ᴍᴜsɪᴄ ᴜɴᴅᴇʀ ᴛʜᴇ ᴍᴏᴜɴᴛᴀɪɴ/ᴛᴏ ᴋᴇᴇᴘ ʏᴏᴜ ꜰʀᴏᴍ ʙʀᴇᴀᴋɪɴɢ. ʙʏ ᴋᴇʟsᴇʏ ᴡᴏᴏᴅ Originally from the ACOTAR universe, but this song just strikes a chord in me, for Isolde. #ACOTAR #Feyre #freedom

𝑻𝒉𝒆 𝑴𝒂𝒌𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒐𝒇 𝒂 𝑷𝒂𝒍𝒂𝒅𝒊𝒏, 𝒑𝒂𝒓𝒕 𝟏𝟐 For a long time, Isolde remained where she was. She sat beside Drystan in silence, unable to hear the battle that still raged around her, powerless to feel anything beyond the hollow ache settling deep within her chest. She had always believed there would be more time. Time for another conversation, a new lesson, a chance to put into words what he had slowly come to mean to her. Instead, all she had left were his final words. 𝑲𝒆𝒆𝒑 𝒘𝒂𝒍𝒌𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒑𝒂𝒕𝒉 Slowly, she rose. Cinderwake lay where it had fallen, its blade smeared with the fel-green blood of demons. Wrapping her fingers around the hilt once more, she turned back toward the battlefield. What she saw was not hopelessness. She saw paladins standing shoulder to shoulder against monsters many times their size. Warriors refusing to yield, priests tending the wounded beneath the rain of fel fire, mages holding the line, each one risking everything so that others might live. And she understood. This was what she had been training for. Not glory or vengeance. And not for redemption. But to stand beside those willing to lay down their lives for a world worth saving. So she did. She stepped forward and answered the call. The war would leave its mark upon her. She learned what battle truly demanded, what sacrifice looked like, and what it meant to keep fighting when every part of you wanted to collapse beneath the weight of grief. She survived, though not unchanged. No paladin is without flaws. Neither is Isolde. There are still days when anger finds her, when old wounds reopen without warning, and the Light answers more fiercely than she intends, her consecration burning hotter, brighter, fed by emotions she cannot always contain. She still doubts herself, searching for answers that are nowhere to be found. But whenever righteous fury threatens to drown out everything else, she hears Drystan's voice as clearly as if he were standing beside her. 𝑲𝒆𝒆𝒑 𝒘𝒂𝒍𝒌𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒑𝒂𝒕𝒉 And so she does. She no longer belongs to kingdoms or factions. Alliance and Horde are not the measure by which she judges the world. Her oath is to the innocent, to those who can not stand against the darkness alone, and to Azeroth itself. A protector of life, as it has always been her birthright. Wherever evil threatens the defenseless, there she will be, sword and shield in hand. She had come to Pandaria searching for a cure. She left having found herself. She had walked the path and, in doing so, become the paladin she was always meant to be. This was the making of a paladin. Music by Twenty One Pilots - Paladin Strait #OClore #roleplaying