how do I learn my dreams to mold, to lay them bare in the morning cold?
He does not wish to leave Linnea, does not wish to leave Tephra, but the only thing he cares about as much as the young girl is his family. He has vague memories of his mother (that fierce protectiveness of her, the predator that was just below the surface), but he knows that he has a sister—that he has a father.
These are the things that were stripped away from him young.
These are the things that he had never been given a chance to know.
Leliana does her best to heal him and, like she had promised, it is not without pain. He does his best to be brave before Linnea, to grit his teeth, but he cannot stop the cries that come. He cannot stop the way that his breathing goes labored and his vision grows fuzzy around the edges—or the tears that fall.
But, eventually, the pain recedes. The tide washes it away and he finds that he has ended up on the ground and his leg is not as twisted as before. It is not perfect (perhaps with time, Leliana had said), but it does not hurt as much as before and although the limp remains, it is more subtle, less intrusive.
When enough time has passed, he finally asks her if he can go home and she, without hesitation, says yes. She opens a portal and after his goodbyes, he steps through it—walking from that secret garden in Tephra into the heart of Loess. He blinks into the setting sun and then does his best to acquaint himself with his location as the portal blinks closed behind him. This is the same and yet not the same as he remembered.
The signs of war have begun to fade—the maze no longer overtaking the kingdom.
But it feels like he remembers and his youthful lips curve.
He’s not certain where he is supposed to look. He is not certain if his parents and siblings are even here, or if they would even recognize him if they saw him, and the thought causes him to frown slightly.
Quietly, he looks down at the rocks that begin to animate around his feet, the pebbles and stones that clatter around his hooves, before he lifts his iridescent face, staring into the horizon and waiting.
nikolaus
if they’re still out there then the chasm grows
( for all you know, for all you’ve known )
@[Castile] - he's hooooome