Varric Tethras can't stand holding back the truth about Marian Hawke after the Inquisitor leaves her in the Fade to die. What he can't stand more is no one is trying to get her back. With the assistance of friends in surprising places, he fights in...
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
"Start your men here," Fenris says, pointing at the main bailey drawn in an unrolled map pinned on the war table. "It may not be just the Eluvian these demons breach."
Dorian stands opposite, where the Advisors and Logan stand around him, not that it would save him from the big sword the length of the elf. The packed room is not what the usual crowd is accustomed to, and it flusters Cullen more when they seem to be telling him what to do in his own keep. However, they explained a while back that another elf, Merrill, has seen things (no really), and if they don't intervene, Varric's adventure will end with a memorial inside Skyhold. That's why they're here, not Josephine's party invitations.
Merrill prefers the earthly tones like he does, but strays from the finer fabrics, more possibly because she looks like she's been in her own little world, and doesn't care if she lives in a hovel, or a tent. Maybe even a hole in a field where she can frolic. Dorian skepticizes what all she can see but he does not doubt the sincerity in her voice. She believes it. And she's seen the second worst assault that she's known—her first? No idea. But he guesses she's walked the Fade and asked a few questions. The rest of this Fenris fellow's team appears orthodox for people from Kirkwall. Aveline, Captain of the Guard, is as they say: fierce. And the main reason these strangers are allowed in the war room at all, as Cullen trusts her. He also knows the Templar, Carver. It seems a few templars survived since the Inquisitor doomed them to Corypheus. But from his attitude, maybe Corypheus spat him back out. Honestly, he doesn't know how Varric didn't pin him to a wall for how he talks about Hawke, or anybody. Truly. And it's not even clever.
There would have been more, but Aveline explained that some of Hawke's companions left under circumstances. Isabela never came back with the tome the Arishok wanted, and Sebastian would have stayed, since Anders was put to real justice, but his determination to take back his land ("Horse shit," Aveline has said) overruled his loyalty to Hawke. Which is good because Varric's shots are straighter anyway, whatever that means.
To bolster the ranks, Aveline and Carver brought a few of their people along, although not much, considering what Kirkwall heard of Corypheus, they had fewer volunteers to cross the sea, and fight the chaos. Cullen was appreciative, even patted her shoulder. Dorian never gets pats on his shoulder.
Apparently his whine caught the room's attention, and a few stare at him.
"I'm sorry, am I being too melancholic?" Dorian says.
Every look from the former Tevinter slave stabs, but that perfectly proportioned face—he can't stop staring back. Dorian clears his throat.
"Something on your mind?" Fenris says, but Dorian hears the rest of it: "mage;" "Vint dog."
"No. Continue." Just a bit of tension, some passive aggression, stuck in his throat. Nothing to worry about.
Fenris glares, probably hearing the rest of that too.
