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There was nothing better than coming back to Skyhold after a long mission, in Evelyn Trevelyan’s opinion. The constant, distant chatter of the men and women of the Inquisition was soothing to her after days of flinching and lunging for her staff at every sudden noise.
Evelyn strolled along the ramparts of Skyhold, alternating her gaze between her people and the beautiful view of the Frostback Mountains. She could almost never find a moment to herself amidst the chaos of being the Inquisitor, so every second alone was a second she cherished.
Her moment was shattered, however, by the clatter of running feet coming up behind her; a messenger, no doubt, likely coming to tell her that her advisors were deadlocked at the war table. Again. With a heavy sigh, she turned to see who was coming, and even managed a slight smile of greeting.
“Inquisitor,” the man said, with a quick salute. “I have a message for you from Commander Cullen.”
“Thank you soldier,” Evelyn replied calmly as she took the offered paper.
“He instructed me to return with your reply,” the soldier added, fidgeting slightly in front of his superior. Evelyn read the message carefully, not that it was very long or complex, and found herself grinning slightly by the end. After thinking about it for a moment, she returned her gaze to the soldier.
“Tell Commander Cullen that I will be there tomorrow morning, as he requested.”
“Yes ma’am,” the soldier said firmly. He gave a smart salute and then darted off, undoubtedly to return to Cullen.
Evelyn slowly turned back to her walk in the fading evening light, smiling slightly to herself. She rarely got to train with Inquisition soldiers in Skyhold, and Cullen had made an excellent point about the men needing to know how to fight mages. Even if she hadn’t thought it was a good idea, Evelyn knew she would have done it; Cullen was an excellent commander, and Evelyn respected and liked him enough to trust that if he said something needed to be done, it did. As she turned to watch the sun set behind the Frostbacks, she reminded herself that she still had to wait until tomorrow to see just how necessary this training session was.
As it turned out, the training session was very necessary. Evelyn had contained herself to the most basic of spells for the first round of sparring, and not a single recruit had been able to beat her, nor even come close. Cullen had been irritated when she got there, and watching his soldiers flounder had done nothing to calm him down. It was now high noon, and Cullen had spent the morning running the recruits through the same few drills over and over. During a short break, one of the soldiers had asked Evelyn if she was getting bored of casting the same few spells over and over again. She’d responded by reminding the soldier that every spell she cast made it more likely that the whole group would be able to return from a battle one day.
But that had been hours ago, and it was clear to Evelyn that the soldiers were getting fed up with Cullen’s insistence on mastering the basics. She did her best to subtly signal to him that it was time to move to something else, but he was so focused on teaching that he was blind to her attempts. He was, therefore, the only one surprised when one of the younger men blew up at him after a particularly harsh criticism.
“If you think that basics are the only way to win Commander, then why don’t you show us how to use them!” the young soldiers roared into Cullen’s face. Everyone on the field froze, watching nervously as Cullen stared down the defiant young man. Evelyn held her breath, ready to mediate should her friend start to roar at the soldier. Instead, Cullen straightened, his face carefully composed as he rested his hand on the pommel of his sword.
“Do you have a problem with my methods soldier?” he asked, voice cold and collected.
“I’m not trying to be rude sir, but we’ve been doing the same damn moves for hours. We’re bored, tired, sore, and frustrated, every one of us. Surely you can understand that?” the soldier replied, hands spread imploringly. Cullen sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose, a sure sign he was getting a throbbing headache.
“Fine. You’re all done with this training for today, but I expected each and every one of you to be here at the same time tomorrow. Have I made myself clear?”
“Yes, sir!” the soldiers called out delightedly, bounding off to attend to other duties that had been assigned to them. Evelyn picked up her staff and moved through the throng of fleeing recruits to speak with the commander.
“You did well you know,” she told him as the last few people scampered out of the training ring. “They’re absolutely terrified by the thought of failing you.”
Cullen sighed, rubbing his hand over his face.
“That’s the problem. I don’t want them to fear me, I want them to respect me,” he explained with a heavy sigh.
“I know they do Cullen,” Evelyn reassured him with a pat on the arm. He shot her a quick smile of thanks and straightened up.
“Thank you, Inquisitor. Do you mind returning tomorrow? They clearly need more practice,” Cullen asked, returning somewhat abruptly to strict formality. Evelyn gave an inward sigh; he did this often, whenever he decided things were getting too friendly or relaxed between them. She knew he was trying to keep up a professional demeanor, but she felt that with so much Inquisition history between them, it wasn’t really necessary anymore. Cassandra, Leliana, and Josephine were happy to chat with her like old friends; Cullen was the only one who doggedly stuck to protocol.
“Of course, it’s no trouble,” she replied with a half grin. Cullen nodded and offered a quick salute.
“I’ll see you tomorrow then, Inquisitor.”
“See you tomorrow,” Evelyn agreed as Cullen turned and began to walk out of the training ring. She watched him for a moment, head tilted slightly to the side before turning and heading in the opposite direction, back to her quarters in Skyhold.
After changing out of her armor, Evelyn spent the rest of the day reading over reports. There was an untouched stack on her desk, and it seemed like anyone and everyone had something to say. Josephine had left three about the state of relations with various Orlesian nobles; Cassandra had delivered seven on relations with chantries around Orlais and Ferelden; Leliana had given her six detailing how recruitment of troops and influence among various factions was going; and Cullen had left a single, incredibly long, absurdly detailed report about how his troops were doing. Not to mention numerous scouting reports from Harding and her people, letters from various nobles wanting favors from them in return for support, notes from her friends telling her about the situation among the people of the Inquisition, a couple of letters from Fiona detailing how the mages were doing, and medical reports from the healers.
By the time Evelyn set aside the last of her papers and rubbed her eyes, the sun had set and she’d had to light several candles around the room. Much as she hated paperwork, she was glad to have it all done, in case she had to run off to solve another problem. Blowing out the candle on the desk, Evelyn rose and moved to her wardrobe to find some pajamas.
As she pulled them on, her mind returned to her training session with the soldiers that morning. She’d thought they’d been doing rather well; learning to fight against magic was incredibly difficult, as she understood it. Cullen had told her it was very different, defending against arcane bolts instead of swords. While none of them were ready to face a real battlemage, they were certainly getting there; she’d been satisfied with their progress over the course of the day. Cullen, on the other hand, had been rather brutal to them, in her opinion. She knew he meant well, but he needed to find a different way to show he was concerned with keeping his men safe; screaming at them wasn’t getting the point across effectively.
Evelyn sighed as she moved around the room, blowing out candles and turning her thoughts to the Commander. She couldn’t lie; she found his determination to keep everyone safe quite endearing, but also unbearably frustrating. She was also quite fed up with his refusal to treat her as anything other than his superior; she saw him as a friend and was mostly certain he felt the same, which only added to her confusion. As she blew out the final candle and the room plunged into darkness, save the light of the moon shining through the windows, she shook her head at the man’s determination to leave their relationship ambiguous.
She was moving to close the drapes when a light knock sounded at her door. Frowning, Evelyn moved away from the window to open the door a crack and poke her head around.
“Is this urgent? I was just getting ready for bed,” she told the messenger bluntly. The young man, probably still a teenager from the look of him, looked absolutely terrified as he thrust a piece of paper towards her.
“M-message for you ma’am, from C-commander Cullen. He told me to m-make sure you got it,” he stuttered out. Evelyn took the paper from his shaking hands and didn’t even look at it before moving back into her room.
“Thank you. Be sure and tell him I got it, yes?”
Evelyn didn’t wait for an answer before she closed the door firmly in the messenger’s face. She heard his footsteps retreat rapidly and rolled her eyes in irritation. She moved back over to the window, looking down at the paper once she was standing in a bright shaft of moonlight.
Inquisitor-
I wanted to apologize for my behavior this morning. Not only did I act rudely towards the men, I also had you run drills well below your skill level for hours on end. I should not have wasted your time forcing you to do something a lesser mage could have easily accomplished. I’ve asked Fiona to send some lower-level mages to our training tomorrow; there is no need to waste your time twice.
Thank you for your help today, it was appreciated.
-Commander Cullen
With an irritated huff, Evelyn slammed the paper on her desk and yanked the windows shut. If Cullen thought she would have bothered helping him while thinking it was beneath her, he was completely wrong. She enjoyed working with the troops; even more so, she enjoyed working with him. She was showing up to his training session tomorrow morning, whether he liked it or not.
As Evelyn descended the stairs into the training ring she could hear Cullen yelling directions at his recruits. The session would have started only half an hour or an hour ago: if he was yelling this early, it must be crashing and burning in spectacular fashion. Stepping down from the staircase and rounding the corner into the ring, Evelyn took a moment to survey the chaos.
Young mages were firing spells with incredible speed but absolutely no accuracy: energy bolts, jets of flame, geysers of ice, and a hundred other things were shooting off in all directions. The looks on their faces were ones of absolute terror, probably from being in such close proximity with a former Templar as powerful as Cullen.
The soldiers’ expressions were nearly identical to the mages’. As far as Evelyn could tell, they were spending more time hiding behind their shields than actually attempting to deflect the magic and retaliate. She watched with mild interest as one recruit threw down his shield and leapt behind a stone pillar while Cullen reminded them all of proper shield positioning for the third time since Evelyn had arrived.
After watching the session descend further into chaos for another few minutes, Evelyn decided it was time to intervene. She stepped into the arena, flipping her staff around to raise a wall of arcane energy to protect her from a few incoming fireballs. Holding her staff in place with her right hand to retain the wall, she raised her left to her temple and pushed with her mind.
The effect of her telekinetic blast was instantaneous. Anyone within ten feet of her was hurled backwards towards the walls of the area. A blast of dust shot out from the epicenter, stopping the rest of the mages and soldiers in their tracks. The sounds of firing spells and clanging armor ceased abruptly, replaced with loud coughing and the quiet groans of those who’d been blasted back. The dust settled and she heard several gasps as people realized it was the Inquisitor who’d brought the session to an abrupt, if timely, end.
“Inquisitor, what are you doing here?” Cullen’s angry voice rang out from her left and she turned to face him, replacing her staff on her back.
“I was under the impression you needed help training recruits Commander. It seems I was right,” she snapped back, irritated that he had not only tried to cut her out of the training, but also become angry when she stopped a potential disaster. Cullen’s eyes narrowed angrily in response.
“This session was completely under control Inquisitor,” Cullen very nearly snarled as he began to stride towards her, anger flashing in his eyes.
“I disagree, Commander,” Evelyn hissed, mocking him with his title. “That was the most careless display of magic I’ve ever seen, and you did nothing to stop it.”
By now Cullen was standing in front of her, perhaps a little too close, and she watched his nostrils flare while his hand tightened on his sword. She shifted slightly, one hand creeping around to hover by her staff.
“Are you telling me you could do better, Inquisitor?” he asked in a low, dangerous voice.
“Is that an insult or a challenge, Commander?” she purred back, acutely aware that she was no longer sure if they were fighting or flirting; Cullen’s words were angry but his tone made her spine tingle with delight.
In a single motion, Cullen drew his sword and attempted to hit her as he did so. Anticipating his move, Evelyn used magic to project herself up and back, whipping her staff around as she moved. As she touched down several feet back from where she’d started, Cullen slid his cloak from his shoulders and picked up a shield that had been abandoned by one of his recruits.
They began to circle each other, eyes locked on each other’s faces. Evelyn could hear nervous murmurs from the soldiers and mages around them, but no one dared to get between the Inquisitor and the Commander.
“May I remind you that this is wholly unnecessary?” Evelyn taunted a bit. Cullen responded by lunging forward, shield tilted at the perfect angle to deflect her fireball. The fire was really just a distraction so he wouldn’t notice her summoning cold magic around her for her next spell.
As the flames dissipated around Cullen’s shield, Evelyn slammed her staff into the ground, raising a wall of ice in a direct line towards him. The ice slammed into Cullen’s still-lowered shield, stopping him dead in his tracks. Evelyn slammed her staff again, this time raising a block of earth that she threw towards Cullen with a jab of her staff.
The earth hit Cullen’s shield head-on, throwing him back several feet. He landed flat on his back with a groan as clods of dirt fell on and around him. Evelyn stood up straight, relaxing from her offensive pose. Cullen pushed himself to his feet, stumbling slightly as he shook dirt out of his face.
“Cheap tricks,” he spat in her direction. Evelyn thought she saw some dirt fly out of his mouth.
“May I remind you, Commander, that my ‘cheap tricks’ managed to down you in record time?” she pointed out with a raise of her eyebrows. Cullen made a low growling noise in response, set his shoulders, and charged again.
Evelyn had no idea how long they continued to dance back and forth; Cullen would charge her and she would find increasingly inventive ways to throw him back without hurting him terribly. Though her attention was focused on keeping the ex-Templar at bay (a habit from her Circle days), some part of her was alarmingly aware that the intensity of his gaze on her was disarmingly attractive. As she threw him away for the fifth – or maybe it was sixth, she’d lost count – time, she allowed herself a moment to muse over the fact that Cullen was very good-looking, particularly when he was attacking you, it seemed.
The moment of distraction proved a costly error. Cullen had finally adapted to the flow of the fight and instead of taking a moment to fully reset himself after falling, he rose and lunged again in the same motion. Startled, Evelyn’s instincts took over. A much larger and more dangerous fireball erupted from the end of her staff, followed by two spirit bolts in rapid succession. Cullen took all three with his shield, minimizing the damage to himself as he continued to move forward. A bit frightened now, as she had no desire to be tackled by him, Evelyn slashed her staff in front of her, creating a blast of ice and freezing wind. The wind stirred up a bit of dust, still loose from her telekinetic blast, obscuring her view of Cullen. She began to move immediately, and made it three steps to her left before a mass of armor slammed into her.
For a moment, only surprise registered her head, followed quickly by admiration for Cullen’s ability to predict her movements. Then her back hit the ground and pain mixed with breathlessness took over. She had a moment of conscious worry about her head; she’d helped Cole enough times to know that head injuries were incredibly bad and would keep her stuck in Skyhold for weeks. But the flash of pain she expected at the base of her skull never came: instead, something soft cradled her head and protected it from the ground. She blinked quickly to clear her vision of dust and confusion, as well as to refocus on the fight. Shock cleared from her senses, but all too quickly they were filled entirely with Cullen.
He was bigger than her, his whole body surrounding her but not laying on her; the fight was still between friends and neither was trying to kill the other. She felt his palm cradling the back of her head – he must have protected her, she realized with some surprise. His other hand was supporting him, resting in the dirt a few inches from her head. The rest of his body hovered just outside her reach; she was aware of his knees planted just outside her thighs, conscious of the way the juts of his plate armor barely brushed her chest when they breathed, all-too mindful of the way his face hovered mere inches above hers: each time he exhaled a gentle wave of air skimmed over her face. Her eyes flicked up to meet his, but she had to refocus her gaze on his shoulder: his was looking at her too intently, eyes burning with anger and determination and maybe something else as he looked over the contours of her face.
She could smell him clearly, for the first time since she’d met him. She could smell the sweat that trickled down the side of his neck, smell the oil he used to clean his armor, the faint scent of parchment and ink from all the paperwork he filled out every day. She could see the smudges of dirt and old bloodstains on his armor, solemn reminders that he was a warrior as much as a leader. She heard his armor creak as he shifted, heard his sword rasp across the ground as he moved it. His hand slipped out from under her head, gently laying it on the ground as he rose up on his knees to place the tip of his blade at her throat. The dust was finally settling and she could hear the amazed gasps of soldiers and mages alike, snapping her back to reality.
“You’ve lost,” Cullen said, but the anger was mostly gone from his voice. He was quiet now, his voice firm, but still gentle, still respectful of her visible skill and her fighting spirit. Evelyn chanced a look into his face and saw his eyes were still locked on her, meeting her gaze evenly. The determination still burned there, and something else, but not anger. She let herself relax into the ground.
“It would seem I have,” she replied in an equally soft tone. “I submit, and I congratulate you on your skill.”
Evelyn may have imagined it, but she thought she saw a flicker of redness on Cullen’s face at the words “I submit” but it was gone before she could be sure. He rose to his feet and moved to one side of her, sheathing his sword in the same movement. He offered her a hand, which she gratefully accepted, and pulled her to her feet, accidentally bringing her near to him. Once again, they were too close, breaths mingling and limbs brushing. Cullen looked away, calling out to the soldiers and mages while Evelyn checked her staff for damage from the fall.
“Go, all of you. I think we’re done here.”
Never before had a group scattered so quickly. Evelyn could hear them talking to each other, whispering about the way the Commander had gotten the drop on the Inquisitor, speculating that there was a reason he had hovered over her for too long. But all too soon the ring was empty and Cullen turned back to face her.
There was a long moment of quiet between them. Evelyn looked him in the eye for as long as she could, but her nerves eventually took over and her eyes flicked away to skim over her arms and hands and staff, and then over his arms and sword and torso. Too late she realized what it looked like she was doing and her eyes shot back up to meet his. His gaze never wavered from her face, and Evelyn could feel the tension in the air as if it were lightning she’d created with her own hands.
“Thank you,” Cullen said quietly, startling her.
“What are you thanking me for?” she asked in bewilderment. “I interrupted your training session, probably hurt people – wait, do you think anyone was badly hurt? Maybe I should go find Cole-“
“Evelyn,” Cullen said firmly and her heart about stopped. Never, not once since meeting him, had Cullen said her name. She stopped mid-sentence and stared at him, utterly frozen.
“Evelyn,” he repeated, more gently this time. “That was no training session, that was a disaster. I was just too stubborn to admit it. So thank you. You probably prevented a lot of injuries today.”
“Well, that’s what I do, right?” Evelyn replied, trying not to stumble over her words. “Inquisitor and all that.”
“There’s more to you than just the Inquisitor,” Cullen said firmly, and Evelyn was quite sure he was trying to give her a heart attack.
Cullen shifted a little as he finished his sentence, leaning slightly towards her before stopping himself. Evelyn mirrored him unconsciously, and now they were even closer, she could feel the heat radiating off his body, and she watched his gaze flick down to her lips before he licked his own, Maker’s breath she wanted to close the gap between them and she watched Cullen start to do it, leaning down and forward and she was tilting her head up to meet him and-
The loud clatter of a dropped shield had them leaping apart, their faces turning cherry red instantly. Cullen cleared his throat loudly and rubbed the back of his neck while Evelyn tugged on the end of her braided hair and slipped her staff back onto her back. There was a moment of uncomfortable silence while the two of them listened to the sounds of the shield being picked up, someone cursing, and then retreating footsteps.
Evelyn could barely bring herself to look at Cullen. Her embarrassment was irrational; no one had seen them and she was very much okay with the idea of kissing Cullen, and yet it was almost painful to drag her eyes up to meet his. Evelyn felt her face heat up even more as Cullen’s turned an even deeper shade of red.
“Well, I’ve got, uh, reports to do, I suppose,” Cullen finally stuttered out, clearly embarrassed beyond belief. Evelyn could only nod mutely as he went to move away. He only made it two steps before wincing and gripping his ribs. When he let out a soft, pained gasp, Evelyn took a few hesitant steps towards him, hands already beginning to glow blue with healing magic.
“Oh my god I hurt you, I’m so sorry, I didn’t mean to,” she babbled out, eyes focused on the spot he was pressing down on. Cullen shook his head and offered a pained smile.
“It’s really my own fault, I’m the one who started it,” he reminded her with a shaky laugh.
“I can heal it now, if you want,” Evelyn offered, raising her blue hands. Cullen hesitated for a second before shaking his head.
“The soldiers have had long enough to gossip, I think. I need to get back to them,” he said reluctantly. He looked as if he were about to say something else, but hesitated for a moment before plunging ahead.
“But maybe I could take you up on that later? It’ll need healing eventually and I’d prefer the most skilled mage I know to be doing it,” he blurted out, clearing trying to rationalize his request. Evelyn didn’t care if he had a legitimate reason or not; the minute he’d finished his question, she’d started nodded.
“Yes, yeah, of course, that’s totally fine!” she squeaked out, still nervous and embarrassed. “I can come up to your office at sundown?”
“Oh no, you’re doing me a favor; the least I can do is come to you instead of making you hike across Skyhold,” Cullen said with a slight grin that suddenly slipped off his face.
“Unless you’re not okay with that, of course, then you’re welcome to come to me, if that’s, you know, better or something,” he rambled out, anxiety written across his face. Evelyn shook her head frantically.
“Nope, no, my rooms at sundown is totally fine with me,” she replied. The blush had faded somewhat while she’d been distracted by Cullen’s injury, but it now returned full-force.
“Okay, great, I will be there,” he said, his own face reddening in response. Evelyn could only managed a nod as Cullen turned and walked carefully out of the training ring.
Once he was gone, Evelyn took a deep, steadying breath. Cullen Rutherford, commander of the Inquisition’s forces, ex-Templar, and a very attractive man who had tried to kiss her not five minutes ago was coming to her rooms tonight. Still blushing, Evelyn darted off to get ready.