"Commander, I was thinking, with the Herald away, we could -"

"Wait, what?" he stopped his progress down the hall and turned to face the Ambassador as she approached him. "The Herald is away?"

"Yes, Commander, surely she told you she was leaving this morning for Crestwood to meet Hawke?" Josephine was staring at him with a surprised frown. "She told me she had informed you she moved the departure up when she received Hawke's letter."

Cullen closed his eyes and rubbed his temples with his fingers, trying to get rid of the aching pain as it suddenly worsened. "I must have forgotten, I'm sorry, Ambassador," he lied. She hadn't told him; she hadn't spoken to him since that night in the tavern, had done her best not to look at him in the war room over the last few days. "Who went with her?"

"The Iron Bull, Varric, and Dorian," the Ambassador answered. Cullen's head gave another painful throb.

"I see," he gritted out. "Well, Ambassador, what did you want to discuss with me?"

He rushed the meeting with Josephine, determined to get out of the keep and into the fresh air. As soon as he stepped outside, however, he found no relief as the sunlight hurt his eyes and made his head throb more painfully. Cullen's head hadn't stopped hurting this badly since he'd listened to Dorian calling her little bird as she sat beside him, looking like she wanted to cry. He leaned against the stone of the battlements and covered his eyes with his hand, taking steadying breaths.

"Commander," he heard from beside him. "Are you all right?"

"I -" he wanted to tell Cassandra that he was fine, that he was tired, that it was nothing. But he'd been getting worse, shaking more intensely, not able to sleep longer than an hour a night, his head painfully throbbing. And now even the sunlight was too much for him.

"Commander?" Cassandra repeated worriedly.

"It's getting worse," he muttered.

"But you were doing better. You told me you thought you were improving," he could hear the frown in her voice as she spoke.

"I was, but it was short lived." He gritted his teeth against the pain. "I'm not sure I can do this, Cassandra. You need to relieve me, you need to -"

"No, Commander," she interrupted. "But I am going to order you to bed for the rest of the day. Skyhold and the Inquisition won't fall apart if you allow yourself to get some sleep. I'll send Adan with a sleeping draught."

"Cassandra, no, I -"

"That's an order, Commander, if I have to force it down your throat myself."


Evelyn sat by the fire of their camp, rereading the letter she held in her hands. She frowned, trying to determine why Mother Gisele had sent this problem to her, why the Revered Mother had even been contacted in the first place. She couldn't make sense of it.

"You'll never forgive me if I let your face freeze in that frown, little bird," Dorian took a seat beside her and she folded the letter quickly in her hand. "Shall I tell you jokes to make it go away? I know a great one about a Qunari mage and a Revered Mother who -"

"No, Dorian, I'm fine," she interrupted. She stared at him for a moment, contemplating. Dorian had quickly become one of her closest friends; indeed, he was one of the only friends she'd ever had in her entire life. She tried to decide what she would want to happen in a situation like this, if she had a choice. She looked at the folded letter, tugging her bottom lip between her lips.

"Well then at least tell me what's the matter," the Tevinter prompted.

"Actually, there's something I need to show you," she handed him the letter and watched as he held it up to the firelight to read. His brows furrowed into a frown that rivaled the one she had previously worn herself. "Dorian?"

He was shaking his head in disbelief. "Why…"

"I thought you should know," she murmured. "I'd want to make the decision for myself, if it were me."

Dorian reached over and gave her hand a gentle squeeze. "Thank you, I appreciate that."

"What do you want to do?"

"I find myself curious…I think I'd like to go see what exactly it is this retainer wants," he slowly answered. "How far are we from Redcliffe?"

"Not far, we could go before we return to Skyhold," she answered.

"If it's not out of the way, if it doesn't delay our return overmuch…" he looked at her.

She smiled and squeezed his fingers. "It's not a problem."