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>When posting prompts, always remember to add kinks you're both looking for and wanting to avoid in a potential fill.
>When filling, please remember to add your story tags: characters, relationship types, kinks, series and universe (ie: skyrim)
>Our character limit here at LJ is 4300.
>If you have any other questions about posting, visit the HOW TO KINK MEME THREAD, under the Page Summary on your left.
Re: Thicker Than Blood 14.8
Date: 2014-03-21 12:09 am (UTC)“I need to visit more often, don't I?” Liriel said guiltily. “That's right, treasure, I need to come see you in Solitude, don't I? By Kynareth, look at you, you're huge now! How are you nearly talking, hmm?”
“They grow up so fast,” Elisif said knowingly. A deep breath and then she looked up, meeting Liriel's eyes. “We heard about your news too! Congratulations, I'm so happy for you! When's it due?”
“About eight months or so, we think,” Liriel admitted. “Altmer pregnancies last longer but with a half-blood, no one's really sure. All the Altmer literature is from Alinor, all insisting it never happens, but I know that's not true. I told Mother, she's torn between wanting grandchildren and being appalled, but Cali's not stopped bouncing since we told her.”
“I can imagine,” Elisif said, before turning to Madanach, just recovering from being congratulated by his son. “Hello, Madanach.”
“High Queen,” Madanach replied awkwardly. Elisif hadn't really said why she wanted a visit, and most of the communications had been between their stewards, but Madanach imagined it wasn't just so Liriel and Elisif could talk babies. “To what do we owe the pleasure?”
Elisif made her way up the steps until she was standing before him, Liriel following with Lirela in her arms, whispering to her about elves being different from humans and having different ears.
“I thought I should see how you were doing, now you're back from your, er, holiday,” Elisif said nervously. “And... er... oh Aedra, I brought some guests along. Your steward knows about them, well, sort of. Er, this is Danica Pure-Spring from the Temple of Kynareth, Colette Marence from the College of Winterhold, and Maramal from the Temple of Mara in Riften.”
Two priests and a mage. Interesting. Madanach recalled the Temple of Kynareth being the most noted centre of healing in Skyrim, and the Temple of Mara known for its mission of compassion and mercy to those less fortunate. And Colette Marence, wasn't she the notoriously prickly Restoration mistress at Winterhold? An odd combination but there was a link here, he could tell.
“Welcome to the Reach,” Madanach said, inclining his head. “Was it the magical research programme you were interested in or the Slan Gwasanaeth?”
“The latter... sort of,” Elisif said hesitantly. “We're here about the Skooma programme.”
“The... what?” Madanach scratched his head, confused. “Why would you want to know about that? You're not an addict.”
“No, I'm Queen!” Elisif sighed. “Madanach, Skyrim's got plenty of Skooma addicts and we can't send them all to the Reach for treatment. We want to know how you do it. We want to know how it works, how well it works, talk to some recovering addicts and some of the healers. Danica's interested in seeing how your Health Service operates, Maramal wants to know how you could help some of Riften's victims when the Temple of Mara never managed, and Colette thinks her colleagues will take Restoration magic a bit more seriously once she's written a few papers on its use to treat addiction. And... I confess, I'm curious to know what's involved. Argis told me a bit about it and got me some of the publicity material, but it's not the same as seeing it in action.”
“You want to know if it really works so you can decide if I'm worthy of being in polite society again, aren't you?” Madanach said, drawing his own conclusions and smirking as he saw his daughter-in-law blush. However, she recovered quickly.
“Oh, have no fear there, I already know you're not,” Elisif shot back. “But that's been the case for as long as I've known you. Doesn't mean you're all bad, or that you don't take care of your own.” She smiled hopefully, and even a hardened warlord like Madanach couldn't help but be a little affected by it.
Re: Thicker Than Blood 14.9
Date: 2014-03-21 12:10 am (UTC)“I would never push anyone into sharing anything they didn't want to,” Elisif said gently. “Thank you, Madanach, this could benefit more people than you could ever realise. Here. Liriel, may I...?”
“Oh, of course!” Liriel said, just about managing to tear her attention away from Lirela long enough to hand her back to her mother. Elisif cuddled her baby, kissed her gently and then held her out to Madanach.
“She missed you,” Elisif explained on seeing Madanach's stunned face. “You're the only grandparent she's got, and I felt bad you didn't get to see as much of her as you could have last time. So here she is. That's right, Lirela, that's your granda, isn't it?”
Lirela had squealed, holding her hands out to Madanach, who took her without a word, holding her close while she babbled at him.
“You don't mind?” Madanach asked, amazed at the change of heart. Elisif shook her head, smiling as Argis rejoined her, arm around her shoulders.
“We had a talk,” said Argis gruffly. “I told her you'd been struggling for years and managed to stay clean since you got out, and Lirela had never come to any harm yet. Didn't think it was right you being kept away from her without good cause.”
“And he's right,” Elisif said, voice gentle and quiet. “So we decided it was high time we visited to see just how exactly you're managing to keep your people sober when the rest of us have been trying for years without any luck.”
It doesn't always work. But the defining characteristic of the programme was a gentle refusal to give anyone up as a lost cause, and if you fell off the wagon, your fellow group members would help you get back on it again. He'd seen that for himself.
But now was not the time to worry about any of that, not today. Lirela was babbling on, frowning and no doubt wanting to know why he wasn't talking to her, and he knew enough about babies to know that at that age, it wasn't so much the words as simply that you spoke to them. Cradling his granddaughter in his arms and pretending to marvel at a fictitious tale of dragons and heroism she was spinning him, Madanach headed back into his city. He had his family back and it was due to get bigger. Everything was going to be fine.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Eight months later
Screaming. Screaming from inside the Royal Bedchamber, and outside by the throne room, things weren't much better.
“Gods, why did I do this?” Madanach gasped. “I'd forgotten it was this horrific – gnnnfph!” A shot of jenever later and Madanach collapsed on the stone table, wishing it was Skooma. Yes, Skooma would be just the thing, it nullified the marriage bond, meaning he wouldn't be able to feel his wife screaming in agony and cursing his name every five minutes.
“Breathe, boss,” Borkul murmured, rubbing his back. “It's OK, you can get through this, you've done it before.”
“I was thirty years younger then!” Madanach said through gritted teeth, nails digging into stone but it didn't help, none of it helped, not even painkillers helped. It wasn't his pain that was ripping him apart.
“Reach-King, Reach-King, dearest blood brother, Cicero has hot water and warm towels!” Cicero trilled as he scampered out from the kitchens.
“You are aware I'm not actually giving birth, aren't you – oh, that's actually rather nice.” A warm towel across the forehead had a surprisingly soothing effect, which made a definite change from Liriel's mind in his head howling venom at him for doing this to her.
Re: Thicker Than Blood 14.10
Date: 2014-03-21 12:11 am (UTC)Madanach didn't want to think about it, if he was honest. Keirine, Sabrinda and Eola between them had this in hand, right? Right?
Then Eola ran out of the room, blood staining the front of that healer's robe she'd changed into, snapping at Cicero to get over there and taking that odd stamina booster ring off him before dashing back in, and Cicero had come back pale and shaking all over, and Madanach's fear had turned to terror... and he couldn't feel Liriel any more.
“Something's wrong,” he whispered. “I need to get in there, need to help, something's wrong!”
He tried to get up and promptly collapsed, his body long ago having given up any attempt at pretending it was anything other than that of a sixty-one year old man who'd been up for over sixteen hours. Fortunately Borkul caught him and then he and Nepos were hauling Madanach back onto his chair.
“Madanach, you are in no state to do anything and there's nothing you could do even if you were,” Nepos said firmly. “Now sit down – Keirine has done this a hundred times.”
“Liriel hasn't,” Madanach whispered, trying to reach out to her but he couldn't feel her, why couldn't he feel her??
“Reach-King. Madanach. Brother, Cicero is scared,” Cicero whispered, clearly still well and truly linked to Eola and no, no, this wasn't happening, Eola was never scared, Eola feared nothing.
Madanach pulled Cicero into his arms and clung on to the terrified jester, wanting to feel someone there, someone with their arms around him, and Cicero was all he had. Neither Nepos or Borkul did cuddling, but Cicero now, Cicero would drape himself over anyone.
Cicero was huddled next to him now, wide-eyed and frightened, and Madanach could do nothing.
“She's going to be all right,” Madanach said firmly. “She has to be, doesn't she know I need her?”
“What if Mother wants her more?” Cicero whispered. “What if she is angry with the Listener? What then?”
“It won't happen,” Madanach said firmly. “It won't!”
But he couldn't feel her, and that scared him more than anything. Not dead... but where was she?
The door to the bedroom flung open and footsteps strode out. Not Eola. Not Keirine either, and then every other thought flew out of his head as he heard what they'd all been waiting for. The sound of a baby crying.
“Liriel,” Madanach whispered and Cicero had got up, fleeing towards the birthing chamber, darting right past the figure who'd emerged, all thoughts on his Listener.
“Hey!” Sabrinda cried. “Matriarch Keirine said no one allowed in there – oh for Auriel's sake, fine, risk the wrath of the most dangerous Hagraven in the country, see if I care.”
Madanach was quite inclined to let Cicero get on with it. All his attention was on the crying, fussing bundle in Sabrinda's arms. Thalmor robes long gone, the ex-Justiciar turned Knight-Paladin was wearing a simple orange priest robe and cradling in her arms her latest grandchild – not her first but the first she'd actually met.
“Is that...?” he whispered. Sabrinda tore her eyes away from the infant long enough to meet his, and for once, she actually looked pleased to see him.
“Yes,” she said softly. “Yes, it is. I've got a grandson, Madanach!”
Somehow Madanach found the energy to stagger over, holding out his arms as Sabrinda carefully handed the baby over – his son. His newborn son, and as Madanach pulled the blankets back, he could feel tears in his eyes. He was absolutely beautiful, golden skin and red hair like Liriel's but rounder features, much like a human's and possibly he'd look a bit more Elven later but right now, he didn't look much different from a human baby... apart from the ears. He had the ears. Sithis be praised, he had the ears.
Re: Thicker Than Blood 14.11
Date: 2014-03-21 12:12 am (UTC)There followed several minutes of breathless cooing as the King of the Forsworn, the spymaster of the Forsworn, an Orc who'd killed more people than most people had ever met and a former Thalmor who had been most zealous indeed in hunting down Talos-worshippers all collectively lost it over a tiny baby.
“Hey, boss, looks like he's gonna have human eyes. They're not slanted, look.”
“They don't slant later?”
“No, Madanach, of course not, skull bones don't alter that much! He's got a human face,” Sabrinda sighed. “Well, can't have everything. What?”
“I quite agree, Knight-Paladin, slanted eyes would have been nice, but I'm sure he'll have a lovely personality.”
“... Nepos, did you just imply my son is ugly?”
“What, me? Never, Madanach.”
“Oh, this is gonna be good...”
“Aetherius's sake, what is it with you. Is it a human thing or a man thing, I honestly can't decide...”
“All right, that's it, if you two don't stop disparaging my son, I'm having the pair of you executed.”
“How dare you, I am a Knight-Paladin of Auriel!”
“Oh don't worry, Sabrinda, he's always like this when he's tired. Come on, let's leave the new father to it. He has a baby to dote on, that'll sort him out.”
“I will never understand what Liriel sees in him...”
“Nor do we, my dear, nor do we...”
“My mother-in-law and my steward are ganging up on me, should I be worried?” Madanach asked, glancing up at Borkul. The Orc shook his head, grinning.
“Nah. She'll say something tactless about humans at some point, annoy Nepos but he'll be too diplomatic to say anything and just start managing her instead, which will save you having to do it. I wouldn't worry, boss. Worry about your wife and this little one and let the rest look after itself.”
His wife... Liriel. Madanach reached for her in a panic... and felt her respond. Tired, shattered, sore and weak but there, conscious and there, and Madanach practically sprinted for the bedroom, his baby son who would be named Caradach eventually but not just yet, nestled in his arms, having calmed right down once his father had taken hold of him.
Liriel was propped up in bed, pale and exhausted but breathing. Eola was sitting next to her on the bed, Cicero kneeling by it, both gently stroking her forehead and hand respectively and cooing over her.
“You're gonna be OK, Mama Liriel,” Eola was saying. “You did it, sweetie, you did it, I'm so proud of you.”
“It hurt,” Liriel whispered tearfully. “It hurt so much.”
“I know, cariad, I know,” Eola said softly, kissing her forehead.
“Listener is all right,” Cicero was cooing. “Cicero was worried! But Listener lives and Listener can still listen.”
“I don't think I can move,” Liriel whispered.
“No Listening for you just yet,” Eola scolded. “Nine days of rest, Forsworn style, and then we can think about you getting up and moving about, and then you can start Listening again, hmm?”
“Cicero has set up the Night Mother in the Keep especially!” Cicero cooed, apparently not seeming to quite realise Liriel had just had what sounded like a difficult birth, to put it mildly.
“All right, that is enough,” Keirine said, bundling up bloodstained bed linen and towels for later disposal. “Eola, nieceling, time for you to go to bed, and take your man with you. And thank you. You were invaluable, not sure what I'd have done without you.”
“You would have managed,” Eola said, grinning. “All right, Cicero, we're leaving the new parents to it. Night, Da. Night, Liriel.”
Eola chivvied a squealing Cicero out of the door and Liriel visibly collapsed as soon as they'd gone.
“Thank Sithis that's over with,” Liriel whispered. “Madanach, we are never having another. How in the world does anyone have more than one child?? Humans especially, Mother had a century to get over one before having the next!”
“I couldn't tell you,” Madanach said, smiling as he approached the bed. “Keirine, we're all done, you're clearing the afterbirth out, yes?”
The merest flinch from Keirine, but then she smiled.
“Yes, yes, consider it disposed of. Right, I'm off. Liriel, do not hesitate to call me if you need anything.”
Re: Thicker Than Blood 14.12
Date: 2014-03-21 12:13 am (UTC)“Are you all right?” he said hesitantly. “It was a difficult one, wasn't it. What happened? I couldn't feel you at all at one point...”
“Might have been the pain potion,” Liriel said, eyes still closed. “It just dampened down everything, I wasn't even sure where I was. Couldn't feel anything, which is good because that's when Keirine sliced me open and hauled the baby out. I think I fainted at that point, Mother wasn't looking too good either.”
Nor was Madanach on hearing that – he knew Hags could do that, it had saved the life of many a struggling mother and her child before now... would have saved his own mother in fact. But it was a different matter entirely to know it had happened to his wife.
“Are you really all right,” he whispered, feeling chilled inside. He had the horrible feeling he'd nearly lost her. Liriel just nodded sleepily.
“Yes, cariad, I'm fine, just tired. Eola had a brainwave and she sorted me out. I'm fine now, just really tired.”
Caradach stirred in his father's arms, starting to fuss and wail, and Liriel's eyes flickered open.
“Oh! The baby! You've got it!”
“Of course I have, I just met my son, you think I'm leaving him lying around? No, don't say the name yet, bad luck until the naming day, but yes, he's here. Look, mabion, it's your mother. She's pretty, isn't she? Yes she is, you're the son of the most beautiful woman in Tamriel, you lucky boy.”
Liriel gasped, almost sobbing as she reached out for her son, taking him in her arms and staring at him and Madanach could cry with happiness as he saw Liriel's face light up in astonishment and delight.
“Oh my goodness,” Liriel breathed, staring down at her son. “Oh my goodness, he's adorable, look at his face! Madanach, his hands, look at his hands, they're so tiny!”
“I know!” Madanach laughed, coming to lie alongside her, arms around her as he kissed her shoulder. “He's beautiful, isn't he? He's got your skin and hair and ears, but Borkul reckons he's got a human face.”
“I don't care,” Liriel whispered, staring hungrily at him. “He's gorgeous, look at him, and he's so small and tiny and oh gods, what if something happens to him?”
“Nothing will,” Madanach murmured. “I swear it.”
“But didn't you say that to Mireen after your two oldest were born?” Liriel said, slightly sharply for his liking.
“No,” said Madanach tersely. “Because Mireen didn't give a flying fuck about either of them once she found out they were girls.” Liriel looked a bit hurt and Madanach softened immediately, snuggling in to her. “But you don't care about that, do you? You love him anyway.”
Liriel nodded, eyes not leaving Caradach and then the tears started to fall as she held her baby tight, and Madanach pulled his wife and child into his arms. He had a son – they had a son. He was a father again for the, what, eighth time now? Nine if you counted Cali.
Madanach stared down at Caradach, so fragile and helpless in Liriel's arms, and then Liriel, exhausted but still strong. He loved them both more than anything, save only his other children.
For you, I will give up the sunlight, give up my humanity. For you, I'd do anything.
Nestling down alongside Liriel, Madanach closed his eyes. He had a wife who loved him and who also loved the son they'd had together. This time, they'd raise him together, and this time, perhaps things might go according to plan.