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"Dorian." Solas' voice drifted up from the bottom of the rotunda. "Come walk with me."
Dorian frowned and put his book away. "I think this is the first time you've ever requested my company," he said as he came down the stairs.
The other man had the grace to look at least mildly chagrined. "I suppose it is." They headed out toward the ramparts. Solas seemed oddly nervous, or perhaps uncomfortable, clasping his hands together in front, then in back.
“Are you . . . alright?” the human finally managed to ask.
Solas sighed and looked out across the mountains. “How do you do it?”
Dorian blinked a few times in confusion. Am I being propositioned? “I think you need to be a teeny bit more specific.”
“Enslave spirits.” The elf’s lip curled in distaste. “How are you doing it? I never - they reach out to me when they get hurt, but I never hear about you.” He caught the edge of Dorian’s sleeve, suddenly angry. “Do I not hear about it because you’re killing them outright? What are you doing to them?”
The necromancer glanced down at Solas’ hand and resisted the impulse to set it on fire. “I’m not doing anything to them; They like me, and they like doing things for me. They’re my friends, like family.”
The other man laughed bitterly. “As every slave has always said to their master.”
“I don’t keep slaves,” Dorian hissed, slapping his hand away. “On either side of the Veil.”
“Then you wouldn’t mind if I talked to them, would you?” he asked. “See how well-treated they are?”
The other mage rolled his eyes. “Aren’t you worried they’ll lie if I’m here?”
“You know as well as I do that spirits rarely are capable of lying.” He arched a disdainful eyebrow. “At least, you should.”
“So you want me to just call them up right here?” Dorian scoffed.
Solas pointed toward the still-uninhabited tower in one corner of the fortress. “If you wouldn’t mind?”
“Fine, if it’ll make you stop questioning me on it.” Dorian took off at a brisk pace. Doubt and worry hovered in the back of his mind. What if I am enslaving them? Best to find out now, but . . . then what? He was a good necromancer, as in good at it. But could he keep doing it if he was actually hurting his friends? And if he didn’t, what then? Years of training down the drain. The tower on this end of Skyhold was still in need of extensive repairs and also full of all manner of animals. A slew of birds took off as they entered, though ‘entered’ was a generous description; ‘walked through the gap in the wall that might once have held a door’ was far more accurate. A raccoon or something bolted out from under what might have been a bed at one point then scrambled out the window. There were a few chairs at least, and the Veil was wobbly enough here that a fellow mage would have no trouble sensing and communicating with a spirit that was interested in doing so.
He sat down and leaned back to pull out a lyrium potion; frankly, it was a miracle that he had any on him. Solas shook his head when Dorian offered a sip. More for me, then.
He took a large swig and shuddered as the icy sensation spread down his throat and spiderwebbed out across his body, then closed his eyes.
Curiosity was first, as usual. “You brought a friend!” he shouted happily, scurrying down the walls of the Fade-version of the tower. The fact that it was the tower was interesting; granted, Dorian hadn’t planned on showing off his childhood bedroom that Vigilance was so fond of, but he’d expected to be somewhere in the library tower. Neutral territory. Instead, Solas had managed somehow to keep them exactly where they were in the physical world. And had slipped across the Veil with no effort at all. Dorian had only passingly listened to the tales the other mage told the Inquisitor of the sights he’d beheld while dreaming in various ruins and battlefields, but what he remembered, plus seeing him just appear in the Fade with no lyrium and possibly without even falling asleep? Was he a Dreamer? And if so, did that make him a danger?
Too late now. Curiosity bounded across the room and tried to jump on Dorian’s shoulder, but he wasn’t a little ferret right now, more of a badger, and he knocked the wind out of him and scratched his face as a tangled collection of limbs and fluff and far more tail than should ever be on a badger whipped about and smacked him in the mouth. “Did you bring me anything?” the playful spirit asked, sticking his very cold nose in Dorian’s ear.
Solas stifled a small chuckle at Curiosity’s antics. “He seems very enthusiastic.”
At the sound of another voice, the spirit spun around, twacking Dorian in the eye this time. “You! I know you!”
“You do?” both mages asked.
Dorian batted Curiosity's tail away from his face and continued. “I didn’t know you could see people that clearly when I call on you.”
“Him, and the tall dark one and the one with the hand full of power.” Curiosity launched himself from Dorian’s shoulder directly at Solas’s chest. “You’re a mage too, like Dorian?” Solas was a bit more prepared for the small flying tackle, and caught him without much trouble. “I like mages. Dorian’s the best though. He tells me stories and rubs my ears.”
“What kinds of stories?” the elf asked, holding up his hand so Curiosity could investigate his fingers.
The spirit cocked his head. “People stories. Fighting stories. Hero stories.” He licked Solas’ cheek making the mage yelp surprise. “Love stories.”
He wiped at his face and tried to give the spirit a severe glower, but Dorian just laughed. “You just have to not react to him or he’ll keep doing it until he gets bored. He’s a spirit of Curiosity.’
“Most curious indeed,” Solas murmured softly. He reached for his ears slowly, giving the spirit plenty of time to refuse him. Curiosity bumped his head into his fingers with a happy chirping sound.
“Up, up, to the left - no, the right,” he demanded, nearly falling off the elf’s shoulder as his eyes squinched closed.
“Does Dorian do this often, then?” Solas asked casually.
“All the time,” Curiosity chuffed. “Well, not all the time, but he can’t eat here, and says mortal bodies need to move around, so sometimes I ask Scales or Vigilance to scratch them instead.” He spun around and moved to put his paws on Solas’ head. “Where’s your hair?”
“I left it in the mortal realm,” he answered with a wry smile.
The spirit bobbed a few times as he considered. “Lying. You’re lying, you’re playing tricks. That’s not nice, but like this it doesn’t matter if it’s not nice because it’s a joke?” He jumped off Solas’ shoulder and bounded back over to climb up Dorian. “Does he play tricks often? I don’t like tricks, even the funny ones.”
Dorian smiled and stroked his snout as he shifted Curiosity to hold him like a toddler. “Not that I know off. What are you, anyway?”
“I’m Curiosity.” He poked him in the nose with a claw. “You think Scales could get this fur right?”
“I think Scales could do anything if they felt it was worth it.”
“Ssssso little isssss.”
They all looked up to see Scales coming through a window of the Fade-tower. As usual, they were in the form of an enormous snake, longer than even Bull was tall. “Solas, this is Scales.”
The other mage bowed slightly without a trace of irony. “Good afternoon. Might ask your domain?”
“You might.” Scales slithered past him and over to Dorian. “But I keep my own counsssel.”
“And what is your intention with Dorian?”
“What issss yoursss? What issss any creature’ssss intentionssss?” Scales retorted as they slithered up the table to coil up over Dorian’s forearm. “He usesss ussss, we ussse him in return. A fair exsschange.”
Solas frowned at the three of them. "I have to assume he uses you to fight. What do you use him for?"
"It isss assss the little one sssssaid," Scales answered. "Morssselsss of mortality. Sssslices of life, experiencesss." They flicked their tongue up to Dorian's jaw. "He knowsss many thingssss. We kill with him, yessss, but that isssss as much for our benefit assss hisss own. He cannot share if he isss dead."
"I like to see the insides," Curiosity piped up. "Tubes and wiggly parts."
Dorian bounced him on his hip. "Don't forget the bones."
"They crunch and crackle!"
"They do indeed, and sometimes they explode," Dorian chuckled, then glanced at Solas, sobering up. "Are you satisfied?"
Before the other man could respond, a fifth voice spoke. "He never is." Vigilance walked in through a break in the wall that Dorian could have sworn didn't exist moments ago. Her steps were careful as she picked her way across the room, and she wasn't wearing the blindfold.
Solas looked downright uncomfortable. “One should always strive for more.”
Vigilance’s hand brushed Dorian’s shoulder as she advanced on the other mage. “At what cost, Roamer of the Beyond?”
Solas glanced away. Dorian couldn’t blame him; Vigilance’s eyes were always unsettling, even if he loved them, and in fact, he suspected the blindfold was an acknowledgment of that. “We never know the cost until it’s too late, Ghil-Dirthalen.”
Gil-Dirtha-what? “What did you call her?” Dorian asked. “That’s not an elven term I’m familiar with.”
Vigilance smiled back at him. “It is an old term, child. Very old.” She cupped Solas’ hands in hers and brought them to her lips. “And it should be forgotten. That world is over.”
Do they know each other? “Can we back up a moment and -”
Curiosity put a hand to Dorian’s lips as Scales whispered, “Let them ssssspeak.”
“Our people were great once,” Solas murmured. “I would see it restored. Properly. Not this Dalish sham that -”
“They did the best they could,” Vigilance interrupted him. “Can you say the same?”
Solas yanked his hands away. “I had no choice!”
“Neither did they.” She reached for his shoulder, but he stepped back. She sighed, shook her head sadly and pointed at Dorian. “We are not his thralls, and he is not ours. Do you trust me enough to believe that?”
“I never stopped trusting you,” Solas insisted. “But the -”
“You did." Her voice was harsh. Was it getting darker? “You did and we will never forgive you. We have made a new home, without you, and without them. It’s time you did too, but not with us." She waved a hand, and a wall of stone rose up between them. The air was definitely murky now, and Dorian could only see her by the sparkle of her skin as she shifted. "Make peace, dreamer, not war."
Dorian awoke with a start. Vigilance had never kicked him from the Fade before. Solas was gone, and a raven was pecking at his boot. What in the name of Thedas had just happened?
