The Promise

Chapter 4

Luna felt as if she was on fire, scratch that she felt as if the fires of hell itself were burning her alive. Shortly after returning to Skyhold to a very worried Cullen awaiting her at the stables, she made the report to the Advisors, had brushed off the observation that she was not looking well by telling them that it was probably the lack of sleep, and had come up to her room all while feeling herself grow weaker and dizzier by the moment. Whether by luck or chance, she had been found leaning against the wall by Cullen who hadn't believed her when she had brushed them off and was now lying in her bed with an extremely high fever that was refusing to break. She was unable to sleep properly as her very bones ached, but nor could she stay awake long enough to eat or drink anything, hell, she was barely able to tell who was at her bedside. Sometimes she could feel magic flowing into her but still her fever refused to break. Soon the days and nights melded together, and she felt herself being torn between two emotions. One wanting her to just give into death and take the steps into a new journey, but the other reminded her that she had yet to fully live her life. What she could hear of the outside world was someone telling whoever was at her bedside that it was possible that she wouldn't make it through this illness and the person next to her was saying that he, if it was a he, refused to give up on her. Luna listened to the conversation as best as she could, but it was hard to hear through her delirium, but as she forced herself to focus on the voices they became clearer though not by much.

"Cullen, you need to face it. Whatever illness has befallen Lunaria is killing her. I know my daughter better then you ever will." The voice sounded like Luna's mother.

"What do you know of her Reina?! She told me of what you did, how you kept her own father a secret from her, how you treated her while she was growing up. That doesn't exactly scream out motherly affection to me," Cullen's voice was stronger then her mother's voice and Luna felt her delirium giving way just a shade more so she could listen in a touch better. He was angry with Reina, that much Luna could tell. 

"I know everything about my own child, Templar!" Reina snarled. "Now get out of my way and let me see to my baby!" Reina was arguing with Cullen but then Luna's father's voice rang out.

"Reina, you've done more harm then good to Lunaria." Sylvar snapped as Reina huffed at him.

"Oh like you would understand! You left us when I was only a month along with her. What gives you any right to tell me if I can see my daughter or not!" Reina demanded of the Elven man who frowned heavily.

"I left because of you. I told you to bring her back to Thedas, to bring her home or at least let me bring her back after she was born so she could be happier. But you didn't want to hear it," Sylvar snapped at Reina, "The day I found out that Lunaria, that My Moon-song, was finally home in the world where she belongs I was ecstatic. I have already seen how much happier, how much more freedom she has by being in Thedas then she ever could in that world you forced her to live in."

"She was happy in that world."

"No Reina Amell, she was not. She was pent up, caged. No Dalish Da'lan, half or not, should ever be bound to a world where all it has become is a nightmarish prison." Sylvar told her. "Go back to that world and leave Lunaria alone, Maleficarium."

"That term is normally used for Blood Mages," Cullen stated as the tension in the room grew, Luna could tell that he was looking back and forth from her mother to her father in confusion.

Sylvar frowned, "How do you think she left this world in the first place? How do you think she returned? It certainly wasn't the same way Luna came here. Reina, Commander Cullen Rutherford, IS a blood mage."