[Intended to be a series of mostly romance-oriented one shots between a Female Mage Inquisitor and Commander Cullen (with a fair amount of action/adventure mixed in) following the events of Dragon Age: Inquisition as I make my way through the game :3
I hope you enjoy! Note: Dialogue will not always be directly from the game, as I'll probably write these a while after I finish the part in the game that each chapter features, and also because I like to alter dialogue sometimes so it better fits my character's personality.
Also, CONTAINS SPOILERS (obviously)!]
Cullen had been in a lot of shite situations over the past ten years of his life, and the one thing he couldn't help but notice was that whenever things turned for the worst he could see it in the sky. Like when the Mage-Templar War began in Kirkwall – then, the sky was thick and black with storm clouds. Then when he was trapped in the Fereldan Circle during the Fifth Blight, he was imprisoned so close to the top of the tower yet never once saw the sky from inside his magical cage. He remembered that the sound of wind hitting the tower bricks alongside the absence of clouds and fresh air was almost mocking. And of course, there's another example of his troubles being reflected in the heavens, the most prominent of all – the sickly green Breach that the Inquisition had just now gotten to closing. Not an hour had passed since he'd watched the Herald walk back into camp with Cassandra and Solan, since he'd looked to the sky and seen scars, yes, but no demons or rips in the Fade. He'd had so much hope then… But now, the sky tore this hope to shreds. What did it look like?
Red as Andraste's flame, decorated by the torches of an approaching army and the glow of demonic lyrium crusting templar bodies, and holding a dragon.
A blighted dragon.
Cullen stood at the ready outside the Chantry door, sword in one hand, beckoning citizens in with the other. "Get inside! Move, move, move!" He shouted, eyes racing frantically across what was once the town of Haven but was quickly becoming a battlefield. He counted faces and listed names that he saw run past him, but a few key people were nowhere to be found. Dorian, Sera, the Iron Bull, and their "Herald"…. Jille. Where are they? He thought, gritting his teeth and squinting against the brightness and heat of the fires around him. They should be back by now!
Then he heard a familiar sound – the clash of steel. Looking to his right, he saw the quartermaster, Thrynn, attacking one of the monstrous templars, and at her side were the very people Cullen had been looking for. A chain whipped from nowhere as Sera grappled onto Thrynn's target, flying through the air to deliver him a swift kick to the face, and the ground shook as Iron Bull struck one of the man's allies a death blow. Though Dorian was not within range, you could tell he wasn't far behind – as a confused templar stumbled away from his fallen friends he walked straight into a magical mine that swallowed him in fire. Then the Tevinter joined the group, jumping over the charred body of his victim as sprightly as ever and giving his staff a flourish before he latched it onto his back.
"That's the last one – at least, within the immediate future." The mage said with a grumble and brushed his hands off on his cloak. Cullen sneered at his attitude, but this was no time to scold him for being nonchalant.
"Get into the Chantry, now! It's our best shot at safety from that thing!" He yelled as he locked eyes with the beast flying through their sky. Sera and Dorian obliged, scurrying inside, but the Iron Bull stopped in the doorway.
"Wait – the boss!"
The commander's eyes widened as he turned back to the ruined town. That's right... Where was Jille?
"There!" Bull shouted and pointed off. Following his hand, Cullen's breath caught in his throat as he saw her. Running up in a haze of fire and lightning, Jille swung her staff through the air, frying a horde of following templars in an instant. It was clear to see what had taken her so long – in the arm that wasn't holding her weapon she had a woman cradled against her shoulder. The girl was unconscious and ragged but visibly breathing, and as Jille approached she threw her charge into the arms of the Bull. Cullen stood still for a moment, shocked, taking her in with a mixture of relief, worry and confusion.
The Herald looked to him and yelled, "Get inside!" Luckily, that's all it took to snap him out of it.
Thud! The echo of the Chantry's closing doors bounced across the walls. They were safe, if only for an instant – the roar of fire and foe could still be heard from outside, and on the inside, things were already getting tense.
"This place won't hold for long!" Jille shouted, guiding Bull to the other villagers so he could give the sleeping woman to a healer.
"Well, that much is clear!" Dorian said with a roll of his eyes.
From the ceiling or Maker knows where, Sera dropped into the middle of the group. "I didn't sign up for this shite! Whatever happened to 'close the Breach and live happy ever after'?"
"I don't think that was ever really the plan," The Iron Bull grumbled as he rejoined the group.
"Well, maybe not exactly, but still!" The elf snapped.
"QUIET!"
Walking into the center of the group, Cassandra looked to her fellows with gritted teeth. Jille drew back at the sound of her yell, stiffening up on instinct. Seeing the movement, the Seeker approached her with a grimace and pointed one finger in the mage's face. "Think. Now." And she disappeared back into the crowd.
Jille swallowed hard. Come on. This is no time to be that scared little Circle girl. You can do this. Clenching her fists, she went to the middle of the room, looking to her companions and then locking eyes with Cullen.
"How are our options?"
"Slim. Very slim." The commander said, crossing his arms and looking down.
"This building is stone, better than most would be at resisting fire, but even it can't withstand a dragon – let alone the army of crazed templars that'll be preceding it."
"Don't tell me that all these people are going to die, Cullen! There must be something we can do!"
He looked up. Jille was covered with ash and blood, her pale skin and bright orange hair marred by her efforts on the battlefield, but even now her golden eyes shone. She didn't like to talk about her time in the Circle, but he knew enough of how she'd grown up. He knew that she was a woman of little faith, and Maker's breath, she had reason to be. Yet here she was, clinging to whatever hope she had left to get them through, to find a way to get them all through. Telling her the truth of their fates now seemed harder than anything he'd ever done.
"If we want to hit them back, the best thing we can do is try another avalanche. Bury as many as we can."
"And bury the village along with them?" The Herald asked back, eyes widening. Her brows pierced down as her prim mouth twisted into a scowl. "Bury all of these villagers? We can't –"
"We're dying, but we get to choose how we die. Most don't get that luxury."
Jille didn't want to believe it, but as Cullen's words resonated in her mind, she realized the truth to them. She looked down, ashamed of her misplaced anger. However, some of her still held on to that same foolish hope. "Is there nothing we can do to save them?"
A cough and a weak word drifted into their ears – "I…"
The two turned to see Chancellor Rodrick, held up by the strange boy that had warned them of the attack. Cullen narrowed his eyes at the two – of anyone in the room, they were the last people he'd trust with a solution to their problem – but held his tongue as they spoke.
"He wants to help," the boy said plainly, keeping his face hidden beneath the brim of his hat.
Chancellor Rodrick was deathly pale. One stream of blood escaped from the side of his mouth and a fevered sweat dripped along his forehead, but somehow, his eyes were clear. "There is… a passage. Out of the Chantry, you can use it to… to save the villagers. Get them out while you can."
"You would help us?" Jille said skeptically, raising one brow at the man.
"I would help the people!" He spat back – however, his words were not said with anger but with fervor. "Save as many as you can!"
He coughed again, and the boy helped him sit back down.
Cullen and Jille looked to each other. If this passage was real – and they had no reason to believe it wasn't – it could be their salvation. But that was only ifthe villagers had enough time to get away, and an appropriate distraction to keep the templars and demons off their tail.
Cullen stared into space, falling into his mind, thinking a million miles an hour on how to get them out of this. However, only seconds after hearing the Chancellor's words, Jille had already decided what she would do. Clenching her fists to strengthen her resolve, she looked up at Cullen. His eyes were now closed and he was concentrating hard, giving her the opportunity she needed to get a good, long look at him, one last time.
"I'll start the avalanche – you make sure everyone gets through the passage."
The man's eyes flew open as he turned to her. "But how will you get back?"
Jille smiled.
Cullen's face fell, his body going cold. But before he could protest, Jille was shouting orders and gathering her supplies.
"Bull, Sera, Dorian! Come with me, I'll need backup! I'll make sure you have time to get back before I hit the mountain. Cassandra, Josephine, Leliana, start guiding people through the tunnels. Cullen, make sure these three," she said, pointing to the Iron Bull and the rest of the companions she was taking with her, "make it back before the passage is closed." She held his gaze with her own. The man didn't know what to say. It took him a moment to find the words, and when he did, she was halfway out the door.
"You might have time to return. There could still be…" The girl silenced him with a look, determined but calm, another low smile.
"I'm choosing how I die."
Cullen froze… and then, she was gone.
Jille and her partners sprinted through the village, heading for the trebuchet, Sera swinging along by her chains and Bull rampaging at the fore, knocking down any templars that stood in their way. Dorian and Jille brought up the rear, slower but not by much – the group was an unstoppable force of celerity and strength. But as they ran, Dorian couldn't help the nerves that wracked his brain and turned to the Herald.
"And you're sure we'll make it out?"
Jille glanced at him out of the corner of her eye, strands of short red hair whipping across her face from the wind. "I'll give you three the time to get back! Don't worry!"
"And you're sure you want to go through with this?"
She smirked. "What? People don't go on crazy suicide missions in Tevinter?" She said with dry humor as they leapt over a fallen templar and turned the corner. The trebuchet came into view.
"But don't you care about your life? At all?"
Now only meters away from the base of the machine, Jille stopped, and the others crowded around her, awaiting her battle plan – however, Dorian was still awaiting his question's answer.
Jille sighed.
"My life's never meant much, anyway. I spent most of it in a Circle - I did nothing of purpose, only idle tasks to keep my teachers happy, to keep my head down, to keep me seeming sedate to the Templars. I never spoke out when I saw something wrong or tried to change anything I thought was unjust. I thought the only way to live was to kneel… But that's not living."
She turned to the side, looking to the mountains and the dragon in the sky.
"Now, I've been given power. I may not have asked for it, but I have it, and I don't have the option to stay idle any more. And this man… This 'Elder One', whoever he is, now he's asking the world to kneel."
She looked back to Dorian with a grin.
"If it meant the world could live in a way I haven't, I'd give up my own measly chances to any day."
The other mage stood stunned, watching as Jille readied her staff and turned to the other two to give her orders and then receiving his own. He trotted ahead of the group as instructed, but couldn't help but look back and take one last glance at the girl.
Jille stared straight ahead, hands clenched tight against the weapon in her hands. That's right. My own, measly life… So people can truly live. Dennet, Mineave, Cassandra, Lelianna, Solan….
A moment flashed through her mind. When exactly it had happened she couldn't remember; it could've been days or weeks ago. There were so many moments she'd had just like this one, after all. For some reason, though, this particular afternoon stood out from the rest. She was standing amongst the soldiers, watching them train, turned slightly to the side to see her partner in conversation. His blonde hair was combed back and shimmered in the sun as his chiseled jaw jutted forward in pride – he was speaking of his charges, of the hard work they'd put in in the name of the Inquisition. His eyes glittered with excitement as he talked, showing a giddiness uncharacteristic of the usually serious man. Then, he realized his joy and looked back down, maintaining his composure. And he looked to the side – at her.
Jille closed her eyes. That would be her moment – the moment she'd keep in her final thoughts. The moment to keep her going until the end of the line.