[open] one day it's here and then it's gone; leliana, any

[Titus]

titus

one day it's here and then it's gone,
how are you still holding on?

Titus knows all too well what it is like to slip back into the darkness. He has done it for such a long time that he has almost forgotten who he really was. The darkness was all that he knew, and how easily he slipped into and left it all scares him to this day.

If he had not been so silent back within Loess maybe he could have prevented what had happened. Maybe if he spoke up. Maybe if he didn’t let his own darkness take control of him. Then maybe. Just maybe he could have helped avoid what transpired between Loess and Tephra.

His actions—selfish, so selfish—leave him pondering what he has perhaps helped create. Certainly, he should have spoken against what was happening. But he never did. Titus forgot his own voice. He forgot Loess was truly his home and that Beqanna was also his responsibility to take care of as well (even if he was no longer the Head of War). The plague had torn them apart, and he watched idly by as Loess took the healers for their own personal vendettas.

Titus cannot do anything about what happened now. He cannot prevent the war or the death and blood that occurred during it. All he can do is move forward. There was no going back to the past. He cannot change the events that happened. But he can change the future.

The Tephra queen doesn’t say much on what she has accomplished with recreating the land. He doesn’t push any further—something told him there was more underneath though. A personal sentence she has given herself. It sparked curiosity in Titus, but he is not quick to pass over barriers that he does not feel welcomed to cross over just yet. It is only his first time speaking to Leliana after all.

Her smile is kind, he notices, as it grows further on her features. She speaks greatly about Tephra. It makes his own smile spread a little further too. He liked discussing the future of their home. It brought a sense of hope for the future everyone would have within the kingdom. A new beginning is what many of them needed—he needed it as well.

But Leliana’s next words are surprising. His smile fades away from his mud-splashed face. Titus carefully considers the expression and words that come from Leliana. The winged stallion is surprised by the offer—a bit put off by the kind gesture to even be considered such a position. “A general?” It felt too soon almost. Part of him felt he was not deserving of such a position. Others within Tephra surely were more than he was.

Titus turns his gaze away from the queen for a moment. His nutmeg eyes flicker to the land that stretches beyond where they are in Tephra. The memories of when he first came her and saw the volcano fill his thoughts now. Then he pictures the war and the disaster that Tephra has been through, and now a new image settles in his mind. He replaces all of those memories with what he sees now—a new beginning.

It was a new start he deserved as well.

This was his opportunity.

“I never thought I’d be given this chance again,” he says finally turning back to Leliana. He cannot turn away from it now. It would be the worst decision he ever made if he did. “I would be honored to serve Tephra as her general.” A warm smile quickly stretches across his lips after his words.

son of rome and porcia
male, classic champagne appaloosa
ocelot-shifting, wings, immortality

character info: here | character reference: here
@[leliana]