working on stuff. jaesian's older half-siblings, ralis and elisara. :) they are the children of vaera blazedge, jaesian's father, and andriel blazedge, who's, i guess, jaesian's... step-mom? i'm not quite sure how to quantify it when jaesian's a bastard resulting from an affair that happened after their father married a woman and stayed married to that woman after the affair. let's go with step-mom.
ralis and elisara, who changed their last name to "silverblade" around the time, became scryers soon after the third war, largely in part because they were searching for their father, who they knew was part of the sunfury at the time of their recruitment. even now that vaera is dead, they continue to serve the scryers, having found new belonging there after the displacement they suffered in quel'thalas.
vaera and andriel were both nobility, thus so too were their children, although that past doesn't mean much these days, especially after vaera's disgrace. they originally worked for spymaster edvin mor'ei until his passing during tbc, and are now employed by his daughter, daelynn. she's had an... interesting effect on them: elisara was a cheerful young lady, and ralis seemed too shy to hurt a fly, but with the way they're able to kill now, you wouldn't exactly recognize them. elisara is particularly good at her job, taking on a fighting style akin to an arcane trickster rogue, while ralis is a much more traditional mage with not-so-traditional skill in illusion magic. elisara is also skilled in enchanting (and, semi-related, interpreting magic active in a person's mana, whether their own or someone else's; she can read your buffs, basically), while ralis is better with inscription (and, semi-related, magic infused to or innate in inanimate objects, like scrolls or stone).
they are very good little scryers and very loyal to daelynn. despite how she's. like that.
Top picture is the original painting. I love duskies and pastels. Bottom picture is me turning up the saturation to see what happened, and oops! I liked it. xD
This was all painted on a single layer, because my favorite brushes benefit from that.
Drawn for high elf month, this is just the bust (there’s more to it!). I took a page from rookuthelock ‘s book on the lower edge, too. I hope that’s alright <3 It’s such a pretty way to frame portraits/busts.
"Never trust the promises of a man who speaks well of himself," Elisara spat. She pulled once on the delicate metal wire in her hands. A glowing white string of precious mithril set with more than a dozen aquamarines cut into round, faceted wonders lay quietly on her jeweler's table, a cushion of dark velvet beneath them. They blinked under the focused light above them, clear and tranquil, glimmering like pearlescent stones within a fountain pool.
"Elli," she whispered, her brows knitting above mist-green eyes, "why don't we take a break? These gems can be set tomorrow. We'll get a sundae at a cafe or something."
Elisara's eyes narrowed, her jaw set fiercely. "I'm almost finished," she hissed quietly.
She gave another sharp yank. A resounding snap spread throughout the room, the patter of a dozen raindrops splitting open and slapping against the floor striking them both speechless.
Elisara's body froze. She scarcely even breathed, seconds turning into nearly a full minute before she made a single movement. Zinta held her breath, her eyes flitting to each spilled gem and the remnants of Elisara's painstakingly-crafted mithril wire.
She finally broke.
Elisara's shoulders slumped, her ears drooping and her head bowing over her work bench. Her knees gave way, and she slowly lowered herself to the floor, her fingers draping delicately over the edge of the table, her elbows bent to flush with its side.
Zinta's fingers released each other. She lifted her hands in a feeble reach, but withdrew them in the same moment. She searched for something to say -- anything -- but so little came to mind that was of any use. The darkness of the room was suffocating, entirely enveloping. All she could see was Elisara's crumpled, shuddering, bitter form. The light lit her harshly, and the scattered jewels, fragments of what would have been a beautiful bracelet, were impossible to see. They would be near-impossible to find in the dark.
It would be so easy to step on them...to break them...
She thought about that. Then her eyes opened just a bit wider.
Elli...she thought, her mind pulling all the pieces together. How time had changed things.
It wasn't until several minutes had passed that Elisara even said anything at all. She whispered, her voice straining to even utter the words. Zinta questioned her again, her ears having not heard the initial utterance.
"Get out," she roared, flashing fel-green eyes turning upon Zinta so quickly that for a moment, the younger elf's heart raced.
She stepped back, her mouth falling agape. "But Elli," she gasped, her hands moving protectively to her heart. "It's just a bracelet -- it can be fixed." Her voice rose in pitch, the sting at her eyes destroying the strength she wanted so desperately to learn, to have and hold onto since Silvermoon fell. "Leave it, come outside. It can all be fixed, later, when you're -- "
Elisara shot to her feet, the rush of a furious summer sun rising with her. "What do you know about fixing anything?" Her voice dripped silently with acid, whispery and held down so tightly that it practically burst pieces of itself just to make a sound. "You, the child who had everything given to her, and not a single hardship before our world fell to hell?"
She took a step forward, her mouth opening again. The tiniest obstruction beneath her toes drained all of her fury through the floor, as if a gaping chasm had opened up and swallowed everything. Her eyes darkened, her expression turning unreadable.
Zinta watched her silently move away, silently stoop to pick up a single gem and hold it to the meager light in the room.
"Scratched..." Elisara said, her voice nothing more than a defeated whisper.
Her arms dropped to her sides. Her eyes fell to the floor in a half-hearted search for her missing pieces. Zinta followed her eyes, a rising swell blooming into her chest. None of it mattered anymore --not the gems, not the broken bracelet, not Elisara's yelling. Things were different enough that she should finally be different.
Zinta quietly stepped forward, her footfalls soft upon the polished floor. She glided across the gap, her arms slipping around Elisara's waist and her nose coming to rest under the taller woman's chin. Elisara bristled at first, but the flushing of their bodies together stirred within her the memories of better times; times of sunshine and flowers, of playing by the brook until their parents came out to hunt them down; times of baking the most atrocious sweets and attempting to eat them anyway, even though the bread was sour because they'd used the wrong ingredients to make the dough rise...
Her chest began to heave.
"Elli," Zinta whispered, "what did he do to you? Why didn't you ever tell me?"
A dampness descended down Zinta's cheeks, one not her own.
Elisara's precision-perfect fingers gently pressed into her hair, and the heaviness in the air dispersed.
"You were a child," Elisara whispered, "a little girl wouldn't understand..." She waited for a response from Zinta, but none came.
She took a breath. "When you give up everything to be with someone, and then he turns out to be something you grow to detest..." She shuddered. "Maybe I only feel that way now that I've had a few years to hate him."
Zinta pressed her nose to Elisara's neck. Still, she said nothing, only waited.
"To rescue his family," Elisara answered, "he left me to save his family --the people he hated most-- from the very thing that decimated most of us. He was a fool. Even if you want to call him 'brave', or 'noble', or some other stupid thing... He could have stayed with me and been safe. I had within me the power to protect him. He had no such thing, only a lowly...sailor...some kind of rogue who wanted a better life than a few acres of farmland and an abusive father could offer..."
Zinta's nose scrunched up. She pulled away just enough to see
Elisara's face. Her eyes gained a mirthful twinkle, and she cautioned a smile. "Kain? You mean Kain, that silly human from down south..."
Elisara's swollen, salt-stained lips spread into half a smile, and she released something between a cough and a laugh. "Yes, Kain." She rolled her eyes. "He was entirely an idiot."
Zinta giggled. "He was," she echoed, and snuggled back under Elisara's chin, her fluff of long golden hair falling over Zinta's face.
She settled back in, the rhythm of her heart slowing to match Elisara's after a time. It was calming, embracing the woman she used to follow around endlessly during her childhood. The scent of her perfume drifted on the air, a sharp, sweet, smokey scent. Elisara was so provocative in a million different ways, but always muted and understated, as if the only way to know for sure what she was about was to pin her and crack her open by force. She dodged and evaded with masterful precision, and when she decided it was time that she was the one to do the prospecting, she struck with even more.
Over time, her vibrance had faded. She was once so full of light and life, a mystery to everyone around her, and so warm. Like the broken chain of jewels, Elisara had also been fragmented, run ragged by the loss of her reckless lover and the burden of saving the life of her only brother -- saving the lives of others who'd been unlucky, unable to fight back, or only strong enough to cling to life and possessing nothing more within them than that. Her mother was lost, her father taken by war...
Zinta could relate to that. Now that they were reunited, they only had each other.
But then, there was Mikael...
Zinta's cheeks flushed at the thought of him. She still didn't know how to explain it to Elisara that she pined desperately for someone who had caused her such pain and worry, but then, it was to be expected. Siblings drove each other crazy, she'd heard. Zinta had never had any to find out. Elisara was the closest she'd ever had...
"Elli," Zinta whispered again.
"Hm?"
"Let's go get that ice cream," she said. "I want to see you smile."
Elisara's composure broke. She hugged Zinta tight, her lips placing gentle kisses on the younger girl's forehead. "I'm sorry, Zinta," she whispered through silent sobs, "I'm sorry. You are more precious to me than you know, and I am so..."
Zinta interrupted. "You are hurting," she murmured, "and I understand. I'm not a child now. You can tell me everything."
A small smile graced Elisara's face then, one of the first in a long while. No longer concerned about broken gems, they made their way out of Elisara's shop and into the fading light of day. They had a few hours yet before nightfall, and knew the perfect place to go.
As they exited the room, the last spilled jewel tipped and fell from the table.
Title: See What I See
Author: Elisara
Rating: R
Word Count: 2589
Warnings: N/A
Summary: When you spend time around hot, buff werewolves who run around half-naked a lot, it makes you more than a little self-conscious. But Isaac assures Stiles that his body is perfect just the way it is.
"Is Stiles shy?"
The incredulous look he received from Scott had Isaac reevaluating his wording. "I don't mean in personality. I mean, is he shy about his body?"
A little crease formed between Scott's eyebrows. "I don't think so. Why?"
Isaac shrugged as he dumped another scoop of dog food into a bowl. "I don't know. It's just...I mean, he never takes his shirt off like the rest of us when we're training."
"Well," Scott said slowly, "It's not like he's actually training with us. He's usually just talking to the girls or messing with his computer."
"He hides in the locker room, too."
Scott blinked, cocking his head slightly to the side, obviously digging through his own memories. "Huh. I guess he sort of does."
Isaac filled another bowl and moved on down the line. "Has he always done that?"
Scott shook his head. "No. I mean, he did usually wait for me before he went into the shower after practice, but I don't really remember him hiding like that before..."
Isaac's eyebrows went up in inquiry, then shot back down when Scott grimaced. "Before?"
Scott sighed. "Before I got bitten."
"You think he's hiding because you're a werewolf?" Isaac asked. "That doesn't make any sense."
