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An Unlikely Pairing (Dragon Age Inquisition)	By : Elvhennan Category: +A through F > Dragon Age (all) > Dragon Age (all) Views: 949 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: I do not own the rights to Dragon Age: Inquisition. I do not own the fandom nor the characters and I make no profit off of this story.

Chapter List
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I didn’t know how long I slept. I awoke to a darkened sky, though how many had passed me by I could not say. It was a fitful sleep, there were times I could hear voices arguing but seemed unable to speak or even to open my eyes, and then I would return to oblivion, only to rise again to hear new voices around me.
It carried on like that until I finally felt strong enough to raise my head and lean on an elbow. Every inch of me ached. Even my mind seemed to be in pain, hazy and throbbing. Mother Giselle was there.
“You need to rest,” she spoke softly.
“They’ve been around it for hours.” Days? The camp was too well set up for it to have been the same night as the attack. I directed my gaze towards Cullen, Josephine, Leliana, and Cassandra around the fire. I was glad to see they all lived. Especially knowing that if Cassandra had it back through the Chantry, Varric was almost definitely alive here as well.
“They have that luxury thanks to you,” she replied. “The enemy could not follow, and with time to doubt they turn to blame. Infighting could threaten us as much as this Corypheus.”
I wondered how she knew the name. Maybe I was talking in my sleep? Maybe a concussion had stolen some of my memory. Upon hearing the name I remembered him flying off on that mangled dragon. We weren’t safe out in the open like this.
“Do we know where Corypheus and his forces are?” I asked.
“We are not sure where WE are,” was the answer I was given. “There is no sign of him, that or you are believed to be dead. Without Haven the Inquisition is believed helpless or he girds for another attack. I cannot claim to know the mind of that.... creature.”
Then she started in with what you’d expect from a Chantry sister. I, their great Defender, stood, fell, and miraculously returned. As if guided by Andraste. As if the Maker had this all neatly planned. The people were already singing the tale of my heroism and how it must have been ordained.
“Mother Giselle,” I started, still so tired, “I just don’t see how what I believe matters. Lies or truth, Corypheus is a real, physical threat. We can’t match that with hope alone.”
With that and a wince, I rose to my feet to speak with my friends. I leaned on the support of the tent for a moment, lightheaded and testing my sore and sorry legs. I got my bearings and glanced around. The arguments had ceased for a moment. Leliana with her face in her hands by the fire. Josephine begins her staring into the flames. Cullen brooding with his arms crossed. Cassandra fidgeting over a map.
Then I heard a voice. Mother Giselle was singing the Chant of Light. People looked up at the sound. And what they saw was me, standing, alive. Back from the brink of death.
Leliana was the first to join in the song, her faith was strong. Soon, the entire camp was singing, harmonizing. It was strangely beautiful and beautifully strange. They were... worshipping. A Dalish elf. If my ribs hadn’t hurt so bad I might have laughed. I must have been the only one who did not know the song. I thought I even saw Dorian standing among the crowd.
“An army needs more than an enemy, it needs a cause,” whispered Mother Giselle.
Solas tapped me lightly on the shoulder.
“A word,” he said, leading me away from camp where he lit a veilfire brazier.
“None of our people have been raised so high in a long time,” he said. Now we were of the same people? Days ago he’d still held contempt for the Dalish.
He explained to me that the strange orb Corypheus carried was of Elvhen origin. How did he know about the orb? Had I really blacked out so much as to tell the story of my encounter with him and then forget recounting the tale?
“They’ll find a way to blame elves eventually,” I said. “They always do.”
He smiled at that a little. He said he knew of a place where we could be safe. I imagined he’d either visited in his travels exploring old ruins or seen it in the Fade. Skyhold, he called it. And so I trusted his advice and we scouted to the North.
He had not mentioned it would be such a massive fortress, capable of housing a fully equipped army.
When we finally did find it there was a lot of work to do, but it was more than adequate for what was left of us. We’d lost many and more at the battle for Haven, but now we could look forward.
Cassandra ambushed me by the gates and started speaking of leadership, leading me up the stairs to see all of our people in the courtyard below. Bull and the Chargers. Sera. Cullen, Solas, Leliana, and Josephine. Vivienne, looking too finely dressed for the harrowing experience we’d just endured. And toward the back of the crowd, with his arms crossed and a sly smile on his face, Dorian. They named me Inquisitor. I said I would do it because it was the right thing to do. Qunari, Elf, Human, Mage, Dwarf, Warden, Peasant. We had to defeat Corypheus so we could go back to squabbling with each other.
Did they know Dorian was the man who ensured I lived to stand over them, sword pointed to the sky? Or did they still see him as I once did, a Tevinter Mage not to be trusted?
I still needed time to heal, but those who were strong enough to work started construction on Skyhold, and Josephine and Leliana started writing letters straight away, announcing us to the world. One of the first was to my clan, finally sending word of what had become of me.
The chambers they afforded me were.... impressive. Before long I had a throne. A throne. A Dalish elf on a throne. It was a lot to take in.
In a week the castle looked halfway decent and my body did not groan with every small movement anymore. All of my fingers and toes had survived being nearly frozen, for which I would be eternally grateful.
I decided to have a wander around, having barely left my chambers while I returned to my strength. I saw the new smithy in the Undercroft. Herrit seemed pleased with his new setup. Next I found Solas’ study. Was he sleeping on a chaise? He had done an Inquisition fresco on the walls, it was quite beautiful.
I made my way up the spiraling stone steps to the balcony above and found myself face to face with Dorian, who was perusing the books on shelves filled to the brim with them. Handsome AND intelligent was a deadly combination. And now that my body didn’t hurt so badly, the thought of companionship was alluring.
“Brilliant, isn’t it?” He shot over his shoulder. I noticed the muscles in his neck as he did so. “One moment you’re trying to restore order in a world gone mad, that should be enough for anyone to handle, then out of nowhere an Archdemon appears and kicks you in the head! What?! You thought this would be easy? Nooo, I was just hoping you wouldn’t crush our village like an anthill. Sorry about that, Archdemons like to crush, you know, can’t be helped.” I stared at him wordlessly. Seemed to me he’d had this pent up for a while, I wondered if he had anything else pent up he needed to release.
He turned to face me. “Am I speaking to quickly for you?”
“I was... distracted. That’s all,” I said, my voice a bit husky.
“Distracted?” he sounded surprised. “By my wit and charm? I have plenty of both.”
“You are a man who knows his strengths,” though he was probably a little bit too smug about them.
“I’m a man of many talents,” he said, putting a particular emphasis on the word talents, enticing me to wonder what those included.
He went on to discuss the history of Tevinter and Darkspawn, the enemy we now faced in Corypheus. He was criticizing his homeland, which, expectedly, denied all association to the Blight. I was glad he sought the truth of it, that he didn’t buy into the lies of his people. As someone who instinctively distrusted Tevinter myself, it endeared him to me every time he talked like this. Reinforcing my newfound respect that he was not like the rest.
I recognized the darkness in his expression as sadness. This was the legacy of his people. The Dalish has experience tragedy after tragedy, but there was a quiet pride in existing simply and trying to keep what we remembered of the old ways alive. His people had cost us much of that knowledge and it was likely that was not lost on him either. For a moment I pitied him.
“We only know what Corypheus CLAIMS to be, Dorian,” I tried to offer.
He agreed that Corypheus could just being a lying madman, but that it was unlikely given what he knew. “No,” he resigned, “WE destroyed the world,”
“YOU didn’t do anything,” I offered. He had saved my life. He had SAVED the world.
He seemed to appreciate that, but his frustration couldn’t be quelled. Half a smile broke my face as he referred to the Venatori as his ‘idiot countrymen’.
“No one will thank me, whatever happens,” he put it bluntly. “No one will thank you either.”
“That’s not why I’m doing this,” I spoke truthfully. I didn’t want the worship to begin with, it felt strange and wrong. That didn’t mean I wouldn’t use what little power I had to try to help. He had seen it too, the Red Lyrium future.
“I knew there was something clever about you,” he smiled. I would face another corrupted dragon for that smile. His tone was less sarcastic now, I thought I might be talking to the real Dorian, the part of him that wasn’t a facade of aloofness. “All I know is this; men like Corypheus ruined my homeland, I won’t stand by and let him ruin the world.”
He began to walk away, passing less than a foot from my face. Close enough to reach out and touch. Close enough to breathe in the scent of him and this time identify that it was perhaps... Sandalwood? Prophet’s Laurel?
He stopped and turned back to say “Oh, and congratulations on that whole leading the Inquisition thing, by the way” before going on his way.
I just watched him leave, enjoying the view.
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An Unlikely Pairing (Dragon Age Inquisition)