I got a right to be this way; LELIANA

[Chaol]

The dream had come and she had left before he could stop her. He should have stopped her, but he had just stood there with a sense of unease curdling in his bloodstream. Something big was coming, the strength of it made his bones ache. When it did, when it erupted into contagion and plague he knew he should start heading towards the safe zones.


But he couldn’t. Not without making sure she was safe.


So he waits there near the River, the rushing sound of the water comforting, reminding him of days where he watched the sea break upon the sand over and over and over again. It had always lulled him, and while that sound was different than the sound of the water gurgling and bubbling and cooing at him now, it was still comforting.


Even when he knew that there was a chance he was going to get the plague by waiting. Even if he could almost feel the sickness spreading. It was silly of course. Who knows, maybe he still had time.


But then he sees her and he knows, that he is going to get sick because she is sick and he’s not about to leave her behind. “Lily!” His voice a shout over the water and he steps closer touching his lips to where she was burned and the other injuries across her body. “Oh Lily, you fool.” He says softly, but affectionately, before he meets her eyes. “Is your baby girl safe and okay?” He asks first, worried about Leliana but worried about the child as well. “She’s in the safe zones with someone right?” He didn’t doubt it, didn’t doubt she was safe, but he wanted the confirmation.


“I wish I could heal you.” He says after a long minute, his eyes looking in agony at the physical wounds she had now to go with her mental ones. “I wish I could take it all from you and make you go someplace safe.” A small sad smile. “But instead, I guess we will struggle it out together.” A brighter smile, one more full of his usual charm. He settles along her side, giving her support if she needed it but otherwise fully prepared to just follow her along and be there for her.

[leliana]

I waited for something, and something died
so I waited for nothing, and nothing arrived

The time after—after the fight, after the death, after the way Rhonen crumbled underneath the hooves of the masses—is confusing and complex. She loses herself in the tangles of it. Loses herself in the way that it splinters and fractures. She loses Dovev in the chaos in Pangea. She loses her sister and family. She loses herself, she thinks. She is disoriented with fever, weak from the sudden onslaught of it paired with the exhaustion that runs deep in her bones. Her healing is there, she can feel it still, but it is small and diminished. It is no longer the grand tool she has wielded throughout her life, but it is there.

It will return, she knows. It will come back.

Still, she walks slowly, a frown creasing her brows, her eyes on the ground before her. She does her best to recognize when there are others near so she can step back into the shadows, so she can loop around them, doing her best to stay away from the crowds so they are not endangered by the air that she breathes.

But she doesn’t see him coming.

Doesn’t see him until he’s there and comforting her.

She closes her eyes and breathes in heavily, soothed by his steady presence. “Chaol,” she coughs his name, “you can’t be near me like this.” She tightens her wings around her barrel, twisting her head to the side. “I can’t get you sick too.” But he mentions her daughter and she angles her head back if only slightly, one ear flicked in his direction in the tangled mess of her mane and forelock.

“Adna is safe. She’s in Tephra with my uncle Magnus.”

She pauses and then glances back at him, trying to shift her weight away so that she doesn’t rest so heavily against him. “Can you send her a message for me?” She ignores the way that her heart twists painfully in her chest. “I need someone to find her and tell her that I’m okay but that I can’t be there for a while.” Her eyes drop. “I can’t risk getting her sick, even if Tephra is a safe zone. I need to go try to find a way to heal myself and do what I can to heal others as soon as I’m well enough to.”

She lifts her chin a little to find his gaze.


“Would you do this for me?”

it's our dearest ally, it's our closest friend
it's our darkest blackout, it's our final end

[Random Event]

A 5 means Chaol is infected.
A 6 means he is a carrier.
A 1 means he will not express a trait.

[Chaol]

“I’ll decide thank you very much.” He says with a small smile. “You couldn’t keep me away if you tried.” He slides up against her, slipping his feathered wing over her back so that his side rested against her wing. He doesn’t let her try to slide away from him, nope, he was going to do his best. Her voice was steadier, and her eyes weren’t glossy. He breathes a soft sigh of relief when she says that her daughter is safe with her uncle. “Oh good. I’m glad she is safe.”

But there’s a gleam in her eye that says there’s more. It’s almost appraising and he can only tilt his head slightly to look at her, his ears flickering forwards with interest. “Well, of course, I will.” He smiles a small smile. “I don’t know how I will get the message to her now, without possibly infecting her, but I will. If this stuff is as contagious as I imagine it to be, I suspect that I’m already going to be sick.” He sighs, shifting his weight into her steadying them both. “But I will. Can you tell me what she looks like? What your uncle looks like?”

His dark eyes meet hers unflinchingly. “Anything I can tell her so she genuinely knows that the message is from you and not from some bad man trying to tell her stories.” A smile curls his lips. “I wouldn’t want her to think I am some kind of liar and have her dash out to get infected herself.” That would kill him. Some poor baby girl getting out and about because she didn’t believe him, and then getting sick. No, he would much rather forgo all miscommunication than hurt a poor child. It didn’t matter if it was his or not, he knew how much Adna meant to Lily.

(I really don't know what this is. I'm sorry it's kind of crappy. :/)

[leliana]

I waited for something, and something died
so I waited for nothing, and nothing arrived

She visibly relaxes when he agrees to her request, small tears forming in the corner of her eyes. “Thank you, Chaol. You have no idea what that means to me.” She ignores the worst of her fears, nestled safe in his side and she reaches out to press her head appreciatively into the strong curve of his neck. “Just knowing that she’ll know I haven’t abandoned her,” her voice breaks on the word. “I just—I couldn’t stand it if she thought that, even for a moment. I need to know that she’s safe. She needs to know it.”

At his worries, she frowns, glancing down at the ground. “Tephra is safe. At least that is what I have been told. You should be able to enter without fear of spreading the disease, even if you are sick.” A soft cry builds in her throat and she buries her head into his neck again. “But you can’t be sick, Chaol. Not because of me.” She knows that leaning against him heavily as she does now will not help his condition but his wing is thrown sturdily over her back now, and there’s not much use in fighting his stubbornness.

So instead she lets it calm her, the weight of it soothing.

“She’s beautiful,” she breathes and then laughs softly, knowing that’s not what she was asking. “She looks like her father,” the words tighten in her throat, the pain of it ripping through her. “She’s part serpentine so she’s covered in scales and has the most gorgeous reptilian eyes. You can’t miss her.” The thought of her daughter chases away the sadness and her face grows soft. “She’ll be the one laughing.”

Adna was always laughing about something.

“My uncle’s name is Magnus. He’s a buckskin that lives within Tephra. Covered in scars and usually one of the first to greet newcomers on the border. You can’t miss him either.” She grows a little more serious when he asks for something to help her know the truth behind the message and she bites her lips to hold back the tears. “Tell her,” she takes a steadying breath, “tell her that her mama misses her very much and that I can’t wait for my heart to tell me about all of the adventures that she’s having out there.”

it's our dearest ally, it's our closest friend
it's our darkest blackout, it's our final end

[Chaol]

The fears, the worries...all of it was worth it to feel her body relax against his. To feel the way her face press lightly against the curve of his neck. Mmm, yes, it would be easy to love her. He knew before it was over he would, probably not so much as Vulgaris who Loved her (or so he imagined) but he would definitely love her. Maybe like a brother and sister? Yeah probably something like that. He definitely felt protective, definitely did not like the way her voice broke on her worries and fears. Definitely did not like seeing her broken in the Meadow, on that first meeting.

Their love would be easy, and boy oh boy he couldn’t wait to bust Vulgaris’s balls when he finally met him. He would, with or without Lily, because he knew that the kind of love that leaves you broken when you leave is the kind of love you shouldn’t give up. He knows she will go back to him, knows that Vulgaris will realize his mistake.

He lets the subject of being sick drop and fall away. He’s not worried about that. He’d be sick a thousand times for her. He presses his lips against the curve of her cheek when she laughs, his own lips curling. But he is still quiet now, until she is done.

He could stare at her for always, watching the way the emotions chase themselves across her face. Except for when the tears build in her eyes and he wants to do nothing more than wipe them away and smash anyone that put them there. Unfortunately, he couldn’t do that so he just shuffles closer tightening his wing across her back and squeezes her. “Okay, I got it Lily.” He presses a kiss to her cheek. “Don’t cry and stay out of trouble while I’m gone.” Exaggerated wink. “I’ll go find your baby girl and then I’ll come back and find you.” He waits just a moment longer in case she had anything else to say before he pulls his wing from her back.

“Tephra. Magnus, a buckskin. Adna, snake girl.” He mumbles to himself, wings already picking him up in the air. He hovers for a moment, eyeing the serpentine wings that line her back and puts the picture of them in his mind for later before he swoops off finally, hooves brushing the empty tree branches.