A/N: Dearest readers- No more cliffhangers. Those dark days are over. Your protests have been heeded! Here's ALL of it. The entire fic. Tonight. Live. In color. Answers, perhaps questions, and resolution, blessed be. I know people were pretty divided about what Cole should be- which is wonderful. I had been nervous about posting this chapter because I know there will be folks who'll feel disappointed. I gave it lots and lots of thought...found myself going back and forth early on...but ultimately this made the most sense for me and this fic. If anyone wants to have a discussion about it, feel free to go ask questions or post some thoughts after the final chapter over on AO3, where I also publish my fics (and which has a more discussion-friendly comment system, IMHO).

tl;dr? ENJOY! ;-)

"We are not human beings having a spiritual experience. We are spiritual beings having a human experience."
― Pierre Teilhard de Chardin

The wind rattled the windows as the snow fell heavily outside. Despite it being early afternoon, a gloomy glow barely illuminated the rooms, forcing the staff in the main hall to light lamps, torches and candelabras. The study was particularly dark that morning, Evelyn felt, as she, Solas, and Varric wandered inside. She brought her incomplete report with her, seeking a more thorough account from both men before submitting it.

"The amulet appears to be working. Cole should be adequately protected," Solas attested.

Varric eyed him resentfully.

"Have you talked to him since? Have you heard what he sounds like?"

"He sounds like a spirit," Solas countered.

As if summoned, Cole materialized before them, sitting over Solas' desk, sprawled over his scattered papers.

"Nonsense words, like Bartrand at the end. 'Just need to hear the song again. Just for a minute.' I'm alright, Varric," Cole told him with an assuredness she hadn't sensed in his voice in a while.

"What matters is his happiness. Cole, how are you feeling?" she wondered.

"I am well," he told her. "There is work, wounded to help, hurts to heal, but the weight is off. The old chains have fallen."

Varric looked down at his fingers, examining his nails.

"You're not still angry with the man who hurt you?" he asked somewhat suspiciously.

"No…" Cole said thoughtfully. "I helped him forget. His pain no longer pulls at me." He continued, enigmatically, "A woman with two names slips a knife in darkness to a left hand. Honey stirred into Leliana's wine. Faith, not revenge." He disappeared as he uttered the last words.

They stood, staring at each other, speechless.

"He could have been a person," Varric mumbled.

"Possibly…"Solas conceded. "Would that have made him happier, child of the stone?"

Evelyn stared at where Cole had been sitting just moments before, placing her hands over the loose sheets.

They still felt warm, she smiled faintly.

She wandered out with Varric, their heads bent down against the storm's fury, braving the short distance between the main hall and the tavern. Inside, the fire greeted them warmly and heads leaned over tankards and cups in lively and comforting conversation despite the howling wind outside. A hush overcame the room at first as she entered it, but after an enthusiastic nod to the people assembled there in acknowledgement to their calls of "Inquisitor," the noise level gradually rose and she took her seat facing Varric at a smaller table.

"I still don't think it was right," Varric sighed. "He should have been a real person."

"But how do we know that was better than being a spirit?" Evelyn asked. "Neither you nor myself are qualified to say whether he should have chosen one over the other."

"He was talking to you before he made up his mind. What ever did you say to him?" he wondered bewilderedly.

"I told him the truth," she said. "That he should choose whichever path felt right to him…but to honor himself."

Varric struggled to peel his coat off, all while eyeing her askance.

"I asked him about the other Cole on the way home," he revealed, as he waved to Cabot, raised two fingers and pointed at their table. Cabot called out to one of his helpers as he rubbed a dishcloth over a freshly washed tankard.

"And…?"

"And he said he forgot the other Cole. Didn't want to talk about it." The disappointment was evident in the dwarf's eyes. They remained in silence as a barmaid brought them their ales on a large pewter tray.

"You know what an abomination is."

"Do I ever…" he clicked his tankard against hers before taking a somber sip.

"There are many stories told among mages, at every Circle, about spirits and mortals who ally and join. These possessions however, don't necessarily destroy or imbalance the hosts. Didn't you tell me that you witnessed such a case with a mage friend of yours?"

"Anders," Varric said dryly. "He wasn't an abomination…in the traditional sense of the word…No…" he hesitated. "And I couldn't tell you if his actions were spurred because Justice implanted them in his head, or if Justice gave him the courage to go through with them…but both were morally reprehensible for it…Abominations in their own way," he explained.

"Think about it, though. We only hear about the cases in which spirits embed themselves in mortal hosts."

Varric squinted.

"What are you getting at?"

"That Cole's case is unique. He is a spirit inhabited by a mortal's memories…Not a mortal's soul… But he isn't that other Cole—or even an extension of Cole. He took his shape because it was what he knew, what he saw." Out of love, out of solidarity, she thought. "But at some point, those memories, that humanity, began to encroach on our Cole and perhaps even to impose various wants, longings, needs…And those began to change him, weigh on him. If you ask me, one of the best ways Cole can honor his namesake is by giving him that space, that privacy…that individuality. He is not here to live the other Cole's life, to aspire to his missed opportunities and goals. So he must forget much like we must shut the door behind us when we leave…All those things were not his and did not allow him to be himself. He hasn't forgotten Cole completely—how can he? He is just remembering him in a different way."

Varric appeared unconvinced.

"I still think he should have become human."

"Define human, Varric," Evelyn peered into his eyes. "Because as far as I can see, Cole is kind, brave, and loyal. He is the most giving and selfless—everything good about us, people of Thedas, everything that we should aspire to be."