A Candle in the Darkness (A Dragon Age: Inquisition fanfiction)

Samson's Tranquil

21 Cloudreach, 9:42

Inside the ruins of the temple, a man in mage robes lay with his shoulders propped up against a statue. He was pale, his skin waxy, and his breathing loud, each breath clearly a difficulty. He attempted a smile as Antonia approached him. "Hello, Inquisitor." His voice rasped over the words.

"You know who I am?"

Cullen knelt next to him. "It's Maddox, Samson's Tranquil," he said softly. "Something's wrong; I'll send for the healers."

Maddox turned to look at him. "That would be a waste, Knight-Captain Cullen. I drank my entire supply of blightcap essence. It won't be long now."

Gently, Antonia said, "We wouldn't have hurt you, Maddox. We only wanted to ask you questions."

"That is just what I couldn't allow. I destroyed the camp with fire; we all agreed it was best. It gave Samson the chance to escape." His eyelids were drooping now, his lips blue.

"You threw your lives away? For Samson?" Cullen asked, clearly shocked. "Why?"

Maddox made a last attempt to focus on Cullen's face, forcing the words out. "Samson saved me even before he needed me. I ... wanted to help ..." And he was gone. Antonia wanted to weep for him.

Cullen stood up, looking pale and shocked. He rubbed the back of his neck, looking around. "We should ... check the temple," he said slowly. "Maddox may have missed something."

"Good idea. Why don't you stay here with him, prepare the body for a pyre, and we'll look. We're used to it." Antonia put a hand on his upper arm, squeezing gently.

He stared at her for a moment, and she wasn't certain he heard her, then he nodded. "Yes. Good idea. He ... was a good man. He deserved better than this." There was an edge to his voice, and Antonia could practically see him writing Maddox's name in the mental ledger he kept of reasons to kill Samson.

In a corner, Dorian found a pile of bottles that had clearly contained red lyrium. They appeared to have been licked clean.

Varric looked at them, shaking his head. "Drinking it, wearing it, licking it ... you can't say Samson isn't committed." There was something in his voice that said he was remembering his brother, and Antonia wished he would let her hug him.

"How much lyrium is this Samson taking?" Dorian asked. "His resistance must be extraordinary."

"That's not comforting," Antonia said, continuing to search through a pile of half-charred scraps of paper.

On a table, she found a note with Cullen's name on it, taking it to him as he worked over Maddox's body.

"Samson left a message? For me?" Cullen took it, breaking the seal, scanning it rapidly.

"What does it say?"

"It says 'drink enough lyrium and its song reveals the truth. The Chantry lied to us—you are fighting the wrong battle. Corypheus chose me as his general ...' It goes on like that, hardly makes any sense." He crumpled the note in his hand and threw it across the room. "Does he really think I'll understand his demented ravings? Do they even matter?" Cullen looked down at Maddox. "What a bloody waste."

"Yes, it is."

"This is a dismal place to die," he said. "It can't have been much of a place to live, either, under Samson's command."

"What else do you remember about Samson, that is, the man he used to be?" Antonia asked, wondering if perhaps there was anything buried in Cullen's memory that might help.

"What difference does that make now?" he snapped. "'He used to be kind' only goes so far. Although ..." He paused, calming himself down with a visible effort. "Maddox died to help him escape. Samson does command loyalty—but how?"

Antonia wanted to comfort him, but she sensed he would reject it at the moment. These were his personal demons, and he had to fight them on his own. "I'm going to go see if we can find anything else."

"Good luck," Cullen said bitterly. "All I see is smoke and ash." He took a long, shuddering breath and reached for her hand, clinging to it tightly. "If this is Samson's idea of remaking the world, I prefer yours."

"Ours," she corrected him, and he attempted a smile, his mouth forming the word as an echo of her.

Then he let go and she went back to see if the others had found something.

It was Dorian who recognized what he was looking at; any of the rest of them would have overlooked the tools as useless scraps of metal. "Antonia, do you know what these are? They're lyrium-forging tools. Or parts of them, anyway. Intact, these would be worth a fortune."

They called Cullen to look at them, and his mind leaped beyond where theirs had gone. "If these are Maddox's tools, he may have made them to forge Samson's armor ... and if they forged Samson's armor, maybe somehow Dagna could use these to unforge it." He looked at them, his eyes glittering. "I think we have him."