"We met when we were children." As he talks, it becomes more and more obvious that Strange is still just straight up in love with Arabella despite the fact that she passed. "I was trained at the White Spire which...thankfully was much more liberal with the treatment of the mages than Kirkwall. I was allowed to return home first for the death of my mother and then, a few years later, for the death of my father. Well, at that point I certainly didn't want to return to the White Spire but that business with the phylacteries meant that I couldn't escape even if I wanted to. So, Arabella moved to Val Royeaux instead."

Strange just continues talking no matter whether Solas wants to listen or not. "It wasn't ideal, but we managed to make it work. During that massacre at the conclave, I decided that phylacteries or not, I wasn't going to stay there a moment longer. We fled to the countryside. We had just gotten everything settled and our life together started when..."

When she died. Strange stops walking for a moment, partly to catch his breath, partly to try and shake the memories out of his head.