I always thought it was kind of stupid how if Alistair is interested or more in your character he never says anything to you about Cullen even though it's pretty obvious you two once had feelings for one another. So here I am fixing that. Final chapter!

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She had saved all but one of the mages that had been up in the Harrowing Chamber and at the time adrenaline and the will to deft the Templars hadn't let her feel it, but later Sonja had felt almost a little horrified as she thought about what Uldred had become, that she could become a monster like him too if she wasn't strong. Some terrible creature, grotesque and no longer human in any way. She knew she was stronger than Uldred, but she still feared that one day she might slip and bow to the temptation of some demon's promises. But that was neither here nor there. She had saved Irving and several of the other senior mages. They could, with the other mages and apprentices Wynne had saved, rebuild the Tower. It would take time, but she was sure that one day things could and would go back to the normal.

The look on Cullen's face had brought her mixed feelings. It had been almost satisfying, defying him, it was the first time she had been able to defy a Templar in any way. They had controlled her for so long, it was exhilirating to be free of their hold. But she still felt a stab of pain as she had tried to catch Cullen's eye and he had refused to look at her after it had been decided that the threat was nulified and the Tower safe again. Why did he have to hate her like this? How could he have really expected her to kill people she'd known her entire life? Innocent people? Just because they were mages they deserved to die? What about her? Did he wish the same fate on her? She understood that he had been through a lot but she felt his hatred was misplaced and she felt... dejected. For years seeing Cullen had been the high light of her day, a spot of sun shine in her otherwise shaded life, stuck in the shadow of her silent guardians and the stone walls of her guilded cage. It was... hard to suddenly have Cullen consider her an enemy of some sort. She didn't want this at all, she wanted him to smile at her and stutter a hello and blush when she touched his arm. But she supposed that there was no getting that part of her life back. She was a Grey Warden now and she had to shed her old life like a snake shedding it's skin in the spring to grow a new one.

Sonja had to leave behind her feelings for Cullen, they would get her nowhere, she had to leave the Tower behind to be rebuilt by those who could dedicate themselves to it like she no longer could, she had to carry on and finish the task Duncan had left to her and Alistair.

Speaking of Alistair. Sonja is sitting away from the fire, reflecting on the events that had just passed, seated on a fallen log, her knees drawn up and her chin resting on them, chewing on a long piece of grass and her green eyes far away. But she jumps back into the real world as some one sits beside her. "Sorry, didn't mean to startle you." She hears Alistair's voice say. She can barely make out his face in what little of the fire's light that manages to reach them. "It's ok, I was just thinking." She says, looking away from him and kicking a rock away with one of her boots. She could remember wearing these slipper-like shoes in the Tower, now she wears boots under her robes. "Wynne is worried about you." Alistair offers and she catches the unsaid words that he's worried too. Sonja smiles slightly. "I'm fine, really, just a lot to think about." She tells him, seeing him nod out of the corner of her eye. "Yeah... a lot." He murmers and she isn't entirely sure what he means but a slightly awkward stretch of silence follows and she isn't sure what to say to him. She'd really rather be alone right now. But Alistair is a little sensitive and she doesn't know how to tell him without him taking it the wrong way.

"So... you and the Templar..." He starts, trailing off and giving her a sideways look, obviously unsure about bringing this up. She and Alistair are friends but she's always been careful to keep him at arm's length and there are certain things she's purposefully never talked to him about. But now... the ghost of her feelings for Cullen aren't there to hold her back. "Cullen." She tells him and he nods. "And no. There was nothing between us..." She tells him and it hurts just a little bit to admit that out loud. For years that had been her wish, for there to be something, letting that wish go hurt, but just a little bit, the threads holding it to her were thin now. "I suppose I always wished there had been but..." she lets out a sigh and Alistair nods. "Would have been kind of difficult." He tells her, and Sonja lets out a laugh that is a lot like a scoff. "More like impossible." She murmers. "He was right, it was naive." She adds, frowning. And it had been. It had been naive and foolish, the wish of some silly girl. A Templar and a mage could never be together. Templars weren't allowed things like relationships, especially with mages, and mages were rarely allowed relationships either. There was no law barring them from marriage, but few had the courage to love a mage. "He still shouldn't have said those things to you..." Alistair tells her quietly and Sonja gives a sad smile, her eyes staring at nothing in the darkness. "No, it was a good thing in it's own way. I had been holding on to those feelings, I shouldn't have. He helped me even if he doesn't know it. I have closure now." She nods to herself, as if trying to agree so the opinion is more solid. "Even if he was an ass about it." She adds and smiles at Alistair. The ex Templar smiles back. "He doesn't know what he missed out on." He says quietly and then blinks and so does Sonja and he stares at her as she gives a small laugh at the look on his face. "I mean, objectively speaking, not in my own opinion." He clarifies and the mage just rolls her eyes. "Of course." She tells him.

"Come on. I'm hungry and Leiliana is fixing some sort of weird Orlesian soup that doesn't smell half bad." He says, completely changing and avoiding the subject and stands, offering Sonja a hand to pull her up. She never noticed until then all the little things Alistair is always doing to help her and, she knows in the back of her mind, to touch her. But she takes his hand and stands, even though she didn't need help to get off a log. "Gotta smell better than anything you've ever attempted to cook." Sonja teases and Alistair laughs, walking back towards the fire with the mage trailing after him. "You're telling me." Sonja just smiles and follows him, catching the smell of the soup and no, it doesn't smell too bad, smells pretty good actually. She looks at Alistair for a moment as he isn't looking at her, looking ahead at the group around the fire and she decides that things will be better from now on.