Alysia rushed back to her room without looking back at the Commander, blushing intensely at whatever it was that overcame her to act like a seductress. She shook her head in embarrassment while blaming it on the cold, largely at her stupid idea of falling asleep on the snow. She crouched by the bush near her cabin, double-checking if the crowd from this morning had dispersed. Much to her happiness no one was standing around; she sprinted to her room and shut the door behind her. Alysia quickly sat on the floor and faced herself towards the fire, letting its warmth lull her shivering body. As she was about to place her hands over the fire, she heard someone knock on her door. Alysia rolled her eyes at it and announced for whomever it is to come in.
It was the elf from this morning; she came to tell her that Lady Cassandra was looking for her in the War Room. As Alysia nodded, the elf saw her rubbing her hands together from the corner of her eyes while shivering. She paused for a second, as if to say something, then stopped. She looked at Alysia again, whose face was now peaceful at being basked by the fire's warmth.
She's just like us, the elf thought.
"Are you going to just stand there watching me, or would you like to sit down with me and catch your breath? I'm sure Cassandra has been working you hard enough," Alysia said while beckoning the elf to sit next to her on the floor.
The elf hesitated for a moment and then agreed. She propped herself next to Alysia in silence. A few moments passed and Alysia spoke again.
"So… um, what was your name again?"
"Oh, it's Rhoswen, Herald," she said, surprised by the Herald's friendliness.
Alysia smiled and spoke again, "Rhoswen, what a beautiful name," she said, beaming at the elf.
"Oh… I would appreciate if you stopped calling me Herald, please? We are friends now after all?" Alysia paused, studying Rhoswen's face. "Call me Aly instead?"
The elf's eyes grew wide, panic taking over her.
"But… I couldn't! Andraste herself sent you. You are the Herald of Andraste—",
Alysia interrupted her and tried to reason with Rhoswen.
"Listen, I'm sure everyone believes that. But I'm just me… just Alysia. So please, treat me as one of you?" Alysia said, her eyes growing warm.
The elf frowned for a minute then nodded her head slowly, agreeing.
"Great! Now that that's settled, I should probably see Cassandra now. Thanks for spending some time with me, Rhoswen," Alysia said, while getting off the floor.
"The pleasure is all mine, Her—" she stopped when she saw Alysia smirking at her, "…Alysia."
"Not quite but that's a good start," Alysia said, chuckling.
Surprised by Alysia's sudden warmness towards her, Rhoswen hastily got off the floor, but before leaving the room she bowed at Alysia, who nodded.
"Guess she's still afraid of me," Alysia said loudly to herself.
Alysia heard muffled conversations behind the door and contemplated if she should interrupt whatever conversation it was that was going on. She shuffled back and forth until she heard someone loudly say her title. She twitched internally. She inched her ear closer to the door, trying desperately to catch what was being said about her.
"How could you declare the Inquisition reborn? The fighting will grow worse now and we barely have enough troops to defend Haven as it is," a deep voice spoke.
"Commander?" Alysia speculated.
The voice continued, "And your Herald seems unfit for her duty. How could you involve someone we barely even know into this mess?"
"It had to be done," Cassandra said "We could not locate the Champion of Kirkwall neither could we find the Hero of Fereldan, she is our only option of fixing this."
"Her presence is to our advantage," Leliana agreed.
"The Herald has helped with morale, especially after closing the rift," Ambassador Montilyet chimed.
"—Why are you encouraging this, Ambassador?" he asked, exasperated.
Cassandra shook her head, a smile forming on her lips "You have yet to meet her, Commander. Don't be so quick to judge."
" I have met her briefly. And I don't think that—"
Alysia unceremoniously announced her presence, by kicking the door open. She tilted her head sideways and examined the room. Her eyes locked gravely on to the Commander's and she saw him shift uncomfortably under her gaze.
He thinks I'm unfit, she said to herself, half-smiling, mostly smirking.
As if he understood her expression, Cullen turned his face away from her, to hide his annoyance.
Cassandra ushered Alysia into the room. "May I introduce you to the Lady Alysia Trevelyan, of the Free Marches, but recently, the Herald of Andraste."
Cullen grunted to himself. Perfect, he thought. She's a noble.
Alysia glared at Cassandra when she heard her call her the Herald. A look of distaste appearing on her face.
"…About that Cassandra, can we please stop calling me that? Herald, I mean."
Cassandra stared at Alysia and then at everyone else, as if she had said something terrible like drinking darkspawn blood for fun. Cassandra cleared her throat, ignoring Alysia's request entirely. She did a round of introductions, re-introducing Leliana and Josephine to Alysia. She then introduced Cullen to her, Alysia smiled at him warmly, or rather feigned warmness at him, he paused at her smile, and bowed curtly.
She's the Herald, be nice, Cullen reminded himself.
Soon after introductions were made, the unpleasantry of the war room activities began. Fights erupted from all sides, neither of them agreed on who they should side with to seal the Breach. Cullen was apprehensive about siding with the Mages, reasoning that a swirling hole in the sky needn't anymore magic being thrown at it. But Leliana and Cassandra were dead set on getting the mages, believing the Templars would do more harm to the Breach than any good.
Alysia sighed loudly, growing bored at their argument. She then felt everyone's glance fall upon her, realizing that she was the tiebreaker in this situation.
"Okay… Hold on. You want me to decide?" Alysia asked, drawing in a sharp intake of breath.
"You are the Herald," Josephine said.
Alysia brows furrowed, "I'm not the—fine. Let's just say we pick the Templars," she said while looking at Cullen briefly, "or the mages," now looking at Leliana and Cassandra. "… We still don't have enough resources to get to either of them nor do we have the people who could brave the journey. I, the Herald would not risk their lives at our ill-prepared state."
The three of them gaped at her, shocked at her use of title, even if there was a hint of sarcasm in her voice.
"—Neither do we enough influence to get either rebel factions to join us," Josephine said into the awkward silence. "Acquiring Mother Giselle as our ally is our top priority before choosing any other allies. We can find her near Redcliffe. If we have her, everything else should fall into place."
"But Josephine, we can't just waltz into the Hinterlands without any weapons or men," Alysia said, frowning.
She placed two fingers onto the map of Haven and began tracing invisible lines on it.
"Look, we can't ask Harritt to make us anymore weapons, he is already elbows deep with requisitions from Threnn, and he has had barely any time to sleep. We also can't risk the lives of our men who are still healing; Adan does not have enough manpower or supplies to heal anymore injured people. All we need to figure out is getting a steady supply of food into Haven, if we have any hunters willing to go out to wild to secure some meat from rams and druffalo, we should be good for a while. All that's left is to secure a safe trade route, so we can get other supplies that are beyond our reach."
She looked up from the map and saw the four of them staring at her. She shifted nervously under their gaze, "It's just a thought."
The four of them exchanged looks amongst each other, nodding their heads.
Leliana spoke into the awkward silence, "So… where do we start?"
"Before we start this… plan. Promise me that you will leave to the Hinterlands to see Mother Giselle as soon as it is done," Cassandra said.
"Sorry? You want me to go? I don't think that's a good idea," Alysia said, almost yelling.
"Now now Herald, she did ask for you specifically," Cassandra said while ushering her out the door.
Alysia gripped the side of the door with her right arm, almost leaving nail marks.
"You wouldn't!" Alysia gasped to which Cassandra nodded terrifyingly.
"You're worse than Seggrit! And he's the biggest nug-humper I have ever seen in my life," Alysia said while trying to force her legs to stay in place.
Cassandra pushed her out of the room harder and Alysia fell onto the floor, bum first. She glared up at the Seeker who looked unapologetic.
"By the tits of my ancestors! Fine. I will go. But in turn you all will stop calling me Herald when we are in private," she said, while pointing at each of them.
Alysia got off the floor and patted the dust off herself, "Now, good day to all of you," she said as she slammed the door closed.
Cullen shook his head at her, while trying to muffle his laugh, "Where did she learn to swear like a dwarf?"
"Varric… no doubt," Cassandra said bitterly