An awkward silence followed, until Morrigan said sharply, "You'll note the intact eluvian. I was correct on that count at least."
Alistair had not noticed the eluvian until she pointed it out, but there it stood on the other side of the well. "It's it still a threat?" he asked. "Can Corypheus use it to travel the Fade?"
Morrigan shook her head. "The well is its key; take its power and Mythal's last eluvian will be no more use to Corypheus than glass." She hesitated, before adding, "Though I did not expect the well to feel so… hungry."
"So, what do we do now?" Alistair asked.
"I am willing to pay the price the well demands," she said. "I am also the best suited to use its knowledge in your service."
"Or more likely to your own ends," said Solas.
"What do you know of my ends?" she snarled. Solas visibly bit back his response, looking at Alistair, as Morrigan continued, "Of those present, I alone have the training to make use of this. Let me drink."
"You alone?" Fiona said archly. "You are not the only mage here."
"I have studied the oldest lore," Morrigan insisted. "I have delved into mysteries of which you in the Circles could only dream."
"I was not always in the Circles," Fiona retorted.
"Must it be a mage?" Alistair asked. He wasn't sure if he was volunteering but he needed to break their deadlock.
They all turned to look at him. Cole's eyes glazed over, as he spoke, "The voice calls to power, it ebbs and flows."
He would take that as a 'yes' then. "What about you, Solas?"
"No," he said shortly. "Do not ask me again."
Well, that was clear enough. Alistair turned back to Morrigan, "You are not concerned about the price? Bound forever to the will of Mythal?"
She shrugged. "Bound to the will of a dead god? It seems an empty warning. Perhaps a compulsion yet remains. Who can say otherwise? I do not fear it even so."
Perhaps she should. Somehow, Alistair didn't imagined Corypheus would have been overly concerned about it, though he may simply have considered Samson a suitably expendable follower, but that didn't mean he was equally happy for someone else to take the risk, especially not Morrigan.
"It is not just the knowledge from the ancient elven priests," Solas said reluctantly, as though he didn't want to be involved in the discussion. "It's their will."
"If we don't take the power, Corypheus will. Is that really what you want?" Alistair asked him.
Solas shook his head. "Of course not, but I fear you do not understand what you're getting yourself into."
"Maybe not, but one of us has to drink it," Morrigan said.
"Solas looked tired. "You are right about that at least: we should take the power which lies in that well."
Alistair knew Morrigan wanted the knowledge from the well just as much as they needed its power so he could hardly forbid her to drink as much as he desperately wanted to. He tried to think of some way of dissuading her from it, some other solution. Before he could say anything Fiona stepped forward. "I will do it," she said.
"You can't," Solas objected, his expression pinched as though there was more he wanted to say but couldn't.
"Unless you can give me a good reason not to," Fiona dared him.
"So many voices," said Cole. "They would be in your head, talking over you. You don't want them."
"You would take what little knowledge you can understand and let the rest go to waste?" Morrigan said.
"And who's to say it will go to waste?" Fiona challenged.
Alistair held back, unwilling to take sides between the two women, even if he could have decided between them. Although he didn't really want Fiona to take the risk anymore than he wanted Morrigan in that situation, who was he to say if she wouldn't maybe be a better choice. Surely it would be better for him to let them decide without his influence.
After a long pause, Morrigan stepped back, shaking her head. "Perhaps it is better this way. Do as you will with the Well of Sorrows. But be careful."
Reluctantly they all agreed Fiona should be the one to drink. She stepped gingerly into the pool, wading into the centre of the waist-deep water. Power rose from it like steam, wafting around her, as she cupped her hands and drank. For a moment nothing happened and then sparks of light like fireflies spun around her followed by a shockwave of water and magic thrust out from the Well, knocking them down.
When Alistair got to his feet, Fiona lay motionless on the bottom of the now-drained pool. "Mother!' he exclaimed, hurrying to her side, even as she began to stir.
She blinked awake, sitting up, looking at her hands as though they were unfamiliar to her. When the first words that came out of her mouth were elven, Alistair worried the spirits of the Well had possessed her but he wasn't left to worry for long.
She got shakily to her feet, waving away both Alistair and Solas' offers of assistance, but as she did, power snaked around her feet once more, rising from what had been the Well. She looked towards the entrance and gasped.
As Alistair followed her gaze, he saw why. Corypheus had arrived. It was clear when the Magister noticed them as he cried out in anger, presumably realising he had been thwarted, and levitated towards them.
"The eluvian," Morrigan cried and they turned towards it.
With a frown, Fiona reached her hand out and the glass crackled with power, before turning to the same shimmering portal so familiar from his and Morrigan's adventures.
"Through the mirror," he said. They ran towards it, Alistair waiting until all his companions were through. He looked back, and saw a figure rise from the drained well, between him and Corypheus, an aura around them like a tornado made of water.
He couldn't wait to see any more but it must have brought them enough time as, when they finally stumbled out of Morrigan's eluvian in Skyhold, there was no sign of pursuit.
Morrigan turned back and shut her eluvian down. "It is done."
They didn't have a chance to find anyone to let them know of their unexpectedly quick return before Kieran ran into the room, as though he had known they were there. Alistair and Morrigan both reached out to him but he stopped short of them, looking directly at Fiona with the uncanny intensity he was prone to.
"Why are you like my other grandmother now?" he asked, and Alistair's expression told her that was a question he wasn't sure he wanted the answer to.
Fiona herself frowned. Did Kieran mean Flemeth? Perhaps the Well's transferred memories somewhat resembled the way Flemeth transferred her consciousness from body to body? Still, she wasn't certain she was ready to discuss her experiences at all yet, and not with her impressionable grandson, so she dissembled.
A short while later, after a hasty debriefing with Lady Josephine, and ravens being sent to recall the Inquisition's forces back to Skyhold, Alistair, Morrigan and Fiona reconvened in Alistair's rooms, leaving Kieran with the ambassador for the time being.
Fiona started to describe the sense she had of the spirits from the Well; not controlling, but ever-present, a constant whisper in the back of her mind. She wondered if Morrigan would really have fared any better since most of what she was getting seemed to be archaic elven, which even she didn't completely understand. Morrigan suggested putting specific questions to the spirits, rather than simply waiting to see what they would reveal. They were carefully avoiding discussing what Kieran's words could mean when a knock came.
"Milord Inquisitor, Lady Morrigan," the messenger began, appearing a little out of breath. "I'm sorry to bother you. Lady Josephine says she's sure its nothing to worry about but Kieran has wandered off and she can't find him".
Skyhold wasn't a small place so there seemed little need for alarm but none of them liked coincidences. It seemed Josephine had already orchestrated a search of the common areas, with no success, but was reluctant to enter Morrigan's private rooms without permission. They checked there first hoping Kieran had simply headed back alone but, when they found the eluvian powered up with no-one in sight, it became apparent he had gone through.
Alistair stepped forward but Morrigan put a hand out to stop him. "I believe only myself and Fiona should follow," she said. "We have no idea what we will find and, as the Inquisitor, you know we cannot let you take the risk."
"He's my son too!" Alistair said, unwilling to be left behind.
"If you are needed, we will return for you," Fiona assured him.
It took a little more convincing but Alistair quickly accepted both the logic and the urgency and stepped back to allow Fiona and Morrigan to pass through.
The eluvian didn't lead to the same between place as before and, when Fiona turned to ask Morrigan, it was clear she was terrified. Fiona found herself with more sympathy for the younger woman, as she too feared for her grandson's safety.
"Why would Kieran do this?" Morrigan asked. "How could he do this? We stand in the Fade. To direct the eluvian here would require immense powers."
They soon found him with a older woman, who was kneeling whilst he allowed blue energy to flow from him into her.
Morrigan gasped. "That's... no, it can't be."
"Mother!" Kieran called out happily.
"Mother." Morrigan addressed the other woman through gritted teeth.
Fiona had plenty she wanted to say to Flemeth but this wasn't the time to antagonise her, with Kieran's safety on the line. Instead she reminded herself that this was the woman who had saved Alistair's life after Ostagar and forced herself to smile. "You are Flemeth then. I have heard much about you. Perhaps, if you would let Kieran go, we could talk."
Flemeth raised a eyebrow and Fiona felt as though she were looking into her very soul. Then she shrugged, "As if I were holding the boy hostage. She's always been ungrateful, you see."
"Ungrateful?" spat Morrigan. "I know how you plan to extend your life, wicked crone! You will not have me, and you will not have my son!" She called power to her outstretched hands and Fiona winced. There was no way this was going to go well if it came down to a magical battle.
"That is quite enough. You'll endanger the boy." Flemeth looked almost bored as she said, "Be a good dear and stop her."
Her eyes glowed and she reached out a hand and suddenly Fiona found herself grabbing hold of Morrigan's arm, redirecting her spell off into the Fade.
"What?" Morrigan shook her off with an oath and it felt as though she was waking from a dream.
Her expression must have showed her confusion as Morrigan turned back to Flemeth with an accusing glare. "What have you done?" she demanded.
"I have done nothing," Flemeth replied. "She drank from the Well of her own volition."
Suddenly everything fell into place. "You didn't tell me your mother was Mythal," Fiona said accusingly.
Morrigan's eyes widened and when she managed to stutter out, "What? She's... I didn't know," Fiona found herself believing her.
Flemeth nudged Kieran and he ran back over to them. Morrigan clung to him as Kieran apologised. "I heard her calling to me. She said now was the time."
Fiona stepped between them. "If you are truly Mythal, then I am sure you will know who I am. Kieran is my grandson too."
The other woman's eyes lit up. "I knew his father was Maric's son but I had long wondered about his elven mother." She looked Fiona up and down. "Interesting."
"I do not understand," Morrigan said, sounding pained.
Flemeth gave them a considering look. "Once I was but a woman, crying out in the lonely darkness for justice. Then she came to me, a wisp of an ancient being, and she granted me all I wanted and more. I have carried Mythal, through the ages since, seeking that justice denied to her."
It sounded more like a spirit from the Fade then an ancient goddess to Fiona, reminding her of Anders and his Justice, but then there was the way Flemeth had controlled her to stop Morrigan, and the voices of the Well confirmed her story. "Assuming I believe you, what does it mean?"
"I nudge history, when it's required," she said. "Sometimes, a shove is needed." She laughed and Fiona shuddered, as it sounded anything but joyful.
"What do you want?" she asked. "What does Mythal want?"
"A reckoning that will shake the very heavens."
That sounded awfully similar to Corypheus' reasoning but perhaps that was why he had been so determined to claim the power of the Well for himself. If she could believe them, the voices told her she could trust Flemeth.
"And you follow her whim?" sneered Morrigan. "Do you even know what she truly is."
Flemeth smiled, but there was something mocking about it. "You seek to preserve the powers that were, but to what end? It is because I taught you, girl, because things happened that were never meant to happen. She was betrayed as I was betrayed - as the world was betrayed! Mythal clawed and crawled her way through the ages to me, and I will see her avenged! Alas, so long as the music plays, we dance."
As though any of that was any comfort, but somehow Fiona didn't think that was something Flemeth concerned herself with overly. Morrigan still looked unsatisfied, her hand tight on Kieran's shoulder, and Fiona could still see this going awry. She took a deep breath and tried to redirect the conversation to their more immediate concerns. "I presume you know what we're up against?"
"Better than you could possibly imagine," she told them.
"So will you help us?" Fiona asked.
Flemeth gave another of her mocking smiles. "Once I have what I came for."
Fiona could tell from Morrigan's expression that she had just come to a realisation of what that was and it clearly involved Kieran by the way she put herself between her son and her mother.
"No. I will not allow it," she insisted.
Flemeth gave her a look which was almost pitying, "He carries a piece of what once was. Snatched from the jaws of darkness. You know this."
It was with a sinking sensation that Fiona came to the same realisation. Flemeth wanted the soul of Urthemiel. The question was whether it would be possible to remove it without harming Kieran.
"He is not your pawn, Mother." Morrigan set her jaw in determination. "I will not let you use him!"
"Have you not used him? Was that not your purpose, the reason you agreed to his creation?"
Where Fiona would have expected Flemeth's words to be cruel, intended to hurt, there was something almost tender in her tone. As much as she remembered Alistair's stories from the Blight, the echoes of the Well tugged at her consciousness, telling her not to be so quick to judge.
Morrigan's reply was equally unexpected in its gentleness. "That was then. Now he… he is my son."
Flemeth looked taken aback and Fiona shared the feeling. It wasn't that she doubted Morrigan's love for Kieran, nor even that she loved Alistair whatever she might say, but she so rarely demonstrated it that it was easy to forget.
"I've told you how Flemeth extends her life by possessing the bodies of her daughters," Morrigan said, meeting Fiona's eyes directly. "That was the fate she intended for me. I thwarted her, and now she intends to have Kieran instead!"
Fiona spun to look at Flemeth in horror, surely that wasn't her aim. There must be more she wasn't saying.
Flemeth looked vaguely regretful as she said, "Our destinies are not so easily avoided."
"Surely there is another way," Fiona said, trying to find a way to stall.
"I have to do this," Kieran told them, sounding old beyond his years. There had always been the shadow of something other behind his eyes, but before it had been masked with childish innocence. Now that had been stripped away and his eyes were wide and serious.
"You do not belong to her, Kieran," Morrigan pleaded, her tone tinged with anguish. "Neither of us do."
Fiona had never related to Morrigan before but something in the visceral pain called to her. She would never forget the years she had spent in slavery, hated the thought of supporting such a thing; even the indentured servitude Alexius had so nearly blackmailed the free mages into had left her feeling sick. Still, she couldn't believe Flemeth's intentions were so base. "Why did you wait until now to come for him?" she asked.
"I did not know where he was," Flemeth said simply. "Morrigan cleverly hid him from me… until now."
"'Twas the Well…" breathed Morrigan in horror.
Fiona felt cold all over. "I am so sorry," she said.
Morrigan shook her head. "Given the outcome, sooner you than me. And better us than Corypheus or one of his servants." She dropped to her knees, and Kieran looked pleadingly at Flemeth.
Flemeth shrugged. "As you wish. Hear my proposal, dear girl. Let me take the lad, and you are free of me forever. I will never interfere with or harm you again. Or keep the lad with you… and you will never be safe from me. I will have my due."
"He returns with me," Morrigan declared, without hesitation.
"Decided so quickly?" Flemeth looked genuinely surprised.
Had she truly believed Morrigan would hand over her son on the hope of her keeping her promise - was she not a mother herself? Had she forgotten what that meant?
"Do whatever you wish," Morrigan said. "Take over my body now, if you must, but Kieran will be free of your clutches. I am many things, but I will not be the mother you were to me."
Her words seemed to strike Flemeth like a blow and Fiona felt the echo of it. She had not been much of a mother to Alistair but they had rebuilt their relationship as adults. However this encounter with Flemeth went, it was not going to result in a reunion with Morrigan unless something changed. Fiona remembered how nervous Alistair had been when they first met, but he had possessed a fire, so like his father, reminding her how the Circle had tried to burn hers out. She channeled that inner courage now and stepped forward, "Wait!"
Kieran hesitated, just out of arm's reach of Flemeth, and looked back at her.
"As a mother, we only want what's best for our children," she began. At her side she could almost feel Morrigan's disbelief but she had to continue. "When they are children we can't explain why we make the choices we do, they are unable to understand, and it is easy to forget that they have become adults and share our thoughts with them."
Fiona might have hoped Flemeth would be visibly moved by her words and there was a moment where she felt as though she was getting through, then Flemeth's expression hardened and she turned a impatient gaze on Kieran.
"She said there would be no more dreams," Kieran said to them, even as he looked at Flemeth with something akin to hope.
"No more dreams," Flemeth assured him. She looked back at Morrigan, "A soul is not forced upon the unwilling, daughter. You were never in danger from me."
She took Kieran's hands and a ball of power rose up from their entwined grasp, and flowed into Flemeth's chest before dissipating. She said a few words to him, too quiet for Fiona to make out, then looked up and met Fiona's eyes directly. "Listen to the voices," she told her, "They will teach you."
Her cry of "Wait!" was echoed by Morrigan's. There were so many things she wanted to ask the other woman, that she needed to know, about Alistair and Maric, and particularly what she had to say about Yavana.
Flemeth ignored them before, disappearing into the mists of the Fade.
They returned to Skyhold with a great deal to think about and tried to explain to Alistair what had happened. He wanted to go after Flemeth but, since the only ill-effect Kieran seemed to be suffering was a sense of loneliness they were able to convince him otherwise.
Morrigan was far more effected by the experience, apparently reassessing everything she thought she had known about her mother. "She wanted the Old God soul all along," she said, shaking her head. "Is it worth reminding myself that perhaps I do not know everything after all? My mother has the soul of an elven goddess - or whatever 'Mythal' truly was - and her plans are unknown to me."
Having never lived amongst the Dalish, Fiona found it difficult to come to terms with being a servant of one of the elvhen pantheon, but it did explain Morrigan's fascination for elvhen lore.
"I can't believe we didn't realise what she was," Alistair said.
"I knew she kept the truth from me," Morrigan replied. "We even suspected she was not truly human… but this? I always thought the so-called 'elven gods' were little more than glorified rulers. But now I have doubt. And doubt is… an uncomfortable thing. I am just thankful I did not drink from the Well. To be tied to my mother for eternity..."
Morrigan shuddered but it seemed to be more in good humour than genuine horror. Although they didn't know Flemeth's intentions, Fiona did not feel that she had any ill-will towards them. "What now?"
Morrigan sighed. "Kieran had a destiny, and now it is in Flemeth's hands. I suppose we shall see what she does with it."
"For what it's worth," Fiona said, "I think you did the right thing."
"Did I?" Morrigan asked. "She was testing me, and I cannot tell whether I passed. Now, we must prepare to face Corypheus himself. What did she say to you - the voices of the well would teach you?"
Fiona nodded slowly. "They tell me I will be able to match his dragon." She wasn't sure yet exactly how but it was becoming clearer.
"Well," said Morrigan, turning to Alistair. "All that remains then is for you to find him."
Alistair shook his head. "Somehow I don't think it's going to be that easy."
As instructed, Fiona spent some time in meditation every day, listening to the voices and quickly realised what she needed to do. It took several days to track Solas down and he was walking the battlements when Fiona finally found him. "You've been avoiding me," she accused him and Solas couldn't deny it.
"I didn't think you'd want to speak with me," he said, glancing from side to side as though looking for an escape route.
"Whyever not?" she asked, refusing to give an inch.
"I feared what you might have learned from the spirits of the Well," he said, still refusing to meet her gaze. "And that you might feel I've been lying to you."
Fiona raised an eyebrow. "You have been lying to me," she told him bluntly. "I didn't need the Well to tell me that. But I've known who you were for months." He didn't need to know how much she'd been trying to deny the truth though.
Solas blinked in surprised. "What? But how?"
"I suspected it from the first time my grandson told me he'd been talking to the wolf-man in the Fade. And every conversation we've had since has confirmed it a little more."
"I haven't met your grandson in the Fade," Solas said, looking even more confused.
Fiona forced a smile; though she hadn't yet said his true name, Solas hadn't denied that was what he had been lying about. "I'm not surprised you wouldn't recognise him there," she said. "I imagine he looked very different in spirit."
Solas gave her a considering look. "In that case, what exactly is your grandson?"
Fiona smiled serenely. "He had the soul of Urthemiel."
Solas's shock was almost gratifying. Did he think he was the only one keeping secrets?
"There is nothing ordinary about our family," she told him. "It's why you fit in so well."
"How?" he asked. "The witch?"
"You didn't think Flemeth... Mythal would have taught her daughter a few things?" More than she had realised before and now she had more sympathy for the woman who had so clearly stolen her son's heart but didn't seem to want to acknowledge it.
Solas blinked again in surprise. "I hadn't realised she was Mythal's daughter," he said.
Fiona shrugged. She didn't want to be distracted from what she had come to say; as much as she had learned from the spirits of the Well, she hoped Solas couldn't tell how much she was bluffing. She needed him to be honest, not just with her but with Alistair too. "That's as may be but it doesn't change your situation."
"What are you going to do about it?" he asked, strain evident in his voice.
"I haven't told the Inquisitor about you yet," she said. Of course, it had been Alistair who had approached her and made her open her eyes to the truth, but there was no need to Solas to know that, and Alistair didn't know about the rest of it.
Solas visibly relaxed. "You haven't? And why not?"
"Because you need to tell him yourself, Fen'Harel." Fiona watched him flinch at the name. "The whole story," she continued, "about the Veil and the Anchor too."
Now he had tensed again. This was the key part, where he made the choice to help them or lashed out and ran. Fiona wasn't certain she could hold out against the power of a god but the voices of the Well assured her she would be protected and she stood firm. Finally Solas slumped in resignation. "Very well."