In Search of a Wolf - The Elves of Fen'Harel Book 1 (Dragon Age)

Ma Da'mi

The garden was wild, overgrown, and exquisite. It was small and utterly private, with only one entrance through the pale blue doors, and cloistered within the rest of the mansion's structure, not a single window overlooking it. It made her wonder what clandestine rendezvous it had been designed for. The grass was high and lush, an arbor, coated in cracked blue paint, was to one side, rose buds poking through and climbing its trellised sides. Creamy flagstones paved a way through the dense foliage to a central fountain; a little chipped, but still running with crystalline water, ornately decorated with lions and dragons and griffins.

He was standing facing the fountain when Diranni showed her into the garden, and didn't turn, despite obviously hearing the doors open. A sudden fury rose up inside of her to override the hurt. She stood behind him, barely through the door, stiff and silent as a statue, as Diranni retreated back into the mansion, closing the doors behind her. Neither one of them broke the silence for a long time.

It was Solas who cracked first, spinning to face her. He did a small double take at the sight of her grey mask. "You are angry with me." He said, his voice filled with a dark undercurrent. "For ignoring you. For pretending I did not know you."

"Yes." Laisa was curt, giving nothing away. The mask gave her, for once, the upper hand. Now she understood why the Orlesian nobles favored them.

"Garas quenathra, Laisa?" Solas almost shouted, "You were safe in the Inquisition! You could have been happy there! Instead you go traipsing across half of Thedas and for what? I told you, when last we spoke, that we would not, could not, see one another again! And then my spies tell me that you'd vanished from Skyhold and you show up at my door!"

He seemed genuinely dismayed, and that just made her angrier, twisting the knife into her heart just a little deeper. "I left Skyhold because I wanted to be with my brother!" She snapped back at him, "And I found myself here because I wanted to make a difference. I had no idea that you would be here! I was seeking the agent of a god: how was I to know that the person in the stories was you?"

The confrontation was leaving her flustered and faint. There was a slight ringing in her ears. Her legs had begun to tremble from standing unsupported and she leaned back abruptly to prop herself up on the door behind her before she fell.

"Do you mind if I sit?" She asked, trying to appear composed.

He sprang towards her, an arm slipping about her waist and the other by her elbow, steering her across the garden to the arbor, where she sat gratefully, taking deep careful breaths. Leaving her there, he seemed to produce a glass from nowhere, filling it with water from the fountain and then knelt before her with the glass. "Drink this." He said, his voice abruptly quiet and calm. "It will help."

"Ma serannas." She murmured, drinking deeply. When she was finished, he took the glass from her trembling fingers and set it aside.

"Forgive me." He bowed his head a moment. "I had forgotten you were unwell." He gave her a long look as he rose to his feet. "If you would, remove the mask." He chuckled beneath his breath, "I can't tell at all what you're thinking."

"That makes a change." She replied archly, but pulled off the mask anyway. Those wonderful, intense eyes were scrutinizing her with a concentration that made her blush. "Am I so changed?" She asked teasingly, but squirmed inwardly at her haggard thin face and shadowed eyes.

"You've certainly been ill. From what Diranni told me, you've been on the brink of death." Was that pain she saw in his eyes as he took a seat beside her? But then he forced a laugh, "Those eyes though, right down to the flecks of gold within them, are Laisa's eyes, through and through." He sighed, "And your spirit shines out of them unchanged."