It was the noise that woke her. The sound of drawers and cupboards being opened and closed, and things being moved around. Through the tiniest sliver of opened eyelid she could see the room was still mostly dark but the faintest bloom of dawn was on the horizon, it's dim light creeping in through the windows. In an hour, possibly less, it would be dawn in truth.
The other side of the bed was empty, devoid of even the residual warmth of another body, suggesting its other semi-frequent occupant had been up for some time. The rustling caused by her hand passing over the sheets made the noise on the other side of the room cease in a manner that could only be called furtive.
She sighed and pushed herself upright, looking around through sleep-fogged eyes.
"Sera," Isileth grumbled, slurring the word a little as she rubbed her face with one hand. "What's going on?"
Sera had the look of a startled animal caught by surprise by a fierce predator. Her eyes were wide, her hands were full of clothing from the wardrobe and she was... fully dressed in nondescript clothing? She recovered quickly though, taking on a serious demeanour.
"Thought you'd wake up earlier," Sera complained in a subdued tone as she went back to pushing clothing into a travel bag. "Must've been proper knackered from all that paper you've been wrestling with, yeah?" Isileth groaned.
"Don't remind me," she said just as quietly, crossing her legs to sit up straighter. "I don't think all that stuff is ever going to end now the real work is done." She kept the covers up around her, mainly for the cold. "What's the packing for?"
"We've got somewhere we need to be," Sera explained as she worked, "special mission, message in the night, that kind of shit. Was having a good dream, too, was going to tell you about it in the morning." She sent a wicked grin over her shoulder. "Have to wait now."
"Is there anyone else who-" Isileth began, but was interrupted.
"Everyone who needs to, knows. It's special Jenny stuff, yeah? Want to see you, big high Inquisitor things."
"What kind of things?" Isileth sighed and pulled herself off the ridiculously expansive bed. As she went to grab herself some underthings Sera kept at her task. "Important things, I gather?"
"Wouldn't say," Sera told her, "must be important if they won't do that. Prying ears, maybe."
"They suspect someone in Skyhold might be, what, listening in?" The thought was a worrying one, and had been a concern all through the Corypheus crisis. Leliana had kept the enemy's agents at bay, though, and Isileth had no cause to doubt her reports on the subject. But what if there had been agents for someone else they had not known to look for? Isileth grimaced. "I hope we're not on the brink of some new disaster."
"Probably more worried about their end," Sera said with a shrug. "Scary keeps the nasties out of here."
"True enough." Isileth looked at the pile of clothing that had been unceremoniously dropped on her desk. "This is for me, I take it?"
"We have to be, y'know, subtle and shit." Sera tied the last bag shut and turned around, one held in each hand. She had pulled a hood up over her hair and dressed as she was she could have been mistaken for a traveller, pilgrim or refugee from anywhere in Ferelden. The gear laid out for Isileth would have much the same effect for her, though it would obviously not hide her height or other obvious features. Even the cowl would only conceal so much.
"They don't want to announce they've got the Inquisitor visiting them, then?" She started to get dressed and noticed that she would end up dressed very similarly to how she had looked at the Conclave. A mercenary qunari was the simplest disguise.
"If you stroll around all bright armour and flashing the hairy eyeball," Sera grinned, "it would be bad for everyone involved. Apparently." She watched as her lover pulled the last of her clothing on. "We stash the official gear and the shiny bows and look like normal people for a change. It'll be good not to be stared at and adored all the time, yeah? Remind us both where we came from, too."
"You've talked about getting back to 'where we came' from quite a bit these last few weeks," Isileth said quietly as she strapped on a leather jerkin. "I know you've felt isolated up here. And not just from the Jennies."
"Yeah, well," Sera replied, "it's long way up and from here everyone looks so small. Like pieces on that stupid table of yours, right? You can forget they stand for people. People that hurt and cry and piss and eat and laugh." She seemed to be staring at something on the floor but her mind was definitely elsewhere. "Hated living in the dirt but that's who I am, yeah? Kind of forgotten that here."
"We'll make sure to find you some dirt while we look into this problem, then," Isileth told her. Sera looked back to Isileth as if expecting to find she was being mocked, a hurt expression already creeping onto her face, but it slipped quickly into a grin at the sight of the half-smile on her lover's face. "It'll do us both good to go unofficial for a while," Isileth said quietly. "If only to escape the paperwork," she added dryly.
It seemed strange to be sneaking though her own stronghold, but that was how Isileth and Sera made their way out of the main doors. There were no guards and the torches and fires had burned low and orange in the great hall, sending weird shadows flickering around the huge bird statuary and almost hiding the distant throne from view.
Sera was the one making it a stealthy enterprise, presumably so as not to disturb whatever inhabitants of Skyhold might already be up. She jumped off the main steps about halfway down as a shortcut and Isileth followed. Nestled in the arch under the staircase were two horses, all prepared and ready to go. Isileth was surprised – Sera had been busy for longer than she'd thought. Sera took hold of the reins of one and started to lead it out.
"Come on," she said in a loud whisper, "we have to hurry before, right, anyone tries to come with us. Secret mission, yeah?" Isileth frowned and, shaking her head to dislodge a suspicion, followed after her, leading the other horse.
As they neared the gates Isileth spotted two guards atop the wall on watch. At any moment they would turn around and see them crossing the courtyard... and just why was that a problem, anyway? Sera's sneakiness was just making Isileth feel unnecessarily cautious, and in her own fortress no less! Isileth shook off the feeling and noticed both guards had turned to face a different direction, one that... meant she and Sera was almost guaranteed to pass unnoticed. It was eerily timed and terribly convenient.
As they passed under the final arch a figure stepped out of the shadows, slim and silent as a ghost.
"They won't see you now," Cole explained in his stilted voice, somehow quieter than it had any right to be. His strange eyes swept across them both. "Lost in memory. Family, friends, loss and victory. You have your mission." He nodded to Isileth and then looked at Sera in that weird, intense way he had. Isileth gritted her teeth and she could practically feel Sera tense up from head to foot as if to brace herself.
Cole opened his mouth to speak and... paused. With visible effort he restrained himself from speaking and merely took a deep breath and exhaled slowly. Then he spoke.
"Good luck." Nothing more. No revelations from within, no embarrassing truths.
"Thank you, Cole," Isileth told him, hoping she had conveyed every degree of her thanks with just those words and her expression. She started to lead her horse on, but Sera remained a moment longer.
"Thanks... weirdo." It was said so quickly that one might almost have thought Sera had not spoken at all, but Cole gravely inclined his head in reply and walked back into Skyhold. Sera then led her horse out of the gates, and while Isileth kept her expression neutral she felt a great deal of pride in that moment.
They walked a short way in silence before mounting the horses and riding off at a brisk canter down the long and winding mountain path from Skyhold. Before long they were out of sight of anyone in the fortress, or at least far enough away to avoid being immediately identified. And there again was that feeling of being somehow deceptive... or of being deceived.
Isileth pulled on the reins of her horse and the horse slowed and eventually stopped. Sera, frowning, did the same.
"Come on!" she said. "Mission, yeah? Important! Got to hurry!" She looked as if the situation really was urgent, or... she was afraid of being caught.
"Sera..." Isileth began gently, and then shook her head. Pulling back the cowl she looked Sera in the eyes. "There's no mission, is there?" Sera tried to look insulted, then shocked, and finally worried, before her face fell.
"Shittity shit!" she yelled, her eyes suddenly filling with tears that she angrily cuffed away. Slipping off her horse she disappeared behind it and continued to swear loudly. "So close!" she shouted. All that was visible of her was her hands, shaking fists at the sky. "So pissing close! And now we're going to have to go back..." The swearing continued anew.
Isileth climbed off her own animal and went around the other side of Sera's to find her with her face in her hands. Drawing her into an embrace she let Sera rant for a while between sobs.
"Just tell me," Isileth told her softly, no anger or reproach.
"Just wanted to get away," Sera mumbled into her arms, "just us, no mission no people no shit no demons."
"So you decided to tell me we had a secret mission so we could sneak out of Skyhold together with no one the wiser, me in particular." Sera nodded into her chest. It all made a horrible kind of sense. Isileth sighed. "And you didn't think to just ask me?"
Sera was suddenly looking up at her, eyes wet and confused.
"Eh?"
"You don't think I want to get out of there sometimes myself?" Isileth said, surprised. "Especially now. Now all the travelling's done, the demons fought, the alliances made." She made a face. "Now it's just clean up, dealing with the last stragglers of that bastard's plans and agents. So we don't get to visit strange places so much anymore, uncover ancient secrets and all that..."
"...all that stuff you really loved doing," Sera finished for her. She wiped her eyes.
"It's like it's all become paperwork and paying back favours," Isileth grumbled. "Who wouldn't want to get away from that for a bit?"
"So... you'd have come anyway?"
"Of course, you dafthead," Isileth chuckled. "I'd have ordered them all to stay behind if I'd thought that would actually work. As it is, sneaking out was the next best option." She looked down at Sera's upturned face. "Did you at least tell someone? Leave them a note or something?"
"Yeah, course!" Sera sounded indignant. "I left it on that big table. Somewhere. I think." She didn't sound terribly certain.
"Well, my dear," Isileth said with a smile. "This has to be your biggest prank ever. Stealing the Inquisitor." Sera grinned in reply, but slightly ruined it with a noisy sniff.
"Do you ever think about..." Sera began, but stopped. Isileth nodded at her to continue. "About what comes next? If the Inquisition ends, or you're no longer needed or something?" Her face was intent.
"I hope I'll always be needed," Isileth told her and momentarily tightened her embrace on Sera into a hug, which drew a smile. "But seriously?" She paused in thought for a moment, looking up at the brightening sky. "I never wanted it but I was the only one who could do what was needed. But now... I think anyone could do what needs doing now. Except for the remaining rifts, I suppose. It's just beating the last of the Venatori in the south, and tracking down the last of the red templars and so on. If there was someone I could trust to do the job right – and there's quite a few of them – I would be happy to hand it all over to them and do something new."
"I just wish it could be just the two of us, against the world," Sera said quietly. "Like we always said." Isileth looked at her, expression serious.
"It's always been just the two of us, love," Isileth said softly. She gently caressed Sera's check with her fingers, then ran a thumb over Sera's lips, lips that kissed the pad of it as it passed. "Everyone else was just along for the ride." Isileth smiled. "Shall we get going before they catch us?"
Sera's smile was all the answer she needed.