Here lies the abyss, the well of all souls.
From these emerald waters doth life begin anew.
Come to me, child, and I shall embrace you.
In my arms lies Eternity.
—Canticle of Andraste 14:11
From these emerald waters doth life begin anew.
Come to me, child, and I shall embrace you.
In my arms lies Eternity.
—Canticle of Andraste 14:11
It was a long horse ride from Jader to Skyhold. Tactically, the placement was sound. No one would ever want to throw an army at a mountainous fortress... But his ass was no army, and it felt every hard stone along the trek. The boat from Kirkwall was pleasant in contrast, especially since he didn't have to read any reports to set up patrols along the way. Ashton figured he must just be getting old, or settling down made him soft or something. One or the other. He remembered the days when he called such an excursion like this a vacation. Now all he wanted was to sit in a padded chair in front of a roaring flame. Why it still had to be winter to compound it all was beyond him-- maybe fate just hated him. He could really make a case for it.
Luckily, he needn't have to suffer for much longer, as he could just see Skyhold and the bridge that led into it in the horizon. At its sight, he tsked to himself, thinking on just how far his friends had come from Kirkwall. How they had a castle now. Granted, he had his little piece of the Vicountess's Keep, but now... That seemed a bit quaint considering where some of the others stood. He shook his head, and remembered that he wasn't the jealous type. That just meant he didn't need to travel with an escort like Sophia had.
He'd missed that trip no few months ago, and instead had sent his best guardsmen to be a part of her escort while he tended to the homefront. Vesper was among them, and he'd reread the report she made a few more times before he left Kirkwall. Still, written word couldn't do much for Skyhold. The singular castle was huge against the skyline with an architecture entirely different from the angles of the Keep. And the walls... Vesper wasn't wrong when she called it a fortress.
A horse appeared on his right, a surefooted and stocky Fereldan breed that had no trouble scaling down the uneven mountainside. Seated atop it was a young elven woman, her face marked with vallaslin that was immediately familiar to Ashton. Lia never really rode horses when she still lived in Kirkwall, but she looked comfortable in the saddle now, if not particularly warm. A scarf was wrapped around the lower half of her face, a heavy cloak draped over her shoulders, the tips of her ears peeking out from underneath her long blonde hair and burning red. A few more scouts appeared at several vantage point, but none of them had bows drawn or appeared threatening.
Lia waved in greeting and spurred her horse into a canter once she was on level ground, speeding along the road until she could pull a stop alongside Ashton. She pulled the scarf down from her face, revealing a genuine grin. "Rilien said you were coming. I'm glad you managed the trip in one piece."
"Tell that to my ass," Ashton replied, shifting uncomfortably in his saddle. They didn't have to ride many horses in Kirkwall, usually only in order to flush out a bandit hive on the outskirts on the Wounded Coast. He stared at her, putting on his best grumpy face, before it shattered a moment later with a massive grin. He leaned over, wrapping an arm around her and bringing her in for a hug, rubbing his knuckles across her scalp playfully. He wasn't entirely worried about the scouts that could put an arrow in him at a moments notice-- if Lia was half as professional as she seemed now, she would've warned them about him.
"Oh sweetheart, it's good to see you again," he said, making no qualms about not hiding the genuine joy in both his face and words. He bore a Kirkwall orange cloak around his own shoulders, the orange and gold neckerchief of the Kirkwall guard captain poking out above the neckline. On his back a bow and quiver stocked full of arrows, as well as a sheathed standard issue sword. He barely took his arms off in Kirkwall, he wasn't going to leave them home while he traveled.
"How are the rest of the Lions?" He asked, though there were a hundred other questions he also wanted to ask. Some of those were probably going to get pushed back at a later time, though.
"We're great," she answered, putting her hair back to order after she was able to escape from his hug. Her face was a little red, but that could easily be blamed on the cold. "I can't speak for the guys Lucien hung on to, but I'm sure they're doing fine. I'm sure they're warmer than us, too. But we're great. Come on, we can talk on the way in." She wheeled her horse around, leading the way forward and up towards Skyhold.
"Let's see... Cor's a Captain now. He's a natural, you should see him train the recruits. Donnelly's always on the front lines, but he helps out all over the place. Hissrad works with Cor a lot, and Stel... well, Stel's got a lot on her plate. Probably the only one of us that isn't fond of her new job. But she's doing really well, even if she'd never admit it." She turned in her saddle to look back at him. "How's Kirkwall? I hope you enjoy watching over a city more than you did watching over a shop."
"I'll have you know that I was very fond of that shop," he said in a rather indignant tone. However he soon shrugged to say that it was a jest. There were more than a few days he closed the shop because he wanted to take on far more stimulating mercenary work with extremely interesting people. "I sold it, you know?" he revealed, "What with my job and you leaving town, I didn't have the time, nor the manpower," nor the motivation, though he didn't say that bit, "So yeah. I just sold it. I think someone is selling textiles out it now," he said.
After that he shrugged. "It's peaceful, more peaceful than it has been," He said, though that wasn't saying much. It felt like the city had always been embroiled in some sort of battle, whether it was the Qunari, or the strife between the mages and templars. "Though personally I'm bracing myself for whatever is up next." It was a touch of pessimism from an eternally optimistic man, but... "Peace doesn't tend to last with us," he said with a small smile. Still that didn't mean he didn't believe that they wouldn't persevere, he believe that they stronger than that. Then he shrugged and continued, "Vesper is in charge of the Guard until I get back-- bless their poor souls, that woman is a taskmaster," he said with a laugh.
"And Nostariel? How's she doing?" she glanced back with a teasing look. "Is married life all it's made out to be?"
Ashton was quiet at that, a serious, but sad look creeping into his face. "I... don't know."
"Oh." Lia's mouth hung open for a second, obviously confused, but she decided not to ask anything else. She bit her lower lip, looking a bit concerned herself, though if it was simply over his response, or lack thereof, was unclear. They had arrived at the gate, mercifully breaking up the suddenly awkward moment. Lia gave a curt greeting to the guards there and led the way inside once the gate had been raised.
A stableboy came to greet them once they were within the walls of Skyhold proper, and Lia dismounted, handing over the reins. She turned back to look up at Ashton. "You're probably looking to speak with Stel, then?"
"And Rilien, if you would," he added also dismounting and handing the reins off. Sure it would be nice to see his little white haired elf buddy again, but he felt that Rilien would also want to hear the information that he had. The Spymaster should be privy to it, after all.
"Right. Hopefully he's not too hard to find. Follow me. Oh, and welcome to Skyhold." It looked to have been a while since the last snow, unless the Inquisition was especially good at clearing it from the grounds. The walls offered some protection from the wind, though the air was still chilly, and only grew more so as Lia led him into the fortress and up the main set of stairs into the castle's great hall.
There they were met by the warm air given off from the crackling fires, and greeted with the sight of the Inquisition throne at the end of the hall. The hall was immense, at least compared to his little office in the Keep's barracks. He let his gaze shift upward to take it all in before finally falling back onto the throne. He frowned for a moment. It was like everyone was getting thrones but him... And his little office chair didn't count.
They didn't linger long, as Lia soon took a sharp right and pushed open a door that was slightly ajar, knocking clearly a few times as she did. "Stel? I've got a visitor for you, a certain friend of ours from Kirkwall."
Estella was already standing when they entered, dressed in what looked like full gear. From the redness to her face and the wild strands of hair loose from the braid she wore, they'd caught her just after practice, rather than before. Rilien was still present as well, fortunately, which at least meant no one had to go looking for him.
It didn't take her more than a second to recognize him, even considering how long it had been. She offered a small smile. “Ashton. It's good to see you." Being the Inquisitor hadn't seemed to change her demeanor much if at all—she still stood straight, but rather unobtrusively. To look at her next to Rilien, one might get the wrong idea about which one was actually halfway in charge of the castle and everyone in it.
“How was the trip?" Unsurprisingly, she didn't seem to know the exact purpose of his visit yet. He'd have to break that particular piece of news himself.
He offered quick wave in her direction, but was already moving, almost not even hearing the question asked of him. A grin was spread wide on his lips and he held a singular determined purpose in his gait. In one swift movement, where once Rilien stood, he now held aloft by Ashton in bearhug. "Ugh, it's been too long," he said, half whining as he did, "Letters just aren't the same." He swung the smaller man just a bit before finally setting him back down on the ground, though his hands were still plastered to his shoulder.
"It is good to see you, again."
If anyone could survive a bear hug still looking as utterly unperturbed as ever, it was Rilien. Once his feet were set back on solid ground, he blinked slowly at Ashton, folding his arms into his sleeves. “Letters are indeed different." He inclined his head slightly. “No parchment has ever attempted to collapse my ribcage. Seeing you is not much relief, considering." The tone of his voice was invariant, but Ashton had known the tranquil more than long enough to recognize his arid sense of humor.
Estella coughed softly, clearly disguising laughter.
Ashton shrugged, "Hey, builds character. You know you loved it," Ashton said with a little mischievous twist to his lips. He definitely missed those dry attempts at humor.
“I did not." The negation of Ashton's hypothesis was blunt, but Rilien did not attempt to linger on the point. He glanced at Lia and Estella both, apparently deciding that whatever he had to say could be said in front of the both of them.
“The tone of your last letter indicated some urgency. Please elaborate."
"I..." He began by glancing at everyone in the room, before facing back to Rilien, "Got a letter from Nos." All the humor that he had only moments ago was soon sucked back out of the room, and the same melancholy that Lia had seen when she asked replaced it. "She had started making expeditions with Stroud again, but she had always kept in contact, visiting and sending letters, except about a year ago they just... stopped."
What he didn't reveal immediately was the worried mess he had been the months afterward. He had asked Rilien to keep an eye out for her in their letters while he did a little searching himself, but neither found anything, at least not until her letter. "Her letter didn't have any specifics in it, I feel she was afraid to reveal too much in a letter in case it got intercepted but the gist of it was that she needs help."
He sighed after that, crossing his arms and shaking his head. That wasn't it. "Ordinarily, I would've raced off to find her immediately but..." He said, biting his lip. It took a certain amount of restraint not to do it regardless, "Well, from what information Ril had given me, it seems that Corypheus appeared right around when her and her letters stopped coming." His lip raised at mentioning the name. He had been surprised to read it when Rilien had relayed the information, and for good reason. "Thing is, I know we killed the bastard in the Deep Roads."
Rilien took the information in for a moment. Of course, he'd known more of it than the others, and so it wasn't that surprising that he was the first to speak. “It seems that you were mistaken. I know not how, but there is no doubt Corypheus is alive, and as you described him to be before." He paused, then narrowed his eyes fractionally. “Did Nostariel convey to you her precise location?"
"Long, gangly creature that looks like a darkspawn with a human face stretched across its skull? Hard to mistake something like that," Ashton said with a shake of his head. "She's relayed that she's hidden away somewhere in the Western Approach, in Orlais."
Estella pursed her lips. “We don't have any presence in that region," she said, crossing her arms loosely over her chest and shifting her weight to the left. “But I think we could manage to get some there, if we needed to. I bet Leon would be fine sending some of Lia's scouts out that way." She nodded to her friend and fellow Lion. “And then probably an advance party of some of the rest of us."
Meeting Ashton's eyes, she tilted her head to the side. There was obvious sympathy in her expression, and a subdued concern. “If Nostariel was asking for help, I'm certain it's important enough to investigate. Besides... she's a friend. If we can't even help our friends, there's no way we can deal with Corypheus." Pushing out a soft sigh, she dropped her arms back to her sides. “I know you probably need to rest, but I hope you're all right with meeting the Commander and Lady Marceline first. They can help start getting things planned." She paused, then continued in a gentler tone.
“We'll find her."
Luckily, he needn't have to suffer for much longer, as he could just see Skyhold and the bridge that led into it in the horizon. At its sight, he tsked to himself, thinking on just how far his friends had come from Kirkwall. How they had a castle now. Granted, he had his little piece of the Vicountess's Keep, but now... That seemed a bit quaint considering where some of the others stood. He shook his head, and remembered that he wasn't the jealous type. That just meant he didn't need to travel with an escort like Sophia had.
He'd missed that trip no few months ago, and instead had sent his best guardsmen to be a part of her escort while he tended to the homefront. Vesper was among them, and he'd reread the report she made a few more times before he left Kirkwall. Still, written word couldn't do much for Skyhold. The singular castle was huge against the skyline with an architecture entirely different from the angles of the Keep. And the walls... Vesper wasn't wrong when she called it a fortress.
A horse appeared on his right, a surefooted and stocky Fereldan breed that had no trouble scaling down the uneven mountainside. Seated atop it was a young elven woman, her face marked with vallaslin that was immediately familiar to Ashton. Lia never really rode horses when she still lived in Kirkwall, but she looked comfortable in the saddle now, if not particularly warm. A scarf was wrapped around the lower half of her face, a heavy cloak draped over her shoulders, the tips of her ears peeking out from underneath her long blonde hair and burning red. A few more scouts appeared at several vantage point, but none of them had bows drawn or appeared threatening.
Lia waved in greeting and spurred her horse into a canter once she was on level ground, speeding along the road until she could pull a stop alongside Ashton. She pulled the scarf down from her face, revealing a genuine grin. "Rilien said you were coming. I'm glad you managed the trip in one piece."
"Tell that to my ass," Ashton replied, shifting uncomfortably in his saddle. They didn't have to ride many horses in Kirkwall, usually only in order to flush out a bandit hive on the outskirts on the Wounded Coast. He stared at her, putting on his best grumpy face, before it shattered a moment later with a massive grin. He leaned over, wrapping an arm around her and bringing her in for a hug, rubbing his knuckles across her scalp playfully. He wasn't entirely worried about the scouts that could put an arrow in him at a moments notice-- if Lia was half as professional as she seemed now, she would've warned them about him.
"Oh sweetheart, it's good to see you again," he said, making no qualms about not hiding the genuine joy in both his face and words. He bore a Kirkwall orange cloak around his own shoulders, the orange and gold neckerchief of the Kirkwall guard captain poking out above the neckline. On his back a bow and quiver stocked full of arrows, as well as a sheathed standard issue sword. He barely took his arms off in Kirkwall, he wasn't going to leave them home while he traveled.
"How are the rest of the Lions?" He asked, though there were a hundred other questions he also wanted to ask. Some of those were probably going to get pushed back at a later time, though.
"We're great," she answered, putting her hair back to order after she was able to escape from his hug. Her face was a little red, but that could easily be blamed on the cold. "I can't speak for the guys Lucien hung on to, but I'm sure they're doing fine. I'm sure they're warmer than us, too. But we're great. Come on, we can talk on the way in." She wheeled her horse around, leading the way forward and up towards Skyhold.
"Let's see... Cor's a Captain now. He's a natural, you should see him train the recruits. Donnelly's always on the front lines, but he helps out all over the place. Hissrad works with Cor a lot, and Stel... well, Stel's got a lot on her plate. Probably the only one of us that isn't fond of her new job. But she's doing really well, even if she'd never admit it." She turned in her saddle to look back at him. "How's Kirkwall? I hope you enjoy watching over a city more than you did watching over a shop."
"I'll have you know that I was very fond of that shop," he said in a rather indignant tone. However he soon shrugged to say that it was a jest. There were more than a few days he closed the shop because he wanted to take on far more stimulating mercenary work with extremely interesting people. "I sold it, you know?" he revealed, "What with my job and you leaving town, I didn't have the time, nor the manpower," nor the motivation, though he didn't say that bit, "So yeah. I just sold it. I think someone is selling textiles out it now," he said.
After that he shrugged. "It's peaceful, more peaceful than it has been," He said, though that wasn't saying much. It felt like the city had always been embroiled in some sort of battle, whether it was the Qunari, or the strife between the mages and templars. "Though personally I'm bracing myself for whatever is up next." It was a touch of pessimism from an eternally optimistic man, but... "Peace doesn't tend to last with us," he said with a small smile. Still that didn't mean he didn't believe that they wouldn't persevere, he believe that they stronger than that. Then he shrugged and continued, "Vesper is in charge of the Guard until I get back-- bless their poor souls, that woman is a taskmaster," he said with a laugh.
"And Nostariel? How's she doing?" she glanced back with a teasing look. "Is married life all it's made out to be?"
Ashton was quiet at that, a serious, but sad look creeping into his face. "I... don't know."
"Oh." Lia's mouth hung open for a second, obviously confused, but she decided not to ask anything else. She bit her lower lip, looking a bit concerned herself, though if it was simply over his response, or lack thereof, was unclear. They had arrived at the gate, mercifully breaking up the suddenly awkward moment. Lia gave a curt greeting to the guards there and led the way inside once the gate had been raised.
A stableboy came to greet them once they were within the walls of Skyhold proper, and Lia dismounted, handing over the reins. She turned back to look up at Ashton. "You're probably looking to speak with Stel, then?"
"And Rilien, if you would," he added also dismounting and handing the reins off. Sure it would be nice to see his little white haired elf buddy again, but he felt that Rilien would also want to hear the information that he had. The Spymaster should be privy to it, after all.
"Right. Hopefully he's not too hard to find. Follow me. Oh, and welcome to Skyhold." It looked to have been a while since the last snow, unless the Inquisition was especially good at clearing it from the grounds. The walls offered some protection from the wind, though the air was still chilly, and only grew more so as Lia led him into the fortress and up the main set of stairs into the castle's great hall.
There they were met by the warm air given off from the crackling fires, and greeted with the sight of the Inquisition throne at the end of the hall. The hall was immense, at least compared to his little office in the Keep's barracks. He let his gaze shift upward to take it all in before finally falling back onto the throne. He frowned for a moment. It was like everyone was getting thrones but him... And his little office chair didn't count.
They didn't linger long, as Lia soon took a sharp right and pushed open a door that was slightly ajar, knocking clearly a few times as she did. "Stel? I've got a visitor for you, a certain friend of ours from Kirkwall."
Estella was already standing when they entered, dressed in what looked like full gear. From the redness to her face and the wild strands of hair loose from the braid she wore, they'd caught her just after practice, rather than before. Rilien was still present as well, fortunately, which at least meant no one had to go looking for him.
It didn't take her more than a second to recognize him, even considering how long it had been. She offered a small smile. “Ashton. It's good to see you." Being the Inquisitor hadn't seemed to change her demeanor much if at all—she still stood straight, but rather unobtrusively. To look at her next to Rilien, one might get the wrong idea about which one was actually halfway in charge of the castle and everyone in it.
“How was the trip?" Unsurprisingly, she didn't seem to know the exact purpose of his visit yet. He'd have to break that particular piece of news himself.
He offered quick wave in her direction, but was already moving, almost not even hearing the question asked of him. A grin was spread wide on his lips and he held a singular determined purpose in his gait. In one swift movement, where once Rilien stood, he now held aloft by Ashton in bearhug. "Ugh, it's been too long," he said, half whining as he did, "Letters just aren't the same." He swung the smaller man just a bit before finally setting him back down on the ground, though his hands were still plastered to his shoulder.
"It is good to see you, again."
If anyone could survive a bear hug still looking as utterly unperturbed as ever, it was Rilien. Once his feet were set back on solid ground, he blinked slowly at Ashton, folding his arms into his sleeves. “Letters are indeed different." He inclined his head slightly. “No parchment has ever attempted to collapse my ribcage. Seeing you is not much relief, considering." The tone of his voice was invariant, but Ashton had known the tranquil more than long enough to recognize his arid sense of humor.
Estella coughed softly, clearly disguising laughter.
Ashton shrugged, "Hey, builds character. You know you loved it," Ashton said with a little mischievous twist to his lips. He definitely missed those dry attempts at humor.
“I did not." The negation of Ashton's hypothesis was blunt, but Rilien did not attempt to linger on the point. He glanced at Lia and Estella both, apparently deciding that whatever he had to say could be said in front of the both of them.
“The tone of your last letter indicated some urgency. Please elaborate."
"I..." He began by glancing at everyone in the room, before facing back to Rilien, "Got a letter from Nos." All the humor that he had only moments ago was soon sucked back out of the room, and the same melancholy that Lia had seen when she asked replaced it. "She had started making expeditions with Stroud again, but she had always kept in contact, visiting and sending letters, except about a year ago they just... stopped."
What he didn't reveal immediately was the worried mess he had been the months afterward. He had asked Rilien to keep an eye out for her in their letters while he did a little searching himself, but neither found anything, at least not until her letter. "Her letter didn't have any specifics in it, I feel she was afraid to reveal too much in a letter in case it got intercepted but the gist of it was that she needs help."
He sighed after that, crossing his arms and shaking his head. That wasn't it. "Ordinarily, I would've raced off to find her immediately but..." He said, biting his lip. It took a certain amount of restraint not to do it regardless, "Well, from what information Ril had given me, it seems that Corypheus appeared right around when her and her letters stopped coming." His lip raised at mentioning the name. He had been surprised to read it when Rilien had relayed the information, and for good reason. "Thing is, I know we killed the bastard in the Deep Roads."
Rilien took the information in for a moment. Of course, he'd known more of it than the others, and so it wasn't that surprising that he was the first to speak. “It seems that you were mistaken. I know not how, but there is no doubt Corypheus is alive, and as you described him to be before." He paused, then narrowed his eyes fractionally. “Did Nostariel convey to you her precise location?"
"Long, gangly creature that looks like a darkspawn with a human face stretched across its skull? Hard to mistake something like that," Ashton said with a shake of his head. "She's relayed that she's hidden away somewhere in the Western Approach, in Orlais."
Estella pursed her lips. “We don't have any presence in that region," she said, crossing her arms loosely over her chest and shifting her weight to the left. “But I think we could manage to get some there, if we needed to. I bet Leon would be fine sending some of Lia's scouts out that way." She nodded to her friend and fellow Lion. “And then probably an advance party of some of the rest of us."
Meeting Ashton's eyes, she tilted her head to the side. There was obvious sympathy in her expression, and a subdued concern. “If Nostariel was asking for help, I'm certain it's important enough to investigate. Besides... she's a friend. If we can't even help our friends, there's no way we can deal with Corypheus." Pushing out a soft sigh, she dropped her arms back to her sides. “I know you probably need to rest, but I hope you're all right with meeting the Commander and Lady Marceline first. They can help start getting things planned." She paused, then continued in a gentler tone.
“We'll find her."