ROGUE🖤 (Cole x OC! Lavellan) ✓ [COMPLETED]

Ch. 13 *So I'm Safe!*❣️

NALIA
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"No."

"But you like demons!"

"I enjoy the company of spirits, yes, which is part of why I do not abuse them with binding!"

I look up from my book to see a furious Solas and panicked Cole walking down the steps.

"It isn't abuse if I ask!" Cole cries, a little desperation in his tone that gets me standing up and approaching them.
I wonder why there acting like this...

Since that day Cole has ran out of my room, I haven't really seen or talked to him.
He doesn't seem to be doing well.

"Not always true," Solas points out, "also I do not practice blood magic, which renders this entire conversation academic."

"What's going on here?" I ask, stepping into the conversation.

Cole turns and runs to my side. "He won't bind me! He's a mage and he likes demons but he won't help!"

Binding?!

My eyes widen. One, that Cole believes that he's a demon, and two, at the word 'binding'.
That's a scary type of magic, and depending on the person...a very evil type of magic.

"Why would you want Solas to bind you, Cole?"

He growls, something I've never heard him do before, as he turns away from us.
"So I'm safe!"

Cole walks to the edge, staring down at the tents with all the sick and wounded.
"If Solas won't do the ritual to bind me, someone else could, will! And then..." He trails off, breathing heavily. "I'm not me anymore. Walls around what I want, blocking, bleeding, making me a monster."

I stand beside him. "A Mage using blood magic could do that to any one of us. Human, or demon." I can't help but cringe when I say the word demon. Perhaps because I know what they really are, and that Cole is the furthest thing from a demon...

He looks at me. "You should ask Solas to bind you too! And then someone can bind him!"

I put a hand on his shoulder to comfort him. "We'll find a way to keep you safe without binding you, Cole."

He throws my hand off him in such a fast, aggressive way my arm goes flying. "That's not enough! Nothing is enough!"

My heart sinks.

Solas steps in. "I have a suggestion, if Cole is ready to listen. I recall stories of amulets, to protect spirits summoned by rival mages. A spirit, wearing an amulet of the unbound, was immune to blood magic and binding. It should protect Cole as well."

"Then we find it, whatever it takes," I say to the two of them. I'm sure Leliana can think of something, Josephine too. I don't care how long it takes, I have to do this. For Cole...he's done so much for me, more then I think he'll ever know.

"Good," Cole begins to walk away. "They will not take me..."

He disappears into the tavern, leaving behind me and Solas.

Solas looks at me, watching as I stare at the closed tavern door Cole just went into.

"I know you have feelings for him, Inquisitor," he says coldly, which makes me turn towards him. "But you have to understand that Cole is a spirit. He can't love like a normal person would...he doesn't belong here. He belongs in the Fade, untouched by this world."

"What are you saying?" I ask quietly, feeling nervousness wrap around me, twisting me.

Solas turns a cold shoulder. "Don't open yourself to someone who cannot return the same, Nalia. It'll only bring pain..."

He walks back to the castle, up the steps and disappearing into the hallway.

I stand there, glancing at the tavern. I want to go inside, to find Cole...but I don't. Instead, I turn away, going back to my book. It's best to leave Cole alone for the time being. He's frightened, and he wants to stay away from us.

I just wish I could understand and help him in a better way...the same way that he does to me.

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COLE
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I'm screaming on the inside, clawing, biting, fighting a force that's threatening to hurt me.

I sit on the edge of the battlement, away from everyone and everything. Until Nalia finds this amulet, I will be staying out of sight. I don't trust myself being around them, I'm scared that someone, something, will make me hurt them. Twist me into a monster...

"I- I don't want to! I don't want to!"
"Shut it boy!" A whip flashes, and the boy screams, "you will do as your told or else I'll kill you!"

I lower my head down, staring at the crack in the rock. No, don't relive those memories...don't relive them...

"Cole?" A voice whispers, so faintly that it was hard to hear. But I heard her...

I look over my shoulder to see Nalia.
Her black hair is tied in a loose braid, draping over her left shoulder. She's in a white nightgown that she wears commonly, barefooted.

"You shouldn't be around me," I say, looking away. "I'm not me, anymore."

She comes beside me, propping herself up on the railing, her braid slightly touching my face. "I trust that we'll be alright," she whispers, before I feel a weight lean against my arm.

Her head is resting on my shoulder, eyes staring out into the dark mountains.
The sudden touch surprises me, but I try not to show it.

"Have you heard yet? About the amulet?" I ask. She shakes her head. "Nothing yet. These things take time...Leliana will have it soon."

"Time is something we don't have, Nalia, I-"

"Shush," she brings a finger to my lips. "You're okay...nothing will happen to you. I won't allow it."

My eyes widen. I won't allow it, the words repeat in my head, the feeling of her finger against my lips... it's tingling.

She brings her hand away, and instinct has me raising mine to touch where she touched me. I can still feel her...even though she's away.
My heartbeat raises, just like she does.

She sits up. "I should be going. I need to wake up early tomorrow for-"

"Stay," I whisper. I don't know why I said that, why would I want Nalia to stay? Why do I get this feeling that I'm safe around her?

She hesitates for a moment, before I feel her sit beside me again. She wraps an arm around me, leaning her head against mine.

We stay silent for several moments, but my head is racing with thoughts and voices. All mine...

"I'm not used to this. To this comfort...it's something people do when there friends are hurting. But why do I feel different? Why do I want this, Nalia's touch, to be the only thing I want to feel forever?"

"You're not a demon," she whispers softly, her breath tickling my face. "You're Cole..."

I wrap both my arms around her, bringing her closer. I bury my face into the crook where her shoulder meets her neck, and I stay there.

She runs a hand up and down my back in a comforting way, telling me that I'll be okay, that she'll always be there if I need her...

There's no more pain. Instead, there's a warmness surrounding me.

And it's Nalia, and her light...