let me steal this from you now, leliana

[leliana]

I waited for something, and something died
so I waited for nothing, and nothing arrived

Leliana relaxes into the woman’s embrace, letting it slip like bathwater over her wounds.

She sighs softly as she melts into the woman’s touch, letting her work through her mane, her voice so soft and kind, despite the vicious truths that she unearths. Leliana has no way of knowing what she means when she talks of the golden family—has no way of knowing that Vulgaris’ father had torn apart another the way Vulgaris had torn her apart. So she just frowns at the off-handed comments, staring at the ground in thought, concentrating on the steady thrum of her pulse in her throat as a calming force.

Leliana shakes her head softly when she asks if Vulgaris had told her of his family. “He didn’t share much,” she confesses, the words peeling off her with no little pain. She had always wanted Vulgaris to tell her more, to entrust his darkest parts to her, but she always felt him withhold. At first, she had felt herself thrash against the barriers between them, but she had eventually quieted, eventually accepted it as a price to be paid to be loved by him. Perhaps if she had fought harder. Perhaps if she had tried harder.

She listens quietly as Khuma continues, barely moving beneath her touch, but inside the storms begin to unleash. Pieces of her shatter beneath the pressure of the words, buckling under the weight.

Perhaps this was always his plan.

Perhaps he had never intended to love her forever.

Perhaps he had never loved her at all.

Her eyes close as she takes a steadying breath, wishing she could heal herself of this, wishing that her own golden light could wind its way through her heart to ease these bruises. But she knows better. She knows that these are scars that must be born. So instead of turning from it, she faces the worst of it, forcing herself to face the word that causes so much pain. Staring at it like blinding herself with the sun.

“Shiya. Do you know who Shiya is?”

it's our dearest ally, it's our closest friend
it's our darkest blackout, it's our final end

@[Khuma]