Fic Rec: Clavis Aurea

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Title:Clavis Aurea, also here at LJ
Author: splix
Pairing: Sherlock/Ian Adler
Length: about 7,200 words
Rating: explicit
Warnings: graphic depictions of violence, torture, discussion of rape
Verse: Sherlock BBC
Author's summary: While on his mission to bring down Moriarty's network, Sherlock encounters an old acquaintance.

Reccer's comments: Genderswap is not really my area but in her excellent fic If You Can’t Move Heaven, Raise Hell, recced recently and justly so, splix painted such a thoroughly convincing version of Ian Adler that I had to concede sometimes it does actually work.

This fic is a sequel, set post-Reichenbach. Sherlock has ended up in the hands of some quite nasty Russians and we get to live through a torture scene that’s so realistic and well written the reader is almost convinced she’s the one spread over the table at the mercy of people that don’t know the meaning of the word.

Enter Mr Adler with a wonderfully wicked line, "For someone so convinced of his prowess in all aspects of escapology, you seem to be incapacitated on a fairly regular basis."

But then he takes Sherlock under his care and nurses him back to health so he can go round up the rest of Moriarty’s network, and return to John. And they have dinner together, once, and by then the author has woken so much sympathy towards Mr Adler in the reader’s breast, one wishes it would have lasted a little longer or will happen again in the future.

At least for once Sherlock is sufficiently grateful.

Great characterisation throughout and written in exquisite language. Highly recommended!