The Vagrant
By Pyreite
Sequel to: The Trickster Returns
Chapter 5 – A sliver of a being
Warning: This chapter contains the deaths of two canon characters. Discretion is advised.
Ellana awoke inside a familiar place. The Setheneran, subject to her will, had replicated the quarters she'd had as Inquisitor. Ellana recognised the stone walls, high ceiling, and the stained glass windows. She looked passed the burning hearth to the open doors leading to the balcony. Ellana knew those snowcapped mountains and jagged peaks intimately.
"Ironic that I would find myself here again", she told herself. "So much for moving forward with my life".
It was an illusion, but it was still real for Ellana.
The plush Orlesian bed with its brocade coverlet was as luxurious as she remembered. Ellana recalled the nights she'd spent tossing and turning beneath it. Her life as the Inquisitor had never been easy. She glanced around the room. She was melancholic when she saw four familiar things.
The candelabra, with branches and points like a Halla's antlers, housed myriad burning candles. The hardwood bookshelves, lining one wall, held books of every shape, size, and colour. The desk, where she'd pored over missives, overflowed with paper, quills, and inkwells. Ellana recognised the lute she'd never played still leaning on its stand. The strings were untouched and the tuning pegs unturned.
Her memories of Skyhold (before the tearing of the Veil) were pristine.
Ellana's melancholy abated when she heard a delighted giggle. She could not be unhappy when her friend was near. The Spirit of Wisdom missed her when she was away during the day. Ellana looked across the room to the couch beside the stairwell. She smiled when she saw an elven child with bright eyes, rosy cheeks, and shaggy black curls.
She bounced like an exuberant puppy. She was ecstatic to have company again. The Setheneran was a lonely place when you were the only spirit around under five centuries old. Ellana laughed when her friend bubbled with enthusiasm. She was overjoyed to see her again.
"Ellana! Andaran atish'an!"
"Aneth ara, Taren".
Ellana braced herself when the spirit-child leapt off the couch. She hit the ground running, her bare toes skidding across the carpet. Her green skirts, embroidered with silver thread, billowed around her like a cloud. She barrelled into Ellana's legs with the elegance of a charging druffalo. She nearly knocked her elven friend off her feet.
"Taren!" reproved Ellana.
She stumbled, arms pin-wheeling to keep her balance. The Setheneran was not bound by the laws governing the waking world. Ellana did not fall to the floor, nor did she skin her knees, or awkwardly twist an ankle. She slipped through the carpeted stone as easily as water through sand. Taren took her on a bewildering short-cut to the throne-room two stories down.
Ellana gulped when she dropped like a stone. The floor disappeared out from under her feet. Her fear of falling from a great height resurfaced with a vengeance. She watched their descent, lest the Setheneran shape itself to reflect her dread. Ellana heard Taren's gentle guidance as they slid between floorboards overlaid on mortared stone.
"Good", said Taren. "Stay calm, Ellana. Nothing can hurt you here unless you want it too".
"Is this another one of your lessons?" asked Ellana.
Taren snorted. "Naturally! Someone has to keep you on your toes!"
The spirit giggled as they passed through a layer of roughly hewn stone. The bricks were disproportionate by size, but perfectly distributed. The thick slabs of mortar in every nook and cranny firmly cemented one to another until the fit was tight. Ellana appreciated the ingeniousness of the design. The upper floor housing her quarters was supported by a framework of wooden beams.
The entire structure was fixed to the stone foundations by wooden pegs and steel pins.
"It's beautiful", Ellana mused aloud. "Especially when the real Skyhold was likely built without magic". Ellana combed her fingers through Taren's thick curls. "Can you imagine organising the workforce and resources to build a fortress this large?" Ellana's appreciative whistle made Taren smile.
She had forgotten to be afraid.
Ellana was in awe of the majesty of her memory.
Tarasyl'an Tel'as would always be her home.
"It would have been incredibly difficult", proposed Ellana. "Not to mention expensive".
Taren fondly rubbed a rosy cheek on her kneecap. She hugged Ellana tight around the shins. It was nice to spend time with her again. Ellana was gone more often than she liked. The waking world, and its many responsibilities, kept her firmly grounded in the present.
"It could be even more beautiful", suggested Taren. "If you stayed here with me instead of going back".
Ellana's reverence for the foundations of Skyhold evaporated. She settled light as a feather on the stairwell spiralling downward from her quarters. The second story landing was over their heads. The door to the great hall stood beyond them. Its hinges shone like polished silver.
The hardwood panels gleamed as if newly waxed.
Ellana saw her face reflected in that shining wood as if it were the surface of a mirror.
"You would be so much happier!" gushed Taren. "There is no grief or death or pain here!" She dug her fingers into Ellana's leggings. The soft suede, the colour of newly turned earth, pulled uncomfortably tight. Taren implored her friend to remain by her side.
"You wouldn't have to see that horrible harellan again!"
Ellana sighed. Taren always asked for the same thing each time she entered the Setheneran. The Spirit of Wisdom had a kind and gentle heart. She loathed seeing Ellana so disconsolate when she returned to the waking world. It was better, in her mind, if the Dreamer stayed where she was safest.
Inside the wellspring of her magic and the cocoon of her memories.
"The Setheneran can become anything you want!" wheedled Taren. "You have the power, like all Somniari, to shape it to your will! Think of it, Ellana!" Taren beamed, teeth flashing white in her rosy-cheeked face. "You could build a New Arlathan here! And make it fairer than anything ever seen in the waking world!"
Taren's excitement dimmed like a guttering candle-flame. Her mouth turned down unhappily when Ellana's expression softened. Her friend's sadness smelt like brine and tasted like ash. Taren hated the salty sting that prickled in the corners of her eyes.
Spirits didn't know the touch of grief, but in befriending Ellana she'd learnt to cry.
"You know I can't do that".
Taren sniffled. The tears trickled down her chubby cheeks. She peered at Ellana through tear-wet lashes. The smell of the sea lingered in her nose and mouth. She was miserable when she asked that heartbreaking question.
"Why?"
"Taren", pleaded Ellana. She had denied her a thousand times over the past five centuries and still the Spirit begged. "If I stayed here with you", reasoned Ellana. "I would die out there in the real world. My body can't survive without sustenance. And I don't know the ritual to enter Uthenera".
"I could find out for you!" assured Taren. A swift nod revealed her eagerness. "Your sentinel knows! The harellan does too!" Taren grasped Ellana's left hand and squeezed her fingers tight.
Only in the Setheneran was she whole of mind and body.
She didn't need a prosthetic arm here.
"I'm a Spirit of Wisdom!" urged Taren. "I could pick their thoughts apart! I could find the spell inside their memories! I would do it for you, Ellana! All you have to do is ask!"
Ellana's smile was sad. She tenderly cupped Taren's cheek. "Ma da'lath", she soothed. "That would pervert your nature and turn you against your purpose". Ellana shook her head. "I could not do that to you".
"But I want you to stay!" sobbed Taren. "It's so lonely here without you!"
Ellana's knees bent and her long legs folded. She sank to the floor before the weeping spirit. It was her own fault. Taren had taken the form of the dearest and most desperate wish lurking in the darkest corner of her heart. The Spirit of Wisdom was the embodiment of the child she'd wanted to have with Solas.
Black-haired, grey-eyed, and rosy-cheeked. Taren was Solas's double in miniature. She would have been beautiful as a babe. Small and fair with a dusting of black hair on her crown, deep lungs, and a voice loud enough to crack glass. Ellana had once imagined such a child cradled in Solas's arms.
She would have been the first piece of a non-existent family.
"I know, ma da'lath", said Ellana. She wiped away Taren's tears. "I know".
Ellana was startled when Taren made a suggestion.
The Spirit had never (in five hundred years) ever come to this conclusion.
"If you can't stay here with me", babbled Taren. She looked pleadingly at Ellana. "Then take me with you when you return".
Ellana's mouth was agape. Her eyes were wide and incredulous. She couldn't believe what her friend was asking. Taren had always existed inside the winding paths of the Setheneran. She had no place outside of it or within the confines of the waking world.
The Setheneran had always been her home.
She was a houseless spirit.
Ellana didn't know what to do.
"I can't!" cried Ellana. "I don't know how!"
"But you do!" insisted Taren.
"You're not like Cole!" argued Ellana. "He believed himself into being! I know you're not strong enough to do that!"
"I don't need to be!" countered Taren. "There's an easier way!"
Ellana stared at her friend. The little girl, not more than eight years old, had been her constant companion for half a millennium. She did not want to lose her. Taren was as much a part of her life as Abelas. To have one without the other was unthinkable.
"How?" asked Ellana. She gasped when a small hand pressed against her belly. She spied the four short fingers, a delicate thumb, and a soft palm placed over her womb. Ellana glanced at the distraught elven child. She slowly shook her head.
"I know what I'm asking for", said Taren. "And I know it's unfair". She pouted. "But I can't exist outside your dreams without him, Ellana". She patted the dalish elf's leather-clad belly.
"I became the child you wanted, but never had", said Taren. "Because it eased your pain and made the teaching easier". The spirit sighed as Ellana cupped her face between calloused palms. The melancholy returned and the stone walls, floor, and ceiling overhead grew dark. The light dimmed and the shadows rolled in.
"I guided you through the Setheneran because you trusted me", explained Taren. "Now I want to be with you, always, because I love you".
Their roles had been reversed.
Ellana gaped at the Spirit of Wisdom. She understood Taren's plea with sudden clarity. She had never thought that it would be possible. They had been together for centuries. Ellana had believed that her friend and teacher would always be within easy reach.
Ellana's expression was pained. The realisation startling. Her hands slid down Taren's round cheeks to her shoulders. She took one shaky breath and pulled the spirit close. Ellana embraced her tight, afraid to let go lest she disappear.
"You can't leave me!" exclaimed Ellana. "Please! I've lost so much! I don't want to lose you too!"
Taren tucked her crown beneath her student's chin. She patted Ellana's shoulder, knowing how much this hurt. The heart thrumming beneath her ear was steady and constant like the beating of a drum. Ellana was stronger than she believed herself to be. Taren knew that she would survive the separation, though it would wound her grievously.
"You don't need me for lessons or guidance any more", whispered Taren. "You have mastered the Vir Thenerasan". Taren slipped her arms around Ellana's waist. She gladly returned her affection. "I have nothing more to teach you", admitted Taren.
"Except perhaps", advised a deeper, wiser, and more venerable voice. "The lesson of mercy".
The walls changed from grey to pristine silver-white. The stairs turned from mortared brick to cobbled stone. The form Ellana cradled shifted shape. Black curls grew long and lustrous. The hair bleached white from root to silken tip as it cascaded over broad shoulders.
Child-like eyes, full of innocence, flashed gold in the darkness.
"So we meet again".
Ellana trembled. She recognised that velvety timbre. She eased away from the person in her arms. Her hands slid over studded leather trimmed in black feathers. Ellana felt the cold kiss of steel against her cheek.
The keen edge cut her skin like a blade.
Blood dribbled down her chin.
"Asha'belannar", whispered Ellana.
"Yes, child", said Flemeth.
Ellana's arms dropped to her sides. She sank onto the cold stone floor. Skyhold had disappeared. She glimpsed candelabra burning with blue-red magefire. Iron-wrought torches were sunk into pale marble walls. The mosaic beneath her feet housed an intricate web of enchantment.
The tiles laid in concentric circles were engraved with a single rune.
Ellana recognised the bite of the magic charged into each rune. It was as wild and untamed as the mage who had built the foundations of New Arlathan. Ellana was afraid, not for herself, but for poor Taren trapped inside this tug of war. Her gaze was fixed upon the Witch of the Wilds, who crouched like a cat ready to pounce. Ellana froze when a gauntleted hand, clad in steel, wiped the blood from her cheek.
"Atisha da'len", soothed Flemeth. "I am here to bargain not to hurt you".
"A bit late for that isn't it?" hissed Ellana. "You cut me". She jerked away from Flemeth's touch. She was too proud to shrink like a coward. Ellana had a backbone of steel. Her bravery pleased Flemeth.
"An accident", said Flemeth. She tapped her bloodied crown with a gauntleted finger. The tip was a sharp silverite talon. "I am unaccustomed to restraint", explained Flemeth. "I am a mere shadow of what I was, but I had strength enough to lure you here. And to lock away someone dearest to you".
"Taren!" snarled Ellana. "Where is she?"
Flemeth smiled. The horns protruding from her white hair, made her appear more devilish than angelic. This was not a being that bent to another's will. She could be kind and cruel. Asha'belannar was as famed for her wisdom as she was for her wrath.
"Your elgar'len is safe", she assured.
"Give her back!" demanded Ellana.
"I will", promised Flemeth. "If you do something for me in return".
Ellana heard the moaning. The sound was wordless, but full of agony. She was anxious when Flemeth glanced over her shoulder. The grave nod to the gleaming barrier, glistening like transparent glass, revealed her desire. Ellana rolled onto her knees and shuffled across the floor.
Flemeth's regard was sombre.
"My daughter has endured her guilt for long enough".
Ellana was on her feet before another word was spoken. Flemeth saw her charge across the room. She was unsurprised by Ellana's attachment to Morrigan. The girl collected friends like stray cats. She was kind-hearted despite the grief she bore like a yoke around her neck.
She had survived tragedy without breaking.
Flemeth was certain that her choice was right. Only Ellana could do what needed to be done.
The Dread Wolf had torn the world asunder. Someone had to heal the hurts his pride had inflicted.
Thousands of crippled survivors needed more than guidance.
They needed someone to believe in.
Ellana sank to her knees beside the barrier. She saw the shrivelled body, the wrinkled face, and the protruding bones. The snow-white hair was lank. The sagging skin mottled with age. Ellana watched the rise and fall of a skeletal chest clothed in tattered purple rags.
"Morrigan!" screamed Ellana.
She slammed her fist into the barrier. The magic sparked like flame set to tinder. The barrier neither cracked nor shattered like a mirror. It remained intact, though the runes engraved into the stones beneath it flickered. A second blow caused one rune, glowing lyrium-blue, to extinguish as if it were a flame doused by water.
"Morrigan! Please!" implored Ellana.
Flemeth walked the periphery. She spied the effect Ellana's desperation had on the runes anchoring the wards. The Setheneran shaped itself to exert her will over Morrigan's prison. The intensity of her desire, fuelled by guilt, raged like an inferno. The Setheneran made itself into the bludgeon Ellana required.
She was breaking the binding by sheer force of will.
"Incredible", murmured Flemeth. She paused when a name was whispered inside the barrier. The voice was drier than parched sand. Flemeth had wondered if her youngest would muster the strength to respond. Morrigan had always been sensitive to the eddies and undercurrents of magic in the Fade.
Flemeth was glad to see her roused out of her stupor.
Her daughter hadn't shown such liveliness in centuries.
Ellana braced her hands upon the barrier. She peered through it to the figure laying supine on the cobbled floor. The tears fell like rain. Ellana was horrified by what she saw. Poor Morrigan, aged and ailing, was imprisoned inside a binding spell just like Erasthenes.
"I'm here!" called Ellana.
Flemeth smirked. "So my Morrigan has ears after all".
The name was repeated.
"Morrigan! I'm here!" bellowed Ellana.
She banged on the barrier.
A second rune went out.
"Ellana", croaked Morrigan. "You must forgive me".
Eyes the colour of gold sovereigns rolled beneath wizened lids. Morrigan was caught halfway between waking and sleeping. Ellana's cries sounded hollow and distant in her ears, despite the dalish elf's nearness. Morrigan was too weary to fully rouse from her dreams, though she spoke in a delirium, as if Ellana were a ghost.
"I did not want to do it", wheezed Morrigan. "But I had no control over my actions. The voices crashed like thunder. I was deafened by their pain. I could only react like a bewildered beast in the eye of a hurricane".
Ellana frowned.
Her confusion was telling to Flemeth.
"Abelas was wise to withhold that knowledge", she said. "Until you were ready to hear it".
Ellana found Flemeth's insight offensive. She was aware of her lover's oath to Mythal. Now she wondered if he had stayed with her, all these years, because he'd been commanded to do so. The irony made her feel sick inside. He had admitted that his presence in Skyhold, after the Veil was torn, had been at Morrigan's behest.
Ellana wondered how much of Abelas's feelings were genuine.
"He lied to me", she whispered. "Just like Solas".
"Abelas lied to protect you", countered Flemeth. "Solas lied to protect himself".
Ellana wasn't so sure. Her pained expression revealed the emotional turmoil inside.
"They are not alike in heart or mind, child", reassured Flemeth. "My sentinel would be insulted by the comparison".
Ellana rolled her eyes. Flemeth knew those sworn to her service well. Abelas was too honourable to consider himself the same as Solas. The sentinel respected the Dread Wolf, but he did not trust him. At times, reflected Ellana, Abelas tolerated his presence.
"You're right", admitted Ellana. "Abelas would be offended on principle".
"He would indeed", agreed Flemeth. She nodded to her whimpering daughter. "Now I would have you listen to her ravings", she advised. "My Morrigan is old, but she is not mad. Time has ravaged her body not her wits. She has carried this sorrow throughout the centuries".
Flemeth regarded Ellana expectantly. "I would have her die free of regret, even if it will cause you agony to learn the truth".
Ellana shook her head in disbelief. The withered old woman, weeping inside the barrier, couldn't want to divulge so dark a secret. No one willingly courted suffering. Ellana's brows furrowed. She didn't understand, though she wanted too.
"What did you do?" asked Ellana.
Morrigan cringed like a chastised child. Her voice was thick with contrition. Her breath hitched as if she feared the judgement of an angered parent. She implored Ellana for forgiveness. She confessed with a heavy heart.
"The wolf howled. The Veil was torn", confided Morrigan. She shuddered, bones creaking, as she admitted her crime. "And the voices of the Vir'abelasan screamed". Tears leaked from her eyes. She had guarded this knowledge for five centuries.
"They were so loud. So full of anguish", keened Morrigan. "I could not shut them out. They wailed like lost souls. Their grief enraged me".
"What did you do?" hissed Ellana.
The compassion was gone.
Ellana wanted an explanation.
"Tell her", urged Flemeth.
Morrigan hiccuped. Her lower-lip wobbled. Her composure crumbled in a deluge of tears. Her fragile frame, shrivelled to the bone, shuddered as if she were afraid. The answer was not what Ellana expected.
"I fell on Skyhold with a dragon's fury", confessed Morrigan. "I knew not what I had done until the fortress was a pile of ash and dead embers".
Ellana's shocked silence spoke volumes. She stared at the withered old woman imploring her for forgiveness. Morrigan's bone-rattling sobs did not inspire sympathy. Ellana was strangely numb. Morrigan had been imprisoned with her shame for five centuries.
How could Ellana justify her anger?
"A witch in the skin of a dragon", murmured Ellana. "Burned my home to the ground". Ellana exhaled a lungful of mist. The temperature dropped by several degrees. She blinked and the icy residue of frozen tears clung to her lashes.
"Forgive me", implored Morrigan. "Please! I can not go to my grave knowing you hate me!"
Morrigan had not told an untruth. The Setheneran, a place of dreams, like a mirror reflected the hopes, fears, and desires of the living. Illusions could be deceiving. Emotions could not. Ellana sensed the depth of Morrigan's remorse.
Iron-wrought braziers and candelabra iced over. The torches and candles lit by magefire went out with a hiss, plunging the room into darkness. The cobblestones under Ellana's knees grew slick with sleet. Their glowing runes were the only source of light. Morrigan's sobs were wretched. Her thin chest and shoulders rattled like desiccated bone.
"Do the voices still whisper?" asked Ellana.
Morrigan nodded feebly.
Ellana considered the choice she'd made in the Temple of Mythal. She had declined to drink from the Well of Sorrows. Morrigan had taken her place. The act had bound her to the will of Mythal. Morrigan had never suspected that deity would be her own mother.
The legendary Witch of the Wilds.
Ellana gestured helplessly to frail Morrigan. "Her suffering is my fault", she told Flemeth. "As is the destruction of Skyhold". Ellana hung her head. Her pride, like her heart, was bruised and battered.
"I refused to drink from the Well. Morrigan took my place. Solas tore the Veil and awoke the voices in the Well. Their hysteria drove a shape-changed dragon into a rage. Morrigan destroyed Skyhold by accident. All my friends, allies, and followers died in the conflagration".
Ellana's voice cracked. "Did you bring me here to humble me?"
Flemeth found her contrition amusing.
"You are such a bleeding heart, child. It is sweet if misguided. You are not to blame for Morrigan's decision to drink from the Vir'abelasan. She did so willingly, lest I remind you, without heeding my sentinel's warning. She bound herself into my service without your help".
Ellana reddened.
Flemeth laughed. "Ah", she teased. "So you do know what humility is".
Ellana thought on what Abelas had said. All sworn to the service of Mythal were elvhen. All who had drunk from the Vir'abelasan in the past were elvhen. Morrigan was the first and last shemlen to bear the weight of their devotion to a dead goddess. She'd had the thirst and the will, but not the resilience of their people.
Time had worn down her resolve.
She was not a mountain, but a pebble ground smooth.
Flemeth heard Ellana's relieved sigh. Perhaps the girl needed a little motivation. The barrier had to be dispelled for Morrigan to be freed. Solas would not appreciate her intervention, but action was necessary. Time was running out.
New Arlathan was not the promised land. Many elvhen prospered, whilst others were trapped just like Morrigan, inside its ivory walls. Solas was too mired in the past to plan for the future. History was destined to repeat. Flemeth foresaw war on the horizon.
The Dread Wolf's nostalgia would doom them all.
Flemeth considered his beloved. Ellana's face was pressed against the barrier. Her tears clung to her lashes in silver-white icicles. Her cheeks glittered with a dusting of salt. Flemeth had heard Morrigan beg Ellana for mercy as she had begged the Evanuris.
Flemeth remembered the corpses, piled beside her own, upon her funeral pyre.
The Dread Wolf's vengeance had come too late.
Flemeth circled Ellana like a hunting dragon. Her golden eyes glinted. Her silverite claws were bared. What compassion she'd possessed had burned to ashes. Now only bitterness remained. She was avenged and her people endured, but too many were lost and living without purpose.
Flemeth was unsurprised when Ellana spoke to her.
The girl had always been sharp.
"This was never about Morrigan", she told the Witch of the Wilds. "It was about you". She turned on Flemeth with a snarl. "Minaeve said I was entangled in your web". Ellana regarded the last surviving member of the Evanuris.
"She was right".
Flemeth's cheeks dimpled. She grinned like a predator, teeth bared to the gum, and eyes shining. She neither confirmed nor denied Ellana's accusation. Her silence was telling. She cackled when Ellana revealed her deception.
"Did you possess Morrigan's body before or after she razed Skyhold?"
"During", corrected Flemeth. "The voices of the Vir'abelasan were reinvigorated by the tearing of the Veil. Their reawakening heralded Morrigan's end. She is not elvhen. She could not endure the storm of their discontent".
"They overwhelmed her", deduced Ellana.
"Yes", confirmed Flemeth. "And she was crushed by the weight of their memories".
Ellana looked through the barrier. She braced her hands on its transparent surface. It was solid like a dome fashioned from the purest crystal. She considered the figure lying on the icy floor inside. Morrigan had ceased to cry, but she continued to sniffle like an upset child.
"The battle that ensued for the possession of her body", declared Flemeth. "Raged in the skies over Tarasyl'an Te'las".
"Before descending upon the fortress", finished Ellana. The sting of Morrigan's betrayal was like salt rubbed into an open wound. Ellana looked on the old woman blubbering like an infant. She was trapped inside a prison of her own making.
"You subdued her", said Ellana.
"With help", acknowledged Flemeth. "From an old friend".
"Solas", guessed Ellana. She scowled. "He created the Veil", she stated. "Replicating the spell Corypheus used to bind Erasthenes, would be easy for him to do". Ellana groaned.
She saw the game for what it was.
The puzzle pieces fell into place.
"He imprisoned Morrigan to keep you alive".
"You know his greatest weakness", said Flemeth. "Is it so surprising that he would do all that he could to keep me close?"
Ellana was aware of the Dread Wolf's darkest fear. She had seen the gravestone in the Fade. She grimaced. She did not want to feel compassion for him. Ellana distracted herself by asking a frank question.
"Did you lure me here to possess me?"
"No", replied Flemeth. "As I said. I brought you here to bargain".
Ellana tensed when gauntleted knuckles caressed her cheek. The gesture was more sinister than maternal. She trembled. The blessing of Mythal was double-edged. Ellana doubted she would survive the second cut.
"What are your terms?"
"The barrier was created by a somniari", said Flemeth. "It can only be broken by a somniari". She stroked Ellana's temple with a gauntleted thumb. "Do this for me", offered Flemeth. "And I will return your elgar'len".
Ellana frowned. "That's too simple a request. You are Mythal, the mother-goddess of my people. Deity or Evanuris. What you ask isn't the only thing you want from me".
"Such a smart girl", praised Flemeth. "So polite too, unlike my Morrigan". Flemeth tucked a loose strand of hair behind Ellana's pointed ear. She extended a silverite talon. She tapped on the barrier enclosing her elderly daughter.
The magic rippled like waves in a pond.
Flemeth was the spider at the centre of an intricate web.
Ellana was ensnared as surely as Morrigan.
"You will not become the martyr I was", avowed Flemeth. "You will lead with a fist of fire, a heart of steel, and fly with wings fashioned from dragon-scale". She smirked when Ellana gasped. She was amused by the dalish elf's fright. Flemeth chortled.
"Morrigan carries the last fragment of what was Mythal", she explained. "When you free her, my dear girl, you will become my last living heir".
"You said you wouldn't possess me!" asserted Ellana.
"I will not", assured Flemeth. "I am a remnant, a sliver of a being, a feather cast upon the wind. I will cease to exist. You will become more than what you are. And you will have the strength to endure the aeons. You will no longer fear the burden of time".
Ellana exhaled shakily. "What if I refuse?"
"You will not", countered Flemeth.
"How can you be so sure?"
The Witch of the Wilds laughed. "You are shackled by your love for your elgar'len. You would give up everything to see her again. That is why you will not refuse". Flemeth gestured to the barrier incarcerating her last-born child.
"Now that you know what Morrigan has done", she told Ellana. "Will you be cruel or merciful?"
Ellana's eyes narrowed. She did not abandon her friends. She forgave them, even if someone as fallible as Morrigan, had fallen on the sword of her own arrogance. Five centuries of suffering, decided Ellana, was penance enough. She placed her hand on the barrier, focusing her will as Taren had taught her.
She channelled her magic into the anchoring wards.
"I am not Solas!" snarled Ellana.
Rage replaced sorrow. Hope crushed despair. Ellana was tired of being broken inside. She wanted a new purpose to direct the course of her life. Eternity was too long a time to spend wallowing in regret.
"I accept", agreed Ellana.
The bargain was struck.
"Excellent", crowed Flemeth. She was pleased when the barrier thrummed like a beating heart. Its transparent surface glowed red, then blue, then white. The runes carved into a circle of concentric stones, pulsed an electric lyrium-blue. Flemeth watched them extinguish, one after another, like hot coals smothered by a lack of air.
She was delighted when the stones split in two. The barrier crackled like lightning before it vanished. Flemeth was satisfied when Morrigan stirred. Wrinkled lids opened to reveal weary golden eyes. Her daughter's startled gasp made her smile beatifically. Flemeth addressed Morrigan as her body disintegrated into ash.
"Farewell, my child. Do not fear. Your time of suffering is over. You will see Kieran again. It is time to go home".
"Home", reiterated Morrigan. "I would like that, mother".
"As would I", said Flemeth.
Ellana heard Morrigan's relieved sigh.
"Ma serannas, Ellana", she called, her voice growing fainter by the moment.
"Dareth shiral ma falon", whispered Ellana.
"So it ends", concluded Flemeth. She acknowledged Ellana with a smile as she faded from existence. The studded leather she wore turned from blood-red to ash-grey. The black feathers adorning her shoulders frayed like tattered cloth. Her gauntleted hands dulled like tarnished steel.
"Wait!" demanded Ellana. "You promised to return, Taren!"
Flemeth arched a snow-white brow. She leered at Ellana's belly. "Your elgar'len is where she belongs". She smiled when Ellana blushed. Flemeth was amused by her embarrassment.
"Only you can decide", she advised as she dissolved into a pillar of smoke. "If she will be born or not".
Flemeth disappeared, leaving Ellana alone. The marble chamber was empty. The light dim. Ellana took a deep fortifying breath when she heard the wolf's howl. The lupine wail shook the walls, cracked the cobblestone floor, and relit the braziers.
Fire exploded around Ellana. The ice of her fury and Morrigan's despair melted. She was soon surrounded by pools of steaming water. The howl escalated in volume. Ellana listened to the thunderous roar of the Dread Wolf's lamentation.
She was unafraid when a shadow crept into the chamber. Ellana saw stocky fore and hind legs covered in black fur. She recognised the pointed ears and long snout with its glistening nose. Black lips peeled back from a muzzle full of jagged teeth. Ellana was unimpressed when he snarled.
The multitude of baleful red eyes focused upon her with unerring accuracy.
"I've faced demons, maleficar, and dragons", goaded Ellana. "Did you honestly believe I would be afraid of you?"
The Dread Wolf circled.
Ellana rolled her eyes. She smacked the black snout that nudged her leg. The startled yelp satisfied her sense of propriety. She was unsympathetic when the Dread Wolf's fur smoked. She had scorched him with a spark of fire-magic.
"Mind your manners", reproved Ellana. "Or I'll do worse than singe your whiskers".
Her eyes glinted like gold sovereigns in the firelight. She clucked her tongue when the Dread Wolf whined. His tongue lolled from his formidable jaws. He was adorably confused by the change in her attitude. She hadn't attacked him nor was she spewing vitriol.
Fen'Harel was unnerved.
His mournful howling ceased.
Ellana snorted. "Now that I think about it", she told him. "You're not worth killing". Ellana reflected on their most recent confrontation. "I have far better things to do with my time than plot ways to spill your blood".
Elvish and Tevene Translations: Courtesy of the Dragon Age Wiki – Elven Language.
Setheneran – The Land of Waking Dreams – aka the Fade.
Andaran atish'an – I dwell in this place of peace. A formal elven greeting.
Aneth ara – My safe place – A Dalish greeting.
Taren - Mind
Ma da'lath – My little love.
Harellan – Trickster – aka Solas.
Vir Thenerasan – The Way of the Dreamer.
Asha'belannar –The Woman of Many Years – The Dalish name for Flemeth.
Atisha da'len – Peace, little one.
Elgar'len – Spirit-child.
Tarasyl'an Te'las – The Place Where the Sky is Kept – The elven name for Skyhold.
Somniari – Tevene for Dreamer.
Ma serannas – My thanks.
Dareth shiral ma falon – Safe journey, my friend.