so bring me the dawn

[leliana]

I rise from my scars. nothing hurts me now.

She does not know what calls her back to the Tephran borders—only that there is a pull in her chest. It is a pull that blossoms out of an unexpected fury that burns like the sun. The fury when she looks back on the years to realize the truth of her captivity, the truth of Loess’ plan to lock up the healers, the truth of it. 

She has never been one to experience the sharp edge of rage, but she feels it keenly now.

So she doesn’t resist the pull to the volcanic land. She simply takes to the skies, powering upward with a force that surprises her and then arcing over the Beqanna horizon like a shooting star. When she lands on the beach of her home, she is glowing golden, and it does not take long until her golden uncle meets her.

He rushes to embrace her, to pull her close, but she does not bend to him. She merely stands, accepting the emotion without returning it—simply inhaling it deep and then letting it linger. When he pulls back, she can see the questions in his eyes, and she doesn’t try to pretend that there are no answers.

Instead, she gives him the information he wants.

She shows him where she has been, and what has happened, and her husband’s response. She lets him feel that just rage in her breast and is not surprised when he takes to it like dry kindling. 

There is almost a smile on her face when she turns unseeing eyes to the horizon, to the land that lies beyond it and the cruelties that steep there. There is almost a smile when she turns back and he gives her a power she has never once hungered for and yet somehow fits well on her brow. 

The flowers in her mane bloom and her eyes glow and the sea creeps ever toward them.

And all she does is breathe.

There is work to do.