#queuetie

thanks for the tag, my love @master-of-the-elements

Been going through my hoard (switched to Ellipsus which I’m really enjoying) and Esfir-pilled so here’s her at Skyhold after becoming Inquisitor and receiving her crown.

⪻──────────𖤓────────── ⪼

The hall was quiet as the smith bowed low. He had been brought in from Orlais, and she’d heard from Leliana that he once forged masks for the Empress herself. Everyone waited. The soldiers who had bled at Haven, the nobles who had not. Cullen stood with his arms crossed in ceremonial leather, too polished for his taste, eyes narrowed not in pride but concern. Josephine was glowing. Cassandra held herself still like a blade waiting to be drawn.

And Esfir…

Esfir wished she could walk away. She did not flinch when they placed it on her brow. But she felt it. Not the press of metal, nor the way her hair flattened beneath its weight, but the silence that followed and how final it felt.

“Inquisitor Lavellan,” the crowd roared to life, reverent cheers eclipsing the hall. She did not bow. She did not speak. She stood very still, like a carving in the temple, and tried not to weep.