บท 44: Chapter 44: Affairs of the Heart Pt.1
Having slept past their usual hour all on account of her leaving the next morning for the Emerald Graves, it was a pleasant, if indulgent, experience for Evelyn to be woken up by sunlight that reached her high up in her tower. Having spent the last four days in each other's company had been exactly what they needed to rekindle their blooming relationship. The clear blue sky and white-capped mountains amplified the warm yellow glow streaming in through the leaded stained-glass windows. The rays were so thick, that it was as if she could breathe them in with each deep inhale while she stretched. Turning to look over her shoulder she was met with a shining head of golden hair melding in with the light as if he wore a divine halo. The creases and tension that typically adorned his face were smoothed while he slept, making him look carefree nestled into the pillows. Studying his face as if she were a portraitist, Evelyn tried to commit Cullen's current state into her memory to take with her when she awakened alone in a canvas tent.
Facing forward, she closed her eyes, savoring his body's feel against hers in his tight embrace. With her backside flush against his front and his arm and leg pressing her into the downy mattress, he held her as if she'd float away should he let go. They had not moved their position for the past few hours, a fact that was confirmed by the significant dribble of drool she left on the arm he tucked under her. Wiping the evidence away of her long night of serenading him with her snoring, Evelyn spun to face him. Maker, he was unfairly handsome, and she couldn't help but caress his face along with the sunlight. Their first night back at Skyhold he had a bad nightmare, but that was only one because of Elissa Cousland's surprise appearance. Every other night had just consisted of his usual restless turning and jumping in and out of the covers because he'd get too hot.
Naturally, the bright light and her loving touches stirred him from his peaceful slumber. The past week of sharing a bed still seemed like a novelty, for each time he opened his eyes to see her, it was always with a start before smiling. This morning was no different.
When his sleepy eyes met her sultry gaze, she whispered sweetly to him, "Why is it you always look surprised to see me in the morning?" He smiled that rare grin at her, the contagious one that had yet to be burdened by the day's challenges.
With a deep breath causing his solid chest to rise a few inches as he reached his arms above his head, he settled back into the covers with her. "I still can't believe it, that's why."
She laughed with a luminous smile and brought her hands up to rest on his pectorals. Her fingertips glided through their coarse light-colored hair and he chin rested on him as well, "Pray tell, what's so unbelievable about it? The fact that you can sleep through my horrid snoring? Absolutely."
They chuckled together and his hand found its way to her hip, kneading the muscles around it, "I appreciate you recognizing my aptitude for heavy sleeping, that comes with living in a barracks, but no, that's not it." His honeyed eyes gazed at her in such a way she found herself breathless. "I truly believed that I'd never have this."
With a sympathetic nod, she knew exactly what he meant. For how long had they been told that a life outside of the confines of the Circle was impossible? That simply enjoying the comfort of another person was forbidden, despite basic instinctual needs. That love was unattainable. It was something normal people took for granted, to wake up every morning beside their partner before beginning their day. Did they acknowledge each other? Ask how they slept. Ignore each other or kiss them? What simple and trivial interactions they must seem to them having never been told you were not allowed these moments. Yet, somehow these two former Circle residents had achieved the impossible. It reminded her of the debate over dinner with Elissa and Hawke. It made her wish more and more something could be done so mages and Templars could have a morning like this; to wake in the arms of the man or woman they loved.
"Nor I." She leaned forward placing a lingering chaste kiss on his lips, despite there being nothing modest in her nakedness pressing against him. "You definitely didn't think you'd have fallen for a mage either, right? Especially a crazy fireball thrower such as myself."
He chuckled, "I leave the Order to get away from Templars and mages, and then fall in love with the first mage I find in the woods during my first week of my new position."
"Just remember, later on when I drive you positivity mad, that you could've prevented all this if you would've just killed me then and there." He half frowned and scowled at her. She cupped his face, "You and I both know you're not capable of such a thing, my lion."
"But I was once."
"And now you're not," she shot back without missing a beat, nor losing the cheeriness in her voice. "I won't look back if you don't? I think I'd rather look to our future."
His hands glided up her body to her face, and he pulled it closer to his. She could see it in his eyes that he was chastizing himself for what he once thought of mages and no doubt, he was fretting over all those insecurities. His leonine gaze swept all about as if looking for a reason to doubt the weight of her words but finding no fault in her sincerity. "Our future?" It was a precarious topic between them, but she didn't want to leave without telling him what she had done.
Nodding in his hands, she then grasped them in her own to return them to him. Sliding out of bed, she sauntered over to her desk picking up a letter she recently received. As she returned to him, Evelyn couldn't help but smile at the way he watched her hips sway. Crawling over the satin sheets to sit beside him, her skin was bathed in the bright yellow beams. Though she held the folded parchment out to him, he blindly grabbed for it, too entranced with the woman teasing him with her nakedness. "Before you read this, I want you to know that my original letter and this one was delivered under the highest security our Spymaster can offer."
Cocking an eyebrow up after a deep satisfied breath, he finally tore his eyes from her to read it. Evelyn watched his face with careful precision wanting to catch every shift in his emotions at the letter's content. Starting with the face he always made to focus his eyes on the script like in the War Room, it soon changed to shock, "You told your father we're courting?!" She bit her lip nodding in excitement and nervousness, waiting for him to finish reading the rest of it. After stammering and gaping, he glanced back down quickly skimming the rest, "… And he approves? B-but he doesn't even know me? I-I'm a commoner--"
She placed a finger on his lips leaning toward him, "You are the Commander of the Inquisition and a good man, Ser Cullen Stanton Rutherford of Honnleath. Most of all, you love me, and I you. No more needs to be said." Evelyn purposely left out his past affiliations, for he was no longer that man. Nor did she want to say it was also due to her mother's recent involvement with Ryker Aeron's plot. Her father had been vehemently enraged about that and forbade her mother from troubling her any more over suitors for the rest of her days.
"I should have met or written to him first for permission, is-isn't that how it's done? I mean… is it different for nobility or in the Free Marches? Maker's breath, I hardly know the custom in Ferelden! I… I…" At flustering him so, she couldn't help but smile at him. Catching her amused grin, he narrowed his amber eyes at her now displayed a resolve, calming himself down to a rational state. "I should write to him," he stated firmly.
She bit back a smirk, "That's the least you can do as you defile his favorite daughter nightly." Everything had felt so magical the past week, and their voracious appetite for each other was to be expected. At her words, his eyes mirrored a cat's when they'd just caught sight of their prey. With a burst of strength and speed, he tackled her back into the sea of sheets, which only made her squeal and laugh harder. Coming up for air, she jokingly added, "I don't think you should tell him that though."
"Please, I'm not that hopeless - out of my depth, yes, but not hopeless."
She claimed his lips passionately, murmuring against them, "You are mine, and I say you're perfect."
"Yes, my lady," he whispered back. After a minute or two, he pulled back with a saddened face, "I'm going to miss you and our mornings..." He buried his head in the crook of her neck as she hugged tight to him. "… And our nights," he muffled playfully biting at her shoulder. The more time they spent together, the more open Cullen was with her, even more than before their break.
Breathlessly, she sighed, "So am I, but I take comfort in knowing that while we may fight the Elder One now, one day - after I kill the bastard - there will be mornings where we're needed by no one. Having done our duty and served our time, I think it's the least we're owed--" A knock on the door froze the couple, as the Inquisitor called down to Saphira that she was in a meeting and would be down to breakfast soon. Her new maid was getting used to Evelyn's hectic schedule and her new increased need for privacy. She knew Josephine assigned her this one because she didn't take the mage's sass or 'no' even from her for an answer. "However, today is not that day."
To throw everyone off the scent of their nightly trysts, they've been up and about before most in Skyhold wake, making it infinitely easier to sneak about or pretend they had already been up training. It was widely known the two were early risers, so to see them up and about as the sun was just illuminating the mountains' silhouettes was a commonality to life in the Keep. This morning they were up far past sunrise, but since it was so much later than usual, they could pass it off as an early meeting about her trip tomorrow with no one the wiser. Getting themselves dressed, scooping up stacks of reports, and beginning a conversation pertaining to work as they entered the Great Hall, all was business as usual.
Except for the appearance of Leliana right outside the door waiting for them in the Great Hall...
"Erimond has finally given up something useful. Come." The Spymaster turned and they followed her down into the bowels of Skyhold's dungeon. Alone on the steep and narrow stairs, she asked, "Did you have a productive meeting this morning? You'll just have to fill Josie and me in later."
"Once a bard, always a bard, is that it Leliana?" Evelyn could not help but tease her back. Cullen however shot her a glance as if she shouldn't poke the bear.
"Remember, it was you who handed me that letter to your father."
"Silly me, to think you wouldn't read it," Evelyn replied in a droll tone.
"That is the price of my services. Secrets." They remained silent for a few more steps before she continued, "Evie, I think your description of your beau was accurate." Evelyn bit back a laugh at her caution in not mentioning him by name, though said person narrowed his eyes ahead on their guide. "I especially liked--"
"Shh! Really, Sister Nightingale? The Commander is right here. Surely, he does not wish to hear such gossip." Evelyn couldn't see Leliana's face but she knew she was wearing a smug smile from the way she looked back at her around her cowl. Cullen simply let go of an annoyed breath, shaking his head.
By the time they reached the cells and the guards were dismissed to wait outside, Evelyn asked, "Will the Ambassador be joining us?"
"No, she doesn't have the stomach for this." The once-light conversation turned suddenly dark as they approached Erimond's cell. Turning on her toes to address them, the two halted abruptly, "As requested, Inquisitor, the prisoner has not been harmed in a manner where it can be visually seen." The rush of rage she had felt back at Adamant for all the pain and manipulation he conducted to corrupt the mages came back. The sharp spike in her mana was hailed by the mark's green spark and the flash of her orange eyes. "He's been deprived of his magic for two weeks, by using one of our Templars to silence him a few times a day. I've kept with the traditional means of punishment, for his feeble mind and constitution away from the pleasures of Tevinter proved effective enough. I did, however… give him the push he needed to finally break."
Holding open her gloved hand, in her palm rested several Quillback needles. Evelyn knew of their uses in potions, but it was the Nightingale who had mentioned another use of them to her and Ilara one day in the Infirmary. If directly inserted into someone's skin, the traces of venom in the hollow barbs could cause immense pain. The more sensitive the location, such as under fingernails or behind the ear, the more it stings. The Inquisitor and Commander shared a knowing look, now understanding what that push of Leliana's entailed.
With that, she stepped out of their way to approach the cell door. Huddled in the shadow against the wall was the dirtied white coat of Lord Livius Erimond. His black greasy hair fell over his overgrown beard, but his prominent nose still stood out. As she had said, he didn't look harmed but he was certainly feeling the effects of whatever it was she did to him in addition to having his mana drained. His sunken eyes peered up at her with cold hate as he clung to his beliefs that his master was the god Thedas deserved.
"And what is it he gave up?" The Inquisitor crossed her arms looking at the redhead.
"One name. The Vessel, Calpurnia."
Cullen mirrored their intense looks but kept a hand on his sword staring Livius down. "A vessel of what?"
The prisoner choked out a laugh, his voice was hoarse from the evident screaming he had done lately under the careful attention of the Nightingale. "Your pathetic attempts to stop my master will come too late. You are months behind his plans. He will snatch victory from you before you are even aware you have failed." A sharp and sudden spin by Leliana had him cowering more so than Cullen's silent threat. Evelyn wouldn't have even known she turned having been so silent, except for the light brush of the Spymaster's chainmail against her leg.
"We don't know yet, but I already have people working on it. I should have a full profile on her soon, but as it happens, her name had come up in some documents we stole off Venatori messengers out of Val Royeaux. She's been speaking with a merchant by the name of Viscinius, but it's unclear yet as to their arrangement."
"Work out what you can while I'm away and send me a compiled report. In the meantime, Commander, prepare for his immediate execution."
Cullen looked curiously at her, "I thought he was to have a trial?"
"He is, but he's not going to plead for mercy." Evelyn growled over her shoulder to the Vint, "Are you Erimond?"
"Of course not, for the truth--" Leliana made him cower back further into his cell again with a look.
"Save it for the trial, maleificar," the Inquisitor spat. "As I said, ready the block."
"At once," he glowered lowly toward the cell before they all left.
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