Did anybody ask for Solas and Anders banter?
God I really just shoved as many headcanons that could feasibly fit into this. I’m so sorry.
Like the Fenris and Solas banter, this takes place post DA2 but during Inquisitions timeline.
Anders: You must hate what I did with Justice.
Solas: Why would you think that?
Anders: I took a spirit into my body. Now he’s gone. He’ll never go back to the Fade. I can’t imagine you’re pleased with that.
Solas: I was under the belief you did this to help it. Is the truth you coerced it? Bound it and forced it to be one with you?
Anders: No. Never. He was my friend.
Solas: Then I fail to see where I would draw my judgement.
Anders: It was unnatural.
Solas: Only by your understanding of nature.
Solas: I am glad to meet another counting spirits among their friends.
Anders: Just the one spirit. And it’s not as if we’re talking much these days.
Solas: I’d argue you’re always talking in some ways.
Anders: I miss him sometimes. The Justice I knew before.
Solas: I’m not sure I understand.
Anders: Justice, when I met him he was different.
Solas: I’m sorry, I’m still confused. How could it have been different?
Anders: He was kinder, before he... met my anger.
Solas: You believe your anger effected it? Changed a spirit of Justice?
Anders: What else could it have been?
Solas: Justice is fluid, just as wisdom, hope, and valor are fluid. The justice you seek against the templars is different than the justice a Grey Warden seeks against the darkspawn. Indeed, even the child crying at her mother after a sister steals her favorite toy is seeking justice.
Solas (Cont.): Justice simply became the force you always sought.
Anders: That still sounds like I changed him.
Solas: One could argue change is all Justice is.
Solas: I saw you healing a scout in the yard, Anders. He looks well, but I must admit I’ve never seen healing magic such as yours before.
Anders: I made a lot of it up.
Anders: You aren’t taught healing in the circle, no more than you’d need to heal a templar’s burn. Maybe some are, if they’re obedient enough to stop when the Knight Commander says they’ve done enough.
Solas: Forgive me, I may know less of the Circle than I thought. Why wouldn’t they teach such vital magic?
Anders: Think about it. A healer holds the life of another in their hands. A real healer could bring a man back from the edge of the void, but all the Chantry sees is how much power that gives to a mage.
Solas: So your skills you had to learn on your own?
Anders: I experimented. Improvised. I tested new ideas on myself first of course. Turns out being Hawke’s friend offers more opportunities than the Wardens.
Solas: I was aware of the limitations the Chantry places on magic, but that seems...
Anders: The Chantry doesn’t care how many people it kills to keep mages caged. “Magic exists to serve man, and never to rule over him.” Words twisted to doom us all.
Anders: Is it possible for Justice and I to be separated?
Anders: Couldn’t live without my head, I guess.
Solas: Even that example is too separate. A head can be removed from the body, however messy the process. To separate you and Justice… it would be like trying to take water from rain, light from the sun. What are you even seeking to remove?
Anders: Is it- strange to find that comforting?
Solas: It is not so unnatural, your merger with Justice.
Anders: I guess you could argue possessions are natural.
Solas: Even possessions were not always seen as you know them today.
Anders: What do you mean?
Solas: There has always been the tragedy of a mortal mind breaking against the corrupted nature of a spirit. But what you’ve done, joining your soul with a spirit, was a practice known among the ancient elves.
Anders: Elves... allowed themselves to be possessed?
Solas: A talented scholar may ask to be with one with a spirit of wisdom. While a devoted priest may beg an embodiment of faith. Such joinings were rare, but only because a spirit will not join with one that will harm its nature. For it to accept meant your drive was true, and for that it was seen as a great honor.
Anders: I can’t tell you how badly I wish I could see this world.
Solas: They were called the somnlin. The Blood of Dreams. Our deepest passions given flesh. Justice believed in you, Anders. It still does.
Solas: What you did in Kirkwall, I understand.
Anders: There are days now when I’m not sure I do.
Solas: There come times when an action is necessary, but we as mortals can only guess what action that may be, along the consequences it will carry.
Solas (Cont.): We cannot predict who it will truly help nor who it will hurt, even if we believe we do. All we can do is choose to act, or choose to wait and hope another will do so in our stead.
Anders: I had waited too long already.
Solas: And the bravery enough to admit it is a rare gift indeed.
(Bonus because it’s a radically different tone from the rest)
Solas: Is it true you escaped the circle seven times?
Anders: I like to say ten, but apparently it doesn’t count if they find you within the first half-hour.
Solas: You’ll have to tell me the stories soon.
Anders: Really I’d like your stories. An apostate all your life, surely you must’ve dodged a few templars.
Solas: Not so I’m afraid.
Anders: Really? Your whole life, not a single templar on your ass?
Solas: I have been asleep for most of it.