He has the unnerving sensation of being ripped apart and studied beneath her probing gaze. There is no pretense and she doesn’t bother to hide all the ways that she is trying to get underneath his skin. She doesn’t try to hide just how much she wants to find out about him and although he feels a familiar flare of anger in his belly—it’s always there, always so ready for him to pick up and grab it—he doesn’t give into it. Not yet, at least. He’d rather be stubborn in the face of her provocation and so he simply cools.
His chin comes up slightly, his wings shifting to something like charcoal and iron as they fold over his back, and he regards her—meeting her gaze with his own. Her dark blue and his light grey, both fierce in their own way, and he refuses to be the one to blink first. “It was better than Loess,” he replies.
For a second, he thinks about leaving it at that; he wasn’t known for being verbose, after all. But there is something about the situation that makes him feel like volunteering the information gives him more power than trying to shield it. At least it would be done on his terms and not ripped from him later.
“I ‘joined’ Loess when I was a boy. I needed healers for my father’s wolf and Castile does not give anything for free.” His smile is tight and the corners of it sharp, the muscle in his jaw jumping. It has been years and he is certain that he could run from the kingdom and Castile would not chase him down, but he is a man of his word. He made a bargain with the draconic King for the use of Leliana’s healing powers and he would uphold his end of it. “You can understand, I am sure, why I prefer a change of scenery.”
He is quiet for a second and looks to the horizon, feeling that faint tugging in his chest, that warmth that slips through him and he glances back. His face remains guarded even as his mind betrays him—even as he thinks of topaz eyes and golden ripples. “How far is it to Hyaline from here?”
BRIGADE
when I was a man I thought it ended when I knew love's perfect ache
but my peace has always depended on all the ashes in my wake
@[Starsin]