Skyhold was bustling with activity when the two women arrived. Talyn had sent a raven ahead with orders to start preparing to go to the Temple of Sacred Ashes.
Everything with Mythal had happened so fast that she hadn't had the time to process it.
She was infuriated by the fact she never told Solas. She must have known that he was walking the lands of Thedas, yet she kept her mouth shut. Morrigan told her that Mythal's human body was hundreds of years old, and she stayed alive by stealing the youth of her human daughters. Apparently, Morrigan barely escaped the same fate ten years ago.
It was also why she barely mentioned her son to others. To protect him from her mother.
Morrigan's demeanor had changed drastically towards Talyn, and hers did as well. She could honestly say that Morrigan was becoming her friend.
Solas should have been there with them. He stayed behind to keep an eye on Varric and Cassandra, who had been doing well when she left them. Their memory of the temple was gone, but they didn't seem any different than before.
Mythal had told her that it was time to reveal herself to the world. Because Tarsula predicted it.
Her mother could see into the future. That was why she was the Goddess of Fate. Why didn't she see Mythal's betrayal? Why didn't she protect her own father?
The answers to your questions lay in the Beyond with your mother.
Talyn never rescued her family from the Beyond. She couldn't. Small trips inside the Beyond weren't harmful, but the longer a person stayed inside the darkness, the more time the poison had to settle in their bones. Tarsula, Nak'Zur, and the others had already spent thousands of years with no escape in that place.
The Beyond had sent Andruil on a murderous rampage. She ignored the warnings because she had been so focused on the challenges the deformed beasts gave her. Talyn had decided that it was too late for her parents, and that if she released them, their world would be doomed.
Apparently that had already happened with Corypheus and the other mages that walked into the wrong dimension. Even if they had entered the Fade they wouldn't have found what they were looking before, because it didn't exist.
But how had they escaped that place, and not the Banalla, the most powerful elves in the world?
She immediately went to Solas and told him everything.
Solas had to sit in a chair.
"Mythal is alive..."
"Yes."
"She gave you your ceremony... and told you to tell the world who you are."
Talyn grinned from ear to ear. "Yes."
She saw a flash of emotion cross his face before he held his head in his hands.
"Pala."
"Solas, this is a good thing."
"How is this a good thing, love? How can we be sure it-" he caught himself before he finished his sentence.
She already knew what he was going to ask.
How can we be sure it worked?
She had no mana. No power, aside from the lyrium in her blood. A god was supposed to be able to perform vast feats of magic no one else could.
However, his unfinished question did little to dampen her mood.
"She said that Tarsula said this was going to happen. That my people would follow me."
Immediately he said, "you can't tell them. They won't understand."
Why was he so against this?
"I'm not going to tell them about you. But I've been thinking about it... and I can't believe I'm saying this, but I think she's right."
"They tried to hang you for claiming you were Andraste's Herald! How do you think they're going to react if you tell them you're a time traveling elf goddess?"
Once again, she remembered Cullen's words.
With a smile, she replied confidently,"my Inquisition knows me. I have to trust that they will trust me. Besides, Bull is going to figure it out eventually. I already know he's looking into what the Lord Seeker said about me. It's better that they hear this now."
"I'm sorry Talyn, but I just don't agree."
She knelt down so she was eye level with him and gave him a kiss.
"And I'm sorry that I'm about to ignore you."
His eyes narrowed. "I'm not going to be happy with you when I have to save you from the noose."
"You won't have to."
Ever since she found out about who she truly was, Talyn had carried the secret with a heavy heart. She didn't feel right about lying to her friends. She hadn't felt right when Solas screwed with Varric's and Cassandra's minds just to protect their identities. Even if Mythal hadn't said what she did, she would have told them eventually.
So she didn't waste any time calling her council and friends. She gathered them in the war room.
And she told them everything. She left Solas out, but she admitted everything to them. Right up to the moment she saw Mythal just days ago.
Cassandra was the only one who reacted angrily. She slammed her fist down onto the table, her dark eyes filled with disbelief and rage.
"You're lying! The Maker is God! There is no other!"
Talyn had expected this. She calmly replied, "there is much about the world we don't know, Cassandra. Your Maker could very much be real. But so am I. So are my parents, and my family."
"Lies! Blasphemy!"
"I want to believe you, Boss. But this is insane." Was Iron bull's response.
"Yeah, I'm gonna have to agree with Bull, Firefly." Varric chimed in.
She said, "the Dalish know who I am. All you have to do is find any artifact with a depiction of Rasdalalen, and you will see my tattoos. My face. You know me. I would never lie about something like this. I was afraid to tell you for so long because I was afraid you wouldn't believe me. But I'm telling you now because I'm tired of keeping it hidden. You are my friends, and my family. Lying to you goes against everything I stand for. I won't do it anymore."
Leiliana said in her defense, "it sounds like a fable, yes. But it makes sense. I have been searching for Talyn's true origins, but I have come up with nothing but nearly forgotten Elvhen stories of a Fen'Tarasyl, and a Rasdalalen. I have seen old paintings of both of these figures. I did think that the woman looked like you, Talyn. But I never would have made the connection if it wasn't for what you just told us."
Josephine echoed Leiliana's words. "I have also been asking around about Talyn. No one I have come across has had any information. And you have done things that no one else could do. You've survived what everyone else would have died from."
Cullen was the last to speak, but his voice was the most confident. His sapphire eyes stared directly into Talyn's as he said his piece.
" It doesn't matter to me what you are. You are compassionate, and merciful. You carry a light that never dies, no matter what darkness is thrown at it."
Swiftly, he went to stand in front of her and unsheathed his sword. He held it point down into the floor and fell to one knee.
"I, Commander Cullen Rutherford of the Inquisition swear my loyalty to you, Talyn Fen'Tarasyl, Goddess of War. Wherever you go, I will follow. Whatever command you give, I will obey. My life is yours."
She had been so eager to spout her truth, yet she was frozen with uncertainty. It was as if she was the Herald all over again. She knew that Cullen loved her, but she never thought that he would do something like this.
"Cullen... what about your Maker?"
"The Maker has done nothing, while you have done everything to make this world a better place. I renounce my faith, and place it with you."
This is what was supposed to happen. She was a Goddess now. Gods had servants. Followers. Like Abelas and Mythal.
But she didn't like the thought that she could do whatever she wanted, and the man kneeling in front of her wouldn't protest. She didn't like the power he was giving her. She saw too many times the consequences of when people would just lie down and let the powerful ones walk all over them.
But she wasn't Mythal, or her parents. Or any one who deemed themselves a God. She didn't have to become them.
"Get on your feet, Cullen. I may be a goddess, but I am no better than anyone else. I will not let you kneel before me like a slave to his master."
So he rose to his feet, and Talyn embraced him. She let her arms linger longer than she should have. But at the very least, her friend deserved this.
She spoke softly in his ear, "I wont accept your oath Cullen. If your wish is to serve me, then so be it. But I will not bind you to me."
His whispered reply sent chills up her spine.
"What if I want to be bound?"
She stepped away from him, and turned her attention to the others.
"Well, I'm not about to be that dramatic, but I'm with you too Firefly."
"My Chargers are at your disposal."
"So are my spies."
"You still need an ambassador. You have the social skills of a drunken goat, Inquisitor." Josephine smiled playfully at her.
Talyn's markings glowed softly with the happiness blooming in her heart.
Her mother had been right, after all. Cassandra may not have accepted her, but she could change her mind.
But now came the ultimate test. She told her closest companions. Now she had to tell the world.
She waited until her army was almost finished with the journey to the Temple of Sacred Ashes.
Solas had given her a new sword, as an apology for being wrong about her council. It's bone white blade looked menacing in the moonlight.
She stood on a tall rock with the moon to her back. She looked like a shadow with a crown of snow as her pale hair blew with the wind. The silver light shone on the shields of her army that stood below her, carrying the flag of the Inquisition. She didn't know when Josephine had made the change, but she noticed that the flags had a slight difference. It was so minuscule she didn't know if the others had bothered to see it, but the pupil in the middle of the burning eye was a swirl that matched her tattoos.
Solas stood to her left, wearing new battle mage robes made from the fur of a wolf. His silver eyes were like liquid magic. To her right stood Morrigan, and her staff shone with the new magic Mythal had shown her. Cullen was down slow in front of his men, while the rest of her council stood next to Morrigan.
"Inquisition, this is it! This is the battle that will determine the future of Thedas!"
Her words were met with a roar of battle cries. She waited for them to die down before she continued.
"When this all began most of you were normal people. You were seamstresses, merchants or farmers, without a single violent bone in your bodies. Most of you never dreamed you would be standing in front of me with a sword in your hands!"
Her voice cracked with her anger. "Corypheus stole your lives! He burned your homes! He tortured your friends, and murdered your families. You survived the monsters, and instead of cowering from their brutality, you met their darkness with the fires of courage!"
She fought to make her voice louder than the cheers that thundered around her.
"We will crush the monsters! We will grind their bones into dust and drink from their skulls because we are the masters of this world, and our spirits cannot be broken!"
Once the noise dissipated, she decided to say it. "Corypheus made more than one grave mistake that day when he tore apart the sky. He made it possible for us to band together to destroy him."
Her voice held triumph of a thousand men. "He summoned me!"
The air around them was charged with uncertainty.
"Corypheus unintentionally plucked me from a world where magic was wild and spirits roamed free. His attempt at playing God threw me a thousand years into the future. My True Name is Talyn Fen'Tarasyal, the last free Banalla of Elhysia. I am a Goddess of War!"
A surprised rumbling came from her soldiers. It was mixed with anger and confusion.
"You have questions. And I promise that if you stay with me, you will have them. But if this news angers you, if my cause to kill Corypheus and his monsters is no longer your own, then take your leave now!"
For a strained moment nothing happened. No one said a word, or moved, until she noticed Cassandra parting the crowd. She was walking the opposite way, towards the way they came from. Like a knife cutting flesh, a small group broke away from the others and followed her. Her keen ears could hear the ashamed words the others who had not moved were throwing at the deserters.
"Do not shame them for their decision! No man or woman should die for something they do not believe in. But please know that you do not need to be afraid of me. I do not ask that you acknowledge me as your God.I do not ask that you believe my strange story right now, either. But I do ask that you look deep in your hearts."
She watched them turn to each other and whisper as she spoke.
"You know me! I am still Inquisitor Talyn. I am still the same woman who has fought by your side this whole time. I am still the elf that wants to make Corypheus pay for what he has done! I want to rebuild this world from the ashes that he has left, and I want to make sure that this never happens again! Sons and daughters of Thedas, do you still dream of a world of peace, like I do? Will you help me repair what has been broken?"
It was another strained moment as she let her people decide their fate. A single voice shouted back at her.
"We are with you!"
Swords started to bang against shields, spears were slammed into the ground.
"We are with you!"
The drums of war started to beat. Each time they chanted, more voices joined them.
"Talyn Fen'Tarasyl, we are with you!"
Tears of pride pricked the corners of her eyes.
Wherever Tarasyl goes, her people will follow.
Her sword of bone sang a dark tune as she whisked it out of its sheath. She brandished it in the air, and shouted with a fire that even the Evanuris and Banalla in their prisons could feel, "my friends, show no mercy!"
Corypheus' army of monsters could not have anticipated the wave of wrath that descended upon them. Her army ran down into the crater that had been the Temple of Sacred Ashes like an unstoppable current of fire. Talyn led the charge with her soulmate by her side, and her friends at her back. Her fire poured from her tattoos and engulfed her entire body in it's flames. It latched onto her sword and ignited any enemy that came too close to it.
Her people fought viciously, and with far more determination than those driven to madness with Red. Talyn shouted with her pride at how far they had come. Most of them had been simple farmers and housewives driven from their homes. Some were mages that fought for their freedom, some were Templars who abandoned their posts before the war started. And now they were the strongest force of nature Thedas could offer. She knew that together there was no evil they couldn't conquer.
She heard the dragon's roar. It rattled her bones, but she did not feel the same fear of it as she had before. Now she understood that its cry was not one of blood lust, but of pain. Corypheus corrupted a beautiful beast, and twisted it's soul for his own purposes. Talyn felt the dragon's pain like it was her own.
The blackness of its scales blocked out the moon, and it's blazing fire looked like blood. Another dragon sent it spiraling out of the sky.
"Keep them off the dragons!" She shouted to her people. Those who heard her repeated her words.
Any archer that had their arrow pointed at the sky was cut down before they could draw their bowstring back. Talyn stood on the back of a dead Red Templar. His crystals grew high enough out of his body for her to shoot flaming arrows at any archer she saw. Her fiery body started to turn red, which forced her to leap off of the monster before she was infected.
She saw the tall, deformed figure of Corypheus standing on a piece of stone above the battle. She recognized the black orb in his hands.
Solas saw the same thing.
"Kill him, Talyn! I will help Morrigan!"
With a wave of his staff, Solas parted the sea of monsters. Two walls of ice made a clear path for her to the ancient creature watching her. Even from here she could see the remnants of his face twisted with cruelty.
Talyn didn't waste a moment. She left a trail of burning footsteps behind her. Her rage still burned on her skin and sword, which sent wisps of steam up into the air. She used crumbling debris as a staircase to get up to him.
Corypheus raised his clawed hands, and just as Talyn reached him, the earth rumbled beneath her. The stone they were standing was lifted into the air. It rose until Talyn felt like she could touch the moon.
"Imposter, it is time for you to die."
She adjusted her stance, and her grip on her sword.
"You're wrong, Corypheus. The only imposter here is you!"
She charged him.
He blocked her attack easily. A black sword appeared in his hand, and he swung it at her. She dodged it just in time, and caught herself just as she was about to step off of the edge of the floating rock they were standing on. Below them, she saw shards of ice cut through the bleeding fire and into the sky, towards the two dragons that were still fighting. She could see the green light of a magic shield surrounding Morrigan's dragon form. She saw the claw marks in the other dragon's scales, and the swords of ice that were now sticking out of its eye.
All she had to do was keep him distracted long enough for the dragon to die. It wouldn't be much longer now.
"I will sit on the Black Throne, elf. You cannot stop me!"
Talyn dodged his sword, and sent her own in an upward arc. Black blood spurted from the wound she had cut into his chest. Shards of red crystal chipped off and dropped to the ground like scales.
"You've been screwing with worlds and magic you don't understand! There is no throne, all you did was curse Thedas!"
She lifted her sword up just in time to catch his blade from cutting her in two. His strength pushed her to one knee, her arms were trembling. Her fire ebbed away until she was just a normal elf once more, with a glowing green mark on her hand.
She heard the crack before she felt the pain of Solas' orb being slammed into her head. She nearly lost her balance, but she held on. She couldn't reach to grab the orb, because if she let go of her sword she would be dead.
"You know not of what you speak!"
That was when she felt it.
For one moment, the world stopped moving. Talyn herself was frozen in time as she watched the dragon fall from the sky. As the beast's heart slowed and stopped beating, so did her own.
Once again, her soul exploded from her skin. The force of her lyrium fire sent Corypheus flying backwards. Solas' orb rolled away to the very edge of the floating stone they were standing on.
She didn't recognize her own voice.
"Know me." She started to repeat the words that he had said to her so long ago, before she knew who she was.
Corypheus' deformed features were twisted with panic. He scrambled to his feet and summoned his sword.
Talyn's burning sword bit into his wrist and sent his blade to the ground, along with his hand. The ancient magister screamed in pain.
"Know who you have pretended to be."
She brought her sword down on his knee. Black blood pooled underneath him as he dropped.
They were now eye to eye with each other. She placed a burning hand right over his dead heart, and stare straight into his terrified, inhuman eyes.
"Exalt the will of Talyn Fen'Tarasyl, Thedas' Guardian."
She could feel something bubbling inside of her.
" Bow to me, your elder, the GODDESS OF WAR."
She felt the fire burst from her soul at her declaration. Her shout turned into a beastly roar as it engulfed the ancient magister's face. Her hand punched through the tough crystal that acted as his armor, and she tore the black rock that was supposed to be his heart from his body.
The floating stone crashed back into the ground, and she had to adjust to keep herself from losing balance. But Talyn's torrent of fire didn't end until his body was nothing but ash.
The battlefield had grown quiet. When she looked around, she saw her people standing among a sea of crimson ash. All of them were staring at her in quiet wonder.
The only thing that remained of Corypheus was his helmet of crystals. Talyn bent down to pick it up, and held it up to the sky.
Her scream of triumph was met with the thunder of joyous cries.