#lashein

[coyotalopeart]

WIP of a large Lashein/Starling stained glass style piece I may never finish.  But the Lashein panel is close to done, so here it is!

[vaelanyswow]

☼!

Vaelanys set the cup of steaming tea he’d gone to fetchaside on the table and reached out to gently stroke a few strands of black hairout of Starling’s sleeping face. “I wish I did not always have to feel soterribly guilty about being fond of you, Starling.” He murmured, unfolding a blanketover the bird. “We’ll talk later.” He paused in the doorway, the lastwords spoken too low for the slumbering figure on the couch to hear even if hehad been awake. “And you, Lashein, I wish there was some way I could makethis up to you.”

@sleepwalksrp

[coyotalopeart]

Quick sketch of Starling’s ink!

[coyotalopeart]

I saw a pic of an adorable whelp, so I clearly had to draw one.  Quick vector of a Lashy droogin and Silver whelp!

[vaelanyswow]

Do they consider themselves a good person?

           It was snowing. Vaelanys had thoughtthose blowing specks of white must be flower petals until one had struck andmelted into ice water against his cheek. He frowned as he walked, watchingthose snowflakes that should never have been begin to blanket the grass in white.It did not snow in Eversong. Yet it was.

           He did not know where he was going,or even why he went, only that there was something tugging at him that kept hisfeet moving forward despite the flakes of snow that caught in his lashes andmade him blink. He should have turned and gone home, but the thought was nomore than a flicker across his mind and instead he kept forward.

           He could hear footsteps behind him.Soft on the path, an echo to his own that made him tense and increase his pace.He didn’t look back to see who walked there, he only knew it was not Thorn. Heknew the sound of the warlock’s steps almost as well as his own.

           He was less troubled by the sound ofthe steps than the snow, at least at first. It was not until he looked up fromthe little eddies of that impossible snow on the ground and saw where his feethad carried him that Vaelanys began to feel uneasy.

           He had been here only once before,on the top of the cliff above the shore where he and Thorn had walked togetherso many times. He’d had no eye for the beauty of it then, and now for a singlebreath he took in the sea and the sand spread before him under a blanket ofsnow. It was heartbreakingly lovely despite the height.

           He glanced skyward, half expectingto find a graceful serpentine shape swooping and dipping against the pale greyclouds of the storm, but there was nothing but clouds and endlessly fallingsnow.

           There was a soft sound behind him,the scrape of feet on stone and suddenly all his awareness of beauty faded intofear. He spun on his heel to face the person who had followed him up the pathand then felt his heart rise into his throat as he realized. It was not a person who had followed him. A smallcrowd stood on the path he had come up, blocking any possibility of escape.

           They looked as out of place amid thewoods as did the snow that fell in specks of white over the silk and velvet shouldersof their costumes. Not a crowd but a flock, he thought and was not sure whetherthe thought made him want to laugh or cry. They wore masquerade costumes.Beautiful things, all embroidery and fine fabrics, feathered capes and beakedmasks, elaborate and ornate, but not so stylized that he could fail torecognize what each represented.

           Oriole and Sparrow, Raven and Falcon,Swan, Nightingale, Crane, Egret, Rook, even the Phoenix he had never even seen. Thorn’sFlock. Perhaps he shouldn’t fear them. Thorn always told him he had no needtoo, but he was terrified. Perhaps even more so when the question came, a calmvoice that might have come from behind any of those beaked masks or even fromthe air itself. “Do you think you are a ‘good’ person, VaelanysSunthorn?”

           He swallowed, uncertain how toanswer, especially when one of the costumed figures stepped forward and reachedup to tug a mask of iridescent feathers free from his face. Starling. But themoment the eyes behind the mask met his he knew it was not. “Lashein…”

           "Answer the question.“

           Vaelanys swallowed, eyes squeezingclosed, guilt now warring with the terror that gripped at him so tightly. Hecould still see the masked faces behind closed eyelids, and he wondered who hewould see behind those masks. Who lurked behind Oriole’s mask now? He took asingle step backwards before he remembered the edge and that he was the onlyone of them without a feathered cape or a name with wings to fly.

           "I don’t know.” Hewhispered. “I don’t know if I am a good person.” His voice was notquite steady. “I try to be. Light knows I try, but I make mistakes. I amflawed, and I know I have done some of you, maybe all of you, wrong. I amsorry. I am so sorry. I want to be a good person, but I am not sure I am. I amnot sure if I ever was, not really.”

           He was selfish sometimes. He knew hewas, even now he knew he would have made some of those mistakes over for thesake of the perhaps foolish love he felt for Thorn. For the way the warlocksmiled at him, for the promise that whatever else he might lose he would alwayshave the security of Thorn’s arms and heart. ‘I will never leave you. Youwill never have to cry for me.’ He wasn’teven sure sometimes he could fully believe that promise but he needed it withevery fiber of his being.

           "I try to be a good person. Itry to be kind, to do the right things.“ He said, swallowing as Lashein tookanother step forward. “But I know that sometimes I fail, I don’t know ifthe trying makes up for it.”

           "It probably depends who youask.“ said the red-haired bard who now tugged a Nightingale’s mask free ofhis features. “I’m not sure it makes up for it for me. But then I havenever tried to be good. I let my actions speak. What do yours say?”

           It was those words and the look onLashein’s face started him back one further step, it was the many hands liftingto beaked masks that made him finish it. But he had forgotten the edge for justa moment even if its terror still lurked in him. He had not realized how closehe was or that his foot would come down on empty air and take his balance withit. He screamed, reaching out but there was nothing to grab, nothing to holdonto or to catch him but the snow.

           He jerkedawake, panting, and was grateful for the arms already closing around him whenhe rolled to put his face against a pale shoulder. Thorn said nothing, onlydrew long fingers gently through his hair. For a moment he too was silent,drawing in deep breaths of that familiar scent with its hint of snow. Hewondered sometimes if that was why he dreamt of it so often. “Do you everdream about falling?” He whispered, when he half trusted his voice.“Or is that only for people who can’t fly?”

@midnight-ashes @keirik  @sleepwalksrp  @arcane-brilliance  @daspiritqwest

@healingonaprayer  @veiled-shadows @taighan for mentions (sorry if I tagged the wrong blogs)

[coyotalopeart]

Just wanted all my Lashein art in one spot on my actual art blog. :>  One of these days I should draw him with an expression on his face.

[vaelanyswow]

What color is your heart? For Lashein!

Green, and I’ll add Grey for concern, and Indigo for regret.

Friendship: They aren’t friends. Vaelanys knows this and that they aren’t ever likely to be, but his own warmth toward Lashein is like friendship. He wasn’t impressed with him on their initial meeting because to him Lashein seemed to be being needlessly rude to Thorn. But he’s come to think he understands what Lashein thought he was doing better then.

Concern: He is worried for the little priest. He seems so very unhappy with the situation and Vaelanys is afraid for him within it too. Lashein seems young to him and it raises protective feelings in him.

Regret: He has a bit of regret for how Lashein has gotten wrapped up in things. He feels that it is entirely his fault for not stopping when Lashein called out to him and he regrets that, even if in that moment he made the choice between two concerns and feelings being what they are isn’t certain he could have made another.

[coyotalope]

Felt like drawing Lash again, this time featuring Eko!  I am now addicted to semi-transparent vectors.

IC blog can be seen at: lashein