Chapter 2: New Beginnings

Elliana notched an arrow in her bow, pulling the bowstring tight, ready to aim at whatever creature may be lurking around the next corner of the dark cavern. They were scouting their now third potential location for a new headquarters. She had been surprised at how quickly her comrades had began mobilizing in secret without using their resources openly. Getting in touch with their various networks without the Dread Wolf's spies finding out was simple enough, albeit time consuming and inefficient. What had quickly become very apparent was that a base of operations was necessarily, as well as developing a mode of communication and recruitment that would go undetected. First things first. It was one thing to discreetly summon a secret meeting, but if you had nowhere to rendezvous or to send well vetted recruits to, then no amount of cloak and dagger operations would be successful.

Thus, Elliana's research into the ancient world of the Elvhenan had been interrupted by Scout Harding and Cassandra who intercepted them along their journey and notified them of the current dilemma. The small group consisting of Cullen, Elliana, Harding and Cassandra were assigned the task of scouting ahead for a suitable and hopefully well hidden location to use as headquarters for their efforts against the agents of Fen'harel.

The first two locations had been complete failures; one was a series of abandoned tree forts deep in the woods of Arlathan and the other had been a network of old ruins in the Hundred Pillars. It had been agreed that establishing on the borders of Tavinter would be the most effective as this Empire appeared to be where Solas himself was amassing. The ruins had been far too decrepit and exposed, while it turned out the city in the trees, although abandoned, still served as a meeting place for many a young lovers. They were now exploring a series of tunnels that had been found by entering a cave deeply nestled in a ravine at the base of the High Reaches. The location was assuredly hidden and hard to reach if you did not know it was there. Scout Harding, had stumbled across it years ago while on recognisance for the Inquisition. The cave was however, anything but abandoned. Infested with every bloody giant bug and lizard in all of Thedas thought Elliana with vexation. So far they had killed countless giant spiders, several large and rather vicious aphid type things and one very large Wyvern.

Thankfully Elliana had been able to contribute to the fighting. Before setting out on their scouting mission Cassandra had approached her private. In her usual abrupt manner, she had deposited something large and heavy in front of Elliana with a thunk.

" A present from Dagna" she declared.

Peeling back the leather wrappings Elliana had found a carefully crafted arm of obsidian glass, looking suspiciously like it had been casted from an exact replica of her lost left arm. Running her hands over the glass she could feel writing engraved and entwined along the surface.

"Runes?"

"It would not be from Dagna if it did not have some arcane function now would it" answered Cassandra wryly.

Elliana hefted the heavy limb, which had been made with an opening to place her stump in. "It's very pretty Cassandra, but I think it will be more cumbersome than helpful".

"It is not just for prosthetics. Lillianna has arranged for you to meet with a circle of mages from the college. Mages we can trust. There may be a way for you to have a working arm again. They are expecting you in three days' time".

Elliana was speechless " How…?"

"Do not expect me to explain the complexity of magic, I only know that you lost your arm to the anchor and we have found a way to possibly give you a new one. Take the chance to be whole my friend".

Elliana gently stroked the arm. "Thank you…."

"Let's see if it works first, then you can thank Dagna. Also she wanted me to tell you that she expects to examine you thoroughly when next you meet. Evidently after your last trip into the fade she examined you so well that she was able to replicate the measurements of your arm….not creepy at all"

They had set out the next day to meet the mages, the plan was to meet in some ruins just outside the College. Cullen joined them and continued to be a helpful companion, though there was obvious tension between Elliana and himself. She had been avoiding thinking about their conversation in the dungeon of Haven. He too appeared to be avoiding talking to her at all, except when necessary and always with solemn formality. Fortunately, there had been many distractions that allowed her not to dwell on the young Templar too much. Nevertheless she often found herself watching him during their journey. She missed being able to talk to him and she was in all honesty extremely nervous about the thought of regaining her arm. The loss of her ability to fire a bow had been more devastating than she ever could have imagined and the possibility of repair seemed too much to ask. She wished she could go back to the way things had before, when their relationship was one of easy friendship and she could approach him for comforting conversation. Now he had changed the dynamic between with unspoken words and she didn't know what to do. Elliana was unsure what she wanted to do, she just knew she that she missed him.

They arrived in the meeting place in the dark of night, a grove of trees among long abandoned stone ruins that were ominously lit. The leader of the circle approached her, cloaked so she could barely see his face. "Inquisitor, an honor to see you again. I hope we can help you with this matter. I must warn you it will be extremely painful, but we should be able to attach the arm and allow it to work as your one of flesh once did. Infusing the ruins with magic should make it as if it were your own".

Elliana cautiously stepped into the circle as they gathered around her, the obsidian arm attached to her stump with straps hooked on her armor. The mages began chanting and the air became heavy with sense of magic she had felt many times before. It started as a tingling on her stump, then progressed to a burning sensation. The glass arm pressed against her skin had felt initially cool but began to feel more so, to the point of freezing as if it was suddenly made of ice. More burning, then pain and then she was in agony. She cried out, vaguely aware that Cullen had moved forward to break the circle only to be held back by Cassandra. She screamed raising the arm above her head as it was encapsulated with light. And then it went dark. She was left panting on her knees in the middle of the circle. The obsidian arm was alight with glowing runes and which flashed and then extinguished. She raised it, thinking to flex the dark hand, which to her surprise responded. She had spent hours that evening firing arrows and re-honing her targeting skill. Her face alights with joy for the first time in years.

Now as she rounded the next corner of the tunnel, Cullen, Harding and Cassandra close behind, she tightened her obsidian hands grip on her bow. Her keen hunter's sense told her to be prepared. "There is something very large and very unfriendly up ahead.I can feel it " said Elliana to the group.

"Can't imagine anything nastier than that Wyvern living down here. I…." Scout Harding was interrupted by a thick massive tube falling from the cave ceiling knocking her down. The whole party spun in shock looking towards Scout Harding, only to see what looked like a long thick vine that had detached itself from the roof of the cave and ran from several yards behind them to well in front of Elliana. Then it began wriggling and writhing and they knew it was no subterranean vegetative growth. It had a sickly brownish hue and now that Elliana looked closely it appeared to be sticky and slick with some kind of moisture.

"It's alive!" exclaimed Cassandra with a horrified expression as she watched the tail end of the worm type creature swivel around to expose a head that consisted of a circular mouth lined with razor sharp teeth.

Elliana quickly loosened two arrows into the creature, hitting once in the mouth which appeared to pain it greatly, while the other arrow bounced harmlessly off its skin.

"Its skin is armored" yelled Cullen who had swung his great sword in attempt to decapitate the creature.

Elliana heard movement on the other end, whirling around while simultaneously notching another arrow. Isn't that nice she thought. It has two heads. She was met with another vicious set of teeth attached to the length of withering flesh that stretched along the tunnel ahead of her. Using a move she had perfected over the years of adventuring with the Inquisition, she did a back flip and loosened an arrow at the creature. This one was also deflected off its skin. Damn

"Steel isn't hurting it" cried Cassandra. " Blast it! This is why we should have brought a mage!". Unfortunately the mages at the College could not draw attention of the Chantry by joining the now disbanded Inquisition underground efforts and Dorian could not abandon his position as magister. They had no apostate to join them this time, and the lack of a magic welder had been foreseen as problematic.

Elliana knew Cassandra was right, they may be able to dispose of the creature by aiming for its mouth, but a magic would be far more effective. With this thought she felt a sudden pulsing in her left arm. She had been warned about this by the mages at the college. "There is magic left within you from the anchor and…from something else. I cannot say what" the head mage had said. "There may be some advantages to this arm. What they may be I cannot say".

Similar to the rush of power she felt when she had the anchor, Elliana now felt a surge of energy coming down her arm. She focused there, willing to push the energy through her hand and into her bow. The runes inscribed on her arm now blazed alight and she felt the energy move into her weapon. Flame she willed and fired an arrow at the horrific two headed worm. The shot hit the creature with a fiery explosion, destroying it into a sickening unrecognizable mess that landed heavily on the ground.

The other end of the worm opened its mouth in a horrific screech and Cullen's seized the opportunity, driving his sword down the creature's maw, killing it instantly.

"Wow!" said Harding excitedly, "How did you do that?" staring at Elliana's arm which was slowly dimming.

"So that's what the mages meant by unexpected benefits" commented Cassandra.

"I suppose so…" replied Elliana "Let's hope that was the only one of these "she said kicking the worm's corpse.

"Sorry, It wasn't this bad a couple of years ago" said Harding somewhat sullenly.

They continued down the cave's corridor until at last they entered a large cavern. Ah, this is why Harding selected this spot. The tunnel opened up into vast cavern that met with the rushing waters of an underground river. This river was in part fed by an opening at the top of the cavern, in which a waterfall fell cascading down. The walls of the cavern had a number of deep holes and tunnels themselves, likely from when ages ago the river had been fuller and slowly eroded the walls of cave down, creating useful nooks and smaller caverns.

"This has potential" said Cullen admiringly, Harding beamed.

"We could seal off the front entrance with a hidden door easily" began Harding " and build a lift through the waterfall for supplies. We should make sure there is another exit as well… you know…" she said looking pointedly at Elliana's arm " in case of fires".

"Barring a major insect infestation, I think we have found our new home" said Cassandra marveling at the structure of the cavern.

Yes. Thought Elliana, our new home for how long?

The small group made quick order of any nesting creatures that remained in the cavern. It was found that the river led out into a valley on the other side of the small mountain in which contained the cave itself. The valley would be accessible by boats that could be ridden along the river in case of escape of alternative exit. Scout Harding left the next day to report to Lilliana and begin summoning the others. Cassandra, Cullen and Elliana spent the next several days exploring the cavern and beginning the preparations to make it somewhat livable. Cullen was polite, helpful and courteous as always. But he would still not meet Elliana's eyes.

"You must talk with him" encouraged Cassandra obviously not unaware of the tension between the two.

Elliana sighed " I hardly know what to say".

"Say what's in your heart" said Cassandra, her eyes gleaming with emotion, once again exposing her romantic inclinations.

Over the next few days their comrades began arriving, some with accompanied with familiar faces as well as new ones.

Iron Bull arrived with his chargers and half a dozen new recruits which he lovingly referred to as charglings. Maryden was also with them, staying in close proximity to Krem. Iron Bull exclaimed loudly upon seeing Elliana " I see you have gotten yourself a new arm aya boss! Wonder how you wrestle with that thing, we shall have to see!" nearly knocking her over with a slap on the back.

He was followed in short order with Varric who had escaped his duties as Viscount under the guise of a much needed vacation to work on his new book, he said this with a very deliberate wink.

Elliana was pleased to see Blackwall arrive, who had brought several rather rough looking fellows, men he had freed from the darkest dungeons. Blackwall's companions spent the better part of twenty minutes bowing to her and thanking her for the opportunity, stating they weren't worthy. " Great. It's like having five more Blackwall's around" muttered Varric.

Finally Sera arrived, though she decided to make her entrance riding down the waterfall, laughing hysterically as she plunged into the river. " Again!". This vexed Lilianna greatly as no one had been told there was an opening to the cave through the waterfall. Taking the more conventional route, Dagna emerged from the tunnel entrance obviously having had traveled with Sera.

When everyone had finally come, made introductions and generally enjoyed the reunion, the group gathered in the vaulted chamber at the make shift table Cullen had constructed in their days waiting.

"You all know why we are here" started Elliana "what we know is that Solas is the Dread Wolf, he has been amassing an elven force and he means to tear down the veil and destroy this world to restore the ancient world of the elves. That's putting it simply".

"We mean to stop him, hopefully by making him see reason" interjected Lilianna " but as we learned with the Inquisition, his reach has grown far and he is familiar with our innermost functioning's. We can no longer operate in the open".

"So we are amassing a secret society to stop the Dread Wolf" said Varric " got it".

"This will be our base of operations and a number of you have begun recruiting discreetly already, but we need a way of communicating that will not be detected by the agents of Fen'harel" continued Lilianna.

"And this is where I come in" said Varric stepping forward "as you know I am a popular writer all over Thedas. Lilliana and I have come up with a way in which to pass information within my books that will only be readable to those who have cypher to decode it".

The two of them continued to explain that within the texts of Varric's novels and short stories, which he published at an alarming rate, he would communicate major notes to members of the organization and each of them would be required to memorize the code to decipher it.

"What's more, we can use songs written by Maryden" the bard at Krem's side smiled in acknowledgement "to relay messages, rendezvous whatever we need" said Lilianna. "We can essentially communicate all across the land without Solas knowing. Our intel will be right in front of everyone, where he will never look".

"Not unlike the tongue of slaves they use in Tavinter" said Iron Bull " they use secret markings to communicate with one another.

"In fact, it was Dorian that gave me the very idea" replied Varric "using symbols would be useful as well, especially for letting new recruits know where this place or other meeting places".

"Right" interrupted Sera " as the leading authority here on secret whatchmacallems, I would just like to say that it's all well and good to come up with these notes and what have you, but you need to be called something. Or nobody is going to know what you're all about. Like Red Jenny. She's red because…well blood and Jenny. Because you know. There was some girl named Jenny".

"So what you're saying" said Cullen "is that we need a name. A name that will mean something".

"Exactly! But nothing super obvious. Can't call us the 'Inquisition against Solas'. Has to be something that means something to people who are willing to fight for us, but don't give us away to them elfy sonafabithches".

The group contemplated this, nodding in agreement and waiting for the eccentric elf to room went silent, all eyes upon Sera. She sat legs dangling of the table seemingly unaware that everyone was waiting for her go on. She casually began picking at her teeth before she became aware of the expectant eyes upon her.

"What?! Come up with your own friggin name! I can't do all the work".

This led to a flood of suggestions from the room, those including The Hunters of the Dread Wolf, Andraste's Scorn and The Iron Dragons. "Too obvious Bull" said Varric.

Cullen suddenly stepped in close to Elliana placing his hand upon her obsidian one, she jolted surprised at the contact ,but he held firmly to her hand. "The Order of the Glass Hand" he whispered.

"Yes, that's perfect" exclaimed Sera. "And look here's your symbol!" she knocked over a nearby bottle of ink spilling the contents on the table, grabbed Elliana's hand placing it into the ink and then slamming it against the cavern wall, creating a black handprint.

"Looks like you're in it again boss" said Iron Bull on Elliana's right side.

Fuck was all Elliana could think.

Later that night after details of the Order's infrastructure and planning had finished, Elliana returned to her quarters. After several hours of pouring over a copy of "Elven Legends and Myths: A scholars review" and finding nothing of note, Elliana decided to walk by the river in the main cavern. The moonlight streamed through the waterfall opening, alighting the cavern allowing her to see where she was going.

She was postponing sleep she knew. It was the dreams that prevented her from seeking slumber. They had been vague and difficult to remember at first. But every night since her last meeting with Solas in the Eluvian they had grown clearer and clearer. They always started the same, she was in a dense forest, bow in hand, a quiver full of arrows on her back. She was hunting, running through the woods, but unsure what exactly she was seeking. And then she would see him, the great dark wolf in the distance. Staring at her with all too knowing eyes. Eyes that portrayed beyond a lifetime of grief, sadness and longing. She would try to call out to him , frantically to reach him. But he always turned away and she would follow rushing through the dense brush of the fade. Using all her speed and skill to catch up to him, sobs catching in her throat.

She never reached him and every time she woke up it was like she back in the Eluvian again, her hand disintegrating in front of her and her lover walking away from her.

I will never forget you…

She did not want chase him tonight, not when the evening had brought so much hope and yes, joy of seeing her old friends again. She approached the river leaning against the natural wall of stone that arose from the bank. Phosphorescent mushrooms glowed with the moonlight around cavern and the sound of the rushing water was almost hypnotic. She had the same feeling of anticipation, fear and hope she had had in the first days of the Inquisition at Haven. When they were no more than a rag tag group of a couple solders and she had no idea what she was doing. She still doesn't.

She was lost in this thought when she heard the soft male voice behind her.

"Trouble sleeping?"

Elliana turned to see Cullen approaching, out of his usual armor and wearing a simple tunic and breeches.

"Yes, I …I have dreams. They allow me little sleep".

"I know what that's like, believe me" he said joining her on the stone outcrop, leaning his elbows beside her.

"You did well today" he said gently.

"I think we all did"

"Yes. I uh….I have been meaning to talk to you" Cullen started awkwardly.

Elliana felt her heart jump in her throat " And I you".

"Let me go first" said Cullen " I should not have judged you for wanting to redeem Solas. His intentions are not evil. He thought he was doing something just and right all those ages ago. And then he awoke to the world as he knew it completely destroyed, his people oppressed and laid low. I can only imagine the grief and responsibility he feels. I think…well I think even if you did not love him…if he was one of us. That is if he was just your friend, you would still try to change his mind".

Elliana reflected on this and could not deny that were it Iron Bull, Dorian or one the many people she held dear, those people who she knew were inherently good, she would fight for their salvation too.

"The fact that you love him" continued Cullen "Just makes it that much harder for you to see him go on this path. You are a better person than I. You see the redeemable in the unredeemable. I mean look at Blackwall. Look at the Gray Wardens. Look at me" referring to his disclosure about the Feralden circle. "You see hope, where others are quick to condemn".

She looked up at him, gently smiling. How does he do this? Take what feels like the most impossible decisions she has had to make and make them seem like she made the right one.

"Thank you Cullen, I don't know if I deserve it, but thank you".

"You do and so much more" replied Cullen. " I just…I just believe you deserve a man who would burn the world down to be at your side. Not a man who leaves you because he must destroy the world".

The simple honestly of his statement and the ease of his manner put Elliana off guard. Falling back into the easy flirtatious rapport they had always had, she said without thinking "Have anyone in mind?" a playful smirk on her face.

"Yes".

As soon as the words left her mouth, she knew it was unfair to say them, but before she could respond, his arms were around her pulling her in close to his body. His mouth was on hers, soft but firm and demanding at the same time. She gasped in surprise, but then even more surprising, she melted into him. Her mouth opened to his in response, her body folded into his much larger one. He smelled of leather and rich oil. And of human male, a musky sweet smell that made her dizzy in the most delicious way.

She stayed there locked in his arms, breathless with his powerful kiss. A feeling of longing which had long been repressed by grief began to emerge within her. It was as if her heart had been frozen in sadness and his kiss had cracked it open, spilling open a flood of emotions she had denied were there.

He slowly pulled away from her, drawing his hands slowly across her abdomen, each move electricity against her skin. Slowly his hands drew away from her waist and he stepped back looking at her. His eyes were gentle, but firm and true.

"When you are ready, I'll be here for you. I am always here for you" He said softly. "My lady" he bowed and walked away, leaving Elliana to raise a trembling hand to her mouth which was still burning from his kiss.

Walking on unsteady legs she returned to her makeshift quarters and settled into bed. Sleep finally found her after hours of fitfully turning, thinking of that kiss and still sensing the places his hands had firmly grasped her. Finally she drifted to sleep, but in her dreams the wolf waited and her hunt began and ended as it always did.