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Layer 01: The Outside

Eye Colour: Strom-grey Hair Style / Colour: Dark brown, cut short and swept back Height: 1,73 m Clothing Style: Practical Dalish attire in earthy tones. Best Physical Feature: Her strong back

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Layer 02: The Inside

Fears: Moments of weakness Guilty Pleasure: Skinny-dipping Biggest Pet Peeve: Ignorant people Ambitions For The Future: Master her magic

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Layer 03: Thoughts

First Thoughts Waking Up: “How is it morning already?” What They Think About Most: “What’s next?” What They Think About Before Bed: “Creators, I’m tired.” What They Think Their Best Quality Is: Her resilience

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Layer 04: Either Or…

Single Or Group Dates: Single dates To Be Loved Or Respected: Respected Beauty Or Brains: Both in equal measure Dogs Or Cats: Neither

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Layer 05: Do They…

Lie: No, she deeply resents lying. Believe In Themselves: Yes, her confidence knows no bounds. Believe In Love: She believes in sexual attraction. Love not so much. To her, it only complicates matters. That doesn’t prevent her from falling in love anyway, though. Want Someone: She likes to think of herself as independent, but secretly she does want someone by her side.

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Layer 06: Have They…

Been On Stage: She likes to show-off her magical abilities in sparing with other mages and enjoys to be watched by an audience. Done Drugs: Dosed herself with unknown potions from Deshanna’s aravel to learn more about their effects. Changed Who They Were To Fit In: Absolutely not. Even when her members of her own clan scolded her for her over-confidence, she rather saw it as a reason to keep going.

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Layer 07: What’s Their…

Favourite colours: Viridian Favourite Animal: Snakes Favourite Book: Reading... is not really her thing. Very much to Deshanna’s discontent. Favourite Game: Wicked Grace (but she’s bad at it)

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Layer 08: Age

Day Their Next Birthday Will Be: 8th of Maternalis How Old Will They Be: She is 28 when the keeper sends her to spy on the conclave in Haven

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Layer 09: I…

... love a challenge ... feel confident ... hide my affections ... miss Keeper Deshanna ... wish I was stronger

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Now, he was gone and she could feel his absence like an abyss in her heart, a dark spot in her mind. He had become such an integral part of her life in such a short time that she couldn’t think of a future without him.

The worst part though was that he had left without a word. After what had happened between them in Crestwood, after he had taken her vallaslin, he had promised to talk to her. To explain why he didn’t want her. As it turned out he never intended to say crap about any of it.

May the Dread Wolf take him, she thought and clenched her fists.

“You gotta stop that, y’know.”

That was Sera’s voice. Alis turned around in surprise and found her friend standing at the top of the stairs, her arms crossed in front of her chest. She hadn’t heard her come in.

“Stop what, exactly?” Alis asked.

“Being all sad”, Sera said with a beaten look upon her face. “Makes me sad, too. But we shouldn’t feel sad, right, after defeating Coryphisus and everything?”

“Yeah,” she replied slowly. “Maybe ...”

Sera came closer and stopped in the doorway as if she was unsure if she could join Alis out on the balcony. Encouraging her friend with a wave of her hand, Alis said: “Come here. Let’s hang out for a bit.”

The younger elf stepped out onto the balcony, taking in the panorama of the Frostback mountains. The sun was nothing more than a golden glimmer in the distance, as the dark of the night slowly covered the world like a blanket with thousands of stars to illuminate the sky. “Woah,” the younger said. “It’s quite the view.”

"Yes, it is."

Sera turned to look at the Inquisitor. Suddenly, her eyes seemed darker than usual. Alis knew that look. There was something gloomy on Sera’s mind and she would need to get it out of her system before she could return to her playful self.

“Care to share your thoughts with me?”, Alis asked encouragingly.

Sera’s lips twitched. For a moment, Alis thought her friend would shake her head and pretend that everything was alright. Instead, Sera gestured towards her face. “He did that, didn’t he?”

It took her a moment to realize what her friend meant. Slowly, Alis brought her hand – the one without the anchor – up to her face. Her fingers traced the parts of her skin where June’s blood writing used to be. Not that her skin felt different. It was warm and soft and smooth as usual, except maybe for the scar under her left eye. Sometimes, she simply forgot it was no longer there.

“Yes, he did,” she said at last. “He told me what the markings meant and I allowed him to remove it with a spell.”

“Didn’t know it’s possible” Sera mused. “Removing the Dalish ink stuff, I mean.”

“The vallaslin” she corrected, more out of habit than real interest in being right. “Yeah, me too.”

“Why did you do it?”

Alis blinked. She’d expected her friend to ask her how Solas had removed the vallaslin or why he made the offer in the first place. But she was wrong about Sera – again – and she was glad about it. It felt good to have someone care about her most of all things.

“Getting the vallaslin is considered as a rite of passage among the Dalish,” she explained and noticed the undertone of sadness in her own voice. “When it was time for me to get mine, I didn’t think as long about it as some of the others. I told our keeper to give me the markings of June because I recognized myself in him. He's a practical god, a god of the people. Not unlike Andraste, I suppose. Anyway, Deshanna gave me my vallaslin and I wore it like a piece of clothing. After a time, I forgot how my face looked like without it. My vallaslin marked me as Dalish and I was proud to be one of them.

But when I arrived in Haven and joined the Inquisition, I felt the need to become … well, more. People had begun to form this mental image of me that had nothing to do with who I really was. It gave me nightmares, even thinking about it. How could I be more to these people than I was?”

Her heart ached, as she thought about Solas. He, too, had seen so much more in her than an ordinary woman, and through him, she had discovered that she was more than a Dalish elf. More than she could ever have imagined. A champion of her people, all of them.

“You have a rare and marvelous spirit. In another world …”

Alis took in a long breath, then sighed deeply. “When Solas offered to take the vallaslin away, I didn’t do it to abandon my people. That would have been a foolish notion. No, in removing the blood writing, I hoped that I might become the woman I needed to be in order to defeat Corypheus.”

“So, you didn’t stop being Dalish after all?”, Sera asked.

“No.” Alis tried to smile but failed miserably. “I could never do that. They made me who I am and I’ll be forever thankful for that.”

Sera’s gaze flicked from Alis’s face to her own hands. “Wish I would feel the same way about Lady Emmald”, she said in a low voice. “Not so much to be proud of there, though.”

Alis took Sera’s hand and squeezed it gently. “Those days are gone”, she said. “We have changed, both of us. We are no longer who we used to be. You are not the street urchin any longer, just like I’m no longer the first to my clan’s keeper. We’re more than we were, stronger.”

“You’re right,” Sera said, returning to her usual glee. “Let ’em think we’re still weak and elfy or whatever. We are better, you and I. Because of us, no one else.”

“Because of us.”

“Know what’s weird?” Sera looked puzzled. “I came over here to cheer you up, but instead you’re treating me all friendly and stuff. Don’t know how that happened, really.”

Alis laughed. “That’s what friends are for, Sera. We cheer each other up.”

“I guess you’re right.” Sera scratched her head, leaving her hair in a bigger mess than before. After all this time with the Inquisition, she still wasn’t used to having someone to share her feelings with. Maybe she would never be perfectly comfortable talking about herself.

“I thought the inky stuff looked nice on you”, Sera said after a short silence. “Pretty rad, to be honest.”

Alis smiled sardonically. “It’s not made of ink, you know that, don’t you?”

“Sure.” Sera snickered. “I just don’t care.”

“I should have expected that,” Alis replied. “Anyway, thank you.”

Another silence fell between, but it was less heavy than before. They simply enjoyed each other’s company. And what unlike company it was. A Dalish woman bonding with a city elf over the cruelty of life. The two of them made have begun their lives under completely different circumstances, but in the end, they had made a deeper connection than any Dalish or city elf might think possible.

“His Elfiness never deserved you, y’know”, Sera said finally.

Alis stirred. The seriousness in Sera’s voice startled her. “What...?”

“Don’t know what you saw in him, to be honest. He made my head hurt with all his Fade talk. But it seemed like he appreciated you. Could see it in his eyes when he looked at you. But if he wanted you so badly, he should’ve treated you better. I hope he feels ridiculous for leaving you behind.”

A smile tugged at her lips. “Thanks for saying that, Sera.”

“You said it yourself,” she replied. “Friends say nice things to make each other feel good.”

“Now, you’re ruining it”, Alis said.

Sera chuckled. “Alright, I shut it then. All I’m sayin’ is, you’re fine as you are. And if we happen to meet His Elfiness again, you can count on me to put some arrows in his smug face. If you like.”

“That's very nice of you, Sera, but I hope that won’t be necessary.”

“As you wish,” her friend said and made an imitation of herself drawing an arrow from her quiver. “But if you change your mind, let me know, Inquisitor. I'll take him down before he knows what hit him."

Unwillingly, a broad smile spread across Alis’s face. When she had first met Sera, her dismissal of the Dalish culture had hit her like a kick to the stomach. It had taken time to understand Sera’s point of view. Now she wondered why she had been so close-minded. There were countless elves like Sera, trying to get by. For most Dalish they were nothing more than animals, too weak to stand against their shemlen overlords and for the longest time, Alis had shared their opinion. But thanks to Sera, she had come to see the error of her ways. The city elves were deserving of her help and support. And maybe, with time and a lot of careful diplomacy, she might bring the remaining Dalish to see them as their kin again.

Imagine the things we could accomplish, she thought and looked at Sera. Together.

In that moment, she realized that she might have grown to fill the role of Inquisitor, but there were still parts of her that were left unchanged. She was a resourceful woman, after all. She was a force to be reckoned with. It was best she used her powers to change the world for the better. Because no matter how terrible the past was or how many people she’d lost, the future was something she could still take control over.

A wave of warm energy washed over her. She was hurting, but she was alive. All she needed to do was take the next step, and the next and the next, until she had formed a new life for herself. Until then, she would see to it that the Inquisition continued to help people across Thedas as best it could.

Her new-found confidence seemed to be showing because Sera suddenly raised her eyebrows.

“You’re alright?” she asked in a baffled tone.

“I’m fine,” she said and meant it. “Or at least, I will be.”

Sera’s face lit up. “That’s good. Fine is always good.”

“It is.”

“So, where you gonna go, now that Coryphinas is gone?”

“I don’t know. Maybe I’ll go back to the Free Marches,” Alis said. “Deshanna, my clan's keeper, holds a seat on the council of Wycome now. It would be a good place to start over.” She turned to Sera. “When I go, would you want to come along?”