Epilogue: Two Queens of Ferelden
They stood face-to-face, in a bare and musty room at the top of a tower, for the first time: the two queens of Ferelden.
"I wanted you to have these," Elissa said. "They were Cailan's."
Anora, visibly stunned, took the bundle of papers into her hands. She leafed slowly through them, utterly speechless for the first time since Elissa had known her.
"There were also some other things from your rooms, furnishings and books, that I thought you'd want. The workmen will be bringing them up over the next few days."
"Why are you doing this?" Anora asked. "Why now? I had thought to be executed by this point."
"Is it so hard to believe that I of all people would be wary of the precedent set by your execution?"
"So it's all self-preservation, then?"
Elissa shrugged. "I'd just as soon not remind the people of the civil war if I don't have to. But mostly it's self-preservation, yes."
"Yes but why are you here? You didn't have to bring these yourself."
"You think I should have entrusted them to a servant?" Elissa asked with an arched eyebrow.
"You could have sent Eamon, or that elven fellow who follows you about like a smitten puppy. Why bring them yourself?"
Elissa considered this for a moment, before startling Anora by saying, "Eamon wants me to execute Delilah Howe."
"….And me," Anora surmised.
"And you," was the casual reply. Elissa walked over to the tiny slit of a window and gazed out over the bleak tower yard.
"We played together as children," she sighed, "and Eamon would have me see her hanged,"
"Why are you telling me this?" Anora asked.
"I suppose I was curious as to what you would do."
"I would do what was best for Ferelden, Your Highness," Anora sneered.
If Elissa took note of Anora's tone, she pretended not to. "And what if it isn't best for Ferelden? What if it's just best for me?"
"You don't think those are the same thing?"
"No, I don't," was Elissa's matter-of-fact reply. "Have you ever been to Orzammar?" she continued.
"No," Anora replied, still unsure of what to make of the situation. "Cailan went once with his father. When he came back, all he could talk about was the Proving. He called it 'glorious.'"
This brought a brief smile to Elissa's lips. "It's a beautiful place, and terrible. Everything is supposedly about honor and loyalty, but it ends up being about status and vengeance. People poisoning their own relatives; brothers framing each other for patricide; casteless concubines jockeying for position; that is not what I want for Ferelden.
"Then don't do it!" Anora snapped. "You're the queen! Buck up and make a decision!"
For once, Anora feared she had gone too far. Her life, after all, was essentially in this woman's hands. But Elissa merely furrowed her brow and pursed her lips in thought.
"I should go," she said, seemingly resolved on something, "the King is waiting for me."
She was at the door when Anora's voice startled her.
"Elissa!"
She turned abruptly to face Anora, more out of surprise than anything else, but Anora mistook it for ire.
"Your Highness," Anora corrected herself, with a visible effort. "do not make an enemy of Eamon."
Elissa waited for more, but Anora merely held her head high, letting the new queen take in this admonition. Slowly, almost imperceptibly, Elissa nodded her head in acknowledgement. A beat of understanding, not the first, and certainly not the last, passed between the two queens of Ferelden.