Early the next morning, Sylvanni awoke to the sound of a soft knock on the door outside her rooms. She sat up, rubbing sleep from her eyes, then looked to the side, noticing that she wasn't alone. Cullen, still wrapped in his cloak and mantle, snored quietly in one of the plush chairs beside her bed. She smiled faintly, though she did feel guilty having kept him from his own bed last night. Still, he seemed comfortable enough and was sleeping soundly.
The quiet knocking came again, reminding her why she'd woken. Perhaps her more sensitive hearing had let her catch it, or perhaps Cullen was simply a sounder sleeper than her, for the sound didn't cause him to stir. She hadn't changed out of her clothes last night, so she stood up, stretched, and straightened the wrinkles from her shirt and trousers.
She walked over to find Leliana at the bottom of the stairs, on her way up. The knocks had been more of a warning than a request, it seemed. Sylvanni stepped back to let her into the chambers themselves.
"My Lady Inquisitor," Leliana said quietly. "Normally I would not have woken you so early, but I have a report I believe you will want to see as soon as possible." Her eyes flicked to Cullen for a moment and she smiled. "I had a feeling I might find him up here, though fully clothed and dozing in your chair is a pleasant surprise."
Sylvanni felt a blush rise to her cheeks at that comment, but she did her best to ignore it. "What was this report you wanted me to see? Should I wake the Commander as well?"
"I will leave sharing this information with him at your discretion, once you've seen. Let him rest for now." Leliana nodded toward one of the balconies, and Sylvanni followed her out, grabbing a coat as she walked to shield against the morning chill. Away from the sleeping Cullen, the two could converse at a more normal volume.
Leliana turned back toward her, pulling a sealed piece of paper from her sleeve. "You remember the request we received from your clan a few months ago? They told us they were under attack by bandits, yes?"
Sylvanni felt as though the stones had dropped out from beneath her feet. Thinking back to the moment she'd read the report on that mission sent her into a freefall just as surely, and the impact at the bottom felt no less painful than if she'd fallen to the courtyard below. Josephine had reached out to a nobleman in the area, Duke Antoine of Wycome, but he had been unable to help her clan in time. 'Scattered or killed.' The words of that letter had been seared into her mind.
Aloud, she answered hollowly. "It would be difficult to forget."
Leliana gave her a sympathetic smile. "Ah, yes. Well, something about the Duke's letter to us didn't sit quite right with me, so I sent a few of my agents out to investigate the situations. It was a feeling, an instinct, but I think you will be interested in what they found."
Sylvanni took the paper from her spymaster, breaking the seal and opening it up. As she scanned over its contents, Leliana summarized for her.
"It seems the bandits who attacked your clan were not bandits at all, but rather a mercenary group. They were hired to wipe out your clan, Inquisitor. My agents 'politely asked' a few of this band's members and it seems they are most likely in the employ of Duke Antoine himself."
Sylvanni took a long, controlled breath. In, out. In, out. "You mean to say, the person we asked to help save my clan…"
"...was likely the very person trying to kill them in the first place," Leliana finished.
"The person who succeeded in killing them," Sylvanni said through gritted teeth. For months, thoughts of what had happened to her clan brought only sadness. A bandit group was nameless, anonymous. It was a random tragedy, selfish humans putting their needs before the lives of others, and willing to kill in order to steal. It was horrible, but there wasn't anything she could have done about it.
Now, though? Now she had a name, had a person to blame for what had occurred. Finally, she had a target. This wasn't a random unfortunate event, it was murder. And she'd asked this man to help, which made it a betrayal on top of it all. Her sadness was still there, but beneath it, a righteous anger started to boil up. Hatred, disgust, rage.
Leliana watched her as Sylvanni held the report in a white-knuckled grip. "There are signs that he may be working with the Red Templars or Venatori as well. Inquisitor, if you would like to take action against this man, I still have agents in the area. A few assassins among them, if you would like him killed for his crimes. Or they could 'acquire' him instead, bring him here to Skyhold for judgment."
Sylvanni folded the paper report stiffly, tucking it into her jacket. "No, they were my clan. I will deal with this Duke Antoine myself. They deserve that much." She turned, walking back into her quarters with a determined step. "Can you send down to the kitchens for rations? I'll pack my things here and plan to leave before midday, if possible."
The spymaster nodded, expression saying that she'd expected as much. As she stepped back inside, she glanced at Cullen, still sleeping in Sylvanni's chair. "Are you going to tell him where you are going, or would you like me to tell him something for you?"
Sylvanni felt a bit of her anger ebb away looking at Cullen, and for a moment, she hesitated. If he were leaving, she would have wanted him to wake her to tell her what was going on. But she hadn't even been able to bring up that her clan had been killed yet. She couldn't go through all of that with him right now. He deserved better than that, but she couldn't give it.
"I'll leave a note for him," she said, turning away. "If he asks, you can say I was called away on an urgent matter. It's true enough."
Leliana paused, then nodded. "If you like."