Running the Gauntlet - A Dragon Age Inquistion Fan Fiction by Foxfire79 (Cullen/Inquisitor)
Disclaimer: I don't work for Bioware, nor have I ever been involved with the creation of any of the characters within the Dragon Age universe. I'm just playing with them (as we were meant to). The only original characters are the ones I created in-game, and have brought over to the fanfic universe, namely Lilah Trevelyan, my human female rogue Inquisitor who is now living through a second incarnation and yet another playthrough (and another romance with Cullen, of course). Apparently I still like being a rogue, human and female. Who knew?
Make with the story already!
~Lilah's afternoon~
Lilah's day was turning out fairly well. They'd stumbled across a couple of logging stands, so Morris would be happy. They'd also stumbled upon a few groups of red templars, so they'd managed to pick up a few extra weapons and random bits and pieces to sell on return to Skyhold. Lilah had managed to lose her horse again, though. She'd leapt from Blueberry's saddle to land on one of the red templar's backs, and the dagger he'd been throwing at her glanced off the poor horse's left flank. Blueberry had snorted disdainfully, reared up and kicked the unfortunate evil-doer in the head, then trotted off happily back down the trail to Skyhold. Lilah would have to share a mount for the rest of the trip. They'd moved around a natural rocky outcrop when Iron Bull dropped to his knees, signalling the rest of the group to follow suit. He motioned Lilah forward and she half crawled to his position as quietly as she could.
"Look there. Just over that bridge... Does that look like a mercenary stronghold to you?"
The place looked palatial, a veritable oasis among the trees and rocks of the Hinterland wilderness around them. She could see a few men patrolling the two towers, and a couple of others patrolling the bridge just ahead of them.
"How many do you think you can take?"
Iron Bull glanced at her, a smile tugging on his lips.
"What kind of stupid-ass question is that?"
Lilah sighed, grinning back at him.
"Fine. Just leave a few for the rest of us, alright. Don't be a glory stealer."
Iron Bull stood up, cracking his neck and flexing his chest muscles slightly. Lilah looked away, trying to hide her exasperated look.
"When do I ever steal the glory, Boss. Let's go!"
He hefted himself over the row of bushes they'd been crouching behind and started stalking towards the guards at the bridge. Dorian tapped her on the shoulder, making her turn around.
"So, are we advancing then? Just checking."
Lilah smiled at him, and gestured to where Iron Bull seemed to be winning the battle with no problem.
"Just get out there, Dorian."
She couldn't help but notice him studying her neck, so she tweaked her collar back up into the upright position. He smirked, twirling his staff between his fingers.
"We need to have a little chat later, cousin dear. No excuses, and no running away."
Lilah pulled her daggers from their sheaths, feeling their familiar weight in her hands.
"Fine. But right now we need to get out there and... assist the big guy."
The big guy in question was happily swinging his great-sword around, laughing his head off while hacking at his opponents. Sera was darting about behind him, firing arrows into the mercenaries unprotected areas as they stumbled around in confusion.
"Actually, they seem to be doing fine on their own. Let's move on up to the castle."
She and Dorian hurried up the path towards the castle gates, when something caught her eye.
"Hey, look! Another one of those shard-finders!"
Dorian sighed as Lilah diverted up an almost invisible trail and gazed through the eyes of the admittedly creepy contraption before sliding back down to where he was. Iron Bull and Sera were also hurrying up the path toward them, carrying a few extra swords in their packs. Lilah had taught them to always plunder the dead enemies. It did seem to be an easy way to make gold.
"Right, let's head in."
The two large men carrying sledgehammers seemed to be rather surprised to see four random strangers standing in the vestibule of the castle, then they both snapped into action. Dorian froze one of them to the spot and Lilah started slicing into him as Iron Bull yanked the other man closer to him and deftly sliced through his neck. The head rolled to a stop beside Sera's boots, and she looked down at it in disgust. She kicked it away, then continued firing at the frozen-on-the-spot mercenary.
"Ewww... Bull, that's disgusting! I got blood on my boots! You owe me an ale!"
Bull roared with laughter as he sliced into the midsection of the mercenary Lilah was still attacking. The mercenary looked up at the huge qunari warrior, clutched his bleeding midsection and collapsed on the ground, dead. The ground was still slick with ice around the body so the group decided to check out the small antechamber to the right. Lilah stumbled into the pitch black room and immediately tripped over an ankle high stool, almost landing face first on a large chest. She stumbled to her knees and unlocked the box, smiling at what she found inside.
"Ooh. Hey Sera, I just found some Ferelden heraldry tapestries. We can hang them up around Skyhold, make it seem a bit more 'homey' for you. What do you think?"
Sera looked at the swatch of fabric in her hands, and wrinkled her nose.
"Ferelden used to be home for me. Now Skyhold is my home. I don't care what heraldry you hang up, it's all just dusty fabric to me. Oh, but errr, thank you for thinking of me, Lize."
Lilah noticed the hurried backtracking and smiled understandingly. Sera was still getting used to having other people thinking about her, and not wanting anything in return. She was improving in her manners though.
"Isn't Commander Cullen from Ferelden as well?"
Iron Bull's random comment sent Lilah's mind back to Cullen's bedroom. She wondered what his reaction would be if she appeared in his room draped in nothing but a Ferelden heraldry banner... Ooh, Sweet Maker... She could feel her cheeks growing red at the very thought of him pulling her close to him and ever so slowly unwrapping the fabric from her skin, his lips settling on every new area of bared flesh. Lilah thanked her lucky stars that room was as dark as it was. Hopefully nobody would notice her glowing cheeks. They walked back out into the courtyard, Lilah rubbing her cheeks brusquely as if trying to warm her face. Dorian looked at her, a slight grin flitting across his face. Lilah looked away and headed up the large stone stairway ahead of them, noticing a ladder leading up into the left hand tower.
"Oiy, you lot! Stop right there!"
Fantastic. Were none of the mercenaries under seven feet tall? And why did they all have the same sledgehammers, had there been a sale somewhere? Lilah set her jaw, thankful that she hadn't bothered re-sheathing her daggers, and leapt up the stairs to flank the man as Iron Bull attacked from the front. For all their size, the mercenaries weren't that much of a challenge. Lilah grabbed a handful of gold coins from the dead man's waistband and slipped them into her own coin purse, then turned around and headed back towards the ladder. When she reached the top, however...
"Oh, Balls!"
An axe swung at her head as soon as her face reached the level of the floor. She hurriedly stabbed at the man's ankle and as he hopped off-balance for a couple of seconds she managed to finish climbing up and dash behind him onto the narrow wooden bridge he'd been patrolling. Hopefully he'd come after her and leave the rest of her group alone so they could safely climb up the ladder and come to her aid. Thankfully that was exactly what happened, and Dorian managed to stab him through with an ice spike, making Iron Bull's deathblow even more explosive than usual. Sera looked down at the steadily spreading bloodstain, and her slightly bloodier boots.
"Ugh! He was a messy one. I think I need to buy new boots when we get back. Even if I clean these ones... No. Just no."
Lilah chuckled, puffing a few loose strands of hair out of her eyes.
"I'll get you the boots, Sera. We don't have to pay, remember. Harritt makes all of our armour special order."
Sera nodded, picking a piece of... something from her boot, and frowning.
"Yeah, I know that, but I still always give him a little something for all his trouble. Like some gold, or a cake."
Lilah usually did exactly the same thing. Or just crafted everything herself, with Harritt overseeing.
"We'll bring him back something nice. Oh, and all of the new crafting materials we've been picking up too. Those should make him happy."
They moved across the bridge onto the first platform which was thankfully empty, and had a brief look at their surroundings. No chests, no books, no random maps just left lying about. Iron Bull hefted his great-sword over his shoulder and started marching down to the central platform. Lilah could make out at least three more mercenaries waiting there, and the huge fellow in the middle who could possibly be their leader.
"Well, look what we have here boys. Visitors! Let's show them some hospitality, shall we?!"
The leader immediately attacked Iron Bull, assuming he was the leader of the group, while Lilah, Dorian and Sera quickly took care of the three smaller men. Bull actually seemed to be taking a beating. After knocking the leader down for a third time, he grabbed one of his healing potions from his belt and almost threw the contents down his throat. Dorian quickly threw an ice glyph in the leader's general direction, grabbing Bull's arm.
"Do you want healing, Bull?"
The Iron Bull shook his hand off, snorting, glaring at the leader of the mercenaries who was once again climbing to his feet.
"What I want is for that son of a bitch to go down and stay down! Oh, and I want his axe too!"
Dorian stepped back, looking slightly bemused.
"So, no healing then?"
Bull threw the Tevinter mage a sideways glance, still puffing air angrily out of his nostrils.
"No healing."
Sera flipped backwards, landing deftly on her feet after firing off a volley of arrows into the now ailing leader's back, and looked at the two men.
"If it's not too much trouble, can we hurry up and kill this guy? My fingers are getting tired."
She knelt down and aimed straight at the man's chest, claiming an almost perfect bulls-eye, but still he wouldn't go down. Lilah growled and jumped onto his back, stabbing him repeatedly in the shoulder where there was a small gap in his armour.
"Why won't you bloody die?!"
His right arm finally started to fail him and he fell to his knees, bringing Lilah down with him. She started in on his left shoulder, but cried out as he grabbed her around the middle and threw her to the ground. Before she could move he'd clambered on top of her, and had wrapped his gauntleted hands around her throat.
"Down you go, pesky little kitten. You think your claws can harm me?"
His fingers tightened, and Lilah's vision began to blur, but she continued pushing her dagger into his left shoulder. Just as she was about to black out she felt a rush of cool air above her, then a cascade of liquid running down her neck and into her armour. Her now headless attacker's body collapsed on top of her, and in her oxygen starved state the one thought that sprang to her mind was that she'd enjoyed Cullen's body pressing her down a lot more than she was enjoying this. Then the pressure of the dead body and it's armour was released and she could breath again. Lilah drew in a ragged breath, then started coughing. Sera crouched down beside her, patting her on the back and looking her over for any obvious wounds. She sighed with relief when Lilah shot her a small smile and a rather weak thumbs up.
"She's fine, just got some rather nasty bruises on her neck..."
Lilah's fingers flew up to her throat, and Sera nodded.
"Yes, they hide the love bites, but that was a fairly epic way to hide them. I mean, you could have died!"
Lilah coughed again, then cleared her throat.
"Yes, but I didn't."
Sera gave her a light shake, glaring angrily into her eyes, but Lilah could tell that below the anger was a hastily hidden fear.
"Yeah, but you could have! So don't do daft stuff like take on monsters five times your size, alright?! I don't want to be the one to tell your advisor's you died while trying to get a fancy set of armour and a wicked axe off some giant arsehole!"
Lilah raised her hands in submission, and Sera looked reasonabley placated.
"Alright, alright. I'll be more careful."
She certainly wouldn't be telling Cullen about this little adventure, that's for sure.
~Cullen's afternoon~
Well, that had certainly been an eye-opener. Cullen sat in his desk chair, massaging his forehead as he thought about the myriad of information Leliana and Josephine had bombarded him with that morning. And the questions, Maker's Breath! He knew it would be easier to answer them truthfully because he knew they both had ways of finding out things through other channels, but really?! Did they have to know everything? It had all started when Leliana had asked him if he'd ever been with a woman before and he'd had to answer truthfully that no, he had not. The two women had stared at him, dumbfounded, for a moment, but at least neither of them had the audacity to laugh at him. In fact, they both seemed to look at him with more respect than usual.
"That's a good thing, you know. If you'd been some sort of womaniser back in Ferelden or Kirkwall, I'm fairly certain Trevelyan's interest wouldn't be as avid as it is. If I recall correctly she's only had one or two lovers herself, and it's possible that she was only physical with one of them. As far as I can tell, she hasn't 'been with' anyone for at least five years, possibly longer."
Leliana's information net certainly was widespread. How could she possibly know anything about Lilah's love life back in Ostwick? Still, information was information, and it looked like at least SHE would know what they were doing when they ended up consumating their relationship. He didn't mind at all that she'd had other lovers, just as long as he was the only man on her mind, and in her bed, right now. There was no point at all in being jealous about the ghosts of the past. Then they'd started asking about his past, and if he'd ever been in love before. Leliana had interjected here again.
"When I met you, back in Kinloch Hold, I doubt you would have been of a mind to be romancing anyone. That demon... He truly did a number on you. Though I do recall one thing... You dropping to one knee before our lovely Ceridwen and offering her any assistance she might require. I believe you may have even kissed her hand..."
Cullen had blushed slightly remembering the even itself and had immediately jumped to his own defence.
"In my own defence, Leliana, the woman had just rescued me from certain death. And you yourself can attest to the fact that Ceridwen Cousland is a very beautiful woman. I was a little... awestruck. Then I did notice that Alistair was almost growling at me when I touched her, so I thought it would be best if I didn't pursue her."
Leliana had laughed at this, covering her mouth.
"Oh yes, poor Ali, he was so confused at that point. And that was before Zevran showed up and made matters even worse. I'm so glad they sorted everything out in the end."
Josephine's gaze had traveled between the two of them, and she'd smiled.
"I'd forgotten that you two had met back then. What was that, just over ten years ago?"
Leliana had sighed, drawing a hand wearily across her hair.
"Oh yes. Time does fly when one is adventuring."
They'd questioned him about Rhiannon Hawke as well, knowing that he'd had more interactions with her, but again he specifically told them that it had not been romantic, for fear of disembowelment by her surly elven lover, Fenris. This time it was Josephine who interrupted.
"Oh my, I've heard about him. The handsome, silver haired elf with the lyrium tattoos. He's currently the scourge of Tevinter slavers the length and breadth of Thedas. How I would love to catch a glimpse of him..."
He and Leliana had both looked at her, and she'd blushed, staring down at the ground.
"It's just a rather romantic thought, you know, him saving others from the fate that he had escaped himself. The once slave, freeing the almost slaves."
Once he'd established that he'd not been romantically attached to anyone either of the women knew, they started questioning him on what he actually knew about female anatomy. This had to have been the most uncomfortable part of the day for all three of them. After he'd stuttered out that he knew enough about where things had to go, Leliana had nodded.
"The rest you can pick up from the library. I can recommend a few titles, but Cassandra knows more about the romance novels section than I do. You'd best ask her."
Cullen had gazed across at her, completely gobsmacked. Cassandra? Read romantic fiction? What? He'd raised an eyebrow in question, then Josephine had nodded.
"Oh yes, she's read them all. She even has a private stash of Varric's old romance series 'Swords and Shields'. It's trashy, but it's so bad it's good. You'll pick up some good tips from those, if you can get her to give them up."
You learned something new everyday. Cullen couldn't stop a grin from creeping across his face as he imagined himself asking Cassandra for a loan of her romance novels. He'd most likely end up with a black eye.
They'd finished talking at that point, and the ladies had stood up to leave, when Leliana turned around and gave him one more random piece of advice that almost floored him.
"Oh, Commander, one last thing... One thing that all the ladies absolutely love, but are generally too shy or afraid to ask for..."
She'd leaned in and whispered it into his ear, but even a few feet away Josephine was nodding in agreement.
"Oh yes, please tell him to do that. If the Inquisitor misses out, well... What's the point of any of this?"
Leliana had pulled away, grinning at the blush which now covered his features, and walked away with Josephine to find some lunch.
"Trust me, Commander, if she doesn't love you yet, she definitely will after you do 'that' for her."
The two women had both started giggling as they walked away, and were now whispering to each other like school girls. And now here he was sitting in his office, thinking about this newest piece of information. Putting his mouth... down there. On her. Maker. Certainly, he heard the other male recruits during templar training speaking about how they'd gotten some bar wench or other to do that exact thing to them, but he hadn't even thought that you could do the same to a woman, and that she'd find it enjoyable. And how would he know if he was doing it right? Oh, wait, he'd probably be able to tell by the sounds she'd be making. Her sighing moan returned to him, unbidden, and once again his trousers became uncomfortabley tight. If he could elicit those sounds just from brushing his lips over her neck, imagine the sounds that might occur by slipping his tongue inside... A sigh escaped his own lips as he imagined her laying beneath him, urging him on with her fingers tangling in his hair... Maker's Balls, how long was she going to be away again?
~Lilah's evening~
They decided to set up camp in the palace itself, seeing as it was now devoid of any mercenaries, and Dorian had worked on healing Lilah's bruised throat. Her rasping cough was now gone, and the bruises from the mercenary leader's gauntleted fingers were also faded. He had noticed the now fading love bite on her throat though, and was absolutely dying to ask her about it. Just before sunset, she and Sera picked up their bathing things and started to head down to the clear natural pools below to bathe and wash the worst of the blood off their armour. Dorian picked up his things and followed them. Bull looked after him, eyes narrowing.
"Girl talk. You wouldn't understand."
Bull sniffed, readying the fire and thrusting some ram meat onto the spit. Girl talk his ass. Dorian reached the pool just as both girls were beginning to wash their faces, and they both looked up at him, warily. He couldn't wait to ask the question.
"Lilah... Who left that love bite on your neck?"
Sera immediately started cackling, and continued on with her washing. Lilah dropped her soap in the grass by the side of the pool and looked up at him with wide eyed panic.
"Oh shit. You saw it when you were healing me, didn't you?"
Dorian nodded, now looking at her with deep interest.
"It's clearly someone at Skyhold because it looked rather fresh... Possibly from this morning... Oh my, is that why you were late? You stayed up late playing about with some secret lover while I got an early night knowing we were coming out today? That's a proper double standard, that."
Lilah sighed and looked away, clearly defeated.
"Look, I know there's no denying it. Yes, I have a... err... someone that I care about, and yes we were fooling around a little last night. And this morning."
Dorian dropped his washing things on the ground and crossed his arms.
"Well, who is it then?"
Sera stopped chuckling long enough to flick some soap bubbles in Dorian's general direction. They landed on his nose, making him sneeze.
"She's not telling. She didn't tell me yesterday when she showed me a whole crop of love bites all over her chest, and she's probably not going to tell us now either. Spoilsport."
Dorian looked over at the dark haired rogue who was now blushing as deeply as the sunset on the mountains behind them.
"Well, as long as he makes you happy, dearest, I have nothing else to say on the matter. Now let's get these bloodstains out."
They all sat down on the edge of the pool, scrubbing at the bloodstains the mercenaries had left on their armour, then headed back up to the palace when they smelled the meat starting to cook. After a good meal they all settled down in their bedrolls under the stars. Lilah looked up, knowing that Cullen would also be seeing the same constellations through the now massive hole in his roof. She smiled to herself, then turned over, wishing him a silent good night before drifting off to sleep.
~Cullen's evening~
Cullen managed to avoid both Leliana and Josephine for the rest of the day, even until the evening meal. He'd spotted Cassandra but couldn't bring himself to mention the romance books. He still couldn't really believe she read such nonsense, but then again he didn't really know that much about the Seeker's private life at all.
He decided to wander up to the library later, when there'd be less people there, and scope out the romance section, perhaps even borrow a couple of the titles Leliana had suggested so he'd have a few more ideas about what Lilah might enjoy the next time they were alone together. And after they'd had a proper conversation first, as was the rule that Lilah had instated that very morning. A conversation for an indulgence... he had to say he almost enjoyed both things the same, but honestly now that Leliana and Josephine had planted 'those' thoughts in his head, all he could think about was bedding her, and bedding her thoroughly. And if the romance novels had any interesting advice in them, who was he not to take advantage?
Cullen finished eating quickly, and ducked into the library on the way back to his office. He sandwiched three of the romance books Leliana had suggested between two large volumes of statistics and war strategy, and practically ran back to his office for fear of being caught with such ridiculous reading material. Once back in his office, he closed all three doors and climbed up to his bedroom, placing the three small volumes on his bedside table. He didn't need to read them tonight, he had another couple of days until Lilah returned home. He was also feeling rather drained after giving and receiving so much private and personal information today. He could do with a good nights sleep. He undid his armour and whipped the blue shirt off over his head, shucking the pants as he wandered over to his still messy bed and collapsed into it. Maker, he could still smell her perfume on his pillow... He lay back, looking up at the stars, smiling wryly as he realised he hadn't mentioned his broken roof to any of the builders yet. Maybe he would just fix it himself. He yawned, and turned over on his side, facing the side of the bed Lilah had slept on the previous night. He hoped she was missing him as much as he was missing her.
"Good night, Inquisitor."
END OF PART 02
How's this for coming soon, huh? Boom! Alrighty, hope you guys are enjoying it, I still have three more days of holidays left so finger's crossed I knock another chapter off before I get back to work. If not, I'm sorry in advance for any long delays! As always, read, review and enjoy! Part 3 coming soon (but obviously not as soon as part 2!)
Foxfire out!