The silence was almost worse than the noise. For a long moment, they didn't move. They just stayed huddled together in the shadow of a boulder, Cole still braced over her like the world might have one more collapse left in it. Holli could hear her own heartbeat and could feel it still pounding in her throat and ears.
"Are you all right, Cole?" she asked, voice low, testing the quiet.
"I'm not hurt," he said, and there was something in his tone, soft but certain, that let her breathe a little deeper.
He shifted then, drawing back so the space between them filled with cold air. Then he was on his feet, dust ghosting off him in pale clouds, and offering her his hand. She took it without thinking. Her legs didn't want to hold her at first, but his grip was steady and grounding. They stayed that way a moment, hand in hand, surveying what was left of… everything.
The air still carried grit, settling in a slow haze over broken rock and shattered ground. The Breach was gone. No rip in the sky, no sick green light searing through the clouds, just a dull grey overhead.
Corypheus was gone. She'd made sure of that. Ripped apart when that rift tore through him.
Movement drew her gaze. She saw Solas a little ways ahead, crouched in the rubble. He bent low, his fingers brushing something half-buried beneath a layer of fine dust. When he straightened, Holli's stomach went cold.
The orb. Or… what was left of it. A jagged fracture split it clean in two, its surface dull and lifeless; the strange hum it had carried was gone.
Shit.
Her throat felt tight before she even spoke. "I'm so sorry, Solas," she said softly, the words leaving her like they might shatter, too.
She didn't know what it had meant to him exactly, just that it had mattered, and that she had been the one to wrench it out of Corypheus's hands and maybe, kind of... break it. She wasn't sure how she had broken it. But it was broken, and she still had her mark. Damn.
He didn't answer right away. Just stood there, the broken thing cradled in his hands. "It is not... your fault."
It felt like her fault. He stood up, turning to look back at them. He looked devastated.
"Maybe we could fix it," she said, stepping forward to gather the pieces.
He stopped her, a hand on her shoulder, and looked her in the eyes. "No matter what comes, da'len, I want you to know you've become more than a student or a companion."
"I don't like it," she said. "This kinda sounds like goodbye."
Solas's gaze softened, just a hint of his usual wistfulness behind his eyes. "No need to read endings where there are none. Truths like ours don't fade with time or distance. They simply... exist, quietly, beneath everything else."
He offered her a small, reassuring smile, one meant to steady more than to say farewell.
Holli felt her stomach sink. "You are leaving. Is it because I broke the orb? Because I'm really sorry. I'll try and fix it, I swear."
He squeezed her shoulder. "It's not because of that. There are... paths I need to walk alone now that Corypheus is done."
"We could walk them with you."
Cole nodded his agreement, stepping forward with her.
"You cannot. But I promise you, this is not the last you'll see of me."
Holli's chest tightened, a quiet ache settling deep inside her as Solas spoke. She didn't want to look too desperate, didn't want to make it harder for him to leave, but the thought of him going felt like losing something vital. Her eyes flicked away, searching the dust-swirled air instead of meeting his gaze, swallowing back the lump that rose in her throat. Heartbreak maybe, wrapped in the barest hope that he was telling the truth.
She forced a crooked smile and lifted a hand, wiggling her pinky with a teasing edge. "Pinky promise. Poke a needle in your eye if you lie."
He looped his pinky with her, a flicker of fondness in his eyes. When he let go, she pulled him into a hug and quickly felt Cole join in as well.
"Holli!?" She heard Hawkes' voice calling through the ruins, and she and Cole pulled back.
"Yeah, we're alive," she called back.
They couldn't see him from where they were, and they turned to go and find the others. She needed to make sure no one had been hurt.
"Take care of yourself, Solas," Holli said.
Cole looked like he wanted to hug the man again.
"Both of you, be good. Look after each other," he told them.
Cole took her hand, and they set off to find the others. They found Hawke, Cassandra and Fenris pretty quickly. And they could see the others scattered about, dusting themselves off, helping pull each other out of the rubble.
Hawke grinned at the sight of them. "Look at that, we're all alive."
"Of course, I was here," Holli said as if it should have been obvious.
Hawke chuckled and ruffled her hair, hard.
"Hawke, you dick," she hissed, smoothing it back down.
"Wait, where's Solas?" Varric asked, looking around.
"He had to go," Cole said.
There were a few 'what?'s echoed among the group. Holli shrugged and shoved her free hand into her pocket.
"He said he had to go," she told them. "But he said we'd see him again."
"He helped save the world, and he's not even going to stick around for the celebration?"
"He's not one for people," Varric pointed out.
"His loss," Vivienne sniffed.
Holli and Cole seemed to be feeling the loss more keenly. But they turned from the ruins and trooped back down to base.
--
Holli sat sideways in her chair, a plate of food cooling in front of her while the din of celebration filled the main hall. Skyhold thrummed with life again. Music from lutes and drums, boots stomping in time, someone belting a dirty drinking song in the corner while Sera kept up a heckling chorus. It was loud and crowded and warm. Thank fuck it was warm.
Most of her food was untouched; she'd been picking at the same bit of bread for twenty minutes, but she was here. Not dead. None of them were. Even if Solas was gone now.
Sera flopped into the seat beside her with the fluid grace of someone already two tankards in, holding up a fried hunk of meat like it was a prize. Cole was on Holli's other side, sitting cross-legged on the bench, his attention split between Sera's gleeful chaos and the people in the room he could feel still aching.
Holli leaned against his shoulder. It was solid and soft and smelled like warmth and something safe and familiar.
"Oi," Sera said, tossing the meat onto Holli's plate. "You're wasting all the best bits."
"I'm basking," Holli muttered.
"In what? Sad bread?"
Before she could answer, a familiar weight sank onto the bench across from them. Varric, drink in hand, shirt open at the neck, gold chain glinting, wearing the smug grin of a man watching his favourite weirdos be weird.
Sera narrowed her eyes. "What?"
Varric raised his brows innocently. "Can't a man look upon his little darlings with pride?"
Both girls shot him a deadpan stare.
"I'm thinking of putting all this into a book," Varric said, swirling his drink. "This Shit is Weird: The Holli Herald Story."
"Oh no, noooo. It has to be Holiday Whitlock: Tales of Mischief and Fuckery." Holli lifted her arms dramatically. "Rolls right off the tongue."
Varric laughed, head tipping back.
Behind her, a familiar voice chimed in. "No, Hawke and Holli: Tales of Mischief and Fuckery."
Holli turned slowly in her chair to find Hawke there, mug in one hand, grin tugging at his mouth. He looked far too pleased with himself.
"Why is your name first?" she asked, eyes narrowing.
He gestured to himself as if it were obvious. "Uh, I'm the Inquisitor."
Holli mimicked his tone perfectly. "Uh, I'm the Herald of Andraste."
"Oh sweet Maker," Sera groaned, kicking Holli lightly under the table.
"Fine, fine," Varric said, ever the peacemaker, "we combine them. Hawlli."
Hawke's nose scrunched. "That's not funny."
"Don't even," Holli said at the same time.
Holli leaned back in her seat, the amusement settling into her bones. Around her, people were alive. Vivienne was at a table with Cassandra, teaching her how to bluff in Wicked Grace. Bull was arm-wrestling Blackwall and winning. No surprises there. The man had biceps like a bear and, apparently, zero regard for physics. Dorian - half-smashed and wholly invested - was cheering him on with slurred enthusiasm, occasionally yelling "Smash him, my silver marvel!" like it was a wrestling match and not a friendly brawl over a rickety old table.
Even Leliana looked... not haunted. Her face, so often a calm blade, had softened just a touch. She was sipping something dark, half-smiling as she watched the chaos.
Cullen and Josephine were tucked in a corner, sharing one of those long, quiet looks that probably meant a shared bed and a bolted door sometime soon. They weren't the only ones. Holli let her gaze wander, and yeah - quite a few couples were looking at each other like the world hadn't ended and now they had permission to start making new ones.
She nudged Sera with her knee and said dryly, "I wonder how many babies are going to be conceived tonight."
That got Hawke to splutter into his ale. He coughed, then followed her gaze, as did Sera, Varric, and Cole. A beat passed. Then they saw it too.
Sera cackled. "Wouldn't want to be here in nine months."
"In my world," Holli said, leaning back with an amused smirk, "we always get a mini baby boom about nine months after New Year's and Valentine's Day. I guess your world celebrates the same way after avoiding the apocalypse."
Cole turned his head toward her, curious as always. "What's Valentine's Day?"
"It's... supposed to be a day about celebrating love and romance," she said, gesturing vaguely with her fork. "But corporations turned it into this huge consumerist crapfest. Chocolates and overpriced flowers. Then social media made it worse - everyone's just trying to one-up each other. It's not about love; it's about optics."
They were all staring at her now. Blank expressions. Varric looked intrigued. Cole, confused. And Sera, mildly offended by the concept.
Hawke leaned over to Varric and waggled his eyebrows with pride. "I understood some of that."
Holli rolled her eyes. "Man, I wish I could suck you all into my world for a day."
That got some looks - curious, wary, amused. She leaned her elbows on the table, a grin tugging at her mouth.
"Totally shell-shocked Solas when I showed him in the Fade once. Thought I broke his brain for a minute there."
Varric raised his drink in salute. "You'll just have to drag us into your modern era."
"I'm gonna fucking try," Holli said with a laugh, raising her own cup in return. "Just you wait - flushable toilets and three-ply toilet paper, bitches. The world will thank me. Beating Corypheus will be a footnote."
Cole blinked, entirely serious. "You want to change how people poop."
"I want to change everything, Cole."
The table dissolved into light laughter. Even Blackwall turned his head from his match with Bull to give her a smile. Somewhere nearby, Vivienne raised a glass toward her with a nod that said tolerable. Not bad, considering.
She sat back again, letting her eyes drift across the hall. Music, firelight and familiar voices.
There was a time she hadn't thought this moment was possible. Not just the defeat of Corypheus, but this. She hadn't really envisioned an end, or what came next. But no one was crying. No one was bleeding. The Breach was gone. The sky was whole again.
It felt... pretty damn good.