The Revered Mother had come to lunch. An informal visit; she left all of her entourage outside Sebastian's suite, save for Sister Maura and Knight-Captain Thomas, whom she had taken a great liking to. She had decided to make Thomas the commander of her own guard, she informed Sebastian, her previous Knight-Commander having been forcibly retired and sent off to one of the retreats for senior Templars in Orlais by Odile in the woman's brief tenure here. He had been years yet from actually needing to retire, but Glynis very much doubted she'd be able to pry him back from the Orlesian chantry, much to her regret.
"As soon as I hear back from Knight-Commander Lawrence that he is willing to release Thomas from his service to mine, it shall be done," she explained to Sebastian, then smiled at Thomas, who was looking a little flustered at finding himself dining in Sebastian's private apartment with the Prince and the Revered Mother, and his future discussed so easily. "Do not blush so, young man. You did very well for me over the last few days; such service deserves reward."
"Perhaps, but it is still a very sudden change for me; I was a mere Knight-Corporal before the fall of Ansburg, and made a Knight-Lieutenant on the journey here. It was only because there was already a Knight-Lieutenant among the Templars in the Scriptorium, and Knight-Commander Lawrence wished the seniority between us kept clear, that I was raised to Captain. I cannot help but feel that there must be more senior Templars who would be better suited for the position. Especially among those who have been serving you here in Starkhaven for some time," he pointed out.
"Mmm, possibly true, but there are other reasons for me to wish a young man in the position," she said, and paused to sip from her tea. "The older a templar is, the more likely he is to be heavily addicted to lyrium. I have little doubt that one of the first steps the Orlesian chantry will take to try to bring rebellious branches of the church into line will be to cut off their supply of lyrium. I fear many of my senior templars will be left with little choice; they will either have to return Orlais and submit themselves to control of the chantry there, or go through withdrawal, and its high risk of madness. You, on the other hand, are young enough that you can likely discontinue lyrium usage with few ill effects."
Thomas nodded soberly. "I have in fact already done so. Knight-Commander Lawrence has encouraged all of us who can to diminish or end our usage of the substance. It was... difficult, at first, and there are still times when I find myself craving it, but I would rather not be a slave to an addiction, with no choice but to obey those who supply it. But surely you have other young templars within your own organization who could do the same?"
"Likely I do, but I think my senior templars will be less put out by a stranger being raised to Commander over them than they would be if I raised up one of their own juniors; that you have already proven yourself well enough for your Knight-Commander to raise you to Captain also speaks well for your competency. No, Knight-Captain Thomas, I will have you for Commander of my men; there is no one else who suits the needs of the position well enough. Best get yourself accustomed to the idea," she added with a warm smile.
Thomas smiled and gave in gracefully to the Revered Mother's determination. Glynis turned her attention from him back to Sebastian, cocking her head to one side as she looked thoughtfully at him. "You are looking much better today than you did when we spoke yesterday," she abruptly said.
Sebastian found himself flushing in embarrassment. She'd remarked the day before on how haggard he was looking, and he'd told her about Anders' abduction, and explained his tired appearance as worry for the friends who'd gone in pursuit of him. By the sharp look she'd given him then, he had little doubt that she'd guessed his worry was for rather more personnel reasons that just worry over the safety of his elven friends. "There was word awaiting me when I returned to the castle yesterday; just a brief note from Fenris, that he and Zevran had recovered the mage. They are all three safe, and should be back here in another day or two, perhaps less; the messenger was delayed on the road by sickness, or he'd have been here the day before, he says."
Glynis smiled warmly at him. "That is good news," she said warmly. "I am quite impressed with what I have heard from some of my more trusted servants about this Zevran," she added. "After he returns I must think of a suitable reward for his assistance during the recent difficulties."
Sebastian smiled. "As must I – and I must think of something for my friend Fenris as well. Perhaps I should take a page from King Alistair of Ferelden, and make Fenris a minor noble of Starkhaven. It would be a suitable reward for the number of times he has saved my life or my honour, and ensure that he had reason to remain in Starkhaven. Or at least to visit regularly."
Glynis raised an eyebrow. "You think he would leave? But surely he is in a very good situation here."
Sebastian frowned and shrugged. "I do not know for sure. But he and Zevran have become very close during the elf's visit here. If Bann Zevran returns to Ferelden, I suspect Fenris would wish to go with him; it is only friendship with myself and the mage that kept him here, that and not having any other destination he particularly wanted to go to. Also, he is too proud to live on my charity, and there is little useful work I can give him."
"I see," said Glynis. "Well, it would certainly put the cat amongst the pigeons for you to make him a noble, however minor. Though I do not think that is necessarily a bad thing," she added, eyes twinkling.
"I am personally of the firm belief that my nobles could use a regular shaking up," Sebastian answered, smiling as well. "To prevent them from becoming too set in their ways, if nothing else. This is a time of great change in Thedas; they must learn to change along with the times. To be flexible, not rigid."
Glynis nodded. They turned to lighter subjects after that; the meal ended up being very lengthy – it was mid-afternoon before Glynis regretfully announced that she'd best be getting back to the chantry.
"I'll be shipping Odile's partisans off upriver tomorrow morning," she told Sebastian as he escorted her and her entourage back downstairs. "Odile can do with them as she wishes. I regret that I am unlikely to be able to recover my own people from her clutches; she will doubtless see them scattered to other institutions rather than returned here. Would you like to join me at the docks to see them off?"
"Certainly," Sebastian agreed. "I will be glad to see the last of them. Though not as glad as you yourself are, I suspect."
Glynis' lips twitched in an amused smile. "Far from it, most likely," she agreed. "My grievance with them and the Grand Cleric being of necessity so much more personal."
Sebastian nodded. They'd reached the courtyard by then. Time for formal farewells. They smiled warmly at each other as they worked their way through the rote phrases, somehow both amused by the knowledge that the formal words of respect they voiced were actually deeply meant, not the mere surface politeness they might otherwise be.
As Sebastian bowed in farewell to the Revered Mother, there was a disturbance at the gate. He turned to look, and froze, recognizing the tired men, his own guards, riding in through the gate. The two elves rode at the front, a third figure on horseback just in front of them; he had eyes only for him, for Anders, riding back in through the castle gates.
He was not even aware of saying the man's name, of breaking away from his farewells with the Revered Mother to push past the people between him and the mage, only barely restraining himself from breaking into a run as he strode quickly toward the group. He watched Anders look around, see the crowd, see him, the expression that lighted his face. The mage reined to a stop, and then Sebastian was by his horse.
"Anders," he choked out, his hand closing around the other man's ankle in a tight grip. "You're back."
"Yes," Anders agreed, his own voice hoarse with emotion. "I'm back."
"Anders..." he said again, and shook his head, unable for a moment to speak. He gave up on words, and reached up, taking the mage's hand in his and squeezing it tightly.
"I am pleased to see you returned safely, Anders," the Revered Mother said, having followed him over. "I was distressed to learn from Sebastian of your abduction."
Sebastian started, and blushed, realizing how rudely he'd left her side. "My apologies, your Reverence," he said, turning to look at her.
She made a dismissive gesture, then smiled at first him, then Anders. "No apologies necessary, Prince Vael. I know you have been worried over your friends' absence," she added, smiling at Zevran and Fenris as well. "I will take my leave, so that you may continue your reunion," she said.
"Your Reverence, you may wish to stay," Anders spoke up, then glanced over at Zevran, who nodded encouragement at him. "We have recovered documents that were being carried by the foreign templars who abducted me, and you should likely see them."
"Foreign templars?" Glynis said sharply, then nodded thoughtfully. "Perhaps I should remain after all, then."
"This would best be discussed in privacy," Zevran pointed out quietly.
"We shall return to my rooms, then," Sebastian said firmly.
"We may require some few of these men to give corroborating evidence," Fenris said, gesturing at the guards that had accompanied them, then nodded to a waggon behind them. "And we have a wounded man that will require care."
"Care, and a close watch," Anders spoke up. "I would prefer to... ah, Sister Maura," he exclaimed, smiling as he saw the apothecary among those in Glynis' train. "I could use your help with him," he said. It was only when Anders pulled his hand away from Sebastian's so he could dismount that Sebastian realized he'd been holding tightly to it all this time. He blushed again, then covered his confusion with quick compliments to the guards for their work over the last week, and promises of reward, before sending them off to be fed and brought drink in rooms close to his own, so they would be at hand if needed for delivering evidence.
Other guards were summoned, to see the wounded man off to the clinic and kept under watch, Sister Maura heading off with them to see him settled in, then the rest of them returned indoors, and went back upstairs to Sebastian's apartment.
It had been a very long day; up before dawn to prepare to set out again, on their third day of travel back to Starkhaven, their journey slowed by the waggon with Phillipe and all the salvage from the dead templars in it, the armour and weapons bundled away out of sight in sacks along both side of the waggon, Phillipe in a well-padded bed of straw in the middle. Apart from when he was roused to eat or make his toilet, Anders mainly kept the man in a deep sleep, hoping that prolonged rest would enable the man to recover from what had been done to him; not just physically, but mentally as well.
He'd been tired when they reached the castle, but the sight of Sebastian, there in the courtyard, had driven all exhaustion away, revitalizing him. He couldn't look away, as the Prince pushed his way through the group of people between them, and strode over. He wasn't even aware of stopping his horse until Sebastian was there, at his side, looking up at him. And the look in his eyes, as he reached out and closed his hand around Anders' ankle... it took Anders' breath away.
"Anders," he said, voice on the edge of breaking. "You're back."
Such simple words, and yet they conveyed so much to him. So much welcome and relief in three single words and a firm touch.
"Yes, I'm back," he agreed; not the three words he most wanted to say, but what he could say, in front of witnesses as they were.
"Anders..." Sebastian said again, then removed his hand from Anders' ankle, and took him by the hand, squeezing it tightly; almost painfully so, but Anders didn't mind.
Things happened quickly after that; within a very short time they were all indoors, the guards sent off to a nearby suite, Phillipe packed off to the clinic in Sister Maura's experienced hands. Sebastian and the rest were soon ensconced in comfortable chairs in Sebastian's sitting room, their discussion briefly delayed by the need for Anders to accept enthusiastic welcomes from his dogs. Which at least served admirably to fill the time while there were servants bustling in and out, some still clearing away the remains of the lunch Sebastian had apparently just finished with the Revered Mother, others bringing in a fresh lunch for Anders and the elves.
Once that was over with and they had sufficient privacy, Zevran and Anders both reported on his abduction, the chase, and his rescue, as seen from their two different viewpoints, Fenris joining in with occasional comments as well, to confirm or add to what they had to say. Anders spoke of Antony and Guillaume, naming them as agents of Knight-Vigilant Rémi but avoiding any mention of the templar underground or Guillaume's powers. Zevran followed his lead in the matter without even blinking, Fenris doing the same. After that they produced the papers they'd kept back from those found among the Seeker's belongings.
Sebastian and Glynis were both particularly livid over Odile's musings in her letter to the Divine, and spent a while discussing what to do with the letter, how best to disseminate this proof of the perfidy of the Divine and her tool. After that they moved on to looking over the other documents.
It was early evening before they finally decided to end the meeting, Sebastian again accompanying the Revered Mother out of the castle. When he returned to his rooms he, Anders, Zevran and Fenris had supper together, the three filling Sebastian in on the parts of the story that they had not wanted to discuss in front of Revered Mother Glynis.
"I believe she can likely be trusted with this information," Sebastian said after considering their additional news for a while. "But you are perhaps right to have kept silent on it; even in rebellion against the Divine as Glynis has now declared herself, she might considered a mutiny of the templars against the chantry as a whole to be a step too far."
"And you?" Anders asked softly.
Sebastian sighed. "There was a time I would not have countenanced it either. But now?" he said, and gestured to the documents still spread out on a table in the sitting area. "I have many reasons now to wish the power of the chantry diminished," he said sadly. "I will keep silent about this underground as well, unless it seems necessary to speak of them."
They parted after that, Zevran and Fenris heading off together. Sebastian and Anders remained seated, just looking at each other at first.
"I have never been so relieved in my life as when I received word that you had been rescued," Sebastian said softly. "Staying here, not going after you... it half-killed me. And then when I saw you ride in this afternoon, safe..." he broke off, unable to continue.
Anders reached over and took his hand. "Seeing you when I got back... I could only think two things. That I love you. And that I was home."
Sebastian smiled warmly at him. "I love you too," he said, then twitched one eyebrow up slightly. "Shall we celebrate your homecoming here, or down in your cottage?"
Anders laughed. "Here will do. Everything I want is here," he said, cocking an eyebrow at Sebastian, then looking around the room to where the dogs were stretched out by the fire, Ashes curled up on the seat of an armchair, before looking pointedly back at Sebastian. "There are only three things I want right now."
"Oh? And what's that?" Sebastian asked, smiling back at him.
Anders released Sebastian's hand, raising his hand to display three fingers. "A bath," he said, folding down the ring finger, and grimaced. "I haven't bathed properly in days; I stink and am covered in road dust. And after the bath I want to be in a big soft bed with nice clean sheets," he continued, folding down his middle finger, then he smiled and pointed the remaining finger at Sebastian. "And you in it, with me."
Sebastian laughed, and leaned forward to catch Anders' hand, pressing a kiss to the back of it. "I believe all of that can be arranged," he said, very solemnly. "Can I join you in the bath, too?" he asked hopefully.
Anders grinned. "If you promise to scrub my back for me," he said, before reclaiming his hand and rising to his feet.
"Just your back?" Sebastian asked with false innocence as he rose as well.
"Mmm, perhaps some other bits as well," Anders agreed. "We'll see."
Any further words were cut off by Sebastian pulling him close and kissing him. And while he still wanted a bath, a bed, and Sebastian in it, the kiss was enough for now.