djfhsdjfhsdkjf is about as good as my reaction gets to this story, mystery writer, because, holy crap, you have blown me away with this story. The pairings alone hit so many happy-buttons, you have no idea, omg.
First off, weaving the two plotlines together, fantastic! I loved watching both stories take shape at once, the past timeline giving so much more meaning to the present as Lucius tries to unravel the mystery Severus left him.
And the fact that there IS a mystery to unravel!! This is plot of the BEST kind EVER. The reader slowly has to put together the clues with Lucius, to see who gets there first. God, I love plot so hard, and this really does it for me.
And how you showed Lucius and Narcissa as a couple genuinely in love, not just playing at marriage because they had to/were forced to/etc. etc. Oh, man, wonderful. I love to see that, after 35674 fics where they've just been thrown together but ultimately have a loveless marriage. Here, they are two people who care about each other and their family. The whole story really kind of shows that love makes you do crazy things, Lucius and Narcissa being no exception.
All the details! All the beautiful little details, the backstory, the concept of essentia, the delightful ways in which you wrap your words around the reader. Your use of language is just absolutely amazing -- the story just sort of enveloped me, pushing me to the end as surely as Lucius was being pushed to his own inevitable conclusion.
This story is just positively beautiful. It's everything I could have ever hoped for and more. Thank you so much for writing this. I need to go read it about 10000 more times now and love on it some more. ♥♥♥♥