Fuck, right?
"Your world doesn't exist in my world – Thedas is a setting in a story!" She shouted, trying to hold the willowy mage staff with two hands, unused to the power it drew around her. It felt so strange.
"I did my part, I restored Thedas. I closed the breach, and united Orlais from civil war. I dedicated myself to making each member of my inner circle happy. I did it all, even bought the mystery box from that snobby vendor in Val Royeaux." She raved, throwing her arms in the air. The snow around them left the air biting, and unpleasant. The rough clothes were patchy and itched. It was nothing like home.
Cassandra had half a mind to shackle this prisoner for her own safety. She was clearly deranged.
"I keep telling you, I am not from here. I am from a similar world. A world where I already know how the story is going to play out. How I got here, or why I am here, I don't know. You see, the world I am from, we indulge in these stories to make them our own. Like how you read a book, and you wish to be in that world. Thedas isn't my world, but I know a lot about it." Evelyn pleaded, trying to get someone to understand.
Cassandra wouldn't doubt that she didn't fit in here. She looked completely untrained for battle, like she'd never picked up a staff before. She looked awkward, out of place, shuffling and moving rigidly. Young, maybe early twenties, reaching a meagre 5 foot, she could almost be mistaken for a tall, clumsy dwarf. She did not look like a murderer of the Divine at all. Her hair was messy, blonde falling out of place from a small ponytail, her face dirty and smudged with ash, mud and some kind of foul smelling grit. Evelyn could barely keep up with a soldiers' stride, let alone sprint.
How this girl was meant to close the breach was beyond the Seekers' guess. She looked like a scullery maid, or some bookshop apprentice. Nothing particularily special about her. No toned muscles, no hidden secret winning tactic to save us all. Cassandra hated babysitting.
How was Evelyn supposed to explain to a character how she belongs in a different…well, dimension? She knew nothing of real combat, she barely exercised. She was isolated from her peers in the real world because she was too weird for them, she became an outcast. Short, blunt, and not ladylike at all. It was difficult for people to look past her flaws. She wasn't ugly, or mean, per se – just painfully average to everyone else. There was always someone better than her to get the job done. As her isolation grew, she became more reserved, more invested in this world where she could finally choose to be the hero. Then all this crap happened.
Any fan of the series would recognise the infamous green scar on their hand. This girl in particular was an avid fan of anything Dragon Age related. She could spot Cassandra from a crowd based purely on her accent. Too bad her favourite characters seemed to hate her guts right now.
"I know it sounds crazy. All I know is I finished the story, but it went wrong. There was something that happened at the end which wasn't supposed to." She stopped walking. "It's really important that we stop that ending from happening, I think that's why I'm here."
Cassandra looked at the prisoner with anger. What sort of jumped up privileged mage would make such poor tasting jokes in the face of the rifts and breach?
"We?!" Cassandra splurted out. This mage was speaking absolute nonsense.
The young mage just nodded.
"You are speaking of such strange things, you must have hit your head much harder than Solas claims" Cass began to walk, leading Evelyn to the torn fabric in the sky. They were yet to explain this all to Leliana, filling the silence with peculiar discussion.
"I get it, it's weird. Trust me, I know. But, uh… I-I can prove it, I guess?" She shrugged. It was met with a harsh scowl from Cassandra. The older woman was having none of it.
"You will close the breach, then we will have you prove your case to the courts of Orlais." The Seeker stated, ending the discussion.
Evelyns' heart sank. She felt destitute, alone and abandoned. She turned her game off, unplugged it at the wall. It wasn't real. All those decisions she made, good, bad, tasteless, charitable, kind, cruel… It wasn't real. They were just images on a screen, all make believe.
She definitely wasn't dreaming, though.
Ugh, it was frustrating. Her name wasn't really Evelyn, she doesn't really remember what it was. Here, she was Evelyn Trevelyan. She was a mage. But one thing she did know was that she didn't belong here. She belonged in the modern age. The modern age where she
See, this girl was just a normal girl. Had her classes for her studies, had a small weekend job, played video games, et cetera. For now, she'd walk with Cassandra towards Leliana and the Chancellor – hopefully finding some clues as to how she got here. Many, many different ideas ran through her head, none of them plausible.
"I need help, Cassandra – I shouldn't be here. I keep telling you-"
"You fell into the mirror. I know, you've told me. Over and over" Cassandra droned, tired of this conversation. Ever since Evelyn awoke, she claimed this ridiculous story.
Maybe if Cassandra told the Chancellor how this girl was clearly unstable, they'd make her execution painless and quick. This whelp of a mouse child posed more risk to herself than anyone else.
Once near a small contingent of soldiers fighting demons, Evelyn saw it up close.
First, there was a piercing tear in her eardrum, splitting and spiteful. That was the echoing scream of a demon.
Secondly, there was a powerful reverb in the ground. Demons didn't walk, their essence dragged across the soil, ripping their tethers to the fade. It made the floor vibrate with anger.
Last, there was the image of an oozing, burning mass of rage. It darted towards her, blistering heat radiating and cooking Evelyn's' skin despite it's distance. Fear took hold of the weak girl. Beforehand, Cassandra had made her fall back to safety. Evelyn hadn't used her magic. Well, she did when she played the game, but not in this world, where she had to really summon it.
'How do I cast?! Do I think it or will it? O-Or do I-?' Evelyn couldn't think, she couldn't move. Her feet felt as if they were magnetised to the ground – her legs unresponding. Fear caught her, and all she could do was stare forward in anticipation at the hollow, scorching blank 'eye' holes of a demon – hungry for destruction. Its limbs slashed forward, lunging its' body towards her at frightening pace, trying to grasp at any flesh it could tear. Before Evelyn could finish her thought, the creature stood still, a short few steps away from her, for a fraction of a moment, then was ensnared in a white mist. It only took a second for the mist to form into a solid, plate-like form, then shatter as if it were fragile glass.
A tall, pale and wise elf seemed to be the culprit behind the focused spell. Evelyn looked over with timid eyes, shaking from her ordeal of almost becoming a demons' snack.
'Solas' She thought. She was relieved that he was as good with magic as she remembered in her game, but she was terrified that the once proud dragon slayer, saviour of the breach, was nothing but a useless non-combat member of this 'team'.
Despite the middle of battle, she couldn't help but remember the twist at the end of the game, looking at Solas with new eyes. He was truly meant to be more than he appeared, but all she saw at the moment was a skilled mage. Albeit a smug git, but a competent man regardless.
Well, she could admit she was still a little sore from her previous experience with Solas, being Lavellan and all loving and doting beforehand. The raw experience of mortality and incoming death from all sides quickly refocused her attention.
Which means Varric is close by.
Evelyn turned her head, searching the battleground for the small fable teller, having fond memories of him. She wanted that safe feeling again. Cassandra was too busy fighting the demons at the centre of the area, slicing and cutting through the demons as if they were sacks of gushy meat – innards and toxic sludge being tossed about by her skilled blade.
Evelyn urged her feet to move, moving towards a dwarf with the trademark crossbow. She sucked air in, before she held her breath and ran towards him. As needles ran through the muscles in her arms and legs, she was working with pure adrenaline and not wanting to die. With that thought, a shimmering blue film enveloped her skin – cooling, but tingly. It made her feel a little safer, but it was a new feeling.
She's not sure if she cast barrier by accident and not wanting to get hurt, or Solas looked on her with pity.
Either way, she kept running to the side of the remaining shards of icy rage demon mess, towards Varric.
Covering her impending arrival, the dwarf shuffled around her to keep the kid safe. She promptly stopped and performed a double take, noticing how a shade was crawling from the gash in the air a few meters from her head.
Heart pounding, she was terrified and furious. She wanted to go home. She was aching, hurting, and she had enough. Evelyn didn't like it here, it was more fun when she didn't fear death so profusely.
Glaring at the rift, her fingertips tingled with a spark of defiance towards the shade. Her teeth grit together, she couldn't help but feel like it was the demons' fault for her being cold, tired, confused. Focusing on that evil prick, she felt a strong pulse from her gut, to her arms. The force was that of someone hitting a bone reflex and eliciting a jog of your limbs as a reaction. Her hands shot forward involuntarily, and the current flowed through, prickling her veins as it passed.
She saw bright thin strips and bursts of white shoot from her hands, making short work of the now electrified shade. It fell to the ground, limp and defeated.
Evelyn didn't breathe. She couldn't believe what she had done. Her skin prickled, as if she had an uncomfortable rash, but the knowledge that she did that filled her freezing skin with a flush of pride and embarrassment. It was crazy to think that she did magic, true magic. It's just fairy tale stuff.
Despite her astonished state, Cassandra, Solas and Varric managed to dispatch the other enemies. Evelyn was too engrossed at looking at her hands, capable of something new, staring at the green stripe across her palm. It began to glow again. Magic seemed to slowly pour from it like wispy glittering fog, gently rolling over her skin. It was cold, but also invigorating.
She didn't realise Solas spoke until he took her wrist and raised it towards the sky. Cassandra quickly took a step back, not sure what to expect. Mages, though, she was certain were out of her expertise.
'o-oh. Of course' Evelyn thought, feeling a little shame that she was so enraptured at her hands whilst her friends were in danger.
It felt like the rift was being pulled into her hand. Like someone was pouring cool water over a fresh cut to clean it. It felt as if something was being drawn in, her veins protested the new arrival, but the magic within her palm demanded the stream of the fade be collected. After a few moments, Evelyn could feel how solid the tear had become, and she could slam it shut, like a door, or folding a heavy piece of fabric. Ripping her hand away, she pulled a piece of the fade over the wound, sealing it shut.
It was heavier than she expected, and drew her breath from her lungs with force. Evelyn gasped to calm her burning flesh with air, almost choking on the unnatural feel of the fade around her.
Evelyn felt a rush, though. She felt overjoyed she was able to close the tear, ecstatic she lived with minor issues. But then reality dawned on her. Before her was Solas. Before, she - ashamedly- felt strongly towards this fade geek. But knowing what was to come scared her as to what this man was before her. What he was capable of, it was too much for her to come to terms with that she was face to face with someone she thought of as a close friend, or even a virtual romantic interest. Which, to her isolated state, was a big deal. Sad, but she stands by that this man wounded her heart in her game.
"What did you do?" She asked, unsure of how he was meant to answer that. It felt like the right thing to say to him.
"I did nothing." He calmly stated in return, gesturing to the mage infront of him. "The credit is yours."
Evelyn then realised that he misinterpreted her meaning, looking back to her mark on her hand. Her and Solas can be discussed later.
"You..mean this?" She asked, lifting her fade-linked hand.
"Whatever magic opened the breach in the sky also placed the mark upon your hand." Solas explained. Evelyn knew better, she knew it was Corepheus' foci which marred her skin. She scowled as he continued.
"I theorized the mark might be able to close the rifts that have opened in the breach's wake – and it seems I was correct." He lightly spoke, with expertise and knowing. Unbeknownst to him, Evelyn was almost just as knowing, and had the upper hand this time. She knew some more of the truth than her naïve playthrough beforehand. She demanded to have answers, but they can wait until privacy.
"Meaning it could also close the breach itself." Cassandra had walked towards the two, hopeful for the ordeal to be over. Evelyn felt bad, Cassandra was a good woman, and placed their failures on her own shoulders personally.
"Possibly" Solas remarked. Evelyn would be lying if she didn't take smug satisfaction in watching Solas be uncertain. It may be spiteful and wrong of her, but she felt wronged by Solas. She wanted him to trust her, she felt so much admiration towards him before, but standing here now – no affection could make it's way to the surface, only bitter 'what-ifs'. Evelyn looked downcast, knowing that these feelings for fictional characters was probably unhealthy and the reason she didn't fit in back home.
"It seems you hold the key to our salvation." She felt a bittersweet smile sneak its' way onto her face. How she believed that once. This time was different. Surreal.
"Good to know! Here I thought we'd be ass-deep in demons forever." A loveable accent slipped into the conversation. Now here was a character who was golden in Evelyns' mind. Was she glad to see Varric.
"Varric Tethras: rogue, storyteller, and occasionally unwelcome tagalong." He spoke, just as cheeky as Evelyn remembered. She smiled. A real, happy, loving smile to her friend. It felt nicer than just looking at a screen. Like he was looking right at her. She turned to see Cass grimace at his winking.
Varric was here, it was real.
"It's good to meet you, Varric" Evelyn grinned, unable to contain her joy. This was becoming very cool indeed. She didn't even recognise Solas making a joke at Varrics' expense. Evelyn just took in that she was really here – in Thedas. Infront of her was her funny friend, to her side was her most loyal role model, and behind is her fictional love – well, was.
