Spellbound

30. Storm Brewing

Varric didn't plan for another trip to Tevinter so soon, but he introduced Lavellan to his friend Bianca (not the crossbow) who would travel north several days later. Until then, Lavellan would live with Fenris and explore Kirkwall with the other elf. One by one, he met Varric's peculiar friends. Merril was among them, still the same dreamer he remembered her as. She was sweet and attentive towards his predicament and while she agreed with Varric that Lavellan would be off better returning to his clan; she liked his relentless determination to squeeze answers out of Dorian first.

He didn't tell his new friends of the affair he had with the mage. If they knew, his reasons would become much more apparent, but Lavellan didn't want to spread the word.

Fenris knew, and Fenris understood. He told Lavellan to be careful.

This time when he returned to Tevinter, Lavellan wouldn't go as a slave. His ties to Dorian were cut and even if the Tevinters would still treat him like dirt, he travelled as a free man. After all this time, they could meet as equals. No inhibition would hinder Lavellan's indignation, no survival instinct. If he had to, he would knock Dorian out and drag him into a windowless room to talk.

Fenris' integration to freedom was bumpy. He got snappy whenever someone vaguely insinuated that he had been a slave and any crime against elves fuelled him to slaughter everyone involved and their pets. His motivation got his new troupe into trouble occasionally, but Hawke seemed taken with the passionate elf. Wherever Fenris ran to fight injustice, the squad came after him to help clean up the mess. Lavellan enjoyed Varric's complaints about it every day.

As time passed and Fenris got used to the thought that people didn't want to chain him up again, his temper would even out. Now that he could fight whomever he pleased and used his lyrium powers to help those protecting the city, he bloomed in a way he never could have in Tevinter and with Danarius still alive. Lavellan heard him laughing once while Hawke visited their shared home to visit the broody elf. It was a real and genuine laugh and Hawke had seemed just as surprised by the sound before falling in.

They were good for each other. Lavellan was glad to see Varric's plan had worked and Fenris found a place to belong.

Lavellan, on the other hand, waited to return to where he didn't belong. He dreamed about Dorian, mourned that Cole didn't show up in his dreams, and spent hours seated at the window staring into Kirkwall's Hightown while drafting what he would tell Dorian once they saw each other again.

He would curse the man out, that much was clear. Perhaps Lavellan would tell him his opinion and if Dorian stayed impartial to it, the Dalish would turn on his heel and leave. If Dorian wanted to be cruel, Lavellan would also be cruel and end that chapter in his life.

If Lavellan were less childish, he would understand Dorian's rejection and spare himself the waste of time that returning to Tevinter for a petty fight was. Now that his anger boiled over the edges of its pot, however, he was keen on revealing to Dorian once and for all what had been going on behind his scheming facade.

The day Lavellan left together with Bianca, Fenris sat in the living room alone. He had made the time to bring Lavellan breakfast from the market, and Lavellan thanked him as he packed it into his bundle.

"I still can't believe you would return into that snake nest," Fenris muttered as he watched Lavellan sling his bow over his shoulder. Emerald, he had titled it under Varric's suggestion. Whenever he was away from home, it would remind him where he belonged.

"Too many open ends for my liking. I don't like being betrayed, no matter in whose favour it comes."

"I understand that. Dorian and you were... more." Fenris spread out on the bench in front of the fireplace. He wore spiked armour that showed slivers of scarred skin. His massive sword leaned against the wall, waiting to spill blood by Hawke's side.