Hunt

Chapter 15: A Place Between Places

Solas

My heart plummeted to my stomach as she looked up at me from over the ledge. The veins in her face were starting to turn black. Exhaustion was already showing on her face.

"You still think you're the smartest one here? Silly wolf."

And then she was gone. One metal hand still grasped the edge with my hand still holding onto it. The bindings at the end clinked as her friends and I screamed for her. We were answered with silence. 

"Good riddance," Falon'Din muttered.

Rage flooded into my heart. Before I could stop myself, I had turned them all to stone. A familiar weight was on me, and I looked over the Leaquila.

"It wasn't supposed to end like this," I whispered.

"I warned you, Solas," she replied. She looked over to one of the elves in the group. "What do you think, Ves?"

The woman pursed her lips. "I think we should get back and have some food ready."

The others eased up at this. Leaquila nodded and opened a portal. They all went through. She looked at me knowingly. "The city isn't going anywhere." I nodded and moved to go through the portal.

"Solas," she stopped me. "In my experience, it's better if you try to fix what you have rather than starting from scratch."

I nodded. "I'll take that into consideration." I moved through the portal where a familiar elf was waiting for me.

"Da'nas, right?"

He nodded. "Come on, I'll take you to a room. It'll probably take a while."

I was too tired to ask what he had meant.

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Eventually, I woke up and meandered back down to the kitchen.

"Actually, just prepare a whole buffet. Revas won't know what she wants. No doubt she'll just give the rest to Isseya. That bird is already sweet on her," the elvhen woman, Ves, told the chef. Her eyes slid over to me. "Ah, good you're awake. Here's a map Feynriel and Eloise made. They modified it to work in the real world too. See that dot? That's your location. I need you to go to this outbuilding over here. Just give it a couple of minutes. She likes to take her sweet time."

I was shocked. Shouldn't she be grieving for her dead friend? Everyone here was acting so normal, but I felt like I could barely even function. I opened my mouth to say something, but she was already pushing me out the door. It seemed I had not choice at the moment but to follow her orders.

I wandered back through the path we took to get to the castle. As I reached the rift, I saw someone stepping out. I dropped the map when I saw it was Lavellan. She turned her back to me and reached over to pet- was that a griffon? She's petting a fully grown griffon? I felt like I shouldn't be surprised by anything she did anymore, but I was floored. I wanted to run over and hug her, but shame stopped me. I should never have been so foolish. Eventually, the shame was overpowered by my desire to say something and my interest in her bond with the griffon.

"Interesting, she seems to have bonded with you."

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Lavellan

I woke up on a beach shore alone, but it was in a place different than the Fade. I pushed myself up and brushed off some sand. There seemed to be no one around, but it was hard to miss the massive stone walkway directly in front of me. Iron gates prevented entry however. I walked over there and stared at the inscription on the metal plate placed on one of the pillars. There was a veilfire torch above it that I lit to see better.