((A/N: So here is yet another Chapter, that I cranked out at work. Sorry if it's not that good. I threw out my back at work, and pulled some muscles. It hurts a lot, so I'm doped up on too many pain meds, Icy-Hot and an uncomfortable back brace, so my mind isn't really in the game at the moment…other than that I hope you guys enjoy this Chapter! And HAPPY NEW YEAR!))
When The Herald walked into the War Room with Glitch in her arms, it raised more than one pair of eyebrows. Cassandra's mouth literally fell open, and Leliana had to cover her smirk, as The Herald placed the small Jackalope onto the war table. He twitched his nose a few times and hoped towards a figurine that was sitting besides the map that was spread out on the table.
After an awkward pause, Cassandra finally asked "Your Worship…Why is there a rabbit on the War Table?"
[Im a Jackalope!]
"Actually," The Herald said, pushing her hair out of her face, "He's a Jackalope."
"I…Don't understand…" The Seeker said. The tall woman's eyebrows where relaxed for the first time since The Herald met her, as she stared at the small creature that was now nibbling at the corner of the map.
"Well, it's quite simple really, see Jackalope's have horns while Rabbits don't-"
"No, I don't understand why it's here…with you…why you are carrying it around…" The Seeker scratched her head, and The Herald shrugged in response, not bothering to explain any further. In fact, she wasn't quite sure how she would explain it. They already thought she was a little crazy after the whole different world excuse, the last thing she needed to do was try and explain to them that a spirit from the fade inhabited the body of a Jackalope to teach her how to fight.
Because, like, you know, that's completely normal.
"So I've heard the Commander and Ambassador has arrived, do I get to meet them?" It was an obvious attempt to change the subject, and The Herald was doing her best to avoid eye contact with anyone in the room. She placed her hands onto the table leaning over to glance at the map. Glitch hopped over towards her, and wormed his way in between her arms.
Leliana removed her hand from her mouth, any trace of a smile nonexistent as she folded her hands behind her back, "That is correct, Commander Cullen has returned from cleaning up what happened on the Frostback Mountains and our Ambassador Josephine Montilyet arrived from Antiva yesterday. She spent the majority of the day arranging her office in the Chantry." She looked at the Herald who was still studying the map intently, "Would you like for me to go fetch them?"
"Yes…please…the sooner we close the Breach…the better…" She stood up and watched Leliana leave the room, leaving only the Seeker and The Herald together.
"Your Worship-" The Herald held up a hand, stopping Cassandra from speaking.
"Could you stop calling me that, please, it weirds me out…a lot…"The Herald had an awkward, pleading smile on her face, but Cassandra shook her head.
"I'm afraid not…we've been over this before. You are the beacon of hope for people here…and we are not going to ruin that image." Cassandra said, walking over with the large book she had shown the Chancellor the other day. "This is the writ from the Divine, I was hoping you could start reading it before the Advisors showed up…"
The Herald frowned, looking at the large book now sitting in front of her. She flipped it open, her eyes intense as she flipped through the pages, her fingers running over the rough paper. It felt old, older than anything she ever held before. Five minutes of silence passed in the War Room, the Seeker staring at her intensely until The Herald finally said,
"Yeah I can't read any of this."
Cassandra's jaw dropped for the second time that day, "What do you mean you can't read any of it?!"
Scratching the back of her head The Herald let out a heavy sigh, "I don't understand the language…where I'm from…we both speak the same…but our writing is completely different. We don't even have the same characters it looks like…"
Cassandra groaned, "Great our Herald is illiterate!"
A scowl crossed across the shorter girls face, and a heat flushed to her cheeks. It wasn't her fault; she wasn't even from this world, let alone this land. Crossing her arms she glared at Cassandra, "Look here! I can read! I just can read this shit! I don't need you insulting me! I am doing the best I can!"
[Calm down, getting angry will only make things worse]
She turned her head towards Glitch and hissed at him, "You calm down!"
"Did you just talk to that Rabbit?"
The Herald snapped her head back towards the Seeker, "NO!"
"Um…we aren't interrupting are we?"
Turning on her heel, The Herald looked at the door to see Leliana standing there accompanied by two other people. They all looked awkward and uncomfortable for walking in on such a scene.
One of them was a girl just slightly taller than she was, with darker skin, and black hair that was stylishly tied up. Her clothes were like something in a play from Shakespeare, and her smile was blindingly bright, even it was slightly terrified. She was pretty though, and she held herself like she was a queen. Chin tilted slightly up, eyes looking gently down.
The other companion, a man, who stood a full foot taller than The Herald, whose dirty blonde hair, was combed back neatly. His face had a too serious tone about at it, and his lips looked like they had never broke into a full smile before. Despite all this though, the small scar that graced the tip of his lip, and dark, intense eyes still made The Heralds stomach all squeamish, like someone was flipping it like a pancake.
That was never a good sign.
"Uh…no…you're not…sorry about that…Cassandra and I…where discussing some things…Hi I'm-"
"The Herald!" Josephine said, her smile only intensifying. She wore it so easily, like it took no effort at all. A 100 watt beam straight from her face. The Herald felt slightly jealous at that. "You…are not at all…what I was expecting…tell me…what your age…is"
Trying to hide how pleasantly surprised she was by someone finally being interested in her, (yet slightly insulted by how she wasn't what she expected) The Herald answered, "I'm 23."
"So young!"
"Not really…"
Josephine quickly declared that they were being carried away, and went to introduce herself. After everyone gave their name, Cassandra called them over, so that they may look at the Writ that The Herald had such trouble with earlier. When they walked over to it, they where all surprised to see Glitch looking at the book intently, as if it was reading it.
"Is that a rabbit?" Cullen asked.
[JACKALOPE!]
"It's actually a Jackalope…"
Josephine bit her lip, tilting her head to the side in such a feminine fashion that The Herald felt another pang of jealousy. "I do not understand…"
"Well you see Jackalope's have horns and stuff-" Cassandra cut the Herald off before she could continue, "And I'll just shut up now…"
Cassandra looked at her briefly, and turned towards the others, starting to discuss just what the Inquisition was. The Herald paid only half attention though. She couldn't care less about the politics and wars that where going on in Thedas at the moment. Her stomach felt like it was constantly turning. Homesickness, worry, pain and stupid tall good looking men suddenly walking into her life. All of it was enough to make her head feel like scrambled eggs. Cullen and Jospehine sat there, giving their inputs, all of them discussing about who to turn to.
Mages or Templars.
I wonder if Mom and Dad are okay… She thought, pinching the bridge of her nose so tight she could of left marks.
Leliana then started to make a case for the Mages, stating something about how they deserved to be free. Cullen started to argue that they couldn't be trusted. Josephine said that nothing could be done at the moment because they didn't have enough influence or allies.
If I close this Breach for them…will they even let me go home? The familiar feeling of tears pressing at the back of her eyes appeared.
[Breathe Kid.]
The Herald looked down at the Jackalope that was now sitting in front of her, gazing up. She let out a laugh. How strange was it that the closest thing she had to a friend here was a spirit inhabiting a Jackalope's body. It was comical.
"So the best person here to secure our Allies of course would be our very own Herald of Andraste." Josephine finally said, and The Herald snapped her head up from her staring contest with Glitch.
"Say what?" She asked, her eyebrows furrowing together.
"You are the symbol of our Inquisition. While the Chantry may fear you and be selling lies about how dangerous you are, you are a beacon of hope for many people. If you go out there and help them, that will only seal that image. So therefore, you are the best person to do this." She explained, and The Herald slammed her hands onto the table.
"I thought you just needed me to close the Breach!" She yelled, and the faces of the Advisors dropped. "Now you want me to be…a diplomat…you want me to run around this land I don't even know and just…work to make us popular?" The whole concept made her head spin. Flabbergasted. Angry.
"None of us have the pull that you do…" Josephine's voice was soft, soothing almost, as she explained.
"You kidnapped me, tied me up in a prison! Dragged me through a demon infested valley when I didn't even know how to protect myself! I nearly killed myself trying to seal that breach for the first time! I've been training, and studying constantly since I've gotten here! And now…now you want to put the responsibility of recruiting a legion of followers on me!" Her voice had cracked at the end. She couldn't handle this. These choices seemed so easy when it was just a video game. When it wasn't real. Now it seemed that the burden was crushing her.
Cassandra looked at her, the same stubbornness in her eyes as the girl's. "You are the Herald-"
"I'm not fucking Jesus!" She screamed and the room went quite for a second, until Cullen asked;
"Who is Jesus?"
Pulling her hair back, The Herald grabbed Glitch and hurried out of the War Room. She was angry, and frustrated. Overwhelmed and embarrassed. She had acted like a child back there, and she knew it. It wasn't what she was supposed to do. A hero…a hero like in the games would have accepted her fate and did what she could to help. She would be selfless, willing to give her life for her country and world.
But this wasn't her world.
The Herald ran as fast as she could through the small town of Haven. Ignoring all the people who tried to get her attention. Her feet hurt in the leather boots, and the wool from her tunic itched. She was cold, but sweat dripped from her forehead as she ran right out the main gate of the village. Part of her knew that she should turn around and apologized to Cassandra, Leliana, Josephine and Cullen. The reasonable part of her knew that. The emotional, irrational part of her kept her feet running until she ran into the edge of a lake and couldn't go any further.
[Are you okay Kid?] She looked at Glitch, who had snuggled into her arms.
"You're a Battle Spirit, you shouldn't be this cuddly…" She said softly, petting it between its horns. "I'll be fine…I'll go back and apologize in a bit…" She whispered.
"You okay Kid?"
The Herald looked slightly confused, feeling like she had just answered this question, but it wasn't Glitch who asked. Turning around she saw the short dwarven man she met on the mountain a few days earlier. Also the best friend of her Champion character in the second game. Varric.
"Yeah I'm fine…" She lied, turning back towards the lake and focusing most of her attention on Glitch.
The dwarf came over to her side and sat down next to her, letting out a heavy sigh, "Cassandra is raving mad right now, but she'll calm down…she just doesn't see it how you do…but she will…eventually…just give them some time…"
The Herald finally looked over at Varric, her eyes misty despite her best attempts to keep them dry. "I…I've never done something like this before…I was just a normal girl back home…none of this stuff…it's all a part of fairytales for me…even…people like you…" She said, her cheeks turning red.
Varric just laughed, "I get it. Everyone always talks about how great of heroes they would have been in they were at Ostagar, or if they where there in Kirkwall during the mage rebellion. It's easy to talk, and hard to do. They don't realize that in the span of one day you went from being somewhere completely different than here, to the most wanted criminal in Thedas, to joining an army of the faithful…"
With a heavy sigh, she scratched right behind Glitch's ear, his bushy tale twitching in appreciation. "I know…and in reality…all I want to do is run away and go home…but I have to do this don't I…" Her gaze drifted towards the hand that was scratching Glitch. "I'm the only one who can…"
Varric looked at her, "Heroes…are often born of circumstance. Wrong place, wrong time, right person kind of thing…You…you are something entirely different. As sappy as this sounds, you have the mark, you were meant to save us…you're a miracle…"
The Herald took a deep breath, letting it out through her nose. She shut her eyes, trying to push out the hundreds of thoughts that where flying through her mind at once. "My mom used to say something about miracles Varric…"
"Oh?"
"Yeah." She stood up, whipping her eyes and gritting teeth. "You don't believe in miracles. You depend on them."
