Pillars of Eternity -> Ryenne (The Watcher) x Edér Teylecg
"Well, I'm real fond of you, case that wasn't clear. But, in terms of stronger feelings...I haven't felt much that way about anybody in a long time. Doesn't cross my mind hardly. That's nothing to do with you. That's things I never sorted out from way back when. Elafa, she was part of that. It's like I'm still waiting for something that was never gonna happen. Maybe in another life...."
The Watcher looks at her boots, "If you ever change your mind."
"You'd be the first to know." Eder says.
(In-game dialogue from Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire)
Some gorgeous doodles of Io and Edér by @artbyalliward! When Io finds Modwyr, she has to learn to fight with a sword, and Edér doesn’t seem to realize that it’s not the talking sword that is distracting his pupil. :D
summary: the watcher and edér argue about who will stay inside ionni brathr in the quest “lair of the eyeless”
relationships: edér/alayne
notes: written for the prompt “things you said when you were scared”
read it here on ao3
Ondra’s words echoed in Alayne’s mind in time with the steps she took towards the giant crystal. Your sacrifice will be mourned. Alayne stared at herself in the reflective crystal and saw a thousand reflections staring back. Your sacrifice will be mourned. With each step she took, the water splashed around her and she felt an echoing hum from the crystal. Your sacrifice will be mourned. But your fate is already sealed.
When Alayne was no more than a foot away from the crystal she stopped and took a deep breath. She could see Maneha and Aloth directly behind her in the reflection and their pained looks nearly crumbled her resolve, but another deep breath helped her remain firm. She grabbed Abydon’s Hammer from her belt, pleased to find that her hand was steady.
“Watcher,” Maneha said, “Maybe this is why I was meant to find you. Maybe I’m supposed to do this.”
Alayne turned around and gave Maneha what she hoped was a thankful, but firm look.
“We just went through all that trouble to free you from the guilt of your past life and you want to die down here?” Alayne shook her head, “Sorry, not happening.”
Maneha opened her mouth as if to argue, before she thought better of it. She simply nodded and placed a hand on Alayne’s shoulder, before stepping away from the crystal. To her left, Alayne heard Aloth clear his throat. She felt her heart drop. Sighing, she put Abydon’s Hammer back on her belt.
“Alayne-“ he began.
“Aloth, please, I don’t want to argue with you,” Alayne pleaded as she turned to him.
I don’t want our last conversation to be an argument was the truth that went unsaid, but hung heavily in the air between them. Aloth’s look of defiance morphed into sad resignation as he realized what she truly meant. Alayne quickly closed the distance between them and wrapped her arms tightly around his shoulders. She felt him clutch at her back as tears threatened to spill from her eyes.
Far too soon for her liking, Alayne forced herself to pull away. There were a million things she wanted to say to Aloth, but she feared saying anything would force her tears to fall. They looked at each other for a long moment as the unspoken things remained unspoken.
As Aloth stepped away from her, she heard Edér speak up, quietly but determinedly.
“Alayne.”
She closed her eyes.
“Don’t,” she whispered, “don’t do this.”
She heard the telltale splashes of water as Edér moved from the back of the group to where she stood in front of the crystal. Alayne was almost afraid of what emotion she would see on Edér’s face when she opened her eyes.
“Let me do this,” he said easily, as if they were discussing the weather.
Alayne’s eyelids flew open, almost of their own accord. To her surprise, Edér’s face betrayed no emotion, but his hands were balled into fists at his sides. Was he angry? She certainly was.
“I got us into this mess,” Alayne replied, trying to keep her voice steady, “I’m the one who should do it.”
“I’m the better swimmer and you know it.”
Alayne felt like she had been slapped. Edér so rarely spoke to anyone so bluntly, it was shocking to hear.
“That doesn’t matter!” Alayne shot back, her voice rising as her emotions got the better of her, “You heard Ondra, whoever does this is going to die down here. You mean too much to me to-“
“What about how much you mean to me?” Edér interrupted, “Did you think about that?”
Unlike Alayne, Edér kept his voice quiet, but his words rang crystal clear in the silent chamber. Edér took one step on his long legs towards Alayne to close the gap between them. His large, warm hands came up to cradle her jaw.
“I can do this. I’m not scared,” Alayne lied.
“Well, I am scared. You know why? ‘Cause I love you,” he confessed, “The thought of losing you without doing somethin' to stop it scares me more than anythin’.”
Alayne was too shocked to reply. It was only then she realized that she had mistaken his fear for anger. She had never known Edér to be afraid. At this point, she was halfway convinced Edér didn’t experience fear.
“That day we met in Gilded Vale was the luckiest day of my life,” Edér continued, “I’d be dead or worse if you hadn’t gotten me out of there. You saved me. Now let me save you.”
Alayne had begun to cry silently as Edér spoke. She brought her hands to the top of his chest piece.
“I love you, too,” she whispered.
Alayne pulled him in by his armor to kiss him and Edér responded eagerly. It was messy and passionate, the kind of desperate kiss you can only experience when you’re minutes away from death. Alayne attempted to memorize the feeling of his lips against hers, his hands holding her face, his body pressed against hers.
When she pulled away, Alayne took a shaky breath as she reached blindly for Abydon’s Hammer at her belt. She held it out to Edér and looked at him as sternly as she could manage.
“I expect to see you on the other side. You and me, we’ve still got work to do.”
Edér gave her a smile, the special one he reserved for animals, children, and her, as he carefully took the Hammer from her.
“I hear you, loud and clear.”
Alayne stayed next to Edér holding his free hand as Aloth, Maneha, Sagani, and Kana said their potential goodbyes to him. She barely heard what they said, the moments passing by in one giant blur. The next thing she knew, Edér was nudging her with his elbow telling her it was time to get going. Letting go of his hand was the second hardest thing she’d ever done. Not looking back when the first strike of the hammer rang out was the first.
When the second strike of the hammer against the crystal rang out, the whole moon shook and Alayne lost her footing, falling to the ground. She nearly lost her nerve. She wanted to turn around and run to Edér. Thankfully, Sagani’s solid hand on her arm helping her up grounded her and urged her forward.
As Edér continued to hammer the crystal, Alayne realized a heavier rhythm was beginning to pulse throughout the cavern. Several moments passed before she realized what it was – footsteps, dozens of footsteps from the Eyeless as they hurried to the crystal.
As Alayne led her party through the winding path inside the moon, they ran into the first of the Eyeless as they rounded a corner. Even as the creations marched in time to the strikes against the crystal, they still turned their heads to Alayne and the others.
The Eyeless moved to strike at Maneha and Kana, but Aloth cast Mirrored Image, creating a duplicate of himself that quickly distracted the Eyeless. Alayne and the others were able to quickly dodge out of the way of the distracted creations and move further towards the exit.
More Eyeless began to move past them through the cavern, but they seemed to be too enthralled by Edér’s hammering to pay them any mind.
Alayne saw the light at the end of the tunnel just as she noticed Kana and Aloth beginning to get winded. She urged everyone forward, but they arrived at the entrance only to find it blocked by too much rubble for them to easily climb over.
Before Alayne could think of a plan, Maneha went into a frenzy and bashed through the rocks with her bare hands. Alayne made a mental note to thank her later as the party rushed out onto the ice. A deafening crash followed them from below as they left the moon and Alayne felt her heart clench.
Alayne looked down at the ice beneath their feet and realized seconds before it happened that the ice was going to break.
“Move!” she yelled.
They made it about ten feet before the ice began to fracture and rock underneath them. Alayne heard Kana begin to chant a familiar song, but couldn’t remember the name of it. In an instant, they were all moving swiftly forward to more stable ice and finally the shore, leaving the fissured ice behind them.
Alayne took in deep gulps of air as she watched the little she could still see of the moon sink into the water. She prayed to whoever was listening, if anyone was listening, to let Edér come back to her.
Aloth, still panting heavily, took up vigil on her right, brushing his arm up against hers. Maneha filled the spot on her left not long after. She heard Kana’s presence at her back as he hummed a familiar Rauatain tune he had sung for her many times before. Sagani sat on the ground in front of Maneha with Itumaak, giving Alayne a nod before turning her eyes to the water as well.
The minutes dragged on, feeling like hours to Alayne. Just as she was starting to doubt, she watched with shock as a fist broke through the ice near the shore. Edér’s head broke through the water next as he gasped for air.
Alayne sprinted away from her companions, thinking of nothing but how thankful she was to see Edér alive. He was alive. She watched as he pulled himself out of the water, coughing some of the liquid up.
“Edér!” she yelled when she got closer.
“Told you I was the better swimmer,” Edér managed to yell back between coughs.
Alayne couldn’t help the slightly panicked laughter that burst out of her. She slowed to a jog as she approached him, glad to see he was uninjured. When she reached him, she quickly brought one of his arms over her shoulder and helped him stand.
“Let’s get you off the ice.”
They walked in silence for several moments, relishing in the feeling of the other’s body against their own.
“I can’t believe you punched through the ice,” Alayne said, shaking her head.
“Well, what else was I gonna do? Those lagufaeth pulled me to the surface where the ice was still intact. Either I broke through or I drowned, and that would just be embarrassin’.”
Alayne stopped walking and looked at Edér.
“Did you say lagufaeth pulled you to the surface?”
“Yeah. Told me they were the spirits of Durgan’s Battery and they owed you for freein’ ‘em.”
Alayne regarded him for a moment.
“You could’ve led with that. For a moment there, I was worried you had a head injury.”
Edér smiled sheepishly. They continued walking towards the shore. When they made it to the edge, Alayne helped Edér sit down and immediately threw her arms around his neck. Edér let out a breath of surprise before he wrapped his arms tightly around her back to bring her even closer to him.
Alayne ignored the water seeping into her armor, skin, and hair as she buried her face into Edér’s neck. Edér was murmuring reassurances into her hair, quiet enough so only she could hear.
“’S okay. I’m here.”
Alayne only pulled way when Aloth called her name. She looked to him, then followed his gaze out to the lake. The water was churning and roiling as if it was about to spit something out until finally the moon fragment reemerged from the depths. Alayne watched in awe as ice spread out from the moon, reforming a solid surface. Eyeless began to file out from the moon onto the ice in a spiral pattern. Alayne realized they were headed for where she and her companions were.
“Well, that doesn’t look too good,” Edér stated.
Alayne gave him a fond look.
“Come on, farm boy. Up and at ‘em,” Alayne told him, standing and offering her hand to Edér, “We’ve still got work to do.”
Alayne stood, hand in hand with Edér, flanked by her other companions, and waited to confront the Eyeless.
An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works
Fic rec for @pillarspromptsweekly [B11]
I've been doing a lot of thinking on my own about the politics of being the Lady of Caed Nua, so I was super exicited when I first saw this fic. It's a lovely little snapshot of the distant, shifting political landscape in the Dyrwood, with Raedric and Aevar dead and Eder and the Watcher emerging as new leaders in that power vacuum. I liked that it was from Eder's perspective too, and that we got to see tiny glimpses of how he runs Dyrford while he tries to deal with this erl who isn't being entirely upfront about things.
Of course, I'm also a total shipper at heart and I really enjoyed this cute section:
“Don’t mind me.” Lillian set the wreath on the table then stretched and yawned. “I’m just tired of dealing with lords. Erl Alton has never proposed marriage to me, so I can’t hold that against him.”
“Considering he’s already married, I would be concerned if he had,” said Edér.
Lillian rolled her eyes at him. “I just want to lead a quiet life, is that too much to ask?”
“You like getting involved too much to lead a quiet life.” Edér took another drag from his pipe. “If you wait a bit longer, you’ll have turned down every eligible lord in the Dyrwood. Then what’ll you do?”
Lillian came over and perched on the arm of his chair. “Start turning down the ladies, I suppose.”
Edér laughed and pulled her down into his lap. “Long as you keep turning ‘em down, I’ll be happy enough.”
