fic_corner stories! I have found time to read, and now I must share my glee in my stories!
First, my main gift,
The Very Long Letter Bran Left on His Desk. An epistolary fic! Well, a single epistle, which Bran forgets to send his poor sister, oh Bran. (Maybe I should add “epistolary fic” to my list of things I like for Yuletide.)
The fic covers Bran’s months at Athanarel just after Galdran’s deposition, and I love how it captures the atmosphere of court - the leftover anxiety from Galdran’s reign (we get a few details about Galdran’s court that are quietly hair-raising), slowly fading away as uncertainty about the new court gives way to the sense that things will be better.
The fic also offers an interesting interpretation of Tamara: that her flighty fickleness as at least in part a front that she put on for Galdran, and that court mask has perhaps grown attached to her face and she doesn't know how to (or perhaps doesn't want to) take it off. It’s a thought-provoking take.
And a treat!
i give thee the ocean, stormy or tranquil, which is about Tamara and Savona’s relationship - a stormy ocean if there ever was one. Crown Duel being in Mel’s perspective, we don’t get to see Tamara and Savona’s wranglings, and I was left very curious at the end just what they saw in each other: Tamara, after all, is not a very nice person.
This story also offers an interesting exploration of Tamara. She’s still not a very nice person, in fact works at seeming even less kind than she actually is:
It rankles to think that he might dole out his love as a reward for her good deeds, or worse, that he or anyone else might suppose that it’s only his faithful adoration that carved a half-decent human being from the virago of Chamadis.
She’s turned back against herself. But Savona sees the vulnerability that she hides - because he hides his vulnerability in much the same way.
And a couple of recs:
First,
Worldbuilding, Chronicles of Narnia, about Polly and Digory discussing what it would be like the build Narnia. Pitch-perfect voices, slyly funny, and interesting speculation.
And second,
Mountain Ash, The Dark is Rising Sequence, a little bit Jane/Bran but not much. The focus of the story is on Will, and on the effects of the forgetting on them all - the gaps it has created in their lives.
They never could stick together, having forgotten the core of what had first united them. But apart, they were never wholly contented.
It's taken Will decades to realize what damage the series' end has done to them. There's a sense of quiet melancholy to it, and hope as well.