"Hi?" Fae waved uncertainly. "Are you the arcanist?"

"That's me! Dagna, now Arcanist Dagna!" The young dwarf hurried over, grabbing Fae's hands in both of her gloved ones. "And you're Fae, now the Seer of the Inquisition!"

"Yeah, that's me," Fae gave her a strange look. Only the people who knew her called her Fae.

The woman's eyes widened. "Oh! You don't recognise me! Sorry! It was a long time ago, you probably don't remember," she smiled bashfully. "During the Blight, the Hero of Ferelden came to Orzammar. I met her, and you, and your other friends. I wanted to leave to study magic at the Circle, and she helped get me an invitation!"

Fae vaguely recalled a girl they'd met in Orzammar. Her father had disapproved of his daughter. Or did he disapprove of Neria? She couldn't remember. "Oh! That was you?"

"Yep, that was me!" Dagna beamed. "It's an honour, Your Worship."

"Oh, no, only the Inquisitor is 'Your Worship," Fae corrected her. "Besides, you already know me. You can just keep calling me Fae."

Dagna nodded eagerly, brushing away wisps of copper hair with her glove. "Okay! Let me show you what we're working with, Fae." She led her over to a large workbench which was currently only displaying scrolls of complex diagrams and pages of notes, as well as outlines of gowns and doublets.

"So, with the structure of the gown Madame Bertin is planning for the Inquisitor, we—that is, Harrit and me—" Harrit waved without looking up from his work. "—are reinforcing the corset to protect her internal organs from damage, just like she does for Empress Celene's gowns. But, unlike the Empress' gear, I've also worked out a way to embed runes to make the gown feel the same weight as it would normally. She'll still feel the repercussions of the gown's actual weight once it's off, it just won't be a problem when it's on. Useful for potential combat situations, or even just moving quickly." Dagna handed Fae a small bundle of sketches to flip through. "I've shown the runes to Madame Bertin, and she's going to make them just look like additional details in the embroidery, or the lace or something. I want to do the same thing with your gown, but yours will probably have more skirt than bodice, which means that I need to get the runes into your skirt without them affecting the way it moves. Swish-ability is a crucial factor in a ballgown, apparently. I also need to measure you today."

Fae was directed to the part of the smithy that was newly dedicated to Dagna's arcane work; twisted metal machinery of some kind, another workbench, anvil, and a grinding stone, all sized to suit Dagna's needs, and—
"Is that the head of a darkspawn?" Fae exclaimed, backing away from it.

"Oh, Larry? No, he's just a model, don't worry about it. I might be crazy but not 'holding onto Blight-tainted souvenirs' crazy," Dagna laughed, climbing a small step-stool. "Over here, we have work to do."

While Dagna made her own measurements and took notes, Fae's brow knitted, thinking. "Wait- I was told the Circle at Kinloch Hold was shut down not long after the Blight ended, and the new one hadn't been around that long before it the Circle broke down again. How did you keep studying magic?"

"I was transferred with some of the other mages to the Ostwick Circle," Dagna said around the measuring tape she was holding between her teeth as she worked. "I've actually visited at least half a dozen Circles, and I even showcased my findings to the College of Enchanters!" She boasted happily. "But then, as you said, everything sort of fell apart. So, I went back to the Ostwick Circle; a while back, First Enchanter Vivienne had even mentioned introducing me to the empress, can you believe it? Apparently, Empress Celene herself loves arcane mysteries as well! But, between the mage-templar war and then the Orlesian civil war, all I could do was stick with Vivienne's crowd and hope for the best. You should have seen my face when I met Sister Leliana again. And then you should have seen my face when she handed me a coin purse in advance! A really heavy coin purse. But I think I'm worth it. With me, you're not just getting a normal runesmith, or a normal armourer- no offense, Harrit."

"None taken."

"You're getting a specialised crafter. I make runes too, of course, but I'll also be researching all the cool magical stuff the Inquisition brings back to Skyhold, and using my experience of all the research I've already done. I can apply all of that to my work- make your armour a little stronger, or lighter, or whatever you need, with no risk of magical possession. The Tranquil can do that too, of course, but they don't tend to have the same kind of ambition, that yearning to learn more."

"…Yeah." Fae's expression had gone distant, and Dagna worried that she might have unintentionally offended her somehow. Maybe the Seer had Tranquil friends? Dagna quickly looked to Harritt for back-up, and he took it gruffly in stride. "We're also working on being able to modify the skirts for combat, milady," he said, standing up and grabbing a few buttons to show her. "Clips, buttons, laces- things that can put the skirt out of the way to make it easier to move around. It's got to be strong enough to hold it, but easy and fast enough to not be a hazard in itself. Every second counts when someone is trying to kill you, after all."

Fae nodded with a tight smile. "Hopefully they won't be needed."

"That's the thing with armour, milady. You make it and hope that it's not needed, but that it works if it is."

Dagna nodded enthusiastically, but fell quiet as she made her measurements. Fae could practically hear the thoughts darting around in the arcanist's head.

It was only mid-way through the morning at most, but Fae already felt exhausted. Someone knocked on the door to the smithy, and then opened it anyway. "Seer? I've passed some parcels that arrived for you on to Lia, she said she'll leave them for you on your desk."

"We're almost done here," Dagna whispered loudly.

"Thank you! I'll be right out," Fae called out, and the door closed.

"Ooh, have you been getting presents, Fae?"

"You could call them that, I guess."

Later, Fae stared at the latest small pile of packages on her desk, each wrapped in brown paper and tied with twine. The smallest one, and the bulky one on the right, gave her that specific pulling feeling that usually implied that there was something to see. She sighed. "Let's get this over with."