Seek, And Ye Shall ...
For @owlpocalypse, who requested an epilogue of sorts for Cassandra and Kaaras after the events of Set In Darkness. I hope it lives up to expectations!
9:42 Dragon
"How is he? Will he ..."
"He'll live."
A deep sigh of heartfelt relief. "And ... his arm?"
"Gone. Whatever Solas did, it cauterized and healed the amputation point. He'll wear the scars from the Anchor for the rest of his life, but the magic is gone."
"I see. Is he in pain?"
"Not physically. But you know better than me what this will do to him. Losing an arm is traumatic for anyone, but for a warrior, it could unsettle his mind."
"He is strong. He will endure this."
"He needs you beside him. The Inquisition doesn't exist anymore, not the way we've known it. The Valo-Kas likely won't take a one-armed man back into their ranks. He needs you, Cassandra. He didn't say it aloud, but he's afraid you won't love him anymore, because of this."
"Not ... That is absurd! He is no less a man for this loss!"
"Then you need to tell him that, make him believe it."
A pause. Then ...
"I will never let him think otherwise."
9:43 Dragon
"... fifty-four, fifty-five, fifty-six ..."
"Papa!"
Kaaras looked up from his one-handed press-ups, a wry grin on his face for the cry of welcome that erupted from the small girl lying on his back. Cullen chuckled as he approached, reaching down to lift Alys off his Qunari friend's back to allow Kaaras to rise without impediment. It had been a full year since the Exalted Council, since the end of the Inquisition, yet those who had formed close bonds in that time had not long been parted from each other. How could they be, when the commander's wife insisted on being the one to assist the First Lady Seeker through the struggles of childbirth?
"Papa, he goes up and down and I go up and down and I don't fall off!" Alys declared happily as she settled on her father's hip, grinning her sweetest grin for Kaaras.
She had long since stopped screaming when she saw him, proof positive that it was elvhen magic - Solas' magic - that unnerved her so. The little girl's first act when the Inquisitor had lost his arm had been to kiss the smooth remains, and clamber up to embrace him where he lay on the bed. Just for that, Kaaras knew he would always be fond of the commander's daughter, chuckling as he rose to his feet with only a little awkwardness.
The big Qunari still had moments when his lack of a left hand caused problems, but he has adjusted remarkably well, throwing himself into training his right hand to wield a bastard sword, rather than a full two-handed blade, working on strengthening his right arm and shoulder to bear the strain, re-learning the almost forgotten skills of sword and shield with the help of his fierce Nevarran wife. Cassandra had been the one to demand that Dagna come up with a means to strap a shield securely onto Kaaras' left arm; had bullied him up and out of bed when it was done, refusing to be ignored. She had single-handedly reminded him that there was more to being a warrior and a good man than having two hands to wield a blade.
No one had been surprised when, six months ago, she had dragged him in front of Divine Victoria and demanded to be married. Leliana's grin had apparently been wide enough to endanger her own nose throughout the ceremony. What had surprised a few people was the summons sent to the Rutherfords on their new farm in Ferelden, with a demand for their company, since Cassandra Adaar was reasonably close to giving birth. No wonder she had been so insistent on the marriage at last, after years of gently putting off making that decision.
"Cassandra would like it known that if you come near her again, she will break your other horn off," Cullen dutifully passed on, flashing a warmer grin at the surprised look on Kaaras' face. "But I am reasonably confident she doesn't mean a word of it. Rory informs me that when women start making threats, it means the birth is not far away."
A vague look of panic crossed Kaaras' expression for a moment. "So ... she's almost there?"
"It would seem so," Cullen assured him, hoisting Alys a little higher on his hip just to make the toddler giggle and clutch at his mantle. "I have orders to make sure you eat something, as well, so ... this way, Inquisitor."
"Not Inquisitor anymore, Cullen," Kaaras reminded him with a flicker of his boyish smile. Pain and care had robbed him of his perpetual look of innocence, but what remained was still youthful beneath his horns. "Just Kaaras."
"Jus' Kaskas," Alys agreed solemnly, opening her arms to the Qunari.
Cullen chuckled, letting his daughter swarm over into Kaaras' grip, and up further, to sit on his shoulders, clinging to the big man's horn and a half to stay in place. "Just Kaaras or not, my wife will punish me if I don't feed the pair of you," he pointed out mildly. "So in we go."
It wasn't what you might call a pleasant meal, being very basic and eaten to the accompaniment of Cassandra giving vent to every thought that came into her mind in the room above, but finally, after a long day of waiting, Kaaras heard the unmistakable sound of newborn lungs giving voice to discontent. Nothing could have kept him from Cassandra's side when Rory finally called down to tell him he was allowed up, pausing very briefly to hug the redhead on his way past as he ducked his head to lurch into the bedroom and fall to his knees beside the bed. His large hand found Cassandra's fingers, raising her knuckles to his lips as he greedily devoured the sight of her. Her smile was weary and wry at his obvious concern, tilting easily into the kiss he offered her lips.
"You should greet your son," she told him as he nuzzled to her, laughing when he cut off what else she tried to say with another kiss.
"Our son doesn't care that you've been wrestling with him all day," Kaaras reminded her. "I do."
"I am not a wilting flower," Cassandra objected, but her husband was having none of it.
"Today, you are," he informed her firmly. "You lie there and wilt, and let me love you without arguing for once, would you?"
"I don't argue all the time," she began, breaking off with another laugh at the expression on his face. "Fine, I will lie here and wilt. Go and greet your son before he starts screaming again."
"Did you give him a name yet?"
"I was under the impression that fathers name their sons," Cassandra said mildly, watching as Kaaras lifted himself onto his feet and rounded the bed to look into the wooden crib.
A robust little person blinked back up at him, no larger than a human child, but possessed of two tiny soft nubs of horn at his brow, and his skin a warm shade of gray. Bald, of course, but that was no guarantee that there wouldn't be hair in the future. Just because Kaaras had never grown hair didn't mean his half-human son wouldn't, and secretly he hoped that hair would be black, like his mother's. He reached down into the crib, careful to wriggle his arm entirely beneath the little body before lifting his son up and into the crook of his one elbow.
"You're sure you want me to name him?" Kaaras asked, settling himself on the edge of the bed as Cassandra peered over at the baby.
She rolled her eyes. "Have you no thoughts for him at all?"
"I have one," he offered defensively. "I'm just not sure you won't hit me for suggesting it."
"I am in no condition to hit you at this moment," she pointed out wryly.
"No, but you might save it up and hit me when I'm least expecting it," he countered, grinning at her as she made a very familiar sound in the back of her throat. "All right, all right ... I'd like to call him Anthony, after your brother."
Cassandra stilled, suspicious wetness suddenly pooling in her eyes as she looked up at her Qunari husband in something close to disbelief. "I ... I had thought you would wish for a name like your own."
Kaaras' boyish smiled softened, the remains of his left arm rising to tuck about her shoulders as best he could. "Why should I pull a name that means nothing from the air, when there is a name that means everything always in your heart, kadan?"
It was so rare to see Cassandra unguarded and deeply moved, yet there it was, all the emotion he had evoked in her with a single request stark on her face as she looked at the infant in his grasp. Her fingers rose, tracing over the soft horns, the little button of a nose, the full lips that smacked hopefully at her touch. A tiny, tender smile lifted her lips as she nodded, forcing herself to form words in answer.
"Anthony," she agreed, her voice rich with longing and hope. "Yes."
Her smile relaxed as Kaaras kissed her temple, inching closer to hold both his wife and son in his arms. It was a scene he'd never thought was possible, yet here it was. Whatever Solas had planned, he would find it a difficult fight. When their agents in Tevinter identified what was going on and how to end it, Kaaras would be there to see his former friend defeated. And he would defeat him. A world with his son in it was a world worth fighting for.
9:45 Dragon
"Seeker ... you sure about this?"
Cassandra raised her head from her son, who was whining as she gently rubbed balm into the crowning nubs of his true horns. Two years old, and the joy of teething was over only to be replaced with the joy of crowning. Anthony was a good boy, generally, but the incessant whining about the ache in his temples was wearing on her last nerve. And yet here she was, agreeing to something that was going to make her home life that much more chaotic.
"I would not have said it if I did not feel sure about it, Bull," she reminded their friend, a former Ben-Hassrath who knew her well enough not to argue. "Besides, where else can they go? The Qun is under attack; if we do not take them, they will either be sent back to a place under siege from all sides, or they will be raised somewhere they will be made an example of for being different, as Kaaras was when he was a child. I will not have that. We have the space and the means."
Iron Bull chuckled, reaching down to tweak the nose of the toddler who was staring up at him in wonder. "And a little experience," he added, crouching down so Anthony could get a good look at this other person who was just like his poppa only bigger and scarier. "You're going to go from one to many in a single afternoon," Bull warned.
Cassandra smiled faintly, shaking her head. "That is not such a bad thing," she said quietly. "A family should be full, yet I cannot give Kaaras that large gathering we both long for. I am a warrior; I am too old to safely bear any more children."
"Still the sexiest thing behind a shield I've ever seen, Seeker," Bull complimented her, rewarded with a rare smile.
"When do you expect to meet up with the Valo-Kas?" she asked abruptly, bending to lift her toddler son up onto her hip.
Bull rose to his feet, thoughtful for a moment. "They've been tracking the elves a few days now," he told her. "Me and the Chargers'll meet them on the Storm Coast, probably in a week. It's time Solas got a little reminder that we're still out here."
Cassandra nodded, meeting the mercenary's single eye with a look that promised weight behind her words. "If you let Kaaras die, I will hunt you down and kill you myself."
Iron Bull inclined his head with an easy smile, understanding the threat and promise for what it was. "Noted, ma'am."
9:46 Dragon
The crash of two small bodies slamming into the kitchen table was what caught Kaaras' attention. He looked up from the book he was reading aloud, moving his head with a little difficulty, given that there were two toddlers clinging to his horns, each one astride his shoulders. The twins were locked, horns to horns, ostensibly wrestling with one another, but in actual fact, he thought they were probably stuck. On the floor at his feet, the eldest was busily banging the crap out of a thin piece of sheet iron with the wooden mallet his father had given him. It was one big happy, chaotic scene. And Cassandra was due back any moment.
One year ago, they'd had a simple, calm family life. Then Iron Bull had caught wind of an elven raid on a children's training camp in Par Vollen, of Tamassrans slaughtered and Qunari children stolen away by agents of Fen'Harel. The Valo-Kas had been contacted; Kaaras had gone, with Cassandra's blessing, to help rescue some of those children if they possibly could. The fight had been bloody, but successful, one elf remaining to carry the news back to Solas that the Inquisitor knew what he had allowed to be done and was extremely pissed off about it. It had been something of a surprise when Bull had passed on the message that Cassandra had sent with him - that if there were children in that group who needed a home, she and Kaaras would take them in. Chances were she hadn't been expecting her husband to come home with four of them, but the First Lady Seeker had simply opened her heart to the little gaggle of children, happy to be a mother to more than little Anthony, who reveled in having siblings. After just one year out of the Qun, secure in the affection and protection of parents who could love and discipline with equal warmth, the Adaar brood were certainly a handful.
There was Ataas, now seven years old, who had resisted Cassandra's efforts to mother him for the longest time of them all. Yet she had won him over simply by offering him somewhere quiet to rest himself - Kaaras gave his wife space and quiet to read her guilty pleasures every day, and Ataas had found himself drawn to the gentle quiet that was Cassandra absorbed in whichever book Varric had sent her that month. These days, reading time belonged to Cassandra and Ataas, both of them curled together, reading two separate books, while Kaaras attempted to corral the other four. Next down from Ataas in age were Sokraam and Danel, twin boys rising five, who were decidedly more rough and tumble than the original furniture in the Adaar house could handle. There was absolutely no doubt in Kaaras' mind that they would both be warriors when they grew, both of them so ready to tap into their primal side. It was becoming a regular thing to hear a low roar from one side of the room, and not turn in time to prevent Danel from charging at his twin with his horns lowered. Thankfully Sokraam always saw him coming. Cassandra had given up worrying about injuries; the twins seemed indestructible. The final pair were made up of Anthony, who they knew for certain was three years old, and little Dorea, who was possibly a shy two, and the only girl in their brood. She was attached to Anthony at the hip, the two of them rarely apart, instant friends from the moment they met. Dorea would do anything Anthony suggested; Anthony would drop everything to soothe his new sister if her crowning horns were hurting her, or if she felt left out of the boys' games.
Five children in one house should have seemed a handful, but Kaaras loved it. They didn't see him as missing anything; indeed, they barely seemed aware that he had only one arm to hug them with. He was their walking mountain to scale, their shield to hide behind when strangers came, the grin they referred to if Mama was busy with her armored visitors. Mama had been away for three days this time, settling her affairs with the newly-reinstated Seekers of Truth, and they were all missing her. But the sound of hoofbeats a few minutes ago had not gone unnoticed by Papa, at least. He was content to let the twins wrestle now, knowing that they would forget whatever the disagreement had been the moment Cassandra walked in through the door. Everything stopped when Mama came home, after all.
Setting the book on his lap, he reached up to untangle Anthony from his half-horn, lifting the giggling toddler down onto his knee with a grin. He just barely had time to let go of the small boy before Dorea dropped like a stone from his other shoulder, catching her before her little horns planted themselves into an area of his anatomy he'd rather not have gored, even by small nubs like that. Ataas looked up from his busy attempts to be a blacksmith, grinning at the upside down giggle he got back from his little sister.
Then the door opened, and all hell broke loose.
"MAMA!"
9:65 Dragon
The whiplash of magic cracked across the intervening space, a blazing maelstrom of death meant to envelop the Inquisitor and his ever-faithful Seeker of Truth. They were both aged now, silver in Cassandra's hair, yet both still bore their weapons with strength and pride. They knelt together, tucked behind their shields, praying the distraction was working as they held each other's gaze. They'd had twenty years; far longer than they had thought Solas would allow them, time enough to raise a family and set at least a little of the world to rights again. But now he had sent his people to remove them, at last aware of their remote interference through agents of their own.
Kaaras growled, taking a firmer grip on his sword, feeling the heavy weight of magic blast against the shield strapped to the remains of his left arm. Beside him, Cassandra was tensed. Neither of them were as young as they were; neither had expected to be attacked at their own home. But if this was the end, they would go out together, and watch from the Void as all the powers they called friends fell upon Solas and his cruel plans.
Yet the final blast, the one that would sweep them away into nothingness ... did not come.
Instead, they were suddenly surrounded in a cocoon of silence, the rush and push of magic that enveloped them held back by the familiar sensation of a templar's Dispelling. Footsteps rushed toward them from behind; they heard the twang of arrows leaving bows, the snarl of familiar voices racing to their defense. Kaaras grinned over at his wife, seeing the same wild snarl on her face that told him she knew what he did.
All unexpected, the cavalry had arrived.
They felt the stroking blanket of a magical barrier before they saw those who had brought help, each rising to their feet as suddenly they were no longer two, but seven, facing the elves that had come to end their lives with reinforcements Solas could not have foreseen. For all his wisdom, all his power, he still did not understand the power of family.
Sokraam came into sight first, the armor of the New Templar Order shining in the flicker and flame of magic from Danel's fingers, twin brothers set on different paths yet always bound together, mage and templar, the perfect example of what their disparate orders should have been. Ataas and Anthony, each bearing the two-handed weapons that were their choice, each armored as Seekers of Cassandra's new Order of Truth, flanked their parents in the wake of the twins' advance, bolstering Sokraam's dispelling with Silences of their own, negating the magical advantage of Fen'Harel's elves. And Dorea, the last of them, a junior Red Jenny in her own right, found her place between her parents, her bow singing as she took aim at those attackers who sought to end the influence of the Seeker and the Inquisitor. Seven stood together, horned and armored, the fury in their blood demanding recompense for a cowardly attack on beloved parents who had not raised their weapons in anger for more than a decade.
There were others with them, friends they had gathered in the last twenty years, a small army willing to fight and die to protect Kaaras and Cassandra Adaar. To the left was the flash of gold and red hair that announced the arrival of the Rutherford children, armed and armored and loyal to the last. To the right were the stocky shoulders of Rylen and Evy's son, and the slight form of his elven wife. From behind came the roar of the Chargers. They might be a little later than they had expected to be, but they were here.
Kaaras grinned his wild grin again, raising his sword with a roar, hearing Cassandra spit insults into the teeth of the elves now facing far more than they had bargained for. Death might well be coming for them, but it would not be today. With family all around him - his wife, his children, his friends and their children, too - Kaaras would fight against the forces of Fen'Harel once more, and they would win.
The Dread Wolf would not be taking anyone today.
