#alternate essek is taking no chances with this weird mage that poofed into his house

[nellasbookplanet]

I was tagged by @mllekurtz to share a snippet of a current wip, which gives me an excellent chance to throw this scene from the Molaesmyr au of Caleb interacting with alternate Essek at you all, behold:

“I have already told you, we know each other.”

“You and… some other me.”

“Ja.”

“And I—he told you about that.”

“Not as much as that,” Caleb admits. “We found out, me and my friends. Years ago. He has left the Dynasty since. We are—” He stops, figuring that perhaps ‘lovers’ would be too much for this Essek to hear. “Close,” he settles on. “Very close.”

“You could be lying.”

“Your favorite foods are soups and stews. You have a brother named Verin, who used to play tricks on you by putting jam in your spellbooks. You enjoy knitting.” Caleb gives a short, slightly pained laugh. “In fact, the socks I’m wearing right now are of your making.”

For a second, Essek’s gaze is drawn to Caleb’s boot clad feet. Then he scowls, seemingly at himself, and turns back to Caleb’s face.

And, because I've been sitting on this one for a while, a bonus snippet from the next chapter of the magnus archives au:

“You don’t know what I do, then?”

“I know you watch people. Give them nice, tasty little nightmares, make sure they can never move on from their pain, open the door for your god to soak it all in like a hungry sponge.” He laughs. “Boring way to go about it, if you ask me. You want to be there as it happens.”

“Mhm.” Essek nods. “What are you?”

“I—” The Traveler stops, his already large eyes growing wider.

“Turns out I can do a little more than just watch,” Essek says. “What are you?”