Dragon Age: Inquisition — Story Playthrough — Part Twenty-One
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Iselia had defeated Corypheus, the threat of the breach between Fade and Reality was officially removed, and... Iselia's friend Solas had disappeared.
Despite Leliana's scouts, her efforts, and her vast reach, she could find no information on the elf or where he had gone. There were other matters to attend to though. The Inquisition had become a great power in the land. Ferelden was getting quite worried about their continued presence, whilst Orlais seemed to enjoy having them around.
It had been two years and Leliana was now known as Divine Victoria. Iselia's personal political weight had helped her friend claim the highest position and already the land seemed to prosper under her directive. But now she had been forced to call an Exalted Council and the Inquisition was expected to attend and explain what their intentions were now.
Was it time to disband the Inquisition and allow the world to repair itself, or would they continue to hold on to power and meddle in the affairs of the other continents?
Iselia felt as though they should probably disband. Were they really needed now that Corypheus was gone and the Chantry was being restored under Leliana's leadership?
Either way, politics were politics and they had to do things the proper way.
It had been two years since she had seen a few of her old friends. Varric had left to return to Kirkwall and help repair the city... in his absence from the Inquisition, he had actually become Viscount! He offered her the title of Comtesse and told her that he had allocated an estate to her if she wanted it... if the Inquisition was disbanded, she would have somewhere to go. He also gave her the Key to the City... which apparently operated the chains of the harbour.
Perhaps she would go to Kirkwall after all... not to just play with the harbour, of course... Cullen would want to come too though, and perhaps he wouldn't want to return to that city of memories. Hmm.
Next she found Cassandra... who was acting very strange.
Finally she ascertained that Varric had told Cassandra that Iselia was planning on asking Cullen to marry her. Cassandra had been so excited and cursed herself for believing anything that dwarf told her... Iselia shrugged. To be honest, she had thought about marriage before, but there hadn't been much else other than thinking. Who knew what the future would bring?
She certainly didn't expect to go to a performance with Josephine next. Orlesians truly knew how to make an audience gape in shock and awe... she was amazed, but unsure if she ever wanted to see another Orlesian show again.
Iselia was glad that Josephine seemed to be enjoying herself though. That woman was busier than she was, and she was the Inquisitor!
Sera and Iron Bull didn't really want to talk, and she couldn't find Dorian or Blackwall anywhere, but she did find Cullen... playing with a mabari hound.
He seemed to really be enjoying the animal's company. He had been from Ferelden originally after all and mabari were born and bred there. Suddenly, he looked up at Iselia and asked her, completely out of the blue, to marry him. To ignore the dog for just one moment, that hadn't been in his plan, but... would she marry him?
Varric may have been teasing Cassandra, but he was a prophet, surely.
Iselia didn't have to think, she grabbed Cullen and dragged him over to Mother Giselle and they had a personal, private elopement ceremony with just the mabari as witness.
She wouldn't change it for anything.
Still buzzing from her and Cullen's secret ceremony, she bumped into Vivienne. She and Vivienne had been at odds a lot during her time in the Inquisition with their opposite beliefs as to what mages should be and what they should do, but they were still amicable with one another. Vivienne invited her to a spa day.
Iselia, despite being noble-born, had never had a spa day before. She didn't understand the purpose of cheese wheels on her eyes, but it was relaxing enough and she enjoyed herself.
After spending time at the spa with Vivienne, Iselia finally found Dorian. Apparently he was serving as the ambassador for the Tevinter Imperium for these talks, and would be returning there as soon as he could... his father had just been assassinated. He was going to take his father's place as an Imperium Magister.
Iselia was shocked to hear that, but Dorian had wanted Tevinter to change and what better way to help make that change than as a Magister.
Iselia also found Leliana, now Divine Victoria, and they spoke for a while about the impending meeting. Ferelden wanted the Inquisition to disband, Orlais wanted to keep the Inquisition as allies, but what did Iselia want?
Iselia was starting to understand more and more what she wanted. She, too, wanted the Inquisition to disband. It was over. They were no longer needed. And she had a proper life to start... with Cullen and a mangy mabari. Perhaps as a comtesse of Kirkwall, thanks to Varric.
Soon the Exalted Council was underway, and Arl Teagan, Arl of Redcliffe, Ambassador of Ferelden, very quickly ripped into Iselia and the Inquisition for outstaying their welcome.
Josephine was doing all she could to keep things amicable, but all Iselia wanted to do was leave and never have to bother with politics again. Suddenly an elf came over to her and whispered in her ear that the Divine wanted to speak with her, alone. They were literally just talking before this council began, and she was sitting right there.
Leliana sent her a pointed look and Iselia quickly made up an excuse to leave the council.
The Divine called a recess of the council and quickly met Iselia in a small building in the courtyard of the Winter Palace. A dead qunari was there. She had no idea who he was, where he came from, or why he was there. It looked as though he had been in a fight against both magic and steel and had crawled into this building to die.
Anything to get out of that Council chamber — Iselia said she'd look into it.
A trail of blood from the building led up the lattices and into a room...
A room with an eluvian in it. The eluvian was still active, and the blood trail had come from it. She needed to grab her people and investigate, just like old times.
With Dorian, Varric and Cassandra by her side once more, they entered the eluvian and found themselves in the Crossroads that Morrigan had once introduced her too. Although, it seemed a little different. Changed somehow.
Blood trails led to two other eluvians, one inactive and one active.
Why were these mirrors/portals active after so long? From how Morrigan described it, not many were active at all. This was strange.
They went through the active eluvian and found themselves in what appeared to be another elven temple. Only this one had another dead qunari in it.
Dorian was shocked. These qunari was dressed in their full military attire. They were dressed for war.
They hurried further up the stairs and out of the temple, and found themselves in the open green countryside. Small elven towers were dotted across the land; it was like no where Iselia had ever seen.
In front of yet another active eluvian, qunari soldiers were charred mid-fight. The scorch marks were still fresh. The battle had been recent. They needed to find out what was going on.
Another eluvian sent them to another tower, this one with spirits bound to it — spirits that noticed them as intruders and attacked. It was a fierce battle and their spirit-fire almost took down Iselia... twice!... but they made it through and then investigated the structure to see just what these spirits were protecting.
The mark on her hand allowed her entrance through a magic door, warded by worshippers of Fen'harel, the Dread Wolf. It proclaimed this area to be a safe haven, a refuge for elven slaves.
Now it was Varric's turn to be shocked. The ancient elves had slaves? And the hated Dread Wolf was trying to keep them safe? Merrill was going to be so upset...
Inside this room was another eluvian. Taking a deep breath, Iselia and her people stepped inside... and eluvian-hopped all over the region until they found a mechanism that allowed them to simply walk across a bridge to where qunari were fighting more of those spirits.
When they arrived, the Qunari did not seem pleased to see Iselia or her people. In fact, one of them yelled, "kill the Inquisition on sight!" and now they were fighting for their lives against the qunari and the spirits.
Weren't they allies? Iselia didn't know what was going on. These were not Tal-vashoth — they were proper Qun-abiding Qunari... something was wrong. Something had gone wrong. The qunari had closed off their alliance with no word. Iselia had to find out what was going on.
Beneath the temple another active eluvian shone bright and active, and an entire group of Qunari emerged from it.
They fought and fought against the horned men until finally the last one fell... one had correspondence on his body. They were being stationed at these "abandoned" towers as they knew that one of the eluvians would gain entry to the Winter Palace in Halamshiral. They were infiltrating the palace.
Luckily, Leliana's people had discovered the one qunari body in time or they would be overwhelmed right now. It was madness! Searching the area revealed a note half-written and covered in fresh blood. An unknown mage had entered through the eluvian and activated the spirits against the qunari.
Iselia had to report all of this back to Leliana at the Winter Palace. Now. Before anything else could go wrong.
Until next time! 🐲⚔️
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