#paix al-lareiff

[valoisfulcanellideux]

Thinking about them so much right now...

[Art commissioned from Sabira | Flower of Laurelin. Full cover artwork is here.]

[saphiraugen]

Sketch of Paix and Mhenheli

I love @valoisfulcanellideux 's story "These stones remember" (https://archiveofourown.org/works/44866726/chapters/112888387) so much. It is a wonderful and long fanfic of Copper King Pixlriffs and Pixandria from Empires Season 1. If you want to get lost in a fantastic Pixlriffs centric story, then this one is for you.

I would love to see more fanart of this story. So I decided to give it a try myself and draw the two main characters Onorait Paix Al-Lareiff and his Chaperone Mhenheli Al-Q'isaraf in the style of an old desert civilisation. The reference for this drawing was an ancient egyptian carving, although the Paixandrian folk is more based on ancient Arabia.

Paix's outfit, crown and trident is based on @floweroflaurelin's gorgeous Copper King drawings.

I used this carving as main reference/ inspiration:

[valoisfulcanellideux]

As always, it's a delight working with you, Sabira <3

This piece, in particular, has my heart. I got choked up even just seeing the initial rough sketch, so when the finished artwork landed in my inbox it actually wrought tears. You've done the characters and the world such beautiful justice, and I am so incredibly happy and grateful for that.

We have once again beaten the sun to rising.

—

An illustration created for @valoisfulcanellideux of a scene from chapter 68 of These Stones Remember, to close out the end of the second companion reader. The Copper King and his Chaperone look out onto the shining city of A’lumiya, with the sun cresting over the horizon, touching the Statue, the Greatbridge, the Golden Road…

I always love working with Valois and getting to gush about our mutual love of Pixlriffs, and how we’re both so inspired by the stories he tells :’)

Thanks so much again for trusting me with this, Valois! ☺️❤️

[valoisfulcanelli]

These Stones Remember - V

Another sketch in the world of Empires S2. More history, and a few different - but possibly familiar - faces appear.

Onorait Paix al-Lareiff was but seven years of age when he was introduced to the guildmaster who would begin tutoring him in the mysteries of redstone. He had been told this master was highly regarded within the Guild of Redstone Adepts, and particularly skilled in making redstone... fun?

Paix had been unsure how this would be possible, as the tutelage of a young prince who would one day inherit his father's empire tended toward dry, soul-sucking boredom. Rituals and customs, histories (he enjoyed those, at least) and languages, combat and strategy, politics and negotiation. He knew that redstone was essential to the deep workings of parts of the empire, but whenever he'd glimpsed it in-situ, it looked like a confusion of clunks and clicks, things lighting up, and things shunting other things around. How could that be fun?

The door to his receiving room - on the edge of his private quarters - swung open, and Chaperone Mhenheli entered. Of all his chaperones, Paix liked Mhenheli the least. There was something oily and observant about the man. But tolerance was one thing he knew his father meant him to learn, and most likely Mhenheli's presence in his life was solely to educate him in that most difficult of the subtle arts.

"Onorait." Mhenheli bowed low. "I introduce Guildmaster Teng-ahtk, of the Redstone Adepts."

Behind him - for Mhenheli had a way of inserting himself into a room through the barest of cracks in a doorway - the door opened fully, to admit a tall man wearing red robes bordered with alternating black and white (well, white smeared with red in places) silk ribbon. He was skinny, and yet somehow imposing in a vaguely unsettling manner, as he strode across the tiled floor. Bright blond hair clung to his scalp, as if it had been wrestled into a semblance of neatness just for this occasion. Paix stifled a grin as he pictured how the guildmaster might look in the midst of a tricky redstone project: hair awry and sticking up in all directions.

It turned out, he wasn't far from the truth.

Read it in full at AO3: These Stones Remember - V

[valoisfulcanellideux]

From my character sheets for These Stones Remember :)

(Artwork by Sabira / Flower of Laurelin)

[valoisfulcanellideux]

“So, I guess you do need an assistant then?” "Later. We have plenty of time."

Look, I created end-of-story Paix in The Sims 3. You think I didn't also create end-of-story Mhenheli, AKA Max? ;)

(Yes, his skintone is different. This is 18 lives down the line and a completely different set of parents, remember. Also, for some weird reason I couldn't get the skintone ramp to work as I wanted it to on this version of him.)

[valoisfulcanellideux]

The little bird waited quietly, their eyes watching over the room from their perch on the windowsill. Occasionally they preened a feather here and there, but as the day wore on and the peace of the room continued, they stilled. 

Far below, the faint echo of the sunset horn drifted up through the windows, as the first stars began to speckle the painted sky and the sun slowly lay down in her bed of night.

Paix’s eyes opened. Deep inside him, something called to him; the silent call that he had heard countless times before.

The silent call that he had dreaded to hear this time.

He closed his eyes, wishing he could will it away, but it pulled at him, tugging, yearning, calling. He could no more ignore it than he could stop the sun from setting.

Quietly, he turned his head and kissed Mhenheli’s cheek, then with infinite care he withdrew from the embrace he had held his beloved Chaperone in for the past few hours. He pushed back the covers and slipped from the bed. Unerringly, his feet found his sandals, and he walked across the lowly-lit room to crouch before the chest that stood by the door to the long balcony.

He opened the chest, his hand reached inside, his fingertips found the soft leather pouch, and they pushed into its depths. They closed around something small and metallic, drawing it out of the bag, out of the chest, and into his palm.

He stared down at it. Then he did something he had never done before. He brought the small copper totem to his lips and kissed it.

“Cradle him tenderly,” he whispered to it.

He needed no chair this time. Instead, he approached the bed where his heart lay, and sank to his knees beside it.

Dark eyes opened, their gaze fixed upon his face. Slowly, Mhenheli nodded.

“Yes,” he whispered. “I feel it, too. It is time.”

Tears welling in his eyes, Paix reached for Mhenheli’s hand, clasping it in his own warm palm. He had never before wept at any bedside, but this time he could not hold back the silent tears that spilled over and coursed down his face.

“I have listened to so many words,” he said hoarsely. “But yours will be the hardest for me to hear.”

Mhenheli’s gaze did not leave his face.

“These tears show me that my life has been well lived,” he murmured. “I have so little to leave to others after I am gone from this earth. But what has been mine I give to you.”

Mutely, Paix nodded, too emotional to speak. He brought that beloved old hand to his lips and kissed the back of it.

Mhenheli sighed softly once more, but his gaze remained fixed upon Paix’s face.

“Maah’qab, if the Vigil’s Grace allows it I will be with you throughout eternity, watching over you. As I walk with the stars, I will walk by your side, and though you may not see me, I will be there, always, in some way.”

Another quiet sigh. And then he spoke for the final time.

“My name has been Mhenheli al-Q'isaraf. My candle will shine brightly… for you were my world, and I have loved you… stars, how I have loved you. And, in return, you gave me the gift of your love when I held out my heart to you. Your eyes and your arms are my home, your smile is the sun on my face, and your touch is the wind in my hair.”

He smiled. “Thank you, maah’qab. With all my heart, thank you.”

Blinded by tears, his hands trembling, Paix gently placed the copper totem into that beloved palm, closing the fingers around it and kissing them over and over as he choked out the words.

“Now forever undying.”

He knelt, lost in anguish and pain for several moments, his eyes closed as tears streamed down his face. One shuddering inbreath later, he fell back on duty, as his beloved Chaperone had always done, and he whispered the blessing through lips that he thought would never smile again.

"The sands cradle you, the winds carry you, and the stars embrace you. The Vigil's light shines upon you and through you, for the Vigil is Love and you are Loved. Your life has blessed this earth, and to the earth you return. Maah'Qiza liaah-qun."

Unseen by his tear-blurred eyes, a soft blue wisp rose into the air. It swirled around him in a tender loving caress, and then it drifted slowly toward the window, finding there what it sought.

A moment later, the two tiny clawed feet that had been waiting so patiently on the windowsill since before sunrise hopped lightly into the air. Ghostly teal wings flapped once, twice, and then the little desert bird soared up silently for a glorious moment before they swooped down toward the floor.

They landed on four little paws, which padded quietly across the room. Their fur glowed as they purred softly and nuzzled their head against the man who knelt beside the bed, sobbing.

— Excerpt from Chapter 70 of These Stones Remember

[valoisfulcanellideux]

Spent an enjoyable evening editing a pre-built home in the Sims 3 custom Al Shibalba world, trying to make it a little more Paixandrian (my version of Pixandria). Moved in my Paix al-Lareiff and Mhenheli al-Q'isaraf sims in while I decorate.

I'll probably remove those two extra black domed roof pieces on the front, as they look top-heavy. Not sure what I'll put in their place yet.

I also need to dig out and install a lot more of my Arabic-style CC, but I've been having fun with this.

[valoisfulcanellideux]

I have been thinking a bit more about Prof. Paix and student Maxwell/Mhenheli. What if they meet at university. Max attends one of Paix's lectures. He sits in the back of the room. When he sees Paix, he can't look away. He almost stares at him. He feels mesmerized by him, but doesn't (yet) know why.

When Paix recognizes the black haired young man in the last row, he stumbles a bit over his words and almost looses his train of thought. Throughout his lecture he looks at Max again and again, sensing something special about this student. But what is it?

This idea brought me to the question, if the Vigil directs Mhenheli's path in such a way, that he can only meet Paix at a certain age, so that he is neither too young nor too old to accompany Paix through immortality.

Paix is in his mid to end thirties, or is he?

Oh, I love this! And I did ask people at the end of Epilogue I to let me know of anything they'd like me to go into more detail about, or to write as an additional scene - be that one that would have happened in the story or an AU that could have happened but didn't - so I'm going to be adding this to my list ideas for those, and it'll probably get written sometime soon (with the idea credited to you). I actually have a bunch of ideas for one-off scenes that are set around Paix's time in the university (one of them being the short that I plan to release on Christmas Day), so this would slot in nicely with those.

I did actually consider having Max originally be one of Paix's students, but I wasn't sure how to bring that into the story without pre-empting the finale itself. I'd also considered it being Max who had Paix's old book of poetry, which he'd been left in the will of his historian grandfather - who died shortly after Max was conceived but before he was born. The other thing said grandfather would have left him was a particularly unusual earring...

I've been pondering just when Mhenheli 'remembers' in each incarnation, since it's not something the Vigil would burden him with right from early childhood. I'm thinking that mid to late twenties (possibly very early thirties) would be about right, so when he's at uni he'd have no idea why he feels so drawn to this one professor (and it'd be confusing as hell for him at a time when all his friends are dating and he feels no desire to do any of that). And as for poor Paix, he's going to be equally confused, and probably worried, since he can see this particular student appears to be a bit infatuated with him... and the fascination - while completely non-sexual/non-romantic - is mutual.

BTW, Paix is roughly in his early to mid forties. Mhenheli was ten years older than him, and he was around 51 or so when the maelstrom happened and the Great Caravan formed.

[valoisfulcanellideux]

This song, and any version of it, will now always bring tears to my eyes.

[valoisfulcanellideux]

Oh my goodness, all the teary smiling emojis for this post. I love this so much. Thank you! <3

No more tears

This one is for @valoisfulcanellideux

A little pondering about the jewellery in "These Stones Remember":

-----

An earring with a shiny teardrop shaped gem. An old worn down copper ring with a dull emerald. Two souls find each other again. One's hand caresses the other's cheek. A light sparks from the earing to the ring, transfering all the shine and sparkle. The copper ring glistens like new. The emerald regains its deep green glow. The teardrop looses all its inner sparkle.

Two souls reunited Forever

No more tears

-----

After reading epilogue 1 of "These Stones remember" and learning about Mhenheli's earring, I thought about the idea that the earring and Paix's ring are somewhat connected through the power of the Vigil. When they both finally found each other again and the object's are close enough, the bright shine of the teardrop gem transfers to the copper ring with the emerald. Maybe the teardrop gem even shatters afterwards.

@valoisfulcanellideux 's recent pictures of Mhenheli (Maxwell) without the earring brought me back to this idea.

[valoisfulcanellideux]

These Stones Remember - LXXX - Epilogue 3: Companion Reader (part 2 of 2) - STORY NOW COMPLETE

Bet you didn’t think you’d see this banner ^ again, did you? ;)

The final part of These Stones Remember has just been posted to AO3: the second of the two Companion Readers. This brings to an end the story that consumed a year of my life, and that brought me such joy as well as some wonderful new friends.

Read it in full at AO3: These Stones Remember - LXXX - Epilogue 3: Companion Reader (part 2 of 2)

Make sure you read to the very end, as not only is there some more beautiful art by Sabira (@floweroflaurelin) but there's also a special treat for you in the end notes ;-)

[valoisfulcanellideux]

“We have once again beaten the sun to rising,” Mhenheli said, nodding to the distant hills as the dawn began to limn them with a thin halo of pure golden light. Paix slipped his arm around Mhenheli’s waist, standing close to him as they watched the sun rise. Far below in the city, the sunrise horn sounded, and the light moved - slow and liquid lazy - across the rooftops, finally touching on the golden wing of the statue, coruscating out from it in brilliant sparkles. Beside him, Mhenheli sighed happily. “I love this moment,” he whispered. “I, too,” Paix murmured in response, his gaze not on the statue but on that beloved old face. “But I love more that I can stand here with you as it happens, and watch how happy it makes you.” Mhenheli turned his head, his lips quirked in a dry smile. “Sentimental,” he chided softly. “Nothing wrong with that.” Paix returned that smile with one of his own. “You should indulge my sentimentality, you know.” Mhenheli snorted indelicately. “Since when have I ever done that?” “Well… now that you mention it…” “Precisely.” 

One more commission from the wonderful Sabira | @floweroflaurelin to close out These Stones Remember.

Paix and Mhenheli standing on the covered castle balcony, as they did every morning together, and watching the sun rising over the Ancient Capital of A'lumiya.

I couldn't have asked for a more beautiful illustration to place at the end of the second companion reader (which will be published in the next few days) and close out this story that means so much to me.

Thank you, Sabira, for another truly gorgeous piece of work <3

[valoisfulcanellideux]

Slowly, over the days and nights, ink-filled page after ink-filled page turned. The occasional glimmer of poetry bled deeper and deeper into the text; a line here becoming a stanza there, elegies and sonnets draping themselves over measurements and field sketches. With infinitesimal patience, the ledger’s true purpose revealed itself. The city’s past visited often, affording him the chance to glory in the humanity of the Greatbridge, to take a meal here and there in the tavern, and to converse with history itself in a way that reached into his soul to tug hard and strong and true. Sometimes the city remained in her past, but became a more liminal space; deserted of her people but still intact and whole. Those days were quieter, peaceful, reflective. He spent much of them brushing fingertips over smooth stonework or finding a patch of sunlight to sit in and rest, allowing his unwearying gaze to travel over every inch of this beautiful place he called home so deeply that his very bones ached with the comfort it gave him. On those quieter days, little pieces of the future drifted gently over the past, like sheets over furniture left to gather dust in an attic; ghostly visions of what was to come. Pillars stood strong and true in colour, but in that spectral overlay they shimmered in ethereal ruin, drawing his fascinated gaze until he came to know every part of their storied history, both ancient and yet to come. The field notes book was left behind, tucked in the rucksack that no longer left the room; resting comfortably against the side of the chest as if they were old friends meeting again after years apart and catching up in the commonplace quietude of old familiarity. His eyes and memory were all he needed now.

Snippet from Chapter 31 of These Stones Remember.

[valoisfulcanellideux]

If the ruins of Paixandria had been discovered in 1910...

[Screenshots taken in the Sims 3 custom world of Al Shibalba, which I've been having fun customising to be a bit more like Paixandria, from my story These Stones Remember]

Alternate image edits behind the cut.

[valoisfulcanellideux]

'Orb' by Kristoffer Zetterstrand

When I was skimming through the Minecraft Wiki shortly after the new paintings were released, I stopped dead as I reached the one called 'Orb'.

Readers of These Stones Remember will probably understand why.

Here's the original painting:

As Paix left the house, candle cupped in both hands, something tugged at his coat. He looked down. “Ah’lamah is gone,” the boy said quietly. “Will you take me to my Ema-ah'lamah?” “I will, but first, your ah’lamah’s candle must be lit.” Paix crouched down to show the boy the simple ivory candle. “It tells the Vigil that a soul has left the bound realm and journeys toward the stars, and it puts that soul’s light into the care and protection of the Vigil.” “What’s the Vigil?” Rising to his feet again, Paix held out his hand, and the boy slipped his own little hand into it. They began to walk through the hushed streets, toward a peaceful area that had long been designated the city’s place for quiet contemplation. “It’s a sacred place to our people, far far away in our desert home,” Paix said. “It’s very, very old, and our legends tell of it rising from beneath the sands one night.” “Is it still there?” the boy asked. “Yes, but we cannot go there anymore,” Paix murmured, as they passed beneath a stone arch and entered the peace of the city’s garden. In the centre of it, four cobblestone paths met in a circle, sheltered by acacia trees. A warm golden light shone down from somewhere in the trees’ canopies, directly above the stone circle. The boy pointed at the light. “That’s not usually there.” “No, it isn’t.” Paix led the boy over to the circle, and they both looked up. Above them, a ghostly Conduit floated gently, rustling through the acacia leaves. “This is part of the Vigil,” Paix said softly. “It has come here tonight for this ceremony. I must sit here for a while. You may sit with me, or elsewhere in the park, but do not stray too far. And do not sit or move within the circle. I will be quiet for some time, and must not be disturbed. I will let you know when it’s time to go to your Ema-ah'lamah, all right?” The boy nodded, sitting cross-legged just outside the edge of the circle. Paix followed suit, but in the middle of it, directly beneath the Conduit. He closed his eyes, the candle cupped gently in his hands. It had been such a long time…