I've never loved a darker blue than the darkness I have known in you

She has wondered about the man who sleeps beneath the volcano.

A man who had been there to help in the war. Perhaps in a more destructive way than she would have in a normal circumstance, but she was in no place to judge or point fingers. After all, she had seen the way that magic could get away from you—the dangerous way it can feel so controlled and yet slip under your tongue. So she knows that his heart was in the right place. She knows that he only wanted to help.

Still, it doesn’t overly matter because he slumbers.

Weeks, months, years pass, and he remains.

Until, suddenly, that magic that she every so often sends pinging in that direction, comes back empty. She raises her head, angling it to the side—curious. Flaring her wings, she lifts into the sky and, frowning, begins to make her way in lazy circles up ahead. Her magic comes off of her like a sonar detector and she continues flying until she feels it come back to her, suddenly finding the source and growing taut.

Quickly, she angles her body down, swooping to the ground and landing gracefully by his side. Her hazel eyes are sharp as they study him, but her body is relaxed. “I see you’ve finally woken up,” her lips spread into a warm smile as she nods her head. “I was wondering for a while if you would ever come back.”

Reaching out, she grabs a berry between her teeth, joining him in the snack.

She chews it contemplatively for a moment before swallowing and continuing.

“How are you feeling now, Maleficar?”

like fire weeping from a cedar tree, know that my love would burn with me

I've never loved a darker blue than the darkness I have known in you

Leliana knows all about what it means to love a sister. She knows all about what it is to find comfort when you see someone with the same patterns and rhythms; when you feel that familiar thunder and know that it is the pulse of a loved one. She, of course, has no idea that is what he feels now (she, like him, finds it intrusive to read someone’s thoughts simply because you could) and instead is content to simply share the space with him, casually plucking at a vine that never seems to empty, the sea breeze cool.

“Death once seemed inevitable,” she muses, a flower blooming more full behind one ear. “Growing up, it was not terrifying, but it was certainly looming. It is strange to think I may never know it.” She had not been entirely without gifts throughout her life, with her wings and her gift of healing, but she had never known immortality or anything of the like. Now, she nows it is hers so long as she wants it.

Her smile blooms like the flower. “I was even able to thwart death for my husband and daughter,” her face growing slightly more somber. “Although all things have a price. I am sure it will come eventually.”

Just not today.

Not for now.

“I have recovered just fine. It has taken time, but I finally feel as though perhaps I control my magic instead of it controlling me.” She rolls a shoulder in thought. “Or perhaps it is a partnership.” A sweet laugh, like silver bells. “Either way, it is more peaceful now than when I first came across it.”

There is a stretch of silence that winds between them—not tense, simply there.

“Do you know where you will go, now that you’ve woken?”

like fire weeping from a cedar tree, know that my love would burn with me

I've never loved a darker blue than the darkness I have known in you

She finds that with some magicians—or those, like him, who know magic in their own way—there is something like an easy camaraderie. Something about knowing that they each know the ebb and flow of magic and all the different things that can mean. Before she had felt magic plant inside of her like a seed, she had certainly not known what it meant to harness magic. She would never have guessed.

But it twists and writhes within her now, and she couldn’t dispel it even if she wanted to.

Anymore than this stallion before her could.

She tastes the sweetness of the berries on her tongue as she considers his counter to her concerns. There is a piece of her that is relieved by his perspective and she smiles a little freer, tipping her head back and drinking in the cooling Tephra air (although, even in winter, it could hardly be classified as cool).

“Perhaps,” she says simply. “I would like to think the gods are on my side.”

But wouldn’t they all?

Still, the conversation moves forward easily and she finds she has no trouble staying abreast of it. She navigates the rivers and channels, watching him grow slightly embarrassed under the realization.

“A nomad then,” her voice is gentle as she touches his shoulder. “We would be honored if you wanted to stay.” Her hazel eyes search his for a second and she grows quiet as she slips into the back of her mind. It is easy to find the connection to Vulgaris there. Easy to quietly ask his thoughts on the matter, to converse and get his approval before slipping back into the present, her eyes refocusing just slightly.

“There is no need for you to do anything, of course, but we have need of warriors.” She laughs light and gentle. “We have attracted all kinds of characters here in our growing family—and some even of considerable gifts—but the political climate is tense.” She thinks to her conversation with Heartfire, to her own concerns in the growing quiet since the war. “And my husband, although a skilled warrior, is but one man. I trust you, Maleficar, and I saw you try to help us when Loess attacked.”

A pause, as she thinks.

“Would you be willing to serve as our Champion?”

like fire weeping from a cedar tree, know that my love would burn with me