Chapter five, in which Shepard turns to seduction to escape capture, which goes about as well as you would expect for chapter five of a slow burn.
Shepard had planned on letting the templar lead her all the way to Kirkwall before ditching him — possibly tied up and in an actual ditch, depending on how she was feeling at the time — but she quickly grew bored of his company. Also, he’d taken to drugging her, which she found highly objectionable.
She hadn’t immediately realised was what he was doing, having been lulled into a false sense of security by his manner. She would hardly call him nice, but he was civil; his approach was curt but not cruel, firm but never rough, and he ensured she was fed and watered just as he was. Most of all he seemed professional, his duty of utmost importance to him, unwavering in his dedication to his task.
He seemed professional — but evidently he was underhanded, and a monumental pain in the ass.
I don't talk about my fics a lot 😩 HOWEVER, I do write! Right now I'm working on my fic The Edge and the Tether, and I just posted a new chapter!
If you're into DA and the religious Chantry of it all, plus some lil Cullen x Trev romance on the side, then this is for you!
A bit of art and a snippet~
But it was the supernatural that was the threat now. Cullen jerked his chin down ahead of where the group was marching, looking for aberrations of violent green cracking through the surface of the mountain. If Trevelyan had done her due diligence as the reports claimed, all of the smaller tears in the veil surrounding the temple had been dealt with to make the path clear, there should be no unexpected encounters with demons on their way up. They did not need to be dealing with possession on top of everything else. Whether the tear could be closed at all, he could only pray. The elf apostate, Solas, seemed to have faith that it could be controlled.
thanks for listening LOVE U
tag list 4 my homies ty ily sorry
@aetherflowers @bibutterflies @carako @dogot @dragonagedorks @inquisiorastoria @loreofthedasposts @opheliatrevelyan @priya-san @theluckywizard @tired-truffle @tpseudonana
“You will remove your hands from the Inquisitor, or I will remove you from this room myself.”
A moodboard for post-meadow euphoria, lethal Fereldan deadpan, extreme diplomatic hostility, and threatening to throw your future in-laws in the dungeon.
Chapter 15 of The Skyhold Literary Society is coming very soon. Welcome to the War Room. Please leave your terrible parents at the door.
NEW CHAPTER DROP: WE ARE PLEASED TO INFORM YOU THE INQUISITOR POSITION HAS BEEN FILLED
^performance review footage. redacted for content
SKYHOLD PERSONNEL OFFICE — PROBATIONARY REVIEW
Candidate: Cmdr. C. Rutherford
Position applied for: [redacted by the Inquisitor, blushing]
Initiative: Exceptional. Packed bedrolls unprompted, called it “a contingency,” later confessed under no duress whatsoever that their use was “the desired outcome.”
Communication: Strong written and verbal. Oral skills are noted as especially exceptional.
Areas for growth: [redacted by the Inquisitor, giggling about dessert and uniform casualties]
Note from the hiring manager (the Inquisitor): no notes. 10/10. Arrived feeling like a lumpy ham, left the most worshipped woman in Thedas. Would interview again immediately.
chapter 13 wip - these two idiots desperately need to use their words
“Would you… rather not have a lesson today?”
“Oh! No, not after you’ve gone to all this trouble. I—” Ella winced, catching her breath as if trying to hold back tears. “Unless you’d rather not.”
“Ella, I didn’t go to all this trouble because I don’t want to teach you.”
NEW CHAPTER DROP! WEAPONIZED POSTSCRIPTS AND SUPPLY CHAIN ROMANCE
(Or, how Cullen Rutherford lost a game of Tic-Tac-Toe and his entire mind.)
Ella thinks she's destined for a life of reading about romance instead of experiencing it, and our Commander is over here literally writing her letters to say, "I am going to take your clothes off."
Strap in, it's another long one folks!
Read Chapter 8 on AO3
Tag List!!
@aetherflowers @bibutterflies @briannasroger @carako @dogot
Explicit | Cullen x Trevelyan | Hawke x Trevelyan | WC: 500K + (WIP) | DA:I | Epic | Multiship | Slow burn | Fast burn | Complications While Saving the World
Chapter Summary:
Rose and Cullen find refuge and the truth after the incident with Jowan.
Fic Summary:
Lady Rose Trevelyan is in over her head.
Her attendance at the Conclave was only meant to distract her from her failures as a daughter. And then it blew a hole in the world. Marked by an unknown magic, armed with only a few relevant skills, Rose fumbles and fights her way across Thedas with a band of shockingly deadly oddballs dedicated to stopping— well, all of it. As apocalyptic forces conspire to break and remake her, Rose is snared between the tentative devotion of the Inquisition’s stalwart commander and the fierce love of legendary warrior Garrett Hawke, two vastly different men both haunted by hindsight.
Excerpt below the cut!
Rose builds a fire, musing about the creatures she might have to smoke out. Then they lie down at last to recover from the day’s foolishness, side by side beneath herbs and pots and pans that hang from the kitchen’s cross beams. Cullen’s mind already wavers from a few scant swigs, but it’s enough to quiet the need for lyrium.
On her back, Rose sighs through her nose and speaks into the inky recesses of the rafters. “I wish Garrett had seen it,” she says. “The stupid scuffle.”
“If Hawke had been there it would have been over in thirty seconds,” counters Cullen lightly.
“Nonsense,” she answers. “He’d have been mind-controlled too.”
They both try on laughter for the first time in a week, barely more than matching chuckles, but a transgression nonetheless.
“Maybe,” he says.
Rose taps her fingers against her stomach, fidgets with the pilling edge of her blanket, then spears him with an unexpected question.
“Could you tell me about him?”
Cullen’s breath stalls. It confirms she hasn’t yet read his journal which features more than a few yellow-eyed complaints about the man and bitter recollections of their entanglements in Kirkwall. His envy had been jagged and unjust before it finally settled, and now it savors of regret.
“What could I tell you about him that you don’t already know?”
Rose shakes her head, glossy eyes trained above her. “He never told me much about Kirkwall. I think he wanted to leave it all behind. Or maybe he didn’t want to saddle me with it,” she says. Is there anyone who really wants to remember that place? “But you knew him back then. I just— want to know what he was like.”
Cullen exhales. “Not that different all told,” he says. Rose persists.
“Do you remember meeting him?”
Maker. Maybe this is the honesty they’ve always needed.
“It was ten years ago maybe. I came to his Uncle’s flat looking for information.” Coward. Cullen clears the cobwebs from his throat and tries again. “I was looking for apostates. Door to door interrogations, tossing homes in search of mages and magical artifacts.” He flicks Rose a glance, measuring her reaction. Even glazed on half a flask of brandy, her gaze runs right through him.
“You were a Templar. Did you really think this would surprise me?”
“I thought perhaps you’d have a smart remark.”
“I may be a brat but I’m not cruel,” she rejoins. “I know how you feel about your time there.”
Cullen collapses into the memory, one of the few that remains vivid after high lyrium doses feathered the edges of all the rest. There was tea and King’s Patties and Edgehall cheese from a nearby Fereldan market. Even without the taste of home, he felt the squeeze of a proper family there. Bickering siblings and the harried scold of their mother. A Mabari snoring by a mountain of coals. Laundry thrown over chairbacks. And a boisterous, curious, earnest man who made Cullen feel like a guest of honor.
'Red had no beginning and no end. It fused with his bones, bonded with his muscles and ligaments. It was in every pore of his skin, every filament of hair, every scrap of cartilage. He saw it whenever he opened his eyes, felt it in every touch of his skin, smelled it in the air. When liquid poured between his lips, he tasted red. When voices spoke to him, he heard the sibilant hiss of lyrium, answering the thrum in his chest. It was everywhere, everything, and it held him in its fist as completely as a sword was held in its sheath.
And he was content.'
-Wander the Drifting Roads by mortonsspoon
I was absolutely gripped by this story recently and the idea wouldn't leave me.
Okay but what if Cullen's lip is partially numb? Like numb around where the scar is.
What if, when he kisses the Inquisitor for the first time it is also when he has to deal with a sudden onslaught of just how numb that area is. He can't focus on the feeling of the kiss as much as he would like because his brain is too focused on trying to feel something where he can't.
It used to be this way with eating and talking, but he got used to it. It became duller with experience. Then the lyrium withdrawals made it loud again for a time but then he got used to that again.
But kissing the Inquisitor is new. He wants to focus on what kissing them feels like. He wants to focus on the moment, but a part of that is just how numb part of him is.
"There is a place that waits for a force to hold it. There is a place where the Inquisition can build--grow. Skyhold."
3/3 of my postcards for @dragonageannual 2026! deeply pleased to have had the chance to make a card for this special place, the hole-filled non-osha compliant fortress of all time 🏰⚔️
Finally sharing this incredible commission by @exalted-dawn that I got over two years ago for my DA:I longfic In the Shattering of Things. Ed perfectly captured the agony of the moment. Frankly I'm shocked I was able to sit on this amazing art for so long! I wasn't sure when or how it would shake out exactly, but the illustration pairs with Chapter 96: Undertow, perhaps the most pivotal moment in the entire story. Thank you, Ed! 🥰🥰🥰
