Chapter Text
Ellarin Adaar was perched on her bed wrapping up an injury when she heard the tinny, familiar trilling of the meeting signal calling her to the war table. Eyes darting up, she watched as the ceiling bell over her desk shook back and forth as it rang. She wondered absentmindedly which one of Leliana’s people was at the other end of the cable setting the alarm, and where in Skyhold they were. Did they even know that the wire they were tugging at led to the Inquisitor’s quarters? Unlikely.
The bell rang five times before quieting. Ellarin appraised her arm and sighed, grimacing slightly as she ripped off the end of the bandage and tied it in a knot, flexing to test how much it hurt. She’d definitely had worse, although the shot of pain that ran to her elbow made her wince all the same. Still, she hardly had time to moan about it. She hopped onto the floor and went to go find her boots before descending the stairs and entering the main hall.
The throne room was empty. Which was exactly what Leliana had counted on when she called the meeting, undoubtedly. It was past midnight, and no one had much reason to be around; most were either in the bar or in their own quarters by now. Unless it was urgent, Ellarin almost never met with her advisers during the daytime anymore. Not that it had always been like that. At the start of things - when they were still in Haven, when they were all blissfully unaware of Corypheus and his maddening bullshit - Ellarin and the others gathered much more openly. They would huddle in their small Chantry storage room at all hours of the day and try desperately to wring some sense out of the civil war, the Breach, each other, whatever. But that was before. Haven was gone, and so was that naïve sense of security. Meetings were called by Leliana now at seemingly random hours and days, using the alarms set up in each adviser’s room to summon them when it was time. It limited the chance of an ambush, she said. Better to keep the spies guessing than let them know exactly when all the heads of the Inquisition were in one room together.
Ellarin cast a glance over her shoulder to make sure that she wasn’t being followed before walking through the side door that led to Josephine’s office, ducking slightly to keep her horns from scraping on the doorframe. Closing the door behind her, her eyes wandered to Josephine’s desk in the corner of the room. The ambassador wasn’t there, and hadn’t been for some time, it seemed. The candles at her desk were out and the fire was dead. That fact gave Ellarin no small amount of comfort - Josephine had pulled more than a few all-nighters in the past, poring over trade manifests and offers of alliance until she couldn’t see straight. She didn’t often let on how tired she was, of course. But the Inquisition didn’t have a diplomatic corps, and there was no hiding just how much Josephine needed help. Ellarin wished that she could do more, but her talents fell more on the side of breaking bones than peacefully negotiating with grandstanding nobles. If Josephine ever needed a teryn forcibly removed from Skyhold, she knew who to call.
Josephine’s desk was a mess with papers and maps scattered all across its face. Ellarin resisted the temptation to peek at what Josephine had been writing. The last thing she needed was to be caught snooping through her ambassador’s things. Instead, she pressed on towards the war room. The large wooden doors groaned as she pushed them open.
Josephine was standing by the window inside, looking out with her arms wrapped around herself. She turned when she heard the door open, a warm smile spreading across her face as she saw Ellarin enter the room. “Good evening, my lady Inquisitor,” she said. Formal as ever, even at this hour. She hadn’t been resting after all like Ellarin had hoped - her hair and makeup was still impeccable and she looked wide awake.
Ellarin greeted her, stupidly grateful that it was just the two of them here. Their respective chambers were closer to the war room than Leliana and Cullen’s, so they were often the first to arrive. Ellarin cherished these brief moments more than she was comfortable admitting, even to herself. “Any idea why we’re meeting today?” she asked. “Or tonight, I guess. Have we received word from Hawke?”
Josephine shook her head. “No on both counts, I’m afraid. I’m certain that - oh!” She trailed off as she noticed the bandage around Ellarin’s arm. “You’re injured.”
“It’s nothing,” Ellarin said quickly, although looking down she could see fresh spots of blood soaking through the white of the gauze. “Hardly noticeable.”
“And yet here I am, noticing it,” Josephine said lightly. She took a tentative step forward, hand slightly raised. “May I?”
“If you want.”
Josephine crossed the room and brought her hand up to trace along the edge of the bandage. She undid the knot tying it around Ellarin’s bicep before peeking at the wound underneath. She shuddered as she saw the cut. “Wherever did you get this? I don’t remember you being hurt this morning.”
Ellarin shrugged and watched as Josephine’s fingers quickly worked to wrap the dressing back around her bicep before tying it tighter than before. “Evening drinks and impromptu sparring practice with Bull in the tavern turned out about how I should have expected.”
“He cut you this deeply?” Josephine asked, shock painting her voice.
“No, he shoved me through a window after I flipped him over a table,” she replied breezily. “Some glass nicked my arm on the tumble down. It was all in good fun.”
“You and I have very different definitions of ‘fun,’ Inquisitor.”
“It’s Ella,” she said. “Or Ellarin. Or Adaar, at least. Why do you insist on calling me everything but my name?”
She hadn’t meant for her rebuff to sound as terse as it did, but what else was new? Josephine looked up at her apologetically, hand still resting on Ellarin’s arm despite being finished with readjusting the bandage. “Forgive me, it’s simply a habit. I don’t mean to offend.”
“I know you don’t,” Ellarin said, a small smile flickering at the corners of her mouth. Because when was Josephine ever trying to offend anyone? She was smotheringly civil by nature. Which was perhaps why Ellarin was so fond of her - she had never met anyone who made such an effort to be kind. It was a charming quality, and not anything she was much used to in her life before. “Don’t worry about it. You can call me what you like.”
Josephine was about to say more, but pulled back as the chamber’s double doors creaked open. Cullen shuffled in, shirt untucked from his trousers and stifling a yawn.
“I had just gotten to sleep, you know,” he grumbled.
Leliana followed behind him moments later, eyes clear and expression inscrutable as always. She had a leather binder tucked underneath her arm, and she began to lay out some of its contents on the table without any preamble. There was a bevy of documents - letters, from the look of them - and a small cloth pouch that she placed next to them.
“We’ve received an interesting proposition,” she said, sorting out the papers in front of her.
Josephine went to stand next to her and regarded one of the letters. “Interesting in what way? Is that...Tevinter heraldry?”
“Tevinter heraldry and the seal of a Tevinter magister,” Leliana replied. “More than one, in fact. Over the past month we’ve receive five such letters from different members of the Magisterium.”
Josephine frowned, clearly troubled that a political matter had gone without her attention for so long. “A month? Why am I only just seeing these now?”
“I wanted to confirm their authenticity first before bothering you with it.”
“Which you’ve done, then?” Cullen asked.
“I have. These are genuine. Although what we do with them is up to Inquisitor Adaar.”
Ellarin looked at Leliana warily, already tired of having to make the big decisions that no one else wanted to. “So what do they say?”
“They’re proposing an alliance.”
Cullen scoffed and crossed his arms. “They can’t be serious.”
“It seems that they are, Commander.”
“Didn’t we just lop off the head of one of their magisters?” he insisted. “Alexius was a bastard, but I doubt it won us any favors among his colleagues.”
"Politics in Tevinter are even more cutthroat than in Orlais. Just because these magisters knew Alexius doesn't mean they cared about him or mourned his passing."
Josephine cleared her throat. “I apologize, Leliana, but I don’t quite understand why they sent this to you at all. Offers of allyship go through me. There are official channels for all of this.”
“This was sent to me precisely because these magisters wish to avoid official channels, Josie,” Leliana said. “They are asking for a secret partnership, completely out of the public record. They have no love for the Inquisition and have all publicly condemned us in the past. The last thing they want is to be seen cooperating with us.”
Ellarin could already feel her shoulders beginning to tense as Leliana spoke. This is exactly why she wasn’t cut out to be Inquisitor - these mind games and political maneuvers were beyond her ability to take seriously. “And what do these magisters want from us?”
“Help closing rifts along their border with Nevarra primarily. But they also request we send them regular updates about our campaign against Corypheus and any information we find about him, as well as a pledge of monetary support if the Qunari attempt to attack Minrathous before Corypheus has been killed.”
Cullen looked as if the offer had personally slapped him across the face. “That’s beyond preposterous. Closing rifts is one thing, but sharing private Inquisition intelligence? And our coffers can hardly keep up with our own needs, let alone Tevinter’s.”
“I agree,” Leliana said plainly. “It’s a ridiculous request and they know it. This isn’t the final agreement, simply something to grab our attention and bring us to the negotiating table. Surely you know that the first proposition is never the one actually agreed to.”
“So they send us ridiculous offers and we come running? Josephine, you can’t possibly want to do business with Tevinter.”
Josephine stared at the north section of the map on the war table as she thought, brows furrowed. “I’m not sure we’re in any position to refuse an offer of help. Our support among the people is growing, but it's not enough. I’m wary of turning anyone away as it stands.”
Cullen grimaced, looking to Ellarin for help. Of the four of them, he knew they she was the one who most shared his distaste for politics and intrigue. “Your thoughts, Adaar?”
“I can’t say I love it so far,” she said, using the blunt affectation that had earned her the nickname Grouchy from Varric. “I don’t trust Tevinter and I still haven’t heard what we’re supposed to be getting in return.”
“They haven’t said,” Leliana answered. “They’re likely unwilling to put it down on paper.”
“So then what - they want to discuss it in person? They’re coming to Skyhold?”
“They do want to meet in person, but not here.” Leliana handed her the small pouch that had been included with the letters. “A few of them are coming with a small attaché of negotiators to meet you halfway in Cumberland. You’re meant to bring that with you as a sign of good faith and so that they can identify you, although you’re not particularly hard to miss.”
Ellarin opened the pouch and pulled out a gold band with bright bluish white markings etched into it. They were warm to the touch. Lyrium? It was obviously meant for a human’s finger, but it was pretty all the same. Looking further in the pouch, she saw another identical ring.
“There’s two in here,” she said, looking up at Leliana.
“For your guest. They ask that you bring one other person of your choosing to help in the negotiations.”
Cullen placed his palms on the table and leaned forward, his voice clipped. “You’re not seriously suggesting that the Inquisitor abandon her duties here to walk into what is seeming more and more like an ambush with every detail? How is one other person supposed to protect her?”
“If you think I would truly send her there without aid, then you woefully underestimate me, Commander. My agents will arrive in the city before she does. But yes, for appearance’s sake she would need to appear to be alone.”
Ellarin watched Josephine’s face, trying to gauge her reaction. Her brows were still knit together, lips slightly pursed as she continued to look at the map. She was being quieter than usual. “Josephine?” she asked softly. “What do you think?”
Snapping out of her thoughts, Josephine looked Ellarin squarely in the face. “I think you should go. To begin to build positive relationships with Tevinter, even in secret...we must at least try. So much could be gained.”
“Not you too,” Cullen said with a sigh. “Aren’t things a bit too delicate right now to be packing up and leaving?”
“Not necessarily,” Leliana supplied. “Empress Celene’s peace talks aren’t for another month, and we’ve heard nothing new from Corypheus since the Western Approach. Cumberland's a port city and it's only a week by ship from Jader. If things go smoothly the Inquisitor could go straight to Halamshiral from the negotiations. Relatively speaking, now is a good time for her to go.”
All eyes looked to Ellarin then, as they always did when it became clear that nothing more would be decided through talking. She knew that she could let her advisors talk for hours and they would still be where they were now - Cullen would never like it, Josephine would always want to try, and Leliana obviously wanted her there too. Ellarin sighed and rolled the ring between her fingers.
“I’ll leave in three days,” she said. Her tone was firm, making her sound more confident in her decision than she truly was. “I need to be briefed on exactly who to expect and what we’re willing to give, but okay. We can try this.”
Leliana nodded. “Very well, Inquisitor. As far as your escort, I have an agent in mind who’s perfect for the job. He’s from Cumberland and-”
“No,” Josephine cut in. “I’ll be going.”
No one said anything for a moment, clearly taken aback by Josephine’s interruption.
Cullen spoke up first. “Are you sure about that? You haven’t left Skyhold once since we’ve gotten here. That’s a while to be away from your work.”
“I’m quite sure. I’m the Inquisition’s ambassador and I should be there. I wouldn’t trust anyone else with this.” Her eyes flashed up to Ellarin’s with an unfamiliar intensity. “Unless you would prefer to bring another, my lady Adaar?”
“No,” Ellarin said quietly. “Not at all.”
All in all, it was one of Ellarin’s more interesting war table meetings.