[sandbox]

[bringspeopletogether]

The letter he finally sends is maybe a little more impolitic than it ought to be, but if he doesn't send something now, he'll still be writing when his Calling arrives.



Fiona,

Ivette Cousland is looking for you. The name might ring a bell. Hero of Ferelden? Slayed the Archdemon some years ago?

Anyway. She's not having any luck, so I thought I'd try my hand at getting in touch.

Cousland's been searching for a cure for the Calling these past five years or so; she even retired as Warden-Commander of Vigil's Keep so she could pursue her research better. She knows your leaving the Wardens wasn't like mine. You didn't just walk away from Weisshaupt: you managed to un-Join somehow, with no ill effects. You're our last, best lead on the matter, so you can understand why she's rather eager to speak to you. It's very likely she doesn't have much time left, what with it being almost a decade and a half since her Joining and living through a Blight.

Frankly, I don't expect I have much time left, either.

Cullen and I are in South Reach these days. I'll always know where to find Cousland, if you'd rather speak with her directly. For all our sakes, I hope you'll be in touch.

--Alistair





Two weeks later, a raven knocks its beak against their window frame.

This is a matter best discussed in person, says the note attached to its leg. I can be to South Reach by the end of the month.

It's signed only with the letter F. Alistair spends the next few hours talking up a nervous storm, hands digging in his hair, half anxious, half furious. (This is exactly what he didn't want: for her to read this as an overture. For her to think she could have any claim to Alistair's time, Alistair's space, outside of giving him and Cousland the information they needed.)

Then he writes a letter to Cousland and sends the raven on its way.

Comments

[highnever]

Ivette has to take a moment to be... a little shocked, frankly, that the templar they scraped off the floor of Kinloch during the Blight can speak with this degree of confidence about arcane, secret knowledge.

But then she shakes herself out of it and says, a little too quickly, "Right. Yes. Good. We'll come back to that." Pen scratching away at her journal, where she's added a footnote with Cullen's observations. "Fiona? Sorry for the digression. Please continue."

[bringspeopletogether]

"It is no trouble," murmurs Fiona, and finishes off the last of her tea. "So. Duncan had protection; the rest of us were not so lucky. When we found Bregan, the Architect had already swayed him to its side as well, and accelerated the taint in him to the point he became a ghoul. It offered to do the same to the rest of us. Offered, as if it were a gift to bestow. And I'm sad to say that a few of our number accepted."

She taps a fingernail against her mug.

"Maric, Duncan and I were the only ones who escaped. Remille nearly killed us, after, and we were fortunate Loghain mustered enough forces to come rescue the king. At that point I was the only one who'd been affected by the brooch who did not become a ghoul, and when it was destroyed..." She shrugs. "I do not know if its destruction was what removed the taint entirely. Perhaps it was so bound to me that it did. Or perhaps -- well."

Fiona flicks another look toward Alistair.

"By that point I was with child, so perhaps that may have had something to do with it as well. I don't know. I am certain those brooches, and the Blight magic both Remille and the Architect used, had a role to play in my cure. But I've no idea as to the intricacies of how."

[highnever]

Ivette lets out a long breath.

And gives Alistair a long, hard look.

We have to tell her, she thinks. Even if he never forgives me for it.

She writes down brooch, Blight magic, child. "How did you become aware that you were cured?"

[bringspeopletogether]

The look Alistair gives Ivette in return is wary, uncertain; he's doing his best not to shrink into himself.

(Doing his best not to think of the fight he and Cullen had, two or three years ago by now. You'll forgive me if I might not want to talk about it with just anyone.)

"Gradually," says Fiona. "It wasn't as obvious when it was just Duncan and I, but once we were back in Weisshaupt, surrounded by other Wardens...I realized I couldn't sense them as I used to. I felt weaker, more tired -- more than could be explained by pregnancy alone. And then one day I was sent on patrol and realized I could no longer sense the darkspawn, either. Fortunately, it was only a small cluster of them, easily dispatched, but I never went on patrol again after that.

"After you were born -- " Addressing Alistair, now. "Weisshaupt began running tests. Other mages inspected me. I even took the Joining a second time, to no effect. It wasn't merely gone; I seemed completely immune to it now. And so I've remained."

[highnever]

Second Joining didn't kill her, Ivette writes.

"Thank you." She pushes herself back from the table, reaches for the kettle, refills Fiona's cup. "Is there anything else you think we ought to know?"

[bringspeopletogether]

Fiona murmurs a thank you of her own, and takes another sip of tea.

Once she's swallowed: "I think those are the most important parts. Nothing else comes to mind."

[highnever]

"Right."

She places a hand on Alistair's shoulder. "A word outside, please?"

[bringspeopletogether]

Shit.

A cold lump forms in Alistair's chest. He swallows; nods; squeezes Cullen's hand one more time before he lets go and follows after Ivette.

The rain hasn't let up very much. It'll do a good job of masking their voices, and there's enough of an overhang above the door to keep them dry. (Mostly.)

[highnever]

Ivette keeps her voice down anyway. "Alistair. We need to tell her about Kieran."

[bringspeopletogether]

"She knows he exists."

Low. A little weak, already knowing this is a bad dodge.

"She saw him and me together at Skyhold, she probably saw the resemblance, I'm sure she put two and two together -- "

[highnever]

"Yes, she put two and two together about you and Morrigan getting drunk and making mutually regrettable decisions." It might be just a little impatient. "Not about how you saved both our lives by doing something you didn't want to do. In a way that has direct import to the work I've been doing to save both our lives."

[bringspeopletogether]

He drags a hand down his face, and looks off into the rain. Thunder grumbles in the distance.






"She can't tell anyone else." Barely audible over the storm. "She has to swear it. It doesn't leave this house. And I don't want to be the one to tell it over."

If only one more person knows -- he can tolerate that. Maybe. Even if it's Fiona.

(After this is over he is going to eat an entire cake and wash it down with a bottle of whiskey, he swears to Andraste.)

[highnever]

"You don't even have to be there." Softly, as she nudges his shoulder with hers. "I'll tell her. It's my fault anyhow."

[bringspeopletogether]

Alistair cracks a small, relieved smile. He nods.

"I'll -- stay out here for a bit, then." Quiet. "Get some fresh air."

A beat.

"Thank you."

[highnever]

Ivette rolls her eyes a little, leans against him again. (This time for a little longer.)

"I'll send Cullen out, shall I?"

[bringspeopletogether]

He chuckles faintly at the eyeroll.

"Yes, please. That would be perfect."

(Cullen might have some thoughts best discussed out of Fiona's earshot himself.)

[howtoactfereldan]

Cullen emerges with two cups of tea, steaming in the cold air.

He holds one out to Alistair. Murmured: "She's telling Fiona about Kieran, isn't she."

[bringspeopletogether]

"She is."

Those words come out on a long, long sigh, as Alistair accepts the proffered cup.

"All the fun specifics that make me want to hurl myself into the ocean."

[howtoactfereldan]

Cullen nods.

And curls his arm around Alistair's waist, pulling him in close.

[bringspeopletogether]

Unhesitating, he turns his face into Cullen's shoulder, closing his eyes. Letting himself be held.




"I'm so glad you're here," he mumbles after a moment.

[howtoactfereldan]

"So am I." A little thickly.

He puts his tea down on a barrel top an brings his other arm around Alistair. "I'm here."

[bringspeopletogether]

Alistair keeps hold of his own tea, but clings back, one-armed, as he lets out another shaky sigh.

It's -- a lot. Fiona's story, Fiona's presence; the weight of a tangible lead, the fear it'll amount to little more than a fluke. (And he doesn't even know how to begin thinking about Duncan being there alongside Maric and Fiona. Did he know? How much? It has no bearing whatsoever on the important bits, and yet -- )

[howtoactfereldan]

"I've got you." Low. Soft. "I love you. Always."

[bringspeopletogether]

"I love you too."

Hard to say whether that's muffled by Cullen's shoulder or by the lump in Alistair's throat. Probably a little of both.

He finally pulls away -- not very far -- and leans against Cullen, wrapping both hands around his tea to keep them warm. "What do you think so far?"

[howtoactfereldan]

Cullen settles his arms more comfortably around Alistair.

He does not say I think you should have listened to me when I said that Dagna should know about Kieran.

(He does think it, though.)






"I think we need to contact Morrigan," he says, finally. "What's needed is someone who is versed in Blight magic. She's the closest thing we've got, without doing a lot of additional searching."