The moon was high in the sky that night. Perfect lighting for the plan that we were about to set into action.
"Remember Varric, I won't leave until I see the smoke signal. Pelle, once you see the signal, set the glyph to explode so that it starts a forest fire. When the guards see it, they will have to call for backup and I'll be able to go in." I said, going over the plan with them.
Pelle nodded his head, his body trembling slightly. Varric gave me a smirk as he replied, "Right! I already have the smoke set up! Pelle put a barrier around it so that it could come up with so much smoke it will actually look like a fire!"
I felt a smile upon my face as I looked at my friends. All that was left was for them to leave and for me to wait for the signal. As they began to walk away, Varric stopped in his tracks and looked back at me, his face filled with worry.
"Chuckles...no Solas. Be careful all right? You still owe me one, after all." he said.
As I was about to answer him, Pelle called out, "Come on, before they see us leaving!"
"I'm right behind you kid!" Varric replied, and ran off to follow the boy.
A smirk fell upon my face as I watched them. He was right after all. I did still have to repay him for saving my life. I cast my gaze back towards the ground, and then heard the sound of a raven. I looked up and saw one flying by in the direction of my friends, but I thought nothing of it at the time. I then went back inside the house, prepared myself in case I needed to fight my way into the temple, and waited for the smoke to rise.
I waited for about 2 hours, but those hours felt like an eternity, but the smoke did not rise. I was beginning to become worried. Did they get caught while they were on their way? Had Lelianna known about our plan once more and encountered them? I tried to push the possibility of their imprisonment out of my mind and looked up at the sky once more. Still no smoke.
As much as I was worried about my friends, I knew I couldn't abandon my position here in Haven. I had to get into the Chantry soon; otherwise this would all be for naught. I climbed out of the window and shut it tight. I then began to try to sneak my way around the camp, hiding behind every building I found and ensuring that the guards did not see me. It wasn't until I looked over at the Chantry and saw the two men standing in front of it that I had to think of a way to get in without alerting the other guards, or worse, Lelianna.
I saw the smoke begin to rise in the air, and the guards who were watching that path cried out, "Fire! Fire! There's a fire in the forest! We need back up immediately!"
The two guards at the door immediately ran towards the cries of their companions. I could feel a smile of satisfaction fall onto my face as I snuck into the Chantry and silently shut the door behind me.
I turned and faced the girl sitting before me, chained to the middle of the floor with only the anchor to give me light in the darkness. The light brought out the features of Aelin, her vallaslin glowing and her skin looking nearly flawless.
As I approached her, she did not stir from her slumber. When I sat down beside her, it was hard for me not to look away from her face. She looked even more beautiful than she had in the Fade, and I found myself almost hypnotized by the innocence her face seemed to convey.
I shut my eyes and shook my head. What was I thinking?! This was not the time to be admiring someone's appearance! I wasn't sure how much time I would have, but hopefully it would be enough for me to take the anchor.
I lifted up her left hand and looked at it with fascination. What could have happened to cause Aelin to obtain the anchor? But as I lifted her hand up higher, the girl winced in pain. Was there something wrong with her arm? I soon received my answer as the mark crackled and spat out small green crystals as it grew. I could tell from the look on the girl's face that she was trying to hold back a scream. I placed her arm down gently so as to not bring her further pain.
I took the blade of my staff and cut my left hand. I then raised my own hand above the anchor and whispered, "Don't worry. Everything will be all right soon."
I let my blood fall into the mark, for that was the only way that it would be able to familiarize itself with me. The anchor began to twist and turn as my blood became mixed with the substance that created the crystals. It then started to rise from her hand and try to fuse itself into the wound I had just given myself. I could feel my hand tingling as the crystals began to fuse with my hand. But then, as if by some cruel trick, the anchor exploded and returned to the girl's hand.
At first, I was bewildered as to why it didn't work. I knew that I was not an expert when it came to this kind of spell, but creating the anchor the first time in order to create the Veil was the only other time I had used blood magic. Perhaps I did something wrong?
I tried it again, this time not bothering to cut my hand, for it was still dripping. I then tried it a third and a fourth time. After it failed for a fifth time, I hissed under my breath, "Damn! The anchor has already completely familiarized itself with her!"
This was not good! If I couldn't retrieve the anchor, then I couldn't close the Breach. If I couldn't close the Breach, I couldn't leave and therefore finish the preparations for my plan! I began to pace the floor, my hands holding my head in frustration.
"What do I do? What do I do? What do I do?!" I panicked.
"Where am I? What's going on?" I heard behind me.
I turned around quickly, and found that Aelin had woken up. At first, I was trying to think of a spell that could put her back to sleep, but then she looked at me and said, "What is this place? How did I get here? "
I then looked at her in confusion for a moment. She seemed so...calm compared to the girl I had met in the Fade. I approached her with caution and kneeled down so that our eyes met. Aelin's eyes were filled with just as much confusion as my own. I figured that although I could not answer mine, I could answer hers.
"You are in Haven." I began, "You and your friend are the only survivors of the Conclave. No one knows what happened; only that the temple exploded and that now there is a hole in the sky dropping demons everywhere. Everyone here in Haven is doing what they can to fix it."
Aelin's hands covered her face as her eyes went wide in horror. "So...everyone at the Conclave is..."
Nodding my head slowly, I continued, "You are currently a prisoner, the prime suspect of the murder of the Divine."
The girl shook her head as she let her hands down. She then cast her blue eyes to the side as she fiddled with the front pieces of her hair. Aelin looked down at her hand, and her eyes widened in fear.
Before I realized it, Aelin's hands were in my face as she cried out, "What is this?! Is it a curse from the Maker for disobeying my Keeper?!"
"From the Maker?" I asked, my curiosity now parched, "I thought that Dalish elves only believed in Elven gods?"
Aelin's face began to turn into a faint shade of pink as she replied, "Well...most Dalish do...not like flat-ears who tend to believe in shem religion. But I seem to be the only one who believes in something else."
"That something being the Maker?" I inquired, "If you're the first of your clan Aelin, why don't you believe in Elven gods?"
The girl's eyes widened as if she had just seen a ghost, and answered my question with another question, "How do you know my name...and how do you know that I'm the first of clan? Can you read minds?"
I began to laugh as I replied, "No, I cannot read minds. And you told me these things yourself in the Fade. Don't you remember?"
Aelin then looked at me as if I had lost my mind, and I'm sure that if she wasn't chained to the floor she would have backed away from me. "Have you been drinking Deathroot extract?" she asked, "I can tell you for a fact that I have not walked in the Fade consciously since before I left for the Conclave."
I was taken aback for a second as I asked, "Do you truly not remember me? How we spoke of how to free you and the Divine from the Fade? About how we explored the Fade? That you asked me to tell you my name?"
If it was ever in doubt that she did not remember me, it was proven now. The look I received was a complete blank as Aelin looked at me confused. "Do you not remember anything that happened at the Conclave?" I asked, "Anything at all?"
Aelin responded, "No, I don't. The last thing I remember was sneaking in. The Keeper said that she found it odd that the humans would act so strangely and felt that this Conclave was a bad sign and asked Pelle and me to investigate...I must have got caught in the middle of it somehow."
"Ah...I see." I said my gaze now towards the ground. For a reason I could not understand, I felt a sense of sorrow flow over me. Why was the fact that she didn't know me upset me? I never was able to tell her my name before waking up, so why was I expecting her to recognize me?
The girl seemed to notice my sudden change in demeanor, and then asked, "You were looking forward to me remembering everything, weren't you?"
I refused to look at her for a moment, and she did the same. After a few moments of silence, I felt Aelin's left hand grab mine. "It's strange. The longer I look at you, the more I feel as if...I should know you from somewhere. But when I try to remember from where, it's all a blur."
My gaze did not leave the floor as I replied, "You do not need to try to make yourself remember something that is clearly not there for my sake. If you don't remember, you don't remember. We don't need to dwell on this."
At first, Aelin looked as if she didn't know what to say, cast her gaze away from me, and then tried to take her hand away. To her shock, I refused to let her hand leave and looked up into her eyes...to be honest I don't know why I did that. It's not as if I actually cared for this Dalish girl...did I?
Her face was slightly pink again as she asked, "Wh-Why are you looking at me like that?"
Why was I looking at her? I had to come up with a reason, and I needed one now! I then looked down at her hand just as the mark upon it began to grow once more. Aelin ripped her hand away and tried her best not to let out a shriek of pain.
Before I realized it, I was holding her hand again, this time staring at it as if it were an elvhen artifact. "Strange," I thought out loud, "The mark keeps growing and growing, but what is causing it?"
The girl looked quite confused at first, and then just stared at me for a moment. She then leaned to look over at her hand as if her curiosity could not take much more. "What is it?" I asked.
"I am trying to see if I can figure out what is causing the anchor to spread. If I learn that, perhaps I'll learn of a way to stop the Breach and, possibly, a way to end your pain." I said, "It is obvious that it causes you pain. The question is how much?"
Then the Breach crackled and spat outside the window...at the exact same time the mark began to grow. Aelin held in her cry as she tried her best not to rip her hand away from me. "That's it!" I exclaimed.
The girl gave me a confused gaze as I continued, "Don't you see? Every time the Breach grows, so does the mark on your hand! This mark is directly connected to the Breach! If we can use the power within the anchor and aim it at the Breach, perhaps it will close!"
"Can you take it off?" she asked her voice almost in a whisper.
I looked up at her in confusion, "Take it off?"
"Yes, take it off. Remove it." she said as she looked into my eyes.
I couldn't believe what I was hearing! I had just told her that she held the key to saving the world and now she was asking me to take it away!
"Don't you see?" I began, "If I remove it, then the only chance we have for fixing the issue is gone as well! You do not wish for the world to be infested with demons do you?"
The girl's face turned into one of annoyance as she retorted, "If you truly think this is the answer to the problem than why don't you take it? You seem to know more about it than I do!"
I let out a sigh as I replied, "I have tried to five times now, but to no avail. I'm afraid that it has permanently imprinted itself on you."
At first, her face remained unchanged, but then let out a sigh of her own as she said, "I want it gone. Every time it grows, the pain becomes more and more unbearable. I don't care how you do it. Maker I wouldn't even care if you cut off my hand as long as the pain of that...thing is gone!"
"I can't just cut off your hand!" I replied sharply, "Not only is that immoral to a certain extent, but the mark would be of no use if it was not attached to a living body!"
Aelin and I stared at each other in silence, until she cast away her gaze and said with a sigh, "I suppose it is what it is. I assume you wish to study this mark further?"
I nodded my head, "Of course. It is the reason I am in here after all."
A small smile found its way onto the girl's face. Before I knew it, she took her hand away and placed it mine with the palm down. She looked up at me again and said, "If it helps with this Breach you keep talking about, then take all of the time you need. But, I have only one thing to ask you."
I held her hand tighter in mine as I responded, "What is it you need?"
"If you know how, can you erase my memory of this and send me back to sleep?" she asked.
"Erase your memory?!" I exclaimed, "But...if I do that then you won't remember me, and if we meet a third time we'll be doing this all over again!"
"I have a strong feeling that us meeting again is not an 'if'." Aelin replied, "As strange as this is going to sound, when I look at you I feel as if...as if we're linked somehow. I'm not sure if us meeting twice now is merely coincidence or fate, but I'll be glad when we meet again."
I looked away from her and tried to let go of her hand, but she only tightened her grip. "What is your name?" she asked.
"What is the point of me telling you my name if I know that I am going to erase your memory?" I asked, the sorrow within me starting once more.
She then leaned in to my ear as she whispered, "Because if I know your name and you introduce yourself to me, then perhaps I will recognize it."
The girl did have a fair point. Perhaps she would remember me the third time, and if not...well then hopefully if we met again our time together would not be brief.
I turned my gaze towards her one last time as I responded, "Solas. My name is Solas."
Aelin smiled, and then said, "Solas...That means 'pride' right? That shouldn't be too hard for me to remember, considering that it was pride that Fen'Harel claimed was Elgar 'nan's greatest fault in the stories!"
I looked at her with a blank face at first, but then found myself laughing at the statement. Finally, something that the Dalish did not misinterpret about me!
Aelin was not sure why I was laughing, but only smiled as she said, "Solas...I think I'm ready to go back to sleep now. Do me a favor, and keep smiling, ok?"
My face became blank after she had said this, but I simply nodded my head, and released her hand. She closed her eyes as I cast the spell to erase her memory. Before she was completely gone, she whispered my name over and over again, as if it were the one thing she did not wish to forget, and then said, "May the Maker watch over you, lethallin."
Then the girl was asleep, once more. I did not stay and study the mark any longer. I could not bring myself to do so. Before I left the Chantry, I took one more look at the sleeping girl. 'Why do I care so much?' I wondered. Perhaps it was because she reminded me...of her, upset with me and not afraid to tell me what I needed to be told one moment, then a gentle creature the next. I felt a smile crawl upon my face as I slowly opened the door and ran behind the side of the wall closest to the healer's house.