Dragon Age Inquisition: Faith

Enemies

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With the Viscount dead, Knight-Commander Meredith should have been the most important person in Kirkwall. The moment the nobles at the Keep raised a cheer to the Champion, however, Hawke became Meredith's rival.

At first, Meredith chose to politely ignore the fact that the Champion had used magic—dangerous, powerful, qunari-slaying magic—in full view of half the city. The Knight-Commander was no fool; she saw that trying to force Hawke into a Circle would cause a political and popular uproar.

But I think some part of Meredith spent the next three years waiting for the day when she could confront the Champion.

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The first days after Redcliffe felt like slow torture to Cecily.

Solas told her, time and again, that it was impossible to predict when they would be able to close the large rift. Cecily wasn't prepared to accept that. She spent every waking moment pouring over every magical book she could find, asking Solas questions, consulting with the other mages, trying to figure out the right combination of magic that would give the mark enough power to seal the Breach.

Finally, Solas threw up his hands and told her that she was banned from the research quarters unless he summoned her. "I will get nothing done if you keep asking me how much longer this will take."

"But I can help," insisted Cecily.

"In your current state of mind, I'm afraid you are more likely to be a hindrance," said Solas, not unkindly.

"Solas, if we don't close the Breach, it will grow so large that the entire sky will be green," she argued desperately.

"If we do nothing, yes, that will happen. But I assure you, we are not doing nothing. And remember, the future you saw was a future in which you had been missing for a year and there had been no one to close any rifts, large or small. Your very return made that future impossible. Think on that, and let me work."

That hadn't occurred to Cecily, and she did find it somewhat comforting. Even so, it proved hard to keep her mind away from what she'd seen at Redcliffe.

In the Circle, when she had felt afraid or trapped or frustrated, she'd found things to climb. Cecily was actually terrified of heights, but that was rather the point: she'd be afraid of looking down, feel smug for doing it anyway, and return to whatever she'd been doing with more confidence and a clearer head. But there weren't many high places in Haven, and she wasn't sure she wanted to explain to Josephine or Vivienne why someone had spotted the Herald of Andraste on the roof of the Chantry.

Fortunately, Dorian found her a new hobby: chess. Cecily knew the names of the pieces and the general rules of the game, but little else, and Dorian beat her with embarrassing ease the first time they played.

"This won't do at all. I insist that you learn how to play this game properly. We cannot let anyone know that the Herald of Andraste is such an appalling strategist," he told her.

The idea didn't appeal much to Cecily, but since she didn't have anything else to do, she agreed. To her surprise, she enjoyed it. Dorian was good company and a patient teacher, and the complexities of the game were absorbing enough to provide some relief to her worried mind.

"You know, Commander Cullen is quite a skilled player," he told her during one of their afternoon games, three weeks or so into her lessons.

"Is he?" Somehow that didn't surprise Cecily. Chess would appeal to someone with Cullen's command of military strategy.