I am in love with this game, it is my life now. Also... Solas... Maker's breath.
My Inquisitor is a female elf archer, this story is set sometime during skyhold, after Dorian's personal quest, barely any main missions.
Oooh, I hope you like it.
"Solas, I have absolutely no idea how you could be so against this." Clover sighed as she let herself drop in to the only comfy chair in his study.
"The Dalish are a backwards race, who cling desperately on to their twisted idea of culture, regardless of getting most of it wrong. Why would I want to join you in answering their call for help? Their issues can be easily solved by themselves if they had the right mind to try. They are using you." Solas explained, his tone utterly patronising.
Clover clenched the letter from her clan in her fist, scowling at him.
"Backwards is it? Have you forgotten that I am part of that backwards race? And that the very clan who are asking for assistance are the same who raised me? You consider it using me, how high and mighty of you to be so self reliant. I shall remember this when you ask for help." Clover sulked, the disappointment in Solas' reaction showed plainly on her face.
"Quite right, the very same clan who ordered you to spy on the conclave, endangering your life, then refused to try and find you once you didn't return. Also if I ever ask for help for such a lowly issue you can be sure I have lost my mind and any dignity I once had." Solas voice didn't waver, his mind was made up.
"How can you be so cruel?" Clover whispered, staring at the ground.
"Cruel is it?" Solas scoffed "Is it so cruel to not want you putting yourself in danger for a group of people so unconcerned for your well-being?"
"They're my family!" Clover growled.
"You owe them nothing." Solas waved his hand dismissively, turning back to his books.
"I owe them EVERYTHING." Clover roared, standing up with such a force the chair she was sat on fell on it's side "The people who brought me up, who taught me how to hunt, who held me when I cried, those people are asking for help and I WILL help them with or without your aid."
"Do as you wish Inquisitor, I won't stand in your way."
Clover merely scowled at Solas before turning and storming out of his study, leaving behind only the echo of her footsteps.
Solas felt guilty, which wasn't like him, he kept remembering the look of disappointment on Clover's face when he announced he wouldn't be joining her to visit her clan. Also the repeated phrase "But you always go with her." from almost every member of the inquisition left him annoyed and on edge.
Did they think he did not know that every time the Inquisitor had left the safety of their camp, whilst in Haven, or tower in Skyhold, he had been by her side. Of course he knew that, it went without asking. However, to go to the clan she was once a member of, to see the faces of those who had known her before and had abandoned her, he couldn't go through with it.
He reached the stable were Clover, Dorian, Bull and Cole were preparing for their journey.
"Ah! He appears! Bull laughed, elbowing Solas in the stomach "Change your mind then?"
"Oh, please say you have, the idea of traipsing through the forest to find a clan of elves is dreadfully ghastly. All that mud, I shudder at the thought." Dorian quipped.
"He hasn't changed his mind." Clover stated without even looking in his direction, slinging her pack over the back of her horse.
"I merely thought you might listen to reason. Inquisitor, there are many issues that you might turn your attention to, do we have time for a personal trip?" Solas asked.
Clover turned to face him then, her mouth gaping in surprise but before she had time to respond Dorian stood in front of her, facing Solas in her stead.
"I seem to remember a certain Inquisitor taking time out of her busy schedule to deal with personal matters once before, my personal matters in fact. Now if I'm not mistaken the world didn't end in a fiery blaze, nor did chickens fall from the sky or any other implausible catastrophe. The Inquisitor spends quite a lot of her time running about this run down place helping people and not all of it has anything to do with the impending doom we all face. Now, I'm not one for getting all emotional however, if this is important to the Inquisitor, it's important to me."
Clover was speechless as Dorian turned to face her.
"Are we all ready to go Inquisitor?" He asked, his usual smirk firmly in place.
"Yes, let us take our leave." Clover announced, pulling herself on to her horse.
The rest of them followed suit and began to trot out of Skyhold on their journey. Solas watched as they left, his mouth set in a thin line of contempt, he marched back to his study mumbling to himself.
"They're not here!" Dorian groaned "How is it we've been tracking them for a week now and we still haven't found them!"
Clover knelt down by a fire pit, small embers caught her eye.
"It hasn't been long, They must be close." She whispered.
"Abelas"
The voice made Clover jump, she drew her bow, aiming an arrow at the origin on the word. An old elf woman staggered out from behind a large tree, Clover lowered her arrow immediately, letting it drop to the ground.
"Gylledha, are you alright?" Clover reached her side and held her steady.
"It is Zelphar, he... he has been full of rage since you left." Gylledha groaned "He wanted to trick you, get you to come back and punish you for running with the shem."
"He was supportive of my leaving, that makes no sense." Clover scowled at the older woman.
"da'assan, It is not your leaving that pains him, it is that you didn't come back. He became obsessed with the rifts, he thought if he could understand them, he could understand you."
It was all too confusing for Clover to take in, Zelphar had been a good friend of hers, if not more than a friend some might say. He had been excited for her when she had been asked to spy for the clan.
"I don't-"
Clover's sentence was cut short by a sharp pain and blackness surrounding her.
"This is ridiculous! She has been gone a month! An entire month! Are you not going to look in to this!" Solas yelled storming in to the war room to confront Cullen.
"Solas, we understand..." Cullen begun
"You understand NOTHING! She went to find the Dalish and now she is missing. I thought I could no longer be surprised by the stupidity of humanity but clearly I was over estimating you." Solas spat.
"What do you expect us to do? We have exhausted the powers at our disposal, we have no other options." Cullen sighed, he looked so tired Solas almost felt sorry for him but quickly stopped remembering that the Inquisitor, his inquisitor was still missing.
"I will search or her myself if need be." Solas ground out.
"That may be helpful, actually, more than you hiding away in that library." Cullen shot back
Solas stared at Cullen, his rage building but more than at Cullen it was at himself, it wasn't the first time he had deeply regretted not going with her to see the Dalish since she had left. In fact he had thought little else for the past three weeks.
"You couldn't have helped."
Cole's sudden appearance made Solas jump, he turned to face the spirit and grabbed his arms.
"Cole... you came back... the Inquisitor..." Solas had never been at a loss for words before.
"She is in trouble, pain, so much pain, and then... nothing." Cole whispered.
The fear twisted in Solas' gut, no, she couldn't be... "Dead?" Solas croaked.
"Not yet, fear, not of the Dalish, of everything else, she has... forgotten..." Cole replied.
"Forgotten? Everything?" Solas asked, his grip tightening on Cole's arms.
"Most things, some things linger, the touch of his arms, the warmth of his breath, just whispers, but the pain, the fear, it drowns everything out, like he meant."
"Who's he!" Demanded Solas.
"The first he? You, the second... An elf, one from her past, who she once cared for." Cole looked troubled "He is not very nice, he might have been once, but not now, his own pain has changed him."
"Take me to her." Solas ordered.
Cole nodded "You can help, that's why I came to you."
"You've done well Cole. I'm proud and thankful." Solas whispered before turning to Cullen. "I'm going to get her."
"Keep us updated regularly." Cullen agreed as Solas and Cole left the cold room.
Run, keep running, faster. FASTER.
Don't stop, the air hurts, so cold, but free.
FASTER.
Keep going, the trees whisper to her.
"emma lath!" Zelphar called to her, his voice joyous, it made her slow down. He reached her side, his hand slid in to hers. An urge to pull her hand away from his surprised her, she ignored it and let her hand rest in his.
"You shouldn't push yourself." He whispered to her "You have been quite ill."
"I can't help it Zelphar, I have so much energy, I just want to run." Clover giggled.
Zelphar laughed and wrapped his arms around her.
"We have the rest of our lives to run, now you are back with me, for now let us go back. I have to deal with the criminals." His tone turned dark as he glanced back in the direction of the camp.
"I still don't believe it, a Qunari warrior and a Tevinter Mage coming to our camp? To do what I wonder..." Clover looked to Zelphar who looked concerned.
"Do not worry yourself with it emma lath. It is not your concern." He whispered, caressing her cheek gently.
Clover couldn't help but flinch at his touch, making his expression darken.
He yanked her hand in the direction of their camp, ignoring her protests as he pulled her the rest of the way.
The stars seemed to go on forever, it still felt warm even in the middle of the night. Clover crept from her tent and silently made her way back to the forest, her hand ached underneath a bandage Zelphar had insisted on her not touching.
She saw a Hala in a clearing who seemed to make eye contact before gracefully walking away from her, she continued to watch it as it turned to face her once more, seemingly beckoning her to follow before continuing to walk away.
Clover followed the majestic beast at a distance as to not offend it, it led her to another clearing were two men stood. One elf and something very... other.
"You were watching me." Clover whispered, her stance defensive as she stared at the elf male.
"You noticed. How perceptive of you, I expect no less." He whispered back, his voice seemed familiar, warm. It both excited and terrified her.
"What do you want?" Clover asked, taking a step closer to the two men.
"You." He replied, his smile was hiding something but Clover couldn't find it in herself to care.
"I... do I know you? What's your name?" Clover's eyes raked over his face, trying desperately to place him and not being able to.
"Solas." The elf replied "My name is solas and I need you to answer a question for me." He sounded so gentle, encouraging.
"I guess that'd be okay, you've answered mine so..."
"Have they hurt you?" His voice grew firmer.
"Hurt...?"
The pain came back, it tore through her head and she screamed. Solas grabbed her arms before she fell to the ground.
"Clover... Clover Clover... come back to me." Solas' voice cut through the surrounding darkness like a knife.
Clover woke up with a start, sweating and panting, the pain from her head gone but not forgotten.