They had the first two entrances to the warrens well covered. Nissa and Velanna rained elemental death down on the Darkspawn who swarmed out, while Oghren led the junior wardens in cutting apart any of the creatures who survived the initial onslaught. But there was a third entrance. Hidden behind rock and shadow, it led out directly into their vulnerable right flank, and from it, a howling swarm of Shrieks and Hurlocks emerged.
Eleanor was the first to fall. A jagged blade bit into the blonde scout's side, cutting through her light mail with sickening ease. She managed to spin around, her dagger slicing open the Hurlock's throat, but that only created an opening for the Genlock she'd already been engaged with. The creature's knife pierced her eye, and she didn't have even the time to scream before she died.
"Pull back!" Nissa screamed, straining to make herself heard over the chaos. "Regroup at the embankment!"
It was too late for Firal though. The Dalish warrior hadn't even made it to his Joining yet, and his inexperience was the death of him. He stumbled as he retreated, and the Shrieks were on him in seconds, claws ripping through soft flesh and spilling his blood all across the cavern floor.
Nissa raised her sword and summoned the lightning, but the Darkspawn had caught up with her too. The blast caught the lead Hurlock and ran through his body into the two behind him, but plenty more were there to take their place. She barely parried the first thrust in time, and as she fought her way backwards, a sea of blades were flying at her. Only her armor saved her from a stroke aimed at her side, but even the exquisitely enchanted mail couldn't take an infinite number of blows. With a wave of her hand, she summoned an aura of cold around her body, making the Hurlocks fall back, but the respite was only temporary. Far behind them, she could see the glow of magic forming around a Genlock conjurer and she knew that things were about to go from bad to worse…
Nissa awoke with a sharp gasp. The room felt 20 degrees too warm, and she hurled the silken sheets off of her body, panting. It was just a dream, she reminded herself as she looked around her bedchamber, focusing her gaze on the richly lacquered wood and the paintings hanging on the wall, sure signs that she was in the apartments of the Grand Cathedral in Orlais and not the Deep Roads.
It wasn't the comfort she really wanted, but it would have to do. After all, it wouldn't be appropriate for the Right Hand of the Divine to be spending her nights in her mistresses' chambers. Even though she and Leliana were working side by side again, their private time had to be carefully rationed. Most of the other clerics knew of their relationship, but indiscretions could still be used against her beloved. Or at least that had been the case. After today, everything would be different and that thought was enough to banish the last of Nissa's shivers.
Rising from her bed, she threw off underclothes damp with night-sweat as she made her way to the bathroom. The servants had already drawn her bath and a flicker of magic heated it up to the temperature she liked. Her body eased into the water, the warmth washing off her lingering tension even as it cleansed her skin. Even through the water, she could see the old scars that marked it, reminders of the battle she'd dreamt of and a hundred more. There weren't many people who could say that becoming the Right Hand of the Divine had made their lives safer, but Nissa was one of them.
The clothes she put on after her bath were another reminder of the life she'd left behind. There was no uniform for her position as the Right Hand, and just as Cassandra had kept her Seeker's garb, Nissa still wore the grey and blue. She eschewed the Grey Warden's griffin insignia; after all, she was no longer a member of the order. Still, the suggestion of who she'd been never hurt. Leliana's reforms had made many enemies, and they should all remember who stood by the Divine's side.
Strapping on her sword, Nissa walked out of her quarters only to find that she had a visitor waiting for her. Leliana hadn't donned her ceremonial robes for the day's ceremonies yet, instead wearing a simple white and gold dress that showed off more of her body's shape than the more formal garb did.
Before Nissa could comment on that, her beloved grabbed her for a kiss, running her hands through the elf's long red hair. It was a good, deep kiss, that kind that shivers down her spine, and the sort they rarely indulged in where anyone might see them.
"You're feeling rather bold this morning," Nissa teased, tracing her fingers down Leliana's neck.
"Soon enough, it will not matter. Before then though, I thought you might want to join me for breakfast."
She nodded. "I'd love to."
Leliana linked arms with her, and when they stepped into the Divine's quarters, located only a few corridors away, a breakfast of eggs, fruit, bacon, and porridge had already been laid out for them. Nissa took the seat closest to the door, digging in lustily.
"You know we the time to do this properly," Leliana said with a smile.
"Sorry. Old habits die hard, I guess. Out in the field, you eat when you can."
"I remember." Leliana reached across the table, brushing her hand over Nissa's cheek. "I will always cherish the time we spent on the road together."
Nissa kissed her palm. "So will I. But I'm glad that's not our life anymore."
Leliana gave her a knowing smile. "It is for the young I think. What about today? Are the all the security preparations in place?"
"They are. Nobody's going to disrupt the proclamation. At least as long as your fellow clerics don't make a scene, that is…"
"Never fear," Leliana laughed. "I have vetted those who will be joining me on the dais most carefully. Mother Esmeralda has been discretely seeing a former Templar captain for years, and Mothers Vera and Giseine are more than just colleagues. All of them are staunch supporters of this reform."
"What about Mother Analia? She doesn't seem like the type to have a lover on the side."
"No, but she is a firm believer in the authority of the Divine and an old friend. She can be relied on as well."
She smiled. "I should know better than to doubt you."
They finished the rest of their breakfast in an easy silence, but their eyes were never far from each other. The Divine was no longer the young lay Sister Nissa had fallen in love with so long ago, but this morning, it seemed as if she'd shed most of those years. There was a twinkle in Leliana's eyes and a glow to her skin that made Nissa feel as if they were still sitting around a campfire on the road to Denerim. She shared the excitement; after today, there would no more hiding.
"Are you ready for what's about to happen?" she asked as they rose from the table. "No matter how carefully we manage the announcement, there's going to be a backlash. Priestly celibacy has a long history, and you know what your enemies are going to say."
"That I am merely a randy woman, destroying the sacred laws of the Chantry to gratify my own base lusts?"
Nissa laughed. "Well, I was going to try and put it a bit more delicately, but yeah, that's the essence of it."
"They may well say that," Leliana agreed with a devilish smile. "And I can't deny that this is what my heart… and other parts desire. But my head agrees. The Chantry has been too cut off from the world, and celibacy is part of that separation. Marriage will help to connect the clergy to the people we're supposed to be helping instead of leaving us wrapped up in our own petty arguments."
With that declaration, she turned in the direction of the bedroom, shrugging out of her dress while she did. Her ass, now covered only by a lacy pair of white panties, swayed invitingly as she walked, and Nissa couldn't resist reaching out to give it a little squeeze.
"Maker, you're beautiful," she purred. "Maybe I could help you gratify a few of those base lusts before the announcement."
"It will have to wait until tonight," Leliana told her, though there was a definite note of regret in her voice. "I appreciate the attention but I was not putting on a show for your benefit. I have a number of meetings before the ceremony, and I really should look the part of the respectable Divine for them."
"All right," Nissa agreed, giving the back of her lover's neck a final kiss before turning to leave. "I'll see you up on the podium, then. And back here tonight, to celebrate."
"Bien sur," Leliana laughed, a sound as musical as any Nissa had every heard. Waiting was something they had plenty of practice with, and a little more couldn't hurt now.
The autumn day the Maker had given her to make her announcement on was clear but quite crisp and for once, Leliana was grateful for her heavy ceremonial robes. She was also grateful for all of the friends who had made the journey to Val Royeaux for the occasion. As she walked towards her the center of the dais, she gave a nod to Herah and Sera, there leading a small honor guard of the Inquisition's soldiers. The couple's prominence was deliberate; the symbolism of the Inquisitor's marriage was important on this day. Nissa was there on the dais too, of course, standing to the right of the Divine's throne as Leliana took her seat. She looked magnificent in her gleaming armor and grey and blue doublet, everything the Right Hand should be, and everything her Divine wanted.
More of their friends were out in crowd. Of her fellow former advisors, only Cullen was still serving the Inquisition, but this day he was joined by Cassandra and Cullen, the three of them standing in a cluster near the front of the crowd. Vivienne was nearby too, showing her support despite the strain that Leliana's pro-mages reforms had created between them.
Further towards the back of the crowd were some of Nissa's surviving comrades from the Wardens. Leliana did not know Sigrun or Nathaniel Howe well, but Nissa had always praised their courage. Thom Rainier of course she was far more familiar with, though a part of her would always think of him as Blackwall. And of course there was Zevran. Herah and Sera had run into the assassin on their honeymoon in Antiva, and he had turned up in town two days ago, declaring that he had no intention of missing out when the entire clergy of Val Royeaux was freed from their vows of celibacy all at once.
Whatever their reasons for coming, however, Leliana was glad to see them. As much as this day was about doctrine and policy, it was also intensely an personal one, and it felt right that at least some of the people that she and Nissa had journeyed with would be there to share it.
After an appropriate interval, she rose, signaling the crowd for quiet. The buzz among them settled down gradually, and once it had, Leliana delivered the customary opening blessing, invoking the Maker's grace on all present, and asking for His approval for the Chantry's work.
Whether I have it or not, though, it's too late to turn back now.
"Brothers and sisters," she began, echoing the words she had said at the Inquisitor's wedding, "We come before you today to speak of love. Of all the gifts the Maker had given us, it is perhaps the greatest. We talk often of His love, which He feels for all the world, but we should also cherish the love for one another that He causes to grow in our hearts."
Do I still believe that? she wondered as she spoke the words she had practiced until they came almost automatically. That the Maker's love surrounds us all. Surely not in the simple way I did as a sister in the Lothering Chantry, to be sure. I have seen and learned too much to accept the Chantry's doctrines as blindly as I once did, nor am I so sure that the Maker ever spoke to me. But Thedas needs the Chantry to bind us together, and I still have enough faith to do what that requires.
"For too long," she continued, "The Chantry has acted as if these two loves could not be reconciled. That we had to chose between our love for the Maker and our love for each other. But this was wrong. Did not the Bride of the Maker herself have a mortal husband as well as a celestial one? Malferath betrayed her, true, but she did not betray him. It was the one who lacked faith in the Maker who proved unable to love his fellow humans properly, not the one whom He had chosen."
"Indeed, it is our love for those who walk through this life beside us who give us the strength to serve the one who's return the faithful await. It was true in the time of Andraste, and it is no less true today. We know in our heart that our loves are a source of strength, not of weakness. And it is with that knowledge that we proclaim what the Conclave has ratified…"
Ratified after cajoling, and bribes, and threats in few particularly obstinate cases, but ratified never the less.
"…A change to the Ordinances of Sacred Procedure. Henceforth, all who serve the Maker in His Chantry shall be free to marry whomever they chose, just as any other of his children may do."
A wave of applause greeted her words, and Leliana paused to let it pass. Here, at least, the enthusiasm was genuine. Word had leaked out of the Conclave as to what the day's proclamation would be, and most of those in the great square were in favor of what she and her fellow clerics had done.
Once their cheers had settled down, Leliana continued. "We know that this change will seem strange to some, and we emphasize that this matter is left to the heart of each Reverend Mother. Those who wish to marry may do so, but those who wish to continue to focus their devotion solely on the Maker are free to do so as well."
"Make no mistake however. Change is coming to the Chantry, and as benefits the holy office we occupy, we shall be the first example of that change. For many years, Nissa Surana, who was once Commander of the Grey and is now the Right Hand of the Divine, has been dear to our heart. Duty has often kept us apart, but no more. It is our great pleasure to announce that we have offered, and she has accepted our proposal of marriage. Those whose hearts the Maker has joined should not have to hide their love, and now, we and many more like us, no longer will. Together, we will be stronger, and the Chantry will be stronger for it."
She finished and, on cue, Nissa stepped forward, joining Leliana at the front of the stage. Her beloved's fingers interlaced with her own, and the two women raised their arms, even as the crowd erupted with applause, louder than before. The hero who had defeated the Blight remained tremendously popular across Thedas, and even had she not held Leliana's love, the Divine could have made no better choice to win support for her revolution.
Even amidst the roar of the crowds, her friends' cheers could still be heard, starting with Josephine and Cassandra, and Leliana smiled at the two of them. They knew better than most what this moment meant to her, not just as Divine Victoria but as a woman who had spent far too much time without the one she loved. Her eyes darted over to Nissa, and long years of study let her see that the mage was thinking the same thing that Leliana herself was. Let us savor this moment.
The years to come would be hard. However warm a reception her announcement was receiving today, she had no shortage of enemies, both within the Chantry and outside of it. Worse still, Solas now schemed to throw the whole world into chaos, and many of Thedas' elves, made bitter by long years of discrimination, were joining with him.
But that was all right. Life was not meant to be easy, least of all for people like them. And though Leliana had told many lies over the years, the words she had just spoken were not among them. There was no better way to meet the battles that were coming than with Nissa by her side, and now, at last, she could say that simple truth before the world. Let those who would oppose them tremble; for now and always, the Nightingale and the Warden were united.
And that's the new (and final, since there's no more Inquisition content coming) end to Keep My Feet on the Ground. Thanks for reading and please leave some feedback if you're so inclined.