1 - 20 of 48 Bookmarks by springawake
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A problem shaped like seven unexpected mercenaries carrying one of the priceless artifacts he stole arrives on Essek's doorstep, but he can handle it. Is handling it. Will be able to handle it, at some point, if he can figure out how to avoid them killing him first.
(Or: time looping your way into a new alignment, one catastrophic failure at a time.)
Bookmarked by springawake
01 Jul 2026
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Caleb moves closer into his space and holds his shivering arms tightly, and rubs some warmth into his shoulders. “Essek, you can feel it, can’t you?”
Caleb noticed it as he left the cottage, once he consciously felt for the sensation. Or rather, a lack thereof. Typically, magic rushes around him like the wind itself, or an ambient scent, or music. It appeals to a different and entirely unnamable sense though, of course. He can feel it, touch it, and manipulate it. It is so constant that it becomes subconscious and beyond notice.
“You can feel it, Essek. It is gone.”Peace is a precious thing, and a fragile thing too. When the unexpected finally strikes Essek's delicate new life, he and Caleb are left adrift and alone and very, very, vulnerable. What are two wizards without magic to do?
- Language:
- English
- Words:
- 105,169
- Chapters:
- 23/23
- Comments:
- 320
- Kudos:
- 417
- Bookmarks:
- 85
- Hits:
- 11,482
Bookmarked by springawake
07 Feb 2026
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‘Home is the place where, when you have to go there,
They have to take you in.’‘I should have called it
Something you somehow haven’t to deserve.’—"The Death of a Hired Man," Robert Frost
When running stops working, the Blooming Grove is where Caleb runs to.
Series
- Part 2 of waystations
Bookmarked by springawake
31 Jan 2026
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and lifted its whisper to my thirsty lips by Bagheera
Fandoms: The Mighty Nein (Cartoon), Critical Role: Exandria (Web Series)
09 Jun 2026
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Caleb's amulet breaks before he ever meets Nott and he runs to the one part of Exandria where Volstruckers might not follow. Meanwhile, Essek Thelyss is still considering how best to commit treason and heresy.
COMPLETE as of 9/6/26
Bookmarked by springawake
22 Jan 2026
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Essek Thelyss comes to Soltryce to deliver guest lectures and, on the side, cultivate the brand new Archmage of Domestic Protections. He’s hoping that Caleb Widogast will oblige him by picking up his predecessor’s interest in conspiring to steal Luxon beacons, after so rudely murdering Da’leth mere weeks before the culmination of their schemes.
Essek is prepared for espionage. He is not prepared to find a love that will change the course of his life.
- Language:
- English
- Words:
- 226,958
- Chapters:
- 20/20
- Comments:
- 942
- Kudos:
- 737
- Bookmarks:
- 295
- Hits:
- 27,048
Bookmarked by springawake
15 Sep 2025
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Summary
You never really know a person until you live with them.
Caleb comes to stay with Veth and Yeza while preparing for Trent Ikithon's trial.
Series
- Part 1 of waystations
Bookmarked by springawake
24 Aug 2025
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Vax is trying his best to readjust to Exandria. He's convinced it's only a matter of time.
Keyleth is trying her best to be patient with Vax's work-life balance. She should be happy with what little she gets.
Verin just needs some help handling Bazzoxan after the Solstice. And after the way that the Raven Queen used consecution, the Kryn think the Raven Queen's champions should pitch in.
- Language:
- English
- Words:
- 11,938
- Chapters:
- 4/4
- Collections:
- 1
- Comments:
- 24
- Kudos:
- 47
- Bookmarks:
- 19
- Hits:
- 438
Bookmarked by springawake
15 Jul 2025
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Dean’s minding his own business, sipping on a beer and leering at the bartender, when a guy that admittedly has about four inches and a good twenty pounds of muscle on him storms over and shoves him in the arm.
- Language:
- English
- Words:
- 135,080
- Chapters:
- 15/15
- Comments:
- 1,124
- Kudos:
- 2,150
- Bookmarks:
- 597
- Hits:
- 45,576
Bookmarked by springawake
27 Mar 2025
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When a house is both hungry and awake, every room becomes a mouth.
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Nobody was okay after Cognouza. This has consequences for the Nein-Sided tower.
Bookmarked by springawake
26 Mar 2025
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The Empire is winning the war. In the wake of his master's death, Volstrucker Bren ascended to Archmage of Civil Influence, but he's been secretly undermining the Empire by feeding intelligence to the Mighty Nein, a group of adventurers fighting for peace. When his rival and friend the Shadowhand is captured, Bren acts on the only idea that will spare a Kryn politician from execution: claiming him as a war prize.
Bren and Essek are forced to perform a fake politican/concubine relationship, including all the tension and jingoism it entails, while taking advantage of their circumstances to spy on and steal from the court around them. Bren may wield the leash, but Essek has cards up his sleeve, and even so, Bren fears hurting Essek almost as much as Essek fears losing Bren. Their mutual trepidation must graduate to mutual trust — maybe even love — if they have any hope of surviving the lie they started.
Bookmarked by springawake
02 Jan 2025
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The fact that six mercenaries and a weasel have stowed away on the highest-security vessel in the Dynasty’s fleet is, technically, a serious problem that bodes poorly for the rest of their journey. But Essek is delighted. He’d been dreading a long and tense voyage to Mutalos, without any company except for a skeleton crew comprised mostly of military personnel, the awkward spare scourger, and his—
It feels strange, to think of Becke as his wife. Even calling her his enemy feels too intimate.
(In which Essek agrees to a political marriage to ensure intergalactic peace and keep himself alive, only to discover that his wife has married him for exactly the opposite reason.)
- Language:
- English
- Words:
- 200,254
- Chapters:
- 41/42
- Comments:
- 725
- Kudos:
- 690
- Bookmarks:
- 154
- Hits:
- 22,131
Bookmarked by springawake
02 Jun 2024
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Six months ago, Beau adopted a teenager who loves the Cobalt Soul, but can't stand her. Ten minutes ago, Caleb accidentally summoned his own teenage self into his living room. So you know, they're both going though some shit.
At least Caleb's got experience befriending novice monks with attitude problems. And Beau's got experience befriending Caleb.
- Language:
- English
- Words:
- 103,670
- Chapters:
- 24/24
- Comments:
- 1,010
- Kudos:
- 1,007
- Bookmarks:
- 288
- Hits:
- 19,506
Bookmarked by springawake
01 Jun 2024
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Summary
He kisses Essek’s jaw, then the soft spot just shy of his ear. Essek hums and tips his head to guide his lips.
“I can tell you do not want to talk about it,” Caleb mumbles. He kisses the torn lobe of Essek’s ear where Jester has healed it closed; he’ll need to pierce it again sometime if he wants to replace the earring. Caleb thinks this, and moves to kiss his neck again. “But I am going to find it hard to sleep if I don't feel you next to me tonight.”In broad daylight, Essek is attacked. His friends do not know why or by whom until it is too late.
E rating in chapters 1, 5, and 11.
- Language:
- English
- Words:
- 111,812
- Chapters:
- 17/?
- Comments:
- 264
- Kudos:
- 654
- Bookmarks:
- 129
- Hits:
- 18,089
Bookmarked by springawake
21 Oct 2023
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Summary
Essek tore his gaze away from those red eyes, seeking desperately something safer, softer. He was among friends. Cognouza was seconds ago and a timeline away. It hadn't happened — it wouldn't happen.
He settled on Jester, who beamed.
"Hi," she said, kindly, "I'm Jester. I like your weasel."
**
In another timeline, the Mighty Nein fall to Lucien. Essek, with Artagan-the-weasel's help, travels back in time to save them.
Bookmarked by springawake
15 Oct 2023
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Summary
“You have been summoned to the Soltryce Academy, to study under the guidance of Archmage Zevran Margolis.” recited the mage, her face sour with distaste. “It is the duty of all with arcane abilities to use them to serve the glory of the Empire. You are to come with us. To Rexxentrum.”
More than eight hundred miles from Port Damali, almost a month’s travel. An entirely different universe. Any protests had been quickly stifled, tears ignored; the mage hadn’t allowed them even a minute to run upstairs and gather their things - the Empire will provide for you, they had been told. By then, the soldiers had been well-practised at extracting magically-talented children from their homes in the cleanest possible fashion, and they were swift and merciless.
And that had been it.*
In the early 800s, the Empire conquered and annexed the Menagerie Coast. Now, as the Dwendalian military machine continues to demand fresh recruits for their war in the northern wildlands, a group of young conscripts in Rexxentrum find their destinies drawn close together.
Bookmarked by springawake
28 Aug 2023
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Summary
When reports of strange, magical occurrences trickle out of Nicodranas, the Cobalt Soul sends in one of their own to investigate. Beauregard is an Expositor, the hands and fists of the Soul, and she finds herself sent to the coast to uncover the truth behind these phenomena.
Meanwhile a Volstrucker, the eyes and knives of the Dwendalian Empire, arrives in the same city for a different purpose. But this knife has begun to worry his blade has dulled. What is a knife to do when it cannot fulfill the very purpose for which it was made?
In the city of Nicodranas, nine lives are about to converge, and none of them will ever be the same again.
Series
- Part 1 of Eye in the Firestorm
Bookmarked by springawake
24 Apr 2023
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Summary
“That’s right, love.” Caleb—Essek’s Caleb, the one who loved him—whispered in his ear. It sent a delightful shiver down Essek’s spine. “He wants to take me away from you. He hates seeing you happy.”
The other Caleb, the one who would never be his, looked pained. “Essek, that’s not the real me. That’s a fiend wearing my face.”
“Is that how little you think of me?” Essek snapped. The other Caleb flinched as if from a physical blow. “I know exactly what he is.” He’s the one who will give me what you never would.
Essek’s Caleb kissed him sweetly on the cheek. It felt like benediction. “Be a dear and get rid of him for me, darling.”
Bookmarked by springawake
19 Apr 2023
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Summary
The first letter Essek receives from Caleb Widogast is secreted into his pocket at some point during a tense interview with the Bright Queen. For the life of him, Essek cannot figure out how it was done. He doesn’t recall so much as brushing against the other man as he escorted the Mighty Nein out of the Lucid Bastion.
Yet when he returns to his office, there it is, tucked into a nearly invisible pocket in his mantle — a piece of subpar parchment folded to vaguely resemble a cat’s face with tiny pointed ears.
- Language:
- English
- Words:
- 61,367
- Chapters:
- 14/14
- Collections:
- 1
- Comments:
- 323
- Kudos:
- 897
- Bookmarks:
- 266
- Hits:
- 14,531
Bookmarked by springawake
02 Apr 2023
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Jester and Fjord have some exciting news that makes everyone in the Nein think about their futures.
Three years since Aeor, Two years since Uk'otoa, and three months since the adoption of a fourth cat, Caleb plans the next big step in his relationship with Essek: asking for his hand in marriage. Of course, he turns to the Mighty Nein for help, and it becomes a much more difficult task than he originally imagined.
(fellas, is it gay for the first time you say ‘I love you’ to your partner of 3 YEARS to be during your proposal???)
E rating earned in Ch. 6, 9
Series
- Part 4 of Letters from Exandria
Bookmarked by springawake
02 Apr 2023
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A Price that Befits Only Flames by 12pt_times_new_roman
Fandoms: Critical Role (Web Series)
09 Mar 2024
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Summary
The expedition could take months, they told Essek, and he thought, "good." No one could find him at sea; no ship could sneak up on them; and best of all, though he'd never admit it to their faces, he could run away from his problems with his partner and friends at his side. Where they were going and all the things they might find there was just a bonus. (Or: Caleb, Essek, Yasha, and Beau charter a Stone's Throw ship to the Shattered Teeth to investigate strange surges of arcana, and in doing so discover the ruins of Avalir.)
Bookmarked by springawake
02 Apr 2023