A girl fell out of the Rift.

Cole saw it happen. As the smoky haze of the Rift began to close, she dropped ten feet down into the snow, naked and motionless as a newborn babe. Those who watched, stunned into silence, stood and stared with disbelief, staves and swords at the ready, breaths heavy in their chests. No one moved, approached her, or spoke. For several moments they just waited. Waited for something to happen.

So Cole waited too. He saw the Inquisitor creep towards the body, footsteps crunching too-loud in the silence of snow. His thin lips pressed into a line and his brow furrowed beneath a curtain of dark hair. It became obvious to Cole that he had no idea what he was looking at.

Varric's voice came next. "Is that… supposed to happen?" He shifted his crossbow, Bianca, onto his back and lifted a hand to rub his unshaven chin with a confused squint.

"I… don't…" Inquisitor Khyran's voice trailed. "Is she… alive?" His staff lowered towards the young woman's body and nudged her shoulder. Cole half expected her to move, but she didn't.

"Better yet, is it a demon?" Asked Dorian, tugging his furs against his chest. "Can never be too sure with this Fade stuff."

"If only Solas were here…" Khyran paused. His eyes trailed to Cole. "Do… you think... you could tell me if she's a demon or spirit?"

Cole did not know how to answer. Once, he was a spirit. He had come through too far to the other side, first taking human flesh and then taking human thoughts, human feelings, human needs. He felt only a small piece of the Fade singing to him now, sometimes so softly he could barely hear its melody. So he answered the Inquisitor honestly: "I don't know."

He walked forward regardless, his steps light, his fingers anxiously tugging at his jacket. He saw her more clearly now. Cole knew that demons often came through the Rifts in the Veil, thrust unwittingly from the Fade into the natural world, but the figure lying curled and stark-brown against the snow failed to make Cole think of a demon. The woman was thin, a cloud of black hair flowing over shoulders, covering her back. Her face was half-buried in snow, but Cole thought she looked not much younger than he, himself. He noticed a pointed ear, poking out from beneath her hair. An Elf.

He crouched next to her, trying to look more closely at her face. "Wandering like walking underwater… wind whistles, where…? Lost, lonely, left where I should not be…" His hand slipped from his jacket and edged toward her face.

A finger touched her cheek and she bolted upright with a cry. Brown eyes wide, wild, her gaze jerked between the faces staring at her and in moments she was afoot. She spun and bolted. Cole saw Khyran try to snag her shoulder. He only grabbed at a clump of hair which pulled free in his hands. Cole leapt to his feet. He heard Dorian and Varric yell something behind him, but all he could see was the girl's retreating figure as she sped into a copse of trees. He sprinted after her, crying, "wait!"

Khyran ran a step behind him. Cole saw the girl fling back her arm and something hurtled towards them. The air shimmered as if alive. He ducked. The something hit Khyran and he heard the Inquisitor yelp and tumble into the snow. Cole kept running.

He dodged and ducked under tree branches. He jumped over rocks and slid down a snowy hillside. He leapt across jagged stones. The girl suddenly stopped running and he stopped too. The girl teetered on the edge of a cliff. Cole flung his hand out and snagged her arm. "I'm sorry!" he said. She shrieked. She twisted and writhed, balling up her other fist and flailing it against him so fast her arm blurred.

Thwap. A pain needled into his left eye. Thwud. His nose stung. Thump. Thwump. Thwap. Her fist connected with his shoulder, his chest, his jaw. Still he held her tighter, drawing her backwards, away from the cliff. His grip was crushing. He didn't want to grab her. He didn't want to hurt her. But there was no other way.

"Don't run away! You'll die!" He gasped.

Her squirming and flailing eased. Thwip. Fwip. Fwp. Her clenched fist stopped hitting him until it was tapping, touching, gone.

"Please don't go. You'll die." Cole said. He felt distraught. His throat burned from running, and the cold air in his lungs felt too heavy. He felt a bruise blooming on his face. Several bruises. "I'm going to let go now. Don't run away." He looked into her face pleadingly, peering from beneath his messy blond hair and the shadow of his hat.

He couldn't tell if she understood or not. Her face was wild with fear, pain. He felt it in her heart, heard the cacophony of confusion tumbling and twisting in her head. He slipped his jacket off his shoulders and draped it over her. She didn't move or speak, her eyes never broke from his face. The jacket couldn't cover her, but at least it was something.

He saw the girl's eyes suddenly dart over his shoulder and she stiffened. Cole reached out and took her arm again, gentler this time, and looked behind him.

Khyran was standing above them on a rock. Behind him, Varric and Dorian peered uneasily at the girl.

"What's going on, Cole? Do you see anything in her?" Khyran asked, hardly louder than a whisper. He reminded Cole of people who watched butterflies- trying not to move or speak too loudly for fear of scaring them off.

"She's lost." Cole replied.

"We gathered that much. Is she a demon?"

"No."

"Spirit?"

"No."

"What is she?"

"Lost."

It took a great deal of coaxing, but the girl finally relented. She followed Cole back to the campsite, where two tents and a blazing fire greeted them against the shelter of a mountainside. The girl wore Cole's jacket as well as the Inquisitor's black cloak. It draped over her fully, and she clutched it desperately to her chest.

She plopped down to the fire and nearly stuck her hands in it. Cole made a grab at them to swat them away, then realized that the fire coiled around, not through, her outstretched arms, refusing to touch flesh as if an invisible wall kept them safe. Cole found sitting near the fire made his nose sting all the more, but he tried not to mind. Varric had taken a poultice and rubbed it over his bruises. His eye had swollen shut, but Varric assured him he wasn't blind. He'd be fine.

"So if she's not a demon and she's not a spirit…" Varric said where he sat on a nearby log, polishing Bianca's grip.

"She's a Mage. Obviously." Said Dorian, sipping from a cup of steaming tea. "She hit you with a wave of force earlier, correct?" He tilted his head in Khyran's direction. "And look at her now. The fire obeys."

"Yes, but… I thought being in the Fade bodily was… well. Nearly impossible." Khyran said.

"You're saying that?" Varric pointed out. "You've been in the Fade bodily twice." He paused. "Now, I know we've thoroughly discussed the implications of your recent ventures into the Fade, but considering it has been done before... I can only assume it's somehow been done again."

"Yes, but I'm… well. Me!" Said Khyran.

"So a girl fell out of the Fade and you're the first person to find it absurd?" Varric chuckled. "Don't you see the irony here?"

"Well, she doesn't have an Anchor." Khyran gestured to the girl who all but crouched over the fire.

"You do realize, Varric, that the last time this happened beyond the Inquisitor's abilities was a thousand years ago?" Dorian entered the discussion with a wariness beyond his usual cheerful demeanor. "People don't just... pop up into the Fade physically. It's worrisome, indeed. I don't know what to make of it."

"Well, if you can get her to explain it, please do so, Dorian."

The girl appeared to have no idea they were talking about her. She didn't look at anyone or speak. She hadn't said a word the entire time. Cole remained at her side, watching her face for any sign that she might be listening, but there was nothing. For all he knew, she didn't understand a word anyone was saying.

"Well, if Cole's certain she's not a spirit, the question remains." Dorian mused, tugging at his moustache. "Where did she come from? And where is her home?"

"I suppose we should look around nearby villages." Khyran said, "see if anyone knows of a missing girl… but… I don't know of very many Elven clans in this area."

"She's not Dalish, she doesn't have the tattoos." Said Varric.

"True. I suppose looking around the area is our best bet. If… nothing else, she'll come back to Skyhold with us until we find out where she belongs." Khyran was already packing up his things, shoving his camping equipment into his backpack.

"All this assuming she actually can't explain it and isn't just pulling our legs." Dorian raised a brow at the girl. "Judging by the circumstances, I highly doubt it."

"Is there anything else you can sense in her, Cole?" Varric asked, sliding down from the tree stump and latching Bianca onto the holster on his back.

"She is… scared, but less now." Cole answered as he watched the shadows dance on her face, flickering from the fire. She still didn't look at anyone. "I think she will come with us. I'm… sorry. It's hard to hear her. Her thoughts are… deeper."

He felt Varric pat his back. "You're alright, Kid. We'll do the best we can."

A/N: This is going out of my usual style and is HIGHLY experimental, but I feel quite inspired lately and I want to try my hand at something a bit daring. I do hope I write this OC well- the idea's been tumbling around in my head for quite some time and there's a lot of potential for error. Please bear with me, and thanks for reading!