Leliana pushed open the door to her old room at Skyhold, and dropped her traveling pack to floor with a sigh, equal parts exhaustion and bliss. She had only been away for a few weeks, but it had seemed like months. In the short time she had lived in Skyhold, the place had come to feel surprisingly like home. Leliana had spent the better part of her adult life moving from place to place, rarely spending more than a week in one city before duty or intrigue would pull her to the next. In the past, she'd had no desire to be rooted to any one place, but near the end of her month-long stay in Val Royeaux, she had felt home-sick for the smells, sights, and faces of Skyhold. Granted, most of her favorite faces were gone now, but, with the birds of her rookery flying back and forth to every corner of Thedas, none of them were really out of her reach.

The journey home from Val Royeaux had been long and exhausting, and it had been well past sundown when she'd finally rode through Skyhold's gates. Her legs and back ached from too many hours spent astride a horse. Sleep pulled at her every muscle. She smiled lazily to herself, stroking the satin coverlet of her four-poster bed and smiling, imagining slipping beneath the blankets letting her head sink into the soft downy pillows. What she needed was a long uninterrupted sleep.

Schmooples trotted into the room behind her, his short legs working double-time to catch up. He pawed at the dangling edge of the bedspread and squeaked. Leliana laughed and scooped the nug into her arms giving him a kiss on his prominent nose. "Is the bed too high for you, my darling?" She placed Schmooples lovingly on the bed. "I'll just have to ask Harritt to build you some stairs!" she said while smooshing his face.

"From making weapons for the Inquisitor of Thedas to building step ladders for nugs," said a voice behind her. "I can hear Harritt grumbling already." Leliana turned to see Cullen smiling warmly at her from the threshold. He looked almost as tired as she felt.

"Inquisitor Rutherford," she said bowing dramatically before hugging him.

"Maker, please don't call me that," he groaned, patting her on the back awkwardly.

"And why not?" she said, releasing him and stepping back. "I've heard only good things about you since you assumed the role. It has been a smoother transition than we could have hoped for."

Cullen scoffed. "Smooth. Certainly hasn't felt smooth."

Leliana sat on the edge of her bed and folded her arms. "There were bound to be some bumps. But Josie tells me that we have lost very few supporters since Ahrue left." Cullen's jaw briefly tighten at the mention of Ahrue's name.

"Due to Josephine's skill, not mine. But the support we've retained has been less vocal and… well… supportive. I don't inspire quite the way Ahrue does."

Leliana laughed, remembering the sight of him rallying the troops of the Inquisition with a presence so commanding and stirring that it gave any who listened chills at the pride and courage he evoked. "Don't be ridiculous! For someone who doesn't have the benefit of being marked as Andraste's herald, you have done remarkably well at inspiring the masses! Besides, you're still the talk of the Orlesian court." She smiled slyly. "You've captured many hearts." But not the one he wanted, she suspected.

Cullen tensed, refusing to give an inch. "Regardless, I'm glad you're back. I need all the support I can get. I expected you to remain in Val Royeaux to help Cassan—I mean, Divine Victoria." He laughed to himself at his slip. "It's strange. I grew up poor in Honnleath—a tiny village, little more than a pinprick on a map—thinking I would never see the world beyond the town's gates. Now I'm here and on a first name basis with the Divine." He shook his head and chuckled. "It's certainly an adjustment."

"More so for her," Leliana said with a smirk, thinking of Cassandra fidgeting in the Sunburst Throne while clerics droned at her. "Cassandra was already feeling restless before I left. I'm sure she's climbing the walls by now."

Cullen leaned against the door jam and folded his arms. "Well, we haven't received any reports of Clerics being run through or the Divine escaping into the night in full armor, so I'd say she's doing rather well."

"Give it time," Leliana teased. She wasn't bitter about Cassandra being chosen for the Sunburst throne. She knew that with the rebellion of the mages and Templars so recently disrupting the lives of many in Thedas, a Seeker inspired a sense of security that a spy-master could not. And, despite Leliana's jests, she knew Cassandra was equal to the task of rebuilding what ought to be rebuilt, reforming what needed to be reformed, and abolishing what no longer served a useful purpose. But, as Cullen had said, it would be an adjustment.

-x-

The next morning, Leliana resumed her duties as Inquisition spy-master. Her agents had done well in her absence, but they didn't see the larger picture, the way seemingly discrete events connected, and the long term and long reaching effects of even apparently ordinary occurrences. For two days she poured over the intelligence her people had gathered while she was away, trying to find what they might have missed. When Cullen and Josephine walked into the war room, she had reports strewn across the table and string laced around nails that she had hammered into the map.

"I should have known you were up to no good when I saw you with the twine this morning," Josie teased as Cullen gaped at the mess she'd made of their table.

Leliana smirked but kept her eyes on the web of string she was constructing. "Do you have any idea how many reports my agents send in the course of a month? I have a lot to catch up with."

"And why exactly does reading reports require string and nails?" Cullen asked.

Leliana pointed at a nail she'd hammered into Markham. "Lord Barion's cook falls ill and is replaced." She traced the path of string connecting Markham to Denerim. "King Alistair's steward repeatedly comes to work drunk and is replaced." She traced another string to Val Royeaux. "Empress Celene's lady in waiting is caught stealing. She is imprisoned and replaced."

"Is that really so remarkable?" Josie asked. "Even at Skyhold we must occasionally replace servants."

Leliana shrugged. "You may be right, but there is a pattern of servants in key positions being replaced in noble houses and military instillations across Thedas in the last five weeks. It may be more than a coincidence."

"You believe it's the emergence of a spy network? Assassins?" said Cullen.

"It is possible," said Leliana, stepping back to get a better look at the web of string. "I'd like a list of all new hires at Skyhold, going back… three months. If this is a spy network, they would have undoubtedly placed someone here."

"Very well," said Josephine wearily, making a note to herself. "But interrogating our new staff will hardly be beneficial to morale. And sometimes a cook is just a cook."

And sometimes a cook is an assassin. A knock came at the door before Leliana could respond.

"Come," Cullen called out.

The door opened and Agent Ritts entered. "My apologies for interrupting," she said with a little bow. "But I believe you'll want to see this." She held out a message to Leliana.

Leliana took it. She recognized the handwriting instantly. "From Ahrue," she said.

"What does it say?" said Cullen eagerly.

"Give me a moment." She read. "Ha! We do have a spy!" she said triumphantly to Josephine, slapping her hand to the table before resuming reading. "Venatori in the Dales… Magister Halviana… Ritual of transference," she mumbled as she scanned the letter. She looked up at Cullen briefly. "We'll need to send Inquisition forces to Chalumeau." Then she arrived at the postscript. Leliana's nostrils flared. "She's with Solas," she said flatly, tossing the message to the table. She felt the bite of her failure. Her people should have found him before Ahrue did.

"She wouldn't," Cullen said, picking up the letter and reading it through himself. "'It's fine. Don't worry?'" he quoted sneering. "That's it?"

Josephine took the letter from him and read. She smiled wryly as she came to the end. "Lavellan was never entirely forthcoming about her personal affairs. But you don't truly believe that Solas would harm her, do you?"

"No more than he already has," Cullen grumbled. Leliana sensed this news carried a particular sting for him.

Josephine's eyes brightened hopefully. "Perhaps he sought her out to make amends for past wrongs."

Leliana stifled a derisive laugh. Sweet romantic Josie, so eager to see love triumph. "That seems unlikely. But, regardless, it is out of our control." She leaned forward on the war table and looked at the map of the Tevinter Imperium. "We can, however, find out more about this Magister Halviana." The question was how. The Inquisition had some connections in Tevinter but not many. "Has Dorian arrived in Tevinter yet?" she asked.

"Not yet," said Josephine. "His travel plan has him scheduled to arrive in the Imperium in…" she checked her notes, "another week."

Leliana sighed. A long time to wait. "See what our noble contacts in Tevinter know about the Magister," she said to Josephine. "In the meantime, I'll see if I can find out who this 'G' is."