Chapter Text
Prompt: “I am grim and fatalistic.”
Rounding a corner, Solas, Rook and her companions come face to snout with horse. A horse Rook knows all too well, “Athos, what are you doing here boy?” He only snorts at her and comes into the light, revealing the old Blight on him. Davrin sucks in a sharp breath, “He feels different from the other Darkspawn, how?”
‘Laidir’ smirks as she steps up the horse to the disagreement of the others, “What do you know of Dulahans, Davrin? And what do you know of them Solas?” Davrin only shrugs and shares an uncertain glance with Harding. Solas speaks up, “Dulahans, at least in regards to the Blight, are riders of Blighted horses or other mounts. They are neither dead nor fully alive and are closer to being like the Darkspawn Magisters.”
Nodding slowly, Rook watches him carefully, “That is because Dulahans only came to be after the second attempt of Magisters into the Black City. Bribing, coercing and outright threatening those that refused the first time until they complied for the second. Myself among them.”
Harding gasps, “You were a Magister? But…?” She smiles sadly, “But I’m nice and not a horrible prejudiced waste of space like the Venatori? I understand that I do. But not all of the original priests went in the first round. My second went in my place and was twisted by the Blight. Now here I stand, glamoured to hide the old Blight in my veins, unchanged by whatever Ghilain’nain did to it.”
Solas steps forward involuntarily, “Show us Rook. And tell us your real name.” ‘Laidir’ laughs, taking off a necklace she has never removed that reveals the winding, twisting veins of the old Blight in her, and letting her eyes bleed black onto the whites of them and the silver in the iris to reflect the light, “My true name Calidia, Founder of the Magisterial House Vesperian. Once Priest to the Old God Lusacan. Believe me, I can see the irony.”
Cursing abruptly in Elvhen, Solas begins pacing, “Calidia Vesperian, that makes complete sense. I had been watching your tenure as Magister before the ‘mishap’. I had wondered what happened after that.” She chuckles darkly, “Indeed, and to find out my descendants bar for the Viper have all but broken away from my founding rite and rewritten it to suit their needs is deplorable.”
Their eyes meet as Calidia smirks, “Don’t look so grim Wolf.” He scoffs, “I am grim and fatalistic Rook.” She laughs, “So can I.”
Written by a human in Ellipsus.