Hi there!

First of all I wanted to take a moment and say thank you for all your support and for all the lovely reviews I have received. Thank you, they really made my days happier :)

Also, in this chapter we have another POV and not Leliana's.

Let me know what you think about it!

Enjoy

When I first stepped in Skyhold that morning, I hadn't immediately realized that I was finally there, it took me a few minutes to understand that the long travel was finally over and that even if I'd never been in that place before, I felt like I was finally returning home. A thought that brought a full smile on my face.

I was a mage. I've been forced to leave my family house to join the Circle of Magi when I was a little girl, and then that Tower became my new home for fifteen years, and even if that was the place where I had spent most of my life, I didn't feel it like home either.

I don't have a real definition for home, I thought that it was suppouse to be a place where you can return when the day is over, rest in your bed and enjoy the comforting and familiar surrounding.

During the Blight I had spent every single night at camp. We traveled during the day and every night we stopped in a different location.
It was something new for me. I was used to have the same place where to sleep and eat at the Circle, but for the first time I had occasion to see my country, admire all the beauties that it offered, from the immense green valleys, to the majestic sight of the infinite Frostback Mountains.

I didn't have a home during that period, but every night, I found myself under the same sky, covered with the same shining stars, with all my companions.

And it was during one of those peaceful nights when I was guarding the camp with a certain beautiful Orlesian bard that realization hit me. I was transfixed by the smooth accent of her voice and by the way her deep blue eyes were shining with the same intensity of the lights of the stars above us, as she told me all the stories she knew.

I missed that soft voice for almost a year. I missed that smile, that delicate and gentle touch. I missed feeling her in my arms as much as I missed being in hers.

...I missed home.

And it wasn't a place.

It was where I felt that I belonged.

And I belonged wherever my heart was.

Wherever Leliana was.

Just a few days before I thought that I was going to die, I was surrendering to a destiny I knew I should have embraced ten years before. I was so sure that it was the end that I asked to a Warden brother to write for me a letter, meant to arrive to my lover.

I couldn't leave this world without say farewell to the reason of my existence, and even if doing it broke my heart more than how I felt the cure break my body with every difficult breath I tried to force in my lungs, I knew that it was the right thing to do.

I just wanted her to know that even in my last hours she was the only thought in my mind and heart, that I would have never left her, that even in the beyond I woud have watched over her, that I would always be her Warden.

Because she's always been the reason that made me accomplish everything we had faced.

I was known as The Hero of Ferelden, but that title didn't say anything to me.

I was no Hero.

Heroes sacrifice themselves without thinking twice about it, willingly giving their lives if it is necessary.

But I didn't. And the reason was always the same.

The same that made me survive after the battle with the Archdemon.

The same that had me wake up every morning with a smile on my face, feeling her body pressed tightly against mine and smelling the delicate and so comforting perfume of her skin.

And also the same that ripped me from the beyond once again and that somehow brought me finally there, in Skyhold.

My intention when I was finally able to rise on my feet again after the cure, was to arrive at the fortress before the letter could reach my lover. I couldn't permit such thing to happen. I couldn't inflict to her a pain that she wasn't suppose to feel.
She had lost so much in all her life, and I knew that I was the only constant person that she had left. Justinia's death hit her hard enough. She wasn't going to make it through another loss.

I had to arrive before that letter.

I had to keep that pain away from her heart.

But for as much I tried, with every fiber of my being, exausting my already weak body, I failed another time.

Because when I finally found the courage to open the door of her room with a trembling hand, after hearing her cracking voice saying, through strangled sobs, that she would have searched the Fade to find me, I didn't even have to wonder who was to blame for the current state of my beautiful lover.

In that moment, I hated myself more than anything.

I swore a long time before that nothing was going to make her suffer like this ever again, especially because of me. It seemed that my promises to her ended always in a bad way, even if I always tried my best to keep my word, I've always made her suffer, in one way or another.

I watched her turning her head towards the door where I was standing after she heard the sound of my voice. I didn't know how I managed to talk in the first place, because the moment I saw her, a storm of emotions came hitting me with such force that I felt all the air being forced out from my lungs.

But when our eyes met, and I had the first real occasion to see her face after all those long months spent a part, looking into those hunted blue eyes that where shining with the tears I promised to myself that she would never had to let fall, I felt a strange combination of sensations as my heart cracked open and a lump formed in my throat, and at the same time, I felt that comforting and very familiar emotion I've always felt whenever I looked at her, admiring her beauty.

For the first few seconds, she didn't seem to realize what was happening, she just kept looking at me like if I was a vision or... a spirit.

It was to late to prevent her to read the letter, but with a new surge of confidence and faith, I thought that at least I had the chance to repair what I had caused.

I closed the door behind me without turning around, swallowing at the same time the lump in my throat as my gaze was fixed to the ground, trying everything to keep the tears that I felt forming from running freely over my flushed cheeks.

The door closed with a soft click and when I found the courage to look up once again, I noticed how clear and softer the light in the room was respect a few moments before, but when I met the gaze that was searching mine with such intensity that had my resolution tremble as guilt took over once again, all that I managed was a small sad smile and since I was too afraid to look at her reaction, I diverted my gaze on the floor once again, feeling like I didn't deserve to even look at the beautiful creature that was standing in front of me, the one that I loved more than life itself. And also the one that I managed to break once again.

I clenched my fists and the muscles of my jaw as I tried desperately to swallow down that stubborn lump that was growing more uncomfortable with every passing second, but despite my best efforts the sensation remained there.

The hurt and confusion that I saw flash into my lover's deep blue eyes, hunted me even if my eyes were tightly closed, shattering the frantic beating heart inside of my chest and making me feel guilty like I never felt before in my entire life.

I was so distracted by all those feelings that I didn't even hear the soft steps coming closer towards me, but when I smelled the delicate and very familiar scent that always had the power to comfort and touch places deep inside of me that I didn't know existed until I met her, I tentatively opened my eyes.

And she was there...

Right in front of me.

My breath hitched as I focused on her beautiful face, it had been almost a year when I saw her the last time, but she was just like the day when we parted ways for our different mission. A mission that we both accomplished, and for me, it was also the reason why her fair skin was flushed and her cheeks were covered with tears, the same tears that made her eyes shine with sorrow and... incredulity.

That light in her eyes helped me to find the courage I needed to explain, but when I felt the unmistakable touch of her hand on my cheek, a thousand of memories came crashing back to me, especially when I felt her delicate fingers trace the small scar on my jaw, sending a powerful shiver through all my body as my stomach clenched with the same old pleasant sensation that always hit me whenever I felt the warmth of her skin against mine.

That touch made everything real. And as simple as it was, it gave me the strenght to swallow down the lump that I felt in my throat.

I opened my mouth several times, but no sound came out.

I watched as she looked at every particular of my face, her eyes were fixed for a few moments on the other small scar that sliced my eyebrow before meeting my gaze once again. And in that moment I saw her lower lip tremble.

Every second I stood there silent was another stab of pain that I was inflicting to her and I had done enough.

I suddenly found my voice, feeling it so very raspy because of my dry throat.

I looked into the deep and confused pools of my lover's eyes and I managed to speak.

"Leliana, I..."

But I didn't have a chance to continue.

Because not even a heartbeat later after I said her name, I was overwhelmed by the unique and so very intense feeling of her soft lips against mine.

And all I could do after realization hit me, was to let a single salty tear slide over my cheek, mixing with hers, as I kissed her back with all the love I had to give.

So, I was thinking about another couple of chapters... What do you say?