Varric Tethras can't stand holding back the truth about Marian Hawke after the Inquisitor leaves her in the Fade to die. What he can't stand more is no one is trying to get her back. With the assistance of friends in surprising places, he fights in...
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"I'm—."
Sorry. Varric's stomach rolls with the tingles up his skin when Cass sits alongside him, Warmth pulls from his fibers and he forgets the last time he could feel his legs. Bianca wilts on his back; one of her pieces digs into his back—something along the stock didn't retract again—her reminder that he's alive, and this isn't one of those sleeping walks through the Fade. He can't stop his hands from shaking and doesn't put effort in to try.
This is the moment he's dreaded since he sent that letter.
Weight wraps his arm. Cassandra holds it and he hasn't the strength to jerk away. An odor wafts from under her armor, a mix of flora and venom from her sweat. But he fails to retreat. He fails to tell her off because somehow she's the only one around bringing comfort. Seeing the shining pink swelling in her eyes brews the proof that she might need his comfort too.
Heat burns his face, rising from the back of his neck and flushing his cheeks. He breathes through the nausea, trying to blow it away. Blow everything away.
Trying begets disappointment.
Memories of Hawke stream from his eyes.
Solas calls closure a gift. It's not much of a gift when the present lies unwrapped and dead.
That is odd, that Hawke came here armored, and winds up without it.
In a vast, empty field.
No demons in sight.
In sight.
"—real!"
A call sounds from far above, a long echo carrying desperation.
"—It's not—"
Cassandra stands with help from his shoulder.
"That sounds like Cole," she says.
Green mist flickers in the distance. Cassandra shoots her arm out, pointing.
"There!"
But he's already locked on. Varric eyes the trail flashing between distances as it closes in. Who and what would he believe to be the nightmare? Cole telling him the journey isn't over or what everyone expected to be over that he couldn't take? Either way exhausts his reserves.
Green wisps race with Cole.
"It's not real!" he chants until he's mere meters away. "You're under the demon's power!"
"Cole! You're here!" She draws her sword, suddenly dropping her enthusiasm. "You're here. How? Are you an illusion?"
"I'm me! This is an illusion."
"Prove it."
"This is a nightmare. You're both trapped here because you both fear Hawke's death. You greatly adm—"
