#is this just an excuse to put all my viren-orbiting blorbos in a pit together and watch them bite each other? yes

[kradogsrats]

lmao guess I’m not working on any of the things I should be working on so what the hell here’s some dead Viren canon divergence, as a treat

—

Lissa woke gradually—then suddenly, all at once, as panic gripped her. She could no longer hear Soren’s breathing. She couldn’t hear Soren’s—

Her eyes flew open to early dawn sunlight peeking through the bedroom window. She blinked slowly, heart pounding. Why was she in bed? She’d been sitting up with Soren—she’d never have left him. She couldn’t have.

The dim memory of a slow, whistled tune and the touch of a hand on her cheek surfaced in her mind. Viren. Viren had spelled her asleep.

Viren, who had promised long ago to never use magic on her without her knowing consent.

A spark of rage rose in her at the violation, but she was too hollowed-out by exhaustion and grief for it to truly ignite. It was just one more broken thing between them, now. 

I’m going to leave him, she thought, not for the first time. When Soren—when all this is over, I’ll take Claudia and go home.

She allowed herself a moment to imagine it—the regal mountains, the dark, dense forests, the languid waters of the Serpentongue. She’d be able to pick up the life she’d once set down for a man with quicksilver eyes and magic on his tongue. Her daughter would grow up far away from politics, and mages, and—

A high, piercing shriek rang through the house.

Soren? Claudia—!

She was up and running before the sound fully registered in her mind. Her legs immediately tangled in the quilts, and she nearly sprawled face-first to the floor before shaking herself free. Her feet skidded on the smooth floorboards of the hallway as she instinctively oriented herself toward Soren’s sickroom, white-hot terror seizing her chest. 

She slammed against the door, fumbling for the knob. She almost screamed in frustration to find it locked, pounding her fist against the wood as if she had the strength to splinter it. Muffled sobs were audible from within—she ripped the ring of keys from her belt, her hands shaking as she sought the right one.

She burst into the room. “Soren—!”

Her son—her son, who for days had been delirious with fever, unable to even sit up as he gasped for breath—was upright, curled into the corner where the head of his bed met the room’s walls. His cheeks were rosy with health, his eyes clear—he breathed rapidly but easily, no wheeze or rattle impeding the rush of air in and out of his small chest. He looked to her, his face streaked with tears. 

“Mom!” he cried out.

Viren slumped over the foot of the bed, his face turned away from her. For one long, agonizing moment she thought he must have fallen asleep. 

The dark stain soaking the bedspread beneath him said otherwise.

She took a step toward him, then remembered herself and turned to Soren. He trembled in the corner, eyes wide. She crouched and extended her arms to him. “Soren, sweetheart, come to me.”

He practically launched himself into her embrace, burying his face in her shoulder as his small body shook with sobs. “You’ve been so brave, my little warrior,” she murmured, stroking his golden hair, his warm back. “I need you to be brave for me just a little while longer, can you do that?”

Her eyes drifted back to the bed. She squeezed them shut rather than look.

She felt Soren’s nod against her chest and hugged him tight. “Go to Claudia’s room and stay there with her until I come fetch you. Don’t say anything to her about—“ Her throat clenched, cutting off the words.

“I won’t,” he promised. His voice wavered, but he straightened in her arms like a soldier at attention. “Don’t worry, Mom.”

She released him and cupped his face in her hands to kiss his forehead. “That’s my brave, strong boy,” she said. “Go on, then.”

Only when she’d heard the patter of his footsteps leave the room did she allow herself to break. She folded in on herself where she knelt, both hands pressed to her mouth against the anguished cry that threatened to choke her.

Her son, at whose bedside she had sat vigil so he wouldn’t be alone when he took his last, labored breath, was alive. More than alive—he was well. 

And her husband was dead.

#the dragon prince #viren #lissa #soren #kradogsfic #is this just an excuse to put all my viren-orbiting blorbos in a pit together and watch them bite each other? yes #neither crows nor eagles au