The walk down the hallway to his room always seemed to take an eternity.
Maia Lavellan squared her shoulders and quickened her pace, mindful of maintaining the silent footfalls of the hunter she’d been until not long ago, when the world had started to come undone. Though she’d been skilled enough that tales of her prowess had reached other Dalish clans, Maia thought she had never hunted such elusive—not to mention oblivious—quarry as the man she sought now. She’d been down here to ask him a question or two dozens of times, and nothing had ever come of it. Why should tonight be any different? Solas simply didn’t seem to notice that she was interested in him, much less female. Of course, she had a feeling that between fighting demons and trying to save the world from certain destruction, he had bigger things on his mind than unlacing her leathers with his teeth. Unfortunately. But it was against her nature to give up without a fight, so here she was again.
Though only the high back of his chair was visible as she approached, Maia knew he’d be settled in it at this hour, open books and unbound scrolls scattered before him on his desk, as content as a person could be. She briefly considered sneaking up on him, then discarded the idea. The sparse and singed eyebrows Sera was currently sporting were proof enough that it was a bad idea to startle him. Then again, they may have just been proof that trying to draw a moustache on him while he slept was ill advised, but it was best not to take chances. It had been a long enough day already.
“Solas?” Maia came around the side of the desk and was treated to the sight of a handsome elf hunched over a tome, deep in thought. His brow was furrowed, creating the only lines on a face that showed perhaps half of his forty-two years. His sleek bald head only served to showcase the sharp beauty of his features, softened by full lips that could drive even the busiest, most exhausted, and thoroughly out-of-sorts Inquisitor to distraction. Vivienne liked to attribute the apparent youth of the “scruffy hedge mage” to his having made a deal with an accommodating demon. Maia didn’t think so…but unlike the treasures spread in front of him, Solas was very much a closed book when it came to his life. With him, it was all lyrical snippets of conversation and frustrating guesswork. She’d been spending far too much time on the guessing lately. It couldn’t be healthy.