The white light reaching for Ana was warmer than she expected. She held back tears as Fenris's face faded away. She thought she had prepared for, accepted her fate of returning to the Abyss, but that was before he found her. Seeing him should have changed everything, she wanted it to, she wanted to tell him of their daughter, but she had come too far, sacrificed too much.
Ana closed her eyes, anticipating the cold darkness she had known for so many centuries, but something was different. This darkness closing in around her was thick, heavy, her chest straining to take a breath.
"What is this?" she whispered, feeling around her, unable to see her own hands in the blackness. "This…this is not the Abyss."
"How right you are." a voice answered her. A voice she knew.
Snarling, Ana's vallaslin glowed, a failed attempt to light the room. "What have you done, Mother? Where the hell am I?"
The sound of heels clicking against stone echoed around Ana, her eyes scouring the darkness for any sign of movement. "You are right where I want you, daughter." Mythal's voice replied from the shadows. "I must say though, I am surprised at the mercy you granted the Dread Wolf. The amount of hatred you harbored toward him; I imagined taking his life would be the only choice to satisfy you."
"Do not speak to me as though you know me! I owe you no explanation. Now tell me where I am!"
Mythal chuckled, her tone condescending. "Why would I do that when it is much easier to show you?"
A dim light shone through a barred doorway a short distance away. Ana approached, squinting when the light hit her face. Beyond the bars lay a wasteland, a green aura hanging in the sky. Black veilfire devoured any foliage that once flourished. Looking closer, Ana saw images moving in the aura above. She saw Dayora sitting among the trees, a toddler in her lap. A dead rabbit pressed against Isena's lips, blood trickling down her petite chin.
"Good, Isena. We kill quickly and with mercy, and never unnecessarily."
"Where's mama?" Isena's bright golden eyes turned to her teacher.
Dayora pulled the little girl into a hug, kissing the top of her head as she rocked side to side. "Your mama's fighting for you, little one. She will return when she can, I promise."
Ana's cheeks were wet, hot tears falling to the prison floor. "Oh Isena." her voice cracked, her hand reaching through the bars for her daughter. "I'm here, my love, I'm right here."
"Aha! There's my little blood-suckers," a deep voice coated with a thick Antivan accent rolled from the vision above.
Isena lept from Dayora's lap as a hooded figure dropped from the trees, blonde hair peeking from beneath the hood. "Unca Zeban!" she squealed, throwing her arms around the figure's legs.
Zevran chuckled, pulling his hood down, kneeling to meet Isena's eyes. "I see you've been practicing your hunting. Soon you'll be better than your auntie over there." A teasing look shot in Dayora's direction before his face became serious. "It is gone, the trail a day old. We need to move and soon if we are to catch up to something that can fly."
Tears rolled down Ana's cheeks, the image fading away, her knuckles white from gripping the iron bars. "What is the meaning of this?" she growled through clenched teeth.
Mythal walked into view, now in the wasteland beyond the cage. A smirk pulled at one side of her face. "Did you really think my last soul gem wouldn't be warded? You're well beyond the Abyss, Anaris. You are in a prison within the Fade itself, doomed to spend eternity in that cell."
Shaking the bars, Ana screamed in frustration. "I swear, when I get out, I will kill you!"
"You can't get out, dear girl. And if your companions are foolish enough to seek your freedom, my Banal'ras will see to it that none of you leave alive." She glanced at the sky, turning away from Ana. "Enjoy watching the mortal world through the veil, those you love forever beyond your reach. Just as I watched, trapped in a mortal body too weak to make my own."
Ana pushed against the bars, her lips pursed as she lunged away, facing the dark. "So this is your vengeance. This is how you repay me for stopping your tyrannical rampage?"
Mythal's chuckle echoed in the darkness. "You can not fathom that of which you speak. How little you know."
Three years later
"Are you sure about this?" Zevran's tone was low, his hand on Dayora's arm.
She nodded quickly, rubbing her cheeks, attempting to hide the tears escaping her eyes. "It's becoming too dangerous for her. I've taught her all I can, and she deserves to know at least one of her parents. Ana spoke fondly of Fenris and trusted him, he will take care of Isena."
Zevran nodded, his brown steed pawing the ground. "Are we to pick the trail up again?"
Mounting her painted mare, Dayora pushed her braid behind her shoulder. "Yes. The high dragons are heading north, that can't be coincidence. Something is drawing them there and I want to know what."
Urging his horse forward, Zevran continued. "The last dragon spotted was a Gamordan Stormrider. She was seen passing over the Winter Palace two days ago. No farmers report a loss in cattle, and no sightings of her since. It appears she truly was 'just passing through'." He chuckled at the last part.
"Stormriders are found in swamp-like lands, and rarely venture near populated areas. For her to be flying openly over the city, something isn't right. She was flying north?"
His lips in a tight thin line, Zevran nodded slowly, his body moving with his mount. "Just like the Ferelden Frostback, the Abyssal High Dragon, and others. All flying toward Tevinter."
"Then I guess we head north. If something has enough power to summon all the high dragons in Ferelden and Orlais, I want to know what it is."
Zevran laughed, that infamous sound Dayora would recognize anywhere. "Says the one of us who can't die! 'Sure Zevran, let's go to Tevinter, hunt down dragons, save the world! It will be fun!' Ahh the things I do for love."
A wide smile spread across Dayora's face. She remembered the first time she saw Zevran, a handsome elf who looked like a fun toss in the sheets. She never imagined she would fall for him, or him for her.
She thought back to how relieved she was when she saw him for the first time after their parting in at Skyhold. He returned to Antiva, continuing his role as master of The Crows after the fall of Corypheus. It didn't matter that she had been gone almost three years, the second he laid eyes on her, he pulled her close, a kiss more passionate than she ever expected. It was that moment that she realized how deeply she loved him.
In time, she told him everything, including how Ana had changed her, made her a vampire, as they were called in the common tongue, but he didn't care. In fact, he seemed excited, intrigued at her new abilities. He even took to raising Isena.
A giggle passed Dayora's lips as she remembered how pale his face became when she told him of the child. "Is that? She's not-mine, is she?"
It wouldn't have mattered. She knew he would have taken to Isena regardless. She finally understood why Virana stood by Solas all that time. Love. Love is a powerful thing.
A low yellow aura emanated from the back of Ana's prison, her face barely illuminated. "Fenris." she whispered, her eyes closed, concentrating. "I need you Fenris. Please hear me."
A deep growl rumbled outside.
The aura in her hands brightened, her magic intensifying. "Save me, Fenris. Please. I'm here, I need you to hear me, I'm here!"
Ana? Fenris's voice echoed within the cell. Ana, wait! His image appeared on the other side of the room, thin, transparent like a ghost.
The growl evolved into a roar, four black eyes now inches away from the bars, a claw reaching into the cell. Her magic vanished, Fenris's image along with it. Ana threw her hand forward, fire engulfing the claw, causing the creature to reel back.
"My mother may have created you, demon, but I don't fear you. You won't stop me from reaching out, and you won't stop them from coming. Fenris will find a way to release me."
The Banal'ras sneered, its fiery mask of a face pulling away, its body climbing over the top of the entrance before disappearing.
Ana sat in silence. Was Solas's prison like this as well? How long had she been here? Days? Weeks? Months? It felt like centuries, the veil in the sky, her window into the mortal world, the only thing keeping her sane. Multiple emotions plagued her, guilt, sadness, longing, anger. The one feeling the eluded her, however, was hunger. She had not craved a single drop of blood the entire time she had been imprisoned. She guessed her mother's magic was the cause.
"Hello?" a small voice reached Ana's ears. "Is someone there?"
Ana's face whitened as she scrambled to her feet, grabbing the bars, pressing her face against them. "No." the word caught in her throat.
A young girl stood in the wasteland, her raven hair dancing with the wind. She hugged a stuffed mabari, spinning, looking for anyone who might help her. "Daddy? Daddy, I'm scared!"
Ana reached for the child, her voice refusing to leave her lips. The white bangs in the girl's eyes solidified Ana's guess to her identity.
"Isena," her voice trembled, the words meant to be a cry dripping out in a whisper. "You can't be here. You can't let the Banal'ras find you."
As if hearing her words, little Isena turned, her eyes locking with her mother's for but a second before she blew away with the wind, her image becoming dust.
Ana sank to the ground, soft sobs shaking her, her arm still outstretched. She would give anything to hold her little girl again.
The cold grasp of fear chilled her spine. If Isena found her, then her magic was manifesting. Would she be a Somniari? Would her power draw Mythal the way Kieran's did decades ago?
Present Day
Isena sat beneath a tree, her knees tucked against her chest, the white fur wrapped around her boots brushing against her chin. She couldn't get the image of the outstretched arm from her head, the voice so distantly familiar. Her gaze was distant, her mind so lost in thought she didn't hear her father approaching.
"Isena? Are you all right?" Fenris sat beside her, leaning against the trunk. "Was it the dream again?"
"Yes, but it was different this time. This doesn't feel like a dream, or a nightmare, it feels-like someone is calling, reaching out to me. She's trapped and needs our help."
Fenris straightened, his emerald eyes falling on his daughter. "What did she look like?"
Shaking her head, Isena stretched out, her legs straightening, the bottom of her half-coat rubbing against her middle back. "Normally I only hear a voice. It's as though she's worried about me, doesn't want me there. I never see her face, but this time, she reached out." Holding her arm out, she traced lines in her sleeve. "She had these red marks up her arm, leaves and swirls. And her eyes…" her voice trailed off.
"Isena-"
"Does 'Skyhold' mean anything to you?" her gaze was on her father now. "That was the last thing I heard before I woke up. It sounded like desperation. Like something important was there."
"Why would she want us to return there?" he mumbled.
Isena's head tilted. "You know her. You know this person in my dream, don't you? Who is she? What aren't you telling me?"
Fenris smirked, his gaze on the grass before turning to clear the blue sky. "It seems she has been reaching out to us both. Her name is Ana, Isena." He paused, hesitation weighing heavily on his features. "She's your mother."
Jolting to her feet, Isena stared wide-eyed at her father. "You knew? All this time, you knew she was the one calling to me!" Her fingers raced through her hair, her white bangs mixing with her onyx hair. "Why? Why didn't you tell me before? I have been having these dreams since I was a child! We could have helped her by now!"
Fenris hung his head. "It's not that simple."
Isena's face twisted in anger "All these years, for all your talk of how much you love her, you knowingly leave her to rot in the Fade!"
"Enough, Da'isenatha!" Fenris stood, his eyes black. "Don't you think I would have gone to her ages ago if it were so simple? At least she speaks to you in your dreams! I get to helplessly watch her disappear into the grasp of a demon! Do you think I enjoy that?!"
Isena's expression melted into grief, her hands cupping around her nose and mouth. "Mother has been so close, all this time, and I never - I never realized. We need to help her, I need to help her."
"And we will. If she's telling you to go to Skyhold, then its because there is something there that can help us."
"What happened to her? I mean beyond the 'she disappeared but don't worry, she loved you' speech. I want to know the truth about my mother."
Motioning for her to follow, Fenris walked toward their home in the trees. "I'm afraid it isn't so simple. However, the journey to Skyhold is a long one. I'll tell you everything on the way." He paused, his hand grasping the amulet under his tunic. "You're right, and you're old enough to know the truth."
Virana and Amelas sat quietly, a campfire between them. It was their second night since the slaughter of their clan, the reality only beginning to sink in. The former Inquisitor's eyes stared at the flames, the screams of her friends still ringing in her ears. She wanted to cry, scream, hit something, but she had no willpower to move. It was easy to keep her mind busy during the day, while they traveled, it was the peaceful nights that reminded her of the loss. She never realized how much she enjoyed hearing the children laugh as they chased each other around the aravel, or how Tenna's singing helped her fall asleep at night. She even missed Ghila'ni's story telling, never mind the times when the old woman constantly got the details wrong. She had taken so much for granted, and now it was all gone. The only reason she was even alive was by pure chance.
"Mother?" Amelas's voice was muffled when it reached her ears, drawing her back to the present. "Mother, you need to eat."
"I can't." her voice trembled. "I was their keeper. It was my job to protect them."
Her son's eyes softened, the desire to take away her pain clearly displayed on his face. "That was no ordinary dragon, mother. There was nothing you could have done. You saw yourself, the power she held."
"She was looking for me, Amelas!" Her tear-filled eyes met his sympathetic stare. "I made the choice to drink from Mythal's fucking well, and it was my presence that drew her there!" Her voice rose without her intending it to, her rage escaping in her words.
Poking the fire, embers rising in the smoke, Amelas sighed. "I understand your grief. They were my family as well."
"Then why don't you seem the least bit upset at their deaths?" she hissed, her cheeks wet, her hands clenched around her arms, her knees under her chin.
"Do not mistake my calmness for lack of grief. I mourn their loss just as you do. But taking it out on each other will get us nowhere. If you wish to release your anger, then we should find Mythal and seek vengeance on her."
Virana sighed, her hands pushing against her face. "You're right, I'm sorry. It's just - I thought when Corypheus died things would be over. Then your father disappeared, and-" her voice trembled. "This was not supposed to happen this way."
"Perhaps Dorian will have some answers at Skyhold. In light of everything, I look forward to meeting someone who helped my mother, the Inquisitor, all those years ago."
A heavy breath rushed from Virana's nose in place of a laugh. "Skyhold was the last place I expected to return after everything that's happened."