Jacquelyn met with Varric on the battlements, not saying anything while she waited for the mystery guest. He never said who this friend of his was, but Leliana had seemed to have an idea when Jaquelyn had talked to her about it. As had Cassandra, and she did not seem pleased with whatever her suspicion was. That put Jacquelyn on edge. She wanted to trust the dwarf, she even almost thought of him as a friend once. But equally he, like Siara, was giving her mixed messages. She didn't like it when people kept secrets, especially when those secrets could have helped her a lot earlier.

She was pulled from her thoughts as someone approached, a man with dark hair and rather frightening looking armour.

"Inquisitor, meet Hawke. The Champion of Kirkwall."

"Though I don't use that title much anymore."

Now Jacquelyn understood. She might not know much about the Champion of Kirkwall, but she knew enough. And she could perfectly well understand why this would piss Cassandra off. She herself was a bit irked by this revelation.

"Hawke, the Inquisitor," Varric continued the introduction. "I figured you might have some friendly advice about Corypehus. You and I did fight him, after all."

Varric stepped away while Hawke made his way over to the wall, leaning on it casually. Jacquelyn couldn't stop herself from crossing her arms, struggling a little to keep her anger in check. Varric should have told them about Hawke a lot sooner.

"You've already dropped half a mountain on the bastard," Hawke was saying. "I'm sure anything I can tell you pales in comparison."

"Well, you did save a city from a horde of rampaging Qunari," she did her best to hide the snark from her voice. She wasn't exactly impressed with the Champion. She had heard about him, and he was impressive. But he was also involved in the Kirkwall Chantry being blown up by that apostate. Involved in the death of countless innocents.

"I don't see how that really applies. Or is there a horde of rampaging Qunari I don't know about?"

"There is a Qunari. I suppose he almost counts as a horde all by himself. Fortunately, he is on our side."

"So, then, what can I tell you?"

"Varric mentioned that fought Corypheus before," Jacquelyn kept her voice as even and void of anger as she could. She knew she had a job to do, and that there was a good chance that Hawke would be able to help. But that didn't stop her from being pissed off at Varric and uncertain that she could completely trust Hawke. Varric looked around from where he was drinking some booze or another.

"Fought. And killed. The Grey Wardens were holding him, and he somehow used his connection to the darkspawn to influence them."

"Corypheus got into their heads," Varric had put his bottle down and stepped over to join them again. "Messed with their minds. Turned them against each other."

"If the Wardens have disappeared, they could have fallen under his control again."

"If that is indeed what has happened to the Wardens, do you think we can free them?"

"It's possible, but we need to know more first," Hawke frowned. "I've got a friend in the Wardens. He was investigating something unrelated for me. His name is Stroud. The last time we spoke he was worried about corruption in the Warden ranks. Since then, nothing."

"Corypheus would certainly qualify as corruption in the ranks. Did your friend disappear with them?"

"No. He told me he'd be hiding in an old smuggler's cave near Crestwood."

"If you did not know about Corypheus, what were you doing with the Wardens?"

"The templars in Kirkwall were using a strange form of lyrium. It was red. I'd hoped the Wardens could tell me more about it."

"We have encountered red lyrium," Jacquelyn admitted. "We are familiar. Corypheus was using it to corrupt the templars and turn them into his slaves."

"Hopefully my friend in the Wardens will know more."

"If Corypheus has corrupted the Wardens, then it may be too late to save them."

"I understand. I'll do whatever's necessary to stop him. Corypheus is my responsibility. I thought I'd killed him before. This time I'll make sure of it."

Jacquelyn nodded.

"Thank you for your time," she said, then turned and walked away. She couldn't shake the feeling that there was something that Hawke wasn't telling her about Corypheus. Like she didn't quite understand why it was Hawke's responsibility to deal with Corypheus. Varric stayed behind. She assumed that it was because he wanted to have a bit of a catch up with his old friend. That dwarf seemed to have a lot of dodgy friends. Jacquelyn took a deep breath. At least she didn't get the feeling that Hawke lied to her about anything. Simply that he and Varric were keeping bits of the story from her. Hopefully nothing too important.

The Inquisitor sat down at her desk, pulling out a pile of paper and a quill before setting to scribbling. She would stop to think every now and again before setting back to the scribbling. She had to figure out their best move with this Warden - Stroud. Having another Warden with them when they went with him could be useful, but finding a Warden that they could trust would be interesting, difficult even. Their best chance would likely be to look for a Warden out on his or her own. But even then, with this new information from Hawke… Jacquelyn let out a sigh, putting her quill down and resting her head in her hands.

She wished she could talk to Cullen about this. He would know what to do, he would know how to calm her thoughts. He just had a way of doing that. She stood from her desk and crossed over to her balcony. What was the commander doing right now? Was he all right? She wouldn't ponder if he was safe or not, because she knew the answer to that. Or she believed that she did. He would never be safe, not alone with Siara. The best Jacquelyn could hope for was that they had made it to Denerim, so now Cullen would never be alone with Siara.

She frowned, shaking her head, trying to pull herself from those thoughts. She had a job to do. Jacquelyn leaned on her railing. The best course of action would be to ask Leliana's people to keep an eye out for any Wardens on their own. Well, any Wardens to be honest. Any that weren't acting suspicious. They were already searching for the Wardens, but perhaps they needed to be asked specially to keep an eye out. Jacquelyn did not want to walk into a trap when she went to Stroud. And if the Wardens were being affected by Corypheus, there was no saying if they could trust any of them. And she didn't completely trust Hawke as it was, so she didn't feel particularly confident going into a smuggler's cave to look for Stroud.

Jacquelyn turned and headed out of her room, down to find her advisors. She needed people to bounce ideas off. She only wished that Cullen would also be there. Hopefully Leliana, Cassandra, and Josephine would be enough. Cassandra and Cullen sort of thought similarly on certain topics, so hopefully this would be one of those times. But something told Jacquelyn that first she would have to calm Cassandra down. Heck, Jacquelyn wished she could calm herself down. Cassandra wasn't the only one who was pissed at Varric.