I headcanon that because Te’lise drank from the Well, her servitude ensures that her soul is now immortal. Her sole purpose is to serve Mythal, and there is no escape from that fate. Even in death she cannot find peace, cursed instead to wander the earth as a nameless vagabond, searching for a master that no longer exists.
“It has been many long years.” The male’s voice was soft, steady like his gaze was on hers. She wondered why he seemed familiar, and yet not. It was as if he were an elusive dream that had long slipped past conscious thought. “Do you recall who I am?”
She tried to think, but the spirits swirling around her were too loud. ‘Old One, Old One,’ they chanted as they brushed against her robes and tangled themselves in her hair. ‘Trickster, Traitor, Liberator, Saviour.’
He frowned, and sighed. This did not appear to be the correct answer. She felt a swift glimmer of confusion. She was correct in her naming of him, she knew that. What else could he have meant?
“Do you recall your own name?” He asked gently. “Who you were before?”
“I was no one before,” she responded, her confusion only growing. “I am myself now, and that is all I will ever be.”
“What is your name now, then?” He asked her, ever patient.
She opened her mouth, and paused. What was her name? She didn’t know. She supposed she didn’t have one. The spirits had gone quiet. They would not tell her, even if she asked.
“I will tell you your name.” He stepped closer. “Te’lise Lavellan. Do you remember now?”
Te’lise Lavellan. She mouthed the name. It felt strange and alien on her tongue, as if she barely knew how to pronounce it. Te’lise – it was so close, yet so far. Surely that couldn’t have been her name?
“You are a spirit now, Te’lise, and have been for quite some time, though I know not what kind of spirit you are. You have forgotten much of your previous life.” Yet another step closer, this time with a hand outstretched, wounded and pleading. “I should have never left you in the state that I had. It is a mistake that will haunt me for the rest of my life.”
“Have we met before?” She asked him. The spirits stirred.
“I am Solas,” he told her softly. “That is the name you knew me by.”
Solas. Fen’Harel. Which was his true name? Why did both fit in strange ways, like two misshapen puzzle pieces that still somehow merged together? She grew frightened. She felt the urge to run. She didn’t.
‘Old One,’ the spirits shouted and sighed. Fen’Harel. Old One. Solas, here, watching her with shadowed eyes, a solitary figure drowning in a torrent of sadness that she could not quite comprehend.
A sharp glimmer of a memory rose up to greet her, frightening in its intensity. Tangled limbs, the press of a hand. Soft cotton, warm skin, the sound of a beating heart. Laughter, a moonlit balcony, stars swirling about in dizzying circles as powerful music rose to a crescendo from somewhere just out of sight.
Just as quickly as the memories rose up, they disappeared, and she felt herself forgetting once more.
“I don’t understand,” she said. Distraught. Confused. Frightened. What had she been thinking about?
“You remembered, for a moment. I saw the recognition in your eyes.” The male was in front of her now, which startled her badly - when did he get so close?
“I don’t know who you are,” she told him, voice high and pleading. “I don’t know who I am, or who you are to me. Why have you come to this place?”
“I came for you, Te’lise. You deserve better than to wait here for eternity. I can offer you a new life, a better one.” The quiet certainty in his words gave her pause. He visibly softened as she stared. “It is what I should have done, long ago.”
‘Solas. Fen’Harel. Solas. Vhen’an.’
The word sent a searing pain through her skull and she stumbled backwards with a cry. He followed, reflexively reaching out to catch her, but his touch burned. She shoved him away in a panic.
“You were here before,” she said tremulously. “You came here, with me.”
The male straightened with a soft breath, almost as if he were steeling himself for her words. But why? “I did. I was the one who brought you here, that night.”
“I know you,” she whispered. “Why do I know you? Who are you to me?”
Voice heavy with defeat, he said, “No one. Not anymore.” His eyes were so, so, sad.
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