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    COTY

    Assailant -- Year 226

    QOTY

    "But the dream, the echo, slips from him as quickly as he had found it and as consciousness comes to him (a slap and not the gentle waves of oceanic tides), it dissolves entirely. His muscles relax as the cold claims him again, as the numbness sets in, and when his grey eyes open, there’s nothing but the faint after burn of a dream often trod and never remembered." --Brigade, written by Laura


    [private]  throw me into the fire ; leliana
    #1
    cRess
    like a house on fire we're up in flames; i'd burn here if that's what it takes

    She blinks, and she is back in the West.

    Ravine grumbles at the heat and tucks himself under her legs, his gaunt frame hiding easily under her golden barrel. She worries for him – she had thought he would be bigger at least, with how badly her birthing had gone, but he seems healthy and strong despite his appearance. She wonders if it is his sire’s fault that he looks this way; the near-undead stallion certainly could have passed his looks along to the boy. It is nothing she can heal him of anyways, and believe me, she has tried. He looks different, but he is as healthy as all of her previous children, and that is all that she can be thankful for.

    But now, she has more pressing issues. What kind of force had summoned her so strongly to Tephra, that she had simply appeared on her borders? She knows that Magnus is no magician, and she doesn’t believe he has one among his ranks – after all, with a magician, he would have needed little help from her in healing Rhaegor and their other ill. Has there been a changing of hands? Is this just the West’s way of calling her back home?

    Smoke curls nervously from her mouth as she looks around, though deep down she knows that she has no reason to be so fearful. Tephra had always been good to her, even when the Resort had thrown their stones and cast her out, and allowed for her to be spirited away to Loess. She doesn’t mind Loess, but she knows that she had never been anything but a captive there – a pretty one, with incredible power, but a captive nonetheless. If she is here, does this mean that she is free? She trembles from her head all the way down to her hooves, feeling the invisible shackles of the past few years shrug off of her shoulders. Whatever the reason for being here... she is free.

    @[leliana]

    infected.
    #2
    I rise from my scars. nothing hurts me now.

    Leliana is not sure that her message will make it back to Castile; is not sure he will understand just how serious she is about her proclamation. And if there’s one thing that she is deadly serious about, it is the release of every captive that he currently holds locked up in Loess, healer and non-healer alike. At the top of the list is the golden healer so close to her heart, the one that she recognizes meant so much to her.

    (Means so much to her—even now, even in this state.)

    So she stands in the middle of Tephra, her depthless golden eyes closed and her lovely head tipped back. She breathes slowly, inhaling and exhaling until she is certain that she can feel the very vibrations of the earth beneath her move in time with her pulse. She breathes slowly and then lets her power ripple out from her, letting it sink into the earth and catch flight on the wind. The greenery around her waves in reaction, but she doesn’t notice; it becomes just a part of the moment, just a part of her.

    Leliana follows the magic along the wind, nursing it along as it weaves across the Tephran landscape to the edge, cutting through the border of Sylva and Taiga and then piercing into the heart of Loess. It is not exhausting to harness her power—not the way it had been to ask so much of her healing—but she still feels the barest hint of sweat on her neck as her gift finally locates Cress and her youngest.

    Without pausing, Leliana wraps the magic around them both and then pulls.

    They simply blink out of existence.

    When she opens her eyes, she feels them again, but Cress’ heartbeat is closer, impossibly loud. Her glowing eyes open and she turns her head toward the source of it, unfurling massive crimson wings and taking to the skies. It only takes a few minutes before she finds them and she dives down gracefully, landing without noise and tucking her wings close. Her face does not show the same softness that it once would have—it is carved from rock now, polished marble—but there is still a warmth reflected there.

    “Cress,” she says the mare’s name in greeting, but doesn’t elaborate further.



    @[Cress]
    [Image: avatar-1975.gif]
    the heaviness in my heart belongs to gravity
    #3
    cRess
    like a house on fire we're up in flames; i'd burn here if that's what it takes

    She has not spoken to her dearest friend in far too long. She had known Leliana was captive in Loess, like her, but she had made no move to seek her out, so wrapped up in her own family that she has been. Regardless, she still cares for the other healer and worries for her almost constantly, though she knows that she has always been wonderful at caring for herself. She had never wanted Cress’s relationship advice, and the golden woman doesn’t blame her – her own relationships hadn’t ended so fairly either. Who is she to give advice to a woman whose man actually loves her? Despite their shortcomings, she realizes now that Vulgaris has loved the woman beyond words all these years.

    Leliana’s arrival is silent, but she feels the nearby presence regardless, and turns towards the one who must have brought her here. Her dark eyes fall on a woman that is so familiar, it confuses her at first – then, suddenly, she has accepted it. She can see it in the eyes of molten gold and the stoic expression that her friend has changed nearly beyond recognition, but she can tell that it is still Leliana there, deep below the surface. She cannot hide the warmth that peeks through the cracks, and a confused smile makes it to Cress’s lips as the other woman greets her.

    “Did you bring me here?” she asks in lieu of a response, while Ravine glances out from beneath her legs and gasps at the dazzling woman before them. She glances down at her child and brushes her nose against his soothingly, feeling a sadness well up in her that is hard to quell. Looking back to Leliana, she lifts her head, the smoke around her dissipating in the breeze. She wants to step closer, to embrace her friend, but she isn’t sure that is what this new Leliana would want. Once, yes, but now? She isn’t sure.

    What happened to you? she wants to ask, but she holds her tongue. It is none of her business if she doesn’t want to talk about it, but this Leliana is so much different from the one she had learned to love as a sister; she can nearly taste the differences on her tongue, in the way her glowing eyes study Cress, in her face that could be carved from stone. “You brought me here for a reason,” she says instead, glancing around to Tephra, to the place she had nearly called home so long ago. “As always, I will help you in any way I can.”

    @[leliana]

    infected.
    #4
    I rise from my scars. nothing hurts me now.

    Leliana feels the disappointment every time someone new meets her in this form.

    It is a tangible thing, the way that their eyes light up, the way that it fades—the way they look at her with both confusion and frustration. There is a part of her that feels a stirring of something in her breast each time that it happens, something that feels like shame or regret or even frustration, but it always bleeds away before she can touch it, before she can examine it. Instead, she is left to watch them come to terms with the fact that she is Leliana, but not the one that they know; she is molded of something new.

    It is not different this time, and she lets the tidal wave of it wash over Cress and then slowly fade. She doesn’t try to hurry it along, or get involved. She merely watches, her golden eyes studying the other, only sliding away so that she can look at the child wrapped around her legs. When Cress does finally ask her a question, she just nods. “I did.” As if it was as simple as walking alongside her or breathing.

    And, in many ways, it was.

    “i brought you here because you are my friend,” it feels foreign, the syllables almost impossible for her to truly comprehend, but right all the same, “and because you and your boy do not deserve to live with the shackles of Loess around you.” Her mouth is grim as she looks to the horizon, as the faintest hint of a frown appears between her brows. “But what happens to you next is your choice. You can stay, or leave.”

    Leliana has no designs on forcing others to join her, on picking up the sword.

    That would make her no better than who she stands against.

    “I do not intend to let Loess continue as they are. If you feel drawn to helping me, I would be honored to have you stand alongside me.” She softens, almost imperceptibly when she looks back. “But if you want to live peacefully with your family, then I would be honored to just help protect you both.”



    @[Cress]
    [Image: avatar-1975.gif]
    the heaviness in my heart belongs to gravity
    #5
    cRess
    like a house on fire we're up in flames; i'd burn here if that's what it takes

    She does not intend for the confusion to show on her face, and she wonders if it will strike the heart of this new, powerful Leliana. The smile slips from her face as the magician stares at her, but she does not lose her friendly expression as her friend-turned-queen studies her, waiting for the shock and confusion to wear off. True to form, it does not take her long to shed her negative emotions – this is Leliana, after all; her dear friend will remain as such despite the woman’s changes. Cress will never turn her back on a friend, especially not one who has been through as many hardships as Leli.

    Even her voice has changed, as she addresses Cress as her friend, but the golden dragoness swallows back her emotions as a gentle smile rolls across her face. She glances to Ravine, who has fallen asleep between her hooves, and slowly reaches down to brush his forelock out of his eyes. She is right – Ravine, at the very least, does not deserve to live within the confines of Loess. He is a child, and his mother had been a captive there for all too long, despite her thoughts otherwise. Castile would have never willingly let her leave, and she can’t help but wonder if her own father would have drug her back if she had fled.

    “I will not leave you,” she assures Leliana as the woman glances to the horizon, expression grim. Smoke furls from her mouth as the fire in her chest begins to burn brightly, fully understanding what will be expected of her if she is to stay. It will not be the first battle she has ever fought in – certainly, it will not be the last. “I will stay, and I will help defend Tephra to my dying breath if need be.” Her eyes are chips of flint and her voice is full of steel as Leliana turns back to her. “The only allegiance that I owe to anyone is to you, my friend. You broke my chains, and I will follow you by whatever means necessary.”

    @[leliana] since war is starting i just want to get something up before she's spirited away back to loess :| you don't have to respond!

    infected.




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