All of theses prompts will center around a single pairing: Ellery Wylan and Algernon St. Clair, both of whom play important roles in my Edana stories (of which I have planned to write 11 or 12, so baton down the hatches and get used to these boys ;) )
In the interest of full disclosure, their relationship does actually occur in my timeline for the story set. However, their love story doesn't have a part in the series... and you may see why if you keep up with these!
Prompt: (04) Reader Insert
Perspective: Second Person
Genre: Fantasy, Drama
Length: 1086 words
Warnings:
-Unicorns -Title Dropping
-Ambiguity -My Favorite Made-Up Word
Additional Notes: This piece has inspired me to include one more character in this world --the character who narrates this story. See the end of the post for details on how you can be involved!
That the High Warlock Algernon St. Clair lived in rural Tal was no secret. However, it was notoriously impossible to find him if he had no wish to be found.
Yet here you were, at a lavish country estate with beautifully tended gardens and a unicorn grazing in the back pasture. You do a double take. Surely… surely you’d imagined the unicorn.
Nonetheless, when you glanced back, the unicorn was still there. You shook your head, deciding you really shouldn’t have been surprised. After all, he was the High Warlock of Edana.
Raising your hand to knock on the door proved a fruitless effort when the door swung open. Before you stood the most feral-looking man you had ever seen. “What is it?” he demanded, his voice low and rough and harsh.
After so many shocks today, your delicate constitution wasn’t quite up to such a confrontation. Your trembling knees collapse beneath you and you stare at the grass for a few moments before it all goes dark.
Your eyes flutter open and you register the extremely foreign sensation of being carried like a virgin on the way to the honeymoon suite. More than that, you realize the man holding you so effortlessly is the same man who scared your knees from beneath you. Still, he holds you gently, with the sort of ‘all life is precious’ air as the burly woodsmen you’ve met before, so it never even occurs to you that you should struggle against his grasp.
Blinking mutely, you stared up at the man’s face, at the swirling mercury eyes that seemed to capture everything and nothing all at once.
“Ellery, put our guest down on the bed, please,” a bored voice intoned.
The man holding you actually growled. “Algernon, you know the limits of my Sight better than almost anyone else. I cannot see the gods-forsaken bed!”
The High Warlock shook his head, his pale hair flaring about his face like the flicker of secret magick. “My apologies, Ellery.” As you watched, he pointed his finger toward to bed and a stream of pale lavender sparks flew from his outstretched pointer finger. “Better?”
The man holding you –Ellery, you assumed– grumbled under his breath but began to move toward the bed, anyway. “What brings you out this way?” he inquired after he’d laid you down. His voice was deep and powerful, like a rumble of thunder, and it sent chills dancing across your skin.
“I… I don’t know…! I was walking on the road…” you begin, but you can’t remember what happened next at all.
“The Road brought you here?” The formerly bored voice of the High Warlock was now quick and electrifying –the lightning strike to Ellery’s roll of thunder.
You nod, a little frightened.
“Algernon, you’re frightening the youngling.” Ellery’s hand found yours and gave it a gentle squeeze. He had the look of a wild man, his long dark hair tangled down his back, his big hands rough and scarred, his clothes worn, his eyes eerie, but his gentleness was both surprising and welcome.
As it drawn by your thought of them, those eyes wandered across your body slowly, as though he could see even the dust on your hands. But hadn’t he said he couldn’t see? When they met your eyes again, you’d swear his irises had a pale green color. However, you brush it off as impossible.
“…You’re Fae-touched,” he concluded, eyes sweeping up and away to look at Algernon. “Any relation?”
“Oh, very funny. As though I still speak to Lady Perrena.”
“Come, now. Don’t forsake your mother on my account.”
“Fine. I’ll forsake her on my own account! She always does this. ‘Well, how long is this one going to last?’” Algernon mimicked in a high voice. “Like I choose my lovers on some hint from kismet!”
Ellery sighed. “Yes, but she would know who’s youngling this is on sight. Don’t forsake your mother when she can be useful, dearest.” He turned back to you. “Do you have any idea which of your parents might be Fae?”
You remembered the event that had sent you running from your home in the first place.
You were a bit late coming home from Old Master Benson’s shop, but you didn’t think your mother would mind that much. After all, you needed the money.
For a moment, you paused at the door, wondering whether or not she would ask you to explain your tardiness. She was withdrawing more and more, lately, and it was starting to worry you. When you opened the door, however, you were stunned to see that she had torn apart the living room and tossed things all over.
“You!” your mother railed at you, grabbing roughly at your shirt. “If only you were never born! If you were never born he would have stayed with me!”
Large, warm hands settled on your shoulders, pulling you out of the memory. “There, now,” Ellery said. “I didn’t mean to dredge up a painful memory, youngling.”
“My… my father, I think…” you mumble quietly, surprised by how much Ellery’s touch comforted you. “My mother… she blamed me for my father leaving her…”
Algernon came closer to you. “I’m sorry, youngling,” he said, standing just behind Ellery’s imposing form. Surprisingly, for all the stories about Algernon St. Clair, no one ever mentioned how slight and delicate he seemed. His violet eyes shown with surprising empathy, and you wondered why he should apologize for someone else’s actions.
Ellery reached back for Algernon, gently drawing him up to his side. They really were opposites, you decided. The thick, broad wild-man with surprising kindness and the elegant, almost dainty man whose beauty offset his acrid tongue. Wrapped in Ellery’s arms, Algernon looked rail-thin and childlike.
“You bear a kiss of magick,” Algernon informed me, his voice almost kind for the first time since you’d met him.
“What does that mean?” you ask him.
“You have the talent, youngling. Shall I train you?” he asked, his voice smooth and rich and charming.
“…You don’t have the patience anymore, dearest,” Ellery rumbled from beside him.
Algernon scowled at him. “Are you volunteering, Wild Wizard of the East?” he inquired sourly.
He inclined his head, his loose hair hiding his face like a curtain. “I am, High Warlock of Edana.”
You watch them carefully, wondering if you really have any say in this at all.
Please comment with a gender assignment and a reason as to why you think that gender is most suited!
With much love,
~Lulu~