The light did not fade.
It remained, as if the sky itself had decided this was now its only purpose — to illuminate one single woman standing in the middle of a hole that lesser beings were digging for her.
Elyanna had faced demons, high dragons, and Orlesian courts.
None of them had looked at her with this level of disinterest.
Meridia did not bow.
She did not introduce herself.
She simply extended one elegant hand toward Inigo and made a small circling motion with her fingers — the universal gesture for continuing working.
Inigo, who had faced assassins, his past, and his own guilt, took the shovel.
"My new radiant employer," he said with painful politeness, "would you prefer depth or width?"
"Depth," Meridia replied instantly. "You mortals are already too wide."
Sofia turned away, shoulders shaking.
Solas did not laugh.
Solas stared.
Not at her.
At the light.
At the way, it did not behave like light.
It did not reflect.
It did not soften.
It obeyed.
"This is not Fade," he said under his breath.
Meridia's head turned toward him with slow, predatory precision.
"Of course it is not," she said. "Do you think I would enter a realm ruled by spirits and ask permission?"
For the first time since arriving in the Storm Coast, Elyanna felt the Anchor react not with pain—
but with awareness.
Two powers in the same place.
Not enemies.
Not allies.
Just… aware.
The digging continued.
The men she had brought were collapsing one by one, hands raw, movements slowing.
Meridia did not look at them.
Not once.
When the first fell fully to his knees, whispering that he could not continue, she lifted two fingers and snapped.
The man fell asleep.
Not dead.
Just… removed.
Sofia stopped laughing.
"By the Creators," Elyanna muttered.
The hole grew deeper.
Stone.
Then older stones.
Then something that was not stone at all — a smooth, curved surface that reflected the sunlight like still water.
Inigo struck it once with the edge of the shovel and immediately stepped back.
"My friends," he said quietly, "we have found something that would very much prefer to remain unfound."
Solas moved first, kneeling at the edge.
His hand hovered above the object without touching.
An Elder Scroll did not exist in a place.
It distorted the idea of the place around it.
Even broken.
Even buried.
Even forgotten.
This one lay in two pieces of parchment that should not have been able to survive underground for centuries — and yet looked untouched by time.
Half a truth.
Half a door.
Meridia descended into the pit without using the earth.
She did not step.
She simply arrived beside it.
Her expression changed.
Not into awe.
Into offense.
"Filth," she said.
Elyanna did not know whether she meant the dirt, the merchant, or the world.
"This," Meridia continued, lifting the half-scroll between two fingers as if it were a priceless jewel, "was in the possession of a trader."
Sofia leaned toward Inigo.
"I am starting to understand why Ciri finds her annoying."
Meridia turned her head slightly.
"Ciri?"
The name did not pass through the air.
It ignited.
The light around Meridia flared so violently that the clouds above the Storm Coast split apart like torn fabric.
Solas went completely still.
Elyanna felt the Anchor surge in answer.
"You have her," Meridia said.
Not a question.
A declaration.
Inigo climbed out of the pit slowly, placing the shovel aside like a man surrendering a weapon.
"She is, in fact," he said carefully, "a dear friend of ours."
Meridia's entire posture transformed.
Arrogance remained.
But it sharpened into purpose.
"My champion," she said softly — and for the first time since appearing, there was something in her voice that was not contempt.
Elyanna stepped forward.
"She is not your anything."
Meridia looked at her.
Truly looked.
From boots to crown.
From mortal to Herald.
From power to power.
Then she smiled.
It was not a kind expression.
"Ah," she said. "The other anomaly."
Solas inhaled sharply.
"You know what this is," he said.
"I know," Meridia replied, "that your world has been pierced by something that belongs to another."
She lifted the half-scroll slightly.
"And I know that the balance of another world is breaking because this is not where it should be."
The men who had dug for her began to stir, groaning and clutching their heads.
Meridia glanced at them with visible irritation.
"Oh, for—"
She clapped once.
All of them collapsed again.
Alive.
Breathing.
Memories—
Gone.
Sofia stared at the bodies.
"You just—"
"They will wake with a sense that they forgot something important," Meridia said dismissively. "It builds character."
Elyanna's jaw tightened.
"You will come to Skyhold," she said.
Not a request.
Not quite an order.
Meridia tilted her head.
"Will I?"
"Yes."
"Why."
"Because Ciri is there."
The silence that followed was absolute.
Then Meridia smiled again — bright, terrible, radiant.
"I will expect," she said, rising slowly into the air without noticing she had done so, "a grand welcome."
She looked at Elyanna as if evaluating her for the first time.
"Preferably noble."
The light around her intensified once more.
And then—
She was gone.
Only the sea remained.
And the wind.
And the half-scroll in Solas's trembling hands.
Elyanna turned slowly toward Inigo.
The look she gave him contained command, exhaustion, and the unmistakable weight of you are going to fix this.
Inigo closed his eyes.
"My friends," he said in the tone of a man accepting a tragic destiny,
"I will make her cooperate."