The fire casts dancing shadows against the red wall beside their camp. Night has descended quiet yet swift upon the Forbidden Oasis and the Inquisition settles close to the swirling heat or deep within blankets against the chilled air. Solas digs a hand into the sand and lets the grains run through his hold. They sparkle in the firelight like stars caught within the earth. He lets out a content sigh as the last of it topples from his palm and then glances around at his companions.
There are a few soldiers he is not immediately familiar with across the flames. They talk quietly to one another while Blackwall sits silent nearby. His sword glistens in the dying light as he diligently drags a whetstone across its sharp lines. Sera long since disappeared into her tent mumbling about sand and sunburn and places best not mentioned in polite company.
Solas' gaze settles last on Keela close by his side. She looks towards the temple yet her eyes seem far away in thought. He admires the way the amber fire warms the deep color of her skin, eyes following the long line of her neck, his own flesh flushing as he imagines what lays beneath the collar of her blouse. She is a canvas he is newly discovering and while his mind yearns to sketch her again, his traitorous fingers ache to reach out and caress the artwork of her.
When he glances back up, Keela has turned her attention to him. The darkness and shadows make it difficult to read the expression on her face, but there is something in the curve of her mouth that makes him feel like a spider trapped in its own webbing. It is gone as the flames shift but he feels the effect of it blooming inside. In the next moment, Keela rises swift from her seat.
"Hear something?" Blackwall asks, hands stilling from their patient work.
"No. There was…something about the temple, something I just thought of that I'd like to try. I'm going to go back to take another look."
Solas frowns, cursed feelings swept aside at her sudden announcement. "It is growing late, Inquisitor. Can it not wait until the morning?"
"I won't be long. Would you care to join me, Solas?" He can tell by her tone and stance that she will not be swayed. He rises and follows her, if only to guarantee she does not walk into trouble all alone. They set off into the shallow waters and up through twisting rock cleared of debris and dangerous foes. Keela is a silent guide as they break from the tunnel and climb into the temple's main hall.
"Come." She waves for him to follow her down the steps towards the chambers below.
"What is it you seek?" he asks as they pass across ancient stone. Despite the late hour, he finds himself curious to hear her latest ideas. This structure is foreign to him, truths covered in a mystery not even forays into the Fade have revealed. He wonders what lays beyond the remaining doors, but academia and archaeology fly from his thoughts as Keela faces him. She stands next to the shimmering elven artifact with elegant fingers steepling against the table's surface. In the ghostly glow of the sphere's light, Solas watches her face transform with wicked mischief and he feels afloat in an ocean with no bottom at the sight.
"I wish to pray," she answers, voice echoing across the chamber and through his bones.
Solas coughs, thrown enough to let his confusion show across his face and weave into his words. "I beg your pardon?"
"It is the temple of Solasan, is it not? I would pay my due respects to its patron." She stalks closer, slow and wild at the same time, and traps him between the table and the unavoidable presence of her body. Her breath is warm and wet against his cheek as she slides her lips to his ear. Keela leaves a soft kiss against the lobe before pulling it gently between her teeth and Solas shivers despite the heat building between them.
"I would kneel in front of Pride and worship him with my mouth." Her fingers slither beneath his tunic, lift it away without resistance, and he can feel the electric hum of the artifact at his back dance across exposed flesh. Nails scrap lines across frozen muscles that twitch awake in the wake of her touch. Lips sear across his jaw and follow a fluttering pulse until she captures his own. She pushes him further into the stone and the way she moves against him beckons his blood to pump faster. It's blaring in his mind, drowning out the warnings, damning him as much as it thrills.
"Keela." His voice is sharp, hands hard as he grabs her elbows and holds her away. She stops and looks up at him, her hungry expression still tightening everything inside into knots, but there is concern and confusion spreading within. Her demanding fingers come to rest high against his chest, waiting.
He tries to remember that her playful words, however devious she is trying to be, are innocent of the darker, older commandments binding his soul. This is a game, nothing more. His worries begin to fade with every quickened breath still leaving his lungs, drift away as she captures her lip between teeth. There is only the now of this world for her and he finds himself desperately wishing to live in it too.
Keela tests the hold of his hands and finds his defenses weakened. She kisses across his shoulders, down above his heart. Arms slide down his, striking like matches, lighting an inescapable fire inside. As she sinks lower, Solas lets his hands fall away and grips the table's edge to find support from this onslaught. The way her fingers sink into skin, the way her breath blows across the fine hair of his abdomen as lips leave traces of moisture, makes his ribs feel too tight and causes his body to shudder.
She pauses to bite at the line of his trousers, glancing up at him with eyes blazing. Keela smiles, red lips widening like the constant, open wound against his better judgement inside, and he knows everything about her is fatal. "Would you like to watch me pray, Solas?"
Her grin grows with the subtle nod of his acceptance. Eager fingers make quick work of lacing and free him from the rest of his clothing. His knuckles turn white as she grazes caresses over his straining cock, lips teasing, tongue tasting, and he sighs when her mouth wraps tight around the tip. Solas sucks in a breath as she hollows out her cheeks, lets it out in a shaky exhale as she pulls more and more of him inside, slow and torturous.
He watches her head bob, languid strokes growing faster, harder, and it takes all his concentration to remain standing as her tongue curls and swirls around the head with every passing. The heat of her mouth spreads into him, rolling and coiling low, rising up his chest until he is flush and left panting. Pain mixes with pleasure as she drags nails up and down his sides, digs them into his hips. Her name is a strained whisper this time, mingled among low moans caught in his throat, and Keela hums in appreciation. It rattles through him, loosening the last threads of his self-control.
One of his hands reaches out to grab hold of her black strands and urge her to follow the pounding rhythm of his want. Keela resists briefly and he feels her smile around him before letting herself be moved. He sets a quick pace and watches her face carefully, watches himself disappear and is lost to the way she closes her eyes in determined concentration. There is too much heat, too much of her perfect touch, too much to hold onto. Keela pushes past his own demands and takes all of him deep until her nose is pressed into his stomach. She glares up at him with that dangerous, challenging spark bursting in her eyes and when she swallows he can't help but bend forward as the sensation jolts sharp through every muscle.
Solas yanks her back with groan bordering on a snarl and stops himself from plummeting over the edge. His other hand clasps her shoulder as he takes greedy breaths to try and settle himself and stop the room from spinning. Keela rubs gentle circles into his sides until the pleased smirk on her face starts to slip to disappointment. "That's it? You-"
She gasps as he hauls her up by a fistful of hair and the fabric of her shirt and spins them to slam her back into the table. Fingers move and wrap around her neck and Solas pushes her over the stone until her shoulders touch the tabletop. The light in her eyes shifts at this new development and Keela brings her legs around his waist, body already bending up to meet his in anticipation.
Her heartbeat races beneath his thumb as he leans over her and brings his lips close to hers. His voice rumbles through her, promise and demand building together, and it is her turn to shudder. "No. I have not had my fill of your praises just yet, vhenan."
His whispered words have the desired effect. Keela laughs, choking the sound as she bites into her lip and glares at him. Their fingers dance to undo the clasps and lacing of her clothing with her breath coming just as swift as his did moments ago. He knows she loves to push him, to break the skin of his control and discover what lays beneath. And he loves to show her, to make her whine with the want of it all until they are both ripped apart.
When they have freed her of all clothing, Solas pulls back to look upon her. The artifact's influence shimmers over her skin, tendrils of green light and black shadows licking across her stomach, her chest, her throat, raising goosebumps across her flesh as surely as the cool night air caresses them both. The hand at her throat releases to travel the long line down her body before he stops between her thighs.
Keela squeezes her legs in an effort to bring him nearer but he presses back intent on making this night last. He takes his time, thumb brushing lightly over her clit, fingers slipping slow inside, eyes watching every inch of her react to his touch. Her disapproval melts away as he presses harder, moves faster. Desire howls deep within him to see pleasure twitch beneath her skin and spill from her in moans and gasps. Her arms lift to grasp the edge of the table behind her, back bending to push herself into his hand as much as she can, and he is overcome by the elegant canvas of her body displayed only for him.
When she trembles, voice and control stretched thin to the point of breaking, he eases his caresses until fingers still completely. A blissful sigh turns into a frustrated yelp and the Fade bursts in bright, angry sparks in her eyes. She sits up with demanding nails digging into his flesh. "Vishan-"
His hand snaps up to grab her jaw and halt her words. "You promised me offerings and I would hear them. Tell me what you want."
Keela twists her lips in annoyance, eyes defiant. She is not one to beg but to take what she wants. This is her game, however, and he will see them both playing by the rules. There is a moment he thinks she will resist as a sudden shyness flickers across her face, but it is burned away by that stubborn resolve to rise to any challenge.
"I want your lips all over me. I want your teeth to leave marks and make me cry out." Long fingers graze down her neck as she drops back onto the table and swirl across her collar before palming her breast. She grips the nipple and twists just enough to pull a moan from both their lips as her other hand scratches down her inner thigh.
"I want you inside me. I want you to fuck me until I'm screaming. I…I want-" He takes hold of himself as he watches her fingers disappearing into her heat and pumps in time with the agonizing rhythm she sets until he is hard enough for it to hurt. Keela tilts her head back, eyes fluttering closed, and he knows she's almost lost to her own touch. Solas leans over and shivers from her groans as he slides through her folds, teasing sensitive flesh and coating himself in her arousal.
He kisses the thrumming heartbeat in her neck, teeth grazing when all he wants is it to devour her whole. "Tell me, vhenan."
"I want…oh gods, I want you Solas, please. Please!"
With that all further thoughts of the game fly from his mind. He thrusts inside her, stilling only long enough for them to draw breath, before he gives her exactly what she wanted. Lips and teeth follow the path her fingers once pioneered as he snaps their bodies together hard and fast. She cries out his name when he bites down on tender flesh and rolls his tongue atop stiff peaks. Her warmth surrounds him, overwhelms him, and he cannot escape from this pressure building low and growing fast.
Solas lifts away and digs into the flesh of her thighs to push them further apart. The sight of her tangles every knot inside even tighter. Her hand holds fast to the edge of the table while the other works to push her over into oblivion. Watching her writhe beneath him, hearing the echoes of their efforts bouncing back, and feeling her every quake of ecstasy sets ablaze his veins. She is all that is sacred in this place, a goddess trapped within mortal flesh, and he hears a righteous chorus in every one of her screams. Their eyes meet and he burns beneath those divine eyes, the utter power of her compelling praises from his own lips as the tension inside finally snaps.
Release washes over in him in pulsing waves as he comes and he can do nothing but clutch to her as he's tugged under over and over again. A few seconds later, his ringing ears catch the sound of her cresting before she contracts around him. He doesn't bother to stop another groan as her orgasm draws out his own with every shudder until he wonders if there will be anything left of him to piece together in the aftermath.
Solas slumps atop her body as blissful exhaustion settles into every nerve and fiber. He listens to Keela's quickened breath and heartbeat thumping against his cheek as she floats down from her own high. They are both loose and languid, sweat peppered and panting. Arms haul him upwards and Keela presses her lips to his forehead, the bridge of his nose, and steals the sighs from his mouth.
She smiles and it blooms into quiet laughter that he cannot help but joining in. Solas feels weightless and worriless, and as he places a kiss over her heart, he is the one to send a silent prayer to whatever force placed her in his path.