The arguments had been made, the reasons laid out as clearly as could be done. Cullen and Cassandra wanted to go to the templars for assistance. Cullen was sure that the templars would be able to disrupt the Breach, and Cassandra agreed.

Leliana wanted to assist the mages. Surely, magic could cancel magic. She'd also been quick to point out that the world was oh so cruel to mages, and they could use a chance to make their image better. Cullen disliked the way Leliana hadn't pulled any punches, reminding their dear Herald that she was a mage herself and that surely she would understand what it was like to live in a world that didn't accept her.

Their Herald had surprised them all with a simple shrug. "The templars decided a long time ago that I wasn't meant to be a Circle mage, so having to rebel was never a path I would have had to consider."

Leliana had tried to play upon the way they'd sent their invitation from Redcliffe. Something about it had been strange—as though most things involving mages weren't. Even Cullen had to admit that something about their offer for help had been wrong, though. Almost coerced. It screamed of a trap, to him and to Cassandra.

And to the Herald, though everything was apparently a trap in her mind.

"A baby shower," Josephine's voice rang out quietly from beside him at the war table.

"I know no one who is expecting, so trap," the Herald replied, though her gaze was on the little markers on the map. She used her index finger to tip the one over Redcliffe back and forth. Of the five of them, she and Josephine were the only ones undecided and if they both chose the mages…

Maker, don't let them side with the mages.

Josephine tapped her quill slowly against her blank paper. "Hmm…what about someone offering you a drink?"

"I always expect drinks to be poisoned," Finley replied, letting the Redcliffe marker go and straightening up slowly, fingers dragging absently across the map. About halfway up, she started tracing a river, gaze moving with it, as though she could see the actual thing rushing across the parchment. "But that's fine. I've spent years learning their antidotes and building immunities to some."

"Do you make poisons?" Josephine cocked her head, distracted from her original game.

"No, but I know someone who does." The Herald finally straightened up, looking across at Josephine. For a second, he thought he saw a flash of something in her eyes. Fear? Then, she was shrugging. "I lived near an Avvar hold or two. They have rogues who dabble in poison, same as here. I sometimes traded for some of their concoctions, if only so I could figure out cures for them."

Part of him wanted to dismiss that fear he'd seen as a trick of candle light—even though it was early evening at this point, the lighting in the war room was poor—but he couldn't shake the feeling that it had been real.

A mage friend she was protecting, perhaps?

"With the mages, there will be abominations," Cullen reiterated for what felt like the millionth time, drawing the conversation back to the matter at hand.

"I was always under the impression," their Herald began, gaze on the war table rather than him, "that demons sought mages so that they could get a footing into our world."

"They do," Cullen murmured, frowning at her tone.

She pointed in the general direction of the Breach. "They aren't exactly having a hard time of that at the moment, are they?" She paused, drumming her fingers against the table in one of her odd tunes. "They don't even need a meat suit."

Cassandra took in a slow breath. "That is a fair point, but templars—"

"Will likely hear the call of the red lyrium by the temple, will they not?" Finley interrupted, raising that eerie stare to meet Cassandra's.

"It is possible."

"So, assuming there are still demons near the Breach who wish to take mages—or just a few demons who follow a few specific mages around for vendettas or whatever reason—we have possibilities of abominations and of mad templars," Finley said, most dismissively. "That would mean that both sides carry about the same risk."

"So long as the templars do not get too close to the red lyrium, it won't be a problem," Cullen insisted. He'd been near it before, after all. He hadn't fallen to its song until he'd been in that room with it so, so very close.

"You realize the incentive for mages to ignore a demon's call to improve their standing in the world would likely outweigh whatever the demon might be able to offer them, yes?" she asked, head cocked as she finally looked at him. "You fear that they will reach for power that is not theirs, but the dangled security of not being seen as some vile, hated beast is likely far stronger. After all, it's hope, and people do a lot for hope." She seemed to look to Cassandra for reassurance at her words, though the seeker merely lowered her gaze.

Cullen had to fight the urge to snap something in rebuttal. As a mage, he'd figured that their Herald would want to side with her own kind, and yet he'd hoped she would see reason. Magic was dangerous, and fighting one immensely powerful and unstable force with another was hardly reassuring or safe for the general public. He turned toward Josephine, a pleading look in his eyes. "I feel for the mages' plight, but if we go to them, will it not kill our chances at gaining other allies?"

"Would we even need other allies with the mages with us?"

He looked back at the Herald, lips dipping into a deep frown. However, it was Cassandra who replied. "Even after the Breach is closed, there will still be other rifts and the task of finding whoever caused it to begin with and bringing them to justice. We will need other allies."

At that, the Herald's shoulders slumped slightly. Despite the defeat it portrayed, Cullen couldn't help the small bubble of hope in him. Was she coming around? Did she understand that siding with the mages really was too much of a risk for them?

"While assisting the mages will be seen as problematic by some," Josephine stated, nodding her head as she motioned toward Cullen and Cassandra, "if they can successfully close the Breach, it will mitigate most damages done."

Cullen wanted to pull his hair out. "Josephine, what is your stance?" Even if they included the Herald, with Josephine on his and Cassandra's side, they would win the vote. It was part of why they'd included the Herald, truth be told.

To have a tie breaker.

At Cullen's prompt, Josephine seemed to falter for a moment. Her gaze went to him to Cassandra and then swept to Leliana and Finley. Leliana gave her a simple smile; Finley watched her, playing with her hair and no doubt tangling it so badly that it would take days to brush out.

"I will side with our Herald. She has the mark, after all. She is the one who must work with these allies in the field of battle."

"And what of the red lyrium?" Cullen asked. It felt oddly low to play upon the Herald's interest in it, but it was surely just as valid a reason as any of the others. "Didn't you say it was maddening to not be able to understand it? If we go to the templars, I'll wager we can find out more about that substance."

"You assume," Leliana interrupted, her tone surprisingly bitter, "that they are not simply using it blindly and that there actually are answers to be had from them."

The Herald's fingers caught in a knot she'd wound into her hair, and she frowned, busying herself with freeing her appendage. "Why is it, exactly, that we can't reach out to both?"

"Because they are at war." Cassandra sighed. "If they hear we are going to their enemies, they will not see us."

For a second, Cullen was almost certain that their Herald would suggest they try it anyway, which would have been the most maddening way to fail at tie breaking that he could think. However, she stopped herself before she could finish that sentence, seeming to realize it was a foolish notion at best.

He watched her for a moment longer before finally offering, "Why do we not sleep on this matter?" He ignored the way Leliana's eyes narrowed, adding, "We have all brought up good, valid points, and it would do to take time to think on this, rather than make decisions on a whim."

"There's no need," the Herald replied, shaking her head. "We will go to Redcliffe. As Josephine said, I will have to fight with these people at my side. I will be able to focus better if they are not templars."

And there it was.

Cullen closed his eyes, willing himself not to keep arguing a lost cause. He tried not to think of Kinloch Hold, of what had happened the last time mages had been in control.

"If we are to go to Redcliffe, we will likely wish to take care who we bring with us," Cassandra was saying as she looked over some reports. She'd already accepted defeat. "A smaller contingency would likely be more appreciated as some mages can be a bit…"

She didn't finish her sentence.

If the Herald realized any similarities between herself and the implied paranoia that infected more than a few mages, she made no note of it. When Cullen looked back at her, she was considering it, carefully. "Perhaps Solas and Lady Vivienne?"

Leliana stepped up closer to her. "I believe Lady Vivienne wishes the Circles restored, does she not?"

"Yes, but she promised to help the Inquisition," the Herald said, shaking her head. "I think she also has a better grasp of how the Circle works, and how Circle mages think than I do. It would be helpful."

"I would suggest leaving Solas here. While he is quite helpful, I do not think bringing along another apostate would be wise. We wish to appear ordered, after all." Cassandra finished reading the reports and looked around the room at the rest of them. "And Sera would do well to stay here as well. She is a…well-meaning girl, but building alliances requires a certain level of finesse which will be harder to pull off with her present."

"So long as she gets to help close the Breach itself, I don't think she'll mind being left behind," the Herald considered. "She's been wanting to work with one of Bull's Chargers on some kind of explosive anyway, so that'll give her plenty of time."

Cassandra straightened up, "Maker. When were they planning on starting this project?"

"Yesterday?"

Before anyone else could say anything, Cassandra swept out of the room, her pace a bit quicker than usual. Josephine let out a sharp laugh. "There is hardly ever a dull moment, truly." She paused in whatever she was jotting down, slipping around the table and stopping when she was beside Finley. "Do you have an idea of who else you wish to accompany you, if anyone? Leliana can have word en route before the night is out."

Almost instantly, the Herald's eyes lit up, her entire demeanor changing. It was the first time Cullen had seen her look genuinely happy. "Oh, we could ask Warden Blackwall to accompany us."

"You will have a dozen of our strongest warriors with you," Cullen interrupted, when she began to suggest the Chargers, as well. "You won't need to bring the whole Inquisition with you."

Josephine laughed as she wrote down the warden's name. "I heard from Varric that you fawned over our dear warden, but I'd thought it another of his tall tales."

Straightening up, indignant, she met Josephine's gaze calmly. "I do not fawn."

"As you say," Josephine couldn't help her smile, eyes partially narrowed. "If you'll excuse me, I've a proper response to draft for their invitation."

When it was just the Herald left with him, he shuffled a few papers he'd been looking over and began toward the door. "You likely won't be able to travel with many templars in your midst, for fear of a backlash from the mages, but I will see to it that only our best soldiers will accompany you. You'll be safe." When she turned to leave with him, he couldn't help but watch her from the corner of his eye. She waited next to him as he locked up the war room and then matched his pace as they headed out.

"You won't be coming?"

"Me?" He blinked at her and then shook his head. "No. I will be needed here." He hesitated as they reached the doors, pushing one open and waiting for her to step out before following after. The sky was just beginning to darken, splashes of pinks and oranges beneath clouds and encircling the eerie green of the Breach. "Even if I wasn't needed here, it wouldn't help for me to go. I was the knight-commander at Kirkwall for a time, and there are many who…it would not be wise." When he noticed her looking at him, her brow furrowed, he added, "It shouldn't affect our alliance."

She looked away, her mind a whir with something. He wasn't sure he wanted to know what.

"Shall I walk you back to your quarters? Mine are nearby."

"I recall," she murmured. When he let out a half-hearted laugh, she turned about so that she was walking backwards, watching him. "I have considered how things are between us."

He arched his eyebrows, eyeing her with mild suspicion. "Have you?"

"I realize you are likely displeased with this turn of events."

He couldn't help a small, bitter laugh. "You could say that."

"You shouldn't worry so," She blurted. When he nearly stumbled to a stop, turning toward her, her eyes were focused ahead. "I may seem reckless to you, but I am very cautious. If the Circle mages seem too unstable, I will publicly denounce them." She paused, looking up at him. "That would make the templars consider us, yes? If the mages lack discipline and control, like you fear."

Cullen didn't know what to say. The likelihood that she would think her fellow casters to be anything other than reliable seemed slim, but at the same time, that she was even willing to offer him this recourse was…

When he didn't respond, she shrugged. "So if I come back with mages, you'll know that I have faith in them. If not, you'll be happy."

"I…" Cullen coughed. How did one respond to that? Finally, he cleared his throat. They were almost to her hut. "Just promise me that you will be careful."

"I already said—"

"Forgive me if images of you leaning into an ill templar's clutches come to mind when you declare how cautious you are."

At that, she let out a faint huff. Her fingers trailed over her arm, as though feeling her scar through her shirt. "That was..."

"And getting slashed at and tackled by demons does not speak much to caution, either."

Her gaze rolled up to meet his, frown in place. "I will stay safe. I will not charge in before those with shields. Cassandra is good at keeping ahead of me." As she finished speaking, they reached the little building that had become her home these last few weeks.

After the last week, he thought it strange not to see anyone standing guard, though it made sense that they wouldn't be needed any longer. He'd wandered past a few times, considering coming by to check on her. But then, she had enough people crowding around her, stealing her time, her moments.

He stopped in front of her door, nodding his head once. "Sleep well, Herald."

"Commander," she said, stopping him as he turned to go. "We likely won't be leaving for a few days, yes?" When he nodded, she began to play with her braid, winding loose locks around her hair. The earlier, neat braids Josephine had done had disappeared days ago. "I shall see you about, then."

"I suppose you will."

She clasped her hands in front of her and offered him a slight bow, a small smile in place. As she turned to step inside, he had the strangest urge to reach out to her, to catch her and ask her to stay with him a moment longer, or just to let him sit with her inside. Just to make sure she really was alright, of course.

As her door closed, he sighed, suddenly acutely aware of how cold it was outside. Allowing himself a small shiver, he turned and headed to his own quarters. He'd have to make sure to send the most level-headed and seasoned of their warriors with her.