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[stabsbooks]

WHO: Cassandra Pentaghast and you
WHAT: Cassandra, in and around Skyhold
WHEN: First half of Drakonis, before the ball
WHERE: Various
NOTES: Does your character want to yell at Cassandra about Anders? About Galadriel? About her choices in general? Alternatively, do they want to celebrate her on a job well done and thank her for her vigilance in keeping Skyhold safe? Maybe try to finally get a straight answer about exactly what is going on? This is the place!

For timeline purposes: post-Anders announcement; before/in the midst of/after rifter interrogations; either pre-Galadriel's imprisonment or while she still languishes in the cells.

She might be found swinging angrily at the dummies in the yard, assisting Cullen in training what recruits they have, or nursing a large ale at the Herald's Rest. More than likely, she's dodging Vivienne and her endless preparations, instructions, and reminders for the ball. Wherever she is, Cassandra is likely not in the best of moods, and there is a certain righteous fire in her gaze whenever she is challenged. Leliana's words and the way she had looked at Cassandra still sting, but she does not regret what she has done.

Still, no one can possibly be angry all the time, right? Maybe you'll catch her on a good day...

Comments

For Aleron

[stabsbooks]

Despite all that had occurred in recent days, Cassandra has not forgotten her promise to Seeker Darton. He had wished to see the Divine's final writ, and she means to grant him that. It is the least she can do for him, in the wake of Justinia's death. To offer him some final peace, if she can.

It will be good to speak to him as well, she muses, in any case. It has been years since the boy she had known at Montsimmard, and she is curious to see the man he has become.

She sends him a short note inviting him to meet with her, and settles herself behind her desk, determined to at least try to make some progress in the seemingly perpetual stack of paperwork waiting for her.

[lifeofendurance]

Aleron climbs the stairs to the loft over the armory in a somber and reflective mood. There is no small amount of curiosity as to the woman Cassandra has grown to be. He has a few lingering memories of that period in his youth, another preteen cohort. An angry one. They were both of them angry in those years. She lashed out at anyone and anything; he pushed down those feelings to simmer in silence until he was an unemotional, unmovable wall. Professionally, she has done well for herself. Hailed as the Hero of Orlais, made the Right Hand of the Divine as a very young woman. How many dragons had she slain? He'd heard eight, or perhaps it was nine. Regardless, he expects to find a woman who is larger than life.

She is perhaps not quite the dreadfully imposing figure he'd expected after all. Aleron can see traces of the girl in the woman bent over paperwork. Same dark hair, intent fire in her eyes, profile of her face. She's actually quite beautiful though he's not the one to say such things aloud.

"Lady Pentaghast." He bows formally on reaching the top of the staircase, waiting to be invited to enter her workspace.

[stabsbooks]

Cassandra glances up immediately, pausing as she looks over Aleron. He has changed, of course. He has grown - grown into a man, and a fine figure of one, though the faintest trace of a smile touches her lips as she notes his eyes, still so blue, and the familiar, serious set of his jaw.

"Seeker Darton." She rises from her desk, gesturing somewhat impatiently for him to come in. She has never been one for ceremony, and certainly not with someone she once knew so well. "Please. I trust you have recovered from your journey?"

[lifeofendurance]

"I have, thank you. The view was magnificent. I'm surprised to learn that such a stronghold was nestled in the mountains." For all that Skyhold has sections in need of repair, it's in remarkable shape. How it came to be left unoccupied and forgotten about is a marvel. If only the circumstances prompting him to come had been different. If the world were not being turned upside down and torn apart. Alas.

He does come further in as beckoned. It's still awkward to reconnect with someone from so long ago, knowing she's a public figure and one to be both respected and admired. "Thank you for taking the time. I hope this isn't too much bother for you."

For Nerva

[stabsbooks]

She had spent little time with the former Templar since that day in the Emprise. Something about fighting dragons seems to demand one's time and energy like nothing else.

But once she is back in Skyhold, surrounded by Inquisition soldiers and thrust immediately back into all of the politics and problems inherent in keeping the Inquisition together, Cassandra is reminded of the soldier's oath. Nerva will be waiting for orders, and it is up to Cassandra now to ensure that she has them. Besides. They should probably...speak, she supposes, about all that has occurred in recent days.

Maker help her if Nerva agrees with Leliana on all of this.

She has no idea where she might look for the woman, Cassandra realizes. Her best recourse is to send a note with one of the ravens and hope it finds her. That done, she finds a training sword and begins running through a few practice drills on one of the dummies in the yard. She had made a misstep or two in her battle with the dragon that she does not wish to repeat.

[keeperofmagi]

She appears surprisingly promptly, after she is summoned. The raven took no trouble in finding her, and she was already in full gear when she recieved the note. So she made her way immediately to the yard, to find the Right Hand, sword sheathed at her side. When she stepped up, she clasped a fist to her chest and offered a tight bow.

"Seeker. You summoned me?"

[stabsbooks]

Cassandra turns, unable to completely hide her surprise at how quickly Nerva had arrived, and fully equipped for battle at that. It is good, of course, that she is so prompt, but she cannot help but wonder just how long Nerva had been expecting her summons - if she has been painstakingly outfitting herself every day, waiting patiently for Cassandra's call. The thought gives her a faint twinge of guilt.

"Ser Lecuyer." She nods in greeting, frowning at Nerva's bow. "Please. That is - not necessary." But she had summoned her, and she sees no point in wasting either of their time. "I thought it best that we discuss your duties."

Post Arrest

[dreadinquisitor]

Maxwell had come away from his meeting with the unearthly Galadriel feeling no better. If anything, the pit in his gut had only deepened. While he wouldn't expect many to be honest about their guilt, she hadn't seemed to lie either, and Gavin had known her - had come to him that night in her defense, believing her innocence.

He needed to know more. He wanted to believe the Inquisition better than that. That after the outburst by the Templar on the crystals, after Anders, after the attack on the Dalish woman....

There had to be more.

(He had to have this, if nothing else.)

"Seeker Pentaghast?" He'd been warned away from approaching her in person, but still there he was, daringly stepping up amongst the training dummies. (Though back far enough that she would at least have to do some reaching to hit him.) "Maxwell Trevean, I was hoping I might speak with you."

[stabsbooks]

"Ser Trevean."

He is a stranger to her, but that is a more and more common occurrence, with the flocks of people entering Skyhold these days - more nearly every week, it seems. Cassandra nods, lowering her training sword as she turns to face him. Stranger or not, she can at least do him the courtesy of hearing what he has to say. "Of course."

[dreadinquisitor]

"It's in regards to Lady Galadriel." It seemed best to be honest, and direct. He held his ground even as his heart kicked anxiously, concerned where this talk might take him. "I've heard some concerning things regarding her arrest, I was hoping you might be able to clear some it."

post-arrest, post-interrogation;

[foxsays]

Time enough has passed that Araceli feels settled again; she has her time with her lute where she's less likely to be disturbed, time to go through Leliana's not insubstantial reading list, as well as resuming the climbing lessons when she's able.

She's not joking about the reading list. Or learning the finer points of the Orlesian tongue.

Like most days, she enters the Herald's Rest via the battlements so she can get a look at the crowd. She's been on something of a mission anyway, trying to find the Seeker for something she might have left out at the interrogation. Not that it was about her precisely but still, better these things are out in the open, and so she quickly orders a drink before she clears her throat, standing a little to the side.

"Seeker Pentaghast? If you don't mind an intrusion? There is something I would inform you of." Her tone at least is light enough but she's hovering, up on the balls of her feet with a smile that looks too tight at the edges to be real. Once again, her marked hand is thrust into her pocket, casual enough but the tailors prodded it plenty and she'd rather forget about it for a little while.

[stabsbooks]

Cassandra looks up, surprised to see Araceli. She'd more or less expected the girl to avoid her, after the way she'd been dragged into Cassandra's office to be interrogated. But here she is, and Cassandra sets down her drink, leaning back in her chair.

"What is it?" She frowns, taking the note of the slight tension in Araceli's expression. "Is something wrong?"

well this got long, i apologise;

[foxsays]

If Leliana is the one to know the whispers, Cassandra said she was about the safety of the Inquisition. And she might have seen the arrest. From a roof. You go to the right person for the right job and so Cassandra it is.

"I saw the prisoner, Galadriel. I admit, I was angry; one of us gets arrested could reflect on us all." Had reflected on them all but she can't really feel smug or vindicated when she remembers how it went. "I might have...argued. A little. I wanted to know what she'd done, and then she---

"She said that what she 'may have done' would be the least of my concerns when her patience was at an end. That she did not forget those who disparaged her honour, as if it is only her honour, as if we do not all share some stake in it." Her hand is set on the table, soft green light that doesn't match the anger creeping into her tone now that she's had time and distance away from the prison. "She threatened me. She said I was so eager to spill my own blood - I wanted to know what she'd done, the guards heard that part though...it was like time stopped. The bars tried to move away from her, I know how that sounds, it sounds ridiculous even as I say it now. The shadows and sounds were off, like they weren't there. The fire made no sound or movement in the brazier. I'd said to her that whatever echoes a man or woman hears in a cell, that they are only hollow echoes and that the walls have ears, her reply was this: the threats I make echo at my behest, as near or far as I desire. The cage that keeps me is of little consequence."

It sounds more ridiculous now that she's said it, and she's belatedly aware that maybe she should have said something during her interrogation but she'd needed more time to try to get over the strangeness of what had happened, how frightened she'd been at the time, and how it had even happened, as if time had stood still with nothing but them and the bars separating them existing.

"I had hoped we would all feel a solidarity with one another, since we came through the rifts and that experience, this mark that we carry now? It still makes a part of us the same with an experience no one else here can claim that they share, not even the natives marked so. I realise that was a mistake." A bad one but she's twenty and full of bravado at times, she would like to think the best of people, mutual cooperation and all those things that look so good on paper. "And that it was something that should be brought to your attention."

Breaking the timeline, post Ball

[arsebiscuit]

There was really only one way to announce her return to Cassandra: filling the noble's normal training dummy with spiders that all came skittering out when it was hit. A beehive would've been more dramatic, but a two person job. 'Sides, she still wanted to chat with the Seeker when all was done. Not get a sword in the face because bees.

It's not as dramatic as she'd hoped. After Cass had started having a go, Sera slunk out of the shadows some few yards from Cassandra. Just watching as the spiders started crawling out of the dummy.

"Stupid creepy crawlies. Have the sense to go after her, yeah?"

[stabsbooks]

The sudden line of spiders pouring out of the rip in the dummy is enough to make her start, at least, brandishing her sword briefly before she realizes what she's looking at and drops it again with an annoyed ugh. For a moment she thinks Alejandro, but then she hears the high voice complaining behind her. Of course.

She turns, the exasperated expression on her face not quite enough to hide the way the corners of her mouth turn slightly upwards. Just slightly. It's been a long time since she's seen Sera, and while she hadn't expected to miss her...well.

"Sera." She shakes her head, raising an eyebrow. "If you want to get my attention, there are easier ways."

[arsebiscuit]

"Your face! Worth getting webs in my underthings. I'll be pissing silk for a month."

And for easy? Really, Cass. Remember how she'd led you all on an elaborate run around a city instead of just saying 'hello, I kill things good, sign me up?' Good times, that.

She kicks a pebble towards some of the spiders heading in her direction, like that might inspire them to be better at being prank material than just causing an initial jump. But her grin for the Lady Seeker is wide. It's good to be back.

"But not scared of spiders, either. I'll figure it one day."

post-arrest & post-interrogation;

[chainlightning]

Cassandra is, Merrill supposes, probably not too pleased with her. After all, the Seeker likely suspects that she knew Anders was around -- even if, as a loyal reader of Varric's book, she also likely knew just how much the two often butted heads. Still, it's why Merrill brings a peace offering. Two, in fact; the first in the form of a rock, and the second in the form of some cookies.

Both are set down next to Cassandra, followed by a slight bow of her head. "Andaran atish’an, Cassandra. Are you busy? I wanted to talk to you."

[stabsbooks]

Luckily for Merrill - and unluckily for Varric - Cassandra has already turned the brunt of her anger onto him. He's been here, after all, and he hadn't only not told her about Anders, he'd actually interrupted an argument between the two of them and still said nothing. He'd neglected to mention Corypheus and then done it all again, only worse. He should have known better by now.

Merrill, at least, is less culpable than him, and Cassandra knows that Leliana had likely spoken to her already. Still, she's notably less warm when she turns to Merrill than she had been the last time they parted. She looks down at the elf, eyes flicking down to the plate of cookies and - a rock?

"Merrill." She looks back up to her face, curious despite herself. "What is it?"

[chainlightning]

Okay, so she's still a little mad. Still, she's not being immediately screamed at, and Cassandra is interested in the rock. Merrill can work with this, and her smile is no less warm as she starts to explain.

"It's from Kirkwall! I had it in my house in the alienage for a while, keeping the pages of my books down when there was a bad draft. Hawke had sort of kicked it along the path outside and I thought it would make a good paper weight. I'm not really sure why I brought it with, and I don't have the problem with wind blowing my pages about, so- I thought maybe you would like it!"

Since Hawke, and Kirkwall, and probably Seekers did sometimes have to read things in windy areas for Official Seeker Business or something.

"Oh, and the cookies are all sorts of flavors -- I wasn't sure which one you'd like best."

Post arrest, post visit

[fleurdesel]

"Seeker Pentaghast." Early the day after her rather bracing conversation with Galadriel- early enough that it is unlikely she'd found any sleep afterward. Weary and wary she approaches Cassandra while she is alone at the training yard- though most of the latter would have less to do with the situation and more with the sword in the Seeker's hand. A healthy enjoyment of life and a respectable distance kept is enough to settle her. "Might I have a word?"

Several words.

Or questions, honestly. This is an uncomfortable situation to be caught in the midst of- but she gave her word the night before and her word is something she means to keep.

[stabsbooks]

"Enchanter LeBlanc." Cassandra lowers her sword, looking over at the mage and nodding in acceptance. She is becoming used to being interrupting at her training, but she supposes that is simply...what happens, when one begins an Inquisition. Unfortunate, but she will not shirk her duty. "What is on your mind?"

[fleurdesel]

"The rifter Galadriel." Dancing around the subject does neither of them favors. "Her imprisonment, specifically. It is a source of some concern for me."

Locked up with no word as to why, no explanation offered in truth from either party- simply taken and shut away? It brings to mind more than a few uncomfortable memories of the last months in the White Spire.

A week after Galadriel's imprisonment.

[madame_de_fer]

[So the rumors are true. Vivienne thought Cassandra at least better bred than to run off on a wild arrest spree with no evidence in hand. Clearly not.

There's an Iron Lady crossing the courtyard to seek out Cassandra by the training dummies. A rarity to be sure. She's annoyed.]

Cassandra, my dear, could you indulge me a moment of your time?

[stabsbooks]

[ Cassandra sees Vivienne approach before she gets close, and throws herself that much more vigorously into her training, focusing all her attention on the dummy. Perhaps, if she looks very busy, the Enchanter will decide to leave her be.

Unfortunately, it doesn't work like that. Vivienne calls out to her undeterred, and Cassandra sighs heavily, lowering her sword just long enough to shoot Vivienne an annoyed glare. ]

If this is about the dress, Enchanter, I have already made another appointment with the tailors. I promise you, I will be properly outfitted for your...soiree.

[ Even the word makes her lip curl in disgust. ]

[madame_de_fer]

Oh lovely! I'll make time to see how it's coming along. Yours should naturally take higher priority than the others.

[At least something is going smoothly this week. Maker, the trials she suffers...]

However, I need to address something far less pleasant than formal wear, more is the pity. I understand you are holding Galadriel in the dungeons.