Happy Friday! Enjoy the chapter!
Once the group had arrived back with the walls of Skyhold everything seemed to take a turn for the chaotic. Ellana had to deal with Morrigan, who she had given to her Spymaster for the time being and with Sampson, who was carted off to the dungeons till further notice. Ellana wanted to wait till The Commander made it back to Skyhold to hold a trial. He didn't have the luxury of traveling through an Eluvian, cutting the two-week trip into a thirty-five-minute walk.
The Ambassador whisked Ellana, Ven and Myna out of the room and into her private chambers. It wasn't every day that the Inquisitor's family comes to visit. Apparently, the Antivian was insulted that Ellana didn't tell her that her mother was coming in advance, not like she knew either, but it was the principle of the matter, or so he had been told. Solas had caught the Spymaster watching him from the third floor more than once. She was more than likely hoping that someone would visit him, if only to supply her some much craved gossip about his relationship with Myna, since he seemed familiar with her.
Solas was slightly concerned that he could actually be the cause of the gossip at Skyhold. He had avoided that for the most part during the entire campaign against Corypheus. Myna was not one to let things go, by any means and Solas knew he was going to be cornered by her sooner or later.
He was in the middle of sketching his newest frescos when the door to the rotunda was opened with more care than he'd witnessed since his coming to Skyhold. There was still the telltale creak of the hinges, but there was no loud bang, but a soft click as the door slid shut. Myna was leaning against the door, her eyes roaming over Solas' still slightly hunched form. Out of all the habits that she kept from ancient times, staring at his rear seemed to stick with her. It seems some things never change.
"Ellana mentioned that her room will be empty for the next hour or so. She said something about making up for the privacy your space lacks," she said as her voice echoed slightly within the rotunda. Her eyes traveled to the crows above.
Solas couldn't agree more and quickly followed her out of the room, closing his sketchpad before leaving. He felt that he would never get all of the frescos done before the fall of Corypheus and his inevitable departure.
Varric whistled with a rather inappropriate wiggle of his eyebrow when he saw Solas following Myna towards Ellana's room. The dwarf was no doubt going to create rumors about this before the two of them would even make their way back down the stairs. Myna pointedly ignored the stares and pushed forward.
It wasn't long before they reached Ellana's room. It felt odd seeing Myna in the flesh. She still didn't feel real. She didn't look like a Dalish Keeper. She had no staff, nor robes on at the moment. Myna was dressed in something very similar to Ellana's assassin's gear rather than anything a modern mage would wear. It seemed that something things would never change with her.
Solas closed the door with an audible thud, leaning against it, at least they were given a small bit of privacy. By the time he'd turned around a loud crack sounds and it took a moment for Solas to realize that Myna had slapped him, hard, across the face. The sting was the first thing he registered. Did she use magic?
"You have a lot of explaining to do, Solas," Myna hisses her eyes narrowed, hand held inches away from his face, the tips of her fingers sparking with electricity. It had been a long time since he had been hit like that.
Solas wasn't quite sure what exactly she wanted him to say. He had fucked up, he knew that, but he also knew that he wanted to fix his mistakes and that would no doubt make her even more furious at him, if that was even possible at that point.
Myna pinched her nose, looking quite a bit like Ellana. How had he not recognized her mannerisms till this point? They were so similar…it was eerie.
"Solas, please explain to me why my children are discussing amputating your anchor with the little dwarf in the Undercroft?"
Solas physically recoiled. This was news to him and Myna's eyes softened a little bit when she noticed the genuine surprise on his face. "They're talking about doing what?"
She seemed to calm for a moment, knowing that he wasn't the person that put that idea in their children's heads. "The mark is killing her, as you well know, and since no one has found a way to remove the mark out safely, Ven apparently came up with the genius idea of cutting the damn thing off. It has only infected a small part of her left arm at this point, but the only possible solution that they have come up with amputation. Surely, there has to be another way to remove the mark, your mark…" she reminded him, and she didn't have to. Solas knew very well that his magic was slowly killing his own daughter.
Solas' mind was reeling, while he hadn't been focusing on the removal of the anchor for some time and that guiltily ate at him. There had to be another way to safely remove the mark. He had some loose theories, most revolving around his stolen orb, which he was still attempting to retrieve.
Why had Ven not spoken to him about his research? "Theoretically, there should be another way to get rid of it. I've seen Ven manipulate and drain the mark through their bond and Ellana has remarkable control over the mark for someone with no direct connection to the fade. The two of them jumped to a rather dramatic solution."
Myna sighed, a wry smile on her face as she thinks of the twins. "They're your children as well as mine. Did you expect anything less, but theatrics? Instead of speaking to your three generals, you erected the veil and when they can't find a solution between the two of them they decide to cut off her arm."
"You're positive that they're mine?"
She gave him a glare that made him squirm.
"You were the only person I slept with before you erected the veil and put us in a forced slumber. I took the twins as a rather…bitter parting gift from you, since I thought you had died using all your power to create a better world."
Solas felt his face heat up as he recalled the night before he created the veil. They had been flirting for nearly a century with one another and the tension built until they both succumb to an extremely passionate night together. There was so much time that separated Myna and him now. It was obvious that she suffered and he was the root of a lot of her current problems. "Myna, I had no idea-"
She leaned against the wall next to the door. They hadn't really moved much from the entryway. "Would you have changed your plans? Have you changed any of your plans since you've found out about the twins being yours? Is destroying the world again really worth losing everything, again? Do you really want to die alone?"
He flinched. It seemed either Ellana or Ven had shared that little tidbit of knowledge with their mother. Then again, Myna had always known of his fears and insecurities, as his Spymaster she needed to hide all of them from the public and burry them, but she had never feared bringing them up in front of him. She was fearless, and it was something that had always drawn him to her. She had been a flame in the darkness of Arlathan.
Ellana having the anchor had been the catalyst to start his self-doubt, that his plan may truly be flawed, but the more he got to know her and then Ven the more real this world became. Everything was truly different. "I don't want Ellana to be harmed, but this world is…a shadow of what it was."
Myna rolled her eyes, arms crossed. The breeze from mountains came into the room and caused her to shiver. "Yes, because our world was so much better ravaged by the Forgotten ones as well as the Pantheon who were at constant war with each other and had the majority of the world enslaved to their will."
"But our magic-"
"Is still strong, ridiculously so compared to humans and city elves. Honestly, it's far more controlled this way. We can no longer shape reality to our will, but what did we do to the world but destroy it?"
She was right, but how could she not see what was missing from Thedas? How can she not want to change their People? How can she not miss all the history that was erased and lost to time?
"Our People are dying, Myna. Something needs to be done," Solas replied helplessly and Myna sighed, shoulder's slumping.
"I know, Solas, but causing another war and mass genocide isn't going to solve anything. There are greater issues plaguing Thedas right now. Your generals have been plotting a lovely bit of revenge in your steed against those that helped in our People's downfall."
Solas lifted an eyebrow and leaned forward, hands behind his back, a pose that she was very familiar with. The Dread Wolf was out to play. "Have you now? What, pray tell, have you been planning?"
Myna's grin was positively feral, and a small tingle went up Solas' spine. "We've been planning the downfall of Qunari as well as the Imperium. It's something Fen'harel would have been proud of, killing two birds with one stone."
"What about the Chantry?" Solas questioned. He loathed Andrastians and the way that they treated magic, his people and their constant need to try to convert Ellana despite her vehemence against it.
Myna waved a dismissive hand. "They're destroying themselves and with Ellana at the helm to choose the next Divine she can bring the entire institution crumbling down."
"You do realize that she wouldn't intentionally destroy something her friend's hold dear, right?" Solas asked with a wry smile.
His Spymaster gave him a withering look. She knew her own daughter and Solas belatedly realized he might have hit a nerve. "I'm aware, but with Madam de Fer getting nowhere near the title and her Seeker friend being left to rebuild her institution, this leaves her Spymaster as the only choice. The woman is bloodthirsty, cares for mages' equality, and won't push to rebuild those blasted circles. She the worst choice for the Chantry, but the best for us."
"How did you manage to get all this information?" Myna hadn't been around long enough to get all of this from Ellana and not many knew who Ellana had advised to take the position of Divine.
"You're not the only one with spies in the Inquisition, vhenan." She replied with a smirk, before she grimaced, realizing her mistake. Solas felt his blood run colder than the mountain air.
They had been avoiding this…the two of them had been close, very close and it had felt like old times, if only for a moment. Neither made eye contact, they each picked a window to stare out of, letting the tension in the air dissipate.
Solas wasn't sure if he truly minded if she slipped. It meant that even after everything that happened, she didn't hate him, not completely. "We should probably discuss-"
"Solas, there's nearly twenty-five years that you've been absent for. When I woke up, you were gone. I nearly lost the twins more than once before they were born. They were conceived before the veil, but born without it, leaving them in a very dangerous spot. Once they were born, Ven hiccupped fireballs and sneezed ice when he was four months old. Ellana learned to disappear perfectly at two and I did all of that alone, without you, because you decided to run off and erect the veil on your own. For you, the relationship we had is only a year or so old. For me, it's a decades old wound that is being reopened. I never thought that my children would meet their father, nor did I imagine that you'd work for your daughter. Ven claimed that once she knew of your identity she found the entire situation rather funny."
"She has her mother's intelligence and grace on the battlefield."
"I'm aware, I thought her how to fight. And she has her father's ability to talk herself out of any situation. I never knew a silver tongue was hereditary."
Suddenly, Solas was engulfed in a tight embrace, familiar, yet foreign. "You're a bastard and I should hate you for not being there, but you stopped the Pantheon and the Forgotten Ones from destroying everything. I may have woken up in a world that lacked magic seeping out of ever crevasse, but I found a world in one piece, where not every elf was enslaved to a self-proclaimed god. Not everything has been lost, Solas. The Dalish need to be taught the correct ways of our People, but that can happen when I get enough Ancients into enough clans to take over the positions of Firsts and Keepers. It is happening, but it is happening slowly. Be patient."
They stood in silence for a few moments, just enjoying the brief nonviolent nature of their contact before Myna pulled back, a sheepish grin on her face. Solas turned away to give her a moment to right herself.
"Did Ven really sneeze ice?"
"Oh, don't even get me started on the trouble that boy caused. Ellana may have liked disappearing, but she'd never be far from her brother, so she never went far. But, Ven was a mess of child. The sheer amount of fires he caused gave the Keeper before me enough stress to cause all of her grey hairs."
"Are you upset that he's seeing a Tevinter Altus?"
She raised an eyebrow. "Is he now…that's news to me. Lira is going to be mad at him for not telling her."
"His bond mate?"
Myna snorted. "Hardly, she's his four-year-old daughter. His bond mate died shortly after the birth, the poor woman had always been sickly, but Ven loved her. He was inconsolable for weeks, they'd known each other since they were children. He does his best raising her, but he is the First to the clan and has quite a few responsibilities. Ellana has been taking care of her, as has Fenris since he joined the clan. I'd have thought that he'd be awful with children, but he isn't completely incompetent. He's actually rather protective and sweet when no one is watching."
Solas couldn't quite picture Ven, the wild and daring Dalish First, to be a father. He just didn't seem to be the type to settle down. Solas honestly couldn't imagine Fenris speaking with a child, nevertheless taking care of one. "You let Fenris near your granddaughter?"
Myna crossed her arms. "Fenris, despite his many flaws, is trusted by my clan. He saved Ellana more than once and stopped a bandit from severing my legs. He's extremely loyal and even if he's a bit…nervous…around magic, he has never lashed out at the clan."
"But you do realize who he is descended from, who he has to be descended from for him to have survived getting those markings?"
"I'm more than aware, but I don't judge a man on who is father was. You are aware that all three of your generals were closely related to those of the Pantheon, and yet you trusted us. Trust our judgment for once in your damn life, Solas."
He slumped against the wall. Trust was not something he did easily. The court in ancient Arlathan destroyed that ages ago, but maybe in this new world he could begin to do that again.
"Are we going to talk to Ven and Ellana about possible alternatives besides amputation?"
She shrugged. "You're her fade expert and I'm their mother. Between the two of us we're bound to talk some sense into them. I've already told her that I'd find a way to get it off without the loss of her left arm. Ven doesn't believe that there is a way to remove it."
Solas wrung his hands out behind his back nervously. "This all rests in me getting my foci back."
Her gold eyes swiveled back towards him, her thoughts away from her children once more. "You never answered me. Are you going to attempt to bring the fade down, and wake the "gods" again? Are you going to destroy the world for a second time to heal your wounded pride?"
Solas let out a sigh and leaned his head against the door. He wasn't going to leave this room without giving her the answer she wanted. If he agreed to her terms, everything would change, and nothing would be fixed, but if he disagreed there was a chance that Myna would kill him here and now. She was like Mythal in that way, ruthless when something of hers was threatened.
"It wouldn't seem logical to bring it down at this point in time, no," he eventually replied, and she genuinely smiled at him for the first time. He felt sick to his stomach knowing that this could change at any time.
She embraced him quickly one last time before pulling away. "Then get your spies off my mountain and maybe we can begin to work together. You've been asleep a very long time and there are some things that you need to be taught."
It would figure that she'd want to teach him something. She had always been his student in the past. "You're going to enjoy teaching me for once, aren't you?"
"Oh, you're going to be miserable."
This is the 3rd to last chapter of the story! =O I just realized that this is all coming to a swift close. I ironically, don't have the last two chapter written completely yet. I wasn't sure where I wanted to end it. Still not sure. Debating on what I want Solas to actually do and how I want Ellana to retaliate. I have them both partly written out...so there's that.
Anyway, you guys are super lucky that I'm updating today. I've been feel like trash today and yesterday, so editing this was a lot more difficult than usual. My boss passed on his illness to me. The poor guy has been hacking a lug up all week and was sharing his germs with everyone. So, here I am, with a small fever gearing up for my 6am wake up call in the morning. Bleh.
Thank you to everyone that reviewed, favorited and followed! You guys got this chapter posted this week. Hopefully you all will inspire the last two chapters for me as well.
~Animerocker