Just a little thing I had drafted for a long time and finally finished for the latest round of “Time To Be Storytellers” on /r/dragonage. The Prompt was Letters.
Cullen/Lavellan (Primary), Dorian/Bull [T]
"And then these three reports from the Wastes, Ser." The Courier set down three more missives in a separate stack from the others before standing back at attention.
Cullen looked at the fresh array of paperwork that had arrived and refrained from sighing. He would admit he'd been looking for something to distract him, but this was substantially more than he'd wanted to deal with. "Thank you. Dismissed."
"Yes, Ser." She saluted and left, closing the door behind her.
It took the better part of the afternoon to clear through the important reports on recent enemy movements and it was well into evening before he finished going through the frustratingly tedious reports on troop numbers, supplies, disciplinary actions, recruit and volunteer training progress, and so forth. He remembered something some Orlesian officer had said to him during one of Josephine's annoying diplomatic soirees - "A general will find himself losing his life's blood not to a sword's slice, but to a hundred paper cuts." It had been said in absolute sympathy and was probably one of the few times Cullen had encountered anyone decent at those Maker-forsaken affairs.
With the last of that work taken care of, he reached over to the messages the courier had said had been from the Hissing Wastes. The Inquisitor had taken Cassandra, Dorian, and the Iron Bull out there to investigate something the Venatori were supposedly digging up. He had been comfortable saving those messages until the end since, if something serious had happened, it would have stood as a message all on its own, and not just as added reports.
For the first one, he recognized the handwriting immediately as Cassandra's, which meant the message inside would undoubtedly be a dry report of any encounters with either Venatori or Red Templars. She did not consider herself skilled at writing, and so always put in minimal time with her reports - preferring to get them out of the way.
The second one was Dorian's script. These messages typically contained unending and creative complaints about the area they were in, useful commentary on Venatori movements, insults about Cullen's chess strategy, and then usually Dorian's latest move in the game they'd had to put on hold. So far Dorian looked like he was ahead as far as the number of pieces still on the board, but he was also three moves into Cullen's trap at last count, so this next move should be interesting.
It was the third message that confused him. It wasn't Bull's handwriting, which wasn't really a surprise - most of his reports were directed to Leliana; Cullen usually only saw messages from him in cases where Bull had spotted a place where recruit training could be improved, or, with ever increasing frequency, scribbled in the margins of Dorian's messages, likely as part of teasing the mage.
He looked over the front of the message again. It was addressed simply to his full name with no other commentary. The handwriting was clear and cautious; the letters clearly formed with laborious effort, like a child copying their primer, except that finer motor control was clearly present.
It didn't take long for him to realize that it could be instead "an adult elf copying her primer" and he quickly cracked the wax seal, hoping he had reached the correct conclusion.
Scanning the first few lines, it appeared he had.
"Dear Cullen, ma vhenan,
"Varric told me that if I am to get better at writing, I need to do it more. He said I shoud try something I woud enjoy more than boring old reports and said I shoud try writing letters to people instead. Dorian seems surprised I was given 'homework' to do. Work I am sending home? I don't understand. He laffed and woud not explain. I think he is upset because I saw the chess move he sent and told him you were going to win your match. So we made a board into the sand and he had to learn again that I am not good at righting writing or reading but I can play chess - as you well no know.
"Bull just now said that Dorian is sulking over the defeat. And now they are arguing with each other. Again. I know how this usually goes and do not want later to have to remind them that sound travels far in the dess desert."
He couldn't help but smile as he read the letter she had so carefully worked on. Yes, much of her voice and style was lost to her having to keep such a careful eye on what she was putting down, but he could still picture them all teasing each other and laughing even as she wrote. She was probably sitting nearby the others with some kind of board braced across her knees for a surface, her quill held in too tight a hand as she worked on putting each line down with precision. He’d seen her practicing before and knew she would be mouthing the sounds as she tried to find the correct letters for the words she wanted to use; her face often scrunching up in frustration. Occasionally he would hear aggravated noises from her direction before she’d indignantly request the correct spelling of a word followed then by her returning to the paper and forcefully scrawling out the correct series of letters with a vengeance.
Considering how long Anast had argued that her illiteracy wasn’t a problem for her, when she decided she would learn to read and write, she had taken up the challenge with a ferocity. She had declared to him that she did not plan to be defeated by ink and mere shapes - no matter how confusing she frequently found their use. More than once he had gone to check on her to find her asleep at her desk, with either her head resting on an open book, or with a quill still in her hand and ink drying on her face. Upon waking her, she would thank him and then immediately go back to her practice. Twice now he opted to just put his cloak over her so she’d be warm and just let her get her rest.
Maker, but he was stupidly in love with her.
He continued to read through her pages.
"All three of them have been complaining about sand getting into boots. I agree that it is unpleasant but I at least know how to avoid it. But they did not like my idea of going barefoot. Tho its not as easy for me either right now as I have gone so long wearing stupid shem shoes I have lost much of my"
The next line was several attempts at a word, all viciously blacked out with more ink before it continued.
"calluses. Sorry, I had to ask Dorian how to spell it. I still think it is stupid that C sounds like both K and S.
"I am akt actually writing this as the sun comes up, not because we are about to head out, but because we are bedding down in the light. It is stupid hot in the Wastes during the day - worse than the Approch Approach - and even Dorian is saying he'd rather be back at Skyhold where it is cool - and now he is telling me to not write that down because he doesn't want me using it against him next time he complains about being cold. Too late.
“The Wastes are very pretty at nite tho. The moon shines off all the sand and we have not needed to bring torches, not that I would need them anyway. This is good because the Venatori need them to dig and if I climb up on the rocks I can see their en camp ments miles away but they can't see us until my first arrow.
"It also means we will be heading back soon because the moon is already waning and it will be pitch black at night when it is new. But we have messed with the Venatori enuf enof enouf so much that they won’t get much further done wile we wait for the moon to wax again. I do worry about the slaves they have working tho. They worked many to death and we have freed who we could and told them to seek our camps. Some will come with us to Skyhold and I’m sure we can find places for them.
“I just asked about more spelling. How is though said like tho but laugh like laff and enough like enoff? To steal a saying - This is ridiculous (and I had to ask how that was spelled too). And Cassandra says there is an L in both should and would even if we don’t really say it. How do any of you learn to read or write with all these stupid rules?
"Dorian just went inside his tent and is bitching (Sera taught me that spelling) about Bull having traked tracked sand into it. Bull is now saying it was Dorian's fault not dumping his boots outside earlier. They are argueing arguing inside now. Cassandra just said she is going to bed now to try and fall asleep before things get any noisier. We had to thro rocks at their tent yesterday. If we have to do it again today, they will have to set their tent far away from us next time.
"Sun is almost up so I will also try to get some sleep. I will hand this letter to the next messenger so you should get it before we are back but not by much.
"Ar Lath Ma
"Anast"
Cullen smiled as he carefully refolded the letter and slid it inside a desk drawer. According to the reports he'd reviewed earlier, she should be back within the next five days. He fully expected to reread the letter a few more times before then.