A Song for Two Voices - book 9

[swimmer963]

 This section is very rough draft, but I am nonetheless pretty happy because it contains: 

*STEF!!!!!!!!!! AND!!!!! VANYEL!!!!!!
*Although I am terrible at writing romance so I have no idea if it works at all
*This section is actually pretty upbeat (relatively speaking) and light on Bad Things Happen To Vanyel
*As well as containing some legit Good Things, like the aforementioned Stef 
*Stef needed to be Elsewhere for a bit, so he also has adventures! And meets some kyree! 
*Vanyel and Leareth have time to kill, and make some progress in their conversations 
*I guess there is one bad thing that happens to Vanyel, but Stef is there so it's all okay!
*Jisa does something that another character refers to as "the most Vanyel thing imaginable" 
*Some Jisa and Treven
*Really awkward drunken interactions at parties
*Vanyel makes the extremely dubious decision to go shout at a god again, and no one is surprised
*Melody doing relationship counselling, because frigg do they need it.

There were some rewrites on book 7 and 8 but they don't have a huge effect on the book 9 plot. 

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Comments

Vanyel on balconies...

[gildaurel]

SO. I have to start by saying that I absolutely LOVE the Van/Stef scenes from Stef's return onward; the way they look at each other and blush, the way Vanyel wants him but doesn't want, Stef's hero-worship slowly but surely turning into seeing Van as a person-- it's very well done, though you falsely say you are terrible at romance. The balcony scene almost killed me, I loved it so much. THAT was fabulous, and such a pleasure to read. I did find the apology in front of Medren afterwards a bit awkward; I'm not sure Van would have confessed his attraction in front of an audience.

The tension between the two of them and their increasingly close friendship is also VERY well paced-- once they find out they're lifebonded, though, I got a bit confused about their relationship-- you had shown their attraction fantastically well and how hard it was for Van to resist him, but then he gets hurt and is bedridden, so it seems as if the physical aspect loses its momentum a bit, and I wasn't sure if they had even consummated their relationship by the end of the fic? I felt like that portion needed some focus, since it was such a big deal to Van earlier on (and that tension, like I said, is SUCH a draw in and so important to keeping Van in character). Are they still in chaste lifebond mode? If not, when did they actually progress to touch?

Anyways, I loved this take on their relationship (you know that's what I really read for) and drunk!Vanyel at parties is a personal favorite of mine.

Re: Vanyel on balconies...

[swimmer963]

I definitely thought you would like the romance aspect of this section, but *wow* that was some fast reading!

And yep, you're right that I neglected/forgot the physical aspect of their relationship towards the end (guess that shows what *my* priorities are here, and the problem with ace people trying to write romance, e.g. forgetting sexual tension is a thing as soon as it's inconvenient – I think I can only write it at all by gluing a bunch of tropes together anyway). I'd been sort of intending to imply that they progressed to touch once they got to k'Treva, but then I was aaaa awkward about actually writing it.

I think the apology scene probably still works if Van doesn't confess attraction at all and basically just says he thinks Stef is neat and wants to hang out but *very much definitely* not in a romantic way thank you.

[kaza999]

hooray! i'm so glad to see this!

van and dara still make a great team. i like them, and i'm glad you included dara

i'm glad lake evendim is cited as a site of magical attack! it's a huge crater, and i've always thought it got bombed during the mage wars.

more discussions of ethics! i love how rolan mentions to randale about van's 'the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few' morality--it would definitely run counter to the companions' prerogative to save valdemar at all costs.

and stef hanging with the frelennyes--so sad, but i'm not at all surprised he'd be interested. stef's adventures in general are pretty cool!

parallels between van and savil and ma'ar and urtho were so intense! and i'm loving the practical discussion between van and leareth about how to make a god they'd want (still kiiinda shipping the two of them lmao--i'm having a fondness for traitor van who defects to leareth's side). however it seems wayyyy too easy for leareth to accidentally build an ultron or something.

van's problems with his Gift are interesting, and make a lot of sense. in a lot of ways vanyel has always been similar to trisana chandler, from tamora pierce's emelan books--they both have extremely powerful magical gifts that are really, really hard to fine-tune and control.

and i was so glad to see withen and van reconcile! that was one of my favorite parts of the original series as well. i was so happy to see their improved relationship, especially during the scene with sandra's alchemy accident.

aaaaand van sees stef and is immediately like '...hot,' accurate lmao

i'm so happy to see van and stef! stef's huge crush, van's panicking over having a crush in return, making out on the balcony...i love it it's so good! these two are complete dorks and it feels very true to canon--i loved stef bursting into the healers to help van.

and stef and van dreamsharing! such a fun development, and the way more people noticed the lifebond was nice too. they are so cute and such a mess

and of course, van decided to yell at a god--a very van thing to do :D

":Sorry, my life is really weird and I keep forgetting you don't know any of it.:" is now my favorite vanyel quote and it is so accurate

and jisa decides to pull an uncle van and damn near get herself killed--it must run in the ashkevron bloodline or something XD

this was such a wild ride, i loved it! can't wait for the next installment!

[liana12]

Yay! and I still didn't manage to read the previous two (really tough year). So now I'm hoarding them all till June and time off, and I'll enjoy them properly!