α в є l α ѕ;

The noise is what draws her attention  first. 

The ripping of pages, the sound of an abused novel, harsh, raw breaths that saw through the air and bounce  off the walls. Anger, pain seem to fill them, and that’s what has her feet moving. 

Crashing, and she’s half-running to see what it is  that is going on, and the elf falls to her own knees  beside the other, eyes wide, concerned. Ink stains  the ground, stains her skin, but she doesn’t care,  looking to the male. 

"What troubles you so that the pages  revealed?”

  he'd rather be alone. much more, actually.   her interruptance has his mind reeling once   more, anger bubbling, prickling at the back   of his throat and burning.

        he wants to scream, to yell         at her, to tell her how wrong         the world has been, how bad         everything has gotten and how         horrible they'd been treated.

               they'd been treated like b u r d e n s.

  but he stops himself, drops his   hands and only glares in return    to her words.

  nimble digits grip and tear, rip   every page, every binding, every   cover from every book that was   previously stacked upon the   library desk.

  ink spilled, dotting, tainting each document,   each important morsel of each off-white   page that lands in the puddle. words cursed   in an old language, plaguing tongue, polluting   the air, ruining the once-humble aura.

A brief gasp — the sudden movement is enough to make the Dalish flinch. Facing up at him, her slightly blood splattered face looks back. Mihtriel looks defeated - she hadn’t intended to warrant this reaction from him.

A numb feeling seeps into her veins, twisting her stomach in knots and chilling her very core.  She will not allow herself to shed a tear. "I’m sorry." Mihtriel’s voice cracks in it’s gentle response. "I’ll be more careful, Abelas, I - " She dips her head in shame, shuddering to suppress anything else. 

  he immediately notices that she's upset,   and he knows he caused it. the sentinel   stares for a moment, glancing along her   face, but then he can tell that...

           she's very close to breaking.

  " no-- no, no-- "   he whispers, his own   voice shaking from   the rush of anger.

The sudden dig into her skin is surprising — the fact that she’d invoked such a powerful emotion from the sentinel was even shocking to the Dalish.     ”Abelas —”

Her voice is strained - she hadn’t meant to pick a fight. The walk was meant to clear her head. He knew she could never sleep with the nightmares being as potent as they were.    “Lethallin, please - forgive me.” Mihtriel’s voice drops.

  abelas turns with a dizzying speed, grasps   her other arm with his free hand and pulls   her close, inches away from her face.

  " listen to me-- ! "

  his grip on her arm is tight,   fingertips digging into skin.