Author's Note 2/7/21: I started this story years ago, but my career and life in general got in the way. I've recently started writing again, and am reposting the first 3 original chapters with some minor revisions that arose as I wrote the next few chapters. My intent is to continue this story to its conclusion. I hope you will bear with me through my slow updates, to see it through to the end along with me. Reviews, and other signs of reader life, are always appreciated.
"My characters shall have, after a little trouble, all that they desire." —Jane Austen
Andraste must be joking. Cullen was unable to suppress the thought as they rode hard back to Haven. The fight at the temple had been frantic and sloppy, with the eerie whispers of red lyrium pressing at him from all sides while his men scrambled to control the flow of demons pouring forth from the Fade. The woman now slumped against him, unconscious in his arms, had just barely managed to shut the rift before passing out. He helped the seeker pass her small, limp body down from his mount to Solas. Dark hair, matted with something that was likely once the innards of a demon, parted to reveal a bloodless face.
Delicately curved brows.
A cheek too full to have yet seen a third decade.
Young. Very young.
He dismounted and handed off his horse to one of his men with a nod. Their supposed savior—this Herald, as some were already calling her—was no more than a girl. It was a forceful reminder of the doubts that had plagued him since Kirkwall. For if this was the best blessed Andraste could do to save them all from the world's end, then what was the point? Perhaps they were truly lost to the Maker forever. Perhaps He had never been there at all.
Cullen glared up at the sickly green sky, half daring it to strike down at him for his blasphemous musings.
The span of three breaths.
Nothing.
He closed his eyes with a sigh. A city's worth of dead mages and innocents had shown him the dangers of a faith held blindly. He would recite the Benedictions tonight. He would hope that he was not a fool.
