Chapter Text
“Gorim, if we both make it out of here, promise me,” Senna whispered to her lover as their foreheads rested together obstructed by the cold metal bars of her cell, “promise me that we’ll meet again.”
His face broke as he clearly was trying to break it to her that this would likely - if not definitely- be the last time they saw one another. It was more likely that one or both of them would die over the coming days than that they’d see each other again. But Senna didn’t want to accept that. She couldn’t accept that, no matter what Gorim or anyone else had to say on the matter.
“Senna-“
“No, promise me. Listen, I heard that Grey Warden talking about a battle at Ostagar. If I find him and if I survive the battle, I’ll go to the nearest village to the north, so long as it’s safe. Or I’ll send word there if I can’t get there myself. Just - meet me there if you can?”
She could hear the desperation in her own voice as she pleaded to him to promise her this. This promise she needed in her bones, in her heart, in her very soul. He was half of her being and she knew not how to live without him after so long. Pressing herself as close to him as her confines would allow, she knew that if neither of them had the hope of seeing one another again, they simply would not make it. In response to her movement, she felt him shift closer too, one hand resting on her cheek while the other came around her back to hold her close.
“I- I will do everything in my power,” he finally agreed. “I don’t want to lose you either, my heart.”
“I know. I love you, my rock,” she pressed their lips together fiercely through the bars, pulling back quickly even though she wanted to do anything but. As much as it pained her to admit, Gorim was not wrong about the gossip of guards and the dangers it posed. While she knew it could hardly hurt her anymore, she didn’t want to make things any more difficult for her lover as he still had his banishment ahead of him. Gorim joining her in a cell wouldn’t do either of them any good, as much as she’d appreciate the company. “I’ll see you on the Surface.”
He nodded, seemingly more sure of himself now. “I’ll meet you there. I swear.”
He turned to leave and with him went half her heart. She was glad he didn’t look back to see the tears in her eyes because she knew that would only make it harder for him to leave, knowing that she couldn’t follow. By the Stone, it broke her own heart knowing that he was crying too even if she couldn’t see the tears, but she knew him well enough by now.
She just hoped he’d keep his heart broken for her. Just for a little while.
She turned away, moving backwards into her cell as she tried to focus, wiping away tears from her eyes which had not even had the chance to run their course. She needed to be ready, mentally as well as physically, to face the darkspawn she was to be set against so she didn’t make any foolish mistakes. She didn’t know when she would be taken but it was unlikely they’d wait much longer. Bhelen wouldn’t want any loose ends.
And that is what she had become to him after all their years together, all their shared memories, all the times she had had considered herself fortunate to have a sibling like Bhelen instead of simply Trian. She supposed now that she had it the wrong way around all those years. Or maybe they were both just poor brothers, or she a bad sister. It was difficult to say when her life had been turned upside down and inside out over the past week thanks to her family whom she loved dearly, or used to at any rate.
Without her brothers or her father, all she really had left from her home was her lover which made it all the more important she focus on her task and survive in order to reach the Surface - a goal to which she never thought she’d aspire but times change.
With that thought, she heard footsteps approaching and recognised this meant the beginning of the end of her life in Orzammar. On then. She would march into the Deep Roads with her honour and dignity in tact, even if she alone believed it to be so.