Originally started writing this while working on the flashback that appears in Chapter 34: New Wisdom of the Ancient Ways. I really liked it but it made certain revelations a little... obvious. I ended up going back and finishing it up later, and I just haven't posted it until now for whatever reason.
Obviously contains hella spoilers for Whetstone in general.
WHETSTONE MASTERPOST
She sits alone in a glade, looking up at a statue for Mythal—and she thinks, and wonders, but she does not pray.
“You’re meant to rest, in ritual and reflection,” a soft voice says just over her shoulder. “Not to wander, wonder, wait and wait for wishes and whatever might come.”
Her hands are curled in her lap. “Cole,” she says. “Could you—”
The question dies in her throat. Compassion knows it anyway.
“No,” he says, softly. “He’s slipped away. Searching in sorrow, with purpose renewed. You’re dreaming of a wolf. Sometimes he wears the face of Pride.”
She presses a hand to her swollen stomach.
“You won’t let him in,” he says for her. “The Huntress turned her bow on the people, the all-mother’s child and she allowed it, Friend of the Dead was friend to none but himself and the Halla made monsters—lesson learned. Let no God in again.”
The anchor sparks and she pulls her hand away from her stomach.
“It won’t hurt her,” Cole says, softly.
There’s something warm in her chest, and she can’t help a gasp. “Her?” she breathes. Presses both hands to her stomach.
“Yes.” Compassion sits next to her, not touching.
“Can you—” she feels dizzy, breathless. A girl. Emm’asha.
“Warm, soft, dark. It’s easy in here. It’s not safe out there.”
She can’t help a laugh. “Easy for her to say.”
“She’s so new to thought, and they’re so quiet.” He says it like it’s a wonder. “No hurts. Just you. You’re everything.”
She feels a kick. She gasps.
“See?” Cole says. “She’s sleeping.”
“Is she dreaming?”
“Shapeless, nameless. The Fade needs an image to impersonate—all she has is warm, safe, gentle. She dreams as she is.”
One night she wakes, in an aravel between the sleeping bodies of her lethallen’en, and she has—has to go somewhere, somewhere safe. Demons are hounding her sleep, so she goes to the statue of Fen’harel and there’s Compassion, waiting, wringing his hands.
I will not let another God in, she thinks, and she turns from the statue into the woods.
She walks for days. She must—beside her Cole catches her when she stumbles, he brings food and water to her because she will not stop walking, will not stop to sleep or to hunt or to do anything but walk, to search for a place where demons will not stalk her dreams, where a wolf will not watch her, longingly.
She finds no place where the gods have not walked, no place that does not remind her of her folly. When she finally collapses—screaming, Compassion rattling off her pains and trying to keep her from falling on her stomach—she does it in front of an ancient wolf statue, vines curled all over its body, obscuring everything but its eyes. She pulls herself standing, trying to keep moving, but all she can do is cling to the statue’s great paw, lean on its ancient stone for support, and she screams and screams as Compassion tells her push you have to push now, she will not wait any longer.
The anchor sparks and burns, it burns so bright, and she curses—you will not have her too, she thinks, delirious with pain and rage.
When it is over, she falls to the ground, her hands slipping from the statue and into the dirt. She blinks away tears and hears a high, frantic wail, and Cole is speaking, softly, gently, quickly, so she rolls over—
And Cole is wrapping something very, very small in white halla leather, his voice low and soothing, little nonsense noises spilling from his lips, and she realises it’s not her hurt he’s trying to help. She catches a glimpse of a gleaming, dark fist—so tiny—and her heart leaps in her chest. She finds herself reaching, her mouth open but no words coming out, and Cole deposits the little bundle in her arms.
She finds that she forgets everything but a wrinkled, gleaming face, that desperate wail, tiny little hiccups and she can hear Cole counting fingers, counting pointed ears but all she can do is laugh.
The hunters find her there the next morning, and they take in the sight of her sleeping sound, undisturbed, at the feet of an old statue of Fen’harel, her daughter in her arms and a smile on her face.
Would have been between Chapter 34 (New Wisdom of the Ancient Ways) and 35 (What They Overheard)
I cut it for Reasons like flow and pacing but I like it too much not to share
Reading on mobile screws up the formatting, but you should be able to read it fine regardless.
IS = Isabela
VT = Varric
DP = Dorian
MH = Hawke
FE = Fenris
Whetstone Masterpost
New Group Message
IS -{ Okay nobody freak out
IS -{ Because trust me I have that covered
IS -{ But Aevalle and Merrill just went through the demon
mirror
VT -{ Define through the demon mirror
IS -{ It was glowing and they walked through it
IS -{ And now it is not glowing and I tried to walk into it
and it hurt like a bitch
VT -{ Were you drinking?
IS -{ No!!!!
VT -{ Well that’s the end of my expertise here
DP -{ Fascinating
DP -{ I thought it wasn’t working?
IS -{ It wasn’t!!!!
IS -{ And then it was!!!
IS -{ And now it’s not again!!
DP -{ Alright Bela you need to calm down
IS -{ I am calm!!!!
DP -{ Go back to the beginning
DP -{ Tell me exactly what happened leading up to
them walking through the mirror.
IS -{ Okay
IS -{ Well Merrill and Aevalle and I had a sit on the floor
and cry session
IS -{ And then we went to sleep
IS -{ And when I woke up Aevalle was sleeping on the floor
and Merrill was watching her
IS -{ And they stayed like that for a really long time
IS -{ Until Aevalle woke up
IS -{ And they started holding hands and I was thinking “aw
how cute”
IS -{ And also “I am so fucking happy they’re not fighting
anymore because I seriously can’t take it”
IS -{ And then Aevalle put her hand on the mirror, said
something, and it started to glow and they walked
through
DP -{ That’s it?
DP -{ She just said something and it worked?
IS -{ That is literally all the information I have to give you
MH -{ Do you mean literally as in literally or literally
as in figuratively?
IS -{ Hawke
MH -{ Sorry
DP -{ Do you know what she said?
IS -{ Well I tried Open Sesame and that didn’t work
FE -{ Don’t worry they’re safe
IS -{ Okay one: who are you and what have you done with
Fenris???
IS -{ And two: How do you know that???
FE -{ Not Fenris
FE -{ He’s driving and it’s not safe
IS -{ Driving?
FE -{ The light said don’t go but he went anyway
FE -{ Not safe
IS -{ Fuck he’s coming here?
VT -{ In hindsight maybe including Broody in this group
chat wasn’t such a good idea?
IS -{ I panicked and I hit buttons okay!!
IS -{ Don’t blame me!!
MH -{ Cole do you know where they are?
FE -{ They’re not in the apartment anymore
MH -{ For fuck’s sake Cole
MH -{ I’m in my car, be there as soon as I can
MH -{ Dorian I’ll swing by your building on the way
MH -{ Be ready
DP -{ Cole we need to know everything you can tell
us about where they are
DP -{ Can you read them? Are they too far away?
DP -{ Cole? Are you still there?
FE -{ He’s telling her the truth and it tastes like ash
in her mouth Lethallan tell me he’s lying but
she won’t even look at her and they’re bright
bold burning on her skin but they mean so
much now she’s lost everything else and now
this too is a knife in her back in her heart
Lethallan why didn’t you tell me
FE -{ Sorry it takes longer to type than to talk
DP -{ Yes that’s all very fascinating
DP -{ I was hoping for something more along the lines of
a street address?
DP -{ Maybe a postal code
VT -{ Don’t be mean to the kid he’s trying his best
VT -{ When’s the last time any of us experienced
heartbreak while ruminating over our Lat
and Long?
DP -{ When’s the last time any of us walked through
an ancient elven mirror?
VT -{ Point
IS -{ Cole who are they talking to?
FE -{ He said it because he is angry that she prefers Dalish
lies over his truth that she clings to the people who
call him traitor and twist his purpose Stand Tall but
they won’t let him help them up and maybe they’re
right not to but it breaks him to think of them
scratching in the dirt remembering the fall but
forgetting that they bowed and begged and broke
even then
IS -{ Cole we need a name
FE -{ Just one?
IS -{ Fuck’s sake
IS -{ Cole if you don’t give me details I will personally wring
your neck when I see you
FE -{ A Dalish ghost story the only one that really
matters never let him catch your scent a
statue in the trees away from the aravels
may he take you
Just in case people wanted to see them; a sparse reorganization of Hawke’s thoughts on the dreams she’s been having, each distinct story thread arranged together and her thoughts on what’s going on.
Spoilers only if you’re not caught up to Chapter 37 (and for Inquisition in general, I guess, lol)
A number of piles of paper have been scattered across the floor; some are full pages, some are mere clippings. There are notes on almost all of them, written in a bold black marker.
The first pile contains a memo with the word SOLAS written on top of the first page, in large bold letters.
SOLAS
Internet says it’s Elven for Pride or Stand Tall
Apparently he’s Fen’harel?
Kind of a raging douche
Saves Aevalle from car crash?
Heals her hand, leaves a scar. (This is post-Tevinter)
Gives her a dress. Cole shows up with food and they have a cry session
Not solas. I don’t think he does the crying thing.
Actually I think he just stood there super awkwardly while Aevalle had a mental breakdown in the world’s most disgusting hotel room
That is fucking weird
There’s something missing here where the anchor was acting up?
He takes her to some old ruins to fix it and all the weird old elf voices in Aevalle’s head start acting up
He freaks out??? Why?????
Internet doesn’t have anything on well of sorrows. Welp.
He uses a weird globe thingy to break the veil and they fix Aevalle’s mark
She says she knows he’s elvhen which is different than elven (this is so freaking stupid)
Cole keeps bringing up his ex (Wow rude Cole)
Aevalle asks if his ex was pretty. While dying of weird fade magic crawling up her arm. What a strange kid.
They fix Aevalle’s mark, and there’s an old human lady with pearls in the temple?
Security must be pretty lax in these ancient elven ruins
Cole is going on about something Solas needs to tell Aevalle? What is it?
Well of Sorrows says Mythal? Who is an ancient elven god?
Solas = Fen’harel (yikes)
And then he kills her???
He acts like he’s caught in a trap though?
Your pieces are expertly aligned. The game is yours, and I did not recognise the moves that brought it to a close until it was too late.
TEVINTER
Someone named Evanura saves some really dumb elf kid named Leto from falling off a balcony
Internet says Evanura was a sword
Which is weird because Evanura was definitely a person here
Evanura = Aevalle’s mom??? To be fair this was a pretty rational assumption but it’s still wrong
Not clear what happens next
A magister dies? There’s an elf lady in the room and there’s a scuffle between Evanura/Aevalle and her allies?
This is where Aevalle (???) learned that song she sings all the time (from Leto’s sister)
Aevalle is tortured at some point? Did she get caught? How did she escape?
THE SHIT WITH DAD
Aevalle’s mom HOLY SHIT ACTUALLY AEVALLE is getting beat up by cops and Dad steps in
They get arrested together
Venatori come looking for Aevalle’s mom in the police holding cells
They don’t know what she looks like so they decide to take all the female elves
There’s two kids there with green eyes so she does the Anchor thing and then she and Dad fight the Venatori
At some point they go get his wallet, but not her stuff
They camp out on a roof and talk about feelings
I have a thing about apostates jumping out of nowhere to help me
Something’s missing here
Aevalle’s mom is injured (stabbed in stomach)
I watched the Dread Wolf kill Mythal, Hawke, I watched him do it, and he—he did it for me. So this is after Solas
Dad uses blood magic to reinforce a seal on a dragon (thanks for that shitty explanation Abelas)
They go back to Fereldan and Aevalle teaches me that song she’s always humming (that’s why it’s so fucking familiar) and she tells Dad her name is Evanura
CLAN LAVELLAN
Someone’s a dreamer? (Internet says Dreamers are crazy rare)
Kid’s mom leaves
A demon from her mom’s past
Cole seems to know her (So Aevalle?? Maybe?? But she’s not a mage is she?)
Someone takes Aevalle’s friend
He shoves strange magic orb at Aevalle and that’s where the anchor comes from
He calls her Lavellan like he was looking for her??
An unmarked, unsorted pile
She calls Abelas Nadas’lin and they totally bang in a field full of those glowing flowers
I regret many things.” “Like letting me waste the virabelasan? Like letting me stay?”
You are branded property so-called free elf
Aevalle and Solas are at a fancy party with jazz music (who listens to jazz music anymore) and Solas actually calls her “Aevalle” for once instead of that cute nickname and they make out
(but why would they be at a fancy party if they’re staying at the world’s shittiest motel?)
She’s dying and Cole shows up???
Her blood in the lines (runes???)
Air, please, air (wound is different, place is the same???)
Someone calling her “my heart”
Is this Aevalle? Or her Mom?
Fenris walks into the restaurant and she calls him “Leto” in her head
Aevalle has a chat with her manager about the fact that he saw her in that cell all those years ago with Dad (aaaahhhhhhh???!!!)
