Chapter Text
“And why would Her Worship, the Herald of Andraste be coming here?” Gallana eyed her with suspicion and not a little envy.
“Because,” Mia patiently answered as she continued to knead the morning’s baking, “my brother, the Commander of the Inquisition, has invited her.” Mia was fiercely proud of Cullen.
“She’s a noble, you know. She lives in that castle in the mountains." Her neighbour always had a gift for stating the obvious.
“Well, Cullen tells me she’s not like other nobles. She lived most of her life in the Circle. They know what it’s like to do without.” Mia was a little less certain on this point. From what she could tell about Skyhold, even from Cullen's too-brief letters, no expense had been spared on the Inquisitor’s quarters. Gallana sniffed.
“She doesn’t live in a Circle now, does she? Hmph. Still don’t know if I trust mages. One wrong look, then- lightning strike!”
Mia grimly pounded down the dough. Thankfully, Gallana hadn’t visited while she had been making the pie crusts, otherwise the pastry would have ended tough as shoe leather. Gallana, sensing she had overstepped, sipped her tea and immediately became more solicitous.
“How long do they plan to visit?”
Mia frowned. “Cullen hasn’t said. They’ll be visiting the Chantry first. There’s to be a ceremony of some kind and a fête, but I know little else.”
“You mean they might stay here?” Gallana looked horrified.
“Nothing is certain. With Geralt away, the girls and I can share a room. She can have our bed and Cullen can take the loft. Of course,” she couldn’t resist adding, “they could always set up camp by the cow pond-” She laughed as Gallana’s eyes looked fit to pop out of her head. “Gallana! Really!” Gallana’s eyes retreated to their normal position.
“Well, if there’s anything I can do to help…” Mia had been waiting for Gallana to make such an offer.
“You make the finest elderflower cordial I’ve ever tasted," she said, glancing up to see a gratified expression cross her neighbour's face before returning to her kneading. "Cullen tells me it’s one of her favourite things to drink.” Cullen had said no such thing, but it was true that Gallana’s cordial was excellent and Mia and the girls would enjoy it, even if the Herald did not.
Mia tried not to laugh as Gallana hurriedly took her leave, astir with the thought Her Worship, the Herald of Andraste would soon be sipping her cordial. Mia smiled, shaking her head. She looked around at their cottage. It was cosy and warm and they were happy there. But Gallana had been right. This was still a poky old farmhold and they were quite isolated. The woman had only said what she herself had thought when Cullen first told her of their intended visit. She sighed. She was just thankful Gallana had made no further attempts to examine Cullen’s motives for bringing the Herald there. Mia had her own suspicions, but those were best kept to herself.
Gallana was true to her word. Accompanying four precious bottles of elderflower cordial were two gleaming jars of elderflower jelly, along with a plate of elderberry tarts carefully dusted with sparkling sugar. Gallana, wearing the dress she usually wore to Chantry services, was visibly disappointed that the Herald had not been present when she brought her basket over that afternoon.
“I’m sorry Gallana, but I’ll pass on your regards to the Herald when they arrive. It should be any day.”
It was later that evening, in fact. She and the girls had been sitting at the table for the evening meal when they heard the knock at the door.
Ella was the first to the door. “What’s the password?” Mia was horrified they were keeping the Herald waiting. In the rain. They heard Cullen give a playful growl, then:
“Maferath’s bottom!” Ella giggled and unlatched the door. Cullen dropped the enormous saddlebags he was carrying and strode towards them, looking much happier and more at peace than when she had seen him all those years ago back in Kirkwall.
“Well, you’ve finally come to see us,” she said, embracing him and kissing him on the cheek. He smiled boyishly, and she saw his eyes twinkle when she glanced questioningly in the direction of the cloaked, surprisingly unsodden figure behind him. How did she only notice now that her own clothes had remained dry, despite greeting Cullen before he could remove his surcoat?
“Mia, may I present Her Worship, Lady Inquisitor Elissandra Trevelyan of Skyhold.” He had taken his companion's hand and drawn her forward. The Inquisitor drew back her cowl and Mia and instantly saw the woman was beautiful. No wonder Cullen…she quickly regained her self-possession. Did one curtsy? Kneel? Kiss her hand? Drat her brother for not telling her. The woman made the decision for her. She swiftly stepped forward to close the distance between them and was now embracing her. The Herald of Andraste was embracing her. And giving her a kiss on each cheek.
"My Lady?" Her voice sounded much higher, though, thank the Maker, intelligible words had managed to emerge instead of a distressed squeak.
“Oh, Cullen," the Inquisitor said, shooting him a playful glare. "Forgive your brother, Mia. You may call me Elissandra. Shall we pretend we’re old friends? I find that usually helps overcome any initial awkwardness.” In that instant, Mia understood why her brother loved her. He had not told her yet, of course, but it was obvious to anyone with eyes.
“Won’t you sit down by the fire and dry off… Elissandra?” she said, trying out the name.
“Thank you and please, do not let us interrupt your meal.” Mia looked at the delicate golden brown hands now warming themselves near the fire and gasped to see the glowing green light emanating from the left palm. While Una had dutifully returned to eating, the older Ella had promptly and unabashedly taken hold of the Herald’s hand for a closer examination. Elissandra laughed.
“You, bold thing, must be Ella. That is my mark. It is what made me who I am today.”
“Don’t believe her, Ella,” Cullen said, gravely. “Elissandra has always been more than the mark you see on her hand. But I am grateful for that mark, nonetheless.”
“Did you really kill all those dragons?” Ella said, staring wide-eyed at the Herald.
“Yes, but not by myself…well, perhaps just the one. But she was very small and weak and most likely would have died on her own.” Cullen snorted and Mia saw him shake his head. “Did you know all high dragons are female? They spend most of their time eating and mating and every so often, laying eggs. They are fierce and glorious and I was sorry to kill them.”
“Then why did you?” Although Ella had asked the question, Mia was just as curious to hear the answer.
“Because as wondrous as dragons are, I had to make a choice. A choice to protect either people like you and your mother and sister, or the dragons, who do not understand us - or maybe understand us all too well. Perhaps, one day, someone will find a better way. Which reminds me,” Elissandra turned to pull something from her cloak. “This,” she said, holding up a curved ivory object as long as her hand, “is the tooth of a baby dragon. They shed their teeth just like we do.” Mia shuddered to think what the tooth of a full-grown high dragon might look like.
“May I hold it?”
“You may have it. One day, when you visit us in Skyhold, your Uncle Cullen will show you the skull of a high dragon and you can sit in it.” The Herald’s use of the word “us” did not escape Mia.
“My neighbour, Gallana, would never forgive me if I didn’t offer you some of her elderflower cordial,” Mia said, pulling out a bottle, along with the elderberry tarts.
Elissandra clapped her hands. “Did Cullen tell you? I adore elderflower cordial!” Mia laughed. She had not lied, after all.
“I almost forgot,” Cullen reached into one of the saddlebags and pulled out several goblets. “Enchanted glass.” He tapped one firmly against the table. “Near unbreakable. A Qunari friend of Elissandra’s took a warhammer to one once and only managed to crack it.”
“Cullen, shall we show them what else we brought?” It may have been framed as a polite question, but it was clearly an order. Cullen laughed. Mia had not heard him laugh like that since…she couldn’t remember since. She wished their brother and sister could have been there to see him this way. Perhaps at his next visit, though Maker only knew when that might be.
There was a stuffed toy dragon for little Una made of some bright orange material Mia did not recognize, bolts of lustrous cotton and the softest loden wool she had ever felt, the hide of a bear so large, it could have covered half of their cottage roof, a set of wickedly sharp dragonbone knives, and... and... tears sprang to her eyes. He had remembered.
“Elissandra collected the stone herself,” Cullen said softly, seeing her tears. Mia ran a hand over the smooth hexagonal board, which was precisely inlaid with six-sided slices of polished onyx, lazurite, and paler stone, whose white-on-white woven striations she could not place, yet which she could have sworn she had recently seen. As if in answer, her brother continued. "Dragon tooth dulls the edge of everything quickly except another dragon tooth. We...were fortunate to have an abundance on hand." Mia momentarily tore her eyes away from the breathtaking workmanship on hearing the inflection in her brother's voice and saw a blush steal across the Inquisitor's cheeks. How was it possible the woman could grow more beautiful? Not wishing to add to the Inquisitor's discomfort, she returned her gaze to the new gift. While half the pieces had been seamlessly cast in silverite, the other half were intricately carved. She held one polished, translucent piece up to the light while Ella climbed unceremoniously onto her uncle's lap.
"I want to see, too!" she said, nearly toppling forward to grasp her mother's hand.
"Shall I show you how you can tell something is made of real dragon tooth?" Cullen asked, having caught her at the last minute and was adjusting his hold on his wrigglesome niece. "Do you still have the tooth Elissandra gave you?" Ella produced the precious object from a skirt pocket. At some point, Elissandra must have lit the candle she set down next to them in its infused glass holder, but Mia did not recall her moving towards the fire. "Hold it in the flame and watch." Mia reached down to lift Una onto her lap to give her a closer look, but was surprised to find she was no longer clinging to her skirts. Una had found her own lap and was sitting with her dragon clutched to her chest, the Inquisitor's peaceful expression above her.
"It's turning red!" Ella cried out excitedly.
"Wait a little longer," Cullen urged. Fascinated, Mia watched with her daughters as the tooth changed colour again. Even the usually sedate Una joined in Ella's exclamation.
"Blue!" "It's blue!" Knowing Ella, she would be near-bursting by the time the others returned, eager to show them the properties of this new acquisition. Mia felt a familiar tug on her skirt
"I try?" Unlike Ella, whose babbling became strung into words before her first autumn, Una had remained near-silent. She had only recently begun to use words to express herself. This was the first time she had made a sentence. Mia wiped her eyes.
"Of course, you can, sweetling," she said, hoisting her youngest up. But before she could ask Ella to let her sister hold the tooth, Una promptly thrust the face of her toy dragon into the candle's flame. Mia instinctively jerked the child away, knocking over the chessboard and scattering the pieces in a terrific clatter. In her arms, Una looked confused as to whether she should start crying or not.
"It didn't burn," Ella marvelled, examining the toy still tightly held by her sister. She was right. Mia looked at Elissandra wonderingly.
"Ordinary fire doesn't burn dragonhide," she explained, with a quiet smile. To have used such rare material for a child's toy...after today, Mia felt nothing could astonish her. As her children crawled joyfully under the furniture retrieving game pieces, Mia belatedly remembered herself.
“Thank you. Both of you." She bent down to pick up a missed piece that had rolled beneath her chair and ran a callused thumb over the finely-carved details. "We had to leave our old set behind when we fled to South Reach.” She reverently returned the knight to its starting position on the board.
“It was missing a piece, anyway. Would you care for a game later?”
“Perhaps after I put the girls to bed, which should be soon,” she said, seeing a yawn escape from the near-indefatigable Ella. “When must you return to Skyhold?”
“Not immediately. I was hoping we might stay one more night, if you’ll have us. Then we travel to the Free Marches.”
“Maker’s breath…I don’t see you for nearly ten years, you bring with you the Herald of Andraste, Saviour of Southern Thedas, and you ask if I would have you stay one more night?” She turned to Elissandra, incredulous. “After all this time...is he still like this?” The Herald chuckled.
“He can be oblivious, yes.”
“Then, yes, Cullen. You may stay one more night.”