#emetweek2026

[marikafoxtail]

[hyythlodaeus]

emetweek day 2 - love/duty

[thewitchofelpis]

For Emet Week 2026, day 1: Identity. A drabble sequence containing references to A Constellation of Scars.

i.

The first year is full of silences.

Secrets that would have been his and now belong to the man he loves, the weight of them most obvious in those early months, Hades’ shoulders bowed by griefs untold and all that he cannot share.

The wound at his shoulder, once such an awful blackened and bloody mess, heals in its own time, resistant to encouragement and interference.

Yet the months pass and the scar lightens, bringing with it the brightness that has been missing from his husband’s eyes.

The new Emet-Selch stands a little taller.

And Hythlodaeus remembers how to smile.

ii.

He means to tease.

Discovering him missing from their bed, their journeying wife’s absence still fresh and painfully noticeable, he pads through to the living room to find Hades sat before a table of the most frightening-looking paperwork.

Draping himself about his shoulders, Hythlodaeus murmurs about the dedication of the most devoted Emet-Selch.

...Hades flinches.

It is a distant realisation, to understand he has not named him so within their home.

He brings him back to him kiss by kiss, easing him so willingly back onto that paperwork to chant his name and chase away the memory of the other.

iii.

They are at odds, the three of them.

Emet-Selch, Azem and...

(Who is it that he is, again?)

It is not, Hythlodaeus knows, Hades and their beloved wife entrenching themselves ever-deeper in opposing ideals. No, they are as one in heart and longings, and yet—

The masks. The Third. The Fourteenth.

He wonders if they are but making caricatures of themselves, dancing the steps as others expect, and now cannot retreat.

More and more, it is Emet-Selch who gazes upon him. Emet-Selch who coaxes him into bed and falls to uttering promises he cannot keep.

Emet-Selch he must leave behind.

iv.

He drifts.

The screaming of the souls he keeps company with has quieted over the years, as more and more have forgotten themselves and what reasons they have to howl.

Sometimes, he is aware enough to let his attention drift to the star. Sees a man with golden eyes in never quite the right shade from one lifetime to the next. More names; more masks. What began in the dying days of their fading Amaurot, he sees unfold over many thousands of years. A role carefully shaped, crafted, and honed into overt and overplayed delight in cruelty.

Is all lost?

v.

Hythlodaeus does not think to make himself anything – anyone – other than who he is as his soul blessedly slips from one realm to another.

But he wonders, bracing himself for which version of the man he has been pining for since before their final parting he will meet.

There is a fearfulness to the figure before him. A trembling. An unwillingness to impose himself.

Which is why he most determinedly folds him into his arms and holds on tight. Eventually eases back enough to study him and—

Those eyes.

(His eyes, his eyes, his eyes...)

Rich and sun-bright gold.

Hades.

[ffxiv-fandom-calendar]

Emet Week 2026

EMETWEEK 2026 (@emetweek.bsky.social)

EmetWeek 2026: running from July 6 - July 12 Thank you all so much for your patience! We’re excited to finally share the official prompts f

[marikafoxtail]

[marikafoxtail]

[hyythlodaeus]

emetweek2026 day 1 - identity/veil

[tschendra]

I managed to do something for EmetWeek 2026 Day 1: Identity/Veil