Cassandra arrived at Skyhold by noon the following day, just as the men drilling in the training yard broke for the midday repast. Cullen met her at the gatehouse.

"How did you find Haven's Rest?"

"Is that the name?" she asked with a returned smile. "It exceeds my hopes, but I'm not only here to check-in. I have news as well."

"News?" Cullen appeared worried immediately. Cassandra looked around to see who was nearby. Tales traveled fast in Skyhold.

"Bad news, I'm afraid. May we go to your tower, Cullen? Where is Falon?"

"She's in the clinic. Is this about Solas?"

Cassandra shook her head. "No, it's not Solas." They'd already turned for the stone stairway leading to the ramparts and Cullen's tower. Soldiers past them with acknowledging salutes on the stairs. Once they arrived, he closed the door and turned to Cassandra.

She didn't know how to begin, so she just did what she always did. She made the cut clean and quick. "Dorian's left us. He wanted me to tell the others."

Cullen moved closer. "Left us. I can't say I'm surprised. The last few months have been hard for him."

"You knew?"

Cullen shrugged. "Nothing specific, but I was here the night he returned from Tevinter. It had been quite an ordeal for him, and it… affected him. Falon still can't go near him without healing him unconsciously. He's scolded her constantly about it. She can't seem to stop. It's instinct."

Cassandra gave him a small half-smile at the idea that Falon, who had once been so uncertain of herself, was now one of the most powerful healers in all of Thedas. She was able to instantly identify the ills of the body, but she just kept trying to heal the hurts of the soul as well.

"I had hoped he would stay and let us help him," Cullen finished.

"Perhaps he'll be back." There was no thought that Cassandra would reveal the secret he'd confessed to her. She would not betray that trust. "It's not the only reason I'm here, though. I need to work with the Seekers, but I also need to talk with the Divine. This isn't the time to leave them for a journey to Orlais."

Cullen nodded. "And you don't want to be seen as openly petitioning the Chantry. El and I had already thought of this particular wrinkle. It would be very easy for this to become wildly overblown as some kind of Inquisition coup of the Chantry."

"Exactly," she agreed with a sharp breath. "Seekers were created to act as a check on the Templars. I've yet to hear if Lel… Divine Victoria intends to reform the Order."

Cullen made his way to the other side of his desk and opened a drawer, removing a slip of paper which he handed to Cassandra. "Charter believes she intends to reform the Order eventually." Cassandra scanned the report. It was the barest of facts. Leliana had always been the best at keeping secrets and revealing them.

"We had Josephine approach her in Val Royeax on her last visit. The Divine will be meeting with us here at Skyhold in the Spring to discuss several matters of alliance and diplomatic necessity. She would also like to include the newly reformed Seekers of Truth in that summit."

"So, I have until Spring."

He nodded. "You have until Spring," he sighed as he stood. "I will send for the girls. We should get this over with before it's noticed Dorian's gone missing."

Cassandra sat by Cullen's fire until he returned with both his wife and the Inquisitor. They were both elves, but as different as night from day, one dark and one lighter. And Falon was large with late pregnancy.

The Inquisitor wore her dark curls back in a simple braid all the time now. Cassandra had finally broken down last month as asked her how she did it with one hand, having lost the hand bearing the mark. El had only smiled softly and said to Cassandra. "Oh, Jean loves to play with my hair. He's become quite the expert."

Cassandra had fought off a wave of jealousy at the thought. She'd never be like El, small, dainty and deadly. She had the deadly part certainly, and some men seemed to prefer it. Still, those men would never be the ones to braid a woman's hair for entertainment. Dammit, that's what she wanted. She wanted the poetry and the moonlight. She wanted all those things, but she couldn't have them outside the pages of one of Varric's smutty novels.

Each of the women greeted her. Thankfully, Cullen was there to take the task off her shoulders.

He put a hand out for Falon. "Ladies, Cassandra came with news and a message from Dorian."

Eliana simply met Cassandra's eyes and said softly, "He's gone, isn't he?" Cassandra only nodded.

Falon let her eyes drop to the floor even as Cullen pulled her into his arms.

"He said to tell you both he loves you," Cassandra offered as both women seemed caught in a painful moment some depressed artist had committed to the canvas in a dark moment, so still were they both. At the offering from Dorian, Falon sniffed loudly and buried her face in Cullen's chest to cry. "I told him this would happen," Cassandra stated sourly.

"Darling," Cullen cooed to his wife softly as he stroked her hair. "You can't fix everything for everyone. Sometimes a man has to solve his own problems."

"He's going to get himself killed," Falon sobbed.

Cassandra thought it might be a mistake, but she spoke up again. "He didn't say where he was going, but he's not returning to the war. Of that, I am certain."

El had donned her Inquisitor's face. With the warrior firmly in place, she didn't reveal much to anyone who didn't know her, but Cassandra had seen her in battle. She'd seen her in her darkest moments. She'd even seen her imprisoned. The Inquisitor felt the loss keenly.

Damn you, Dorian Pavus, she thought viciously. Why had he chosen her for this unpleasant chore? Because Varric wasn't here to do it, she answered her own query. Well, damn him, too, she thought.

A knock sounded at the door of the tower. Cullen nodded to El who went to answer.

The Iron Bull ducked his head low to enter. "Seeker," he boomed. "I heard you were back tonight. Couldn't stay away from the action, I see." He turned his craggy face to Cullen. "That problem you had is taken care of, General." That was when Cassandra noticed the blood spattering his armor at the waist. Bull must have noticed something was amiss in the room as well.

"What's wrong with Darling?" He asked Cullen over her head in the most threatening manner, as if the General had better have an explanation.

Cullen grimaced."Dorian left this morning."

Bull paused, the smile dropping from his face. "He just left? Did he head to Tevinter?"

Cassandra watched him carefully. Knowing what she knew now, she thought she understood a lot more than she had. Qunari didn't accept same-sex relationships very well, or any romantic entanglements if it came to that. They were, in fact, likely to reeducate anyone caught having one. Bull would likely be very closed off to the practice other than the fact that he wasn't the typical Qunari. There was nothing typical about him at all.

And at just this moment, there was nothing indifferent about him. He was worried.

Cassandra answered him. "He said he wouldn't. He just needed some distance, he said."

"Distance," he repeated from the doorway. "Distance from what?"

Cassandra hated this. She hated being in the middle of these things. "He didn't say," she lied then cringed. Bull quirked a brow at her.

"Nice try, Seeker. I thought you were trained to lie."

Cassandra bristled. "I was trained to recognize them, not tell them. Bull, do you know why he left?"

Everyone turned to him expectantly. She watched his face go stiff, unreadable. "Why would he tell me?"

"Now who's lying?" she muttered. The Iron Bull said nothing before slamming the door as he left.

"What was that about?" Cullen demanded.

Cassandra glanced at him as he continued to comfort his wife. "Dorian's reasons are his own."

"So you do know something," Cullen said with complete certainty.

"He will come back. I'm sure of it." It was the only assurance she felt equipped to give. "Everything he loves is here."

Marcus Landover watched as Cassandra rode into the yard slightly slumped in the saddle and looking like she hadn't slept the night in a comfortable bed, but instead kept a constant watch on the people around her. He sighed loudly.

Christopher, the newest young recruit, worked beside him both of them in shirtsleeves rolled up and old boots as they mucked out a stable and followed the direction of Marcus' gaze. He and Cassandra had decided that the first thing they would institute was a policy of each Seeker caring for his own mount. It would save them money in the long run, but more importantly, it would teach the men and women of the Seekers service. True humble service.

"The Lady Seeker is back."

"I see that," Marcus responded.

"I can finish here," he volunteered. Marcus tore his gaze back to the task at hand.

"No." He looked back to see Cassandra leading the mount into the yard. "Why don't you go take her mount? I'll finish the stalls. There are only two left."

Christopher stabbed his pitchfork into a pile of hay and went quickly to do what he was told. Eager to please. Yet, he was young. That was common in the young. He watched Cassandra dismount and speak to the boy. Tiredly, she gave the horse a quick pat and nodded her head before heading inside.

She wouldn't go to sleep though. He knew her far too well for that. Cassandra would never rest while her men worked. She'd probably start setting her office up to her satisfaction or begin pouring over every book in their new collection about Seekers.

Marcus took some of his frustration out with the work. He felt things for his superior that weren't exactly against the old rules of the Order but were certainly frowned on. Templar ways and Seeker ways were pretty close to the same from their inception. The trouble was that the more he tried to stifle the urges the harder they fought for his attention.

He had never seen her look at any man in that way. Not once in the years he'd known her had he known her to encourage a man, though certainly, the Iron Bull had tried a few times. Barracks were the place for gossip, and he knew the Seekers were mainly intimidated by her. He should be. She was a formidable woman, but he just couldn't bring himself to see her that way. He looked at Cassandra and saw soft curves and sharp edges, and he liked them both. Cassandra Pentaghast was a force in her own right.

He'd heard the rumors that she was likely to be made Divine and something had changed for him, not for her. Once it was clear she'd not be taking on the Chantry, which was perhaps in his estimation a lost cause, he'd breathed a little easier, laughed a little more freely when she was near. It was as though he'd been given permission by Andraste to think of her as a woman, and he certainly did that constantly.

He had doubts about the Chantry and its ability to bring real change, but he didn't doubt one Seeker in particular. She'd been on the right side of every conflict so far, and he and the men would likely follow her again just to be certain in a world no longer sure of anything. If she thought the Chantry could rise from the ashes, then he would wait and watch for the flicker of flame with her.

If it didn't come, he would dry her tears. He believed the loss of that dream would hurt her terribly. There was something about her faith that drew him in. He didn't really believe it, not much, but he wanted to believe. Or perhaps he found himself wanting to believe in her, but either way, he had become a man waiting and watching for some sign that what he truly wanted to be was right somehow.

It was a selfish thought, he realized. The world had been ending, and he'd been chasing a woman all over Thedas. Except it hadn't ended yet, and they'd gone on about the business of living. Suddenly, he liked the idea of living. He liked it very much and he wanted to do some of it with the Lady Seeker.

He'd almost resolved to go after what he wanted more than once, and something always held him back. The fear perhaps that he was being callous or selfish most often stopped him, but then he saw her on days like this, downtrodden, weary. She needed care, and no one volunteered, even her closest friends stepped in to force her to rest.

They didn't believe she could be forced to do anything. They had a point, but he wasn't the Inquisitor. He believed, had shown himself, that he was capable of looking after a woman who wanted no part in being cared for. So far, he'd done that under the guise of their shared mission with the Seekers.

Would she let him do it as only himself?