@contrariian: how sweet i roamed, or, rather, used to roam; once i was the perfect child of the meadows of summer, but then the year turned. / accepting.
areina's memory of the fifth blight was mottled by childhood & distance, having been a young teenager & far enough from the epicenter of it to not see the destruction firsthand. she knows, of course, of what blights are. how terrible they can be, & that the title grey warden is something like a great equalizer -- & a great death sentence. the inquisitor had heard rumors of leiliana having traveled with the hero of ferelden, of said hero being dalish in origin. but still, it is a surprise to see idrilla mahariel in front of her.
& more surprising, still, to be talking so candidly with a veritable woman of legend. two dalish women who, at some point, were thrust into the great concerns of the rest of the world & have been wresting with the weight since. "nothing can last forever, of course. sometimes i count on that more than anything else." the breach will close. this will be over. she will go elsewhere, changed, & live something else temporary. & on, & on. "being homesick is worse, now. because i cannot go back, & even if i did, it would not be the same. do you miss it? the ... the before?"
