They returned to Skyhold. Their army limped back, everyone feeling strange and weary and confused. Many people kept having problems with magic, but at the same time, there were no demons, no monsters, none of the horrible things that were supposed to happen. Just fires and things being flung about. Simple fixes.
When they went back through the eluvian, the flowers in the Crossroads were all in full bloom. The colors were brighter and more real, and everything felt far more alive than it had been before.
“Has it always looked like this?” Cassandra asked, reaching out to touch a blooming flower.
“Like what?” Arethin said.
“It was...dim and gray before,” Cassandra said. “I still feel as if...as if I am on the deck of a ship, but the colors are...brighter.”
“It was...strange, before,” Arethin said. “Sometimes bright, and sometimes full of mist.” she looked at the flowers and the sun overhead. “This is...different. You're right.”
“The magic is being revived,” Solas said.
“I thought this'd be creepy,” Sera said. “But it's—not,” she opened her hand, and ice coated her palm, snowflakes developing on the tips of her fingers for a moment. She laughed. “It's not! How is that for weird?”
“What's different about it now?” Arethin asked.
“I don't feel—it feels normal,” Sera said. “Like—like if my leg'd gone to sleep, and then woke up again. Only I didn't know I even had a leg to go to sleep. See?” she laughed again, sounding giddy. “And I was afraid of a stupid leg!”
Everyone seemed to be in such a shape, everything in disarray and chaos, but people weren't necessarily angry about it.
The remnants of the Chantry were all distinctly unhappy, even going so far as to completely denounce the Inquisition as heretics.
“What will you do about that?” Arethin asked Cassandra, who merely sighed and shook her head.
“I will...we will decide in the future,” she said. “I have very little patience for them, when so much else needs to be put into order.”
“I suppose they must be feeling upset,” Arethin said. “That magic was not such a terrible thing after all.”
The eluvians were easier to open than they ever were before, and opened not just to places in the physical world, but strange old ruins and buildings that had been created in spaces in between. There were huge palaces and libraries and gardens and even forests in between, full of magic and mysteries that people longed to explore. With so much space in the Crossroads, many elves simply moved there, and the territory of the Dales became more of a country for those who had human friends and families.
Keeper Merrill moved out of Skyhold, to occupy one of those in-between spaces, a strange library full of useful books and friendly spirits. Not only did her Clan accompany her, but many of her friends, including Lady Hawke, visited her there as well.
Orlais reeled. Empress Giuseppina was unhappy, and tried to get the Inquisition and the Chantry to cooperate with each other, but was not having much success.
Briala left Skyhold to help coordinate things in Halam'shiral, to try and help anyone who asked for citizenship in the Dales and indeed, to try and create the sort of country she would want to live in. It was a difficult process, made much harder by the presence of so much magic, but Briala found herself relishing the challenge. She hardly thought of Celene at all.
Any Tranquil who had not yet been cured by Pharamond were immediately revived--it seemed that Tranquility required a Veil to work, and without the Veil, such a thing could not be possible. They were, by all accounts, ecstatic, and ecstatic about feeling that way in the first place.
Some others were greatly displeased, Aveline and Fenris among them. For Fenris still detested magic and Aveline had, after all, married a Templar long ago. There was little to be done, however, and so Fenris and Aveline vowed to use the magic they did have better than those who came before them.
The dwarves began to have dreams, which was quite alarming to them (as well as an unforeseen side effect of the Veil removal), and they had yet to adjust. Varric found he rather liked dreams, once he got used to them. Stories playing in the mind while one slept. Dagna as well, often woke Sera up in the middle of the night to excitedly describe a new invention she had dreamt.
This dreaming and magic was quite fascinating to Orzammar. Zevran Arainai found himself in sudden possession of a magical gift, and he quite liked the change. Queen Aeducan wasn't sure about either the dreams or the magic, but they seemed to be reasonably harmless in her estimation, so it was alright.
The Sentinels were also pleased when the Veil was removed. They departed from Skyhold, desiring to try and find others of their kind. Perhaps more like them had survived into this age, and with the Veil gone, they would be more likely to wake.
Felassan, for his part, decided to follow Briala around. Solas was very quietly relieved about this.
The mages were happy. But then, everyone was a mage, now.
The world felt as if it had let out a breath, and this was the space between taking another one. It was strange. It was so strange.
For now, everyone waited in the aftermath.
They'd come back to Skyhold, and no one had yet decided what they were going to do next. Even Surana and Morrigan, commonly wanderers, stayed at the fortress.
Those who hadn't had magic before were busy adjusting. Sera and Iron Bull were both utterly fascinated, despite their apprehensions about magic before. Vivienne was actually greatly pleased, now that mages could no longer be singled out by those without magic. She thought that the removal of the Veil was akin to letting everyone play with matches, but even so, she could not help a bit of pleasure now that everyone knew what it was like to have magic. There could be no peasants attacking lone mages, now that they all were mages.
Dorian didn't see that things were very different, but enjoyed how his companions were dealing with their new-found magic all the same. Dorian's dwarven paramour was rather more hesitant about magic, but he came out alright.
Cole, as a spirit, didn't display magic quite the same as the others did, but he was pleased with Arethin's choice in any case, as it meant that spirits would no longer be hurt so much upon crossing to the physical world.
Solas could not bring his own people back—he had promised Arethin that if her solution worked, he would not try his own, and it seemed that the world was no longer in such peril. The loss of Elvhenan still felt like a great gaping wound, something that could never be fully healed.
But now there was magic again, and the People themselves were healed of their own wound, the mistake he had made. The Veil, that terrible imposition, was lifted, and the elves were themselves again, long-lived and full of magic.
Solas could live with that, because he would no longer be so alone. Even if he couldn't bring the elves of old back, at least the elves that lived now would no longer suffer because of his mistakes.
In the wake of the Veil's removal, Solas stayed close to Skyhold, near to both Arethin and to Iron Bull. Both were very glad of his company, albeit for very different reasons.
So it was during this time of strangeness that Cassandra and Arethin stood out on the balcony in the early morning, just before the sunrise.
Cassandra held her close, and Arethin leaned into her side.
The air was full of magic, and Arethin had not stopped feeling the novelty of it. She fancied that everything up until then had been a dream, and this was real. That was what it felt like. She felt like everything in her and everything in the world was more solid, more real, more true than it had been, and even if it wasn't all good, it was better than it had been.
Things would be coming. Storms and monsters and magic, everything that was asleep waking up.
But the two of them were here. They were together, and despite all the chaos, and everything that was coming, the world felt right around them.
“There will be so much to do,” Cassandra murmured.
“I know,” Arethin said. “And we will do it.”
“Of course,” Cassandra smiled. “I could hardly expect anything less.”
“Oh—look at that,” Arethin said, glancing up.
The sun was rising, splitting the gray sky with brilliant light, making the clouds turn vivid pinks and yellows.
The dawn had finally come.