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Leliana sighed, resting her head against the high back of the settee. "I knew it was foolish to think the Exalted Council would go smoothly."

Nathaniel leaned against a column near the window, and she admired the length of his legs and his lean body, and the way his hair blew in the breeze. "You hoped. It's good that you still have hope." The corner of his mouth turned up in a smile. "Foolish, to be certain … but good."

"It amuses me that you think I am an optimist. You are the only one who still does." She thought of Alistair and sighed again. "Our King is sadly disappointed in how I have changed since the Blight."

"You became what you needed to become. Sometimes becoming hard enough to make the difficult decisions is the kindest thing you can do." He glanced out the window. "Do you think the Inquisitor can finish off the Qunari?"

"He has to. I worry about the mark on his hand, though. He hasn't said anything, but it appears to pain him."

"Will he even have an Inquisition to come back to?"

Leliana nodded. "He is the only one who has the necessary firmness to end it. Cullen is too tired, Cassandra too involved in its creation, Josephine too practical to let go of a valuable asset. Thule is the only one who has the necessary outlook. If he does not survive—" She shook her head. "I am afraid of what will happen."

"You could disband it."

"That is not my work."

"It may have to be. Whatever happens on the other side of the eluvian, the Qunari would not have struck if they didn't have a plan, and they won't stop even if the Inquisitor kills the Viddasala. The Inquisition is the only organization with the flexibility to fight the Qunari, and they won't be able to if diplomacy keeps slowing them down."

Leliana smiled up at him in gratitude, glad that she had his wise counsel behind her. "Let us hope the Inquisitor returns safely, then."

"Yes. Let us, indeed."

"Your arm!" Cassandra stared in horror at the empty space where his left hand had been.

Thule looked up at her. "It's all right."

"But—"

He held up his remaining hand to stop her for the moment, then turned to the others. "Can you give us some time, please?"

"You all right, Stones?" Varric asked gravely.

"Better than I've been in a long time."

"Some people have a strange definition of better," his fellow dwarf muttered, but he took his leave, shepherding everyone else in the room ahead of him.

When they were alone, Thule put his arm around Cassandra, pressing his head against her chest, and stood there for a long moment just feeling her there against him. He was alive. Whatever else had happened, he was alive, and he was here with her.

"Did you see Solas?" she asked softly, then answered her own question. "Of course you did. It was Solas who did that, was it not?"

"He said no one but him could have borne the mark and lived. Apparently it's a credit to my toughness that I survived with it this long." Thule gave a humorless chuckle. "Cassandra." He looked around quickly. They seemed to be alone, but it was hard to know. He tugged her down, speaking directly into her ear. "Solas is Fen'Harel."

Cassandra drew away, looking at him in shock.

Thule nodded, bringing her back. "He wants to destroy the Veil and return the world to the elves."

"He would kill us all!" she whispered.

"I know. Right now, he is the greatest threat we face—and he has been with the Inquisition from the beginning."

Cassandra nodded, her grey eyes calm. "I understand."

"Do you? I don't mean to make this decision without your input."

"You are the Inquisitor. The decision is yours." She cupped his cheek. "You have not led us astray yet. I trust that you will not do so now."

"And … after?"

She smiled. "After I will mourn its loss, and celebrate its accomplishments, and we will make love late into the night."

Thule kissed the palm of her hand. "I'm going to hold you to that."

Teagan and Josephine had been wrangling on for what felt like hours. Normally, Alistair would have been bored and on the edge of falling asleep, but Teagan's complaints were—frankly—ridiculous, and they were making him angry.

They were making Josephine angry, too. She finally lost her temper and snapped at him, "Without our organization, I doubt you would be alive to complain."

Teagan didn't even have the grace to look ashamed that he had abandoned Redcliffe to the Tevinters. Redcliffe, of all places, which had been Alistair's home. He got to his feet even as Teagan scoffed at the Inquisition's Ambassador. "Yes, yes, no one has forgotten the services rendered by the Inquisition. But Corypheus is two years dead."

Alistair was certain he wasn't the only one who heard the implied 'What have you done for me lately?' hanging in the air after Teagan spoke. He moved through the crowd, between the people, until he was standing next to Josephine, glaring up at his 'uncle'. "Arl Teagan Guerrin, you are formally relieved of your standing here in this Council, by order of the King of Ferelden."

Teagan frowned at him in irritation, and Alistair wondered, not for the first time, when this formerly charming and brave man had become such a sniveling greedy old man. "What King? You are a child, Alistair. You have always been a child."

There was a shocked gasp at such open derision, but Alistair didn't let it bother him. It was, after all, nothing more or less than the truth. "Not any longer, Teagan. I am the King of Ferelden, and from now on—" He looked around, making sure everyone in the room was paying attention. "I intend to act like it." Looking up, he met Leliana's eyes. They were warm, approving, and she gave him a small nod. Somehow the hurt and the anger between them, the ancient jealousy over Leyden, seeped away then, and left him only affection for this former companion of the Blight, this woman who had suffered as he had and come through … as he had.

Behind him, Alistair heard a commotion, and he turned to see Thule coming toward him. The dwarf's face was set in a scowl, and he carried a book under what Alistair was startled to realize was only half an arm.

"Members of the Council, may I be heard?" Thule asked.

There was a murmur of assent.

Thule brandished the book. "You all know what this is. A writ from Divine Justinia authorizing the formation of the Inquisition. We pledged to close the Breach, find those responsible, and restore order. With or without anyone's approval. But it appears that the Inquisition itself has been breached, and if it now threatens the very stability it helped create, it is clear our time is done."

Shocked gasps filled the room. Josephine closed her eyes, as if in pain, and opened them again. Leliana nodded in what seemed to Alistair to be a business-like way, and he wondered if there was more to this development than the Inquisitor was saying. It was a timely announcement for him, Alistair reflected—he had been on the verge of announcing Ferelden's support for the Inquisition.

"Effective immediately," Thule said, his voice echoing in the silent room, "the Inquisition is disbanded."