The updating is going to be a bit slow in the next week or so, I'm exhausted having worked 60-hour weeks and my boyfriend is coming home tomorrow on a week-long leave from the military. But I'll try to squeeze in some time to write, of course! If there's anything you would like to see happen in the story, feel free to leave a comment... I know where this is headed, roughly, but you never know what I'll pick up ;)
Trev whipped her head around to find the source of the voice and drew in a quick, sharp breath, shock very much evident on her face. She stumbled backwards and Cassandra had to steady her with a hand on her arm.
"C-Cullen?" she said, her voice quivering. "Is this some kind of trick? How are you still... no, this is some sort of deceit, you're a demon. Or this is a dream..." She backed away further, shaking her head but seemingly unable to tear her eyes of the man before her.
Cullen was struggling just to stand up, sweating from the exertion. He shouldn't be up and about, the mage who'd watched over him when he'd woken up had practically screamed at him when he left his bed. But he had to see Trev to make sure that she was alright. He'd been told he was the only one who had been hit by the assassin but he needed to see that she was safe with his own eyes.
He felt relieved when he saw her but his stomach dropped when she turned around and he saw that she was covered in blood. He understood that she had killed Turner and now this man lying on the floor, but still... he couldn't be sure that none of the blood was hers.
And why in the Maker's name does she think I'm a demon?
"Please, Trev, tell me what's wrong," he said, his voice still rough from the ordeal he'd been through.
"No, you stay away from me! Just go away! Don't torture me like this, with him... Please!" Trev's voice was panicked and Cullen looked at Iron Bull and Josephine, both shrugging. They didn't know what was going on either. His eyes fell on Leliana next, who's eyes were wide as she looked back at him.
"What in the fade is going on here?" he asked to nobody in particular. His strenght faltered by the second and his confusion at Trev's behaviour didn't help. He groaned and fell down to one knee, bracing himself against the floor with one hand.
Leliana seemed to regain her composure and hurried up to him to help him, Iron Bull doing the same from his other side. They supported his arms and helped him stand up again. Trev was still shaking her head and mumbling about demons and dreams while Cassandra tried to calm her down.
"Damn, the boss is really losing her shit over there," Bull remarked.
"Why? What's happened to her?" Cullen was sick with worry, and angry because he didn't have the strenght to walk over to her and take her into his arms. He could barely stand and his mind was starting to get a little foggy as well.
"Maker, Cullen... we thought you were dead. The Inquisitor - she held your limp body in her arms for several minutes. You had no pulse." Leliana's voice was low and awe-struck.
"Wh-what?" He'd been... dead? It was all black. He couldn't remember entering the fade or anything like that. He just remembered speaking to Trev and her family and the next thing he knew he was waking up in a bed that wasn't his, with a mage standing over him pouring magic into him. He'd felt like a whole cavalry worth of horses had trampled him. He still did.
Bull looked at Leliana in surprise.
"You didn't know that he lived?" She shook her head and he continued. "Right after you left to follow the boss, Dorian was powered with the magic from all the other mages here. He was nearing total drainage but he refused to stop, he said he just needed a little tiny itty bit more and the Commander would be brought back. Muttered something about how he wouldn't be able to live with himself if he robbed the world of such a pretty face. I don't know if he meant himself or Cullen." Bull chuckled at the memory before his expression turned serious again and he looked at Cullen. "He passed out in the exact same moment that you began breathing again. It was total chaos. Drained mages everywhere, the vint on the brink of death, same as you. You weren't exactly stable. We sent you with the only mage with any healing skills still standing, and Dorian had to make do with Olivia." The qunari turned his eyes to Leliana again. "The rest of us got caught up in the chase for the assassin but we sent word to you. Didn't a runner come to tell you that the Commander had survived?"
Leliana shook her head. "Maker, no. The Inquisitor ordered all the guards out of the dungeon so she would remain undisturbed with Turner. Some of the guards must have taken her very seriously and stopped anyone who tried to enter. But why in Thedas didn't Cassandra say something when we met outside the throne room not fifteen minutes ago?"
Bull shrugged. "She didn't say that the Commander was dead, either. We thought you knew that he wasn't, like I said. She only updated you on Dorian's condition."
Cullen's head swam. He could barely focus on their words anymore. The only thing he had energy left to focus on was Trev. He watched her sitting on the floor now, her face in her hands, Cassandra speaking to her in a soothing voice. He needed to make her understand it was him, not some desire demon come to torture her. He needed to free her from that pain. Andraste, if anyone knew what it was like to be tortured and tempted with the one thing you couldn't have by a desire demon, it was him. He didn't wish that pain on anyone, least of all on his Trev. It killed him just as much as the physical pain he was feeling. He tried to take a step forward but stumbled, only Bull and Leliana's support keeping him from toppling over.
"Please, Cullen, we must take you back to bed," Leliana urged. "You must have lost so much blood, do you want to get yourself killed? Do it for her sake. She just needs to wrap her head around this, can you imagine the shock she's going through right now?"
Cullen shook his head. "But I need to... I need to hold her, to tell her it's alright. If I can just touch her, she'll know it's me." He took another weak step forward, and Leliana sighed but didn't protest again. He could hear Cassandra's voice now as he was slowly progressing towards her and Trev.
"Please, Inquisitor, snap out of it. He's really here, look! If he was a desire demon, he wouldn't look so pale and injured. He would look completely normal and try to lure you in with falsehood. What you see before you is the truth. None of us would be here trying to convince you if this was just a dream or if you were trapped in the fade with a demon. Look at him!"
She did, raising her wide eyes slowly, letting them glide over his body and then his face. Her expression grew confused as she seemed to notice his condition for the first time. He was limping, deathly pale and a large bandage covered a good part of his bare upper body.
He finally arrived at her feet and fell to his knees in front of her after Bull and Leliana released him from their supporting arms.
His breathing was ragged and he felt like he was going to pass out at any moment, but he had to make her see him first. Sheer willpower kept him conscious.
"It's me, Trev. It's really me, I swear. Please, let me take your hand."
She looked hesitant as he slowly reached out for her.
"Only with your permission, my love. I would never touch you if you didn't want me to."
Her face softened and she gave him a small, barely visible nod. He gently touched the tip of her fingers, moving slowly so he wouldn't startle her. Then he carefully covered her hand with his and squeezed it lightly as if to reassure her that it was going to be alright.
Trev took a deep breath and her eyes seemed to clear.
"Is it truly you?" she whispered.
Cullen nodded. "Yes, it's me, I promise."
"I... I thought you were dead... How?"
Cullen wanted to hold her in his arms so desperately.
"I'll explain everything later, Inquisitor. We'll be over there if you need us," Cassandra said and walked away, ushering the others with her to the other side of the room.
"Please, Trev, just let me hold you."
She looked at him with her wide eyes one last time before she threw herself into his open arms. Cullen felt an incredible warmth flood him as he embraced her. He breathed her scent in as she buried her head against his neck. He rested his cheek against the top of her head, not caring in the slightest that it was, like the rest of her, spattered with blood.
"I thought that you... that you were gone. That you'd left me. I'm so sorry! I should have stayed with you... I just needed to... I couldn't think on the fact that you were dead, I did the only thing that came to my mind."
"Turner," he said.
He felt her nod her head against him. "Yes. I'm sorry... He was supposed to be our reward, killing him together."
Cullen hushed her and caressed her back soothingly with one hand while tilting her face up to meet his with the other hand.
"None of that matters. This..." He kissed her softly on the lips, thankfully relatively clean from blood. He felt tears run down from her eyes and he gently broke the kiss. "This is all that matters."
"I love you, so so much Cullen," she whispered while she buried her face in his neck again. "I will never leave your side again for as long as I live. I'll kill anyone who tries to separate us ever again. I can't believe you're really here." She pressed her warm, wonderful form even closer to him, as if she intended to never let him go.
Her closeness and her words made his heart beat faster, too fast. He felt his mind slip and he passed out again, this time not in confusion and fear, but in a feeling of bliss.