[semi-open] Solas Returns

[singularwill]

WHO: Solas, open to: the Advisors, the Inner Circle, and peeps who want CR that have checked with me first. Hit me up here if you aren't sure
WHAT: Solace returns to Skyhold
WHEN: Drakonis 25 and onward
WHERE: Skyhold
NOTES: general warning for eggheads

Advisors

He brought the Rifters to the castle, but spent little time getting them acquainted, other than introducing them to a few of the scouts, who then were told to show them around the castle and find out who they were supposed to report to.

Solas had his own reports to make. And his own questions.

So when he burst into the War Room, mid-meeting, he was already starting on them before anyone had the chance to question him.

"Exactly how many shard bearers does the Inquisition have? I have just brought four with me, and I have heard rumours of the others, but--"


Inner Circle/Previous CR

He also made careful note to visit the others of the Inner Circle, whether or not he was personally fond of him. He needed to be brought fully up to date with the workings of the Inquisition, and the Herald's original Inner Circle were the best way to ascertain that.

So he sought each out, wherever they could be found, and offered a greeting. Some more formal than others.


[ooc: just go ahead and set up where they are and I'll have Solas approach them individually. Cass: you can have a post-advisor thread for one-on-one if you like!]


For Everyone Else

[Contact me OOC and I can set you up an individual starter.]

Comments

[colecomfort]

A familiar stillness had crossed the threshold into Skyhold. A stillness that lay over something more harmonious — a tone that rang with the same sound the stones made.

Cole waited a while — at least, he didn't go right away. Solas would have things to do. He'd brought more people, more pieces of the anchor. He knew. He'd need to learn more, and the others would want to tell him. To begin with, there was nothing more important than that. So Cole waited, and went about his own work.

When Solas sought him out, he'd find Cole standing in the courtyard with one of the younger recruits. As he got close enough to overhear...

"—it wasn't your fault." Cole held up his hand toward the recruit's chest. Something shifted — then the young soldier looked away, past Cole, through him, and wandered away. Cole nodded toward the grass.

"Here, and there, and here again. Some don't come back. Sometimes it doesn't make sense." And sometimes it did. He looked toward Solas, though not directly at him, the brim of his hat not quite revealing his eyes.

[singularwill]

"No, life would not be nearly so difficult, if it did," Solas mused lowly. Finding Cole had been difficult, at first. He couldn't ask after him - so few even remembered him - and for a heartbeat he was worried that the spirit had left entirely.

So seeing Cole lifted a burden from his heart.

"I, at least, have returned. And I am happy to see that you still remain."

[colecomfort]

"This is where I can help." Where else would he be? Cole looked off to his right, as if catching a stray thread of thought... but didn't pursue it.

"The light scattered, but the Inquisition didn't. People still want it to be something, so it can be."

[singularwill]

Solas smiled, and the smile was true, and warm, and fond. Because Cole was not wrong. This was where he could help, and it seemed he had managed to do so, without losing himself. It was a relief.

"So it appears. I had not thought it possible. The anchor should have been destroyed, when - when its bearer was killed." There's the briefest hesitation, but he doesn't say her name. He had not expected to feel grief, for anyone here. It had been an unpleasant realisation, but it was simply another sorrow he would have to bear.

"But it remains. So there is some hope for us after all."

[colecomfort]

Cole crossed his arms as he listened, his shoulders canting at an angle... but the petulance in his posture started to fade around the mention of the Herald, and had completely gone by the time Solas spoke of hope. Cole had very nearly been angry with him — the more time went on, the more difficult it had been to believe that Solas simply hadn't heard about the people coming through the rifts. Had it turned out that Solas' grief had kept him from continuing his work despite that knowledge...

But that wasn't the case. Any anger or disappointment that might have been was forgotten, superseded by all the questions Cole had been aching to ask the only person who might have answers. Such as — had Solas known there were other worlds, ones beyond the physical and the Fade?

(Cole would save that question for a little bit later, though if there was some related strand of thought in Solas' mind, Cole might catch it before he actually asked.)

"The shards are stuck in bones and skin." He placed a hand over his own chest, echoing the place where Sina's was. "Some too close to the heart. They need healing."

[singularwill]

"Sina." The name was already on his mind, and as soon as Cole mentioned the heart, it jumped to the forefront.

"Yes. They do. I saw her in the Fade, before I came here. I have done what I can for those I arrived with, but it will take a good deal of time to soothe the rest. Unfortunately, I--"

There was a hesitation, and he knew that Cole would be able to feel his own uncertainty, the annoyance that came with the fact that he didn't actually know what the Anchor could, or would, do in this state.

He had everything under control, and then it was all unravelling in ways that even he could not have foreseen.

Frustrating, to say the least.

"I am not sure how much power each individual shard holds, but I think it is best to assume they are just as dangerous as their original form."

[colecomfort]

Just as dangerous, and nearly — if not just — as effective.

"They still sing across the Veil. They can still touch the Rifts." He looked up over their heads, to the place in midair where a Rift had been opened some weeks ago. There was hope, still, for closing the wounds in the world that remained.

He could sense, if he lingered on the thought long enough, how the anchor had fractured and split and flown apart. Cole could not have comprehended just how far the pieces had gone at the time. He had somewhat more of an idea now.

"They flew so fast and far with nothing to catch them. Objects in motion speeding forever through the Fade. Can't find something to stop them until they go somewhere else."