Chapter 4
How does one know that they're alive? For all I know, an assassin claimed me as I had rushed away from the ball. Maybe I was dead. Maybe the Maker had placed me in a personal heaven, a replica of my world, but altered to allow for Morrigan to want me. I felt alive. I felt like I'd never killed anyone in my entire life, that I had sat upon a sheet of linen underneath an endless starlight for all of my life. That's when reality came back to me, when I had to ask the damning question.
"What changed?"
Morrigan remained quiet, looking deeply into my eyes. Hers were flashing, radiant, secretive. It was what made her a wonder, but, as I always managed to do, I made them villainous with my insistence on thinking.
"Why are you here now, when before, you couldn't look at me?"
Still, nothing.
"You said you had forgotten your speech."
"Why wouldn't I have? You're kind of an… imposing figure, nowadays."
"Am I?"
"Leliana, you could end my life with a piece of paper written to a hungry cadet. You could spread rumours that I'm bewitching Templars into fighting for Corypheus. You could whisk me away in the night, and claim I was stolen by Gaspard. You could do literally almost everything that could hurt me."
"Almost?"
"You can't say no, not right now."
Which is when she brought my head up from her lap, gently, light as a feather, and brought me close to her face. Her eyes closed, as did mine. In the darkness, I felt her thumb pull my lips slightly open. I felt more than a bit helpless, but in way that demanded a dashing heroine to save me from the world. Her lips touched mine, and it was like we ripped a hole in my heart, together, and were neglecting to mention it. It was over in a moment, although I could not measure how long such a thing is. All I knew was if it went on for a decade it would have been too short.