thene (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
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last_herald_mage2015-11-30 12:42 am
thene) wrote in last_herald_mage2015-11-30 12:42 am
Entry tags:
flashfic - young!Van + Tantras
Vanyel should have been hungry, or cold, but after hours of riding he could only ache with weariness. I wish I was really alone. Too many people making too much noise for him to relax, and for a second he considered stepping out of the tavern and sitting under the stars with Yfandes. But it wouldn't do to be so aloof - not with someone watching at me.
His assigned partner was getting them rooms, and had waved Vanyel off to claim seats in the taproom. The other Herald seemed friendly, but he most likely didn't appreciate being saddled with Vanyel. I'm inexperienced, and all anyone knows about me is bad things. And he's not a mage - he doesn't even understand what I can do. He's probably watching to see what mistakes I make.
The barmaid was wobbling. It could, he reflected, have been in part an illusion, because the rickety stools teetered as if they were at sea.
"How's the ale?" Herald Tantras asked, sliding into the chair beside him with a creak.
Van hadn't tasted it much. He shrugged. "It's dark. And there's a good head on it," he noted. Tantras seemed about to reply, but then he smiled strangely, a curled hand against his lips. "What is it?" Van asked.
"I was going," Tantras replied, soft and low, "to ask if that was how you liked your women. Then I recalled hearing, that you don't."
This again, but there was something more than mockery in his soft brown eyes. "What of it?" Van challenged him. "Does that trouble you?"
Tantras grinned. "All the more for me. Why d'you think I asked to be assigned with you? Madam!" he called. "My friend tells me of your fine ale..."
His assigned partner was getting them rooms, and had waved Vanyel off to claim seats in the taproom. The other Herald seemed friendly, but he most likely didn't appreciate being saddled with Vanyel. I'm inexperienced, and all anyone knows about me is bad things. And he's not a mage - he doesn't even understand what I can do. He's probably watching to see what mistakes I make.
The barmaid was wobbling. It could, he reflected, have been in part an illusion, because the rickety stools teetered as if they were at sea.
"How's the ale?" Herald Tantras asked, sliding into the chair beside him with a creak.
Van hadn't tasted it much. He shrugged. "It's dark. And there's a good head on it," he noted. Tantras seemed about to reply, but then he smiled strangely, a curled hand against his lips. "What is it?" Van asked.
"I was going," Tantras replied, soft and low, "to ask if that was how you liked your women. Then I recalled hearing, that you don't."
This again, but there was something more than mockery in his soft brown eyes. "What of it?" Van challenged him. "Does that trouble you?"
Tantras grinned. "All the more for me. Why d'you think I asked to be assigned with you? Madam!" he called. "My friend tells me of your fine ale..."
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I like to imagine he partly stumbled through them by accident/instinct. Pick Van as his unwitting wingman and then lever him open with natural charm. I think Van would have noticed and got uncomfortable if it had been much more intentional than that. I find it interesting that Tran sees Van's queerness as less divisive than his magical power (correctly or otherwise); Tran seems good at relating to him as a person even when others have given up.