Chapter Text
The morning is cold, and made colder by the lack of the warm body she fell asleep with. Surana sits up in bed, looking around the room, but the Commander isn’t there. Neither is his armor, or his sword. She senses magic somewhere in the room, but the empty lyrium vials, her enchanted clothes, and her still-groggy mind keep her from locating where. She sets her foot on the floor beside the bed, and screams when a cage of lightning magic springs up around her.
She shrieks, anger bursting red behind her eyes. She pushes against the cage with her own magic, but it holds fast. She flies into a rage, and red crystals push out of her right hand, covering her fingers. She punches it through the barrier and scrambles out, pulling on her robe and running for the drop in the floor. She doesn’t bother with the ladder, just jumping down and expecting to catch herself with a barrier.
But the barrier never springs into place. The moment she began her free-fall, she feels her connection to the Fade abruptly close off. She screams in rage, but nothing comes out. She lands on the floor sloppily, her ankle twisting hard, but not breaking. She crumples to the floor, glaring about the room at the four templars, one blocking each door and window. She gets up and runs for the one who looks the weakest, the young man in front of the window, who has just enough time to raise his sword.
She punches him with her crystalline fist, and manages to puncture his armor. He grunts in pain, but then clocks her on the temple with the broad side of the sword. She falls to the floor dazed, and the other templars move in, shackling her and forcing a vial of magebane down her throat. A stocky templar of average height with dark brown skin grabs the shackles on her hands, and she feels another templar grab the longer chains on her legs behind her.
“Move,” the man in front says, and they half-drag her from the tower. She kicks and screams until they have to carry her, tying her ankles together now. They head into Skyhold proper, and the inner bailey is full of people.
She spots Leliana first, who storms over and slaps her hard across the face.
“How dare you!” the Nightingale said, and Surana had enough decency to wince at the venom in her former friend’s voice.
“You don’t know what it’s like. The Calling. You don’t know what it feels like to have your entire body singing to you without respite, screaming for you to find a battle to die in. I’ve lost everything to the blight, and it will never end! If we kill the last Old Gods, the darkspawn will still exist, only leaderless. It won’t end, ever, unless someone can control the Blight, and Corypheus is only one who can!” Surana screams, finally finding her voice again. Leliana slaps her again and storms away. Alistair stands off to the side, and he meets her eyes briefly, shaking his head and turning away, following after Leliana.
Surana flails and kicks, desperately trying to wrench away from the templars. The two carrying her drop her, and she hits the stone hard on her shoulder. She cries out in pain and, predictably, can’t get her tied feet beneath her. The templars stay close, letting her get the fight out of her system on the floor. She screams and thrashes until she spots Cullen, standing behind the throne while the Inquisitor holds him, kissing his face and talking softly to him. Cullen looks near tears, or perhaps had been crying before, but the two are hugging and clearly reconciled. Surana goes limp on the floor, all the fight and will drained from her. The templars pick her back up again, and she goes quietly to the dungeons below Skyhold.
--
Surana wakes up on the cold stone floor or a prison cell. Looking out through the bars, she can see the other half of the brig is torn open, a sheer drop straight down the mountain. She sits up, her chains clinking together, and she hears a guard send a runner at the sound. She crawls into the far corner of the cell and curls up in as small a ball as she can make of herself. She feels empty inside, and her dull eyes meet the Inquisitor’s as soon as they walk up to the barred door.
“Mage Surana. The Hero of Ferelden,” the Inquisitor said. “It’s a shame you’ve fallen to Corypheus. We previously sought you out as an ally. He controls the Calling, and when I kill him, it should stop. We could’ve helped you.” Surana breaks eye contact, looking down at the floor.
“I heard the Calling before everyone else. And you can’t kill him. We could barely kill Urthemiel without dying ourselves. And what if what he says is true? What if the Maker is gone? I’d rather have someone than no one,” Surana says. The Inquisitor only shakes their head.
“So, am I going to stand trial? Executed? Will you do the deed, or your Commander? He’s had my life in his hands before,” Surana spat. The Inquisitor sighs.
“If you don’t speak of Cullen ever again, I may show you mercy. I’m less angry that you gave up to Corypheus than I am about you using his addiction against him. Someone who used to love you. How dare you,” the Inquisitor says, rage barely contained in their voice. “I can’t let you go. You know that much.” Surana presses back against the wall, slowly sliding herself up to her feet. She lurches toward the bars until she leans against them.
“Let me out. I’ll jump. You can watch me. Save everyone else the pain of watching me die. I know…” she takes a shaky breath and chokes, tears running down her cheeks. “I don’t deserve a hero’s death, I know. But everything else was taken from me. Let me take this myself.” The Inquisitor looks her over. Cullen had said that Surana had been one of the only good things in Kinloch Hold, before things went bad. Cullen had loved her, and part of him might always love her. Leliana and Alistair had loved her too, though not in the same way.
The Inquisitor sighs again, with a finality to it, and unlocks the door, sliding it open. Surana steps out, and the Inquisitor unbinds her hands and feet. She turns to face the broken-open half of the dungeon, takes a deep breath, and runs for it. She feels the tattered edges of her connection to the Fade, just barely touchable as the magebane begins to lose its efficacy. She leaps from the keep, and a blue barrier pops up around her a few seconds after her feet leave the stone.
She has no idea how long it will hold.
It is a long fall.