blessed are they who stand before

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Who: leliana & robyn, leliana & cullen, and leliana & OPEN
Where: around the mansion
When: april 16-20
Rating: pg-13??
Summary: killin' some zombies. and some friends. oops.
The Story:

WITH ONE SWIFT STRIKE HE PIERCED HER HEART ( CLOSED TO ROBYN )

It's hard to keep track of everyone in this chaos. After the first day of running, hiding, and fighting, Leliana mostly gives up on keeping track of everyone she's concerned about. But as the event wears on and she doesn't see certain people, she abandons her crusade of killing as many of these monsters as possible while herding others to safety. Just long enough to track down certain parties.

It's mildly annoying how long it takes her to find Robyn. But any annoyance Leliana feels goes flying straight out the window when she sees the state of her friend. Breath caught in her throat, she rushes over to the small bit of safety Robyn has managed to carve out for herself and reaches out for her. Gloved hands hover over her, not daring to touch her quite yet. Her gaze is locked on the bloody bite on Robyn's arm. She paid attention to the informative posts on the device the day this all started. She knows what that means.

"Merde," she breathes. "How long has it been?"

NOW HER HAND IS RAISED, A SWORD TO PIERCE THE SUN ( CLOSED TO CULLEN )

By midday on the eighteenth, Leliana is beginning to tire. She's been catching naps over the past few days in barricaded rooms, but hasn't had any real, good sleep since all this started. It's not the longest time she's done this--the Arbor Wilds was about three days as well--but exhaustion is slowly creeping up on her. That is how she finds herself caught fighting three runners.

She grits her teeth and curses under her breath, knives flashing. She's angry with herself for letting this happen. She's angry that she's trapped in a place where things like this are relatively normal. And she's downright peeved that she's out of arrows. It makes her strikes a little harder, a little more vicious.

At least until a runner bites her arm. The bite doesn't go through her leather gloves or her chainmail, but it throws off her balance. "Maker!" she reaches out with her other hand, driving her knife into the thing's skull. But another runner comes at her from behind as she does, and she hasn't the time to turn around. Now would be a good time for unexpected back-up.

WHERE THEY TOUCHED THE EARTH, TWISTED DARKNESS GREW ( OPEN )

The first days are mostly spent fighting. Leliana prowls the halls of the mansion, looking for those cornered by the monsters or trying to get to safety. When she needs to, she breaks for food and rest, usually barricading herself in a room and sleeping with her knives on her lap. It's dangerous. But better that than fumble for them if she gets woken by the creatures.

As the days drag on, it gets harder to focus. Dark circles appear under her eyes and her armor is stained with viscera--some fresh, some old. By day four she's less concerned about helping other people and more concerned about getting out of this alive. Oh, she'll lend a hand if she sees someone in a bad situation, but she's more likely to greet strangers with a suspicious look and a question about infection than anything else.

This is worse than the Deep Roads, really. And she hated the Deep Roads.

Comments

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Her eyes sting. But she will not cry, not here. Not now. Not until Robyn is gone and she has a moment alone in a safe space. Grief can wait. This cannot.

"I will," she says quietly. "I promise."

Though it's a promise she will break later, in the moment she means it. Alistair will come to no harm if she can help it, and Leliana will keep herself safe. As safe as she can, anyway. She can't leave those in the mansion the same way Robyn couldn't.

The hand still holding the Warden's squeezes gently, and her other takes Robyn's dagger from her. "This will likely hurt," she says, unwilling to lie to her even now. "But I will make it fast."

[heroica]

Leliana's words distort somehow, enough to remind her of being a girl and going to see healers. This won't hurt at all, they would coo, and then it always did hurt, though-- obviously, in the scheme of things, the pain wasn't much at all. Maybe that's the secret of it. The older you are, the greater the pain. She's much older than that now, and... at least Leliana is speaking honestly where the healers did not.

Even so, fear grips tight at her heart and she tries to back away a bit, scooting just a few inches back, still clutching at her wound.

"Wait, please--" Her eyes are bright with tears welling at the creases and with the youthful terror she'd recalled from childhood. "... What if I don't come back? What if this really is the end?"

It just occurs to her in that moment and she stiffens as if afraid the other woman is going to lunge at her with the knife, the same way she'd feared Alistair. Even if this is her death, the end of it all, then there isn't anything to be done. Having been bitten by one of those creatures, they'd said, was a certainty.

"I need to be able to return to Ferelden," Robyn pleads, trembling where she sits. "I have to be there to help end the Blight, I can't have it end here--"

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The moment Robyn begins to panic, Leliana puts the knife down on the ground. Slowly, carefully, giving the Warden enough time to move, she reaches out to cup her face in her hands. She thumbs away tears. Ignores how this feels like a dagger to her own chest.

"Shh, Robyn, shh..." There are no real reassurances Leliana can give her. Though she's heard death isn't permanent in Wonderland, she's skeptical. But there is one thing for certain: "If you aren't brought back, I will storm this place and make them give you back."

It doesn't matter how long it takes. It doesn't matter how many people she has to kill or... persuade to get results. She'll do it.

[heroica]

Maybe it's naive, but Leliana's words are a comfort to Robyn. Even if the spymaster that her friend has come to be isn't the young woman that the Warden knew, or knows in her own present, Robyn has every faith in her friends. If the sharp-minded rogue said she would do one thing, Robyn believes her. She would believe nearly anything Leliana told her, particularly with such conviction.

Though her heart still flutters like a rabbit's, she sniffles briefly and forces herself to nod. Be strong, be strong. You're safe. Safe seems like a far cry from what she is, but safe is not hurting or infecting anyone else. In this case, safe is dead.

"I'm sorry," she says again in a whisper, the fear still alive in her expression even as she lifts her chin to expose her throat. "Thank you."

The entire span of time feels surreal and nightmarish, much more so than anything else she's faced in Wonderland or Ferelden, even, thus far. Leliana both is and is not the Leliana she knows and she is about to take Robyn's life from her in a necessary sacrifice on both of their parts.

Everything always seems to come down to sacrifice.

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"You have nothing to be sorry for," she says, running a thumb across Robyn's cheekbone one last time before she drops her hands. Takes the dagger up again. Her grip is loose, but her hands are steady.

"Is there anything you want me to tell the others?"

Is there anything you want to say before this happens? is what she does not ask, but what she means. Leliana cannot give Robyn much, but she will give her a quick, clean death, and a chance to say whatever she needs to before the end. It is a paltry offering. But it is what she has.

[heroica]

Yes. There are a dozen things she wants to say, for Leliana to tell Dorian, Brennan, and... Alistair (there's always something else to tell Alistair). There are things she wants to tell Leliana, too, just in case, but her words sort of congeal in her throat and she finds herself just swallowing thickly and shaking her head, trying with all of her willpower to avoid looking at the gleaming blade in the other's hands. It's her own weapon, of course, one that's fought for and with her... and now it's almost betraying its owner, posing a threat rather than a defense.

Robyn makes eye contact with Leliana one last time before raising her eyes, speaking old, familiar words as some small comfort, voice still wavering:

"--And she will know no fear of death, for the Maker shall be her beacon and her shield, her foundation and her sword--"

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There are moments in life that come every so often that leave an indelible mark. Moments where one knows with certainty that they will never truly forget what is happening. Robyn prays, and Leliana knows she will never read or hear those verses again without thinking of this space in time. Her friend, afraid and yet so very brave. Herself, wanting to weep but instead steeling her heart in a way that she has told herself she wants to do less.

This is a mercy. She must remind herself of that. This is a mercy and it is necessary. Better her doing it than Robyn herself.

Leliana swallows hard, adjusts her grip on the hilt of the dagger, and skips back a few verses. "The Light shall lead her safely through the paths of this world and into the next."

She strikes, the blade sliding easily across Robyn's bared throat. Leliana takes special care to make sure she gets the artery and vein there--the quicker Robyn goes, the better. The moment the wound is made, she let's the knife go and once again touches Robyn's face. Watches as the light leaves her eyes. It's then, and only then, that she allows her expression to fall and she gives herself a moment to grieve.