“ e -- ” dorothea’s step falters, her shoe seemingly glued to the stone.
for the first time in almost a year, dorothea is hesitant to approach her friend. for the first time, she is seeing edelgard as less than a friend and more the emperor she ( is ) becoming, and now is when the sky comes crashing down on her.
not when edelgard revealed herself as the flame emperor, not when she had to fight her own friend in a tomb because everything was happening so fast and edelgard had put herself on the other side and rhea was screaming from this side and no one had asked. no one bothered to ask where dorothea wanted to be. edelgard picked, rhea picked, and dorothea was left fumbling for her sword, feeling, at that moment more than any other time, like an actual live marionette, the strings pulling her arms up, guiding her feet. taking the control from her until she was just one more body in that fight, a sword that could easily have been anyone else’s slicing through those bodies.
dorothea’s stomach hasn’t settled for hours now. she may just be fighting back vomit. palm pressing at her stomach, she forces herself to breathe out. breath that back in. hold. then --
“ edelgard. ” and she sags with the weight of that word. edelgard. a name that will be scorned and spat and screamed in the time to come, as much battle cry as it is prayer. edelgard, oh edelgard. what have you done ? and what more will you do ?
something sour fills her mouth, and she grimaces around the taste of it. “ this -- how LONG have you been planning this ? and when were you going to let any of us in on it, if you were at all ? ”
++ @eaglegard













