FIC: The Three Trials of Segeeth (Smallville)

[scribblinlenore]

Title: The Three Trials of Segeeth
Fandom: Smallville
Pairing: Kal/Lex
Rating: PG-13
Summary: Can love conquer all?

Dedication: This is for catmoran, who waited very patiently, much longer than she should have had to.

Note: This is a sequel to Inaureme, and probably won't make much sense unless you've read that story first. Big thanks to pun who gave me some great insight that made this a much better story.

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(The Three Trials of Segeeth)

Comments

[norwich36.livejournal.com]

I was so excited to see that you had written a sequel to "Inaureme," and really this is an amazing story. You've really created a complex Kryptonian mythology and culture, and presented it in a way that is both very detailed and just alien enough to really remind us it *is* a different culture, but allow us to remain sympathetic to Jor-El.

And Jor-El's voice in this was so well done. That must have been a real challenge, making him sympathetic when everyone reading this is automatically going to be siding with Kal and Lex. I really love the way he's fighting against himself throughout this whole story: his reluctant affection for Kal that allows him to break with Kryptonian customs; his constant concern for Kal's future and how he gradually becomes convinced that he was wrong--that is *so* well done.

And all the intricate details! The Numan and Segeeth legend! The details of Kryptonian marital customs! Jor-El's previous marriages! The spring festival! The matriarch, who I adored! "It's a shame a vole has died in your throat!" The skalu! Such a multi-layered, complex culture you have created here.

I also adored the lovely parallelism between Kal and Lex and Numan and Segeeth--not just the fact that Lex has to undergo the trials, but the fact that the part of the Segeeth story I thought was missing (Segeeth being angry at Numan's failure to wait) gets recapitulated, in a much more satisfying way, in the Kal-Lex storyline. I love how Kryptonian acculturated Lex has become, by the end, and the broekn-heartedness he's expressing when he says the tests were Numan's tests too.

And oh, the Kal-Lex storyline was so wonderfully romantic, especially given the POV constraints you were working with! "Come back and claim me." So gorgeous, so epic, so wonderful. Words cannot express how much I loved this.

[scribblinlenore.livejournal.com]

This is just the best feedback ever! Thank you so much for it! This story was really hard to write, because of the Jor-El POV and figuring out all the Kryptonian stuff, and it means so much that you enjoyed it. I really, really appreciate your taking the time to comment on it in such detail. It makes me very happy!