#hadriel my beloved

[lauls-png]

fear me, if you dare!

[carrera-ffxiv]

Morning Shadows Pt. 1

A slow, haunting melody danced about the manor.

“So, Lord Isenhart, how fares the evening?” an alluring voice interrupted the music and his concentration. She had slithered onto the piano, her crimson eyes glowing as she leaned onto the instrument. Hair as black as the darkest shadow and a raven gown to match, she was always dressed up to the nines.

A discordant sound wailed from the piano as he stopped playing.

“Get off. The piano.” An annoyed and gruff tone, for certain.

A sigh escaped her lips as she shifted off gracefully, reaching out with an item to hand him. “You received my missive about the vial one of your agents recovered?”

“So… in short, it’s a drug…” he inspected the glowing blue ampoule.

“It’s not just a drug. The aether amplifies the effect and cuts through any tolerance. I don’t know why she’s doing this, or why she seems to be recruiting in Thanalan of all places, but she’s spread her corrupted influence in Eorzea and it must be stopped. What’s worse is that it seems to be draining people somehow.”

“An infusion of aether and opiates… this is not what we all bled for. The Black Blades fought to avenge Doman lives and free her from Imperial rule. Not make more enemies for her.” Hadriel appeared weary at the thought.

Carrera continued, “Yet her plague follows her here as a daughter of Doma. And she trains others to be shinobi and assassins. You know more than I how dangerous she is. She is as much of a stain on our reputation as a whole… as she is a personal responsibility of yours.”

He took in a sip of his whiskey before releasing a sigh, “I understand she holds a soulstone now...”

“It was how she rose to the tenth seat so quickly after you left, though I suppose it’s the ninth seat now.” she clicked her tongue and went on. “I could sense it when she was near me, it’s an ancient soul stone- the soul of countless shinobi guide her steps and her blades.”

“I thought you said I wasn’t replaced, how would she rise to the tenth seat if the table was full?”

“Taka died.”

“Oh. Well he was a bit of a dickhead anyway.” he tended to his drink. “How’d he die?”

“We suspect Rina killed him.”

“But then you allowed her into the ten seats of the Shadows.” he gave her an incredulous look.

“There was no evidence she was the one responsible.” she shrugged, “That’s a credit to her, if she is indeed responsible. That and she was the best candidate at the time. However, now we have evidence that she’s acting without the council’s consent in Eorzea… well... and as the two who operate there, it’s our obligation: Rina Inoue must die.” 

Hadriel remained silent, closing his eye as he mulled over the situation.

She continued, as if to spur him on, “The others might not say it, but they look down on you and I, and even Leth because we’re half-breeds and not of full Doman lineage. We need to set an example for the rest, show them that we will not back down and allow this, regardless of who it is. Even if it is a fellow Shadow.”

“You sure know how to lay it on thick. You knew she was doing all this but decided to let me risk the lives of people who worked for the Ashen Wolves to find this out?” Hadriel questioned pointedly.

“You don’t have any followers yourself unlike the rest of the Shadows and I wanted you to know firsthand. Would you have believed me otherwise?”

A hand rested on his hilt. “No. I suppose not.”

“Then, you know what must be done. I have to kill her. But I can’t do it alone.”

He took slow deliberate gulps of his drink to delay a response. She was right by all means, but he was just re-inducted to the Black Blades. Surely him offing a fellow pillar of the organization would cause discord. That and… she was his student. “We could always call for a summit. It would force her to appear and we could hold her accountable in front of everyone else.”

Her response was laden with irritation, “We don’t know if any of the others are secretly supporting her, it might force a wider confrontation across more fronts.”

“Contrary to what you said, for now, all we have is a vial and you’re calling for her execution. Did you at least run this by the others? We needn’t rush, I’ve had someone keeping an eye on her operation since we retrieved the vial.”

“Oh? You risk your precious Wolves?” Carrera interrupted.

“No. I do still have some influence outside of them. Anyway, we don’t want her to find us sniffing around for her first so we must use utmost caution. Surprise is the only thing we have going for us. If we hit her operation hard, she’ll come to us. While we’re at it you can tell your little minions you’ve left wandering around my neighborhood to go ahead and get looking.”

“Very well.” she seemed unphased by the fact that he spotted her agents, “I’ll be going then.” She performed an aetherial shift to leave the stage, unravelling her physical presence into a smoothly flowing torrent of shadow.

“Oh and one more thing.” She reformed by the exit and looked at him expectantly.

“Don’t sit on my fucking piano.”

“So touchy. You’re not like this with your beloved kitten are you?” she smirked and melded into the darkness.

[seolhe]

I found myself looking through old art, and I noticed that my passion for drawing Lotus definitely isn’t a new phenomenon. I... went through a bit of a weird period when I liked to portray him with wings...? For some reason...? He didn’t actually ever have wings in the story but Aesthetic I guess? Blue butterflies was used to represent Jhael (now Hadriel), that much I know. Not that I remember why. He was also definitely a much shittier person back then. Lotus wasn’t so much his highly respected and beloved paramour as his personal concubine whom he had basically grown bored of but kept around anyway while he was chasing after Tsuru (now Tahir), the blue-haired dude in the bottom left picture, who was already involved with Shian (now Siradin) by then. Not that Lotus was a great guy either. He was petty and cruel, manipulative, and took pleasure in tormenting others. But, you know, sad backstory excuses everything *rolls eyes* The brown haired dude was a guy called Kamenwati who wasn’t resurrected when we picked up these guys again. He belonged to my friend, and he and Lotus had a messy love-hate relationship which started with Lotus completely screwing him over for absolutely no reason. He also got wings I think every single time I painted him >_> Lotus changed the least as far as design goes. He wasn’t a eunuch back then, and he was shorter, clearly, but I think those are the biggest differences. I’m kinda missing his black hairtips. I should draw him with those again.