Duke Gaspard met them as they stepped onto the premises. Jacquelyn wasn't too impressed by him, but she knew how to play the Game. She knew how politics worked. There had once been a very good chance that she would partake in politics, a period during her childhood that she had wanted to be an ambassador for her family and her country. That was before she grew an interest in templars, in becoming a templar.

Gaspard stepped forward to greet them when he spotted the small group of Inquisition soldiers escorting them through the castle gates.

"It is a great pleasure to meet you, Inquisitor Trevelyan," he said, "I have heard much about you. Bringing the templars into your ranks was a wise move. Imagine what the Inquisition could accomplish with the full support of the rightful Emperor of Orlais!"

Jacquelyn wanted to give a smart answer, and wanted to ask him who that would be. But instead she just smiled, nodding politely.

"I can already imagine it."

"Keep the image firmly in mind. It might be in a future not so far away. I am not a man who forgets my friends, Inquisitor. You help me, I'll help you," he moved towards the entrance and Jacquelyn fell into step not far behind him. "Are you prepared to shock the assembly by appearing as the guest of a hateful usurper, my lady? They will be telling stories of this into the next age."

Gaspard stopped and turned to face Jacquelyn, Josephine not too far behind her, and the rest of the Inquisition members attending not too far behind Josephine. Jacquelyn kept her polite smile on her face.

"I look forward to doing my part in putting an end to this civil war."

"As do I, Inquisitor. As do I," Gaspard sounded tired, weary even. "As a friend, perhaps there is a matter you could undertake this evening."

He went on to talk about Briala, about how he suspected that she wanted to disrupt any peace talks. Jacquelyn wouldn't put it past her, from what she knew about the woman. An elf in a spy master-esque position, ex lover of Celene. Jacquelyn wouldn't put it past her to disrupt the negotiations simply out of spite, and to be honest, wouldn't be surprised if she was the threat to the empress.

"That does, indeed, sound like something I should look into."

Gaspard gave a weary sigh.

"Be as discreet as possible. I detest the Game, but if we do not play it well, our enemies will make us look like villains."

There was a sudden change in Gaspard's attitude as he smiled slightly, motioning to the palace.

"We are keeping the court waiting, Inquisitor. Shall we?"

Jacquelyn smiled, inclining her head towards Gaspard in a graceful nod, motioning with her hand that he should lead the way.

The fun was about to begin.

Jacen watched on as Josephine had quiet words with everyone about the situation they were about to head into. She seemed to take special care to speak with Cassandra and Siara, warning them to be careful and discrete, reminding them of what was at stake. Both of them seemed less than impressed about being spoken to like they were children.

"I think we're both aware of what's going on, Josephine. But thanks for the reminder."

Siara sounded like she was already getting tired of being there. Which Jacen was pretty sure wasn't a good thing. He recalled that she wasn't the most patient person, though he couldn't remember any specific examples. He could now remember hardly anything of his life before, and a lot of the time it still bothered him. But now there were moments where he didn't care. That there was only one thing he cared about. His duty. He needed to help.

"Please, just be on your best behaviour," Josephine begged. Siara took a deep breath and shared a look with Cassandra, then nodded.

"I promise I'll do my best."

"That is all we can ask." Josephine turned and together they walked to where they would be announced to the court. Jacen followed, silently, invisible to all who were gathered. He didn't mind. More than that, he didn't care.

He knew that there was once a time that he would have enjoyed watching the proceedings, and would have laughed at how uncomfortable Siara was in the situation. How uncomfortable she was at having her arrival announced to the entire court, to everyone milling around in the ballroom. To the empress.

But she looked great. The outfit Dorian had picked out for her suited her, and she had managed to do her hair up in a more fancy style than usual. It must have taken a while to do, the majority of her hair pulled back into a bun, being held in place by a net of braids. Two shorter strands of neatly curling hair framed her face, and on the whole she looked pretty put together. For once.

Naturally, Duke Gaspard was announced first, followed by Jacquelyn. They stepped down the stairs, crossed the floor, and up the next set of stairs. Next to be announced were Cassandra, Dorian, and Vivienne, followed by Jacquelyn's advisors.

Siara was the last to be announced.

"Eh… What was your name again?" the announcer asked.

"Namasiara Adahlen, The Blade."

He nodded, Jacen watching him blankly as he stepped forward once more.

"Namasierra Adahlen, The Blade," he called out, Siara rolling her eyes.

"Siara," she muttered, "Namasiara, not Sierra. Why is that so hard?"

She started down the stairs, not too far behind the advisors, watching as Jacquelyn reached the Empress and the woman standing next to her with Gaspard. Jacen walked next to her, stopping beside her as she reached the advisors. He noticed as Siara's eyes narrowed ever so slightly as she watched the woman standing next to Celene. Apparently he wasn't the only one.

"What is it?" Cullen asked quietly.

Siara shook her head. "Probably nothing."

"Are you sure? Your instincts don't seem to set you wrong very often."

"I'm no expert at the Game, so whatever it is, it's probably nothing. If it is something, you'll probably be one of the first to know about it."

Jacen knew Siara better than a lot of people. He knew the look in her eye. She didn't trust Florianne, but he could also tell that she wasn't sure if the distrust was because something seemed off about her, or simply because she was involved in politics. Siara never had been the best at judging people who played the Game. A part of Jacen seemed to recall that it had always been his job simply because Siara's ability to judge people had taken a bit of a hit when she'd had her run in with the templars when she was younger, even if she still had good instincts.

Jacen didn't pay a lot of attention to it, though. He paid enough attention to know what was going on, but it wasn't like he could do a lot to help. But he needed to be there. He needed to be able to help move things in the right direction if he could, needed to be able to direct Siara. He was still uncertain about a lot of things, such as how he could sometimes interact with the living world and sometimes he couldn't, but he knew - knew - that he could still send some form of communication to Siara. He just couldn't explain what it was, and just as he knew he could communicate with her, he knew that she had no clue that it was him. To her, it was just another form of her intuition. He was sure of that.

Cullen just gave Siara a look, clearly not entirely happy with her response, but let it be. After the official greeting from the duchess everyone could disperse into the crowd, Jacen sticking somewhat close to Siara but keeping half an eye on Jacquelyn when he could. They needed to make sure she would be safe.

He needed to make sure they were both safe.

Jacen stood by as Siara listened somewhat politely to the nobleman trying to hire her for one job or another. It was clear to Jacen from the expression on her face that she wasn't going to accept the job, but the man kept trying, but Siara's eyes were dulled with boredom. He was saying something to the extent of 'do this job for me and I'll pay you a lot of money', without actually saying 'do this job for me and I'll pay you a lot of money'. As far as Jacen and Siara could tell, he hadn't even gotten to the part about who he wanted what done to. Probably kill someone, but he hadn't even implied who. Or at least, Jacen didn't think he had. He didn't know as much about politics in the living world as he used to, didn't know how many nobles were still alive as he used to. It wasn't as though he needed to know for his job anymore.

"Look, I'm sorry, but my schedule is pretty full at the moment. If you're wanting me for a job, it'll have to wait until the Inquisition no longer requires my services."

Siara smiled sweetly, Josephine spotting the dour expression passing across the man's face and hurrying across the room to take over.

"I apologise for Siara's bluntness," she took over, Siara throwing her a smile of thanks, "she isn't the most accustomed to being in public."

Jacen didn't hear the noble's reply, noticing that Siara's attention was suddenly snapped away by someone in the crowd. To almost anyone else, he just looked like a normal man. But Siara knew better, a frown engraving itself on her face. Jacen frowned ever so slightly, feeling… something. Feeling anything was now a bit strange to him, and it caught him off-guard.

"If you'll excuse me," Siara muttered, gently moving past Josephine and vanishing among the Orlesians. Josephine didn't have much time to wonder where she was going, needing to turn her attention back to the noble and attempt damage control. Jacen simply followed Siara, heading towards the man in the crowds, the frown firmly etched onto his face.

Siara made as straight of a line as she could towards the man she had spotted. It took a bit, and eventually she gave up passing through the mass of people and stepped up onto the rails designed to prevent people falling to the ground below, walking along them as carefully and as quickly as she could. Unfortunately for the Inquisition, her actions turned a few heads, and she knew that all her bosses - especially Jacquelyn - would be groaning once they spotted her or heard of her antics. But she didn't care. If she was right about who she had spotted, which to be fair she could be entirely mistaken, then there were more important things than Siara being unsuited to political situations.

As she got closer, she slipped down from the rails and reached out to grab the man's arm, turning him to face her. Her face was stuck with an expression of concerned disbelief, and for a moment it was met with a look of polite confusion that was quickly replaced by joy.

"Siara!"

"Anders?"