She sat cross-legged in the dark. Eyes forward and focusing intently into the darkness. Her shoulders were ridged, tensed as if ready for a fight. Her back was hunched over, and her hands fisted tightly against her knees.
She could feel something behind her.
It was like smoke brushing against the back of her neck. But cold, like winter air. Delicately it traced patterns, trying to get her to turn around. Sometimes she was tempted to, just so she wouldn’t be the only one in the darkness. But today, she was ignoring it.
“Won’t you turn around?” It said in an airy, almost sweet voice, “Please, please turn around and look at me.”
Sometimes it sounded like her mother, and that always sent chills down her spine. Her mom was anything but sweet. Other days it sounded like the girl she had crushed on when she was a child. Which always sent pangs of regret and resignation though her chest. Today though, it took a new voice, which was why she was so irritated.
Out of the corner of her eye, she could also see him. Just at the edge of her vision, he stood in the darkness, watching her. She couldn’t look him in the face, never in the face. But she knew he wasn’t there to hurt her. Not like the thing at her back. She could trust him.
Which was probably why it had stolen his voice.
“It’ll be okay, just this once, to turn around,” it promised in his voice, with a hint of a smile inside it’s edges.
She deeply inhaled and let out an irritated sigh. It was cruel of it to use a voice that she had trusted when she first came to her clan. But it was bound to figure that out eventually. In the distance she could see that he was shaking his head no. He didn’t have to worry though. She knew.
“Go away.” She said firmly, staring resolutely ahead.
It paused its smoke like caresses and withdrew.
“Stupid, foolish, girl.” It muttered to itself, “Stubborn, idiotic, twit.”
“I can hear you.” She said, rolling her eyes.
“All you have to do is turn around. Then I’ll leave you alone. What’s so hard about that?” It said.
She continued to ignore it, this time closing her eyes and exhaling slowly. She never liked what came next.
The sound of many voices suddenly started shrieking behind her. Inside the voices, she could occasionally hear her family. Pain and terror filled cries pulled at her chest. She squeezed her eyes tighter, nails digging into her palms, and ignored them.
She could feel the heat of flames now, the sounds of fighting. She then knew what memory this demon was burrowing into. Her head shook, as if she could chase away the memory that way. But the only way out of this was through.
“Just turn around, and it will all be over Mari.” The voice promised sweetly, whispering into her ear with Lir’s voice.
“No it won’t,” she whispered back, mostly to herself. “It’ll have just begun.”
The voice roared, and her daughter’s screams were added into the mix. Mari’s hands flew up to her face, covering it. She could hardly bear this.
“Just turn around and look at me Mari.”
“No!” With her eyes still closed she shouted and spun around, swinging-
She woke up with a gasp, her arms shooting out as if to hit something. She had bolted upright, and looked around the room for any sign of danger. When she saw none, she settled back into her bones, allowing a shudder to run through her. She took a shaky breath, trying to stead herself, and sighed.
A demon had recently started plaguing her dreams, not allowing her to fade into the dreamless sleep she would normally sink into. Just another reason to avoid sleeping she figured. With a glance at her window, she saw that the sun had yet to rise. Much too early to be awake. But there was no way she was going back to bed.
She quickly got up, and made short work of getting dressed for the day. After washing her face and throwing on her armor, she departed from her room. She didn’t know where she was going, just wandering the halls of Skyhold. Anywhere was better than her room at the moment.
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