Second to last chapter, guys! Hope you like!

He was going to ask her to marry him.

Lily Trevelyan Rutherford. Inquisitor Trevelyan Rutherford.

It had a nice ring to it. More than nice maybe, considering the shivers that went through him when he thought about it. How they would announce her at events and meetings. Maybe she would start calling herself Trev Rutherford since she preferred to be called Trev anyway. It sounded so right.

No more memories had come back to him since his night with Trev, but it didn't matter anymore. He knew he loved her with all his heart and more - he just needed to show her. He didn't remember their life together, but she did and he knew it must hurt for her to know he had forgotten. But he would prove to her that it didn't matter, that he loved her all the same.

He had it all planned out. He would take her to the Emerald Graves, a place Dorian had told him that she loved. He would make it simple, just the two of them in one of the villas that now belonged to the Inquisition. A nice dinner in front of the fireplace and then he would get down on his knee and present her with the ring he'd procured from a jeweler in Val Royeaux, with Leliana's help. And he would ask if she would do him the honor of becoming his wife.

He had it all planned out. But Maker take him, he was nervous. What if she didn't say yes? What if she didn't want him unless his memories returned? But he knew that there was a strong possibility that they never would. And he knew she loved him and that she would most likely be thrilled and say yes. But one could never be sure and his nerves were a mess, despite his attempts at calming himself with logic.

A chilly afternoon in the garden just before the first snow was expected to fall, Cullen had just finished speaking to one of Leliana's people who was going to help him see to it that the villa in the Emeralds was ready for their arrival, when Trev walked up behind him and put her arms around him.

"What were you two whispering about, hmm?" She kissed the curve of his neck and he shuddered with pleasure. He turned around and kissed her properly, the heat filling his body pushing the chill of the air away.

"Finished for today, my love?" he asked her and pulled her with him up the small steps to the shadow of the corner of the wall.

"Yes, I'm all yours now." She smiled and he almost told himself that what he had to say could wait a little longer, until after he'd kissed her senseless. But he silently berated himself at the thought.

No more excuses.

"I want you to go with me tomorrow."

She looked at him quizzically. "Oh? I wasn't aware that you were going somewhere."

"Yes, ehm... maybe I should have explained that first." He suddenly found it even more difficult to speak as he felt her hands caress him from his sides down to his legs before she ghosted her touch against his inner thigh. His breath caught in his throat even more when he noticed the way her eyes were fixed on his lips. She looked... hungry.

"Yes, you were saying, Cullen?" She was still staring.

"I... I have some business in the Emerald Graves I would like to take care of. Nothing serious, just something I want to take a look at. I think it will be helpful towards my... ugh..." She was venturing dangerously close to his growing erection and he hurried his last words along before he lost his ability to speak altogether. "...my return as Commander. I won't bore you with the details. But I thought maybe you'd like to come with me? You're always complaining about how you're too cooped up here, how you miss the adventures of the road. I'm sure our people can handle a few days without you here."

She started to kiss his neck again, her hands still running slowly up and down his thighs. "Yes, that sounds like a great idea... Does it involve giants?"

"What? No, I didn't plan on it involving giants, no," he said, having a very difficult time to concentrate on her strange question instead of her hands and lips.

"You know, Cullen... if I unlace your breeches right here in the garden, these plants and bushes would actually get to see a giant."

She smirked at him and he chuckled at her ridiculous joke but was cut short when her hand expertly found its way into his pants. She used the hand with the mark on it as it was always warm and he groaned as she slipped her fingers around his cock and pulled him free. He silently thanked the Maker that the garden was pretty much deserted now that the cold was setting in.

"I've released the giant!" She laughed and pushed herself against him, her hand still wrapped around him. She leaned up and placed her lips against his ear, still grinning. "I do hope he's not come out to kill me, but to fuck me."

Cullen couldn't help a wide smile spreading in his face. "Oh, I can assure you it's the latter, my dear. But you're sure you'll come with me tomorrow?"

She nodded. "Yes, yes, of course, I'm looking forward to it and all that. But please, stop with the questions now. You're distracting the giant. He knows what's important."

Cullen chuckled again. She was being silly, and he loved her even more for it. "He does. But you know, I heard that giants fuck you until you can't stand afterwards, are you really ready for that?"

She licked her lips and looked up at him from underneath her thick, black lashes. "I've been wet and ready since I first laid eyes on you."

With a growl, he pulled her to him and crushed his lips to hers.

The next day, he rode out of Skyhold's gates with Trev by his side. He was nervous but also really looking forward to having her all to himself, both on the journey to the Emeralds and in the villa. He checked his pocket for the hundredth time to make sure the ring was still there, and it was this time too. They rode out at a good but calm pace, with no particular hurry. It was so nice, being able to talk and laugh with her like this, completely undisturbed. He wished that the day when the Inquisition was no longer needed would come sooner rather than later. He wanted her all to himself, settled down somewhere with a little peace and quiet. Maker knows none of them had ever had that for long in their lives.

They'd been on the road for less than half an hour when Trev squinted her eyes at something in the distance.

"Cullen, do you see that? Is there someone on the path down there?"

He looked in the direction she was pointing at and thought he could indeed make out the outline of a figure. They rode on in silent caution, and as they got closer he could see that there were three people standing still in the middle of the slope. Snow started to fall around them softly, and it was obvious by now that whoever those people were, they were waiting for Trev and Cullen. He silently cursed himself for not bringing guards with them. He'd been too selfish, wanting her all to himself.

But it was no use regretting that now. They were so close now that Cullen could see a woman flanked by two men, mages by the look of them.

This is not good.

He heard Trev gasp and his head snapped around to look at her.

"What's wrong, Trev? Do you know these people?" He kept his voice low so that only she would hear him.

"Yes. That's Alanna Dreallor," she murmured back.

Cullen blinked. "Dreallor... Is she related to Turner?"

"She's his sister."

Oh, this is really bad.

"His family was supposed to be taken care of... Traitors, all of them convicted of aiding Turner in what he did to me and the Inquisiton. I don't know why in the fade I wasn't informed that she's not dead or imprisoned."

Cullen shook his head, a bit confused. He still didn't know much about what had happened with Trev's former husband, only that he was dead and that he'd done something very bad. But he couldn't focus on that now. He understood well enough that his sister waiting for them outside of Skyhold with two nasty-looking mages was not a good thing either way.

They finally came to a halt before them and Cullen looked at this Alanna Dreallor. She was plain, with no interesting features. A face you would forget were it not for her eyes. They glowed red.

Trev dismounted and Cullen did the same, his hand ready on the hilt of his sword.

"Alanna. I didn't expect to see you here. What do you want?" Trev's voice was steady, full of her usual assertiveness and authority. But that didn't seem to intimidate Turner's sister.

"What I want," she sneered, "is my brother back. You took him from me."

Trev blinked a few times.

"I took him from you? He came willingly to me, and what happened after was no one's fault but his own. But if you see it like that, I suppose you could say I took your whole family from you, yes? I hear your father was executed back home, and that horrible older sister of yours is off rotting in a dungeon somewhere, correct?"

Cullen drew in a sharp breath. What the fuck was she pulling, provoking her like that? He was sure Alanna deserved Trev's harsh words and more, but he couldn't think of a single smart reason for her to say them here and now. Those red eyes worried him.

But Trev just shook her head in his direction, almost imperceptibly, but he caught it and kept his mouth closed.

To his surprise, Alanna just snorted at Trev's words. "Like I care about my imbecile father or that fat old cow. Turner was the only one I cared about. He loved me. I don't know what you said when you contacted him and made him go to you, but this is all your fault. He was mine."

Trev just looked at her for a few moments with an expression impossible to read.

"Funny. If I'm the one who lured him here, why did he think it nessecary to hold my sister hostage to get me to marry him?"

A flood of understanding washed over Cullen.

That's why she suddenly left me and married that shit.

"Besides," she continued, "funny how he never once mentioned you to me. If it was one thing Turner loved, it was blabbering endlessly. Maker, my ears bled after every day I had to spend listening to that stupid fuck. But he never said a word about you, Alanna. Especially not when he came to my bed."

Cullen felt sick. If it was all against Trev's will, he must have raped her, over and over. But she didn't flinch as she said it, and the reason for not calling it rape was clear even to Cullen. She was provoking Alanna, who was clearly in love with her brother.

The freakshow never ends, Maker...

"You whore! You lured him in with your sorcery and your trickery! You think you can get whatever you like just because you're beautiful! Everyone says that you're a saviour, the chosen one. But I see through you! You lured my brother into your lair and then you killed him! Not even when I took your precious Commander away from you did it stop you, no, you used your witchpowers to bring him back! You're an abomination and I'm the only one who can see it!" She was screaming by now.

Trev's eyes suddenly darkened and Cullen saw her whole posture change. She was getting ready to charge, he could see it. "You were the one who ordered the attack on Cullen?" Her voice was dangerously low.

"And it was successful, too! I know he died but you brought him back to life, witch! It's unfair! Why is he alive and not my brother?"

Cullen's mind reeled from all this new information but that would have to wait. Alanna's eyes were glowing stronger by the minute.

"You sick, little bitch." Trev was clearly trying to rile her up."You wanted to fuck your own brother and you couldn't stand the fact that he didn't want you. You're fucking delusional. If he would have wanted you, why didn't he take you, like he took everything else he wanted? He never once touched you, did he? I bet you disgusted him, and..."

"Shut up! Shut up!"

It was definitely working. Alanna was shaking with rage and the mages beside her, who had been impassive until now, started chanting and aligned their staffs. Cullen saw Alanna reach for something in her pocket.

"Trev, watch out!" He immediately stepped in front of her to protect her from whatever it was that these mad people were conjuring.

Alanna pulled out a large, glowing, red piece of metal.

Red lyrium.

Before either of them had time to react, Turner's sister plunged the pure lyrium into her own heart as the mages' chanting reached its peak and the ground shook. Cullen and Trev were knocked to the ground. Cullen looked up through the dust that had risen from the ground, coughing and straining his eyes to see. He was taken aback when he heard the two mages scream and he could only see red before him, lyrium or blood, or both.

The cloud of dust settled a little and what Cullen saw made his blood curl. Alanna and the two mages were gone. In their place rose a huge, monstrous creature and Cullen immediately thought of a book he'd once read that described a darkspawn broodmother. He didn't know what foul magic was at work here, but the thing before them was at least twelve feet tall, a repulsive blob of twisted flesh and red lyrium. He could see the outlines of the mages' corpses merged into the creature's sides, and a horribly disfigured face that must have been what was left of Alanna.

Cullen watched Trev get up to her feet, her expression hard, her eyes glowing unearthly green. She pulled out her daggers faster than the blink of an eye and crossed them in front of herself, the mark on her hand crackling with power. He didn't know what she was doing, but it almost looked like she was charging them with power from her mark. Her daggers now buzzed and sparked green and he could feel how it grew with each second.

He drew his own sword and planted his feet firmly beside her. They would bring this thing down.

As he felt the power charge even more around her, he was afraid for a moment that she would lose control. He'd never felt this kind of energy before.

But she looked at him quickly, a reassuring look. She knew what she was doing. She turned her eyes back to the giant creature before them and when Trev spoke, her voice boomed out across the distance between their enemy and them.

"Not one more fucking time will I allow this. No more shit to wade through, not for me, not for Cullen! Anyone who opposes me or him, or our union, I'll send so deep into the darkest reaches of the fade, they'll wish they'd never been born."

The monstrosity before them moved and Cullen was shocked with how incredibly fast it moved despite its enormous size. It shrieked as it smashed a large, red talon into the ground where Trev had stood only a fraction of a second before.

But Trev was faster.

A rift appeared above them and a huge burst of green lightning hit the creature's talon, still buried deep in the ground after attacking Trev. It was burned clean off and the monster reared back, howling in pain. Cullen almost had to cover his ears to avoid the worst of the shrill piercing sound, but Trev only snarled and ran towards it.

"I will drown this mountain in your blood, and your burnt flesh will cover every inch of the ground!" she screamed, and the air crackled even louder, green sparks flying everywhere. Her rage seemed to fuel her rift-power unlike anything Cullen had heard of her doing before.

Cullen ran as well, desperate to protect her and help her fight. He looked at her and almost stumbled at the sight of her. People were undoubtedly on their way here to help, this had to be visible from Skyhold. And if they caught sight of her like this, Cullen had no doubt in his mind that she would go down in history as a legend, maybe worshipped in a way like Andraste.

A storm of green lightning now whirled around her. Everything shone with its light, her armor, her hair, her weapons and perhaps most startling - her eyes. No one would be able to look at her now and claim she was anything but a godess. One of war, one of vengence, one of justice, Cullen didn't know. But a godess of something, with immense power, she would be remembered as, he was sure of it.

As it turned out, Cullen was right. What happened next would go down in history.