Dragon Age: Revengeance

ACT II

Chapter 14

Revka Amell was a beautiful woman with long, steel grey hair tied up in a beehive style, sparkling eyes of the most vivid deep blue, and an old scar across her throat that must surely have come close to claiming her life when it was made. She was wearing a light grey dress and desert sandals, and was absently eating slices of apple when they approached her. The moment she saw Solona she sprang to her feet and embraced her daughter.

"Oh, my child! My light! It's been too long." She released her and traced her fingers over Solona's newly elven features. "What happened to you?"

"I think my shapeshifting magic is showing my true nature to the world," Solona replied. "How did Father hide what he was?"

"With difficulty," she admitted. "However did you find me?"

Solona winced slightly. "Umm, by accident I'm sorry to say. I came here in search of someone else."

"Morrigan?"

"Yes, how did you know?"

"She arrived here several days ago. When I told her my name, she recognised it and said she was an old friend of yours."

Solona frowned and looked around at the ruins. "Mother, what is this place? What are you and Morrigan doing here?"

Revka was about to answer when she finally noticed Leonie and Melynx. Instead of replying she nodded in their direction and smiled. "Don't you think you should introduce us? Manners, dear."

She sighed and gestured between both parties. "Of course. Mother, meet Leonie Caron, and Melynx, my maid servant."

Revka faltered a touch when she noticed Melynx's ears and tail. "You have a demon for a maid?" she whispered.

"Be nice, Mother, I like her," Solona hissed.

Her mother shook their hands and offered them something to eat and drink from her picnic. She explained that Morrigan was busy studying one of the chambers beneath the ruins, and so the topic of conversation again turned to where exactly they were.

"It is known as Funalis, after the Tevinter festival of All Souls Day," Revka explained as they sat down to rest. "I've been studying these ruins for weeks. From what I've been able to gather, a small group of Tevinter mages were using this place to conduct experiments into time."

"Time?" said Leonie. "As in the manipulation of?"

"Not exactly. From the records I've been able to translate, they chose this location for a very special reason. Apparently this outpost was built over a tear in the Veil, and not just any ordinary tear. The researchers were interested in this particular tear because of how old it is, which was very important to what they were trying to accomplish."

"Which was?"

Revka couldn't help but grin as she answered. "Time travel."

Solona almost choked on the water she was drinking. "Excuse me? Are you joking? Surely you're joking!"

Revka held up her hands to try and illustrate. "The theory behind it was as follows: tears in the Veil can act as doorways through time, but they have a crucial limitation. They can only allow time travel within their own lifespan. You cannot use a tear to travel back to any point before the tear was formed, or to any point after the tear was closed. So if you had a tear that had existed for one year, then you could only use it to travel at most one year into the past, as an example. But if you found a tear that had existed for a hundred years-"

"You could travel a hundred years into the past," said Leonie, following along. "How old is the tear here?"

Solona's mother leaned close to her and whispered her reply in a conspiratorial fashion. "Over a thousand years old!"

Solona's eyes grew wide. "Oh, great. The Tevinter Imperium with the ability to change over a thousand year's worth of history. That's all we need. I guess since we're still here and they aren't ruling the world that it didn't work?"

Her mother shook her head. "I'm not sure, I haven't learned enough to say what happened. I think they stopped before they could finish their work. Morrigan is trying to make sense of it."

"Okay," Solona picked herself up and dusted herself off, "I suppose I had better head on down and say 'Hi'. Enjoy the picnic. Leave some for me."

She found a staircase leading below ground, where she discovered a chamber in far better condition than the ruins above. The walls and floor were polished black marble, with numerous Veilfire lanterns positioned throughout to provide illumination. In the centre of the chamber was the tear in the Veil Revka had mentioned, an eye-watering emerald distortion that writhed from within a series of protective circles and barriers. Overlooking this was a large stone dais covered in glowing glyphs, which Morrigan was scowling over.

"Well, well, what have we here?" said Solona as she descended the stairs. Morrigan looked up at her and laughed.

"I see what you did there," she said. "I must admit, I had a feeling you might show up."

"Where's your son? I thought he'd be here with you. I was hoping I'd finally get to meet him."

"I left him somewhere safe to continue his studies." She returned to examining the glyphs on the dais. "By the way, your mother is positively charming. So much more pleasant than Flemeth."

Solona stood before the tear and squinted at it. "Morrigan, a corpse would be more pleasant than Flemeth. Mother told me what the Tevinter mages were trying to do with this thing. Are you sure you want to be messing around with it?"

"Quite sure. Do you have any notion as to the potential of this place? 'Tis truly an incredible find! Were I able to decipher these symbols, we might travel into the distant past." She gestured wildly in an effort to convey the enormity of the discovery. "We could go back and visit Arlathan before it was destroyed!"

Solona turned away from the glare of the rift and grimaced at the very idea. "No, no. Let's not, and say we did." She joined Morrigan up on the dais, her hands clasped behind her back. "So anyway ... it's been a while, huh?"

Her attention fully upon the symbols, Morrigan scarcely paid heed to her. "Hmm?"

Solona pointedly cleared her throat. "Ahem! Hello? Yes, I'm still here."

"How very perceptive of you," Morrigan remarked without even looking at her. Solona turned red.

"You'd think after all these years you might try to show a little enthusiasm at seeing me again," she said, making sure she sounded as hurt as she felt, "But nooo, you're just going to stand there and play with your magical time thingy. See this? This is my sad face."

Morrigan waved her away irritably. "Yes, yes, very sad."

Solona pouted. "All right, that does it!" She threw her arms around Morrigan and planted a kiss on her cheek, which finally got a reaction. The witch lost her balance and toppled over, the two of them landing in a sprawled heap together upon the floor.

"Have you completely taken leave of your senses?!" Morrigan shouted, whilst Solona dissolved into a fit of giggles. "How have you managed not to grow up in the slightest after more than ten years? You still behave like an inebriated child. And why do you look like an elf now?!"

"It took you long enough to notice!"

They both got to their feet, Morrigan adjusting her outfit as she did so. Solona regarded her incredulously.

"You're still wearing that?! Morrigan, there's a big wide world of clothes out there. Live dangerously! Try something new!"

Morrigan rolled her eyes and shook her head. "You are worse than Leliana. Why are you here?"

Solona took a step towards her and smiled playfully. "Maybe I just wanted to flirt with you again like old times. That offer I made to help you raise your son still stands. What do you say? Me and you, together, two unstoppable mages against the world?"

She crossed her arms and glared. "No, why are you really here?"

"Tsk, fine." Solona wilted, her gaze dropping to the floor. "I heard you drank from the Well of Sorrows, so I came to see if you knew how to cure the Blight."

Morrigan unfolded her arms, her expression softening somewhat. "Why did you not just say so?"

"Is it so hard to believe that I missed you?"

"Frankly ... yes." Now it was her turn to wilt, her gaze downcast. "I ... regret that I cannot help you. The possibility occurred to me after I drank from the Well, yet..."

Solona swallowed, a lump growing in her throat. "Mythal's cure?"

"Only works if one is a god," said a voice from the staircase. They both turned to find Melynx descending into the chamber. Morrigan was so shocked when she saw the girl that she stumbled back and almost bumped into Solona.

"You-!"

The Warden Commander rolled her eyes and sighed wearily. "Yes, she's a demon, does everyone have to freak-"

Morrigan shook her head emphatically. "Are you blind? That is no demon!"

Melynx stopped at the bottom of the stairs and smiled eerily at her. "Hello, Mother."

Morrigan gasped in disbelief. "Urthemiel...?"