Much to Cynthia's surprise Cassandra made good on her promise within a matter of days and though it had been a bit of a squeeze there was now a pretty comfortable bed in her newly assigned quarters, it was official and everything. She was still expected to perform the same duties as before, as she was still technically part of the mage alliance despite her odd circumstance, and found that she was getting quite proficient in her healing spells.
This, however, didn't help her with a particular circumstance that she found herself in while curled up in her new comfortable bed. Mother Nature had sent her monthly gift, this time it had come wrapped in barbed wire and a bad attitude. It was not her first period in Thedas, that had happened in Redcliffe and was an entirely different debacle, only this time she had run out of what little ladies problems supplies she had been fortunate enough to have with her when she transitioned into Thedas. Her cramps were usually quite mild and could be controlled with hot water bottles, chocolate and paracetamol but seeing as she happened to have none of those things available any longer she was unsure how to deal with the problem. When the first wave of cramps had started she had in fact gone to her mage friend, Ella, who said that she was unsure how to help as she didn't get them but she did provide a reliable spell to get blood out of clothes, so that was a plus she supposed. She then went to the healing tent to ask one of them for a poultice recipe or something but they shooed her way saying they had more important things to deal with than her menstrual problems. Her hackles rose at that, it wasn't liked she was in their way and they didn't need to be so rude to her, though it was possible her hormones were making her slightly more confrontational than normal. After the shouting match ensued Cynthia was banned from the healing tent until she could get herself sorted out, this added fuel to her fire as she stormed away.
In the end she resorted to gathering a few healing herbs and boiled them into a tea. The result was something too bitter to finish and made her feel a little too lightheaded for her liking. So that left her to curl up into the foetal position in her bed while attempting not to move too much. She had done everything she could think of but her failures just left her drained and she was fighting to keep herself from crying. She missed being home with all the comforts that came with, pain medication, hot water bottles and comfort food were at the top of her list. Then her mind drifted into what she would be doing if she were home. She would be sat in bed with a hot water bottle on her belly, pain pills on the bedside table, Netflix on her laptop and a bowl of warm cookie dough. Cynthia had come to have a constant supply of the stuff in her freezer in case of emergencies and she really wished she had some. But she had once tried to explain pizza to one of the Skyhold cooks only to be shooed from the kitchen and she was pretty sure she would get a similar reaction if she asked for cookie dough. Though the pain seemed to be making her hallucinate as she could practically smell the sweet dough and feel the heat radiating from nearby.
Slowly she peeked out from beneath her blanket to see that there beside her bed was a young man holding what looked like a baking tray in his hands. She bolted upright in her bed and the abrupt movement sent shocks through her body complaining at the sudden shift. She was about to ask what he was doing when she realised that in his hands he held a hot looking tray and despite the unfazed expression on his face she could see his fingers blistering an angry red. Quickly she took the tray from him, slightly singing her fingers in the process, and dropped it as gently as she could onto her desk. When she turned back around she noticed his lips had formed a frown as she started to fuss over his burnt fingers. She took his hands in hers as she began to recite a healing spell that she used quite often in the healing tent.
"I came to heal the hurt. But I did it wrong and now you are trying to heal me." He told her as he tried to pull his hands away but she kept a tight grip until she finished, though she had a suspicion that if he had really wanted to he could have pulled away from her grip. "You shouldn't, I'm not real but you are and you hurt. Stinging. Biting. Fingers a distraction. Churning. Twisting. Knotting. A red flower blooms but the thorns catch. Tearing. Gouging." She looked at him strangely as she gently took a glob from the gloriously warm dough and retreated to her bed to enjoy the comfort food. She wasn't sure how he had known about her mind in that way but she was glad to have a little bit of home to drive away some of the menstrual sting. Wait, was that what he was taking about, how on earth had he known? She was about to ask when she looked up to where had had been stood to find nothing but an empty space. His exit had been as silent and seamless as his entry making her wonder if the herb tea had made her hallucinate the whole thing. Until, of course, she looked over at the cooling tray of cookie dough.
A few days later she was quietly holed up in her room when she heard the most peculiar sound, knocking at her door. It seemed almost foreign as very few people came down to the lower level and even fewer still came to visit her. Despite the oddity of it she answered the door to find Varric stood with a relaxed smile on his face. He asked her to join him for a drink in the tavern, said that she was on the way but she knew that her room wasn't on the way to anywhere.
"Hey Dimples, I was on my way to the tavern and just happened to be passing by your place, you want to keep me company?" The dwarf leaned casually on the door frame as he put forth his invitation.
"Well… you never seem to be short on company." She replied a little awkwardly, the book she had been reading still clasped in her hands, Cynthia had just found the tome and it seemed to be a promising read. "You just walk into a place and your fans flock over."
"Humour me? You spend so much time cooped up, it's not healthy." He said this like he had seen something similar before and regretted not doing more. The thought crossed her mind to decline and return to her book, maybe the answer to her being in Thedas was within the dusty pages she held in her hands, but the look on his face weakened her resolve considerably.
"I guess it'll make a nice change." She could always read the book tomorrow.
The tavern was loud and radiating booze induced happiness. Bull's chargers sat in what appeared to be their corner of the tavern, they were hard to miss. Sera was flitting drunkenly around the tavern with a mischievous look on her face that clearly made a lot of people nervous. Cynthia and Varric sat at the bar and shared few quiet moments sipping their drinks.
After a while she started to loosen up and feel more like herself. Since coming to Thedas she had been assaulted by a demon, been indentured to a Magister and when she finally thought she was safe a fucking red lyrium dragon showed up. She had spent every day either terrified or focused on getting home. She had barely given herself time to breathe let alone enjoy herself.
Varric tried to teach her a game called Wicked Grace and she in turn introduced a few others to Ring of Fire, though it seemed the cards they had were different to the ones she was used to. It ended up making the game a strange combination of both games that only really made any sense if one had had a certain amount of alcohol in their system. As Cynthia had predicted their table was quickly filled with people attracted to Varric's wit and stories, the turn made the night far more enjoyable and remarkably hilarious.
The first rays of sunlight painted the sky by the time she stumbled from the tavern to find her way home. Varric seemed to have a swish room in the tavern, though apparently not as good the one he had in Kirkwall, so Cynthia was left to stumble through the empty halls of Skyhold alone. The courtyard and great hall were well lit but when she reached the lower levels the darkened corridors were almost pitch black. After several fumbled attempts she managed a little flicker of veil fire in her palm to light her way, she didn't know her movements were being watched nor that when she eventually found her way to her bed and fell into a drink induced sleep that her observer would be waiting for her in the Fade.
Arainia emerged from the cavern holding the mysterious elven amulet that had been calling to her for months on end. It was a relief to finally find the elusive object and when she handed it over to Myra the coven leader looked pleased.
"Well done Arainia, we will take this back for further study." The elder witch smiled before she turned and they were back in the camp.
The fire was wonderfully warm as she sat beside her brother listening to the wondrous stories being spun by the bards. As she was taking a sip from her frothing mug Arainia noticed that she couldn't quite focus on what the storyteller was saying but it was like he was underwater.
Then she was alone in the bustling camp, she could still hear people but they were nowhere to be seen, the fire flickered strangely when she looked directly at it and she found she couldn't quite remember how she had gotten there. Cynthia paused for a moment as she looked down at the amulet that hung from her neck. She had never retrieved this nor had she returned to camp.
None of it was real.
"It is quite real." An oddly familiar voice said from behind her causing her to spin around.
"S-solas?" Cynthia asked confused as to why he was there and also why she was there. Nothing was making any sense.
"Yes it is me." He confirmed as he stepped closer to her. Had she been a native Thedosian she probably would have questioned that, assuming he was a benevolent demon bent of possessing her body, but as it was she was still a stranger to so many things and despite the lessons she had been receiving from the rebel mages there was so much that she didn't know. "We are in the Fade, if you had not yet guessed."
"The Fade? I'm dreaming? But… no, when we dream we go into our own subconscious, you're just a part of my dream. Though why I'm dreaming of you is something I'm going to have to think about later, are there therapists in Thedas I wonder?" She mumbled to herself as she retook her place sat in front of the large muted fire pit.
"I too am quite real." As he spoke he walked closer but his posture was different, the way he held himself, and he had this look that she just couldn't process the meaning of. "Do not doubt that."
"That is precisely what a figment of my imagination would say." She shrugged despite the odd chill that ran through her.
"Come now, you have been in Thedas for long enough, you must recognise this as the Fade or at least different to how your dreams once were." He pressed further, not showing any sign of the frustration he must have felt.
"Well…"she paused as she actually started to consider what he was saying to her. "My dreams have felt a lot more linear I guess." Maybe he was right, as this thought dawned on her she noticed he was becoming less interested with her and more with the surroundings that they were in.
"I see that your world is not as different as you made it seem." The elf wandered around the encampment noting the bell tents, large log fire pit and the carved wooden tankards strewn about the place, though she could tell he had also noticed the electric lamps, plastic lawn chairs with haphazard fur draped over them and the little solar powered lights placed strategically around guy roped areas. Though when he found a LARP safe foam wand he was a little less than impressed when he picked it up and it flopped around like a limp… fish. Nope, nothing phallic popping into her mind at all or that would have been hilarious.
She managed to stifle her giggles long enough to say "This isn't where I live. This, this is a…" she wasn't sure how to phrase it, surely calling it a game wouldn't make any sense to him. Cynthia spent the next few minutes trying, and failing, to explain to the mage what live action roleplay was. In frustration she raked her hand through her hair but paused when she realised that Solas had become very still, almost like he was frozen to the spot. "What?"
"You… are an elf?" He barely seemed to be able to get the words passed his lips, the unnaturalness of what they meant clearly making it difficult for him to say.
"Huh? No. Oh, crap." The words tumbled from her lips as realisation slowly dawned on her that she was in her LARP gear, fully equipped with her rubber elf ears. Quickly she moved her hand to the exposed ear and pulled the latex pointed tip off to reveal the completely normal human curve. A sharp intake of breath was followed by a sound of horror and then what she could only guess was an intrigued noise. He moved closer and inspected the flesh coloured rubber in her palm, very deliberate in his movements so not to touch it.
"Why would you wear such a thing?" He queried clearly quite offended after he had had time to process what it she was held in her hand.
"Look, this would be much easier to explain if I could show you what my world was really like." She paused as mid-sentence the world around them flickered and changed until they were stood in the middle of a bustling city. It was almost like a scene from a movie, they were stood in the middle of a square surrounded by tall buildings, traffic lights, cars speeding passed and dozens of people going about their days but everything seemed to be frozen in a single moment. Light trailed beautifully from the cars that should have been in motion and everything was deathly silent. She then noticed she had changed into her everyday clothes, denim jeans and a fandom related top, making Solas stand out in his hobo mage apparel. "Huh, I didn't know I could do that… feels a little Matrix-y for me though."
Solas walked around the square, at the paused people, at the blurred cars, the green glowing traffic light and pretty much everything else in the vicinity. He stopped every so often to point something out and ask questions. Cynthia felt like she had just let a five year old loose in Toys'R'Us but she answered all his questions the best she could despite her not knowing the more technical aspects he was curious about.
"You said that your world was without magic." Solas stated rather than questioned but cleared still expected an answer from her.
"It is, we run everything on electricity and no, we generate it through technology, we don't have any mages." She tried to explain but had never really been very good at that kind of thing so she felt a little out of her depth.
"You are proof that does not hold true." He pressed clearly trying to further his understanding of her and her world.
"We don't have Lyrium or the Fade either so that might be a thing." She countered.
"This still does not explain why you wore the trappings of my people." He rebutted causing her to falter slightly before she puffed up and took a deep breath.
"Okay, well, we don't have elves here or qunari, we do have dwarves but they are a little different to the ones you're used to. In my culture it's all regarded as fantasy and some people, people like me, embrace fantasy and show our appreciation for it by different means. Some people read books, watch films and some of use kind of… act it out? I know it sounds weird, not everyone in my world gets it but there are a lot of people who like this kind of thing ok? Anyway, the ears, in the system I was involved with elves were quite rare and very respected creatures, you have no idea how much it took to convince the event runners to let me be one. My character, Arainia, was quite a powerful coven witch and when I finally got my first piece of personal plot, driven by her elf blood, it lead to me finding that stupid mirror that pulled me through into Thedas. The exact kind of wonderful magic filled place I have wanted to visit since I first watched Lucy step through the wardrobe and then it turns out to be full of demons and scary ass dragons and weird creepy Magister god wannabes." She paused and looked back to the apostate. "Sorry, I stumbled into a little rant fest there."
"Your manner makes me wonder if Sera fell from your world too and simply forgot." Said offhandedly catching her a little off kilter. "But I think this is enough for one night, we can talk further when you awaken."
Almost simultaneously with the words he had spoken Cynthia bolted up in her bed wide awake.
"What the hell?"
