Work Text:
"Your parents are idiots."
Urthemiel snorted in agreement and shifted over to allow Zevran some room to sit on the narrow ledge. He sat carefully and stopped to catch his breath. He was getting too old for climbing up cliffs every time there was an argument.
"I am not sure who is worse: your mother, for insisting you keep trying to remember your past and become what you once were, or your father for doing nothing to stand up to her. There are all sorts of possibilities for a talented and beautiful young woman such as yourself, if you want to live a normal life what business is it of theirs, hmm?"
Urthemiel snorted again, but this time there was a tone of disagreement to it. The vibration from her breath shook Zevran slightly from his seat and sent little stones skittering down into the valley below.
"You know." he said "It would be much easier to have this conversation if you were able to talk." The ten foot long dragon beside him rolled her eyes and stood back before transforming back into a human.
"I like being a dragon." she said, straightening her hair. "It's comfortable."
"Comfortable for you, perhaps." he replied. "When you are in that form I cannot help but think of the many times such beings have tried to eat me."
"I wouldn't eat you." she said "You're too bony, and all the buckles would stick in my teeth."
"You speak from past experience?"
Urthemiel grinned but didn't answer. "Regardless," she said "Just because I don't want to relive being mad and tainted, or the several thousand years of thinking "Wow, it really sucks being trapped in this underground prison" doesn't mean I want to be normal. Not normal for a human anyway."
"So you want to be a dragon?" Zevran considered this possibility with some trepidation. "Find a lair and a harem of handsome little boydragons to do your bidding? Well, if it would make you happy, I suppose, though I can see joint family get togethers being a little awkward."
"Ha, no." She made a face. "Have you met any boy dragons? They're about as much fun to spend time with as you'd expect from a giant lizard, and even less intelligent. Female dragons aren't much better, it's been so long since I really lived properly as a dragon that I have no idea how to talk to them. That and lairs are all...cold and slimy. Being stuck underground has lost it's appeal."
"Well then what do you want?"
"Revenge."
"Against the Chantry?"
"Pfft. The Chantry. They don't scare me any more. No, the Maker. I'm going to free my sisters and take back our city."
Zevran made a strangled sound. "The Black City? Are you crazy?"
Urthermiel didn't dignify this with a response, but gave her best "I am several thousand years older than you, don't act like you know what's best for me" pout.
"Are you sure you don't just want to take over the Tevinter Imperium and declare yourself a god? Because you know, that plan isn't sounding so bad right now."
"I might have to do that first." she said "To get enough of an army. Though of course I can always rely on the Grey Wardens to do my bidding if I don't mind taking advantage of their Taint."
"Dane wouldn't approve of that."
"I wouldn't do it to him. And I probably wouldn't even need to force them, what better way to prevent another Blight than freeing the other Old Gods before they turn into archdemons?"
"And I suppose your sisters will be so grateful to be free that they'll become the best of friends with humans and elves and dwarves and usher in a new era of peace?"
Urthemiel laughed darkly. "Oh, I doubt it."
Zevran looked at the young woman beside him, burning with an old fierce inhuman soul, and wondered what had happened to the little girl he had helped raise. Perhaps she had never existed.
"I do not think I am willing to help you with this." he said.
"Oh of course not!" she cried. Urthemiel leaned over and gave him a hug. "I'd want to keep you safe, as far away from all the fighting as possible. This is no task for mortals, at least not the ones I care about." She smiled and patted him affectionately on the cheek. "Thankyou for coming and talking to me, I feel much better about things now. I think it's time I had a serious talk with my mother about my future". She cheerfully picked herself up, turned back into a dragon, and swooped off into the sky.
Zevran sighed. It was a long walk back down.