The Herald and The Apostate

IV

"Tell me something I don't know about you.  Something I couldn't guess even if I thought for a whole week on it."

He speaks so softly in her ear as they lie there in the meadow, on the blanket they'd just picnicked on.  She smiles, staring up at the sky above, watching clouds form and fade and form again, creating shapes and visions in their ever changing sea of starlight.  

She thinks for a moment, thinking hard on it as he stares at her.  They're both on their backs but Solas keeps his nose tucked closely to her cheek, watching her with every second that passes, every breath she takes.  

Maeve bites her lip in consideration.  

"What is it?  You have one, I can see it burning in your mind.  Turning those gears in your head like a machine."  His voice is so velvety she could nap in it.  

Her teeth release her bottom lip and her eyes close, envisioning it in her head.  "I want a house.  A small one.  One that we can build with our own hands.  One with a big kitchen where I can cook for you.  One with a bath tub big enough for us both, with a bed we can lay in all day, and a balcony you can kiss me on.  One with extra rooms... just in case.  For guests maybe."  

Solas kisses her cheek, close to her ear.  "For guests,"  He repeats, knowing full well what she intended, but did not say in order to spare him some obligation she fears to force on him.  "Nice try, Vhenan.  But a home with extra rooms for... guests, is something we both want."  He smiles against her ear, making her blush intensely at his careful words.  

"Try again."  He whispers delightfully. 

She grins uncontrollably, feeling his breath on her skin like the summer breeze off the mountains at nightfall.  "When I was a girl, I found a wolf hound pup in a trap near where my clan had camped.  We'd only been there for a few weeks.  I hadn't gotten to explore yet, to go out picking flowers for Mamae, or hunting nugs for Babae."  She sighs lightly for the memory of her family.  

Solas kisses her again, forcing the pain of it away, out of her body.  "I helped the pup, freed it from the trap, and released it to the wild.  A few days later I was out with Babae, hunting as we did together often.  The pup returned, this time with its pack.  I couldn't do anything.  I just froze.  And my father jumped in front of me, shielding me from the mother wolf that would have ripped me to shreds."

She swallows, taking a steadying breath.  

"Babae lost his arm that day.  And when he left the infirmary tent at last, finally healed fully by the Keeper, he looked at me with sad, loving eyes and said, "Fen'Harel ma ghilana.""  There are no tears in her eyes, no sadness in her face, just words on her tongue. 

"Dread Wolf guides you,"  Solas mutters in her ear, a tinge of guilt there.  

But there's a smile on her face.  "Not an insult or even a chastisement.  But an acknowledgement of who I was, what I was."  She turns, rolling onto her side to gaze into Solas' bright lyrium blue eyes.  "Rebellious."  

His mouth meets hers as soon as the word leaves her lips.  He kisses her slowly, gently.  But she can feel every fiber of his being in it.  Every rebellious strand of his soul that calls to her, beats wildly within her heart as well, leaving them with the power to burn the world down around them.