The companions were doing their usual, drinking whatever suited their fancy while Varric spun a tale of the day's events to those who weren't there.
"So there our heroine was, in the middle of not one wyvern, not two, but two juveniles and their mother."
"Boss! Why didn't I go with you?" Iron bull chuckled.
The Inquisitor laughed, "I didn't think I'd run into a family of wyverns!" She exclaimed, taking a sip of a brandy that burned her throat on the first sip. It traveled like fire magic down her throat.
"So she gets in the middle of the three of us, Hero, Seeker and of course, yours truly, and stands there, staff out, at first just staring."
"You did not!" Josephine exclaimed with a grin, getting sucked into the story.
"She was fierce, I tell you." Blackwall added, cementing Varric's claims, "I've never seen someone stare down a wyvern, let alone three."
"So here she is, just staring right? Slowly inching her way forward. The two children see her and they make this cry, alerting the mother. And of course she does not look happy that someone just attacked her babies."
"Though I hadn't actually attacked." Trevelyan interjected, taking another sip of the fire burning brandy. What was this stuff called again? Something Lava Burst? Brewed exclusively in Kal'Hirol. Hirol's Lava Burst? Yes, that was it.
"So she lets them attack her. I'm not kidding! She lets three wyverns charge at her, and then that's when we start calling her many sort of names, all the while she's summoning a blizzard, A Maker's damned blizzard."
"My dear! What did you think you were doing, being that foolish? Yet a blizzard? How cunning of you to know your enemies weaknesses." Vivienne smiled, as if she had just achieved her own personal victory, "you astound me. Keep doing the Mages proud."
The Mage inquisitor quietly chuckled, "it wasn't nearly as bad as Varric makes it seem, I promise."
"I would've paid to have seen Boss take on three damned wyverns!" Iron Bull grinned. Yvette never thought she'd be making friends with a Qunari. Not that she hated it, but before she joined the Inquisition- "joined", she would've laughed at the person who told her that a Qunari would be a friend and ally, it was unlikely finding a Qunari that was still living under the Qun to be as... Relaxed as Iron Bull was. But when shit got bad, his sword, and his massive body, had been the only thing standing stopping arrows or blades. And she was grateful to have both him AND his Chargers.
"I still bet it was amazing! With the blizzard just like 'take that you teeth filled lizard!'" Sera exclaimed, giddily clapping her hands together.
"So here we are in this small grotto, and the Inquisitor here is making a blizzard. It's getting colder and colder, I'm shivering, Seeker's teeth were chattering-"
"No they were not."
"And Hero had icicles growing off his beard."
"Was blasted freezing!" Blackwall laughed.
"So the three of us were getting cold, and the wyverns were getting more and more pissed off, and I was afraid that our Inquisitor was going to get eaten alive before I could get a bolt off. Before I know it, there are three sets of teeth lunging at her, the tail of the mother whips around and when the tail connects with the inquisitor's face, I thought we were all done. But she keeps enchanting! And for some blasted reason, I feel like I'm getting hypothermia. I'm wearing gloves all the time, and I still thought my fingers would fall off."
Trevelyan shook her head and took a small sip.
"How much magic did you pour into this spell? Sounds deliciously disastrous." Dorian said, grinning.
"One set of jaws buries the teeth in her leg, so she's got a cut on her face, and she's bleeding down her leg, and I feel like that's when all hell breaks loose, again. The blizzard spell finally triggers and its harsher than ever. Seeker, Hero and I, we just got very cold. The wyverns? Perfect ice statues! Right down to their frothing saliva."
"You got bit by a wyvern? You should let everyone see the scars!" Iron Bull cheered. Others followed suit.
"You've got quite the crowd to please now, inquisitor." Varric chuckled, slightly smirking.
Trevelyan shook her head, "this is your doing." but she was still slightly smiling. Thankfully, she was wearing a tunic above her small clothes, yet underneath the "uniform". What was the harm right?
She took off the coat of the uniform and everyone gasped.
"Damn Boss." Iron Bull gaped.
Then she rolled up her pant legs, the leg where she got bit.
"Varric, you just have to finish telling the story!" Josephine squealed with almost giddy delight.
"All in due time Ruffles, all in due time. So the blizzard spell finally goes off and it freezes the wyverns. I mean full on ice statues. Then, she summons lightning, and I don't think those poor bastards know what hit them, I notice now that Seeker, Hero and I all have a barrier. I'm pulling Bianca back to full draw, maximum penetration, Seeker and Hero are getting ready for that full swing, and a fire spell goes off at the moment we hit them, they instantly shatter. Some of the ice hits us, but the barrier keeps us from actually bleeding. Inquisitor is standing in the middle of the carnage, on one knee, the staff is barely holding her up."
"Varric, I was fine." The mage laughed. He wasn't wrong, she was exhausted from the sudden magic drain, and she had been bleeding from the ice shards, and the bite on her leg, and the cut from the wyverns tail.
"Makers breath! Did you have any potions?" Josephine asked nervously.
"Not a one." Varric answered, also true. They had just taken the keep and drained the lake, went to close the rift and so they had been out of potions since the morning.
Trevelyan's eyes met Cullen's and she slightly smiled before she noticed his frown, his eyebrows were furrowed.
"Commander, come and join us for a drink." Josephine said, trying to ignore the tension in the room.
"Perhaps another time, Josephine. I need to have a talk with our Inquisitor. It regards the keep we took in Crestwood."
Trevelyan spotted his tell. It was all in his eyes. They never left hers.
She took another sip of her brandy, a rather large sip. "Don't play a game of Wicked Grace without me." She winked as he excused herself and followed the commander to his "office".
"A family of wyverns? Please tell me he's joking." He demanded as soon as she closed the door.
For a moment her back was turned to him, then she slowly turned around with a sheepish smile.
"It was an exaggeration?"
"Yvette..." Cullen sighed in defeat, closing the space between the two of them with just a few steps.
He got a look at her new scars and gently brought his hand to her face and grazed his thumb against her un-scarred cheek.
"Yvette..." he said again, he was looking for words. They had forgone the formality of calling each other by their title when they were alone. And she was certain that he was the only one that called her by her name. Even when she was friends with almost everyone.
"I was worried about you today. I am worried about you everyday. You fight demons and bandits and monsters. I worry because I am not there with you to hold a shield up for you. I am sadly needed here."
Trevelyan looked away from him, slightly ashamed of herself. This was the last thing she wanted him to do was worry about her.
"When we escaped from Haven, all I could think about was how you laid your life on the line for other people. You rescued people from fires, even as we were retreating into the chantry. When it came time for the actual evacuation you laid your life down again. I... I suppose that's when I knew."
"Cullen..."
"Yvette, please let me finish. If I don't finish now, I might never get the chance."
So, the Mage gently held his hand in support.
"When I knew how I felt, I got frightened. How could I not? You were staring down Corypheus and that... That dragon for me, for all of us to escape. I had no idea what would happen. I wanted to know, I wanted to be there with you. To be your strength. Your shield. My want to protect everyone extended to everyone else except the person who needed my protection the most."
He took a breath and his grip tightened. "I was frightened I would never see you again, Yvette. If that ever happened I would never be able to live with myself knowing that I was not there when you needed me most."
He gently cupped her face and brought her face to his, "I live with the fear that every time you leave Skyhold's protection you may not come back. When I hear tales of your adventures outside... I worry about you. It's foolish, I know, but that never stops me."
"Cullen..." Yvette tried again, but Cullen brought his face to hers, running an armored hand through her dark red hair. It had gotten longer since all of this started. He rather liked it that way. There was no dire need, there was no time limit, there was no false archdemon breathing down their necks, threatening everyone and everything. It was just Yvette and Cullen. He needed to know she was there and this all hadn't been some lucid dream, wicked torture. But when his lips met hers, his fears washed away.
She was here. She was here with him. Letting him...
Yvette chuckled as they let go, air breathing life into their lungs again.
Cullen gave her that boyish smirk that she never said she loved so much. She couldn't help but smile back at him for a moment.
"Then... It's a good thing I'm staying here for a few days, isn't it?" She smirked and winked at him as she walked toward the door.
Cullen was grateful. But he sensed an underlying issue with the Mage. Even off Lyrium (and a few games of Wicked Grace) he could spot her tell. But maybe it was that he hadn't had a dose in... Months that he could sense something... Off about his own mage.
"Is there something you're not telling me?"
Her hand stopped as she grasped the handle of the door.
"I... I planned on telling you after." She admitted carefully.
Cullen put a strong arm around her waist, "I'm not letting you leave my sight until you tell me what's going on."
"My duties for the inquisition have me around red lyrium almost all the time." She admitted with a sigh, Cullen's grip gently tightened, "I've been heeding Varric's warning and I haven't touched the damn stuff, but I do feel and hear something humming in the back of my head... Drives me insane during silences. I just want a few days here to clear my head." She turned around and found him frowning again.
"Cullen-"
"I will watch you. No one has the better experience than me. I used to be a Templar. I can help you in this matter at least."
"But Cullen-"
"Yvette. Please." He pulled her close, "let me do this." He gently buried his head in her soft hair and gently ran his hand over it. He was not losing her. Not to this.