Always & Again
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To Solas's great irritation, he was forced to ask Cole for help with finding Lavellan especially considering that Leliana's agents were failing miserably at locating their wayward Inquisitor.
It wasn't that she was actively avoiding sleep, but rather, she was actively avoiding dreaming. Solas knew that Lavellan was sleeping in that way that hunters do, lightly, always aware of their surroundings and ready to jerk into full awareness at a moment's notice, never deep enough to fully enter the Fade.
It meant that she was beyond his reach.
But the young man who was more spirit than human…
"Burnt hollowed out aravels, left like animal carcasses to rot, bones long picked clean. The lingering smell of smoke, and blood, and death. Creators, how did this happen? Broken, wrecked sobbing, each gasping breath sharp agony, like broken glass in her lungs. Forgive me, I should have been here."
Solas turned sharply to where Cole had appeared perched on top of the desk. "You found her?"
"Yes."
"Did you tell her to come back?"
"Yes," Cole replied in that distant way of his. "I'm sorry Cole, but I cannot return just yet. There's something I must do."
Solas felt a shiver of anxiety roll through him. "What is she doing?"
Cole turned his head, the part of his ridiculous hat that sloped down, covering his face. "Rage like bile in the back of her throat, vengeance like fire searing through her. They will never see me coming… She wouldn't have wanted me to tell you that…"
Solas blinked and Cole was gone before he could ask the spirit-boy another question.
Solas had it half in mind to pack his things immediately to seek out Lavellan, but the chances of reaching her before she did something rash was unlikely. And if he was entirely honest, he really had no concrete idea of where she had gone. So once again he found himself in the dismal situation of waiting, growing more annoyed as the days passed, and the tensions in Skyhold mounted the longer their Inquisitor was missing.
When Leliana finally received a bird that informed her that an agent had spotted the Inquistor heading in the direction of Skyhold, it seemed that the whole keep breathed a sigh of relief. And within a few more days, the announcement rang through Skyhold that the Inquisitor was coming up the path to the main gate.
Solas tried to swallow down his anger with her, tried to tell himself that she had acted out in grief, but it was to no avail. His thoughts were dark and clouded with anger at Lavellan for having acted so foolishly and rashly, for putting herself in such danger and for being so far out of his reach that he would not have been able to help her if she had needed him.
But he stopped short on the main steps, his anger melding into confusion and knotting his expression together as Lavellan's hart eased to a stop. People were stopping what they were doing to watch her now, murmurs moving through the crowds like an ocean wave. His heart beat a panicked cadence as she raised her head, met his gaze, and he saw her face sullied with Elgar'nan's markings.
What has she done? Solas asked himself as he watched her reach forward and untie something from the saddle horn.
Lavellan swung down from the saddle, tugging hard on the rope that she had untied, and stumbling from behind the hart came a human, dressed in the finery of the nobility, looking a little worse for wear but otherwise unharmed, his wrists bound together by the rope Lavellan held.
"What has she done!?" Josephine gasped behind Solas.
He could only guess that this human was the Duke of Wycome, spitting obscenities at the gathered crowed as he demanded why they allowed a "knife-ear" to treat him like chattel. His eyes looked around wildly until they found Josephine, his mouth twisting into an ugly sneer as Lavellan pulled him along toward the dungeon door. Solas felt his hands curl into fists as he listened to the Duke spew filth at Josephine about Lavellan, how Josephine "can't train a savage", and that the Inquisition would lose all of the support of his allies once they learned how Lavellan had dragged him from his bed.
Lavellan handed the still shouting Duke over to a dungeon guard before she turned and headed into the main hall that was silent as the grave as she marched toward the War Room, her advisors hot on her heels, loudly demanding answers to their questions. Solas doubted that any of them noticed he had also slipped into the War Room.
"Inquisitor, what in the name of the Maker did you think you were doing? You cannot simply kidnap a nobleman!" Josephine cried, her face flushed in panic. Solas had no doubt that her mind was whirling as to how she was going to remedy the situation.
"I did not kidnap him, I took him into custody," Lavellan replied in an eerie calm. Then from her belt removed a stack of parchment and threw them on to the table. "The Duke knew that my clan was being harassed by bandits and did nothing because he hired them, and when we reached out for his assistance, he paid them to slaughter my clan and claimed he and his men were too late to assist."
The three advisors silently sifted through the evidence that Lavellan had gathered, correspondence between the Duke and the bandit leader, payment records and the like.
"What exactly is it that you want us to do, Inquisitor?" Leliana asked quietly, though Solas picked up a measure of approval in her tone.
"The bandits and his men have already paid for the part they played, and I would see the Duke pay as well," Lavellan answered.
"You would judge him?" Cullen wondered.
Lavellan nodded. "I would. I could have easily slit his throat as he slept, but I would have people know of his crimes."
Josephine threw up her hands in frustration. "You should have let our people handle this! This is precisely why we have agents!"
But Lavellan was unmoved and once again Solas was faced with the thought that she was just as stubbornly proud as she always had been. "Your agents failed my clan once already, I was not going to take the risk of the Duke destroying any evidence we could use against him."
Lavellan then pushed herself away from the war table and announced, "I will judge the Duke at first light tomorrow."
I'm sorry this is so incredibly late, but my life has been one big clusterfuck after another lately. The big things that happened are 1) I got into a pretty serious car accident at the beginning of March which left me in a pretty bad way mentally and emotionally (physically I was fine though) especially because my husband was on active duty at the time so I had to deal with it alone. And 2) My husband just spent three days in the hospital two weeks ago and they still have no idea what was wrong with him.
Anyway, enough bitching from me! I hope everyone enjoyed and thank you to everyone who has read/reviewed/favorited/added this to their alerts.
Review?
-(gxr)-