Epilogue

"Sister Leliana?" came Scout Harding's familiar voice from behind her. It carried a distinct note of urgency and concern.

Leliana looked up from her worktable. Scrolls and books lay scattered about—missives and letters from across Thedas. The rookery was alive with croaking and cawing from her anxious ravens. They knew it was morning, their usual time for feeding. It was also when Leliana and her team sent out correspondence of all kinds.

But this morning she was running late. Far too many messages had come in overnight and all needed her review. And afterward many needed Cullen or Josie's attention. Only then could they draft replies.

And most of these scrolls were not business as usual.

She swallowed a sigh, irritated at the interruption, but she didn't show it as she rose from her chair and turned round to see her most reliable, trusted scout. She readied a small smile, but surprise froze her in place as she spotted two familiar faces standing behind Harding. The first was a man, Dalish judging by his facial tattoos. The second was a woman…and for the briefest instant Leliana was sure it was Rosa.

Involuntarily, she held her breath as her mind spun seeing the ghost woman in front of her—but then she registered differences. This woman was older and still bore her facial tattoos, for one thing. But there were other details that were off, too. Her eyes were blue, her hair streaked with gray. It wasn't Rosa after all…but how could she so strongly resemble her? It must be a close relative.

A glance to the elven man settled her nerves and she was able to smile as though she wasn't surprised by their appearance at all. She recognized the Dalish man and, distantly, her sharp mind plucked his name from the depths of her memory: Mahanon, Rosa's once-betrothed, long ago.

"Sister Leliana," Harding said again, showing a touch of awkwardness that revealed these visitors rattled her, too. "This is—"

"Mahanon," Leliana said and nodded in acknowledgment. The Dalish man returned the gesture, his jaw squaring and his eyes hard with tension. He was nervous and uncomfortable and doing a poor job of hiding it. He'd never been especially friendly that Leliana recalled, so that would make sense under normal circumstances. But, somehow, she suspected this was not normal circumstances.

Leliana switched her gaze to the more enigmatic of these two visitors. "I'm sorry, I don't believe we've met."

The Dalish woman was silent a beat, eyeing Leliana in return. She seemed tense as well, but better at hiding it with the poise of a long time leader. "I am Halesta, Keeper of clan Naseral." She hesitated another beat, but Leliana had already connected the dots based on this woman's titles. "Your Inquisitor, Rosa, is my daughter."

"I suspected as much," Leliana said conversationally, making an effort to appear open and friendly even as her mind spun again for the second time in this short exchange. "You resemble her a great deal." Why would two different Dalish clans send envoys like this? And both closely connected to Rosa.

Harding hid her shock less expertly. Both brows shot up into her forehead. Leliana knew exactly what triggered that reaction—Rosa is my daughter. They'd all long believed Rosa dead, though they could not confirm it without a body or a witness. They had neither. Tal's clan, Manaria, had vanished during the final fight with Corypheus and had not been seen since. Tal disappeared with them, the first of the Inquisitor's inner circle to effectively leave the Inquisition.

Well, other than Solas, but he left much earlier, of course. They knew with some certainty that Solas—or Fen'Harel as he was also known, apparently—was not dead. Yet there was a chance that the elves who reported sightings of him were wrong, tricked by another who took up the mantle.

"What brings you to Skyhold?" Leliana asked, tucking her hands behind her back in a loose fist.

As Mahanon shifted in his stance, Harding stepped back to clear a path toward Leliana. The Dalish man, wearing simple traveler's clothes and not the typical armor of his people, reached into his cloak and pulled out a sealed scroll. He lifted it, displaying it for her before moving forward and extending his hand to pass it to her.

Leliana accepted it gingerly, unable to settle the slight tremor of apprehension. The parchment was plain and ordinary, but the string binding it was made of halla fur. Leliana had handled plenty of such messages to Rosa over the years they fought Corypheus. Many of them originated from the Dalish. This was typical of them.

But what wasn't typical was the green wax seal. Instead of a symbol pressed into the wax there was a glinting bit of Fade stone, the kind Rosa used to fling as part of her rift magic. Leliana had only ever seen two mages use that magic—Rosa and Solas.

"Rosa sent us," Halesta said, "as messengers."

Leliana fixed a polite smile on her face to hide the dark, troubling thoughts brewing underneath. "You'll forgive me if I'm a bit skeptical," she said lightheartedly to avoid insulting them. "Inquisitor Lavellan has not been seen in two years, not since the defeat of Corypheus and the weakening of the Veil."

If Rosa was alive…

Something bitter and ugly churned in Leliana. She stamped it down. Best to maintain an open mind.

"She survived," Mahanon said, short and gruff. "Barely."

"Why hasn't she come back then?" Harding asked, still doubtful.

"Because her place is with the People," Mahanon said sharply.

Halesta was more helpful. "She fell into the deep sleep of uthenera and only woke a short time ago. You are familiar with uthenera?"

Uthenera?

Scout Harding tossed Leliana a confused frown, but the spymaster just kept smiling. She knew of uthenera. It seemed an unlikely explanation as elves had stopped the practice around the time Arlathan fell to Tevinter. They no longer seemed physically capable of it.

And yet…many strange things had happened since the Veil weakened. Other than a surge of demons and spirits to trouble Thedas' populace, the primary consequence was regarding elves. Leliana had seen her own elven recruits, all rogues or warriors to round out her scouts, suddenly manifest magic. She had seen old elves seem to age in reverse, regaining health and vigor.

It led to distrust in the ranks as anti-elf sentiment grew, but the Inquisition still had enough mages that it could handle the sudden influx of elves displaying magic. And many of the soldiers and scouts still remembered Inquisitor Lavellan. That she was an elf blunted the rise of racism, somewhat. When it wasn't enough Leliana was fast to punish any dissent that stemmed from racism.

Since taking power, Divine Victoria had also attempted to improve the lives of elves throughout Thedas, anticipating a rise in racism due to the strange benefits the elves received from a weakened Veil. She had reminded the Chantry that the Chant proclaimed all men and women were children of the Maker. She reminded everyone that Inquisitor Lavellan was Dalish and interpreted that as a sign from the Maker of that they were equal to their human counterparts. Leliana knew from private discussion with Cassandra that she did these things in honor and remembrance of Rosa's self-sacrifice and bravery.

Leliana's own feelings about it were complex. She, of course, knew more about Rosa than her compatriots. She'd told Cassandra of what she knew, from Rosa's own confession, but the former Seeker refused to see Rosa as anything but divinely chosen by the Maker—regardless of her origins and ancestral connections.

But Leliana couldn't shake her own quiet misgivings...especially because, more often than not, their elven recruits went missing. They didn't seem to be dead as there wasn't any sign of violence. They just…vanished. Usually packing a few valuables before they disappeared, too. Another sign they went willingly and weren't victims of an attack. And many of them had seemed perfectly happy to be with the Inquisition right up until their sudden disappearance.

That was the biggest reason Leliana was certain Solas was still alive. It had to be either him or Briala at work behind the scenes with her recruits. Yet Briala seemed as mystified by the effects of the weakened Veil as anyone else, which made Leliana suspect Solas more than the Marquise. And it made her certain Rosa was dead and had failed that dreadful night of Corypheus' defeat.

Although, interestingly, the dark predictions Rosa had given her inner circle that night—of Solas tearing down the Veil and unleashing unthinkably powerful ancient beings who would destroy Thedas—had not come to pass. The weakening of the Veil was comparatively a tame consequence, as if somehow Rosa had succeeded. Yet, because Rosa had vanished, seemingly dead, and Solas had not, Leliana had to conclude their former Inquisitor had failed.

Until now.

"I am familiar with the concept of uthenera, yes," she said. Deciding to play along, Leliana asked, "And what does Lavellan want? Why did she send you?"

"The Veil is still weakening," Halesta said. "It's slow, but one day it will fail. When it does, Rosa wants to ensure you shemlen are ready."

"This is an offer of alliance," Mahanon added, gesturing at the scroll he'd passed to her. "She wanted you to know she's still on your side."

"That both the People and the shemlen are on the same side," Halesta casually corrected.

Leliana narrowed her eyes slightly. That was…pleasant news. She didn't' believe it, of course.

"Why didn't she come here herself?" Harding asked, perplexed.

"She will," Halesta said, smirking. "In the dreaming, first, if you and the Divine are amenable."

"But you shems have lied before," Mahanon muttered, scowling. "We knew better than to send her straightaway."

"And the message?" Leliana asked, lifting the still sealed scroll. She ignored Mahanon's less than veiled hostility.

"Information," Mahanon said, jaw squaring again. "The truth about the Black City and the Veil."

"Proof of her good intentions," Halesta added. "Will you agree to meet? We will tell her your reply."

Leliana considered a moment and then nodded. "I will agree to meet on behalf of the Inquisition."

The two Dalish nodded back at her. Mahanon turned to go but Halesta hesitated a moment, smiling. "Good, she'll be happy to hear that," she said and then spun on her heel. Harding hurried to escort them out, shooting Leliana a harried, anxious look over her shoulders.

Leliana gazed down at the scroll in her hand for a long time. The ravens cawed impatiently, but she didn't hear them. Slowly, she broke the seal and rolled it off the parchment. She knew Rosa's hand better than anyone, having read the other woman's script everyday for years. She held her breath, certain she would see a forgery…instead she saw very familiar handwriting.

She was dizzy with revelations, doubt, and horror by the time she finished. The information corroborated and explained the scattered, confusing reports she had from the inner circle who were present that night to hear Rosa's desperate testimony before she vanished, supposedly to stop Solas.

She sat heavily at her worktable and frantically began scratching out a missive for Divine Victoria. A memory played through her head, from two years ago, when Cassandra reported her version of events that night.

"The Inquisitor told me, 'If your Maker exists, then you were right and He put me here, now, to stop this.'"

And through her shock and horror at what she'd read about the true nature of the Black City, the Veil, Solas, and what would eventually come to pass as the status quo failed, Leliana clung to that idea. The Maker did not sit in a throne deep within the Fade. He was a living, breathing power that shaped their world by placing people where and when they were needed to make a difference. She'd long believed, as had Cassandra, Cullen, and Josie, that although unorthodox and outright blasphemous to the Chantry…Rosa was exactly who they needed, when they needed her.

Now, she had to believe that these two Dalish messengers weren't lying. She had to trust that Rosa would prove to be just who they needed again.

And they lived happily ever after! LOL

Thank you to everyone for sticking with me on this journey! We are now complete! There's still room, obviously, for more, but in a universe as grand and mysterious as DA that pretty much goes without saying. Like, Dirthamen is still alive (I did that deliberately!) and of course the Veil will definitely fail and on and on! But I'm still struggling a bit to write, something I'd like to blame on my pregnancy, but mostly I'm just stuck I think, struggling with what happens in all my various WIPs. I gotta get serious and break out of it, ugh. I have a little on Two Hundred Arrows, so that's coming along and I should update that one soon-ish. Anyway, enough of my aimless rambling.

Whitewolf, thank you so much for sticking around! Both here and AO3! I really appreciate your patience! And best of luck on your painting!

Well, now comes the moment I've both longed for and dreaded. I get to go mark this COMPLETE. Gasp See you all around! Drop me a line if you enjoyed or if you have more ideas for writing, LOL. Happy February everyone!