#unnamed kanders fic
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WIP Wednesday
Hello friends! Today is a very special week for me (it's the week I magically transform from just Middy to Dr. Middy), so I'll probably be posting asks and memes to celebrate! For now, I'll post a snippet from the Kanders fix-it @oftachancer and I are diligently writing. :)
Angst below, I'm sorry, but they'll get a happy ending eventually. <3
His knuckles were white against the smooth wood of his staff as he ascended the steps one at a time, padding silently towards Karl. The rest of his companions seemed far away as he studied the curve of his shoulders, the familiar swoop of his neck. A beard, peppered with gray and tidily groomed, if his profile was any indication. Anders’ voice was thin when he finally spoke at the top of the landing. “Karl?” he asked softly, the stinging returning to his eyes. “It’s me. I told you I’d keep you safe. Just took me a trifle longer than we had anticipated-“
“Anders, I know you too well.” Strange to hear his voice after so many years, echoing hollowly in the vast dark space of the Chantry. The clip of the familiar Ferelden dialect. His name - spoken so many times over so many years, missed and remembered and reshaped- “I knew you would never give up.”
“Of course not, Karl, I-“ Anders stepped towards him, almost dropping his staff on the marble floor. “I’ve missed you.”
“Yes,” he answered quietly. “They told me you would.” He collected the papers, stacking them neatly. “Impulsiveness. We spoke of it once. Do you remember?”
“…Karl.” Why was he still so far away? They’d crossed miles and a bloody sea and Karl may well have been sitting on Satina. “What is it? What’s wrong?”
“Nothing is wrong.” He settled the papers into a leather folder and turned.
He had seen too many fresh sunbursts on too many foreheads; the skin tightened and bright red around the imprint of the brand, the eyes dull beneath it when they should have been wide with agony.
“It is as it should be,” Karl murmured, seeing and not-seeing him at once. Moments he’d looked like that in the past, rousing from sleep or from the deepest of his meditations. Seconds of introspection lingering before he focused on Anders and his lips twitched with affection and arousal, fingers reaching before he knew what he was doing… Only Karl did not reach. He did not focus. He stood, temples graying, silver in his beard, age in his features that didn’t yet belong there. And what did belong- all the light and humor and softness that had once been inside of him- that had once been him- was gone.
“N-no-“ The words escaped his lips on an exhale, his heart dropping like a stone to his toes. “No, you can’t-“ He lifted his hand, before letting it fall to his side. “No- It can’t be- Karl. Karl.” He couldn’t breathe, couldn’t think, his body going numb as he studied that brand. “Karl, you’re not-“
“Would you like to sit down? You seem to be having some difficulty.” Karl drew the chair from the desk and gestured to it vaguely. “You will feel better soon.”
“Soon,” he gasped. “How can anything possibly make this better, Karl?”
“Like you, I was easily overwrought. There is another way. It will be easier.” He looked up to the low balustrade flanked by Kirkwall’s codes of arms. “This is the apostate.”
The familiar shift of armor- clink and scratch- and figures that had been still as statues shifted from hidden alcoves behind tapestries to march towards them.
“Fuck me,” Cecily swore.
“No!” Anders shouted, his voice fracturing and turning two-toned as he swept his gaze across the approaching Templars, bending low, staff clutched close to his chest. Fury, anguish, and the sharp scent of ozone. He let the spirit surge past him, taking control as his consciousness slipped away. “You will never take another mage as you took him,” he heard Justice growl as the world went dark.
Tagging forward to: @dismalzelenka, @pinkfadespirit, @luzial, @in-arlathan, @hezjena2023, @serial-chillr, @ser-thirst-a-lot, @johaeryslavellan, @cartadwarfwithaheartofgold, @elveny, @kunstpause, @lavellanvibes, @dalish-rogue, @decimdraws, @jentrevellan, @wavesofinkdrops, @lethendralis-paints, @factorykat,@hazelestelle, @ramonadecember, @barbex, @nug-juggler, @latefortevinter, @hoiist, @gaysolavellan, @merrybandofmurderers, @hollyand-writes, and @laniardraws! Being extra thirsty with tags today, please let me know if you'd rather be or not be tagged for future WIP Wednesdays! :D
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