Her next stop was Dagna's makeshift workroom, situated in Divine Victoria's private quarters now that the Inquisition camp had been taken down. The heat of a makeshift forge the dwarf had somehow managed to build in the few weeks she's been there greeted Ellana as soon as she set foot inside the room.
"Dagna?" she called, not seeing the arcanist anywhere.
"Over here," Dagna called back from somewhere farther back.
Ellana weaved her way in between bits and pieces of machinery she couldn't start to identify, until she found Dagna leaning over a low table, working on something she couldn't quite see.
"Good morning, Inquisitor. No wait, it's not inquisitor anymore, is it? Should it be Herald?"
Ellana sighed and rolled her eyes. How hard was it for people to start using her name? She didn't think she'd been quite so aloof during her time as Inquisitor that it would be hard for her friends to start using it. "Ellana. Just Ellana. Or Lavellan if you really insist. I'm not Inquisitor anymore, and I never was the Herald of anything."
Was this how Solas felt about the name Fen'Harel? Like the title had swallowed him whole and that trying to regain a sense of himself as a person was near impossible? She mentally swore. She didn't want to think about Solas. Not now. Such thoughts led to too much pain and distracted her from what needed to be done. "You sent me a message?"
Dagna finally looked up from her work and grinned. "I did! It's almost done and I need you to try it on, see if it still needs more adjustments."
Dagna took the assemblage of silverite and ironbark she had been working on and proudly held it for Ellana to inspect. It looked like a forearm—which was a relief, seeing just how iinnovative/i Dagna could sometimes be—grey and brown and slick, each finger individually articulated using a series of gears almost too small to see. The whole thing was a miracle of dwarven engineering mixed with the arcane arts. But still…
"Will it truly work?" she asked.
"Only one way to find out!"
Ellana nodded in spite of her reservations about the new prosthesis. Losing her left arm had left her unable to tie her own hair, much left wield her bow. She hated feeling like an invalid. Every time she reached out with the arm that wasn't there anymore, every time she tried to do something she couldn't anymore, it hit her just how weak and vulnerable she was now that the anchor was gone. But she couldn't allow herself to feel weak and vulnerable, now less than ever. If Dagna's newest creation could help, she would be eternally grateful to the arcanist.
Without another word, she started to unhook the front of her tunic, the fingers of her right hand struggling with the task. The Dread Wolf take all those buttons! Perhaps not the best expression to use...
"Do you… do you need any help?" Dagna asked after a moment, sounding unsure of how the offer would be received.
Ellana huffed. "No, it's quite alright. I need to learn how to do it myself."
Finally, she managed to free her left arm from the confine of the pinned back sleeve. The stump was still wrapped in bandages, although the wound was almost healed now, thanks to the palace healers' care. She quickly looked away from it. It wasn't a sight that ever got easier.
"You don't mind if I touch it, do you? I need to touch it to adjust the prosthesis." Dagna hovered close, waiting.
iIt?/i For a moment, Ellana looked at Dagna, confused. Then, "Oh… you mean my arm. Yes of course, go ahead."
"It doesn't hurt, does it? If it still hurts, I promise I'll be really careful…"
"No, it doesn't hurt. Not anymore." For the first time in months, the anchor wasn't buzzing under her skin, just on the wrong side of pain, making it hard to sleep or focus on anything other than the knowledge that is was slowly killing her. She might have lost her arm, but at least she was still alive to fight another day.
"Good. Good. Now, let's see. It will be easier if you sit down. You're, well… you're tall, and I'm short, in case you didn't notice." Dagna waved to Ellana, than herself, to make her point, then pointed at her workbench.
Ellana didn't consider herself to be tall. She was definitely no qunari, and even humans tended to loom over her in most situations, but she supposed that for a dwarf she'd appear tall. "I noticed." She smiled and sat down, extending her stump forward so Dagna could better take a hold of it.
For the next several minutes, Dagna worked, mostly in silence, but sometimes muttering under her breath about gears and lyrium and enchantments. Ellana winced as the prosthesis pinched at her still sensitive skin. The longer this lasted, the stranger the sensation became. Her left arm itched and tingled and felt like she was slowly regaining feelings into fingers that didn't exist anymore.
"Almost there," Dagna finally announced. "How does it feel?"
"It's strange. Almost like it's my own arm."
Dagna grinned. "Then it's working! I wasn't sure it would work. I've never done anything like it before, but all my calculations showed it could work." She looked so proud that Ellana couldn't help but to smile back at her. "Now, try to move your hand."
Ellana did as instructed, although she wasn't sure how to do so. Was there something specific she needed to do? Focusing on the prosthesis, she willed it to move. For a moment nothing happened. Her smile faltered. It wasn't working. Then her hand quivered, then jerked once, before falling immobile again.
Dagna hummed, then leaned over the arm again to adjust a few things. The tingling intensified, making Ellana want to both scratch herself and, for some reason, sneeze. "Try again now," Dagna said.
This time, the movement was less jerky and more controlled. It wasn't perfect, but for the first time since losing her arm, Ellana felt some hope that she could perhaps wield a bow again.
"Good, good. Your fingers now. One at a time."
This was much harder to do, and it took Ellana almost fifteen minutes and countless tries before she managed to move them in any sort of independant fashion. By the end of it, she was sweating and panting as though she'd just battled a bear and barely won. But, she'd succeeded, and that was the most important part. The rest would come with time and practice.
"It's working." She hadn't really been convinced that it could.
"Of course it's working. After all, I'm the best."
"Thank you, Dagna," Ellana said with feeling. She nearly hugged the arcanist, but stopped herself at the last second. She didn't want to make things between them even more awkward than they already were.
"Think nothing of it. It was a good project. Now, if there's any more problems with it, you know where to find me."
Since the Inquisition was no more, Dagna had accepted Divine Victoria's invitation to stay in Val Royeaux, at least for the moment. The ex-spymaster knew to keep their best assets close at hand for the struggle to come. Ellana agreed.
Pulling her tunic back on was once again a struggle, but of another sort. Her new arm felt unwieldy and strange still, and not much help with closing the buttons. But she did manage, in time and without help. Finally, she gave Dagna a smile, bid her good day, and left the workroom. Once aside, she looked around for one of the palace guards. She had one more person to talk to before she returned to her own quarters for the evening.