"So, I heard you were setting up house in here," Herah laughed as she surveyed the scene in front of her, "But I still didn't quite expect this."

Sera's room at the tavern had been transformed, the once-plain wooden walls now covered with a colorful array of tapestries and carpets, scraps of fabric and a variety of seemingly random objects scattered all over the floor and furniture.

"Yeah, pretty great, right," the elf declared, grinning as she admired her handiwork. "Why, somebody complain? That why you're here?"

"No, I just wanted to make sure you were settling in okay," she explained. "You know I can have Josephine find you a room in the castle if your prefer?"

Sera snorted. "Piss on that. Don't like castles. Full of poncy jerk-offs that think they're better than everybody else, locking themselves up nice and safe while the regular people get killed by bandits or Darkspawn or whatever other shit comes along."

The qunari tilted her head, giving Sera a wry smile. "You know I'm one of those people who lives in a castle, right?"

"I'm still trying to decide about you, yeah? But you're not normal castle people anyway." Herah shook her head in agreement, and Sera asked, "You like that, being the big, powerful Inquisitor, lording it up over all those nobles that used to look down on you?"

"Not really," the alleged Herald of Andraste admitted. "Most of the time, it's more weird than satisfying. The truth is, I still enjoy places like this better. Somewhere to have a few drinks, take in the music, maybe a find pretty girl to talk to…"

She shot a grin at Sera, pleased when the elf gave her one in return. Herah had always been a flirt, but since taking up the mantle of the Inquisitor, she'd become a little uneasy about her interactions with the people now under her command. She didn't want anyone to feel like they had to please her because of her rank, especially since she knew that not every woman was going to be interested in a female qunari. Sera, though, she could tell was different. The elf wasn't the sort of person who felt the need to please anyone, no matter how important. It was refreshing, and, Herah had discovered, more than a little attractive.

"Pretty girl, huh?", Sera asked. "Plenty of those 'round here. One of the nice things about this whole Inquisition bit."

"True enough. Of course," she added, the grin remaining on her face, "Some of them are more interesting than others."

"Think I'm interesting?" Sera flopped back on a pile of her pillows and things, kicking up her legs as she asked her rather direct question. They were quite nice legs, Herah thought, lithe like those of most elves, but also well-toned from her athletic lifestyle.

"Definitely," the qunari agreed, finding her own seat amid the clutter. "Actually, pretty girls aside, I find myself wondering if you aren't a little too interesting for a stuffy outfit like the Inquisition. I mean, we've got plenty of rules, and lords, and other stuff you don't seem to like very much."

"Eh, you might be pricks, but your not the worst of them," Sera offered. "I mean, yeah, there's some sticks up bums and all that, but you save people and that's something. More than you can say for most people with castles, anyway. Sides, this Corypheus seems like the biggest fucker out there. All, 'I'm some giant Tevinter god monster arsehole and you all need to bend over and kiss it.' Well, fuck him," she declared. "Arrow in the throat sounds good for that sort and you're the ones trying to give it to him."

Herah smiled. She'd noticed the angrier Sera got, the more she swore, and Corypheus definitely seemed to bring it out in her. "Works for me," the qunari agreed, before noting, "But that's a ways off, I suspect. Meanwhile, why don't we go find a drink? After all, I've already got the pretty girl to join me."

From across the crowded main floor of Herald's Rest, Leliana watched with interest as Herah and Sera tipped back their mugs of ale, laughing together at some joke the former bard couldn't hear. Her own drinking companion was observing them too, her serious expression marking her as out of place amidst the tavern's revelry.

"What do you think of that?", Cassandra asked her. "The Inquisitor and this Sera."

"She is smiling," the spymaster told her friend, "More than I have seen her do in some time."

"Should her happiness really be our primary concern?" Leliana shot Cassandra a sideways look and the Seeker corrected herself. "The question was harsher than I intended. I only mean that there is a great deal riding on the Inquisitor right now, and I worry that this infatuation may cause her to lose focus."

Leliana took a sip of her wine as she weighted Cassandra's words. The Ferelden vintage wasn't especially good, too sweet for her cultivated pallet, but it held a special place in her heart all the same. Alistair had discovered a case of it in the wreckage of a caravan the Darkspawn had attacked and the group had stayed up half that night, drinking and singing, the wine and their camaraderie taking them far away from the Blight if only for a little while.

She and Nissa were still new to their relationship then, and even sly glances and stolen touches had been enough to thrill them, building anticipation for the moment when they retired to the Warden's tent to make love until nearly dawn. Leliana had been to many exotic places and done many glamorous things, but she still thought that those simple nights in camp might have been the best of her life.

They had also helped get Nissa through the terrible task fate had appointed to her, and that, she realized, was what the Seeker did not quite understand. "It is because of what she carries that she needs to smile," Leliana explained. "Without life's little joys, it's sorrows can crush us."

"I manage to get by without such romantic frivolities," Cassandra insisted. "My faith and my duty are enough."

"It is not the same. To be the one person on whom everyone else relies, who is expected to save the world when no other can, is a harder thing by far then even what we do."

"I suppose you would know better than I," the Seeker conceded.

"Of course, that doesn't mean you couldn't use a little more fun in your life as well," Leliana teased. "At the very least, you should let me take you shopping in Vas Royeaux the next time we are there. Truly, there are no finer shoe shops in all of Thedas."

"Shoe shops? In the midst of all of this?" Cassandra shook her head, polishing off her own wine and pulling out a few coins to pay for their drinks. "Even if Varric were to put that in the book he will no doubt write about all of this, the world would never believe the truth about the fearsome Sister Leliana."

"And that," the spymaster agreed with a satisfied smirk, "Is why my secret remains safe with you."