"You can come up here anytime you want," Lia said, walking backwards through the great hall, still leaving bits of snow here and there as she walked. "Meals are served in the hall here if you're hungry. Stel's office is just there on your right, her door's always open if you need anything. Romulus is further back and down the stairs on the right, Lady Marceline's office on the left. We passed through it on the way to the war room. Come on, this way." She turned and led the way towards a closed door on their left, between two of the long tables that were situated along that wall, sparsely occupied this time of the afternoon with soldiers and templars and the odd mage or two, eating or just speaking to one another.
Ithilian had to admit, he was paying less attention to the tour than he was to Lia herself. He'd gotten the important bits, like where he needed to sleep and eat, where the infirmary and training grounds were, where the Commander's office was and where Rilien had taken up residence as the Inquisition's spymaster. But the biggest thing he took away from it all was that Lia loved it here. Her mood had obviously been lifted by being together again with him and Amalia, but he could see it in her enthusiasm, the way she wanted them to see the place she'd come to call home. How much she obviously wanted them to like it, too.
He thought the fortress was very impressive, and the Inquisition seemed very much at home in it. Maybe too at home, considering that it was technically within Fereldan borders. He also figured he was doing much better with the cold than Amalia, wrapped in layers as she was.
"The gardens are through here," Lia explained, turning to walk forward as she pushed the door open, and then another behind it. "Best place to think in Skyhold, or so I've heard. Plenty of scout's nests hidden around the mountains that are just as good, and sheltered from the wind, too."
"Probably not hidden too well, if your work in the Graves was anything to go by." Harsh, perhaps, but there was a glint to his eye and a curl of his lips that belied his seriousness.
She shoved at his arm playfully. "Yeah, yeah, rub it in." She led them to the edge of the garden's covered area, which surrounded the inner grounds in a square. There she spun about and situated herself atop the low railing after brushing the dusting of snow off of it. "Anyway, it's a lot prettier when it's not winter, but it's always peaceful here. And that's it! Tarasyl'an Te'las. Skyhold. Pretty awesome, right?"
"It is impressive," Amalia agreed, one of her rare smiles touching her mouth. For all that she was clearly not fond of the cold, she never did show any discomfort with it. Only the extra layers gave her away. "You have done well for yourself, Lia." A position as the leader of the Inquisition's scouts was nothing to be looked down upon, regardless of what one thought of the organization itself, to be sure. And 'well' by Amalia's standards was excellent by most others.
"Thanks," she said, grinning broadly, before the expression faded a little. "It's, uh... it's been a really long road, for sure. Feels like forever since the Conclave."
"You were there, then?" Ithilian crossed his arms, allowing his concern to show. "I'd managed to piece together that some of the Argent Lions were there, but didn't know if you were one of them." All he'd heard beyond that were stories of the devastation left in the blast's wake, the charred ruins of the Temple of Sacred Ashes, and the wildly conflicting stories about the pair that had somehow survived it all.
"I was. Not close to the center when it blew, but... close enough that I had to duck for cover." It was obviously a sobering memory for her. "I figured Stel and the others inside were all dead, and for a while it was touch and go, but she pulled through. After that there was... barely any time to rest. We were fighting demons, throwing together the Inquisition, moving into the lands around Redcliffe. How much have you guys heard about the things we've done? So much happened while you were away." Ithilian didn't think she meant it, but she sounded a bit regretting of that. Not blaming, though. They hadn't so much as known where to look for her, and time spent doing that was time that Marcus could be allowed to escape, or prepare to meet them next. It had been so difficult to allow themselves even the smallest reprieves, when it seemed certain that victory or defeat against him would balance on a knife's edge.
While Lia spoke, Amalia glanced around, finding a bench nearby and clearing it of snow. She took a seat on it, pulling her legs up underneath her and wrapping her cloak more securely about her person. "We have heard some things," she said. "But many of them have been from unreliable sources. The Venatori speak of you in certain terms, and those we encountered on the road or the settlements we've passed through have had varying accounts of matters as well."
She pulled her hood down, extracting her long braid and letting it fall over one shoulder. "We've surmised that it was the Inquisition that closed the... Breach, it was called. We know some things about Corypheus as well. But the rest of it has been mostly rumors, and quite different from one telling to the next." With some of the things they'd heard, it would probably be better for Lia to just tell them her version of events rather than try to get her help correcting the gossip and stories. There were quite a lot of them, after all.
"Right..." She rotated sideways on the railing, letting one leg hang over the edge while she leaned back against a stone pillar, facing Amalia. "Well, at Redcliffe was where we first fought the Venatori. Stopped some really weird magic plot they had there, I honestly don't know all the details. Most of the mages we have here came from there, and the templars we have are the ones who stayed loyal at Therinfal Redoubt. They helped us close the Breach all the way. Then it got... messy." Ithilian took a seat on another bench near the wall, across the narrow walkway from Amalia.
"The Inquisition was still based at Haven at this point?" he asked. Lia nodded.
"That was our last night there, yeah, and our first encounter with Corypheus and his dragon. His army attacked without warning. I was wounded really early on just trying to get word back of their approach. Probably would've died if Romulus and Khari hadn't been outside the walls for some reason." Details about the battle had been scarce for everyone, naturally, but the rumor for a while was that the Inquisition had been crushed, that the few of them who survived were left to wander the mountains. Obviously that hadn't been the case.
Lia let her head fall back against the stone. "After that, Vesryn led us here, to Skyhold." She paused, almost rolling her eyes. "Well, Stel was at the front... she's awesome, but there's no way she knew this place existed, or where it was. Vesryn's the pretty one with the fancy armor, you met him. He knows a lot about these places, apparently." Indeed, he'd seemed a curious sort to Ithilian, but admittedly he had bigger concerns at the moment than meeting new people, of which there were many here.
"And after relocating here?"
"It took us a while to settle in, and Corypheus was biding his time, too. Couple of smaller-scale missions in the meantime. You probably heard about that whole 'Blood of Andraste' thing? Yeah, that was a mess. Romulus is cool, though. Bit like you. Not half as mean as he looks." Ithilian had indeed heard of the news, though it had only really just gotten started before the news came that it was all ended and a ruse. One of the larger strikes against the Inquisition's reputation, actually.
Lia's expression became significantly more grim after that. "Eventually, Ashton came to visit, and led us to investigate where the Grey Wardens had gone. Their trail led to Nostariel in the Western Approach. Corypheus had sent that madman, Elias Pike, to spin a story for the Wardens. Terrify them into doing something incredibly stupid. We didn't have a choice but to attack them at the fortress they'd holed up in." She shifted uncomfortably in her seat, her eyes falling down towards her lap. "It... got ugly. A lot of people died. Nostariel, she... she didn't make it. Ashton wanted to tell you, but we didn't know where to find you."
Amalia appeared to absorb that news very slowly. Her expression didn't change much from the impassive one she'd assumed while Lia was explaining the sequence of events, but after a moment, her brows did furrow. Ithilian knew well that she had as many emotions as anyone else, many of them extremely deep. But it was not often that she showed them; they were largely internal, for her. Her hands, resting on her knees, tightened—he could see the dark skin of her fingertips whiten with the pressure she was applying.
"Do you know what happened to her, exactly?" she asked, her tone quiet, contained.
"You should ask Stel if you want to hear it from someone who was there," Lia answered, just as quietly. She'd been right about the gardens. It was very quiet here, and there was no need to raise voices any further, even if Lia was naturally prone to doing so in good company. "They were chasing Pike after the battle had turned against him. Nostariel, Stel, Ash, some others. He lured them to a bridge, used his magic to destroy it and send them falling into a chasm. Stel saved them by using her mark to... take them physically into the Fade. She didn't mean to do it. They had to fight a fear demon there called Nightmare. It was the thing messing with the Wardens' heads. They killed it, but it had this monster that they couldn't hope to fight. Nostariel bought them time to escape through another rift. She knew what it meant for her, she just... did it."
Releasing a breath, Amalia nodded. "I see." Her grip eased; some of the tension in her frame melted away. Her thoughts were still hard to read off her expression, but it seemed that had assuaged some doubt or something of the kind. "We heard the Wardens had left Orlais, close to the beginning of the year." It must have been the same event.
She closed her eyes, then blinked them open again. "What about since then? I believe someone ran into Marcus directly at some point. He was injured and we had not caused it."
Lia exhaled a bit of her own tension as well, obviously more than willing to move on to a new topic. "Yeah... yeah, that was Harellan. He helped out a group of ours when they chased after someone who tried to assassinate Stel's brother Cyrus."
"Harellan?" Ithilian asked, knowing full well what the name's meaning was.
"Weird, I know. He's, uh... he's been looking after our horses since he got here."
Ithilian raised his eyebrows. "The stableboy is the one that injured Marcus?"
Lia looked like she couldn't decide if Ithilian was being serious or not, but she half-smiled herself. "He's not a stableboy. Honestly, I don't really know who he is, but he's a mage, and I think Stel and Cyrus knew him from before the Inquisition. I'm sure he'd talk to you if you wanted to meet him. He seems friendly enough."
Amalia's next breath sounded more like a huff. Almost amused, even. "Sharp knives might wear humble sheaths," she mused, lifting her shoulders. "There seems to be proof enough of that here as well." There had certainly been plenty in Kirkwall.
Lia nodded her agreement with a small smile. "After that, we didn't run into the Venatori again until the Emerald Graves. Seems like they're gone from there now, though, so... who knows where they'll pop up next. We'll be there, wherever it is. And you're here now, which seems like it's their every worst fear realized." She sounded more than a little pleased with that.
"We should've been here sooner," Ithilian said. He'd been thinking it since Lia relayed the news of Nostariel's death, but that wasn't all that had caused it. The things happening here were important, and Lia had been wrapped up in the middle of them from the beginning, while Ithilian was off hunting a man in something that had been, until very recently, a very personal affair. They'd been going after Marcus long before he was the Venatori general, before his schemes threatened the world. More than that, they'd failed to hunt him, to kill him and free themselves in time to be here and assist the people they had come to care for when they might've been needed most. If he and Amalia had just known the danger the others were in, maybe they could have—
"Hey. No, that's not okay." Lia was frowning down at him from where she sat, hands resting on her knee. She seemed to have been reading his line of thought. "It doesn't matter why you left. You've been going after an evil man, one of the most dangerous men in the world. That isn't time wasted. You both deserve a chance to be in a world without him." She turned, pulling her legs off the railing and setting her feet back on the ground, coming to stand again. "And you're here now. Staying too, right?"
"We are." Amalia said it with certainty, glancing once at him before she returned her attention to Lia. "For now, both of the things we want most to do align: we can hunt Marcus alongside this group, and also be present. For you and for the others, should we be needed." The way she said it left no doubt that she found the second part to be the more important one, even despite how important it was to her to be free of the man who'd hunted and haunted her for the better part of her entire life.
She half-smiled, just a small one. "As kadan has already said, there does seem to be plenty we can offer your Inquisition, as well. I think it will be good, that we came to be here."
"There is one thing I can offer you now, if you'd like," Ithilian said quietly, slowly pushing himself up to stand. It took more effort some days than others, but this time he found it quite the simple thing.
Lia regarded him curiously. "What's that?"
"A name." He smiled for her, actually a bit nervous for some reason. "My name. And my clan's name, if you would like one to call your own. Mordallis will likely remain a clan of ghosts, and the two of you are the only ones I'll ever call lethallan. Family, if I've earned the right to call myself your father."
Lia's smile was small and fragile at first, but grew and strengthened even as her eyes watered. She struggled for words on the spot for a moment, shifting her weight awkwardly, but she started forward just as the tears started to spill over onto her cheeks. "I think I've been your daughter for years." She wrapped him in a hug, one he was ready for this time, curling his arms around her and feeling an uncomfortable amount of emotion welling up inside his own chest. "It's about time you came around to it."
His voice was gravelly when it came out, choked up as it was. "I've always changed slowly, da'len."
Ithilian had to admit, he was paying less attention to the tour than he was to Lia herself. He'd gotten the important bits, like where he needed to sleep and eat, where the infirmary and training grounds were, where the Commander's office was and where Rilien had taken up residence as the Inquisition's spymaster. But the biggest thing he took away from it all was that Lia loved it here. Her mood had obviously been lifted by being together again with him and Amalia, but he could see it in her enthusiasm, the way she wanted them to see the place she'd come to call home. How much she obviously wanted them to like it, too.
He thought the fortress was very impressive, and the Inquisition seemed very much at home in it. Maybe too at home, considering that it was technically within Fereldan borders. He also figured he was doing much better with the cold than Amalia, wrapped in layers as she was.
"The gardens are through here," Lia explained, turning to walk forward as she pushed the door open, and then another behind it. "Best place to think in Skyhold, or so I've heard. Plenty of scout's nests hidden around the mountains that are just as good, and sheltered from the wind, too."
"Probably not hidden too well, if your work in the Graves was anything to go by." Harsh, perhaps, but there was a glint to his eye and a curl of his lips that belied his seriousness.
She shoved at his arm playfully. "Yeah, yeah, rub it in." She led them to the edge of the garden's covered area, which surrounded the inner grounds in a square. There she spun about and situated herself atop the low railing after brushing the dusting of snow off of it. "Anyway, it's a lot prettier when it's not winter, but it's always peaceful here. And that's it! Tarasyl'an Te'las. Skyhold. Pretty awesome, right?"
"It is impressive," Amalia agreed, one of her rare smiles touching her mouth. For all that she was clearly not fond of the cold, she never did show any discomfort with it. Only the extra layers gave her away. "You have done well for yourself, Lia." A position as the leader of the Inquisition's scouts was nothing to be looked down upon, regardless of what one thought of the organization itself, to be sure. And 'well' by Amalia's standards was excellent by most others.
"Thanks," she said, grinning broadly, before the expression faded a little. "It's, uh... it's been a really long road, for sure. Feels like forever since the Conclave."
"You were there, then?" Ithilian crossed his arms, allowing his concern to show. "I'd managed to piece together that some of the Argent Lions were there, but didn't know if you were one of them." All he'd heard beyond that were stories of the devastation left in the blast's wake, the charred ruins of the Temple of Sacred Ashes, and the wildly conflicting stories about the pair that had somehow survived it all.
"I was. Not close to the center when it blew, but... close enough that I had to duck for cover." It was obviously a sobering memory for her. "I figured Stel and the others inside were all dead, and for a while it was touch and go, but she pulled through. After that there was... barely any time to rest. We were fighting demons, throwing together the Inquisition, moving into the lands around Redcliffe. How much have you guys heard about the things we've done? So much happened while you were away." Ithilian didn't think she meant it, but she sounded a bit regretting of that. Not blaming, though. They hadn't so much as known where to look for her, and time spent doing that was time that Marcus could be allowed to escape, or prepare to meet them next. It had been so difficult to allow themselves even the smallest reprieves, when it seemed certain that victory or defeat against him would balance on a knife's edge.
While Lia spoke, Amalia glanced around, finding a bench nearby and clearing it of snow. She took a seat on it, pulling her legs up underneath her and wrapping her cloak more securely about her person. "We have heard some things," she said. "But many of them have been from unreliable sources. The Venatori speak of you in certain terms, and those we encountered on the road or the settlements we've passed through have had varying accounts of matters as well."
She pulled her hood down, extracting her long braid and letting it fall over one shoulder. "We've surmised that it was the Inquisition that closed the... Breach, it was called. We know some things about Corypheus as well. But the rest of it has been mostly rumors, and quite different from one telling to the next." With some of the things they'd heard, it would probably be better for Lia to just tell them her version of events rather than try to get her help correcting the gossip and stories. There were quite a lot of them, after all.
"Right..." She rotated sideways on the railing, letting one leg hang over the edge while she leaned back against a stone pillar, facing Amalia. "Well, at Redcliffe was where we first fought the Venatori. Stopped some really weird magic plot they had there, I honestly don't know all the details. Most of the mages we have here came from there, and the templars we have are the ones who stayed loyal at Therinfal Redoubt. They helped us close the Breach all the way. Then it got... messy." Ithilian took a seat on another bench near the wall, across the narrow walkway from Amalia.
"The Inquisition was still based at Haven at this point?" he asked. Lia nodded.
"That was our last night there, yeah, and our first encounter with Corypheus and his dragon. His army attacked without warning. I was wounded really early on just trying to get word back of their approach. Probably would've died if Romulus and Khari hadn't been outside the walls for some reason." Details about the battle had been scarce for everyone, naturally, but the rumor for a while was that the Inquisition had been crushed, that the few of them who survived were left to wander the mountains. Obviously that hadn't been the case.
Lia let her head fall back against the stone. "After that, Vesryn led us here, to Skyhold." She paused, almost rolling her eyes. "Well, Stel was at the front... she's awesome, but there's no way she knew this place existed, or where it was. Vesryn's the pretty one with the fancy armor, you met him. He knows a lot about these places, apparently." Indeed, he'd seemed a curious sort to Ithilian, but admittedly he had bigger concerns at the moment than meeting new people, of which there were many here.
"And after relocating here?"
"It took us a while to settle in, and Corypheus was biding his time, too. Couple of smaller-scale missions in the meantime. You probably heard about that whole 'Blood of Andraste' thing? Yeah, that was a mess. Romulus is cool, though. Bit like you. Not half as mean as he looks." Ithilian had indeed heard of the news, though it had only really just gotten started before the news came that it was all ended and a ruse. One of the larger strikes against the Inquisition's reputation, actually.
Lia's expression became significantly more grim after that. "Eventually, Ashton came to visit, and led us to investigate where the Grey Wardens had gone. Their trail led to Nostariel in the Western Approach. Corypheus had sent that madman, Elias Pike, to spin a story for the Wardens. Terrify them into doing something incredibly stupid. We didn't have a choice but to attack them at the fortress they'd holed up in." She shifted uncomfortably in her seat, her eyes falling down towards her lap. "It... got ugly. A lot of people died. Nostariel, she... she didn't make it. Ashton wanted to tell you, but we didn't know where to find you."
Amalia appeared to absorb that news very slowly. Her expression didn't change much from the impassive one she'd assumed while Lia was explaining the sequence of events, but after a moment, her brows did furrow. Ithilian knew well that she had as many emotions as anyone else, many of them extremely deep. But it was not often that she showed them; they were largely internal, for her. Her hands, resting on her knees, tightened—he could see the dark skin of her fingertips whiten with the pressure she was applying.
"Do you know what happened to her, exactly?" she asked, her tone quiet, contained.
"You should ask Stel if you want to hear it from someone who was there," Lia answered, just as quietly. She'd been right about the gardens. It was very quiet here, and there was no need to raise voices any further, even if Lia was naturally prone to doing so in good company. "They were chasing Pike after the battle had turned against him. Nostariel, Stel, Ash, some others. He lured them to a bridge, used his magic to destroy it and send them falling into a chasm. Stel saved them by using her mark to... take them physically into the Fade. She didn't mean to do it. They had to fight a fear demon there called Nightmare. It was the thing messing with the Wardens' heads. They killed it, but it had this monster that they couldn't hope to fight. Nostariel bought them time to escape through another rift. She knew what it meant for her, she just... did it."
Releasing a breath, Amalia nodded. "I see." Her grip eased; some of the tension in her frame melted away. Her thoughts were still hard to read off her expression, but it seemed that had assuaged some doubt or something of the kind. "We heard the Wardens had left Orlais, close to the beginning of the year." It must have been the same event.
She closed her eyes, then blinked them open again. "What about since then? I believe someone ran into Marcus directly at some point. He was injured and we had not caused it."
Lia exhaled a bit of her own tension as well, obviously more than willing to move on to a new topic. "Yeah... yeah, that was Harellan. He helped out a group of ours when they chased after someone who tried to assassinate Stel's brother Cyrus."
"Harellan?" Ithilian asked, knowing full well what the name's meaning was.
"Weird, I know. He's, uh... he's been looking after our horses since he got here."
Ithilian raised his eyebrows. "The stableboy is the one that injured Marcus?"
Lia looked like she couldn't decide if Ithilian was being serious or not, but she half-smiled herself. "He's not a stableboy. Honestly, I don't really know who he is, but he's a mage, and I think Stel and Cyrus knew him from before the Inquisition. I'm sure he'd talk to you if you wanted to meet him. He seems friendly enough."
Amalia's next breath sounded more like a huff. Almost amused, even. "Sharp knives might wear humble sheaths," she mused, lifting her shoulders. "There seems to be proof enough of that here as well." There had certainly been plenty in Kirkwall.
Lia nodded her agreement with a small smile. "After that, we didn't run into the Venatori again until the Emerald Graves. Seems like they're gone from there now, though, so... who knows where they'll pop up next. We'll be there, wherever it is. And you're here now, which seems like it's their every worst fear realized." She sounded more than a little pleased with that.
"We should've been here sooner," Ithilian said. He'd been thinking it since Lia relayed the news of Nostariel's death, but that wasn't all that had caused it. The things happening here were important, and Lia had been wrapped up in the middle of them from the beginning, while Ithilian was off hunting a man in something that had been, until very recently, a very personal affair. They'd been going after Marcus long before he was the Venatori general, before his schemes threatened the world. More than that, they'd failed to hunt him, to kill him and free themselves in time to be here and assist the people they had come to care for when they might've been needed most. If he and Amalia had just known the danger the others were in, maybe they could have—
"Hey. No, that's not okay." Lia was frowning down at him from where she sat, hands resting on her knee. She seemed to have been reading his line of thought. "It doesn't matter why you left. You've been going after an evil man, one of the most dangerous men in the world. That isn't time wasted. You both deserve a chance to be in a world without him." She turned, pulling her legs off the railing and setting her feet back on the ground, coming to stand again. "And you're here now. Staying too, right?"
"We are." Amalia said it with certainty, glancing once at him before she returned her attention to Lia. "For now, both of the things we want most to do align: we can hunt Marcus alongside this group, and also be present. For you and for the others, should we be needed." The way she said it left no doubt that she found the second part to be the more important one, even despite how important it was to her to be free of the man who'd hunted and haunted her for the better part of her entire life.
She half-smiled, just a small one. "As kadan has already said, there does seem to be plenty we can offer your Inquisition, as well. I think it will be good, that we came to be here."
"There is one thing I can offer you now, if you'd like," Ithilian said quietly, slowly pushing himself up to stand. It took more effort some days than others, but this time he found it quite the simple thing.
Lia regarded him curiously. "What's that?"
"A name." He smiled for her, actually a bit nervous for some reason. "My name. And my clan's name, if you would like one to call your own. Mordallis will likely remain a clan of ghosts, and the two of you are the only ones I'll ever call lethallan. Family, if I've earned the right to call myself your father."
Lia's smile was small and fragile at first, but grew and strengthened even as her eyes watered. She struggled for words on the spot for a moment, shifting her weight awkwardly, but she started forward just as the tears started to spill over onto her cheeks. "I think I've been your daughter for years." She wrapped him in a hug, one he was ready for this time, curling his arms around her and feeling an uncomfortable amount of emotion welling up inside his own chest. "It's about time you came around to it."
His voice was gravelly when it came out, choked up as it was. "I've always changed slowly, da'len."