It was the nose that stopped her dead.
She’d known the boy had come to Skyhold, of course. Had seen him around the place a number of times since. But she hadn’t really looked at him until the day she’d been crossing the garden to the chantry, and he’d happened to cross her path.
In an instant, she had taken in all the details, just as she had been trained to do. But it was the nose that had struck her first. Then the jawline. Then the look in his eyes… Something brave and good and honourable.
Not something that would have come from his mother.
Honestly, she was hard-pressed to see anything in the boy that had come from his mother, save the shape of his eyes, perhaps, and the almost unsettlingly still way he held himself.
No, the sum of his features belonged to his father, and it was odd to have the sudden realisation that she knew exactly who that was.
Her first immediate impulse was to storm across the garden, grab Morrigan by her slim shoulders, and snap the witch in half.
Because in that same moment, she’d remembered that night. The night before the march to Denerim. She had gone in search of Elissa, looking for comfort ahead of the battle, and had instead found her friend collapsed on the floor. Tears coursing down her face. And Alistair nowhere in sight.
True, she didn’t know the boy’s age. Not exactly. Morrigan had dropped off the face of Thedas following the battle and Elissa had urged her not to go looking. It was possible that something had happened, after the Landsmeet. After Elissa had left…
But he looked old enough for it to have been that night.
And she couldn’t imagine Alistair seeking Morrigan out, not even if...
She had always known that the rumours were true. Not for certain, not in so many words, not confirmed by either party, but in her heart, she had known. That somehow, somewhere, her two favourite Grey Wardens were continuing their relationship in secret. She didn’t see how it could be otherwise. She had never seen two people more alike, or more in love.
It had been the reason why, back before the Conclave, before all the mess of dear Justinia’s death, when they had sought Elissa to lead the Inquisition, she had gone not to Vigil’s Keep, but to the palace in Denerim. After all, if anyone knew where Elissa was, it would be Alistair. Wouldn’t it?