The pair walked through the gardens, making their way to the tavern that their companions frequented, its most frequent customers being Sera, Bull and his Chargers. Aphre's hardened exterior returned the moment she stepped out of her room, Caedri thought it was slightly unnerving how well she was able to conceal all the emotion that had poured out of her only minutes previously, but he remained silent.
On their walk, Caedri noticed glances and whispers from people they passed, Empress Celene had put the blame on the Dalish for the events of the Exalted Council, and therefore the blame fell heavily by association on the Lavellan siblings. Even though Celene could not state outright that she believed Caedri and Aphre to be the root cause of all that had happened since returning to the Winter Palace, it was not difficult for it to be insinuated. After all, Caedri was the one with a mark from Fen'Harel, and Aphre was the one that fell in love with him. The 'evidence' that Celene needed to spin rumours around the two elves had practically been handed to her on a gleaming silver platter. Caedri knew that no one would dare argue with her on the subject, least of all the Orlesian subjects, for what did they care about the fate of a race they considered to be lesser than themselves? The whole thing made Caedri sick to his stomach. Though the Exalted Council was not quite over yet, and even with Josephine doing everything within her power to repair what had been damaged by Caedri's abrupt dismissal of the Council in the first meeting, Caedri could see they were losing ground to the Orlesian sickness that descended from a certain type of arrogance. Something was going to give, but knowing precisely what would crumble first was something that he could not foresee, and it terrified him, just as much as seeing Aphre this way terrified him.
As pressing as he knew all of these concerns were, at the forefront of his mind was Aphre. While Josephine, Cullen and Leliana – despite being chosen as the new Divine – could help with the fate of the Inquisition, Caedri was the only one who was truly able to help Aphre, he was the only one that she could put trust in, and right now she needed him a lot more than she could ever admit. Taking her to eat food seemed a small gesture to Caedri, but knowing that she had ignored her hunger for the past few days, eating was something she needed to do, and it was the first step towards some recovery.
Sera, who had initially taken a nonchalant interest in the Dalish pair given their heritage, had slowly become friends with the pair. Aphre found Sera to be greatly entertaining, and spent a significant amount of time with her planning pranks and jokes on the other members of the Inquisition, against Caedri's behest. So for Aphre not to seek her out immediately was worrisome to Sera, they hadn't seen each other in a considerable amount of time, with Sera returning to Val Royeaux to work with the Red Jennies and Aphre continuing her duties at her brother's side. She almost didn't recognise her as she walked in to the tavern, only because she was with Caedri did Sera make the connection,
"Bloody balls! It's you!" Sera exclaimed in the direction of the siblings, throwing her weight off the table and standing up straight. Her sudden exclamation had drawn the attention of other people in the tavern, but the only ones that held their gaze were Bull and Krem. They hadn't seen much of Aphre in the past few days either, but they made the choice to remain quiet, Krem swallowing nervously as he looked at her, not that she had looked at him.
He couldn't quite work out what it was about her that made him so uneasy and nervous. She was beautiful yes, but that was all he could say about her during the Inquisition given her relationship with Solas. Such an admission to himself that he found her attractive felt inappropriate, and he internally cursed himself for it. To a stranger, she would just look a stern and uncaring elf, but to those who knew her better than that could see the tiredness in her features, as good a job she did of disguising it. Nobody had heard much about what happened in the eluvians, while Bull had travelled with them for a while, only the Lavellans themselves had gone through the final one, and seen Fen'Harel in the flesh.
Or at least that was the rumour.
Nobody had confirmation of what had truly happened that day, he guessed that those closest to them had been informed, and that they'd done a good job of keeping it quiet. As much as he wanted to find out, he knew that option was more than just unlikely, it wasn't like Krem had a particularly strong relationship with either of them, as much as he wished that had never been the case. They were good people, good people he'd never had the fortune of getting to know properly, unlike Sera.
"I'm sorry about baldy bloke, I know he meant a lot to you." Sera said, her voice now registering at a lower volume, knowing the information was personal, and the wound it was tied to was still open.
"Thank you, Sera," Aphre replied, her voice soft, though her expression remained unchanged.
"Whenever you're up for it, I'm thinking more pranks, yeah?" She said, her tone playful and her eyes bright with all the devilish potential they normally contained.
"I'll let you know," Aphre winked.
"Oh, gods, not again." Caedri huffed, exasperated. Sera cackled at his response,
"Settle your tits elfy, wouldn't want your magister to see you all hot and bothered. Or maybe you would, if you're into that." Caedri's face began to redden as Sera spoke, before he could utter a reply she scurried away, to goodness knows where, to do goodness knows what. Caedri gave a small thanks to the Creators for Sera unsuccessfully convincing Aphre to join her in her pranks in this very instance, though he predicted he would be hearing complaints from Orlesian 'tight-arsed' nobles in a few days. The pair were an annoying force to be reckoned with when they set about their pranks, but to give Sera credit, their targets did seem more like people afterwards.
Moving on from the cackling interlude provided by Sera, Caedri offered Aphre a seat at one of the tables, before taking his own opposite her. The noise of the other customers in the tavern set Aphre more at ease, the noise meant that at least some people in the room weren't paying full and long attention to the two elves labelled the cause of the world's problems. It meant they could eat in peace. They were offered menus by a meek elf servant that quietly shuffled to their table, politely bowed and retreated as quickly as they'd appeared.
Caedri attempted to strike up casual conversation with his sister, but her replies were short and strained. She'd never been the greatest talker, or the kindest, or most tactful, but she certainly had no objection to conversation before, especially not with Caedri. He could see that her last encounter with Solas had worn on every aspect of her being, she wasn't whole, and every aspect of her life was suffering because of it.
He gave up his efforts when their food arrived, turning his attention to the plate laid before him by the same, timid elf as before. Aphre's stomach growled loudly in response to the sight and smell of what was on the table, though she didn't appear embarrassed by the fact as she simply began to pick at her food, eating what she could. As much as she didn't feel like eating, she now felt that given food had been made for her and placed in front of her, it would be a waste, a selfish one, to not even try. There were elves in alienages that starved daily, and would have given anything for the rich meal that she was barely touching. There were other clans that were barely surviving because they had to keep moving for one reason or another; to not eat this food would be ungrateful of her. So she did her best.
Caedri could see the effort each bite of her food took, he couldn't tell if it was for his benefit or not, but it was clearly an obligation rather than an actual desire to eat. Caedri picked at his own food, he too didn't feel too hungry, but with all the meetings still going on he knew that he would need to be at least somewhat alert to keep up with all the points and accusations made. Plus Dorian would notice, and he didn't want to give him any more cause for concern, there was enough strain on the both of them, and Caedri not eating would have simply caused greater worry when they both had enough to worry about.
"Thank you for bringing me here, Caedri." Aphre spoke, her words level and strong, if he'd closed his eyes he could have been convinced she was back to her normal self.
"Think nothing of it, sister. You needed this, to take your mind off… things." Caedri replied, a small smile on his lips as he looked at her. Though he wouldn't admit it outright, Caedri was pleased with himself that he'd managed to get Aphre out of her shell again, if only a little bit. He'd missed the way he'd been with his sister, they'd always had a strong relationship, they had always looked out for each other and never kept anything from each other. They were still honest, but since Caedri had gotten the mark, their relationship had altered dramatically, through no fault of their own. Being separated from her for such a length of time had pained him, and she had known, and therefore volunteered herself to go to the Inquisition, not only to report back to their clan, but to be there for her brother. Even then, with Caedri's new title and responsibilities, and Aphre being given duties on the council and within the forces, the time they spent together became less and less. So being sat opposite her, having a normal conversation like they used to, filled Caedri with joyful ease, and something that was beginning to feel like serenity.
So naturally, the feeling was not meant to last.
One of the Inquisition's agents came up to the elves, and requested Caedri's immediate presence in yet another council meeting, the agent made it clear that the matter was urgent, and Caedri's attendance was mandatory. Frustration and sadness washed over him in equal measure, every day more and more gods damned grief was added to his life. The moment that fucking mark showed up on his hand was the day he lost most freedoms and gained more obligations and rules to follow than he could stand, but what choice did he have?
He looked across at Aphre apologetically, but her eyes had clouded over, the expression on her face now one of resignation.
"It's okay, Caedri," She lied, "You have to go, I'll be fine." She lied again. For once I'd like to not feel completely helpless, Caedri thought to himself.
"I'm sorry, we'll talk more soon, I promise." His words were emphatic, and Aphre knew them to be true, but that didn't stop the tear in her heart from widening even further as she watched him get up and walk away.
She dropped her fork, letting it clatter onto the table, she then raked a hand through her hair, pulling it away from her face.
"Fuck." She whispered to herself, too consumed with her own feelings to notice that Krem once again had his gaze trained on her.
