ASKED BY @ratherbewild: ‘ i don’t have a safe place. ’ royal bash/keyleth
Starters from Jessica Jones
The easiest cracks to slip through are those born of underestimation. The most fervent lie is that born of innocence. Attendants turned hear about more than once in the early days. The guards have seen her wander ample gardens and be turned around by ‘ditziness’. They have been kind. She lies to them with a smile that trembles at its edges from the weight of deception. It makes the act real for them.
That is how a guard chuckles at her wanderings one night. Points her in a direction she seems too discreet — or, honorable — to ask for. By the time the door to Bash’s rooms are closed behind her, while they sit at the balcony to look at the expansive forest below, she is assured the guard will talk. How marvelously the two spend time together — how even that ... indiscretion can be forgiven if, at the end, the treaty holds.
Perhaps even an heir will come of that. A terrible lie that she feels bad for not despising ... but there’s no way out of this that begins with the truth. She’s realized that much.
❝ ... well. Please, contain any inkling of a smirk, your highness. ❞ Keyleth says, hand on Bash’s shoulder to shake it. ❝ But I believe I can be that for you. You are that — for me. ❞
She keeps talking but stares out at the stars, and the sister moons, ❝ There will be a way out of this. We shall find it. ❞

















