Who did your Inquisitor romance? How did their romance play out? What was it, that has drawn your Inquisitor to this companion, and what was it the other way around?
There is absolutely no one else for Evunial. No other living soul on the planet. Moira could have ended up with Iron Bull or maybe Cassandra, but for Evunial there was only ever Solas.
If Solas didn't exist or he wasn't interested, she would have gotten arranged-married on her return to clan Lavellan - or she would have stayed single if it benefited the clan more.
And she WOULD have absolutely returned to her clan and lived out her life as First and then Keeper with zero regrets. And at the first chance, too.
But Solas wasn't the only one who felt the whole world change <3
We all know how the Solavellan romance goes but I think two of the things I "do differently" (from my friends and moots) is
a) it's a real age-gap romance to me; Evunial actively treats Solas as an elder and it's very much a student-teacher crush for her at first. Which is pretty realistic imo because she has zero romantic experiences with age appropriate peers, making it extremely easy to fall in puppy love with the first male authority figure who shows an interest in her. (Might sound icky, but she IS 23 and a fully competent adult - she's just inexperienced in this specific area and she maybe "behaves a little younger" than someone else in this time period at that age with maybe 2-3 relationships under their belt.)
b) Solas feels extremely torn about the whole thing - on more levels than "usual". It's not just that he changed Evunial's life against her will, his magic is embedded in her body, he's the reason she "has to live like this"(tm), he doesn't want to use her like he was used, and he's lying to her about his identity.
It's ALSO that the age gap that feels more pronounced to him than it might with other Lavellans who are more mature. He really does feel like a bit of a cradle robber and he aggressively refuses to entertain the thought, even privately.
Then, Evunial is an incarnated wisdom spirit and he's so extremely afraid of breaking or corrupting her nature when he "inevitably" "has to" break her heart. Because he remembers what that corruption, that slow, awful death of his spark, felt like. (And he is reminded again, after All New Faded For Her, where Evunial doesn't let him kill the mages - the whole situation leads to one of their few fights on his return to Skyhold.)
And last but not least, he is severely icked out by Evunial being as into Mythal as she is. But he has no way of correcting her without potentially arousing suspicion. At least not about Mythal. Because he isn't even sure he could verbalize... everything. Not even now.
All that to say that Evunial and Solas, in the beginning, is basically Evunial giving Solas every sign under the sun and Solas dunking his head in ice water every night and every morning. Sometimes other body parts, too.
And Evunial is rather relentless, the way young women can be (lol). She gets pretty pushy. Because yes, she has learned about the "mechanics" of sex, of course. But she has absolutely no framework for boundaries in relationships or for healthy courtship (beyond "no touching without consent" and obvious stuff like that).
She has seen people asking for a dance at the Arlathvhen, she's seen couples getting married, she's heard ancient tales about love among the Creators, of course - but that doesn't really translate at all to "wow this guy is really hot and i Want Him and he seems interested, I mean, he's smiling at me, right? but he never does anything and he flinches when i touch him - does he hate me? but he keeps talking to me? and he's obviously flirting? right? indomitable focus?? but why does he always change the topic when i ask to take last watch together?"
So she keeps pushing. And Solas keeps running, always on the back foot, even in their most romantic moments. It only ends when Evunial realizes what she's been doing after Solas has his panic attack after sleeping with her. She's very supportive in the moment, but then she spends a good deal of time chastising herself for being so immature and disregarding basically all of Solas' boundaries in her inexperience.
Crestwood isn't really as inexplicable or surprising to Evunial as one might think. By this point, she's aware that, even while Solas may love her, she fucked up massively by not giving him the space he needed. So she takes the breakup as almost... expected. Of course she's still sad, but she blames herself, rather than Solas. (She also knows he's an ancient elf at this point, so she doubly expected him to get sick of her eventually.)
(Solas spontaneously decides to break up with Evunial in Crestwood because the Veil is especially thin and he sees her spirit form shimmering through, and he decides in that moment that he cannot burden her with all that he was and is, and risk doing to her what was done to him. She would want to join him - at the very least to avenge Mythal - and if her time as Inquisitor didn't break her, what he thinks he has to do absolutely WILL.)
When they find each other at the end of Veilguard, Evunial has matured a great deal and they're both ready to finally REALLY get to know each other without misunderstandings and half-truths.
What drew Evunial to Solas?
he's the only other elf for a while
he immediately gained her trust because he's the one who saved and healed her
he's incredibly knowledgeable, especially about things Evunial feels Deshanna is holding back on (the Fade, spirits, healing magic)
she loves just hearing him talk
she just finds him very attractive, especially when he's relaxed and in his cups a little; he has this languid, fluid way of moving that almost makes him seem like a dancer; or like a predator ready to pounce; and Evunial, despite not having any experience, is extremely fcking horny xD
the depth comes later, for her; it's a superficial crush deepening with knowledge and curiosity;
What drew Solas to Evunial?
Curiosity (how tf did she survive?)
Nostalgia (an incarnated spirit? of wisdom? in THIS age/world?)
Self-loathing (he uses his closeness with Evunial to hurt himself with surgical precision - "she is everything you could have been! how is it that war broke you but this mortal is thriving?")
Care (responsibility to care for this rare, incarnated spirit)
And once the closeness is there, he falls for her empathy, her goodness, her kindness - and he feels all the more blackened and burned in the presence of that pristine fire;
for Solas, the shell shock of "oh god, it's one of my People" and the instant, ancient, painful connection he feels comes first; his connection to Evunial is "natural", almost... familial to him, in a way - it doesn't have to "deepen" the way it does for Evunial. He finds the "ordinary" attraction only later - in the sound of her laughter, in the casual caress of her hand, in the light of her eyes, the loosening of her hair, her curious questions;
