The Wolf and the Lion (a Dragon Age Inquisition fanfic)

Prologue

Fat and fluffy flakes of snow fell softly to the ground as the young woman walked to the huge building, her armor was scarred and showing signs of being well worn but those details were nothing new to her as she cautiously approached the building that now loomed before her in an almost foreboding way. With an unnoticed catch to her breath, she approached the doors that would lead to the warmth from the fires that burned within, fires she knew that were ever-welcoming and would warm her frozen bones and chilled body; but just as she prepared herself to reach out, one of the doors opened to reveal the love of her life preparing to leave. To her sight, he looked like he was fully prepared for an attack or for some kind of travel but which one it was she wasn't exactly sure. "Cullen?!" Her voice rang out as her sudden shock slowly wore off.

The man in question turned to the woman and stopped dead in his tracks. "Your back!" relief flashed in his eyes for the briefest of moments, then they turned hard, "You've been gone for months!" He shouted as she flinched back in slight fear, she knew what this man was capable of doing she had often seen it firsthand when he would enter any form of combat. His right hand reached out and gripped her upper arm, in a rather rough manner. Once more she flinched back and he loosened his grip a slight touch upon seeing her do so, but soon he led her away from the building behind him and took her straight to his office where he dismissed those who lingered around. Nothing was said as he shut the door behind the last person to leave and then he proceeded on locking it and the other two doors that were, from what she could remember, normally ignored. Now that they were out of the cold and in a warm room, the woman could feel the chill of winter leaving her body but didn't dare look up to the man before her who was quick to turn on his heel to speak with her. She could almost sense his mind working on lecturing her as he scanned her for any injuries, upon being satisfied that no harm had befallen her that he could see at that moment he finally spoke. "Talila, what were you thinking?" His voice was softer now and not as enraged as before, but it still held the tone of him being upset with her. "You of all people should know how dangerous it is out there, and you're still in the stages of Lyrium withdrawal."

Still, the woman, now identified as being named Talila, refused to look at him. She didn't need to hear his voice to know how upset he was with her or how worried he had been, she could feel his relief and anger rolling off of him. It was his relief and anger that kept him from touching her, though some little part of her reminded her that he would never intentionally hurt her, it was not his way. "I know, Cullen." she turned away from him with shame hanging around her like a storm cloud and walked over to one of the windows in the room to look outside. "But I..." She let out a sigh that was a mixture of shame and frustration.

Cullen followed her with his gaze and then worriedly he spoke again, "You've returned to taking it?" When no response came from her, Cullen frowned.

"I can't deny that I haven't thought about it..." Talila admitted as she closed her eyes to the snow-covered ground outside, her weariness was now becoming apparent as she continued to warm up in this normally bland-looking office. "Even now I'm struggling with the thought as we speak.before I left I was given some, but even as I took it with me I...didn't use it, and a few days ago, I threw it as far away from me as possible." Talila's voice cracked as she reopened her eyes to the outside world, "How far I've fallen." She whispered bitterly as Cullen looked at her with continuously growing worry.

"What do you mean?" He approached her slowly, finally feeling calm enough to do so. He didn't need to see her face to know that there were tears welling up in her beautiful eyes. Eyes that were either as blue as the midday sky, or as dark as sapphires depending on how much light was in the area at the time.

"I was not an addict a long time ago, I was...good. Always did good and stayed away from..." She paused for a moment to bit her nails, a habit she had picked up from a time long passed. Cullen reached out and gently grabbed her hand to pull it away from her mouth as she closed her eyes.

"Talila, you are still a good person, you can't help that what happened to you and those who forced you into doing what you didn't want to, have and will get what is coming to them." He turned her to him and embracing her in his arms, he placed his lips to her forehead in a comforting kiss as her unshed tears started to flow freely from her eyes. As he comforted her, the memory of how this time came to be haunted her mind once more.

********

Talila smiled at her close friends, "Come on, there's no way in any version of hell anyone could pay me enough to do that."

"What? You wouldn't play stripper poker? Even if it was my birthday?" A dark-haired male friend of her's asked in a slight whine as Talila snorted out a laugh.

"Hell no," That got everyone around the two to chuckle.

"Mike, I think you've been denied big time." another of her friends spoke up as the one named Mike whined low in mock sadness with his shoulders slumping and face falling to look at the ground.

Eventually, Talila turned away from her friends to return to her apartment which they had been kind enough to walk her home too. After she entered and locked the door, she leaned up against the door with eyes closed. When she opened them again she looked over to her TV but ignored it and went straight to her bed, where she collapsed with a heavy sigh. "Some days I wish I could just leave this world behind. Perhaps I would venture to the world that Dragon Age takes place in? Not sure what span of time frame I would like to visit though. But I know it would be ONE of them." She commented to herself as she closed her eyes. "Maybe it would be around the time of the Inquisition... I would defiantly like to meet Cullen and.... have adventures with the Inquisitor..." But as sleep took over she didn't finish her sentence. As she slept she didn't hear the sound of something tearing, as if it were fabric. But she did wake when an odd colored light started coming into her room from her open door. What the Hell? What is that light and where is it coming from? She asked herself as she stood up and accidentally knocked her favorite mug from the bedside table to which she cursed at as it shattered upon the hard floor. "Fuck!" She growled as she leaned down to pick up the pieces, she then proceeded to walk out of her room towards the source of the light and made it to her kitchen where she set the pieces of the mug on the counter. then as she walked out of the kitchen to investigate where the light had been coming from, she discovered that nothing was there. "Hello?" She asked confused but seeing no one there she "hmmed" and turned to return to her room, only to have her nose and mouth covered by a hand that was wrapped in cloth which was covered in something to knock her out, and barely heard two malicious male voices spoke as her world went dark.

"Perfect. She will be the perfect person to do our experiment on." The first of the voices, and the one that was the closest, spoke up.

"Perfect for what experiment?" the second voice asked sounding slightly confused as the first voice growled in irritation.

"To see if Lyrium will work on people from this world, you idiot."

"Ah. Best we get her back then before the boss throws a fit." the second person hoisted her limp body onto his shoulder and together the two people walked through something that would spell the start of Talila's troubles.