i feel a bad moon rising | any

[leliana]

Leliana

Leliana understands the woman in ways that she wishes she did not.

She wishes that this was a foreign concept—that this hurt was alien to her. She wishes that she could just turn a blind eye to it and that it did not sink its hooks into the heart of her. She wishes so much that she did not have to steep in it because so much of it is a fresh memory that comes back on a wave of agony. But she doesn’t turn her cheek to it and doesn’t pretend that it doesn’t exist. She lets it soak in her instead.

But the other mare is wrong in one aspect. It is not pity that bleeds from her when she looks at her but an empathy instead. She knows what it is to be the recipient of pity, to feel it press its hands around your throat and not relent. She would never turn such a heavy thing onto another.

There is a moment of disbelief at the idea that the curse could only be overcome one way which is no victory at all. Was the curse never to be vanquished? Was it meant to live on forever—simply passing from soul to soul and ruining whatever life it may touch? It was too much to comprehend, too much to simply swallow and accept, but she doesn’t openly debate it. She just shakes her head slowly.

No, she couldn’t rip his heart from his chest.

She couldn’t accept the curse and thus curse her family.

They have experienced too much already.

“Your children need their mother,” she says simply. “You are not selfish.” She would never take part in driving the mare into the shadows. Would never lock her away, force her to live out her days with the curse blossoming like disease in her veins. “Beqanna needs you too.” This, she fully believes.

No - there had to be another way. Lepis could not simply disappear.

but there you go again, turning golden, right there in front of me

@[Lepis] - hi, remember this thread? sorry for the horrible wait but i wanted to give you something to wrap it up.