A/N: Allo! This story is... NOT CANON. Not to the game, and not to the Forbidden Magic universe. Basically, in November when I was burying all my free time into my first play-through of Inquisition (I'm now on my third), my brain was swirling and flying and damn well tried to ESCAPE MY HEAD with all the ideas for how Solona and Leliana and everything else I came up with in FM was going to fit into Inquisition. In an attempt to quiet my brain some, I wrote down some of the ideas.

This was the first one. I've since worked out something else for how Solona is going to fit into Inquisition, whenever I eventually write it. But this was still good, and it worked as a one-shot, and I thought my FM readers and Solona/Leliana fans might like to read it. :)

So I hope you enjoy! And remember: more than likely, when I write Inquisition, Solona's involvement will look very different from the glimpse you'll get here.

The Warden and The Nightingale

Cassandra stormed into the tavern, her very presence seeming to call the attention of every person in the room. Even Solona, sullen in the corner, looked up when the music stopped. Brown eyes found grey, and then the Seeker was unabashedly stalking across the floor, seemingly unmindful of all the eyes upon her. The noise around them finally built back up as the Right Hand of the Divine came to a stop in front of the arcane warrior.

"Fix this," she said without preamble.

Solona immediately frowned. "Shove off, Seeker."

The Seeker rolled her eyes before slamming a bottle of Nevarran wine down on the table in front of the warden. "Fix this, Warden."

Solona glared at the bottle, then at the woman who had produced it. "What do you care? You have hunted me. Now you have me. I am part of your Inquisition. What more could you want or need?"

To Solona's surprise, Cassandra moved around the table, taking a seat opposite the arcane warrior. "She used to be amusing, light, playful. It grated on my nerves at times, but it was also part of her. I could not imagine a Leliana without that. Since Justinia died, it has been…no, that is a lie. It started well before that. It started when you disappeared, Warden. She is not herself. She is not happy. She has lost much. I want…" Her voice got lower than usual, quieter, prompting Solona to lean closer despite her aversion to the woman. "I want my friend back, Warden. She is my sister in all but blood, and I want her happy again."

"And what in the Maker's name am I supposed to do?!" Solona blazed, her hot-headed nature roaring forth. "I abandoned her, Seeker! To protect her, and my family, and my friends; I abandoned them all! I left no trace of my whereabouts so they could not be used to flush me out. I warned no one, and now they all curse my name, Leliana most of all. Do you really think a damn bottle of wine will fix it?"

"She is angry, Warden, it is true," Cassandra said, nodding. "She has no kind words to speak of you now. But I remember the stories. You set yourself afire to save her from a broodmother in the Deep Roads. You threw yourself into the archdemon's gaping maw in order to save her from what would surely have been a painful death. Your love… it is the stuff they speak of in the tales, the legends, and yet it is true, before me in the flesh, an inspiration. I… confess I would not have surrendered to the Inquisitor's affections had I not your story to serve as example of what love could be, what role it could fill in one's life, even a life of duty."

Solona continued to frown. "Is that supposed to make me feel better, Seeker? To be reminded of what I threw away, what I have lost? She will not speak to me. She will not hear what I have to say, and I cannot blame her."

"Is it not worth attempting to get her to listen to you, Warden?"

Solona shook her head. "Stop calling me that. Weisshaupt stripped me of the title. They are not my Order any longer. I am the sole living arcane warrior. That is the only thing left to me."

Cassandra frowned, slamming the table, making the mage jump. "Quit the self-absorbed 'woe is me'! You are an arcane warrior, the Hero of Ferelden, vanquisher of the Fifth Blight, and soul-mate of the Left Hand of the Divine! We need her at her best! We need you at your best! Fix this, Solona!"

The Right Hand rose then, walking away with that distinctive limp that sometimes troubled her gait. Solona just stared after her, surprise etched into her features. After a few moments, however, she got an idea. Getting up, grabbing the wine as an afterthought, she ran out of the tavern, leaving several patrons gasping and spluttering from the drinks she'd disturbed in her haste.

Five minutes later, she was climbing the tower to the rookery, Leliana's makeshift headquarters. She found the former bard staring out an open window. The draft was strong, but as the heat from the many fires below was funneled right into this lofted place, Solona couldn't deny that the bite in the air was pleasant. She did not attempt to be quiet as she climbed the steps, knowing Leliana would not hear her, deaf as she was. She did not attempt to sneak up on the deaf woman as she approached, however, making sure she drew the woman's sharp blue eyes to her.

"What do you want?" Leliana's voice was hard, despite the lilt it had taken on that only the deaf's voices possessed.

Solona knew this plan was incomplete. There would be a fight. She was counting on it, in fact. She needed to get Leliana angry. It had worked in Haven, back when they were newly intimate and Leliana had killed an innocent boy, and it would work now. It had to. She could not continue like this.

But how to provoke her? Leliana was so careful and controlled now. Solona needed the control gone.

Placing the bottle of wine upon the desk, she moved past the table to Leliana's side, looking down at the shorter woman. "I am sorry, Leliana." The spymaster could not hear her, but she had been reading lips since long-before she lost her hearing. She would know what the mage said, as long as Solona showed it to her.

Leliana frowned. Solona immediately recognized the line between her brows. It made her heart ache, her stomach clench. "Do not apologize to me, Warden-Commander. You had your duty, and you performed it. As did I."

"I'm sorry, Leliana," Solona repeated, finding the spymaster's gloved hand.

Leliana immediately pulled her hand free. "Do not apologize to me, Solona-"

"I'm sorry, Leliana."

"Stop apologizing, Solona!" The bard's temper flared, her eyes suddenly alight with fury. "A mere apology cannot make up for your abandoning us in our greatest hour of need!"

She reached for the spymaster's cheek. "I'm sorry, Leliana."

Solona's head snapped to the side with the ringing slap to her cheek. Her eyes watered as her head came back around, where she saw anger burning in Leliana's crystalline-blue eyes. "Do not touch me so, Solona. You… you…"

"I'm sorry, Leliana. Please forgive me."

"No! I will not! You hurt me, Solona! You could have saved the Divine! You could have stopped this! You… you abandoned me, Solona! Now you waltz back in here and you expect to waltz back into my heart! But I have changed! I cannot be so easily swayed! I have performed atrocious acts, sent agents to their deaths, ordered the torturing for information! And you were gone! For all of it! I am not the same! Do not look at me like I am the same naïve little girl you met ten years ago!"

Leliana had paced away during her speech, turning around at the last to look upon Solona once more. The mage merely stood where she was, a sad expression on her face.

"I am sorry, Leliana. I abandoned you when you needed me most. I was trying to protect you, to protect everyone, but I failed. I failed, Leliana! I am no hero, and I am no warden. I am stripped of everything. I have killed men and women too frightened to go through with the Joining. I have watched them die as the taint overtook them. I have ordered the death or torture of innocents for information. But most of all, I didn't stop Corypheus. I failed to protect my brethren from his influence. I should have… I should have known he was coming, should have sensed it, followed up on my cousin's report of him. I should have been there to stop his murder of the Divine, the marking of the Inquisitor, the destruction of the Sacred Ashes. I…" She got quiet, looking away. "I have failed so spectacularly."

She didn't know Leliana was upon her until she felt fingers lift her chin. Searching eyes met hers. "What did you say?" Damn. I forgot. She didn't see my lips.

"I said I have failed in every endeavor, every duty, ever placed before me. And I have failed you most of all." She smiled, a self-deprecating thing, as she continued. "I have only my love for you left to me. I love you, Leliana. I am nothing without you." She paused, looking deep into those eyes, so familiar, so beloved - and so sad. "You are my light, remember? You have had my heart from the very start."

Tears sprung in the bard's eyes. "How are we to continue, Solona? I thought you dead. We have both changed so much..."

Solona shook her head. "I do not think we are done. We have been through too much to be done. Somehow the Maker brought me back to you, Leliana. I… I cannot believe it was mere coincidence that the Inquisitor found me at Adamant, in that nightmare, and brought me back to the one place in all Thedas my light resides. I will not leave you again, Leliana. I will die before breaking that promise again."

Leliana was in her arms in seconds, tears falling and mixing with the kiss that had been three years in coming. She was overwhelmed by familiarity, so long denied her: scents of peppermint, tea leaves, sandalwood, and leather; the taste of a hot, insistent tongue; the overwhelming touch of her lover, hands searching, arms wrapping around her, that lively little body melting against her own. The feel of Leliana in her arms made her knees weak. They were both older, had been through so much, and yet here, in this embrace, was the same love and trust and heat as had ever been in their youths.

"Oh, Solona," Leliana moaned. Her hot breath washed over the mage's throat, sending shivers up and down Solona's spine.

"Leli…"

She was answered by that hot mouth on her jaw, trailing kisses down to her throat. Gloved hands clutched desperately at her clothes, nearly ripping the leather jerkin as ties were sought out and undone. Warm hands clad in soft leather then pulled her shirt from her trousers, sliding beneath and caressing her skin for the first time in years.

Solona groaned, ducking and seeking Leliana's lips once more. Their kiss was hurried, fiery, but she took a moment as she backed away to bring up her hands and cup that precious face. She looked down into those blue eyes of crystal, drinking them in, trying so very hard to memorize all the details that had changed. Leliana's skin had slight wrinkles in key places, a stray strand of grey here and there in her hair. Brown freckles that had not been there before now stood out on pale skin. But the eyes. Leliana's eyes held the same focus, the same intelligence, and the same intensity of feeling. Three years had done nothing to dim Solona's memory of these eyes, and now here they were before her, looking upon her with love once more.

Love, and desire.

With a slight growl, Leliana wrapped her hand around the back of Solona's neck, and then their lips crashed together once more. Solona had learned long ago what each touch meant, what it was Leliana was asking for – or demanding – depending on how she grabbed for the mage. This was a dance of frenzy, of not being able to get close enough. Her hands up underneath Solona's shirt, playing with her breasts; her hips already gyrating, trying and failing to catch any kind of contact with Solona's body; her kiss, all teeth and tongue and beautiful little pants of frustration… they all told Solona that Leliana needed her, and she was not getting what she needed quickly enough.

Grasping Leliana by her generous hips – the years of staying still had finally filled out Leliana's lean curves, leaving her a curvy little goddess – Solona pivoted, pushing the bard against the stone wall. No words were exchanged; that had halted during their lovemaking long ago, as Leliana simply could not hear her. She could feel her, though, and a delightful gasp escaped the bard as Solona pressed a knee between her legs. Leliana immediately began grinding against it, whimpering softly into Solona's mouth. Her hands abandoned Solona's breasts, taking hold of the mage's hips to anchor herself.

Solona, in turn, took hold of the bard's hips, both directing and stabilizing her movement. She leaned forward, catching Leliana's lips once more. All the sensations were utterly familiar: Leliana moving against her; the scent of peppermint and leather; the hot, sweet taste of her mouth; the little mewls of pleasure and frustration both mixing together in the air between them. It was somehow different, as well, perhaps because their surroundings were new, or because they were out in the open where anyone could find them.

Solona was unconcerned. Let them be found. What could anyone do?

The differences likely had more to do with the fact that they had not touched each other in more than three years. There were things that had happened to both of them that the other didn't yet know. There were thoughts in Leliana's head that Solona could not read, for they had been too long apart. But looking down into those cerulean eyes now, Solona was assured that they could get there again. It would take time, and patience, and practice – neither of them had confided in anyone since they had been apart – but they would do it.

Solona would make sure they did it.

Now, though, her only concern was this lithe, curvy little body in her arms. She started moving her leg, meeting Leliana's grinding with her knee and watching as Leliana's eyes rolled back before she closed them. A growl rumbled forth from the bard's throat, and she increased her tempo, holding so tight to Solona's hips that the mage feared she might leave bruises. The thought sent a thrill through her. She wouldn't mind if some mark of possession were left. She had always liked those in the past.

"Solona," the bard whispered, eyes snapping open. "Solona, kiss me, I'm going to-"

The former warden didn't let her finish, capturing those lips in a kiss just before the body in her arms stiffened. Leliana bucked several times, each grinding her center over the surface she had used to get herself to climax. Her tongue plundered Solona's mouth, her fingers digging in at the mage's hips so hard that Solona was now sure she would have bruises come morning. At last she stiffened, then fell limp, her head coming to rest against Solona's chest as her body trembled with aftershocks.

This feeling. This was what she needed. What they needed. Leliana, limp in her arms, allowing the mage to hold her, shelter her, keep her safe and warm, accepting her affection. This was what Solona had been missing.

"Alright, my beautiful girl," Solona murmured, knowing Leliana would not hear it, but not caring. Leaning over, she hooked her arm under the spymaster's legs, straightening with Leliana in her arms. The former bard hardly even moved, merely melting into Solona's embrace, nuzzling her cheek into the mage's shirt as she looked up into her face. "Where shall I take you, love?"

Leliana giggled. "I know you know where my room is, Solona." Both of their smiles were sad. It was true that Solona had stared up at the bard's window upon more than one occasion, and sometimes she thought she could see crystalline-blue eyes staring back.

"Fair," she finally said, moving to the stairs with her charge in her arms. The bottle of wine sat forgotten upon Leliana's desk.

"Solona?"

"Yes, Leliana?"

"Thank you. And… I forgive you. I know it's not all fixed yet, but…"

Solona smiled, ducking her head to kiss the very tip of Leliana's nose. "It's a damn good start, my dear girl."