#marielda spoilers

“I get so lost, all the time, just trying to figure out what I’m supposed to be doing with these abilities you’ve given me, and I just… Why me?” (Winter in Hieron 19: Make The Spring Last Forever)

[ID: Page 1: A monochromatic black, white, and yellow comic of the opening scene of Winter in Hieron 19. Panel 1 is Ephrim as a child, backlit by the sun, holding fire in his palm. Panel 2 is Ephrim on a horse, riding over the heat and the dark. Panel 3 is a pale hand lit by the fire it holds. Panel 4 is Ephrim sitting on an altar, which is lit from above by a circular window. Panel 5 is Maelgwyn backlit by a sun symbol, wearing a white mask. Panel 6 is a dark hand holding the Blade in the Dark. Panel 7 is Samothes, bent over, lit from behind. The text reads “There was a sense of possibility in you. I saw you there, a child, taken from place to place. Chaos. Fear. Darkness. I sensed an origin similar to mine.”

Page 2: Panel 1, to the left is Samothes, leaning back against his anvil with his arms crossed. He is looking at Ephrim, who has his hands clasped in front of him. Panel 2 is Ephrim looking up at Samothes, a straight on view of his face. He is a young man with pale skin and dyed hair, which is short and wavy. He has dark eyes. Panel 3 is Samothes looking down at Ephrim. He is lit from behind, and he is a man with dark skin, and curly black hair. Panel 4 is a top-down view of Samothes’ hands holding one of Ephrim’s. A golden ring is emblazoned on Ephrim’s upturned palm. The text reads “Perhaps that is less dogmatic an answer than you wished. There was no prophecy here. There was no divine guidance. There was only opportunity.”

Page 3: One panel that takes up the whole page. Ephrim stands in front of Samothes, and they are lit by a large yellow circle that may be a sun or a window behind them. THey are standing on a disc hovering over tendrils of dark shadow that creep up the sides of the panel. Ephrim’s arrow wounds have torn through his cloak, and light shines through them. The text, in the circle above their heads, reads “But that is what is behind all ingenuity.” /end ID.]

I’m pretty sure this is like 90% impossible in the canon but doing a drawing like “what would be the most painful scenario” was a great deal of fun! Spoilery details below!

I do just like the idea of Castille guarding Samothes 2.0 who is sorta different from the original Samothes but still definitely no longer Maelgwyn. Castille had just started to remember her old self through her connection to Maelgwyn and so losing him means that she sorta loses herself too :’D

The partnership of Maelgwyn and the mage Charter Castille just becomes Samothes and his pala-din.

March hasn’t been as rough as February, but it’s been tiring for sure, so I took some time to make some Friends at the Table fanart. <3 

Samot and Samothes (from the Hieron panthon) are at the bottom, and then a super speculative character and Maelgwynn are at the top. SPOILERS BELOW

I drew Maelgwynn/Samothes 2.0 originally because the description of his hair becoming ashen after he killed his father and started to change into him conjured such a strong image. I’d love to see a grown Samothes 2.0 at the City of First Light in Season 4 or something!