#delicatefade excerpts

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(WIP Wed/Whenever) kissy kissy Dalish elves

What if I actually posted on tumblr instead of just reblogging art? I've been writing a Dragon Age fanfic with no canon characters because I am a clown. It's a love story told in three four stories between my OC Eilan Lavellan and @bluewren's OC Lex Lavellan. They are twenty years old. Here is a fluffy little love snippet. (for any familiar with my main Eilan/Solas story, this is an AU for Eilan.)

Context: Lex and Eilan have been dating in secret for 8 months. Eilan insisted on keeping it secret because she didn't want to be the center of gossip. Lex didn't care if everyone knew but went along with Eilan's secretive nature. Their cover was just blown and everyone at Clan Lavellan now knows. CW: sex implied, nudity word count: 653

Eilan was surprised by how much she enjoyed having her secret exposed. That everyone knew she and Lex belonged to each other made her feel proud, even smug. Surely she had the envy of every other young woman — who better a catch than Lex? And who would have expected him to fall for Eilan, who was pretty enough but a bit odd, a loner who lived too far in her own head and practiced strange hobbies like elven calligraphy and writing. Being recognized as a couple had its practical benefits as well. They no longer had to invent ruses to explain their absences. They could disappear together, hand in hand, in plain view of their clan. Though Lex and Eilan had never named what had grown between them, in the eyes of the others they were clearly now a committed couple. Eilan was inclined to adopt their view.

To disappear together was as far as she dared express herself in public. When they were at camp Eilan preferred not to kiss or touch unnecessarily. Lex, she suspected, would have preferred to flaunt their relationship. He had sat close to her by the fire and rested his hand on her knee. The following day he swam out to where she bathed in the shallow sea just to hold her, the two of them weightless in the water. She reciprocated with a quick kiss, a small touch or a shy embrace, enough to make sure he never felt rejected, but invariably she would cut short his sweet affections, whispering to him that someone could see. He did not seem to mind. Or if he did, he never said. It helped that they often found time to be alone together. They each had daily duties, everyone in the clan did, but Eilan had found a way to pawn off some her chores onto a much younger cousin by baiting the girl with unfair bets. “I bet that when I drop this quill it will fall upwind,” Eilan said, knowing full well she could tip the quill with a sleight of hand. “Bet you can’t blow out all these candles in a single breath,” she said after having coated two wicks in essence of wyvern’s breath so that they would burn more stubbornly. The girl was only twelve, an apprentice healer of an agreeable and shy nature. By the fourth bet Eilan suspected that the girl had caught on, but was so thoroughly enjoying Eilan’s attention that she was willing to spend the day de-stemming spindleweed in Eilan’s stead. On those days Eilan would meet Lex in the forest where it was his duty to tend to wild gardens, thought admittedly when Eilan was there he tended to little but her. “Hold on. One second. I should check on the peppers,” Lex said as he disentangled himself from Eilan and stood up from the ground. They had just made love on a patch of summer squash. Fat bright leaves clung to Eilan’s bare back as she sat up to watch Lex move, his nude body gorgeous in the dappled sunlight. He pulled free a pepper from a nearby plant and screwed up his nose at it. It was a runty thing, curled in on itself like an angry cashew, bright red and gnarled. Lex raised a bewildered brow. “…the fuck?” Eilan repressed a laugh, her whole body shaking, tears in her eyes, lips twitching as she covered her mouth. “Oh yea?” Lex grinned, trying not to laugh. “You think it’s funny?” He tossed the sad pepper behind him and dove towards her, nipping at her neck as he guided her back into the cushy leaves. She shrieked with delight. “It’s all your fault,” he teased. “You’re the… what’s that word again? The title of your play? The Saboteur.” Eilan gasped. “You remembered the title of my play!” Lex wagged his brows cockily as if to say ‘duh.’

Tagging: @monocytogenes, @crackinglamb, @about2dance, @nirikeehan, @theluckywizard, @oxygenforthewicked @melisusthewee @rosella-writes and anyone else who might want to share their WIPs!

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WIP Wednesday - Lex comes home

Excerpt from my kissy kissy elves draft. Dragon age setting, but it’s all OCs. My OC is Eilan Lavellan and @bluewren’s OC is Lex Lavellan.

Lex and Eilan are twenty years old. Lex has been off on a solo adventure for seven months. Eilan has received three letters from him in that time. (Forwarding letters to a nomadic clan is very hard.)

wc: 585

Five weeks after Lex’s third letter Clan Lavellan was camped outside Kirkwall. It was here one year ago in a clearing in the woods not a half mile out from camp that Lex had first learned of Eilan’s secret playwriting. Eilan had been so nervous to tell him, so scared he would find her strange. She still remembered the tender way he looked at her, and how touched he had been to be let him into her secret. Though they had kissed hundreds of times before and hundreds of times since, that kiss stuck out in her memory for it was the first time something like love had wormed its way into her reluctant heart. Remembering that moment made Eilan ache with longing. She could not focus on that day’s magic tutoring. Today’s lesson: augury. She knelt on a pillow in her grandmother’s, the Keeper’s, tent. Incense burned in a corner. It smelled of jasmine and rose. Eilan stared blankly at a silver plate filled with colorless oil. She recited an incantation as she poured a darker oil from a small vial, drop by drop, and watched the oils swirl. The patterns were supposed to mean something, but all Eilan could see was Lex.

Outside the tent a young man whooped jubilantly. A woman cried out as an excited murmur swept through the camp. Eilan cocked her ear towards the exultations. Her heart raced against hope. Finally she heard Evelyn cry out, “Lex!” Eilan gasped and looked towards the tent’s exit. Her grandmother smiled knowingly. “Go.” Eilan leapt her feet and sprinted out of the tent. She followed the stream of clanmates, her eyes peeled as she searched for him. There he was, in a bear hug with his sisters, one arm around Evelyn and the other around Tali. The siblings swayed from side to side as they embraced. When they parted Evelyn inspected her brother for any signs of ailments, malnourishment, injuries, and general neglect. Lex let himself be fussed over as he ruffled Tali’s hair and said something to make her laugh. Cylen called out “Letha!”, the hip abbreviation of ‘lethallin’, the elven honorific for a friend. The men embraced, patting each other on the back. Elves lined up to greet Lex one by one. Those who belonged to the generation of parents who saw all teens and 20-somethings as their communal brood made sure to impart little observations with their greetings — “You got a tan!” “Survived the wilds, eh? Good lad.” “Look at you! Feeling all grown up?” Lex spotted Eilan at the back of the line and looked arrested as if by a vision. He worked his way through the crowd of well-wishers and greeters with polite impatience, often stealing glances at her. She was overcome, hands clasped over her nose and mouth, eyes wet with happiness. At last he reached her, his hands sliding along her waist as he pulled her close. He buried his face in her hair. They held each other tightly. She smoothed a hand over his back. He cradled her head close. They kissed several times. “I missed you,” they both said at the same time, in the same way. They laughed at the synchronicism. He wiped a tear from her cheek with his thumb. They kissed again. A sparse wisp of hair clung to his chin. “This is new,” she said as she rubbed it. “Yea,” he said. He couldn’t stop smiling. He cupped her face and looked at her like she hung the moon.

tagging for WIP Wednesday @warpedlegacywrites @exalted-dawn-drabbles @nirikeehan @monocytogenes @theluckywizard @crackinglamb @rosella-writes @dreadfutures @anneapocalypse @bluewren @liza011 @rakshadow @megasaurusssss @hekaerges@moonlightheretic@flaggermuser

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Aahhhh!!! I am IN LOVE with this commission of Eilan by @annahenriart !! This is a scene from my fic where Eilan does a spell on a library to figure out what Solas has been keeping from her.

Relevant except word count: 282

In the library, Eilan inspected the dusty bookshelves for track marks scraped into dust by books that had been recently borrowed. The dust revealed an interesting reading list, focused on Tevinter military tactics, architectural design, and spells of Tevinter origin. So, Solas had figured out that Tevinter possessed the last artifact. Given this reading list, she guessed that he planned on a surgical strike.

Eilan locked the library door and whispered an incantation that suspended the lock beyond the reach of ordinary lock picks. She placed the books of interest in a circle on the floor and sat in the center in a meditative pose. Time to put Solas’ teachings to the test.

Her hands closed in cryptic geometries over each knee, the fingers of the right hand pinched up like a flower bud, the left’s splayed downwards like roots. She recited an ancient Elvhen incantation, one that she now understood thanks to Solas’ tutelage. Her understanding grounded the magic under her control. Slowly, she folded the fade like a fabric onto itself, layer by layer, using the books as anchors for each pleat in a skirt of green that flared around her.

In the fade-bright fabric, she searched for imprints of recent memories tied to these books. One by one, the memories of Ditharel and Ewel, his partner, became known to her. In their memories she saw glimpses of Solas, but Solas himself was missing. Though she knew Solas must have been in this room at that time, his own memories were torn from the fade itself, leaving the skirt in tatters. It should not have surprised her that Fen’Harel moved like this, destroying his own tracks in the fade.

Full fic, complete, 4 chapters, ~29k: https://archiveofourown.org/works/38774526/chapters/96954213#workskin

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for the wip game: love and fake potions!

I wanna see the fake potions

Ahh! Yes, it is exactly what it sounds like. Lex and Eilan wind up making fake potions to sell in a human village. How did they end up there? Here's an excerpt. wc: 519

“We’ll make fake potions real quick.” “Fake potions?” Lex grinned, proud of himself. “Yea, I came up with this in Nevarra. Making real potions takes too long. But with a little magic you can take any old plant and make it look like something else or smell like something else, then mash it up with a little water or whatever, bam, it looks like elf root serum or whatever you want it to look like.”

He was so clever. Eilan kneeled down and impulsively kiss his cheek. “You’re handsome.” “Oh yea? Is doing crimes sexy?” His smile was a touch bashful — was that a hint of color on his cheeks? “Anything you do is sexy.” “Hey, that’s my line.” He looked utterly disarmed, even goofy, as he soaked in her approval. He leaned in for a chaste kiss, one that would not do, not now after Eilan had witnessed his competence in the human village and been aroused by it. She deepened the kiss, her lust quickening in a way that made him chuckle. He smiled against her cheek as he cooled her passions. “Okay, okay, I’ll do more crimes,” he teased. Eilan mimicked Lex’s male swagger as she said, “Looking so good, you’re already a crime.” He laughed. “You haven’t even done one crime yet and you’re already a badass. Come on, little miss smooth talker, we have potions to make.” With the enthusiasm of children at play, they took up their new enterprise as potion scammers, thinking no further ahead than what could be bought tomorrow with the money made today. As they brewed their useless elixirs, Lex told her about the delicious treats, curious trinkets and glittering accessories that he had seen at a Nevarran festival. He rattled off the prices and Eilan adjusted her inventive concoctions accordingly. The combination of his skill with plants, her knowledge of botanical medicine, and her talent for fiction yielded clever results. In the past Lex had brewed imitations of real potions, but Eilan had never been so limited by reality. She took his knife and sliced off three short strands of her hair. She held up to the sun a bottle that contained an orange-colored jelly and dropped the hair atop the goop. Her brows knit in concentration as she recited in her mind the same telekinesis spell that she had used to the day before. This time, however, her targets were too small and slipped free of her arcane grip. “What are you doing?” Lex asked. “Shh, shh.” To sharpen her focus she repeated the incantation aloud. Her free hand worked in strange, jerky patterns as she pinched and twisted the invisible fabric of the fade, that ambient magic felt only by mages. Millimeter by millimeter the strands of hair moved deeper into the bottle. “Wow,” said Lex. She kept at it for eight long minutes, slowly working the strands into place until finally they stood vertically, suspended in the orange gel like a centerpiece. “Perfect.” “You’re unreal, babe. What is that supposed to be?” “A tonic for balding.” Lex snickered. He knew there was no such thing.

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WIP Wed: "I don't love it?"

Another wed, another excerpt from my kissy kissy elves draft. Dragon age setting, but it’s all OCs. My OC is Eilan Lavellan and @bluewren’s OC is Lex Lavellan.

Lex had been gone for 7 months. He returned earlier that day. He and Eilan spent the day with their clan. This is their first evening together, alone. CW: Kissy wissy? Questionable facial hair? WIP Wed tagging @inquisimer @bluewren @mrslyncx @breninarthur @nirikeehan@theluckywizard@monocytogenes@sunshowerdandelion@narravero@varric-tethras-editor@melisusthewee@rosella-writes@warpedlegacywrites wc: 622

Unwed Dalish youths were not given tents. They had to make do with nature’s hidden alcoves. Luckily, Lex and Eilan knew just the spot, the very same clearing in the woods that had witnessed their love blossom a year ago. The walk from camp to the clearing would have taken all of ten minutes were it not for their frequent stops. “Gods I missed your touch,” she whispered. Their lips were raw from kissing. He had her pinned against a tree, his body pressed against hers.

He cupped her face in one hand — she loved it when he did that. He must have known for he did it often. Lex looked at her like she was the most precious and beautiful thing he had ever seen, though he had never said as much in so many words. She told herself that if forced to choose between that look or those words, she would choose that look. His thumb tugged on her lower lip. She mewled softly. His hands fumbled with the layers she wore. Their breaths made little plumes in the frost of early spring. “The clearing,” she panted, cheek to cheek. Twenty minutes and four amorous detours later, they reached the clearing. Tempting as it may have been to tear off each other’s clothes and make love with abandon, they had learned after many months of meeting in the wilds in all kinds of weather that a little preparation went a long way. The ground had not yet thawed. The night would plummet into a chill. The forest’s proximity to a shemlen city meant that precautions needed to be taken against potential human threats. They worked together to prepare the camp. Lex set down a thick mat to shield them from the cold earth. Eilan contributed an extra wide scarf that doubled as a blanket. Their old fire pit was still there, though a little worse for wear. Lex tended to it, commanding the overgrowth to clear with an arcane whisper. As he did so, Eilan activated the warding runes that they had carved a year ago into the trees that ringed the clearing. She thought of making a joke, that they should get married if only to claim a tent at camp and make love whenever they wished. She thought better of it. Lex lit the fire pit with a burst of magic. The flames roared and burned without fuel. He sat on the mat and guided Eilan to sit astride his lap. In the firelight they looked at each other, smitten anew. He tucked a lock of her dark hair behind her ear. That enamored look returned to his eyes. “What?” she said coyly. “What?” He smiled at her flirtation. “That look.” “What look?” She shrugged one shoulder cheekily. “That look.” Lex tipped his head to the side, seemingly confused. Eilan’s brows lifted expectantly, as if by pretending that what she spoke of were obvious would make it so. Lex chuckled. “What, babe?” Never mind. She relaxed out of her expectant posture and masked her disappointment by stroking the patchy stubble on his chin. “What about this?” He rubbed the thin wisp of hair. “I’m thinking of growing it out.” Elves were not known for their ability to grow facial hair, and Lex, for all his talents and looks, was no exception. “Oh!” Her smile froze in place. “Really?” “Woooow! You hate it!” Lex laughed. “No-no! Well, it’s just that—” “Oh you really, really hate it.” Eilan winced and confessed regretfully, “I don’t love it?” He laughed harder. “Alright, miss hard-to-impress. Message received. Let’s see what you think of your gifts.” “Gifts, plural.” “Mhm.” He wagged his brows triumphantly as he pulled his pack closer. “Okay, gift number one.”

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Solas/Eilan First Kiss 💋

No time to write anything new this week, so I'll share excerpts of published kissies! Valentine's romance excerpt 1 of 3. wc: 175 Full published smut one-shot here: https://archiveofourown.org/works/40595346

“I should retire,” he whispered feebly.

“Stay,” she whispered back.

He stared at her beauty and felt light-headed and weak. His knuckles trailed gingerly down her arm as his better nature screamed at him to stop. Her lips parted, wanting. He kissed her, daring and deep. Her soft lips yielded to him and his thoughts slipped. The world fell away. All he could hear was their shared breath, their hands rustling over each other’s clothing, the wet sounds of their lips, the soft little moans that caught in her throat. He kissed it.

Slowly they learned how the other liked to kiss. He took his time, in no rush to do anything but enjoy what he had for so many months denied. His hands explored her body, drawing her against him. Her body molded to his, her touch eager and sure. He traced her vallaslin with his nose from her cheekbone to her chin, atoning for whatever slight she had felt because of his rudeness. He felt her smile and was overjoyed.

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WIP Wednesday: Missing Lex

A slightly longer version of the last excerpt I shared. I had cut the lead-in last time. Eilan's melodrama tickles me so I wanted to share it. Context: Dragon age setting, but it's all OCs. My OC is Eilan Lavellan and @bluewren’s OC is Lex Lavellan. They are twenty years old and a couple. Lex has been off on a solo adventure and Eilan has not seen or heard from him in three months.

wc: 615

The three months since Lex had left the clan felt to Eilan like a year. He had said he would write, but she had received no letters. He had said he would visit, but in lo’ these lonely nights she had only a pillow to hold. His absence had started as a dull ache that worsened with each passing day. She had not known that missing someone could feel indistinguishable from a terrible illness, one that killed the appetite, weakened the heart and wracked the body with fatigue. During that first month without Lex she attended to her duties with the melodramatic feeling of a would-be martyr — how brave of her to function, even minimally, when she suffered from a condition few had ever experienced: the absence of true love.

Her martyrdom did not last long. After a month of no letters, she began to grow suspicious of him. While it was true that the Dalish had no courier system as reliable as the shemlen mail, and while it was also true that it was difficult to forward a letter to an ever-moving target such as a nomadic elven clan, Eilan believed nonetheless that Lex could have forwarded a letter if he were so moved. Were she in his shoes her love for him would have been sufficient to overcome any logistics, no matter how daunting. Of that she was sure. She spent the third month adding each letter-less day to her growing list of evidence that Lex did not think of her at all. Come to think of it, did she really love him or was she just seduced by his good looks and dazzling charm? And really, how dazzling could any one man be, even one as handsome, athletic, talented, funny, bright and tender as him? She tried to rally herself out of her miserable heartache by hardening her heart against him. If her clanmates spoke of Lex, she said nothing; nor would she would get up and walk away for even that would be far too much reaction for a man who everyone knew had not written to her. On the 81st day without Lex, Clan Lavellan camped at its annual trade post outside Ostwick. That morning Eilan’s uncle Nerel made a trip to see Oscar, an old shem and trade partner who held mail for Dalish clans at no extra charge. When Nerel returned to camp he announced that he had letters from Lex. He handed out the letters one by one, taking his time as he called out each name. One for Lex’s older sister Evelyn. One for his younger sister Taliesen. Another for Keeper Deshanna. Eilan grew suspicious that her uncle was toying with her for his own amusement. And oh how she twisted in the wind, her weight shifting impatiently from one foot to the other. Nerel squinted at a name as if he could not make out the penmanship. “Ei— Oh, no. One for Cylen.” Nerel could barely contain his impish grin. Cylen, a hunter a year older than Lex who was Lex’s closest male friend, fist pumped as he took the letter from Nerel. “Oh!” Nerel said as if surprised to read to whom the final letter was addressed, “And one for Eilan.” Eilan snatched the letter from Nerel’s hand and sprinted giddily to the tent she shared with her mother. She could hear Nerel chuckling behind her. Her mother was inside, sitting on the right-side cot as she knit by lantern light. She looked up and grinned as she saw Eilan burst into the tent and swoon onto her own cot, clutching a letter to her chest. “From Lex?” her mother asked.

tagging @rakshadow@theluckywizard@monocytogenes@nirikeehan@anneapocalypse@melisusthewee@megasaurusssss@hekaerges@sunshowerdandelion@demarogue@crackinglamb@rosella-writes

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Eilan receives a letter from Lex

Excerpt from my kissy kissy elves draft. Dragon age setting, but it's all OCs. My OC is Eilan Lavellan and @bluewren’s OC is Lex Lavellan. They are twenty years old and a new-ish couple. Lex has been off on a solo adventure and Eilan has not seen or heard from him in three months. wc: 471

The clan had just reached a trade post outside Ostwick. Eilan’s uncle Nerel made a trip to see Oscar, an old shem who had long been a clan trade partner and who held mail for Dalish clans at no extra charge. When Nerel returned to camp he announced that he had letters from Lex. He handed out the letters one by one, taking his time as he called out each name. One for Evelyn. One for Tali. Another for Keeper Deshanna. By that point Eilan had grown convinced that her uncle was stringing her along for his own amusement. And oh how she twisted in the wind. She shifted impatiently from one foot the other, chewing on her own lip. Nerel squinted at a name as if he couldn’t make out the penmanship. “Ei— Oh, no. One for Cylen.” Nerel could barely contain his impish grin. Cylen, a hunter a year older than Lex who was Lex’s closest male friend, fist pumped as he took the letter from Nerel. “Oh!” Nerel said as if surprised to read to whom the final letter was addressed, “And one for Eilan.”

Eilan snatched the letter from Nerel’s hand and sprinted giddily to the tent she shared with her mother. She could hear Nerel chuckling behind her. Her mother was inside, sitting on the right-side cot as she knit by lantern light. She looked up and grinned as she saw Eilan burst into the tent and swoon onto her own cot, clutching a letter to her chest. “From Lex?” her mother asked. “Yes.” Eilan did not bother to look at her mother, too absorbed with opening the letter and reading his message. Hey Babe, It’s been crazy. But in a good way. You remember the stories we heard about Nevarra from Keeper Mahariel at the last Arlathven? The big crypts that are palaces that have ballrooms and baths and everything a palace has, but for the dead? I thought, no way, must be bullshit. So I went to Nevarra first, and it’s not bullshit. I got into a few of them. They’re so cool! Makes me a little sad though. It’s like you said to Keeper Mahariel, there’s all these fancy castles for dead shems and we can’t even get like a cottage somewhere? Bullshit, but whatever. No point getting mad about it. It was cool to break in and touch their stuff. Haha! Nevarra has other nice stuff. There’s an ancestral parade they do with lanterns and costumes. You would have liked it. And they are really into flower gardening. Really pretty gardens. Makes me think of you. Heh. Can’t wait to see you again, Lex “What does he write?” her mother asked. “Nothing,” Eilan said curtly, her tone swatting her mother’s prying. In her periphery she could see her mother rolling her eyes.