in my heart, the fuck, Egbert?"

Egbert chuckled. "And there he is. The short answer is that I started learning soulcrafting, and - why is that bad?"

"Voeburt," said Ardbert. "Branden's lady, Princess Sauldia, was transformed into a monster by a soulcrafter."

"Even before I apprenticed myself to Beq Lugg, I could - and did - shatter people's souls," said Egbert. To what Ardbert was fairly sure was a horrified expression he added, "It's normally the only way to make an Ascian stay dead when you kill them." He put down the cuirass and shrugged. "Even the vilest of skills have at least one good use, just as the best of healers always know the worst ways to destroy people."

Ardbert took a deep breath, held it, and let it out slowly. He didn't feel much better afterwards. "Why did you need to learn soulcrafting?"

"We needed to find a way to get the Scions' souls back to the Source. Asking a soulcrafter for help seemed like a good first step." This time it was pauldrons, tassets, and gauntlets, each set neatly on the table.

"All right," said Ardbert, who could at least concede that logic.

"And then, since I had a soulcrafter to ask, it wasn't that much of a stretch to ask if they could separate off a bit of my soul. Yes, that's more or less the same look Beq Lugg gave me."

"Good!" Ardbert suddenly and keenly felt for Beq Lugg, soulcrafter or not. "Egbert, I am not worth mutilating yourself!"

"Yes, you are," said Egbert, still and flat and quiet, as deadly as any axe Ardbert has ever held. After a pause long enough to be awkward, he continued, "Anyway, it wasn't. They wouldn't have helped me if it was. It's - " he paused, tilted his head. "Do you know how to grow grapes?"

"What?" asked Ardbert, caught by the non-sequitur.

"Do you know how to grow grapes? In a vineyard?" Egbert lined his boots neatly up under the table.

"Yes, in fact," said Ardbert, who had grown up on a Kholusian island.

"Right. Do you know how to grow figs?" He went over to the stove and poked some faggots in, then lit it in a flare of aether.

"No," said Ardbert, hoping that Egbert would get to the point sooner rather than later.

"To grow a decent grape, you need good rootstock and a cutting from a good grape as the scion and you have to know how to graft the two. To grow a fig tree, you cut a fig branch off of a living fig tree and plant the cut end in the ground. That is, I think, more or less what Hydaelyn did when She shattered the world into fourteen pieces. Eggs and cheese? Or toast soldiers?"

"Soldiers," Ardbert answered the question automatically, and, "Sorry, in this metaphor, we're the fig trees?"

Egbert nodded. "Yes, and it hasn't just been years or decades or centuries. It's been millenia. We - you and I, our souls - grew into two separate entities, each complete and whole in and of itself. While also being the same. We can flow together. We don't have to, and I - whatever strength I got from that, Ardbert, wasn't worth being unable to talk to you."

The thing that got him wasn't the naked pain in that statement. It was the naked grief, a man who knew exactly who he was and what he wanted, and had, briefly, gotten it. "Oh."

"I wanted to shout at you! I wanted to throw things, and scream, and - everyone was celebrating! We got the night back, for good this time! Nobody was dead, except for an Ascian! And I spent the entire party holed up in here alone, crying, because you'd - argh!"

There were a lot of things Ardbert couldn't say. He couldn't say, 'I didn't mean it like that,' because of course he had: he'd known that he wasn't going to be an independent entity afterwards, but he'd trusted his hero to do the right thing. He couldn't say, 'I'm sorry,' because he wasn't, not really, and if offered the same choice again he'd make the same decision. He couldn't say, 'I didn't know what I meant to you,' because quite aside from all of Egbert's research and work with his egis, that was the reason he had acted instead of offering. All he could do was stand up, and pad across the room, and hug Egbert from behind. "I love you too, you know."

"You've got a funny way of showing it."

" - that was fair," allowed Ardbert. "Harsh, but fair."

Egbert tilted the pan to slide the eggs and toast out onto a plate. "Eat up."

Ardbert went to the table to eat. "So, what has happened in the last four months? If you're still in the mood to answer questions, I mean."

Egbert was, so he listened while he ate.

On the positive side: real, concrete steps were being taken to fix the damage to the world, to roll back the unformed stillness of the Empty.

"And we're sure about this Gaia girl, are we?"

"No," said Egbert, and sighed. "But aside from being very privileged and very sheltered, she's just a girl. I'm keeping an eye on it."

The Ascian Elidibus, who was either incapable of dying or had been dead for millennia, depending on how you looked at it, was much deader now.

"He was a primal?"

"Is. He's less 'dead' and more 'stuck in the Tower, being tapped for energy.' Ironic, considering that the Ascians were responsible for the Allagan Empire, and presumably its focus on primals."

"That's not very reassuring."

"It isn't, but short of Hydaelyn taking him down to the Aetherial Sea herself, it's the best we're likely to get," said Egbert. "At least he's trapped somewhere the other Ascians are unlikely to ever check, and it's not like anyone in modern Norvrandt knows anything about summoning."

Alisaie and Beq Lugg between them had, through the magic of soulcrafting, even devised a treatment for those suffering corruption by Light.

"What, really?"

"She's not a born politician like her brother, and I think that's tricked everyone - including her! - into believing that she's not every bit as much a prodigy."

Ardbert, who personally watched Alisae charge into battle against sin eaters multiple times, snorted.

On the not-as-positive side: the Scions' bodies, back in that other world he'd visited, the one Egbert called home, were dying.

"Wait, wait, wait," said Ardbert, thinking of the absolutely massive scar he ought to have on the front of his throat. "They're alive?"

"Yes? Ardbert, you can't have missed how fervently we were looking for a way home? Even back before - "

"I thought they just wanted to go to - the right Lifestream."

"Oh. Uh. Eventually, yes, but just now, no. At least, as long as we can get them back before they die."

Ardbert clenched his fists, then very deliberately relaxed them. "I suppose I shouldn't be surprised by another Ascian lie."

"Well, no, but - in this one case, I am fairly certain the Ascians didn't know the truth. They're known as the Shadowless for a reason, you know."

He hadn't, actually. Ascians spent less time, presumably much less time, in his world than in Egbert's. "But you have a way to get them home."

"We hope," said Egbert, and went to get a 'spirit vessel' out of his pack. "This one currently contains the Crystal Exarch."

"Is he all right?!"

"Beq Lugg says he's fine. They wouldn't even consider coming to look at you until they'd given this, and me, a full review."

Well. It was only natural to look after friends and heroes first. " . . . I am pretty sure the Exarch cast a shadow, though." Now that he was thinking about it, had he ever seen the Mystel in light that would allow a shadow?

"Oh, no. He, um. Well. He's from the Source."

"Believe it or not," said Ardbert, sitting down next to him on the bed, "I figured that out."

"Oh?"

"I'll grant we didn't spend much time in your Elflands - Lakeland - Silvertear, but the Tower is rather unmistakable."

Egbert laughed. "True. And you know how time is - disjointed, between worlds?"

Ardbert knew. The Warriors of Light had spent all of six weeks in the Source, and arrived home to find more than six months had passed. "Yes."

"So, ah. Although he's been here for a hundred years, he hasn't actually left the Source, yet."

Ardbert thought about this. "But then what happens to the him over there?"

"Beq Lugg thinks the two of them can flow together. They're the same person really, and I do mean exactly the same." Egbert rolled his eyes. "A hundred years older and he still doesn't have the sense Hydaelyn gave an eggplant." He leaned over to put the vessel on the nightstand table.

There was a story there. Maybe one day he'd ask about it. "And the rest of the Scions' bodies are empty."

"Mm. We're taking a few days to rest up and say our goodbyes before attempting to put them in the other spirit vessels. So we have some time." He rolled back, and handed Ardbert a very familiar earthenware jar.

Ardbert didn't get why people said Egbert was quiet. It was true enough if you only listened to the things he said with words, but most of everything anyone said wasn't with words. Egbert practically shouted, in his way.

Still, he had to prod about it at least a little. "I hope," he said, allowing his voice to drop into a lower register, "that you don't think I'm not up to the challenge."

"I think that I missed you," stated Egbert, managing once again to say something that was both scorchingly hot and heartrendingly sincere at the same time.

Ardbert swallowed, thought about what bedroom talk did to them both, and said, "Since you want slow, I think I'll take my time teasing you open, one finger at a time. See how long we can stand it. Sound good to you?"

"- yes," said Egbert, voice a low hiss.

"Then," Ardbert scooted back on the bed, until his back was to the wall and his legs stretched out in front of him, and patted a thigh, "c'mere."

Egbert settled warm and heavy across his lap. Ardbert ran an appreciative hand up the long muscle of one thigh. "Still doing those dragon jumps, I see." He started squeezing and kneading Egbert's arse with both hands. Like his legs, it was all muscle, and if he tensed Ardbert could have bounced coins off of it. But here in bed together, Egbert instead relaxed and let Ardbert touch as he would.

"Dragoon jumps."

Ardbert dragged one fingernail from tailbone into the crack, a quick exploration; Egbert twitched, a full-body motion over as quickly as it had begun. Ardbert did it again, and when this got the same result, asked, "Good? Bad?"

"Intense," said Egbert, and, "Too much and not enough."

"What should I do?"

"Use the ointment?"

The ointment in question was mostly frantoio oil and just enough beeswax to turn it into a thick jellylike substance, with some herbal distillations to scent it. Ardbert took a finger full and set about carefully applying it to the crease of his arse, rubbing it into the soft skin before adding another layer. He kept his motions firm and unhurried and definitely not, if the burgeoning hardness on his leg was any indicator, at all close to what Egbert actually wanted. Ardbert smiled, and continued on like that, gently ensuring that Egbert was slick.

When he nudged Egbert's legs aside, the man compiled without more comment than a hitched breath. It wasn't until he skipped past the dark pucker entirely and began massaging the ointment into the bit of skin behind the balls that he got an, "Ardbert."

"Yes, love?"

"I'm slick enough; you can start stretching."

"Oh, I know," said Ardbert, "But I thought you wanted slow."

"There's slow, and there's glacial," said Egbert.

Ardbert pulled his hand back, got another fingerfull, and began working it, even more slowly, into the soft wrinkly skin of Egbert's balls. "Then I suppose you'll just have to enjoy glacial." That got him an actual whine, a high needy noise. Egbert rocked his now-full erection against Ardbert's thigh, which of course meant rocking his abdomen against Ardbert's erection, and that - wasn't any less good than it ever was, with the match to his soul. There wasn't any less sensation, or any less intensity. It was just less urgent, the want less overwhelming. Although he would eventually get impatient, for now Ardbert could tease them both, and enjoy the sensation.

He went back for more ointment, and rested his finger right there, and waited until Egbert opened his mouth to make demands before pressing in. It forestalled whatever Egbert had been about to say on a punched-out gasp. He could have pushed in all the way, but instead he just went as far as the first knuckle, rotating his hand to rub the whole way around the rim. Egbert clenched down on him, as if to draw him further inside. Ardbert slipped the entire digit out to get more.

He took his time, pressing the finger in and out, although only to the second joint: ostensibly to adequately slick Egbert but really just to tease. By the time Ardbert got to the third joint, Egbert was rocking his hips in counterpoint and panting. Ardbert rewarded him by very deliberately probing around until he found the spot that made him tense and tremble, and then rubbing only at that until Egbert managed to gasp out, "Ardbert, another, please."

"Well, since you ask," said Ardbert, sliding the finger out only to return with a friend, already slicked. He gave Egbert a moment to get used to the greater stretch before he started to move them. He started by splaying them, always by far the weirdest stretch, and requested, "Bear down a bit, love?"

Egbert obeyed. It was always such a thrill, when he did, even though it was no longer a surprise. Scissoring his fingers against that pressure required a fair bit of manual strength, but Ardbert at least had that in spades. He forced Egbert's muscle to yield bit by bit, to relax as Ardbert flexed and rotated and pumped his fingers. Every so often he went back to press against that spot on a long slow glide, keeping Egbert's attention, but mostly just enjoying the intimacy of being allowed this kind of connection. They'd never tried anything like this before, anyway. Ardbert thought he rather enjoyed having his very own personal hero writhing on his fingers and humping him.

"Another?" he asked, voice low.

Egbert shook his head. "I want to be able to feel you."

A thrill of arousal ran through Ardbert at that, making his cock twitch. "Should I stop?" he asked, still moving his fingers.

"Nnh," said Egbert, clenching down on his fingers again, and, "Yes."

Ardbert stopped, carefully pulling his fingers out and wiping them on Egbert's arse, leaving two shiny lines. Then he gave them a light slap. "All right."

Egbert pushed himself up and off of Ardbert's legs. Light, but he was gorgeous like this, flushed from cock to ears and dusted with the lightest possible sheen of sweat. Ardbert wanted to kiss, and since there seemed no particular reason not to, he leaned forward to plant one right on his neck. Egbert tilted his head to allow more room, but also placed a hand and pushed, gently. Ardbert could take the hint. "I lie down, now?"

"Mm. Where'd you put the - ah, here."

There was a short moment of motion while Ardbert got onto his back with the pillow under his head, and Egbert straddled him, blazing blue eyes meeting his. Ardbert put a hand behind his head, flexing more than was strictly necessary. "Like what you see?"

"You know I do," said Egbert. "Thinking about every single thing I want to do."

" - later," promised Ardbert.

"One now," pointed out Egbert, and reached for him, two fingers carrying a dollop of ointment and the rest just warm and strong and tight. Ardbert held still while Egbert got him slicked up, circling to spread it around. He continued to hold still while Egbert knelt up on his knees, lined them up, and lowered himself back down. It didn't take a long time by any means, but Ardbert was shaking with effort by the end.

"All right," said Egbert, voice rough and thick with lust. "Look but don't touch, and try not to come?"

Ardbert chuckled softly. "I make no promises."

Egbert let out a sigh, exasperated and impossibly fond. "Arse. You know what I mean."

Ardbert did, so when Egbert lifted himself up and dropped back down, instead of slamming up into him, he merely rocked his hips. Egbert spent the first few thrusts trying out different angles before apparently finding the one he wanted. Then he sped up a little, coaxing them into a rocking rhythm that was nevertheless still slower than Ardbert would've chosen. It wasn't bad, because nothing with Egbert could ever be bad, but it was going to take quite a while to reach completion. Although that was at least partially the point.

And then? Then Egbert rode him.

Ardbert found himself transfixed. He was mesmerized by the motion of Egbert's muscles every time he lifted himself, and relished the roll of his hips when he lowered himself. The sheen of sweat turned into a full coat, gathering in his clavicles and along the defined outlines of his muscles before dripping down. Ardbert wanted to trace the path of one of those droplets with his tongue, savor the salt and the musk. He wanted to grab those beautiful broad shoulders and pull Egbert down harder onto his cock. He wanted to grab the - almost painfully red - dick bouncing off his abdomen and leaving spatters of liquid. He did exactly none of these, because Egbert asked him not to, even when he had to grab fistfuls of the sheet to stop himself.

Then it got impossibly more difficult, because the internal muscles that he'd spent so much time relaxing open started to clench and flutter, massaging his cock on every thrust. Ardbert had to slow down his rocking even further, panting with the effort of it, and look anywhere but the vision atop him. Or at least close his eyes.

"Ardbert?" asked Egbert, clearly concerned even through the lust.

"Trying - not to come," he gasped out.

"Just - a bit - longer," replied Egbert.

"I don't know - how much - longer - " I can last, he meant to say, but Egbert interrupted.

"Hold my hand?"

Ardbert reached and Egbert caught the hand, and that was better, even though he was pretty certain his grip was uncomfortably tight. It gave him something to focus on that was just - normal. Everyday. Not making love to the other half of his soul, whose arse was gripping his dick so impossibly tightly, in pulsing waves.

"Can you meet my eyes, love?" asked Egbert, almost sheepishly, and Ardbert's eyes opened out of what seemed their own accord. He had an instant impression of lightning blue just before the best orgasm of his entire life came ripping out of Egbert and into him.

It started in his arse, and if he'd thought the rhythmic contraction of those muscles felt good from this side, it had nothing on how good it felt to Egbert. It was just long, rolling waves of pleasure through his entire body, like the quickly approaching noise of distant thunder heralding the front of a fast-moving storm. Ardbert's body had no idea how to process it other than by coming, which he did immediately, filling up Egbert and causing his cock to also release all over both of them. They fell into the resonance together, blue-white, blazing, passing the sensation back and forth.

Eventually the clenching on his overstimulated dick started to be painful. Egbert pushed himself up and rolled just far enough off that he wouldn't be touching it before collapsing onto Ardbert again and sinking back into the shuddering pleasure.

A long, long time after that, Ardbert gathered up enough of his brains to hoarsely comment, "I think you killed me again."

Beside and partially on top of him, Egbert managed a chuckle. "Sure. The little death, as the Ishgardians say." A kiss to his earlobe, which was the closest part of him to Egbert's mouth. He was obviously extremely pleased with himself.

Ardbert couldn't blame him in the least. "What did you even do?"

"Rode you."

Light. If this was what he'd meant the entire time, then he was completely right: the other sex they'd had in that position, Ardbert's dick in his arse and hand on his cock, didn't even come close.

" . . . Right, but what - "

"Ardbert, love. You're not a healer. I am. I wanted to see what our resonance would do to that kind of pleasure, because I knew it would be good. I didn't know it would be that good. How it works is something I can explain later." He peeled an arm up, and wiggled his fingers. "With some hands-on demonstration, preferably." He let the arm flop back down across Ardbert's chest.

Ardbert swallowed. He wasn't actually dead. He was, by whatever miracle, very much alive. Egbert wasn't passed out from the effort of building him a body. They could do this again. "Yes, please."

He felt the curve of Egbert's smile in his shoulder.

Even later, Egbert said, "We should get up, probably," which jolted Ardbert awake.

"Speak for yourself," said Ardbert. "I've been dead for four months; I have a lot of sleep to catch up on. And somebody told me we don't have anywhere to be, for once."

"Hmm," said Egbert, who was halfway asleep and fighting it. "All right. As long as you're here when I wake up."

"I will be," said Ardbert, and was.

Chapter Text

Ardbert woke Egbert up by sucking him. It was - fantastic, loosening up his jaw and throat to accept Egbert and enjoy the powerful thrusts. He saw, and felt, the exact moment when his love gained enough consciousness to figure out where he was and what was happening, to remember yesterday. Ardbert sucked particularly hard, encouraging him to resume his motion, which after a moment he did. It wasn't more than a few minutes more before Egbert was spilling down his extremely willing throat and dragging him along too. Ardbert swallowed a couple of times reflexively, and then once more when he was sure Egbert was done, and pulled off with one last lick.

Egbert immediately tugged him up and kissed his way into Ardbert's mouth, chasing - Light, his own taste on Ardbert's tongue. The thought was unbelievably hot, and if he hadn't just spent . . .

"Good morning to you too," he said when Egbert finally pulled back.

"Is it?"

"Yes, actually. I was woken by the sun attempting to stab me in the eyes through my eyelids." The sun must've been up before then, but he'd only woken when the angle of the light reached the bed. "We slept the clock around."

"Then we really had better get up, or Thancred will pick the lock to come check on me. Or worse, Ryne."

Ryne would definitely be worse. The window was open so at least the room didn't stink of sex, but the sheets and blankets were a mess. As, in fact, were they. Ardbert said, "I - desperately - need a bath. And clean clothes. And food."

"In that order?"

"I think I have your spend in my hair; yes, in that order."

"Then you go wash up first," said Egbert, and got up to shove a dressing gown, some extraordinarily soft and fluffy thing made of dwarven cotton, at him. Ardbert really didn't have it in him to protest being loaded down with Egbert's bathing utensils and shoved out the door. In an astonishingly short time, he was under a hot shower spray and lathering up with a bar of soap that smelled like the sharp pine forests of Voeburt in winter. Ardbert had to wash twice before he felt clean, and three times before he felt like a hume again, but the Pendants were great for their endless hot water. He considered going to soak in the bath too, but decided that it would be too rude while Egbert still needed to wash, so he hurried back to their chamber.

In the interim, Egbert had cooked, or at least toasted and buttered some scones, and laid out clothes for him. Ardbert picked them up and shook them out - soft linen underthings, and then warmer wool. "Bless you, love," he said, wasting no time putting them on.

"One nice thing about being almost identical: all of my clothes fit you."

Thus fortified, he went to the table for scones, passing both dressing gown and bathing accouterments to Egbert. Egbert left. He ate two scones, then got up to check the food cabinet. There was a loaf of days-stale bread, a bowl of eggs, a small barrel of water, and containers for flour and sugar and other dried goods - including, thankfully, oats. Ardbert scooped some out into a pot, added an appropriate amount of water, and set it on the stove. Then he set about building a fire, with a fire crystal since he didn't know magick.

The water was just reaching a boil when someone knocked on the door. Thancred, Ardbert thought, and wasn't particularly gratified to open the door and be right.

"Oh, good, you're awake," said Thancred, distractedly handing him a basket filled with useful things like more wood and crystals and a tin of milk. "And I - er. Where's Egbert?"

"He went to bathe," said Ardbert blankly. "We didn't actually manage one before passing out, and I gather it was . . . a long night."

"A long night. That's certainly one way to put it. Do you mind if I come in to wait?"

Truthfully Ardbert did, but there was really no need to antagonize the man more than he already had, so he stepped back. "Sure. I was just thinking of trying to make coffee. Would you like some?"

"I wouldn't mind, but I don't think Egbert keeps coffee anymore?"

Ardbert blinked in confusion, going back over to the pantry to empty the basket. "Whyever not?"

"He was drinking twelve cups a day, which even he realized was unhealthy. So he stopped."

"Why would anyone - no, nevermind. I've met him." He looked for a container of dried herbs that might turn into an herbal infusion, and found one containing peppermint. That would do.

The oatmeal would take a long time to cook, and the water a while to boil, so in the meantime Ardbert went over to take a look at his . . . at his armor. It was still coated in the layer of soot-and-tar waterproofing that the Ascians had insisted on, and otherwise in apparently excellent condition despite the century of just sitting in a tomb somewhere. To distract himself, he asked, "What can I help with?"

"You - no, of course, you're a Warrior of Light. But, I don't know that there's much just now that needs help. Especially," he added, voice going low and conspiratorial, "since you've already managed the impossible and got Egbert to stay in bed and actually rest for more than six hours at a time."

On the one hand, he'd known Egbert was exactly like he'd have been, if he hadn't had Lamitt to beat some healer's sense into him. On the other, something about Thancred's posture and tone conveyed something . . . suggestive. An open-ended question. Ardbert decided to head this off right at the source. "That's none of your business."

"It isn't," agreed Thancred. "But did it not being anyone's business ever prevent people from being unconscionably nosy when you were out saving the world?" He looked away. "I personally don't care, but people will talk. You should decide now what it is you want them to be saying."

"I'll think about it," said Ardbert. And then, slyly needling, "You don't care?"

Thancred blew out a breath. "You didn't see what he was like, after Amaurot. The first thing he did was walk into a war zone." He shifted, uncomfortably. "So, no. I don't care, regardless of my very complicated personal feelings about you, except that you make him happy."

Ah. He cared a very great deal, but recognized that dealing with - whatever he felt about Ardbert - wasn't Ardbert's responsibility.

Also. "War zone?" There weren't really enough people left to have a war. Even Vauthry had only managed it by having hundreds of sin eaters under his control.

"On the Source, not here," said Thancred. "I know it was deliberately made to be awful, but the Garlean Empire is so incredibly awful. They almost set off the Source-side of another Calamity by deploying a weapon they couldn't aim. How stupid do you have to be, to do that?"

Elidibus had told the Warriors of Darkness about the Garlean Empire, in broad terms. It hadn't been important for their mission, after all. And then it turned out the founder of the entire thing was the Ascian Emet-Selch, so it wasn't like he'd told them any other relevant details either. "Tell me about them?"

So Thancred did, while the water boiled and he poured out hot, and very strong, mint tea for both of them. He listened while sipping it. The oatmeal finished cooking and he ate his way through about half of that, enriching it with milk and sweetening it with sugar. Thancred was telling him about more recent history, including that Egbert had faced and defeated their crown prince in battle shortly before the Crystal Exarch had summoned him from the Source, when Egbert returned.

His cool blue eyes took in the two of them, their mugs and Ardbert's bowl, and he asked, "Do I want to know?"

"Thancred brought supplies," said Ardbert. "He was telling me about the Garleans. The other half of the oatmeal is for you."

"Thank you," said Egbert. Rather than getting a new bowl to dish it out, he just got a spoon and started eating straight from the pot. Well, that was one way to do it. "Thancred, be honest, how worried are our fine healers?"

"Worried enough that Y'shtola delayed heading to Slitherbough," said Thancred.

"Very worried, then," said Egbert. "And? What's the verdict?"

"You are still absolutely insane," deadpanned Thancred, getting to his feet and clapping Egbert on the shoulder. "Thank you for cooperating. It's about time Ryne and I headed back to the Empty, checking on things before we go. Were you going to go say your goodbyes as well?"

"Mm. I suppose I should, but I also need to go consult with Beq Lugg."

"Well, it's up to you, but I will say Beq Lugg is unlikely to be very amused with whatever crazy thing you want to try now, or for the near future, so I would decide that discretion is the better part of valor and make myself scarce." Thancred left.

Ardbert waited until he was gone before he said, "What was that all about?"

"My four overly protective healers and Thancred, trying to protect me from myself," said Egbert.

"Oh, well. Maybe I should go find them and ask how I can help," said Ardbert, and he was already standing when a hand on his arm arrested his motion. He could have resisted when Egbert pulled him back down onto his lap, back-to-chest, but chose not to. "Or we could spend another day in bed. That's good too."

He could hear the wistfulness when Egbert said, "I really would like to go say my goodbyes in person, but - I don't want to get too far from you, either."

"I can go with you," said Ardbert. "Granted, we'd have to go on foot instead of by aetheryte - or at least by amarao - or maybe airship, if we only have a few days - "

"And you'd be all right with that?" asked Egbert. "Elidibus was pretending to be you, so no one should be surprised that you're alive, but - I thought maybe you'd like some time before going out in public?"

Ardbert rolled his eyes. "Doing good deeds, protecting the weak, saving the innocent. After you went to some trouble to clear my good name. And you'd be with me."

"Well, if you're certain."

Ardbert wasn't, not really, but if he hesitated every time he wasn't certain he'd never have made it as an adventurer. Nevermind as a Warrior of Light. "I think I can handle a few conversations with friends," he said.

"Then I suppose we'll go make the rounds. We can start at the Wandering Stairs."

" . . . the bar downstairs?" asked Ardbert, wrinkling his brow in confusion. "Do I know anyone there?"

Cylva - powerful, practical, traitorous Cylva - punched him. In the face.

"What," he stated, staring at her.

"That is for trusting an Ascian," said Cylva, which he couldn't really object to. Then she darted in to hug him, tight and warm. "And that's for saving the Warrior of Darkness. Idiot."

The thing was, he hadn't killed her. He hadn't killed her very emphatically, enough that evlen Hydaelyn had noticed. But he hadn't kept track of her either, during those awful long years when he was an untethered spirit, slowly dissolving under the endless Light. He'd noted the similarity between the barmaid Cyella and his old friend-enemy Cylva, but what of it? Sometimes people looked similar. Perhaps Cylva had survived the Flood, settled down, had children and therefore descendants. Cyella clearly had never held a sword in her life.

"What?" he asked again, plaintively.

Egbert took pity on him. "She's shadowless too. Like you were on the Source. Exactly like you were on the Source. And like you said, the dead can't die. Sit down, love, and let me heal you."

"You mean - you've just been here? The entire time?"

"In Norvrandt, yes," said Cylva, watching Egbert's fairy with interest as it healed what would've been a pretty fantastic shiner. "Mostly in Eulmore. I've only been in the Crystarium since Vauthry took over. He, ah. He always looked like he wanted to eat me." Ardbert had no doubt that she meant it literally. "I . . . am sorry, about what happened to - to their bodies." She looked down at her hands.

"She recruited me to deal with the Cardinal Virtues," said Egbert, as he finished channeling aether through the fairy. Ardbert gingerly touched his face, but Egbert was a very good healer. "And then we had a nice long chat about the nature of penance and forgiveness." Ardbert, who suffered his way through a series of conversations with Elgbert on that exact topic, did not envy her. He also didn't doubt that Cylva's remorse was genuine, or her desire to atone.

"I decided that I should tell their stories. So people don't forget. Again." She gestured at the bar. "And, well. Crystarium folk make a pretty good audience."

"Doesn't hurt that you have a pretty face, I'm sure," said Ardbert, the kind of comment he'd made without thought back in the day. It hurt a little now, but it was the good kind of hurt, a tentative offer to become friends again, this time without the lies.

Cylva made the same face she always made when he said that kind of thing, and gave the same response, more or less: "I am still not interested in settling down, Ardbert Hylfyst." It just hit very differently when he knew it was because she didn't actually have a real body. "Come on; I'll introduce you around."

"Ah, I suppose?"

So then he got to meet Granson and Lue-Reeq and Giott and Cerigg and Taynor. Renda-Rae would have teased Lue-Reeq mercilessly, but she'd have adored him even so, and not only for the stars in his eyes. Giott was a dwarf, very much in the mold, and she declared herself honored to meet him before going over to Egbert to have a very urgent whispered conversation. He felt immediate kinship with Granson: they were both front-line fighters who'd suffered tremendous loss due to circumstances and arsehole Ascians, and they'd both decided that they weren't going to let the Ascians keep getting away with it. Cerigg was nice enough, he supposed, but Taynor -

Light and every one of Mother Hydaelyn's Blessings, Taynor. No wonder Nyelbert had spent his entire life trying to get Taynor back out of the Rift. The fact that Phronesis eventually succeeded showed that it had always been possible. Ardbert was certain that, had he lived, Nyelbert would have as well, and adopted his once-peer to boot. Instead, he'd been left to die in the Rift, and the boy was saved only by the disjointed way time behaved in there. Another sin to lay at the Ascians' collective feet.

He and Egbert ate lunch with them, and Ardbert left the table five friends richer. Maybe even six. "So?" he asked, jogging only slightly to catch up. "What next?"

"Now we find Y'Shtola so she can stop worrying and go to Slitherbough already. And then we'd better go ask the Zun about . . . " He stopped. "Shit!"

"What?"

"No, no, it's nothing bad. I've just realized we're going to have to go to Il Mheg first, and that means I need something for Feo Ul."

"Cookies," said Ardbert, without thinking. "The Fae love cookies and milk. At least that's what all the stories say, and there's been no one to give them any for a hundred years."

" - they do like handmade gifts," said Egbert, resuming his walk.

They checked the Cabinet first, reasoning that if Y'shtola were to be stuck hanging around the Crystarium, that would be where she'd go. Moren reported that while she was there all day yesterday, he hadn't seen her today. They wandered to the Trivium, the Rookery, and even the Exedra looking for her, constantly getting sidetracked as everyone in the Crystarium wanted to speak with Egbert. Mostly they expressed relief at his continued well-being. A few wished to introduce themselves to the 'Warrior of Light.' Ardbert kept telling people he was just a man, living each day as it came and trying his best.

Ardbert finally spotted her, almost two hours later, in Spagyrics. She was, it turned out, passing the time by teaching the very basics of healing magic - she called it 'conjury' - to the Mystel girl who seemed to have started an apprenticeship there.

" - on't overdo it," she was saying as they entered. "Plants don't grow in a day, and neither do healers. And I see some patients have arrived for you, Riqi-Tio."

The girl turned, and gave an excited, "Mister Egbert!" And a confused, "Also Mister Ardbert?"

"We've decided to try traveling together for a time," said Egbert, not unkindly. "We were hoping to get a word with Mistress Y'shtola."

"As long as you submit to a full check-up, certainly," said Y'shtola. "I've just taught Riqi-Tio here to sense normal aether flows. It would do her good to see what a pair of strapping young men feel like."

"I'm hardly young," commented Ardbert, but sat down so the girl could feel his pulse with aether-rich hands. He knew when he wasn't about to get out of a healer taking him to task, and besides, training new ones was important.

"I notice you don't dispute the 'strapping', though," said Y'shtola.

"Why would I? That's true."

Y'shtola lifted a hand to her lips and laughed against her knuckles.

Egbert sighed. "Thancred said you were worried."

"So I was," said Y'shtola. "And am, and shall be for some time yet. Even for a man of your constitution, Egbert, you went burning through your aether like it was the Ewer of Thaliak, and it is not. Although I can see for myself that, for once, you took my advice and did nothing but eat and sleep." She threw a glance to Riqi-Tio, who'd moved on to Egbert. "And only use normal amounts of aether."

She turned her attention to Ardbert. "Keep him at it, will you? He actually listens to you."

"Yes," said Ardbert, a bit startled.

"Good," said Y'shtola. "Riqi-Tio, would you walk with me? And describe your impressions in detail, please."

"Was it just me, or was that . . . odd," said Ardbert, as he watched them walk away.

"Mostly normal." He grinned. "You made a good impression."

"What, with banter?"

"Mm." And then, "We can stay out, or go back to our room. Whichever you prefer."

"You don't mind if we go back?" It wasn't late by any means, but Ardbert found he was as tired as he'd ever been, although not in flesh and body.

"Tomorrow isn't an easy burden to bear," said Egbert, and yes, that was it exactly. "Besides, I have cookies to make. Do you suppose Feo Ul would like thumbprint cookies?"

"I don't know. What are they?"

Thumbprint cookies were rich, buttery cookies with a thumbprint indentation in them, into which a spoonful of jam was deposited halfway through baking. The boiling jam bubbled and oozed, and then cooled into delicious confection. Ardbert ate four, decided they would be better with milk, poured himself a mug, and ate another three.

"You'll ruin your appetite for dinner," said Egbert, like he hadn't eaten six himself.

"I don't know about fae kings," said Ardbert, "but if they don't want them, I'll eat the rest."

"If," said Egbert, smiling, and leaned over to kiss him.

Laughing, Ardbert kissed back, as happy in that moment as he'd ever been.

Chapter Text

Ardbert woke up to find himself being regarded by a mage. Egbert sat at the foot of the bed, pad of paper balanced on his knees while he drew with a charcoal stick. "Hold still for a moment longer please, love," he said, so Ardbert let his head fall back for a little while.

"All right," said Egbert.

Ardbert pushed himself up. "What were you drawing?"

"Some ideas for a helmet," said Egbert. "Running around without one seems ill-advised."

"I know," said Ardbert. "But what happened when I actually tried was that enemies in my stupidly bigger blind spots kept knocking me into trees and walls and things. Lamitt actually said I had to go back."

"Good to know," said Egbert. "If you're getting up, I'll make breakfast."

"And if I'm not?"

"You're free to laze around in bed as long as you like," said Egbert, "but then I make no promises about breakfast."

Ardbert chuckled. "Well in that case," he said, and rolled out of bed.

They ate a fantastic breakfast of what Egbert called royal eggs. Then Egbert made another dozen of the griddle-loaves, and had Ardbert help make ovim-cheese sandwiches. Egbert shredded a bunch of raw ovim too, before putting it all neatly in his bag, along with the leftover breakfast sauce and Thancred's milk and yesterday's cookies. Ardbert, who could cook but not like that, washed up.

Egbert put his robes on so they hung properly and carefully picked up the Exarch's spirit vessel, tucking into one of his dozen little leather boxes of his belt. Then he helped Ardbert get his armor on. Once it felt seated properly, he walked to the door and opened it, motioning Egbert through.

They were already at the Rotunda before Egbert said, "Hm."

"What?"

Egbert reached into one of the pouches he had strapped to his waist, a different one than held the Exarch. A moment later his robes vanished, replaced entirely by an outfit that wouldn't have been out of place at the Voeburtite court. It started with a white undershirt that was anything but plain, considering the shocking amount of lace at his neck and wrists. Over this was a tight-fitted short coat with intricate embroidery that still didn't hide the armored panels from Ardbert's expert eye. The trousers were probably the most ordinary item, but the thighboots made up for it with tooling in the same pattern as the embroidery and embossing in silver. The gloves matched the boots. Overall the color was red, a deep rich color that must've cost a fortune, but the accents and leather were black, and the embroidery had been done in shining white and silver. Even his earring, a pendant of some red gemstone and silver fittings, was etched with the same pattern. Ardbert's mouth instantly went dry. He wanted to run his hands across those broad shoulders, and shove it off. He wanted to remove the gloves with his teeth.

He said, "A thin little sword like that isn't going to be much use in a fight."

"Not as a sword, I grant," said Egbert. "But you've seen Alisaie fight." Ardbert had. Alisaie didn't wear anything nearly so complex, but Egbert presumably needed the increased armoring. Now that he thought about it, the high stiff collar and profusion of lace could easily hide a gorget, too. "If you're quite finished staring?"

Ardbert blushed. He didn't mind being caught staring; it had been the catalyst for the first time they'd done anything bedroom-related. He minded the not knowing. "But where did they come from? And for that matter, where did your robes go?"

Egbert tilted his head. "Right," he said, and got moving again, earring swaying seductively. "The short answer to both questions is, 'a storage crystal,' but I'm not sure Norvrandt has those?"

"We do," said Ardbert. "Or did, at any rate, but they're - a kind of a toy? Nobles used them to show off how wealthy they were. They'd have taken them much more seriously if they could fit an entire suit of armor in one!"

"Ah," said Egbert. "I'll have to make you some, then."

"Not until your doctors say it's all right."

"Yes, love."

They went, it turned out, to the pens at the Rookery. Egbert didn't even have to ask the Zun in charge, as one of the amaro came bounding over with every sign of delight to demand head-scratching. It was only after Egbert provided that he said, "This is Skip. Skip, I'd like you to meet Ardbert. He's my . . . "

"Partner," said Ardbert firmly, and offered his hand for a sniff: the polite way to introduce yourself to a new amaro.

Skip sniffed, then tilted his head quizzically before turning back to Egbert and asking uncertainly, "He smells like you?"

It happened. Ardbert knew it happened, knew that every amaro was a person, just as much as any of his party, and sometimes they woke up one day and started talking. It had happened to Seto. But he'd never heard of it happening to one so young. Or, he thought, looking at the coloration of Skip's feathers, he was perhaps just compact. "Pleased to meet you," he said.

Skip's eyes lit with excitement. "Pleased to meet you too!" he chirped. And, "Are you two nestmates?"

Well, they certainly slept in the same bed together. "Yes," said Ardbert.

"Oh!"

Egbert, who was smiling, said, "We're going traveling, and I remember you said you wanted to go see Norvrandt one day. Do you think the Rookery can spare you for, oh, a week? Maybe two?"

Skip flapped his upper wings thoughtfully. "I think so. Let me go speak with Knem Cheleim-In; he'll worry otherwise."

Ardbert remembered Knem Cheleim-In, one of the people from yesterday who'd wanted to say hello. He was huge even for a Zun, but gentle, as the Zun generally were. In only a few minutes, Skip returned with him in tow, and then he and Egbert had a conversation, mostly about feed blends, before the Zun went off with Skip to get him saddled.

"How about that," said Ardbert, watching in bemusement.

"Hm?"

"In my time, people abandoned or drove off amaro who awakened. Well, mostly. It's hard to keep treating them like mere beasts of burden when they can talk back and complain about you."

"You never did that."

"'Course not," said Ardbert. "Seto was family. And for the Zun, having a speaker in the clan was always very lucky. But - it's good to see that in the Crystarium, everyone understands that people are people."

"People are people," echoed Egbert. And, slyly, "Partners, hmm?"

Ardbert's heart beat very fast. "Would you rather I said 'lovers'? It's not nearly a strong enough word."

"Nothing is," agreed Egbert. "But partners is closer, you're right."

Skip returned, saddled, and so they made their polite farewells and headed towards the long bridge out of the city. The guards on the gate waved them through. They walked on, however, only until they were out of sight of the guard posts before Egbert called out, "Oh Feo Ul? Loveliest and most beautiful of all branches? Your sapling has need of your might."

There was a shrieking sort of laughter before Feo Ul appeared in a shower of sparks. They'd opted to appear in their miniature form this time. "My might, hmm?" Their wings fluttered as they flew about Ardbert. "And not my generous advice?"

"Depends on the advice," said Egbert, smiling softly. "Skip, this is Feo Ul, the fae king. All spoken amaro who wish to be are considered fae. If ever you need a safe place to go, they will take you in."

"Oh," said Skip, poking his head out from where he'd ducked behind Egbert. "But what if I don't wish to be?"

"Then you're not, simple as that," said Feo Ul.

"But I was hoping my most generous branch might open a path to the ruins of Wolekdorf, so he can meet the others. Tonatiuh, at least, needs a friend closer to his own, ah, age."

Feo Ul flitted around Skip before turning back. "Of course I can, but - "

"And while we're visiting, I thought maybe we could have a picnic by the lake? I brought cookies!"

"And milk?" asked Feo Ul, sounding not nearly so detached as they probably wanted to seem.

"And milk," said Egbert.

"Well in that case," said Feo Ul, doing a loop in the air. In their wake, the air sparkled, and with an impatient motion they pushed. A portrait of Wolekdorf appeared, hanging blue-edged in midair. "One at a time, but quickly, now," instructed Feo Ul.

Skip, who seemed very shy for such an otherwise outgoing amaro, pulled back. "No need to worry," said Ardbert cheerfully, hoping this was the case, and strode forward.

There was a heartbeat of blackness, two, darker than Ascian teleportations, three, darker even than the Rift between worlds. Then he stumbled forward and almost fell face-first onto the wide flat paving of what had, once, been Wolekdorf's market square. A moment later, Skip appeared, followed by Egbert and then, in a rush of glamour, Feo Ul.

"Here we are, safe and sound," said Feo Ul.

"Thank you, oh most excellent of branches," said Egbert. "I think this may take some time. You don't have to stay."

"Is it not the duty of a king to see all their subjects safe and happy? Come, my dears. Everyone is this way."

It wasn't particularly early by then, but even in the perpetual summer of Il Mheg, this high up in the mountains the mornings were still cool. Accordingly, the amaro were gathered in the wide flat meadow south of the village that had been the commons, sunning themselves. They were talking quietly, but all perked up at the scent of a new, unfamiliar amaro.

Skip stayed close to Egbert as he was introduced around, and Ardbert couldn't blame him; most of the fae amaro were twice his size at least! However, as their greetings remained perfectly polite and they engaged him in genuinely interested conversation, he gradually opened up. By the time he was invited to join them in sunning, he was happy to throw himself down in the soft grass and stretch out all four wings.

"Och, what a wee darling," said Feo Ul, from where they were hovering level with Ardbert's head and watching avidly. "But I suppose that's my sapling: never so happy as when he's helping people. Which just leaves the question of what he did to get you."

"Something self-sacrificing and stupid," said Ardbert.

"Ah? I'm not so sure. His beautiful soul had cracks all through it, ever since he ate up that disgusting Vauthry. And now those cracks are gone."

" . . . Oh," said Ardbert.

"And you're a complete person, too. Body and soul, mind and memories, you have them all. I suppose you'd be Seto's friend, then?"

" - how did you know that?" asked Ardbert, startled.

"Because I'm not stupid, Warrior of Light," said the fae king. "Ooh, and he's talking to Seto now. Probably a good idea, that one doesn't take shocks very well. Still, it's almost your turn! Get going!"

Ardbert did, wondering what he could possibly say to his old friend. When he got there, however, it wasn't difficult at all, and no words were necessary. He simply held up his hand so Seto could take a polite sniff, and then stumbled the two steps forward to hug the amaro tightly. He wasn't even aware he was crying until the soft feathers near his face became damp, and even then, he didn't let go.

Above him, he heard Seto say, "I know not what this miracle cost you, Warrior of Darkness, but in the Nu Mou fashion, please tell me how to repay it."

"There's nothing to repay," said Egbert, who sounded more than a little choked up himself. "But I thought perhaps, if you're not too old for it, maybe you'd like to come with us on a journey?"

So then Seto cried too.

They flew down to the lake for lunch, Egbert on Skip and him on Seto, and half the other amaro just because they were so happy to see one of their own get someone back for once. Feo Ul came too, and ate approximately their own volume in cookies and milk, so it was good they'd made so many. The raw ovim and egg sauce was for Skip, it turned out, along with a veritable mountain of gyshal.

After lunch, Egbert announced that their next stop was the old Wolek Manor, which the fae called the Bookman's Shelves. It was several hours' flight straight across the lake, and that promptly convinced most of the amaro to return to Wolekdorf. Not all, though: Skip's new friend Tonatiuh had decided to come with them at least as far as that, and maybe even for a visit to the Crystarium - so long as Feo Ul was willing to transport them.

"The more the merrier," said Seto, exactly like Branden used to, and Ardbert felt his eyes tearing up again. Really. It was just embarrassing.

They made good time. Skip and Tonatiuh chatted all the way across, and they arrived at the Archive by midafternoon. For such a quiet and scholarly man, Urianger held up remarkably well under the unexpected assault of three amaro, two Warriors of Light, and one fae king descending upon him. Then again, more than a dozen pixies were already in there, chasing each other about and casting glamours and emptying the shelves book by book.

"But - where are they going?" asked Egbert in dismay. He was probably planning to read the entire library at some point.

"Worry not," said Urianger. "The fae hath merely agreed to transport these books to the Cabinet of Curiosities. Certainly they do none any good here, moldering and gathering dust as they were."

"And that Moren of yours will be in fits of ecstasy," added Feo Ul. "While my own precious children can now turn the place into - whatever they like!"

"Oh," said Egbert. "In that case, I feel like more cookies are owed."

"You have more?" demanded Feo Ul, rounding on him and preparing to shriek.

Egbert held up placating hands. "No, no, I'd have to make them first, and that needs a good oven. I have one in the Crystarium, but it'll be at least a few days' flight across Lakeland to get back before I can make them."

Feo Ul narrowed their eyes, in a I-see-what-you're-doing way, just before being mobbed by pixies demanding that they transport the mortals home right now so they could start on cookies. Feo Ul sighed, but flew outside and opened a portal, much larger than the one that morning since it had to accommodate Seto. He and Ardbert and Urianger and Skip and even Tonatiuh tromped through it. After a short delay, so did Egbert.

Then of course they had to arrange accommodation for Tonatiuh and Seto. If one spoken amaro was lucky, three at once sent all of the Zun into fits of joy, and more kept coming to meet them. Tonatiuh seemed rather taken aback, but Seto was used to people and Skip seemed happy to be able to introduce them. Ardbert and Egbert slipped off in the confusion to, "at least start on the cookies."

"Can we do that tomorrow?" asked Ardbert.

"Do you want to keep the fae king waiting?" asked Egbert. Ardbert winced; when he put it like that . . .

"I'm not dressed for baking," he said.

Egbert rolled his eyes, but did pass over a dull gray crystal. "Here. Hold it and, er, imagine wearing lighter clothes."

"All right?" asked Ardbert. It took a few tries: 'imagine wearing lighter clothes' wasn't wrong, exactly, but the right instruction set was 'imagine not being uncomfortably warm in your armor.' Then, abruptly, he was wearing the same sort of plain clothes as yesterday, linen underthings but today cotton on top, blessedly cool compared to the weight of his cuirass and pauldron and greaves. As soon as he'd thought that, his armor settled back into place, which at least meant it wasn't getting lost. He tried again, and this time managed to only pay attention to the comfort. The crystal, he handed back.

Egbert led them up to the Crystalline Mean, and asked to borrow the big central oven. This time of day it wasn't in use, so they got it immediately. Egbert got them both aprons before taking out dozens of fire shards for Ardbert to start heating it up. In the meantime, he weighed out pounds of butter, flour, and sugar, and separated dozens of eggs. Then he got out a long-handled wooden spoon that could've been a boat oar, and said, "Here. Start adding ingredients, butter and sugar first. We can switch off when my arms get tired."

"All right," said Ardbert. The first step was to cream together the butter and sugar, plus a little bit of salt, in one of the enormous mixing troughs. That done, the egg yolks could be added, followed by sifting in the first of the flour. Egbert requested the first swap twenty minutes and two-thirds of the flour in, which was longer than Arbert thought he would last. Not that anyone who did dragoon jumps was physically weak, but it was primarily leg strength. He stirred in the rest of the flour until stirring became impractical, and then he just kneaded like a sane person. In less than half an hour, there was enough dough to easily make a dozen batches the size they could bake in their room's small oven, or six to fit on the big square trays of the Mean's big oven, which was starting to come up to temperature.

Rolling out the cookies and putting the thumbprint in them took long enough that by the time they'd slotted the sixth pan in, the first was ready to come out and have jam added. Other people, who worked at the Mean or just smelled the cookies baking, kept coming over to see what was going on. Egbert drafted them to help make a second massive batch, in return for a few of the cookies. By dinnertime, basically everyone in the Crystarium had eaten some. Even so there should have been a pile of hundreds of them left for the pixies, but instead they'd been vanishing by ones and twos all afternoon, accompanied by the giggles and shrieks that Ardbert now associated with, for example, a pixie biting into a too-hot cookie fresh out of the oven. Egbert called Feo Ul to come eat the last dozen or so, which the king did with alacrity, and that seemed to be that.

"Huh," said Ardbert, bemused. The whole thing had a festival air, like the grape harvest in Kholusia when everyone got together to take turns dancing the vats.

"I'll have to pay for the supplies, or replace them," said Egbert, as they walked back toward the Pendants. He had a few white patches of flour on his red jacket, but the aprons had mostly done their job. "But you see how it's much more efficient to just make hundreds at a time. The workers come to you."

"And everyone has a good time doing it," said Ardbert, smiling. "Even the pixies. Although I have to say, right now I'd rather a break from any other chores." His arms ached, and they never ached. All that time dead must've done some things to his body that even an Ascian couldn't fix.

"Mm," agreed Egbert, so they walked back to their shared room in companionable silence.

It was his turn to have Egbert up against the door the moment it finished closing, kissing fervently, desperately. Egbert kissed back, at least, responding with a little bit of confusion but full enthusiasm, tilting his head back in permission. Ardbert kissed and nipped along his jaw, down his throat until his chin met the lace, and he was right, there was a gorget under there. He licked before he began sucking a mark, far too high up for any collar to hide.

That was when Egbert's hands came up, gently pushing his shoulders. "Not that I entirely object," he said, sounding a lot less wrecked than Ardbert wanted, "but if you do that, everyone is going to know that we're lovers too."

"Do you - not want people to know?"

"I'd tattoo it on you," said Egbert harshly, "if you'd let me."

Ardbert couldn't help the noise he made, halfway between a growl and a moan. "Let," he said, giving the word all the scorn it deserved.

Egbert let his head tip back with a slight thud, baring his neck in blatant invitation. Ardbert accepted, leaning in to resume his prior work. For a little while, everything faded to his own breath and the taste of salt and skin. When he pulled off for the last time with a slight pop, he gave the skin a few more soft kisses before standing up again, looking at Egbert's face.

Egbert was looking at him like - like - Ardbert didn't know. He did know he wanted Egbert to keep looking at him like that forever. He leaned in for another kiss, on the lips this time, soft and gentle and coaxing.

"Yes," said Egbert. "Let me just - get this off - " He looked down to begin undoing buttons.

"Oh, no," said Ardbert, catching his jaw and tilting it back up. "Do you have any idea how you look in that? I have been wanting to lick you all day."

Egbert blinked once, twice, and then blushed furiously. "Sure not all day."

"Since you put it on, and I had to look but wasn't allowed to touch -

" - you can always - "

" - because I didn't want the guard to have to arrest the Warrior of Darkness for public indecency."

" . . . oh. Well. If you feel that strongly, go ahead."

So he did, running his hands up Egbert's chest and down the line of buttons, which were at least large and easy to guide through their holes. Egbert helped to shrug it off, and Ardbert was confronted with the fact that the undershirt was just as tightly fitted except it laced up the back, like every wet dream he'd had as a teenager all come to life at once. He might've moaned. He probably moaned.

Then he gathered enough wits to tug a hand up, and Egbert allowed it, obviously confused. This lasted only until Arbert brought it to his mouth, delicately nipped at his ring finger, and pulled the glove off. It was so thin and soft that it must've been made of lambskin, but he still just let it drop, more intent on getting those fingers into his mouth. He sucked on them one at a time, all the way in, licking and swirling his tongue, and then all the way back out. When he finished with Egbert's thumb, he pressed a kiss to his palm, hot and wet. Finally, he undid the two inconveniently small and slippery buttons holding the shirt tight against the wrist and kissed there as well.

By the time he'd finished with the other hand, Egbert was breathing heavily. No amount of good tailoring would hide his erection, which was straining under the tight fabric.

"Turn around?" asked Ardbert gently.

It took Egbert a dazed moment, but he did turn around. From the back, the lacing was even better. He pulled the knot open, and then he could tug the lacing loose, bit by bit, all the way down Egbert's spine. The whole thing fell off Egbert's shoulders and arms in a silk-slick rush. Beneath that was only skin, and when he ran his hands up that broad back, he could feel Egbert's heartbeat fluttering against his palms like a firefly.

"How do you want me?" asked Egbert.

Ardbert kissed the back of his neck, reached to get a handful of arse to squeeze. "I was going to ask you to demonstrate how riding works, but I don't think I'd last."

"It does take a while," agreed Egbert, sounding strained.

"Then - hm." He explored with his hands, and found the belt buckle holding the trousers quite easily. Once he opened that, it was no trouble to get his hand inside of trousers and smallclothes and onto Egbert's cock. It twitched in his hand, hot and hard and leaking, just for him, and Ardbert abruptly realized that what he wanted to do was cover the inside of Egbert thighs with love bites. "On the bed? On your back, please, but - leave the boots?"

Egbert stepped out of the puddle of shirt and looked around the room before taking the two steps up into the bedroom. He stopped at the dresser, carefully removing the belt with the half-dozen leather boxes that held his kit. Then he did go lie on the bed, arms folded neatly over his stomach, and raised his eyebrows as though to say, 'Now what?'

"Keep your hands where they are," said Ardbert as he took the steps, and sat at the foot of the bed. The boots were held on primarily by how tight they were, like a second skin showing off Egbert's muscles. Getting them off really was peeling, turning them inside-out until he reached the knee. This, it turned out, was because the trousers were knee breeches rather than full-length, and slipping the boots off of tightly-fitted silk stockings was considerably easier. Ardbert lined them up neatly at the foot of the bed before turning his attention back to those legs.

The breeches were tied below the knee, a simple bow that Ardbert could easily pull out. The stockings were tied above the knee, also a simple knot, and once untied he pulled them right off. Egbert moaned, possibly at the feel of silk on skin, possibly at the prickle of the air, or possibly because Ardbert hadn't removed the breeches yet. This last was supported by an abortive thrust, and an almost-whimpered, "Please."

Ardbert smiled, kissed the ankle of the leg he was currently holding, and placed it back on the bed. With the belt and ties already undone, he could just pull the trousers off. Or he could pull them down just a bit, revealing a sliver of skin, and kiss that. And then do it again.

"Ardbert."

"Mm?" asked Ardbert, occupied with his torturously slow rediscovery of Egbert's hips.

"You're just going to keep teasing me, aren't you?"

"Hmm," said Ardbert. "Objections?"

He could see Egbert's cock twitch in its cloth confines before the man let his head fall back on the pillow, resigned. "I want to touch you - maybe your hair?"

"So long as you don't pull, aye." Warm hands settled on his head, fingers running through his heir. Ardbert didn't enjoy the feeling of fingers scratching his scalp nearly as much as Egbert, but he liked it well enough. He bent his head back down to kiss more.

Ardbert didn't tease Egbert all that much, really. There was only so far down he could get both the trousers and smalls without Egbert's active cooperation. When he patted a thigh and said, "Arch up, love," Egbert was more than ready to help Ardbert get them off his hips, over his cock, and all the way down his legs. Ardbert tossed them aside without a second thought, looking at the acres of skin on display and deciding what to do. Then he leaned in and licked Egbert, just the tip where moisture gathered, a little kitten lick. It was mostly just salt dissolving on his tongue, no real scent or flavor of Egbert, but the way Egbert tensed and relaxed was worth it on its own.

Ardbert gently pushed one leg aside, then the other, making room for himself between Egbert's thighs. As he settled back down, Egbert raised his hips, just a little, asking without words. Ardbert gave him another kitten lick before nuzzling lower, to the side. He put his lips on a thigh, close enough that the muscles reflexively twitched under his tongue, and began sucking a mark. Egbert panted and squirmed for it, but didn't move his hands from Ardbert's head and didn't tug. As thanks, Ardbert went in not for a lick this time, but drew the head into his mouth and sucked. He savored the deeper, muskier flavor for a moment. Then he pulled off, turned his head again, to begin a second mark on the other leg.

Ardbert alternated like that, leaving love bites only Egbert would ever know about and mouthing at him while he shook with it. When Ardbert pulled off his cock for maybe the fifth or sixth time, he finally broke and said, "Ardbert, love - "

"Tell me about this tattoo," asked Ardbert. "'Property of Egbert Farfens' or something like that?"

"Ah - no," said Egbert, sounding offended. "It'd have to be a spell."

Ardbert was busy with what he was doing, but made an inquisitive noise.

"Oh - do that again - "

"Mm?"

"Yes. Please."

"Mm."

"I already explained aetherial geometries, right?"

Ardbert thought about it while sucking the mark in. The ink, or whatever the aetherially conductive material was, shaped the magick. Different geometries caused different effects. It required quite a lot of focus, but actually used less aether than other kinds of healing. It sounded convenient, too, because a student wouldn't have to master all the theory first. He pulled off with a wet pop. "You want to tattoo me with aetherially conductive ink."

"You've seennN my tattoos. Ah - would you just - please - "

Ardbert took him deeper, humming thoughtfully at the big vein that ran up the underside. He had seen the tattoos, but up until this moment he'd thought them abstract geometric art. Which should have been his first clue: Egbert generally didn't do decoration for the sake of it. He tongued at Egbert's slit, which pretty consistently tasted of him now, before pulling off. "What would it do?"

Egbert actually whimpered. "I thought - something like - a tiny aetheryte?"

That hit Ardbert low in the gut. "You can do that?"

" . . . maybe. They make wedding rings."

Ardbert thought about it while making the next mark. Tiny aetheryte wedding rings. An aetheryte that needed only the aether a single person could provide, because they only needed to be a beacon for one person ever. That wasn't a small commitment when it was jewelry, something that could be removed or returned. To have it inked into his skin -

"Something like that, then," said Ardbert, hoarsely.

"What?" Egbert sounded distracted, which was wholly understandable, considering. And, "Oh. Like you aren't doing that right now."

Ardbert couldn't actually object, because he was. Also didn't want to object. "I am."

"Then you can stop dancing around. Just put one on my cock."

That was in fact what Ardbert wanted to do, he realized as soon as Egbert said it. "Can I?"

"I just said you could," confirmed Egbert. "Just be a little - light."

Right; the skin was thin and very sensitive, so less suction would be needed. Ardbert hunched up a little and set to putting one right below where the foreskin attached on top. He didn't suck for as long, either, before he finished up with a soft kiss right to the head. Then, having laid extremely thorough claim to his love, Ardbert felt perfectly content to stop teasing and just take him in all the way. He used his other hand to cup Egbert's balls and squeeze gently. Egbert was so worked up already that that was all it took before he was spilling into Ardbert's mouth.

Then, of course, the resonance dragged him along too. This was . . . fine. A little annoying; Egbert was a caring and considerate lover, and Ardbert thought they could have a lot of fun together if one of them finishing didn't immediately make the other go as well. Not that it had ever been a problem before, but since he now had a body that didn't cease to exist the moment Egbert fell asleep -

"You," said Egbert, sounding not at all tired, "are thinking too loudly. Come up here." He tugged lazily at Ardbert's hair.

Ardbert went, stretching his neck so they could kiss a moment sooner. When Egbert licked into his mouth and found the mouthful that Ardbert had managed to not swallow, he made a noise a little like a hiccup got crossed with a tea kettle. It probably said something very telling that it made Ardbert's cock twitch, even untouched in smalls he really needed to remove. Not yet, not while Egbert was sucking on his tongue like that. Not until they were done kissing. Just - soon.

It was a while before either of them were done with that, and then they spent more time cuddling while Egbert softly combed his fingers through Ardbert's hair. But eventually Ardbert asked, "What do they do? Your tattoos, I mean."

"The one on my right arm spins something. The one on the left picks something up and then drops it."

Ardbert said, "And those are useful, are they?"

There was a slight pause. "Extremely."

"And the one on your back?"

"Incomplete," said Egbert. "And maybe, probably, never complete. The person who did that died killing an Ascian, and . . . "

"I understand," said Ardbert, who did.

A little while after that, Egbert said, "This is lovely, but . . . I am getting hungry."

So was Ardbert. "I don't want to cook."

"Mm," agreed Egbert. "We can go to the Stairs."

They washed up a bit and changed before they went out. Cylva was busy tending the bar, so she really didn't have time to sit down and chat with them. Granson, however, brought his own dinner right over and sat right down. His eyes flicked between them, clearly noting the love bites before very firmly dismissing them as not really his business. It was a pleasant meal, and after they'd finished, Granson invited them both to another pint. Egbert bowed out in favor of sleep, and indeed, when Ardbert got back to their room not much more than an hour later, he was already buried in a pile of blankets and snoring softly. He woke up enough to let Ardbert into his blanket cocoon and snuggle up, and then fell back to sleep.

Ardbert wondered how long this strange and sweet and peaceful existence could last. It didn't matter really, because sooner or later something was going to come up. It always did. He would take this for as long as he could get it, no question, but . . . at the very least, the Scions had to go home, and Egbert would go with them. Well, there was no point in borrowing tomorrow's problems. He pulled Egbert in a little closer, and closed his eyes.

Chapter Text

The next morning, they were both up early, packing for travel. "Where to today?" asked Ardbert.

"Down to Ahm Areng, on the amaro. I figure we can camp on the border tonight, wake up early for the flight to Garik, spend the hot part of the day in the shade, and then fly on to the Mount Biran Mines once it cools off. We can get to Mord Souq and the Inn the day after."

"Then we need hot-weather gear, and ice crystals," said Ardbert. Amh Araeng hadn't been for the unprepared even before the Flood.

"Hot-weather gear?" asked Egbert.

"You know, light fabrics which breathe well but provide total coverage?"

"And I suppose the ice crystals are so you don't die of heat exhaustion wrapped up in that metal pot of yours," said Egbert.

"Hey!"

"Definitely going to have to make some armory crystals," said Egbert. "Here. You should keep this one. I don't have anything specific for Ahm Araeng, but I have some Ala Mhigan things. They'll serve well enough."

He wasn't wrong. Ala Mhigan clothing was very light comfortable linens, embroidered in bright colors. It was loose enough and breathed well, and they'd be hot but not miserable even under the desert sun. Once he'd put them on, Egbert had him switch them into the crystal ostensibly so he could help get his armor on. This turned out to be a lie, since Egbert started kissing him, slow and wet along his jaw, and when he responded, lower. After, Egbert did actually help get his armor on, but they were still a bit late heading down to the Rookery.

Seto only gave them both a knowing look, and Skip fluffed up all his feathers before settling back down, but Tonatiuh galumphed forward until he got within several yards of them, and then almost tripped over his own feet trying to suddenly reverse direction. Seto gave him a look of serene indifference. Skip opened his mouth and fluffed his feathers again, an amaro laugh. Tonatiuh looked between the two of them in obvious confusion before taking his queue from the other amaro and settling down some. "It's all right? They're nestmates?"

"Yes," said Seto, utterly reasonable, and with an air of immense patience.

Tonatiuh gaped some more. Skip said, "If that's settled, then maybe we can get loaded up and go?"

Seto agreed, and Tonatiuh didn't disagree, so they did that. Still, they hadn't been flying for more than five minutes before Ardbert leant in low over Seto's neck and asked, "Is there something wrong with us being - partners?"

Seto rumbled a little, before he said, " . . . no."

"But . . . ?"

One of Seto's large brown eyes rolled a bit to look at him. "It is different for amaro - especially ones who awaken so young. I think, if it is not too much trouble, you and your Warrior of Darkness should answer some questions. Maybe then he'll notice that Skip is courting him."

This was news to Ardbert. "Really?"

"You disapprove?"

Ardbert had to think about it. It was one thing knowing that amaro were people, and treating them that way. It was another when they started growing up - awakening - and doing people things. But it wasn't odd that amaro, who almost always outlived the first person they loved, might want companions they wouldn't outlive. Or companions of their own kind. And, well, Skip and Tonatiuh were both males, but it wasn't like he had a right to make any fuss about that. He said, "I think they're cute together."

"Mm," said Seto. "As do we all. Even the king said so."

"That's all right, then," said Ardbert.

They flew in contemplative silence for a while as the sun slowly climbed the sky to their left.

"Seto?"

"Mm?"

"Would you tell me about your journeys?"

"Hmm!" rumbled Seto. "I should like that very much."

Even after his journey to the Source, Seto still didn't awaken for another few decades. This meant that he had very confused recollections about how he'd survived the tumult surrounding the Flood, its halt, and even the fall of Voeburt. After his awakening, he joined up with a former knight to mount aerial defenses against sin eaters while the newly-founded Crystarium guard did wide sweeping patrols, searching for refugees and escorting those who wished to the Crystarium. Then he joined the Crystarium guard for a time, before learning about the amaro colony in Il Mheg. He visited quite a few times over the years, but didn't fully move until the knight retired from the guard; and even then, he visited regularly until the woman's passing, almost two dozen years ago now.

"I'd have liked to have met her, I think," said Ardbert.

"Yes," said Seto. "The two of you would have been fast friends."

They stopped to eat and drink near noon, and Ardbert had a quiet conversation with Egbert. Egbert did know about Skip's courtship. Everyone did, apparently, from the fairy king to the Zun. The only person who didn't was, Egbert profoundly hoped, Tonatiuh. Ardbert had to agree; now that he knew what he was watching, it was just too cruel, unless Tonatiuh actually was ignorant.

After lunch, and washing his hands in one of the many streams that fed the Source, he said, "This might be a stupid question, but, ah. Two amaro now have asked us if we're nestmates. Does that mean something different, to you?"

"No?" said Skip. "Or, really, I don't know. To us it means - the person you like best, and want to be with all the time." He looked over at Tonatiuh.

"You build a nest together," added Tonatiuh, oblivious. "And live there."

"Pretty close, then," said Egbert. "Why did you ask?"

"Ah, that . . . " said Skip, ruffling his feathers in embarrassment.

"You, um, smelled like each other," said Tonatiuh. "And sad. Not in a bad way! People are sad sometimes! Just." He looked to Skip and Seto, silently begging for help.

"Men have very little sense of smell," said Seto, kindly. "And anyone who grew up amongst men - which is all of us - know that men can also willfully deny their hearts. None of us could ever wish that, on our companions or even a stranger."

"Oh," said Egbert.

"That's all right?" asked Tonatiuh anxiously.

"'Course it is," said Ardbert. "Worrying for each other is what friends do."

"I wasn't worried," said Seto. "But then again, I already knew the both of you."

"Also, men have really strange customs," added Skip. "You share a nest and your scents, but you don't preen each other. You give food gifts to anyone who is hungry. You don't even dance together. Well. I suppose you can't, since you can't fly, but still."

"We dance!" protested Ardbert. "Well. In general. I'm no dancer. Got two left feet, me."

Skip looked dubious at this, but was distracted from commenting by Tonatiuh saying, "You bruise each other when nesting, and sometimes it's good and sometimes it's not."

An awkward silence followed this pronouncement. It wasn't like Ardbert could deny that it was true, but it was immediately obvious that this was the real reason the amaro felt it necessary to confirm that he and Egbert were in fact nestmates. Of course Seto wouldn't, because he knew that Ardbert liked it a little rough. But Egbert -

Egbert said, "Ah. Well, in our specific case, it's because we like belonging to each other, and showing that we belong to each other. Since we can't smell, and all."

Tonatiuh bobbed his head. "That makes sense," he said, in rather dubious tones.

Egbert tipped his head to one side, deliberately showing off the bruises Ardbert had sucked onto his neck the previous evening. "The dead don't feel pain, or hunger, or fatigue. The dead can't touch anything, or affect the world in any way. Having these means that the one who gave them to me is alive also."

Ardbert felt the blush creep up his neck and towards his ears. "Love, you know I'm not planning on going anywhere."

"Men plan," retorted Egbert, "and the gods laugh." Then, when the amaro - or at least Skip - hopped forward to butt against him, he waved a hand and said, "No, no, it's all right. I'm upset at the situation, not you."

"I know," said Skip, and ducked his head, insistently putting it right under Egbert's hand.

Egbert laughed, but obediently set about scratching him. "If you've had enough of a rest, we should probably get going again soon."

As they continued to fly south, and the land faded from the lilac elven foliage to more subdued and arid greens and browns, Egbert called for more and more stops. At first it was hourly, then every half-hour, and then every fifteen minutes. On the ground, he produced truly ridiculous quantities of water from some crystals. He drank too, and so did Ardbert, who remembered well how easy it was to dry out in the desert.

That evening camping in one of the sandstone caves that dotted the hills of Ahm Araeng, Egbert started a conversation about the differences between the courting customs of amaro and men. Of course, the races of men couldn't neatly be slotted into one set, because they had different customs in different places. Ardbert was a little confused about why Egbert waited until after dinner to ask this, since surely he could've asked Skip in the air? Then he saw Tonatiuh's rapt attention while Skip detailed the things spoken amaro did to start courting, and understood.

"Food gifts and songs, huh?" he said. "Well, if you count poetry as a kind of singing, I suppose many men have a similar custom."

"Poetry?" asked Tonatiuh.

Ardbert, sitting comfortably folded in along Seto's side, folded his hands in his lap like he'd been taught as a child. "'Long is one night, long is the next/ how can I bear three? A month has often seemed less to me/ than this half night of longing.' That sort of thing."

Tonatiuh, Seto, and Egbert were each giving him a different look. Seto, presumably, because the old ballads hit differently to spoken amaro. Or maybe he was just remembering the impromptu poetry sessions between him and Renda-Rae and Branden and Lamitt. None of them were really poets, of course, but they each came from a long tradition and their traditions were all very different. Lamitt always had to translate twice, once out of the dwarven language and once out of the dwarven culture. Renda-Rae hardly fared much better. Nyelbert sat, writing down the tales, but never sharing any despite elves being famous for their poetry. Now he knew that it was because Nyelbert was raised by insane cultists, not elves at all.

Tonatiuh said, "'A month has often seemed less to me/ than this half night . . . '" Then he sighed. "That's true." He craned his head to look at Seto. "Is poetry common?"

Seto said, "No; but there is no reason it should not be. We awakened can compose poetry, I am sure, just as much as we can sing."

"I think I'd like to hear more," said Tonaiuh.

"The Zun have a lot," said Ardbert. "Or they used to. I . . . have the rest of that one, if you're at all interested."

Tonatiuh was, so Ardbert ended up reciting the wedding ballad of the poet-prince Skjoll Skullsplitter for his wife Breiga, which his grandfather had considered a good poem for a beginner because it had lots of interesting action. Tonatiuh listened intently, anyway, and so did Egbert and Skip. Seto, who heard it before, tucked his head under one wing and dozed off.

When he finished, Tonatiuh said, "I think I like it, as something to do, but I don't want to go on a quest to earn the right to court someone. I think I'll stick to food gifts and dancing. Although," he added, "I'm not very good at hunting still."

"We can go hunting tomorrow, if you like," promised Ardbert. "I can show you some hunting strategies."

"Yes please!"

Later, laid out on the thin bedrolls atop an oilcloth that was sufficient insulation for the baking heat of the desert, he teased Egbert, "So you're a matchmaker now, too?"

"If there's a decent match to be made, sure," said Egbert. "I wasn't going to try teaching a perfect novice to hunt."

"He can't be as bad as all that," said Ardbert.

"He ate a porxie," said Egbert.

"Which he thought was a piglet," Ardbert reminded him. "And that suggests he's gotten piglets in the past, even though piglets tend to come with very protective mamas."

"That's true . . . " allowed Egbert. "I leave it to you, then."

The amaro woke early the next morning, and by necessity so did they. The desert got hot later, so they were hoping to get to Garik by midmorning. Even so, there were beasts out, some large enough to make a meal for a hungry amaro. So he loaded up Seto with their supplies, and climbed onto Tonatiuh himself - Tonatiuh knelt down to let him - and they took off.

The nice thing about awakened amaro was that he didn't have to attempt to train him, over the course of weeks and with plenty of snacks. He could just say what needed to be done, and why, and Tonatiuh would do it. With an amaro's keen sense of smell Tonatiuh already knew about hunting from downwind. All he really needed was someone who could explain about baiting and aerial attacks and building up the kind of speed to concuss prey at the bare minimum. Tonatiuh wasn't good at it by the time they arrived in Garik, but that would come with practice. He'd successfully downed some of the outsize lizards that called the desert home, one with help from Ardbert and three entirely on his own. Just one, along with a heap of gyshal from one of Egbert's crystals, was a decent breakfast for an amaro.

They were welcomed readily enough by the mord in Garik, especially once Tonatiuh presented one of the lizards. Unfortunately, the building doors weren't really big enough to admit amaro. Although it wouldn't really have mattered, since none of the buildings were sized to hold an amaro of Seto's size, either.

"We can string up the tarp," said Egbert, eyeing the distance between a couple of buildings.

It wasn't quite so simple, even with mord allowing them prompt access to the roofs. Still, it wasn't more than an hour before they could all take shelter in the shade. Ardbert demonstrated for Skip and Tonatiuh how to gut and clean the lizards, while Seto, who already knew, watched indulgently. Egbert produced the gyshal, and all three amaro set to.

"Uh," said Tonatiuh, sidling closer to Skip. "Would you like some of the liver?"

Skip eyed him. "The liver is the best part."

"I want you to have some," insisted Tonatiuh.

"Oh," said Skip, and sidled closer as well. It was all very cute and heartwarming. Seto shuffled to the other side of the shadow, and Ardbert got the sense he'd have gone further if space allowed. Later, once it cooled enough that they could travel but was still warm enough for the amaro to use the heat off the sands, he asked Seto about it.

"Mm," rumbled Seto. "It's not wrong to watch, especially at the beginning of a courtship like this, but it's - impolite, to stay too close. Nestmates need time together without their friends gossiping about it."

"Is that what you do?" asked Ardbert. "Gossip?"

"It is always a great joy when two souls find each other," said Seto. "And it is very rare. When it happens, we amaro do nothing but gossip."

" . . . so just like everybody else then, really," said Ardbert. "Do you think Tonatiuh might like a vacation to the Crystarium?"

Seto hummed, a noise that might sound noncommittal to anyone else. To Ardbert, it was full of glowing approval.

"I'll invite him, then," said Ardbert.

He did, the next time Egbert called a water break. It turned out to be totally unnecessary, since Skip already had, and Egbert, and Knem Cheleim-In. He was seriously considering it; but if he did, he also needed to find a way to placate an angry Nu Mou. He owed the amaro that much, at least.

"Oh, well," said Ardbert, and, "Ask for help from Feo Ul."

"What?" asked Egbert.

"Oh, would you?" asked Tonatiuh.

"Mmh."

"Then I suppose I had better call on my most beauteous of branches."

Feo Ul's shriek was ear-splitting as usual, and they pouted at Egbert. "You know, it doesnae count if your [beanghan] thinks of calling me first every time!"

"If you want to think of it like that, I suppose," said Ardbert.

"What do you mean?" they asked, fluttering closer in curiosity.

"I mean, we're the same, aren't we? I think I'm just as much your sapling as he is."

Feo Ul tilted their head. "Nae? You've your own mind and your own memories, Warrior of Light. But you're my sapling-at-law! I'll gladly extend a favor or two. Since you make him - well."

"Sapling-at-law to the most kind and gentle and powerful king of the faeries?" asked Ardbert. "I'd have to be an idiot not to take that." Feo Ul opened their mouth to shriek again, so Ardbert added, "He makes me well, too."

Feo Ul nodded and said, "That's all right and proper, then." They turned to Tonatiuh. "I'll order that mean old grouch not to bother you while you visit your beau, never fear."

Tonatiuh bobbed his entire body. "Thank you, your kingliness."

"Och, 'tis nothing," said Feo Ul, and twirled away in a rush of glamour.

"That takes care of that, then," said Ardbert, after a moment.

They made it to the mines at Mount Biran in plenty of time. With the trolley up and running again, most of the wildlife had cleared out. The cave still had signs of occupation by the desert jackals, but, after a quick patrol, both he and Egbert confirmed that there were no live animals within a malm larger than a sand shrew.

Tonatiuh looked around the space - wide enough to accommodate multiple parallel rail-lines, although most covered with blown-in sand, and then ducked back out. "Skip," he said. "Would you like to go hunting? Mister Egbert and Mister Artbert can stay inside and make th-e camp."

Skip tilted his head. "We can."

Once they left, Seto went to spread himself out near the entrance to the mine. Ardbert walked over to join him. "It's not too cool in the cave?" he asked.

"If I become cold, I can always go back outside," said Seto. "A pack of wolves might try to attack me, if they were very hungry, but little desert jackals won't."

"They might attack Skip."

"Hmm. Perhaps were he alone, but he isn't. We will watch each other, never fear, and call for help if we need it." He paused, then added, "You know I don't mind that you have other friends. That you love other people. It doesn't diminish our friendship, or our love. And the Warrior of Darkness is one of the best."

Ardbert didn't really have words for that, so he didn't bother trying to say them. He just hugged Seto's neck, and slipped over to where Egbert was putting together a safe firepit. "Everything all right?"

"Fine," he said, as he sat down. To Egbert's dubious look, he said, "It's just - he grew up so much while I was - " he swallowed, but forced the word out, " - dead. He was always my friend, but now he's wise."

"Are you regretting that you weren't there to see it?" asked Egbert. "Or proud of him?"

Ardbert took a moment to really think about it. "Both, I think."

"Welcome to being human," said Egbert, almost sing-song, and Ardbert chuckled.

"They wanted to give us some private time," said Ardbert, quietly. "Well, Tonatiuh did, and Skip and Seto agreed."

"Tonatiuh did?"

"I think he has some rather rude questions," said Ardbert, grinning, "and is worried about offending us. But I won't say no to some private time." He attempted to waggle his eyebrows suggestively.

Egbert chuckled, and said, "You don't have to seduce me, you know." He tilted his head almost quizzically, except that it deliberately showed off Ardbert's marks. "I'm yours; you just have to say what you want."

Ardbert swallowed. "I thought, since we have time, maybe . . . ?"

He could see the moment Egbert got it, because he went from showing off his love bites to meeting Ardbert's eyes. "Here?"

Ardbert looked around. It wasn't their room at the Pendants, sure, but the stone floor of the mine was covered by a layer of fine sand a handspan thick and they had good bedrolls on top of that. He'd camped in plenty of worse places. "Yes?

"In a cave. Surrounded by wildlife. On the ground. Ardbert, you have to know I'd give you a cedarwood bed and silk sheets."

"I know." And maybe, one day, he'd be in the mood for those. "But that's just - stuff. I don't need any of it. I need you. Please?"

Egbert's expression went soft. "Oh, well. In that case - hmm." He developed the slight line between his eyes that looked like a ferocious scowl but actually just meant he was thinking very hard. "Actually, you go find a bush to water, all right? And fertilize. I'll set up over here."

"Shit and piss, got it," said Ardbert, mostly just to see the eyeroll. "Is this something that needs setting up?"

"Do you want sand absolutely everywhere?

" . . . no," allowed Ardbert, and got up.

When he returned, Egbert had put down the oilcloth canvas tarp, and their bedrolls on top of that laid out side-by-side. Ardbert stepped on carefully, taking off his boots and lining them up so as to not bring any sand along. "Should I take off my clothes too?"

"Mm," said Egbert, considering.

"What?" asked Ardbert.

"I'm debating using armory crystals. They're much faster for armoring up, if we need to. But I don't think I'm comfortable with stripping entirely, even with Seto standing guard."

"That's - reasonable," said Ardbert. "Do you mind if I . . . ?"

"Hmm? Oh, no." Egbert pulled out one of the weird flat-gray armory crystals, and handed it over. "Here, this one's empty."

Ardbert took it, not even particularly trying not to think about himself completely naked while Egbert did - whatever it was he was going to - still entirely kitted up. The thought was unbelievably hot. An instant later, even his light Ala Mhigan wear was gone, and he could feel the cool cave air, sweet relief prickling all over his sweaty skin. He sighed with it.

"Here, lie down on your front," said Egbert, patting a bedroll. It was actually quite comfortable, the sand beneath soft fabric and sturdy canvas more supporting than hard. Especially one he wiggled into it a bit. A moment later, he felt Egbert's warm weight settle across his thighs. "Tell me when I can touch," requested Egbert.

"Right now?" suggested Ardbert, and he hadn't even finished the words before Egbert was running an appreciative hand up his back. The skin felt odd in its wake, somehow cooler despite the warmth of the hand. He wasn't certain then, but the next pass, with the same hand but on the other side of his spine, clinched it. "Egbert?"

"Mm?"

"Are you - what are you doing?"

"Burning off a little bit of Light, as ice aether."

"You're still not supposed to be using aether," pointed out Ardbert.

"It's not my aether. There's just so much Light still left, here in Amh Araeng. Or would you prefer I stop?"

" . . . no," admitted Ardbert, even though he probably should object more. Egbert kept doing that, long slow passes up spine, gentle pressure at his shoulders, almost ticklish down his sides. Then a hand just resting at the small of his back. Even that simple touch was enough to have his dick taking an interest. Ardbert shivered, not because he was chilled, and said, "Egbert."

Egbert chuckled softly and moved his hand away. Ardbert heard the slight pop of the cork being removed, and a moment later the hand returned with - liniment, rather than the expected ointment. It smelled of mint, and when Egbert put some at the nape of his neck, tingled gently. Then he started rubbing it in, pressing hard at his shoulders until the normal vigilant tension began to give up and bleed out. Ardbert accepted that for a while before he felt he had to comment. "Not that I don't appreciate the massage, but if I'd wanted one I would have just asked."

"Step one is to be thoroughly relaxed," said Egbert. "So I'm relaxing you. Try to keep still, and don't tense up again."

Relaxed was not exactly the right word: Egbert seemed to be going for boneless. He went after deeper-seated stress, slowly and carefully and mercilessly pummeled out knots that probably had been there for years even before his death. It was good, even the times when Egbert had to press his elbow in and put his full weight behind forcibly unknotting the muscle. Ardbert groaned in relief at the cessation of aches so omnipresent he hadn't realized he carried them.

Only once he was satisfied with Ardbert's shoulders did Egbert begin to work down his spine. He could hear things popping and cracking in ways that would have been genuinely distressing if it didn't feel so good. "Egbert," he said, and was surprised to hear how he sounded, soft and hoarse and half-drunk.

"Hmm?" asked Egbert.

"If you keep on like this, I'm liable to doze off."

"That's fine," said Egbert, sounding amused. "Being in an altered state of mind actually helps. Although we can talk if you want to stay more awake."

"Talk about what?" asked Ardbert.

"Hmm." Egbert scootched down, resting on Ardbert's knees and calves. He began to work at Ardbert's thighs with the same care and concentration. "Things I don't know about you. I know you really enjoy - getting your mouth on me, for example. But what else?"

Oh. Bedroom talk. "I can't say as I've ever really sat down and made a list. I just - like feeling good, like making my partner feel good. I always have, ever since - before I was any good at it."

"Sounds like there's a story there. Would you like to share it?"

Ardbert almost said no, because the story in question was that embarrassing, but - Egbert was also Chosen. Egbert Saw the important parts of Renda-Rae's story during his hunt for Andreia. He had even, very briefly, met her in person. If anyone was going to carry this memory with the precious care it demanded, he would.

"Oh, well. I was a young fool, when we first met Renda-Rae, and I often didn't make the best decisions - "

"So exactly the same as you are now," said Egbert.

"Shut it. Anyway, I paid inn girls, when I wanted a tumble. Lamitt didn't approve, but she always cast the spell. Once Renda-Rae joined us, though - she loved gossip, and especially gossip about us, and so she learned pretty fast what they thought of me." Ardbert smiled, remembering. "She was completely outraged. Much later I learned it's a mystel clan pride thing, and it meant that even back then we were her family, but at the time - she dragged me to her room, stripped me, threw my clothes out the window, and told me she wouldn't let me leave again until I, and I quote, 'learned how to please a woman.' I'd never been so confused in my life. Or so hard."

Egbert chuckled softly, even while he dug his knuckles into Ardbert's thigh. "Did you? Please her?"

"Not at first," said Ardbert. "I thought she was joking. And then I thought she'd gone insane, and then when I gave up trying to, ah, get some clothes, I still wasn't interested in actually learning anything." His erection, which had subsided somewhat, was unsurprisingly back in full force. Ardbert could do something about it, rock his hips, but -

Egbert climbed off him entirely before pulling a calf into his lap. "What changed?"

"She went and got one of the girls, and made me watch while she brought her off so good she cried," said Ardbert. "It's one thing for someone to tell you it's good, but - I'd never made anyone sob with it, and after that, I wanted to."

"I can imagine," said Egbert. And, "Funnily enough, that's more or less how I learned about this, except instead of Renda-Rae I had Haurchefant."

"Oh?"

"After I was framed for poisoning the Sultana of Ul'dah - that's Nanamo, she's great - we fled up to Coerthas. Haurchefant was the garrison commander at Camp Dragonhead. We'd had some dealings already, and were friendly, so he gave us sanctuary." Egbert put down the leg and went to sit on his other side for the next. "Well, I say that, but I mean we'd had one tumble already and I wasn't very surprised to be offered another, once Tataru took Alphinaud off to sleep. Not that I could accept the offer in good faith. A slog through a Coerthan blizzard - "

"I remember," said Ardbert. Coerthas was, without a doubt, the worst part of the Source.

"So then he invited me to bed anyway, because it's much warmer with at least two." Egbert finished his second leg, and put it back down. "Said that we'd see if I was up for that tumble in the morning."

"Which you were," said Ardbert.

"I mean, I was, but not like him." Egbert made some fabricky sounds in the background. "He had me fuck him until I came, lie down so he could tease me up again, then stay still while he rode me until I came again. Said I was the best horse he'd ever had, but didn't finish himself until he had permission to jack off on my face." He sounded as fond as Ardbert felt, and as melancholy. "So then of course I had to know how he did it."

Egbert finally, finally put a hand on his arse. Two, kneading and groping before one pulled his cheeks apart. The other briefly vanished before returning coated in ointment, and Ardbert clenched even though Egbert hadn't even touched that part of him yet. He proceeded slowly, petting down the crack of his arse and spreading the slick around.

"This is revenge, isn't it?" panted Ardbert, willing his muscles to relax. "For taking my time with you."

"I can't just enjoy touching you?" asked Egbert, sounding amused even while his index and ring fingers were resting right on the ring of muscle. "No. I don't need revenge for a fantastic fuck. I want to reciprocate. Please, love, let me make you feel good."

Ardbert's cock, greedy as it was, twitched below him. His arse clenched again, entirely involuntarily. Egbert chose that moment to press, down and in. Even though objectively two fingers were just not that wide, and certainly something he'd taken before, he couldn't help the way his arse spasmed again around them. Egbert waited until that passed off to pull his fingers out and get more lube. The second time, when Egbert set his fingers like a polite request, the clench was deliberate. It felt a little less overwhelming to Ardbert, like his muscles were already starting to loosen up and accept the pressure, to remember how to do this. Or to learn how to do this with the man who matched his very soul. Whichever.

Egbert didn't even go particularly quickly, which Ardbert supposed made sense. This wasn't a back-alley trick, or a tumble in the hay at some inn. Those fingers weren't there to prepare him for something bigger, and anyway Egbert wasn't the one desperate to stick it in. Even so, Egbert also didn't go particularly slowly either, dragging it out the way Ardbert had. He instead opted for thorough, ensuring that this wouldn't hurt and that Arbert would feel every instant of it.

"All right," said Egbert, and he could hear the smile. "You just stay relaxed. Try not to tense up, and if you can, don't even move. This isn't like chasing your pleasure when you jerk yourself. Just focus on the sensations."

"I'll try," managed Ardbert, who was really wondering what was next. Then Egbert crooked his middle finger, searching, and almost immediately finding. It wasn't even like Ardbert was unfamiliar with the feeling, because sometimes people liked to play with that while stretching him. Whenever he was fucked at the right angle, a cock gliding over it always set off sparks.

He'd never had anyone do this before, and it took real effort not to tense up. The fingers inside him moved separately and in counterpoint, so there was always one in contact with that spot. Outside, Egbert's thumb, which naturally came to rest on the patch of skin behind his balls, wasn't resting, it was pressing ever so slightly. Something about the pressure felt - well, a little like he needed to piss, except he just did that, and when he focused on that sensation it melted away into feeling warm, almost humming. His arse spasmed again, involuntarily, and the humming briefly ratcheted up to a buzz before passing off again.

It didn't stay gone, though. Now that he'd felt it, it stayed on the edges. Each time Egbert stroked, it was a challenge to not tense, to not move, to feel. The sensation, the humming, or buzzing, or ringing like some great internal bell, didn't make itself known every time, or even most of them. It came in pulsing waves, each a little stronger. A little closer.

"That's right," murmured Egbert, somewhere miles away above him. It was soothing, almost, except for how he kept moving his fingers. "You don't have to do a thing; just let it come to you."

"Ohhhhh," moaned Ardbert. He knew that if he thrust, if he bucked, if he rolled his hips, he would spill. He didn't want to. The pulsing waves were almost on top of him now, so good, and he needed to find out what happened when -

They came, and so did Ardbert.

It wasn't in his arse. That was just where it started. Then the waves flowed out, all the way from the top of his head to the smallest toe, tingling. He opened up to his other self and poured the sensation across there, too and was met with the resonance, the sensation shared and doubled rather than halved. Impossibly, Ardbert came again, or maybe he'd never stopped coming. He shouted out his ecstasy, wordless noise. Egbert didn't stop moving his fingers although he did move in a different way, fabric noises and an arm draped over one arse cheek and part of his back.

There was abruptly no longer any way to prevent himself from moving, his arse tensing on those wonderful thick fingers, his abdomen jerking his hips forward. Even that little bit of friction was too much, and before Ardbert could do anything else he was there, spending, feeling it everywhere: in his cock, in his balls, in his arse, down the resonance - he felt Egbert come - and back up. He tensed even more, shuddering with the fingers' motion and the knowledge that he belonged, and was never going to be lost again.

Egbert stopped an instant before it would've been too much. Then, because he was merciless, he stretched his fingers in a splay and curled his knuckles in. They stretched him wide on the way out, a promise for the future. Ardbert whimpered, whined and panted and breathed as he slowly came down.

A long time passed before he managed to ask, "How do you stay relaxed enough with a cock up your arse?"

"It does take some practice," replied Egbert, just as hoarse. He was lying next to Ardbert, head turned to face him. "But it also gets easier, as your body learns to - to accept." Almost contemplatively, he added, "I should have had you turn over."

Ardbert thought about that. "If you had," he swallowed, "would you sti - "

"Yes," said Egbert. "You're gorgeous like that, you know? When you're so far gone that you've forgotten to lie and I can see what it does to you. What I do to you. I'd love to take you to bed and make you come for hours."

"Hours?" asked Ardbert, incredulous. "You can do that for - no, don't answer. I don't think I could handle it." He closed his eyes.

"Also," said Egbert, still sounding a bit dreamy, "I was able to pay more attention that time, and we started resonating - as soon as you started coming, I think?"

Ardbert opened his eyes.

"And then didn't stop until after you actually spent." He sounded for some reason happy about this.

"What are you thinking?" demanded Ardbert, who knew that expression. That was the expression Egbert had when he decided that he probably could manifest a body for Ardbert. When he finally decided that, leader or Eulmore or not, he was going to kill Vauthry. Probably when he asked Beq Lugg about soulcrafting. It wasn't a bad expression, but -

"I think we can learn to do it at other times," said Egbert, exactly like Ardbert knew he would. "You know, when one of us isn't coming our brains out. Although," he frowned in concentration, "it will probably take some training."

Training. Light. Ardbert moaned out, "Please stop talking."

Egbert chuckled softly, but did stop. On that topic. "We should actually get up. Wash ourselves, finish making camp, let the amaro know we're done - "

"We're not done," objected Ardbert. They were never going to be done with each other.

"Never," agreed Egbert, smile actually audible. "But done for the moment."

"Aye," said Ardbert, and pushed himself upright. He felt - amazing, like he'd had a satisfying sparring match and then a long soak in a hot bath, everything loose and smooth. He knee-walked over to their packs to retrieve a towel and a water crystal. "I will finish up the firepit; you, as our official scholar, can answer Tonatiuh's questions."

Tonatiuh's questions, which he was persuaded to ask over a dinner of gyshal and fresh ovim, were indeed fairly rude but not in a mean way. There was a long moment of quiet, during which Tonatiuh seemed to shrink in on himself a bit before Egbert said, "Do amaro not ever have sex outside of breeding?"

"No," said Ardbert, "actually. The females can be quite vicious about it."

"Huh," said Egbert, and turned back to Tonatiuh. "Well, for us - humes at least - it feels good. And simply being with someone you love feels good, too. It's always much better together, and we like it. We don't actually want children, so it doesn't matter that we can't make any."

"Oh," said Tonatiuh, and ate quietly for a while before he said, "And it's - private."

"Generally, yes." Which must seem strange, to amaro. Although a breeding pair would split off from the flock for such activities, as long as no one tried to approach their nest, they didn't mind others being nearby. Wild cama couldn't afford to, dependent as they were on the flock for guarding them during that time. Ardbert thought maybe amaro would mind, if the pair were both awakened. However, amaro were typically bred between their eighth and twentieth year, and didn't tend to awaken until their late thirties at the earliest. If they awakened at all. "We're jealous of one another, in that way."

Tonatiuh fluffed out the feathers on his upper wings, then resettled them. "I understand. I won't ask again."

"No, do," said Egbert. "The only stupid question is the one you don't ask. Just - come ask me first, so you don't offend anyone."

Chapter Text

They made good time the next morning, over the ridge of mountains that blocked all incoming rain and rendered eastern Amh Araeng not just arid but barren and all the way to Mord Souk before the sands even began to heat. Then, as they were setting up the oilcloth tarp to make an awning, someone called out, "Egbert!"

They both turned to see the Oracle of Light, standing and waving at them. "And Mister Ardbert?"

"Just Ardbert is fine," said Ardbert. He hadn't been officially introduced to her, which he thought to be Thancred attempting, quite reasonably, to keep his adopted daughter away. It wasn't like his existence could've been hidden from her, though, even if Thancred were the type of man to make the attempt. Evidently she knew his name and at least some of his story, enough to be curious. "Ryne, right?"

"Yes! - you don't need to set up a tent like that. The Mord have a cooling tower for travelers."

"Is it big enough for Seto?" asked Ardbert. He was standing on the saddle, which gave him plenty of height to tie the tarp's edge strings to the little hooks that the Mord had pinioned to the upper corners of their houses.

Ryne looked, and then did the same double-take as everyone else, even the Zun, did when they realized how big Seto actually was. "Er. Probably not."

"Then I'll finish the tent," said Ardbert. "Alright, Seto, I've tied this one off; you can move on now."

"Without even an introduction?" asked Seto.

"It's Ryne. You've met her before!"

"Did I?" asked Seto, peering down at Ryne. Then he snaked his head forward.

Ryne was visibly startled, but also made of sterner stuff. She politely put out her hand for him to sniff. "Oh!" he said. "Yes, the Oracle of Light. Minfillia, wasn't it?"

"I, ah," said Ryne. "I go by Ryne, now."

"Ryne, then," said Seto. "The others are around here someplace too."

"They went to go hunt some sand moles," said Egbert. "Or at least, that's the excuse they gave. Ryne, if you don't mind being a bit warm, you're welcome to come sit with us."

She pounced on the invitation. "Yes! Although I should at least go tell Thancred where I am . . . "

"He's welcome too," said Ardbert.

He didn't expect the man to take him up on it, but in fact Thancred did. By then, he and Egbert and Seto between them had managed to string up the tarp between a house and one of the towers, which shaded a decent area. Seto plopped himself down and spread all four wings, and Egbert helpfully sprinkled ice crystals - made from the abundant Light - on them.

"Nice trick," said Thancred wryly, watching him. "Aren't you still not supposed to be using aether?"

"Not my aether," said Egbert. "But it isn't, so it's fine. I was showing Ryne."

Thancred turned to Ryne, who held out for him a single, perfect shard of aetherial ice.

"Ah," said Thancred, but before he could say anything else, such as confront Egbert about his use of aether, Skip and Tonatiuh returned, landing heavily on the large red flagstones. They had bloody muzzles and Tonatiuh also had a pair of hedgemoles, one in each claw.

"Oh, very good," said Seto, and let out a piercing whistle to call the attention of their Mord hosts. They were, as predicted, delighted by the meat, although they had to butcher them before being able to take the smaller pieces away.

Thancred watched from under cover of the awning, and said to Egbert, "Making friends wherever you go, as usual."

"That's more Skip and Tonatiuh. Legally they're both foreign citizens, but you wouldn't believe how many people that doesn't deter from trying to enslave them."

"Bet you I would," said Thandcred.

Egbert paused, then nodded his head.

"But if we come with gifts, then they can't pretend we're not people," said Skip. "And we get guest-right."

"Not that the Mord would," said Ryne.

"It is good to arrive with a gift," said Seto. "As general practice."

Thancred chuckled. "Well, I can't deny that. So what brings the two of you down this way?"

"Taking G'raha Tia on that journey I promised him," said Egbert.

"Introducing me around," said Ardbert.

Thancred raised an eyebrow at the both of them. "Right," he said. "You do know that if you finally take him along on an adventure, and he can't remember it, he'll be angry at you forever."

Egbert rolled his eyes. "I'll take him on the next one, too, obviously. He can hold his own now. But can you imagine his expression?"

Thancred stared for a moment, and then cracked a smile. "Ah, well. There is that."

"All right, all right," said Ryne. "I have to know: how did you two know the Exarch? Er - G'raha Tia? Is that right?"

"It is," said Thancred. "Raha of the G Tribe, rank Tia. We were orphans together in Sharlayan."

" . . . what?" asked Ardbert.

"We weren't all orphans," said Egbert. "I was there on a scholarship. But, ah. Baldesion and Leveilleur between the two of them managed to, er, collect, a round dozen of us. A dozen children below the age of reason require a lot of things that older scholars don't, aside from food and shelter and medical care and a couple of new outfits every year. I don't think Thancred was ever asked if he wanted to be big brother to eleven younger siblings, but - you seem to have grown into it well enough."

"Ha. Ha," said Thancred, and to Ryne. "It's one thing when your sponsor, who overnight saved you from a life of petty thievery and probably a young death, tells you that you have to keep watch over this band of horrible troublemakers - and deciding to watch over someone because you want to."

"Oh," said Ryne, startled.

"This one," added Thancred, nodding at Egbert, "was the worst of the lot."

"I was a perfectly well-behaved bookworm!"

"Urianger was a perfectly well-behaved bookworm," said Thancred. "You were a thrice-damned menace who pretended to be a bookworm in front of the adults. Or are you going to claim the Gridanian aethernet incident wasn't you?"

"That's different," replied Egbert promptly. "That was a safety issue that was going to kill someone!"

"It was," said Thancred. "And I think it says rather a lot that instead of informing anyone, you rigged it to collapse upon activation." Seeing Ryne's and Ardbert's horrified expressions, he added, "No one was hurt. They lost three test mammets and had to rebuild the 'net multiple times, but no one was hurt. Out of curiosity," he added, "what would you have done if they hadn't figured out the aetheric feedback loop?"

Egbert tilted his head. "Gone back to Montichagne, probably. I did talk to him first, and Moen's parents. None of them believed me."

"Really? Then I'm surprised the Forum didn't censure you."

"They would have, probably, if they could ever definitively prove that I was the one doing it."

"Ah-huh," said Thancred.

"Anyway," said Egbert, before Thancred could ask the question Ardbert could see forming behind his eyes, "Krile - Baldesion's granddaughter - was the youngest of us by four years, and next-youngest was G'Raha. Not deliberately a troublemaker, but he never really had much sense."

"Or he had the future Warrior of Light as a shining example of tomfoolery," said Thancred. "And he didn't have whatever part of the Echo makes you obscenely lucky."

Egbert opened his mouth to retort before the words even finished registering. Ardbert could tell because what he said was, "I - oh. Hmm"

"Yes?"

"I was going to say that my Echo wasn't active until that starshower on the ferry to Eorzea, but that isn't quite true, is it? I've been using experience gained in other lives this whole time."

The men in the party went quiet at that. Seto said, "You do have a very old soul."

"Really?" Skip perked up, ears coming forward. "How can you tell?"

"The - not tatters, exactly, but - details on the aetheriaal boundary," said Seto.

"What?" asked Tonatiuh.

"I'll show you - that is, if the Warrior doesn't mind?"

"Mind? No," said Egbert, leaning forward the way that meant that, Light forsake it, he was interested. Ryne was too, and both Skip and Tonatiuh.

Ardbert managed to catch Thancred's eye, or Thancred caught his. And, well, it was bound to be an excruciating conversation either way, but one of them had some hope of progress. Aloud, he said, "I hear there's a cooling tower around here?"

"Yes. I'll show you - Ryne, be good for Egbert."

"Yes, Thancred," said Ryne as she rolled her eyes, in that moment every bit the teenager she so rarely got to be. In this case, Ardbert had to agree: there was very little trouble she could get into, with Egbert and the amaro.

Ardbert followed Thancred across the hot pavement, through a door and down, into the underground portion of a cooling tower. They worked based on water drying, and even in Amh Araeng could get cold enough to freeze water. Thancred gestured for him to sit, which he did. "Do you want a drink?"

"Will it change anything?"

"Probably not," admitted Thancred. "But it's Ahm Araeng. Better safe than sorry."

"True," said Ardbert, and sat patiently while Thancred paid for drinks and brought them back over.

Thancred deliberately waited until he was in the middle of his first sip to say, "So you decided on bindingly obvious, then."

Ardbert carefully swallowed - fruit juice, not ale, because Mord ale wasn't generally safe for hume consumption - and said, "I couldn't have kept it secret, and neither of us wanted to. And I think Egbert thinks people will hesitate to attack me, if we're publicly - together."

"You don't agree?"

"I think anyone who's lived through the past six months and still wants to attack me won't be put off by the Warrior of Darkness disapproving."

"Fair point," said Thancred.

"Also, I don't carry an axe just for show."

Thancred took a long sip before he said, "I remember." He paused, then added, "One wonders what Elidibus told you about the whole thing. If he was trying to cause Light imbalance in the Source - "

"He wasn't," said Ardbert.

"What?"

"He was trying to free Zodiark," explained Ardbert. "We were helping because a Dark god could cause a Flood of Darkness. Had, already, on the First." Cylva's anguished testimony, true even after her betrayal, had done more to convince them of this than any number of Ascian speeches. "Elidibus said he couldn't stop the Light, but Zodiark could." Ardbert frowned. "Given that he used to be Zodiark, I don't think he was even lying about that. He just didn't mention that could and would are not the same, so far as a counterflood of Darkness was concerned."

" . . . yes," said Thancred. "That sounds like exactly the kind of thing Elidibus would do. And Hydaelyn couldn't hold back the Light because She needs someone to channel Her power. And I need a real drink." He looked morosely at his mug of fruit juice.

"For what it's worth," said Ardbert, "I really am - "

"If you say sorry again, I think I'm obligated to punch you on principle," said Thancred. "I'm not really angry at you. You made the best choices you could with the information you had. I'm angry that Minfilia, my Minfilia, died."

"She chose - "

"I know!" Other people in the room looked over at the sudden shout. Thancred scrubbed a hand over his face. "I know," he said again, more quietly. "She would never have done anything different, not her. But I don't have to love all of her choices, even when they were the right ones."

" . . . aye," agreed Ardbert. His party had made very poor decisions for the right reason, and liked what they'd had to do not at all. How much worse would it be, if the outcome was the best of all possibilities? "I really do have to admire her commitment to principle. I couldn't have done it.”

"What?"

"All those other Oracles of Light? If Hydaelyn had offered, fifty years in, to put me in a body with an entirely new soul forming in a baby, so it would inherit the pattern off mine - the Echo - but I had to be a passenger their entire life and never even able to talk to them - Thancred? Are you all right?”

He plainly was not, face gone ashy-pale as he stood and fled the cooling tower headlong. Ardbert considered for a moment, then got up and purchased his mug outright before following.

Thancred wouldn't have been hard to track even without the Echo, his wide-spaced footprints quite visible in the dust. Ardbert took the time to fill the mug with water at the public well, before following him to the training yard outside the city. He was not surprised to find Thancred on his knees, dry heaving after having already completely emptied his stomach. Even Ardbert knew that questions wouldn't be appreciated, so instead he waited patiently while Thancred got his great heaving breaths under control. Then he said, "I brought water."

"Gods bless," said Thancred, dryly, before he took a mouthful, swished his mouth out with it, and spit to the side. Only after doing that a couple more times did he start taking cautious little sips.

Ardbert carefully kept his gaze on the horizon. "D'you . . . want to talk about it?"

"No," said Thancred.

Ardbert was already starting to nod when Thancred added, "But I think I'd better. You know - or maybe you don't - that most Ascians tend to take a corpse and fix it before wearing it around. Lahabrea - didn't." Thancred also looked out at the horizon. "I'm not one to go around comparing horrible ordeals, but being stuck as an observer in your own life while somebody wears you like - " He cut himself off.

Ardbert couldn't blame him. “Well, yes,” he said instead, “but it's not quite the same, is it? As being an observer in somebody else's life." He made a face. "Ascians."

" . . . I suppose you're right," said Thancred.

"Like I said, I couldn't have done it, not without also being granted the ability to talk to them. But then I'd have leapt at the chance."

"Which you know because that's what you did?" The tone was almost teasing, which Ardbert didn't really think he'd earned with one mug of water.

"Yes, but - you're still missing my point. For a young child, having an imaginary friend is normal. Having an imaginary friend that's actually real - and always present - and very encouraging - well. I never had the chance to have one younger sibling, much less twelve. Handling every problem in the realm was the closest I ever got." He paused, then added, “You - rescuing Ryne from Vauthry, teaching her to defend herself? That was good.”

Thancred let out a sigh. “Except now I'm going to have to abandon her, aren't I? Like I always knew I would.”

“I think everyone involved would prefer that you return to the Source, and live,” said Ardbert. “You'll be able to send letters - “

Thancred snorted his derision.

“ - and Egbert will keep an eye on her.” He thought about that, then added, “I'd offer myself, but my judgment for this sort of thing is - “

“Totally unknown?” asked Thancred.

“ . . . I was going to say, ‘terrible.’”

“How would you know? You just said that you have never been an elder brother before.”

“Ryne is not your sibling.”

“And no siblings automatically means no nieces or nephews,” continued Thancred as though he hadn't spoken. “You can be an honorary uncle. Since it looks like you're going to be a permanent fixture in Egbert's life, and all."

Ardbert rolled his eyes. “I appreciate the vote of confidence.”

“Ardbert. You are a good man.”

“I - “

“Whatever else you've done - whatever else was done to you - never doubt that.” He turned, sharply. “I'm going back. I don't think Egbert will have done something stupid in the last half-hour, but you never know.” He clapped Ardbert on the shoulder before heading up the stairs into the city.

Ardbert kept his eyes on the horizon. It was too much to hope for, he thought, that Thancred would ever like him. Despite this, apparently, the man trusted him. Or at least, trusted him to protect his daughter, should it come to that. Which he would, of course, but he'd do the same for any child.

Eventually, he, too, went back to the awning. Egbert wasn't doing anything stupid. He had a grimoire pulled out across his lap, and Lily was out, sitting in and braiding Ryne's hair. He smiled, and joined them.

They spent the hot part of the day like that, dozing in the shade and taking turns going to the cooling tower. When evening came, Ryne and Thancred began the flight over the hills toward Twine. He and Egbert enjoyed a leisurely flight down to the Inn.

The Innkeepers were sorry to see Alisaie go, but they'd had her for more than a year. It was perfectly sensible that she'd want to return to her mysterious homeland even if she hadn't been in mortal peril. And Halric . . . Halric was there too, recovered enough to speak a few words. It mattered.

Egbert also introduced him around. They had heard the rumors of his miraculous resurrection, but hadn't believed them. They had quite a lot of questions, mostly about why the Warriors of Light had unleashed the Flood in the first place.

"You say that like we had any idea what was going to happen," he said, holding out his hands placatingly. "Warriors of Light - or Darkness - can't see the future! We were fighting to - to defeat the Shadowkeeper, whose machinations were causing pointless wars and endless tragedies and countless deaths. Only they were also a pawn, of the Ascians. Killing an Ascian is never an easy task, and needs a lot of Light always. I genuinely had no idea that it would - start the Flood. It never had before."

"Then why did it this time?"

"As to that," said Egbert. "I suspect it's because I'd awakened in - our homeland. Mine, and Alisaie's, and the Crystal Exarch's. I tilted the balance over there, and of course if you put a weight on the scales, both sides tip. But," he held up his hands, palms opened, and shrugged, "it's only a theory. I doubt even the Ascians know."

"And you're, uh - I mean. Why do you look the same? You could be twins!"

Egbert looked at Ardbert; he'd follow whatever lead Ardbert set. Ardbert said, "Mother Hydaelyn does love her little jokes."

That got a round of laughter.

"So I hope you won't be overly vengeful," said Egbert, "and won't do anything stupid, when he comes to visit."

"Will I?" asked Ardbert later, back in their room. Everyone had used the aetheryte to get home; amaro who could speak, it turned out, were perfectly capable of chanting out the incantation for themselves. It was, he had to admit, fantastically convenient. They were planning to set out again tomorrow, in the opposite direction, but for the moment, they could rest. Ardbert was sitting back to front in the desk chair. Egbert sat on the bed. "Be visiting the Inn again, I mean."

"If you like?" said Egbert. "I mean, it's your life."

Ardbert got up and went to sit next to him on the bed, gently cupping his jaw and giving him a sweet kiss. "Which I want to spend with you."

Egbert looked away, out the window. "I want that too. More than anything."

"But . . . ?"

Egbert sighed. "But I'm not sure how to get you to the Source."

Ardbert had not been expecting that, and startled. "What?"

"I've been thinking about it. We're pretty certain the spirit vessels will work because we know it's been done before - you, and all the Ascians, and probably others. I'm honestly afraid to ask Cyella. You've still got your Crystal, so if we really needed to get your soul to the Source, we could do it. But unless you can just - step out of your body - that's a one-way trip." He looked down at his hands. "Even if you can step out of your body, that leaves you in the same peril as the Scions are now. If I bring your soul and body separately, I suspect that what I arrive with would be a corpse. And I - " Egbert turned to look at him, distress writ large across his face. "I can't lose you, Ardbert. Not again."

Ardbert had to swallow twice before he could respond. This time the kiss was deeper, more lingering, sharing everything he felt with actions rather than words. "You won't."

"Right, so." Egbert gestured demonstratively. "I have to assume that you'll be staying here at least until I can explain things to G'raha, and maybe - let's be honest, probably - for a while after that. I got the sense that it takes more than a year to set up a summoning across the Rift. But on the plus side, he can't ask for a better beacon than our soul, and you won't be fighting it - I hope?"

"'Course not," said Ardbert.

"And if he can explain what he did - and he'd better, even if I have to twist his arm until he sits down and writes the damn paper - then I might be able to do it sooner. I don't know, and I can't ask the only person I know who could tell me."

And might, if this didn't work, if the Crystal Exarch couldn't flow together with G'raha Tia in the Source, never be able to ask.

"Oh, love," said Ardbert, putting an arm around to hug him. And, "I will learn to step out of my body, if that's what I have to do to stay with you."

"But - "

"The Crystarium has healers. Good ones! They can keep this bag of bones safe for a while, while I'm off adventuring with you. Besides, it's not like I wouldn't be able to come back at will: we could probably keep off the worst of it just by making sure I was never gone for too long at one stretch." He leaned in, hand going around to pull Egbert into another slow kiss. "You're not getting rid of me that easily."

Egbert made a noise somewhere between a laugh and a hiccup, and smiled. "I love you so much."

"I love you. I really do." He must, because the next thing he was going to have to do was - "I'll ask Beq Lugg about soulcrafting."

Chapter Text

Before that, however: Rak'tika.

The flight north was excellent. The sun shone in a blue sky dotted by puffy clouds, and the breeze of flying was enough to keep the trip from being too hot. The land was all former farmland, and now that the sin eaters were being killed off for good, it was only a matter of time until it was farmland again. It might be a long time, though, generations, until the burgeoning population forced people north of Fort Jobb at the old caravansary.

They reached the outskirts of Rak'tika by mid-afternoon. Cama liked to live on the edges of the forest, where they could retreat to cover if needed. Amaro, however, were made for wide open skies and were not comfortable under the canopy where they could not see it. Therefore, they chose to camp in the overgrown meadows on the Lakeland side. Ardbert hunted several of the massive lizards that thrived in the area for the three of them, while Egbert cooked up some kind of pan bread with bacon for the two Humes.

After dinner, Tonatiuh suggested that they might need private time.

"Not need, no," said Egbert, laughing.

"Want, though," said Ardbert. "Ta very much."

After they withdrew, he let Egbert pin him to the blanket and do something that he called 'corvid style,' and Ardbert knew as 'sixty-nine.' He'd done it before, with women. With Egbert, it was almost too good, all the best parts of sucking and being sucked at the same time. He didn't last very long and nearly choked because he forgot to breathe while caught by the resonance, but it was absolutely something he wanted to do again regardless.

The flight to Slitherbough, beneath the canopy and low enough that he could have jumped off Seto and landed easily on his feet, passed in wary silence. Nothing was stupid enough to attack, but it was still a great relief to land safely in the village of the Night's Blessed. They were all shocked too, to find that the Warrior of Darkness had apparently doubled themself. Unlike with the Innkeepers, Egbert provided no explanation other than Hydaelyn having a wicked sense of humor. None of them pressed, anyway, clearly all distracted by Master Matoya's impending departure.

Runar was by far the worst of them, but Ardbert couldn't exactly call him out on it, being in the same position. So after Y'shtola made her announcement that she was going to figure out cross-Rift travel, he felt his own heart miss a beat. The Exarch - G'raha - was one thing, a good man who'd been in an impossible situation and sacrificed everything for a solution. Y'shtola was just an ordinary person, perhaps a more learned mage than others, but not so much so that she didn't have to fight just as hard as any of them. If she wanted it, and Egbert wanted it, and G'raha was willing to help - then he need have no doubt that they'd find a way to bridge that gap: it really was just a matter of time.

They attended a sending-off feast with the Night's Blessed. Egbert finally got to try Runar's soup. It was damned good soup, too. Later, after the dancing beneath the star finally settled down into exhausted sleep, they teleported back to the Crystarium. Cuddling in bed, Ardbert said, "You should work with Y'shtola. I don't doubt the two of you together are a force to be reckoned with."

" . . . well, you're not wrong," said Egbert, laughing.

"This sounds like a story I want to hear," said Ardbert.

"It's not like that!" protested Egbert.

"No? Then there's no reason to hide it."

As it turned out, what had happened was that a much younger Egbert, at an academy called the Studium, and a somewhat younger Y'shtola, at the Studium to turn in her final thesis, between the two of them managed to explode an entire laboratory. They hadn't even been trying; at that point both rather skilled-for-their-age healers from two entirely different schools, they'd been going for some kind of diagnostic spell that was intensely magickal internally but actually usable to anyone with no training necessary at all. They'd been punished by having to write a report on why their attempted spell had failed so profoundly.

"It was actually really interesting," said Egbert. "Our underlying strategy was sound, but there isn't a draftsman in the world who can draw the geometries to the requisite precision, and the misalignment - "

Ardbert dragged a hand up to his lips, and kissed it.

Egbert stopped. "Too esoteric?"

Ardbert nodded.

Egbert snickered. "Short version: we exploded a bunch of rocks in Dravania figuring it out, and I think they use it for mining now? Anyway, you're right. Once things settle down a bit, I'll see if I can help." He kissed Ardbert at the nape of his neck, slow and wet and sweet.

"Egbert," protested Ardbert. "I'm tired." It was probably closer to dawn than dusk.

"Mm," acknowledged Egbert, but he didn't stop.

Ardbert sighed, snuggled a little closer, and closed his eyes. Egbert did stop not much later, squeezing him in a one-armed hug, and that was enough for Ardbert to relax and take a beautiful swan dive into dreams.

Ardbert woke up to Egbert humping him, rhythmic and insistent in the midmorning sunlight. Ardbert thought about it for a moment before he said, "Egbert."

Egbert froze. Ardbert waited until he'd opened his mouth, probably to apologize, before he complained, "Don't stop."

There was a slightly stunned moment of silence before Egbert began moving again. "Is this - I mean. You like this?"

"As a warm-up, aye," said Ardbert, and then waited while that thought worked its way through Egbert's still half-sleeping mind.

"Ah. How did you want - "

"Mm." Ardbert pushed the arm holding him tight to Egbert's chest up; not off, but enough so he could wriggle around and face his love. Then he reached down, caught both of them together in one hand. A frisson ran up his spine, electric, when he squeezed them tight to each other. "Like this?"

"Yes," said Egbert, and leaned forward to pull him into a kiss.

It was almost like being a teenager again, the speed at which his blood went south. They kissed, lips and teeth and tongue, and even that left him panting and moaning. Ardbert fumbled his way to the jar of ointment, getting it everywhere but particularly where he needed it; then it became a hot slick slide, the two of them together.

"I'm not going to last," complained Egbert.

"We can do this again," gasped Ardbert.

"We'd better," said Egbert, both a demand and a promise. Ardbert kissed the words off of his lips. Egbert made a noise like that alone was the sexiest thing anyone had ever done, and came, which just made the slide hotter and wetter. Ardbert followed an instant later, when the resonance caught him.

They kept kissing, all the way through the aftershocks and the long slow slide down to something resembling normal. Then Egbert flopped back, boneless, and tilted his head up in blatant invitation. Ardbert took it and leaned in to give him fresh marks. That done, he laid himself down, cuddling in until there wasn't an inch between them.

"We will have to get up soon," said Egbert.

"Mm," agreed Ardbert, and didn't move. After a while of just running a hand up and down Egbert's upper arm, he added, "For the record, anytime you want to wake me up for sex, please do."

" . . . noted," said Egbert, and pushed at him. "Come on, up. We don't want to miss the airship."

After bathing and breakfast and kitting out, they made the airship with minutes to spare. Then it was several hours to get to Kholusia, but that was still miles better than days of traveling to the coast to catch a ferry, assuming there even were still ferries. And a coast.

"That was the strangest part of the Source, to us. I mean, we had amaro; what did we need airships for? But these carry a lot more than an amaro, and you need only feed them aether."

"Oh, really?" asked Egbert. "I suppose that makes sense, if they knew ceruleum wasn't going to be available here. Someone must've redesigned the engines. I should get a copy of the plans, for Cid."

"Who's Cid?"

"He defected from Garlemald because of how unethical their experiments were," said Egbert. "Possibly the smartest man I know."

"Not you?" asked Ardbert, only half-joking.

Egbert rolled his eyes. "Cid can put mysteries down. Well. Mostly. If it's a mystery that's going to hurt someone, he'll come get me to do something about it."

It was, more or less, what the Elvenking and the Regents' Council in Voeburt and the Carls of Eulmore had done every time, by the end. It was a good way to do things, provided you had a party of Warriors of Light. Or just one, if that one were from the Source and seven times rejoined. "I see. And your heads of state do the same, I assume."

"Mmh. Not really? They only throw me at primals because they'd be Tempered. Other than that, Raubahn and Aymeric could each individually take down primals without me, and they both have an army backing them up. The rest of their problems are things like 'getting pirates to pay taxes' and 'convincing the Elementals not to run a ley line through Hopespeed,' which aren't particularly mysterious, but also: I'd be useless at them."

"Taxes I know," said Ardbert. "But you can - make ley lines? Nyelbert always said that the Ronkans could, but the technique has been lost."

". . . probably an Ascian thing, then," said Egbert. "Which suggests it's a question of aetherial density - anyway. No, we usually can't, but the Elementals can and are, and they keep trying to run one through Hopespeed, which is a swamp full of morbols."

"Sounds great," said Ardbert, meaning anything but. "Now: what is an Elemental?"

"A sapient being composed entirely of nonphysical aether," said Egbert. "They live - well, exist in the Black Shroud. That's, er, our version of Rak'tika."

"I remember," said Ardbert. Mostly he remembered catching the Elf he now knew as Alisaie following them, and Renda-Rae getting in a good shot, but - "We never went further in than Fort Gohn. Nobody did. The Viis were very protective of their forests. I imagine they only let the Night's Blessed build Slitherbough because they didn't have the people to stop them."

"The Black Shroud is not defended by arrows, so much, as the fact that people who break the Greenlaw tend to disappear into the forest. The lucky ones don't come back."

"And the unlucky ones?"

"Come back not entirely people."

"And you haven't killed these things yet because . . . ?"

Egbert sighed. "The Gridanians like them. The way they tell it, it's like - imagine a country that can have an opinion of the people who live in it, right? That's the Elementals. They think of the Gridanians as beloved family pets, or something." He waved a dismissive hand. "And the Gridanians think of the Elementals as guardians and teachers."

" . . . right," said Ardbert, drawing the word out. "And you haven't killed these things yet because . . . ?"

"Because I think they're the closest thing that exists to a genuine deity, one made not by aether and Summoning but by the slow drip of certainty over long centuries; and I think that if I'm the one who gets to make the choice, then my choice has to be for gods who give a damn." He shrugged. "The Elementals demonstrably do, and even though they don't understand mortal desires, they're at least trying to learn. That's better, I think. Then the kind of god who knows, but uses that to eat their own followers."

" . . . aye," said Ardbert.

"Also, the padjal are incredible healers. It took Kan-e-Senna maybe thirty seconds to figure out that the thing wrong with Thancred was that his soul had been pulled out of his body. She couldn't bring it back, but just knowing that was really important to being able to keep their bodies - alive. You'll like Kan-e-Senna, I think."

"Tell me about them? All of them, I mean, not just, er - Miss Senna, was it?"

Egbert laughed softly, but did, and they spent the rest of the ride to Eulmore talking about the heads of state who relied on him, yes, but also - who he could in turn rely on. Admiral Merlwyb, in particular, sounded exactly like the Lord Mayor Kholusia had needed during his own youth. Someone called Hien, from the Far East, who Egbert said would be a great warrior as soon as he stopped charging into battle half-naked. And of course, Ardbert had actually seen Aymeric, apparently de Borel, in Coerthas, swinging the massive blue sword around single-handed.

"What about you?" he asked. "I mean, you say like you're not noble, but - "

Egbert rolled his eyes. "In Limsa Lominsa, no one is noble. We're all pirates, and don't particularly think accidents of birth are something worthy of honor. It's what you do that matters."

"By that measure, they ought to crown you king!"

"And be stuck at a desk doing paperwork forever?" Egbert wrinkled his nose, which was unbearably cute. "No thanks! I'll leave that to the Admiral, and stick to adventuring."

The airship dock let out more or less directly onto the central plaza of Eulmore, which now housed the aetheryte. It was also decorated in red velvet that clashed awfully with the beautiful green marble that made the city famous. Even Madeleine's was still there, although it was called something different. So was Alphinaud, brunching with the Chais. Egbert walked over and sat himself at their table. Somewhat reluctantly, so did Ardbert.

He was right to be so, since after introductions and attendant disbelief came the inevitable whys. Ardbert was getting tired of answering with, 'Because even Warriors of Light can't see the future.' It was true, of course, but - At least the Chais were good people, although Lady Dulia-Chai could have watered half the fields in Kholusia with her tears about Alphinaud leaving. The little lord said some words about personal responsibility and growth, and Egbert promised that he'd take letters. It was all very heartwarming.

They made it back to the Crystarium just after noon, and that was - everybody. All of the Scions, and everyone they'd needed to say goodbye to.

At least, they'd thought so. Ardbert wasn't particularly surprised when first Ryne, then Lyna, and then the entire population of the Crystarium came to see them off. Lyna even promised to take care of him, which - he was a grown adult, and Chosen of Hydaelyn, and didn't need to be minded like a child. At the same time, though, he knew she didn't mean it like that: that she meant a place to belong, and good meaningful work when he was ready for it.

Beq Lugg didn't so much as bat an eye when he joined Egbert and the Scions in the Ocular. Neither did the Scions, even as they charged their spirit vessels and Alisaie summoned her porxie to imbue them. She really was impressive, he thought, and he had no doubt that she would find that cure for primal influence.

He waited until they were in their spirit vessels to kiss Egbert goodbye. Egbert responded with his usual endless hunger, more tightly leashed than normal because he did have somewhere to be.

"I'll be back for you," he promised, before he stepped backwards through the portal.

Beq Lugg waited a moment before commenting, "Such a dramatic young man."

"You can hardly blame him, with all their lives in the balance."

"No, I suppose not. Well! Come over here, please, and stand up straight. I want to get a good look at you, and these eyes are not what they once were."

"Is . . . something the matter?" asked Ardbert, even as he walked over and stood up straight.

"Hah!" exclaimed Beq Lugg. "'Is something the matter?' he asks. You were dead, young man, for a hundred years! And then part of somebody else for months. It's much more astonishing that you're as sound as you are, honestly."

Ardbert opened his mouth, remembered just in time that Beq Lugg was fae, and said, "I'm honored by your concern."

This was the right thing to say. Oh, Beq Lugg huffed about it being the only decent thing to do, given that they are partly to blame for his current existence. Ardbert, who met Nu Mou a couple of times in Voeburt, still saw their tail twitch as they suppressed it wagging.

Further belaboring the point would net him only annoyance, so instead he said, "Blame isn't the word I'd use. Responsible, maybe. But only a very little bit. Egbert wasn't going to stop until he - recovered - me."

Beq Lugg sighed. "I know."

"Do you?"

"I couldn't very well allow him to . . . " They trailed off, and sighed again. "There is a right way and a wrong way to go about manipulating one's own soul, let us say, and death is the kindest outcome of doing it the wrong way."

"My thanks, then, as well," said Ardbert. "For both our sakes. Though I suppose that means I owe you a pretty big favor, too."

Beq Lugg peered up at him. "You? You've done nothing worthy of any debt."

Ardbert said, "Even I know that partners count together."

Beq Lugg looked at him some more, enough that Ardbert began to worry he somehow offended them. Finally, they said, "A hundred years ago, the Warriors of Light fought and defeated the evil sorcerer Tadric, who had caused a plague of monsters in Voeburt and was planning to usurp the throne."

" - yes," said Ardbert, taken aback. "We were too late to save Branden's lady - Princess Sauldia - but the regents' council was planning a search for Pauldia - "

"He turned her first," said Beq Lugg, flatly.

All the slivered, shattered pieces rearranged themselves suddenly in Ardbert's mind. The court mage back then hadn't been old and tired, but then, it has been more than a century. Still, he stared at Beq Lugg, trying to see in them the only half-remembered Voeburtite Nu Mou.

Beq Lugg peered back. "You may not remember me, but I remember you."

"Ah," he said, because his other option was to say something stupid and hurtful. Then, somewhat more coherently, "We failed you, then. Even after you specifically requested we protect Princess Pauldia."

"And I failed all of Voeburt," said Beq Lugg, bitterly. "Tadric ensorcelled her, you see, turning her from a sweet girl who'd do anything for her sister into a jealous schemer who would trick me out of my knowledge. I was the Nu Mou court mage, chosen specifically for my mastery of magic! I knew for months that soul magic could be used that way, that I had taught Pauldia enough to be dangerous, and - I could have checked, at any time! I should have! But I was too afraid of learning a truth I didn't like to even look at her soul, and so I didn't see the enthrallment. Not until she was already changing." A pause, and then, "What, you thought I exiled myself over a trifling matter of honor, like your Ser Branden?"

Ardbert snorted. He got better, eventually, but Branden never really managed to shake off his chivalric roots. "I think I don't have any right to judge. You did what you could, which is all anyone ever does."

Beq Lugg looked at him, and Ardbert had the uncanny sensation that they weren't just looking at his body, or even his soul. "Mm. Perhaps you are correct. Even so, as my people measure such things, I owe you a debt still. For cleaning up my mess, you see." They paused, then added, "I don't suppose there is anything I can offer that you might want?"

It was as perfect an opportunity as he could hope for. Ardbert said, "Yes, actually," and explained.

When he was done, Beq Lugg stared up at him, wise old eyes wide with shock. "You want to do what?"

"Er - step out of my body?"

"That's what I thought you said. Of course there can be no question of it."

"But - "

"Absolutely not! You of all people must know that having been absent their bodies, the Scions were dying! Are dead, if this plan doesn't work. To spare them, to save their lives, I broke my oath; but to use my craft to inflict the same curse upon another? To condemn a good man to death - "

"I'd rather die!"

" - what?"

Ardbert closed his eyes. "You said it yourself: I've been dead. It was awful. I'd still rather go back to that, than to lose Egbert because I wasn't right there to support him." He opened his eyes again. "And it wouldn't even be a curse, if we could come up with a way to keep my soul and body more connected while I'm - out."

Beq Lugg stared some more.

"What?"l

"You're going to make the attempt regardless, aren't you?" they asked.

Ardbert saw no reason to lie. "Yes." He crossed his arms. "Are you going to try to stop me?"

"No," said Beq Lugg. "No, I rather think I can't." They looked him up and down. "Very well. Your soul doesn't seem to be any worse for the experience. Let us see what can be done."