Leliana rested herself against her chair, admiring the fire in front of her, realizing that, for the first time in a long time, she was free. Her agents were all out on missions, she had read all of her letters, the repairs of Skyhold were well underway and taken care of.
And her thoughts slipped to Mara. Her beautiful wife.
Skyhold was so desolate and cold. Josie was doing her best to comfort Leliana, especially after Haven added onto everything else, but she knew that the only thing that would heal her spirit was her soulmate, her missing half.
The Warden-Commander was off, away on a mission to find some sort of a cure for the Calling that was slowly killing her and every last Warden on the planet. It had hounded the mage ever since the Blight had ended, her closeness to the Archdemon and so many Darkspawn having accelerated it's effect on the young woman.
Maker, it had been four years since they had parted ways with tears and loving words. When the Warden had awoken covered in the Black Blisters that marked the Blight, they knew that they needed a way to cure it, or the woman would soon be dead.
She is already dead.
The treacherous thoughts crawled in her head, but she shook them away. Mara wasn't dead. She couldn't be. Leliana would know, she would have to. She would continued believing that her angel would return, until she the day she saw proof that the mage had gone to paradise.
Please don't let her be dead.
Leliana bit her lip, bracing herself. She was used to bottling up her emotions. At Marjoline's betrayal, at Justinia's death, at Haven... but this pain, these traitorous thoughts... she couldn't contain herself whenever these thoughts came, when she took her mind off of her work.
Wiping her eyes, she returned to work to take her mind off of her missing wife.
Although not before praying for Mara's safety.
Menawhile...
"Your Inquisitorialness."
Cantis rolled over in his bed when he heard Varric's voice, sitting up slightly to see the Dwarf. It had been less than a week since Solas had guided the Inquisition to the fortress, and Cantis had been bed-ridden with his wounds ever since Haven. How he had survived, he had no idea, only knowing that he had awoken some time later in a dark, cold place, barely alive.
"Yeah?" Cantis groaned as he sat up, resting against the fur pillows. "What do you need, Varric?"
"You feeling alright?" He asked, shuffling a foot uncomfortably. He wasn't quite sure how to address the newly-crowned Inquisitor, since he had never been one for religion in general and with everyone revering him as a saviour, he wasn't sure what their relationship would be now.
He groaned, struggling against the bandages wrapped around his chest to sit up. "Healer says I'll be fine in a few days. Considering what happened, that's the best we could have hoped for."
Varric nodded. "Good. Bianca was worried about you."
Cantis laughed. "Ooh. I don't suppose you're getting jealous?"
"Nah." Varric shook his head. "If you try anything, I'll just take away Ruffles. The way you're been eyeing her, that might be worse."
"Oh, shut up." The Inquisitor rolled his eyes even though he was smiling. He did have a ridiculous attracting to Josephine, but he couldn't say anything about it. No doubt she was uninterested, and this was neither the time nor the place to be developing attractions to anyone, let alone the diplomat. "Did you need something, or are you just up here to bother me?"
"Yeah." He said, leaning against Cantis' wardrobe. "You see, all these heroic sacrifices have reminded me of someone. If you're feeling better, there's someone I know who should know more than anyone else about Corypheus. She's supposed to be coming here tonight, and I'd really like you to meet her."
"Sure." Cantis nodded and sat all the way up. "Anyone who can help is welcome up here, and if you trust them then so do I."
Varric smiled. "Great. Meet me after dinner at the gates, she should be here in the evening."
"Who is it anyway?"
"I invited two people actually, and you should have heard of them. Adrianne and Merrill Hawke."
Later that Night
"Open the gates! We have visitors!"
The two of them turned their heads, and saw the gates opening. They had just barely gotten down here from the nightly Skyhold dinner when their guests arrived.
"Right on time." Varric chuckled. "Hawke always was punctual."
In strode two women. One had shoulder-length hair that was pulled back in a professional style, wearing armour made of black steel and a hand-and-a-half sword sheathed at her hip. The other was a petite elf woman with Dalish tattoos and braided hair, wearing chestnut coloured plate armour with dull chainmail underneath, a dark green scarf around her neck.
"Inquisitor," Varric's voice was light. "Meet Hawke. The Champion of Kirkwall."
She inclined her head a little. "Though I don't use that title much anymore."
The elven woman ran over and threw her arms around Varric, a wild, delighted smile on her face. "It is so good to see you again, lethallin!" She gushed, hugging him tightly.
"It's good to see you too, Daisy." He chuckled.
Cantis offered a hand out to Hawke, who shook it firmly. "My name is Cantis. Cantis Trevelyan." He smiled. He knew Hawke from stories and Varric's The Tale of the Champion but had never met the woman himself.
"I thought you might have some friendly advice about Corypheus." Varric said when the elven woman, apparently Merrill, released him. "You and I did fight him, after all."
Hawke looked around to the buildings and stone walls of Skyhold. "You have an impressive place here, Inquisitor. It reminds me of my Estate in Kirkwall." She turned to him. "I heard about Haven. You have my sympathies."
He nodded, a little morosely. "Thank you. I'm glad we have strong walls now: We're not losing anyone next time they come for us." He leaned against the stone brick wall. "Varric says you know about Corypheus?"
She nodded. "We fought, and killed him, before. The Grey Wardens were holding him, and he somehow used his connection to the Blight to influence them."
Varric steeped a little closer. "Corypheus got into their heads, messed with their minds, turned them against each other."
"If the Wardens have vanished..." She trailed off, shaking her head.
Cantis rested hist head against the wall, and closed his eyes, trying to breathe deeply. He had hoped for good news. "So he has the Venatori, the Red Templars, and possibly the Wardens?" He sighed hard. "Wonderful."
"I didn't come here just to give you bad news." Hawke offered. "I've got a friend in the Wardens. He was investigating something unrelated for me." Their eyes met. "His name if Loghain. The last time we met, he was worried about corruption among the Wardens." She shook her head. "Since then... nothing."
"Corypheus would certainly count as corruption." Cantis opened his eyes, pushing himself away from the wall. "Did Loghain disappear too?"
Hawke shook her head. "No. He said he's be hiding in an old smuggler's den near Crestwood."
Cantis nodded. "Then that, at least, is something." He offered a hand out again, and she took it. "Thank you."
Her face was grave. "Corypheus is my responsibility. I thought I'd killed him before, and this time I'm going to make sure of it."
"So, what makes you think you killed Corypheus before?"
She shook her head. "I didn't just think I killed him. It's not like he fell out a window or something, I didn't just assume he was dead. When the fight was over, he was dead on the ground, a charred, cut up corpse. Maybe it was his tie to the Blight that brought him back, or some magic, but he was dead, I swear."
He sighed, rubbing his eyes. "I'm sorry, it's just... damn it. Between what we saw at Haven, the thought that he might have the Wardens behind him, and if he can come back from the dead? I'm not sure we can stop something like that."
Merrill smiled, and offered a hand out to him as well. "It will be alright." Her voice was reassuring. "We'll stop him, and save the Wardens."
He cocked his head. "How do you know about Corypheus?"
She threw an arm around Hawke. "Hawke's my wife. When the Wardens sent assassins after her, I had to go with her to stop them."
"Pleased to meet you. Both of you." He looked over at Hawke. "I'd heard you began travelling alone after Kirkwall?"
She shook her head. "No, but I'm glad you heard that. You see, I'd heard the Divine might send an Exalted March on Kirkwall, so I left hoping that they might have to come after me, and that might save the innocent people in the city. And if they heard that Merrill and everyone else had left too, then they would have to split their forces even further." She wrapped an arm around the Dalish girl. "Up until recently, we were also travelling with my brother, Carver. But he was a Warden too, so I sent him off to the Anderfels so he wouldn't be affected by the Calling." She gave a snorted laugh. "I expect he's off killing Darkspawn, annoying locals, and general making himself known."
He nodded, understanding. "Well, I'm glad that you're with us." He said, forcing a smile. "I'm sorry, I must sound like I'm angry at you, it's just that this is shaping up to be one hell of a fight."
Hawke shook her head. "Don't worry about it, I understand. We've all lost good people in the last few years." She shook her head. "The stupid fight between the mages and the Templars cost me my Mother."
"I'm sorry." He offered. "I recently lost my Father to the Templar insurgents."
She gave a small nod. "And I'm sorry for you as well. A Blood Mage was the one who took my mom."
Merrill hugged Hawke. "Ma Vhenan." She murmured, kissing Hawke's neck and intentionally breaking the heavy silence. "I'm tired, would you take me to our room?"
Hawke smiled and gave her elf a kiss on the nose. "Alright, darling." She turned to Varric. "You have a room for us?"
He nodded. "Yeah, I had Josephine set aside a room for you."
Hawke shook Cantis' hand once more, and threw an arm around him in a half-hug. "Don't dwell too much on Haven, or on Corypheus. We'll stop them." She advised. "We'll head out to Crestwood tomorrow, and we'll stop him. I promise."
"Thank you. I feel better with you on our side, Champion."
She took Merrill's hand, and began to walk with Varric before stopping and turning. "Oh yes," She smiled. "And Varric has asked me to, and I quote, 'Tell Cantis to hook up with Ruffles', whatever that means."
He rolled his eyes. "Varric, stop intervening in my love life."
"Oh, come on!" Varric smiled. "As I writer, I can tell that you two would be cute together."
Hawke chuckled. "You should just be grateful that Isabela isn't here. Otherwise, you two would already be sleeping with each other in eight different books." She gave a loud laugh. "And in half of them you'd be a woman."
He shook his head. "It's nice to meet you too, Hawke." She threw her head back and laughed. "We'll leave first thing tomorrow morning.
Two Weeks Later
Mara sat on a cliff overlooking Adamant Fortress, with a handkerchief to her eyes, sobbing quietly.
She had a cure for the Calling, a way to remove the part of her that made her a Grey Warden, but it might kill her, the same as the Joining.
In her mind were thought of Leliana, and of the future the two of them might hold. If she survived, they would have the rest of their lives to spend together. She knew that Leliana was in pain after the death of the Divine: She knew her wife far too well to think otherwise. Justinia's death would have shaken her to the core, and that was a twist of the knife in her heart to not be with her lover at such a painful time, to help her cope with such loss.
And if this worked, she would be able to help her wife. The Orlesian Bard would be down at Adamant fortress right now. The Inquisition was planning on attacking the fortress to stop the rogue Wardens who had attacked the Divine at the conclave, something Mara had figured out shortly after the Breach explosion.
According to Avernus, she had about a half chance at life once she drank the potion that would cure her Calling. If she survived, she would be a normal person once again. If.
What did she have to lose? The Calling was already killing her, and if she survived she could be with Leliana for the rest of her life, she could raise a family, adopt some orphan children.
She uncorked the potion, and drank it down in a single swallow, and collapsed onto the ground, convulsing in pain, feeling the blood rushing through her entire body, behind her eyes and ears especially, her eyes and vision burning white and hot.
She rolled onto her back, trying desperately to scream out, but the blood in her throat stopped it dead, her voice a strangled gasp.
As the world blurred, and faded into darkness, she gave one final whisper to the blackened stormy skies above.
"Leliana."