I’m feeling nostalgic about this circus man and his magic man again, so here are some highlights of Caleb and Mollymauk being soft and falling for each other–
I’ll never be over what the novel gave us for Lucien Tavelle honestly. He loved performing in plays as a child and still has such a love for theatrics and stories. His most treasured possessions were the heartwarming letters he always saved from his little sister. He keeps telling himself one day he’s going to be better. His deepest desire is to live in a dream world where he gets to have his fairytale happily ever after–reunite with a loving family.
He keeps helplessly telling himself, “Once upon a time,” over and over, desperately clinging to his pretty fantasy.
A piece of his shattered heart still had so much love to give, so much joy and longing and warmth, that it became the kind and protective soul we know as Mollymauk–
Ludinus seeing scrappy little Lucien lingering wistfully in the halls of the Solstryce Academy, carrying another ancient relic he stole for Vess. Eyeing his latest find with a hunger and greed that Lucien knows all too well, the same way Vess and the Somnovum’s eyes bore into him.
Ludinus seeing that same purple tiefling that used to scour the ruins of Molaesmyr for DeRogna in another life, recognizing him from all those years ago—watching him stand beside Caleb and Beau and the rest of their motley crew.
This little thief he once looked down on, a fate touched soul branded by the Somnovum and nearly torn apart by the last remnants of Aeor. Someone whose very soul was nearly shattered by the same kind of ancient arcana and lost era that Ludinus so reveres. And now he’s finally free of those chains, from the centuries old wizards who tried to take away everything from him.
And he knows exactly how to make a power hungry demigod fall back down to earth, tumble from their pedestal and realize they’re painfully mortal—
