ataraxionlogs | It's Okay [Closed]

CHARACTERS: Cole, Rhys & Evangeline de Brassard
LOCATION: Chez R&E (That is, Rhys and Evangeline's shared quarters)
WARNINGS: None at the moment.
SUMMARY: Cole finally spoke to Evangeline when she was on patrol. Now to meet with her and Rhys, and tell them both the truth about him.
NOTES: This is going to contain hella spoilers for basically all of the Dragon Age: Asunder tie in novel and Cole's backstory iffin anyone cares.

Cole was still anxious, but it was not the feeling of nerves and sickness and despair this time. It was a good kind of anxious. The kind when you anticipate something good happening. He was going to see Rhys again - actually see and speak to him, and he had spoken to Evangeline. It was good. Ai had been right. They did not think he was a monster. He could cry for relief.

Of course, when the moment came, he still had cold feet. To Cole's credit he did not run, though he did try to make himself small as he crowded behind Evangeline when she opened the door to the quarters she shared with Rhys.

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"How was patrol, Evangelin—," the words seem to die in his throat when his eyes land on Cole, the lanky spirit obvious behind the woman. His gaze turns to Evangeline briefly, questioning and curious, but when he looks to Cole again, a smile blooms unbidden.

There were hundreds of things Rhys wanted to say, many of them a form of an apology, but Rhys refrains, only releasing a thick, welcoming,"Hello, Cole."

The last thing Rhys wanted was to scare Cole off, to say something to upset him. One step at a time, as it's always been.

A sweet smile holds to Evangeline's face as she gives Cole an encouraging nod before stepping aside and ruins his hiding spot.

For now she remains silent; it is not yet her place to speak.

Cole freezes for a moment, like he'd really rather Evangeline NOT have moved, but he does not run. He is still nervous, straining to hear any sound of disgust, of fear, of horror at seeing him one more.

Nothing of the sort.

"Hello, Rhys." He says finally, finding his voice once more. "... I missed you."

Cole has changed little since Rhys last saw him, still as gaunt as ever, but the lack of dirt, and grime lent him a somewhat healthier appearance. It was, as well, a far cry from their last encounter, bloodied and bruised and drenched. His stomach clenches at the memory, like an old wound stirring, but he swallows it down: he would not mourn that day forever.

"I missed you, too," Rhys admits, his grin softer now, but no less genuine. There had been few days where he hadn't thought of Cole, hadn't wondered or missed him; it had been hard to come to terms with the fact that the spirit was simply gone.

He takes a step forward, tentative,"You don't have to be afraid of what we think."

Not anymore.

"I thought you both would hate me, after what the Lord Seeker said." Cole says quietly, face twisting up in grief before he stamps it down. The only grief in Rhys is old echos, from when he thought Cole was gone. He cared. They cared. the pain sings out to him, and it's such a strange thing. That he helps pain is a secondary, it's not to do with him in particular, but in this case it does. He doesn't move away when Rhys takes a step forward, feeling more solid by the minute as he stands with them.

"... I thought you'd think I was a monster."

The look of grief upon Cole's face, as brief as it is, fans at the lingering embers of anger and rage Rhys held for the Lord Seeker. That man, vile and blind, had tried to take everything from him, and very nearly succeeded; he'd lost everyone that mattered, save for Evangeline.

He swallows back the wave of emotion, the weak roll of the anger, and reaches out, tentatively, to Cole. Rhys ensures his gaze never leaves Cole when he speaks,"The only monster then was Lambert, Cole."

Rhys had tried back then to combat the seeker's twisted, venom filled truth, but he'd been too late. He would never make that mistake again.

Cole reaches out to close the distance, his fingertips brushing against Rhys' before he stops.

They need to know. Before they decide he's not a monster, they need to know.

"I killed Lord Seeker Lambert. After he left the Spire." there's no guilt or shame in Cole's voice for this confession, except for the worry that his friends might be upset. They disliked his killing. Cole understands why now, but Lambert is different. Lambert was hurting people. Lambert liked hurting people. He needed to be stopped. Permanently. "He was going to try to hurt you again."

Evangeline had been watching silently and for a moment debated on whether she should busy herself with something else to give them time alone. That was, until Cole mentioned Lambert.

"Of course he would have." It's said under her breath with not nearly the disgust warranted for such a man. He was completely insane and she had every intention to end him if she had another chance. At least Cole had managed where she had failed before.

She stands by Rhys, nodding in approval. "You did the right thing, Cole." Murder wasn't something she ever expected to encourage, but this was a worthy exception.

Rhys feels a grim satisfaction at the announcement, and it couples bitterly with the wish he'd been able to end the man himself. The Lord Seeker may not have been entirely at fault for the events at the White Spire, but his actions had spurred the violent, and bloody end it came to. There would never be an ounce of forgiveness in Rhys' heart for that man.

"He won't be able to hurt anyone anymore," comes Rhys' own brand of approval. Murder wasn't an easy thing to condone, let alone after the mistakes Cole made (mistakes long forgiven), but in this case, it comes easy,"That's the only thing that matters."

Relief flooded through Cole. That was one thing out of the way. The other was the truth. The truth of what he was.

Of what really happened that day at the farmhouse, of whose memory it was.

"... Lambert, he wasn't wrong about me. Not entirely. I'm not human. But there was a Cole. That day at the farmhouse in the fade, that happened. That was real. He was picked up by Templars for being an apostate and thrown in the Pit. ... They forgot him there. That's when Compassion, when I came to him. I wanted to help but I didn't know how... I held his hand in the darkness so he wouldn't be alone. The Templars found him again, eventually. They erased all record of him and got rid of his body to hide their shame. Somehow I ... became him. I forgot what I was. I only remembered his life. I still remember it like I lived it."

It's Okay [Closed]

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