The Enchanter and The Lion

Chapter 48 - Final Preparations

A week later, Cullen, Josephine, Leliana, and a small part of the army rode back through the gates of Skyhold. 

"I suppose I shouldn't be surprised that you disappeared through a magic elven mirror," he said to her later that night, running his hand down her back and pulling her closer. They lay together in bed in her quarters, although it was rapidly becoming their quarters in his mind, since most nights they were both in Skyhold were spent there. 

"I didn't mean to worry you," she said raising her head from his chest to look at him. 

"Who said I was worried?" he said, as his eyes drifted to the new scar on her right bicep that Samson had given her. "How many does this make?" he teased hoping it would hide the fact that he really had been worried. 

When Corypheus and the dragon had flown off and they had finally broken the last of the Red Templars, she hadn't emerged from the temple and they found the doors impenetrable. Josephine was about to call in favors from the Dwarven mining caste in Orzammar to blast them open when the raven had arrived informing them that Maeve and her party were safe at Skyhold.

She smiled seductively at him, "You mean you haven't found them all?"

"Every time...I try to...I get...distracted," he said between kisses that trailed from her mouth down to her collarbone. The soft intake of breath she made with each one made him realize that, despite being completely satisfied less than an hour ago, he no longer was now.

He pressed his lips back to hers and rolled on top of her, tongues dancing across each other as she met the thrust of his hips with her own to take him inside her. Every part of her was familiar now...home. Maker, how did I ever live without her? he thought as he lost himself in the rhythm of their bodies and every wonderful sound he drew from her.

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They all met in the council room the following morning. The Red Templars had been all but defeated, leaving Corypheus with no army to speak of. However, there was still the very real threat he and his dragon presented. As long as he was alive he would try to get into the Fade and destroy Thedas. Unfortunately, with what they witnessed at the temple, it appeared that Corypheus was immortal since he could possess any blighted creature, which explained how he had survived when Hawke thought he had killed him.

"The voices of the Well speak to me from across the ages. Even they fear what Corypheus has become. But, he has a weakness," Morrigan told them.

Everyone looked at her expectantly as she paused.

"Corypheus has invested part of his being within his dragon. Likely a way to emulate the gods of old.  If we kill the dragon his ability to jump bodies is disrupted and he can be slain."

"I can kill dragons," she smiled at Morrigan.

"You will be hard pressed to deal with both the dragon and the Magister at the same time. The voices of the well say we must summon Mythal. She will help us match the dragon so you can focus on Corypheus."

"I'm sorry, I thought I just heard you say we have to summon a dead elven goddess?" she asked incredulously.

"Indeed, you did, Inquisitor," she leaned forward and gestured to an area back in the Arbor Wilds. "There is an altar to Mythal here. That is where we must perform the summoning."

They made plans to set out that afternoon, while Leliana and Cullen saw to Skyhold's defenses in the absence of the bulk of their army that was still in the Wilds.

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She and Morrigan approached an overgrown ruin several days later. A set of crumbling stone steps led up to a large statue of Mythal.