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Queen Elissa Theirin stood in the palace library with a small smile on her face, a hand resting lightly on her stomach. Before her, on a shelf between two books (the genealogy of both her and Alistair’s families) in a small glass orb was the rose that her husband had given her almost a year ago.
“You shouldn’t be on your feet,” her husband informed her, causing her to jump a little. “You’ve been sick for weeks- the Healers told you to rest.”
He had been called into a meeting with his Advisors and warned her that he didn’t know when he’d be out. Even after so long since the Blight, there we people who still needed aid.
“I have news,” she said softly, reaching out to run her fingers gently over the globe containing her rose.
Alistair wrapped his arms around her and held up a rose in front of her. It was one of his favorite things to give her. As Queen of Ferelden, she had access to anything she wanted…but nothing softened her heart like a rose given to her by her King.
It reminded her of when they were first coming together.
Alistair held a rose out to her at camp, looking caught somewhere between embarrassment and fear. “Do you know what this is?” he asked, his voice trembling.
She gave him a gently smile as she took it. “It’s a rose,” she murmured, running her fingers on the silky, red petals. “Where’d you get it?”
“I picked it in Lothering,” he said, still nervous. “I remember thinking, How could something so beautiful exist in a place with so much despair and ugliness?” He looked down at the rose in her hands and then back up at her- almost pleading with her not to berate him.
“It’s beautiful,” she murmured, holding it up to her nose to take in the scent before holding it out to him to take back.
His nervous tension seemed to increase tenfold. “I thought that I might…give it to you…actually.” He looked down at the rose in her hands and smiled softly. “In a lot of ways…I think the same thing when I look at you.”
Elissa’s brow furrowed in confusion, tilting her head. “I don’t understand, Alistair.”
“You and the rose…something to beautiful to exists in a place with so much despair and ugliness…it confounds me.”
She felt some of the wall that she had erected around her heart crumble. His words were beautiful and they touched her. “Oh…Alistair…” she breathed.
“I just…I just wanted to tell you what a rare and wonderful thing you are amidst all this…darkness.”
Elissa turned her head to look at her husband, who was looking down at the rose she had yet to take. “I have news,” she repeated.
“Tell me.”
“I’m pregnant.”