Lady Ducette Maron is a sensible person. Usually. She had listened to her parents to study, to dance, so that one day she could marry into a good family and elevate the standing of her own. For the last 25 years of her life, she has been doing so. Her father is a man who does not find himself beneath to weave lies and utilize manipulation to eliminate people he called enemies. She had fallen in love with a hunter that accidentally wandered into the woods that belonged to her family. But recently, she is finally forced to her 'preordained destiny' to marry an old man who is a snake, no better than her father. Her lover is as helpless as her and didn't have the guts enough to elope with her, Lady Ducette fled her life of comfort and wealth to…
Scrubbing pots for Cabot in the tavern of Skyhold.
She has merely arrived two weeks before, and rather than announcing that she is the heir of a minor noble house in Southern Orlais, she pretended to be one of the villager refugees who coincidentally came in together from the Hinterlands. Skyhold was obviously understaffed & severely overwhelmed from the influx of people, for the soldier who was sitting at the makeshift table, marked down her fake name, Gwen, without further questioning.
So why is she scrubbing pots? Obviously, just the will to help out with the inquisition is not enough. Healers, builders and cleaners are in severe shortage, and being groomed to be an heir of a noble house, means etiquettes and dancing, the only two things that she is really good at, is of no use in Skyhold. After breaking 20 plates and accidentally setting a bed on fire with a candle, she is finally assigned to scrubbing pots. Lady Ducette may be clueless and slow, but her determination to help out the Inquisition is real.
While scrubbing the 8th pot of the day, her mind drifted to the Inquisitor, Lady Evelyn of the Trevelyan noble house. Stories of her beauty and valor in battle has reached even the far outskirts of Orlais, where Ducette always await eagerly in her study for more news of the latest Inquisition conquest. When the tavern isn't busy, sometimes she will join in the crowd listening to the wondrous tales from Varric, how Lady Trevelyan singlehandedly slay a dragon by climbing on its head and gorging its eyes out with her twin daggers. Ducette often find herself sighing in admiration and can only dreamily imagine her doing the same. How could they be of the same age, but leading such different lives?
"Gwen!" Cabot shouted in from the bar. "The bar is shorthanded today! Come and help out!"
Ducette hastily wipe her hands on her dress and shouted back, "Coming!"
The Inquisition soldiers are usually well-behaved and disciplined, whipped by none other than Ser Cullen, the commander of the Inquisition army. Ducette had seen him a few times, and that man with his huge furry coat is intimidating even from afar. Luckily, the man always remains in his own quarters and rarely visits the tavern.
When she hurries out, picking up a notepad and a feather pen to take orders, the tavern was lively and people were toasting and dancing away to the music. She overheard from the soldiers that the Inquisitor had successfully stormed the stronghold within Emprise Du Lion, and more scouts and soldiers are returning from that 'accursed cold place'. Lady Trevelyan is finishing up the last bit of her business in Emprise Du Lion and will be returning in a few days' time. Ducette's heart leap from her chest upon hearing this piece of news, as she will finally be able to see the legendary Inquisitor. A few hours into the night, the soldiers started to get rowdy. When Ducette tried to squeeze past a table carrying 2 tankards of ale on each hand, a soldier grabbed her butt. She squealed, dropping the tankards, her face turning to a shade of a tomato. The soldier got up and make untoward advances to her, Ducette was about to scream in protest, when the soldier released her hands and started screaming in pain instead. Ducette opened her eyes and see brown fur in her face. Commander Cullen had appeared between her and the soldier, twisting the arm of the offender. After a few curt reprimands from the commander, sending the soldier to the barracks, he turned around and muttered an apology on behalf of the offender.
"I'm Sorry, Ma'am. Corporal Jenkins is a good man, but he can't hold his liquor that well. He will be punished for his behavior."
How had she not noticed? Commander Cullen may look intimidating, but his eyes were sincere and truthful. The scar on his lip that used to look so scary, now had merely add to the manliness of his chiseled chin. She found herself dazed by the new revelation and realized she had not replied.
"Oh, i-it's okay, Commander. No harm done." Ducette smiled weakly, both hands clutching to her dress nervously. The Commander smiled kindly, turned towards Cabot and requested for 'Gwen' to take it easy for the rest of the night. Cabot came back with some jibes but the commander merely waved it off and joined the table with the rest of the Inquisitor's inner circle.
While Ducette sat in her usual corner in the tavern nursing her own tankard of ale, her eyes were focused on one man only. She mentally kicked herself for overlooking such a handsome man for the rest of the night and swore to herself that she will find out a lot more of this handsome and chivalrous lion.
For the next few days, she plots her advances to the man of her dreams. She knew the man is a super workaholic and shy to boot, so she set herself to learn everything and anything about the Commander before making her advances. He wakes up at 5 in the early morning, right after the last night patrol duty ends. He takes 15 minutes to get ready before climbing down to his office, if the lit of the candles were of any indication. He will walk towards the barracks then, having breakfast with his men and getting them ready for the morning drill well into late morning, before he returns to his office.
Thereafter, captains of the previous night patrol will stream into his office for the next 2 hours, reporting of any unusual activity sighted with the castle's borders.
At noon, he will take his lunch within his office, reading his field reports while doing so. Ducette, after some cajoling with the attendants, managed to be the one responsible to deliver his lunch, but the commander were always so engrossed with the latest reports, he barely acknowledged her beyond a polite, "Please leave it by the table, thank you."
The rest of the early afternoon, he will be sorting through all the reports, marking and summarizing those that require the combined attention of the advisors and the Inquisitor. By 3, the Commander himself will patrol the battlements, taking note of the working status of the castle, any possible weakness to the structure if there is a possible siege, what needs to be fixed immediately, writing comments on the notes attached to the scaffold for the builders to see.
After making the rounds, he will walk towards the war council at 6 and convene with Lady Montilyet and Leliana, even without the current presence of the Inquisitor. Otherwise, he will use that small bit of free time to browse the extensive library of Skyhold, sometimes going up the tower to speak with Leliana privately, while feeding the birds with her. Thereafter, he will walked towards the barracks for dinner and debrief his men for the end of the day. Only at 10pm will he return back to his office again for more report writing and 1am in the morning will he return back to his quarters to sleep.
Only after a bribe of 10 hot meals to loosen the tongue of the guard posted outside the Commander's office, that Gwen finally discovers why Commander Cullen sleeps so little. Nightmares kept the commander awake and sometimes shouts could be heard from his quarters. The guard told Ducette to cross her heart never to let anyone else to know, and as much as Ducette gathers, even when the whole team of patrol soldiers knows about it, not a single soul gossip or even lose a figment of respect for the commander.
Ducette sees this as an opportunity to earn her way into the heart of the commander. Her father often had to deal with nightmares himself, and with the limited knowledge that she has, she knows of a herb formula that helps a person sleeps better. She decided once she finish gathering the herbs today, she will pass the packet to the Commander tomorrow. That day, she slept easily, dreaming in the fade, strolling in the Val Royeaux garden with her Lion, whispering sweet nothings to each other with his hand intimately held at her waist.
The next morning, she hastily tied up her hair, getting ready to work for the day, when she noticed that the whole of Skyhold is bustling with activity. Grabbing the closest attendant before she ran out of earshot, Gwen finally found out that Lady Trevelyan will be back shortly. When Ducette's eyes widen with glee from the news, the trumpets blew in signal for the gates to be open, bridge to be lowered and many ran to the courtyard to greet the Herald of Andraste.
When Ducette reached the gate, Lady Trevelyan just reached the courtyard, sitting straight, tall and proud on the bog unicorn while conversing side by side with Lady Cassandra Pentaghast. Lady Trevelyan has the kindest blue eyes Ducette has ever seen, with a long mane of fiery red hair that is tied neatly as a ponytail. The rest of her entourage followed thereafter, the Qunari mercenary, Iron Bull, sharing jokes with the Tevinter mage, Dorian. The Inquisitor slides down from her horse gracefully, stroking the unicorn's mane with affection before handing the reins to a gushing handler. Children immediately clamored to be carried by her while she took off her riding gloves, now joking along with the Bull and Dorian. Lady Evelyn smiled kindly to the children, messing some of their hair, telling them she will visit them later, while the three advisors who were waiting patiently by the side earlier, all fall in step with her, updating her on the latest news from the whole of Thedas.
Ducette followed them as far to the main hall, where the Inquisitor and the three advisors agreed to convene at a designated time later, while each head directly to their offices to get ready for the meeting, and the Inquisitor to her own quarters to freshen up from her trip.
The four of them remained inside the war council room for the rest of the day, and just when Ducette was about to give up on the notion of giving the packet of herbs to the commander for today, Leliana and Josephine were seen talking and exiting out of the war council direction. Ducette waited for them to walk out of the main hall before she sneak into Lady Montilyet's room, eagerly waiting for Commander Cullen and perhaps catching another glimpse of the Inquisitor. She hid herself in an alcove in the corridor and waited with bated breath when the heavy wooden doors of the War Council finally opened, and the Lady Inquisitor and Commander Cullen walked out of the room.
Ducette was about to call out to the Commander, when he suddenly grabbed the Inquisitor to another hidden alcove ahead of her. From her hidden vantage point of view, she could see Commander Cullen cupped his hands tenderly to the Inquisitor's face with such smoldering eyes, gentle loving smile and a look of absolute adoration that Ducette, finally understood that the man of her dreams, her lion has been fully and wholly taken. His love is also requited as the Inquisitor leaned into his touch and both of them shared a gentle kiss together. Suddenly feeling like she is intruding on a private moment, she left the corridor quietly and quickly before running out of the main hall with tears in her eyes.
After sobbing her eyes out and begrudgingly finding in her heart to accept that there is no way in Thedas that she could compete with Lady Evelyn for the Lion's affections, Ducette washed her face and returned to her tavern work for the evening, feeling defeated. That is when Ducette sees the Inquisitor for the third time in the day. She was sited at the head of the inner circle table, listening to Varric's spinning wild stories of her, with mirth in her eyes. Ducette then noted strangely that even though Commander Cullen had joined in tonight, he was not sited together with her, rather opting for one that is 3 seats away from his beloved. As the whole crowded tavern was roaring with laughter from Varric's stories, the Lady Inquisitor suddenly noticed Ducette's attention, and waved her over.
Suddenly feeling conscious of herself, she tried to straight her hair in vain and wipes her palms from her sweat, before crossing over to take the orders of Ducette's object of current envy and admiration.
"You are new, aren't you?" Lady Evelyn had a friendly smile and it put Ducette at ease. "I haven't seen you around when I was here before I left for Emprise Du Lion."
"Yes, I came in two weeks ago. My name is…"
"Gwen, isn't it?" Commander Cullen cut in and speaks up from the other end of the table. "You came from… Southen Orlais, right?"
"Y-Yes." Ducette is surprised that he knew her name, "How did you..?"
"I remembered you came in together with the refugees from the Hinterlands. I spoke to you briefly then. You were bringing up my meal recently too, right? Thank you."
Lady Trevelyan then turned back to Ducette with an easy smile, "Well, well. If you have been bringing up Curly's meal, that means you know that…"
"…He doesn't' like peas." Both Ducette and Evelyn finished and laughed together, to the complete embarrassment of the Commander.
That is when Varric caught on to what they were saying, and promise gleefully that the Commander's dislike of peas will be noted down in his latest memoirs.
It was after a few brief conversations with them that Ducette realize, for all the respect that the Inquisitor commands, like her Commander, they are both really kind and humble. It is easy to put the Herald up on the pedestral, but as Ducette looked on where the Inquisitor started dancing gleefully with a whirlwind of partners, easily and gracefully to the quick tempo strummed from the resident minstrel, she realized that Lady Evelyn Trevelyan, is a human, with doubts & pain like her.
"Inquisitor…" Ducette began when Lady Evelyn plopped herself right next to her, gulping down ale from a tankard nearby.
"Please, just call me Evelyn during off-duty times. Can I just call you Gwen?"
"Of course." Ducette blushed at the close proximity that she is sitting with the legend. "Can I ask you a question. La.. Evelyn?"
"Sure."
"Have you ever fallen in love with someone of a different class status from you?"
Evelyn stayed silent for a moment and answered, "Yes, I do. Why?"
"Would you call it quits with that person, if your family oppose vehemently? If they want you to be in an arranged marriage?"
Evelyn thought for a while before answering, "If the incident in the conclave didn't happen, or if the breach didn't happened, I would have broken up with that person and follow what my family dictates. I have been living my life as such till the current crisis happens. But…"
"But?"
"But I have seen many things at this point now. Families broken, couples who wanted to elope but were slain by bandits, by… accidents. If I were to fail, and Thedas as we know it, ends tomorrow, would you be happy that you are lying in bed with someone you do not love, but could provide the world's wealth and honor to your family? Or be with someone whom you love, even though it brings shame to your family?"
After another long gulp from her tankard, Evelyn stood up and said. "It's easy for people to say to just follow your heart or your dreams. I know it's not that easy coming from my family. I don't feel it's wrong to follow your family's wishes either, if that is more important to you."
As Evelyn started to walk off, Ducette shouted out, "Would you leave him now then?"
Evelyn turned and smiled, "We won't be standing here if I were to intend to leave him. I won't have think Thedas is worth saving at this state, if not for him."
As she went back to join the head table, Ducette shuddered to think of the bleak world where the Inquisitor lost and all of Thedas bowed to the might of Corypheus.
The next day, as Ducette was sweeping the front of the Tavern in the afternoon, a messenger came and requested for her presence at the war council room. Feeling nervous at the sudden invitation, she ran to the war council with trepidation in her heart. As she pushed open the heavy wooden door timidly, she could see Josephine, Leliana and Cullen were standing in attention, on the front end of a long mahogany table, while the Inquisitor is at the other end, turning around with a smile, "Oh, Gwen, you are here. Good. We have some things to discuss." Josephine was looking at her with compassion in her eyes, while Leliana and Cullen looking impassive.
"Or should I address you as Lady Ducette Maron?" The Inquisitor finished, leaning on the table, crossing her arms with a smirk. Now, all four pairs of eyes were looking at her, waiting for her response.
"I'm sorry, Lady Inquisitor! I didn't mean to hide my identity. I…"
"You ran away from your home, disguising yourself as one of the refugees, hoping to escape from your arranged marriage with Count Charmles." Leliana added impassively, reading from the report in her hand. "We could have you trialed for deceiving us."
I must have look mortified from shock, because the Lady Inquisitor continued, "I knew about this from yesterday's war council meeting." She paused allowing Ducette to process what she just meant. She already knew her identity before their talk in the tavern. "Your father had sent a rather threatening letter to reclaim back his 'kidnapped' daughter."
"I have a few options presented by my council here, and before I make my decision, I want to hear from you. What do you want exactly, Lady Ducette?"
The Inquisitor looked at Ducette with a strong will in her eyes, and Ducette hesitated. Evelyn continued, "Remember our talk yesterday, Lady Ducette. Your stay here is an inconvenience. It's a fact." Josephine wanted to cut in but the Inquisitor hold her hand out to let her finish, "But the Inquisition currently has a lot of authority. A minor noble of Southern Orlais is not of major consequence to us. So I want to hear from you. What do you want exactly, without taking into consideration all other factors?"
Ducette bowed her head in thought. She had already made up her mind yesterday. She would need to take a major step, to face what she is running from. With determination fresh in her eyes, "I wish to go back to my father. But not in defeat." Ducette smiled and Evelyn did so in return, understanding what Ducette had resolved to do.
"Very well." The Inquisitor turned to Josephine, "We will follow your plan." Commander Cullen obviously wanted to make a few comments, but kept his mouth shut when the Inquisitor turned to him with a knowing smile.
"Noted, Inquisitor." Josephine smiled in relief and scribbled a few notes on her file.
"Meeting adjourned. Lady Ducette…" The Inquisitor grinned like a cheshire cat, "Do you know how to fence?"
So here she is, Lady Ducette Maron, fully decked out in Inquisition gear, getting ready to ruin her father. Inquisitor Trevelyan and Commander Cullen were kind enough to be there to send her off, together with Cabot. For all the crude jokes that Cabot makes, he was the first who get teary-eyed when she told him that she will be leaving.
As the connecting bridge was slowly released down, Ducette pulled the bag of herbs from her belongings, and gave it to the Lady Inquisitor.
"What's this?"
"It's a bag of herbs to help with sleeping; a family recipe to chase away… nightmares. I have left the recipe within and the dosage necessary for every night."
The Inquisitor wanted to ask more, but as Ducette pulled up her cape and breathed once heavily in the morning cold air, smiled earnestly to her, "Please take care of yourself and your proud Lion, Inquisitor. I will be rooting for you all the way from Orlais."
Inquisitor Evelyn widened her eyes upon understanding her meaning, blushing red down to her exposed neck. Thankfully for the Inquisitor, Commander Cullen and Cabot were having a deep conversation and were out of earshot. Lady Ducette for the first time in Skyhold, laughed heartily in a sweet silver tone before nudging her horse to a gallop with her reins, charging back to face her destiny, drawing courage from the person she looks up the most, the Herald of Andraste.
I'm done for the first chapter! Or I can just wrap this up as a one-shot. If it's well-received (bad grammars, tense and all), I will continue further! What happened with Lady Ducette Maron, you asked? Find out from the hilarious awesome report from Josephine on YOUR war table! *wink*