Ruby smirked as she waited for Lavellan and Lily to stop gossiping. Lily had maybe seven years on the dalish girl but you'd never know it from how they giggled side by side sitting on a bench in the courtyard. No one had the heart to interrupt as it had been ages since the Inquisitor looked so content. Judging from the tells she knew from her human friend, Ruby was guessing they were of course, talking boys. Now Ruby liked another fine pair of breasts as much as she did impressive pectoral muscles, believing in equal opportunities for landing in her bed, but the way those two were simpering behind their hands?
Definitely they were talking men. A certain fur wearing former Templar and strapping young charger no doubt. There was of course, other matters to address. Like why Lily was there so far from their group. Generally speaking Warden's didn't travel alone, especially where their Captain Nug Shit had been assigned her protection. Lily wore none of her mail over her robe that depicted her allegiance either, just the simplest of scale chest plate and arm pauldron that denoted her as a mage with the sense to cover the squishiest parts of her anatomy. It was light, easy to move in, and only had stylized dragon scales in a dark gray hue instead of the silver. It made Ruby uneasy. That Lily had been found in such meant she had been traveling, still keeping her role as a Warden hidden. It meant so were the others, and the last report they'd gotten before Haven fell was just that something was not right and they were going to disperse, hide the trail.
Lily was not incapable in battle, though for her to have been only using her barriers and not even a stone fist or the like bespoke of exhaustion. She could still draw on the Fade but it was much harder, bloodmagic tended to make it so. Her best methods against opponents was usually a localized barrier to their face, cutting off their air until they fell unconscious. It wouldn't have done her any good against the undead.
She still shouldn't be alone. When Ria found that out she was going to be unbearable, and Ruby resigned herself to convincing their Sky to let the grown blood mage have time alone. For now, it did the dwarf's heart good to watch her dear sister chatter as if she was the naïve young noblewoman she would have been if magic had never crossed her path.
It was the little things that calmed her blood.
()()()()()()()()()()
In silence the two former Templar's walked from the courtyard and Cullen was kind enough to assist Ria in putting away her armor, before leading her up and away from prying ears. He fell into step beside her, at ease with her presence if not the reason for their meeting up again so soon when she had comforted him but days before. Cullen was kind enough to wait until they were far out on the battlements, less likely to be overheard with the roaring wind. Then he began to pace, stalking like a cat back and forth over the stone with the mountain range at his back.
"Help me not just attack her." Was the first thing he finally forced to cross his lips and Ria's hand went to his arm.
"Thank you for trying."
"I'm not an idiot, she means something to you. You know what I've been through and..just..she's one of them Ria." Like those who tortured him, killed their friends. "Help me know something to keep from calling her out."
Most of what Ria would tell him, she would wait until they had the Templar's there as well. But there was something she could show him that despite how bitter she personally felt about it, would soothe Cullen's paranoia. With a moment's hesitation she removed her gloves and undid the top armor, still wearing her gorget. Cullen watched, curious as the metal plate fell to the ground baring her neck, a deft movement to loosen the top of her tunic and then her fingers were drawing forth a simple chain.
It was the sight of the pendant however, a beautiful construction of delicate filigree with tiny red gemstones that mellowed him. Once not against her skin, but cupped in her hands she held it up. The chain still around her neck.
"Go ahead."
Cullen had his suspicion and ever so gently took hold of the pendant in his own gloved hands, tilting it. The gemstones shifted. Blood. Kept fresh and liquid instead of dry and flaking.
"Phylactery..?" He breathed out and his eyes went wide. But he could recognize the tiny runes, the subtle power to it that he was intimately familiar with. He had been tuned to those same runes before, hunted down the missing apostates they were linked to. Each had been a larger one than this, there was only a few drops of blood in each tiny stone. He shifted the pendant again and at just the right angle the filigree revealed a gryphon in flight, wings and tail curling about. Two tiny moonstones set as eyes that he had not noticed, so distracted by the drops of blood there. It made it seem as if the beast was protecting them as it's horde. Between it's avian claws and wings with a few branching out. The piece itself was a fine work of art, the sort that would not have seemed out of place gracing a king's daughter and clearly had been made specifically for the tiny phylactery's it bore.
"Yes. Tuned only to me."
Cullen swallowed. It was rarely done, that, saved for the Templar's who did nothing but hunt down the most elusive of mages. A little blood would be taken from the main phylactery and distilled into another, the pendant would only work for the single Templar but it would always let them know where to find them if they went to track them down. Unlike most phylactery if the mage died, the piece containing blood would go opaque and dark letting them know there was no more need to seek their quarry.
"There are.." he paused, counting each of the tiny stones. Half were opaque. "Oh, Ria.."
Ria's hand closed over his, hiding the phylactery from his eyes once more though she did not remove it from his hand. "We are different in what we accept in our ranks, Cullen but not all turn to those methods. Just a few. This is more powerful because each of the mages even if they only are the regular sort has come to offer me their blood willingly to trust that if they lost control I would be there."
Cullen shuddered, and nodded as he made his fingers let go of the item so sacred to his friend she clearly never parted with it. The magic in the runes would doubtless never allow the chain to unlock from her neck while even a single phylactery remained active, a cursed yoke to bear for one who loved her charges. "The girl in the courtyard has one here?"
"Before she'd even consent to join us. Demanded as she was being trained. To my mages, Cullen, this is their proof they are safe even from themselves. They pledge their loyalty, trust in me to be there for them."
"How many times have you ended them, because they were too weak?"
"How many did I fail?" She changed the way he asked and Cullen gave her a wan smile, he couldn't agree with her but he did understand her point. If any sought to become an abomination Ria would have seen it as her own fault, not the mage. "Since this phylactery was made? None."
"The dead ones..?"
Ria clenched her fist and looked down. Memories of the deep roads, of the darkspawn swarming them. Of battlefields far from the cursed figures but where they sought to help those who needed them and sometimes the cost was too high and she was not there. "One by one, duty has claimed."
Fear at what the healer girl could do was softened as he saw the aching agony on Ria's face. Remembered the loss of his fellow Templar's, reminded himself that they had been Ria's family too. How much worse it had to be, a Gray Warden, knowing at some point every one of them would die within a few decades. There was no graceful growing old awaiting them. No happy ending to their stories. The best they could dream of was a quick death sparing another. "I'll try."
"Come. Help me gather the Templar's. Ruby can see to Lily. There are things they should know, and you."
"You're going to let them know?" He was startled, informing the Templar's that served Skyhold under Ria, and he'd noticed practically saw her as one of Andraste's chosen representatives when the order needed it, that she willingly sheltered a maleficarum was..unthinkable.
"They are our brothers and sisters. They deserve to know about my mage. And to know how the choice was thrust upon her."
"I won't like what I am going to hear, will I?" But Cullen was momentarily disappointed for he had hoped Ria would trust the Templar's enough to reveal her other organization she belonged to. For some reason she was not sharing, she felt it best not to.
Ria looked over at him, and then away clearly knowing what he was thinking. "No." For a moment she paused, and then made up her mind. "Get Cassandra too? I think..I think I should ask Solas to join us."
"He knows?"
"It came up in our talks."
Cullen regarded her curiously then and slowly got a smile on his face. "He doesn't know about your relationship with one Order or the one you left it for, but you let him know about your precious mage charge Serrah Luria?" He switched to the formal address in teasing, and she replied in kind. Their way of assuring each other they were still okay. Their friendship would survive this.
"Yes. Why are you grinning at me, Ser Rutherford?"
"Mages have always been your weakness, I guess it shouldn't surprise me."
"Cullen?"
Cullen snickered, enjoying that Ria seemed genuinely baffled as she pulled her gloves back on. "You know he may not take the sight of your phylactery well?"
Ria pursed her lips and nodded. "It does not change the truth however, does it? He may rail and argue but I will not change what I am and How I am even to comfort a mage."
"I would be surprised if you ever did. You'd have to think of yourself first and you're notoriously wretched at doing so."
"Hello Pot."
"Kettle."
Luria paused then and she looked up at Cullen with a weary smile. "I'm glad you are here, Cullen. Truly I have missed you more dearly than I let myself realize. Thedas is a far better place for your being in it, my dearest friend."
"You act like I'm going to die saying it that way." And the horrid realization struck then as it never really had save when he thought her perished at Ostagar. Despite his fight with Lyrium withdrawal, Cullen was very likely to outlive Ria. The bright figure beside him that had always been there. Closing his eyes he pinched his brows together, the thought of her bright faith not standing there an aching one.
"Cullen?"
"I.." he swallowed and shook his head. With the knowing perhaps at best he had less than two decades where his friend may be there, only to reach the halfway point in her life? He'd never see her frail and trembling as they laughed over the old days, she would not be there to sit with him and watch the grandchildren he hoped to witness someday, trailing about with pups in a garden. With grandchildren of her own, even if just little mage strays she'd no doubt have still been taking in. It would never happen. "I just realized how deadly your chosen path in this world is. How little time we have together."
Her pale gaze met his and there was a wealth of sorrow, of tired loneliness that made him remember the words she had not wished to recite for him. Suddenly Warden Farein's words made more sense. Soft heart, softer touch and unceasing duty. Knowing naught but sacrifice to ease the loneliness. And in teasing her he had her repeat them. When he knew the man was rumored to have the gift of the Maker and know too much about people. Cullen reached his hand up to cup her face, rumors be damned and watched as her eyes closed, as she allowed him to share her pain for that moment. To be there for her and assure his friend with that touch that while he could, he would be at her side. No wonder she protected so fiercely, felt so deeply. She had but a short span of her life to live no matter how well she tried.
"For you, I'll listen with an open mind when you address our brethren." Cullen pledged. Her hand splayed over his and he felt Ria tremble a moment, her eyes wet when she opened them but no tears fell.
"Thank you."
"I'll go get Cassandra and the others. You figure out how to convince a less than friendly apostate to meet in a group of us." He teased her, wishing to pull back out her smile. It never reached her eyes as she chuckled and moved away. Cullen watched her as she walked, for the first time able to see that heavy weight she bore as he never had.
Wasn't it said the Maker loved his Warden's best of all, for what they were willing to give?
()()()()()()()()()
"Solas?" Ria stepped into the Rotunda and paused, her words dying as she looked at the beautiful fresco before her. It was only partially done, the first clearly of many as he had some marked out but the vibrancy he had already created drew her attentions as she stepped forward, breath stolen. The urge to touch was strong, though she kept her hands clasped behind her back to resist.
There was a reverence in her gaze Solas observed and his own greeting died upon his tongue as he watched the Templar in his lair so to speak. The way her eyes fixed upon his work, her hands tight around each other and behind her as obvious as a child may have prevented from grasping cookies on a shelf. He enjoyed seeing his work so appreciated, the heavily stylized patterns were not to most tastes, as ancient as they were. The simplicity of art to convey a story had been the most favored of fashions in Arlathan. Anyone could create works of astonishing beauty but to do so with as few lines and colors as you could was much like using only your actions to make a point. It was the height of artistry. He'd had a number of people dismiss him, his 'childish scrawls' but not then. The Templar had come in with her countenance that of someone who felt weighed down, exhausted from ordeals and he could only imagine what Cullen had shared with her as they'd walked off after her publicized embrace of a mage girl by the name of Lily. Solas had not been present for it but if he knew the intricacies of the girls' abilities it stood to reason Ria would have shared such with Cullen, old friend that he was. All of that now was shrugged off, as if in the wonder of admiring his talent just beginning as it were to show on the walls of his rotunda, she had forgotten anything but the moment.
Like that time on the mountainside when first they spoke pleasantly until dawn, when he witnessed her observing daybreak once more as they spoke journeying to Skyhold. That reverence and wonder of the light being brought to the land. That was what her countenance spoke of as she gazed on his painting. He was loathe to disturb her.
For in these rare moments she forgot anything but what she was so moved by, Solas could admit she was strikingly appealing.
In the end though, she had come for a reason and Solas could see her drawing dignity and purpose to her, cloaking herself in duty as if these were physical components.
"Forgive me." She began to apologize and something in Solas rebelled at the very idea she would deny herself something that clearly brought her such delight. As if she was used to the notion. Not when he had just seen the first true respect given to something she had no idea was millennium of skills in a single application.
"Please, do not apologize. I am heartened by the way you looked at my work." Solas assured her and he meant it with a sincerity he rarely spoke of when not about the Fade or his people's history.
"...It rivals the most exquisite works I have seen in ancient ruins long forgotten." She confessed then and there was the faintest shy smile, a confession of explorations she had never brought up that drew Solas's attention.
"You enjoyed seeking out...remains..of the Elvhenan."
"I rarely have time for it." She admitted and glanced back over her shoulder, wistfulness pervading her as if she could almost see the ruins she spoke of. Solas dearly wished to know where she had been, if there was anything that truly remained or if the dust and decay had overtaken them all. "But though we move forward, our roots are in the past and it is only through them we can steady our future."
"Exceptionally well spoken." He admitted, the imagery of an immense tree, thousands of branches and leaves spread out in a welcoming canopy with a network of twining roots making his fingers itch with the desire to draw it. Perhaps he would reverse the pattern, that the roots would be elegantly twining to show the intricacies of The People's history where they currently were scattered and diverse? He realized she was looking at him and Solas cleared his throat, looking away as he felt a faint blush of shame on his cheeks. "Forgive me, you provided some inspiration for a future idea and I did not catch that.."
Ria chuckled but did not tease him. "It is my honor then, however, I was going to inform you..I am addressing the Templar's and Cassandra, Cullen as well..informing them of circumstances surrounding Lily." She stood straighter, the shoulder's pulling back as her feet widened, the hands clasped behind her. A good soldier. Solas found his eyes roaming her form as the general he had once been but there was nothing save precision to her. With the halberd at her back as always she may have been dressed down but Solas did not doubt she could leap into the fray. It was curious though, that she never seemed to let her weapon leave her side.
"I see. And you have come to me..?" He did not wish to assume, not when so far every time he did he had been wrong. He thought perhaps it was just courtesy.
"I thought you may wish to hear what is spoken, for yourself. To be there as a counter if any have questions." Ria paused and though the next part clearly stung her to utter, she got through it and Solas was once more impressed. "The odds of them wishing to clarify there is no magic influencing me is ...a given. I trust your opinion."
"High praise. I will join you." Solas felt a bit startled, as ever it seemed this Templar could surprise him yer again. Was there nothing she held back? Certainly no one was this open. With a cheeky smile though, despite her pledge not to tease him being one she regularly did break, she offered out her arm this time to him.
"I do recall a promise in Haven to curb unwanted flirtations." He dryly remarked as he walked up to her, amused though that he could not truly look down on the elf, tall as she was with her eyes almost at his own level and pointedly ignoring her offered limb.
"Hm, are they unwanted, Solas? Your responses to them have indicated otherwise." She asked with a faint smile and turning away to lead him forward without waiting for a response.
Solas found his gaze falling to the sway of her hips, the bared nape of her neck between her hair and tunic.
Perhaps, they were not. Ill advised as it would be to consider them.
()()()()()()()()
