"Focus on my voice." From :))) Alistair :)))
✧･ﾟ:* LOVE STARTERS ╱ OPEN.
FIRST DAY , THEY COME && CATCH EVERYONE . Hespith’s grotesque chant , first heard by Leta even through the thick stone walls of the caverns in the Dead Trenches , could perhaps be looked back upon as the beginning of it all . Second day , they beat us and eat some for meat . The Warden had undertaken a valiant effort to maintain her unflappable veneer at first , eyes wide && sincere as she had spoken to the half - mad dwarf in quiet tones , and although the sight of the Broodmother in her den had driven the steadily building nausea in her stomach to an excruciating apex , the only noticeable shift in her demeanour had been a spark of fury in her eyes , refusing to be extinguished even as Darkspawn had threatened to overwhelm them all not that Sten or Wynne , or even Alistair could have noticed in the flurry of battle .
Third day , the men are all gnawed on again . It had kept her going through wave after wave of Genlocks and grasping tentacles that shot out of the ground , through the bile that had forced its way into her throat and the sheer disgust that had sent her recoiling for just a moment when a Hurlock had crept too close for comfort ( and she had been stupid to have not considered this before , naive to believe that those who were taken by Darkspawn were simply killed ) . Fourth day , we wait and fear for our fate .
Like a rush of adrenaline , however , it dies out once the creature finally , finally falls still with a horrible screech , and she hunches , trying to sheathe her daggers before she retches , but only succeeds with one of them . Fifth day , they return and it’s another girl’s turn . The other clatters on the stone before squelching into a puddle of viscera . Sixth day , her screams we hear in our dreams . Sten , she knows , is likely scowling at her , at this further evidence that the Grey Wardens are weak and that women have no place in the throes of war . Seventh day , she grew as in her mouth they spew . Even this knowledge does not stop her from sinking to her knees . Eighth day , we hate it as she is violated .
❝ That’s where they come from , ❞ Hespith whispers , finally emerging from the perch she had utilised to watch the struggle , ❝ that’s why they need us . ❞ Ninth day , she grins and devours her kin . Now she does feast , as she’s become the beast . It’s enough to make her vomit and so she does , shoulders heaving with what could almost pass for relief as she gives in .
Alistair is beside her , saying something as Wynne moves to hold out her water skin , but all she hears is a sentiment from days gone by : it just now occurred to me that there have never been many women in the Grey Wardens . I wonder why that is ?? She will die down here , one day . She will die down here and this is what they will do to her : every line of Hespith’s little song . Perhaps the taint will make it easier . Of course Alistair wouldn’t have known why would he ?? And of course everyone else is dead , of course Duncan wouldn’t have said anything to her , and now he’s safely with the Maker , or within the Void , and that thing in front of them is a body mined to produce the things that will kill her and blight Ferelden and it was a woman
❝ Focus on my voice . ❞ She blinks , shoulders sagging as her vision unblurs && allows Alistair to come into view . Raises a trembling hand to his shoulder , to convince herself that this , that he is real , as much as it is to steady herself . Her mouth tastes terrible , and it takes a moment to find her voice , but Leta forces herself to all the same , fingers sliding to settle upon the side of his neck . She needs him to make this promise now .
❝ Swear to me that you will never let me become that thing . Swear to me that you will kill me first . ❞
↪ @worldevoured.