Chapter Text
The Hinterlands was comforting to see now that there were no refugees suffering at every corner and the rebuilding efforts made the scars on the land heal day by day. Lavellan had said they needed elfroot and blood lotus for potions and that was why he had taken a small group on an impromptu trip, but Cole had seen the lie behind his words like an open book.
“Weary, wrangling wants from all over the world. Smiles that only want to use me. Everyday a different mask, they want the inquisitor not the real me. Josephine says we have to be nice but nobody tells them to be nice. You just wanted to leave.”
Lavellan looked up from the elfroot he had been stuffing inside his pack, a small smile on his face “Not forever. Just for a bit. Don’t tell Josephine. And we did need more Blood Lotus.”
“She knows.” Cole said. “She worries for you. So she didn’t stop you.”
“Oh.” Lavellan looked surprised for a second, before his face broke into a grin. “We should get her something. A gift. Maybe in Redcliff?”
“Does this mean we’re done picking flowers? Please say yes.” Dorian let out an annoyed sigh, but Cole could tell he didn’t really mean it. He was glad to be out of Skyhold for a few days as well. They all were, even Cole, who mostly went ignored by those visiting Skyhold.
And there were many, many visitors. In the following months after the Inquisition had defeated Corypheus, they had become some sort of symbol. Hope, happiness, the world once again whole. Lavellan didn’t like the attention. Cole understood.
Ever since he had become more human it had gotten harder to be unseen. People could perceive him at all times, and he couldn’t make anyone forget. Varric had said that was just part of being human, but it had been difficult for him to adjust.
Cole was heavy, present. When he got things wrong, it was more real as well, it stuck forever and there was no way to try again. It must feel even more real for Lavellan, who had so many eyes on him at all times.
Deep in thought, Cole was quiet as the party made a slow trek towards the city of Redcliff. Lavellan, Dorian and Varric discussed what they could get Josephine, debating whether books, clothing or pastries made for a better gift.
Cole was about to tell them which pastries were Josephine’s favorite, but the words died in his lips. A ripple in the sky. Stretching, wrapping and tearing, like the breach they had closed so many months ago was being ripped open again. This felt different though.
From the rip came a monstrous creature. Tentacles waved in the air as it gently glided through the sky like a great beast from the seas, it was supported by nothing, it didn’t care for this world’s rules that told things to be grounded. Cole could feel the horror from the people in Redcliff as panic took over the city. Loud and overwhelming, coming from too many directions, he didn’t know who to help first. Fear, fright, flee, everyone flee!
“Kid, don’t just stand there. Move!” Varric tugged Cole’s arm, snapping him from his daze. Lavellan and Dorian were already directing the running crowd towards the chantry, trying to regain some semblance of order so nobody got trampled or left behind.
The creature glided down, closer to the city, its tentacles reaching to the ground sweeping whoever was in the way and taking down houses and market stalls along with it. Cole watched in horror as people vanished as soon as it touched them, as if the world itself forgot they were there.
The creature was empty, Cole didn’t feel memories, or emotions from it, a husk, lifeless, unknown. He couldn’t linger on that thought, people needed help.
Lavellan shot a barrage at the creature as it approached them, the motes of ice hitting the husk like it was nothing. And Dorian’s fireball hit it to a similar effect, the creature advanced, relentless.
“We can’t fight it. It’s bigger than a Dragon, magic doesn’t work. We have to go.” Dorian shouted, taking several steps back.
“Void, violent, an empty vessel, it doesn’t care for us. It’s taking the people. We have to help!” Cole looked at Lavellan, pleading with his eyes. They couldn’t leave the people to deal with this alone, surely?
“How can we help? Dorian is right, we can’t fight it!”
“We help them run.” With that Cole rushed towards the crowd. Helping a woman who had tripped to get up and directing her to the chantry. With a glance he noted Lavellan, Dorian and Varric had followed him.
They couldn’t save everyone, with each sweep of its tentacles, the creature brought destruction upon the town, taking down buildings and houses, and along with it, more and more people.
From the corner of his eye Cole saw one of the tentacles come down towards them, on instinct he pushed the man he had been helping out of the way and stepped back several paces, it missed him completely, but to his horror he saw Varric was too close. He wouldn’t be fast enough.
Cole lunged at him, daggers in hand as he barreled against Varric with all his weight. The dwarf was bumped, stumbling off his feet, out of reach from the tentacle. Cole heard Lavellan shouting his name and he only had time to stab his daggers into the creature as it hit him.
And then nothing.
Become us. The you now is inferior. Join, assimilate.
A wiggly worm in his eye, forced through. It crawled through, tried to make Cole less him and more them.
The next thing he knew was that the ground was shaking. Cole hit the side of his face on something hard enough to jolt him awake, which was strange, considering he did not sleep. He was somewhere unknown, some kind prison pod that broke open.
He crawled out, stumbling forward as he tried to find his footing.
It was a strange room, walls made of wet, wiggling wrapped tendrils; It made a squelching noise when Cole stepped on it. The room was on fire, half destroyed. And near where he had woken up there was a corpse of one of those tentacle things that had put a worm inside him.
“It was hollow on the inside. I was looking at it wrong.” He said in wonder. The creature was a vessel, a floating ship.
Regardless, he had to leave. Varric and Lavellan must be so worried for him. They didn’t know it was hollow. Cole looked about the room and found a dagger stabbed into one of the toppled chairs. It wasn’t his enchanted daggers, but it was something, and so he moved on, hoping to find some sort of exit.
The next room was in a similar state of destruction. A strong wind whipped at Cole from a large missing wall from where he could see fire and red mountains. A dragon flew over the vessel, shooting fire at something out of view. Cole hoped he wouldn’t have to fight a dragon by himself.
Maybe if he rushed through the dragon wouldn’t notice. Cole was halfway to the other side when he stopped. Anger, duty, kill, the emotions slammed into his mind like an ear splitting scream, someone else was there. He only had time to raise his dagger in defense when someone jumped in front of him. She was a strange looking woman with yellow skin, long ears and intense golden eyes, but the first thing Cole really noticed was that she was LOUD. Not her words, he barely heard what she said, but her thoughts.
“Devotion, determination, distrust. Kill the gaikh thrall, escape and find a cheche. I Must be cleansed.” Cole gripped his head, the worm inside of him seemed to wiggle, he saw more from her mind, but it was too much, too fast, he couldn’t understand. For a moment he saw himself through the woman’s eyes and then…. It got quiet again, like something in his head settled.
“Vlaakith blesses me this day. You are no thrall. Together we might survive.” The woman said, she was smiling as she put her sword away. Cole wasn’t sure what changed her mind, but he didn’t sense the hostility anymore.
“You know how to help. How to make us pure.” It was unusually hard to piece together her thoughts after the wave of information, but he was sure she knew how to help. “Kill the worm, we won’t become Gaikh. You’re right, we must find a way out of here.” Cole nodded.
“Spoken like a Githyanki. How?” She narrowed her eyes, her smile dropping as she hissed her words.
“I know because you know. You don’t have to distrust me. I want to help too.” Cole raised his hands. He had seen Lavellan do that when trying to calm other people down.
The ground shook beneath their feet. In the distance, the dragons roared. That was enough for the strange, yellow woman to snap from her hostility.
“No matter. We must move. Now. There is no time for idle chit chat. We kill the imps, we find the helm, and we get out of this place. This is our priority. You will come with me.” She left no room for argument, she expected to be obeyed. Cole had never seen anyone like her. From her mind he got a name, Lae’zel. She was a Githyanki.
“Yes.” Cole agreed.
Together they cut through a group of red, feral little flying creatures. Lae’zel taking the front while Cole struck from the shadows with his one dagger, picking at any openings he could spot. They made short work of the creatures, and in the end, Cole found a second dagger in one of their corpses to go with the one he already had.
“You are surprisingly capable in battle.” Lae’zel said. Not a compliment, just an observation.
With each passing second it felt like the flying creature that carried them came closer to falling from the sky. Dragons attacked the hull, fires spread through corridors. Lae’zel seemed like she had some idea of where they were going, and Cole was more than happy letting her lead.
That is until they came across one of the pods with a woman inside, crying for help. Cole made a beeline for her, but couldn’t pry the pod open. The console nearby was dead.
“We don’t have time for stragglers.” Lae’zel hissed.
“No. We are helping her.” He ignored the feeling of annoyance from the woman and didn’t wait for his new companion to agree or disagree before he was looking for a way to open the pod. He could feel the fade wrapped around it, a specific pattern, like runes from an enchantment. It bound the pod to the console.
It took a little guessing from his part, like tugging tendrils loose from the pattern, until there was nothing holding it together anymore. The pod hissed open and the woman stumbled out.
And as soon as she was free, Cole was assaulted by her thoughts. There was weariness, distrust mixed with gratitude. Beneath that there was a gaping hole that felt like it could swallow Cole. No memories, no nothing, just a void where a person should be.
Cole gasped as the feeling suddenly stopped. It wasn’t usually like this, not even before he had become more human. He felt the hurt from people, saw their memories, heard their thoughts, but it was never loud and overwhelming. He could feel the worm in his head digging into his skull each time.
“You keep dangerous company.” Was the first thing the woman said, sneering at Lae’zel.
“Yes.” Cole answered, shaking his head to dispel the ghost feeling of her thoughts. “Dangerous. You are too. We need dangerous, they won’t like that we’re trying to leave.”
“That’s a fair point” She glanced at the gith again, steeling herself, like putting on an armor, her face carefully neutral, but Cole could feel her discontentment itching on the back of his head. It felt like when he traveled with Vivienne. Outright politeness that was only skin deep.
Cole moved to stand between them, his eyes down, not meeting the woman’s. At some point he had lost his hat and he solely missed it right now. “Distrust, disgust. The gith are too dangerous to trust. If she knew what I have she’d attack. But we can help her and she can help us. We are crashing.”
“How-?” The wariness turned to Cole as well, like a cornered nug. “You’re right. We can help each other. At least for now.” She came to a decision. “Lead the way. I’m Shadowheart.”
“It’s not only your heart that is full of shadows. Your mind too. Like a gaping hole.” He said in response. Her name made sense.
Shadowheart’s eyes narrowed, but with Lae’zel growling at them to start moving, she didn’t have a chance to respond. Together they moved from room to room deeper into the creature, Lae’zel knew the way more or less.
They eventually arrived at a large room, it was burning, missing chunks of the wall. On the other side of the room was the helm, their way out of this place, but to get there they had to get past imps, monsters and other creatures Cole had never seen before.
“I can get to it.” Cole rushed ahead, drawing the shadows from the fade as a cloak around him. Or he tried to… something was off, like he tried to pull from a well but getting an entire ocean instead. Power and magic that washed over him, too much too soon, and the shadows refused to stay.
One of the imps screeched as it dove at him, diving with its claws outstretched. Its path was interrupted by a mace, bashing it to the ground. Shadowheart met Cole’s and gestured at the helm.
“Go! We’ll hold them back.”
Cole dashed towards the helm, his inability to call on the fade would have to be a problem for later. He sidestepped another imp, practically throwing himself at the console. He looked at the assortment of tentacles and flesh-like controls with growing panic. How did it work?
He glanced at the tentacle creature still fighting for them, it thought he was one of them.
A flashing image of the creature connecting the tentacles and pulling it a certain way, the memory slammed into his head like one of The Iron Bull’s friendly shoulder taps, almost making Cole double over. But suddenly he knew what to do, he grabbed the tentacles, connecting a path and pulled.
The Nautiloid jerked in motion, tossing Cole against the nearest wall. Gravity shifted under his feet and whatever fight had been going on broke off as the ship plummeted down.
And Cole fell with it.