#Icetide

[monstersandmaw]

Male dragon x male knight (nsfw)

Disclaimer which I’m including in all my works after plagiarism and theft has taken place: I do not give my consent for my works to be used, copied, published, or posted anywhere. They are copyrighted and belong to me.

Fourth commission for you! [insert Fourth Wing joke here?]. This one is for @chroniclesinlacuna - so thank you!

(reposting because of some weird formatting shenanigans on the first attempt - sorry. Please reblog this instead of the other (deleted) one).

Content: (cis) male knight is sent to kill an injured dragon, and finds himself sequestered in the mountains with a beast of far greater intelligence and empathy than anyone had imagined. Non penetrative sex happens too, and bonding if you squint. Wordcount: 8938

“Boy, what’s going on?” Aneirin barked, grabbing for the arm of a page boy as he scuttled past in a slightly rumpled tabard.

He could have been a little gentler with the scrawny kid, but the corridors in the castle were roiling with a heady mix of unease and excitement, and that was rarely a good thing. Added to that, Aneirin had only just left Prince Ruairí in the hands of the next shift of Crownsguards, but if there was even the faintest whiff of trouble, he’d be back on duty in a heartbeat.

“Sir,” the boy chirped, bobbing a bow when he looked up and discovered that he’d been hooked like a minnow out of the flow of people by a knight of the realm.

Over six feet tall and still wearing his armour, though his helmet was tucked under one arm, Sir Aneirin Pendræd cut an imposing figure, and almost everyone in the castle recognised the Crown Prince’s personal guard and close friend, even if he did have a tendency to keep politely to himself for the most part.

“Well, lad?” he asked with just a hint of a growl in his usually soft baritone. “What’s got this place clucking like a hen coop?”

The kid grinned suddenly, all previous unease forgotten as his blue eyes began sparkling. “Dragon!” he beamed in breathless wonder. “There was a dragon sighted! Out by Icetide Pass! Lord Mortingale’s soldiers shot it down on their way through the mountain pass but they had to leave it there so they could take him to the Temple of Healing. His illness is bad, apparently. That’s why they risked coming across the mountains even though it’s going to snow soon. A dragon, my lord! A dragon!”

Aneirin chuckled when he learned that there hadn’t been an attempt on the life of one of his royal charges, and released the boy. “Go on,” he said, waving him away, and the page belted off in the direction of the kitchens.

With a sigh, the knight turned and headed back the way he had come and nodded politely at the guards flanking the entrance to the royal apartments.

The prince met him in the corridor with almost as much delight in his features as the page boy Aneirin had just released back into the wild. “Nye!” he chirped. “I was going to send for you. There’s been —”

“A dragon, I know,” he said, raising a dark eyebrow. “Is it true?”

“Sir Mathis heard it straight from Lord Mortingale’s lips himself,” Ruairí said, jabbing a thumb over his shoulder to get his friend to follow him.

Aneirin fell into step beside him, and bit back a yawn as he followed him through a concealed passage, out of the prince’s chambers and towards the adjacent apartment which belonged to his parents. In the darkness though, the prince paused and put his hands on Aneirin’s breastplate, tapping the cold metal a couple of times in his excitement. “A dragon, Nye!” he practically giggled. “Can you believe it? The magisters say they all migrated in to the frozen north a thousand years ago! What do you think drove this one south?”

“Maybe it’s fed up with all the snow,” Aneirin deadpanned, and the prince snorted a laugh and turned away, moving with easy familiarity down the dark corridor until he popped the latch on the door at the other end and they stepped out into the king’s empty study.

“Mother and father are in their sitting room,” Ruairí said, adding with a heavy grimace, “Magister Ferrar is in there too.” The much-hated former tutor of the crown prince was a truly odious man; pompously pious, deeply disdainful of those who wielded a sword instead of a stylus, and rake thin because he thought that consuming food with actual flavour was a grievous sin. Unfortunately, he was one of the most learned scholars in the country, so it was hardly a surprise that he had been summoned upon a credible report of a dragon reaching the king’s ears.

So it was that Aneirin found himself with the command of a small group of riders the next morning, heading north-east towards the belt of mountains that sheltered the kingdom’s fertile plains from the worst of the wild winters, and charged with finishing off the downed beast. A larger party would follow behind to collect the corpse for study and preservation, apparently, but his focus was killing it.  

Aneirin also had a grinning crown prince on his magnificent bay stallion at his side, despite his protests that a fire breathing lizard the size of an average cattle barn was probably quite dangerous, and putting the heir to the kingdom within a twenty mile radius of the thing was a colossally stupid thing to do, but the prince had insisted, and his parents had never been able to tell him ‘no’. To be fair, he was irritatingly charming.

“What do you think it will be like?” Ruairí asked as they trotted at the head of the column.

Nye looked around constantly, and even though the prince was dressed in sensible clothes for once, rather than showy silks designed to accentuate his fashionably fit figure and draw the eye of everyone in the room, he couldn’t help but feel the immense responsibility of guarding the crown prince out in the open like that. “Big, probably,” he mumbled. “And pissed off.”

The prince barked a laugh. “You’re funny, Nye. People think you’re grumpy, but you’re not. You’re just quiet.”

“You talk enough for the both of us,” he scowled, squinting at a shadow by the road a few hundred paces off. It was just an old tree stump, but he still glared at it like it was an assassin crouched in ambush all the same.

Somehow, the prince was still in a blindingly good mood as they walked their horses up the twisting, mountain road four days later, the breath of man and beast billowing in the air as they climbed higher. Everything was an adventure to Ruairí, and Nye couldn’t help but twitch a little smile as he watched the way the soldiers leaned closer to their prince in the firelight at camp, drawn like moths to his radiant joy instead of the flames of the campfire. Nye made one more round of the perimeter guards, greeting each by name and earning an earnest salute as he left them to their duties, and went to lie down on his own bedroll while the prince kept talking late into the night.

On the following morning, they reached the mouth of the canyon where the dragon was supposed to have gone down. According to Lord Mortingale’s soldiers, it had swooped overhead from a lower peak of the mountains, then swept down the narrow gorge like a hurricane, which spooked the horses to a white-eyed panic and caused the archers on the ground to nock arrows. When they’d loosed at it, it had wheeled away suddenly, and only to catch a wing on the bridge, colliding with it and disappearing into the depths of the gully. The soldiers had been forced to keep going, given the fragile health of their lord, and hadn’t been able to report accurately on the status of the dragon when they’d left the pass.

At the head of the canyon, a huge waterfall roared over the edge of a ‘v’ in the ridgeline of the mountains and plunged down out of sight into the bottom of the gorge. In the spring this road was only just passable because of the sheer volume of meltwater, but now at the tail end of autumn, the road was only misted by a constant spray. On either side of the gorge, the rocks rose into steep pinnacles, and in front of the waterfall, bathed in a sheeting mist, the stone bridge spanned the canyon and connected the road from one side to the other.

The walls that made up the protective sides of the sandstone bridge had been punched out in places by a the collision of something enormous, presumably the dragon as it fell, and all up the far side of the steep slope the trees and scrub had been singed to charcoal.

Aneirin held up a gauntleted hand and the riders halted. Taking a deep breath of damp, freezing air that burned his lungs, he listened. Behind the constant roar and rumble of the waterfall, a deeper sound filtered up through the scorched trees and scattered rocks. Low frequency, like two blocks of castle masonry grinding together, the rumble of a dragon reached his ears.

“Sir, that bridge looks like it’s about to go,” the captain of the unit muttered from Aneirin’s left and he nodded.

“We need to get a better look at what’s down there, but the scree slope on either side of the bridge is too dangerous to go near. I’ll dismount and go on foot.”

“Nye, you can’t go onto the bridge!” Ruairí exclaimed, wheeling his horse around to face his friend. “What if it gives out?”

“One man isn’t going to tip the balance,” he said. “But you stay here. You hear me? Stay…”

“I’m not a dog, Nye,” the prince pouted, but he did stay put.

Aneirin nodded, swung down from his horse and petted the placid gelding’s neck. The black horse twitched his head and stretched happily when the knight let go of the reins, but otherwise remained steady.

After only a couple of steps, he heard another rider dismounting from behind him, and turned to find one of the soldiers hurrying after him. “Captain said you shouldn’t go alone,” she said. “I volunteered.”

Aneirin shot the captain a level look, but didn't protest. He wasn’t sure what difference one extra person would make, but he wasn’t one for causing social friction when there were bigger problems to face; namely the dragon lurking in the steam at the bottom of the four hundred foot drop.

Stones and grit skittered away audibly under the arch of the bridge as the two of them stepped cautiously out onto it, avoiding the missing chunks and making their way to the middle where the wall was still intact and they could peer safely over the edge into the abyss. A flash of movement out of the corner of his right eye caught his attention, and Nye turned sharply to find the soldiers they’d left behind had dismounted and were loading bolts into crossbows. The grinding of the windlasses had dissolved into the noise of the waterfall and they were nearly all ready to loose.

Frustration flickered through him. If he shouted a warning from right above the dragon though, it could alert the beast to their presence, but if those fools shot down at it now, it could take out the entire bridge while they were still standing on it. Heck, if the dragon wanted to, it could probably start a landslide and suck the whole damned road into the gorge as well. Grinding his teeth, Nye waved and exhaled in relief when the captain responded in kind, and when Nye gave the signal to hold, the captain nodded and barked something to his soldiers that was lost to Nye behind the pounding waterfall.

Satisfied that they wouldn't endanger the crown prince or the volunteer soldier who’d come with him, Nye leaned over the edge and his breath caught. There at the bottom of the gorge was indeed the dragon.

A myriad of golden scales glittered in the water like a treasure hoard itself as the creature basked in the flow of water, seeming to enjoy the feel of it caressing the spiny ridges of its back. He frowned though when he realised it was slowly swinging its head back and forth through the water just downstream of the waterfall’s plunge-pool, jaws slightly open, and it appeared to be… catching fish? Somehow the image didn’t align at all with what he’d expected for a beast that big. Had it just been sitting in the river for a week catching salmon and trout like a fat lordling on a vacation from court life?

Before his bafflement could truly sink in, the sharp clunk of a crossbow loosing somewhere to his right jerked his attention away from the dragon, and before he could react, a thick, oak bolt sank deep into the creature’s shoulder just above its wing membrane and it gave a screeching roar loud enough to make Nye’s eardrums hurt and his mind go a little bit blank from the sheer, unfamiliar dread of it.

With a wild thrash, the dragon erupted out of the spray from the base of the waterfall and sent its tail and powerful hind quarters arcing around like a battering ram while remaining on the ground. The whole structure of the bridge swayed and shuddered as the beast collided with its footing piles, and both the knight and the soldier froze in place with their hands clutching the stone wall.

“Run!” Nye yelled at her, shoving her in the direction of her comrades gathered nervously on the road to their right. If he survived this, he was going to see to it personally that the one who’d loosed without a direct order was on latrine duty for at least six months.

The desperate beating of wings as the creature floundered and screamed again filled the air and the bridge gave way beneath them with a thunderous clamour.

Nye found himself sucked downwards amid a cloud of masonry and dust and the woman beside him screamed and floundered for the remaining edge of the bridge but it was too late.

Amid the clouds of choking dust, gold flashed and flickered, and something incalculably enormous barrelled out of the carnage at them with the force of an avalanche. Talons snatched for him and Nye found himself borne upwards while the scaly foot of a dragon closed around him. The brief thought that he would be punctured and crushed like an egg in his steel armour flitted across his mind as the dragon lurched upwards with a knight in one hand and, to Nye’s relief, a soldier in its other.

It struggled to escape the blocks of sandstone as they rained around them, but despite the bolt in its shoulder, it cleared the wreckage and swooped over the road, but as it banked, the soldier slipped from its grasp and plummeted away. Nye had the vague impression of her bouncing once and sitting upright while crossbow bolts buzzed through the air like summer flies until someone obviously yelled at the soldiers to stop in case they hit Nye.

The last thing he saw before they wheeled away into an open sky was Ruairí’s horrified expression peeking out from the visor of his golden helmet and the sword falling from limp, shocked fingers as his friend was snatched away by the dragon they had been sent to kill.

He wasn’t sure how long they flew northwards along the spine of the Icetide Mountains, but the dragon eventually began to tire, swaying and weaving, sometimes dropping a horrifying ten or twelve feet between wing beats, until a shivering Nye looked up and realised that a wide, snowy field was rapidly coming into focus through the oncoming snow that had started to fill the air perhaps an hour earlier. At the end of the long meadow covered in a perfect layer of deep snow, Nye could just about see a gaping hole in the cliff-face, and realised it must be a cave. Dimly, his mind supplied that this was probably the dragon’s home, and he was probably either about to be eaten or stored for later like a woodlouse in a spiderweb.

As the ground rushed up to meet them, he tried to thrash free of the enormous, curling talons, but he was held firm, and there was no freeing himself. When the dragon didn’t slow down nearly enough though, another thought crossed his mind. They were going to crash land, and he realised this might be it. Death by high-velocity impact with a mountainside wasn’t on the list of ways the Crownsguard knight had ever thought he would perish, but he didn’t have any more time to ponder it as the dragon twisted at the last minute and collided with the ground in a spray of snow, and Nye was tossed from its talons to land in a heap thirty feet from the point of impact.

He struck his head, helmet clanging once, and his consciousness winked out instantly.

Warmth was the next thing he felt, and he blinked his eyes open to find that he was lying on his back in the snow, and above him, a dragon was squinting against the onslaught of a full storm, its ochre eyes fixed on him as it tilted its head this way and that to get a better look at him, and it exhaled again. Its warm breath washed over him and he realised his clothes were soaking wet where the heat of its breath had melted the snow.

Aneirin’s first thought was that he was about to be eaten, but instead of floundering away or reaching for a weapon, he just froze.

“You’re awake,” came a rich, rumbling voice and he blinked. Nothing in the tales he’d ever heard had suggested that dragons were capable of human speech. They were wild, savage beasts that burned the land below them in great swathes and snatched people into the air like owls hunting vermin in a cornfield. “Thank goodness,” the dragon went on, and then sat back on its haunches like a dog to regard him at a bit of a distance. A huge, golden dog, partly covered in snow and bleeding from a barb in its shoulder, but still, the resemblance to a dog was remarkable.

“How… How long was I out?” Aneirin rasped, sitting up. When he didn’t feel sick and his vision didn’t warp, he felt a degree of relief. The concussion he’d suffered wouldn’t be bad.

“Only a minute or so,” the dragon said, lowering its muzzle a little and puffing out again. “But you should get inside before you freeze. The temperature out here is too low for human survival.”

“How would you know that?” he groused as he struggled to stand and then gave a yelp as his ankle gave way beneath him in a hot flash of pain. In all the shock of coming round and finding a dragon in his face, he’d not noticed the pain in his leg.

The dragon caught him in its claws and tightened its hold just enough to hold him steady and he clutched at the tiny, snake skin scales that covered its hand more out of reflex than anything else.

“Come on,” the dragon muttered, and he could hear the bellows of its breathing clearly this close up. The sheer presence of the creature was astonishing, overwhelming, and he swallowed, trying to process everything that had happened that day.

Using three out of its four legs, the dragon ploughed through the deep snow, keeping him aloft with its right front foot, and then it ducked its head and slipped into the cave like a snake disappearing into its den.

Aneirin blinked slowly, looking around. It wasn’t a cold, empty cave littered with carcasses and bones, but instead the walls were smooth, ashlar masonry, and adorned with tapestries. In the far corner was what appeared to be a great nest on a stone platform made of silks and furs.

“This… This isn’t what I’d expected,” he whispered, wondering if he was hallucinating all this.

The dragon chuckled, low and warm and oddly friendly before he sat the knight down on the bed of fabric and stepped back. “I’ll find you something to wrap your ankle. I don’t think it’s broken, but it might like some support…”

“How would you even know that?” he asked again, ignoring the pain and staring up at the creature.

Its sunset orange eyes seemed to laugh and the pupils dilated just a little as the dragon stared at him. Then it cocked its head a little to one side and laughed quietly again. “I have an interest in human scholarship, though I admit, my sources may be a little out of date now…”

“You… what?”

If dragons could look embarrassed, this one managed it, so much so that Nye felt a prickle of shame creep in behind the slightly hysterical exhaustion that was making his body heavy, his mind a bit slow, and his dark eyes incredibly gritty.

Clearly seeing as much, the dragon sighed, a sound like wind moving through woodland, and then said, “Why don’t you rest and we’ll talk more tomorrow?”

“I thought perhaps… uh…” Nye faltered, the shame intensifying.

“That I was going to eat you?” the dragon said, one brow-ridge rising with disconcerting familiarity into a dryly sarcastic expression. “Please, all that pretty, etched steel of yours would give me terrible indigestion.”

“Says the dragon that was gorging on fish in the river like a grizzly bear.”

“Well we don’t exactly have an overabundance of trout up here on the mountaintop,” the dragon retorted, puffing smoke out of its nostrils. “Excuse me for wanting to broaden my diet and make the most of an unfortunate situation. Until you lot came back and shot at me, I was actually enjoying myself. They weren’t the mountain goats I’d been looking for, but the fish were fun to catch and tasty to eat.”

At his words, Nye’s brown eyes slid to the bolt that was sticking out of the dragon’s shoulder still, like a bee’s sting, and his gut twisted. “You want me to take that out for you?” he asked, jutting his chin upwards to indicate the bolt.

“If you would be so kind,” the dragon admitted. “Though I’m surprised you’re offering, since you seem to have been sent to finish me off. It does hurt rather…”

“Here,” he said, and gestured for the dragon to lower its body down, which it did with surprising grace given the close confines and evident discomfort. “My name’s Aneirin,” he added.

“The one with the gold on his helm shouted something different at you as we flew off,” the dragon said as it got settled on the stone floor in front of its nest. “He seemed particularly distressed.”

“‘Nye’, probably,” he said as he reached for the oak bolt and braced his other hand on the scales of the dragon’s shoulder. The body beneath him was solid and warm, and the scales had the most beautiful iridescence to them over the gold lustre beneath. “The prince is the only one who calls me that, except my sister. What should I call you, by the way?”

“My name is —” the dragon began, but grunted and bared its teeth when Nye drew the bolt out. A little blood trickled down, but it wasn’t much, and Nye pressed a wad of clean linen from the pile beneath him to the wound, and the dragon went on. “My name is Vulfuri’ik.”

Nye scowled. “Vul… fury… ick?” he repeated, butchering the syllables and the glottal stop even while they were still fresh in his ears. “Never been much good with languages,” he added with a wry look at the dragon, who was regarding him sidelong with a flat, unimpressed sort of look at his poor efforts. “How about I call you ‘Fury’ instead?”

Indignant, the dragon’s head lurched up and the movement pulled the makeshift dressing away from the clotting wound as it fixed the knight with a scowl of outrage. “Fury? Fury?!” it repeated. “My name means ‘peaceful wanderer’, you know? It’s a name that’s been carried by many of the noblest males of my line!”

“I’d been wondering if you were male or female,” Nye mumbled. “Well, I can certainly try to pronounce your name — what was it again?”

“Vulfuri’ik,” he said with exaggerated pronunciation, huge teeth clicking when he snapped his jaws shut at the end of the word and glared down at the knight.

“Vool… fur…eek…”

“Oh for the love of the sky, no. No. Just stick with Fury. That’s fine. You’ll only be here for one night anyway. Once you’ve healed up and I’ve convinced you to tell your kind to stop shooting your nasty little bolts at me if I ever need to venture down into the valley, I’ll take you back to the road and I’ll never have to hear you spoil my sacred name with that tiny little tongue of yours.”

“My tongue’s had quite a few compliments, you know?” Nye shot, not entirely sure where the bout of playful innuendo had come from. Perhaps it was exhaustion and the fact that he was trading gentle insults back and forth with a creature that was only supposed to exist in legends now anyway.

“I’m sure,” Fury said dryly. “But until you decide that I can test that claim for myself, why don’t you take your little metal shell off and I’ll find you a goat or something you can eat, and then you can rest.”

Nye had to smile. The creature was supposed to be intimidating, and in a way he supposed he was, but the sense of humour was not something he’d been expecting. As he stripped off the various pieces of his plate armour, he felt the dragon’s curious eyes on him and turned to meet his gaze. In the stillness that swung between them, Nye sighed. “I’m sorry,” he said, gaze snagging on the scab that had formed over the hole where the crossbow quarrel had sunk into his shoulder. “When we’d heard that a monster from the mists of time had crashed down on the border of our kingdom, we only thought to protect ourselves from you. Clearly, you were just… raiding our larder…”

The dragon laughed, deep and rumbling like a rock slide, and something shot through Nye that he wasn’t expecting to feel. He didn’t often seek out the company and touch of others, despite his momentary brag earlier. It just wasn’t something he felt the need for, but in that moment, the way the dragon’s voice rippled through him and his supple lips pulled back to reveal a maw full of sharp, white teeth, and his talons flexed on the stonework floor and his wings drew a little closer to his muscular, lithe body… Nye felt his cock twitch and decided he might actually have a concussion after all.

The dragon left not long after that, and returned with a neatly butchered and roasted goat, which surprised the knight, who had been poking around the large, chilly cave and hopping awkwardly to avoid putting weight on his sprained ankle.

“You shouldn’t be up,” the dragon purred as he landed and held out the goat on one talon. “Here.”

“You want me to eat out of your hand? Bold. We’ve only just met.”

The dragon’s laugh sounded again, only longer and louder this time, and he looked at the steel hanging on Nye’s hip. “I thought you could use that. It’s not the most elegant of solutions, but I don’t exactly have a full dinner service here. I don’t collect crockery like an old lady.”

It was Nye’s turn to bark a laugh at that, and he shook his head. “Alright, I’ll use my castle-forged steel sword as a carving knife, but just this once.”

“I hope it’s clean,” the dragon grimaced.

“I take good care of my weapon,” he said, and then hoped the dragon wouldn’t notice the flush in his face at the horrible and actually unintended innuendo. Definitely a concussion. He was never this bold or unguarded with people ordinarily.

“Glad to hear it,” Fury muttered dryly.

Fury let Nye sleep on the pile of fabric that night while he curled up on the floor like an overgrown, gold-adorned house-cat, and Nye found that he had no trouble drifting off whatsoever, and woke to find the snowstorm raging outside the cave entrance when he woke the following morning.

Over the next three days, while his ankle healed and the snow piled up, he and Fury talked. The cave he was living in was the remnants of a human outpost from the time when dragons and humans had apparently once lived in peace. “This cavern was actually where the dragon would have lived, while their rider would stay in a small room below — through that tunnel,” Fury said, astonishing Nye with the information.

“Their… ‘rider’?”

“Mmm,” the dragon rumbled, puffing a small flame over his tongue to ignite a torch on the wall beside an opening large enough for a human to walk down. “Every room in this little termite mound of an outpost is accessible to my kind as well, though I have to go outside and back in again. Something to do with the structure of the rock not being sound enough to tunnel down from here. There are other rooms below.”

“Yes, sure, but… rider?”

“Oh. Has your kind forgotten that?”

“Forgotten what? All we know about dragons is that you’re deadly, fire breathing lizards who —”

“Reptiles, yes,” he growled. “But not lizards. Lizards do not spit volatile compounds which ignite when combined.”

“That’s how your fire is made?”

“Yes, it’s a simple bio-chemical reaction. Don’t they teach you anything these days?”

“I… You know what, no. Dragon biology wasn’t covered in my training to become a knight.”

“No, but they do cover how hard you need to hit a fellow man and where to cut him open to make him die… Very refined.”

“You’re one sarcastic lizard, you know that?”

Instead of taking offence, the dragon grinned at him. “Gosh, it’s wonderful to have company,” he sighed. “I know I shouldn’t enjoy it too much, since you’re only still here because you’re hurting and there’s a snowstorm and all, but I can’t tell you how long it’s been since I’ve actually… you know… exchanged words with someone. I talk to myself all the time, but it’s not the same.”

“When was the last time? Are you the only dragon in these parts?”

“I’m the only dragon for at least five hundred miles,” he sighed. “And she’s a big, grumpy elder dragon who thinks I’m still a hatchling for goodness sake! A hatchling! I’m very much an adult, and I’m sorry my gizzard isn’t saggy enough for her tastes, but there you have it.”

Nye laughed and then rolled his ankle around experimentally. “I think it’s basically healed,” he said. “But it’s been an unexpectedly nice change from castle duties. Keeping the prince from falling down a staircase because he’s too busy flirting with some lording’s son has it’s own challenges, sure, but this is a nice change of pace.”

“You and the prince are… close?” Fury asked carefully. “But you are not… mated?”

“Mated? Gods no. They wouldn’t let him ‘mate’ his Crownsguard. He’s expected to continue the line, and I know you know enough about human biology to know that wouldn’t happen with the two of us, even if we wanted it.”

“Oh. Yes,” he said. “Is it… acceptable for two of your kind to mate though?”

“Yeah, when the future of a kingdom doesn’t hang in the balance,” he shrugged. “You?”

He nodded. “Dragons do not dictate with whom another may mate, though I admit, I’ve only ever met one of my kind. There are so few of us left in these parts after all.”

That rather dampened the mood, and they spent the rest of the evening discussing lighter topics. Nye told him about his twin sister and the work she did in the Temple of Healing, and how he had always felt like she was the smart one out of the two of them. He told Fury of her passion for healing and helping, and how he felt that his role as a knight in the castle, training younger soldiers and protecting the crown prince, was barely halfway as useful as Seren’s work, and was surprised when Fury reassured him that helping to ensure the longevity of a ruler he valued was just as important.

“I realise I don’t know you all that well,” Fury said, “But I don’t think you would stand behind a ruler who did not care for their people.”

Nye looked down at his rough, scar-flecked hands where he had cradled them idly in his lap. “Ruairí is a good man,” he said with quiet certainty, thinking of that fire-lit camp and their warm smiles and boyish laughter. “The soldiers love him, and the people adore him too. You should see the way they cheer for him at the tourneys…”

“Tell me about them?” Fury asked, his eyes lighting up at the idea of more knowledge.

“The tourneys or the people?”

“All of it…”

So he did.

While the snowstorm continued to whisk the world into a white haze outside, Nye told the dragon everything he wanted to know about how humans in his kingdom lived these days, and in turn, Fury curled around him to keep him warm with the heat of his enormous, golden body.

Nye talked late into the night, and he only realised that the dragon had fallen asleep when he noted the regular rhythm of his breathing had slowed even more than usual. Turning, he stared at the dragon and marvelled at what he was seeing. The light of the nearby fire in a niche in the wall caught the iridescence of his golden scales, each one unique and perfect, and Nye reached out and ran his fingertips over the dragon’s brow-ridge and around the base of the horn that curved elegantly backwards over his head. The dragon let out a long, low, sleepy rumble of pleasure and Nye gave a sigh.

Conflicted about his feelings for a creature that was about as far from a human as it was possible to get, he curled up against the dragon’s side that night, and woke in the morning with the dragon’s arm snugging him close to his warm body.

Sliding free, Nye stretched and walked easily across the cave floor towards the entrance; his ankle was healed and he would have to return home soon, lest he be pronounced dead and the modest estate he owned outside the city be turned over to someone else. His sister must be beside herself with grief and worry too, if the prince had done what Nye was sure he would, and informed her personally of what had happened to her twin brother.

The wind had lost its vigour and now the little flakes drifted gently down like the pattern on a lace curtain.

A warm breeze wafted over his neck and he turned to find that Fury had come to stand behind him. He’d been so lost in his thoughts that he’d not heard the enormous, golden dragon moving behind him, and he exhaled too. Fury nuzzled him gently and crooned softly. “You are thoughtful,” he said. “Even… sad?”

“Just thinking about what my sister must be going through right now, thinking I’m dead.”

“I will fly you back today,” the dragon replied immediately. “The weather is not ideal for you, but I have a human friend who keeps horses on the plains below these mountains. You can borrow a mount from her and ride to the capital. If I try to approach, they’ll shoot me down on sight without realising what a precious cargo I would be carrying,” he added, and huffed a breath out that made Nye shiver again. “You’re cold standing here on the threshold, come,” Fury added, scowling.

“Not cold,” Nye said, his voice cracking just a little. “It’s nice.”

“Oh. You had but to ask,” he smiled, and sighed out another deliciously hot breath in the cold air.

Nye brought his hand to the delicate skin between the flared nostrils and Fury jolted and then relaxed in almost the same heartbeat. “You like that?”

“Mm, very much,” he rumbled, eyes rolling slightly as he closed them. “Your touch is… wonderful.”

Nye moved his hands along the dragon’s head, taking his time to feel the contours beneath his hands, and Fury gasped and lay down on his belly, allowing Nye to touch him wherever he pleased. “You’re so beautiful,” Nye murmured. “Your scales are like coins… You’re like a treasure yourself…”

“Oh,” the dragon sighed, shuddering bodily.

“What?”

“That’s… That’s quite the compliment among our kind… calling someone — ah — a treasure…”

“You are,” he said, leaning closer and kissing him just in front of his closed eye. “You’re rarer than gold, too.”

“Charmer,” the dragon rumbled, but he sounded pleased. “Oh, that’s wonderful.”

“You… You want… more?”

Fury opened his eyes and regarded Nye. “I don’t want to hurt you…”

“You’re careful,” Nye said. “And clever. I’m sure we can figure something out.”

Fury let out a long, low-frequency growl that Nye felt in every fibre of his body, and then licked his lips. “I want to use my tongue on you,” the dragon rasped. “I want to taste you. I want… I want you, human. Like I’ve never wanted anything before.”

“So long as you’re careful, you can have me,” Nye said, stepping back and undressing slowly.

The dragon watched, as though Nye were a priceless statue that was being unveiled just for his pleasure. He rocked his hips from time to time against the floor, and Nye realised with a jolt of satisfaction that the dragon was as aroused by the situation as he was. “Fuck, you like this, don’t you?”

“I like you, human,” he said with a bit of a snarl to his tone. And when Nye’s dark, linen trousers and underwear hit the cave floor beside his shirt, the dragon raised his head and exhaled to drive away the goosebumps that had prickled over Nye’s skin. “Let me pick you up?” he breathed.

Nye inclined his head, and the dragon’s claws closed around his naked body. He’d never felt so vulnerable and cherished and so turned on in all his life. He went limp in the dragon’s grasp even as the sharp teeth and lashing tongue descended, seemingly to devour him. Somehow, he trusted that this was not the way he would die.

Fury parted his jaws and let his searing hot tongue lave over Nye’s entire torso and down to his groin where his cock was straining and leaking already, and when the heat of Fury’s mouth washed over him, his mind went blank with pleasure. “Gods, that’s good,” he gasped, bucking weakly in Fury’s careful hold.

“Now who’s a treasure, look at you,” the dragon purred, his deep voice skittering through Nye’s body and setting every nerve ablaze.

His tongue pressed against his cock, the friction perfect, and Nye tumbled towards his release with a shout, arching and writhing helplessly in his hold as the dragon worshipped him. When he came against his tongue, Fury gave a great groan of pleasure and Nye’s hearing warped for a moment.

When he came back to himself, Nye found Fury’s tongue gently cleaning him, and he glanced dazedly down the dragon’s belly to where he found his hard cock dripping freely onto the floor. “You can… Use… me to make you come, if… if you like…” he said vaguely.

Fury laid him down the bed and lined his hard cock up with the knight’s thighs. He was far too big to enter him, but the feel of Nye’s legs around his hard, slick cock was enough to send a rumble of ecstasy through Fury and he gasped, tilting his head up to the ceiling and rutting against him. His hips moved desperately and a constant, low-frequency growling rippled out of him.

“You’re going to make me come,” Fury groaned. “Oh I’m going to come, I’m coming… I’m…”

He lifted Nye up in his talons while his back legs pistoned helplessly, and he spilled over the silk sheet beneath him and halfway up Nye’s legs and torso. His hot come covered Nye’s skin despite the dragon’s best efforts to raise him out of it, and the feel of it around his cock and over his abs nearly made him come again right on the heels of his first orgasm.

When the dragon finally stopped, he lowered Nye to the cleaner part of the bed and let out a long, rumbling purr. “Are you alright?” he asked.

“Yeah,” Nye chuckled. “Fuck, that was hot.”

Fury gently cleaned him and he dressed in one of the finer silk shirts from the dragon’s collection.

“Is this what you hoard then?” Nye asked, plucking at the sleeve of the garment.

“Mmm? Oh, no,” came Fury’s sleepy reply from where he’d curled up on his nest after discarding the fabric that had been ruined by his release. “I just collected it for my own comfort over the years. Come here.”

Nye lay down with him and let the dragon’s warmth seep into him while the world passed them by for another day. They made love again later, and Fury took his time to take Nye apart a second, third, and even a fourth time before the sun set on their secret lair.

The following morning though, Fury woke to find Nye dressed in his armour and ready to leave. “Wait,” the beautiful, gentle, golden dragon said. “Before you go, I want you to see something. Go down that staircase, and I will meet you at the other end.”

Nye nodded and headed off in the direction the dragon had pointed, turning down a switchback staircase cut into the rock. He came out in a pitch dark room with no idea how large the echoing space was until a warm light trickled around the edge in a creeping tide. He looked and found, astonished, that a channel of oil had been ignited, and the light was racing around the perimeter of a massive chamber, at the centre of which were rows and rows of… books.

Kept at a safe distance from the fire, the books were stored on stone shelves, and he stepped out to find ancient tomes, perfectly preserved by the stable atmosphere and humidity of the chamber. From behind him, he heard the steady footsteps of the dragon, and turned to find him rounding the corner, scales shimmering in the low light.

“This is your hoard?” he asked.

“Mm,” the dragon nodded. “Silly really, but your kind are fascinating to me. The way you chronicle everything… Look there,” he added and pointed to a nearby shelf. The two approached it together and the dragon raised a talon to a particular tome.

Nye drew it off the shelf and realised it was a tome dedicated to healing.

“That might help the lord you told me about. The one who was travelling to the capital for relief from his illness,” Fury said. “When you described his symptoms to me, I thought of that book. Take it with you today, and it might save him if your sister can prepare the necessary tinctures for him.”

The knight looked up at the dragon and his eyes brimmed with quiet tears. “You’re not at all what I thought you’d be,” he croaked.

Fury lowered his head and exhaled just to make Nye shiver. “Nor are you, human.”

With a heavy heart, Nye let Fury pick him up, and they began their journey southwards in silence. The wind roared in his ears and he curled up in the protective embrace of the dragon’s claws, enjoying the ride but wishing he had warmer clothes.

Eventually they dipped low over the landscape and Fury touched down in a snow-dusted pasture while a few horses scattered and whinnied indignantly at their arrival.

From the small farmhouse nearby, a middle aged woman emerged and put her hands on her hips when she saw the dragon.

“Your friend?” Nye asked as he was set gently down in the snow and Fury stepped back.

Eliara was wary of a stranger at first, though not of the huge, golden dragon it seemed, but when Fury vouched for him, she lent Aneirin a horse on the condition that he would bring the mare back to her in the same condition when he was able. He swore an oath to do so, and she seemed satisfied.

“Will I ever see you again?” Nye asked Fury while they stood on the snowy road outside the barn where some of the less hardy horses were kept.

Fury bit his lower lip and then said, “If you wish it, I can give you a gift that will allow you to see me again.”

“I do,” he said. “I… I want to tell Ruairí that you’re not an enemy to the kingdom but an ally. I want him to meet you. I want… I want you to be welcome in our lands. Providing you don’t eat our sheep…”

He rumbled a low laugh and dipped his head to nuzzle Nye’s side. The horse seemed completely unbothered by his presence. “No, precious one. I will not eat your people’s sheep. There are plenty of wild ones to sustain me.” He drew in a deep breath and held it before rising up to reveal his chest and exhaling gently. Taking his talons like two pincers, he plucked free a single, golden scale from right over his heart and held it out to Nye.

The knight took it like it was a sacred relic and held it in the palm of his hand. Its warmth was surprising, and he closed his fingers around it before looking up for an explanation.

“My magic will allow me to feel what you feel when you hold it against your skin, Nye,” he said. “If you wish to see me, I will know it, and I will come.”

Nye squeezed it tight and tried to ignore the ache in his chest. “I wish you could come with me now,” he said, “But you’re right. They would attack you this time.”

“Perhaps in the future,” Fury smiled. “Don’t be sad… It… I do not like to feel you sad…”

Nye kissed the smooth scales between the dragon’s nostrils and tucked the gifted scale safely into the pouch on his belt. “I’ll have it made into a pendant that I can wear around my neck, always.”

Fury swallowed thickly and looked away, but he was obviously deeply moved by the promise.

Eliara’s palomino mare might have been alright with the dragon’s presence, but she was not at all happy at the prospect of a ride in the snow. She did allow Nye to mount, though only after making her sentiments known with a hefty nip on his arm. With an oath to return the mare and a promise to the dragon to summon him when he was first able to, Nye set off for the capital.

Eliara’s stud was only a day’s ride from the city walls, and when Nye trotted in near sunset, the first place he went was the Temple of Healing. Seren screeched when she saw her brother and flew at him, looping her arms around his neck and sobbing. “I thought you were dead,” she cried. “The prince said…”

“Hush,” he smiled, holding her too. “It’s quite the tale, but first, this is for you. It is for Lord Mortingale.”

Thanks to the lost knowledge in the book, the lord was healed within in a month, and Nye returned to his life in the castle. Ruairí begged him to tell every detail of his time with the dragon, and while Nye was a loyal servant to the crown, he felt justified in not telling his prince quite everything… Magister Ferrar seemed to suspect a deeper bond existed between the two of them than simple friendship, but if he did, he kept that to himself.

When spring melted the snow and the crocuses pushed their bold, purple spearheads through the frosty ground to liven up the pastures, Nye took the mare and his own black gelding which Ruairí had led back to the castle when he’d been snatched away by Fury, and he returned the mare to Eliara.

Then, in the privacy of the deserted, wildflower meadow, he took the silver pendant that he had had crafted for him and cradled it in his hand, closing his eyes and trying to beg the dragon silently to come to him.

He waited in the pasture for an hour before he heard the beating of wings and when he looked up into the clear, spring sky, he saw a flash of gold and his heart leapt. The dragon banked, showing his gleaming wings, and a huge gout of flame burst from his maw across the sky like a pennant before he turned, tucked his wings, and made a peregrine dive towards the meadow.

He barely stopped in time to avoid crushing Nye beneath him, and when he nuzzled him like a cat over and over, rumbling and purring and crooning, Nye laughed and kissed him. “I missed you too, Fury,” he said.

“You have no idea,” the dragon replied. “Gods, you have no idea. Are you well?”

“Can’t you tell?” he asked, only then releasing the large pendant to dangle back against his chest.

“Yes,” Fury laughed. “Yes, I can. My most precious treasure, you are happy and I love it. I missed you. Will you fly with me?”

Nye turned and looked back to find Eliara standing at a polite distance. The horsewoman nodded once and called, “I’ll keep your gelding for you til you return.”

“Thank you,” he said.

And with that, the dragon picked him up and thrashed his wings hard, taking off and soaring up into the clear sky.

Nye spent a week at Fury’s home, and after that, he returned to the capital with Fury this time.

Ruairí was the first to greet the dragon, and he swore that Fury could come and go from their city in peace, so long as he respected the same bargain. Fury solemnly gave his oath in return. The second human to greet Fury was Seren, and the two spent a solid three hours talking about healing treatises until Nye and the prince interrupted politely with an offer of refreshments. Fury had no time for Magister Ferrar, apparently.

Thus, the ancient alliance between dragon and human was reforged by a knight and his golden dragon, and Nye spent the days when he wasn’t at his prince’s side in the loving arms of his dragon.

__

I really hope you enjoyed this. If you did, and you made it all the way to the end, please consider showing your support by reblogging. It really is the best (and totally free!) way to help the artists and writers whose work you enjoy.

Masterlist | Ko-fi (tip jar) | Patreon

[theother-victoria]

EULA MASTERLIST

Favonius Bladework- Edel- drabbles

Icetide Vortex- one-shots

Glacial Illumination- series

[freelancer-chronicles]

If you need to sum up Interceptors in one gif:

[soldiermom1973]

Quick & dirty screencap of the Forge at Icetide.

[frauzet]

One of the notes I found today in Freeplay.

I do feel called out!

[precursor-ao3]

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by PrecursorAO3 ⭕️ LB4C 🎮 (@precursorao3)

Poorly timed Christmas Music @anthemgame @ea #AnthemGame #Icetide #videogames #hateitallyouwantyourewrong https://www.instagram.com/p/B7syJI4DtaC/?igshid=1vcil504qtal3

[ryssabrin]

everyone out here boarding the hype train for ea play next month for dragon age or mass effect news and i’m just like “spare some anthem updates? anything?”

[emmavakarian-theirin]

You probably still in hiatus, which by the way I really miss you! But also, I finally got Anthem. I really love the game! It's different, but good different. However... Why does the freelancer have to be so mean to Owen??!! He doesn't deserve this! When the freelancer told him "you were a disaster." it hurts me because how can you see this to your friend? Yeah he might have made a mistake, but don't be so harsh on him!

awww, i missed you too! i'm SO glad you're playing it AND enjoying it. it's definitely different to what i'm use to but i'm loving it, and it has so much potential! the characters are so interesting, i've never loved so many characters at once

my friend, to this day i still don't know! i totally understand why he did what he did, i don't understand my freelancer at all. (if you haven't finished the game, stop reading here!)

and if you read the codex entries as you talk to him, you discover in comparison he did a damn good job and learned very quickly. the freelancer PROMISES him from the START that with more training, he'll get his chance at flying a javelin. he took his own chance in a desperate attempt to help, even if it meant losing the one friend he has.

[chaosprimezgaming]

ANTHEM UPDATE! | ICETIDE LANDS TOMORROW! PLUS A MINI RANT..

[koszmar-zycie]

RP inquiry for mutuals (and others, if you want!)

But mostly for mutuals, since the ones who’ve been mutuals with me the longest know at least the topical stuff about Rahab.

Anyway, I’ve been back in a huge vampire lord mood, and I’m loving the idea of RPing with my Blood Elf Death Knight (Blood spec) Rahab, who embraces the vampiric nature of the path of Blood quite strongly.

Would any of you be interested in a chat about starting something together? I really don’t have any specifications, so I’m open to whatever sounds good to you.

[narcoticwriter]

BEIDOU.EXE: Eula Lawrence Main DPS Build

This post is made for the purposes of organization and simplicity concerning the ‘BEIDOU.EXE’ post. For those who stumbled upon this post, this is not at all F2P Friendly.

For those of you who came from the BEIDOU.EXE post, the following stats are below:

Basic Statistics -

Health Points: 13,226 Attack: 342 Defense: 751 Critical Hit Rate: 5% Special Stat: CRIT Damage Bonus of 38.4% Fighting Style: Claymore, melee/Area of Effect

Attacks -

Favonius Bladework - Edel (Normal Attack): Five consecutive strikes, Charged Attack takes stamina  Grimheart: A stacked ability that increases resistance to interruptions and overall Defense, the maximum stack being two Icetide Vortex (Elemental Skill): The Press is a series of swift slashes that deal Cryo Damage, adding a stack of Grimheart for every hit every third of a second; the Hold consumes each stack and not only deals AoE Cryo Damage, but also decreases the opponent’s Physical Resistance and Cryo Resistance; every stack consumed with this is converted into an Icewhirl Brand that explodes and deals additional Cryo Damage to anything nearby Lightfall Sword: A stackable ability that increases resistance to interruptions upon manifesting; whenever any attacks hit it is charged with an energy stack (max being one for every one tenth of a second), the maximum stack being 30 Glacial Illumination (Elemental Burst): One large swing from her claymore deals Cryo Damage and creates a Lightfall Sword, after seven seconds the Lightfall Sword descends and deals Physical Damage to anything nearby 

Passive Abilities -

Rolling Rime: If both stacks of Grimheart are consumed using the Elemental Skill, a Shattered Lightfall Sword will appear and explode immediately, dealing 50% of the normal Physical Damage of a Lightfall Sword manifested by an Elemental Burst Wellspring of War-Lust: When the Elemental Burst is used, the cooldown for the Elemental Skill is reset and gives one stack of Grimheart

Constellations -

Tidal Illusion: Every time a Grimheart stack is consumed, Physical Damage dealt increases by 30% for six seconds Lady of Seafoam: Decreases the cool down for the Hold of the Elemental Skill and making it identical to the Press cool down Lawrence Pedigree: Maxes out Elemental Burst The Obstinacy of One's Inferiors: Lightfall Swords deal 25% more Physical Damage if the opponent’s health is below 50% Chivalric Quality: Maxes out Elemental Skill Noble Obligation: Lightfall Swords made by the Elemental Burst come with five stacks and have a 50% chance to gain one stack of energy for every type of attack

Weapon -

Song of Broken Pines: Increases Attack Damage by 32%, every hit provides a ‘Sigil of Whispers’ every three seconds; maxing out at four, after which all of the stacks are consumed and the ‘Millennial Movement: Banner-Hymn’ effect increases Normal Attack Damage by 40% and increase Normal Attack Speed by 24%, the cool down for this effect is twenty seconds; the substat gives a Physical Damage Bonus of 20.7%

Artifacts -

Pale Flame (4): The Sands, Goblet, and Circlet should have the main stats of Attack Damage %, Physical Damage %, and CRIT Rate/CRIT Damage respectively. Your typical Flower and Plume have their main stats as well, the main stats for all artifacts being the priority. The two-set bonus has a Physical Damage Bonus of 25% and the four-set bonus gives increased Attack Damage of 9% for seven seconds; if this ability stacks twice (one stack every third of a second), it will also increase the two-set bonus by 100% (50%) for it’s duration

Advantages & Disadvantages -

Where do I begin? Where do I even start? 

She requires no flourish with any Elemental Reactions, no fancy conditions have to be met, she is simply elegant devastation. Watch this video here and you’ll see why I make the claim I do. Yes your eyes do not deceive you, you most certainly saw that sheer Physical Damage. 

As the developers intended. 

Her most obvious advantage is how much damage she can do with her Elemental Burst, the Lightfall Sword having the potential to completely decimate her opponent upon detonation. The Lightfall Sword is also not stationary, meaning that this bomb will drop on the opponent even if they try to run. Her Elemental Skill is also an advantage as whenever it’s used, Eula is guaranteed a buff in Defense and her opponents lose some of their Physical and Cryo Resistance, essentially ensuring that Eula can keep hacking at whatever she’s trying to beat.

Her build for this in general is just absolutely broken in this way as you really can’t go wrong anywhere with it. From the artifacts to the weapon, to the base itself, it is made solely for high-level offense and the maximum Physical Damage possible. And in case you’re wondering, thank the calculator for giving me an unholy 1,554,987 points damage for a critical hit.

The fact that I had to explicitly look up her disadvantages because the only thing I could come up with was a subpar ability to deal large amounts of Elemental Damage speaks volumes. I mean yes, mechanical enemies in the game are resistant to Physical Damage, but - for lack of a better way of putting it - who the fuck cares about that when you can one-shot the new Raiden Shogun boss? 

I don’t feel like I need to say anything more, but I will concede when I say that Eula was nerfed quite terribly when it comes to the respective cooldown and energy costs of her respective abilities, because if it was speedy and efficient, Eula would be virtually unstoppable. 

Conclusion - 

Eula is objectively the most powerful playable character in the game, hands down. I understand that a myriad of other characters that I have also presented here exist, but in terms of numbers and base build, no one can come close to what she has managed to do. Dare I say, I’ve become a Eula appreciator. 

Back to BEIDOU.EXE

[genshin-impact-updates]

"Beneath the Light of Jadeite" Version 1.5 Update Details (I)

Dear Travelers,

Below are the details of the Version 1.5 update "Beneath the Light of Jadeite" and the update compensation.

〓Compensation〓

Maintenance Compensation: Primogems ×300 (60 Primogems per hour the servers are down)

Issue Fix Compensation: Primogems ×300 (please refer to the relevant compensation mail for more details)

〓Eligibility〓

Maintenance Compensation: All Travelers who have reached Adventure Rank 5 or above by 2021/04/28 06:00 (UTC+8)

Please claim before the end of Version 1.5.

Issue Fix Compensation: All Travelers who have reached Adventure Rank 5 or above by 2021/04/28 06:00 (UTC+8)

Please claim the compensation before 2021/05/01 06:00 (UTC+8) .

Our developers will distribute compensation to Travelers via in-game mail within 5 hours after the update maintenance is finished. The mail will expire after 30 days, so don't forget to claim the attached compensation in time.

〓Update Schedule〓

Update maintenance begins 2021/04/28 06:00 (UTC+8) and is estimated to take 5 hours.

〓How to Update Game Client〓

PC: Close the game, open the Genshin Impact Launcher, and click Update.

iOS: Open the App Store and tap Update.

Android: Open the game and follow the directions on-screen.

PS4: Highlight Genshin Impact from the PS4 Home Screen, press the OPTIONS button and select "Check for Update."

Please do not hesitate to contact Customer Service if you encounter any issues installing the new version. We will do our very best to resolve the issue.

〓Update Details〓

I. New System

New System: Serenitea Pot

◇ Adepti use Serenitea Pots as media through which they can channel their adeptal power and create realms and abodes.

As the owner of this realm, you may decorate it however you wish and turn it into a home away from home.

After using and summoning the Serenitea Pot, you can interact with it and enter the abode within.

You can also use and summon the pot while you are within its confines. Interacting with the Serenitea Pot in this state will allow you to leave it.

You can also directly open the map interface and fast travel to any of the Teleport Waypoints to immediately leave the Serenitea Pot.

Teapot Spirit

A spirit that lives inside the teapot. It is said that she was created by the adepti themselves. She looks after many matters within the realm, serving as a butler of sorts.

Trust Rank

As you create more furnishings for the first time, the teapot spirit's Trust in you will increase. Accumulate Trust to increase your Trust Rank.

Increasing Trust Rank will unlock features for the Serenitea Pot or allow you to obtain various rewards.

Adeptal Energy

The amount of Adeptal Energy within the realm will gradually increase along with the number of furnishings placed.

Once a new Adeptal Energy Rank is reached, the realm's output will also increase.

Creating

You can obtain the materials required to create furnishings in many different ways, all around Teyvat.

While visiting your friends' realms, you can also assist them in creating furnishings by reducing their creation time.

You can provide assistance to multiple friends each day, but the same person cannot be assisted twice.

Realm Depot

You can use Realm Currency in the Serenitea Pot to exchange for items of your choice.

During the Teapot Traveling Salesman's visits, you can also enter other realms to exchange with Salesmen within them for desired items.

II. New Characters

5-Star Character "Dance of the Shimmering Wave" Eula (Cryo)

◇ Vision: Cryo

◇ Weapon: Claymore

◇ The Spindrift Knight, a scion of the old aristocracy, and the Captain of the Knights of Favonius Reconnaissance Company. The reason for which a descendant of the ancient nobles might join the Knights remains a great mystery in Mondstadt to this very day.

◆ Tapping Eula's Elemental Skill "Icetide Vortex" deals Cryo DMG and provides Eula with the Grimheart effect. Holding her Elemental Skill consumes all the stacks of Grimheart and deals AoE Cryo DMG to opponents in front of her. When the Grimheart stacks are consumed, surrounding opponents will have their Physical RES and Cryo RES decreased. Each consumed stack of Grimheart will be converted into an Icewhirl Brand that deals Cryo DMG to nearby opponents.

Eula's Elemental Burst "Glacial Illumination" deals AoE Cryo DMG and creates a Lightfall Sword that follows her around. After this, when Eula's own Normal Attack, Elemental Skill, and Elemental Burst deal DMG to opponents, they will charge the Lightfall Sword. Once its duration ends, the Lightfall Sword will descend and explode violently, dealing Physical DMG that scales on the number of energy stacks the Lightfall Sword has accumulated.

*"Dance of the Shimmering Wave" Eula (Cryo) will be available in a future event wish.

4-Star Character "Wise Innocence" Yanfei

◇ Vision: Pyro

◇ Weapon: Catalyst

◇ A well-known legal adviser active in Liyue Harbor. A brilliant young lady in whose veins runs the blood of an illuminated beast.

◆ Yanfei's Normal Attack has a Scarlet Seal effect. While Scarlet Seals are present, Yanfei's Stamina consumption is decreased. A Charged Attack consumes all Scarlet Seals, with the AoE and DMG of the attack increasing according to the amount of Scarlet Seals consumed.

Yanfei's Elemental Skill "Signed Edict" deals AoE Pyro DMG. Hitting opponents with the flames grants Yanfei the maximum number of Scarlet Seals.

Yanfei's Elemental Burst "Done Deal" deals AoE Pyro DMG, granting Yanfei the maximum number of Scarlet Seals and applying the Brilliance effect to her. While Brilliance is in effect, Yanfei's Charged Attack DMG is increased and she is granted a Scarlet Seal at fixed intervals.

*In the event wish "Gentry of Hermitage," "Wise Innocence" Yanfei (Pyro) will receive a huge drop-rate boost!

III. New Equipment

▌ New Weapon

Song of Broken Pines (5-Star Claymore)

◆ A part of the "Millennial Movement" that wanders amidst the winds. Increases the wielder's ATK. When Normal or Charged Attacks hit opponents, the character gains a Sigil of Whispers. This effect can be triggered once every 0.3s. When you possess 4 Sigils of Whispers, all of them will be consumed and all nearby party members will obtain the "Millennial Movement: Banner-Hymn" effect for 12s. This effect increases Normal ATK SPD and ATK. Once this effect is triggered, you will not gain Sigils of Whispers for 20s. Of the many effects of the "Millennial Movement," buffs of the same type will not stack.

▌ New Artifacts

Tenacity of the Millelith (4-Star and 5-Star)

◇ 2-Piece Set: HP is increased.

◇ 4-Piece Set: When an Elemental Skill hits an opponent, the ATK of all nearby party members is increased and their Shield Strength is increased for 3s. This effect can be triggered once every 0.5s. This effect can still be triggered even when the character who is using this artifact set is not on the field.

Pale Flame (4-Star and 5-Star)

2-Piece Set: Physical DMG is increased.

4-Piece Set: When an Elemental Skill hits an opponent, ATK is increased for 7s. This effect stacks up to 2 times and can be triggered once every 0.3s. Once 2 stacks are reached, the 2-set effect is increased by 100%.

◆ Obtain artifacts in the above sets from Ridge Watch, the new Domain of Blessing at Bishui Plain.

IV. New Domains

New Domain: Ridge Watch

Standing proudly over the start of the ridge, these ancient city ruins overlook both north and south, both mountain and river, like a boundary marker. Legend has it that its gates and blessings are only open to those whose hearts are lit with an eternal blaze.

◆ Obtain artifacts in the "Tenacity of the Millelith" and "Pale Flame" sets from Ridge Watch, the new Domain of Blessing at Bishui Plain.

New Trounce Domain: Beneath the Dragon-Queller

What secrets are hidden in this domain...?

The new Trounce Domain, Beneath the Dragon-Queller, has been added to the Nantianmen area.

◆ Unlocked after completing Zhongli's Story Quest "Historia Antiqua Chapter: Act II - No Mere Stone."

After updating to Version 1.5, there will be three opportunities to halve the Original Resin cost when claiming rewards from Trounce Blossoms in Trounce Domains and the "Lupus Boreas, Dominator of Wolves" challenge (after the V1.5 update – 2021-05-03 04:00:00. The number of opportunities resets every Monday at 04:00 (Server time).

Travelers should complete the update to V1.5 first before completing the relevant challenges for the week April 26 – May 2.

V. New Monsters

1. Cryo Hypostasis

◇ Elemental creatures who protect themselves from incoming attack with their durable shell. Find an opportune moment to land a blow to their elemental core. At critical moments, they will enter a shielded regenerative state, firing Frostfruits to attack its foes while restoring its own HP. Use Charged Attacks to redirect the Frostfruits back at the Cryo Hypostasis to knock it out of its regenerative state swiftly.

Located at Entombed City - Outskirts

2. Azhdaha

◇ An enormous dragon as ancient as the mountains themselves.

In an age that has all but faded from memory, he stood shoulder to shoulder with one who ruled over a harbor of stone. But in the end, the two came into conflict, and the dragon was banished to a dark place deep underground. Over the long years of his imprisonment, his power has slowly dissipated. He has also become disfigured from the various kinds of erosion he has been subjected to.

The faint rattling of this dragon lord's shackles and his deep, angry growl echo through the bowels of the mountains like memories of a bygone era.

Located at Nantianmen

3. New Elite Monster: Abyss Lector - Violet Lightning

◇ A creature of the Abyss Order that calls upon thunder and lightning in praise of the darkness.

It possesses some ability to disrupt elemental powers, and some of its attacks will drain characters' Elemental Energy when dealing DMG to them.

In Version 1.5, the Abyss Lector: Violet Lightning will only appear in the Spiral Abyss.

VI. New Event: Energy Amplifier Initiation - Take part and exchange for "Kätzlein Cocktail" Diona (Cryo)!

◇ In an effort to gather and research Irminsul Fruit Fragments, Sumeru researcher Hosseini has entrusted a mysterious ancient relic to you for a time: the Energy Amplifier. Help Hosseini to gather Irminsul Fruit Fragments and unleash their power with the Energy Amplifier.

◆ Event Gameplay Duration: 2021/04/30 10:00:00 – 2021/05/17 03:59

◆ Eligibility: Adventure Rank 20 or above

▌ Places of Interest

During the event period, go to Places of Interest and defeat the opponents there to gather Irminsul Fruit Fragments and obtain Fractured Fruit Data.

▌ Domains

During the event period, successfully challenge Domains to obtain Fractured Fruit Data.

▌ Twisted Realm

During the event period, challenge the Twisted Realm and get as high a score as you can. Reach a combined score of certain amounts to claim Fractured Fruit Data.

※ After the event gameplay period ends, you will be unable to claim the combined score rewards for the Twisted Realm. Please make sure to claim the rewards in time.

◆ Even more events will subsequently become available. Stay tuned, Travelers.

VII. New Quests

1. New Story Quests

Zhongli's Story Quest: Historia Antiqua Chapter - Act II "No Mere Stone"

◇ A curious ancient tree has quietly stood here throughout the ages, bearing witness to all that has come to pass. To rescue the miners and solve this puzzle once and for all, you proceed to the ancient site that holds all the answers...

◆ Zhongli's Story Quest "Historia Antiqua Chapter: Act II - No Mere Stone" will be permanently available after the Version 1.5 update

◆ Quest Unlock Criteria:

• Adventure Rank 40 or above

• Completed the Story Quest "Historia Antiqua Chapter: Act I - Sal Flore"

• Completed the Archon Quest "Chapter I: Act IV - We Will Be Reunited"

◆ Complete the series of quests to earn rewards including Primogems, Weapon Enhancement Materials, and Character EXP Materials!

◆Eula's Story Quest "Aphros Delos Chapter: Act I" will become available at a later date.

2. New Hangout Events

Hangout Event: Diona - Act I "The Cat and the Cocktail"

◇ They say that there's a popular bartender at The Cat's Tail.

◆ Diona's Hangout Event "Act I: The Cat and the Cocktail" will be permanently available after the Version 1.5 update

◆ Unlock Criteria:

• Adventure Rank 26 or above

• Completed the Archon Quest "Prologue: Act III - Song of the Dragon and Freedom"

Hangout Event: Noelle - Act II "Knightly Exam Prep"

◇ Noelle reveals to you that she is very anxious about the Knights of Favonius selection exam. At your suggestion, she decides to emulate the knights she knows in an attempt to overcome her sense of unease.

◆ Noelle's Hangout Event "Act II: Knightly Exam Prep" will be permanently available after the Version 1.5 update

◆ Unlock Criteria:

• Adventure Rank 26 or above

• Completed the Archon Quest "Chapter I: Act III - A New Star Approaches"

• Achieved all endings in Noelle's Hangout Event "Act I: Chivalric Training"

3. New World Quests

◆ Adds World Quests related to the Serenitea Pot: "A Teapot to Call Home: Part I" and "A Teapot to Call Home: Part II"

◆ Quest Unlock Criteria:

• Adventure Rank 35 or above

• Completed the Archon Quest "Chapter I: Act III - A New Star Approaches"

Complete the World Quest "A Teapot to Call Home: Part I" to obtain the gadget "Serenitea Pot."

◆ New World Quests: "A Timeless Classic" and "When the Trail Goes Cold"

*Other new World Quests will be added at a later date, including "Mr. Melancholy" and "Mimi Tomo"

◆ Complete these quests to win Mora, Character EXP Materials, and more!

VIII. Other Additions

● Gameplay

1. New Gadget

○ Serenitea Pot: A teapot obtained from Madame Ping. There seems to be a whole new realm within it...

2. New Recipes

○ Eula's Specialty: Stormcrest Pie

○ Yanfei's Specialty: "My Way"

○ Wanmin Restaurant: Crab Roe Tofu

○ Xinyue Kiosk: Stir-Fried Fish Noodles

○ Liuli Pavilion: Cured Pork Dry Hotpot

3. New Inventory Category: Furnishings

4. New Precious Items:

○ Dream Solvent: An item capable of changing Character Level-Up Materials obtained from memories and trials into whatever form is needed.

Obtain by successfully completing the Trounce Domain or Dominator of Wolves challenges.

○ Transient Resin: An item that can be used to replenish Original Resin. Once used, it will replenish 60 Original Resin. Once obtained, it will automatically dissipate after a period of time.

·The expiration time will be calculated from the Monday after this item is obtained, and it will disappear seven days from then.

·Multiple Transient Resins obtained on different weeks will have their expiration dates counted independently.

○ Vial of Adeptal Speed: A small bottle that seals some adeptal energy within. Will immediately complete a furnishing when used.

○ Sanctifying Unction: Artifact EXP material. Gives 2,500 EXP.

○ Sanctifying Essence: Artifact EXP material. Gives 10,000 EXP.

5. New Achievements: "A Realm Beyond: Series I," "Memories of the Heart," etc.

6. New Namecards

○ Celebration: Fruit of Wisdom - Obtained from the "Energy Amplifier" event.

○ Celebration: Peekaboo! - Obtained from the "Windtrace" event

○ Yanfei: Impartial - Obtained when Yanfei's Friendship Level reaches 10.

○ Eula: Ice-Sealed - Obtained when Eula's Friendship Level reaches 10.

○ Travel Notes: Sub-Space Recreation - Obtained from the Battle Pass system

○ Achievement: Tea Time - Obtained by completing all achievements under "A Realm Beyond: Series I."

7. Spiral Abyss:

○ Floor 11 Ley Line Disorders changed to:

• Your character will be periodically inflicted with Slowing Water, greatly increasing your skills' CD duration until the inflicted Hydro element is removed.

• Physical DMG dealt by all party members increased by 75%.

○ Updates the monster lineup on Floor 11 of the Spiral Abyss.

○ Updates the monster lineup on Floor 12 of the Spiral Abyss.

Starting from the first time that the Lunar Phase refreshes after updating to Version 1.5, the three Lunar Phases will be as follows:

○ Phase 1: Blade-Dance Moon

When a character scores consecutive hits on an opponent with Normal Attacks within 2s, this character's Physical DMG is increased by 5% for 10s. This effect stacks up to 5 times, and only 1 stack is added at a time regardless of how many enemies are hit in one strike. When 5 stacks have been obtained, further hits on opponents will unleash shockwaves that deal AoE DMG. A shockwave can be created in this manner once every 1s.

○ Phase 2: Thorny Moon

A backlash will occur when opponents hit a character protected by a shield, unleashing a shockwave that deals AoE DMG. Can occur once every 6s.

○ Phase 3: Rebellious Moon

When a character scores Normal, Charged, and Plunging Attack hits that deal Physical DMG to opponents, this character's CRIT Rate is increased by 3% for 10s. This effect stacks up to 5 times, and only 1 stack is added at a time regardless of how many enemies are hit in one strike. When 5 stacks have been obtained, CRIT Hits on opponents will unleash shockwaves that deal AoE DMG. A shockwave can be created in this manner once every 1s.

● System

1. The new Mail Pins function has been added. Pinned mail will be placed at the top of your mail list and will not be deleted when pressing Delete Read. However, pinned mail will still expire as normal.

2. On mobile, UI Border Offset setting has been added to Settings > Controls.

● Audio

1. Adds voiced interactions for characters in the open world.

2. Adds a Compatibility Mode option for the audio API on Android devices. Try switching to this mode if you experience any of the following issues:

Distorted sound (electrical noise) from your device, failure to switch between left and right audio channels, screen recordings do not capture audio, screen recordings feature distorted audio, difficulty switching to and from earphones when plugged in/removed, electrical noise through Bluetooth earphones.

3. Adds Japanese voice-over for certain characters.

4. Due to unforeseen circumstances, in English, the voice of Diona in Diona's Hangout Event is temporarily provided by Jackie Lastra.

[greatskyriver]

Haluk: “I’m going to break into her shitty, sad little home and put a very large ursix plushie in it. She can donate it to the orphans if she hates it, I don’t care.” Happy Icetide, Mel.

Art trade with the illustrious Mari/Fleshwerks, featuring her Freelancer Mel Mossine.

[freelancer-chronicles]

Anthem: Icetide

Tyrant Mine red orbs

Realizing I could go in a big circle made these much more fun to grab

[lncarnon]

@heavenscales​ asked:

It had been a few days time since Althaea had requested a leave to 'chase up on some intel' with promises of a swift return, without doing so empty handed. She was no fool to think such a mistake would allow her to be welcomed back without due consequences and she had no intention of failing the Monitor's generosity any further. And so, much as she promised, barely a week had begun to pass before word of her arrival had been given and, of course, a request had been sent to seek audience with the Monitor.

A usual occurrence and yet still one that she treated as the very first - She stands at attention and approaches slow, offering the necessary greetings and respectful motions before she presents the Monitor himself with two things - A Shaper Relic, currently contained and disabled for safe transport, and a detailed and well written report… complete with a small, easily removable bow at the very top. The entire thing is incredibly tidy, including the decoration.

Though she stands entirely unreadable on the outside, make no mistake. Inside she’s wondering if this small bit of “holiday celebration” might be pushing their… ‘professional relationship’ just a tad too far.

   From within the shimmering city his gaze wanders over the endless white sea of snow beyond their walls, still so bright even after the sun had long since disappeared behind the mountains. A cloudless night like this were a rare moment, where the neighboring gas giant and moon could be seen so clear one might reach out and touch them. What an amusing, if useless, thought.

   One that is swiftly left behind as his tether to nearby Cyphers gives away information long before the request reaches him, response near immediate as the technology relays the notification a moment later. The Monitor knows that Althaea will not be long now, continuing his path onward towards a throne room built by one of the Monitors’ before him. It serves to be one of the most isolated places in the city, privacy from prying eyes or ears, and more often than not where prisoners with bountiful information tend to die.

   Upon her arrival, he waves away the twin Valkyries that stand near the doorway, their presence in the moment unnecessary. 

   Holding the Relic in hand his mind toils over what its purpose might serve in the grand scheme of things, the Monitor’s secret agenda behind the obsession concerning the Cenotaph. It is still locked away behind the Heart of Rage and he still has a certainty that a relic out there somewhere will give him access..

   “Thank you, Althaea,” he finally says while his gaze drifts from the Relic itself to the report, eyeing the Icetide bow. It had a meaning to him, once, before he’d come to understand that the hope it represented was for those too weak to defend themselves from the Anthem. She certainly does not fall into that category, and it leaves him wondering just what the event means to her...

   “Take some time to relax, you have certainly earned it.”

[frauzet]

Yay, I made it! 

I finished “Icetide Champion”.

Finally managed Gold on Stone Canyon Run in a flying bathtub my Colossus.