Leliana feels a sense of failure as she looks at him, knowing just how much he has suffered from a war that she had her fair share of responsibility in starting. Her heart hurts knowing how young he had been when their beaches had been stormed, when the Loessian army had descended on them with fire at the back of their throats and destruction on their hearts. He had been attacked and he would forever bear the scars of that, whether on his heart or on his back; that war would forever change Jakub.
She listens to him work through his thoughts and just nods, her face solemn as her attention turns with him toward the beach, the turquoise water washing up on the shores. “I will always do what I can to protect this land,” she affirms, wishing that she could promise that no harm would ever befall it. But how could she possibly make such a promise when she herself had been the cause of some of it before?
Still, she tries to soften the edge of his concern. “I understand Loess,” she starts. “I know the danger that can brew in a place like that, and I know that I bear responsibility for stirring the viper’s nest.” She does not regret drawing the line in the sand that day—does not regret standing up to them and demanding that they change their course—but she regrets her execution. She regrets how quickly it had spiraled.
“I have told Castile that I will not start another war with them, but I will certainly not stand down should they try to bring one to us.” There is a steel beneath the velvet of her voice. “That extends to any of their allies, which I imagine that Taiga will be should Wolfbane now be at the helm of it.”
She sighs and if she could, she would pinch the bridge of her nose.
Instead she just ruffles her wings, knowing she could no longer put off a visit.
“I have been meaning to go to Nerine, the kingdom over Taiga. I suppose I should go soon.”
it's only you and me there until the darkness calls
let's face the dawn together; we'll brave whatever comes
@[Jakub]