She woke up with a dry mouth and a head ache. Her eyes also felt dry and scratchy, but she forced them open. It was night time, the only light in the room was a small candle that was almost burned out. The room was foreign to her, it's stone walls were red, and the bed was far less comfortable than her and Solas'…
Solas.
Everything came crashing down on her.
Solas. Fen'Harel.
Talyn. Rasdalalen.
Tarasyl.
Hot tears filled her eyes, finally ridding her of that scratchiness.
Oh, gods. Her brain hurt with the amount of knowledge that was filling it, thousands of years' worth of memories and experiences. She only had pieces right now, but they were the important pieces.
"Talyn?!" A groggy Solas exclaimed, jumping from the chair he had been sitting in. He crossed the small space to kneel at the side of her bed, dark circles under his eyes.
"Are you alright?"
She looked at him, at her Solas, her Dread Wolf.
She thought of all of those times where he had dropped such obvious hints. In the Fade that they had created together. In Haven. And Skyhold… where she had slept alone in their bed for months, completely oblivious of the man who should have been beside her.
Solas put a hand on her cheek. And she angrily shoved it away.
"Get away from me!" She hissed, sitting up in the bed so abruptly her head spun.
She stumbled out of the bed anyways, nearly falling and catching herself on the bedpost.
Solas looked alarmed. "What's wrong, vhenan?"
She bared her teeth at him. "I don't know, Fen'Harel. Why don't we start with you lying to me?"
She watched him wince at the name, and his face went pale.
"You remember." He stated.
"Prove me wrong." She begged. Her voice was thick with tears now, the full force of the pain that she had been living with for so long squeezing her heart till it almost burst.
"Show me that it was just a dream. Tell me that you are not Fen'Harel, and I am not Rasdalalen. Tell me that we didn't… That I didn't…" She was choking on her own words. She couldn't finish her sentence.
"I can't." She could hear his regret, and his own pain.
"PROVE IT TO ME!" She roared.
Solas looked away from her, at one of the bare walls that reminded her too much of dried blood. And then his eyes closed, and the cracking of his bones echoed in Talyn's memories. She watched him drop to all fours, watched his body grow and expand, his mouth elongating into a snout with dangerously sharp teeth.
The enormous form of one of Nak'Zur's Cursed stood before her, staring at her with sad silver eyes.
Nak'Zur. Her father, an Elfen Wolf God. A man who had taken innocent Elvhen children and infected them with a beastly Curse.
And her mother was Tarsula… a Dragon Goddess. High Queen of the Wildlands, far north of Elvhenan. Her homeland.
And the Goddess of the Hunt was her lover. A lover that she had slaughtered thousands of innocents for.
"Oh, no."
She fell to her knees and started to rock.
"No. No, no, no."
She buried her face in her hands, and repeated that word.
She hadn't noticed that Solas had changed back until she felt him try to hold her. She shoved him away and jumped to her feet.
"Don't touch me!" She shouted.
Solas looked hurt. She was glad. He deserved it.
"Talyn, I'm sorry I didn't-"
"You should be!" She spat at him. "You knew who I was all along, and you said nothing!"
"What should I have said, vhenan?" Solas snapped back at her. "'Hello, I'm your husband. I thought you died, but you somehow ended up in my arms a thousand years later!'"
"YES!" Talyn burst with light with her anger. Solas didn't flinch.
"That is exactly what you should have said! You should have also mentioned the insane goddess currently plotting her revenge in the Fade! Or maybe the reason that our people are so broken now they don't know our language is because WE MADE THE VEIL."
Talyn's chest started to hurt with her ragged breathing. "Or maybe you should have told me that I have innocent blood on my hands. That I.." She had killed babies. Babies.
It was as if a thousand boulders were crushing her chest.
"Oh, Talyn," Solas had so much sadness in his voice.
Solas reached out to her, but Talyn took another step back and shouted, "don't fucking touch me!"
She ran from the room, not giving him a chance to say anything else.
She didn't deserve his comfort. And he didn't deserve her forgiveness.
She could hear him running after her. She pushed herself harder, calling upon her lyrium to make her faster.
He grabbed her, forcing her to stop. A mixture of instinct and passion made her turned around and punch him in the face. He stumbled back, blood dripping from his mouth, but didn't let go of her arm. Instead he just pulled her with him. His eyes flashed, and he growled at her.
Talyn tried to pull her arm out of his grip, but with a quickness she should have expected, Solas had managed to pin both of her arms behind her back and shove her into the wall. The stone was cold against her cheek.
"Let me go!" Talyn demanded, struggling against his hold on her. He used his magic to keep her still.
"Fenhedis lasa, pala ma!" She cursed at him in Elvish.
Solas spoke low in her ear, "you can fight me all you want Talyn, but we've been through this before. You're my soulmate, my wife. Ar lath ma, ma'alas'en!"
There was a grunt, and Talyn was released from Solas' hold.
She didn't register what was happening until Cullen was standing in front of her, his sword drawn.
"Keep your hands off her." There was a threat in the Commander's voice.
A spark of guilt ran through her, and she wanted to correct Cullen, tell him that she had been the one who attacked him, but she also wanted Solas to go away. So, she remained silent.
"Watch yourself, Commander." Solas snapped back at him, "you have no idea what you interrupted."
"I know exactly what I interrupted."
"Solas, just go." Talyn told him, although the fire that had fueled her a few minutes ago was diminished.
Solas stared at her with pain and uncertainty burning in his silver eyes. Yesterday, she would have said that she had never seen that look on his face before. But now that would have been false.
But Solas didn't say another word. Instead, his eyes lingered on her for a moment longer, and he walked away.
Talyn was still leaning against the wall, her hands flat against the stone. She closed her eyes and breathed deeply through her nose.
"Are you alright, Talyn?" Cullen asked her.
She opened her eyes to see his sapphire orbs staring at her with deep concern. He put his sword away and reached for one of her hands. He looked at her wrists, probably looking for bruises.
"Did that bastard hurt you?" He asked her, his voice tinged with a possessive anger.
Someone saying the word "bastard", directed towards Solas, enraged her. She ripped her arm from his grasp.
"No." She said curtly. "We were just arguing."
Cullen frowned. "That looked like one hell of an argument."
She got right down to business, completely changing the subject. "What happened, Commander? How long have I been out?"
He furrowed his brow for a moment, and then replied with a tone that matched hers, "you've been asleep for twelve hours. After you and the others fell into the rift and disappeared, the dragon wreaked havoc-"
"What are the casualties?" She asked, interrupting him.
There was a tightness to his eyes. "The Wardens took the heaviest casualties. Stroud… he didn't make it."
If it was even possible, another shard of pain stabbed through her heart. She hadn't known Stroud for long, but he had been a good man. She couldn't imagine how Hawke and Fenris felt right now.
"What happened to the dragon?"
That was when Cullen looked… nervous. "Well, Inquisitor… you walked through a rift, out of nowhere. But you weren't… well, you."
Talyn frowned in confusion. "What do you mean?"
"You were burning like a star. And you… well, you opened your mouth and breathed fire at the dragon."
She blinked. "What?"
Cullen continued, "the dragon isn't dead, but you hit it and it flew away. It was… well, it was the most magnificent sight I'd ever seen."
She almost snorted. Of course she breathed fire and didn't remember it. And she couldn't even blame the gods, because she was a god.
She was a goddess.
A goddess of fire, wind, and blood.
And her soulmate was Fen'Harel.
"Take me to the Wardens."
She wasn't allowed to dwell on this right now. The Wardens had to be dealt with.
The Wardens were outside in the desert sun. They had just finished putting Warden-Commander Clarel and the others to rest. She could see their crudely made headstones in the distance.
They turned their attention to Talyn once she arrived and knelt in the hot sand, their heads bowed in shame.
"You are Grey Wardens." Talyn spoke in a loud voice so they could all hear. "You kneel for no one."
They all looked shocked, but they rose to their feet. Talyn didn't continue talking until every single one of them were on their feet.
"Anyone else would have exiled you or executed you all for what you have done under Warden-Commander Clarel."
Talyn saw more eyes on the golden sand.
"But you were victims of Corypheus, nothing more. Just like we all are. You made an oath to defend Thedas against the Blight." Her voice grew louder, angrier as she recognized the echo of a speech similar to this one. "And wouldn't you all agree that Corypheus is a Blight on this world?!"
She could see their shame harden into fury, and a chorus of cheers was their response.
"He has caused so much pain and suffering. It's time that he pays for it!"
Their cheers grew thunderous, and it was then that she realized some Inquisition soldiers had gathered around to hear her speech. Talyn had to shout over them to be heard.
"Join us, Grey Wardens. Help us end this Blight, and when the very name Corypheus has been struck from the pages of history, we will help you rebuild what you have lost. You are the guardians of Thedas, and that will never change."
One of the Wardens stepped forward. He reminded her of Iron Bull without the horns. He drew his sword and planted it in the sand and bowed his head.
"I, Jordan Faye of the Grey Wardens pledge myself to your cause, Inquisitor Talyn. I give you my sword, and my life!"
Another stepped forward and repeated the same oath. And then another, and another, until everyone that was left of the Grey Wardens was bowing their heads.
Talyn grinned with a wicked satisfaction. Corypheus wouldn't stand a chance against them.
Of course, some restrictions had to be put on the Wardens, certain things that they had to agree to because of their ties to Corypheus through the Blight in their blood. But they were more than willing to accept the rules of their involvement with the Inquisition. They couldn't know anything that would benefit Corypheus. They would have to be kept in the dark, but when it was time for war, they would be there.
And if they couldn't ignore Corypheus in their heads… they had to die. Those were the terms, although it had pained Talyn to say the words aloud. But they had no objections. They understood why.
They stayed in the fortress in the desert, where they would wait to be called upon to fight. Some of the Inquisition would stay with them as well, to make sure that Corypheus didn't try to control them again.
Talyn and the rest of the Inquisition went back to Skyhold. During the trek back, Talyn completely avoided Solas. And Solas didn't try to speak to her, but she could feel his eyes on her. She knew that he would never leave her completely alone, and although she was furious with him, she couldn't help but take comfort in that.
Although it was hard at night, when she slept alone far away from the rest of the camp, and she was left to her own thoughts. She had thousands of years' worth of memories, and sometimes they would hit her like a brick to her face, and she would have to relive every tragic death she had caused, or every kiss from her.
But she also had time to think about how she ended up in this situation, with Solas' Foci magic embedded in her palm. She needed to know, because even when there was no Veil, traveling through time was impossible. But somehow, she ended up escaping a fate worse than death by being pulled a thousand years into the future.
Talyn didn't return to Skyhold with the rest of them. She informed the council that she had to do something, and then parted ways with them to go to the Storm Coast alone. They had protested, but Talyn made it known she wasn't in the mood for a debate.
She knew that Solas followed her. Her horse was nervous the entire way, a clear sign that he was running as a wolf. She stopped, but her horse couldn't keep still.
"If you don't stop following me, Solas, I'm not going to miss this time!" She shouted into the forest for him to hear.
Her horse had calmed down, and she had continued her journey.
She didn't sleep or eat. She only stopped so her horse wouldn't die of exhaustion. Soon, she ended up at the door of a small house overlooking a cliff, the stormy waves crashing against it. She didn't like how the smell of the sea made her miss Solas.
Inquisition guards surrounded the house. They bowed and greeted her, and they unlocked the door with a key they all wore around their necks. The key that kept Alexius in.
She walked inside, her questions already on her tongue.