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softquietsteadylove · 22 days ago

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hey! I have a request! now this might sound a little crazy and really far fetched…..but let me cook for a sec.

is there any way for the Mermaid AU you could make Gil into a Mermaid? Maybe thena finds a plant for him to eat that either lets him breathe underwater, turns him into a mermaid or both! I was watching Barbie mermaidia today, and I could help but think of these two ( I got the idea from when Barbie and bibble ate seaweed to breathe underwater)! I feel like thena is always learning new things about the human world, so it is Gil’s turn to explore Thena’s world!

as always I love your work! 🖤🖤

"Are you sure about this, Angelfish?" Gil asked, but Thena just nodded so eagerly he wondered if her scales would fly off. She beamed up at him, her fangs shining in all their glory. He sighed. "Okay."

Thena watched from the water as he took a bite of the horrific looking plant she had brought to him. She refused to say what it was, just handing it to him and insisting that he eat the whole thing.

He groaned; it tasted awful, and the texture felt the way algae looked. His toes curled, his feet dipped into the water up to his ankles dangling over the edge of the dock. He gulped it down, though.

"It'll start working any second, just hang onto me!"

And with that, she dragged him underwater.

Usually, Thena was careful about him being underwater. She got nervous about how small human lungs were and what water pressure could do to them. They had only just got his held breath record up to a minute and a half last time they practised.

But Thena sped downward, his hand in hers, her tail propelling them. Gil had his hand over his mouth as she dragged him. He was going to drown down here, they were descending so fast.

But then it got a little easier. He started moving through the water a little faster. He looked down and his jeans were gone, no longer rolled up to the ankles--he didn't have ankles.

He had gills, taking up the work of breathing for him as they sped through the water. His ears changed shape and his eyes adapted to the dark the deeper they went. Scales erupted over his skin and when he looked down at himself, his midriff was exposed and he had a long, thick tail covered in shimmering black scales.

He was a mer!

Thena turned, not even having to slow down as she swam without looking. Seeing her in her element - literally - truly was an amazing sight to behold. "Isn't it wonderful, Gil?"

"Slow down, sweetheart," he chuckled, and she did. Just as naturally as he would slow down from running, his tail was able to slow their speed, moving automatically. He had long fins, too, which both helped cut through the water and assist the power of his swimming. "Wow."

Thena circled him again and again, too excited to float idly. "It's a dream! That herb is almost never found anymore--used far beyond its means, it's all but impossible to unearth."

Good to know the ocean was also capable of overharvesting and causing extinction, just like the surface.

"But Makkari said she had seen something like it and we went digging for treasures," Thena sighed, staring at him with eyes so starry they were glittering--perhaps it was her bioluminescence. "She said I could use it on you."

He looked at his arms, also dotted with scales, although it was different from Thena's scale pattern. "You've always had a magical plant that could turn humans into a mer?"

"Temporarily," she excused, as if what he had said wasn't abnormal sounding in the least. She circled him again before rising in the water in sheer delight. The end of her tail was flapping like a puppy's. "And look at you! I knew you'd be perfect!"

He laughed, accepting it as she threw herself at him, wrapping her arms around his back - the small trail of dorsal spines would take some getting used to- and kissing him.

His gills breathed for him as he kissed her back.

"Thank you, Angelfish," he nuzzled the tip of her nose with his, "for sharing this with me. It's...incredible."

She took his hand again, at least swimming at a lighter pace now. "We don't have long, unfortunately. But I want you to see some of what it's like down here."

It was beautiful. Of all the nature documentaries and marine biology live streams and deep sea cam feeds he'd watched, it could never compare to seeing it with his own eyes. Fish were everywhere, among other sea life. And the number of mers wasn't overwhelming, but he had almost thought in his head that Thena and Makkari were some of the only ones. And Ikaris, he supposed.

But he could see other mers swimming together, some of them speeding along, some of them happily swimming around each other in a lazy little dance. Their tails were different shapes and sizes, colours and textures. It was beautiful.

Thena purred as he kissed her cheek.

He didn't really want to experiment to see if he could purr too. But he took it in with her from above the reef spanning below them. "It's amazing--I had no idea this was so close to the house."

"Well, it's not that close," she assured, beginning to swim circles around him again. "You can travel several naughts faster with a tail than even in some boats."

He didn't doubt that. He looked down at his tail again. It was larger than Thena's, and something about her still being small and delicate even when they were in the same state endeared her to him further.

"It is a very striking tail."

He felt embarrassed, although blood didn't rush to his face like it would in his human state. He felt flustered, though, as if he should curl his tail up and try to hide it modestly. "Th-Thanks--I guess this is why you get all shy when I compliment yours?"

"I do not-!" she hissed at him. Her natural habits came out so much more when she had her tail on.

He took her hand and kissed the scales on her shoulder. "Show me more."

She was happy to receive the affection--she seemed to relish it even more than usual in this form. Her tail was better for speed, he presumed. Even with a longer, stronger tail of his own, he could feel the pull of her moving ahead of him. He was happy if she was faster than thim--it meant he didn't have to worry about her as much when she was out swimming alone.

Gil watched some of the other mers looking at him, surely trying to size up where he was from and how he had infiltrated their world. Most of them were in pairs, and while they weren't holding hands or anything outwardly romantic, those he assumed were couples had other signs.

They swam more closely, so closely their tails would collide sometimes, or their fins would brush together smoothly. They didn't hold hands, but their hands did move freely, brushing over and even more deliberately running over their partners.

"We can't go all the way out there," Thena mused, "but this is almost where we first met."

"Really?" he blinked. It all looked the same, just never ending ocean sprawling as far as he could see (which was significantly farther as a mer than as a human).

She nodded, pointing out over the end of the reef. "If you swam out that way another ten minutes, you would find where I first saw you sinking."

A very ungraceful introduction, unfortunately.

He gave her hand a squeeze, "I'm glad I could see it from your side of things."

She tipped his chin to give him another kiss. "We should start swimming back."

"So," he began as they made their way back towards the dock more leisurely. "This stuff really doesn't last that long, huh?"

She shook her head, paddling beside him. "It would be too dangers if it did. Humans could learn a little too much about us."

That was true, and also not a risk that was worth taking. He looked around them, "what if--won't they be angry with you if they find out-"

Thena cut him off, "there's nothing to find out. I'm showing my mate my home territory, nothing more."

He smiled; he could understand a little better what the term 'mate' really meant to her. It wasn't just their word for girlfriend or partner or anything. Seeing the mers swimming around together, he could see that mate meant something a little deeper to them. "Is there anything else I should do as your mate?--while I'm down here, I mean."

Thena seemed to really think about it, at least for a second. But she ultimately just smiled and shook her head, her beautiful mane of hair floating around her in the water. "We have no such formalities. And besides, I prefer our mating traditions back home."

"What mating traditions are those?" he asked with a chuckle. The act of mating wasn't itself a ritual ( he had learned). But she did like rituals such as 'falling asleep in front of the tv together', and 'calling him while he was at the store to tell him they were out of eggs'.

Human domestic life had really grown on her.

"Hm," she purred as they started their ascent to the surface. "I think my new favourite is eating between mating sessions."

He felt as if he could blush again. There were some nights when they were both feeling particularly needy and could go several rounds. And sometimes, in the middle of those rounds, they would get hungry and retrieve some dried sardines (for her) and shrimp chips (for him) to keep their strength up.

Gil kissed her cheek again as the light of the surface started warming them again. "Let's come up with some more when we get home."

#Thenamesh Mermaid AU #Let them cook!!!#thank you so much for this ask!!!!#listen I have thought about it #and it's my au I can make up any excuse I want #mermaid magic and all that #Makkari is like okay I am literally the best friend in the whole world #because I'm gonna give you the changing algae for you to use on your shit boyfriend #Thena: shut up he is actually the best gimme that #she sped right to Gil's #didn't even get out of the water #just shouted for him from the dock #also she has long been obsessed with what Gil would look like as a mer #she knew he'd be gorgeous #he's all tall dark and handsome #tan skin black scales kind of iridescent green shine to them #also when they get back to the surface his clothes are gone so he has to walk back to the house naked #because there are only clothes for her in the box at the end of the dock

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acourtofquestions · 1 month ago

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Kingdom of Ash Chapter 20 …

oh my gods chapter 20…

I am dead inside.

And somehow dying more per chapter.

Ow. THE NIGHTMARE DREAM SEQUENCE

"Do you know the story of the queen who walked through worlds?"

Seated on the mossy carpet of an ancient glen, one hand toying with the small white flowers strewn across it, Aelin shook her head.

In the towering oaks that formed a lattice over the clearing, small stars blinked and shimmered, as if they'd been snared by the branches themselves. Beyond them, bathing the forest with light bright enough to see by, a full moon had risen. All around them, faint, lilting singing floated on the warm summer air.

"It is a sad story," her aunt said, one corner of her red-painted mouth curling upward as she leaned back on her seat carved into a granite boulder. Her usual place, while they had these lessons, these long, peaceful chats deep into the balmy summer nights. "And an old one."

Aelin lifted an eyebrow. "Aren't I a little old for faerie stories?" She'd indeed just celebrated her twentieth birthday three days ago, in another clearing not too far from here. Half of Doranelle had come, it had seemed, and yet her mate had found a way to sneak her from the revelry. All the way to a secluded pool in the forest's heart. Her face still warmed to think of that moonlit swim, what Rowan had made her feel, how he'd worshipped her in the sun-warmed water.

Mate. The word was still a surprise. As it had been to arrive here at spring's end and see him beside her aunt's throne and simply know. And in the months since, their courting ... Aelin indeed blushed at the thought of it. What they'd done in that forest pool had been the culmination of those months. And an unleashing. The mating marks on her neck— and on Rowan's-proved it. She would not be returning to Terrasen alone when autumn arrived.

"No one is too old for faerie stories," her aunt said, faint smile growing. "And as you are part faerie yourself, I would think you'd have some interest in them."

Aelin smiled back, bowing her head. "Fair enough, Aunt."

Aunt wasn't entirely accurate, not with generations and millennia separating them, but it was the only thing the queen had suggested Aelin call her.

Maeve settled further into her seat. "Long ago, when the world was new, when there were no human kingdoms, when no wars had marred the earth, a young queen was born."

Aelin folded her legs beneath her, angling her head.

"She did not know she was a queen. Amongst her people, power was not inherited, but simply born. And as she grew, her strength rose with her. She found the land she dwelled in to be too small for that power. Too dark and cold and grim. She had gifts similar to many wielded by her kind, but she had been given more, her power a sharper, more intricate weapon-enough that she was different. Her people saw that power and bowed to it, and she ruled them.

"Word spread of her gifts, and three kings came to seek her hand. To form an alliance between their throne and the one she had built for herself, small as it might have been. For a time, she thought it would be the newness, the challenge that she had always craved. The three kings were brothers, each mighty in his own right, their power vast and terrifying. She picked the eldest among them, not for any particular skill or grace, but for his countless libraries. What she might learn in his lands, what she might do with her power ... It was that knowledge she craved, not the king himself."

A strange story. Aelin's brows rose, but her aunt continued on.

"So they were wed, and she left her small territory to join him in his castle. For a time, she was contented, both by her husband and the knowledge his home offered her. He and his two brothers were conquerors, and spent much of their time away, leashing new lands to their shared throne. She did not mind, not when it gave her freedom to learn as she would. But her husband's libraries contained knowledge even he did not realize was held within. Lore and wisdom from worlds long since turned to dust. She learned that there were indeed other worlds. Not the dark, blasted realm in which they lived, but worlds beyond that, living atop one another and never realizing it. Worlds where the sun was not a watery trickle through the ash-clouds, but a golden stream of warmth. Worlds where green existed. She had never heard of such a color. Green. Nor had she heard of blue-not the shade of sky that was described. She could not so much as picture it."

Aelin frowned. "A pitiful existence."

Maeve nodded grimly. "It was. And the more she read about these other worlds, where long-dead wayfarers had once roamed, the more she wanted to see them. To know the kiss of the sun on her face. To hear the morning songs of sparrows, the crying of gulls over the sea. The sea that, too, was foreign to her. An endless sprawl of water, with its own moods and hidden depths. All they had in her lands were shallow, murky lakes and half-dried streams. So while her husband and his two brothers were off waging yet another war, she began to ponder how she might find a way into one of those worlds. How she might leave."

"Is such a thing even possible?" Something nagged at her, as if it might indeed be true, but perhaps that was one of her own mother's tales, or even Marion's, tugging on her memory.

Maeve nodded. "It was. Using the very language of existence itself, doors might be opened, however briefly, between worlds. It was forbidden, outlawed long before her husband and his brothers were born. Once the last of the ancient wayfarers had died out, the paths between realms were sealed, their methods of world-walking lost with them. Or so all had thought. But deep in her husband's private library, she found the old spells. She began with small experiments. First, she opened a door to the realm of resting, to find one of those wayfarers and ask her how it was properly done." A knowing smile. "The wayfarer refused to tell her. So the queen began to teach herself. Opening and closing doors long since forgotten or sealed. Peering deep into the workings of the cosmos. Her own world became a cage. She grew tired of her husband's warring, his casual cruelty. And when he went away to war once again, the queen gathered her closest handmaidens, opened a door to a new world, and left the one she'd been born into."

"She left?" Aelin blurted. "She she just left her own world? Permanently?"

"It had never been her world, not really. She had been born to rule others."

"Where did she go?"

That smile grew a bit. "To a fair, lovely world. Where there was no war, no darkness. Not like that in which she had been born. She was made a queen there, too. Was able to hide herself within a new body so that none could know what she was beneath, so that even her own husband would not recognize her."

"Did he ever find her again?"

"No, though he looked. Found out all she'd learned, and taught it to himself and his brothers. They tore apart world after world to find her. And when they arrived at the world where she had made her new home, they did not know her. Even as they went to war, she did not reveal herself. She won, and two of the kings, her husband included, were banished back to their own world. The third remained trapped, his power nearly broken. He crawled off into the depths of the earth, and the victorious queen spent her long, long existence preparing for his return, preparing her people for it. For the three kings had gone beyond her methods of world-walking. They had found a way to permanently open a gate between worlds, and had made three keys to do so. To wield those keys was to control all worlds, to have the power of eternity in the palm of your hand. She wished to find them, only so she might possess the strength to banish any enemies, banish her husband's youngest brother back to his realm. To protect her new, lovely world. It was all she ever wanted: to dwell in peace, without the shadow of her past hunting her."

From far away, that ghost of memory pushed. As if she'd forgotten to douse a flame left burning in her room. "And did the queen find the keys?"

Maeve's smile turned sad. "Do you think she did, Aelin?"

Aelin considered. So many of their chats, their lessons in this glen, held deeper puzzles, questions for her to work through, to help her when she one day took her throne, Rowan at her side.

As if she'd summoned him, the pine-and-snow scent of her mate filled the clearing. A rustle of wings, and there he was, perched in hawk form on one of the towering oaks. Her warrior-prince.

She smiled toward him, as she had for weeks now, when he'd come to escort her back to her rooms in the river palace. It was during those walks from forest to mist-shrouded city that she had come to know him, love him. More than she had ever loved anything.

Aelin again faced her aunt. "The queen was clever, and ambitious. I would think she could do anything, even find the keys."

"So you would believe. And yet they eluded her."

"Where did they go?"

Maeve's dark stare unwaveringly held hers.

"Where do you think they went?"

Aelin opened her mouth. "I think —

She blinked. Paused

Maeve's smile returned, soft and kind. As her aunt had been to her from the start. "Where do you think the keys are, Aelin?"

She opened her mouth once more. And again halted.

Like an invisible chain yanked her back. Silenced her.

Chain—a chain. She glanced down at her hands, her wrists. As if expecting them to be there.

She had never felt a shackle's bite in her life. And yet she stared at the empty place on her wrist where she could have sworn there was a scar. Only smooth, sun-kissed skin remained.

"If this world were at risk, if those three terrible kings threatened to destroy it, where would you go to find the keys?" Aelin looked up at her aunt.

Another world. There was another world Like a fragment of a dream, there was another world, and in it, she had a wrist with a scar on it. Had scars all over.

And her mate, perched overhead ... He had a tattoo down his face and neck and arm in that world. A sad story—his tattoo told a sad, awful story. About loss. Loss caused by a dark queen.

"Where are the keys hidden, Aelin?" That placid, loving smile remained on

Maeve's face. And yet ...

And yet.

"No," Aelin breathed

Something slithered in the depths of her aunt's stare. "No what?"

This wasn't her existence, her life. This place, these blissful months learning in Doranelle, finding her mate—Blood and sand and crashing waves.

"No."

Her voice was a thunderclap through the peaceful glen.

Aelin bared her teeth, fingers curling in the moss.

Maeve let out a soft laugh. Rowan flapped from the branches to land on the queen's upraised arm.

He didn't so much as fight it when she wrapped her thin white hands around his neck. And snapped it. Aelin screamed. Screamed, clutching at her chest, at the shredding mating bond—

She screamed again. Screamed at her ruined arm, the unscarred skin, screamed at the lingering echo of the severed mating bond.

"Do you know what pains me most, Aelin?" Maeve's words were soft as a lover's. "It's that you believe I'm the villain in this."

Whenever that had been. If it had even happened at all.

"I have no doubt that your mate or Elena or even Brannon himself filled your head with lies about what I'll do with the keys." Maeve ran a hand over the stone lip of the altar, right through her splattered blood and shards of bone. "I meant what I said. I like this world. I do not wish to destroy it. Only improve it. Imagine a realm where there is no hunger, no pain. Isn't that what you and your cohorts are fighting for? A better world?"

The words were a mockery. A mockery of what she'd promised so many. What she had promised Terrasen, and still owed it.

Aelin tried not to shift against the chains, against her broken arms, against the tight pressure pushing on her skin from the inside. A rising intensity along her bones, in her head. little more, every day.

Maeve heaved a small sigh. "I know what you think of me, Fire-Bringer. What you assume. But there are some truths that cannot be shared. Even for the keys." Yet the growing strain cracking within her, smothering the pain ... perhaps worse. Maeve cupped her cheek over the mask.

"The Queen Who Was Promised. I wish to save you from that sacrifice, offered up by a headstrong girl." A soft laugh. "I'd even let you have Rowan. The two of you here, together. While you and I work to save this world."

The words were lies. She knew it, though she couldn't quite remember where one truth ended and the lie began. If her mate had belonged to another before her. Been given away. Or had that been the nightmare?

Gods, the pressure in her body. Her blood.

You do not yield.

"You can feel it, even now," Maeve went on. "The urge of your body to say yes." Aelin opened her eyes, and confusion must have glittered there, because Maeve smiled. "Do you know what being encased in iron does to a magic-wielder? You wouldn't feel it immediately, but as time goes on ... your magic needs release, Aelin. That pressure is your magic screaming it wants you to come free of these chains and release the strain. Your very blood tells you to heed me."

Truth. Not the submission part, but the deepening pressure she knew would be worse than any pain from burnout. She'd felt it once, when plunging as far into her power as she'd ever gone.

That would be nothing compared to this.

"I am leaving for a few days," Maeve said.

Aelin stilled.

Maeve shook her head in a mockery of disappointment.

Fenrys sat by the wall, concern bright in his eyes as he blinked. Are you all right?

She blinked twice. No.

No, she was not anywhere near to all right.

Maeve had been waiting for this, waiting for this pressure to begin, worse than anything Cairn might do. And with the collar Maeve now went to personally retrieve … She couldn't let herself contemplate it. A more horrific form of slavery, one she might never escape, never be able to fight.

Not a breaking of the Fire-Bringer, but an erasure.

To take all she was, power and knowledge, and rip it from her. To have her trapped inside while she witnessed her own voice yield the location of the Wyrdkeys. Swear the blood oath to Maeve. Wholly submit to her.

Fenrys blinked four times. I am here, I am with you.

She answered in kind. I am here, I am with you.

Her magic surged, seeking a way out, filling the gaps between her breath and bones. She couldn't find room for it, couldn't do anything to soothe it.

You do not yield.

She focused on the words. On her mother's voice. Perhaps the magic would devour her from the inside before Maeve returned.

But she did not know how she'd endure it.

Endure another few days of this, let alone the next hour. To ease the strain, just a fraction ...

She shut down the thoughts that snaked into her mind. Her own or Maeve's, she didn't care.

Fenrys blinked again, the same message over and over. I am here, I am with you.

Aelin closed her eyes, praying for oblivion.

"Get up." A mockery of words she'd once heard.

#Chapter 20 #Kingdom of Ash #Sarah J. Maas #Aelin Ashryver Galathynius #Maeve #first read #no spoilers please #read along with me as we cry #Fenrys #Rowaelin #Rowan Whitethorn #more notes in the tags KoA spoilers in both tag and post purple for quotes pink for highlights on readings cause the dreamnightmare sequenc #more than Chaol more than Sam more than anything it was Rowan #The Queen who walked between worlds bad move to say the whole evil plan at once... what's the tale for? who? — it never works #The Queen Who Was Promised. I wish to save you from that sacrifice offered up by headstrong girl.#Not real. That had not been real. Rowan was alive he was alive real or not real #she had to try & use what she wants most peace & home & family &Ro the words she mocks the color science Terrasen Green and Kingdom’s of As #No shackle scars even with the wreckage. In this world this place she did not have scars either. — ROWAN SCARS GONE😭#Do you know what pains me most Aelin? Maeve's words were soft as a lover's. It's that you believe I'm the villain in this.#screamed at the lingering echo of the severed mating bond — if Maeve could make Rowan think Lyria was his mate… then just how bad is it #when she makes Aelin think he’s gone? it’s like Feyre in W&R… but worse… oh this is awful #A better world? The words were a mockery. A mockery of what she'd promised so many.#No. again. no. she said it for the first time… Maeve would rather fight a demon than an Aelin that’s how strong she is…& the power bubbling #Whenever that had been. If it had even happened at all. — making her think nothing had happened to the box #I'd even let you have Rowan. The two of you here together. While you and I work to save this world.#If her mate had belonged to another before her. Been given away. Or had that been the nightmare?#As if once she'd acknowledged it it wouldn't be ignored. Or contained.#Not a breaking of the Fire-Bringer but an erasure. To take all she was power and knowledge and rip it from her.#NEVER GO TO A SECONDARY LOCATION #DONT YOU DARE USE FENRYS AGAINST HER ROWAN HURRY IMMA LOSE IT AGHH WTF SKSKSJDOWAPKS

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