A quiet conversation...

Disclaimer: Cullen and most characters are property of Bioware from their DA: Inquisition game. Arisha is mine.

CHAPTER 3 – Snow on the Wind

Surana and Leliana sat companionably on the balcony outside Leliana's alcove at the top of the rotunda tower with Timur contented stretched on the bench between the two women. His head rested in Leliana's lap as she gently scratched his head, clearly enjoying his reunion with the red-haired bard. "I wasn't certain you'd get the message in time, old friend. Once they make me Divine, it will be very difficult to have an uninterrupted visit with you."

"I was already on my way back to more civilized lands. Though I'm not certain 'civilized' is a word I'd apply to the reactions I encountered when I first reached Orlais." Arisha grimaced. "Being an elf and a mage doesn't usually make me popular anyway, but identifying myself as a Warden normally forces people to be…circumspect, rather than angering them more. We left the first town in a hurry when I realized how hostile they were, and we didn't approach another one until I could contact one of your agents. I was starting to think I'd have to make my way north then across to the Waking Sea to get a ship to Amaranthine."

"You were just unfortunate enough to arrive at one of the towns closest to Adamant; you wouldn't have had problems, or well, only had normal problems, elsewhere in Orlais. I'm glad you reached someone, though; that detour would have meant you'd have reached Skyhold about a month after I became Divine, and then you'd have had to make the trip to Val Royeaux instead."

Arisha rolled her eyes, sighing. "My favorite thing, a city full of stuffy people who'll see my ears and the mage staff and nothing else. Well, having a mabari also marks me as Ferelden but you usually take care of that problem by staring them down, don't you, Timur?" The sharp note in her voice was replaced with amused affection when she addressed Timur, who briefly thumped his tail and raised his head to gape his jaw in a canine grin before returning his head to Leliana's attention. "Thank the Maker for small favors that I didn't have to visit you there, at least not this time."

"Inquisitor Cadash is no more enthusiastic than you are, but she's agreed to attend my elevation. After much coaxing by Josie, I suspect."

The Warden laughed softly. "I like her, she reminds me of one of the first Wardens I recruited, another casteless dwarf, from the Legion of the Dead." Leliana watched her old friend closely out of the side of her eyes, catching the trace of sadness that flickered through her mask that anyone less familiar with the mage probably would have missed. Tactfully, she chose to avoid that topic.

"How did you know she was casteless?"

"The brand on her face. She was either born to a casteless mother in Orzammar's Dust Town, or she was stripped of caste and branded as an adult. I'd say her mother was casteless. Those born casteless grow after getting the brand, so it looks a little different." She raised a thin eyebrow at the spy questioningly.

"Your eyes are as sharp as ever." Leliana's voice was fondly approving. "That fits what my spies were able to trace about her family after they came to the surface almost forty years ago. We were never able to trace anything definite in Orzammar itself. They never keep records of people living in Dust Town anyway; but when someone is stripped of caste, everyone tries to erase them from their records."

Timur gave her hand a polite lick of gratitude then shifted so his head rested in Arisha's lap instead, eyes fixed on her face. Leliana watched the years slip away from both for a moment as the mage looked affectionately down to rest her hand on her guardian's head, and he heaved a sigh of contentment. Leliana was the only one of Arisha's old friends—other than the drunkard Oghren—who'd seen her more than briefly since the end of the blight, and she had watched her once-gentle friend become more remote each time one of her decisions cost lives. Leliana may have been released by Justinia's dead hand before she was too far lost to find her way back to the faith she'd found in Lothering, but the long-dead hand of Warden Commander Duncan still rested just as surely on Arisha. Timur was the only one who could make that glacial armor slip now, though perhaps other old friends could help start a crack.

"I told you the Commander would be pleased to see you."

Arisha chuckled, stroking Timur's head lightly. "Subtle, Nightingale. I'm relieved that he was gracious. But pleased to see someone who has to remind him of what he went through, especially right now when he's still struggling with lyrium withdrawal? I doubt that very much."

"As you said, trauma."

"I've had much worse things thrown in my face, sometimes by people under my own command." She shrugged, the pragmatic Warden Commander speaking briskly now. "When it's trauma, usually they regret it when they've had some time to heal. My job is to make the decisions, then live with the consequences."

"But none of those words were spoken by someone you cared for." Leliana observed her friend closely, but the only indication of reaction was a tightening of Arisha's lips.

"There was never anything to that, Nightingale, not really; you've always read things into what he said in Kinloch to me." Arisha raised pale grey-blue eyes to meet Leliana's rich blue ones in exasperation. "We were friendly, and he was always kind to me, not frightening like so many of the Templars. And no, I wasn't blind to the fact he was very attractive, but so were other young men in the tower. I heard whispers about him having feelings for me, but I thought they were just vicious gossip until…" She shrugged. "Honestly, I can't imagine there was more to it than one of his tormenters uncovering some fantasy he had. You and I aren't so young that we don't realize most young people have fantasies about someone they know without it meaning anything." The mage held her head up to enjoy the sunlight in this sheltered spot, closing her eyes and inhaling deeply, the breeze crisp but with a hint of damp chill that promised snow later.

Leliana chuckled, wondering if her bombshell would shake that indifference. "Well I'm glad that reunion went well because you have remarkable timing."

Arisha tensed, eyeing her friend suspiciously. "Why don't I trust the sound of that?"

"Well, their Majesties, the king and queen of Ferelden want to pay their respects to the new Divine, but understandably, they would both prefer not to travel to Orlais to attend my installation as Divine."

The Warden covered her eyes, and Timur whined in concern as she groaned. "Maker, please tell me this isn't going where I think it is?"

Leliana continued merrily on, though there was sympathy in her eyes. "King Alistair and Queen Anora will be at Skyhold in less than a week. So unless you're going to pack up Timur and desert the Inquisition already, I'm afraid you will have another reunion shortly."

The elf's curses were quite creative and wandered into at least two other languages while her friend listened in amusement. "Tsk, tsk, you really shouldn't blaspheme, and in front of the Divine! How scandalous!"

Surana's response was brief and quite earthy, and the people down in the courtyard stared up at the peals of laughter from above.