Maxwell went to find his sister, who hadn't been present at the ceremony this morning. They had actually named him the Inquisitor, and he wasn't sure what to feel about it. It also wasn't like his sister to sleep in, once there was any light present in the room she was immediately awoken, and by now it was about mid-day.
So Max went to her quarters, but before he entered he heard something being dropped on the floor and Evelyn cursing.
Max knocked on the door and Evelyn called, "Come in!"
Max opened the door to see Evelyn trying to put on her clothes, she was wearing black trousers and a silver tunic, and she had been trying to put on her light armour.
"Need help?" He asked.
Evelyn sighed, "Yeah."
Max helped her tie all the straps and then he sat next to her on her bed, "We haven't really spoken about what happened..."
"I know, but... I don't really feel like we need to review what happened." Evelyn said.
"Listen, what happened to you in Redcliffe, don't you want to talk about it?" Max asked.
"No, not really," Evelyn said.
Max looked at his sister with concern, "Evie..." He said, trailing off, noticing her hands were shaking.
Evelyn stood and left the room, Max stood and followed her at a distance, wanting to see how she was getting on here.
Cullen was having his typical nightmare, he was standing in the middle of the battlefield that was Kirkwall, and in front of him was Eve. She had a barrier up around her, and she was backing up slowly.
"Cullen please..." She said to him desperately. He ignored her, and swung his sword at her, her shield cracked. He did it again, and again and again until her shield was gone. She continued to walk backwards slowly, fear showing clearly on her face, she tripped. She fell onto her back but quickly sat up to look at Cullen. He raised his sword one last time for the killing blow, she shut her eyes and said, "Cullen..." One last time.
In real life, Cullen had dropped the sword, but in Cullen's nightmares he followed through. Killing her, and then only after realizing it.
He awoke with a start, the light was just starting to stream through the windows. He got up and rubbed his face, "Come on Cullen." He said quietly, "This is starting to get pathetic."
He quickly got dressed and went to observe the troops, it was during that time that Leliana came and started up a strange conversation.
"Leliana." Cullen greeted kindly.
"Commander Cullen, I see the troops have not been given much time to rest, perhaps you should give them this day to revel in our victory?" She suggested.
Cullen nodded, "Alright, that's enough for today!" Cullen shouted. There was a whooping cry of excitement before they dispersed. Cullen turned to Leliana and said, "Is there something you wanted?"
"Yes, but perhaps in a more private setting," Leliana said, and started walking towards her tower, which she had claimed when they had first arrived at Skyhold.
When they reached the very top of the tower Leliana turned to him and said, "How are you Commander, you look tired."
"I assure you, I'm fine," Cullen replied, starting to think that Cassandra had put Leliana up to this.
"Good," Leliana said sitting in a chair and motioning for Cullen to do the same. He sat and Leliana continued. "I have heard some rumours, some whispers."
"About what? Corypheus?" Cullen asked, leaning forward in his chair.
"No Commander, I'm afraid it's about something far more trivial, but important nonetheless." Leliana said and paused, "You knew Evelyn when you were Captain of the Kirkwall circle correct?"
"Yes... I did." Cullen said, not really certain where this was heading.
"And did you know who she was?" Leliana asked.
"No, I never knew her last name," Cullen said, which was true, not that he had never asked, but she always refused to tell him.
"Interesting..." Leliana said and he looked at him closely, "Why did you have her necklace? When we were running from Haven."
Cullen looked at her with slight surprise, "I... well... I gave it to her years ago, but I don't know why she-"
"Gave it back." Leliana finished and was in deep thought, "So you two were..." Cullen swallowed nervously, and nodded. "And I assume Maxwell does not know about this... relationship."
"No, he doesn't," Cullen said.
"Good," Leliana said quickly.
"Good?" Cullen asked.
"Yes, quite." Leliana replied, "Maxwell has enough on his mind."
Cullen nodded in agreement, Maxwell was always very stressed about his responsibilities.
After slightly awkward chatting, Cullen left Leliana's tower and was walking towards his office when he quite literally ran into Evelyn.
"Oh! Sorry, I didn't see you!" Evelyn said.
"No, uh, my fault, I wasn't looking," Cullen said and rubbed his neck.
Evelyn looked at Cullen inquisitively, "Are you alright?" She asked, "You look tired."
"Tired is all it is I'm afraid." Cullen said, "And what about you, is everything healed?"
"Yeah mostly," Evelyn replied.
"Good, uh that's good. I'm glad." Cullen said awkwardly.
Evelyn laughed quietly, "Me too."
They looked at each other for a moment before Cullen said, "Well, I have a lot of paperwork to do."
"Oh me too." Evelyn said, "I-well, no not paperwork, just work." She wanted to facepalm, "I'll see you around Cullen."
"You too." He responded, which was not what he meant to say. They turned and went their separate ways, little did they know that they both were thinking the same thing, 'why did you say that you idiot?'
Max had been following Evelyn around all day, and minus that strange encounter with Cullen, there was nothing of interest to note. That was until she went to what was known as the prayer room. It had a statue of Andraste and candles and flowers and all that sort of stuff. The thing that interested Max was that Evelyn was not religious. Even when she was a small child he can still remember her arguing with chantry mothers and consequentially getting yelled at by their real mother.
He quietly and carefully approached the semi-closed door and saw that she was kneeling in front of the statue, and he could just hear what she was saying.
"I don't know why I'm here, I don't even believe in you or your weird wife, but..." Evelyn paused and Max had to stop himself from chuckling. "People are saying that Andraste sent my brother through the fade to save the world, and you know what I believe it. He does things that I could never do, he stays and fights when I would give up and run."
Max wanted to intervene and tell her the truth, that he wanted to run every day, that he wasn't brave, or heroic, but he wanted to see where she would go with this. "Is this your way of telling me I should run?" She asked, "I've run from Max, from my family and my past. And I've run from Cullen, from Kirkwall. Are you trying to tell me something by putting everything back in my path?"
Max was just about to intervene when someone else did, "Evelyn, what have I said about self-pity?" Dorian spoke, it startled Max slightly, he must have come through a different door.
"That it's unbecoming. You sound like my mother by the way." Evelyn said.
There was a brief moment of silence before Dorian spoke again, "You know, you and Felix are my only true friends." He said, "I had hoped you felt the same way."
"I do, Dorian, you're my only friend," Evelyn said with confusion.
"So you would just run away and leave me behind to handle all this?" Dorian said, and Max could almost feel his hand gestures.
"You know I don't mean it, I just..." Evelyn sighed and trailed off.
"I know, I know." Dorian said, "I will give you credit, there are so many ghosts here for you aren't there?" Dorian asked rhetorically, "So many people who you loved that have hurt you."
"So many?" Evelyn asked, "I can only think of one." She was thinking of Cullen, not that Max knew that.
"I can think of two," Dorian said.
They sat in silence for a moment before Evelyn said, "Maybe you're right."
"I'm always right. Getting my wisdom is just a bonus for you." Dorian said humorously and Evelyn laughed.
"Thanks Dorian, I know what I need to do now," Evelyn said.
"Well don't say it like that! If I find out one day that Maxwell and Cullen have been murdered in their sleep I'm turning you in right away." Dorian said and Max was quite shocked.
"Wow, thanks best friend," Evelyn said sarcastically.
"Well, it seems you have some work to do," Dorian said.
"Yeah... great," Evelyn said.
Max heard Dorian get up and he quickly scuttled away so that his snooping would not be discovered.
He sat on a bench in the courtyard and thought about what he had just heard, Evelyn thought that himself and Cullen had hurt her? But also that Cullen had loved her? Now he was very confused. Was she the mage that he had fell in love with in Kirkwall? Then why hadn't either of them said anything about it? 'Well, that was a stupid question.' He thought, of course, she hadn't said anything, and why would Cullen have? But could that really be what had happened? Max was still doubtful.
The item that was really weighing on his mind was that she had said he had hurt her. How? He honestly didn't know. No specific event came to mind, nothing he could think of.
His thoughts were cut off when Cullen approached him, "Up for a game?" He asked the usual half smile half grin on his face.
"You're on Commander," Max said, faking the camaraderie, and trying to not show the confusion and slight anger at Cullen.
They were about halfway through the game when Evelyn showed up.
"Oh! Evie, I wanted to talk to you later." Max said as she approached.
"No need, I believe this game is mine," Cullen said smugly as he moved his piece into the winning position. He stood and nodded slightly to Evelyn as she walked towards Max.
"What did you want to talk about?" Evelyn asked him as she sat down where Cullen previously was.
"Did you know Cullen in Kirkwall?" Max asked.
"Of course I knew him Max, he was the second in command of the whole circle," Evelyn said.
"I know that Evelyn, I just... did he ever...?" Max trailed off, not really knowing how to say what he was trying to ask.
"I..." Evelyn started, not exactly sure what he was getting at, "Are you asking me if Cullen ever... hurt me?" She asked hesitantly.
"Yes, I am," Max said slightly awkwardly.
Evelyn stared at Max for several seconds with an unreadable expression on her face, internally she was deciding whether or not to tell Max the truth, and in the end, she decided against it, "No, never." She gave him a small smile to reassure him before saying, "Come take a walk with me."
Evelyn lead Max to the battlements where they walked in silence for a while before Evelyn turned to Max, "Why did you think I hated the Chantry so much as a kid?" She asked suddenly.
Max took a moment to think before responding, "I guess I just thought that you didn't believe, that you thought the whole thing was stupid."
"You never thought to ask did you?" Evelyn asked him.
Max looked down in shame, "No, I would have never guessed, never in my entire life."
Evelyn was silent for a moment before saying, "You know, I tried to tell you once."
Max looked at her, slightly shocked, "When?"
"Just after you started training for the Templar's, I came up to you and I said, 'Max I have something I need to tell you, it's important' and you said 'not now Evie, I'm training to kill mages'."
There was silence as Evelyn looked out at the setting sun, and it was only when she looked over at Max that she saw the impact of her words. Max's forearms were resting on the battlements with his head on top of them, he was hunched over and his shoulders were shaking silently.
"Max..." Evelyn said, not sure what to do, she had never really seen him cry before, "Max I'm sorry, I didn't mean to-"
"Don't. Don't be sorry Evie." Max said, turning his head so that he could see her face, "I'm so sorry Evelyn. I should have been there for you, no matter what. And I just-"
"You couldn't have known Max, no one could have. There's never been a mage in our family before," Evelyn said calmingly, "Both of us have changed since then."
"Yeah, and whose fault is that?" Max asked, full of self-loathing.
"Mom's probably," Evelyn said and smiled at him.
Max couldn't contain the chuckle that came, "You're probably right." Max stood up straight and he towered over her once again, he reached out to her face and brushed the lightening-like scars with his thumb, "I keep having nightmares where I watch him kill you over and over again."
Evelyn looked and him and grabbed his hand, "I'm right here, I'm alive."
