Work Text:
The Spirit of Empathy was a soul no one could really find. It was elusive and easily slipped away from those trying to find it. But many have claimed to have witnessed its work as it tried to ease the pain of those that crossed its path. But after too many attempts to capture and control it, the Spirit of Empathy vanished entirely, and the Spirits of Compassion took its place. Cole was one such Spirit, and like the others, could sense the Spirit of Empathy when a soul was in need of Compassion.
Discovering the fact that the Inquisitor was a Spirit of some type came as both a shock and a surprise to those who knew him. Though no one could figure out what type of Spirit he was, they still tried to keep the knowledge of that discovery away from him for fear of him disappearing. It had been left to Solas and Vivienne to discover what he was. The old library in Skyhold held many books containing past research on Spirits, the Spirit of Empathy among them, and it was found that you could identify a Spirit's nature by the habits they show.
From watching and conversing with the Inquisitor, it was found that he was either a Spirit of Compassion, or the long-vanished Spirit of Empathy. Cole was asked to look into his pains to see which. But the Spirit was not willing to hurt the Inquisitor simply to answer to the curiosity of the others. The Inquisitor was getting suspicious of their secretiveness. When the Inquisitor left Skyhold with Solas, Cole, and Cassandra, his inner circle decided to finally branch the question.
It was Cassandra who brought it up.
____
"Inquisitor, have you ever met the Spirit of Empathy?" She asked. Cole flinched a bit and looked at him in worry. Solas was stoic as he too glanced at the other elf. The Inquisitor was silent for a long time, making Cassandra wonder if he had heard her. But when he simply smiled at her and nodded, it seemed to ease her. "I did once. The Spirit had helped my clan when I was younger. But other than that, I haven't seen or heard of it since." He said, voice carefully neutral.
Cole slowly nodded as if agreeing with him. Cassandra frowned. "What do you remember of its appearance?" She asked. The Inquisitor's hand, which had been stoking the fire, froze. He did not look at her for a few minutes, obviously deep in thought. "I was still young, so my memory of back then is fuzzy. Sorry." He apologized with a sad smile. He pulled back and stretched. It was late in the night, the moon bright above them.
He bid them good night and went to sleep leaning against the tree he sat beside. Cole looked at him with worry barely hidden in his eyes. "What worries you, Cole?" Cassandra asked, seeing his fidgeting. "He has a lot of pain. Not all of it is his own. But he refuses to express it. Burns and twists, louder than a war cry, but quieter than mice." The blonde Spirit said softly to not wake the brunette.
The Inquisitor curled up in his sleep. When morning came, Vivienne and the other mages of Skyhold arrived in a rush as they approached the castle. "I have finally figured out a way to test our theory!" Vivienne said as they entered the gates. The Inquisitor looked at them with worry. "Theory? What are you talking about, Lady Vivienne?" He asked cocking his head. Vivienne held out a hand and closed her eyes, saying something under her breath. Her spell formed a circle around him, and he yelped.
"Viv? What-," He was interrupted when the spell broke a charm on his hip. The others noticed it falling to the ground, Cullen picked it up. "What is this?" He asked the brunette. The Inquisitor was silent as he tried to take it back. But the barrier zapped him. Cullen took it to Vivienne, and she examined it closely. "It's a spell charm for blocking mental spells." She said as she looked at the Dalish brunette. The Inquisitor was starting to shake suddenly.
____
{Warning for mental breakdowns!}
He could hear them again, hear the whispers. The cries for help, for mercy, for freedom. The broken cries of pain and suffering. Of anger and rage, fury and hatred. It overwhelmed him and he lifted his hands to his ears. But that did no good, they were no quieter than before. They began to get louder, even. The voices, he could hardly tell them apart from each other.
They called for Justice, but he wasn't the Spirit they needed.
They called for Compassion, but he wasn't the one for that either.
The called for so many different things that he couldn't help them with. So many emotions cried out, but he couldn't help them. He began to quiet beg for silence. But as the voices continued, he got louder and louder. Begging, pleading, and shouting for them to shut up. But the voices only drowned his own out into nothing but a drop of water in a sea. Tears fell from his eyes, and he fell to his knees. Curling up and trying to get them to be silent.
He began to hyperventilate, his vision going in and out of focus. His chest hurt, the places around his ears hurt, his head hurt. He couldn't hear the mages around him demanding he be put under a control spell. He couldn't hear Cole begging someone to help the brunette. He didn't see Varric running over to him in confusion, nor the fear and pain etched on Blackwall's face as he blocked anyone from getting closer to him.
All he could hear was the many voices of those he couldn't help. Those who had already died, who were dying, injured, or in pain. They were louder than those around him. He felt liquid starting to stain his hair, felt it run down his scalp as his nails dug into his skin. His consciousness began to vanish, and the edge of his vision blacken. He slammed his eyes shut and screamed in pain. In fear.
But even that was lost to the roar of the many others. When the charm he had made was placed back on the chain of his pants the voices slowly stopped and went silent. He sighed as he untensed and passed out. Falling limply to the left and into someone's arms. He would have to thank them when he woke up.
____
When the Inquisitor passed out into Morrigan's arms, she was concerned for the blood matting his hair. She could hear his screams from the courtyard, hear his cries for silence. When she had gotten to the entrance of the castle, she had seen the crowd of mages and those of his inner circle just standing there doing nothing as he sobbed for help. Yet, no one helped him.
Solas was yelling at Vivienne, Varric trying to console Cole, Iron Bull arguing with Cullen, Cassandra was just staring at the Inquisitor in shocked silence. Blackwall was at least keeping the mages demanding the Dalish elf be contained away. Dorian was still in Teventor and Sera was nowhere to be seen. Morrigan ran down the stairs and snatched the charm she spotted in Cullen's hand, fixing it and getting past Blackwall without much force.
She winced at the pain she could see etched on the brunette's face as she reattached the charm to its original place. Slowly the Inquisitor settled down and his hands left his ears to rest on either side of his body. He fell limp and she pulled him into her arms to allow him to rest. She used healing magic to heal the crescent shaped wounds he had made around his ears. When someone got close to them, she glared at them. Her glare only easing when she saw it was Solas.
The older elf sat beside the Inquisitor and inspected the charm, frowning when he discovered something about it that seemed to bother him. "What is it?" She asked as she fixed how the Inquisitor was laying. "This charm blocks off mental magic. And it seems it blocks the constant flow of outside pain from reaching him. I suppose this means that after trying to help people for so long, it never fully stopped being so loud." He said softly.
Morrigan nodded and Solas let go of the charm. Cole ran over and gently placed his hand on the brunette's back. "Can someone tell me why this happened?" Morrigan asked as she looked around. When Solas filled her in on what they had discovered, she sighed angrily. She didn't want to start yelling as soon as she got the Inquisitor to rest. And right now, it looked like he needed it.
"I suppose we will have to talk about this when he isn't within hearing range. I don't want to wake him up when he just fell asleep." She motioned for Blackwall to help her take the brunette to his quarters. The grey warden gently picked the male up and started to carry him to his quarters while some of the chargers acted as a wall, keeping the mages wanting him contained away.
As soon as the group was out of earshot, Morgan turned sharply to face them. "What in the hell is your problem?! Why in everything holy did you decide that you could just do something like that?! Especially to him of all people?!" She snapped and the others all flinched at the rage in her eyes. Solas was silent behind her, having the same protective anger that she did. No one spoke as the human mage spit fire at them.
A few of those who had wanted him contained lost the wind to their sails and curled into themselves like kicked dogs. But a few others still thought it best that the Inquisitor should be contained. They immediately were ordered to either shut up or leave. As the Inquisitor would not harm anyone who had not harmed him first. Though, Morrigan thought bitterly, they had rightly earned after causing the brunette so much mental harm.
She sighed and turned towards Cole, only to find that he and Varric both had vanished during her tirade. Morrigan wondered if that was because Cole wanted to be close to the other Spirit. She then looked at Solas and he nodded, leaving her to deal with the others.
____
When the Inquisitor woke up, it was to a splitting headache and raw throat. He groaned and sat up slowly. Finding Cole sitting beside the bed with his back leaned against it. Varric was sitting at his desk while writing. "V-Varric?" He asked softly. The dwarf looked over at him and smiled softly. "Hey, Kid, how are you holding up?" He asked as he stood and walked over. The Inquisitor lifted a hand to rub at his head.
"Feels like I was hit in the head by a rock. What happened?" He asked and Varric's eyes widened for a moment before they returned to normal. "What do you remember, exactly?" He asked and the Inquisitor thought back to before he had blacked out. The memory of earlier that day returned to him and he began to once again hyperventilate. Varric walked over and gently grabbed his arm to ground him.
"Easy, Kid. You're safe here. I doubt Chuckles and Morrigan are going to let them anywhere near you after the shit they put you through." He said as the Inquisitor tried to steady his breathing before it got worse. Luckily, he was able to do so before he passed out again. Hearing that Solas and Morrigan would come to his defense also eased the stress he felt. "You aren't scared of me?" He asked softly and Varric just chuckled.
"The way I see it, is that now we have two Spirits who know their way around better than we do. And now Cole has someone he can confide in when he feels he can't trust me or Solas." He said and that got a small smile out of the other. "Who fixed my charm?" the brunette asked. "That would be Morrigan. I'm sure if Chuckles hadn't been yelling at Vivienne, he would have but. As I said, he was busy yelling at her for breaking it."
The Inquisitor couldn't help but laugh at the image of Solas losing his temper over him. He felt a sense of happiness knowing the other male would help him. "I'll have to thank them." He says softly and Varric nodded before letting go of the brunette's arm. "Yeah, and you may want to thank Blackwall and the Chargers for getting you to your quarters too. I think the Chargers were about to shed blood when I saw their faces." He commented and the other male laughed softly.
"I'll remember to thank them for that. And thank you for helping Cole stay calm. I doubt it would have done anyone any good if both of us were breaking down like that." He said and Varric nodded again with a smile. "No problem." He patted the male's back as he moved to gather his things and head downstairs. "You may want to head down when you're ready. Morrigan and Solas have been worried ever since you passed out." He said as he left. The Inquisitor nodded and waved him goodbye.
The Inquisitor looked down at the still sleeping Cole, moving a bit to get the smaller male into the bed. Dorian wouldn't be back for another four days, so he doubted the other male would mind. That and the Inquisitor mostly saw Cole as something similar to a little brother. He needed the place right now more than the Teventor mage did. The Inquisitor sighed softly as he pulled the smaller Spirit to his chest and wrapped an arm around him.
Falling back to sleep with the calm sound of the wind through the windows and Cole's gentle breathing.