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

The Happiest Man in Thedas

7 Kingsway, 9:53

"I get to tell!"

"No, I do!"

"I'm faster than you."

"I'm bigger than you."

The squabbling voices and the accompanying sound of racing feet preceded the crashing open of Cullen's office doors, as he had anticipated they would, and two tall boys ran in, pushing each other, skidding to a stop on the wooden floor in front of his desk.

On the rug near the hearth, the three mabari grunted and shifted to more comfortable positions. The boys' mabari lifted his head and looked at them with a measured glance, clearly trying to determine if his input was needed. When neither of them called to him, he laid his head back down and soon was asleep again.

Cullen pushed his glasses down his nose and looked at them over the top of the frames, waiting silently. It was a tactic that worked well on his students, but never seemed to impress his sons as much as he thought it ought to.

"Father, you'll never guess—"

"No, I'm going to tell him!"

"Shut up, Dory, you are not."

"I am, too."

"Boys!" The severe voice came from the doorway. "What have I told you about interrupting your father's office hours?"

They looked at each other, rivalry instantly put aside in the face of the bigger threat. They turned to Antonia and chorused, "Don't?"

"That's right. Don't. You both come right back out here, close the doors, and knock properly."

"Yes, ma'am."

Cullen suppressed a smile as they did her bidding. Sometimes he wished they listened more to him, but he had to admit he found their impulsiveness charming more often than not. Vel, the oldest, had begun swordsmanship training with his mother, and was learning more discipline. Dory was showing more of an aptitude for daggers and a certain sneakiness, and Cullen sometimes despaired of the idea of his younger son ever curbing his willful and impulsive ways. On the other hand, they both had loving hearts and a thoughtfulness he liked to see in them, and that made up for a lot.

A soft tap sounded on his closed doors, and he took off his glasses, folding them and laying them aside on the stack of papers he had been grading. "Enter."

"Father, we have to tell you—"

"You'll never guess who we heard from—"

Cullen looked at his wife over the boys' heads. After well over a decade of marriage, she was still as beautiful as ever, and he blessed the day she had fallen from the sky into his life, despite all that had come with that fateful day.

Dagna had fashioned her an arm to replace the one lost to the Anchor. It wasn't enough for Antonia to resume fighting with a two-handed sword, but it had some mobility that helped in daily life. When they left Skyhold, Roya went back to Orzammar. Rather than look for someone else she could trust as a nurse, Antonia had chosen to care for the boys herself. Now that they were old enough to demand less of her attention, she had accepted a job as a trainer in swordsmanship for the Denerim guards.

Cullen had been taken on as faculty at the University of Denerim, teaching military history and Templar history. He enjoyed it a lot more than he had ever imagined he would, and had an unsurprising reputation for being tough but fair.

He decided he had made the boys wait long enough. "Yes? Vel, you first."

His older son, quieter and less boisterous than his brother, said, "Uncle Varric's coming to town."

"Vel! You told me I could say. I'm named after him!"

They had named their second son Dorian Varric Trevelyan, and he truly seemed to have parts of both his namesakes' personalities, much to Cullen's occasional chagrin.

"Don't blame your brother," Antonia said.

"No," Cullen agreed. "I asked the question. Did Varric say when he was coming, Dory?"

"Yes, in two weeks. And that's not all!"

"I get to tell this one." Antonia was smiling broadly. "Bull's going to be in town, too. Wicked Grace!"

Cullen groaned. "Must we?"

"If you would stop betting your clothing, I think you'd enjoy it more."

"They cheat!"

"Yes. Yes, they do." She grinned at him.

Cullen couldn't help grinning back. He loved to see her light up the way she did when any of the companions came for a visit. Varric was still Seneschal of Kirkwall, still living in the Hanged Man, as far as Cullen knew, and he had somehow enticed Hawke and Fenris to come back to the city as well. The Iron Bull now ran three bands of Chargers out of Skyhold. Cullen suspected he also still ran the dismantled Inquisition's spy network, but they never asked, and he never said. Everyone involved had been willing to respect Cullen and Antonia's choice to step away from whatever plans were going to be made to counteract Solas, although he had to admit that any time more than one former companion appeared in Denerim, he secretly suspected it was an attempt to recruit them.

They hadn't seen Josephine, now married to an Antivan merchant from another house, for a long time. Dorian called by sending crystal fairly regularly, but he was deeply embroiled in Tevinter politics and couldn't seem to tear himself away.

Vivienne was busy stirring up trouble for Divine Victoria and trying to make the new and improved Circles last, but it was an uphill battle, and one she appeared to be losing. The Chantry had developed some stability under Cassandra's rule, but it was a shaky and hard-won stability, and Cullen dreaded the next inevitable upheaval.

Cole had gone off on the open road with Maryden; no one had heard from him in quite some time. And Blackwall had disappeared to Weisshaupt in the Anderfels with the other Wardens. Sera was around somewhere—they often had little gifts from her 'friends' appear on their doorstep.

And Leliana wrote occasionally, but under cover of secrecy. She and Thomas were very happy, and very uninterested in returning to the world. Cullen couldn't blame them. Antonia's notoriety was still something of a problem occasionally, even though they lived fairly quietly and she never traded on her past as the Inquisitor.

He pushed his chair back from his desk. "Well, if Varric and the Iron Bull are coming to town, I think it's time for a long-overdue lesson." He smiled at the boys. "How would you like to learn to play Wicked Grace?"

Antonia flushed guiltily and looked away. The boys snickered, and Cullen groaned.

"Well, they had to learn sometime," she said, trying to hide the impish twinkle in her eyes.

"I suppose they did. Fine. Boys, go set up the table and get the cards. When Uncle Jared comes for dinner, we'll see if we can't rope him in, too." Jared split his time between a small hold in South Reach near Mia and Ariel and their families and a little house in Denerim. He had never married, but took tremendous joy in being an uncle many times over.

The boys hurried to do as he had asked. "I'll deal," Dory said.

"You always deal from the bottom," Vel complained.

"That," Antonia said, "I didn't teach him."

"I think it came with the name." Cullen reached out and pulled her into his arms. "Have I told you yet today that you make me the happiest man in Thedas?"

"Mm. I believe you said something like that this morning. Or tried to, before you were ... distracted." She grinned at him.

"Come on, you scamp, while I beat you and your sons at cards."

"That'll be the day."