When Ramia went back to sleep she didn't expect Abelas to be good on his word, but he was. She was back in her camp again, but there was no sense of urgency or foreboding that something bad would happen. It was just empty.
It was an empty Dalish camp.
She jumped when a hand placed itself at the centre of her back, sighing in relief that it was only Abelas. Turning her attention towards him she gave him the briefest of smiles.
"I'll be honest Abelas, I didn't actually think you would show up."
"I gave my word did I not?" Abelas looked around the abandoned camp, mouth curled at one side. Seemingly unimpressed. "Where are we?"
"Home…but it seems dreary…is it supposed to be like this?"
"To keep the nightmare at bay? Yes."
Ramia turned up to look at him, she didn't want to stay here if it was this desolate.
"Can you take me somewhere else?"
"You don't wish to linger?"
"No." Ramia held onto the bend of his arm, brows furrowing and eyes forlorn and she looked at the empty aravels, halla-less pens and abandoned campfire. The gloomy sky of the fade here only accentuating the melancholy inside her for her childhood home. "There's nothing left for me here."
She sparked with an idea and looked up at Abelas with a soft smile, the hand on his arm tightening slightly.
"Can you take us anywhere Abelas? Even somewhere from your own memories?"
"Perhaps…" His voice dropped a pitch, hesitant and suspicious. Ramia rolled her eyes, nudging him with her hip insistently. "You can ask but my answer will most likely be no."
"I just want to see the Temple of Mythal. In its prime though."
"Ah. Well I suppose that is not an entirely unreasonable request."
"I wouldn't ask you to take us somewhere that made you uncomfortable Abelas." Ramia seemed to contemplate her next choice of words. "I've just heard a lot about it, and you were there so…" She was tugging on his arm now, she wouldn't be denied he was sure. Not unless he was stern and harsh with her.
But she had genuine curiosity in her eyes, being far away from her family and Solas. The conflict between the Inquisitor and the Dread Wolf was coming to a head, and whatever outcome comes after June's temple would decide whether it would result in a full-scale war. There was only so much love and patience a woman could have for a man like Solas before she had to make her decision.
That seemed a distant thought for Ramia, the here and now preoccupied her and there was no responsibilities or sense of urgency leaving her a moronic mess as she had been.
It was a refreshing change.
Abelas effortlessly changed their surroundings, the grey of the skies became an incredible blue. However it was the golden and white marbled structure before them that took Ramia's breath away.
It only made him nostalgic and slightly saddened.
"If this is what your temples look like…I can't even imagine what you do with your palaces." Abelas laughed quietly despite himself, walking forward and leading her across the long bridge that led inside the temple.
"I'll avoid showing you them then. Lest your eyes fall from their sockets." Ramia scoffed, albeit it came out more playful.
"That probably would be best!"
Two sentinels stood at the gates entrance. Tall, even more so than Abelas and their armour differed from his own as well. Their entire bodies were donned with golden plating, sparing white cloth for their hoods and to drape shortly from the front and back from the waist down. The patterns along them clearly not for fashion alone as they glistened sparkled with magic.
They stood still as statues, Abelas assured her than this was simply a memory and that they could not be seen by them.
"Even so, they would not address sentinels or priests of the temple. Only the unworthy." The hoods they wore made it hard to see their faces, given their appearance an extra tone of intimidation. Ramia was all too eager to allow Abelas to draw her further inside the temple.
The sun's rays and the magic echoing through the air gave the vestibule inside the temple an ethereal glow. It reminded Ramia of when she was in the crossroads, but this trumped the ancient ruins scattered there. The Temple of Mythal was grandiose, the elvhen priests decorations all around was icing on the cake to her.
"This place is beautiful Abelas…"
"Yes…it was."
Ramia cursed inwardly to herself. Feeling selfish and foolish for making Abelas bring her here. This was his home, a home that was now ruins, a shadow of what it was. For him to have to see it like this again must have been painful.
"Abelas I'm sorry, this must be hard for you. We can leave if-." He was leading her further into the temple before she could finish her sentence. "Abelas don't…" She was rounding on him, standing in front of him and blocking his path.
"It is fine Ramia. I have come to terms with the current state of things. We have much more important problems to worry and be saddened by at this current moment in time. I…" A hand was on her back again. "I want to show you the temple, it is your history and my past. It shouldn't be forgotten."
"My history?" It suddenly dawn on Ramia why her friendliness towards Abelas deserved scolding, why that small part of her brain always screamed disapproval at her actions. "From what I heard elves like me aren't considered people to you." She was pushing away his hand, eyes glaring in a challenge at him. "Let alone elves at all…why the sudden change in tune? Hmm?"
Abelas led them to a garden, it was simple in design, flowerless. The meditating priests showed this was more a place of contemplation than relaxation. A large pool of water sat in the centre, with a giant white lotus flower floating on the surface.
Ramia grumbled quietly to herself when Abelas prolonged withholding his answer, instead seating himself down on one of the many stone plaques scattered circularly around the garden. Many of the other priests sat on them as well, all facing towards the flower in the centre of the entire chamber with their eyes closed deep in concentration. Others passed by either conversing amongst each other or carrying scrolls and books.
Abelas sat cross legged, offering for Ramia to sit next to him.
"These past few years have been spent gathering followers and waking other ancient elvhen across your world as they lay deep in slumber. We have had many of your kind join us, Dalish and city born. I have had to recruit them, work with them."
His gaze was concentrated dead ahead before going downcast, hands clenched softly on his knees.
"The experience has been…humbling."
Abelas turned his gaze to Ramia, studying her and being reminded of someone who had been the recipient of his prejudice many years ago. Ramia's face was not as long as hers, and her markings for June were contradictory to her nature. Her mother would have been much more suited under Andruil or Elgar'nan.
"Under different circumstances I would offer the Inquisitor my apologies. She did not deserve my arrogance towards her those few years prior."
"This place must really be a place to contemplate if you're talking like that. I feel like I walked in here with some other elf." Ramia smiled when she got a rise of him from that, scooting closer and reaching up to remove the hood from his head.
She raised herself up onto her knees to be face-to-face with him. Forgetting herself, she stared intently at him. Eyes trailing over the lines of vallaslin from his cheekbones and across his forehead. Abelas assumed she was barefaced her entire life, allowing her curiosity. She faltered when she raised a hand to touch his face and stopped herself, muttering an apology.
The ancient sentinel place gentle fingertips at the young mage's elbow, allowing her to trace shy fingers across the green lines on his face.
"I would have gotten Mythal's markings…if fate had been kind to my clan. All mage apprentices can choose either Mythal or Elgar'nan." Ramia hummed amusingly, removing her hands from him to tap idly at her own face.
"I don't think I would have suited Mythal."
"Of course you would." Ramia cocked an eyebrow in question, genuinely confused by Abelas' statement.
"Mythal is the all-mother, we were taught she was a protector, motherly and patient….what was she really then? Or at least how does it work among her followers?"
Abelas looked out onto the garden again, drawing Ramia's attention to a man in simple white and gold robes.
"You see that man there? The man with vallaslin on his cheeks alone?" Abelas continued once Ramia confirmed. "He is a priest. Which means he cannot fight."
"Can't or won't?"
"Both. He is a teacher, a seeker of enlightenment. He ensures those who would fall down into vengeance from the path towards justice are not abandoned and left to lose their way. You can identify a priest by the simple design of Mythal's markings on his face." Abelas gestured towards himself and his own marks.
"Then you have sentinels. We protect the temple and oversee those who wish to petition for Mythal's favour or seek justice."
"So you think I would be a sentinel then? And have your exact markings." Abelas chuckled, shaking his head and studying Ramia's attitude and irritation plain across her face.
"You are too impatient and brash for either role. No…I think with enough training and discipline you would have been a knight." Ramia raised her brows in curiosity. Did he mean the Emerald Knights? Or something older?
"A knight?"
"Dedicated warriors who carried out Mythal's will across her lands and all of Elvhenan. You do not have the mental patience for priesthood, and your harsh view to see things only one way would leave you lacking as a sentinel. But as a knight? You would be incorruptible to Mythal's foes, you would carry out her will and destroy the unjust who plague the world without remorse or question. It helps that you have a strong sense of right and wrong. Yes, Mythal's vallaslin would have been a good pick for you."
Ramia's eyes shone with admiration, the idea was something she defiantly would have seen herself proud to do. One more question lingered on her mind though.
"Would my markings be different?"
"Not entirely." Abelas turned to give her his whole attention. "You would have the same as mine but…" He raised a hand to lift Ramia's face by her chin, a thumb trailing slow and deliberate from the centre of her cupid's bow, across her lips, and down her chin. "It would end…here."
Ramia's chest fluttered again, wondering whether Abelas was aware of just how intimate he was being. His eyes seemed to linger where his thumb had been, a small closed-mouthed grin subtly gracing his features.
The ass.
"You're being awful handsy aren't you Abelas?" His hand moved from her chin to move curls of hair behind her ear.
"Not that you would object to such treatment would you da'lath'in." A shiver ghosted along her spine at both the elvhen that dripped effortless from his tongue. The small subtle tracing Abelas made to her ear after tucking away her hair did not help either. Suddenly the temple and their antagonistic circumstances seemed so far away and it was just her and him.
Her cheeks began to blush the longer she stared at Abelas, unawares that she was pulling herself ever closer towards him.
"You're really handsome y'know…"
"Yes, you have said so before." His eyes shifted slightly at her moving closer towards him. "You are quite a pleasant sight yourself." Despite her bravado Abelas could sense the hesitation in her body language. Fingers clutching at her clothes, mentally debating with herself just how far she can push things.
"Da'lath'in…what does it mean?"
"It means you are careless with your feelings, sympathetic. You hide nothing." She was biting at lip now, how far he wondered would she allow him to go. Ramia was blatant with her attraction to him, but she had yet to make any real advance. He should know better he thinks, they both should.
"What exactly are you seeking from me Ramia? Surely you know nothing good would come out of dallying with an enemy." She hummed in thought as she played with the end of his plaited hair, enjoying the quiet rumble his voice always left at the end of each sentence he spoke. "Seeking to sate some curiosity hmm?"
"Honestly Abelas I don't know."
"I suppose I could act like a dithering little maiden, be all blushing and shy and keep my feelings to myself." Her voice was laced with sarcasm, making Abelas grin at her sentiment. Ramia released his hair and stood onto her feet, her calm exterior betraying the fumbling of her hands.
"I'm still figuring it all out, the word vomit of my honesty is just a character flaw I'm afraid." She turned away from his gaze, her shyness growing the longer they steered down this path of conversation. "I cannot help but voice my attraction to you. I'm not good at lying or withholding myself. I don't want to."
"I'll come out and say that it's not an invitation." A small cheeky smile lighted up her face. "Not yet at least."
"I will keep that in mind." Abelas replied, rising up on his own feet as well. "Let us wake up, we've lingered for long enough."