I can't get you off my mind; LELIANA

[leliana]

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

He is so kind, she thinks, as he moves from the shadows toward her.

So good. So kind.

He walks up and his physical affection is easy, sweet, and yet she still flinches, lightning racing along her skin. Her jaw clenches and she closes her eyes, wishing she could just accept the sweetness of his gesture without her head going lightheaded, without her veins beginning to simmer, without a flush of heat and pain spiraling in her chest. This is how she used to stand with Vulgaris when their relationship had just been blossoming. This is how she stood when she told him that he felt like home.

When she thought she had finally found an end to all of the pain.

His teeth find her wings and she jerks a little sharper, stepping back and ducking her head. The wounds there have not healed completely yet and the touch of teeth to them is too real, too visceral. She ducks her head, a frown clouding her features. “I’m sorry,” she says quietly, her lyrical voice tight and shame washing over her thin face. But he turns the sunshine of his attention to her daughter, and she breathes a little easier, feeling her head swim. She swallows a few breaths of air before she turns to her daughter.

“Malca,” her voice is a little steadier now when she turns to her daughter. She leans down and smooths the hair on her daughter’s forehead, her smile a little more loose and genuine when she focuses on her impossibly beautiful daughter. The initial shock of her milky eye has passed and although it is difficult to not feel that same guilt stir in her belly, she doesn’t think for a second that it takes away from Malca’s beauty in the slightest. “Her name is Malca.” She laughs softly. “And she is so much more beautiful.”

@[Chaol]