Despite starting out in a better mood, Ace had fallen back into grumbling during his walk around the inside of Sungate mountain. He grumbled about the circumstances he was in: seemingly stranded within a hollowed-out mountain. He grumbled about the circumstances that had led him to where he was: the patrolman headed straight for him that caused him to lose his balance and fall off the bridge–and take Dorian with him. He continued grumbling backward until he reached the state of his birth: the true reason he was where he was today.
“...And Calder decided it was time to let me know my ‘true heritage’ and never let me forget that my mom was part of the largest and most notorious brothel in Fortanya… and I thought that was bad–but that was only the beginning!” He threw up his hands. “The reason I was having trouble breathing all the time wasn’t being sick–it was a curse I inherited from one of the guys she slept with! Of all the guys she had to have known, she had to conceive me with the one with a deadly curse!” He snarled as he looked up at the rock’s face, finding it still too steep to climb. “That’s what started all this; I was born out of bad luck, and I’ve been fighting it ever since!” His eyes followed a sloping line of white-barked birch trees going up the mountain’s face. “What am I supposed to learn–what choices was I supposed to make from that??”
With his eyes on the mountainside, he tripped over a fallen tree and fell hard on his hands and knees on the other side.
“Agh!” He growled, rolling onto his side to deliver a kick into the broken tree’s trunk. “As if almost drowning and being stranded wasn’t enough!” He seethed through clenched teeth. “Ok, Dorian,” he sneered as he spoke his name, “now that I’m here on the ground with a bruised knee, you want me to look for something good??”
He looked up at the mountain’s face, and his tightened expression released. From the opposite direction, the rocky wall had appeared solid. But from his new perspective on the ground, he could easily see a worn path up the side of the cliff’s face–hidden by the sloping line of trees.
“Oh!” He scrambled to his feet and practically hopped up the first two stone steps. He hugged the rocky wall as he scooted up the slope between the white-barked trees until the stones gave way to a sandy path. A toothy grin stretched across his face and he darted up and around the switchbacks as fast as he could go. He broke past the cover of the pine trees and found himself climbing higher and higher above The Phoenix’s abode. Soon, he could see the tops of other mountains rising into view over the sides of the hollowed-mountain.
When he reached the top of the rocky wall, his jovial jaunt was slowed to a stop.
The view that spread out before him was not at all what he had expected to find. The path opened wide into a gently sloping grassy hill. This shallow swatch of green narrowed led down to a round colonnade with a dome of graying stone, standing like a monument at the edge of the grassy peak. Behind the structure, the waters of the great lake stretched out wide, nestled within the mountain range surrounding it.
The trouble with the view was the sharp slope down into the lake on all sides–proving this was yet another dead end.
Still, he was drawn to the place almost subconsciously; walking slowly with a puzzled expression. Although he was completely alone–Dorian had to be halfway around the mountain by now–he swore he could hear footsteps on the stone ahead of him. He quickened his pace until he reached the stone step at the edge of the structure.
A gust of wind swept through his brown hair, and he pulled the strands behind his ear to better study the building. Large columns encircled the structure, but on either side, small enclosures were built just within, like tiny rooms screened in with long, draping curtains. The rest of the colonnade blended into a thick mist that seemed to be billowing out of the center of the room–where a small bronze top spun upon a chest-high pedestal. It seemed to move endlessly, never slowing in the speed of its spin.
Under furrowed brows, Ace entered the structure to quell his curiosity. His boot crunched into the sand scattered across the stone floor. The sound echoed in the curved ceiling above him as the mist swirled around his foot.
He froze when he heard a footstep that was not his own.
He spun on the balls of his feet, causing a great scrape to ring through the room from the sand trapped between his boots and the floor. His fists were clenched and his elbows were held tight at his sides, and his green eyes seemed to flash as they darted through the room around him.
“Who’s there??”
The answer came in the clinking of the top falling to its side and skidding to a stop atop the pedestal. He turned back toward it, his eyes tracing the three-ringed twisting of metal.
A short gasp, then, came to his ears.
Ace drove toward the sound with his arms waving and disrupted a set of feet. He could hear the steps echo around him, and the curtains at his left rippled as they were disturbed. He almost caught a glimpse of a figure running away as the mist began to fade.
“What is this–who are you?” Ace shouted, glancing over his shoulder into the room. “I know someone is here!”
He had just begun to turn around when he caught a glimpse of movement beside the pedestal. As the mist faded into light within the colonnade, a woman in a gray woolen cloak came into view.
Ace didn’t immediately recognize her; a woman who seemed to be at the cusp of young and old with tan hair in a tangled weave over one shoulder. Her frail form was no taller than his own, and she was draped in a long cloak that had begun to tatter at the edges. Her face was weathered and worn, but her hazel eyes were bright with curiosity.
“Who are you?” Ace’s words were both sharp and cautious.
“I am Aurora,” she spoke, her voice still as faint as it had been while she had been in hiding. “Aurora Gallagher.”
His body bristled and he took the smallest of steps backward. He knew that name.
She, in contrast, stepped forward upon his reaction. She gazed upon him, almost in disbelief: a wiry young man who looked suspiciously like his father, save for the mop of tan hair on his head. “And you… can it be…?”
Ace’s brows knitted together. “I don’t know,” he watched her carefully, reading into the smallest movements of her face and body. “I guess that depends on who you ask. To some, I’m Michael Harley: the youngest son of Christine and Calder.”
Her doe eyes widened.
“But to everyone else, I’m Ace Gallagher: a gambler and thief, and the son of the infamous Siren of Fortanya.” Ace used the name he had heard on the street.
Her breath caught in her throat.
“They said you disappeared the night I was born. Some even said you had died. Since no one ever saw you again, I figured it must have been true…” His words faded and lost their accusatory tone. He expected to be more upset if he ever found himself in her presence; but, despite the bitterness he had spouted the entire way up the mountain, the look of defeat in her eyes caused a much different reaction.
“What happened… that night?” He asked in genuine curiosity. “What made you think you had to give me up?”
Aurora’s eyes pressed shut. “I was scared. I was young. I wasn’t expecting to get pregnant… Since you’ve heard of the name they gave me,” she winced, “I assume you also know the profession I led. You cannot have a child when your livelihood is within the walls of a brothel. I went into hiding and tried my best to survive. It took all of my strength to give birth; I could scarcely carry you to your father–”
“How did you know who he was?” He interrupted.
Her hand traced her chest across her heart. “You were born with the same birthmark he had. And… he was the last one I saw… before…”
His brows furrowed as her words trailed off. “So, you knew about the curse?”
“Curse–no,” she immediately stiffened at his tone. “Tier spoke nothing of a curse.”
As much as he wanted to believe her, the bitterness was beginning to resurface. “Then, did you know he died the night you handed me over?”
“I heard later that he had passed,” she mashed her lips into a tight frown before drawing her eyes upward, “and that you were taken in by a family–with another young boy. And… and now…” an odd smile tugged at her lips as she looked at the young man before her. “Here you are!” Her hands opened toward him. “You are… grown!”
“That’s what happens in seventeen years,” Ace offered snidely as the heat began to flare within his chest. “Seventeen years of being reminded of my heritage on a daily basis. Seventeen years of stricter rules and more physical punishments. Seventeen years of living with a man who slowly went insane with alcohol and rage!” The tone of voice had grown more and more caustic until he was almost spitting the words. “I finally had enough and ran away, but that only traded one problem with another. I lived on the streets, gambling and stealing to keep myself alive–and all the while I got sicker and weaker from the same curse that killed Tier.”
Her hands clamped against her lips as her eyes opened wide with fear.
He gnashed his teeth. “Despite being a Harley on paper, I would never be able to escape my ’worthless lineage’.”
Her eyes drooped shut as her body curled forward. “Oh–oh, Michael–I’m so sorry... I’m so very sorry. I hate that you had to go through such pain,” she whimpered, grimacing sorrowfully. “I have been so haunted by what I have done. I wanted to do what was best for you, and I thought that meant giving you to someone more suitable to raise you–but not a single day goes by where I haven’t questioned it!”
"Then why didn’t you come find me?” He shrugged his shoulders exasperatedly, “All this time, if you were beating yourself up over it, why didn’t you come to look for me?”
Aurora began wring her thin fingers together as if the action could somehow erase what had been done. “I couldn’t.”
He threw out his hands. “Why not?”
“I cannot leave this place.”
“You can’t??”
“The Phoenix,” she paused, as if trying to choose every word she would speak next. “Have you not seen him?”
“Not since I got here," Ace gestured behind him to the crater.
Aurora paused, her eyes wandering in thought. “Then, how did you get here?”
“It’s a very long story that involves a lot of water,” he cocked an eyebrow. “How did you get here?”
In the silence that followed, she shook her head and turned away. Her lithe fingers gently lifted the bronze top and rolled it between them. With the smallest of glances over her shoulder, her hazel eyes tried to focus on him. “When I disappeared the night you were born... it was because the Phoenix found me and… took pity on me. He didn’t want to leave me in the gutters of Fortanya.”
Ace’s expression unclenched. “You were dying–alone,” he said in realization.
Aurora took in a breath. “Yes.”
“But… you’re still alive?”
“I recovered when I was brought here; not even the Phoenix expected it.”
“Then, why can’t you leave?”
“His magic is the only thing that keeps me alive,” she admitted softly.
His eyes slowly lost their focus as he sifted through her words. After a moment, he gently gestured to the metal top in her hand. “Did he make you that totem?”
She took a glance at her hand. “Yes, for protection,” her eyes looked at him, puzzled. “You know much about the Phoenix for not having met him.”
“Dorian was just teaching me about him and the Sentinel.”
“Dorian?”
“My friend. We split up to cover more ground.”
“He’s here?” she tensed as she glanced around the columns.
“Well, he’s somewhere down in the crater looking for a way out of here–or for me. Or both.”
“There is a way out,” she lightly stepped around the pedestal and pointed back toward the mountain. “There’s a slope further west that leads over the ledge and down the mountain, but it is difficult to find; he does not want just anyone to wander inside.”
He turned to follow her hand. “I figured as much. I also figure Dorian’s the type of guy who will find it regardless.”
As Ace remained turned aside, Aurora studied him almost longingly. In the light behind him, his silhouette almost looked like Tier. She crossed her hands at her chest and clutched at her cloak. “How… how did you break the curse?” She attempted conversation. “Or… do you still…”
When he turned back to her, he found her staring at him intently. “Oh, it’s broken,” he answered succinctly, though he was forced into breaking eye contact when her gaze continued. “I wouldn’t be standing here otherwise.”
“I see,” she continued, wavering on her feet. “Do you… live in Fortanya?”
“Yes,” he replied, glancing backward.
“Do you still talk to your family?” She urged. “You had a brother, did you not?”
Ace sighed and turned back to her. “Listen, I know you want to get to know me and stuff, but I really need to get back to Dorian.”
“Please,” she reached forward but stopped short of taking his arm when he flinched and pulled away. “Please, I just want to know what your life has been like, since I… since I’ve missed it.”
“I don’t really know how to answer that,” Ace shrugged exasperatedly. “I’m not sure what I’m supposed to say to cover seventeen years of things happening to someone I’ve just met!”
She again bowed over her body in shame, exhaling sharply. “Oh, how I wish I could have gone to you! You’re right–I have no relationship with you! Why should I expect otherwise!” She gnashed her teeth and almost disappeared within her cloak. “I might as well have been dead! All of those years… how could I possibly ask you what has happened in so long?”
Ace found himself grappling with pity as he watched her spiral into hysteria. Her reaction was certainly not one of a woman who had thrown him away carelessly; her reaction was filled with intense regret, and a desire to be relieved of guilt.
He swallowed. He understood that feeling.
She bobbed her head as her words were broken between harried breaths, no longer aware that Ace’s expression had flooded with concern. “I know what I did was wrong and selfish! I can’t bear to think how much you struggled–how much you suffered–because of me! You have every reason to be mad–”
She stopped short and inhaled a gasp as Ace rested a hand on her shoulder. Her hazel eyes, glossy from welling tears, followed his hand up to his face. Though he lacked any particular emotion, his green eyes held a quiet empathy.
“I’m not mad at you,” he said, neither forcefully nor reassuringly. “What’s happened has happened, and we are where we are. And,” he added as Dorian’s words of advice echoed in his mind, “maybe I was meant to run into you today,” he let out a breath, “so I could forgive you.”
Aurora’s eyes glistened as she drew her head up to look upon her son. Her lips began to quiver as she tried to comprehend the words he had just spoken.
He initially didn’t move as she slipped forward to embrace him. He could feel her fingers gripping tight to his back and her breath in staggering huffs on his arm. But soon, he bent his elbow around her, pressed his palm against her shoulder, and released a heavy sigh through pursed lips.
It was strange to think the woman in his arms was his mother. The stories he heard–and the anger he had harbored–had only focused on the negative side of her. Despite how true those stories may have been, he was reminded there was so much more to Aurora Gallagher than her faults–just as there was so much to himself than the destructive life he had been living.
The more he thought of it, the more he could see of himself in her: they had both fallen into bad habits in an effort to keep themselves alive. They only needed the chance to redeem themselves.
Soon, she pulled away and smoothed graying wisps of hair behind her ear. “Thank you, Michael,” she finally managed.
“You can start by calling me Ace.” The corners of his lips tugged as wind brushed the hair over his black headband. “Ace Gallagher.”
“Ace,” the smile grew. “You took my name…”
“Well, I wanted to separate myself from ‘Harley’ all I could when I ran away.”
“I see.” She nodded understandingly. “Thank you, Ace, for your kindness… despite my failings.” Her eyes grew distant as memories lit her face. “You are so much like Tier.”
He sheepishly shrugged and turned his head.
“He was such a kind, gentle man,” Aurora glanced aside. “It may sound silly for someone like me to admit, but... I truly did love him.”
“It isn’t silly,” he offered gently. “I just wish I could have met him, too.”
“And you are seventeen,” repeated, as if to convince herself. “Seventeen years since everything seemed to fall apart, but seventeen years since you became a way for Tier–and our love–to live on.”
His breath caught in his throat. In the heat of his adoptive father’s anger, he was always reminded that he was an accident; the unintended product between a prostitute and one of her clients. It was difficult to think of his birth as the culmination of the bond between two unexpected lovers; not to mention thinking of his life as a way for his father to live on by breaking the curse that had taken his life.
He looked inward, chewing on his bottom lip. Perhaps Dorian was right about there being more to this particular mishap.
The two continued in their moment of silence, standing among the columns as a light wind swirled the sand across the gray stone floor.
“I should probably get going now.” He admitted. “But, now that I know you’re here…” Ace looked to the top of the dome. “By the way, what is this place? Do you live here?”
“I do,” she turned to one of the rooms to their side. “Phoenix didn’t want me to feel like I didn’t have my own space, and one of the previous guardians built this structure. It is simple, but has all I need.”
“Including a beautiful view,” Ace nodded to the lake before them.
She nodded as hope filled her hazel eyes. “When you find the Phoenix, you must tell him who you are. He can help you visit without… whatever happened with the water.”
He broke into a smirk and nodded. “Sure. I will.” He paused before turning.
Just as a wide smile spread across her face, her eyes darted to something behind him.
Ace turned his head.
A young man with blue hair had just come over the side of the mountain, holding onto the rocks with a fervent grip and his head turned down.
“Dorian!” Ace took a step toward the colonnade’s edge, his face an odd mixture of excitement, anxiousness, and disorientation.
Dorian’s posture unwound once he reached the grassy hill. “Ace,” he huffed, only for a look of wonder to overtake his expression. “Woah. What is this place?”
“Well, it’s–” Ace waved a hand behind him and turned back to his mother, only to find the room empty. The metal top was again spinning upon the pedestal, and its mist had again filled the spaces between the columns.
He shut his mouth, frowning a bit. “...it must be where the Phoenix comes to take in the view.” He turned back to his friend.
“I don’t blame him,” Dorian settled his hands on his hips as he stopped at the edge of the colonnade’s steps. “I’d spend a lot of time out here if I had this view.”
“Me too,” Ace’s eyes had drifted away. He was perturbed his mother had hidden herself, but perhaps years of solitude would kindle that kind of shyness.
“Well, good news,” Dorian reminded him of their current mission. “I found another path before I tried this one, so I think we’ve got a way out.”
“You think?” Ace played along.
“Well, the path down looks a bit… rugged.”
Ace smirked. “So, we got to test out my fear of drowning to get here, and we’ll test your fear of heights to get out?”
Dorian rolled his visible eye and started back to the mountain. “I suppose.”
Ace had begun to follow after him, but he stalled with his foot on the stone step. He turned to look over his shoulder, his lips skewed.
“It was nice to see you,” he spoke into the emptiness, unsure if his words reached their recipient as a brisk gust of wind swept the sand across the floor.
“Ace?” Dorian’s voice came again.
“Coming!” Ace shouted back as he hopped down the step.
----
This snippet was loosely based on a dream; it was a first person walking up to this round colonnade and looking through it while feeling watched. To this day I still have vivid "memories" of walking around one of the inner rooms and finding a silvering mirror where I got a very blurry refelction of myself (so I can't remember if I was Ace specifically). Anyway so I decided to make it where Aurora lived.
I was not sure Ace was going to meet her in the rewrite, but tying him to the Phoenix meant Aurora was also tied to the Phoenix, so why not allow them both to sort through their feelings lol. I'm also not sure if him visiting her will make it in another story (I'd have to check my outline) or if the next time you see her is in Book #5 (aka the snippet I posted earlier)...
But yes. Ace is 95% his dad in appearance, but he got his mom's hair 😁
I'm not sure why but I love this one so much. I think I did a specific medieval set for the 2018 Inktober, because they were all "knight of shadows," "the river maiden," "the dragon queen" and all, and I actually tried to create new characters vs borrowing mine. But of course Ace was pulled in for The Thief and a few others made an appearance. But these ladies heading off for some witchy things is adorable and I love them.
I like his design and facial structure. He reminds me of Merlin a bit :D
I mean, what can be better than an elderly dragon feeding pigeons at a park 😂 Adorable.
Nobody steals the from the church with this guy around. The expressions of all 3 make me laugh.
It's the dinos! I've kinda just let them fade away, but at least I wrote the whole story, lol. At some point I would like to tighten it up and publish it, but we'll see how Ace goes first.
This was most likely drawn after I had the dream that turned into how Ace meets his mother Aurora. I love the columns and the lighting and the curious fearfulness as Aurora reveals herself stayed pretty consistent to when I wrote 
Ah, Ace Gallagher at his finest (and then very quickly at his worst thanks to being tricked into drinking a delirium potion 😅). "The Ambassador" is still one of 
Part of the same story, I forgot I drew when Ace hops on the wall near the end to escape the palace. It's just another... Ace on the wall... ha. haha.
I have no memory of this lady okapi-centaur, but it's a fun concept! I really like creating centaurs but never actually writing anything for them. But, again, it's good that I'm not since I have enough writing without them lol.
Some of these Inktober drawings ended up really cool, and while I would love to translate some of these into digital, there's just something really cool about them being pen and ink. Like this one. I'm not sure I'd have the same dark and light nature of Mr. Edwards here without the stark contrast of ink. Unless I keep it monotone... we shall see.
I love everything about this one; the composition, the linework creating texture and shape, Sapphyre's curious, shy pose... As long ago as this was I am still impressed by my execution, lol. This one may be able to make the transition to digital and still keep the mood and mystery :)
This is one I completely forgot about and I laughed when I saw it... Gemma from the Gemini Archives discovers her son Aiden is a complete mess 😆 It's funny that I have almost nothing with Aiden in it otherwise; I had hopes of a spin-off with him, Diana, Ian, Amadeus, Eliseo, and the others in that generation... but I only ended up with one story of them raiding a base with Aiden being more of the computer nerd of the group - and then Eliseo gets turned into a cyberman... but that did spin Diana off into depression that landed her into the Duchess story, so I guess it helped a spin-off of a different sort.
Another one I absolutely love... the pose, the composition, the depth (ha!) and simplicity are so cool. It's such a strange feeling to love it so much but also want to redraw it so badly? lol
Poor Alias: Jay. I had such high hopes and had such a cool story, but I just have too much going on to give her the attention she needs. I may have to just tell the basic story, spoilers and all, sometime here, since I'm not sure when it will ever happen. It was set in The Tallelands/Fortanya a generation or so before Ace, so there were going to be a few "easter eggs" that made it into his story from this one, and I may still keep them in case I ever do write it as a prequel of sorts. Like spoiler alert - I think Corryn was the Sentinel before James.......
What's with all these amazing Sapphyre-based ink drawings coming out so cool?? I love this one so much, and it features Ms Khalli spying on a ship. She doesn't normally come up to the surface, so this must be after Sapphyre introduces her to the wonders above, lol. It's kind of funny how much Khalli ended up as a nod to Ariel in The Little Mermaid.
I thought Sam may appreciate this one more now: Mioko finally gets Maewyn to fall asleep and then doorknob's squeak pops her little eyes back open 😅 Poor dad, lol.
Not part of inktober but in a similar vein, Khalli swimming through a shipwreck looking for cool things. It's another that I'm just stunned I completed in only pen. It looks so dang cool, lol. I believe I need to post a few of these on my website as is. 💙
