Chapter Text
“You may go.” Aria nodded to the guard when she and Cullen arrived in Skyhold’s dungeon. Lara awaited them, standing stiffly in the centre of the space, with Leliana lurking in one shadowy corner. Skyhold’s singular prisoner may not have even noticed the spymaster’s presence, but that was no matter.
Cullen and Lara were here because Aria needed their support to face her tormentor. Leliana was here to ensure her judgement was carried out.
When the guard’s footsteps receded into silence, Aria stepped further in, approaching Alex’s cell. She resisted the urge to wrap her arms around herself, but then wondered… why did she have to? Appearances hardly mattered now, and there was no one in this room who would look upon her and think her weak. No one whose opinion she cared for, anyway.
So she hugged herself, feeling small, drawing strength from Lara and Cullen flanking her in silent support.
“Alex,” she greeted, stiff, scared, but determined.
“Maleficar.” His lip curled at the sight of her. Cullen stiffened at the word, the condemnation, but it was nothing Aria hadn’t heard before. It had hurt coming from Cassandra, but not this man. Alex stayed slumped on his cot, glaring up at her hatefully. “Finally found some time for me?”
She wasn’t sure how he managed to sound suggestive and condescending at the same time, but she let the words hit her and roll off. She was not here to listen to him, nor to talk to him. She was not here to ask him why he’d hurt her when her safety and wellbeing had been one of her responsibilities. There would never be an answer that could satisfy her, and she had made peace with that.
Aria was here for herself. For the girl he had hurt, the woman she had become, and the future she wanted.
“Corypheus is dead,” Aria told him. “A new Divine has been elected. Would you like to know who?”
He reacted slightly, a twitch of his head denoting his interest in the subject, but was still otherwise.
Aria grinned. “The First Enchanter of Montsimmard is a formidable woman, and she will make a great Divine.” Alex flinched, mouth opening and closing for a while, before he seemed to decide that Aria was lying. Ah, well. He’d find out soon enough.
“And now comes time for my judgement, eh, Inquisitor?” he spat. “Will you take me out to your great hall and sit on your grand throne, acting as someone so much more than what you actually are?”
“And what is that?” Aria asked. Lara hissed behind her, but she ignored her friend.
“Nothing,” Alex declared.
“Perhaps that is what you tried to make me, Alexander — what you tried to make of us all — but you failed,” Aria said. “It is time for your judgement, but it will not be taking place up there.”
“I have rights!” the man cried out, and when fear slithered into his eyes, Aria felt no satisfaction. Not as she had when she’d tortured those Templars. No, here, she felt only sadness, though she struggled to know what for.
“You gave them up to me when you threatened my son,” Aria said, staring down at the dirty, bedraggled man. No more shiny armour, no more authority and strength, just a pathetic man sitting in his cell. Out of options, and still determined to hurt her.
“Our son,” he corrected.
“He may have come from your seed, Ser Alex, but you are no father to him. I will not let you cause him any more pain than you already have.” Aria took a tiny step closer. “He is a sweet boy, with a bright soul and a generous heart. He is nothing like you. I hope one day that gives you peace.”
He snorted and rolled his eyes.
“You will be sent to Ferelden,” Aria announced. “By rights it should be Ostwick, but I know you have connections there, people you can twist to your advantage. You will have no such options where you are going. There will be a closed trial for your crimes. There will be witnesses, mages and Templars alike from Ostwick. I myself will provide a testimony. You will have the opportunity to defend yourself. Ferelden will render judgement.”
Aria took a deep breath. She reached behind her, and felt two hands clasp at her arm.
“It is most likely that you will spend the rest of your life imprisoned. At dawn tomorrow you will leave Skyhold and be escorted to Ferelden. I would wish you luck for your trial, but I think pointless niceties is moot at this point, wouldn’t you agree?” She continued without waiting for an answer, “This will be the last you see of me. I will assure you now that attempting to use your connection to my son to your advantage will be pointless. You’ll try regardless, I know, but you will be telling no one who does not already know of Aidan’s parentage. At least until your trial. Goodbye, Knight-Captain.”
Aria turned away, and with this burden finally, finally, off her shoulders, she felt almost too light, like she was about to float away. Lara and Cullen both stepped beside her, and she grabbed them, grounding herself in her family, finally assured that it was over. It had been over for a while now, but now… now she believed it.
“That’s it?” Alex called out. She heard shuffling movements, and when his voice next resounded it was closer. “You coward! All those Templars you murdered and tortured while you were hunting me down, and now that I’m finally in your grasp you’re just going to throw me aside? I should have known you would be too weak for vengeance.”
Aria spun slowly, noted his fingers clutching at the bars of his cell, his mouth bared to her, hate and anger and fear tightly wound in his body.
“You’re nothing!” Spittle flew from his lips at the declaration. “You are a monster and a maleficar, and the only good thing you ever were was a slut! You think you’re so high and mighty with your judgement but all you are is a sad, weak girl who can’t even avenge herself! You can act like forgiveness is better, but when I’m out of your grasp you’ll just regret it, whore.”
“If you want to be tortured so badly, all you need to do is ask,” Lara growled, moving forward. Aria stopped her with a touch.
“He wants to be remembered,” Aria said. “If I do to him what I had longed to for years, he would haunt me forever. He does not want me to forget him.”
“Shut up!” he screeched.
“Or what?” Aria asked wryly, rolling her eyes. “I do not forgive you, Alex. I am not capable of it. May you find forgiveness in yourself, and in the Maker. Goodbye.”
As she walked away, holding on to Lara and Cullen, Alex raved and ranted behind her. Aria stopped at the foot of the stairs, nodding at Leliana to go ahead. As the group of them left Alex behind in his deranged ranting, Aria frowned to herself.
“I didn’t think a few months of captivity would’ve made him… devolve so much,” she thought out loud.
Lara coughed. Aria waited, but the elf said nothing. The group of them stood on the stairs, facing each other, Alex’s ranting in the background. They were far enough away that it was only noise, no words to be discerned.
“What do I not know? Cullen?” she demanded.
“I’ve had nothing to do with the man since he was arrested,” Cullen said. Aria looked at him suspiciously until Leliana cleared her throat, grabbing her attention.
“You said that no one was to touch him, Inquisitor,” the Nightingale said.
“I did, yes.” Aria narrowed her eyes.
Leliana cleared her throat again, then sent an apologetic look towards Cullen.
“We did not provide him with any lyrium,” Leliana admitted.
Aria stared at her spymaster, then at Lara, who blinked at her and then looked away.
“Because we needed our supplies for the Inquisition’s Templars and mages?” Aria asked, still looking at her friend.
“Ah, no. We had enough to spare for one more man,” Leliana told her.
“Lara?” Aria glared at the elf, who was scowling at the walls, still refusing to face her.
“He didn’t need it,” Lara said stiffly.
“Oh, for fuck’s sake,” Aria muttered, marching up the stairs and leaving the rest to follow after her. She said to the empty space before her, “I’ve washed my hands clean of him. You will do the same.”
“Fine,” Lara muttered. And then, softer, “Sorry.”
It had probably been too much to assume that Lara, who was so protective of Aidan and Aria, would not do anything. In hindsight, Aria supposed she was surprised that nothing worse had happened to befall Alex. Still, she was all too aware of the torture lyrium withdrawal could be.
The four of them stepped outside into the sunshine, and Aria let herself take a breath of fresh air. It was over. Alex was no longer her problem, and she would never have to deal with him again.
It was over.
“You’ll let Alistair’s people know about the lyrium?” Aria asked Leliana, who nodded in response.
“Is there anything else, Aria?” Leliana asked. At the shake of Aria’s head, the spymaster left, instructing the dungeon guard to return to his post as she went.
“You’re okay?” Cullen asked when it was just the three of them, in the relative privacy of Skyhold’s hustle and bustle.
“Yes,” Aria said. She hugged her lover, breathing deeply of his scent before she released him. She turned to Lara and hugged her too.
“You shouldn’t have done it,” Aria murmured.
Lara sighed. “I’m only sorry that you’re upset about it, not that I did it.”
“Not much of an apology,” Aria commented, pulling away from the embrace.
“Deal with it,” Lara growled. “I know — I know this is something you had to do, for yourself, but I watched him torture you for years. I held Aidan as he cried for years. That man deserves worse.”
“Lara,” Aria murmured, cupping her face with a scarred hand. “Rage has poisoned us long enough.”
Lara sighed, shaking away Aria’s hand.
“I’m going to go look for Aidan and Thom.” Lara walked away from them, her steps hurried, not quite running but close.
“Lara,” Aria called out, waiting for her to stop and turn with a scowl twisting her features. Aria grinned. “Thank you for loving me.”
Her friend huffed and rolled her eyes, but Aria caught Lara’s smile as she turned and rushed away. Cullen pulled her back to his chest, nuzzling at her shoulder. The sun shone down on them, a spot of warmth in the cold of the mountains. There was a familiar bite in the air, telling her that there would be snowfall soon.
Aria exhaled deeply in contentment, pressing her cheek against Cullen’s, confident that she was safe. Her family was safe, and so were her friends. She had a home here in Skyhold, a purpose in restoring order to a broken world and closing the rifts that remained throughout Thedas.
Not just safety, but contentment. A life she wanted to live.
Aria smiled.
“Did you notice?” she asked Cullen.
“What?”
“She called Blackwall Thom!”
Cullen startled into a laugh, and Aria had never heard anything sweeter.