dragonlady7

writing, queued, gavilansblog

via https://ift.tt/3iY0KSJ

I have gone haring off on this wild quest of a happy ending for Lambert, and in the midst of it I was like ah, but what about Eskel??

and I got thinking about him, and I know I put him with Triss in Ancient Sea, but really, he wasn’t getting hearteyes. He liked her fine, it was fun, but.

And I thought, you know. You know, Eskel is a wonderful character. He’s deeply loyal. He’s got emotional intelligence. He’s got a real handle on the way the world works. He’s also deeply injured, down in his sense of self, and shy, and reserved. He’s kind, but ruthless, and practical. And he’s got a sensible head for risk.

Also he’s apparently got a thing for women with horns.

So all’s I’m saying is, it makes perfect sense that he’s aro. He loves Geralt, sure, but I wouldn’t call that romantic attachment.

And anyway. His happy ending isn’t going to be paired off with a sorceress.

At some point when he was drunk he must’ve told his brothers about that one succubus hunt. He’d told himself not to do that, but obviously it had come out at some point. He blamed alcohol. But in his defense, succubi were the kind of monsters that were people, and if you knew what you were getting into, were just as dangerous or not as anyone. He’d been perfectly within the bounds of rational behavior to have sex with one. He felt like that was the sort of thing any monster hunter should try at least once, and on the whole it had been among his more successful interactions. Maybe it was because succubi didn’t expect things of you that your heart maybe wasn’t built for. Maybe that was it.

He wasn’t thinking of that now except for the consideration that if he told this story to either of his brothers, he’d undoubtedly get teased for it. Depending how it worked out. But the real consideration was, had any of them passed the story along to Ciri? Because he was absolutely going to write to her about the goings-on in this duchy, but he wasn’t sure how much detail he should reveal about the creature who’d put an end to the reign of terror.

Well, it depended on how the story ended, he supposed, so he put his head down and followed the hoof marks a little farther into the woods.

Maybe Eskel’s going to find himself a different kind of arrangement.