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pentapus' LJ:
Give me one of my own stories, and a timestamp sometime in the future after the end of the story, or sometime in the past before the story started, and I'll write you at least a hundred words of what happened then, whether it's five minutes before the story started or ten years in the future.
Maybe I should have done the Tell Me What To Create meme, but then I'd feel guilty about having to write them. And I've only just gotten the muse back after a forever hiatus.
pentapus' LJ:Give me one of my own stories, and a timestamp sometime in the future after the end of the story, or sometime in the past before the story started, and I'll write you at least a hundred words of what happened then, whether it's five minutes before the story started or ten years in the future.
Maybe I should have done the Tell Me What To Create meme, but then I'd feel guilty about having to write them. And I've only just gotten the muse back after a forever hiatus.
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I think I'm ready to write it now, it's just going to take a bit of time and brain rearranging.
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Um, the Black Jewels epic? 2 years and 5 months in please.
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Teyla moved through them, looking for a familiar face, a familiar defiance. Mud as grey as her Jewel clung to her bare feet, slicking her soles with insidious despair as she sought in the Twisted Kingdom what was lost to her in the realms of life.
Witches and Blood males alike spoke in hushed whispers of the Twisted Kingdom - the realm where the Darkness met and broken the human mind, and madness reigned all. A Black Widow was trained to walk in the Twisted Kingdom, to see more clearly what sanity could not comprehend, but there were always those who forgot the way back.
She did not intend to forget the way back; rather, she sought the way forward.
A flick of Grey-Jewelled power flashed out, seeking the resonant Sapphire of a mind and body tortured to the edge of sanity.
John?
Teyla picked her way through the thick sludge across the ground, ignoring the dirt that clung to the hems of her trousers. Even a fully-trained Black Widow could fall astray in the Twisted Kingdom if she wasn't careful. She would be of no use to Elizabeth if she lost her way here, and shattered her mind.
She would be of no use to John.
The hand came out of nowhere, gripping her shoulder hard enough to bruise. "What are you doing here? Hey, easy, Teyla..." He held up his hands as she turned on him. "It's just me."
Slowly, with more uncertainty than she felt, Teyla put out a hand to touch his face, his stubble prickling against her palm as he leaned into the caress. "John." Sometimes it was hard to tell what was real in the Twisted Kingdom.
"You shouldn't be here." There was a rough edge to his voice, a heaviness to the grip of the hand that circled her wrist. He was tired, drained of his strength and given no time or space to recharge. And she could feel the shadow of despair heavy over him. "I told Elizabeth not to send anyone after me."
"And no-one has been sent," she reassured him, her eyes ranging across the lines of his face - grown deeper in the mere days since he'd kissed her goodbye at the landing pad and strode off to see what trouble had occasioned a Landen call for help from the northern border of Atlantis Territory. It ached in her - not the aging, but what the pain portended.
He studied her for a long moment, trying to determine the truth in her expression, in her gaze. "Good," he said at last, reassured by her words. "Because Kolya will hurt Atlantis any way he can, and she can't give him that chance."
"John--"
"She can't." His fingers closed even harder about her wrist - to the point of insistent pain. "Promise me you won't let her."
Teyla absorbed the pain without comment. "It is her decision to make," she said at last. "If she will not be persuaded, I cannot change her mind."
More to come later when I finish the 2nd half of this bit.
Yield, 2 days later
John realises this on the second day when she excuses herself from lunch shortly after he sits down at the table. He catches her hand, "Sparring, later?" And feels the tension in her fingers as she gently extricates herself from his touch.
"I do not have the time, Colonel," she says, her eyes flickering to his before looking away. "But Ronon will take you through the motions."
He watches her go and feels the distance she puts between them like a slap to the face.
That night, John sits on the side of the bed where he doesn't have to entertain anyone, in the city that's his home, among the people who are his family, and is thankful.
But even amidst the relief, he regrets what he lost when he seduced Teyla to gain his freedom.
--
More to come when it's done!
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I have so many questions, like why is John in the Twisted Kingdom; because Koyla did something? Or is John trapped there for other reasons? Or, just, more?
I love this fic'verse.
Re: Yield, 2 days later
Thank you for this :)
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"Neither should you."
Weariness ached in his faint smile, and Teyla felt something clench in her belly as he reached out to tuck a strand of hair behind her ear. "It's an escape." He glanced around them at the skewed panorama. "Not very pretty, but the company makes up for it."
"John..."
She did not evade when he bent to kiss her; tilting her face up so his mouth might more easily access hers. Heat, darkness, and bittersweet pleasure rushed through her as she slid her hand around the back of his neck and he twined fingers into her hair to prevent her from stepping away.
John’s lips were slow and smooth against hers, and she savoured the taste of him - savoured the line of his shoulders beneath her hand, the familiar male strength and protection that was the bedrock of his nature under the reckless spirit that pervaded his every action.
He deepened the kiss, sliding them both along the edge of passion, and if they had been anywhere but the gnarled dreamscape of the Twisted Kingdom, she would have allowed him to draw her deeper.
But not here. Not where the self could too easily splinter and shatter in the bitter, brutal landscapes that formed this place. A Black Widow was trained to resist the skewing pressure that dragged at the psychic senses, to become aware of what was real and what was an illusion of the mind. A Warlord Prince - no matter how gifted a warrior he might be, or how dark his Jewels - was not.
He should not stay here.
Gently, Teyla pulled back, mouth relinquishing mouth with slow agony. She opened her eyes to the terrible ache in his gaze.
“You’re going.”
“I must.” She pressed her palm to his cheek and did not elaborate. “Do not come back here again, John.”
“I don't think it'll matter soon,” he murmured. “Will you come back?”
“I...” Teyla could not lie to him. Not even to give him hope. “John--”
She saw the first crack in his soul - the pain of abandonment, even in the knowledge that this was his price for Atlantis’ safety. And her fingers closed about his hands, gripping tightly.
“It’s probably better,” he said with a lightness that fooled neither of them.
“Do not stay here.”
His smile had dark edges. "You’ve said that already.” Then, as she was about to turn away, he spoke again. “Teyla. There's a box in my bottom drawer - a gift. I didn't think you were ready to accept it from me." The self-mocking glint of his smile both brightened the featureless grey and tainting the air with an old bitterness. "Something to remember me by.”
His pain was bright as fire in twilight; but Teyla could not afford compassion now.
“Goodbye, John.”
He convulsed once, then stilled himself with a force of will. She almost turned away so she wouldn’t have to see his eyes as he watched her leave, then made herself look at him as she effected the mental twist that would take her back to the normal Realms.
Even as the familiar lines and forms of her workroom replaced the unnerving landscape, Teyla saw John's mouth move in two words before the transition completed, and she was left staring at her reflection in the glass doors of her workroom.
A witchlight hovered brightly over her worktable, casting long shadows across the floor to the corners of the room. The glow gleamed across the hot tears sliding down her cheeks, reflected grief in a dark mirror, and Teyla swiftly wiped them away.
She had no time to grieve.
--
...and still more to come!
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Yes, please more!
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