Leliana’s heart has morphed so much over the years that she can barely recognize it anymore. For a while, it made her feel like she was losing herself—like she was somehow different or not better. She was not the shy, young girl who walked through crowds to extend a healing hand; she was not the quiet sister who watched the wildfire that is Exist rage across Tephra. She was merely a background player in her own life. Kind and sweet and so easily molded by the pain that she found herself drowning in before long.
She is no longer that young girl.
Her heart is a fortified thing—powerful in its ability to resurrect itself—and she does not resign herself to being a shadow any longer. She feels a confidence that she has never known. Confidence that she so often chalks up to her magic, a gift that feels more blessing than curse now that they have learned to coexist alongside one another. It strengthens her and she softens it and the work they do now is good—so good.
But still, it can be difficult to glance down in the mirror’s edge of a lake and not know the face.
It can be difficult to struggle to find the beginning when so wrapped in the middle.
But nothing about this moment now is difficult. Nothing about him is unfamiliar. Even stripped of his scale and his fang, she knows the curve of his neck and the sweetness of his mouth. She knows what it means to be pressed to his side and feel the rumble of his laughter build in his chest. She knows, and she loves him all the more for how he has had to fight to reach this stability within him—this peace.
“I do not think a world of our children would be such a bad thing,” she muses, thinking on all of their beautiful children. “I do hope that one day we will bring them all back to us. I want nothing more than to be surrounded by our children and our grandchildren and the generations after that. To watch then smile and laugh and know that they are safe.” A single tear escapes to fall down her cheek as she imagines such a future and she wipes it on his broad shoulder. “I miss them terribly, Vulgaris. Adna and Sabbath and…”
Her voice trails off and she gives him a weak smile, knowing the reason they are gone is her.
it's only you and me there until the darkness calls
let's face the dawn together; we'll brave whatever comes
@[vulgaris]