Fennrin is a shadowforger, a type of az-ari who have mastery over shadows. But all it's ever brought him is misery. People are afraid of the power that he himself barely understands, seeing his shadows as omens of bad luck and death.
Forced to bare...
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Trigger warnings: death and murder, violence, war, depression and trauma, graphic sex scene, queerphobia (one instance of misgendering)
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Ainreth hated going out on missions. Nothing interesting ever happened, leaving him with boredom, dirty clothes, and far too few distractions for comfort.
This particular instance was especially irritating, though, because he was stationed near the end of the border wall. There were miles upon miles of flat land and fields of grass. No sane Orinovan spy or soldier would dare try to cross here, with no forests or mountains to hide them. And sure, he sometimes doubted the sanity of Orinovo's soldiers, but they weren't suicidal. Which meant that Ainreth and his regiment were left to stand guard here, with nothing to do.
Sometimes he wondered if the Bulwark was punishing him with these missions because of some perceived insubordination. There was no need for a general to be present, after all. He was meant to be coming up with strategies and fighting on battlefields, not monitoring the situation here.
Ain sighed, leaning against the stone edge of the border wall and folding his arms over his chest. He let his eyes close for a moment. The summer heat combined with his boredom was making him sleepy. Maybe he should just go do that. No one would dare report the great Daybreaker for taking a nap instead of doing his very important duty of staring into space.
Just as he thought that, though, he heard the noise of someone crying out in pain. Frowning, he looked back at the camp of tents they'd built behind the wall, his eyes searching for the spot reserved for training, but the six people currently sword fighting didn't seem injured. They simply continued their training with a surprising amount of enthusiasm, their swords clashing loudly.
And there it was again, another shout of pain. Frowning harder, Ainreth turned around again, realizing that the sound was actually coming from the opposite side of the wall. They weren't allowed to cross the border so as not to provoke their enemy, which was one of the rules that Ain had no problem with. But thankfully, he didn't have to follow them.
Twirling his fingers, he grabbed onto the rays of light all around him, bending them to his will like he had done thousands of times before, rendering himself invisible. As long as he maintained his focus, he could stay like this and investigate, and no one would be any the wiser. Ainreth had done this many times before, after all.
Continuing to move his fingers to keep the light from revealing him, Ainreth walked around the thick wall, venturing onto enemy territory. Even though the dirt beneath his boots was still the same, it always felt different somehow, cold and uninviting.
He walked slowly and carefully, the wall to his right, looking around as he followed the cries. It was strange that he hadn't spotted anyone yet with only a tree here and there, and it was stranger that the guards patrolling the wall hadn't noticed anything, either.
