PSL: Dorian

[killedwithlove]

The trip to Tevinter was long and dangerous, but it was safer than the alternative of staying in Orlais or Fereldan, staying near the Inquisitor or near the Wolf.

He hadn't been able to plan it. He wasn't good at planning, regardless, but if he had planned, the Wolf would have realised what he was going to do and have stopped him. Changed him. Rewritten what he was and he didn't want to ever be rewritten again.

He hid from people with a thought and often spent the day hiding with wild animals, soothing them into letting him rest with them, stay hidden and safe.

It took him less time that it should have, but more than he wanted, to reach the property of House Pavus. He had followed the pull of warmth once he hit the city limits, where slaves were well treated and there was no stench of fear/despair/blood tangled in the brickwork.

He walked past the guards by telling them not to see him and into the palace itself. Finding Dorian was more difficult. He didn't know Dorian well after so long. So he had to ask someone where he was and that was how he had ended sitting on top of a dome with a small group of confused guards and servants trying to work out where the intruder was while Cole tried to work out what he should do next.

Comments

[tevinterpariah]

Being welcomed home with open arms and open hearts and smiles was well beyond him, and Dorian had known that even before setting back out for home after the last spat he'd had with the Inquisitor. But all in all, he was more welcome here than he had been when he'd first left to join the cause back when it was still something good for Ferelden, and that was saying something. Halward was still a stubborn, headstrong man, but he had given up on this idea that he should try and change Dorian into something he was never meant to be.

The atmosphere of the entire Pavus estate had changed since he'd become an established member of it again. The slaves were hardly slaves anymore, more along the lines of indentured servants, with orders to save their earnings until they could support themselves. If there was one thing that speaking with the Inquisitor had helped him realize, it was that even though he'd grown up with servants, slaves, maids, that didn't make it right. So he'd vowed to keep them safe, and give them proper lives.

He actually had a lot of loyal staff these days because of it.

One of them had come to see him in his study, looking dazed and quite bewildered as he knocked, then announced a visitor. He didn't sound convinced that there actually WAS a visitor, but he still let Dorian know that one had arrived, intent on seeing him.

Dorian knew the look, and was on his feet at once. He was dressed in Tevinter finery, and by now his hair had grown out substantially, held back in a loose ponytail. There were other trappings of his status, jewelry that could be used as foci, and his staff was in hand as soon as he was up, adorned with its skull and ivory tendrils. He frowned softly upon spotting Cole's wide-brimmed hat behind the servant.

"Leave us," he ordered the man quietly, waiting until he was obeyed then going to invite Cole into the study himself. Stacked shoulder-high with books on most surfaces, covered in candle stubs that would need to be melted down into more candles later, every surface held some subject of study. Dorian looked very much at home in the middle of it all. His hands eventually lit on Cole's shoulders, gripping down gently.

"Cole, what are you doing here?"