'Be Near Me,' chapter 4
Apr. 26th, 2010 02:48 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rivendellroseFandom: Hellboy (movies)
Characters: Abe Sapien, Nuala, Hellboy, Liz Sherman, Nuada, and a small cast of OCs.
Timeline: post-movie-2 AU.
Summary: The trouble with getting what you want is that something unexpected almost inevitably comes out of it. If Abe actually reads fairy tales, he really should know better.
Title: Be Near Me
Warnings: Short chapter. Disturbing themes and imagery. Death of a non-canon character.
Rating: Teen, or so.
Pairing: Abe/Nuala
Thanks: To![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
tavern_wench1 for the world's most awesome red-pen-of-doom beta job on an almost-complete draft after NaNoWriMo, and maymargaret, for giving me the seed of the idea late one night in a pub, working out the general outline with me on a walk around the lake, and generally cheerleading and never letting me forget this damned thing from the other side of the globe.
(...You thought I was kidding about how big this thing was, didn't you?...)
Link to previous chapter: 1 - 2 - 3
Day and night mattered little within the court, far beneath the surface and out of reach of sun or moon. Nuala had long since given up missing the touch of sunlight - she found now that she hardly remembered it. The light of candles and torches was strangely empty, but it gave warmth and brightened her spirits some as she walked through her kingdom. In the main hall the leaves of the tree that her father had planted still fell around her. Strange, she had been sure that it was beginning to recover...
"You've finally arrived, sister."
Nuala's attention snapped to the voice behind her, turning quickly, caught and held by her brother's dark gold gaze. "I'm sorry, I was delayed."
He waggled a finger at her, but smiled. "How could I not forgive you? On today, of all days."
Today. It was an important day, then - wasn't it? But Nuala could remember no holy day to mark, no feast to commemorate... "Is it a special day, then, brother?" she asked cautiously. Although he looked to be in good cheer, she knew only too well that anything could set Nuada into a rage that would make all the courtiers around them miserable, and her most of all. But Nuada only laughed.
"How can you have forgot? It is your coronation, sweet sister! Today you are to be crowned queen."
"Am I?" Of course - how had she forgotten? Such an important day to forget, but... "I'm not ready, brother. I don't know what to do, what to say--"
"Too late to think of that now," Nuada chided. "You stole the crown from my hands, sister - did you not know that someone would have to wear it? That if you took the prize from me, the responsibility for it would fall on your thin shoulders? You should have thought more carefully. But I forgive you. I'll stay here, and help you as I can." With a cat-like grin, he sauntered up the dais and sprawled in their father's throne.
She ought, she knew, to tell him that it wasn’t his - that he had no right to sit on the throne of the father he’d murdered. As rightful queen, she should order him to leave the throne-room and never return. It was her duty to her father’s memory, and to the memory of all that Nuada had ruined, and the rest that he’d come so close to destroying. But her feet felt as though they were rooted in the earthen floor of the council chamber, her voice as though it had been stolen away altogether. When she tried to speak, no sound came out, no matter how hard she tried to shout.
“You will be so happy, sister, now that we are together again,” Nuada was saying. “I promise you, you shall have everything your heart desires. Name me one thing - anything. Anything at all for you, on your coronation day.”
Nuala opened her mouth to tell him that he could hardly give her a coronation gift when he’d stolen her place from her, but as before she could force out no sound.
“You are speechless with wonder at my generosity, I see.” Nuada smiled indulgently at her, and beckoned her closer. Although she wanted none of whatever he planned to do or say, she found her feet carrying her to him, betrayed as always by their connection.
“As meek as ever. But how can I know what gift to give you if you won’t speak? Still? Nothing? Not a sound?” He waited a long moment. “Ah, well. It is a good thing for you that I am a loving and considerate brother as well as a generous king. I know your mind, sister - I can see within it every moment, and I see where your heart most lingers, what you most wish you could have. And of course you are, as always, so modest in your wishes. No gold or silk or priceless jewels for my beautiful sister, for none could make her shine more than she does on her own. Likewise no power, no wisdom, to sully the perfection of her innocent mind. Nor again the love of legions, to be worshipped as I must honestly state would be only her fair due. No, my sister longs only for her lover to be near her again - for his strange, dark eyes, expressive hands, and his good, pure heart. And what a brother would I be if I did not grant that simple wish?”
Nuada clapped his hands once, and a tall, cloaked figure appeared from the shadows.
“Abraham?” But even as Nuala cried out his name, she sensed that the person approaching could not be him. There was none of his grace in this being’s walk, none of his elegant carriage in its posture. The cloak fell away, and a guard stood before her wearing holding out a golden tray dripping with blue blood, on which lay a severed pair of elegant, long-fingered blue hands, two wide, dark eyeballs, and a heart still clotted with its last blood.
“And of course, my dear sister, I know you would not want to be without your children...”
Nuala screamed and fell backward... and then woke, trembling and twisted in her blankets.
She’d begun to retch even before she’d untangled herself completely, but, praise to all that was holy, found herself still blessedly alone. She vomited violently into the chamber pot, and then lay, curled up and miserable in the blankets, waiting for the horror of her nightmare to fade.
Safe, safe, it’s all safe, she told herself. Everything is fine. Boann will take the message to Abraham, and he will know to take care. Only a little longer - once the goblins have made the chain and the guards have found Nuada again, I can be sure it is safe for Abraham and the children here, and I can go to them. I can bring them here, and know always that they are safe. And yet those images, the beautiful hands and eyes that she loved so much cut from the heart that sustained them, ripped and hanging like butcher’s wares on a plate, their life still oozing sluggishly from them. And her children... Nausea gripped Nuala again, and she leaned over the edge of the bed, feeling abjectly pathetic and yet helplessly grateful that she had awoken before she learned what horrors her mind would dredge up for them. She had never yet actually seen her children in life, not fully-formed and without the glistening coccoons of jelly they’d been birthed with, but her mind, she had learned, was horrifyingly cunning at coming up with fresh torments to visit on the innocent shapes that she so often imagined during her waking hours.
Now that she was awake, she could feel the taint of Nuada’s mind on hers, and with it strange images, different from those she’d dreamed, but nonetheless disturbing. A city landscape, all hard edges and dark, straight lines, with bright lights shattering the night’s calm, and a dark cave of some kind. He was in the Human world again, then, as she had suspected. Beyond that, she could not tell anything useful - all cities looked alike to her, cold and grey and lifeless, and her lingering sickness and horror at what she’d seen in her dreams made her unwilling to push further into her brother’s thoughts to learn more - if she did, he would be sure to see her weakness and take advantage of it. She sighed, and sat up in bed again, pushing aside the pale gold curtains that protected her small bower... and stopped as she saw the black figure of one of the raven guards open the door into her chamber.
Her blood ran cold. Only something truly important would cause the guards to disturb her so early in the morning. “What has happened?”
The guard said nothing - they never did, it wasn’t their way - but only beckoned through the door. Another of the guards walked in, carrying a stiff and broken figure in pale amber-coloured stone. He set it carefully on the floor, revealing Boann’s face, her body curved unnaturally, as though she’d been thrown down a flight of stairs and left there at the bottom to die, her body still half raised on the steps. An intricately carved bone knife stuck out of her chest, and a single word in Gaelige had been carved on her forehead before she died - ’traitor.’
Nuala turned her face away, her eyes shut against the sight of her aide’s broken body, the sickly-sweet smell of dust and death that reminded her of her father’s body, of her own brief death.
“My brother did this.” It was not a question, but the raven-guard inclined his head anyway, then gestured at the body, a curious tilt to his long-masked head. “Take her away,” Nuala sighed. “Put her... put her in the lower chambers, until we can find a more suitable resting place. I must think of what he will do next.” She already knew, though. If Nuada had found Boann before she got her message to Abraham, then he probably knew of it by now - Nuala knew how persuasive her brother could be. He would go after Abraham and the children. And they would have had no warning.
Nuala looked up at the remaining raven-guard, took a deep breath, and steeled herself. “Gather all the guards left in the court. I must go out. I need to find someone, quickly.”
Characters: Abe Sapien, Nuala, Hellboy, Liz Sherman, Nuada, and a small cast of OCs.
Timeline: post-movie-2 AU.
Summary: The trouble with getting what you want is that something unexpected almost inevitably comes out of it. If Abe actually reads fairy tales, he really should know better.
Title: Be Near Me
Warnings: Short chapter. Disturbing themes and imagery. Death of a non-canon character.
Rating: Teen, or so.
Pairing: Abe/Nuala
Thanks: To
tavern_wench1 for the world's most awesome red-pen-of-doom beta job on an almost-complete draft after NaNoWriMo, and maymargaret, for giving me the seed of the idea late one night in a pub, working out the general outline with me on a walk around the lake, and generally cheerleading and never letting me forget this damned thing from the other side of the globe.(...You thought I was kidding about how big this thing was, didn't you?...)
Link to previous chapter: 1 - 2 - 3
Day and night mattered little within the court, far beneath the surface and out of reach of sun or moon. Nuala had long since given up missing the touch of sunlight - she found now that she hardly remembered it. The light of candles and torches was strangely empty, but it gave warmth and brightened her spirits some as she walked through her kingdom. In the main hall the leaves of the tree that her father had planted still fell around her. Strange, she had been sure that it was beginning to recover...
"You've finally arrived, sister."
Nuala's attention snapped to the voice behind her, turning quickly, caught and held by her brother's dark gold gaze. "I'm sorry, I was delayed."
He waggled a finger at her, but smiled. "How could I not forgive you? On today, of all days."
Today. It was an important day, then - wasn't it? But Nuala could remember no holy day to mark, no feast to commemorate... "Is it a special day, then, brother?" she asked cautiously. Although he looked to be in good cheer, she knew only too well that anything could set Nuada into a rage that would make all the courtiers around them miserable, and her most of all. But Nuada only laughed.
"How can you have forgot? It is your coronation, sweet sister! Today you are to be crowned queen."
"Am I?" Of course - how had she forgotten? Such an important day to forget, but... "I'm not ready, brother. I don't know what to do, what to say--"
"Too late to think of that now," Nuada chided. "You stole the crown from my hands, sister - did you not know that someone would have to wear it? That if you took the prize from me, the responsibility for it would fall on your thin shoulders? You should have thought more carefully. But I forgive you. I'll stay here, and help you as I can." With a cat-like grin, he sauntered up the dais and sprawled in their father's throne.
She ought, she knew, to tell him that it wasn’t his - that he had no right to sit on the throne of the father he’d murdered. As rightful queen, she should order him to leave the throne-room and never return. It was her duty to her father’s memory, and to the memory of all that Nuada had ruined, and the rest that he’d come so close to destroying. But her feet felt as though they were rooted in the earthen floor of the council chamber, her voice as though it had been stolen away altogether. When she tried to speak, no sound came out, no matter how hard she tried to shout.
“You will be so happy, sister, now that we are together again,” Nuada was saying. “I promise you, you shall have everything your heart desires. Name me one thing - anything. Anything at all for you, on your coronation day.”
Nuala opened her mouth to tell him that he could hardly give her a coronation gift when he’d stolen her place from her, but as before she could force out no sound.
“You are speechless with wonder at my generosity, I see.” Nuada smiled indulgently at her, and beckoned her closer. Although she wanted none of whatever he planned to do or say, she found her feet carrying her to him, betrayed as always by their connection.
“As meek as ever. But how can I know what gift to give you if you won’t speak? Still? Nothing? Not a sound?” He waited a long moment. “Ah, well. It is a good thing for you that I am a loving and considerate brother as well as a generous king. I know your mind, sister - I can see within it every moment, and I see where your heart most lingers, what you most wish you could have. And of course you are, as always, so modest in your wishes. No gold or silk or priceless jewels for my beautiful sister, for none could make her shine more than she does on her own. Likewise no power, no wisdom, to sully the perfection of her innocent mind. Nor again the love of legions, to be worshipped as I must honestly state would be only her fair due. No, my sister longs only for her lover to be near her again - for his strange, dark eyes, expressive hands, and his good, pure heart. And what a brother would I be if I did not grant that simple wish?”
Nuada clapped his hands once, and a tall, cloaked figure appeared from the shadows.
“Abraham?” But even as Nuala cried out his name, she sensed that the person approaching could not be him. There was none of his grace in this being’s walk, none of his elegant carriage in its posture. The cloak fell away, and a guard stood before her wearing holding out a golden tray dripping with blue blood, on which lay a severed pair of elegant, long-fingered blue hands, two wide, dark eyeballs, and a heart still clotted with its last blood.
“And of course, my dear sister, I know you would not want to be without your children...”
Nuala screamed and fell backward... and then woke, trembling and twisted in her blankets.
She’d begun to retch even before she’d untangled herself completely, but, praise to all that was holy, found herself still blessedly alone. She vomited violently into the chamber pot, and then lay, curled up and miserable in the blankets, waiting for the horror of her nightmare to fade.
Safe, safe, it’s all safe, she told herself. Everything is fine. Boann will take the message to Abraham, and he will know to take care. Only a little longer - once the goblins have made the chain and the guards have found Nuada again, I can be sure it is safe for Abraham and the children here, and I can go to them. I can bring them here, and know always that they are safe. And yet those images, the beautiful hands and eyes that she loved so much cut from the heart that sustained them, ripped and hanging like butcher’s wares on a plate, their life still oozing sluggishly from them. And her children... Nausea gripped Nuala again, and she leaned over the edge of the bed, feeling abjectly pathetic and yet helplessly grateful that she had awoken before she learned what horrors her mind would dredge up for them. She had never yet actually seen her children in life, not fully-formed and without the glistening coccoons of jelly they’d been birthed with, but her mind, she had learned, was horrifyingly cunning at coming up with fresh torments to visit on the innocent shapes that she so often imagined during her waking hours.
Now that she was awake, she could feel the taint of Nuada’s mind on hers, and with it strange images, different from those she’d dreamed, but nonetheless disturbing. A city landscape, all hard edges and dark, straight lines, with bright lights shattering the night’s calm, and a dark cave of some kind. He was in the Human world again, then, as she had suspected. Beyond that, she could not tell anything useful - all cities looked alike to her, cold and grey and lifeless, and her lingering sickness and horror at what she’d seen in her dreams made her unwilling to push further into her brother’s thoughts to learn more - if she did, he would be sure to see her weakness and take advantage of it. She sighed, and sat up in bed again, pushing aside the pale gold curtains that protected her small bower... and stopped as she saw the black figure of one of the raven guards open the door into her chamber.
Her blood ran cold. Only something truly important would cause the guards to disturb her so early in the morning. “What has happened?”
The guard said nothing - they never did, it wasn’t their way - but only beckoned through the door. Another of the guards walked in, carrying a stiff and broken figure in pale amber-coloured stone. He set it carefully on the floor, revealing Boann’s face, her body curved unnaturally, as though she’d been thrown down a flight of stairs and left there at the bottom to die, her body still half raised on the steps. An intricately carved bone knife stuck out of her chest, and a single word in Gaelige had been carved on her forehead before she died - ’traitor.’
Nuala turned her face away, her eyes shut against the sight of her aide’s broken body, the sickly-sweet smell of dust and death that reminded her of her father’s body, of her own brief death.
“My brother did this.” It was not a question, but the raven-guard inclined his head anyway, then gestured at the body, a curious tilt to his long-masked head. “Take her away,” Nuala sighed. “Put her... put her in the lower chambers, until we can find a more suitable resting place. I must think of what he will do next.” She already knew, though. If Nuada had found Boann before she got her message to Abraham, then he probably knew of it by now - Nuala knew how persuasive her brother could be. He would go after Abraham and the children. And they would have had no warning.
Nuala looked up at the remaining raven-guard, took a deep breath, and steeled herself. “Gather all the guards left in the court. I must go out. I need to find someone, quickly.”
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2010-10-25 03:01 am (UTC)An intense chapter. Poor Nuala.
Nuada's hypocrisy strikes me. He attacked Boann as a traitor -- even in the previous chapter -- and yet he doesn't see any treachery is his own killing of his father?
no subject
Date: 2010-10-25 05:01 am (UTC)Nuada's hypocrisy strikes me. He attacked Boann as a traitor -- even in the previous chapter -- and yet he doesn't see any treachery is his own killing of his father?
So, the thing with Boann. Yeah, this was kind of insane to write, and I had to go over it a lot of times, trying to figure out what was going on (because when it happened, it just sort of happened, and sometimes that's a good thing in writing, but other times I'm left just kind of staring at the page going "what the heck is going on here?" This was one of those 2nd times).
It all goes back to Nuada's... complicated and very messed up feelings for Nuala, and, yes, also to the thing with their father. Step one is that I genuinely think he loved their father. It tore him up, on some level, to kill him, but he felt that he had to, both because he genuinely believed that their father was doing the wrong thing as king and that it was his duty as his heir to step in and stop that... and, on some level, because he's a selfish bastard with a self-serving streak a mile wide. How much of it is which, I'm genuinely not sure, but what matters for this moment is the duty and right - as the heir, and having sworn to do what was needed for his people as he did at the end of the last war, I think he saw it as his right to step in and kill his father if he refused to do what Nuada thought was fulfilling his rightful destiny.
He also genuinely, desperately, really really wrongly, loves Nuala. She's the other side of him, the other part of his soul, and he genuinely believes that what's good for him is good for her, I think. As far as I'm concerned, it started out as honest, devoted, brotherly love - but always kind of desperate. I think they relied on each other a lot growing up - they were so close, they always knew each others' minds, and, because of their station (and because of how rare elf children are), I can't imagine they had many other close friends who they could actually just be friends with. Because of that, their relationship's always had this angle of 'you and me forever,' alone against the world sort of thing. That only got worse during the war (and some of that will come out in upcoming chapters). At this point, he loves her, he worships her (in a very unhealthy statue-on-a-pedestal kind of way), but he hates her for turning on him, hates her for siding with the humans against him, for killing them both, and for disgracing and dirtying herself by her relationship with Abe.
Boann is her guard, sworn to serve Nuala to death - she doesn't have the right, as far as he's concerned, to judge or betray Nuala. That goes against the order of things. He's deadly serious about that aspect of his judgment on Boann. It's treason in his mind, pure and simple, and it's all the more horrible because in a part of his mind Nuala still occupies a place of perfection. At the same time, what's treasonous in Boann doesn't count as treason from him, because he is equal to Nuala, and part of her, and therefore totally within his rights to stand in judgment over her.
...And now that I've delivered even more maddening tl;dr madness about these characters, I hope that made even the slightest bit of sense.
no subject
Date: 2010-10-27 01:32 am (UTC)