Chapter Text
At her formidable oaken desk, Josephine Montilyet sat perfectly still. As ambassador of the Inquisition, she had seen more than her share of outlandish correspondence. Marriage proposals for the Inquisitor with a request for Josephine’s own hand if the Inquisitor declined. Requests to mediate a family squabble over the ownership of a supposedly enchanted sheep. She thought that was prepared for anything, no matter how outrageous, but she had been wrong. Her dark brown eyes poured over the paper before her for a second time, sure that she had misunderstood. The paper was crisp and thick, so luxurious that it had the feeling of cloth. Emblazoned at the top of the paper was a small orange sunburst inside a larger red one, and black ink scrawled hurriedly across the page. Her second reading of the words brought her no additional understanding, only a sense of dread. Josephine looked up to their Spymaster, Leliana, with disbelief in her eyes. “This cannot be. So soon?”
Leliana solemnly held Josephine’s gaze. “We knew Divine Victoria would reinstate the Circles upon her ascent to Divine.”
“But it has only been two weeks since the ceremony! How could the mandate even be written and approved so quickly? And to be enacted next week?! What happened to the Writ of Nuntianum?”
Leliana sighed. “The Writ and required waiting period before enforcement of a mandate were suspended temporarily due to ‘overwhelming necessity for the protection of the people,'” she said, glancing at her spy’s report that had accompanied the missive Josephine read. “The Chantry is eager to enact reforms now that the Divine has finally assumed the Sunburst throne. They have spent too long without a Divine, and the issue of free-roaming apostate mages needed to be resolved. I am told all the Grand Clerics supported the Divine in the reopening of the Circles.”
“As we knew they would, but the Inquisitor…"
“…Need not return to the Circle if she meets certain qualifications,” Leliana finished. Her soft Orlesian voice held an edge that Josephine knew well.
Josephine stared at Leliana for a moment, her eyebrows knitted in confusion. “But she is not…no,” she gasped. “No, we cannot ask that of her. She has given the Inquisition so much already.”
“And where will we be if she is returned to the Circle? We have discussed this, Josie.”
“We can surely get Empress Celene to…” she frowned. Val Royeaux was over a week’s journey to and from Skyhold. “The messenger would not make it back before she was returned to the Circle.”
Leliana nodded in agreement. “The templars remaining in Skyhold will be receiving their orders shortly. All known apostate mages will be notified of the reopening of the Circle towers and given 24 hours to submit to their Circle or to the nearest templar. We must act before that time.”
Josephine sighed. She knew Leliana had already plotted their course. “You have someone in mind?”
“Yes.” Her voice was heavy, and the word hung in the air between the two women.
Josephine’s eyes grew wide. “We cannot. We promised Cassandra…”
“Cassandra no longer exists. We make decisions for the Inquisition, not for ghosts.”
Josephine looked down again at the paper in front of her. The words were blurring, swirling illegibly before her. “They will never agree to this,” she whispered.
Leliana turned away from her friend. She squared her shoulders to keep them from slumping. “They must.”