“ i wish i could take the pain away. ” - #becamehim @seekjoy ( x )
She had long since ceased being startled when the familiar mumble came from beside her.
Cole, perched nimbly astride the parapet to her right, had taken to haunting her up here when she had thought she might find a moment alone between the tireless demands of the Inquisition. How he sat, one leg dangling heedlessly over the edge with toes pointed to the stone courtyard stories below, as if he had been waiting for her all along. She might have spared a worry for what might befall him should even the smallest gust cut through and knock his scrawny frame to the cobbles below if she thought it would affect him at all.
Maybe if she gave him a nudge just to satisfy the curiosity . . . no, no.
The thought batted away like the intrusive nuisance it was, a desperate, if not a bit morbid, distraction. Sava braced her forearms against the rough stone wall and leaned heavily upon it. Below them, the courtyard outside their small chantry was full. Mourners for the soldiers who had made their way back to the bosom of Skyhold only to succumb to their wounds, congregated together to share in their grief.
Up here, the cries were taken away by the wind off the mountain, and didn’t ring so sharply. She hadn’t yet found the stomach to face them and offer condolences. How could she? When she was the who might as well have put them in the pyre herself. She was the Inquisitor after all.
“ That’s a foolish wish. ” Her voice was gruff. Probably more than it needed to be. “ The pain makes you stronger. ” The pain was a lesson. One she had been taught long before such things as the Inquisition and the Breach and . . . whatever Cole was. “ It reminds you what you’re fighting for. ”
