The Wolf and the Halla

A Cold Castle

In all of Thedas, Adani couldn't imagine a more lonely place to be. Her castle was now her damnation, she was heartbroken after he had broken up with her. She wanted nothing more than to be anywhere else in the world, even back in Crestwood, where her heart had been broken.

Here, there were too many memories of him, floating around in the Fade, slipping down the halls of Skyhold, even in her quarters. There was no escape from it. It was her own personal hell.

Eventually, her pity for herself turned to anger, and she marched down to his study. She swung the door open wide and walked in swiftly. He was sitting at his desk, but jumped up when he saw her angry face.

"Tell me why!" She shouted at him as she approached. He backed away slowly, hands up to fend off the heat of her anger. "Tell me!"

"I can't." He looked into her fiery green eyes. "Please, Adani, I will explain, when this is all over."

He watched her face soften an octave. A tear slipped past her eyelashes. "I thought you were my one." She looked away from him, wiping hard at the tears that sprang from her eyes. "I thought I could trust you." She searched his face for answers, but he bit his tongue and said nothing. Then she laughed sadly. "Of course not." She turned to walk away, defeated.

He started to follow to grab her arm and tell her everything. He opened his mouth to speak, arm raised to grab her own, then stopped himself. Sadness washed over him like a summer rain. He had to move forward, he would explain it to her, eventually.

He wondered if he should have told her the truth. Would she have accepted him? Would she have told him it didn't matter? Or would she have ran away, crying and screaming of how he had betrayed her when nothing was farther than the truth. He hadn't betrayed her, he had betrayed himself. He had let himself get too close, let himself make friendships and let himself fall in absolute love with her. It was his burden to carry, he just wanted her to forget. He wished he could make her forget.

...

Adani made a beeline for the tavern, not wanting to sit in her quarters, and certainly not wanting to do any field reports or anything to do with this cursed war.

At the bar, she ordered the stoutest drink they had. She swallowed it down as fast as she could, trying to hold back the tears that she didn't want to admit she had, when The Iron Bull sat beside her.

"Mind if I join you, boss?"

"Please." She nodded to him before taking another swig. She winced as the liquid burned it's way down her throat and warmed her belly. Bull motioned for the bartender to give him a tankard as well, and took a good gulp before grunting.

"That's strong stuff." He turned his eye on her, looking at her carefully. "What's up?"

The alcohol had worked it's way into her system by now, loosening her tongue. She held back a burp, "That stupid elf." She mumbled sloppily.

"Oh. You arguing?" Bull asked completely unaware.

"No," She hiccupped, "he broke it off with me."

Bull sat down his tankard and turned to her. "What?" He was genuinely surprised, he hadn't thought that the two would ever break up.

"I see the way they look at me. Without the vallaslin." She stared at the grain of the wooden bar. "He took the vallaslin from my face. Then he told me I was so beautiful." She snorted at the memory. "Then he broke up with me."

"Why would he do that?"

"Fenedhis, I don't know, Bull." Adani took another swig from her cup, coughing as the alcohol cut its way down her esophagus.