"You sure this is right?" Sera frowned at the banner drooping over the War Table. "Cullen's not nearly as picky as the rest of you poncy gits -"

"Present company excepted, I trust?" Dorian raised a perfectly groomed eyebrow in her direction. His hands continued their work of lighting a hundred miniature candles, floated in the air throughout the room.

"Hah!" Sera snorted. "I should say not. You're the ponciest of the lot! Just happen to be the most fun, too."

"Should settle for what I can get, I shouldn't wonder. And no, as to your earlier question, that certainly isn't right." He flung a careless hand at the banner, which billowed once, then settled into a perfect arc.

"Dunno why you asked me to help if you're just gonna use your...mageliness to do it all anyway," Sera pouted.

"Cheer up!" Bull lifted Sera onto his shoulders. "Why don't you chuck a few flaming arrows at those candles His Mageliness has missed?"

"Now that I can do." Sera grinned and sent six perfect, blazing shots clanging against the stonework.

"Careful!" Dorian brushed stray ash off his robes with a put-upon sigh. "Or did you want to present the Commander with a charred stronghold as his present?"

A familiar tsk-ing emanated from the doorway. "My dear, whatever am I to do with you? Here I was thinking you would have had more sense in assembling a decorating committee."

"Madame de Fer!" Dorian bowed, narrowly missing catching his sleeve on fire. "My apologies, I didn't realize you and our dear Commander were so close!"

Dorian reluctantly acknowledged Vivienne's abilities at arching a brow to be superior to his own. "Hardly. Nothing against the man, of course, but he is so very...Fereldan."

"I am sure he would take that as a compliment." Cassandra shoved, rather forcefully, past Vivienne to deposit an enormous plush mabari in the corner of the room.

"Yes, I'm quite sure he would," Vivienne agreed. "Now, as to the matter of this party..."

"We wouldn't want to trouble you," Cassandra cut in. "I'm sure you have other...obligations."

"How sweet of you, my dear. But as depressing as it is, this little soiree is the most promising social event I've seen in months."

"Besides..." A twitch of Vivienne's fingers strung a series of pristine icicles across each paneled window. "You need all the help you can get."

As Vivienne and Cassandra began bicker over the cake - "Seeker, my dear, did you decorate this concoction with that maul of yours?" "I know what I would like to decorate with it" - Dorian couldn't help but smile. It wouldn't be the most polished affair he'd ever arranged, but he had a feeling Cullen would prefer it that way.

"You seem terribly pleased with yourself this evening, Dorian." Leliana stabbed a nearby hors d'oeuvre with a dagger and popped it into her mouth. "Does party planning always put such a smile on your face?"

"Or perhaps it's the recipient of his gesture our Tevinter friend is thinking of." Josephine winked as she deposited a vase of carefully arranged flowers in the center of the table.

"You two are as bad as a couple of Marsher fish-wives," Dorian quipped. "Don't the advisors of the Inquisition have anything better to do than scrutinize my love life?"

Leliana's expression was Sphinx-like. "An intriguing turn of phrase...considering how much time you spend scrutinizing a certain advisor of the Inquisition."

Dorian was saved from having to respond by Varric whirling into the room. "Places, people! Blackwall can't stall him any longer!"

"All right now, we've practiced this!" Dorian sent a small burst of lightning crackling into the ceiling. "Rogues, into stealth! Mages, fire spells at the ready! Warriors...try not to decapitate anything, would you?"

For himself, Dorian secured the ideal spot: concealed behind a pillar, he would have a perfect view of the utter shock on Cullen's face as he took in the room. With the tip of his wand, Dorian blew a single, perfect smoke ring across the room, unable to suppress a wicked smile; after all, the night's surprises were only just beginning.