Pride, Wolf and Rebellion

Faithful

She was falling. Her eyes snapped open and she tilted, splashing down out of her tree.

But she was caught from tumbling to the ground, caught by warmth and something stable. She lurched, opened her eyes.

It was Cullen.

He caught her around the waist and she wrapped her legs around him, clinging. He took a step back, cradling her. He gasped, collected himself and let her stand on her own two feet.

She exhaled, touched her face. Tears.

"Inquisitor?" said Cullen, rubbing the back of his neck. "Are you alright?"

"A bad dream..."

Cullen nodded. "I didn't get a chance to speak with you, but your clan..."

Fen'Asha nodded.

"I am sorry," he said.

"Thank you," she said.

Cullen stood quite still for a moment, then seemed to remember his purpose. "Yes, well," he said. "I was on my way to the prayer chamber. And I saw you...sleeping...in...in a tree."

Fen'Asha flushed.

"Would you..." he said before shaking his head.

"Would I...?"

"Would you care to join me, Inquisitor?" said Cullen. "In the prayer chamber. To pray. I have found comfort there."

Fen'Asha crossed her arms behind her back. "I suppose I could," she said. She nodded. "Yes, that would be nice."

They strolled through the garden, taking in the dark green under the night's blanket of stillness.

"Do you remember Haven?" said Cullen. "After...I mean."

Fen'Asha nodded. How could she forget?

"I asked myself again and again what I could have done differently," he said. "Could I have been more prepared? Could I have known? Was there some piece of information, some report, I missed? I didn't sleep for days, my mind plagued by regret."

Fen'Asha watched him, watched his eyes.

"I put everything I had into Skyhold," he said, looking up at the soaring, proud towers. "I had to make sure Haven didn't happen again."

"How?" she said faintly.

"I searched every corridor of this place, walked every rampart, examined every single crack in the wall," said Cullen. "I found solutions, but I always found more problems. I always found more questions, more uncertainty."

They reached a door and he tugged it open.

"But then, I found this," he said. He gestured to the striking statue of Andraste, the one at the end of the small room. A red carpet lay on the floor and a small stack of books sat atop a table. There were some candles.

Fen'Asha inhaled.

"I remembered that it wasn't all up to me," said Cullen. He looked up at Andraste and shook his head. "It is only by the Maker's grace we were delivered."

Fen'Asha smiled and closed her eyes.

"Though before me, all is shadow, yet shall the Maker be my guide," said Cullen, closing his eyes. "I shall not be left to wander the drifting roads of the Beyond. For there is no darkness in the Maker's light and nothing that He has wrought shall be lost."

"That's beautiful," she said.

"A prayer for those we have lost," said Cullen. "And those I am afraid to lose."