Three's a crowd (Ledgic & Eothan)

‘Three’s a crowd’

Stormwind was quiet, far too quiet for the time of night. It wasn’t often that Eothan found himself awake in the early hours of the morning anymore, he was usually training or collapsing into his bed due to that training. Tonight he found himself sat in a chair in his living room, a small table stood in front of him. On that table rested a tome with a vial of demon blood sat on top of it, his training sword and a novel he had recently acquired.

He sipped from a glass of brandy in the dimly lit room, turning his head to briefly stare at the flicker of the burning candle near him. He was leading a different life now and as he turned back to the table, he sipped from his brandy yet again. He had laid these items on the table so he could observe the three aspects of his life clearly. The novel, a symbol of what he had been like months ago, his training sword a symbol of his main activity in life now. The tome and demon blood was the temptation, the urge to continue his training into using the essence of demons to empower himself.

He had empowered himself with the essence of a void walker, he used his own shadow energy to subdue the beast and merge it’s powers with his own. He had decided that it would be a one time endeavour, that he wouldn’t continue down that path, knowing that it would bring further corruption to his already shadow riddled soul.

Not only that, but he had promised Valerias that he would go no further. He had been surprised at her reaction to what he was doing at first, noting the concern in her face almost immediately. It had been because of her master, the man she had learned her skills from and while she didn’t care about Eothan being a man of the shadow, she had cared about his delving into the fel.

He scoffed slightly before taking a sip from his brandy, Valerias Caan, actually giving a damn. The idea was far more amusing on this night than it had ever been. Until recently he was certain that she cared enough about him to let his position slide, but tonight was different. She had brought up their situation, stomped on his desires and done her best to crush his spirit. It hadn’t worked, but Eothan found himself with a bitter taste in his mouth.

As he drained the last of his brandy from the glass, he had to stop his mind wandering back to that night, a night that had started off so well on the shores of Tanaris. He set the glass down on the floor beside his chair and shook his head. It wasn’t worth thinking about, his situation had not changed and he had no intention of considering it, she and their unborn child were his world now, because his feelings for her had convinced him to throw away his own.

It was through no fault of her own and he knew that, but he couldn’t help feeling angry. He leant forward and looked at each of the items on his table in turn, his ear twitching slightly at the sound of some candle wax sliding down and hitting the small copper plate that held the candlestick. Tonight was the night that he felt compelled to make a choice, continue down the road that he was now, change the course slightly to encompass delving further into using the fel or to reach for the novel and effectively turn and walk back down the path.
He lifted his hands and rested his chin in them, lightly tapping a rhythm on his cheeks with his fingers. There was no real decision there for him; because he knew what he would pick every single time. Yet there was the tome and the demon blood, calling out to him. He swore he could hear it sometimes, the roaring and groaning of the nether calling him in, bringing forth a corruption like no other. The candlelight illuminated his face, lightening the blue of his eyes as they darted between each item. He was no longer concerned about Valerias’ desire for him to go no further with the fel, while he knew that he loved her, her opinion had begun to mean far less to him than it ever did in the past. He straightened his back and brought his hands down to his knees, taking a firm grip of them.

She had opened his heart and attempted to tear it out, she carried his child but no feeling for him. He muttered curse words under his breath in frustration at the situation. He had been stuck in the same pit for months now and every time he managed to scrape himself to the surface, he would be slammed right back down. Sometimes by life, sometimes by his own realisations and sometimes by Valerias herself.

So why was it, he asked himself, that he couldn’t let go of her? Their life long connections had already been established, but was that really enough to hold onto her? Especially when her skin was covered in thorns, constantly drawing the blood from his veins. He was a fool and he knew it but he was a fool with a reason, his heart had opened for her and he was not about to let that go to waste.

As his thoughts rushed through his mind he reached for the bottle of demon blood, picking it up and holding it in both hands and began to stare at it. This would only be used for sealing the power he would try to consume but the danger was still incredible… but the power he had received from the void walker alone was enough to fuel a desire to continue with this road. He drew in a deep breath through his nose and clenched his left hand around the bottle, reaching with his right to pick up the tome. He narrowed his eyes as he rested the tome across his thighs and opened it, beginning to flick through the pages to what he needed.

His breathing continued to be deep as he found the correct page, he slowly read it and eventually stopped at the ritual and the symbols required to continue his experiment, he tapped it lightly with his finger, picturing the symbols and seals required for the more powerful demons in his mind. He closed his eyes and shook violently for a moment before slamming the tome shut and shoving both it and the bottle onto the floor quickly.

She was forever in his mind and not only his, that of many men. He knew that she cared for one man in particular, one man that he had sworn to defeat in battle for ruining what he wanted, and as his anger subsided, the idea of another glass of brandy and some sleep seemed so much more desirable.

-----

It had rained in the bay for a few nights in a row now, it hadn’t been the light and soothing rain it usually experienced, it had been powerful rain. Ledgic sat on the edge of a roof near his home, smoking a cigarette beneath a hood of his. He knew the day where he would have to give Vale an answer was drawing closer… and perhaps this rain was a sign of how he felt inside. Everything about the Caans had drawn sadness out of him, the fact he couldn’t change them, their hunting of him, their death and then… from out of nowhere, his strong feelings for one of them. Vale had approached him a while ago to tell him that she was working for the Stormwind Intelligence, alongside Jayse. He had had his suspicions about Jayse already, which had caused his trust in the man to dip quite dramatically. He could keep Jayse at arm’s length with ease, it came as no problem to him but Vale was different.

All he had wanted to do for more than ten years was keep his arms around her, he could barely stand the fact they spoke so little, especially since their feelings for each other had resurfaced after so long. He flicked the end of his cigarette down to the wooden planks below and lowered his hood, letting the rain hammer down against his skin. He let out a sigh and closed his eyes, the complications that his answer to Vale would bring were obvious, he would tell her that he cannot trust her while she is a part of SI:7 and she would walk away from him entirely.

He couldn’t handle that, his heart had been torn between Vale and Annie for so long now, he couldn’t allow Vale to walk away, yet through his own experiences, he couldn’t give Vale his complete trust as part of an organisation like that. He shook his head as the rain continued to beat down on him relentlessly, as if it shared his pain and concern. All he knew was that he couldn’t allow her to leave him, but could he really allow himself to do what was necessary to keep her in his life? He wasn’t sure exactly what it would take, but being with her would be the obvious answer.

He turned to look at his home, Annie had not yet returned from the city yet but when she did, he knew that all his concerns about Vale would melt away; his heart was very much hers. Yet at the same time, his heart was very much Vale’s, there was too much between them to deny that. He had desperately wanted her to be his during their time in the village, always shying away from saying anything for both her safety and his, to spare them the mockery and fighting that would have come from it.

Now he was free of the Caans and their way of life, their curse, and he was still unable to put his arms around her. He puts his face in his hands and remembered the night the two of them kissed, a wild and almost uncontrollable moment they had shared, as if everything they had ever wanted all those years ago had just shot out of them and forced them together.

That moment of intimacy that he had shared with Vale was nothing like he had ever had with Annie, or any other woman for that matter. There was no call for it, no drive for it and yet when it happened, he simply couldn’t stop. He lifted his face from his hands and turned it to face the sky, letting the rain cover his face.

Even if he could break Annie’s heart and take Vale into his arms, he wouldn’t only be breaking her, it would break him and subsequently it would break Eothan. It wasn’t often that Ledgic really considered Eothan in the tangled web of feelings and madness that had been created between the three of them… purely because he knew that Eothan could take care of himself. In a lot of ways Eothan was stronger than him, he was more controlled and patient. Ledgic’s head didn’t help him, it tore him in different directions, it never agreed with his heart and it would eventually force him to make a decision he desperately wanted to avoid.

Live his life in love with Annie, his wife, or destroy her and step into the coiled and web covered depths of the Caan way of life, just to be embraced by what he had wanted when he was stuck in that hell. The light of his life now versus the light of his life then.

‘Feck…’

Very very well written! Really loved it, but the title gave me dirty thoughts.

Anaei/Vezullia wrote:Very very well written! Really loved it, but the title gave me dirty thoughts.

Good thing I didn't go for my original thought and called it Threesome then, really xD

Ugh, just, my head, ugh.

Not about the story. I liked the story.