Brilliant Pampas: Round 1

[leliana]

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

She had not answered the fae’s last call and the guilt has eaten away at her.

She’s felt it rubbing beneath the skin, a reminder that she had given up, that she had been selfish enough to stay in the warmth with her family instead of venturing outward and fighting for a cure again. But she does not have such luxuries this time. She does not have the excuse of a full, wonderful home to keep her from listening as they call upon them once more and although she is weary, although her very bones ache and she can feel the cold threatening, she doesn’t refuse. She simply unfurls her wings and takes to the mountain once more, landing and standing amongst the crowd, her green-gold eyes solemn.

When the tiniest of them moves forward, reassuring them, she dips her head, bolstered at least a little by the kind words. She tucks them away, the reminder, and turns her too-thin face to the horizon. Malca was safe and looked after, but she knew she had to hurry—she could not drag her time out forever.

So she doesn’t hesitate. She doesn’t pick her way down the mountainside.

Instead she unfurls her wings again, grateful to have their assistance this time, and makes her way to the Pampas. To home, she thinks, although it doesn’t feel like that anymore. It hasn’t for a while.

The flight takes more out of her than it used to, and when she lands on the border, she is winded. She drags in a deep breath, her head dizzy and light, and feels a faint pinch of fear as she looks around for her once serpentine husband. Satisfied that he wasn’t here, that she was shielded from his attention for a while, she makes her way forward, her gaze caught by the reddest of flowers blooming.

She frowns, the expression gentle and creasing her lips, and drops her head.

Her nose extends and she breathes it in deep, feeling a weight settle in her chest. It doesn’t take long; perhaps in some ways she welcomes the darkness. Perhaps she clings to it. Perhaps she hungers for it.

Regardless, the darkness floods through her and her eyelashes flutter as her legs give out.

She falls to the ground with a sigh and blackness claims her.