Chapter Text
“Inquisitor,” Solas called out formally in greeting, as Lucy walked into the rotunda.
A single raised eyebrow suggested she was less than enamoured with the welcome. ”I still have a name you know, I’m still Lucy,” she insisted.
Without changing his tone, Solas rebuked her, “You very well might be, but I’m behooven by your position to respect your status.”
With a snort, Lucy slammed shut the book sitting on the desk which Solas had been reading.
“Behooven, is it? In that case, I need you to come with me for a meeting.” Lucy stated, as she marched around the desk and started bodily lifting Solas up from his chair.
He tried to demur, insisting, “I am busy doing important research for the Inquisition, I don’t have time right now.”
“Well, if I’d just been Lucy, that may have been the case, but as I’m apparently Inquisitor today… whoever that research is being done for works for me and I say that this is more important.”
Solas resisted as he was herded to the base of the stairs. He tried once more. “Aren’t you meant to be having a training session with Commander Cullen about now?”
Lucy continued to gently push the elf forward. “Yes and as soon as he finds me, I’m sure he will delight in showing how little ability I have with a sword. But until then, I’m asking you to have a meeting. In a library. It’s not like I’m dragging you off to the Storm Coast or something.”
At the sound of their destination Solas visibly brightened and they soon reached the library on the floor above.
Lucy scanned the quiet room quickly, before calling out, “Ah Dorian, did you find us a table?”
“Of course Lucy, I’m talented in all sorts of ways, locating furniture amongst them… and more importantly, wine.”
The Tevinter mage smiled with the confidence of one who was precisely where they wanted to be. He sipped from his glass. Despite his previous complaints about the quality of the vintages available within Skyhold, the nod of appreciation suggested that this particular wine was at least close to his exacting standards.
As Lucy and Solas sat down next to Dorian on worn and battered chairs, she said, “I hope you don’t mind Solas, I thought Dorian might have a useful perspective.”
“Of course, Inquisitor,” he said with a tinge of emphasis on her title, “what was it you wanted to discuss?”
Smiling openly, “I’d like to know more about the Fade. Specifically its functional and physical properties.”
Solas frowned. “As you are a non-mage, it would be impossible to really define the Fade to you I’m afraid.”
“I wasn’t aware that being a mage meant you had a totally new vocabulary and word choice, Solas.” Lucy retorted snidely. “I’m sure if needed, Dorian can try to translate some of the big words for us.”
Solas sounded almost pompous. “It’s not a question of language, it’s more a matter of experience. A mage would have seen and felt things so we would have something to build upon and discuss.”
“So you're saying we don’t have a common frame of reference?” Lucy tried.
“That’s an interesting term, Lucy.” Dorian added, filling her a glass.
“Yes, I would agree, Inquisitor. We have nothing to build upon.” Solas said dismissively.
Pausing for a second, as if to marshal her thoughts, “Ok, lets start simple then. How large is the Fade?”
Solas’s tone became less open, “The very fact that you are asking that question shows that you don’t understand it, Inquisitor. The Fade doesn’t have a size you can measure in yards or miles.”
Lucy responded, “But you said that you had to move to find new things that are interesting, I recall, back in Haven?”
“I did.” Solas admitted, cautiously.
“That implies that there is a connection between the physical, waking world and the Fade. Moving here allows you to see more there. Given that connection, if this world can be measured in miles, wouldn’t that mean that the Fade can too?” Lucy’s hand gestures became more fluid as she explained.
“The Fade isn’t that simple I’m afraid, Inquisitor.” Solas responded somewhat condescendingly. “It’s influenced by the emotions of both the observer and the people there at the time. For a battle there would be two perspectives, the brave attackers holding out against the barbarian hordes, but also the noble explorers, bringing enlightenment to savage lands. Without being a mage you couldn’t comprehend it.”
Looking offended, Lucy tried again. ”Let me try an example then, if that’s alright Solas? Let’s take the Temple of Sacred Ashes. I would assume that it would have perceived lots of events there.”
Solas nodded briefly, so she continued. “It would have recorded the delivery of the Ashes, the discovery of them by the Hero of Ferelden, the creation of the Breach and the closure of the Breach… is that fair?”
“It is a crude example, but valid as far as it goes.” Solas allowed.
“I was only just starting. So, taking the rediscovery of the Ashes. There were several people with the Hero. Each would have had their own perspective and emotional state.”
She started ticking people off on her fingers, much to Dorian’s amusement.
“Leliana would have been in reverence of the spiritual moment, Alistair might have been focusing on the dragon and distracted by that whilst Zevran would likely have been wondering if there was anything he could steal. Each of those people would have a different perspective and therefore a different record within the Fade. Wouldn’t that be a reasonable summary?”
After a moment's reflection, Solas nodded. “I’m impressed Inquisitor, it isn’t common to get such a view from one such as yourself.”
“I’ll choose to take that as a compliment,” she sniffed. “Going back to your battle example though, that would mean that there weren’t two perspectives, there could be up to as many perspectives as there were people there.”
Gesturing around her, as if she could point out the people as she described them, “A brave attacker full of confidence would experience the battle very differently from someone concerned about their first fight. A warrior worried about their lover would be different again. If someone died, that view, that perspective would end.” She clicked her fingers, the snap echoing in the room, with finality.
Concluding her presentation, “You don’t really have two perspectives, if you have sufficient control and power, surely you would have a variable number, constantly changing as people came into the area or left it?”
Solas looked at Lucy in surprise, slightly open mouthed. Closing it rapidly, he declared, “I’ve never heard it put in those terms, but yes, I would say you have grasped some of the fundamentals of the Fade. It is amazing for one who isn’t a mage.”
Ignoring the implied insult, Lucy returned to her main theme. “Going back to size then, is there an edge to the Fade?”
“No, the Fade is infinite.” Solas instantly responded confidently.
Lucy thought about his answer for a moment, “Do you mean practically infinite or actually infinite though?”
Dorian interjected. “I know that you don’t know much maths, but there is only one infinity I’m afraid, Lucy. It’s fundamental to it being infinite."
“Not really. Let’s see.”
After looking around for inspiration, she explained, “If I gave a million gold to a farmer in Ferelden, he wouldn’t be able to spend it in his lifetime. There just aren't enough things for him to buy. That same million though, given to Empress Celene, well, I’m sure she’d be able to spend that easily, on shoes or something.”
She paused, glancing at both of her companions briefly, before resuming, her tone a little similar to Solas’s had been earlier. Almost lecturing.
“So whilst to the farmer that looks to be infinite, it isn’t. That’s a practical infinite. If I’d said I would forever replace any gold as soon as it was spent, that would be actually infinite. Do you see the difference?”
Dorian nodded slowly as he considered her words, idly swirling his glass. His eyes peered at Lucy as if astonished by the explanation. That it had come from her. “Yes, I think I see.”
Happy her point had been made, Lucy turned back to Solas. “Which is the Fade?”
“Based on those terms, it would be practically infinite I would say. The outer edges of Thedas and the dawn of time are points where we can’t reach, but would prevent it being ‘actually’ infinite.” Solas was clearly pondering this concept, his gaze lost in contemplation.
Lucy decided she’d covered enough on that aspect, so ignoring a small group of researchers passing their table walking towards the shelves, she moved on. “Right, let’s talk about inhabitants then. Who lives or exists in the Fade?”
“Demons,” Dorian responded at the same time as “Spirits” from Solas.
Solas glanced at Dorian before expanding his initial response. “Spirits or demons, the distinction is somewhat complicated but given the generally used definitions, they would be all of the inhabitants of the Fade.”
“Nothing else?” Lucy queried.
“Well, there are wisps I suppose,” Dorian offered.
“I wouldn’t really consider those as alive, but I could see an argument for it.” Solas agreed.
“So spirits, demons, wisps or proto-spirits. That’s all?”
As Solas pondered this, Dorian muttered to himself, “Proto-spirits, I like that”.
“Yes, Inquisitor. That would be all.” Solas spoke definitively, this being his area of expertise.
Lucy accepted the answer, but moved on quickly, as if she had a prepared script. “How many of those creatures are there, would you say?”
“It would be impossible to say, no one has done a census.” Dorian joked.
Lucy ignored the attempt at humour, “But there are limited numbers?”
Solas expanded on his answer, warming to the topic as one he was passionate about. “Yes, there are limited numbers of spirits. Some, such as Compassion or Hope are very rare, probably only a handful in existence. Others such as Valor or Fortitude are more common but still would be less than a hundred I would imagine.”
Sighing to himself, the elf explained, “So called demons are, sadly, much more numerous but less so than most believe. I’d say that there would be a few thousand for most types of demons, the most common potentially a few tens of thousand. Wisps are more readily found, maybe ten or twenty times more abundant.”
Working through this answer, Lucy tapped the rim of her untasted glass, “Less than a million all told? Compared to the roughly five million people who live in Orlais alone?”
Solas barely took a breath before responding. “Approximately correct.”
“In summary then the Fade could be described as a multi-variable dimensional space, with aspects of quantum superpositioning but which has a non linear, non contiguous connection to the waking and whilst conventional physics doesn’t apply, the number of inhabitants per unit volume is significantly below anywhere in Thedas.”
Dorian spluttered into his wine. Still coughing he declared, “I had assumed when you mentioned explaining words as part of this meeting, that I would be explaining them to you, Lucy.”
Without moving her eyes off Solas, Lucy shrugged. “I would have thought you of all people would be careful of assumptions, Dorian.” The mage she was studying was clearly thinking of her summary.
“It could be described in those terms. Why the sudden interest Inquisitor?” Solas tried, potentially playing for time, his narrowed eyes focused on the woman sitting opposite him.
After a slight chuckle. “It’s amazing how many of the inhabitants here in Skyhold seem to think that locks just apply to other people.”
“I’m sorry, did we change topics somehow?” Interjected Dorian, refilling his split glass.
“No, I’m just approaching things from multiple angles,” Lucy explained, patting the Tevinter lightly on his arm. “You see, there are all sorts of things which are valuable within the Inquisition, but with so many rogues around, it is very hard to keep anything secure. Locks just get picked.”
The two mages glanced at each other briefly, before Solas responded, “I’m still not sure of the connection.”
“Well, let me demonstrate.”
With that Lucy picked up a book which had previously been left on the table and gestured with her other hand. Her anchor marked hand. Before either of the mages could respond, Lucy tossed the book through the miniature rift she had opened. She closed it just as quickly.
“Inquisitor!” “Lucy!” Both mages exclaimed, speaking over each other.
“What?” She responded, in mock anger. “It’s fine, see.”
With another gesture, she created another rift over to her side and reached in and pulled out the book. It looked damp but as Dorian gently poked it, it just sat there on the table. A book, largely unharmed by its recent exploits.
“I opened a rift to the Fade of last Tuesday, here in the library. Given the multidimensional nature of the Fade, it means that I can reach a stored object from almost anywhere. And,” she added, getting more excited, “due to how vast it is, the chances of anyone finding whatever I store there is infinitesimal.”
Solas appeared to be about to give a lecture, but Lucy interrupted him first, “I could put things in a really quiet place, say, under the Waking sea three hundred years ago. Or I could pick the specific memory of one of those warriors in a battle, before they died. Whatever I choose, as long as I can remember it, I can get it back. But no one else can.”
Dorian spoke over Solas next, “But how? You’re not a mage and—“
The waving of her hand was enough to silence him. “This thing, is a lot of power. Hundreds of mages you said, Solas.”
At his befuddled nod, Lucy continued, “All I had to do was come up with a matrix solver for a non-linear array and apply a little integration. Once I figured out an interface of course.”
Whilst the Tevinter perked up at the terms used, he was getting almost as confused as Solas, “But you don’t understand maths, Lucy?”
The fact that Dorian wasn’t sure how arrays could be non-linear wasn’t something he was going to raise on this particular occasion. But he was going to research it, it sounded intriguing.
Lucy snorted. “So you keep saying. And have been saying since we met. It’s not my fault that you don’t understand what a theoretical physicist does. I was just slowed down by being taught a different numbering system to you.”
Dorian looked at her closely, possibly reconsidering all his previous discussions with Lucy.
Finally Solas managed to get a word in, leaning forward and admonished, “What you are doing is beyond reckless. It’s outright dangerous. You have no idea—“
He stopped when the wagging finger simply booped him on the nose. “Firstly, someone went and made me Inquisitor. Secondly, whilst you are a Fade expert, unless you are suddenly stating that you know everything there is to know about the veil?”
As Solas rocked back, Lucy wasn’t stopping. “No? You yourself said that you didn’t know much about what this magic in my hand was. Never seen anything like it were your exact words I believe.”
Before Solas could try again, Cullen called out from the doorway, “Inquisitor! This is where you are hiding?”
Lucy rolled her eyes before turning in her chair to face the Commander marching towards her.
“I’m not hiding,” she protested, waving to the men she was with. “I’m consulting.”
“Well, if you have concluded your discussion, it’s time for our training session.” Cullen gave a gesture to his side, indicating the path towards the training grounds.
Sighing, Lucy slapped the table and got to her feet. She placed her untouched wine glass in front of Dorian, which he acknowledged with a wry smile. “If we must, Cullen, but do you remember our deal?”
Cullen scratched his neck for a moment, before grinning, “Oh yes, if you ever beat me in a spar, you can direct your training from then on. I remember, but I doubt that will be today, Inquisitor.”
“Probably not,” Lucy allowed, wistfully. She nodded to her two companions in farewell and walked at the ex-Templar’s side towards the doorway.
Dorian examined the look on Solas’s face. He wasn’t sure if it was horror or shock. “Try the wine,” he said to his fellow mage. “It might help.”
After topping up his own glass, he murmured, almost to himself, “I do wonder what a physicist is after all.”