The Spirit Girl
-Banal nadas.
Dragon Age Inquisition
A Modern Girl in Thedas Story
By: Miss Snazzy

Chapter 7

Solas stares at her in silence, waiting for her to scrounge up a reason that could warrant her presence in a political and/or military stronghold. All those hours spent debating with herself over what she might say and her mind is blank.

"Tongue heavy enough to choke. Thoughts clogged with one word. Echoes until it grows numb. Why?"

Cole's voice snaps Helena out of her spiral of panic and she takes a mental deep breath.

"I don't know." The aura of challenge around Solas recedes, though his eyes still narrow. He can't catch her in a lie if she speaks the truth. "I...appeared here."

"Convenient." Skepticism fills his tone, though his closed off stance has loosened even more.

"I've never been anywhere like this before." Helena tilts her head, conscious of the innocent perplexity often associated with the gesture. Her eyes lose a little focus as she angles her gaze toward the ceiling. "I'm really not sure why I keep appearing here."

"What of Cole?"

Helena refocuses on Solas with a frown.

"What about him?"

"Your fixation with him seems to stem beyond serendipity."

"Does it?" Helena shifts her weight to her left leg, creating a little more distance. "If you found yourself in a strange place...wouldn't you gravitate toward the most compassionate person there?"

"Compassion can be found elsewhere," Solas counters after a brief pause. "Perhaps you favor the empathy he gives all too freely," she frowns at the implication, "deserving or not."

"I wouldn't mistake kindness for naivety," she replies, crossing her arms.

That, of all things, makes Solas smile.

"You are wise to acknowledge the difference."

Helena watches his arms fall, the shift of his shoulders when he clasps his hands behind his back. She cannot think of a response over the echo of his words in her head.

"The reason behind your presence here remains a mystery." Solas tilts his head forward and she is struck by the memory of the first time she interacted with him in the game. Well. Her Lavellan, anyway. "Enlighten me on another matter then-where do you go when you are not here?"

"Where I come from." The words slip out. She hopes neither her expression nor her body language betray her.

"Where might that be?"

"Most would call it another world." She swallows the hysterical laugh threatening to slip out.

"What would you call it?"

"Home, I guess?"

Solas frowns. Helena doesn't dare take her eyes off him.

"For someone with nothing to hide, you seem keen on evasion," Solas comments, angling his head back. She bristles at the inherent superiority of the gesture.

"We all have something to hide." She stands straighter, even as a distant part of her yells: Danger, Will Robinson! "Don't we?"

Helena watches the frown on Solas's face deepen with an almost vindictive pleasure, while the rest of her notes the sharpening of his gaze in a detached sort of alarm. Her eyes widen when Cole slides in front of her, his gaze hooked on her own.

"Nails long, fingers nimble." He taps one of her fingers with one of his. "Digging, determined, done. Knots untangled with ease." She sucks in a breath at the way he seems to smile at her, even as the curl of his lips remains lax around his words. "Fear shakes and...pulls the wrong thread." Whatever smile she thought she could feel...fell. "The knot grows."

Helena swallows. Her hand wants to grasp his shoulder, but she stills the impulse. Cole has given her enough without more uncomfortable contact from her.

"You're right, Cole." She smiles at him and wonders at the mirror of it in his eyes. "Thank you."

Helena meets Solas's gaze when Cole flits from view. She tries not to panic over his sudden absence.

"I...owe you an apology."

Solas remains silent, but the slight widening of his eyes denotes his surprise.

"Accident or not, I'm the one intruding here." Helena looks at the floor with a rueful smile. "You've been kinder than I have any right to expect." The weight of the moment keeps her head down, but she does manage to flick her eyes to his. "I'm sorry."

Solas continues to stare back at her.

"Speaking of my home would be...difficult." Not a lie, considering the circumstances. "But I can assure you that I really don't have any nefarious intentions regarding the Inquisition or its members." She stands straighter and waves her fist. "I'm pretty firmly waving your banner over the destruction of Thedas."

Solas looks amused by the end of her speech and she tries not to feel like an earnest anime character.

"Destruction would make for a dismal banner," he notes with a wry smile.

"Most dreadful." Helena swallows against the burst of laughter that builds up in her throat.

She almost regrets the jab when his jaw hardens.

"I meant what I said." She takes a step toward him, aware of her limbs and breath in a way that attests to the tense atmosphere. "No nefarious intentions here." She waves at herself, but his gaze does not track the movement. He keeps staring into her eyes as if he can yank the truth right out of her that way. "For the Inquisition or its members. Any of them."

Solas hums in acknowledgement, rocking backward. She wonders just when he began to lean so far forward. An error in observation she would need to correct.

"Honestly, I'm surprised I haven't found myself on the wrong end of a sword." Helena sucks on her teeth, glancing upward again in case she missed a net. "Not even a glyph for a booby-trap."

"You have not felt hindered in your movements here?" Solas asks with an expression that seems a little too blank.

"No...why?" Helena's eyes widen. "Wait, do you have wards placed?" She glances around, searching for any glowing geometric shapes etched into the floorboard or walls.

"A fair few," Solas admits, but she notes the way his gaze remains fixed on her.

"Not even a clue?" she asks, nodding toward Cole's corner.

Solas just smiles.

"Now I'm even more shocked that no one's tried to stab me." Helena sighs, stuffing her hands into her pockets. Their emptiness mocks her.

"As the resident expert on matters of the Fade, I have been given leave to observe you until the Inquisitor returns." And wow, the way his smile grows just from one offhand mention of the Fade is almost adorable. A shame that she can't really pester him for stories from the Fade...considering that she is impersonating a spirit. Although...perhaps not. Differing experiences and all that.

"So you're my Judge, Jury, and Executioner?" she notes.

"Jury?"

And right, a land full of gods, kings, and dictators wouldn't exactly know a term like that, would they? Fuck.

"You know...when, um..." Helena clears her throat, rocking on her feet, "...a bunch of people discuss the...uh...Fate of someone else?"

"An arrangement akin to a council?" Solas offers and she responds with a relieved nod, mentally berating herself for her reoccurring bouts of stupidity. "I admit I have not heard that term before. From where does it originate?" Solas cradles his chin and Helena starts mentally screaming.

What a time to pique his curiosity.

"From a...memory I once encountered. I think."

"The term seems to have fallen out of use in this age," Solas notes. "The memory you witnessed must have belonged to someone long since dead." The weight of his interest, his curiosity, feels heavy in a way she hadn't expected. His lean forward shifts his jawbone necklace away from his body, coaxing her gaze down his chest in a quick flit of her eyes. Helena swallows. "Do you remember any distinct features to the speaker that might better identify their origin?" he asks with interest.

"I'm sorry." Helena frowns, for once regretting her decision to be...a liar. She allows herself to imagine being honest with Solas for a brief moment. Her frown slips further into the self-deprecating variety. "I learned that word a long time ago."

Solas nods in acceptance, but she knows he must feel disappointed.

"That is often the way with lost knowledge," Solas muses.

"You must be well-versed in that...as the resident Fade expert," Helena offers with a small smile. She turns her head, peeking at him out of the corner of her eye. "Ancient ruins, battlefields...seeing the dreams of civilizations lost..."

"Yes, exactly." Solas sounds almost delighted and Helena almost regrets plucking the words out of his mouth. Helena mentally sighs.

Might as well go for broke.

"Have you seen any griffons?"

"I have come across many lost creatures in the Fade." Helena pouts at the non-answer. "To witness such a majestic being roaming the skies today..."

"I wonder what kinds of riddles it would ask..." Helena searches her memory. "Which bridge is right, which one of us lies...the mountain doesn't bow..."

"Riddles?"

Helena stares at Solas blankly.

"Oh! Sorry, I was thinking of a sphinx!" The word reverberates in her head like the shrill buzzer of a game show.

"What is a sphinx?" Solas leans forward as if he can siphon the information through a closer proximity.

"It's this half-human, half-feline thing that guards temples." Helena coughs. "Another chimera."

Solas tilts his head and the canine flavor of the gesture delights Helena almost as much as his interest in the words pouring out of her mouth rattles her.

"Probably mythical," Helena hastens to add. "The mountain doesn't bow," she murmurs again, squinting at the ceiling. "That's not a riddle...that's Mulan!"

Helena sighs. Totally off her game today.

"Mulan?"

Helena rocks back on her feet. "O" for three.

"Mulan was a young woman who stole her father's armor and ran away from home when her country insisted he fight in a war he had little hope of surviving...weak as he was."

Helena notes the way Solas leans closer, again, and she can't resist.

"She took up her father's sword and impersonated a soldier," Helena swallows against the squeal building up her throat, "deceived her commanding officer, dishonored their country's army...destroyed the emperor's palace...and," Helena can feel her grin grow triumphant, "...she saved them all."

"Quite the heroic tale," Solas comments with a smile, his torso still angled toward her.

"Yes," Helena matches his smile with one of her own. "One of my favorites."

...