Chapter 7
Solas looks over the entire valley. This place was one of the mid-class settlement providing food and other raw organic materials for other regions during the days Arlathan was still standing; as something perfectly ordinary with nothing too stand out, who would have thought it would be the place for him to start an important step in his grand scheme?
Most of the elves here are training for the war or growing food to be sent out to the armies hidden in other areas. While they are not farmers and do not really have the experience or proper magic to perform the feats the farmers of Elvhenan could do, Evelyn's suggestion of enchanting normal farming tools and assigning people from Laleal, which has both humans and elves with experience in farming, into teaching positions has helped increase productivity.
More crops are being grown each day and with the magic of the Keepers, they can mature and be harvested much faster than usual. It is going so well that he had already sent the instructors to the other regions to start mass producing the crops. Their presences will also act as the proof that humans and elves can work and live together as equals, even family.
For the Circle mages, half of them here are working days and nights to establish the physical barriers that will filter the flow from the great Rift once it opens completely. Right now, there is only a small amount of the Fade coming out enough to influence just this place.
The other half of the mages are either protecting the wards around the valley or helping the Keepers to train the elven children whose magic are starting to come out due to the Rift's effect. The Elders protested quite strongly at first, but once the little ones' uncontrollable power starting to cause damages for everyone—plus, when it has become very apparent that the mages are here to stay—they have to accept the help whether they want it or not.
It also helps that Solas has specifically chosen only elves that are more approachable to humans to be allowed into this sanctuary. More will soon arrive at this place, and when the proper time comes, he will start introducing the people here with the more aggressive communities out there. And for clans that have a history of banditry and attacking outsiders, he will have to send them somewhere they cannot cause too much damage. Even if the humans are not here, Solas simply does not want to have that kind of elements in his main army.
As Solas is watching some elves trying to teach a couple of mages how to use normal weapons in place of staffs (with a varied degree of success), a group of young elves approaches him. He exhales inwardly.
Ah, so that part finally come.
His bodyguards attempt to block them but Solas just wave it off—the problem is already here so he might as well as get over it fast instead of ignoring it.
A young man steps forward. "My lord, please pardon our intrusion but we would like to request to be transferred for different missions."
"Are your current tasks not suitable for you?" Solas asks neutrally but he already knows the answer.
"N-no, Lord Fen'Harel," a Dalish replies, "We are doing quite well with our jobs but we all think that we could do better."
Another elf, this one not wearing Vallaslin, chimes in, "We believes that there could be more important things for us to help other than making supply and training, my lord. There are so much more to be done than that!"
The whole group then choruses the same sentimental again and Solas has to resist the urge to pinch between his brows. Every single time he starts building up an army or preparing for war, there are always a number of young people who think they are so much better than whatever task has been assigned to them. The troubling part is that if he cannot truly predict what they would do whether he fulfill their requests or not.
Most of these children think that war is glorious and are eager to get on the battlefield to prove themselves. They scoff at mundane activities such as farming and logistic providing, not realizing that those things are actually one of the main factors that will build up a great army. They also show a lack of discipline given that they try to bypass their own Keepers and make requests with Solas directly. And then…
"Please, Lord Fen'Harel!" A couple of them—mostly females—knee before him, trying their best to make pretty faces and pleading voices. "We will do anything to prove ourselves for you. Whatever you need, we can do it!" The tones and the way they positioning their bodies leave very little doubts of exactly what they are offering.
Solas clenches his jaw.
And then there is this type of ladder-climbers whose idea of advancing themselves is to shamelessly offer their bodies to him without thinking about their own positions. Of course, some of these women are quite attractive and had it was a couple of years ago, when he just left the Uthenera, he would probably spare them a thought or two just to entertain himself a little bit. But he is different now, years of having Evelyn all for himself had left Solas lost all interests in other women.
And speaking of Evelyn simply makes him even more annoyed by these fools. Just what they were thinking when they come up with this brilliant idea? Do they not know that he already has a bondmate? Did they think that they could try to usurp her place by his side?
Just when he starts to wonder whether he should send them all to latrine duty, Evelyn walks toward him with Loranil and Keeper Hawen following just behind her—they probably just came back from their little trip to check the outer wards.
Solas frowns when he sees that his bondmate is still covering herself with her dark cloak and white mask. Just shortly after she left here for her journey around the Dales, Evelyn had taken the habit of always hiding her true appearance when she is outside to ensure her support for their organization will remain in secret. He cannot fault her logic but for obvious reasons, he really dislikes seeing her like this.
Evelyn is still obvious to his discomfort, she just cheerfully walks to him and says, "All the wards are in good conditions, I think we can start to modify them to prepare for the Great Rift now."
He nods. "Very good. But did you forget something?"
"Forget what?" She tilts her head and Solas smiles. He reaches out and pulls off both her mask and hood off to reveal her face. Evelyn gasps softly when he does that.
"You forgot that I've told you we are at home, you do not have to cover up yourself all the time like that." He chides. "I prefer to see you this way."
She gives him a knowing look but seems to have decided to ignore it. Instead, she turns to the group before them and asks, "I see that you have some volunteers?"
Solas smiles humorlessly but still grateful for the fact that Evelyn understands him. After all, as the Inquisitor, she had to deal with these kinds of problems, too.
"Indeed. Perhaps you have some ideas of what jobs to be given to them?" Solas says, trying not to grin when out of the corner of his eye, he could see the female elves who tried to seduce him flinch.
Evelyn thinks for a bit before saying to the group, "We will soon open the gates for more people to come in. The secret routes around Thedas needed to be prepared for larger influx than we had expected. Our mages will help to enchant them but they will be quite vulnerable during those periods, perhaps you all may find it more excited to work as bodyguards to protect them? We also need more guides and scouts to lead the Dalish from the outside to here."
Solas suppresses his grin as he hears Evelyn speaks. All the routes are already enchanted, so the mages that modifying with them are already be safe in the first place. Those who take the guarding duty will only just stand around doing nothing and thus cannot cause troubles to other areas. With the other duty, the ones that actually need guidance for their ways are the mages and city elves, all the Keepers had already received instructions on how to get here so obviously the guides and scouts are unneeded.
Obvious to her little trick, the group quickly accepts her offer. His bondmate then instructs them to go and meet the appropriate agents to receive more information. She also asks Hawen to talk to the other Keepers for proper permissions.
Then, when the group was out of their earshot, Evelyn turns to Loranil and says, "Tell the agents to take notes on the performances and attitude of those volunteers. They may be a bit reckless but perhaps they can still do something if we know more about them."
Solas just smiles and shakes his head—typical Evelyn, never miss a chance to get more out of something. He waits for the Dalish agent to leave before taking her hands and suggests, "Let come back to the office for a break. You've already worked hard all morning."
When they are inside their office, Evelyn finally laughs. "Those girls really tried hard to get your attention."
"Don't laugh. You were in that kind of situation, too. Remember that time when that noble proposed to you?"
"I have to laugh, you did the same to me!" She taps his chin. "Don't worry, I'll do something to make sure that you won't be bothered anymore. We still have a lot of smaller projects so I'm there's something for them to do. Materials gathering, perhaps? We do need more varieties from the other regions while avoiding being discovered, having hunters and rouges for those jobs will be great."
He sighs in relief at the thought of not having to deal with that anymore. "Thank you, vhenan," he murmurs, pressing a kiss to the corner of her eye.
Evelyn just waves her hand. "Don't thank me, I have more works for you so it's not like you're free anyway." As she speaks, she hands over to him several missives came from the ravens before starting to undo the snaps of her cloak.
Solas skimps over the notes and comments, "It looks like that Leliana is doing her best to solidify her position as the Divine."
"Yes. But the scariest part is that Sera is helping her."
"Ah, that is certainly unnerving," he says dryly.
"But more seriously, Vivienne is building a new Circle of Magi. She has even appointed herself as the Grand Enchanter. Quite a few of the mages we didn't choose to make contacts with are trying to side with her." Evelyn's voice sounds quite strained as she summarizes. The sounds indicate that she is still working on the snaps.
"That will be a problem to us. More attention to the mages in the South means more people will notice Circle mages are missing alongside the elves."
"That's why I am planning to make some false flag operations in the North to gather people's attention there. Perhaps something that can also help Dorian?"
"That's good to know. I entrust everything to you then."
As Solas is writing new commands for the spies, his ears notice that the rustling sounds behind his back have not stopped. He turns around, thinking that maybe Evelyn is having troubles with her cloak but what greets him just takes his breath away instead.
Evelyn is standing there without a shred of cloth on her body, her clothes scatter around her feet. The bright sunlight from the window wraps around her body like a transparent cloak, emphasizing her bared curves.
"You know, I have to admit I was quite jealous of those girls, being able to feel so confident that they would try to seduce you," she says nonchalantly. "I think I should learn from them, too. Trying to entice you, I mean."
She tucks one of her arms under her breasts, making them bounce up lightly in a way that makes his crotch throbs. And he swallows when she presses a finger to her bottom lip coyly, looking oh-so-innocently at him.
"Did it work?" she asks.
xxXxx
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Her Wolf chuckles as he kisses her neck. Not long after that, she finds herself curls up in his lap on the couch, her naked form covered only by his robe.
Evelyn giggles, pressing kisses against Solas's neck. "That was unexpected!"
"But it seems that you do not hate it at all." He nuzzles back against her temple.
"I was surprised, but I definitely don't hate it." She confirms, her cheeks turn pink slightly. "You… trying out new things like that… I really like it."
"That is good to hear. Many people don't actually like to be touched there." Solas hums.
"Do you?"
"Well, just touching is enough for me." He coughs. "I do not like anything deeper than that. I've tested enough times to be sure of it."
"With a man?" Evelyn asks. She knows that Solas was, is, still very popular with women but she has not heard him mentioning his experience with men before.
"No. All were with women. I may have tried a couple of same-sex encounters before but they all never went too far than lips touching."
Well, this is not what she expected, she always thought that when one lived as long as her bondmate did, they would have had experienced practically everything. Evelyn asks, "You don't like men?"
Solas just gives her an annoyed look before signing, "Vhenan, just because I am this old does not mean I can just sleep with everyone. Everyone has their own preference and I've only ever attracted to women. So…"
He pauses for a bit before resuming, "Well, there have been a quite few men expressed their interests in me during my youth. Most of the time, I just ignored them but once in a while, there was someone with enough intellectual and aesthetic qualities for me to consider their offer. But it always ended the same. I tried to test by myself first to see if I actually attracted to them physically—I felt nothing. I then tried to actually do it with them—could not even get past the kissing."
Evelyn eyes him for a bit before concluding, "There must be something happened during those encounters. You sound so miffed."
He just cringes. "Let just say that some of them did not take my refusal lightly and were a bit forceful to 'prove' that they could change my mind. Fools. I shall tell you more about that in the future."
"As you wish." Evelyn giggles at his funny expression which makes Solas shot back a glare at her.
"What about you, vhenan?" he then asks, "I know I am your first and only partner but surely you would have had some feelings for others before me, at least?"
"Well, as you know I've never loved anyone else before you…" Evelyn's smile is strained as she recalls her past. "A few times, there were men who I thought as physically attractive, but that was it—I felt nothing more. There was only a single person whom I liked enough to consider the idea of accepting his offer to stay with him and his clan. But then I decided to leave."
"A Dalish?" Solas inquires and she could feel his hand on her shoulder tightens just very slightly.
"A First, to be specific. His Keeper was very welcoming to me. If it wasn't for clan Aridhel, I wouldn't have lasted for that many years in the wild." Evelyn recalls fondly. "I had my books and instructions but they could not replace proper teachers. Before I met Itha and his clan, I survived by scavenging or trading herbs and potions with the other Dalish clans or human farmers. Yet it wasn't enough, my health kept deteriorating despite using most of my time looking for food—I couldn't even do any research at all. It was all thanked to Itha teaching me proper hunting and other activities that I was able to care for myself better afterward."
"I see." From Solas's tone, it appears that he wants to ask more on why she left if she was happy enough with them, but he does not probe for more, and she is grateful for that. She doesn't want to let him know that it was due to Itha saw her soulmark and in her panic of fearing to be chased away or worse like several times before, she ran away on her own. If Solas knows, he will blame himself again.
Wanting to cheer up the mood, Evelyn returns to the previous topic. "So… about before, you said before that you had tried… umm, anal sex with women before? Did you… like it?"
Fortunately, her bondmate forgets about the previous conversation (probably) and laughs, "Yes, I did. Anal sex is quite pleasurable for me as long as I am not the receiver." He tilts his head at her, eyes hooded, fingers playing with her hair. "Are you interested?"
"Yes." She replies eagerly. "I've been wondering about it quite for quite sometimes but didn't sure how to suggest it first. And then you did that just now and it felt good so I want to try it!"
Solas smiles, it is a tender thing full of understanding, yet when he presses a kiss to her lips, she can even feel a little bit of lust from him.
"Then you shall. Just give me a day or so to prepare. I will make sure that your first time with this will be unforgettable."
"I know," she says before pulling him down for a long and deep kiss that soon turns heated. They still have works to do today but maybe there is just enough time for another round? Solas seems to think so too, with the way his hand stroking her bottom. Maybe they can start practice right away—
Loranil opens the door and walks in. "Pardon my suddenness, Lady Evelyn but I want to ask about…"
He trails off as his eyes land on her and Solas in a very compromised position, with her completely naked sans a cloak over her shoulders and her hand still dip into Solas's pants while his hand is groping her bared butt.
"ForgivemeIdon'tseeanythingI'llcombacklater!" The young man instantly pulls the door close as fast as he can and judging by his loud footsteps afterward, he is running away as if his life is depending on it.
Once again with just the two of them in the room, Evelyn and Solas look at each other before groaning, all of their lust had evaporated completely.
"I think it is time to get back to work." Solas exhales tiredly. Evelyn does the same as she nods, mentally reminding herself to always lock the door first before starting anything with Solas in the future.
xxXxx
Evelyn sits on the edge of the pool, letting Solas dabbing her dry with the white tower. They had just finished cleaning her thoroughly and the activity has helped her relax considerably. Not to mention, given that she had seen how Solas decorated the room—scented candles and oil, clean towels and controlled temperature—she actually feel a great anticipation for tonight.
Her beloved finally put the towel down and automatically, Evelyn wraps her arms around his neck as he moves to carry her. She giggles as he spins around with her in his arms, pressing a kiss to his cheek.
"You are not scared?" He smiles.
"No, a bit nervous but I'm really looking forward to it."
"Ah, then I have to give you my best performance." He says, placing her down in the middle of the bed that had been covered with clean towels and pillows. Everything smells and feels so lovely. Solas gives her a quick peck on the lips before turning to the basket of his "tools".
"Have you done this before?" asks Evelyn.
"Just three or four times," Solas replies, signaling for her to lay down onto her back. "Most of my previous partners had already quite experienced when I slept with them. Even then, with those few encounters, I actually didn't go to such extent in preparation as those women had done most of it beforehand to please me. You are the first person to completely leave everything to me."
"It's because I trust you." Evelyn lays her head against the pillow as she watches Solas warming the oil between his hand.
"I know, vhenan." Solas's lips curl up lovingly, his oil-covered hands touch her stomach and beginning to spread the liquid all over her skin. "Now, just relax."
Evelyn draws in a long breath and allows her body to go loose as she closes her eyes. Solas's fingers smooth over her muscles, kneading and releasing all the knots in her joints with the help of the pleasant heat penetrating into her flesh and bones. Sometimes his caresses turn teasing with the way he slides his palms over her mound and breasts, circling the peaks until they turn hard and then just leave them their wanting and waiting.
It does not take long for Evelyn's body to turn hot and aching for more. But she does not beg, knowing that she should endure it for the sake of tonight's goal.
She cannot stop moaning softly, though. And after a while, she hears Solas chuckles.
"Perhaps it is time for you to turn around now," he comments jokingly, his thumb rubbing against her lower lip. "If I continue to see your face like this, I may lose control of myself."
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When it finally ends, Solas collapses on top of Evelyn for a few seconds before attempting to pull out, but she stops him.
"Just a little more." She says softly, feeling so incredibly satisfied to the point she just wants to forgo the cleaning up part and sleep.
"Very well. But just for a bit." Solas replies and from his tone, Evelyn knows he won't let her sleep without proper aftercare.
Eventually, just as he said, Solas gently pulls out from her, leaving behind a gaping empty feeling in her backside. Her bondmate quickly wipes her with a clean towel before gathering her into his arms again.
He carries her into the bathroom and moments later, after has been cleaned thoroughly again, Evelyn finds herself sitting in Solas's lap as they soak in the steaming water infused with herbs.
She has barely said anything through the whole affair, too tired and boneless, but now that she has felt a bit more awake to notice the way Solas is caressing her. His fingers trace her cheek down to her neck and then shoulder—sweet and tender. His other arm is wrapping around her waist, keeping her from slumping forward into the water.
Evelyn takes his hand when it comes up to her cheek again and presses a kiss to the palm. She nuzzles her cheek into it, feeling the callouses lightly scrap against her skin until Solas pulls away from her hold.
He grabs her shoulders and turns her around to give her a deep kiss—his good mood easily transferred through it. Solas is always proud of himself like that whenever he makes her scream like that, which is very often, if not always.
"Thank you, my Wolf," Evelyn whispers when he lets go. "It was perfect."
"As it should be for my heart."
She moves around to embrace him, her nails lightly scratch his back as she nuzzles into his jaw. "Incredible sex and then a great bath. I couldn't ask for more for tonight."
"I also have some news for you…" Solas suddenly says, his voice uncertain. "I am not sure whether you would consider it good news or not but I believe you will find it important."
Evelyn doesn't comment, she just sits back to properly listen to what her beloved about to tell her.
Solas squeezes her hand. "One of the clans will be allowed in here in the next few weeks will be clan Aridhel, their leader is Keeper Itha."
She blinks, take a moment to take in the information before a small smile appears on her lips. "I see."
"You are both happy, and worried." Solas tilts his head. "Do you not want to meet them?"
"Ah, no, I do want to see them. It's just…" She glances aside. "I'm not sure if they are angry at me for how I left them back then like that. It was ungrateful of me, especially when they were so kind to me. And the whole time I was the Inquisitor, I was too scared to contact them since I didn't want the matter about me being your soulmate get worse than it was. Even so, I…"
She trails off, not sure how to tell Solas everything without making him sad. Seeing her hesitation, instead of staying silent like before, Solas takes hold of her chin and guides her face up to look at him clearly.
"Do you want to talk about it?" he asks and the look in his eyes tell her everything. He wants to know and to share it with her. Even if it hurts to hear it, even if it will make him feel bad, he still wants to hear because he cares—because they are bondmates, they are husband and wife, partners and everything that is precious to each other.
They are not supposed to hide away pains and sorrow to protect the other's feeling. They are supposed to share everything with one another.
Her lips thin, Evelyn mulls for a bit before settling herself back against Solas. His arms once again enveloping her. Taking a deep breath, she begins, "It started when I got caught in a trap…"
