#like the man is already down and shielan just has absolutely zero sympathy for his stupid ass lmao

[for-the-ninth]

Thanks for the tag @a11sha11fade! I'll include some tags under the cut. Here's a snippet from a wip chapter 11 of The Life That Left Me, in which Shielan and her young apprentice find Cullen mid-psychotic break on the tail-end of lyrium withdrawal, and we get a glimpse into one of Shielan's yet unexplained magical (at least we think it's magical, mwahaha) talents.

***

“Elspeth”—Shielan stepped into the cell and closed the gate behind her—“you’re dismissed.”

“You’re going in there…alone?” Elspeth’s eyes widened, her trembling mouth falling open like that of a dead fish. “Have you lost your fucking—”

Shielan maintained a blank expression and spoke to her apprentice with an ice cold tone she hoped would be read as authoritative. “One rule, girl. It is one simple fucking rule that governs this relationship—”

“Oh, I’m sorry,” Elspeth said, her sardonic cackle making it painfully obvious that Shielan’s tone had zero effect on her audacity. “I didn’t realize, ‘Don’t make me ask twice,’ applied to suicide missions with madmen.”

“It does.” Shielan turned her back on the girl to rifle through her satchel. “And you will regret making me ask a third time.”

Her petulant apprentice did not argue, but huffed and puffed and all but stomped out of the dungeon, muttering feverish curses under her breath the whole way. When the crisp clacking of Elspeth’s boots faded, Shielan turned her attention back to her hallucinating charge, and winced at the sight of him.

The skin of his sunken face clung to its bones, worn thin by starvation and punctuated by wide, bloodshot eyes rimmed with dark circles of sleeplessness, all overcast by a deathly pallor that would send the most seasoned of medics screaming about the undead. Another pang of guilt hit her gut. She should’ve read that damned report.

“Leave me be,” Cullen spat, eyes bright with rage.

She ignored him entirely, stepping around him and his haphazardly aimed knife to plop her satchel on the floor. Keeping her gaze averted, she crouched by her bag and flexed her fingers, eyes raking over her naked hands as she adjusted to the oddity of being gloveless in company. More for dramatic effect than true necessity, she cracked each knuckle as she stood.

“Please,” he murmured, and his voice turned from rageful to pleading so abruptly she almost laughed. “If you won’t let me go, then just end it.”

Without speaking, Shielan breathed deeply, pressed her thumbs to his temples, and closed her eyes. If he said anything further, she didn’t hear it.

Frozen. They’re bleeding—dying—and I can’t move. Steel bathed in blood. Teeth scattering, pearls across the floor. A pile of sinews shaped like a body. Let me go. Why won’t it let me go? I’m going to die here. Screams—mine, or from the chamber? Oh, Maker, the chamber. Gregoir left us. How long have we been here? Another body, eyes dull with death. Smell of iron and ash. I can’t breathe. It’s never going to stop. We’re all going to die here.

Shielan opened her eyes, releasing him from her grasp with a sharp exhale. The hazy film over his eyes slowly faded to a bloodshot state of clarity, and she watched him carefully for signs of regression as he came to.

“I-Inquisitor?” Lips trembling, his gaze fell to the bloodied knife in his hands, then back up to her, eyes widening. She dropped the paralysis spell and he recoiled from her, pressing himself flush against the wall as the knife clattered down to the floor. “Maker, did I—”

“Everything’s fine,” Shielan said, as if the cell floor wasn’t covered in smears of blood and didn’t reek of iron and piss. She inched toward him, and he held up his shaking hands.

“S-Stay away from m-me.” His bare feet slid against the slickened stone as he folded in on himself, pushing against the wall in a futile attempt to retreat further. “It’s not safe.”

Shielan rolled her eyes and crouched on her heels across from him, dragging her satchel over to rest at his feet. “You already tried—and failed miserably, I should add. I mean really, you’re telling me not one of those templar fucks ever taught you how to hold a goddamned knife? Anyway, I’m unconcerned.”

Tags: @noire-pandora @roguelioness @charmcity-jess @scribbledquillz @barbex @oxygenforthewicked @teknicianwrites @emerald-amidst-gold why do I feel like I'm forgetting someone every time??? idk if you wanna post stuff then do it!!