Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

His head hurt. It felt like it was splitting apart. He could barely open his eyes for fear of the light blasting a hole into his skull.

Maker, what did I do last night? he wondered. 

But… no, no that wasn’t right. He’d been asked to go somewhere… Leliana? Leliana… told him to do something… a favor? There were spiders and an explosion.

He heard the clink of chains as he tried to reach for his head. 

The door slammed open, making him wince.

“Tell me why we shouldn’t kill you now,” demanded an intimidating woman in armor. She had a scar all across her jaw. She rambled about some meeting, everyone was dead, etcetera etcetera. He wasn’t really listening, mostly he was looking for a way to escape. The chains were secure and the guards around him… too many.

Then the woman grabbed his arm and held it up to his face. “Explain this ,” she demanded.

His arm shone with a greenish light. It crackled.

Zevran Arainai blinked. “I… cannot.” he replied, too confused to muster anything more. As he stared at what was supposed to be his hand.

“What do you mean you can’t ?”

Oh no, this woman was not a patient one. He braced for a few smacks to his jaw when a familiar voice broke through.

“Cassandra, stop!” 

Footsteps. A gasp. Zevran smirked and glanced up at his dear friend Leliana.

“You know, besides the fact that my hand is glowing, this situation feels oddly familiar.”

Leliana sighed. Deeply.

Chapter Text

This… was new.
“I beg your forgiveness and blessing! I am but a humble servant.”

Apparently he’d done something right.

Amused as he was, he didn’t like so many eyes on him. He’d spent his entire life trying to remain invisible, inconspicuous, only showing what he wanted people to see. And here people were staring at him as though they had never seen his like before. He expected at least one of these humble-looking villagers had a knife with his name on it hidden behind their backs.

So he strolled casually behind buildings, ducking around practically catatonic villagers getting a sense of new Haven’s layout. He managed to “acquire” two knives along the way, tucking them where he could with such limited options. He listened for news of Leliana, and it sounded like her, Cassandra, and the core of Leliana’s little group of heretics were gathered at the Chantry. He’d have to face Leliana’s passionate friend before he could speak with her privately, it seemed.

He strolled into the Chantry and headed toward the shouting.

“Chain him. I want him prepared for travel to the capital for trial.”

Zevran shrugged and turned around to stroll back out.

“Zevran...” Leliana sighed.

“Disregard that and leave us,” commanded Lady Cassandra.

Zevran stared directly into the eyes of the young man guarding the door, hands casually shoved into his pockets and not-so-casually wrapped around the handle of a knife inside his pocket. He had many, many other places he could be right now, one decidedly more appealing than the rest.

The guard quickly saluted Lady Cassandra and left, leaving him with Leliana, Lady Cassandra, and a “glorified beaurocrat.”

Zevran had little to say in the following moments. The itching of his hand still nagged him. It was no longer killing him, so he’d been told, but still it itched.

“Providence. The Maker sent him to us in our darkest hour.”

There was a moment of silence after that.

Che?

Zevran burst out laughing, nearly gagging despite himself. “Providence? My Lady Cassandra, had Leliana told you anything of who I am?”

“I know that this is not the first time you have been placed in the path of great change. Regardless of your origins, you were exactly what we needed, when we needed it.”

Zevran gaped openly at her. “Are you quite serious?”

“Zevran,” Leliana said softly, “That mark on your hand is still the only hope we have of closing The Breach.”

Zevran knew that tone. That was her asking him, as a friend, to please stay and help them fix this. He narrowed his eyes. He had no desire to get mixed up in Leliana’s schemes. He had enough of his own.

Then Cassandra slammed a giant book down and declared an Inquisition.

The Chancellor stormed out of the room. He couldn’t help but admire Cassandra just then. Passionate, decisive, and committed to what she was doing. It was extremely attractive. He always seemed to find himself surrounded by passionate and intelligent women.

And normally he would consider himself very lucky for that.

Unfortunately, what she was doing right now was dragging him into a giant mess.

“We must act now. With you at our side.”

Zevran tilted his head in disbelief. “My Lady Cassandra, if Leliana has not told you yet, I was an Antivan Crow once. And I am still an elf as far as I’m aware.” He lightly flicked his ears to bring them to her attention.

“I am aware-- ”

“And I have places to be. Someone to be with,” he crossed his arms over his chest and turned his attention to Leli. “Leli, despite waking up in similar circumstances to when we first met, I am not the same man anymore. I have my own priorities and this sounds to be much longer than the two-week side trip you promised me.”

Leliana softened. “Zevran, if you had told me where--”

Now that made him angry. “If I had told you where she was, she would be dead now! Or have this thing on her hand.”

Leliana frowned. “She’ll be coming now regardless. Why does it matter?”

Zevran sighed. This was not his information to tell, but it was Leliana, a dear friend to both of them.

And Cassandra... hardly seemed the type to use information against him. She was too straightforward for that.

“She is hearing it, Leli. The Calling. That’s is why we were heading west. She has information, a lead or… something. To fix it.” Maker, he could never get his head around everything Shahar was researching, nor did he really try to.

Leliana was quiet a moment. “But… it’s too soon.”

“I know.”

There was an awkward silence after that. He did not know what else to say. He knew, deep down, that he couldn’t really leave. There was a hole in the sky. Whatever his wife’s current problems, this would surely kill her just as well.

And even if it didn’t, there was a good chance the thing on his hand would.

Cassandra cleared her throat. “Whoever this woman is, there will be a great deal of research taking place here. Perhaps she can join us and continue her work? She could speak with Solas and Minaeve. I’m certain we will come across more information as we continue.”

Zevran chuckled at the thought of Darkspawn blood strewn across a Chantry work desk.

“She will be coming now regardless,” Leliana repeated. “Maker, Zev, she might not know you survived.”

“And she will be very angry at you either way,” he smirked. Leliana laughed “Oh no, it’s true. Maker, please protect me. She’ll feed me to the Darkspawn!”

Leliana laughed even harder, and Zevran found he couldn’t stop laughing along with her. What a ridiculous situation he’d found himself in. He strode up to a still confused Cassandra and bowed slightly.

“We’ll see how this goes, hmm?” and winked.

"Ugh."