AN: Finally, have some fluff. This is a semi slow burn Solasmance due to the issues they have to work out mostly on the old wolf's side. But people harboring secrets are wary anyways.
()()()()()()()()()()
It was admittedly, becoming a habit for Solas to wake at dawn and observe from his location as the dwarf and elf silently would go away from the camp to watch the sunrise. This morning however the dwarf was off to the side with Ser Barris, whom was asking questions quietly. For a templar, he was proving...tolerable enough. Much like Cullen. He would still not seek either out unless he had something to gain however. Simply did not feel they were worth his time.
Of those Templars worth the energy to converse with..There was no sign of Ria. Curiosity brought Solas to his feet and in the mountains as they were, the only other direction that made sense to go was up along to trail. Over a few rocks he climbed, not even needing his staff for Solas had spent a year wandering before the events of the Breach in Haven returning him to fitness fairly swiftly.
Without her armor clad only in tunic and leggings, leaning on the ever present halberd, stood the Templar. Pausing, Solas just observed her from a distance. Her hair was loose, not yet confined for the day as if she had woken recently. With the beginning pre-dawn lighting, she looked closer to one of the Elvhen if far too casually dressed for even the lowliest of peasants.
"Join me?" Ria's head did not turn but the apostate did move towards her side. "Your magic is easy enough to sense at such a short distance." She offered and Solas inclined his head. Yes, Templar's did sense magic but he was always exceptionally careful to hide most of his. It was one of the annoying things about templars, their ingesting of lyrium allowed them a sensitivity to magic that could then let them start to narrow down where a mage was. If close enough. Ria had not seemed to have felt Solas until he was nearly upon her and that was truthfully a relief.
"You do have me at a disadvantage there, seeing as unless drawing on your abilities you are as easy to overlook as any other." grimacing Solas realized all of his skills at eloquence tended to fail around the female elf even when he was not attempting to antagonize, but she chuckled.
"Truly that's not something I mind. Probably has to do with my avoiding Lyrium." She agreed, finally her pale gaze met his own. "Are we back to conversing?"
Or are you going to start sniping at me and avoid me once more was the unspoken questions. Solas sighed and nodded. "Your very nature troubles me, I suppose the history of enmity between our two chosen fields gives plenty of fertile ground for that. The rest of the time I find our conversations to be pleasant. I apologize for my reaction after..though I was of course, aware of your nature as a Templar I had not witnessed your capabilities. It is still exceedingly unpleasant to experience" Ria smiled at him and then her gaze was drawn back to the sky, the growing light revealing circles under her eyes. As it was something of his forte, the world of dreams and slumber, recalling the screams in one nightmare that had sent him rushing to her cabin. "You are not resting well?"
"No. Nightmares are something I have been afflicted with for more years than I can count." She answered honestly. The reasoning of course, was the taint pulsing in her veins, though it was once more soothed after she had overstretched herself so far. It was like a whirlpool, drawing her in, sucking her under and then she'd be on the outer locations once more for a time. Ever repeating.
"I see." He could have offered to aid her in handling them but he did not, that would require a level of trust neither had in the other right now. "I seem to recall in the Tavern you professed to be terribly unknowing of the Chant, yet you've recited much of it these past few days."
"I know sections. You pick it up when everyone around you says it unceasingly." She teased. "There was an entirely dull time I watched a group of devoted Andrastrian's not say anything but parts of the chant at each other for hours. It was like watching infants babble at each other, each understood but they truly were saying nothing."
"That first day when you sang.."
"Ah. I did wonder why you had not brought it up." The Elvhen song, an old one. "I did tell you there was a journal in an outpost with much in it. That was written down, I suppose, so it would not be forgotten."
"I've heard it before. In the Fade, I did not expect to hear it again in the waking world."
"Generally..." Ria hesitated but they were not yet needed in camp. Most would not even be awake though the dawn had come upon them all, easing something in Ria as she had mouthed her usual litany. "I sing it when someone passes in battle."
"Macabre use of it. It was a song sang when one would go on a journey, a sort of fare you well.." Solas neglected to mention it was from firsthand experience. Indeed, it had been quite usual even in his earliest days upon the battlefield for many that watched the troops march to sing as they came through a settlement, the last lines following the final soldier.
"And isn't the journey into whatever may await us, just that?" Ria smiled at him though she knew the truth of the song's purpose she couldn't explain she sang it when escorting her fellow Warden's into the Deep Roads, and so it was all the more suitable and familiar for her to sing it if one fell in battle.
"Perhaps."
They fell into silence then, well mostly. Solas had noticed Ria had a habit of always humming if just ever so softly under the range of hearing for any non elves. It was a simple melody, one that he noticed she did in a louder range before ever singing. Curious habit.
()()()()()()()
They found Skyhold. Days and nights bled into a cacophony of activity. Still weapons mistress and with the Templar's annoyingly still calling her Knight-Commander -she glared if she saw Cullen every time she heard that until they finally ceased- Ria was always working. If not helping soldier's and the many refugees from Haven who suddenly had an urge to learn how to use a weapon after the attack swelled the training grounds by the hour; she was working with the Templar's teaching them how she saw their unions with mages and honing their abilities in precise ways little by little so that they were less a double edged sword to mage allies. Perhaps by good fortune, stubborn will, or merely that in light of what they had witnessed and the way the Templar's had followed her lead on the trek from Haven in guarding and protecting..tempers were mellowing between the two opposing groups.
The first time she found a match forming- purely in platonic ways- between a templar and mage who were getting along it set her to laughing in delight.
"yes! That's what I mean!" Ria was beaming, joy radiating from her as she gestured to the audience at the two young men who looked baffled. They had it turned out, both a fondness for the same horrible jokes and had started trading bad puns. Then during practice one day the mage had cast a barrier seeing the Templar about to be struck in the middle of a spar without thinking. Which ended up with the current situation.
"Can you explain this to us, Ria?" Asked the Templar's lieutenant. It had taken doing but everyone was just calling her by name or Serrah Luria instead of by title. Ruby was still howling in laughter at how once she spread via Varric in the Tavern about the dragon being what Ruby considered fate's payment for someone sticking Knight-Commander title on Ria's shoulder's..everyone ceased using it fast.
"You're matched. I...hold on.." She moved and then gaze sweeping over the assembled mages and soldiers nodded. "Mages..I want you to throw the lowest level of your attacks possible, just the missile forms. At both of them. Now." It was saying something that they did as bidden. Before their eyes the two men fell into what they had been trained on, Templar using his shield and going towards the mages , but he moved in front of the mage who had been at his side who had flung up another barrier and was now casting defensively. Nothing too unusual. And then Ria nodded to another soldier and they rushed in.
Breaking training, the Templar whirled and met them head on, moving the mage out of the way. Without exchanging words it became apparent to the bystanders what was happening. The two boys barely knew each other, but they were working as a team that had an almost innate understanding. Mage and Templar equally matched as they stepped forward and back, supporting each other as if they had trained for it. Ria withdrew and the mages stopped casting.
"That...is what we are looking for. Ideally. If you are a good match, about on equal standing between what one can suppress and attack and the other in mana that occurs naturally. No matter how short a time you've known each other. You two are dismissed for the day to go drink, eat, and take a vacation as long as you spend time together."
After that the Templar's and mages seemed far more willing to interact. A few potential others seemed as if in time they may also be able to work in such a fashion but everyone was too tired to continue finding out. Still, for the first afternoon Templar and Mages walked away looking thoughtful. Solas had been observing, indeed most of Skyhold enjoyed watching Ria train the Templar's as it was interesting to see them learning in entirely new ways how to act and react. Fine tuning their smites and silencing abilities, to learn friend from foe on the battlefield better. This was the first time they had evidence of what Ria kept insisting could be, what Vivienne's heartfelt agreements when the matter of a good pairing of Templar and Mage took into reality.
"Is it always, one on one?" Solas asked as he approached later, having waited until he thought the Knight-Commander would be alone. Truthfully he found if they did not have an audience it was easier for them both to converse. Neither was the sort who preferred attention upon them unduly. Ria personally ensuring all the gear was put away as the sun fell as she did daily. She wouldn't leave to eat until assured by her own eyes and hands that nothing was damaged.
"Hm?"
"Earlier, with the boys."
"Sometimes. It can take two or three to one as well on either side. If properly established great friendships are possible." Ria glanced over, and smiled. "Back in Fereldan there was an apostate I ran into at times by the name of Malcom. He'd a good Templar friend back in Kirkwall who risked everything to help his friend be free of the circle when he saw how much Malcom wanted to run away and be allowed to wed a woman he loved. Come to think of it..I think his younger son was a little enamored of the armor I had at the time, we met in an inn and I had to reassure him and his family I wasn't going to arrest them. Took out a map and pointed out where to go so they didn't run across any patrols I knew of."
"You didn't mind they were apostates? Out of the circle?" Solas wasn't certain why but this constantly surprised him even as he was starting to wonder how much of a Templar, outside of the abilities, Ria had ever been.
"We have a right to live as we wish as long as not harming others." Ria shrugged. "Or are you forgetting one of my charges?" She did not openly speak of the blood magic but Solas nodded.
"It is..hard to believe. I may need to witness that someday."
"Lily?" Ria groaned. "Considering I've yet to get a letter back after I sent one briefly explaining a loss of Haven and that Ruby and I were alive? She'll find a way to come back. Stubborn little thing never listens when she thinks I need fussing over."
"And here I believed you were the mother hen?" Solas found himself teasing her, enjoying the disgruntled look on her features.
"It goes both ways. They're my sisters."
"I don't see the resemblance."
Ria chuckled, but she did wince at her slip. "Fought together so long, they're family. I've none by blood.." Well so to speak unless you counted darkspawn taint. "But numerous brothers and sisters through the Order." Both of them to be honest. For just a moment the aching in her heart was too much and Ria put a hand to her head as the roar of the song increased. She heard it, that changed song, had since before the Conclave. They all had but it was quieter than their song so it was usually easy to ignore. When she was weaker emotionally though, it gained purchase. As if tied to negative emotions in a way the usual calling never was. Really that every other group of Warden's had gone to freak out over it had made the group Ruby and Ria hailed from wonder if they weren't all chickening out of the eventual end that awaited them. Because just rushing into panic was entirely the opposite of how Warden's usually reacted. Rumors of the Hero of Fereldan seeking a cure to the Calling, a way out, had set many of the Warden's from other outposts to whispering of leaving the order. Or at least before their Calling became too much. Not a single one of them would have done the same, not Ruby, or Lily..or even their 'Nug shit' Captain.
"Are you well?" And Solas's hand was on her forehead, startling her. Startling him if his slightly widened eyes were any sign, it was the first physical contact they'd shared in a while but it was still just a touch. It made Ria's shoulder's relax though, seeing a return to that first night they spoke so openly. He was not just saying pretty words back to her that day when they observed the dawn breaking on the way to Skyhold. Solas truly was attempting to move beyond his distrust of Templar's. At least where she was concerned.
"Nightmares." She offered with a strained smile but did not pull away. Ria did not wish the rather hermit like apostate to feel his touch repulsed her, not with how easily he wished to find problems between them that were not there.
"I see..there are some teas that could help with that." And the face he made at the word tea as his fingers fell away pulled out a laugh from her lips.
"Not fond of tea? It's a bit too fussy for me." She grinned at him. "No, generally I just try to push myself physically so I sleep deeper." It was never deep enough, nothing could be. Nothing could block out what her mind would do to the Fade with the echo of the song in her veins. The melding of memories and the song, always present, would twist and claw at her until she'd need to seek Ruby at dawn's breaking. It was part of why the very ritual itself had formed. Waking up and sharing the sunrise with your comrades to chase away the remnants of terror.
"That is hardly going to prevent dreams."
"Yes, I'm aware."
Solas paused but nodded his agreement. It was not as if there were truly many options open to her and he supposed it was saying quite a bit that Ria was not seeking to drown out the world in a bottle.
"Have you eaten yet?" He asked instead, an offer of company. When Ria shook her head he nodded. "I was told the Herald intends a gathering at the Tavern..to play wicked grace."
"I am passably familiar with the game, though terrible at it." She explained with a chuckle.
"Too honest?" Solas guessed amused, even as he offered his arm to the Templar. His mouth twitched into a smile as she laughed.
"In some things perhaps, but I can never seem to keep the rules straight!"
"I see, you could always observe?"
"Someone will drag me into participating." Ria deflected truthfully and grinned at him as Solas sighed. "That, I am terribly aware of."
