Stunning artwork by the amazing fish_tobio of my Persephone Hawke and Knight-Captain Rylen !
Little did they know, they perfectly captured a scene from an upcoming chapter of One for Sorrow. It’s one of my favorites scenes and the art goes together with it so perfectly. And because I’m in need of a little joy this week, here it is!
When they were together, time lost all meaning. Whether minutes had passed or hours, Persephone rarely knew. All she cared about was how everything seemed to come down to the feeling she had when she was wrapped in him.
Tonight had been no different as they lay intertwined together in the afterglow, and Persephone listened to the gentle beating of Rylen’s heart. She spread her fingers wide, flattening her palm against his chest as it unfalteringly pulsed beneath her. It was such an odd thing: the beating of a heart. The very lifeblood of another, steady and sure, thrumming in an unending rhythm.
It was extraordinary what a heart could bear. Joys and pain, happiness and sorrow. No matter what it had seen, how much it had borne, still it continued on as sure as the sun would rise tomorrow. She’d often wondered if hers even worked after all that she’d endured and all the sorrow she’d wrought; if there was even a space, hidden away in its deep recesses, that still had the capacity to be filled so completely by another.
She breathed him in, marveling at how he still smelled of the warmth of summer, even here in the Frostbacks. His scent that of Justinian in full bloom; of orange blossoms and fresh ginger; of lemons and the ground beneath her after a mild rain.
He let out a soft sigh as he shifted and his arm tightened around her—arms that were a safeguard from the world beyond their bed and beyond this room…the world she didn’t have to acknowledge as long as she was here with him.
The reality of how temporary this really was surfaced in the back of her mind. Her chest contracted and the sensation that had been blossoming deep inside shifted to uncomfortable. Unbearingly so. It hurt, this ridiculous lump that had lodged itself in there. It was too much.
She sat up and slid to the edge of the bed, a thousand tiny needle pricks behind her eyes as she fought to get whatever was happening inside of her under control.
Oh gods.
Then his arms slid around her and he pressed his lips to her back, and simply held her. His quiet presence—steady and unyielding—calmed whatever unease had risen within her and it was then that she knew…yet even as the words threatened to burst from within her, she couldn’t give voice to them. They were new and wholly unfamiliar and Persephone was utterly terrified.
“I’m scared,” she whispered into the darkness instead. It was both a confession and an offering of a piece of her soul.
“I know.” Those simple words told her everything. He always did. He’d always known her better than she knew herself and he always gave her exactly what she needed.
To the outside world he may be no more than a good soldier. Straightforward and practical, solid and reliable. The one you wanted around to get things done. Yet here…here in the quiet intimacy they’d created together, away from prying eyes and wagging tongues, she saw him for who he truly was. A man who could be both hard and soft, gentle and strong, and be all the more extraordinary for it. Her man.
“What do we…how does…” she trailed off, the words lost to the upheaval inside her. She twisted in his arms as the need to see him, to look him in the eye, overwhelmed her. The barest hint of moonlight reflected in them and what she saw there was certain, as steady as the mountain beneath her, unyielding against her chaos.
He lowered his forehead to hers and simply breathed. When the storm within her finally calmed, he murmured, “Just like this.”
Another commission for @tejaswrites here on tumblr, of her Dragon Age 2 OC, Persephone Hawke, to make her Maxton Trevelyan some company. Thank you so much again! <3
Pairing: Persephone Hawke x Knight-Captain Rylen
Summary: Kirkwall, 9:38
Persephone considers her growing feelings for a certain templar.
Rating: Teen / Word count: 479
Also available on AO3
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Moonlight streamed through the open balcony doors as curtains rippled in the warm summer breeze. Persephone pressed her palm against Rylen’s, studying it in what pale light reached them. His hands were tempered by use, the calluses formed over years of working with his hands.
A Templar and a soldier. One of the first to arrive and one of the first to go out into the destruction of Kirkwall. He hadn’t been afraid to get his hands dirty then and he wasn’t now, all these months later, as he’d stayed to do what he could for the city. Her city.
Some would say it was part of the job for a Templar after the explosion, but it was more than that and it gave her feelings she had no right to entertain when it came to him. Even though there couldn’t be anything more for them, she would always remember how of himself much he’d given.
To Kirkwall, and to her.
“What are you thinking?” he asked, breaking the silence.
Her eyes darted to his, the blue piercing even in the darkness. She dropped her hand from his, tucking her arm between them. “About your hands.”
His brow furrowed as he too dropped his hand to run his thumb over her cheek and along her jaw. The roughness of his calloused thumb was like an electric shock down her spine. “My hands?”
“Mhmm.” She turned her face to press a kiss to his palm. “I find them fascinating.”
“Do you now?”
She smiled. “You know I do, Templar.”
“Maybe I just like to hear you say it.”
She wrapped a hand around his wrist and leaned her face into his hand once more. A flutter of butterfly wings erupted in her chest and the words caught in her throat as she gazed back at him. The truth of how he made her feel would stay buried deep inside, butterflies or not. Better to bring them back to the safe territory of the surface level...relationship they had.
It was a relationship, was it not? He’d spent most nights in her bed and she’d stopped seeing anyone else. At his request. When had Persephone ever cared what the men in her bed wanted?
He’s not like the other men, a tiny voice at the back of her head reminded her, but she squashed it down. She squashed the butterflies that danced around her heart for good measure. Going soft now wouldn’t benefit either of them. What they had was physical, it was all it could be.
“And perhaps I need a reminder of exactly how talented they are.”
A melancholy descended over them and the smile he gave her didn’t quite reach his eyes. He gave her cheek a tender caress before gripping her wrists, lifting them over her head as he rolled over her. “As you wish, a leannan.”
Last week I was tagged by @ammocharis and @cleverblackcat. Thank you for the tags! (and somehow I’m even managing to share on a Wednesday.)
I’ll tag you both back to share more, and add @noire-pandora and @samuraisaucefrites if y’all want to share what you’re working on!
I’ve been slowly plugging away at One for Sorrow and stuck in a less than happy place, so here’s a moment of levity for Persephone and Rylen once they’re both back at Skyhold.
At the forest’s edge, she came to a stop and dismounted. She’d freed her saddle bag when the soldier pulled up next to her. He pulled off his helmet and his light brown hair tumbled out, curls springing wildly every direction now that they were finally free once more.
He leapt down from his horse and it took only a few steps to pull her into his arms. He gave her a quick kiss under her ear before trailing further down her neck. Persephone giggled as she pushed him away, “Stop it!”
Rylen captured her hand and pulled it towards his lips, kissing the back of her palm. “Did I hear a giggle from the infamously stoic Persephone Hawke? What ever will the people of Kirkwall think of that?”
A wide smile crossed her face at his teasing. She felt as though she might burst from happiness. “Oh stop.”
