Chapter 1 Of Castles Crumbling (aka Tales From The Airport Bathroom Extended Version) Now Posted!

chapter 1 of castles crumbling (aka Tales from the Airport Bathroom extended version) now posted!

Chapter 1: Awakenings now up on AO3: READ HERE

I know I said it would be awhile until I started this fic but I lied :) I was inspired and decided to take advantage. I'm so excited (and also kind of nervous?) to share this story with you guys and hope you enjoy reading us much as I've enjoyed writing so far :)

Summary:

Violet should already be dead. People whispered about her weak body and how she would never live up to her family's martial accomplishments. Violet rose above them all, however, fighting and killing to survive the Navarrian Intelligence Agency's brutal BASGIATH training protocol. Now, people whisper about Violet's swift ascension through the NIA's ranks as one of its most valuable operatives and assassins. The whispers don't matter to Violet: She has her own agenda, and it's a dangerous one - finding out what happened to her father.

But one mission changes everything: Suddenly, Violet finds herself in the crosshairs when she stumbles on information Navarre wants buried, and the country she fought for begins to turn on her. Violet knows too much, but she's determined to do what she does best: Survive. Her only hope is the son of the man who they say killed her brother, but their partnership is far from assured. Some grudges run deep, and trust is a currency too valuable to give freely. Xaden realizes Violet may be the key to everything, but with enemies seen and unseen closing in on all sides, the consequences of failure are deadly.

===

“Violet?”

I’m jolted out of my thoughts and return my attention to Ridoc, who has an uncharacteristically stoic look on his face.  

“I have a really bad feeling about this.” He scratches the back of his head. “Promise me you’ll call if it goes south.”

I don’t deserve my squad. And that’s all the more reason that I can’t let him, or anyone else, near this mission. If things go wrong – if my slight treason turns into not-so-slight treason – then I don’t want to bring any of them down with me. I’d rather die than drag them into my problems. I let my mask slip for a moment, patting Ridoc’s arm reassuringly.

“I promise I’ll be careful.”

He rolls his eyes, but that mischievous spark returns to his eyes. “Bullshit. Danger is your middle name, Sorrengail.”

“Actually, it's Brigid,” I quip with a grin. 

He punches me lightly in the arm. “Of course it is.”

She is mighty and watchs over your hoard you entrusted to her diligently. By this I mean I love her

Hi friends! Apologies for the absence the past few days—just been spending some time recharging. I’ll get around to the unanswered asks and stuff in the next day or two and we should return to our regularly scheduled programming for updates sometime next week 🫶🏻

As tax in the meantime, meet Kyro, one of my sacred book guardians

I feel like I just completly glossed over the fact that Imogen and Dain were second years in the same squad.

Which means they survived Rider’s Survival Course together.

The absolute insanity I’m descending into picturing Imogen and Dain at the same table sharing a secret, and then having to protect each other’s secrets while they get the shit beat out of them.

Imogen having to listen to Dain bond with the infantry about rules and order and respecting the rank while they wander lost through the woods, trying not to get torched by dragons.

And they had the full second year at Basgiath! Which meant they had the tourture chamber testing twice!

She went through all of that with him, and then was part of the squad that got sent to their deaths because of him. We really do not give her enough credit for not snapping his neck at the first oppurtunity in Iron Flame.

some fluff for your saturday 🫶🏻

***

Xaden’s favorite time was the middle of the night, when his wife slept peacefully and he got to hold his daughter and watch the snow falling.

Fia, like her mother, liked the library. Xaden was sure it was the floating mage lights that kept her attention—at seven months old, she certainly couldn’t read—but it was the place that calmed her the quickest when she wouldn’t sleep. He liked to think it was something she’d gotten from Violet.

Fia looked like him: his warm brown skin, his dark hair and dark eyes, his mouth. But she had Violet in the shape of her nose, the fullness of her cheeks. She was calm and quiet like Violet, attentive and curious, even just beginning to sit up and grab for anything within reach. She liked Xaden’s wedding ring, liked the texture of Violet’s dragon scale corset. She liked looking at the dragons: she would sit and stare at Andarna for hours if Xaden let her, endlessly fascinated by her shifting scales as Andarna stretched her wings in the sun.

She was an easy baby for the most part, but Violet’s pregnancy had been hard.

They’d assumed it would be, but she’d been in pain almost constantly—aching joints and swollen feet and hands. By the second half, she spent more time in bed than out of it, barely sleeping due to the pain. Thanks to Brennan and the best midwife in Tyrrendor, the birth had been smooth, though long; Violet labored for over a day before Fia joined them. Then she’d spent more weeks recovering, Fia sleeping on her chest as Violet read to her.

It was why Xaden always got up in the night when Fia woke. Violet would have done it gladly, he knew that, but she’d given so much to bring Fia into the world while he’d only been able to watch. Rocking her back to sleep once or twice a week was the least he could do. Violet protested, and he ignored her. Sometimes she’d come find them, but more often than not she slept on comfortably and didn’t wake until Xaden joined her in bed again.

“What do you think?” Xaden murmured to Fia, stopping in front of a window and turning her around so she could look outside. She pressed a chubby little hand to the glass and cooed. “How long are we gonna be awake tonight?”

Fia babbled unintelligibly. Once the window had lost her attention, he shifted her in his arms so her head could rest against his shoulder, and she lay limply against his chest. He rubbed a broad hand up and down her back, marveling, not for the first time, at how tiny she was. How easily she fit into his arms. He never wanted to let her go.

Violet protested that it was bad for Fia to be held constantly. She needed to move and look and engage with the world around her. Xaden argued that she’d have years to do those things, and he only had a few months to hold her like this. That usually made Violet soften, and she got that tender expression on her face that he never tired of because it reminded him that she loved him just as much as he loved her.

He walked half a dozen laps around the library, humming under his breath. Fia settled slowly as he rocked her, bouncing her lightly in the way she liked and stroking along her spine. He felt her little form go entirely limp, finally asleep; her head tipped to press against his neck, her breath against his skin, the beat of her heart against his own. He could go put her back to bed, but he didn’t stop walking.

Just a little longer, he decided. Just a few more minutes holding her.

“I think she’s drooling on you,” a voice whispered, breaking through the still serenity of the library.

Xaden turned and found Violet leaning against a shelf, watching him with a soft look on her face.

“That’s what I’m here for,” Xaden murmured.

She smiled sleepily. She was in a nightgown and thin robe, barefoot with her hair loose and tangled, like she’d woken and hadn’t wanted to be alone. “Come here,” she said quietly.

Xaden went. He held Fia with one arm, and reached out with the other to take Violet’s hand. She fit her fingers into the spaces between his and stepped in close, resting her head against his chest next to their daughter. She stretched on her toes to brush a fleeting kiss against Fia’s soft cheek, and then titled her face up to Xaden expectantly.

He kissed her forehead, the tip of her nose, and finally pressed his mouth to hers. “I love you,” he murmured.

Violet’s eyes fell shut, contentment written in every line of her expression. “I love you, too.”

I decided to crochet a little Andarna and now I'm racing to finish her before the next chapter comes out XD

Omg that sounds so cute, send me a pic if you want I’d love to see her!!! I can’t crochet for shit so the people who do all the little stuffed animals and stuff blow my mind