I waited for something and something died
so I waited for nothing and nothing arrived
There is a scar on her cheek, a scar on her shoulder, but they are no match for the scars that riddle her internally. They are trivial to the way she has broken apart, the tearing of flesh a laughing matter when she thinks about the way her heart has imploded. She is blind with grief when she returns to Tephra, and she is broken—so incredibly broken. Her flight is clumsy, what had always seemed so simple suddenly an act that takes everything within her to complete. Just one more minute, she reminds herself. Just one.
When she lands, she is spent, the tears having dried upon her cheek, but her neck slick with sweat despite the winter chill in the air. Ghosts are in her eyes and in her chest, and she can feel them screaming with every inch of space. Dovev’s words ring in her mind, but they are not the only thing that haunts her in the quiet. These memories press into her, greedily, selfishly—they claw at her until she can only close her eyes and shake, until she can cry silently, the tears falling down her cheeks as she is flooded by it all.
The noise disrupts her, pulls her from her thoughts, and she startles, the wings of ivory and onyx fluttering by her sides. For a moment, she cranes her neck away from the source of it, pulling her eyes tight to try and dry them. When she looks back to him, it is obvious that she has cried but the telltale signs of it are less, the ghosts fading as she draws her composure upon herself as if it is a shield, as if a weapon.
But she had not expected to see him.
“Dahmer,” his name escapes her quickly, and she steadies herself, trying to find her center of balance, trying to find a way to right the world beneath her. “I hope—” her voice cracks just a little on the edges and she draws a deep breath, exposing the scar on her cheek, her shoulder as she twists her head just a little before glancing back. “I hope I didn’t disturb you.” For but a moment, one corner of her red velvet mouth lifts into an attempted smile but it fractures and then falls, Leliana hopelessly lost before him.
it's our dearest ally, it's our closest friend
it's our darkest blackout, it's our final end