The peace that formerly reigned in Terra Nova has eroded, now little more than a memory. War ravages the continent. Disputes divide kingdoms; ideals divide families. The quest for power consumes absolutely and indiscriminately. None are immune to its allure.
Who will rise and who will fall? Only time—and ambition—will tell.
UPDATES
05.26.2023
2 month character creation hold for all existing members begins 6/5/2023. Ended 8/5/2023.
10.29.2023
Change in how times flows. Was 4 IC seasons, now only 2 IC seasons per 1 OOC year.
5 whole years of Heir Apparent goodness! When I started the site, I knew I was hunkering down for the long haul, but I never could have predicted the numerous twists and turns this roleplay site has seen. Hundreds of plots, characters, and members have come and gone, all leaving marks on the site. I am so very thankful for those who have invested. Because you keep coming back, keep getting on, and keep writing, Heir Apparent has the legacy it does today. Three cheers to us!
His life had become quite structured since the meeting with the Captain Commander. When he wasn't trying to keep up with whatever physical training was thrown at him, he was sequestered away in Aly's office attempting to pen out letters and sound out words. He was currently sat at her office desk, one leg curled up under him as he dutifully copied word for word from the book she had handed him today. Rune was sitting in a little cleared area on Alys's desk, watching Zevran write with a tilted head, attempting to learn alongside him.
He had progressed to the point of reading slowly. Some bigger words still tripped him up, and his penmanship certainly still needed work. As he wrote out the next word on the page, he paused, his brow furrowing at the word. "Alys," he piped up, looking to wherever she was in the room. "I thought you said 'I' always came before 'E'? This word here is spelling with the 'I' after the 'E'."
The word in question was 'ceiling,' and if she didn't come to see for herself, he would spell the word out slowly for her.
Alys had fallen into a rhythm that now included time with Zevran. It didn’t bother her one bit, often times, now that he was past the beginning stages of learning to read, she could work on potions or read on her own or spend time with her children or do… a lot of things actually with him still in the room. Still helping guide him in his learning journey. It seems over the years, even with her being new to reading and writing in the last 6 years, she was helping a lot of people learn.
She was currently working through putting away some of her books when his voice called to her. Looking over at him, there was something comforting to see him there within her space. Her eyes light before she crossed the space to see what word he had found. “It’s… a very flawed saying. One I should have not taught you at all.” She muttered the last part to herself as she came in the opposite of the desk he sat at.
With her hands on the desk, she leaned into it and looked over the paper, mindful to not touch Rune where she rested, and located the word. “Want me to frustrate you more and tell you of more words that break that?” She gave him a small smile. “It’s a bad ‘rule’.” She lifted one hand to do half a quotation for the word.
He watched her cross to him, her presence having become very familiar for a multitude of different reasons. With a clearer head the morning after their first time sleeping together, he had feared she may ask more of him. After all, Nevermerans didn't just sleep around without some sort of claim on the person they were with. But she hadn't ever pushed him about that, and they had enjoyed many nights together since while their friendship continued to grow stronger.
He tilted his head up to study her profile as she leaned over the desk and lamented about the same word he had pointed out. With a groan he leaned back in his chair, letting his pen fall to the table and rubbed at his eyes for a moment. "No, I don't want to know about anymore words. It's to the point where I see words in my sleep."
An exaggeration, but he had been trying to cram as much learning into the time he'd spent here. There had been progress, certainly, but not without a lot of grumbling from him. At least his military training was giving him some more defined muscles, something he was proud to show off if given the chance.
"You know, Dresmond functioned just fine for years without any of this reading and writing nonsense."
Alys almost laughed with the way he groaned and moved in the chair. She had seen that before... "Usually I only get these complaints from my children." She chuckled a little under her breath. Leaning back a little as she looked at him, appreciating his presence... even if he was complaining about what he had signed up for.
He did seem to bicker about this part the most, and she had started to wonder if she could bargain on just dragging him through the training ring instead. At least the two of them could work off some pent up tension there and he'd feel less inclined to dread coming to her office. Well... during the day that was. He seemed to have no problem seeking her out after the sun had set.
She raised her hands slightly as if surrendering to him. "I am only doing what you and Hadrian had asked for. I'm not the best tutor by any means, but I am probably the most lenient." She smiled. "I only learned six years ago myself. Before that I could only identify my names and things you'd find on a map." She found herself sharing bits about herself with him the more time they spent together. Sometimes prompted... sometimes not. But she tried to show that she understood. She hadn't grown up in the lap of luxury by any means, and had worked very hard to get where she was now.
Her eyes flashed down to Rune, "Is he always this stubborn?" She grinned.
"Well that's probably because your children are just as frustrated as I am." He let his hands fall to his lap but remained slouched back in the chair. "And I didn't ask for this part, I only asked for the military training. All of this was all Hadrian's idea." He looked down at his crudely sketched out letters and huffed. He still didn't have any confirmation as to why they were making him learn this. Only his suspicions that he'd discussed with Ber.
Rune's ears perked forward at the attention Alys directed at her, before huffing out a breath in confirmation of her question. Zevran scrunched his brow at her before finally pushing himself upright in the chair. "I am not being stubborn. If I was, I would not have agreed to this in the first place. It's just... really hard."
A laugh left her. “My children are five…” she teased, her eyes shimmering with amusement. “I think they are allowed a bit of frustration at such a young age.” She, too, turned her attention to his sketched out letters and made note that it had progressed. Even if just a little. “Learning to read is useful though. When you are back to Dresmond, it makes communicating easier.” She felt a tightness in her throat as she said it, had to swallow twice to clear it. Alys certainly didn’t like the idea of him and Rune leaving.
Rune huffed, and those freckled cheeks pinched with her smile a bit more. “As I thought,” she almost murmured to the fox. Her attention back to Zevran as he sat up straighter. ”It is hard, there are dumb sayings like the I before E except after C that don’t really always apply. There are factors to take in with mathematics and don’t get me started on potions.” A part of her reached for him, wanting the closeness. She didn’t deny it now, not when they were alone, so her hand brushed her knuckles down his cheek. The lightest touch before she let it fall to her lap.
The corners of his mouth quirked up in a suppressed smile. "And just because I'm old, I'm not allowed to be frustrated?" He held her gaze until she looked away, and he, too, looked to his scratched out letters and words. He knew she was right, and perhaps he could use this new skill to somehow help his own people. Maybe write down their history so it was preserved in some way.
Just thinking about how all could have been truly lost if the Eldouirs had decided to wipe out the Dresmondi instead of conquer them made him stiffen. There would have been no record of them at all, for all their stories were shared around campfires. Something else to had to the ever growing list for after the Eldouirs were taken care of.
The light touch of Alys's hand against his cheek snapped him back to the here and now, his eyes darkening and flicking up to her own. When she started to pull away, he reached up to grip her wrist, holding her hand in place as he turned to press a few light kisses against her knuckles. "We could take a break..." he murmured against her skin.
A laugh fell from her, shaking her head a bit. “I never said old… those were your words, Dresmondi.” She teased. There was something about reminding him who and what he was that came naturally to her. Like she hadn’t forgotten either. No matter his time spent here in Nevermere, no matter how much his fighting style might change to mirror their own, or how well he learns to read and write… he will always be a Dresmondi. She knew it.
She was glad for the way her touch seemed to draw him back from whatever he was thinking about, only because she didn’t like the deep line of concern that had appeared between his brows. The way it all shifted as he looked up to her and took hold of her wrist. She didn’t jump or try and jerk her palm away, instead she let him press his lips to her fingers before she was uncurling them and moving to sink them into his hair.
“A break? Or are you saying you want to be done for the day?” She asked, shifting closer to him. It was so natural to be around him, to want to be closer and he never turned her away from keeping him company. He sought her out at times and something about that eased her. “Tell you what…” she moved so her leg pressed to the side of his, almost like she was going to sink into his lap in the chair but was holding off for just a moment.
“A few more lines, no complaints… proper punctuation… and we can take a break of your choosing.”
A lazy smile crawled across his face as her fingers twined into his hair and her body pressed closer to his, but still she held back, and a sound that was somewhere between a groan and a huff escaped at her offered compromise. "Fine, if you insist..."
But he didn't move to pick up his pen, and that gleam of mischief remained in his eyes as he, instead, wrapped an arm around her waist and attempted to pull her the rest of the way into his lap. "Why don't you make yourself comfortable in the mean time?" he murmured quietly, reaching around her to begin writing again.
While he wasn’t rough enough to control her, she certainly wasn’t resisting very much as he tugged her into his lap. Her laughter was low and feminine as she settled against him, her legs to one side, draped across his lap. She moved enough so he could reach around her to write and peer around her shoulder at the paper. Though she knew, he had probably little to none desire to actually complete the task.
For he had her where he wanted her… and she was where she wanted to be. Her chest warmed at their closeness and everything felt… right. Just right here with him. With him anywhere really. He felt right. Had since the moment she saw him in Dresmond with the others. He stood out to her in a way that, though she hardly could admit it, no man had ever done before. Not Cassian or Logan. Though both were tied for a very close second.
“Remember our deal,” though her hands fell to gently stroke his outer thigh through his pants. Nothing overly sensual, but a gentle caress.
He leaned forward and pressed a soft kiss to her temple, another sigh escaping his lips as she continued to insist upon their deal. "Yes, yes," he grumbled as he started to copy the letters onto the page again.
At the touch to his thigh he gritted his teeth, jaw flexing as he forced himself to keep writing the letters. Just a few more sentences. "You said you only recently learned. I thought all Nevermerans were taught to read and write when they're young?" he asked, attempting to distract himself from the tantalizing creature in his arms.
She felt her mouth curl sinfully as he seemed to grumble and stiffen behind her, but his hands continued to comply with her command. Writing out the letters and words on the paper as she found herself settling into him. There was a calmness and yet chaos within her being around him. It all had to do with her wolf, but the woman side of her, she was coming to appreciate this about him more and more as time was passing.
“Not all Nevermeran’s.” She spoke in a low tone, as it was just them and Rune. No one else who needed to hear her raise her voice to speak. “The nobles. Or the commoners who are wealthy without rank… though they are far and few. But others like me? We didn’t get to have tutors or lessons. We learned to do the physical tasks. It wasn’t until I became the King’s Witch that I really leaned into learning for my own sake… and because I could afford it.” And her late husband had helped a lot as well. “Logan helped as well. But funny enough, I’ve taught others like us, adults, how to read the basics. My hand writing is that of a child’s… but it gets the point across. And devour books… with my eyes of course.” Alys paused, realizing she was over sharing and she looked over her shoulder at him with a rueful smile.
He continued tracing letters, but a frown came to his face. He had had a similar conversation with Temperance in a cafe not so long ago, about the way Nevermere treated its commoners. "I just don't understand," he murmured, equally as quiet as Alys, "Why your kingdom has so much to offer, and yet it allows much of its population to suffer. Your nobles have so much, but they simply keep it instead of helping other Nevermerans in need."
He knew from previous conversations that there was nothing to be done about it. That Alys would probably wouldn't have much to say about it in turn, either. But he felt comfortable enough in her presence to air his grievances about what he saw as a great injustice.
A sad smile crossed her lips, her hand reaching out to wrap around his with the pen and guide him back through the word he just wrote. While she didn’t have the most beautiful script, she knew the word looked slightly off. “They feel like they and their family before them have earned it. Though I don’t always agree.” Their conversation was private, even in the closed off space where they were alone. “Money is a large part of our life here and…” she let her voice fade. She didn’t have a good explanation for it, nor one she thought he’d happily accept.
Her dark eyes followed his hand movements and found herself, “I’ve really enjoyed having you here,” Alys glanced back at him. “And as much as I know you aren’t a fan of my lessons with this,” her hand gestured over the paper. “I just… am glad to have this time.” Her cheeks turned a bit pink and she turned to face forward. She hadn’t really ever talked about feelings or anything with him in the past. But between their months of travel and now here? She’s grown used to having him around.
He frowned and grumbled at her answer. It was similar to any others he had received on the matter and he still had yet to find someone that could make him understand why they enjoyed living this way.
His eyes traced their hands as she helped him form his letters a bit better, until she began speaking about him and his time here in Nevermere. Though she continued writing with their hands, his gaze left the paper to rest on the side of her face. "Spending time with you has made it easier to be here. To have someone I knew I could trust." The corners of his lips quirked up in a small smile, "What ever will you do without me once I go back to Dresmond?"