"Here lies the abyss, the well of all souls…"

He couldn't recall the next line. Zevran walked forward, his leather boots barely making a sound on the wooden floor. He peeked into the Revered Mother's room. It was empty, and littered with books. He walked back to the doors and tried to open them. Locked. He bashed his fists against the door. Why was he locked here? Was this the Fade?

He went to the bench. Sat down. Closed his eyes and tried to think. What was the last thing he remembered? He remembered… being in his room. He remembered the door flying off its hinges as a group of men barged in. He remembered… sounds. The clashing of swords, the grunting of warriors. He remembered the roar of magic, the shattering of glass.

He remembered a flash of silver.

"Am I dead?" He wondered aloud. Was the Maker pulling some kind of sick joke on him, for having slaughtered so many innocent souls in his life? Now that he probably wasn't alive, it seemed reasonable to assume that he had been imprisoned here as payment.

But hadn't he already paid the price?

Zevran rose, and stepped onto the pulpit. Once, he had had a dream of himself standing here as a priest, teaching the people about the Maker. When he'd woken up, he'd laughed about it. The day he could do that was the day when the darkspawn vanished from this world. It would never happen.

The assassin fingered the page that the Canticle had been flipped to. "Here lies the abyss, the well of all souls," he read quietly, running his fingers over the finely written lines. Funny, he'd been thinking of this verse just a second ago. He sighed, feeling oddly at peace. For the last decade or so, after Alistair's Calling, Zevran had lived without mourning. He'd lived as the head of the Antivan Crows would. He hadn't let himself wallow in grief and self-pity anymore. He was living for too many souls to do that. And all along, a conspiracy was brewing among the new recruits. Zevran had known, but he had done nothing to stop it. Living irked him. He yearned to be by her side. Where was she?

Labels: Fanfics