But you don't fucking know me homie you don't want war.

[leliana]

I rise from my scars. nothing hurts me now.

The world erupts into chaos.

Her mind nearly splinters trying to keep hold of everything that happens within the confines of Tephra—with the beasts that roar in the sky, with the unnatural darkness that blankets them all, with the fire that rages and burns their home. But she is not just here—not confined to these walls. She feels a dangerous twist of her power and a fraction of herself breaks off, focusing far away on the maze of her own creation back in Loess. What she finds is jarring enough to nearly break her hold on the shield in Tephra.

Rogue magic. The maze, meant as a warning shot and nothing more, growing beyond her control and into something dangerous—something deadly. She tastes bile on the back of her tongue and the disgust, the fear, the loathing is nearly enough to snap the old Leliana back into place. Almost.

Instead, she roars in Tephra. Furious that she had made such a misstep. Furious that Loess hadn’t accepted her terms and released the captives when they could. Furious about what led them here.

She doesn’t have the power to destroy what she’s made—not with it tangling so wildly now—but she does her best to fracture off pieces of her magic to soften the maze, to recoil the branches and the vines, to dissolve the rocks. And, she follows the golden threads connecting her to all of her family to one of her daughters; to the one with fire and healing in her blood. “Linnea,” she whispers into the precious girl’s mind. “Linnea, I need you to go take care of those children. Hurry. They need you.”

Leliana presses speed into her daughter before her mind snaps back to Tephra.

Even with just the minor magic lost, her attention split, her shield has wavered. Primarily around herself. She can feel the flames rising up her throat, the skin scorched. She doesn’t burn—not exactly—but the flames wrap around her regardless. Her body remains mostly untouched but the pain is very real.

She grits her teeth and tastes blood on her tongue.

The world continues to fall apart around her.

Wolfbane goes after an innocent child. The young dragon comes and shoots into the sky, taking on the King of Loess. The witch shows up and rains down on the flames, turning the currents dangerously in the air. Mary and Sinner arrive, squaring off against the first fire breather to touch her home. A man arrives  to create shelter. Dawn, the young Queen of the East, shifts into a bear and rages at the darkness bringer.

Her golden eyes grow wide and she digs further into her new powers, grabbing for anything that she can. First, her attention goes to the female dragon in the sky, to Casimira. Leliana pulls from deep within the earth. As quickly as she can, she channels her magic into a single arc of glittering light that wraps around the fighting dragon. She does her best to cover her scales with a layer of diamond armor. It is beautiful when the stray piece of light catches it, but it should help protect it. It has to help protect her.

As she focuses on that task, doing her best to keep the shields up around the parts of Tephra that she can reach, she feels the jaws of a shadow creature dig into her legs and the claws of another rip at her burning chest. She roars in surprise but before she can retaliate, her shields flickering, she sees a flash of gold. Magnus, glowing like sunlight, rushes to her side and grabs the animal with his teeth and pull it off.

He says nothing but she can see the look in his eye. There is something like horror and fury and, if she had the time to truly analyze it, joy. He is in his element and he immediately gets to work attacking the shadow creatures that approach. She can’t focus on him, but she feels his blood as it splashes on the ground. She hears his husky voice curse and the sound of his hooves as the thunder around her.

It’s too much.

All of it.

She can feel her magic waning, a very mortal exhaustion setting in her bones when Brennen arrives. She swings her bloodied head to him, the rain falling in torrents and the immediate fire finally having snuffed out. Her legs are streaked with mud and a flap of skin hangs loosely from her chest from where the shadow creature managed to swipe at her before Magnus fought them off. Her shield remains lit, but it flickers on the edges, growing thin. But then she sees him and hears him and the tides turn once more.

The magic that had previously felt hollow and brittle experiences a flood of renewed strength and she closes her eyes against the force of it. She steadies herself and pulls hard; her shields respond in kind, a sonic boom sounding as they expand. Pivoting, she tries to channel the magic, using the momentum to drive it at the intruders and push them back. But her attention is caught all too quickly by the bodies that tangle around them, the blood that seeps into the soil. “Protect them,” her voice gets carried back to him, whispering into his mind as he had to hers. “Please. Do what you can to protect them.”  

TL;DR:

* Leliana sends some of her magic to Loess to undo parts of the maze. She also sends Linnea to heal the kids.
* She attempts to cover Casimira with diamond armor.
* Shadow creatures attack her and rip apart her chest and wound her leg.
* Magnus shows up and starts fighting off the shadow creatures around her.
* She uses Brennen's magic to expand her shields and try to push back the Loess fighters.

#Rowdy