Sisters of Tevinter

The Boy

   "If you say so," Jor mumbled, rubbing her throat. She didn't feel much better, but it was nice to know he seemed to be rooting for her. Maybe she was worrying for nothing. "I uh, before I forget, I was hoping to talk to you about Cole." 

   Solas paused, his back to her. "So you do remember him." 

   "Yes. Hard to forget a thing like that. He... read my mind?" 

    A small smile tugged at Solas' mouth as he continued his work, gently stripping the small leaves from thyme stalks and grinding them in a mortar and pestle. The steady swish and chuff of stone and leaves was soothing. "In a sense. Cole is a spirit." 

     Jor balked. "But... how can that be? He seemed solid enough, a human shape-- is it an illusion?" 

     "It is demons that weave illusions to trick the mortal mind." Solas poured the ground herbs into a small vial and tucked it into his breast pocket. Then he reached over to select a book from where he had stacked them and began to unweave the rotting bindings to the cover. "In many ways, Cole is a human boy." 

       "Is he... dead?" 

       "A ghost?" Solas chuckled. "Almost. He is the remainder of a mortal soul that's been caught and bound to the Fade. He straddles the Veil as both human and essence." 

        "Oh." Jor flexed her fingers, itching to write all of this down. "How is that different from a demon?" She sat slowly on one of the free work benches. 

       "Demons are corrupted spirits. They become horrors and monstrosities as easily as mortals do. If a spirit were suddenly forced to break a personal vow, or coerced into killing, it would change. Evolve, twisting, unable to live with the opposite energies, conflicting principles. It would become something else. Spirits of purpose are easily twisted into demons of desire. Sprites become wraiths. It is alchemical. A recipe of psyche." 

         Jor listened, enraptured. "Incredible. It seems so... fluid." 

        "No more so than you or I." Solas gently removed a damaged page from the old manuscript and laid it in a small wooden basket. "When it comes to Cole, I would counsel patience. He is, after all, just a boy. He can become more if he chooses, but ultimately the decision would lay with him or whomever he is bonded to."

         "Will we just... leave him to wander?" 

         "He bears us no ill will. Speak with him when you can. Perhaps we can be useful to one another." 

         "Have him join the Inquisition?" 

         "I don't see why not." Solas smiled slightly. "After all, have we not agreed that spirits are people?" 

       Jor considered this, recalling their conversation on the roads to Val Royeaux. "We have."

       Solas nodded. "And without him, I fear we would all be dead." 

       Jor remembered the boy's frantic pounding on the gates, his desperate warning. His care for Chancellor Roderick, who had been the only one to know of escape. Jor nodded. "You're right." 

        The elf smiled slightly. The very air seemed heavy with the words 'I know.'

        The scholar rolled her eyes at his turned back, but she was smiling too. "You're insufferable. I hadn't realized that until today."

       "It seems we're both learning new things about ourselves." 

        Jor barked out a laugh. "What are you doing down here anyway?" 

       "I had hopes of copying the damaged manuscripts. I also was attempting the beginning stages of brewing a tonic." 

        "For?"

       "Experimental use. A stamina potion." 

        "Oh, that will be good to have around. Hey, I just read today that deep mushrooms have this bracing chemical-- do you want some help?" 

         Solas smiled slightly and wordlessly opened his palm in a sweeping gesture at his side. Beaming, Jor fell in to stand beside him, pulling a bowl from the shelf.