Chapter 2The next morning, Nemiril's war council was nothing but busy while she slept in. Cullen was going through all of the requests to approve of leaves of absences from various soldiers who wished to go home and see their families. Josephine had stacks of letters and missives from various nobles in southern Thedas who wanted to meet Nemiril at Skyhold or at their estates in Orlais. And Leliana spent her time talking with her agents, seeing what they had learned about possible fade rifts that were still open.
"Will we ever catch a break? Even with the Breach closed, it seems like we have more work cut out for us than before!" exclaims Cullen as he signs off on the 50th leave request and hastily grabs another.
"I don't think so, commander. We will be working until the Inquisition is disbanded and who knows when that will be," states Josephine, crumbling up a letter that was a relative to junk mail.
"You have a point. I just wish we had more time to breath, you know?" says Cullen as he rubbed the back of his neck out of nervous habit.
"We had time to breath for the past week! Now we need to get back to work so that everything doesn't fall apart at our feet. More or less the Inquisitor's feet!" says Leliana in almost a shout, causing Cullen and Josephine to look at her in slight shock.
"Speaking of the Inquisitor, where is Nemiril? Shouldn't she have been down here by now?" asks Josephine. The door to the war room opened but the three advisers didn't pay any attention to the agent who stepped in.
"I'm pretty sure she's still sleeping. She had an eventful night last night," answers Cullen, he then watches the agent walk up to Leliana and takes out a very ornate scroll that did not look like it was native to Thedas. Cullen nods at Leliana in the agent's direction so that the agent her attention.
"Spymaster, this was all your contact in Denerim had to offer. Don't know why they couldn't send a courier to deliver it though," says the agent as he holds out the scroll to Leliana who takes it eagerly.
"Thank you, that will be all," says Leliana, the agent nods and leaves the room.
Leliana stares at the scroll, almost hesitant to open it. It had a wax seal that looked like it had an Orlesian or Antivan coat of arms, but at the same time it was neither. Cullen and Josephine were also staring at the scroll curiously, trying to figure out where it could have come from.
"That was in Denerim?" Josephine states bluntly as she steps over to stand by Leliana.
"Apparently. This looks rather suspicious. I almost don't want to open it," says Leliana softly, still examining the scroll.
"Just open it and see what it says," starts Cullen. "It's obviously important, since it could not be sent by courier."
"Cullen's right. Just open it," says Josephine. Leliana looks up at Josephine and Cullen briefly before she breaks open the seal and unravels the letter.
Leliana read every word that was written on the parchment slowly and carefully, making sure that is wasn't some sort of false request for help in order to draw out Nemiril to have her killed by an unknown party. But the more she read, the more she realized that this was not some sort of trap or ruse, but a cry for help a whole continent and body of water away.
"Well, what does it say?" asks Josephine as she watched Leliana's expression change with every word she read.
When Leliana gets to the end of the letter, she looks up at Josephine and furrows her brow before speaking.
"I need to speak with the Inquisitor," Leliana rolls the scroll back up and begins walking towards the war room door. Before she exits the room, she turns to look at Josephine and Cullen and says "A king needs help, and has requested for Nemiril to be the person to help."
* * *
Up in Nemiril's room, she lay on her bed sprawled out and entangled in her blankets, enjoying the warmth and comfort that she never wanted to leave. When she heard the door to her room open and feet shuffling quickly up the stairs, she did nothing to make it seem like she was awake. She heard Leliana sigh as she walked over to the side of her bed and stood over her.
"Inquisitor, wake up," says Leliana loudly as she shook Nemiril's shoulder, earning a groan from the elf and pulled a blanket over her head. Leliana rolled her eyes and pulled the blanket away from Nemiril's head and shook her again. "Come on Nemiril, I know you're awake. There's something you need to read."
Nemiril sat up and wrapped herself in her blankets and stared at Leliana blankly.
"What is it?" Nemiril asks as she fiddled with the edges of the blanket. Leliana merely held out the scroll to Nemiril, who took it hesitantly, unrolled it, and began reading:
Lady Inquisitor Nemiril Lavellan,
I know you may not have heard of me, let alone the province and continent that I am from, but I am High King Torygg. I am also the Jarl of Solitude hold in the provence of Skyrim on the continent of Tamriel. I am writing to you because the new of your ending the Mage-Templar rebellion and your defeat over Corypheus had made it all the way to my court at the Blue Palace and I need your expertise at ending a rebellion that may be starting here.
I feel like things are going to take a turn for the worst soon and would like your help to prevent any more bloodshed from happening. The Imperials and the rebels that call themselves "Stormcloaks" and there has been numerous fights between the two parties and I am growing tired of it all. I have arranged for a meeting with the Jarl of Windhelm, Ulfric Stormcloak, the man to which the Stormcloaks adopted their names. I do wish that this meeting will go well and would hope you would be able to make it here in time for it.
There have also been reports coming in of fade rifts opening up in different holds in Skyrim, and the other eight Jarls have contacted me about them, requesting for you to come close them before they get out of hand.
If you do decide to come to Skyrim, please send word through your spymaster so that we can arrange for my guards to escort you from whichever port you arrive at. We'll stay in touch.
Sincerely,
High King Torygg of Skyrim
Nemiril kept making different faces as she read the scroll, reading the names "High King Torygg," "Skyrim," Tamriel," Ulfric Stormcloak," were odd for she was unfamiliar with them. She looked up at Leliana and opened her mouth to say something, but them closed it and read the scroll again. After reading it a few more times, she placed the scroll onto her bed and stared at Leliana in astonishment.
"I never would have thought that there would be someone this impressed with me to the point that they would want me to make a special trip just to help them with a rebellion," says Nemiril as the corners of her lips curl upwards.
"You would be surprised, what are your thoughts? Do you want to go?" asks Leliana as she picks up the scroll from the bed, tucking it under her arm.
She watches Nemiril get up from her bed with her blanket still wrapped around her, and walks over to her fireplace. Leliana goes over to Nemiril and stands next to her, looking at her from the corner of her eye and trying not to step on the ends of the blanket that pooled on the floor around Nemiril's feet. Nemiril pursed her lips and furrowed her brow in thought. She turned her head to look at her spymaster and inhaled deeply through her nose and exhaled through her mouth.
"If I were to go, what would I be expecting?" asks Nemiril.
"I have heard of Tamriel before, and it is very different from Thedas. In Tamriel, Dwarves are non-existant, dragons have not been seen in centuries, is home to feline and reptilian humanoid races, and there are three different races of elves where only one is glorified." The last fact caught Nemiril's attention.
"What are the elf races?"
"The three are High Elf, Dark Elf, and Wood Elf, or better known as Altmer, Dunmer, and Bosmer respectively. The Altmer are the glorified race and the Dunmer are the most discriminated. As for the Bosmer, I am unaware, I assume that they are considered middle class."
"And if I were to take anyone, I wouldn't be able to take Varric?"
"I wouldn't advise it but you still could. Although scholars would probably be all over him once he steps foot in Tamriel. I assume that the dwarves didn't go extinct but instead migrated here in Thedas."
Nemiril pondered what Leliana had said about the elves and bit her bottom lip. Running a hand through her hair, she glance out to her balcony and looked at the mountains. Maybe a break from Skyhold, let alone Thedas, would be good for her.
"Alright, I'll go. Not just because of fade rifts. I need to take a break from the Inquisition, if you know what I mean."
Leliana knew exactly what she meant. Nemiril has not stepped foot in the rotunda which Solas spent most of his time, and she would go out of her way to avoid it when she wanted to visit Dorian in the library.
"I understand. I'll send word to Torygg and make inquiries to possible companions for you to take with you," says Leliana
"What's wrong with the people that are here?"
"They are adequate, but they will draw too much attention. You are going to need to blend in so that you don't become a possible target to assassins," says Leliana as she turns away from Nemiril and heads over to the stairs. "I have a few people in mind that would be more than willing to go with you. I will be contacting them after this."
"Alright, sounds good," says Nemiril as she glances back down at the fire. She didn't know who Leliana had in mind exactly, but knowing her, they were going to bee very strong and trustworthy. At least she hoped.
Notes: So I updated sooner than expected, but I had this chapter done for a few days and didn't want to wait until Thursday. I will be posting chapters whenever they're complete so they will be very random. Hopefully I'll be able to start the Skyrim branch soon, I'm really excited to start Nemiril's adventure in Tamriel!