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WHO: Cole & Several (includes OPEN THREAD for Rifters)
WHAT: Compassion returns to Skyhold.
WHEN: Early-Mid Haring
WHERE: Skyhold
NOTES: Cole works best with individualized threads rather than completely open ones. Please don't be afraid to contact me (Plurk or PM) if you'd like to set something up! Prompts will be posted in comments.

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"An elven mage. He's been away for some time... But he knows about the marks. He'll come back soon."

One might think Cole was trying to remind -- or convince -- himself.

The tone was familiar. The refugees used it when speaking about their loved ones left behind. And it immediately activated Ariadne's innate sympathy.

"I see," she said gently.

He gave her a smile. Like he knew something she didn't -- or like he'd succeeded in convincing himself.

"Nobody else thinks so. Or they don't think about him at all. They forget."

"That's no good," Ariadne said. "You can't just forget about people. That's like forgetting you have a left arm. Or a right foot. Or..."

Or wings.

Ariadne never forgot that she'd once had wings. But sometimes, she would forget that they were gone.

Well, it was right there. On the edge of her mind and the tip of his tongue.

"Or wings." There was sympathy there, too. He knew how she felt. He could hear it.

Ariadne's eyes widened in surprise. Even if he'd surmised that she was a demon, she didn't know how he'd figured that last part out. Unless there were Alastrians in the realm. And she didn't think there were.

"Are you reading my mind?" she asked.

It was hooked into him now. The memory pulled at him, compelling him to speak. An old pain stirred back up to the surface.

"Take the wings to save the scalp. The scars take weeks to heal, and it still hurts."

She stared at him, not sure to be afraid or not. Maybe not, she decided. Ariadne preferred to believe the best in people. She knew it was important to be afraid of too many people knowing her secret but...

People were good at heart. And he'd certainly saved her life.

But still...

"How are you doing this?"

"You miss them. What they could make you do. Sometimes the memory feels more like freedom."

She was feeling it, so he heard it. It surprised him, a little, to realize that she didn't understand, given how well they'd been getting along so far... but then, she wasn't from this world.

"It's just something I do. I hear hurt the same way I can hear magic. It lets me help."

He heard hurt.

At once, that seemed like both the most extraordinary gift in the world and the saddest. There was so much you could do with a power like that. You could help people in need. You'd know it when someone was hiding their pain and be able to help them through.

But in a world like this, or like her own, such a power could get overwhelming. Because the fact of the matter was that everyone was hurting in some way.

Her heart went out to poor Cole. And she knew not to be afraid any more.

"I'm sorry," she told him gently. "You shouldn't have to hear that from me. I wish I could stop it for you."

"You shouldn't." There was a steady, quiet confidence in that statement. "It would be harder to help if I couldn't do it. Although I... can't help you get your wings back."

Just in case she was starting to think so. Disappointment was bad, but squashing false hope would be worse.

In all honesty, the idea of getting her wings back was the last thing on her mind. Ariadne had resigned herself to her choice years ago. There were plenty of dark times when she missed her wings and yearned for the brush of the wind on her face again. But she didn't have room for regret.

There was too much at stake.

"What I really want," she said, "is to go home. But I'm guessing you can't do that either."

"No. I can't." Even if he could... he wasn't certain it would be the best idea. Not without extracting the mark, somehow.

"But it's better having the marks here. We may still be able to save everyone."

"Maybe. But there are people I need to save."

Truth be told, the situation back home was getting desperate. So desperate that Lysia and Princess Amanda were starting to come up with some crazy ideas. Ariadne had run the probabilities. There was a chance they would work.

The harder part would be selling them to her task force.

...a task force she was currently far away from.

"I'm sorry." He was, truly. "You're right: I can't do anything about the marks. I can't even go back to the Fade myself." But Solas could. Solas would be able to solve this. At least he'd have some ideas.

The best he could offer her, for now...? He looked away, toward the larger common area of Skyhold.

"Lots of people here have lost their families. Or gotten lost, away from them. Sometimes, sorrow seeks itself. Sometimes it holds people together."

She followed his gaze. Really, it was eerily similar to the refugee camps in Valeria. "I see the children," she said. They sometimes followed after her, begging for her to play her flute. Those who had parents, though, were quickly dragged away, warned not to get too close to the Rifter. She was dangerous in their eyes, in spite of all her efforts not to seem so.

Ariadne sighed. "I wish there was something I could do for them."

"Play your music. It helps them to hear it, even from a distance." If she wished to do more than that... well, there was no end to the opportunities here.

"It doesn't seem like enough," she admitted.

At this point, she'd grown accustomed to the way he seemed to read her mind. The Elves back home would find it intrusive, but it was saving them time, she supposed. She couldn't keep her secret from everyone. And as long as someone knew, he might as well know it all.

"I have talents that I could put to use back home," she continued. "Like...if someone wanted something, but someone else had it, I could go and find it and give it to them."

"Silent and stealthy. A hand in his pocket, and you slip out like a shadow. He never saw." That was certainly a skill that could be put to use in the Inquisition.

"You should talk to the Nightingale."

She appreciated not being called a thief. That was always people's first reactions. But it simply wasn't true.

Thieves had bad intentions. She never did.

She tilted her head to one side. "Who's that?"

"The Lady Leliana. Spymaster. She knew the Herald. She won't be afraid."

Ariadne could deal with people being afraid of her. If necessary. It wasn't something she'd go out of her way to deal with, but she knew how.

There was a more pressing matter. "Is she a good person?"

"The Left Hand lives in the darkness, but she still likes to sing." Leliana did what she must given her position, but she was kind, warmhearted, never with ill intentions. Ariadne might get that from what he said.

Cole was decidedly a curious puzzle. One she very much wanted to solve. But that could wait. She had a feeling he would be around. There was no need to rush into that.

She nodded slightly, offering him a small smile. "I'll have to meet her, then." No point in letting her skills go to waste.

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