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The fade sky looked ready to swallow Neve up as she made her way across the cold, empty courtyard.
She, Rook, and Harding had just retrieved Solas’s dagger from the ritual site. Now Rook was in the library, comforting Harding about the latest crisis to befall them. It seemed like they could use some privacy.
It certainly wasn’t the easiest set of circumstances to be thrown together under. Neve missed working alone.
It was going on three weeks since Solas’s ritual had torn her from Dock Town. She thought of the dishes piled up in the sink and the desperate woman she had planned to meet the next day. The woman had probably waited for Neve in the square until dusk. Her daughter would probably be dead now, by the time anyone got around to looking for her.
Neve sighed and made to rub her eyes, but the pain made her wince. The bruises were taking ages to fade, and magical healing was useless on them.
Just as she reached the stairs to her study, she heard a crash behind her.
“Nooooo!”
She turned around to see a small metallic orb skittering toward her across the courtyard. Their new Dalish teammate came sprinting after it, but Neve got there first, stopping the ball with her iron leg just before it tumbled over the ledge.
“Oh, thanks Neve!” Bellara laughed nervously as the orb rebounded into her hands.
“Playing catch?”
“Oh, no, just a tool from home. I thought it might help with the Eluvian.”
Neve had almost forgotten about the impossible first task Bellara had eagerly accepted. She resisted the urge to shake her head.
“Right, the Eluvian. How’s that going?”
“Oh, just fine.” Bellara grimaced as she headed back to an open toolbox in front of her room, kneeling to collect scattered pieces. “Just, you know, trying to fix it. I’ll get there, but it’s hard.”
Bellara didn’t look so eager now, with dark circles under her eyes. Neve felt a twinge of guilt. She’d meant to check on her after D’Meta’s crossing, but there had been so much going on.
“Well, you’ve got the Tevinters beat,” she said. “I thought the old stories about using them for transport were myths. So imagine my surprise when –”
“It took you deep into the heart of Arlathan forest, to the edge of a ritual meant to destroy the entire world?” Bellara turned away from her toolbox to look at Neve, eyes wide. “That must have been really scary!”
It was where Neve had been going, more or less, but she hadn’t expected Bellara to shine a spotlight on it. She cleared her throat.
“Well, you know…”
“And then you got hurt! And now you can’t get back home! Are you okay?”
Bellara was sitting cross-legged now with her hands in her lap, her eyes practically swallowing her face as she stared up at Neve with sympathy and concern. Neve gulped.
“Oh, this?” she said, gesturing to her face, “This is nothing. I work through worse than this on a weekly basis.”
“I can patch it up for you. Your face, I mean. Not that there’s anything wrong with your face! Just the, um, bruising and stuff.” Bellara trailed off, “I can… fix that…”
Neve laughed. “Your healers already tried, back at the Veil Jumper camp. But I’m fi –”
“No, I mean…” Bellara was standing up now, dusting off her overalls. “Not to brag or anything, but I’m really good at makeup. I can cover it up for you! Come on.”
Neve opened her mouth to protest, but Bellara had already grabbed her wrist. As she lead Neve, half-running, down the pathway to her room, stray pieces tumbled from the open toolbox and skittered in their wake.
Bellara’s room looked like a teenager’s dormitory set up for Circle summer school. A stuffed Halla sat on the dresser next to piles of clothes and spices, presumably from home. Amongst diagrams of artifacts on the walls were at least a dozen colorful notes – “Good luck, Bel!” etc. They must be from fellow Veil Jumpers.
As Neve sat hesitantly on the edge of Bellara’s bed, she thought of the bare walls in her Dock Town apartment, and the favorite pen abandoned on her desk. It was drab and drafty, and Neve’s iron leg echoed hollowly through it. But it was home, and she couldn’t remember the last time she’d been away so long.
Bellara spread a massive palette of colors out on the nightstand, lifting up a big white pouf and dipping it in a brownish square of makeup.
“Okay, I’m going to put some foundation around your eye now.” Bellara leaned forward. “I’ll to try to be gentle, but let me know if it hurts, okay?”
Neve flinched as the pouf touched her cheek, but managed not to pull away.
“Oh! Did that hurt?” Bellara asked
“No, no, you’re fine,” Neve assured her. “Just a reflex.” She tried to turn the truth into a joke. “These days, if there’s a hand this close to my neck, it tends to constitute an emergency.”
Bellara just looked at her, confused for a second, and then pulled away like Neve was on fire.
“Oh! Oh no! I’m -”
“It’s fine. You’re fine, we’re… fine,” Neve said, wishing she’d kept her mouth shut.
“If you’re sure…”
“I’m sure. So, makeup’s an interesting special skill for a Veil Jumper mechanic.” She closed her eyes.
“I got into it before I joined the Veil Jumpers. I spent a summer away from my clan in the city the year I came of age.” Bellara patted Neve’s face even more gently than before, if that was possible. It was unnecessary, but sweet.
“Sounds like a big adventure.”
“It was! There’s always something going on in the city – it wasn’t like Minrathous or anything. Just the nearest town. But it was great. I learned how to do makeup from my host sister.”
Neve smiled. “Isn’t that something.” Bellara was clearly a talker, but this was nice, just sitting with her eyes closed and listening. She let go of a breath she hadn’t realized she was holding and leaned back a little on the pillows.
“I haven’t had many chances to do makeup since joining the Veil Jumpers, though. I can’t even remember the last time I did a friend’s makeup – it was probably my host sister!”
“Well, I’m honored,” Neve said.
A friend. It seemed like a childish way to refer to the other members of the team, but Irelin had used that word too, on their way back to the Veil Jumper camp. Neve had been sidelined with her injuries, and when they heard an explosion in the distance, she muttered to herself.
“I should’ve gone with them.” She thought she’d said it quietly, but suddenly Irelin’s hand was on her shoulder.
“I know you are worried about them, Neve,” she said. “But Bellara is a good Veil Jumper. She will guide them. I think your friends will come back to you just fine.”
In the moment, Neve had been frustrated with Irelin’s optimism. But now the memory of Harding, Bellara and Rook all returning in one piece made her feel warm.
Without realizing it, Neve had relaxed so far back on the pillows that Bellara had to climb practically on top of her as she puffed and patted her face. It was an attitude that would have spelled death on the streets of Minrathous, to be on her back like this with someone leaning over her. But Neve felt calm. She felt the pouf around her eye for a minute, then a pause, then something smoother… maybe a brush? She found that even the urge to flinch had faded. Here, in Bellara’s quiet room at the Lighthouse, this moment was … soft and sweet. Cozy. Like Neve had somehow made a precious visit to someone else’s body, someone else’s life.
For a few more minutes the only sounds were of their breathing. Then, with one last flourish of the pouf on the tip of Neve’s nose, she laid it down on the nightstand.
“All done!” She sang. “Look,” she said, climbing over to sit next to Neve on the bed and holding a mirror up to her face, “Ta-da!”
If Neve hadn’t already known she was injured, she would’ve sworn she couldn’t see any bruises at all. “Wow, that’s… amazing, Bellara. Thanks.”
Bellara beamed. “Glad you like it! I thought about doing your mascara too, but it freaks some people out to have the wand all up in their eyes. So, thought we’d skip it.”
Neve chuckled, but she felt a little sheepish. She imagined Bellara arriving alone at the Lighthouse a week ago, with nothing but the Eluvian to distract her from all the people they’d lost at the Veil Jumper camp. She knew Bellara had been through hell, and she’d meant to look after her new teammate – her friend? – but she’d ended up being looked after herself.
She turned to look at Bellara, who was still grinning eagerly at Neve’s reaction to the makeup job. “I’ve been meaning to see how you were holding up after D’Meta’s crossing, and instead I… got a new look.”
It was as if Neve had snuffed out the sparkle from Bellara’s eyes. “Oh, D’Meta’s Crossing,” she said, her face falling. Her eyes misted over, as though her mind had taken her far away. “Yeah, that. That was… really bad.”
Neve cringed. She, of all people, should have known better than to poke at a fresh wound. She searched for a way to change the subject, to lighten the mood, but to her surprise, Bellara continued.
“There were almost a hundred people in that village, and a lot of them were my friends. And Milhva - she had just joined the Veil Jumpers a few weeks ago. It’s… yeah, it’s horrible.”
Bellara’s eyes filled with tears, and Neve fought a rising sense of panic. She wished she hadn’t brought this up, or that she at least knew what to say. Rook, she had noticed, was good at these conversations, but Neve felt lost.
“I’m so sorry, Bellara.” It was too little, and it was much, much too late. But what else could she say?
Bellara sniffled a little and wiped at her eye. Neve turned away to give her some space. She wanted to kick herself. She started to wonder if she should come up with an excuse to leave, so Bellara could have some time alone. But then Bellara put a hand on Neve’s shoulder.
“Thanks, Neve. For caring. It means a lot to have a friend here,” she said with a watery smile.
A friend. Neve returned Bellara’s smile. “It’s nothing. We’ve … all got a lot to bear right now, haven’t we?”
“Yeah,” Bellara said. They were both quiet for a moment, and then Bellara seemed to remember something. “Did you feel that… weird feeling when we were there though? Like my stomach was going to flip-flop right out of my body.”
“That would be blood magic,” Neve said with a sigh. “I’ve never felt anything as strong as that, though. Maybe it has something to do with the combination of blood magic and the blight? I… have to do more research.”
“I can research it too!” Bellara looked more excited than Neve would have thought possible under the circumstances, “I’ve been talking to this professor in Nevarra – we can all research it together and tell each other what we find.”
“Sure,” Neve smiled, “sounds good.”
As they headed out into the courtyard, Bellara continued her thought.
“Anyway, it’s like Rook said, right? We just have to keep taking it one step at a time. We’re not going to let the whole world turn out like D’Meta’s crossing. Whatever happens, we have to try.”
“I guess so,” Neve said. The job still seemed very much like a long shot, but she hoped for Bellara’s sake – for all their sakes – that Rook would turn out to be right.
“Well, guess I should get back to work!” Bellara said. She looked more cheerful than she had when Neve had found her, at least. Maybe the makeover-artist break had done her some good. “Let me know if you learn anything new in your research.”
“Sure thing,” Neve said, turning to go.
“Oh, and Neve?”
Neve looked back. Bellara’s face was serious and she was gripping her toolbox with both hands. She looked like she was working herself up to say something important.
“I’m going to get the Eluvian fixed soon. I’m almost finished already,” she said.
“Okay. Well, good luck.”
Bellara’s next words were slow and deliberate, and she held Neve’s gaze intently as she said them.
“You’re going to be able to get home soon Neve. I promise.”
Neve felt her face flush. Bellara had caught her out. She was up almost every night worrying about who was getting hurt in her absence from Dock Town, and how long it would be before she got back. Being away unexpectedly and for so long was an open wound. But how had Bellara known?
She opened her mouth to respond, but her chest was tight. For what felt like the tenth time today, she was at a loss for words.
She stood there for a moment, feeling silly to be so tongue-tied. After what felt like an eternity of stumbling, she managed two syllables.
“Thanks, Bel.”
Bellara smiled and waved a hand as she headed back to the Eluvian. Neve returned to her study feeling just a little lighter. Who knew what the next few weeks or months would throw at them. But with a friend at her side, maybe – just maybe – there was hope for her after all.