A hated Game that must yet be played...
《 starter for @chivalrouschevalier (perhaps even @delaguerre if you would like! :-D )- feel free to ignore, but I was struck my random inspiration after reading up on certain Orlesian nobility. ^_^ 》
Orlesians called it the Grand Game. Elissa thought it cumbersome, petty, and unnecessary - a crutch for the vain and egotistical. Still, after the events of the Blight and the year or so that followed, Ferelden’s Warden Commander and latest bearer of the title ‘Hero’ knew that leadership often left little room for personal tastes and morals. What needed done was done.
If Commander Cousland’s suspicions about the reasons for the destination of her Constable’s reassignment, if not the motivation for the reassignment itself were correct - she was at a loss for anywhere else to start but here: the estate of Grand Duke Gaspard de Chalons, cousin of Empress Celene, and renowned veteran of 'the War in Ferelden'.
If there were anyone still living in this Maker-forsaken Empire who might have greater cause for wanting the Hero of River Dane at Orlesian mercy, in reality if not in name would it not be The Grand Duke? She might be wrong, but what else could she do? She’d be damned to the Void if she was going to let them take him from her the Wardens of his home country, where he was needed more than ever.
