Holli stood beside Hawke, who was perched upon his throne. She was wearing one of the dresses Josephine had picked out for her, a pretty thing and just as uncomfortable given the corset beneath. Hawke looked equally uncomfortable in the finery Josephine had forced him into as well.
"Let's just try and make this quick," Hawke muttered quietly so only she could hear.
There was a lot of pomp and ceremony in this – Josephine had called it sitting in judgement.
Initially they had just come back to Skyhold to resupply, see what Leliana knew of the events in the Western Approach, and rest up before heading out there to meet with Stroud. But Josephine had informed them they had duties.
Holli could see how Hawke had duties. She didn't see why she had to be here. Or at the very least, why she had to stand at Hawke's side while he did this. Yes, yes, unified front; it did people good to see them working together, blah blah blah. Stupid and pointless.
"Well, I think that depends on you," Holli muttered back. "Being the one doing the judging and all."
"Why do you think you're here? You're supposed to be giving me advice."
"I doubt anyone really believes that."
"Some people think you being touched by Divinity has somehow made you wiser than you are. Or that Andraste speaks through you. Depends on who you're listening to."
Holli rolled her eyes. "So dumb."
Hawke snorted in amusement. "Regardless, you are smarter than I thought you'd be. I truly am open to any ideas you have."
She looked down at him then, a little surprised and touched by the admission.
"Maker, you're not going to cry, are you?"
She straightened up and peered down at the gathering crowd. "If we weren't in front of all these people, I'd punch you."
"That would cast a shadow over the image our advisors are trying to portray."
"Punch them too," it came out more petulant than she'd intended.
"I'll hold them down. There's our unified front."
They discreetly grinned at each other before Josephine theatrically cleared her throat, drawing the attention of all in the Great Hall.
She called the session to order before approaching the throne as a man wearing horns was dragged in.
"This was a surprise," she said. "After you left the bogs, we discovered this man attacking. The building. With a... goat."
"Poor goat," Holli whispered.
"Chief Movran the Under. He feels slighted by the killing of his Avvar tribesmen. Who repeatedly attacked you first."
Holli hadn't gone with them on that excursion, it being so soon after getting to Skyhold. It was the first mission Hawke had been sent on after being named Inquisitor but before the official announcement.
Varric had regaled her with the tales.
"What should we do with him? Where... should he go?"
"You answered the death of your clan... with a goat?" Hawke asked, crossing one leg over the other and steepling his fingers.
The Chief only laughed. "A courtroom? Unnecessary. You killed my idiot son, and I answered, as is my custom, by smacking your holdings with goat's blood. No foul. He meant to murder Tevinters but got feisty with your Inquisition. A redheaded mother guarantees a brat! Do as you've earned, Inquisitor. My clan yields. My remaining boys have brains still in their heads."
He clearly didn't want to fight the Inquisition, but he was honour-bound, maybe, to carry out the customs of his clan. He didn't seem too cut up about the death of his son either.
"What do we think?" Hawke asked her softly, again so only they could hear.
"Seems like he might have been a twat father," she replied.
Hawke huffed a laugh. "I'm inclined to send him to Tevinter; he can be their problem."
"His whole clan", she said. "And arm them. Make them a massive problem."
Hawke flashed her a grin before looking down at Movran.
"It seems our conflict was accidental, Chief Movran, but it can't be repeated. I banish you and your clan – with as many weapons as you can carry – to Tevinter."
"My idiot boy got us something after all!" The Chief laughed.
The Chief was escorted out, and another prisoner was brought out by Cullen himself. Holli recognised the man from Therinfal Redoubt.
"Inquisitor, Lady Herald: Knight-Captain Denam. He awaits judgement for serving the Lord Seeker at Therinfal Redoubt. I knew some of the Knights there. I asked to oversee his sentencing. The envy demon perhaps fooled the Knight-Captain, but following his superiors' orders nearly destroyed the Templars."
"I wasn't at Therinfal Redoubt," Hawke said, looking up at Holli by his side.
"He attacked me," Holli told him. "He also provided the red lyrium to the Templars, knowing how dangerous it was, and ordered the purge of the uncorrupted."
"I only did as I was told!"
"Just following orders," Holli scoffed. "You chose. You had a choice between your conscience and your leader. Stop passing the buck."
Holli's fists were clenched so hard she could feel her nails digging into her palms, her knuckles white. She knew the history of her world, the atrocities committed, and how so many tried to hide behind their orders. It had always disgusted her to read about it. History wasn't her favourite subject, but it was important to know it, no matter how uncomfortable it made her. She just hated the powerlessness and guilt it made her feel. Similar horrors were still being carried out today, and she had no power to stop it, to make things better.
"And what would a silly little girl know of such things?"
"You knowingly condemned your brothers and sisters to death," Cullen ground out.
"You would have done the same if you hadn't abandoned the Order! I served faithfully. It went red after what the Lord Seeker told me to do."
Denam scowled up at Hawke, who looked completely unruffled by the proceedings.
"Historically, Seekers who failed their charge were exiled to the Sea of Ash," Holli suggested.
She'd read about it in the thick tome she had been given to read way back when.
"Why do you know that?" Hawke murmured.
"Why don't you?" She asked softly.
"All right, exile to the Sea of Ash it is," Hawke announced.
The guards dragged him away.
When there were no more prisoners to judge, Josephine called an end to the session. Hawke rose from his seat, offering his arm to Holli, and escorted her out of the Great Hall, towards the war room. Once they were behind closed doors, they let each other go, heaved a sigh of relief, and did what they could to make their clothes less stifling. Hawke unbuttoned the top of his doublet, and Holli loosened the lace up the back of her dress. It didn't help much since the corset inside was the cause of most of the discomfort.
"I swear Josephine is punishing us for some imagined slight," Hawke hissed.
"Hardly," Josephine said, entering the hallway after them.
"Then why do you hate us?" Holli asked.
Josephine tittered. "You're being dramatic. You both looked lovely. And did very well. I like how you discussed it between you both, even if I couldn't hear it exactly."
"Hah!" Hawke laughed, an almost 'gotcha' kind of sound. "Most of our talks were just sarcastic comments."
Josephine rolled her eyes with a sigh, brushing past them to head to her office.
"You may both go and change if you must," she told them.
Both headed off to do just that before she changed her mind.
-
"Hey, Cole," Holli greeted, sitting down on the wall beside him. "What are you reading?"
She had found him perched on the wall of the battlements, absorbed in whatever was on the parchment in his hand.
He offered it to her, and she read it. Rhys.
"They found your friend..."
"Cullen did. I asked him not to. But the Inquisition saved them. So it's good." Cole looked at her. "He remembers me."
"Does that... make you happy?"
"I... I think so."
"He says he wanted to help you get back into the Fade. Is that something you want?"
She hadn't thought to ask before. But if going back to the Fade was his goal, he'd had plenty of opportunity with the rifts he'd helped her close.
He shook his head. "I want to stay here. At least for now. There are so many people who need helping."
"It sounds like Rhys might even be open to seeing you again if you wanted. Maybe if we go near Val Firmin..."
"I don't know. He was... so angry with me, it burned my skin and stung my eyes."
"People can lash out sometimes. Once they calm down, they usually end up regretting it. His anger might have been justified, but maybe he regrets how he handled it."
"Have you ever done something like that?"
"I think everyone has at one point or another. I've eventually swallowed my pride and gone and apologised."
She'd gotten into fights with her friends and with her mum. She lost her temper with her mum a lot.
"Ah, Inquisition babies, there you are!"
They looked down the walkway to see Hawke and Fenris walking towards them. Inquisition babies?
"What do you want, Grandpa?" Holli asked, infusing a healthy dose of disrespect in there.
"All right, don't like that. Let's not do that again," Hawke said. "No more age jokes."
Holli tsked. "That one hit a little close to home?"
"He discovered a white hair the other day," Fenris said, a hint of exasperation to it.
Holli took that to mean Hawke had been a drama queen about it.
"All your hairs are white; you don't have to go through that trauma," Hawke muttered.
"Considering how many you have, why was this one so traumatic?" She asked.
"What!? There are other ones?"
Holli cast him a shit-eating grin, and his face dropped, scowling at her. "Nasty little girl."
"Why are you looking for us anyway?"
"We're off to the Western Approach tomorrow; be ready to leave early."
There was a commotion at the gates of Skyhold, and they all looked down to see what was going on. Cassandra came riding in on a horse, the others behind her, also mounted. Except Bull. Nothing big enough or strong enough to carry him, she guessed.
"Excellent," Hawke said. "I wonder if any of them will be ready to go tomorrow."
Holli looked at him a little horrified. "Let the horses rest."
They all looked at her.
"Are you – are you afraid of horses?"
"And rightly so. They kill people all the time. Painfully. And they're not even herbivores; they eat meat! Where I come from, everybody knows about the man-eater of Lucknow. It even killed a tiger!"
"You're afraid your horse will eat you?" Hawke asked, restrained amusement in his tone.
"Eat me, trample me, throw me off and leave me a paraplegic, kick me so hard it takes my jaw clean off."
Mr Loewe had ended up in his condition because of a horse. She still hadn't healed him. Solas, Dorian, and Vivienne had arranged for her to make another attempt tonight with their safeguards in place.
"All right, valid. But highly unlikely."
"Likely and unlikely have lost a lot of meaning for me these past months."
"All right, just ride with someone then," Hawke told her.
"That will give me time to get away while the horse eats them," she mused.
"Horses don't eat people! I don't know what kind of abnormal monster horses your world has, but our horses don't eat people."
"Just because you haven't heard about it doesn't mean it doesn't happen."
This world wasn't exactly overflowing with readily available sources of reliable information.
"I can share with you," Cole told her.
"Have you ridden a horse before?"
"No. But I like horses. They want to trust. And they want to be trusted. Not all things that are large want to hurt," he assured her.
"Ok, but I don't want you to get eaten by a horse."
"And who of our companions would you prefer get eaten by a horse?" Hawke asked, still immensely amused by the situation.
"At the moment: you."
"Don't know why I asked; that should have been obvious. I'm not sharing my horse with you. You and Cole will be fine. He seems the type of lad who'd get along with a horse; just let him take the reins. I need to go and greet our new horsemaster. Be good, children," he called out as he wandered off with Fenris.
Holli looked at Cole. "Have you at least been around horses before?"
He nodded. "You'll be safe," he promised.