#Abul Dyrion

[starlitangels]

Trust Me

A request from @the7thheroine for an Abul argument story! It’s been a bit since I wrote for Siren’s Son ASMR so... here’s hoping it’s okay, LOL XD 1.2k words CW: Argument

—

Abul slammed the door to his chambers, shoving one hand through his hair, wincing slightly as his horn caught the skin of his wrist. I stopped rearranging the pillows where I’d just made his bed and watched him stalk over the balcony, throwing the doors open. “Bul?” I asked quietly.

He jolted—like he hadn’t realized I was standing there. “What?” he asked, tone testy. He’d had a rough day. Usually I was allowed around wherever he’d be, given I was his personal servant, but his meetings today were, evidently, extremely secret, so I’d busied myself in cleaning his chambers. Usually I had help from other palace servants but given I had nothing else better to do, I’d done it all myself.

“Are you okay?”

“Do I look like I’m okay?”

I set my jaw. My grandmother had taught me a lot about half-dragons. I knew about their tempers, but that didn’t make him venting frustration at me okay.

Subconsciously, I lifted a hand to the necklace he’d made me. I only wore it on days like today when I knew I wasn’t going to see anyone else in the palace. “No, you don’t,” I retorted. “So how about I rephrase? What’s going on?”

“Nothing, treasure.”

“Don’t lie to me, Abul.”

He shot me a look. “Treasure, there are things that I can’t tell you. I’m the king now and that comes with a lot of... top secret stuff.”

“Like this relationship?” I shot at him.

He growled and shook his head. “That’s different.”

“How so? Hmm?”

“You are a matter of the heart. This is a matter of state.”

I rolled my eyes. “Fine, whatever,” I muttered, going back to arranging the pillows. Once I was done, I turned sharply on my heel and stomped toward the door.

“Where are you going?” Abul demanded.

“Leaving you to your thoughts, apparently. I’m done. I’ve done everything I’m supposed to do in here.” I slammed the door behind me before he could say anything else, storming off toward the servant’s quarters. I was happy for Bren and the reveal that he and Abul were half-brothers, but I missed having someone sharing the quarters. Having a friend to talk to.

Abul caught up to me, grabbing my wrist. “What is your problem?” he demanded.

My eyes widened and my jaw dropped. “My problem? What’s your problem, Abul? Why are you being short with me, of all people? If you need some space, fine. But I’m not going to just stand there and let you use me as your emotional punching bag because you don’t know how to process your emotions properly.”

“I am not being short with you.”

“Then what do you call this?” I yanked my arm out of his wrist. Normally I probably wouldn’t have been able to break a dragon’s hold if I tried—but Abul’s grip wasn’t tight. Almost like I had shocked him. “Look, if you don’t want me around when you get back from meetings, all you have to do is say so.”

“It’s not that, treasure.”

“Then what is it?”

“I can’t tell you.”

I ground my teeth and threw up my hands before letting them fall back to my sides, smacking into my legs. “If you can’t trust me, Abul, then this isn’t going to work. I love you, but love without trust is too flimsy to last.”

“I can’t tell you because you’re human!” Abul burst.

I took a step back. “Then we definitely can’t work. If you can’t trust me because I’m human, then there’s no point in you loving me. There’s nothing I can do about being human.” I whirled around and ran the rest of the way to the servant’s chambers. Once there, I stripped off the skimpy servants’ clothing and pulled out the old outfit I’d worn up to the keep on the hill where he and I first met. Trousers and a loose linen shirt. The strappy sandals were left behind in favor of my boots.

Something I’d learned about being a servant was how many small backstage passageways there were specifically to keep servants out of sight or out of the way. I could probably move through the Sky Palace faster than Abul just by taking the servants’ corridors.

I gathered up the rest of my belongings in my rucksack—and paused. The necklace he made me... I reached up and touched it. Before reaching back and undoing the clasp. I left the necklace on my bed next to my sandals and skimpy clothes.

I slipped into one of the servants’ corridors whose entrance was in my chambers. Abul would probably get lost in those corridors. He’d never had reason to use them.

They were dark but I knew them well. I kept one hand on the stone wall and ran down it.

Within minutes, I was under the Sky Palace keep’s wall, leaving the dragon capital city behind me. The corridor spilled out into the lower town, where I vanished into the crowds of dragons. I got several confused looks, but I walked with so much purpose that no one stopped me.

Once I hit the edge of town, I broke into a run again. I didn’t know where I was going. Just... away. Dragon territory was huge and it would take days or weeks of travel to get out of on foot, but what was the point of staying?

I ignored the way my heart ached, trying to push me back in the direction I’d come from. No, I thought sharply. He can love me all he wants, but if he can’t trust me, then everything will crumble before it can even be built. I shook my head and kept running.

Once the fields were behind me and I hit the trees, I slowed down.

The beating of powerful wings echoed through the air. Distant, but getting closer. I ducked off the path and pressed myself up against a tree with a thick trunk.

Leaves rustled fast as something shot past just overhead. I closed my eyes.

Thud! Something heavy landed not too far away. “Treasure?” Abul called.

I tried to creep farther down the path, away from the town and the Sky Palace, but Abul emerged from the trees directly in front of me.

“I’m not in the mood to fight, Abul. I meant what I said. There’s no point in arguing about it any more.” I ducked around him and started to hike back to the dirt road.

“That’s not—” Abul started.

“Don’t bother,” I said. “Look, I get it, okay? I’m human. You’re half-dragon, and you’re the king. It was foolish of us to think we could ever work out.”

“Treasure, please, just listen? I came to apologize. You’re right. I need to trust you. I love you. More than I ever thought I could love... anyone. And I don’t want to lose you. Please? Just come back with me?”

I turned. He had his hand extended toward me.

“Promise to trust me?”

“I swear to you.”

I reached out and took his hand. “Okay. Let’s go home.”

He gave me a soft smile. “Home,” he agreed.

[starlitangels]

Duke, Beast, Mason, and Theo are all happening around the same time as each other

And Abul, Bren, and Shay are also happening around the same time as each other

But I suspect Abul, Bren, and Shay might be a little earlier in the timeline than Duke, Theo, Mason, and Beast

Because Circe basically raised Mason, and she didn’t go to Montell until Ravenfell was burned down. And yeah it was retconned that Ravenfell burned A While Ago™, but Kassia’s still like in her 20’s and she’s still the one who burned it. And Circe’s been a figure in Mason’s life for like 15-20 years (despite the fact that her art makes her look super young but maybe that’s part of some magic shenanigans). And Theo may not be the brightest bulb in the chandelier but he forgot the name of Ravenfell and called it an old burnt down town. So it’s been quite some time, making me think Bren, Abul, and Shay are all, like, meeting their Listeners maybe about 20 years before Beast, Duke, Theo, and Mason meet theirs.

[starlitangels]

I hope Shay’s Angelfish told Bren’s Driftwood about what happened to them at the palace after Bren left, and Driftwood goes on to tell Bren about it, so Bren goes to Abul like, “Hey, have you seen Kassia? I need her to help me with a thing. My brothers and sisters hurt a servant after I left and they need to be punished.”

And Kassia and Bren go wreck things. Maybe Abul follows after them to keep an eye on them, shaking his head like an exasperated mom

[starlitangels]

Surrender

I wish one of Bren’s siblings was secretly nice, so... I wrote this. (Great excuse to re-listen to Bren’s playlist, too, just for the fun of it.)

—

Bren and I sat on the beach below the Sky Palace, watching the sunset. The first peace we’d had since Bellamy ambushed me at the cove in my village. I held onto Bren, and he held onto me.

“Will you sing something for me?” I asked softly. Apart from the fact that I always wanted to hear him sing, I knew he enjoyed it a lot and didn’t used to get the chance much. So I encouraged him to whenever we were somewhere that we wouldn’t bother people.

He hummed. “What would you like?”

I shrugged. “Anything.”

He smiled. “Say something I’m giving up on you,” he sang quietly. “I’ll be the one, if you want me to.” His voice was as melancholy as his face. “Anywhere I would’ve followed you...” His eyes stared out at the sea, violet in the fading sunlight, but he didn’t seem to be seeing it. “Say something I’m giving up on you.”

“And I...” a female voice, soprano, joined on the harmony. “Am feeling so small.” Bren and I looked around wildly for the source. It wasn’t me—I couldn’t sing like that. “It was over my head. I know nothing at all.”

Bren stopped singing.

A young woman appeared from around the corner. Tall and slender, with long black hair, bangs, and lots of violet and silver rings woven into the many plaits her hair was bound in. She had the same fair skin as Bren and Bellamy and Barrow, but her eyes and fins were indigo, leaning toward violet. A whip dangled off her hip, on a small loop attached to the skintight black leggings under a thin, light violet skirt.

Bren shoved me behind him. “Jericho!” he spat as I stumbled. “What are you doing here?”

Jericho took the whip off her hip and dropped it into the sand, putting her hands up. “Stand down, Bren, for once I’m not here to hurt you,” she said. Her voice was smooth and melodious. Another siren, if I had to guess.

Bren held onto me so tightly it made my bones protest. “Then what do you want?”

“Father sent me to beat you up and bring you home,” Princess Jericho said frankly. “Unfortunately for him, this was the one opportunity I needed to make things right.” She kicked the handle of the whip closer to us. “And please tell your pirate to put that sword away. I’m not here to fight.”

Bren snatched up Jericho’s whip, coiled the whole thing, and handed it to me.

“Talk,” Bren ordered. I was impressed at how much braver he’d become the last few weeks. I had too, I guessed. Living on a pirate ship tended to do that.

“Father’s angry that you found out the truth about your past. He sent me to bring you home. But this is the first time in our entire lives I’ve been alone with you away from the prying eyes of anyone in the palace. And... I came to surrender to you. To... apologize. 

“Bren, I am so sorry. You have every right to be furious with me, and I don’t expect you to ever forgive me. The things I did to you... they were horrible. They were wrong. I know that. I never wanted to be cruel. But everyone else treated you so poorly, and Father expected them to do it. I knew you and I would both be in trouble if I was ever kind to you. So I played along. I tried so hard to only hurt you if I absolutely had to—and to make it as minimal as possible.

“I know you’re not Father’s son, by the way,” Jericho added. “I figured it out a long time ago. I can’t say for certain whether the others know, but I don’t think they do.”

“How did you figure it out then?”

Jericho raised one black eyebrow. “If you were Father’s son, and Mother truly gave her life in childbirth for you, then Father would have loved you most of all. Well, not loved. Father can’t love. But he would have favored you. Instead, he hated you, blamed you for Mother’s death when we asked, turned the rest of us against you. How could you be his son, if he felt no remorse doing that?

“Then, when I was twelve, I found the records of Mother’s travels. That night she ran to the Sky Palace. Dragon territory, seeking asylum for the night. It was nine months before her death. Putting two and two together wasn’t hard.” Jericho shrugged. “I’ve known for a long time.”

“So, what do you want?” Bren asked.

Jericho took a deep breath. “I want you to turn me over to the dragons. I want them to beat the hell out of me and dump me in the waters over the palace so that the guards find me before the sharks do. Meanwhile you take your... pirate and run somewhere safe until this all blows over.

“If you have any other ideas, I’m open to suggestions, but this is what I came up with.” Jericho sighed. “I spent so many years hurting you... I’m trying to protect you now. Mother loved you so much she gave her life for you. You... you were the only child born to her out of love. She would be beyond disappointed in the rest of us for how we’ve treated you all these years. It’s deplorable. Despicable. Pathetic. There’s... this doesn’t even begin to redeem me for everything I’ve done to you, but it’s what I can do in the present circumstances. I’ll even give the dragons some information on our armies. Nothing super useful, of course, but enough to turn the tide in the next fight, probably.”

I leaned around Bren’s shoulder. “Did you take your anger out on that servant after Bren left too?”

“Wait, what?” Bren asked.

Jericho scrunched her eyebrows. “No. I pretended to, but I missed every strike. How did you know about that?”

“That servant was so distraught by the pain your brothers and sister inflicted that they ran away toward the surface and got caught in the same net of the same pirates as I did, just a few days before me. Said pirate is taking that servant to Destimona to be sold as an aquarium decoration as part of the half-blood slave trade.” I chose to omit the part where the pirate captain was absolutely head-over-heels in love with that servant and they were probably already running away to Queen’s Garden together.

Jericho looked genuinely sad. “I’d hoped they were still alive. I’m sorry. For everything.” She held her hands out, wrists together. “Someone will shackle me, I’m sure, before I’m dragged in front the dragons.”

Bren and I looked at each other. “We don’t just have shackles on us at all times,” Bren said.

Jericho rolled her eyes. “What kind of pirate are you?” she asked me.

“Pirates don’t take prisoners,” I said darkly, glaring at her, tightening my grip on my sword.

She smiled. It was a more relishing wicked smile than even Captain Silvertongue’s scariest smile. “Ah. Your captain taught you well,” she said. Her eyes turned to Bren. “I can’t pretend I’ve been a good person if we’re not even counting what I’ve done to you. Father didn’t raise us to be good people. He raised us to be warriors. We’re at war with the dragons. I’ve killed dozens of dragon soldiers. But I want to be better. I don’t want to be this woman full of nothing but malice anymore.

“I tried to help you, back then. Who do you think mysteriously left food in your room? Or medicine sometimes? Why do you think I was always complaining to Barrow about the healers leaving the door to the infirmary unlocked or the cooks wasting food in the kitchen? I only ever did it when I knew you could hear, in hopes that you’d go be able to help yourself. And I only did it around Barrow because he was too stupid to realize what I was doing, and didn’t realize he should have been telling Father.”

As she spoke, I used her whip to fashion a binding, tying her wrists together. “No funny business,” I snarled at her.

She smirked. “Pirate,” she accused. Her expression relaxed. “I have no intention of any funny business. I mean what I say. I don’t think I’ll ever be able to redeem myself for everything I’ve done to Bren, but I’d like to try and do one thing right in my life.”

“So, why do you want the dragons to beat you up?” Bren asked as I yanked Jericho’s whip to tighten the bond.

“To explain to Father why I returned empty-handed, and to give you time to get somewhere safe. Maybe further inland. If they dump me in the waters over the palace so the guards find me before the sharks do, I get to tell Father that, in my attempts to bring Bren home, I was discovered by the dragons. I explain that they captured me and tortured me for a few days for information on our armies, but I didn’t tell them anything vital before they deemed me useless and dumped me back home to send a message to the merfolk king. To Father.”

I glanced at Bren. “It seems like an okay plan to me, but maybe Abul’s got a better idea?”

“We should take her before Abul anyway, whether he does or doesn’t,” Bren said. 

I nodded. “Agreed.” I grabbed the center of Jericho’s bindings. “Let’s go,” I said. She didn’t resist as I led her back toward the Sky Palace. Bren walked ahead of me. He was still a little awkward on his legs. He wasn’t able to use them for 23 years, so I didn’t blame him.

He led us to the palace. “Has anyone seen Abul?” he asked a passing servant—a brunette half-dragon girl with big green wings protruding from her back behind her. “We have a prisoner that my brother needs to see.”

The girl started and looked at the three of us. Her orange eyes widened when she saw Jericho. “Let me go find him,” she said. “I’ll send him to the throne room?”

“Wonderful,” I said as Bren nodded enthusiastically.

We led Jericho to the throne room while the servant girl ran off to find Abul. “Tell him to bring some shackles!” Bren called after her. She turned and nodded before rushing off.

“So. The new dragon king is your other half-brother,” Jericho remarked. “I bet he’s been nicer to you than the rest of us have.”

“Yup,” I said, popping the p.

Bren said my name warningly.

“What? It’s true,” I replied defensively.

“I figured as much anyway,” Jericho remarked. “We really are terrible.”

We waited in the throne room for almost ten minutes. Jericho seemed perfectly content to stand there with her hands bound. Never even tried to go for my sword. I kept meeting Bren’s gaze while giving him confused looks. He just shrugged. Apparently Jericho meant what she said.

Or she was biding her time, waiting for Abul to come in to attempt an assassination, but I highly doubted her whip could take down a half-dragon easily. Especially not Abul. I’d never seen a being—half-dragon or otherwise—quite as built as Bren’s new older half-brother. Even Barrow, the Aquinas prince just older than Bren, wasn’t quite on the same level.

But, if Jericho tried, I’d pull a Captain Silvertongue and slit her throat before she could do any serious damage to Abul.

“What’s the meaning of this?” a deep voice demanded as the door to the throne room banged open and shut. Abul stormed in, Kassia right behind him, both looking hostile.

Bren stepped between the dragon king and princess and his sister. It both broke my heart and pissed me off that he was still kind and compassionate enough to try and protect Jericho from the full brunt of Abul’s wrath. I would have let him deck her then and there. I’d heard from Abul’s personal servant that he’d once smacked them hard enough that they fell unconscious, back when they first met, before they became friends. A punch from Abul would probably knock Jericho’s brain right out of her skull.

“She surrendered,” Bren said quickly. “My—no, her father sent her to come bring me back, but she chose to surrender.” He quickly recounted everything Jericho had told us on the beach as Kassia slapped steel shackles around Jericho’s wrists and confiscated the whip. I added a few details he missed.

Abul didn’t look impressed, but he did seem intrigued. He looked at Kassia, who’d taken hold of the chain between Jericho’s shackles. “Take her to the dungeons. Post six knights to watch her. I’ll be down shortly. First, Bren and I are going to have a conversation.” He leveled a fiery orange stare at me. “And, unfortunately, you are not invited.”

Bren opened his mouth to protest, but I set my hand on his forearm. “Don’t worry. I get it,” I said. I gave him a smile and a kiss on the cheek under his scales before following Kassia and Jericho out of the throne room.

I made my way to Bren’s loft and sat in the bay window overlooking the sea. I knew the dragons weren’t a big fan of me being there. They accepted Bren as family, but I was an outsider, just as much as Abul’s human servant was, so I did my best to stay out of their way whenever I wasn’t with Bren.

The wait was about an hour. I wondered what Bren and Abul were talking about. Probably Jericho and what to do with her.

Bren came in, breathing a little hard from the stairs up to the loft. “Well, the good news is, he’s not going to kill Jericho.”

“Is there bad news?” I asked.

“Apart from the fact that he doesn’t know how to improve her plan at the moment, the bad news is that it’s going to be hard to keep her safe. Even in the dungeons. The other dragons—his grandfather’s generals and lieutenants—are going to be really mad at her because, like she said, she’s a warrior. A damn good one too, who’s fought in this war a lot.”

“But Abul’s gonna try to keep her safe, right?”

“As best he can,” Bren said. “Abul’s a good king. A good man. And I know he wants to get some information out of her too. So, I don’t think he’ll let any of the soldiers hurt her for a while. Not until he gets whatever information he’s after.”

I hummed and gathered Bren into a hug. “How... how do you find it in yourself to still care about her? After everything she’s done to make you suffer?”

Bren wrapped his arms around me. “She’s my sister. And... and I want to believe that she’s trying. Everything she said... it actually checks out. No one else gossiped about the infirmary or the kitchens except her and I don’t know how else she would have found out about the food and medicine that occasionally turned up hidden in my... room. Closet.” His grip around me tightened. “Maybe I believe her because I want what she’s said to be true. Maybe I just wished that one of them actually loved me.”

I held him tighter. “I hope she’s telling the truth. For your sake.”

“You looked ready to slit her throat and dump her in the sea for the sharks,” Bren pointed out, almost protesting.

“I was. And I am. Cap’m Shay would be so proud of me. But I love you, Bren. Enough to put all the rage I feel on your behalf toward Jericho and her treatment of you aside. So that I can be here for you. As comfort and support.”

He kissed my hair. “You’re amazing.”

“I’m not the same person you saved from the dragon’s net all those weeks ago, anymore,” I said softly. “Living as a pirate—even under a captain who was a good man at his core like Shay—it hardened me. Before, I would have been too timid to even think about harming Jericho. Now... now I don’t even know if I’d regret it if I did hurt her. If... if I killed her.”

Bren sighed. “These past few weeks have changed both of us,” he murmured, resting his hand on the back of my head.

“Me for the worse,” I muttered.

“I don’t think so.” His fingers tightened on the back of my head. “You’re still amazing.”

I almost swore, before remembering that using the name of any of the Seven Divines was illegal in dragon territory. “How are you still so kind?”

“Some of it’s instinct. Most of it’s a choice,” Bren said.

Neither of us said anything for a moment.

“Wait. Did you say you love me?” Bren asked.

[starlitangels]

I beg on my knees, can you please write an abul argument story? Where him and the reader make up in the end??? (sirens son asmr)

Hooo boy. I can, but it has been a bit since I both listened to Abul and wrote anything for Siren. So, let me go relisten to some of his audios to remember how his voice is, and then I'll tackle this