Work Text:
Cullen is almost afraid to voice the thought, as if someone will hear and make it so. He leans up from the war table, looking from Josephine to Cassandra to Leliana. “If Corypheus has influence over the Wardens, what’s stopping him from starting another blight? Why go through all this trouble of corrupting Templars when he has endless legions right below our feet?”
Leliana’s eyes glint dangerously, and she sways as she rests her arms behind her back. “I think that is best answered with another question, Commander. Do darkspawn worship gods?”
“Do they not search endlessly for the old gods?” Cassandra asks with a furrowed brow. “Follow them into battle?”
“Ah, but is that worship?” Leliana’s smile is dark, her voice cool. “Everything we know says that darkspawn instinctively seek out the old gods; instinctively devour everything in their path. A formidable army yes, but Corypheus would not be their master until the Old Gods were gone … And even then, would the darkspawn sing his praises or bow to him?"
Josephine, quill paused over her papers, lets out a weak laugh. “There would be a sight.”
Leliana gives the briefest of shrugs and another one of her smiles. “For now, we should thank the Maker that Corypheus’s pride ensures he won’t utterly destroy the world through the Blight. Yet.”
Cullen glances down at the map below “He’ll simply destroy everything that matters,” he mutters, and has to wonder: which would be worse?
