Solas's POV
Lavellan pushes the man away weakly, and coughs. Something is wrong though, she's stopped in her tracks. I look closer to see that she is wiping blood away from her mouth, but why? The man smiles and holds a dirk to the crowd, and they cheer. That son of a bitch stabbed her! I look to her again, and she's on her knees. Blood is dripping from the corner of her mouth. "No! Vhenan!" I scream, as I run to her side. As she kneels, she looks at me with tears in her eyes, and croaks..."be safe my heart". As I reach her, I place her body across my lap and hold her head with one hand while the other searches for the wound. If I can find it, I can try to focus my magic and heal her, but it's not working. I can't focus, she's slipping away! I look to her face. She is gone. I hold her closely, and cry over my loves dead body.
The followers crowd around me, whispering among themselves. The man whom killed my love stands apart and speaks out "Why do ya give a damn about that shem lovin' bitch, Fen'Harel? She ain't worth anyones time. She's dead, and you should be rewardin' me for giving you a hand." He says with such arrogance. I lay her body on the ground ever so gently, fixing a stray hair. I touch her face, for the first time in months before turning around to face this "man".
Angrily I send a burst of arcane energy towards the man, knocking him roughly into the side of the mountain. "You presume to know, what I should, and shouldn't do? You, who are nothing more than a greedy man in search of power? Do you even know what you've done you wretched fool? That was the Inquisitor, and ma vhenan'ara (my heart's desire). I would sooner kill you than reward you." I snarl at the man. Turning to the other followers I call some to me. "Bind him, and bring him to my tent. Leave this area for a time. I must be alone." I say as I turn back to my loves lifeless body. Kneeling I pick her up like a child, and approach my altar. Placing her carefully on the alter, I hold her hand while resting my forehead against hers. "What have I done vhenan?" I whisper to her, my eyes stinging with tears of grief.
As I walk into my tent, I see the man bound and gagged in the corner of the room, he is scared but at least he is alive. Unlike Lavellan. I walk to my desk and examine my papers, plans and schemes for breaking away the Veil. Frustrated I search frantically through my papers for something, anything relating to the dead and how to bring someone back. There must be something here. I can't lose her so easily, and so soon. If this fool hadn't been there I could have relocated our camp, and later released Lavellan from the statue's form. But now...what can I do? Enraged I flip the table and toss it aside. The pieces of wood, papers, and his dirk fly across the room. "Look at what you have done! I don't know how to bring her back!" I yell, lifting him up by the front of his shirt. "Why should you're worthless life be spared, while she lays out there dead because of you?"
He stares at me with fear in his eyes, shaking his head desperately. "You will die from the same blade you killed her with." I say as I reach for his dirk laying on the floor. I push the knife into his chest, and watch as the life leaves his eyes. I release him, letting his body slump into a pile on the floor. After a time, I go out and get someone to take away his body. I sit in my chair with my head in my hands. It's as if the world is crushing down upon me. Soon exhaustion claims my mind, and I drift into the warm embrace of the Fade.
Lavellan's POV
Inquisitor? Is that you? I've never seen you so shiny!
"Cole? Is that you?" I say as I look around.
"It is I. I didn't expect you here so soon, but I felt you coming. I am here."
"It is great to see you again my friend! I'm sorry to say, but you make much more sense in the Fade." I say smiling sadly.
"Am I really dead Cole? Is it all over? I look to him with deep regret.
"Maybe, but we still have a chance to change things. Come with me." He says as he takes my hand and leads me further into the melting Fade.
Hours later we emerge from the mists into a clearing that looks like Solas's camp. "Do you remember now? Do you know who you are?" Cole asks as we walk towards Solas's tent slowly through the fade, wisps of fog passing between our feet. The camp is dead silent, the sky is grey, the clouds unmoving.
"Yes, I know who I am. Most importantly, I know who I am to him. Thank you my friend... for everything." I walk transfixed into Solas's tent and see him sitting in his chair facing his bed. Even here he does not sleep.
"Tel'enfenim, da'len, Irassal ma ghilas, Ma garas mir renan, Ara ma'athlan vhenas, Ara ma'athlan..." (Never fear little one, wherever you shall go, follow my voice, I will call you home, I will call you home...) I whisper as I take a seat before him.
Solas's POV
"Would you like some tea Solas?"
I open my eyes, and look across the room to see the Inquisitor sitting on my bed, holding out a cup of tea. She is spectral, and glowing, the brightest I've ever seen a spirit glow. White and untainted, different from other spirits. ...a rare an beautiful spirit, the words come to mind, a memory that seems to have happened centuries ago.
"Ma'arlath! I am so sorry... had I known what that man would do I would have slain him the moment I saw him. Can you ever forgive me?" I move towards the bed and sit beside her, taking her hands in mine. "Please, this is not how it was supposed to be. I would do anything to change it." My heart is left is beating rapidly in my chest.
"My love, there is nothing to forgive. I failed my mission, but I gave it one hell of a try didn't I?" She smiles warmly at me. Guilt fills my heart, after everything I've done, will do, she still forgives me.
"No one could have done better." I say squeezing her hand. I look away from her and say, "I tried to bring you back. I searched my mind and the Fade, for hours, but I couldn't find anything. With everything I know, everything I've been through you'd think I'd have stumbled across something."
She pulls her hands from mine, and places the tea on the side table. She looks into my eyes, and reaches up with her hand to gently caress my face. "I missed your touch my love. The months without you were not easy. But sadly I am here for more then just to comfort you." Her thumb glides across my lower lip. "What I would give to feel your lips again..."she mumbles quietly.
"I need you to remember my love... remember the little girl in Arlathan. How you found her, a small broken body left on the side of the road. There was a spell you performed, blood magic that brought her back to life, for a life."
"Yes... I remember her. She was so scared when we saw her wandering the fade. She told us that a band of humans had found her, had their way with her and killed her when they were finished. We felt so much anguish at her loss that we asked those living nearby if they were willing to give her a second chance at life. I think... I think it was an elder bear that gave its' life up for her. But, how would you know that memory? There were only two of us there, myself and Mythal." I look at her with suspicion, and look her over again.
"Can you not feel it? I know I've become different over the ages, but I know deep down I've essentially remained the same." She looks down at herself, and her hands.
"I don't believe you! It can't be true! Mythal was with me outside of the Fade, she gave me her essence soon after Corypheus was destroyed. How could you possibly be Mythal?"
"I died. My spirit moved on, and was reborn over the years, multiple times in fact. What you met, was a fragment of what once was. It never healed, and never got over the betrayal." she says with a frown.
"Then why didn't you speak up sooner? How were you not recognized by your own loyal servants and followers? How didn't you know me?"
"I wish I had known...but I couldn't because, the knowledge of my past lives remain here. If you were reborn with the memories of your previous lives, I'm sure you'd go mad. At least that is my understanding. I did not know who you were or who I was, until I died." she says with a sigh. She comes to stand next to me and takes hold of my hands as she says desperately "Please, there isn't much time. You need to perform the ritual before my body becomes too decayed. I will send a friend to you, who wishes to return to the fade in my place."
I wake, slumped in my chair. Quickly, I look across from me, in hopes that her death was only a dream. But she is absent. There is neither tea, nor wrinkled sheets where she sat on my bed. It is... as I left it. Hesitantly, I turn my head to the doorway, and look to where I left her. She lies there; on the slab of stone I call an altar. The setting sun adds a beautiful hue to her skin, with it she might have been mistaken for alive. I walk towards my bed, and reach under the mattress for my dagger. I exhale deeply as I walk through the door, dagger in hand.