they are wicked things, leliana and dovev

[leliana]

I don't know what I'm supposed to do, haunted by the ghost of you

She still haunts the Pampas, even though it has been days since Adna has returned.

She remains, her belly still swollen with child, with a child born of something she can’t bear to think about. She does her best to stick to the borders, to the shadows, not bothering anyone and hoping to stay out of Vulgaris’ way. She has remembered what he told her, remembered how he said to stay away from him, and she doesn’t have the courage to see what might happen should he find her again.

Still, she sees the child when he stumbles into the kingdom, and her heart stops when she sees the familiar serpentine shape of his face, of those sage green eyes that look so familiar to Vulgaris.

Leliana cannot stop herself from stepping forward, from moving to him. “Are you okay?” Her voice is quiet, her face thin but still pretty beneath the crimson of her forelock. Without waiting for his answer, her healing pushes forward, rushing out of her and into him. She can’t beat back the disease completely, can’t do anything but blunt the edges of the symptoms, but she does everything that she can.

She eases his headache, softens the ache, soothes the fever.

It is more exhausting than usual, her own weakness showing in the way the healing fatigues her, but she hides it away. She just studies him, wondering why her heart ached to look at him. He couldn’t be Vulgaris’ son, she tells herself. That would make him about the same age as Sabbath and—well.

She just couldn’t let herself think about what that would mean.

“My name is Leliana,” she offers quietly, giving him a small smile. “Are you okay? Do you live here?”

@[despair]