Leliana is quiet as the mare opens up her heart and all of the hurt pours out. She feels it cracking through her own grief, her own hurt, but she quiets it in her breast. She remains silent, her eyes still milk white, glowing faintly as she stares at the young Queen and then back out at the ashen land around them.
“Your mother isn’t here,” she finally confesses, and she is grateful for the strength of her magic that still manages to fortify her, that still manages to keep her voice steady and her lip from quivering. She is not the young girl who grew up on these shores. She is not the girl who cowed so easily.
It doesn’t mean she does not feel the hurt as a physical thing.
Still, she cannot lie to Dawn and she does not try. “She still remains in Loess for now.” There is a moment as Leliana pauses, the corner of her frown deepening in thought. “I could perhaps pass along a message from you, or even open up a short-lived communication, if you wanted to talk to her.” She couldn’t steal her back—not yet, not so soon after all of the bloodshed—but she could do that much at least.
But that’s not the entire reason that drives Dawn to her borders, and she knows that. So she continues to listen, watching flowers unfold around them, the act of bringing them to life slowly both a boon to her magic and exhausting. If she could, the entire island would be alive again—but, as it is, she remains Queen of the Ash, the land still slumbering underneath the thick blanket of her mistakes.
“Warriors come in all forms, Dawn. Do not mistake your peace-loving heart as weak.” She turns her gaze to the woman, studying her. “You are worthy of your title and your position and your people. You have nothing to prove to anyone.” She knows that there is much to Litotes that does not meet the eye. There is betrayal and hurt and hunger and it would take more than her magic to unpack all of that here.
“You will do what is right, regardless of the outcome, and you will have Tephra’s support.”
A pause as she sends a soft wave of reassurance to the mare’s way.
“You will have my support.”
@[Dawn]