Cassandra walked beside Shartan and Solas as they walked with the war council, Shartan had just been named inquisitor and now came the planning for their next step. She watched as Shartan kept stopping and looking at things that no one else besides Solas seemed to understand why, Cullen sighed loudly as he scowled at the pair of elves.
"Is there a reason you are breathing so heavy commander, if you are out of shape I would suggest working out with your recruits more." Shartan said without looking up from a pillar he was running his hands over.
"The reason I am 'Breathing heavily' as you called it as that you two seem to be wasting time looking at scratches on wall, the workers have already looked over this place and gave the report on it." Cullen growled and normally Cassandra would growl back but she was annoyed as well.
"Yes the stone is fine, what fenny and I are looking at is the wards and runes. This place is old and has changed hands many times by the reports, so we need to make sure the wards are safe to reactivate before stirring the sleeping power here." Shartan explained and Solas nodded before expanding while Shartan crouched to look at something lower.
"This castle once belonged to myself and Shartan along with June helped enchant this place to serve as an outpost for my scouts, that is why we must make sure the wards are safe as this magic is very old and powerful." Cullen growled under his breath about trusting elven magics they knew nothing about.
"Commander, if you took your head out of you ass and you fingers out of your ears then you would have heard Solas say that I helped lay in the wards here so if you have a problem with using the wards here the gate is out there. Go ahead and wander out into the snow and freeze as this entire castle's wards are still running just at very weak output right now." Shartan snapped and Cullen spun on his heel and stormed out.
Cassandra looked between the two, while she was the one who recruited Cullen and he was looking to her for help quitting lyrium she agreed that he needed to be more trusting about magic. Cullen had already tried to go behind Shartan's back and disband his war mage team, that had ended the moment Shartan caught wind of it and proceeded to set fire to all of Cullen's clothes besides his armor which he turned bright pink.
Leliana suggested that Solas continue working on the wards while Shartan go meet with Hawke, who had arrived shortly after the ceremony. Shartan nodded and held out his hand to Cassandra with a slight flush she took it, as they walked holding hands they came across Varric on his way to Hawke as well.
"So Varric is Hawke alone?" Cassandra asked looking at the dwarf, Varric rubbed the back of his head.
"No see I did not lie about knowing where Thorn was so I sent a letter to the only person I knew able to track down him and Daisy down, so broody and Daisy are here too." Varric almost sounded sheepish.
"Just what did you tell them about me?" Shartan asked as they began to climb the stairs.
"Well in my letters I stuck to the story, but when they got here I explained the truth to them as they are trust worthy and will be working close with us. Also, Thorn is way too good at spotting liars so there would have been no point." Shartan nodded his approval at the dwarf, they turned around at the sound of a door open once they reached the top.
"Are you spreading lies about me Varric?" a smooth lightly accented voice asked, looking up the trio saw a man with a build almost the exact opposite of Shartan.
Where Shartan stood tall at six and a half feet and well muscled this man barely reached five foot five, where Shartan was pale like the moon this man was as dark as the Rivaini race. He also walked with a rouge's grace, he was dressed in a battle mages armor with colors that would more at home on elven armor.
"No trust Thorn? I am hurt really, Prongs meet Thorns the champion of Kirkwall." Varric said with a sweeping gesture.
"Use that title one more time and I have Fenris throw you over the wall, also my birth name is Seth Hawke. I have no idea where Varric got thorns from?" Thorns said, shaking his head.
"That is because you're the thorn bush that surrounds the daisies, as see on you mark there." Varric gestured to Thorn's face that had vines heavy with thorns peaking out under his collar.
"How about we get this talk over with, I have wards to examine and a room to pick out with my huntress here." Shartan asked bored and Thorn nodded and the talks began.
Shartan found himself a few days later taking a nap in the large tree in the garden, the last few days had him either helping with planning with the war council or with Solas restoring power to the wards and runes with the help of the mark. Now though he was hiding from Josephine who after finding out that he had proposed to Cassandra and that she said yes had been chasing him trying to 'help' plan the wedding, after she had started talking what kind of outfits as in more than one he should wear he ran away.
The tree began shaking and he heard a sound that reminded him of a kitten trying to climb something and opening his eyes a crack to see he saw that he was not far off, Merrill was currently trying to climb up to his level. This amused Shartan greatly, he had not spent much time around Thorn's soulmate due to his timetable.
"Why are you climbing my tree?" He called down.
"How is it your tree?" Merrill asked and she managed to sound genuinely curious and not sarcastic.
"Well solas gave me the castle and the tree is part of the castle so it is my tree Dalen." Shartan said as he sat up looking down at the elf.
"Wow your lucky to get such a nice gift!" Merrill chirped.
"So is there a reason you are climbing up here?"
"Yes Varric explained who you are and I would love to know about our past!" Merrill said so excited that she nearly fell out of the tree.
"The dalish do not want the past, your clans only want what they believe is the truth. I have tried many times to teach the dalish but have only managed when I tell half truths, they don't want to believe that we destroyed ourselves or that at the end of our empire we were as bad if not worse than Tevinter." Shartan said watching the cheery elf's face drop.
"Really? Still even so I must know as it is a keeper's job to remember the past no matter how bad, so please Harlan teach me our history!" She begged finally drawing level with him, this girl confused him as he rarely found elves willing to learn the truth.
"If that is your wish Dalen I will teach you some of our past while in the fade at night and during the day I will teach you some of the magic of our people that can still be used to this day." Merrill nodded excitedly at his words while bouncing so hard that Shartan was worried that she would break the tree branch.
After they settled in at the base of the tree Shartan began his lesson with simple lectures on the principles of magic, over the next week before Hawke left with Fenris and Merrill to find his contact Shartan taught Merrill more nature magics. During the nights he showed her how to walk the past and learn from spirits with Solas as another teacher there.