#no but this was PEAK JAMMF | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

takemeawaytocamelot · 8 years ago

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JAMMF the Knight - If Your Heels Are Nimble and Light, You Can Get There by Candlelight

Alright you lovely people. This is the third chapter of the JAMMF the Knight story which is a collaborative work with the ever amazing @thescarlettpeacock. This lovely chapter is like 99% her work, so go ahead and give her the kudos for it. I mainly edited and poked her until she wrote it. But it’s a wonderful chapter and I’m only posting it here so it stays with the other chapters. It was meant to go out earlier today and I forgot, so I’m sorry. Here it is, I hope you enjoy it!

Part One

Part Two

Previously

“Claire - lass…” He paused, gasping for a breath in a room suddenly deprived of oxygen.

“Yer a star.”

Claire moved quite suddenly away from Jamie, her body reacting in flight at his revelation.

“No, I’m not.” Her voice was flat against the accusation, “You’re mistaken. I’m just plain old Claire Beauchamp.”

“I saw ye! I saw… Oh God you’re a star! That’s why you’re here!” Jamie stared at Claire, dumbfounded by his realisation, eyes wide and jaw slack.

“No! No you don’t know what you saw!” Claire’s throat caught, her voice levels rising to an almost shout.

“I saw you glowing in the shadow and-” He couldn’t stop, his mind and mouth working without cohesion as he babbled out his reaction.

Claire shook her head with rigour, her chest rising and falling, heaving out breaths as she tried to explain the falsity of his claim. “A trick of the light! It wasn’t what you thought it was -”

“It makes sense now! Why he’s kept ye here! And why-”

“Stop! Stop talking! I’m not a star!”

Jamie went quiet for a moment as the gravity of his next sentence settled in. “The beast, he came for you didn’t he? He came to cut –“

“Shut up!” Claire darted to the far wall, covering her ears and squeezing her eyes shut, trying desperately to drown out Jamie as he spelled out her worst fear.

“God he would’ve… Your entire life just…” The severity of the situation was setting into his mind, a thousand thoughts whirring together and making no sense. A woman - who so happened to be a star - taken by the beast in the same way his sister had been.

“He stole me away to kill me! Yes! He came to cut out my heart like all of my sisters that fell before me! What do you think they do to fallen stars, Jamie?!” Violent tears fell down Claire’s face in absolute terror as she shouted at Jamie, her bodying shaking with vigour. “I will be dead before the week is through! There’s nothing you or I can do about it!” Her fury burned with a dangerous intensity.

“I’ll find a way out, Claire! I promised you I wouldn’t let any harm come to you, I’m no’ about to let a mad man cut your heart out!”

“You closed the door, Jamie!”

“Oh will you let that go! I didn’t do it on purpose and I already apologised for that earlier!”

“Do you think that makes it all better!? Face it! It’s your fault we can’t leave and it’s your fault I’m going to die! Just get out, Jamie!” The words flew from her mouth, and she knew instantly that they had hit their mark.

Her words cut through Jamie like a blow from a sword, heavy and violent. He stood astonished, his chest heaving, shaking against the cold. The weight of truth that hung over them both, a spectre lingering in the darkness of the night. He was to blame, he had closed the door. And if Claire died, her blood would be left on his hands.

Jamie took one last look at her, spun on his heels and left the room, slamming the door behind him with the echo ricocheting down the tower.

----------

Some time had passed since they had last spoken, both furious with the other, with minds whirring with new and dangerous information. The moon had reached its peak in the sky, deep into the night it began lowering, revealing a new morning. The stars flickered behind them, the narrow window providing only a small view of their vast expanse. During his time away from her, Jamie had realised that Claire knew those stars, that they must have been the smallest comfort for her during her time in this wretched tower. Her time on the earth, in fact. Had she been lonely, he wondered. Did she cry for her lost family? The view of the world below and its people, the beautiful and the damned lot of them, did she long for it? He hadn’t thought about that when he’d announced her status and argued with her. Guilt was setting into him, his gut aching. Jamie knew he should go back to her - just to make sure she hadn’t done anything stupid in her blatant fury toward him and the situation at hand.

Once he had finally decided to force himself upstairs, he found her staring into the fireplace, framed by a beautiful white halo that illuminating her from head to toe. Claire didn’t move her body as he approached, nor made real any acknowledgement of his presence. Jamie stood by the door, watching in and waiting to be invited back into her chamber. His hopes were interrupted when Claire began speaking again, voice wistful.

“If I could have one wish, just a small insignificant wish -” She paused only for a moment, but long enough for Jamie to assume the wish would be to have never had him appear at the door. “I would ask that a Babylon candle could fall from the heavens.”

“A what?” He stepped into the room, silently relieved that while they had fought, there was a chance she might let him stay in her company for a while longer and warm himself by the fire beside her.

Claire did not look up as she spoke, maintaining her gaze toward the fireplace. “A Babylon candle. They are incredibly rare now, there used to be hundreds of them. A dull emerald green with a solid black wick running right through the middle. All you have to do is think of exactly where you wanted to be, light the candle and off you go. You had freedom at your fingertips. I remember watching people travel across the lands, having adventures, visiting their families…” Her voice fell soft with the weight of nostalgia.

Jamie took a seat beside her, his legs straddling the bench. He watched on as her body hung stiff under the weight of a heavy heart, the logs of the fire crackling and spitting loudly as he waited for her to continue with her tale.

“Someone stole them all, started using them for dark magic. That’s how they started finding us so quickly - when my sisters fell. They would think of the location of the star and try to find them before someone else did. It was like a cruel sport sometimes… The hunt for a star heart.” Claire sniffed back tears, throat tightening with each word. She turned herself to him, her eyes filled with tears, her lip wobbling. “I didn’t mean to fall you know? Curiosity caught me. I just wanted to watch you all, to see the wonderful things I had watched you all do. Now I’m beginning to wonder if I ignored what humanity is really like.” She spoke to him as though her were her priest at the confessional, hoping for an absolution from such a human trait as curiosity and desire.

“We’re a despicable lot at the best of times.” He muttered, feeling hopeless for Claire and for himself.

“I’m not ready, Jamie.” She choked out, “I don’t want to die.” With the last word, Claire began to heart-wrenchingly sob, ferocious tears falling down her face and dripping off her quivering chin. Misery and hopelessness came in waves, moments of sobbing broken apart by pauses for a breath. Jamie wondered how long it had been since she had cried - had she at all? Twice in the hours he had been in her company she had broken into sobs, and twice he felt the weight of the world fall onto his shoulders, hoping with all of his might that he could ease her anguish.

When her cries had calmed, she had fallen eerily silent. She was a picture of devastation. Instinct had Jamie reaching into his pocket, searching for a handkerchief to wipe the tears from her bleary eyes. Cursing his habit of stuffing everything into whatever pocket was nearby, he began to fumble through various trinkets and knick knacks, dropping them onto his lap; a silver coin for emergencies, a nail from a horseshoe, the green candle Quentin had given him, a small fishing line and –

“What - Jamie, what is that?” Claire’s bruised voice cut through a short silence.

“What?” he asked, looking down at the objects in his lap. She leant over to him and plucked the candle from the pile of objects, staring at it intently. “Your uncle gave it to me. I dinna ken what it is.”

Claire’s expression changed quite rapidly in the following moments. She paled, her eyebrows arched with disbelief, then her skin began to flush. “It’s a -” Claire paused for a moment before she commenced yelling rather loudly at her fellow prisoner. “You’ve had a Babylon candle this entire time and you just neglected to mention the fact?!” She moved forward with swift agility, hitting Jamie rather hard in the arm repeatedly. “You’ve had me thinking we were going to die in here the whole time! And you’ve had that in your bloody pocket!”

What Jamie had in fact not realised was that during his meeting with Quentin Lambert, he had been gifted a Babylon candle. A candle that provided the perfect method for their escape from the tower. Quentin had entirely neglected to explain the use of the candle to Jamie, knowing that if he found Claire, she would explain its properties and he and his ward would be reunited sooner rather than later.

“Ouch! Claire! For God's sake stop hitting me will ye! I thought it was just a candle!””

“‘I thought it was just a candle!’” She mimicked sarcastically, “We could have been gone from this bloody place the moment after the door closed!”

“I didna ken what it was! But we can go now. I can take you back to your uncle.”

Her glare turned from rage and frustration into wariness and caution. “How do I know you'll take me back to him? What if you've got your own plans for me now that you know what I am.”

Jamie threw his hands up in frustration, “We've been o’er this, damn it! If ye dinna trust me, I canna help ye!”

“You'd just leave me here?” Claire asked, hurt by the idea that Jamie would simply leave her behind.

“Perhaps.” He shrugged, his demeanour appearing indifferent. “If ye willna come, I canna force you.”

“I…” she looked longingly at the candle. If she could do what she wanted, would she return to the sky? Was that even possible? “I just want to go home.”

“Then will ye trust me far enough to do that?”

She hesitated, chewing on her lip. After her pause, she finally spoke with certainty.

“Yes, I will.”

-----------

They had decided to wait until morning before making a move, knowing it would be easier for them to find their way to their destination by the light of day than lit by moonlight. They would light the candle, a location fixed in their minds and with luck, be transported there. Jamie would take Claire directly to her Uncle, he would collect his payment and he would leave, never to see or hear from her again. Hasten to admit, the latter had stuck in Jamie’s throat as they had agreed on a plan.

“We have to get this right, Jamie.”

“I know - I’m just trying to think of where exactly we should go…”

“Why can’t I decide?!” She challenged indignantly.

“Bloody woman will ye no’ -” Jamie was interrupted by the sound of the door opening at the bottom of the stairs. The distinct sound of footsteps echoed off the walls, heavy and foreboding.

Claire’s body began to shake as Jamie gathered her to his side, his blood running cold through his veins in growing unease.

“Claire, think of home.” He whispered.

The footsteps grew louder.

“Jamie -”

And heavier.

“Claire -”

Coming closer.

Jamie grabbed her hand, linking their icy fingers tightly together, entirely awash with panic.

The door handle of the chamber turned down and the door swung open, revealing a shadow in its frame.

“Think of home!” He demanded, thrusting his hand into the blazing fireplace. Jamie screamed from the pain, white hot and searing before a flash erupted before them.

They vanished.

#outlander #outlander fanfic #TheScarlettPeacock #JAMMF the Knight #jamie x claire #Stardust AU

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