Dragon Age: The Veilguard Companion Week Events

And yet, in some ways, he also felt happier than he could remember, and a smile crossed his lips as the reason why walked the path toward him with her arms swinging. While he felt a bit like a pampered pet set loose in the wild, Lace had taken to their new life like a native despite being in Antiva rather than Ferelden. The Blight unleashed by the gods meant arable land was at a premium in the north and almost nonexistent in the south. At times having an obscenely wealthy friend whose family owed a former vineyard was a nice perk of saving the world.

With a soft sigh of her own, Lace dropped onto the steps between his legs and leaned against his upright knee. "So…" she began, "I have good news and bad news."

Zalan raised an eyebrow as he wrapped his arms around her. "What's the good news?"

"The government inspector told Lucanis that the whole farm is in compliance with the famine relief regulations."

Zalan nodded. Every nation in Thedas had passed emergency relief measures to meet the needs of its own citizens and their neighbors. All the vines of the vineyard had been ripped out and replaced with staple crops, and when Lucanis had suggested leasing parcels of the land to sharecroppers to help with the workload, the vintner and his family had gladly agreed. Lucanis had then offered Lace the first parcel.

"What's the bad news?" Zalan asked.

Lace's face twisted with annoyance. "As it turns out, my knowledge of Antivan plants isn't quite on par with my knowledge of Fereldan plants." 

Finely sharpened Crow instincts told Zalan this was the moment when the job went awry. "Meaning?"

Lace looked up at him with a sheepish smile. "Meaning the Antivan basil we planted in the south end of the garden is actually Antivan mint and if we don't rip it out, it will take over the whole plot?"

With a twinge in his overworked shoulders and a weary exhale, Zalan bent down to rest his forehead against hers. "You're very lucky I love you."

"I am," Lace agreed in a soft murmur, and when she pressed gentle lips to his, the looming days of hard work ahead seemed a small price to pay.

Lace leaned on the table as Isa looked over the papers that she prepared for her. The Crow was patiently silent as she looked over the proposition. She hadn’t returned to Kal Sharok since her incident beneath in the caverns, and Isa didn’t think that she would likely return at all. 

However, Lace asked for a friendly coffee date so that Isa could look over an offer. It was from the Kal Sharok leaders. At least, that’s what Lace told her.

“You should have been a Crow,” Isa remarked, laying the papers on the table. 

Lace thinned her lips, staring at the contract in question. She hadn’t exactly tricked her friend, but she hadn’t been completely honest with everything upfront. 

“You didn’t mention that you had become a leader of Kal Sharok. When did that happen?” the Crow mentioned.

“Not long after you returned to Treviso. It was a gradual thing, though. They needed someone to coordinate the expeditions to explore the areas beneath the city, and I accepted,” the scout explained before she sighed. “They job grew more than I expected, and it seems that I make more decision than most other leaders in the city.”

“Your signature is on the contract,” Isa pointed out flatly.

“Are you upset about that?”

“It would have been good to know beforehand.”

“Would you have said no if you had known?”

Isa stared at her friend before stretching out her neck, looking out over the canal. She should have guessed that it was something like this when Lace asked to meet at Pietra’s. It was the most public space in Treviso that Lace knew that Isa would meet her in. 

“I would have gave it some thought, but I don’t know,” Isa admitted with a sigh. “But this doesn’t make me want to say yes now.”

“Fair enough,” Lace grumbled. 

“What exactly are you asking of me?”

“The contract says-”

“It says that you want someone to watch the backs of a few people while you delve back into the caves beneath the city of Kal Sharok. I know what the contract states,” Isa whispered, tapping the contract with her forefinger. “I am asking what you want of me.”

“I’m not sure I understand,” Lace replied. “I want your help on this.”

“Why?” the Crow questioned. “Taash can do this job for you. You can also ask Davrin, who used to be a Grey Warden. Why do you want me?”

“Because you saw something we haven’t come across yet.”

Isa clenched her jaw as she glanced at the exit. She took a deep breath, deciding to give Lace a chance to explain what she meant. She was uncomfortable with the idea of returning to Kal Sharok at all, but she didn’t want to go down to the caves at all. 

“I already told you what I saw, and I told you what happened to me down there,” Isa muttered as Lace grimaced.

“I know that it wasn’t the ancient dwarves in the rock. I know it wasn’t the run of the mill monsters in the rock,” the scout told her softly. 

The Crow folded her arms, closing herself off. She didn’t like where this was going. She hadn’t lied about what had happened to her, but she hadn’t been completely truthful, either. Something else was down there. 

“The elder knows that you weren’t attacked by something that we’ve encountered, either.”

“How could she possibly know that?” Isa snapped before remembering herself. “She wasn’t there.”

“She doesn’t need to be there,” Lace muttered. “She feels things in the rock. Not quite like I do, but her stone-sense is strong. She knows that what got you is still there. We need your help to find it.”

“You don’t need my help.”

“You know what we’re looking for.”

“That is stretching it, Lace.”

“Please, you can help us, I know it,” the scout insisted before Isa shook her head.

“You don’t want to find him. I promise you.”

Him.

Lace froze, surprised by her words. Isa blinked, realizing her slip before she took a deep breath. She wouldn’t take it back now. Instead, she just exhaled. 

“I’ve said more than I should have.”

“What’s down there?” 

“Someone ancient, Lace. Something that should never see the light of day, and I am lucky to have survived at all,” Isa whispered, wetting her lips nervously. 

“Worse than the Evanuris?”

Isa didn’t respond right away before she lifted her shoulders. She wasn’t sure, in all honesty. She at least had Solas to give them direction to help them against the gods. Lace was going in blind unless Isa gave what she knew, which was limited knowledge. 

“Is Thedas in danger?” Lace asked before Isa scoffed.

“As if I would know that,” Isa hissed, rolling her eyes. “I will not help you find him.”

“What is he?”

“Spietato? Schifoso? Does it matter?” 

“A little if you’re going to only going to describe him in Antivan,” Lace countered as Isa huffed. 

“A vile, cruel person or beast,” she translated irritably. “And those words are too kind for the creature that lives down there.”

“Did you speak to him?”

Isa turned away and grabbed the coffee in front of her. She took a sip, and she thought for a moment, unsure what else to say. She hadn’t wanted to speak about her experience, but she did learn that keeping it inside wasn’t healthy. 

“Yes, but speaking isn’t what we did. We conversed through my mind. I could hear his thoughts in my mind, and I thought I was going insane,” Isa answered, placing the cup on the table. 

Lace leaned forward onto the table, nearly laying on it to get closer. Her curiosity had been gotten the better of her while Isa struggled to describe what she had gone through.

“What did he look like?”

“He appeared as mist at first, then he shifted his form. He took different faces. Some I did know while others were unfamiliar to me,” Isa explained before she closed her eyes. “The one he took was one that was somewhat familiar to me, but I knew that I had never seen the face before. The entity explained that it was my father’s face.”

“What? How did he know? Do you believe him?”

“I don’t know. He was convincing, at least. I’m not sure if that really was my father’s face, but it looked like it could be. The more he spoke, the more I believed it.”

“Who else was he?”

“Everyone. Emmrich, Lucanis, Viago, Davrin, Antione, every masculine identifying person I knew and didn’t know. I still don’t understand why he chose my father’s supposed face.”

“What did he say?”

“He asked what I was doing down there. He sounded concerned, but he also sounded like he was mocking me,” Isa whispered. “The rock people surrounded me then, whispering and trying to protect me. They glowed blue, then red when the entity tried to reach me. That was when things grew scary. His face contorted like he struggled to hold its shape. I tried to run, and something struck me on the back. I did fall forward, but he took care of the rock people first. When he reached me, he must have had a change of heart. I’m not sure why he left me alive.”

“You think he left you alive? For what reason?” Lace wondered.

“I don’t know, and I’m not going to find out. I don’t care to find out,” Isa answered firmly with a frown. 

The Crow turned back to the scout with wide, frightened eyes. Lace stared at her, surprised by her reaction. 

“That entity is excited by the finality of death. The existence of the blight had twisted it. It was never blighted, but the blight fascinated it. The blight prevented certain things from dying. Now that it was gone, he loved the idea of killing and letting things die,” Isa explained, shaking her head.

“Is that why you didn’t want to tell me? So we wouldn’t be interested in going down?”

“That’s exactly why. I was hoping that if I kept him out of the tale, that you would be happy to leave him down in the depths to let him starve.”

“We can’t leave him down there. We need to kill him,” Lace pressed.

“Kill him? He’s been alive since before the blight! He’s likely something older than the blight and the Veil. I thought he was a demon, but it’s worse than that,” Isa hissed, jabbing her forefinger on the contract. “So this is not a contract. This is a gamble with death.”

“You gamble with death all the time.”

“Not like this. This isn’t even like when we were fighting the gods. We knew that the gods could be killed. We have no idea if we can kill this creature.”

“We can find out,” Lace suggested before Isa closed her eyes.

“I will not sign the contract. I will not agree to the job,” Isa answered finitely. Lace’s shoulders fell before Isa exhaled. “But I will follow you down to where I almost died. I can’t promise I will go down farther, and we are bringing twice the amount of people that you think are necessary for this.”

“I have twenty people prepared for this.”

“Then we will have a minimum of forty. Non-negotiable. Also, Luca said that he would like to be present the next time I went to Kal Sharok.”

“Does he know-”

“Yes, he does. He doesn’t know that you knew about the contract that brought me down there in the first place,” Isa reassured as Lace grimaced. “I told him most of everything, but he doesn’t know about the entity. I will explain it when I return to the villa later.”

“I’ll return to Kal Sharok in the meantime to let them know that you have agreed to come in an informal capacity,” Lace mentioned as Isa sighed.

“I’ll give Luca the contract to see if he will take the job. I guarantee nothing.”

A few days later, Lace waited with Taash near the front gates of Kal Sharok near where the eluvian was. Isa and Lucanis would be coming through soon so they could go down into the depth to find the strange entity that Isa was so afraid of. 

Lace was a little worried about trying to find him as well, but she believed it would be worse to leave him down there unchecked. If he could subdue a master assassin, then the average person hardly stood a chance. 

The Crows appeared as they said they could, and Isa looked wary. Lucanis was a mix of irritated and focused, and Lace wondered if it would have been better to not to have lied about why Isa had found the entity in the first place. 

“Alright, so we’re going to find this creature then?” Lucanis asked as Lace nodded.

“Hopefully we can either convince it to leave or find a way to kill it,” Taash added. 

Lace grimaced, hoping that there was a solution here. She needed to make the area safe so people who found themselves down there, intentional or otherwise, wouldn’t be killed by him. 

Lucanis exhaled, handing Lace the contract that she had given Isa a few days ago. She took it, surprised to see that he had signed it. He stared at her for a moment before turning away. Lace should have known that Lucanis wouldn’t have let something live after nearly killing Isa. 

Lace dipped her head towards him before handing the paper towards the nearest teammate to send off to Stalgard for record keeping. It likely wasn’t the only copy, but Kal Sharok wasn’t in the habit of hiring Crows. 

With the team complete, Lace and Taash guided the several dozen explorers down to through the caves while Isa stayed close to Lucanis. It was unnerving to see her without the confident persona that she usually carried, especially with so many strangers. Lace wondered if Spite was remaining separate to watch her back. 

Hours passed, and Lace was about to call it. They hadn’t found anything after they found the site where Isa had first been attacked. Lace went to talk to Taash, but when she turned, they weren’t there. 

Blinking, she turned to see that Isa and Lucanis, along with the nearly forty people she had brought with them, were suddenly gone. In an instant, she was suddenly alone in the cave as mist started to pour in. 

It reminded her of a despair demon, but she didn’t feel cold or like she was desolate. Lace faced forward again, and she saw a silhouette of a man. She steeled herself, realizing that this was what Isa had described. 

“Lace Harding,” the man stated in a raspy voice. 

“You know my name,” she replied, unimpressed. 

“Everyone down here knows your name. You have broadcasted your presence again and again, letting yourself be known repeatedly,” the man commented. “Did you think that nothing would come to seek you out?”

“You haven’t come to look for you. We were coming to you. You need to leave.”

“No, I think you’ll find that is incorrect, and I cannot leave the only place I have ever existed.”

“What-”

“Did you think I couldn’t have killed your friend? Do you think I couldn’t have killed her with a flick of my wrist like I did with the human man?” the shadow questioned with a laugh. “No, the cursed golems in the rock emerged to protect her, saying she knew the Singer of Stone. She had lingering magic on her from you. I knew that they would bring her back to you, and she would tell you where to find me. Well, eventually, I suppose.” 

“What are you? And you aren’t going to get away with nearly killing Isa like that!” Lace hissed, growing upset. 

“I am something long forgotten, Lace Harding. Something that you don’t even recognize, even though you are the only one who could.”

“You’re the Titan,” she realized, whispering in surprise.

“Ah, yes, you aren’t as clueless as you seem to be. When they tore my dreams from me, my soul was ripped away. I linger within the body that became the mountain. The blight overpowered me, keeping me down,” the man answered manically, stepping forward.

Lace swallowed, watching his as his face shifted in different forms. She saw the same faces that Isa saw. She saw Emmrich, Lucanis, Davrin, Antoine, but she also saw the faces of the Inquisition and those who she knew before. It was nightmarish before the man chose to use the face of Varric. 

She sneered at the use of her dead friend, and the Titan shrugged. He found that the face was useful for sparking emotion. He had chosen the wrong one for the elf woman, but he had found the right one for the scout at least. 

“What do you want from me?” Lace demanded.

“I want to hear the eternal hymn again. Isatunoll,” the Titan answered firmly, using Varric’s voice as well. “I want to hear the song of our people and the stone.”

“But why did you kill people to do it?”

“I killed a trespasser. A parasite. What does your body do to outside intruders?” 

Lace clenched her jaw, not having a good answer to that. He made a good point now that she had the context that he was the Titan who became the mountain. 

“And I did not kill your friend, if you recall,” he added.

“What will happen if you hear the Song of the Stone again?”

“Perhaps I will be able to move on. Perhaps I will return to my body. Perhaps I will vanish. Or nothing will happen at all. I have no idea what your magic will do to me. It could cure me. It could kill me. We don’t know.”

“And you don’t have a guess?”

“I know that it will soothe me,” the Titan answered gently. 

Lace swallowed, thinking about it. It wasn’t a bad plan if it was going to make him feel better. She sighed, shaking her head. It didn’t sound like the best plan in the world, but it had freed the stone golems after existing for centuries in torment. Perhaps the song would do the same for the twisted Titan.

She took a deep breath before she knelt down, placing her palms on the floor. The song flowed through her again, and the blue veins flowed through the ground and mist towards the man, who watched in awe. 

When the song reached him, he exhaled as if he was getting the relief he needed after years. Lace guessed it was likely millennia since he had the connection to the stone. She just hoped that it wouldn’t cause him to be more dangerous.

The Titan’s face flickered away from Varric’s to become more muddled and ethereal. Lace exhaled, relieved that he wasn’t using her friend’s face anymore. He turned to her again, bowing her head.

“My mind is clearer, Lace Harding, and I thank you. I believe I can return to my rest, now that the blight is gone,” he told her. “It has been a long time since I was able to relax.”

“So, you won’t be killing anyone else?”

“Unless they disturb my slumber. Warn people not to come in here recklessly, Lace Harding. I may feel better, but my wrath knows no patience anymore. Our people will be spared death, but that is all that I promise.”

“I suppose that’s better than nothing,” Lace replied with a forced smile. “Will you return me with my team? So that we can return to the city?”

“They have already been returned. I wished to speak to you and you alone. I didn’t want the rest of them interfering with what we needed to discuss,” the man explained as Lace frowned. “They are unharmed. They are likely waiting for you at the city gates.”

“Did you at least tell them that I’m fine?”

“They are aware that you are alive.”

With that the mist and shadow vanished, leaving Lace in the cave alone. She groaned quietly, wondering why the Titan couldn’t have magicked her back to the city with the others. She just hoped that they would be patient enough for her to climb back up to the top before they did anything reckless. 

"The scholarship only paid for classes. It didn't cover dorms, food, or books. And Razikale is very, very expensive."

"Why didn't you say anything? I could have helped."

"I know you would have, Ma, which is exactly why I didn't tell you. You would have sold everything to keep me there, and I didn't want you to sacrifice anything else," Harding explained.

Ma's eyes softened. "But it was your dream, baby." She reached across the table and held Laces hand.

"And I tried to stay. I worked two jobs to be able to afford it. But I couldn't keep my grades up enough to keep the scholarship too. I was in Razikale. But I was miserable and killing myself. I was actually relieved when I dropped out," Lace said, hanging her head.

"Is that why you didn't tell me, so I wouldn't send you money?" 

"Partly. I also didn't want to let you down. We both worked hard to get me into that school. I just didn't want to disappoint you," she finished, lip wobbling despite her best efforts to keep it together.

Ma tsked and stood, coming around to slide into the booth next to Harding. She threw both arms around her daughter, squeezing tightly. "You could never disappoint me, Lace Harding. I just hate that you had to go through all that alone. You didn't need to struggle and then suffer the loss by yourself."

Harding sniffled as the tears began to fall. "I'm sorry I didn't tell you."

"I know dumpling."

"But I wasn't all alone. Once I moved to Dock Town, I met Neve and everyone else that worked here. And I am taking classes at Down Town Community College - that was me, not Turvi, that goes there."

"You don't say."

Lace giggled. "And it's so much more affordable, and easier to fit around my work schedule. It's taking a lot longer to get my degree this way, but I'm going to get it!"

"I'm so proud of you for working so hard. But are you happy?" Ma asked, wiping a tear off Lace's cheek.

She nodded vigorously. "I know I'm not doing exactly what I thought I would be. But, because of dropping out I have a job I like and friends and a partner that I love. I wouldn't trade those things."

"Good," Ma said with a decisive nod. Then she put both of her hands on Harding's face, squeezing her a little. "From now on, you remember this. We are a team Lace. You don't need to hide the difficult things from me. Got it?"

"Yes, Ma."

"Good girl," Ma said, hugging her again. "Were all your coworkers acting weird because they were trying to cover for you?"

"Yes. Well, except for Lucanis. He's just Like That. I still think he might be a serial killer."

"Really? Tell me all about it," Ma said, grabbing a slice of pizza.

Come back tomorrow for the last installment

Want to read more, welcome to nug e cheese is on AO3. 

Special thanks to @blackwall-my-tiny-husband for the banner and dividers. 

Sending out gentle taggies, as always no pressure and have a consensual forehead kiss either way

Lace had never felt smaller than she did standing in front of Elgar’nan. She ran the back of her hand across her forehead, nocking an arrow for the impending fight. Rook rushed in towards the blighted god, inspiring as much confidence as the subtle glance between Taash and Lace before they stepped up behind Rook.

Their training while Rook was gone had paid off. Lace fired tar-coated arrows, successfully lodging one in Elgar’nan’s back once he had flipped around. Taash lit the splatter on fire, which seemed to be somewhat effective, if only in further angering him. Rook drew his attention again before he had too much time to focus on Lace. Taash kneeled down, waving Lace towards her. They’d only worked on this a handful of times and Lace still had the bumps and bruises from the less than stellar attempts.

Lace got a running start at Taash, raising her foot up high on her last step into Taash interlocked hands. They hoisted Lace up, flinging her into the air. She fumbled with her arrows a bit, eventually raining a few arrows down onto Elgar’nan. They had done a good job of avoiding all the spells that were peppered around the platform so far, but Elgar’nan had grown tired of their jolly cooperation. With the snap of a finger, all of Lace’s surroundings had turned to black and it was just her and Elgar’nan.

“Taash! Rook!” Elgar’nan’s chuckle swallowed up the echo of Lace’s calls. Staring her down, were three visages of the ancient god. Not a single indication of which one might be the real one, if any of them were fake to begin with. The trek up to the peak had strained the trio, maybe her mind was playing tricks on her. Lace dipped under a fireball, getting her bearings back to return fire. The body that she fired at disappeared, leaving the two at her sides.

The footing beneath Lace fell away trying to keep her eye on the remaining Elgar’nans in front of her  She stumbled, climbing back on the ledge. Lace scanned the area for anything to get her out of this situation. Resigned to fight against the odds as she had done for her whole life, Lace grabbed a trio of arrows from the dwindling stock in her quiver. One loaded, then two. The third was held in reserve as Lace’s bow creaked under the strain.

Don’t fire until you can see the whites of their eyes.

The darkness fell away, bringing Rook and Taash back into view. They all gave a look to each other, looking back at the battered Elgar’nan in the middle of the room. Lace turned her bow to the real Elgar’nan, landing a triplet of arrows; two in the chest and one in the head. They waited with bated breath as he fell over, hopefully for good.

“Is he…is he dead?” Lace asked, lowering her bow ever so slightly. Taash rested their hands on their knees, catching their breath.

“Think so.”