THE LIONESS AND THE WOLF - VI - HON HON
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Rating: Mature
Genre: General, Okay I Guess It’s a Slow Burn Now
Pairing: Solas x Surana
Warning: Bad singing, mild gore, More OCs
Part six of The Lioness and the Wolf.
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This wasn’t right. Usually when Eirwen awoke in an unfamiliar place, the hangover that hit her seconds later would tell her what happened. She felt dehydrated and worn, but as a true hangover connoisseur she knew when she wasn’t experiencing one.
She shifted, her body sore as she moved for the first time in hours. Across the room she heard the floor creak, and the sudden noise wrested her from her drowsiness so fast she felt her hip crack as she turned. Flickering candlelight met her eyes, dancing against the pale face of a middle-aged woman with a crooked smile. “Ah. So you are awake.”
The woman had an Orlesian accent, but not one so thick Eirwen had trouble understanding. Forcing herself to ignore the bitter taste of sleep in her mouth, Eirwen cleared her throat and spoke. “Where am I?”
Again the floor creaked, and with a sigh the woman stood and strode into the light. She was tall and square-faced, her short hair emphasizing the sharp angles of her cheeks and jaw. “Fort Revasan. You are in no danger, Warden.”
Eirwen’s gaze fell to the bright, blood-red symbol on the woman’s chest, peeking out from beneath her cloak. “Why does Gaspard need Templars?”
“There are apostates everywhere. One never knows when a specific skill set may be required.”
“He must have several,” Eirwen said, thinking out loud. “I am no apostate.”
“I did not mean to suggest that you were.” The Templar shrugged. “But after seeing what you are capable of, is it so strange that we would have you guarded?”
Eirwen said nothing, having heard this line of thinking more than enough times to know where it led. “How did you know I was a Warden?”
The crooked smile on the Templar’s face tilted even more, a true smirk now. “A question of mathematics. A Rivaini elf with shapeshifting abilities of the expected age and dimensions? You are not so hard to figure out.”
“For the educated, I suppose.”
“There is a painting of you in Kinloch Hold. Do you know this?”
Eirwen snorted and shook her head. “No, but it doesn’t surprise me.” She sat up and grimaced at her sore muscles. “When did you go to Kinloch?”
“I have been many places.” The Templar held out her gauntlet-bound hand, and after a moment of hesitation, Eirwen reached out and shook it. “Knight-Captain Lezare.”
“Eirwen.” She sat up, frowning. “You didn’t capture me alone.”
“We did not capture you at all, Warden.” Lazare gestured to the door. “You may leave if you wish.”
“That explains your presence...” She wasn’t stupid. They wouldn’t put a Templar so close if they actually meant her to leave on her whim.
“As I said.” Lezare smiled slightly again. “There is no harm in being careful.”
“You found me with someone else. Where is he?”
“We could not catch him. He left you as bait to protect himself.”
Eirwen rolled her eyes. “Unlikely.” She drew her legs toward her, sitting cross-legged now on her bed. “I want to see him.”
“I will not stop you from leaving, Warden. But... perhaps you would meet with our leader, before you go?”
“Gaspard? Oh, yes, as an elven mage that sounds fantastic.”
“You degrade yourself.” Lezare’s voice took on a note of offense, and Eirwen watched her quietly. “You are much more than a mere elf or mage. Duke Gaspard recognizes your accomplishments. He believes a conversation would be... fruitful.”
“I’m not interested.” Eirwen had nothing to gain from such a meeting. She had no interest in following politics, much less being part of them; she’d had plenty of that during the Blight. Her purpose here needed to be leaving, preferably as soon as possible. The longer she spent wallowing in her own exhaustion and having worthless conversations, the worse off her men would be.
Her fingers toyed with the blanket and she tried not to think of them, locked up somewhere, suffering at the hands of the Freemen because no one knew where they were. Perhaps Adaar had learned of the mishap, perhaps not.
She looked up at Lezare again, her brows furrowed. “How long have I been asleep?”
“I would say... twenty-six hours or so, by my count?”
Eirwen’s eyes widened. “Liar.”
Lezare shrugged noncommittally. “It may not be exact, but about as much. After your spell, you slept heavy. We could not rouse you, even as we fixed your wounds.”
That’s right. Eirwen touched her side and felt thin, clean bandages under her fingers. There was nothing wrapped around her head either, and the only pain she felt was from dehydration. “A mage did this.”
“That would be absurd.” But the glint in Lezare’s eyes told Eirwen she was right. Clearly Gaspard had no problem keeping both rogue Templars and runaway mages in his employ.
She shook her head and looked away, frustrated with herself and afraid of what the consequences for this were. Solas, her men, they were all in danger because she couldn’t handle the recovery of her own spell. If Solas was still alive, if they were ever stuck together again, she’d make him promise to keep her from turning into a dragon while intoxicated.
There was, however, a way out. She looked at Lezare again and nodded to the pile of clothing in the corner that looked like her things. “Give me my clothes and my flask. I’ll speak with the Duke.”
...
“And my girl she wore such lovely things, such lovely pearls and flowers. She’d have you in her palm all night, so long as you pay for the hour, ooh!”
Solas cringed and pressed his fingers harder into his ears, trying desperately to block out the ear-splitting sound of his cellmate’s singing. The dwarf danced about and yelled every line, much to the chagrin of everyone else in the fort’s prison. Every once in a while something heavy would smack into the cell bars, causing the dwarf to yelp and sing louder over the men cursing him to shut up.
So far Solas had gathered the dwarf, and many of the other prisoners, were part of a lyrium-smuggling ring that Gaspard’s troops broke as they tried to find a way to the fighting in the west. They were selling to anyone that would buy, but the Venatori were naturally their biggest customers. Yet despite their ambiguous morality, the smugglers’ coin still held sway and they’d managed to get the guard to largely leave them alone --and to make their most irritating comrade bunk with the “weird egg-headed knife-ear.”
The dwarf’s name was Sam, allegedly, but that seemed very fake. One of the other smugglers had called him “Belherav,” which seemed a bit far from Sam to Solas’s admittedly un-Dwarven ears.
When Sam wasn’t singing, he was coming up with remarkably stupid escape plans. One particular highlight involved training a rat to summon his rat friends, attack the guard, and bring him the key. He also seemed convinced that Solas could turn him into a frog and was holding out on him.
“I know what you magic-y people can do --you can do anything! See, if you just turn me into a frog then I can hop right out, open the door, and we could both go free!”
“I was not aware frogs had the dexterity necessary for lock-picking. Or even using a key.”
“Well you’d turn me back once I got of the cell, obviously.”
“...would I?”
And so on. For hours Sam sang or talked or farted and worked every other smuggler into a frothing rage. At first Solas had assumed Eirwen’s absence was due to her being a woman, that she was being held elsewhere, but he’d heard plenty of female smugglers screaming at Sam since he arrived. She must have been put somewhere else because of her celebrity, an irony which did not go unnoticed.
Solas tried to ignore his cellmate as best he could, but the incessant noise wore his patience thin. Eirwen had probably slept through all of his suffering somewhere much more comfortable, though he knew it wasn’t her choice. Had it been up to her, he knew she’d have wanted them both in relative comfort.
He considered escaping by using his magic, but one of the Templars Gaspard employed wandered through the cells at inopportune times. The mere existence of Templars upset Solas’s stomach, but that they were here, in the Dirth, was case for even greater concern. He knew of no fighting between mages and Templars here, but the Dalish came through frequently and many of them were fairly relaxed about their mages. That some of them disposed of excess mages was even worse: there were apostate elves wandering the fens and prairies, easy pickings for cruel Templars.
A loud, sudden crash tore Solas from his thoughts and he looked up to see the guard leaning against the iron bars of his cell. Sam stood directly opposite the guard, holding all four feet of himself tall and proud. The guard spoke in rapid, angry Orlesian to the dwarf, but Sam obviously had no idea what he was saying.
“Er, hon hon I am, how you say, so Orleeeziian, I cannot speak that, erm, detestable common tongue, as you call it,” Sam said, affecting a very bad Orlesian accent. The guard slammed his fist into the bars, making Sam jump.
“Shut up! I will beat you!”
“I’d like to see you try! I’m two-thirds your height and still have about a hundred pounds on you!” That was blatantly untrue, but Sam was a rather rotund man. He leaned into the bars, getting uncomfortably close to the guard. “But if you’d like a singing contest, I’d be happy to oblige.”
The guard jabbed his finger through the bars, poking Sam hard enough in the eye that the dwarf reeled backward. “That is what you get, dwarf--”
Sam cut him off. He reached through the bars, grasped the guard by the collar, and brought him hard into the cold, solid iron again and again. The guard screamed and tried to fight back, but Sam’s grip was too strong as he pounded the guard’s face into a bloody pulp.
With the ease of a man who had just finished an excellent musical performance, Sam bent down and fished the guard’s keys from his belt loop. He unlocked the cell door and it swung open with a loud creak.
Solas watched him, astonished and silent. Sam met his gaze, paused for a moment, then shrugged. “He didn’t need that. His face, that is. Wasn’t doing anything important with it.”
“I...”
“Well, come on then.” Sam gestured to the door. “You want out of here, then help me. Could use a mage to back me up.” He blinked a few times and rubbed at his eye. “Fuckin’ cheese-eating bastard.”
Solas stood and frowned as he followed Sam into the hallway. The other smugglers yelled and cursed and threw what little they had. “You aren’t going to release them?”
Sam shook his head and raised his voice above the din. “Nah, fuck these guys. Never liked my singing!”
They found the closet where Solas’s staff and Sam’s giant metal fist was stored. Solas eyed it wearily for a moment, then looked at Sam’s face. He had a scraggy, greasy beard with unkempt black wires for hair and pale skin poking out beneath. In the right light, Solas thought he could see dark freckles along Sam’s cheeks and nose. “How did you discover that I am a mage? I never mentioned it.”
Sam fixed his weapon to his arm and shrugged. “You aren’t Dalish, and city elves aren’t that pompous unless they have magic, a giant cock, or both.” Solas raised his brows, and Sam just winked. “Anyway.” The dwarf grinned as he finished strapping his gauntlet on. He let out a slow, relieved breath. “Good to get my hand back. Now let’s get the fuck out of here, I’m itching for a good fight.”
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Top Five vs Bottom Five
Rules: tag the person who tagged you, always post the rules, answer the questions, and add the date!
What are your five most popular works?
What are your five least popular works?
Are you surprised? Why?
Optional: If you want to calculate this, what are your works’ average number of notes?
Today’s date, so you can see how your results might change if you do this again in a year.
Tag six people to do this next!
I was tagged by the wonderful @tel-abelas-mofo! I don’t usually keep count of my works, so I’m going by the numbers that Tumblr shows me. I’m 95% positive this doesn’t include self reblogs or spambot reblogs - but you never know :)
Since I’ve never actually taken the opportunity to analyze my works, I’m going to do more than five - sorry! :D
Top Five
1. Perseverance (Solavellan) [rated: angst] - 186 notes
2. Deliverence (Cullen) [rated: angst, fluff] - 132 notes
3. Apples (Neria Lavellan x Solas Modern AU) [rated: NSFW] - 80 notes
4. Strawberries (Neria Lavellan x Solas Modern AU) [rated: NSFW] - 76 notes
5. Ties That Bind (Neria Lavellan x Solas) [rated: mildly NSFW] - 70 notes
Bonus:
6. Oranges (Neria Lavellan x Solas Modern AU) [rated: NSFW] - 67 notes
7. Love Still Kept Open (Neria Lavellan x Solas) [rated: angst] - 65 notes
8. Shadows In The Spotlight (Krem x Lavellan) [rated: fluff and angst] - 62 notes
Bottom Five
1. Sorcha of Asvor (original work) [rated: mildly NSFW] - 5 notes
2. Stained Glass Smiles (Samarra Bayart) [rated: angst] - 5 notes
3. A Genteel Mask She Wears (Haminah Adaar x Josephine) [rated: fluff] - 5 notes
4. Chaos (Neria Lavellan x Solas) [rated: angst] - 6 notes
5. Tears (Samarra Bayart) [rated: fluff] - 6 notes
Bonus:
6. Red Herring (Fem! Hawke) [rated: fluff] - 8 notes
7. Never Say No To Nugs (Elena Trevelyan) [rated: general] - 8 notes
8. Errors And Guilt (Samarra Bayart) [rated: angst] - 9 notes
Are you surprised? Why?
I am rather surprised that some of my best works are the ones I’ve written unprompted. Those spur-of-the-moment drabbles I didn’t expect to receive as much attention as they did. I’m not unsurprised that my Farmer’s Market Solas AU was popular - it was rather requested, haha.
More telling for me is the bottom five. Sorcha of Asvor was a piece I wrote for @designfailure56, and given the original nature of the work, it’s not a surprise that people aren’t interested in it. It’s not fanfic, after all. My Samarra Bayart drabbles I expected to be on the lower rungs too - she’s the OC from my longfic, A Whole New World, so it’s hard for readers to identify with her if they don’t have the relevant context. Never Say No To Nugs was an experimental work, and not one of my favorites if I’m being honest. A Genteel Mask She Wears was my first attempt at Adaar x Josie, and it shows. I’m not very good at writing f/f works, and that’s something I’ll need to work on. I am surprised Chaos and Red Herring aren’t higher up on the list - they are some of the works I like. Red Herring is a cheeky drabble I wrote for a purple Hawke, and Chaos is a Trespasser drabble, experimental, but I enjoyed writing it.
I’ve only recently started self-reblogging my work [and usually just once] so if anything is popular, it’s because... luck, I guess? I don’t count myself as a good writer, so it’s always a surprise to me when any of my writing is liked/reblogged.
Average number of notes: 33 [for a total of 47 works]
Date: 20th July 2017
I’m tagging @ladydracarysao3, @ma-sulevin, @rawrzimon, @ladylike-foxes, @ladynorbert, @galadrieljones, @thevikingwoman, @redinkofshame, @idrelle-miocovani, @long-liv-prairies and everyone else who wants to do it [don’t make me tag you plz, analyzing and typing this out took agessss <3]
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I was tagged by the lovely @banelewis! Thanks love!! RULES: Answer all the questions, add one of your own and tag as many people as there are questions 1. COKE OR PEPSI: Neither, fizzy drink makes me feel yuck but I used to drink Diet Coke like once in a blue moon. 2. DISNEY OR DREAMWORKS: Disney I think, who can resist a good sing along? 3. COFFEE OR TEA: Tea, I only recently got into it, I drink Chai, Camomile and Green Tea! 4. BOOKS OR MOVIES: Books, but I barely have time to read so it's been TV shows or YouTube videos lately! 5. WINDOWS OR MAC: Windows, my sister has a Mac and I don't understand how it works. 6. DC OR MARVEL: Marvel. 7. XBOX OR PLAYSTATION: PlayStation, but I'm no good at the games on either, I used to play the Wii a lot before we got the PlayStation. 8. DRAGON AGE OR MASS EFFECT: Never heard of either of them. 9. NIGHT OWL OR EARLY RISER: Early riser, let me stay out past like 11pm and I'm exhausted. 10. CARDS OR CHESS: Cards I guess? I suck at them both! 11. CHOCOLATE OR VANILLA: If this is about ice cream or frozen yoghurt then vanilla, I always worry I'll get that bitter chocolate flavor and it's gross. 12. VANS OR CONVERSE: Vans, but I own neither. 13. LAVELLAN, TREVELYAN, CADASH, OR ADAAR: I don't know what those are, sorry! 14. FLUFF OR ANGST: Fluff with angst and a happy end (sorry I stole your answer Nana!) 15. BEACH OR FOREST: Beach, I think, but we have some beautiful bush land here that I guess you could count as forest so maybe that. 16. DOGS OR CATS: Dogs! We have both but for some reason I just prefer the dogs. 17. CLEAR SKIES OR RAIN: Clear skies but summer rain, how's that? :) 18. COOKING OR EATING OUT: If I'm doing the cooking, eating out, but otherwise I like both. 19. SPICY OR MILD FOOD: Mild! I didn't start eating sweet chili sauce until like a year ago! 20. HALLOWEEN/SAMHAIN OR SOLSTICE/YULE/CHRISTMAS: Christmas! 21. WOULD YOU RATHER FOREVER BE A LITTLE TOO COLD OR A LITTLE TOO HOT: A little too cold, sweat is gross and if I get too hot (which for me is a tiny bit warmer than normal) I get dizzy. 22. IF YOU COULD HAVE A SUPERPOWER WHAT WOULD IT BE: Invisibility, if I could come and go at will, or shapeshifting but I would literally only use it to change my appearance a tiny bit and then never again haha 23. ANIMATION OR LIVE ACTION: It depends on the movie, but overall live action! 24. PARAGON OR RENEGADE: I'm not sure what these are, but if we're talking about games, all I know how to play is Sims! 25. BATH OR SHOWER: I only recently got into baths, but I only stay in there for a short time before I get bored, so overall showers with a really nice soap! 26. TEAM CAP OR TEAM IRONMAN: Ironman. 27. FANTASY OR SCI-FI: Fantasy! 28. DO YOU HAVE 3 OR 4 FAVORITE QUOTES IF SO WHAT ARE THEY: Oh god! Probably, ummm... there's one on my wall that says "laughter is timeless, imagination has no age and dreams are forever". 29. YOUTUBE OR NETFLIX: I love both! But usually I'll go to YouTube because it doesn't take me as long to pick a video as it would to pick a show or movie. 30. HARRY POTTER OR PERCY JACKSON: Harry Potter was my childhood! 32. STAR WARS OR STAR TREK: Haven't watched either. 33. PAPERBACK BOOKS OR HARDCOVER BOOKS: Paperback, I'm terrified I'll break hardcover, but then I always end up bending paperback! 34. FANTASTIC BEASTS OR CURSED CHILD: Fantastic beasts! From what I've heart Cursed Child was a mess. 35. ROCK OR POP MUSIC: Depends on my mood and what you classify as rock, but I would say pop with a little Panic and Green Day mixed in. 36. WHAT IS THE MOST IMPORTANT THING IN YOUR LIFE: Family 100%! We just had a family dinner last night and we all just talked over each other but it made me super happy! Especially seeing my cousins, they and my sister are my best friends in the whole world! 37. THE LAST BOOK YOU READ/THE ONE YOU’RE CURRENTLY READING: City Of Glass by Cassandra Clare. I tried to read all 6 before season 2 started but it didn't happen! 38: SONG THAT MAKES YOU SMILE/SONG THAT MAKES YOU CRY: Supermarket Flowers by Ed Sheeran makes me cry, and pretty much any song from a musical or Team Starkid makes me happy, but the song that comes to mind is Love Wreck Thrill Ride from Naomi and Ely's No Kiss List, the song has very little to do with his character but it always reminds me of Matt Daddario (because he was in that movie), that and Home by Deluka (another song from that movie) always make me super happy! Also (this is a really long answer) The Internet Is Here - a song from the end of Danisnotonfire and Amazing Phil's The Amazing Tour Is Not On Fire - always makes me so so happy, because they're two of my favorite people in the world, so having a little piece of them on my iPod whenever I need it makes me smile. 39. SUSHI OR WAN TAN SOUP: Sushi!!! 40. SPRING OR AUTUMN: Spring, it's so beautiful even though it's hard to dress for, although I love Autumn fashion! 41. DRAWING OR WRITING: Writing! I wish I could draw so bad though, some things just don't translate into words very well! 42. SINGING OR DANCING: Singing! I ADORE IT!! Whenever I'm feeling anxious or nervous (especially when I'm driving somewhere I'm not confident) I find that singing, especially belting out big songs from musical theatre, just gets rid of all my nerves! I only sing in the car by myself though, even though I'm kinda proud of my voice, I'm too nervous to share it! BONUS QUESTION: TV SHOW/MOVIE/BOOK THATS LIKE YOUR HAPPY PLACE, SOMETHING THAT ALWAYS MAKES YOU SMILE: Mine is a tie between Degrassi and Little House On The Prairie, I could watch those two forever! I'm tagging @deadspacedame @peachyjellybean @prettylightwoodinspires and anyone else who wants to do this!
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