Talyn made it to the Chantry, which was indeed the building she had predicted it was. She walked down the hall. Every single pair of eyes were on her as she walked, all of them awestruck. She could hear their quiet whispers, all of them saying, "the Herald of Andraste is here."

It made her want to shrink into herself and disappear. She approached the door at the far end of the hall, where she heard Cassandra and the Chancellor shouting at each other behind the closed door.

Talyn entered the room and saw Cassandra and the Chancellor in each other's faces. The Chancellor's face was red and blotchy, his beady eyes narrowed in profound anger and his mouth set in a snarl. Cassandra, who was taller than him, stood there looking down on his with a fire blazing in her black eyes and her arms crossed over her chest.

Upon Talyn's entrance, the Chancellor whirled around, and his face turned from red to purple.

"Soldiers! Seize the prisoner!"

"She did not kill the Divine, Chancellor Roderick." Cassandra said, her voice thick with annoyance. "I heard the Divine in the temple. She called to the Herald for help."

"Bah! 'The Herald'!" The Chancellor said mockingly, spitting slightly as he said it. "She's an imposter! A murderer! She will be tried in Val Royeaux, as she was supposed to a week ago. Seize her!"

The two men standing on either side of the door looked to Cassandra for approval, but she shook her head no. "Leave us." She commanded.

Chancellor Roderick sputtered and stammered as the two men nodded once to Cassandra and promptly left the room, shutting the door behind them.

"This is outrageous! This is treason!"

Cassandra moved, slamming a book down onto the table, the cover an eye with a sword running down the middle. "Do you know what this is, Chancellor Roderick? It's an order signed by the Divine Justinia herself."

Chancellor Roderick's eyes had become the size of dinner plates at the site of the book. He knew exactly what it was.

"An order to reassemble the Inquisition."Cassandra finished.

"You'll have no support from the Chantry, I can promise you that." The Chancellor hissed.

Cassandra's face darkened. "We don't need the Chantry's support."

"Now leave." The command in her voice was unmistakable.

"The Mothers are going to hear about this!" The Chancellor promised. He spat at Cassandra's feet, glared at Talyn, and stormed out of the room, slamming the door behind him.

Cassandra sighed, rubbing her temples with a pained look on her face. "That man gives me a headache."

"Thank you. For defending me." Talyn was surprised that the Seeker had kept the Chancellor from taking her away.

Cassandra looked at her. All the elves Talyn had seen the village thus far were small, petite, except for herself and Solas. Talyn was eye level with the Seeker. Her voice, and her eyes, were sincere as she replied, "you are innocent. I could not let him take you with that knowledge in my mind."

She turned from Talyn, and walked around the war table, her hands behind her back, studying it. It was quiet, for a few minutes.

Then Cassandra looked back to Talyn. "What are you going to do?"

Talyn was puzzled by the question. Not because she didn't understand it, but because she didn't know how to answer it. What was she going to do? She had no recollection of where she came from, so she couldn't go home. She was sure that if she left the safety of Cassandra and her "Inquisition" those of the Chantry would snatch her and hang her at the first opportunity.

"I... don't know."

Cassandra looked back down at the book. "The Breach is stable, but not gone. Rifts are still appearing across Thedas. You are the only one who can close rifts. The mages and the Templars are wrecking Thedas, causing a path of destruction in their wake with their war. The Inquisition is being formed to stop it. That was the Divine's wish, if the Conclave didn't solve their issues. But we must also close the Breach, so that the rifts will stop appearing."

She looked back up at Talyn. "They are calling you the Herald of Andraste. Do you believe yourself to be?"

"I vaguely know who Andraste even is, Cassandra." Talyn replied. "I don't follow the Maker. I can't be the Herald."

"The people believe it. And it is perhaps the only thing that is keeping you alive. Even though the Chantry is calling you a fake, an imposter. They're outraged at the idea of an elf being blessed by Andraste."

That made Talyn grin mischievously. Chancellor Roderick was starting to make her hate the Chantry, so the news that they equally despised her made her giddy.

"Will you stay and join the Inquisition? Your help is needed, Talyn."

Talyn nodded immediately, without putting much thought into it. "I have nowhere else to go, Cassandra. And I want to help however I can."

Cassandra's face, as usual, was stone. "Good. Come back to the war room tonight, so you can meet the rest of the council."

Talyn spent her day with Varric, listening to his tales about Hightown, and his brother, Bartrand. She was beginning to grow fond of the dwarf. He laughed, and joked, and drank ale like a fish. He was also an excellent story teller. He took her mind off the stares and whispers that appeared everywhere she went.

She returned when night fell, and when she entered the room, she saw four people standing around the table. There was a man she had seen earlier, with dark blond hair and silver armor with red fur on his shoulders. His hand was resting on the hilt of his sword, as if it was as natural as breathing to put it there. Next to him stood Leiliana, her violet hood pulled over her face, concealing it, as usual. And then there was Cassandra, and next to her, a woman with brown eyes and black hair pulled into a tidy bun. She wore an extravagant dress, and rings sparkled on her fingers.

"Welcome to the council, Talyn." Cassandra greeted her. "You already know Leiliana, our spymaster. This is Commander Cullen," the blond haired man smiled in greeting, "and this is our ambassador, Lady Josephine Montilyet."

"It is an honor to meet the Herald of Andraste." Lady Josephine said, her voice thick with an accent Talyn couldn't place. "You've caused quite a stir in the Chantry."

"To the point where they don't even acknowledge the existence of the Inquisition." Cullen pointed out.

Talyn went to say something about how she wasn't truly the Herald, but Cassandra butted in.

"We don't need the Chantry to validate us. We have Divine Justinia's signature. That is all we need." Cassandra said firmly. "We need to talk about the Breach."

"I say we go to the Templars for help." Cullen suggested.

"What will the Templars do, Commander Cullen? Stab the Breach?" Josephine said sarcastically. "The mages are magic. They will be more useful for closing the Breach once and for all."

"Remember, Josephine, I was a Templar." Cullen's hand, that was resting on his sword, gripped the hilt just a little tighter. "I know what they can do. Templars are trained to repress magic, which is what we need to get rid of the Breach."

They all looked at Talyn. "What do you think, Talyn?" Leiliana asked.

Talyn thought about her options. There were the Templars, who were trained to keep mages under control and are all but immune to magic, and then the mages, who were born with magic. She thought of Solas, and his ice magic. How he kept her from dying not once, but twice. He never said anything, but she knew that the reason she was still alive was because of him.

But not every mage was Solas.

"I need time to think." Talyn said, trying to keep her voice sure and steady. "We all do."

They all accepted what she said as the wisest option, and moved on to other pressing matters, like the finite resources Haven could provide for the Inquisition.

Talyn just couldn't make a decision about who to go to for help with the Breach. All night she thought about it, the benefits and disadvantages to both groups. But she simply did not know enough to have a vote.

But she knew someone who could.

So the next day, Talyn sought out Solas.

"Ah, Herald. This is a lovely surprise." Solas had that teasing smile on his face as he stood in the doorway to his cottage.

Talyn scowled at him briefly. "Good morning, Mage."

He raised an eyebrow. "Mage? I thought we were closer than that."

"Keep calling me Herald, and I'll keep calling you Mage." Talyn threatened.

Solas chuckled. "Come in, Talyn."

They sat at the table, and Solas poured her a cup of tea to warm her freezing hands.

"So, what is it that you need of me so early in the morning?"

Talyn's face turned red. "I'm sorry, I hadn't realized it was so early." She just couldn't keep herself from thinking about her decision.

Solas dismissed her apology. "It is of no consequence, I was already awake."

Talyn decided to just be blunt. "We need more power to close the Breach."

"Yes, we do." He agreed.

"If you were to choose, who would you ask for help? The mages or the Templars?"

Solas furrowed his brow as he thought. He took his time, giving his answer, and Talyn felt like she could see the gears in his mind turning as he poured over all of his knowledge that he had on both of the groups. Even his face set in deep concentration was beautiful.

"I would ask the mages. Despite the Templar's skills, they do not have the connection to the Fade that mages have."

"Thank you, Solas."

"Of course." He smiled.

The next council meeting, Talyn said,

"I say we go to the mages."

Cullen's face darkened.

"The Breach is a part of the Fade," Talyn explained, remembering Solas' words from that morning, "and mages have a connection to the Fade that Templar's don't."

"Won't that just make it more dangerous? Since they are connected to the Fade?" Cullen counteracted.

"No matter what, we cannot get help from either side until the war ends." Leiliana also pointed out. "We must speak to both the Templars and the mages."

"It'll be next to impossible to speak to the mages. They are currently holed up in Redcliffe right now, in the midst of the battles. But the Templars... I will see what I can do." Josephine's eyes were far away as she started to think.

"In the meantime, we must see how we can help at the refugee camp in the Hinterlands. Talyn, I want you to come with. We leave tomorrow at first light." Cassandra told her.