Eventually, I will deviate from OC POV only when focusing on the other planned/potential pairings. Also, this chapter features some strong violent thematic elements. I guess I say, "trigger warning." I'm taking some liberty with a few characters and changing things up, but what else would you expect from a fanfic, eh? Thanks for support and Cheers!

Sword of Justice

Melusine sat up straighter, her entire body going rigid for a moment, as Leliana's report sunk in. Both Josephine and Cullen balked at its contents, saying it was too outrageous to be believed. Cassandra remained silent mostly, but from her expression, it seemed she felt there could be some basis of truth in it. Melusine fought against her own painful memories to remain in the moment.

"What do you think?" She whispered, her eyes only on Leliana. "Do you believe these reports and witnesses to be accurate? Or are they falsehoods manufactured to discredit one who seeks to discredit the Inquisition?"

Leliana sighed, "It has happened in the past. This abuse of position. Clerics, chanters, sisters, reverends, and chancellors have all come under ridicule for this sort of thing. I find it the nature of unchecked power, the desire to abuse it to get what you want. Be it more power or something far more twisted. Such as this."

"If it is true," Cassandra spoke with disgust in her voice, "to despoil the Chantry with such actions and then pretend to do the will of the Maker?" Her eyes darted back to Melusine. "This cannot go unchecked."

"How many supposed victims have come forward?" Josephine asked, and at Melusine's sharp look, she quickly added, "We do not know yet if these reports are fact."

"Almost twenty have been questioned, and of that number near thirteen have confirmed the details in the reports." Leliana glanced at the paper in her hands, then looked back to Melusine and the others. "None of these individuals would be able to gain power or profit for the denouncement. It would be illogical for many of these individuals to make up such a story. There is far more danger in a confession such as this than in keeping silent."

Cullen leaned against the war room table, "There is a lot to consider with this matter." Melusine bit her tongue to let him finish. "I propose that we reconvene this afternoon, giving us all some time to think on this."

The others agreed. Melusine kept silent and left the war room stiff. She did not follow Cassandra to the training field, as had been the original plan. Instead, she walked to the tavern. She heard Cassandra call after her, but she kept walking. There were too many memories haunting her at the moment to care about Cassandra's frustration, or anyone else's. She needed a drink to steady her nerves so she could "think on this" as Cullen advised.

The tavern was blessedly empty, save a few stragglers here or there. It wasn't yet the noontime meal, but the scent of cooking food in the kitchen reminded Melusine she hadn't had anything to eat since before the sun rose. She signaled the barkeep. She'd eat later. Just needed the drink for now. Melusine clutched the glass, closing her eyes as she heard a long-dead voice echo in her brain. With a grunt, she downed the amber liquid and signaled for another. This time the face of the dead taunted her mind's eyes, and Melusine kicked back another shot, signaling for a third. It had been years since she'd had to deal with these memories, and since it'd been so long, Melusine had thought she'd finally gotten a handle on them. Downed the third, signaled for a fourth. But this incident was proving that hope false.

"You going to slow down any time soon?" Dorian's voice was what slowed Melusine down enough to sip at her fourth shot.

Melusine snorted, "Hadn't planned on it, but now that you've suggested it." She took another sip and closed her eyes. "Aren't you supposed to be off somewhere with that Knight-Captain Rylen making sweet, sweet love?"

"Oh, that's a Tuesday only event." Dorian's light voice coming from so close to her right had Melusine opening her eyes. The Tevinter took the stool at her side and had also ordered a drink. "He's off somewhere in the Hinterlands at the moment. Should be back by tomorrow for our scheduled affair."

Despite the torment her past brought back to her, Melusine smiled, "It's good to know someone around here is getting some action reciprocated."

Dorian's eyes narrowed, "Somehow, I don't think that's why you're in here drowning in liquid spirits."

Melusine opened her mouth to reply, but Sera's arrival in the tavern quieted her. Some intel for Leliana's report had come from the Friends of Red Jenny. Sera looked deadly serious for once, and that fact had Dorian abandoning his glass on the bar as he took to his feet again. Sera ignored him and looked directly at Melusine.

"Chancellor Roderick and Mother Elienne has just arrived."

Dorian looked between Sera and Melusine but said nothing when Melusine finished her drink, Dorian's too, then moved toward the door. She heard the elf rogue and mage following along behind her silently. It didn't take Melusine long for her eyes to fall on the Chancellor standing outside the keep's doors talking animatedly with her advisors. Mother Elienne stood to his side, her arms crossed over her chest as she too listened to the Chancellor. Melusine's hand fell to the hilt of her sword as she started toward them. Each step closer filled her mind with another memory, another haunting remark, another ghost touch.

"So, you do not deny these accusations?" Melusine heard the note of incredulity in Cassandra's raised voice even at her distance.

Melusine saw the Chancellor wave his arms casually back and forth in front of him as he replied, "There is no reason to deny an accusation when it is false. If there are any reports of such behavior, that must come from before Mother Elienne took her orders in the Chantry, and if those ridiculous actions occurred, I can assure you they would have been entirely consensual. But you can see," he stepped aside to gesture to the middle-aged woman, "she is not the type to commit such actions."

The Chancellor ended his remarks as he turned and saw Melusine approach. She recognized the look on his face. It was one of confidence, self-assurance, it was the face of someone who believed what he was saying. The look on Mother Elienne's face, however, told another story. She believed the truth could not harm her and would harm others who tried to bring the truth to light. Melusine had seen that expression before and knew it well. She gripped her sword tighter but remained silent. She was aware that this discussion was drawing the attention of their other companions, along with many other agents for the Inquisition. She noted Scout Harding standing near Blackwall at the edge of the group, and, at any other time, this fact would have brought a smile to her face.

"I would like to know of those who sought to drag my name through the gutter with these so-called confessions." Mother Elienne looked to Leliana. "They should not go unpunished for their efforts to defile my good name."

Leliana shook her head, "I will not give you those names."

"Then, you will be punished alongside them." The Chancellor's face grew red as he yelled at their group, "Alongside you all. This Inquisition is a farce. And you will all-"

Melusine moved faster than ever in her training. She moved more confidently and accurately than even she thought possible. One second she was standing alongside the rest of them, listening to yet another barrage made by the Chancellor. The next, her sharp gaze was boring into his look of horrified confusion. Melusine heard cries of alarm from around her, but she had eyes and ears only for the Chancellor.

"This, Chancellor," she shifted her grip on the hilt of her sword and watched as his face drained of blood. She'd stabbed the sword through his robes as a warning, possibly knicking his side in the process "is about as consensual as her interactions with those children."

What fear had been in his face melted away to a self-assured smirk at her words, "You'll prove nothing. Not with your incompetent spymaster, washed up templar, apostate Seeker, and any other filth of Thedas that you've drawn to your side." He pushed against Melusine's shoulders and ripped his robes off her sword.

Mother Elienne added in a near whisper with only the Chancellor and Melusine aware of her words, "I am untouchable to the likes of you."

Melusine glared at the Chancellor after the Mother spoke and noticed a slight tremor in the muscles around his eyes. Melusine turned on her feet to walk away. But when her mind's eye pulled up the images of her own past along with the imagined images of the abuses reported, Melusine stopped. When she moved again it was in one fluid motion. She shifted her grip on her sword hilt, pivoted on her feet, and sliced the blade cleanly through the Mother's neck. More cries, gasps, yells, but the Mother was silent and would be for the rest of all time. Her decapitated head fell to the ground as her corpse crumbled into the dust.

Aware that more than just her companions had witnessed this, Melusine looked into the shocked crowd and spoke with a measured voice, "The Mother Elienne was accused of sodomizing and abusing over a dozen children. Despite the victim's reports handed over to the Inquisition and confirmed by members outside the Inquisition, Mother Elienne believed herself to be untouchable and above justice." Melusine brought her eyes back to the Chancellor. She surged forward, earning a cry from the Chancellor, and ripped a segment off his robe. Using it to clean her sword, she spoke again, "No one is above justice, Chancellor. Not even myself. And be they warranted or not, I will reap the consequences of the choices members of the Inquisition make, along with my own." Melusine sheathed her sword and held the bloodied garment in her hands. "As a leader, you know the sins of your followers reflect on you, even without justification. If you had taught them better, led them better, honored the Maker more in your service, oh if only..." She stepped forward and grabbed the Chancellor's hand. He barely struggled against Melusine before she placed the garment in his hand. "Her sins are on you, and her blood rests on both our shoulders."

She was aware of the utter silence of the crowd—the heaviness of the air. Melusine left the Chancellor gaping and walked to Cullen. She unclasped her sword belt and handed the weapon to him. He took it without a word, his eyes full of questions, though his face was hardened into an expression of neutrality. Next, Melusine took out her daggers, and these too she handed to the warrior. This done, she turned to Cassandra.

"Until we can know for certain if the Mother Elienne could have been convicted of her crimes, I place myself under your arrest, Seeker. If it comes to pass she was not guilty, I submit myself to the full extent of the law."

Cassandra nodded, silently leading Melusine back into the keep and down to the dungeons. Melusine had hoped to never return to this place, but with this action, it seemed she might become a permanent resident. The Seeker was taking her to the cell located in the deepest, darkest corner. Either out of punishment for Melusine's impulsive action or out of protection against potential assassins sent by the Chantry in retaliation, Melusine didn't yet know. Cassandra didn't speak until it was just the two of them walking down the darkened corridor.

"What you did to Mother Elienne." Her words died in the darkness as they walked on.

Melusine nodded to the warrioress's back, "If she was innocent, I will feel regret. But until then, I do not and will not. I have no tolerance for such people."

Cassandra said nothing more until Melusine was on the other side of the cell door. She didn't close it right away but stood in the cell door studying Melusine as if seeing her for the first time.

"It did not seem like you to react so-"

"Violently? Impulsively?" Melusine sat on the uncomfortable cot she'd been acquainted with months before.

"Those and also with what appeared to be a divine passion for justice." Cassandra fiddled with the keys in her hand. "Right or wrong, you believed the Mother guilty, and you did not hesitate to execute judgment for her crimes."

"Is that a begrudging tinge of respect I hear in your voice, Seeker?" Melusine smiled at the woman she'd considered her friend. Only time would tell if her actions outside the keep would render her dead, outcast, or work to elevate her in the eyes of her companions.

Cassandra winced but said nothing. She closed the door but remained a moment longer. She glanced around Melusine's cell and spoke mostly to herself as she turned to leave, "I will fetch you food and drink."

"Maybe a pillow and blanket while you're at it?" Cassandra glanced back at Melusine just in time to see Melusine shrug. "I have a feeling I'm going to be here for a wee bit."

Cassandra disappeared down the corridor. Alone for the first time since the incident, Melusine felt her whole body shake. She'd killed before in this world, but never through decapitation. And it wasn't so much the killing that left her shaking and then pacing the length of her cell as it was the fact that she'd liked it. Melusine found no pleasure in killing the darkspawn or rebel mages and templars they came up against on their quests. That was business and no pleasure. But killing Mother Elienne had been different. It was as if-

"So, darling," Melusine's jumbled thoughts came back to the present at the sound of Vivienne's approaching voice, "did it happen to you, or to someone you loved?"

Melusine stared at the mage as the ever impeccably dressed woman drew closer. She held a few books in her hands, along with a brush and a mirror. Melusine felt her stomach lurch at Vivienne's question, and at the reality the question brought with it. Vivienne handed the items through the cell bars as she waited for Melusine to answer.

"What do you mean?" Melusine chose the cowards way and stalled.

Vivienne rolled her eyes and crossed her arms over her chest in a thoroughly judgmental way, "Do not play coy with me, Melusine. It doesn't agree with your complexion."

"I thought you said there was nothing to be done for my complexion." Vivienne shifted her hips in the opposite direction, letting Melusine know she wasn't leaving soon, and she was not amused with Melusine's efforts to stall. "What tipped you off?"

Vivienne studied her nails, "Oh, I don't know, darling, between the robe-stabbing and the decapitation, you had more than a few tells giving you away."

"Both." Melusine sat down on her cot, setting Vivienne's gifts to the side.

"Excuse me?" Vivienne looked up from her nails and studied Melusine.

"It was both myself and someone I loved." Vivienne looked around the room and spying a rotten looking stool decided to remain standing as Melusine settled into the telling. "First, it was me. I was too young to think I should say anything to anyone. I thought I'd get in trouble if I did since they were older than me and had a lot of power in the community, and they used that against me. Before it was all over, I thought I had done something to deserve it. That maybe there was something wrong with me, and because of this, that maybe I would always be broken, and I'd never be able to get past it. Worse yet, that no one would want broken goods like myself." Melusine sighed and looked back to Vivienne, "You wouldn't have a drink on you, would you, dear?"

Vivienne shook her head, "Perhaps later. Now, when you told your family, did they repay this dastardly individual for their abuse?"

"I told no one."

"What?" Vivienne sounded shocked and disappointed. "Why ever not? From your display outside, I would think that would have been your first action taken."

Melusine laughed without humor, "I didn't say they weren't punished. Just that I didn't tell anyone, and my family did not pay them back."

"Oh," Vivienne's lips drew back in a murderous smile, "do go on."

"It was years later, while one of my cousins was visiting, that I noticed odd behavior from my cousin's son. It reminded me of what I must have looked like all those years ago. When I investigated the situation, I discovered that the same bastard who'd preyed on me was trying to prey on my cousin's son." Melusine stood up and paced her cell again as the memories came flooding through the broken dam. "I told the bastard to back off, but they knew I was still too cowardly to use my own experience as evidence, and they taunted me." Melusine stopped and gripped the bars of her cell, her eyes squeezed shut. "I tried to be subtle in warning my cousin, in protecting her son. But I was ridiculed by my family, and by this individual who had ingratiated themselves to my family. They were even more powerful then than when I was a child, and they kept reminding me that based on my not so stellar record of behavior, they would be believed over me. Perhaps even by my own family." She shook the bars in remembered anger. "I felt powerless as I watched the signs worsen with my cousin's son, and I felt just as guilty as if I were doing the abusing. I'd lived through that hell, and here I was letting the same hell happen to him?" Melusine's voice rose as her heart fell. When Melusine opened her eyes, she saw a look of compassion on Madame de Fer's face.

"So, were you a coward then, and that's why you so swiftly killed Mother Elienne?" Vivienne didn't pull her punches, and Melusine respected that about her.

"I was still a coward, and I didn't gut the bastard regardless of consequences. But I didn't do nothing." Melusine gave Vivienne a quick smile and resumed her pacing. "I purposefully made my cousin's life so miserable that she felt she had no choice but to move away, taking her son and refusing to speak with me or allowing him to either." Melusine kept it to herself that in this world, none of her family could ever speak to her again. "It took me a few years, but I eventually dug up enough dirt on the abusive bastard for a lifelong round of blackmail and extortion." Melusine sat back down on the cot and leaned against the stone wall. "My cousin's son never had to pay a dime for his education, and neither one ever had to pay rent up until the day that bastard died."

"Good for you, darling. Sometimes sudden death is too much a mercy." Vivienne stood straight again and inclined her head toward the corridor, "Have you heard enough to satisfy your curiosity?"

Melusine stiffened and looked into the corridor just in time to see a guilty looking Cullen emerge into the torchlight, accompanied by an equally guilty looking Cassandra. Melusine pinched the bridge of her nose. Telling the tenacious Vivienne these memories was one thing, but airing it out for the others, especially Cullen, was not something she'd wanted to do. But there was nothing to be done about it now. Time would tell how much they'd heard, and, in truth, Melusine had nothing to hide—at least not about that. Maybe by knowing some pain of her past, they could sympathize with Melusine's actions in the present.

"You have my blanket?" Melusine asked Cassandra, offering the warrioress as open a smile as she could manage at the moment.

Cassandra nodded and hurried over to push both pillow and blanket through the bars. Cullen strode forward, carrying a tray of food. Cassandra unlocked the cell so the templar could hand it over to Melusine. The man looked incredibly uncomfortable as he handed the tray over, and at a loss for words. Cassandra had a near mirror image expression on her face as she remained by the door. Vivienne interrupted the awkward silence.

"I'll work with Leliana. We'll be quick about building a case. This Inquisition will go nowhere with the Inquisitor stuck in a cell." Vivienne sighed. "The rifts won't close themselves."

Melusine smiled, "Thank you, Vivienne." She gave the woman a knowing look, "For everything."

"Nonsense, darling. I should thank you. I've always found Mother Elienne to be a pretentious whoremonger willing to do anything and anyone to gain power." Both Cullen and Cassandra were taken aback at Vivienne's emphatic reply. The woman gave an elegant eyebrow raise, "I'm not alone in the sentiments. She was tolerated but not liked by most in the Chantry. I can only imagine the Chancellor's willingness to look away came from Mother Elienne's readiness to lend her personal and monetary support to his efforts in condemning the Inquisition. Desperate men will do just about anything. Including allowing wolves to live among the sheep." Vivienne gave a dismissive wave in Melusine's direction before she disappeared down the corridor as silently as she'd appeared.

Cullen watched the mage go, then turned his emotion-filled eyes back to Melusine. They stared at each other in silence, momentarily forgetting Cassandra's presence. Something shifted in his gaze, and Melusine felt her breath hitch in her throat. It was almost as if he shared her pain, or at least understood it personally. But Cassandra jangling the cell keys had both Cullen and Melusine remembering her, and after clearing his throat, he stepped back outside the cell.

"We did not mean to eavesdrop." Cullen's voice was low as he reached out and took hold of one of the bars. "You were already speaking to Vivienne of your past by the time we returned with the items you requested." Cullen sighed. "It was rude and inconsiderate of us, but we thought it best not to interrupt."

Melusine shifted the tray to one hand and reached out, laying her fingers atop Cullen's, "I hold no grudge. It isn't easy, doing the right thing." She waited until a semblance of a smile touched the corners of his mouth before she moved away and sat back on the cot.

"I am," Cassandra tipped her head to the side and looked heavenward, as if the ceiling would offer her advice on what to say, "sorry," she didn't seem satisfied with her own word choice but stuck with it and returned her eyes to Melusine's figure, "for the pain you went through. Had we known-"

"You never would have involved me with those reports?" Melusine smiled, but Cassandra shook her head with a frown. "Then what?"

"I could have supported you better." Cassandra looked away, and it was then that Melusine realized the Seeker felt guilty for Melusine's actions.

"Getting me food and a more comfortable pillow is plenty of support, Cassandra." When Cassandra looked ready to protest, Melusine continued, "What happened is no one's fault but the Mother's and my own. And justice must prevail. I'm counting on you both to ensure that happens." They nodded, but Melusine pressed, "I need to know which one of you will do it, if it comes to pass."

Cullen frowned, "Do what?"

"I'm assuming the punishment for murder is death." Melusine smiled at their equally shocked looks. "I'd like to know which of you will be the one to execute me."

Cassandra waved away Melusine's words, "There is no need to talk of such things. We will focus our attention on finding evidence that proves you were in the right for your action." She turned on her heel and started back toward the corridor, stopping only when she noticed Cullen not following, "Commander?"

"I'll follow in a moment."

Cassandra glanced between them but said nothing before leaving. Cullen, unlike Vivienne, saw the half-rotted stool and dragged it over to sit on outside her cell. Melusine stood and walked over, holding out half the loaf of bread he'd brought her.

"I'm not hungry."

Melusine rolled her eyes, "It'll feel weird if I'm the only one eating here."

"Very well." He took the bread and Melusine ignored the slight thrill she got when their fingers brushed against one another in the handoff.

Melusine tucked into the soup and kept eating even as the silence lapsed on. Cullen tore off little pieces of the bread, almost not noticing as he placed them in his mouth and chewed. Melusine figured Cullen would explain his delay soon enough. She didn't have to wait long.

"Has anyone ever told you about the events at Fereldan Circle?"

Melusine shook her head. She didn't even know that was a thing, where it was, or why it was a circle and not an octagon.

Cullen continued, "I was a young templar there. Young and naïve." His voice died out as if he'd gotten caught in the past.

"We all have to start somewhere, Cullen." Melusine drew him back to the present with her empathetic jest. He nodded at her words, and she smiled reassuringly, "Go on."

"Demons overtook the Circle. Abominations. And the templars, my friends, were slaughtered before my eyes." His voice had taken a distant quality that Melusine recognized. She'd spoken in a similar tone just moments before with Vivienne. She knew Cullen was reliving his memories the same as she had done. "I don't know why they chose me to remain alive. But they tortured me. Tried to break my mind as they broke my body." His fingers tightened on the bread roll, and Melusine watched as it broke into tiny now inedible crumbs scattered on the dungeon floor. Cullen's eyes traveled up from the ruined bread to meet Melusine's gaze, "These memories have always haunted me."

Melusine set aside the tray and stood up. As she moved to the bars, Cullen also stood and drew close. She reached through the bars and laid her palm against his cheek. H didn't draw away and instead reached through the bars and placed his hand on the curve of her neck. Melusine leaned her head forward and rested her forehead against the bars. She felt Cullen do the same, and they stood there silently for a few moments. After taking a deep breath and slowly letting it out, Melusine tipped her head back again. She stroked her fingertips down his cheek and along his jawline. His fingers drew across her neck before squeezing her shoulder.

"Thank you for trusting me enough to share this, Cullen." Melusine reluctantly withdrew her hand, though she remained by the bars. "I realize it must not have been easy."

Cullen's smile was sad, "I never told anyone what happened to me at the Circle. Not until today."

"We have that in common then." Melusine shared his smile, then gave another sigh. "You should probably head back to the war room. I'm sure the other advisors are already waiting."

Cullen nodded and stepped away. Melusine strangely felt colder now that he wasn't as close, but she knew it only her imagination. The temperature of the room had not changed.

"I will check on you later."

Melusine nodded, "And, while you may not approve," Cullen's eyebrows rose and Melusine smiled, "could you do me a favor and send me a drink?"

Cullen shook his head and sighed, though Melusine thought she saw a smirk on his lips before he wiped it away into an expression of feigned judgment.

"I'll see what Varric or Iron Bull can come up with, does that suit?"

Melusine nodded and hated watching him leave. For now, she was alone with her memories and the trepidation of not knowing if she'd just murdered an innocent woman or if she'd acted as the sword of justice. Oh yes, the drink would come in handy.