[Author's Note: This is the final chapter!]
Louis and Theo had been through an endless amount of shit together. They had both lost everything—their homes, their families, people they loved—and yet their bond of brotherhood had survived all of that. It had even survived Theo's growing obsession with revenge that Louis had helped him indulge over the years.
It would not survive this.
"Ted, please," Louis said, jerking up his blade to meet Theo's and breaking away to dodge the wild swing of Theo's shield that followed. The sharp pains in his ribs slowed him down, and Louis knew it wasn't a fight that could last very long. Theo was stronger and faster than Louis on a good day, and this was not a good day.
Theo said nothing, his green eyes dark and almost distracted. "It's the demon, Ted," Louis wheezed as he parried another swing. "She's in your head. This isn't you. This isn't—" he grunted in pain as Theo's sword bit hard into his lower thigh.
Louis staggered back. It really wouldn't be very long now as the warm blood soaked his leg, and he fell to one knee. "They wouldn't want this. Your brother, your sisters, your wife. This isn't how they would want it."
"They're dead!" Theo snarled, raising his blade to finish it.
It all happened very quickly after that. There was an otherwordly shriek as Theo's blade fell and Louis's rose in vain to meet it. The demon, distracted by the fight, had underestimated the dwarf. She had not noticed Maeva sneaking around behind her and leaping at her back, twin daggers slipping around to hack at her throat. They bit deeply enough to nearly sever the dead elf's head from her shoulders, and the demon fled back to the Fade. There was nothing useful left for her.
Louis's upward stab would have been easy turned aside had the demon's sudden departure from his mind not startled Theo. His blade faltered and slipped from his grasp, and both men stared at the steel buried in Theo's chest.
"Oh, shit," Louis whispered.
Breathing raggedly, Theo's lips spread in a rueful sort of grin. "Th-than—" His breath gave out before the word was finished, and Theo collapsed. There was peace on his features that Louis hadn't seen in years, since before the Blight that had set all of this into motion, and he knew that his oldest friend was dead.
A pyre burned on the cliffs of the Waking Sea that night. Maeva and Louis had built it in silence after the arduous task of dragging their friends' corpses out of the Avvar tomb. Louis had given Maeva his cloak to wrap around Adara to hide the grisly results of the demon's possession and Maeva's final attack. It made it easier to bear.
They shared the pyre, nobleman and apostate burning together. Neither Louis nor Maeva argued that their friends had deserved better. They had deserved more honor than that, but their friends were also beyond caring.
They stood back to watch it burn, Louis leaning heavily on the Avvar sword Theo had given up everything to obtain.
"You want to say anything?" Maeva asked, her voice thick with tears the dwarf didn't want to allow herself to shed.
Louis shook his head. "No. I should, but… fuck, what can I say? Besides that none of this should have fucking happened. We never should have come here. I never should have…" he trailed away, squeezing his eyes shut to keep anymore tears from falling. He had shed enough already. "Do you?"
Maeva shook her head, but after a moment she looked down at the little silver ring in her hand. It was the only possession that had meant anything to Adara, and Maeva blinked rapidly as she rolled it between her fingers. "Knew we shouldn't have taken this job," she whispered quietly.
The fire crackled on. "What are you going to do now?" Maeva asked Louis.
"Finish this for him. Or try. I'm not a nobleman. Snowscrest never belonged to me, but the Avvar don't care so much. Maybe they'll still help me gut Bann Stafford and take back what's ours. They might not, but… Snowscrest is home. Theo died to get it back. Nothing else to do but try."
Maeva nodded. "Maybe… maybe I'll come with you?" she suggested. She shrugged and toed at the dirt, not looking at the blonde man. "Not sure how I can stand to go back to Denerim without her. Maybe if I help you finish things…" she shrugged again.
Louis looked down at the dwarf and nodded. "I'd appreciate the company." It would be difficult to be alone after this. He didn't want to endure it.
By morning, the pyre had burned down to hot ash. Smoke still painted the sky above the cliffs, but Maeva and Louis were long gone. There was no reason to stay.