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Lavellan takes the note gingerly from Leliana’s hands. She already knows what it says from the look in her spymaster’s eyes but she reads it anyway, carefully measuring the “I’m sorry"s against every life in her clan.
"Thank you,” she says, because she has just been given something, even if it is the destruction of everything she loves, and turns on her heel.
She doesn’t speak of it at dinner. She doesn’t speak of it at war table meetings or in the tavern; she doesn’t speak of it while sitting on the roof with Sera (who offered first) or in the garden with Solas (even though he asked and he never asks).
Only when they tell her they know does she speak. Only to ask what either of them cares for a clan of dead Dalish elves. She leaves them speechless in the courtyard.
She does not tell Cole but he knows. He’s confused when she takes his hand and tells him he’s helping but he accepts it nonetheless, trusting her to know what she needs. She doesn’t cry and she doesn’t explain. She sits back to the wall knees to her chest and doesn’t close her eyes.
Cole doesn’t need to sleep. He sits with her through the night, learning to lace his fingers through hers and squeeze gently to remind her she’s not alone.