What Secrets Await

Chapter 20: Fade Steps

That he felt the need to remind her these things both aggravated and amused her. He often treated her as a child, an inferior, yet it was also touching. She knew he could teach her new things; that was the initial attraction. Her actions were under constant scrutiny as Inquisitor, and despite the hours each day she'd spend training herself to fit the role, his view of her was crucially importantly.

As a result she battled with her own pride and bit her tongue often instead of speaking. He'd look over at her as if he could hear her inner voices. When she looked back his eyes swirled with machinations of his own, blatantly hidden from her.

Does he mean to appear so cold? Am I being as transparent as he is in this world?

After a series of questioning looks Solas approached her anew and she hardened herself, expecting another lesson.

"I know," he started slowly, "that you are well-versed in the more neutral parts of the Fade. Only a fool would undermine your skill, da'len."

At this she softened considerably, and his voice chimed in with all her favorite memories of the Inquisition thus far, which were all of him alone.

"I only mean to prepare you as best I can," he continued. "We are in a uniquely dangerous place, one that even I am unfamiliar with." Smug, Solas. Sexy but smug.

Sensing her wavering attention he paused in his step and grasped her wrist, halting her as well. "But you must be careful," he said sincerely, his face close to hers. "Fear is an emotion that predates most others-- Anger, Pride, Envy..." His middle finger slid down the crux of her palm against the mark of the Anchor. "Except perhaps Desire," he breathed quietly, then drifted away and released her hand.

Ellana was immediately both aroused and frustrated. Her mind sharpened in contention and suddenly she understood that he'd purposely triggered exactly this response from her. She regarded him with what was surely a shocked look on her face, and he returned the gaze simply, without challenge nor rejection. He granted her a thin smile.

How does he know me so well?

She gave a dismissive nod and returned her focus to the dangers around them.

__________

Hours passed with constant lightning bolts, fire traps, and shield charges against endless demons and wraiths of familiar emotions gone awry. She fought with the reality of it, guarding herself from anything she felt influence from. Especially when they encountered Divine Justinia.

She and her allies listened attentively to the spirit's story. Four wraiths appeared and the fighting continued, but these creatures left behind her missing memories. Her interruption of Corypheus's blood magic ritual allowed the Divine to knock the Orb from his hand. She picked it up and unwittingly bound herself to the Anchor mark and subsequently opening a rift that blew up the Temple of Sacred Ashes. Then running in the Fade, chased by giant spiders, heading for the massive rift at the top of a spiked mountain. The Divine was there and then she wasn't, as Ellana fell back through the rift and the connection was severed.

At last their presence in the Fade caused a reaction. The guttural, snarling voice of Corypheus-- borrowed by the Fear demon-- boomed over the persistent thrum and echo of the place. "Some silly little girl has come to save the day. You think pain will make you stronger."

He said it like an accusation and she saw through it immediately. "Your words cannot scare me," she replied evenly.

But she knew that Fear worked in more ways than words. Buds of it coiled into being out of her deepest thoughts. She recognized what was happening; she'd faced a fear demon before, and more importantly she faced herself daily. For years she'd examined her fears in order to tell them apart from distortion.