ayo happy thwee. from the hadestown prompts: "cast your eyes to heaven, you get a knife in the back" for Rae and/or Rae/Liadan 👀
Thank you for the lovely gremlin Rae prompt!! It gave me some early Haven/Herald days ideas for her and I wanted to share some insight into her thoughts 🥰
Herald of Andraste, they called her. Blessed by the shem saviour and their only hope to restore peace to their sacred lands. The mark embedded in Rae’s hand was a force for good, for freedom, and she wielded it with her divine duty.
Ugh. What a load of nug shit.
They gazed upon her with lofty expectations swimming in watery eyes—or distrust and hatred should their prejudice take precedence over faith. It was only due to the Inquisition holding her up as their Herald that she wasn’t called a knife-ear at every turn. Small, slender, just another flimsy elf who would die for the shems’ benefit. She wore her daggers like an extension of her limbs, tucked away so as not to provoke suspicion, but ready on her belt if she needed them. The mark was what they truly valued, not her, and the damn thing ached at all hours—and stabbed at her nerves like a thousand bee stings when activated. No matter, she’d show them all exactly why they shouldn’t underestimate her.
Until then…she was rather alone.
Loathe as she was to admit it, she really fucking missed her sister. Their last biting words rang in her ears, and try as she might, she couldn’t grit her teeth enough to block them out.
“I thought you would’ve been proud of me, or do you only care about the three mages in our clan? Who cares about the rest, hm? I thought you were better than this."
Whatever angry, spitting words Ash flung in reply, Rae hadn’t listened, too pissed off to do anything but glower. Not that she’d let Ash know that, her sister could stew in her regret and guilt the way she did everything else—with a smile on her face, pretending that nothing was wrong. Whatever. Missing her and needing her were separate concerns. Rae could miss Ash all she wanted, but she didn’t *need* her, not in the way Ash seemed to believe. Company is what Rae wanted, someone who truly understood her, not some rusty shield she could toss away the second it was no longer useful. Though she knew it was futile, Rae prayed Ash would stay with the clan. Everything would be simpler that way, but Ash couldn’t relinquish her hold on Rae that easily.
At least Rae had Solas for company. Another elf, wise and captivating in a way Rae had never experienced before—if a little bitchy on occasion. As far as Rae was concerned, that was a good thing. Nobody was perfectly content and pleasant all the time, and she’d rather know the extent of that anger than be blindsided down the road. Solas might keep his secrets—she was not naive enough to think he didn’t—but she knew where she stood. As one of the only other elves in Haven, his presence was a balm, familiarity in these trying times. And…well, she enjoyed his stories. Tales of adventure had always been a weakness of hers, though she’d long grown out of having them told to her. She might be living one now against her will, but she found comfort in the stories of others—especially where the hero survived.
If Rae died, Ash was likely to follow.
Rae sighed, tilting her face up towards the fluffy white sky above her—heaven, some would argue, but if there were a heaven, Rae imagined it empty. What gods would allow such suffering? Her breath puffed out in a cloud of mist, and her hand smarted where the mark lingered. A Dalish elf at the centre of a country-wide religious and political debacle. It was only a matter of time before she found a knife in her back—and she would survive, she would claw her way back to life with sheer spite if she had to. She wasn’t done with the world yet, and she would ensure that everyone knew as much.
@thedasweekend
