XI.

Lifting her delicately, he had taken her to perch where the water had naturally met the stone. Disrobing, he had submerged himself waist deep in order to test out the pool's varying depths

"You speak very candidly," she had, said, "and yet I can never be completely sure of what it is you are trying to tell me."

Finding the deepest parts to be the ones closest to her, he had physically pulled her down to him and allowed for the water to support her weight.

"You are not the first to say so."

Holding her to him, the heat slowly seeping into the very core of her, her muscles had begun to ease and she had finally allowed for herself to fully relax against him. Despite whatever else that might have been in the potable she had been given, alcohol, she had come to realize, had also apparently been a prime ingredient. Dorian, had mentioned mead, and it had begged to reason that that had most likely been incorporated as part of the emulsifier. Not that she had ever needed even a mild intoxicate to notice how strongly she had wanted the man against her, but there had been a soft haze that had begun to frame even her most generalized thoughts.

"Solas..."

"Aneira..."

The sound of her name had caused for her pulse to quicken. He had not spoken it aloud since last they were in the fade, together.

"My vallaslin..." she had asked, hesitantly, knowing that at first he would not be able to understand, "has it changed?"

She had expected him to question the logic of her fear, but he had helped her to stand with his aid, instead. Touching her forehead gingerly, he had followed her blood writing with tentative fingers; his eyes narrowing as though he were committing each line to memory as he had traced it through to it's terminus along her hips.

"No," he had offered, gently, "you remain the eternal maidservant of June."

"Thank you. I ...had had a dream."

"Tell me."

With his hand still at rest above her thigh, she had swallowed, roughly. "I had dreamt I had been given to another as an offering. It was a punishment... for betraying my clan."

"You were afraid. To whom were you given?"

Even as they had stood there in the collective darkness, she could still remember his marks as they had been strewn against her skin.

"I was given to, Fen'Harel."

"Ah, yes, Fen'Harel." His voice had gained a guarded tone, and though he had stared back at her he had seemed a hundred years away. Given his penchant for the fade, and everything he had seen there, it had been altogether possible that for a brief moment he had been. "Is he not the chosen bogeymen of the Dalish? What is it that you believe yourself to have done to deserve the attentions of such a dark and traitorous beast?"

"A beast?" Her face had unintentionally softened at the memory of his statues. Though his likeness was often used to ward away evil from the dwellings of the Dalish, she had always sensed within them a strange sort of melancholy. "Perhaps," she had said distractedly, " but, I think even as a child I have always pitied him, somehow."

"Pity? That is an uncommon attitude. Why should you pity him?"

Before that moment she had never even considered it. In her dream she had inherently known that she would be abandoned by her clan because she had chosen the Inquisition over her duties as their First. She had feared what his vallaslin would represent to her people. But the tale of Fen'Harel itself, as often told by the Keeper, had never been one that had ever really imbued her with any fear.

"They say that he betrayed the other Gods and sealed them away for an eternity. But, I've often wondered why. I cannot imagine that even a God would want to spend an eternity alone."

He had shaken his head slightly as though assessing something that had warranted disbelief. Though he had not chosen to express it, something unspoken had passed subtly just behind the pale blue of his eyes.

"You continue to surprise me. You have a sense of empathy beyond your years. It is- one of the things I have come to love most about you."

"I...thank you. But, I should apologize. I know you do not believe in the pantheon, as I do. I shall try to remember that not all things that happen in the fade are meant to be foreboding."

"No," almost distractedly, he had begun to trace her vallaslin once again, his fingers splaying as he had run both hands up along her sides," have you already forgotten our kiss in the fade? I am not often thrown by the things that happen in dreams. "

"It was not my intention to pressure you. It was a first for me on...many levels."

"No, it is not you. I am perhaps pressuring, myself. It has been a long time and things have always been easier for me in the fade."

"Ah-"

Guiding her towards him, he had considered her for a moment, his lips leaning down to unexpectedly brush against hers. The feel of him had been delicate and warm, but there had been a current underneath that had promised of deeper more passionate things.

"You and I..." he had looked at her as though he had been trying to will her to understand something that he was not yet at liberty to explain, "there could be complications. There are risks and considerations."

Young and naïve, she had missed the warning that he had offered, and she had merely wrapped her arms around him; simultaneously accepting both this challenge, as well as all others that she had believed loving him might later entail. "Yes," she had, agreed, "and all of that shall still be there, tomorrow. And though no one should ever be so bold as to ask for forever, there is nothing that I wouldn't sacrifice for just a few more moments alone with you, now."

Somewhere within her words he had found an answer that he had needed, and he had pressed her back firmly against the bank of the spring. And as his mouth had found hers, and she had wrapped her body around his, she had whispered a prayer to Mythal that the journey ahead of them would somehow find both of them peace.

A/N: It is either embarrassing, or completely telling, that I yelled, "Get it, girl!" when writing the end of this chapter. Next chapter is gratuitous smut ahoy. I shall type until I feel that I have properly shamed both my house and my family. I have been wanting to get to this chapter for a very long time. I have asked my husband for an evening to write this out. #leave me alone I'm cheating on you with Solas