The Crossroads by Calyah, a review

Ever since KeeperLavellan over at AO3 gutted me with her Solavellan hell in Apotheosis (seriously, go read it and its Dark Solas companion piece) I've been struggling to find another F!Lavellan/Solas piece that works for me. Or, even as I've later developed an unfortunate fixation on the Sentinel Abelas (and how do you even name that ship?) I've enjoyed seeing how writers bring his story out of the brief encounter in Mythal's temple.

Abevellan?

I guess so. Google can't be wrong.

Anyhoo, so somehow I stumbled across the writer Calyah, and she'd started writing a rather sweet Abevellan, but then I think she hit the same speed wobble loads of writers did after the Trespasser DLC that knocked our entire storylines sideways. Now, some may gamely have continued with their headcanons despite everything. Others, like Calyah, took down her chapters and revised.

At the time, I remember being quite put out (and more than a bit worried) as I'd thought she'd just deleted the fic. But no. She cam back. Better and with so much bite. She has grown tremendously as a writer when I compare the earlier piece in the series to what she has going with The Crossroads.  Essentially, this is a retelling of the Trespasser DLC, with a whole lot of author headcanon and retelling of the main storyline, giving Abelas and his fellow Sentinels a far more active role in opposing the Big Bad.

And it's every bit as awesome as you can imagine. And satisfying.

If I'm going to nit-pick, I'll mention that there were a few little wibbles and wobbles with grammar and typos et al, but not so much to make me grumble or grouse because the story had me scrolling down, dead keen to see how Calyah was going to let things play out. Her action sequences are exhilarating and the emotional tension strong with few places where the pacing flags or the ball gets dropped. (At any rate, the rough patches didn't bother me – this is still one of the better Solavellans out there.)

And the payoff at the end. Yussss, it was bloody perfect and well worth the wait. The happy-for-now is a perfect set-up for if she should feel the need to leave the story as is, or pick it up later.