Before I could press her further on what she meant, Mythal had vanished. My room fell silent and I was left alone with nothing but the quiet rattle of ceramic on wood. I spun immediately to see the small inkwell, rolling to a halt at my feet. I froze, watching as tendrils of green light dispersed around it. With a shaking hand I picked it up. It seemed normal. It was indeed my inkwell, the very one I had sent into the fade moments ago and yet here it was again! I let out an uneasy sigh and hurried to set it back on the desk where it belonged. I watched it for a moment, maybe even minutes, worrying that it would simply disappear again. Had the target reappeared? Or had Mythal simply conjured the inkwell back? Why and what for? I stood back from the desk.
"Has anyone ever told you that you're bloody useless?" My words echoed over the empty chamber but I knew she heard.
I could do little else at that moment other than climb into bed. My head ached from too many dilemmas and I hoped a good night's rest might help to lighten my thoughts. Wishful thinking.
In my dreams my mind swam with images of my past, remembered and not. Blazing images that rushed by like a lifetime and then it halted. An itching feeling told me that I was in my grandmother's personal chambers. They were gorgeous. All gold and twinkling and rich with colours and fabrics so soft it felt like a breeze on your face. There were pillows too, large and small and circle and square and so many trinkets that you'd get dizzy counting them all. Pride of place in the centre of the room was a tall mirror, it's glass like a pool of molten gold like I had seen in my dreams before. It was powerful, I knew that much and nothing like I'd seen in my own world. It was beautiful too, the light of the setting sun bounced off its surface, illuminating the space.
I had an itching feeling to touch the glass, to press myself through it like a portal. Is that what it was? A doorway? To where? I took a step forward, curiosity taking hold.
"You know it will displease your grandmother if you venture through without her knowing."
I turned and scoffed, the voice was familiar to me. Behind me stood a hooded figure, tall and intimidating but with a kind smile that spoke of fondness. His eyes were almost grey and his skin fair, but twisting around his high cheek bones he wore Mythal's vallaslin.
"She always knows where I am, that's the whole trouble. I can never get a moment's privacy these days."
"She worries for you, as does your mother. We cannot risk losing you again."
I sighed heavily and slouched down heavily into the long pillow strewn chair beside me.
"I was a child then. I would not so easily be held captive, they don't know what I can do."
He arched his brow, "You may have grown but they will always hound you. June knows of your existence, he knows you are Mythal's heir. He will not stop until he sees you dead or worse. You remember what he did to you when you were young. Would you risk being made a slave again for the sake of curiosity?" His voice took on the tone of a scolding father. It was strange, he looked the same age as I, but I knew he was far older. I had no retort for what he said. The memories of my quivering hands and the pain of receiving vallaslin seemed all too recent... I shuddered.
"I did not mean to upset you, Valla."
"Well you have. Leave me." I groused, "And it is my lady to you." My tone of voice was so unlike myself that it startled me.
As he turned to leave I tried to correct myself and ask his forgiveness but I simply remained where I was. This was a memory and I couldn't change it.
Ir abelas...
I drifted back to consciousness slowly. The dream had left a bad taste in my mouth, I did not like the way I spoke to him. He was my elder, a friend... and I had treated him merely as a servant all because he had told me a hard truth. I sat up in my bed and rubbed my eyes.
"You stuck up little..."
Before I could think of an appropriate word a knock sounded at my door. I glanced quickly at the pale light of the moon coming through my thin curtain. It was late, it had to have been, the rest of the world felt eerily still, like it does just before the sun comes up. As I pulled on an overcoat to answer the door, nerves swam in my belly. What if this had something to do with the whole sending things into the fade shenanigans. Had someone saw me? Would they see it as dangerous? Would they accuse me of blood magic?
I almost didn't open the door, but another heavier knock forced me on.
"Good morning, Nev," Grant chirped.
I yawned, I hadn't realised how tired I was but seeing Grant and his carefree smile made my nerves calm.
"What are you- what time is it?" I mumbled.
His smile spread wider, "Again, it seems I have been demoted to messenger. M'Lady you have been summoned to the war room by the Inquisitor herself."
"Creators, it's not even sun up." I said, stepping through the door and pulling my over coat tighter around me.
"Tell me about it, do you think you were the only they dragged out of bed?"
He walked with me in silence through the shadowy garden and up through the main hall. Both of which I would not have fancied walking through by myself. They were decidedly more sinister at night and I couldn't help but wait for a ghost to jump out at me. After walking quicker than I usually would have up the long corridor to the War Room, Grant opened the doors and noise erupted in my ears. I was taken aback by the amount of people squeezed in around the table. Dorian, Varric, Bull, Blackwall, Sera, Vivienne, Solas, all of the advisers with the Inquisitor herself sat in the middle of them all.
"Ah! Dear Nev, last but by no means least. Please tell me you know why we were dragged to this meeting at such an ungodly hour," Dorian chimed.
I shook my head dumbly, still surprised and half asleep.
"Please make yourself comfortable Lavellan," Josephine said, pointing to a corner of the war table that was not currently being leaned on, sat on or slept on. Bull gently nudged Sera awake.
I took up my spot between Vivienne and Solas, the latter shuffling awkwardly to fold his arms. I tried not took look.
"Now that we are all here we shall begin," Cassandra began. "The ball at The Winter Palace is two nights from now and we must all be prepared for what we might face."
Leliana interjected, "We know that Corypheus is planning to assassinate Empress Celene but we do not know how or when, only that it will happen the night of the ball."
"There will be heavy security. Duke Gaspard will be in attendance and his entourage will be large and ready for any form of attack. We must use this to our advantage," Cullen said, leaning forward on the table.
"But we cannot be seen to be stirring the conflict. The assassination attempt must be kept quiet lest the Inquisition be accused of heightening tensions. The purpose of this affair is to garner a truce between Celene and Gaspard." Josephine stepped forward calmly. "Our attendance must be seen as the mediator, nothing else. We are to be on our best behaviour. This includes no cursing, drinking or bee traps of any kind."
Sera scoffed in disappointment.
"What we are watching for is anything suspicious, anything untoward and anything dangerous. Our sole purpose is to protect Celene from potential assassins," Josephine continued.
"Question." Varric, leaned forward on the table. "It's all well and good telling us to keep our eyes pealed, but who are we looking for? Who should we be keeping an eye on? I don't know about you, but in my experience, these kinda parties attract a lot of people. All of whom could be wishing the Empress harm. Her claim isn't exactly air tight and her family aren't exactly the favourites."
"We did not gather you all here for a lecture on politics, Varric," Cassandra hissed, "All we know is that if Celene dies, there will be chaos across Thedas. And that chaos will contribute to our downfall. The future we saw in Redcliff must not come to pass."
"Didn't answer my question," Varric barbed.
"Alright! Take it easy, both of you," Evelyn interjected, but her tone was calm and level. "Varric you are right, there will be all sorts of people at the Palace, that's what we mean when we say to keep a look out for anything. More specifically, the Venitori. We know they are working for Corypheus and I can't exactly see him sending a bunch of demons to a ball."
Bull chuckled, "I'd like to see that."
"Wouldn't we all," Vivienne said, sarcasm lacing her voice.
"How are we to spot the Venitori, exactly? Are we to simply ask politely? Excuse me ser, but are you by any chance a member of an evil Tevinter cult?" Dorian scoffed and seemed displeased.
"You seem to have an issue with hunting down your countrymen, Dorian," Blackwall narrowed his eyes.
"Hah! They are hardly my countrymen. You southeners always want to tar us with the same bloody brush."
"The brush with which you paint yourself is hardly that much different." Solas startled me to my right. I gave him a harsh nudge with my elbow.
"Oh, don't you start! I'm sorry I even opened my mouth," Dorian said as he through his hands in the air and took a step back.
"Dorian is right," Bull said, "I've been dealing with Tevinters long enough to know, their spies don't exactly stick out. They're good."
"Well obviously they're good or they wouldn't be spies would they? Let me speak to my people in the Palace, they'll spot them a mile off," Sera interjected.
Vivienne scoffed, "I find it highly unreasonable that you think the scullery maid is more likely to discover a Venitori assassin than all of the Inquisition combined."
"Little people see things that people like you don't."
A sly smile grew on her face and I cringed. Sera should know better than to go toe to toe with Vivienne.
"And what's that, my dear? The first signs of dysentery?"
Sera lunged across the table shouting all sorts of profanities as Bull held her down.
"Please can everyone just calm down!" Evelyn shouted.
Vivienne spoke again, "I hardly see how we have any chance of doing anything when we have such juveniles in our ranks."
"I'll kick your arse so hard you'll taste my boots for a month!"
"Sera! Calm down."
"You can't just let her talk to me like that!" she whined.
Dorian slapped the table, "Exactly! Inquisitor, I have faced this prejudice since I arrived here, everything I have done and still some people insist on casting me as the villain!"
"It is your people we are fighting against," Solas scoffed.
"Give it a fucking rest will you!" I snapped at him and he looked surprised. In fact the whole table went quiet. "All of you," I continued, "How the hell are we supposed to do anything if we can't even get a plan together without you all jumping down each other's throats. Shut up, sit down and listen up because, I'm sorry to break it to you all, but this isn't about your petty fucking squabbles."
An awkward silence reigned for a moment longer as the whole table looked to their feet.
"Thank you, Lavellan," Cassandra sighed.
I nodded, "Your welcome. But really, this plan is a shot in the dark. We can't be watching everyone all the time."
"We won't be," Leliana said. "Sera, you are right, contact your people at the Winter Palace, we need more eyes and ears. Dorian you are also right, they will be hard to spot, but listen for whispers and they will lead us to them. Bull, with all your experience in the Ben'hasrath, I doubt this will be a challenge. Assassinating an Empress in the middle of a party is no mean feat. It will be harder to accomplish than it will be for us to foil."
"Lady Vivienne," Josephine continued, "You are a master of The Game. Surely, you will be able to find out something noteworthy from the nobility. They are all terrified of you and they will want to win your favour."
Vivienne merely arched her brow but nodded once in silent agreement.
"We all have our assets to bring to this mission and we will all need to be at our very best. Please, let's try not to kill each other before Corypheus does." Everyone finally nodded as Evelyn spoke, her shy and hopeful smile the reuniting force that we needed. "Thank you. We ride for Halamshiral at sun rise." This was followed by groans from Sera and Bull, but we all slowly began to filter out and back to our chambers to get one last hour of sleep.
"Lavellan," Leliana called me back and my shoulders sank. I knew there would be something else. I turned and looked on expectantly. Not that I minded the idea of an infiltration mission into The Winter Palace. It would be nice to have something important to do during this. I was worried I would feel useless.
"Cloak and dagger?" I sighed as I folded my arms.
Evelyn smirked, "Try dress and dagger."
"What?"
Before I could even finished, with more flourish than was warranted, Josephine revealed a long frock from beneath the table.
"Leliana and I picked it ourselves," She beamed.
Cullen rolled his eyes, "I hope you believe me when I say that I had no part in this plan, Lavellan."
"Will someone please enlighten me?" I said after a moment of eyeing up the dress. It was long, floor length really. It was purple but that dark reddish purple that looked like the midnight sky. The skirt was made out of a light flowing material and yet the bodice was like leather, almost as though it were armour. Little purple crystals spiralled over the breast and shoulders and scattered sparsely down the skirt too. It was pretty, I'll give them that. A high neck line too. I was like my grandmother, we always suited a high neck line.
"We are assigning you to Ambassador Briala, the elven ambassador in Orlais," Josephine said. "She is the former hand maiden and lover of Empress Celene, now turned activist. We have reason to believe that she wishes to disrupt peace talks in order to further an elven revolution. Whilst you might agree with her sentiment, you can also agree that now is not exactly the time to be staging revolutions."
I shook my head warily, "What has this got to do with me in a dress?"
Leliana smiled warmly, "Because you are beautiful and because you are a Dalish elf, she will automatically trust you far more than us. Distract her, befriend her, flirt with her, anything to get her guard down. Duke Gaspard suspects her and thus far, his suspicion is all we have."
"So let me get this straight," I leaned on the table, "I'm to swan about in this dress and hope that Briala takes a liking to me? Why? Is anyone else being forced to wear a dress? What if it comes down to a fight, what happens then?"
"Don't get blood on it, it was very expensive," Josephine giggled and Leliana tried not to. Evelyn finally took pity on me and levelled me with a gaze.
"You have a way with people, Lavellan. A magnetism, you get people on your side no matter the circumstance. We need to know what Briala is doing. If she is willing to help us then even better. And yes, I believe Vivienne and these two are wearing dresses."
"Wait until you see my shoes, Lavellan, they are to die for."
I arched my brow at Leliana's change in character. I had seen her sign death warrants without so much as a blink and here she was gushing about shoes. It was nice to see her... relaxed. I couldn't help my small smile.
"Alright. Fine. You've convinced me. I'll do what I can to get information out of her but I don't know where you got the idea that I was such a coquette."
Evelyn smirked, "Well you seem to have both the your fellow agent and Solas under your thumb so I think we've made the right choice."
I barked out a mannish laugh to try and hide my embarrassment and muttered something about getting some rest.
"We'll see you at the gate at sunrise, Nevalla. And don't worry, we'll pack your dress."