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At first, Katelyn thought it was a dream. That was the most logical explanation, right? She didn’t remember falling asleep and she’d never done any lucid dreaming before, but there had to be a first time for everything. She had been playing Dragon Age: Inquisition lately in between applying for jobs and she must have fallen asleep and dreamed that she’d gone through an Eluvian.
She didn’t think it was an Eluvian at first, because you wouldn’t expect to find an Eluvian at a flea market in Cleveland. Katelyn’s friend Nicole had asked her to come along for furniture shopping, because Katelyn had a hatchback that could fit small- to medium-sized pieces of furniture and she was available during the day right now.
It had been kind of nice to get out of the house and socialize, even though Nicole kept making comments that were full of barely-disguised pity. She was trying to decide whether or not she actually needed a really big desk when Katelyn got distracted by the mirror. It was one of those large, antique-looking ones, the kind that had its own stand instead of being attached to the wall. She wandered over to it while Nicole was still ruminating. It looked like the kind that would tilt if you pushed on it slightly. Katelyn pushed the mirror, trying to see if it actually would tilt, but her hand just passed through the glass.
She pulled it out, startled. She looked around but nobody saw what had happened. Her hand was completely fine, as far as she could tell. She tried touching the mirror again, to see if the same thing would happen a second time. She suspected that she’d imagined the whole thing but her hand passed through just like it had before. It didn’t feel like anything on the other side, just air. She tried feeling around for the frame of the mirror but she couldn’t seem to position her arm at the correct angle. Katelyn realized that almost her whole arm was through the mirror. She leaned forward, intending to look through and see if she could see the wall behind the mirror, but it felt like something was sucking her body through and then she was stumbling out into what looked an awful lot like the game she’d been playing last night.
She turned around and tried to put her hand through the mirror again but it was solid this time. It was a dream, obviously, but she had nothing better to do so she decided to explore.
She was in a small room that didn’t contain much other than the mirror. The door leading to the hallway was unlocked. It definitely looked like Skyhold so far. The castle was even more maze-like than it seemed to be in the game but she eventually made it outside to one of the ramparts and saw that it was definitely Skyhold. It was almost like a live-action version of Inquisition, and the view of the mountains was especially amazing in person. She could have just stared at the mountains for a long time, but she saw what looked like the tavern from the game and she was curious to see if it looked the same inside.
It took a while for Katelyn to find her way downstairs and out to the courtyard, but she made it to the Herald’s Rest. Whoever the Inquisitor was in this world had chosen the Andrastian decorations for everything. Katelyn didn’t think she’d ever used those in any of her games, but maybe it was the easiest for her subconscious to imagine?
She opened the door to the tavern and almost said “Oh shit it’s Krem!” out loud. Krem was there! He was sitting down, not standing on the chair. He looked like he did in the game, but it was more… nuanced, maybe? She could see faint acne scars, and that his undercut wasn’t exactly even. Krem seemed focused on what he was drinking and he didn’t notice Katelyn staring at him, but she glanced over and saw that Iron Bull did notice her staring. She met his eyes and he grinned at her in a way that could either be flirty or threatening.
He called out to her, “Hey, I haven’t seen you around here before.”
She walked closer to him. She kept trying to remind herself that this was all in her head, but it was still pretty intimidating.
“Uh, I just got here. It’s nice to meet you?”
“Interesting clothes you’re wearing. Where are you from?”
Katelyn glanced down at the outfit that she’d thrown together to go furniture shopping. It didn’t look like anything that would exist in Thedas. “I’m from Ohio, even though I was actually born in Indiana… but it doesn’t really matter what I say to you, does it?”
“I don’t know, you tell me. What do you think matters?”
“Who is the Inquisitor here, anyway?” Katelyn wondered if her mind had recreated one of her Inquisitors.
“You really are new, aren’t you? Her name’s Ellana Lavellan. She was a Dalish hunter before Andraste chose her, or so the story goes.”
“Huh.” She didn’t think that she’d used the default first names for any of her Inquisitors.
Bull looked suspicious and she was suddenly very uncomfortable under his gaze.
“It was nice to meet you!” she said, and she left the tavern as quickly as she could before he could say anything else.
She went back out to the courtyard and through one of the ground-level side doors that led into the main Skyhold building. This time she almost ran into Sera, who was standing on tiptoes on top of a box.
Sera noticed her and almost dropped the bucket of water that she’d been trying to balance on top of a door. There was an awkward silence as they stared at each other.
“Do you want help with that?” Katelyn asked. “I think I’m taller than you are.”
“All right, whoever you are.”
Katelyn took her place on top of the box and successfully positioned the bucket. “Who are we pranking, anyway?”
“It was supposed to be Dennet the horse man, but it’s whoever comes through here first.” Sera was shorter than Katelyn had always imagined but she looked older. Her haircut looked better in person too. Blackwall was usually Katelyn’s go-to love interest but she’d romanced Sera once and it was a lot of fun. “Want to help me put sugar in the salt cellars?”
“I absolutely want to help you with that.”
Katelyn spent at least the next hour with Sera, helping her with increasingly elaborate pranks. Sera never asked for her name, which made Katelyn wonder if she’d been given an embarrassing nickname. She did declare that Katelyn’s clothes were weird and gave her a dress and shoes that fit her almost perfectly when Katelyn explained that they were the only clothes she had. Sera didn’t offer an explanation for where the clothes had come from and Katelyn decided not to ask.
After Sera got bored of pranking people and left to attend to some kind of Red Jenny business, Katelyn wandered around Skyhold on her own. It was surprisingly hard to find other companion characters. She supposed that some of them were probably off on a mission somewhere with Inquisitor Lavellan, and the other ones were busy with… whatever they did? She was used to being able to follow a path around Skyhold and find everyone, but it wasn’t realistic to expect everyone to stay in the same rooms all the time.
She did find Solas and she thought about asking him a bunch of questions to hopefully raise his approval of her, but she was too nervous about saying the wrong thing to him and making him suspicious.
Her cell phone still worked but she couldn’t get data or phone service in Thedas. She took some pictures, even though she didn’t really expect them to still be there on her phone when she woke up.
A few days later, she realized that she probably wasn’t going to wake up. She was still in Skyhold and everything still felt real, other than the fact that she was in a video game where magic and elves and demons existed. Assuming that she wasn’t hallucinating the whole thing, the best explanation she could think of was that Thedas existed as some alternate dimension and that someone who worked for Bioware had once come here the same way she had and made a successful video game franchise out of it.
Katelyn realized quickly that she would need money if she was going to survive here, because her one dress was getting dirty and it was hard to find food to eat for free and she didn’t want to risk getting caught stealing and end up being kicked out of Skyhold to fend for herself in the mountains. Fortunately, and perhaps depressingly, it was easier to find a job here than it was in real life. She just walked into the kitchens and explained that she had experience working as a line cook and asked if they could use her. It turned out that one of the kitchen staff had walked off the job this morning and there was an opening.
When she wasn’t peeling endless vegetables and being yelled at by the head cook, she tried to hang out with Sera whenever she could. Sera was the only one of the companion characters who actually liked spending time with her. She did manage to find everyone except for Cole, but most of them were busy with their own lives. Blackwall was usually on his own in the stables, but she didn’t know how to have the “I’m mostly into women in real life but you’re my favorite romance because you helped me cope with my ex-girlfriend cheating on me” conversation. Bull and Krem left shortly after Katelyn arrived, which was probably for the best. He had been way too suspicious of her. Vivienne didn’t seem interested in talking to her but she was more respectful to the kitchen staff than most of the other nobles in Skyhold. Sera complained that she’d been trying to find disgruntled current or former servants who were willing to turn on Vivienne, but most of the people who worked for her said that she’d earned their loyalty and they didn’t want to betray her.
Katelyn tried the Eluvian every few days but it was still closed. She seemed to be stuck here for the foreseeable future.
She thought about leaving Skyhold and trying to visit other regions in Thedas, but she wasn’t sure how to get anywhere or how she would afford the trip. There was also the risk of getting killed by a bandit or a dragon. She decided to save her money in the hopes that she could eventually visit Rivain or something.
She wondered if anyone missed her. Maybe her roommate? Katelyn had warned her that she would probably pay her share of the rent late this month because she was still unemployed and her savings had dwindled to almost nothing and she wasn’t scraping much money together with gig work. She didn’t know how much time had passed in the real world, her roommate might have moved someone else in by now. Katelyn didn’t think that her family would notice, she only really talked to them on holidays and if someone died. She hadn’t dated anyone since she and Alissa broke up either. She hoped that her friends at least missed her.
Katelyn missed her friends, honestly. She missed the internet and indoor plumbing too. This was an amazing, mind-blowing experience, but once the novelty wore off she realized that it was actually kind of boring.
It was maybe a few weeks after she’d arrived when she stopped in the tavern and realized that something was wrong. Bull was back but Krem was gone. The Chargers wouldn’t go anywhere without their leader, right?
Maybe he’s just in the bathroom, she tried to tell herself. Or maybe he’s doing literally anything other than sitting there and drinking. He isn’t glued to that chair, you know. It was still hard to shake the uneasy feeling.
She approached Bull, who didn’t seem surprised to see her. “Is your lieutenant around?” She tried to sound casual.
“Venatori killed him.” His voice was grim. “There was an ambush and the Chargers didn’t make it.”
“I’m sorry to hear that,” she said, even as alarm bells were going off in her head. The Inquisitor in this world had let the Chargers die. She couldn’t believe that anyone had actually chosen that option.
Her whole body almost felt numb as she climbed the stairs. She wasn’t going anywhere in particular, just trying to get away from definitely-not-Tal Vashoth Iron Bull. She went up to the second floor, and then the third floor, and slumped down on a barrel. She could hear the music from downstairs but this area seemed empty. She wondered where Cole was.
“You remember me.”
She recognized the voice but he wasn’t anywhere to be seen.
“Yeah, I read Asunder.”
Cole appeared suddenly in front of her. He started pacing back and forth without looking at her. “I’m solid in your head, why? You’re from beyond the mirror, on the other side of the screen. It’s just a game but they didn’t have to die. You wish you could have helped.”
“Yeah. Can I even help? I wish I could do something.”
Cole was still pacing back and forth and fidgeting with his hands. “I want to help but it’s better when they don’t remember me.”
“Nobody here remembers you?”
Cole disappeared again, even though Katelyn had a feeling that he was still there. She sighed.
She felt like she had to find out more about this Inquisitor, to see if she was maybe a completionist who was trying every option at least once. It wouldn’t bring the Chargers back but she would at least understand that. She poked around Skyhold until she found a chapter of Hard in Hightown and brought it to Varric when it didn’t look like he was especially busy.
“Hi, Mr. Tethras? I was wondering if you could autograph this for me.”
“Uh, yeah, no problem.” He wasn’t looking at her but she could see that his eyes had dark circles under them.
“I’m sorry if this none of my business, but is everything all right?”
“Aside from the obvious?” He gestured at nothing in particular, as if that explained everything.
Katelyn sat down in one of the chairs next to him and he didn’t try to stop her. The book chapter lay on the table in front of him but he seemed to have forgotten about it. Varric sat back and rubbed his eyes. They sat in silence for a moment before he started talking, and then he didn’t stop talking.
Ellana Lavellan was ruthless and ambitious, to put it as nicely as possible. She’d apparently leaned hard into being the Herald of Andraste and she seemed to be trying to gain as much power as she could. The only thing Sera had sad about Lavellan was that she’d been worried that a Dalish Inquisitor would be too elfy, but she actually turned out to be worse. In this case, “worse” meant that she held public executions whenever possible. The Inquisition supported her and made excuses for her because she was the only one who could save the world, but most of the individual members just tried to stay out of her way.
Varric’s theory was that Lavellan had always felt like she was special but her clan never appreciated her, and now she’d been given power and she was trying to take full advantage of it. He also suspected that she had some kind of particular grudge against mages. He’d been sad when Marian Hawke didn’t come back from the Fade, but he knew that she was exactly the type of person who would willingly sacrifice herself to save other people. He felt like he’d come to terms with her death until recently, when Cassandra told him that both Hawke and the Warden Stroud had offered to stay behind and Lavellan had chosen Hawke, even though she was fairly young and Stroud was a seasoned Warden who was probably close to his actual Calling, not the fake Calling that all the Wardens were hearing. It wasn’t like Lavellan had a lot of affection for the Wardens, considering that she’d exiled them from Orlais. When Varric thought about some of the other comments she’d made about mages, he realized that she had probably let Hawke die just because she was a mage. The thought made him sick.
The author part of him thought that maybe Lavellan always been resentful about not being born with magic, because that was what prevented her from being a leader among the Dalish. Now that she had the anchor, she was trying to take back the power that she’d been denied all along. He could recognize that it was a compelling character arc, even though he couldn’t forgive himself for introducing Hawke to the Inquisition. “I should have known better,” he said.
“It wasn’t your fault. Hawke wouldn’t want you to blame yourself.” Katelyn actually had no idea what Hawke was like in this world, but the thought seemed to comfort Varric at least a little bit.
Katelyn convinced the kitchen supervisor to let her deliver food to Lavellan’s room because she wanted to see her in person after hearing so much about her. She wasn’t really sure what she was expecting. Lavellan was a petite elven woman with dark hair and one of the Mythal vallaslin patterns. She rolled her eyes and looked disgusted when Katelyn tried to set her food down on the desk.
“They always put it over there,” she said, pointing to a table. “Didn’t they tell you that? The staff needs more training.”
“Forgive me, your worship,” Katelyn said in her most polite voice.
Lavellan didn’t look at her as she left. She was an asshole, obviously, but she didn’t seem much worse than all the other assholes who Katelyn had met in her life. It was just that this particular asshole had the power to order executions.
It wasn’t until she got outside the castle and took a detour on the way back to the kitchens that she realized where in the timeline of the game they were, and the fact that Blackwall was nowhere to be found.
He was usually somewhere near the stables unless he was out on a mission with Lavellan, but she was here and he was gone. It didn’t take a lot of asking around to find out that he had disappeared, leaving a cryptic note for Lavellan. Katelyn rushed back to Sera as quickly as she could, even though she was still supposed to be working.
Sera was in her room, filling up new flasks to use in battle.
“I need your help,” Katelyn said.
“Hello to you too,” she said, even though she didn’t seem annoyed about it.
“Blackwall is going to be executed.”
Sera dropped the flask she’d been holding but then caught it before it hit the ground. “What are you on about?”
“He did some really awful stuff in the past and he’s going to confess to it and then he’ll be locked up and executed unless Lavellan gets him out.”
“She’d never do that unless she wanted to be the one to kill him herself.”
Katelyn was pretty sure that it wasn’t an option to do that in the game, but she didn’t want to see what would happen if Lavellan tried. “He was headed to Val Royeaux. Can we meet him there?”
“Should be able to, just let me get some messages out.”
By the end of the day, Sera had horses for both of them. Katelyn hadn’t done any horseback riding since middle school but the horse was patient with her and Sera was willing to take the lead. Katelyn had thought about asking if Cole could come, but she didn’t want to explain his presence to Sera. It turned out that she didn’t even need to ask because Cole was there waiting for them every time they stopped. Katelyn still didn’t really have a plan, but she felt more optimistic now that they had Sera’s Red Jenny connections and Cole’s spirit/demon abilities.
Blackwall was already in jail by the time they arrived in Val Royeaux. They waited until early evening and then Sera gave a vague, cryptic message to a jail employee who was sweeping up outside. Katelyn was pretty sure that she heard something about ducks? It must have meant something to the employee, who helped them sneak in.
They were able to get some time alone outside of Blackwall’s cell. “Sera?” His face lit up when he saw her. “And… you’re one of the cooks?” Katelyn hadn’t realized that Blackwall even knew who she was. Cole was there too, but Blackwall couldn’t see him.
“Hi, uh, Thom?” Katelyn didn’t know how she was going to convince him but she knew she had to try. “You don’t know me, but I know you from another life. I know that doesn’t make any sense, sorry. I found out that my girlfriend was cheating on me and we were trying to work things out and it was really rough, but you were there and you were trying to be honest and make things right even though you could have gone on pretending. You’d done bad things in the past but you were trying to be a good person even though you didn’t have to, and I think that was what I needed at the time. I know you think that you need to be held responsible for your crimes, but you can’t atone if you’re dead and the Inquisition won’t give you a chance to keep trying to be a good person. Which is why we’re here.”
“You’re trying to break me out? Is that what you meant by all of that?”
“Please? If you let us?”
Sera and Blackwall didn’t seem to notice Cole kneeling down and picking the lock on the cell. The door swung open. Katelyn hoped that Sera’s contact could get them out without getting caught, but Cole could probably make everyone forget that they were there if he had to.
Blackwall looked down at the door incredulously. “I don’t know if this is a sign from the Maker or if I’ve finally gone mad.” He looked like he thought it was probably the second option, but he followed them outside.
Sera gave the prison employee a bag containing what sounded like a lot of coins along with one of her flasks. She told Blackwall that he could take one of their horses, even though Katelyn was almost positive that they belonged to the Inquisition. “Where should I go?” he asked.
“Join the Wardens for real,” Katelyn said. “Or just keep trying to help people. Please?”
“All right.” He smiled at her and she leaned in and kissed his cheek.
Sera sold the other horse to someone in Val Royeaux, which more than made up for the money she'd given to the guy at the prison. She let Katelyn know that they had a place to stay tonight and a ride back on a cart with a merchant that was traveling to Skyhold tomorrow. The place to stay ended up being someone's house and Katelyn was almost positive that the actual homeowner was out of town somewhere and Sera’s contact was one of the maids. Katelyn didn’t ask, and Sera didn’t ask about what she’d said to Blackwall in the prison.
She knew that it was reckless and probably stupid to risk getting thrown in prison herself just to save her video game boyfriend, but she didn’t care. Blackwall had been real to her when she was going through a difficult time in her life and he deserved better. It was the same reason why she could never bring herself to let the Chargers die in any of her playthroughs.
She wondered if this was how Solas felt about the world that he was trying to destroy, at least in a world where he’d grown to respect the Inquisitor.
Cole appeared beside her. “Pretend for a moment that you’re looking at a microbe smeared on a microscope plate.”
“What?”
“Pretend that it’s screaming at you, and that in its own way, it’s alive and a person with feelings and cares.”
“What do you think I should do?”
“You should celebrate a successful jailbreak, is what you should do,” said Sera. Katelyn looked around but Cole was gone.
She realized that she felt better about herself than she had in a while. She might be a pathetic loser in the real world, but she’d managed to accomplish something here and that had to count for something.
The head cook yelled at Katelyn for being gone for so long but she let her have her job back because they hadn’t found anyone else to replace her. She hadn’t been back for long when Sera found her. Actually, Sera threw a walnut at her and then somehow disappeared into the shadows without being seen by anyone else.
Sera was making some kind of hand gesture that was probably supposed to mean something to Katelyn. She finally gave up and pointed to the door before slipping out without making any noise. For someone who could be so loud and annoying, she was actually a very skilled rogue.
Katelyn followed her out the door. She was going to get yelled at again but Sera wasn’t usually this insistent about finding her.
“What’s going on?” she asked.
“Wanted to warn you. Wait, you’re not actually a spy, are you?”
“What?”
Sera looked suspicious. “Everyone thinks you’re a spy. Leliana thinks you’re Qunari but Bull says you’re not but he could be lying, right?”
“I’m not a spy, I promise.”
“Look, you appeared out of nowhere one day but you already knew everybody and then you kept asking questions about Her Holy Inkiness and they’re pretty sure you had something to do with Blackwall’s escape. It looks bad, yeah? Leliana’s people are coming to bring you in for questions.”
“Shit.”
“Even if you are a spy or a blood mage or whatever, you look out for people. That’s what’s supposed to matter.”
“Thanks, Sera. Uh, I need to figure out something, don’t I? Fuck.”
She could try to run, but Leliana’s people would find her no matter where she went. Would they just grab her, even if she was in a room full of people? She didn’t want to think about what Leliana’s interrogation techniques would be like. They expected her to be in the kitchen right now so she should try to get far away from there, but where should she go? Would it be safer to be in a deserted corridor, or near a lot of people where she couldn’t be grabbed without attracting notice?
Sera looked sympathetic but she didn’t have any answers. Suddenly, Katelyn knew what she had to do.
She took off running across the courtyard and toward the staircase up to Skyhold’s main entrance. She had to stop running partway up the steps when she realized that she couldn’t keep up the pace, but she climbed the stairs as quickly as she could and went straight past Varric into Solas’s room.
“Can I help you?” Solas asked, eyebrow raised. He was sitting at his desk and reading something from the pile of books on it.
Katelyn just stood there panting. Leliana could see her from over the balcony, but she hoped that nobody would grab her out in the open like this, which would buy her some time.
“So, you know, this world isn’t real. We both know that, right?”
“Excuse me?” Solas set his book down. He didn’t even try to conceal the alarm in his voice.
“It’s not real and the people aren’t real but I still care about them and I still want to help them. I wasn’t sneaky enough about it and now I’m probably going to end up being tortured to death but these people matter, okay? Just… think about that, please.”
“What are you?” He almost sounded furious.
“I’m nobody. I’m just someone who plays video games, but I know what comes next and it doesn’t go how you’re expecting. You aren’t able to get your orb back. I think you’re going to have a choice and I want you to remember me and how I saved one of them. I would have tried to save more if I’d been better at flying under the radar like you are.”
It occurred to her that Solas probably had no idea what “flying under the radar” meant, but he looked too angry for her to want to try to explain any more. He didn’t have the ability to turn people to stone yet, at least as far as she knew, and he probably didn’t want to attack her out in the open like this. It was the same reason why Leliana’s people hadn’t kidnapped her yet.
“Try to make it quick, please?” Her voice wavered in spite of herself.
Katelyn turned and walked toward the door that led outside to the battlements. She felt static at the back of her neck and she realized that Solas was using lightning. True to her request, there was a brief searing pain and then she felt nothing at all.
Katelyn didn’t realize that she was falling until she collapsed forward onto a tile floor. It almost knocked the wind out of her but she managed to stand up and realized that she was back in the flea market.
“Is someone there?” a voice called out.
“Hello?” Katelyn’s voice sounded almost as dazed as she felt.
“We closed fifteen minutes ago, you aren’t supposed to be in here.” The person came around the corner and she recognized one of the store employees who had been there while she was furniture shopping with Nicole.
“Uh, sorry, I didn’t realize it time it was.” Katelyn felt the mirror behind her but it was solid again.
The employee frowned at her. “I was about to set the security alarm.”
“Yeah, sorry.” She left the store as quickly as she could. She had no idea where Nicole was, or even what day it was.
Her key still worked in the front door of her apartment, which meant that her roommate hadn’t had the locks changed. When she got inside and charged her phone, she saw that the pictures she took of Skyhold were still there. She’d also received an email the day before asking her to come in for a job interview. She responded right away, saying that she could come in any time and apologizing for not getting back to them sooner.
Katelyn was exhausted and wide awake at the same time. She thought about starting up another playthrough of Inquisition. Part of her never wanted to touch the game again, but she decided that she should romance Blackwall at least one more time.