A Candle in the Darkness (A Dragon Age: Inquisition fanfiction)

Underfoot

27 Bloomingtide, 9:42

The battlefield was chaos, and Cullen felt as though he needed to be everywhere at once, hurrying from crisis point to crisis point.

The men were holding, even pushing ahead, and the Red Templars appeared to be thinning, but every time he thought they were on the edge of defeat it seemed a new wave of them appeared. He sent a set of support troops off to the west where the Red Templars were pushing back against the Inquisition's forces and stopped to help a trebuchet crew dig a wheel out of the soft dirt and sand. The battle plan was changing as the troops surged back and forth across the field, or through the trees and vines, rather, and Cullen was hurrying to keep up with it.

At his heels wherever he went were Lucky on one side and Eustace on the other. He nearly tripped on one or the other every time he turned around.

"Eustace!" he said finally. "Don't you have someplace to be? I can think of ten other places on this battlefield where your skills would be better used."

"I'm sorry, Commander. I have orders."

"Last time I looked, I gave the orders," Cullen snapped. He took a dispatch from a soldier, scanning it quickly. "Tell them I'll send another unit, but that's all I can spare. They have to hold that bridge, whatever it takes," he said to the soldier, who hurried off, and Cullen signaled a small unit of reserves to follow him. "Eustace?" he asked.

"My orders come from a higher authority, Commander." Eustace was quaking in his boots, but he stood his ground.

"The Inquisitor?"

Eustace nodded.

Cullen frowned at him. He would have frowned at Antonia if she'd been there, but she was conveniently far ahead on her way to face Corypheus, and he could really hardly blame her for worrying about his safety when he had privately extracted promises from Dorian, Varric, and the Iron Bull to bring her back safely if such a thing was at all possible ... and would have asked for the same promise from Morrigan if he had thought she would agree.

"Fine," he said to Eustace. "Just don't be underfoot." They hurried off together. Cullen stuck his hand in his pocket, feeling the small velvet bag there and the narrow band of dragonbone inside it. She had to come back, he told himself. As long as he hadn't given her this ring, she had to come back, because it belonged to her. He nodded firmly, letting the ring go and putting Antonia out of his mind as best he could. The Inquisitor and her team were ahead; his job was to make sure the road stayed clear for their return, and that as many Red Templars fell to the Inquisition forces as possible.

He hurried to the next crisis, and the next. Then he came around the corner of a ruined wall and a number of things happened, seemingly all at once. Eustace shouted "Commander!" and shoved him. Something slammed into Cullen's chest. He heard Lucky yelp in anger. And he found himself flat on his back on the ground with a swarm of soldiers around him.

"I'm all right," Cullen said eventually, once he could breathe and talk again, although he was far from being certain that was the case. Certainly standing up and getting out from the center of this knot of people would have to be better. He pushed them all aside, getting to his feet. Once he was able to take stock, he found a deep dent in his breastplate where a Red Templar's arrow had impacted, and beneath it he imagined there would be some colorful bruises tomorrow, but there appeared to be no serious damage done.

He saw Lucky on the other side of the field, pinning down the archer who had hit him, and Eustace was next to him, bleeding freely from a wound in the forearm. Cullen looked it over carefully. "Are you all right?"

"Yes, Commander. A field bandage, and I'll be fine."

"You should go back to the medical tent and get that looked at."

"No, ser. I am staying here, following the Inquisitor's orders. We can't afford to lose you, ser."

"Eustace, you damned idiot, go get that looked at!"

Eustace merely stared at him, and Cullen groaned. "Every person I know is as stubborn as the day is long. Fine, then, have it your way. Get that bandaged and let's get back to work. This battle is not going to win itself."

And he was back in the thick of it without giving the incident another thought.