hi wat were u going to do with the fic elysium
so, for the people who don't know, i was writing a jegulus royal au — "the elysium", indeed — but I don't have the time to keep going and i want to focus entirely on my dystopian novel, so i asked the people who were reading the fic to follow me here.
but let's go back to the question.
so, to be honest, it was going to have quite A LOT of angst (major character death was one of the tags), so you're kinda lucky that i ended it when i did. let's start from where the story ended, though. i'm gonna explain this like ass, but bear with me.
euphemia and fleamont were going to abdicate and there was going to be james' coronation as king and regulus' coronation as king consort — shortly later, walburga and orion were going to leave the elysium to return in the north, while bellatrix, lucius and narcissa remained there (euphemia offered for them to stay because narcissa was pretty close to term, but kinda also to have them in sight)
then i was going to write a few chapters of bliss on jegulus' part, so that i could focus on progressing a little with wolfstar and nobleflower. there's a literal honeymoon phase, a lot of kissing, a lot of romance, but a little out of touch from reality. no hard conversations YET. but then i was going to write about james and regulus attending a public event to celebrate their coronation and there is an assassination attempt: james' food is tasted and the food taster drops dead.
after the attempt, the bliss is OVER. regulus is forced to come to terms with two simple facts: one, that his family is actually trying to kill james, and two, which is that james is mortal. regulus blames himself and the weight of james' mortality is suddenly too much, bringing him to distance himself.
at this point, for a while, they are both a wreck. they literally can't look at each other without fighting or feeling like shit. in the meantime, regulus is avoiding both sirius and bellatrix: sirius because he was right, and bella because she had most certainly something to do with the assassination attempt. so he seeks refuge in narcissa. cue to them bonding about having little to no say in their life, except — let's be real — narcissa has it much worse. while they're talking, narcissa goes into labour.
i would have loved to actually write the scene surrounding draco's birth because i think it was the event that solidified narcissa and regulus' relationship. it's also interesting because, no matter all the family drama (to say the least), sirius and bellatrix were there too. also, i just fucking LOVE writing mothers [snippet incoming]
james, being king, has to be sort of the one to "christen" draco and to proclaim him a lord of house malfoy. he visits narcissa the next day (regulus is still there) and does the "christening". regulus is kind of able to look at him be with narcissa (because mind you, narcissa does like james, and the feeling is mutual) and not feel completely hopeless for a second, but he's still kind of skittish and james is still too hurt that regulus pulled away. they try to talk afterwards but another big ass fight ensues.
james starts feeling sick, though. badly. sirius was spending the night with him (codependent prongsfoot, here we go) and james started convulsing, fever spiking and everything. sirius runs to tell regulus and james is just not responding. they're trying to figure out what might have caused this. the only plausible response, since james was literally okay hours prior to this, was that he was somehow still poisoned. they all go insane, with evan — being master of spies — going through the event over and over with regulus. there seems to be no explanation, because james had drunk and eaten nothing. then regulus remembers that james had received flowers from a servant girl, which he dramatically smelled to make her happy. evan checks on that servant girl and finds her also ill. so this girl was used to poison james through flowers. both evan, the healers and alchemists of the elysium work together to find an antidote. meanwhile, regulus is a mess. actually, everybody is.
they end up finding an antidote and james does wake up. there is a very emotional moment between him and regulus. basically, regulus asks him to forgive him and tells him he'd like to try again, taking it one day at a time as if they were ordinary.
more chapters to focus on nobleflower and wolfstar, while regulus does his duty as king consort as james recovers. at the end of one particular chapter, i was going to have the readers find out that regulus has found the proof he needs "through the mouth of a traitor" and declared war to the north. in a little section right after, we have bellatrix crying and panicking to narcissa because her lover, rita, has disappeared into thin hair. later, the readers would have read a small section of evan, singing about catching rats in the crypt, moving rita's body on a little chariot. it's implied it was her who poisoned james through the servant girl.
this is where things get TOUGHHH. hearing of regulus' war declaration, bellatrix runs through the tunnels with lucius, and draco is kidnapped by his father. although in bad shape, james immediately sends his knights (including remus) after them. the thing is, that was taken as a cue for northern loyalists to attack the palace at night, through those same tunnels, as the knights are away.
long story short??? HELL ENSUES.
regulus gets stuck in a room with barty — and they both can fight but. yk. barty tells regulus he's gonna hold the loyalists back and to go get james, because he's still in bad shape and remus, his literal sworn protector, isn't even there because james sent him to get draco for narcissa. so regulus does but you would have later discovered that evan found barty's dead body blocking the door so that nobody would get to reg. soooo. death number one.
sirius is fighting, trying to protect euphemia and fleamont as they make their way to james. euphemia dies, struck by an arrow. sirius is taken and fleamont is left for dead (but he isn't)
regulus is taken because sirius is being held hostage
meanwhile, james is giving sickly demon (and doesn't know about his mother dying, quite obviously), making his way to regulus through tunnels and secret doors, killing everything that moves. and he's just late enough to not only see sirius and regulus BOTH being taken away, but to find out that peter died trying to defend the entrance to the tunnel.
i'm gonna leave you to just imagine the aftermath of this one attack and james' mental state.
remus returns with the other knights to absolute HELL. and he didn't even manage to get draco back, but lost a shit ton of his knights instead, including marlene.
james is literally mad with grief and rage and he names his father regent. he decides to do the one unexpected thing, which is to go get regulus and sirius back alone, just accompanied by remus.
long story short, they get divided to find sirius and regulus more quickly and basically to kill orion and walburga, and thus end the war. remus is the one to find and free sirius and together they find walburga, whom sirius stabs to death. yayyy matricide
james finds regulus already wrestling with orion, because my feral boy managed to free himself. and, as orion had his hands around regulus' neck, james killed him with his spear.
bellatrix and lucius actually ended up going back for narcissa in an attempt to kidnap her too, but narcissa literally sets lucius on fire for taking her son and bellatrix throws herself in the ocean after realising how much narcissa hates her after her betrayal.
the rest would be basically the aftermath of everything, plus a happy and bittersweet epilogue
sooo, i guess that's your answer! i only explained the plot points for jegulus because that was the main ship but there you go!
i hope you're satisfied with the outcome :)
