How to Protect the Ones you love
Ardyn was panting—her breaths coming in shallow, gasping heaves—she had never been through anything like this before. The black void of her inner world pressed in on her, thick and suffocating. Her body was wracked with psychic agony, her mind taxed beyond belief, and her soul and spirit were both tested to their absolute breaking point. She was not sure what was truth anymore, and she was not sure what she wanted in this life or the next; all she could feel was the echoing shame from her inner self.
Hot, bitter tears began rolling down her cheeks as she forced herself to stand upright, her muscles shaking from the effort of simply maintaining her form in the dark, hostile void. The harsh laughter of the Second Ardyn tumbled over her like boulders down a rockslide, full of cold, clinical contempt. She wondered how much more she could take before she shattered entirely.
"You expect a being like Varric—a god among his kind—to want you forever?!" the second Ardyn scoffed, moving toward Ardyn with predatory slowness. "You are the worthless offering, the discarded servant! He will tire of your frailty. You are a debt, not a treasure."
Magic—pure, hateful purple energy—welled in front of the projection of her inner self and blasted forward, striking Ardyn in the forehead with the force of a battering ram.
She flew back, screaming silently, her eyes fluttering as her mind drifted deeper within the confines of her being. She fell until she came to a shimmering plateau of deep amethyst light. As she stood on the edge, she watched herself within Varric's embrace, the scene playing out like a precious, memory-woven projection. She heard him speak to her as if she was right next to him, the sound of his ancient voice vibrating through the very air of her soul.
"I don't know what I would have done if I never found you, my love," his voice was a low, resonant rumble. "I am sure I would never have known the true wealth I have discovered in this life without you. I would have thought wealth was only the gold, the gems, and the trinkets I have always collected."
He looked down at the Ardyn in the memory, his silver eyes liquid pools that pulled her into his being. The intensity of his gaze was a physical anchor.
"You have been the spark that has sustained and enhanced me. You are the beginning of everything I will build. Thank you—my most precious love—for always loving me and for the simple reality of your presence."
The plateau trembled beneath her feet as he kissed the Ardyn in the memory and drew her ever closer to him. As Ardyn watched the scene, she realized that the plateau was her soul sea crystalized and stable—exactly like her teacher told her it could be. It trembled not from fear, but from the powerful, perfect, stable emotion of someone deeply in love and receiving love—a powerful, world-shifting someone.
Her eyes flew open within that dark plane, and light burst forth, not golden sparkling light, but her innate, defiant purple light. Her inner self looked about in genuine surprise, and a bit of wonder at the unexpected stability.
She nodded, with a slow, venomous smile. "You took a single step forward. I won't be so easy on you next time." The second Ardyn's form began to dissolve. "Understand your love for him, understand your worthiness, or I will crush you to dust when we meet again."
The last of her words rang as a distant, fading echo in her ear as Ardyn awoke, gasping, in the Cave of Reflection. She was back on the moss, drenched in sweat and shaking, but her soul felt solid for the first time in her life.
Simultaneously, on the battlefield, the massive Snapping Turtle Corona Beast lay still on his back, his mountain-sized shell cracked in multiple places. Elsa, back in her Beast-Kin form, stood in the center of his soft belly. She was exhausted, covered in the deep green blood of her enemy and kin, tears rolling down her usually stoic cheeks.
It had been hard to kill—both physically and emotionally hard. The death of such an ancient creature—one of her own, twisted into a weapon—was a profound loss.
Her head snapped toward the fighting lines, and she roared with primal fury as she sensed Varric's intense, sickening pain but could not immediately see him. She moved like a streak of lightning toward him, her sorrow replaced by white-hot rage, ready to kill whatever got in her way.
Ardyn was meditating, trying to understand the incredible stability she had gained, when a sharp, sickening pain—a raw, cold spike of violation and injury—struck her heart. The pain was so acute it was almost physical. Her eyes snapped open.
"Varric?" It was a soft whisper on her lips. A whisper laced with pain, fear, and a terrifying confusion that shattered her newfound calm. She realized instantly that the strength that had saved her soul had just been broken on the outside.
She stood and ran to her caves, the healing salves she had prepared suddenly feeling like her true purpose. She knew he was hurt. She knew he needed her. She would be ready. The fear was still there, but now it was overshadowed by a desperate, maternal, protective need.
On the plain, the giant Cobra Empress lay on her side, her golden scales dull, the last few ragged breaths rasping from her enormous being. Elsa had gotten there just as the Empress collapsed and Varric fell, his body slamming into the churned earth in his beast-kin form.
He lost consciousness as he heard Elsa giving his clan urgent orders, the voice of the warrior replacing the voice of the mourner.
"These are my men, you Hag. Only I give them orders." The words were a defiant, weak thought, the last vestige of his Serpent Lord pride, and then he knew no more. Varric fell into a black, heavy void, unaware of the terror he had just caused in the heart of his most precious treasure.