let your fists come undone; leliana

[leliana]

I know what it is but I'm hoping that all is well
no harvest of green but it's still my heart to sell

Her sister was as much a part of her as her second lung. She felt her, sensed her, even when she was not there; as if an invisible thread ran from her to Exist, as if they were constantly tethered, bound. Whenever she felt the earth shifting beneath her, the gravity faltering, she knew she was grounded by Exist; just as she was for her sister. They were never truly alone in this world, not when they had one another.

So Leliana is wordless when Exist finds her, when she beckons her to the ocean. Instead she simply tosses her head, the crimson wave of her mane flying out behind her, the sand tossing beneath her hooves. Together, side by side, they splash into the water, the feathers of her legs curling and sticking to her cannon bones, the salt of water and air stinging her eyes as she glanced to the horizon…

where Ischia lay in wait, where Dovev fought and slept and bled.

Her heart contracted painfully as she thought of him, of their night together, and she turned her cheek from it, focusing her eyes on the apricot and indigo of her sister. There was a sadness in Exist’s eyes, a hurt neither of them could fix, no matter how hard they tried. She leaned over so her side could be pressed against hers, the comfort of her presence hopefully enough to help ease the lonely ache of her heart.

“It is indeed beautiful,” she whispered, her voice that familiar fog, low and warm and steady--all of the things that Leliana herself was. “The old world?” she repeated, lovely brow creasing into a frown. “I’m not sure. I have never really thought about it.” She was too wrapped up in the here and now, practical to her core. There were too many things to solve here, too many things to think about.

She hadn’t stopped to wonder what it was like before.

“I imagine it was colorful and bright and full of magic.” Her eyes lit up as she caught her sister’s gaze, the red velvet of her lips curving into a smile. “Back when magic ran so much freer.” The crimson wings at her side rustled and then shifted, turning iridescent to match her sister, the light reflecting off them.

“Although this world is not so bad.”

She is silent for another moment, before she speaks again, her voice lower, as if she was sharing a secret with her sister, and perhaps she was. “I met someone, Exist.” Her wings shifted again as she focused her thoughts, turning into black leather, dotted with the colors of the night sky, constellations flung out across their edges. “I met someone and I don’t know what to do about it. What to think about him.”

I put everything I had into something that didn't grow
like going on a wild hunt, shooting arrows without a bow