Sorry that this is going up a little later than usual. My excuses will be at the bottom. Enjoy. =)
When Marian Hawke had pictured the Inquisitor, the famed "Herald of Andraste", she had imagined someone taller and less strikingly Dalish. Hawke knew she was an elf, but the Inquisitor looked different from any of the elves she had met in the past. She wasn't nearly as tiny as Merrill had been, actually, she was only a little bit shorter than Fenris, which was quite the feat on a female elf. What was really different was her frame. She was built a little bit more broadly, but somehow was as lithe as Marian would expect a rogue to be. She also hadn't expected the Inquisitor to be so young it hurt.
Had Marian ever been that young? She could barely remember it. Then again, she had been drunk for most of her twenties...and her thirties. Marian shrugged, the Blight tends to do that to people. Living in Kirkwall also tended to create drinking problems…maybe she was on to something.
Varric had certainly painted a picture of her that left Hawke thinking that this woman was the size of a mountain. But, here she was, well they both were, standing on the battlements of Skyhold, face to face, with Varric standing between the two if things got heated.
This fearless leader apparently has had shouting matches with Cullen on a regular basis, the Inquisitor wouldn't be afraid to yell at her. Marian knew that the Herald has many reasons to shout at her. She was the woman who had accidently started the mage rebellion and then ran off with the man who had actually blown up the Kirkwall Chantry, leaving the rest of Thedas to deal with the aftermath.
Across from Hawke was the woman who had put a wedge in the Mage-Templar war by creating some kind of truce with the mages. She then closed the Breach threating to consume the world and is now fighting the ex-templars and crazed Darkspawn Magister that are trying to destroy Thedas.
The Herald's hair was shaved and braided, her ears laced with different kinds of piercings. She was an odd looking elf, almost regal in appearance, but the grin on her face, stopped her from looking like she had a stick up her ass, unlike the Grad-Enchanter she had run into earlier. A shiver went down her spine at the sight of Vivienne. Varric had warned her about the Ice Queen, but ugh…
The Herald didn't address Hawke first. The Inquisitor spoke to Varric who let out a small cough. "Cassandra is going to kill you, you do know that?" Her accent was hard to place it sounded nothing like Merrill's. It had more a musical tone to it that it almost sounded unnatural.
The dwarf shivered at the statement. "I was protecting my friend. If it was your brother, you would have hidden him."
She shrugged with a grin that was more teeth than anything else, Marian would go so far as to call it feral. "You aren't wrong, I would burn the world down to save my brother, but I'm just warning you. You might want to make sure that you are constantly around people that would be willing to get between you and Cassandra. The list is very short. It just consists of me and Bull, so keep that in mind."
Varric snorted and motioned to Marian, "Yea, well, here is the woman of legend, Marian Hawke. Hawke, this is Ellana Lavellan, the newly crowned Inquisitor and Herald of Andraste."
The Herald's face twisted at her titles. It seemed she wasn't a fan of being in charge or maybe it was the titles weren't to her liking. Marian could relate to that feeling all too well.
Marian held out a pale hand to shake and the Inquisitor took it and grasped it firmly. She could feel the Inquisitor's calluses from years of training and hard labor. "It's nice to finally meet the woman that Varric tells all his tales about."
"Don't take them as fact. Varric tends to lie, a lot."
"They're not lies, they're embellishments. The stories wouldn't sell if they didn't have a little more drama to them."
"You walk a fine line, Varric. My life is plenty tragic without the additions you've added."
The Inquisitor laughs quietly. It's sounds almost cute, not something that Marian would expect out of a leader of an international organization as large as the Inquisition. It also wasn't a noise that a trained killer would make and if the stories that Varric had told of the way that she eliminates enemies, she sounded far too innocent.
"Glad to be entertaining you, er-Inquisitor."
"Ellana, please, Inquisitor if you feel you need to be formal. Herald is blasphemous and not only offensive to Andrastians, but also to my people. I wish they would listen to me and respect my discomfort."
Marian nodded sympathetically, Champion is a title that she had never wanted, but it was trust upon her shoulders at too young an age to truly understand the consequences.
So, Marian explained the situation, brought Ellana up to speed on everything that needed to be done, but before she could leave the elf grabbed her arm. "My people know that you've smuggled Anders into Skyhold. Keep a firm handle on him. We have enough mages and Templars here to subdue and kill him."
Marian's blood ran cold. How had she known? They had snuck him in with pilgrims in the dead of night. Bethany had been working here for months. They couldn't have known that she was the one who had let them in?
The shock obviously shown in her face because Ellana grinned, "Your sister is not as subtle as she thinks she is. I'm bringing in a specialist that researches and preforms exorcisms and curses. If there's enough of your Anders left, we can save him from the Spirit that is attempting to consume him."
Marian sucked in a breath and looked at Varric in disbelief. There was a cure for possession? But, the dwarf just shrugged. "Look, Shadows here has a lot of weird elven connections. Apparently, her family is a big deal in the Dalish mage world."
Ellana rolled her bright grey eyes. "My clan has been known to take in odd mages over the years, if those mages left to go to other clans, they tend to keep in contact. But, this mage didn't even need convincing to come, he was on his way regardless."
"And why is that?"
Marian felt that she knew the answer. "He's family. My brother is coming with one of the clan's guards."
Varric smiled. "So, I finally get to meet this mysterious brother of yours. You talk about him often enough. I'm glad that I'll be able to see this guy for myself."
The Herald gives him a genuine smile before giving them both a wave and excusing herself for a war meeting. Marian was more than glad to have not become Inquisitor to this crusade, it seemed like so much work. The thought of all of it made her shudder.
After she was out of sight Marian turned to Varric.
"I'm guessing Ellana tells interesting stories about her clan then?"
"Something like that. Shadows is a twin and apparently, she has been sharing dreams with her brother since they were children. Shadows protects him from demons in his sleep."
Marian's brows furrowed. "I've never heard anything like that before. My siblings were twins and they never mentioned anything like that and Bethany is a mage as well, while Carver wasn't."
She nearly choked on her younger brother's name. It still hurt to think about how she lost him and the devastation that it caused her family.
Noticing her distress Varric changed the subject, "So, you brought Blondie?"
"I couldn't leave him on his own. Andraste knows what he'd get into if I wasn't around to constantly watch him."
"So, you brought him to the Inquisition headquarters, where if they find out that you've brought him here, they'd kill him on sight."
"It seems that they all know that he's here anyway. I don't really see the problem."
"You're putting the entire Inquisition at risk. You're very lucky that Shadows is so damn nice that she'd call in a special favor from her clan to try and help your possessed lover. She's putting a lot on the line here and I hope you know that." Varric warned, showing an unusual amount of protectiveness towards the Inquisitor. Marian would go as far to say that he's fond of the Inquisitor.
"I'm going to keep a close eye on him, Varric. I rarely let him out of my sight. It was one of the reasons I really didn't want to get involved with this war. It wasn't until both you and Bethany begged me to come back that I even considered coming out of hiding. I'm not going to let Vengeance get the better of me again. I'm tired of that blasted demon running the show and so is Anders."
"Is there even any of Blondie left in there?"
Marian sighed, running a hand through her short dark strands. "Yes, there is. I know there has to be. Vengeance has no time for love."
The dwarf sighed, "Just keep him away from Shadows. She'll do anything to save him, even if it puts her life at risk. I don't want to have to put a bolt in Blondie if I don't have to."
Marian was taken aback by Varric's defense of the Herald. She hadn't thought that he was truly devoted to this cause, but looking at him now, it seemed that this Dalish woman had lit a fire in him that Marian hadn't seen since before their Deep Roads excursion over a decade ago.
Andraste's flaming ass, she was getting old.
A bloody decade.
Damn, it had really been that long.
The two stood in silence for a moment just letting the mountain air cool their tempers. "Wanna get a drink?"
Marian grinned, "Is that even a question?"
Varric laughed, walking ahead towards what Marian assumed was the Tavern.
"Did I tell you that we have a Qunari spy and mercenary leader working with us? You're going to love him, Hawke."
She rolled her eyes before following the over enthusiastic dwarf. "Well, he can't be any worse than any other Qunari I've ever met," Marian grumbled making her way into the Tavern to go and drink all coherent thoughts out of her head for the evening.
Did you like Hawke? I like her. It's different from the ruminating of Solas' mind anyway. At last we've finally reached my favorite part of DAI, which is running around Skyhold and doing all the side quests. XD Anyway, sorry that this went up a few hours later than it usually is. One, it was my birthday yesterday and since it was my birthday, I decided to give myself the night off and not write, forgetting that that meant that my editing day was gone and I'd need to do it all today. Cut to today, my internet borked out. Comcast is having nation wide issues apparently, ugh. So, I'm getting this up between major crashes in my internet.
To top everything off, my laptop is also breaking. Its a five year old macbook pro (the dear has a CD drive and everything). It originally ran on the Mountain Lion system and officially can not update anymore because it can not handle it (wipes away a single tear).
Anyway, enough about my issues. Onto great news! Did you know that there are actually stuffed nugs out there in the real world? Well, I got one of those little pink cuties for my birthday! Then my dogs tried to steal it multiple times. What a day.
Thank you for everyone that has been reviewing, favoriting and following! =D Keep it up!
See you all next week,
Animerocker