#i mean they have auspices and the four lords and such. not a stretch to say they have moon rabbits too | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

onwesterlywinds · 3 years

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PROMPT #6: Avatar

Dedicated to @cogflox for reasons.

Set roughly ten years in the future of Hydaelyn’s present day.

"Hmmm," Edge mused. "A story, huh?"

He had Tomaj on his lap, with Sylvia on Stella's nearby; they all were bundled up in knitted blankets around the hearth while Ashe watched them from the far end of the living room, elbows-deep in scrubbing the week's laundry. Though she longed to join the rest of her family, this task was the last of the chores that needed doing before bed - and it was the least she could do to give Edge some respite, since he had cooked dinner and cleaned up more nights in a row than she could remember.

"What about the story of the skeleton war?" said Tomaj, ever the morbid one.

Edge chuckled but shook his head. "Nah, that's your ma's. I'll leave it for her to tell."

"Not because it scares the living daylights out of you still?" Ashe quipped, to the girls' laughter.

He whirled around toward the corner with the washing bin in mock affront. "Oh, hush, you!" To the kids- "Anyway, how about a story from Doma?"

Tomaj wrinkled his nose. "Not the story about Tamamo Gozen again. We hear it every time."

"But I like that one!" Sylvia whined.

"I know you do, love," said Edge, in his most diplomatic tone. "He's right, though, I do tell it an awful lot. Maybe... the story of the Four Lords? I don't believe I've shared that one in a long time."

Stella stared off in thought, looking for the moment rather like the wide-eyed girl from ten years ago with no reprieve from her Echo; then a warm smile came over her, and the memory faded in Ashe's mind. "Right," she whispered. "I do remember this one."

Ashe stilled her movements against the washboard to tuck back a wisp of her hair with sudsy hands. "Just tell it normally, please - the way Hien does."

As Edge launched into his story, he threw out his arms in elaborate ninjutsu stances from where he sat.

"North. West. South. East. Long ago, the four nations of Othard lived together in harmony. Then everything changed when the mad auspice Koryu attacked!"

Stella bit back a laugh at whatever disapproval was surely brewing on Ashe's face, but it was already much too late: Edge was in full swing and their two youngest were hooked, their eyes wide and their mouths agape.

"Only Tenzen, the greatest samurai of the age, could stop him. But when Othard needed him most... he vanished."

"That's not how the story goes and you know iiit," Ashe sang under her breath.

"Excuse me Grand Steward, Madam Representative, Warden of the Undercity - I don't believe you're the one telling the story." He cleared his throat for dramatic effect and barreled on. "But Doma did not lose hope. Doma believed that somehow, Tenzen would return to save the world."

"How?" Tomaj chimed in. "How could he save the world if he's vanished?"

Ashe glanced up to see Edge gesturing toward their son on his lap, as if to accuse her of having awoken a monster with her own interruptions. She offered him a shrug in response.

"It's because his spirit lived on within a new hero," Edge explained. "And one day, that hero set out to calm the four auspices of each of Othard's four lands..."

To her husband's credit, the rest of the tale proceeded mostly without undue embellishment - excepting the parts about the Firebird Suzaku's love of Tenzen, doubtless in an effort to appease the budding romantic that was Sylvia. Tomaj ceased his pestering and was mostly asleep by the time the story concluded, and Ashe finished the laundry in time for her to lift his droopy body from Edge's knee and carry him to his bed.

"What happened after?!" Sylvia was busy demanding of her father upon her return. "Was the hero okay? Where did Suzaku go?"

"Tell you what," said Edge. He let her hold onto that thought for a moment while he stood and stretched, wincing for only a moment before bending down to give her a kiss directly on the top of her head of purple curls. "Tomorrow, if you still can't think of an ending, we can write a letter to Lord Hien and ask him what he thinks."

Sylvia gasped. "You really mean it?"

"Of course. We can even use your ma's fanciest stationery."

"And my fountain pen," Ashe added. "If you promise to be very careful, and not leave a mess."

"I promise!" she said at once.

"Then that's that. Now go get into bed."

Sylvia sprinted into her room without another word, let alone a goodnight kiss for Ashe, leaving the two of them alone with Stella.

"Still meeting Sihtric?” she asked. “It's half past nine; you're more than welcome to stay here."

She shook her head with a smile. "I owe Sihtric Selsson too many favors to let him think I'm standing him up." Family or no, some things from their time as Heart-Seers had never changed. It warmed Ashe's heart more than she cared to admit. Stella hugged them both at once, gave them each a kiss on the cheek, and hurried out the door with a "Love you, good night."

Edge was smiling at her before the door fully closed, and Ashe wove her way into his arms. "Your story was wonderful, by the way."

"You do have a point, though," he said, drawing her ever closer and swaying with her in time to some rhythm known only to him. "Probably should get used to telling them the real versions of Doman folktales. Before my versions are all they know."

"Before they embarrass you in front of Hien, you mean?"

"Yeah, that."

She giggled and buried her face into his neck, and soon enough they were both laughing too hard for a proper kiss.

#FFXIVWrite #FFXIVWrite2021 #Ashelia Riot #Edge Marbrand #Stella

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