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The name had been a part of her nearly all her life, as familiar to her as her own. When it had first appeared - glowing golden script on her inner arm - she had been fascinated, spending hours upon hours staring at it, tracing the letters with one finger, dreaming about the kind of person her soulmate might be. The name was strange to her, not Nevarran or Orlesian or anything she had heard of, but that had only added to the mystery and excitement.

His name had appeared on her skin at the time of her first flowering - one more marker on her path from girlhood into womanhood. If she had been the sort to go to school and have friends, it might have been the kind of thing to giggle over with the other girls, to shyly hide away, only to shriek in feigned indigence when her sleeve was playfully pushed up and the name finally revealed. As it was, Cassandra learned from tutors, and rarely had contact with other children. The name, like her beloved books and dreams of dragon-hunting, became a solitary escape, a daydream of a better life.

Both had faded, in time, as such things do. Fantasies of true love and romance had been replaced by the realities of work and duty (though Cassandra had never quite been able to let go of her fondness for romance, if only entirely fictional ones). And the name on her arm had faded from a bright gold to something duller and duller as the years went on, until it was something that could not be seen at all except in the brightest light of day.

(The longer it took, they said, the more your soulmate's name faded, the less likely you were ever to find him at all. And this one - an unknown, foreign name, one belonging to a man who clearly lacked either the interest or the means to seek out a soulmate with the name Pentaghast, well...)

Cassandra herself couldn't say exactly when it was she had stopped expecting to find him. Certainly it had been nothing overnight, no sudden revelation. She had simply woken up one day, no longer a girl in her twenties eager to make the world her own, but a woman in her late thirties - accomplished, certainly, perhaps even fulfilled - but utterly alone, and more and more likely to stay that way.

But the name is still a part of her, as much as it ever had been. And so it is that when she hears it spoken aloud for the first time, she doesn't even blink; hearing the words she had whispered so reverently to herself for twenty-five years is as natural as breathing.

"Obi-Wan Kenobi." She nods sharply, focused on her work, ignoring the tiny voice in the back of her mind that is urgently whispering something, something is happening, this is important - She holds her hand out to shake - her arms, as they always are these days, fully covered by long sleeves that meet her gloves, the barely-visible name securely hidden from even the most prying eyes. "I am Seeker Cassandra Pentaghast."

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"No."

He thinks, first, that he should lie. Give her some assurance, somehow, or at least not influence her choice in the matter. It seems unconscionable that he should try to coerce her. But Obi-Wan knows, that if he did lie, or demurr which was as good as lying, he would regret it, for the rest of his life.

No. No, he doesn't want that. The idea that she could turn away, and leave him, that she might still do that, that... that even now, the last he'll ever know or hear from the name he's borne for a secret lifetime, it fills him with a terrible dread. It makes him think of the things a man could do, to forget-- drink, and lyrium, endless work to mask the future days marching ahead, each alike to one another, a life as bland and as tasteless as mash until the day the Maker finally took him home.

"But my life isn't the only consideration. Yesterday, your reaction... that was honest. I could never ask you to bind yourself to someone-- or to anything, you wouldn't freely choose. I would never want to."

So, even if it breaks him, he'll calmly watch her go, and keep the fallout as private as he may, and never breathe a word. Let that sin stand between him and the Maker, if he could be forgiven for it. He knew full well what sacred ground he was trespassing on.

Cassandra drops her head, her cheeks burning in shame. Of course. How else could she have expected him to interpret her reaction? She had blanched as soon as he had said her name, had run out on him and never offered a word of explanation. Of course he would think that she hated him, that she couldn't bear the idea of being his soulmate.

She's such a fool.

"I must apologize for my actions yesterday," she says stiffly, to the floor. "I..." She what? She had been shocked? Afraid? Unsure what to say to him? She shakes her head, at a loss.

"I have no explanation."

"You don't need to explain," he said, quietly miserable, "Or apologize. I understand."

Or, he thought he did-- her lack of an answer, was an answer in itself. Her stiff formality its own recognition of distance, holding him at arm's length. But he had promised, both to himself, and to her, so he resolved to say nothing. Instead, Obi-Wan focused on each breath, and then the next; stay alive, that was all that mattered.

"It's quite alright."

"It is not all right," Cassandra says sharply, her eyes narrowing. "And if you understand so well, perhaps you would do me the courtesy of explaining it to me, because I - "

She cuts herself off, breathing hard, and shakes her head in a quick, aborted gesture before dropping her head into her hands. "I...I am not good at this," she admits finally, quietly. "At...explaining myself, or dealing with...this." She drops her hands helplessly.

"But I do not want to simply leave."

He has to blink, at that. First at the idea that she could be floundering just as badly as he was, and then again that she could falter at all. And, when had that happened, when had he put her up on some pedestal like that? Now he was staring.

But, she didn't want to leave. Or, at least she didn't want to call it nothing, and leave, which was enough to set his heart beating just a little too quickly.

"I come from a family so poor, that they gave away three of their children to the Chantry, because they couldn't feed us. And I didn't know much about Nevarran royalty, but it was a fantasy, to think we'd ever meet-- I might as well have had Celene Valmont on my wrist, or nothing at all, for how realistic the idea was. I gave up hope. And then I never picked it up again."

Oh. Her expression closes off again, and she draws back. This is exhausting, honestly. Just when she thinks she understands him, or herself, or anything that is going on -

"If you have spent your life dreaming of a fairytale princess," she says carefully, each word dropping into the air like lead, "I am afraid you will be disappointed." She sweeps her hand down her side, gesturing to herself. "I am blunt, and bad-tempered, and rash. I have little use for court niceties and less for the name of Pentaghast. I am not," she takes a breath, shaking her head, "graceful, or delicate, or feminine - "

Or any of the things one might expect Cassandra Allega Portia Calogera Filomena Pentaghast to be. She can hardly blame him for whatever fantasies he might have spun about her - how often had she done the same, tried to paint a picture of the mysterious Obi-Wan Kenobi in her mind? But it's awful, all the same, to hear him speak so eagerly of his fantasy of Nevarran royalty, and to realize just how far she might be from his idea of her. His ideal.

"I know," His smile is wry, and Obi-Wan shakes his head in the face of her self-denigration, "No, but it would have been easier to put it all aside if you were a-- a fairytale princess. I could hardly imagine any life less well-suited to my own. But when I learned of the exploits of the real Cassandra Pentaghast... Well."

Right Hand of the Divine, leader among Seekers and Templars alike, heroic, bold, the woman who crashed one dragon into another, saved the life of the Most Holy. A thousand songs and stories with her name still circulated.

"I think I'd have been half in love with you even if I hadn't known your name. You're so damnably competent, it makes me feel like a stumbling child by comparison."

Edited 2016-08-02 04:56 (UTC)

She shakes her head, rolling her eyes, but her cheeks turn rosy, and she can't stop her lips curving up in a tiny smile.

"They exaggerate," she murmurs, for what seems like the millionth time to the millionth admirer. "The stories...there is hardly any truth to them."

But there's no heat behind her protests. She's learned better than to think anyone will listen (and has had one too many people demand to know the truth - did she ride one dragon into another and save the Divine, or did she not? - and has had to admit, one too many times, that yes, that is more or less what happened).

She looks up at him, studying him with new eyes, and something that is not conflict or crushing disappointment stirs in her chest.

"I did not know what you might be," she says quietly. "Where you might have come from - the first idea of where to look." She pauses, her forehead pinched in remembered worry. "But I thought you might find me. I thought you must - that you would seek me out." It's not as if she would have been hard to find, after all.

"When you did not...I did not know what to think. That you were dead, perhaps. Or that you did not care - or were somehow incapable of coming to me." She looks at him, not bitter or judgmental, but curious. He may not have had the resources she did, but neither is he a cripple, or so destitute as to be incapable of traveling at all. If nothing else, they have the Chantry in common - he could have sent a message long before now.

"I have no excuse. We were both in the same position, more or less, but while I'd done little more than get by, and you'd become... Remarkable," The he admires her is no secret, and he does not try to hide it, "I... I didn't see how you could want me, except for obligation. They don't tell the stories about all the times it goes to ruin, because however well-matched your souls are, the rest of you can't fit together. I was a coward. I knew I should have contacted you, but I never did."

The fantasy was perfect, in a way that reality never could be. Even the fantasy of her rejection was pleasant, in its own way, because he could imagine himself as noble and true and that she would go on and find some other love. And then he could go back and imagine it again, happier, and never put reality to the words. But it was all just pretend; no deeds suited his imagination. The blank pages were impossibly wide, and the letter never got written, and he never had to face true rejection, because he never let himself be vulnerable to it, and...

"And now, here we are, just the same. It seems the Maker had a different plan."

She wants to reassure him, to offer him comfort, if she can. Isn't that her role as his soulmate, the gifts they are meant to offer to each other? Comfort and reassurance and acceptance?

But the words stick in her throat, refusing to spill free. It is too much to tell him how she feels - how the thought of one day joining her soulmate, whoever he might be, had never been one of obligation, but the most joyous, privately indulgent fantasy of her life. The one dream she had carefully kept hidden away and preserved, even as the rest of her life swept by out of her control.

She can't say it, even knowing that she should - that he deserves to hear it. But she's guarded her heart for so long, and the thought of making herself so vulnerable, even to him -

She swallows, instead, her expression grave.

"Here we are," she agrees, and dares - cowardly though she is - to meet his eyes. "Truly, it was the Maker who sent me here, who brought us together after so many years."

Which is all very fine and romantic, but does not answer the question of what they are going to do next.

Obi-Wan meets her gaze, feeling very much like the young man still learning to hold his sword, told to stand up straight and look me in the eye when you give your report. But for Cassandra, he tries for a smile, and finds it feels neither false nor strained.

"So. If neither of us wants to leave this behind, then..." He trails off, thinking, "Perhaps I should put in for a transfer, to Val Royeaux?"

He meant it to sound resigned, or at least certain, but some part of him still craves it, the affirmation of her intentions. The sliver of hope.

And just like that, suddenly it is real. Not half-admitted feelings, or reflections on their histories, at once entirely separate and irrevocably tied together - but solid plans for the future. Action, rather than dreams.

She blinks at him, suddenly nervous, not to mention entirely surprised at the suggestion. "You...you do not want to stay?" She gestures out the window, at the fields and hills beyond, the last rays of the sun now barely clearing the horizon. "Your peaceful Circle..."

It would have been easier, perhaps, simply to take him at his word, and accept his willingness to so eagerly sacrifice, to uproot his life for this. But she finds she cannot do that. Not to him. He had admired her from afar, as so many had, and already it is strange that he knows so much about her, had followed her life from afar, while she still knows next to nothing about him. Not disquieting, perhaps, but...she is at a disadvantage, and she knows it.

If she simply accepts his offer without question or concern for his own desires, she fears it will set a terrible precedent.

"Oh, please, I've been looking for an excuse for years," the smile widens a little, somewhere between a smirk and a grin, "My superiors think they're clever, but I'm not stupid enough to notice that they rotate all the greenest, most arrogant upstarts out here because it's boring and there's no trouble for them to get into. I'm tired of babysitting."

It's strange, how suddenly the words had altered his perception. It wasn't him against circumstance, it was suddenly... real. It was the effort of a team.

"It is peaceful here, yes. And I've worked hard to keep it that way, but the only thing to recommend it is how unlikely one is to be killed. Any decent Knight-Commander could stand in my place. Surely the Divine has more need of you than this Circle does of me."

She smiles back, relieved and - finally, without so many uncertainties or unknowns to get in the way - tentatively happy. It never occurs to her to doubt the truth of his words; they ring far too true, and surely he would not lie.

"There are more exciting places," she admits. "If you think that Val Royeaux would suit you." She studies him, curious once more. Still a stranger, but the sort of man who would patiently spend years dealing with the Templar Order's most unwanted - sticking to his duty and producing excellent results, even knowing that in so doing he doomed himself to more of the same. Yet also a man brave enough to leave everything he knows behind for somewhere - someone - new and unexplored.

Romantic enough, perhaps?

She pushes the thought aside. Easier to focus on logistics, for now.

"That is settled, then," she says, her stomach lurching only a little at how suspiciously easy it had been. "You - if you are certain - you will request a transfer, and I will...I will make the necessary arrangements. When you arrive in Val Royeaux..."

She trails off. When he arrives, there will be all the trappings and traditions that come along with a new set of soulmates. Her own sparse quarters will be emptied out, and there will be a celebration. A bonding ceremony. And a shared set of apartments for them both, with all the intimacy that implies.

"...They will make a fuss, won't they," He finishes, for her, seeing the difficulty only now that she's pointed it out. Obi-Wan sees the situation again, from another angle, and the problem that might have presented itself, "If you're not ready for that, there's no need to formalize this immediately. No one but you and I know about this."

He remembered with painful clarity, the way she'd leapt up and practically fled from him, in the first moment that they had recognized one another. Divorced from the memory of his own confusion and despair, he saw her apprehension in a clearer light, and reached for compassion.

Infatuation made a man want to tell everyone how he felt, but patience, and prudence, had ever been Obi-Wan's hallmark.

"I've had longer than most, to get used to the idea. You deserve a little breathing room. If you want it."

Cassandra bites her lip, eyes shifting away from him as she thinks. The problem, of course, is that it will not remain between them forever. The first meeting and the usually immediate joining of soulmates is something celebrated by the whole community. If someone discovers what they are, and that they had kept it hidden...

Not that Cassandra had ever allowed anyone else's expectations to dictate her actions. But this -

It is something she had anticipated her whole life, first with excitement and certainty, and then with the faintest hope, clinging to an ever dwindling possibility. If she ever did find her soulmate, she had thought, the rest would be easy. They would announce their good news to the world, would be bound to each other, and then they would, naturally, fall in love, discovering who the other was along the way, and delighting in it. Everything would be easy.

Now that she's actually faced with the possibility, it seems so much more uncertain and daunting. He is her soulmate, but he is a stranger. Without even realizing it, she has grown used to being a spinster. To being alone. The thought of opening up her heart, her home, and her bed to someone else...

It's thrilling. Exhilarating. And terrifying.

"I have never - " she begins, then starts over. "There was a man, once. Really, hardly more than a boy. He had no soulname. He wanted...He loved me, or said he did, and I might have loved him. But we were young, and..." She turns her arm over, palm up, and slides her other hand slowly along the material of her sleeve. "...The mark had not yet faded. I still hoped...I was still certain that it would be a matter of months, a year at the most. That I...that we were on the verge of finding each other."

She had rejected Galyan's gentle advances, and, Maker bless him, he had understood. But time had stretched on and on with no sign of her soulmate. And now it has been years, decades, her entire life alone, and she is utterly unprepared.

For the second time in as many minutes, he finds himself staring, wondering again at the conundrum that is Cassandra Pentaghast. Does she mean to say that she's never.... that his would be the only hand who ever touched... The idea is ridiculous, impossible, and he is amazed, in the oldest form of the word; stunned by wonder, by the implications. She could easily have said yes to this young man-- or to any other number of them, if she pleased. The idea of it is overwhelming, ice chased with fire, hot then cold again.

"That's... Very romantic of you," He's so charmed, truly, and his hand is halfway to reaching for her hand before he remembers and checks himself. No gloves-- they had come off in the heat of the day as the questioning went on. But despite promises and words, they had yet to touch, something that would turn what had been spun out of intentions into unavoidable fact. He hesitated, torn between politesse and feeling, "...I..."

The words beneath her hands and the fabric of her sleeve were still as transparent as gossamer, and would be, until they did. He wasn't so certain about his own.

She glances up at him quickly, eyes searching his for any hint of scorn or mockery. Romantic could well mean foolish, after all. What sort of person chooses solitude for so many years, passing by real opportunities for happiness in favor of waiting for some dream that may never come to fruition? It's pathetic, when she thinks of how old she is, and how inexperienced. A wasted youth if ever there was one.

But there is no amusement or derision in Obi-Wan's expression. He gazes at her as if seeing something miraculous, and she drops her eyes, uncomfortable under such close scrutiny.

Her gaze falls on his hand, still outstretched and frozen in place, and she swallows, gathering her courage. Overthinking this now will do her no good at all, and so she doesn't. She reaches out, sliding her hand into his - large and warm and somehow still soft beneath and between the rough callouses that speak to honest work - and squeezes tight.

It absolutely is wishful thinking, but the heat of her hand in his seems to travel up his arm, following the imagined lines of script there. The moment lies quiet between them, with all the anticlimax of a cat which, having ignored all bribes and cajoling, finally saunters over and leaps into your lap, but only after you'd completely given up on it.

Obi-Wan offers her a smile, warm and real, and a deep, cleansing breath to settle it in place.

"You know," he says, only half to himself, still in that place of wonder and surety, "I think it's going to be alright."

Cassandra beams back at him, quietly thrilled and too overcome to dare ruining the moment with words. She gazes down at their clasped hands and clothed arms. It's ridiculous, of course, to think that this would be enough to reignite the mark. There is no deep connection there, not yet - just the hope and the promise of one. Some soulmates go weeks or even months after their bonding before the gold finally reappears.

They are not so special as to be any different. But this is a start, and considering how she had actually run out on him - how she could so easily have ruined their chances before they even started -

She is very lucky to have him. And she is not too proud to recognize that.

"Thank you," she says quietly, half to Obi-Wan, half to the Maker himself. She squeezes his hand again. "Thank you."

It is, in the end, a period of months before they see each other again. And he does, after all, have to calmly watch her leave, and tell no one about his feelings, or anything that's transpired between them. It is both more and less than he'd supposed.

He manages not quite a full day before setting pen to paper. The yawning, forbidding void of the paper is gone, replaced instead by anticipation.

Seeker Pentaghast,

Better, he thought, to begin formally-- politely, rather. And besides, if someone were to read the letter, they might stop there.

Seeker Pentaghast,

I'm writing to you on the very same day you left. I expected it to be a terrible wrench, and it was-- but not so terrible as it might have been. I want to thank you, for that; for giving me the chance. It seems a little strange, perhaps, but the tower seems quieter now than it did even before you arrived. Everything has changed.

I hope the road finds you well, and the weather remains good, for your sake; I'm pleased to report that your efforts here have not been in vain. It seems as if we'll have a little sense out of this lot, if only for a while. You do leave an impressive effect on people, myself included.

Yours always,

Knight-Commander Obi-Wan Kenobi

She writes as soon as she reaches the inn that night - a long letter, so hastily scribbled as to be nearly illegible at times, a heartfelt outpouring of the thoughts and feelings that had consumed her mind and heart since their parting early that morning. When she is finished, she sits back in her chair with an air of relief. She picks up the letter, brow furrowed with intensity, and reads it over, eyes traveling carefully over every single line.

And then, calmly, expression neutral, she crumples up the paper and tosses it into the fire.

Cassandra paces the room, hands twisting together. It's not that she's a coward - she's faced down dragons, for Andraste's sake. She has never shied away from anything in her life. So why is this so difficult? If there is one person in the world she can bare her heart to without fear, shouldn't it be her soulmate?

But she finds herself doubting everything, all the same. It had all happened so quickly...and neither of them had admitted to much, in the end. She still doesn't know him, and he...what if he had had second thoughts? What if he had come to his senses as soon as she had disappeared over the horizon, and realized that he was much better off remaining in his small, sleepy Circle, without her?

Luckily, birds travel faster than carriages, and Cassandra doesn't have long to stew in her own anxieties. Obi-Wan's letter arrives the next day, and though it is short and says nothing outright, his affection and admiration for her shine through clearly. If nothing else, she can be certain he had not had second thoughts.

Her second attempt is shorter and infinitely more reserved, but it does not go in the fire.

Knight-Commander Kenobi,

Thank you for writing, and so promptly. The road is long, especially without a travelling companion, and your words have been a balm, and a much needed diversion from unpleasant thoughts.

I am glad to hear that our visit, however short, did some good. I do regret our hasty departure. It would have been very good to see more of your Circle, and to become better acquainted.

I hope to become very much more acquainted with you, and very soon.

Cassandra Pentaghast

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She had hoped to stay at least another day or two. It would have been easily justifiable, if only for the work still to do - but more than that, she would have liked the chance just to spend more time with him. Just to start to get to know one another, if only (mostly) on a professional basis.

But a runner arrives late that night with an urgent message for the Right Hand, and the morning is a flurry of activity as Cassandra and her companions prepare to leave. She and Obi-Wan barely have the chance to say goodbye, to promise to write, before she finds herself in yet another carriage, with the Circle growing smaller and smaller in the distance. More than ever, she regrets running out of the room where they had met. Nearly an entire day wasted that they could have spent together.

She begins her first letter that night, an awkward outpouring of thoughts and feelings she had been unable to articulate in person.

The weeks pass, excruciatingly slowly. But progress is made. Obi-Wan requests his transfer. They wait eagerly for a response, and finally, just as she returns to the city herself, she receives a joyful letter announcing that he will be leaving the Circle and traveling to Val Royeaux.

That's when the accident happens.

She doesn't remember it - naturally - but from what she is told, it had truly been an accident. A spooked horse rampaging around a corner just as she stepped into the street. The rider had tried to control it - it had never acted in such a manner before - she is lucky the damage was not worse. As it is, she is in bed for nearly a month, and when she's finally given leave to rise and start to resume her duties, there is a gaping hole in her memory.

She'd missed nothing important, everyone assures her. A journey to a few Circles in need of a visit from the Seekers to set things right. She had filed her reports on the road, and it is all there - everything she might need to know neatly documented.

She had unpacked just before the accident, carefully tucking the letters away in a secret compartment of her desk, and there they lie, forgotten and undisturbed. Cassandra dutifully reads over her own reports to fill in the gaps of her knowledge, and never thinks to check anything else. It is not as if she has any friends to keep up correspondence with, after all. All she has ever had is her faith, and her work.

Edited 2016-08-03 03:40 (UTC)

The letters had been a revelation. Stiff, and almost reflexively prickly in person, the distance provided by words had allowed Cassandra to speak with a candidness that was as refreshing as it was endearing. They grew more familiar, expressed similar frustrations with the vagaries of time and bureaucracy, and...

...Well, he'd written poetry, for Andraste's sake.

She'd been delighted, when the transfer had been approved, or so her letters had declared. He'd kept every one, tied in a careful bundle in his traveling pack. The pack that now sat across from his cell, leaning against the wall, along with his sword, and armor, and a surly, bored-looking guardsman.

He had arrived in Val Royeaux in a buzz of private anticipation, only to find that not only was the Lady Seeker not receiving unscheduled visitors, but she in fact was not receiving anyone. It took only a little time to discover why-- an injury that had left her unconscious for weeks. That was the day Obi-Wan lost his patience...and his temper. Whatever else was true, the idea of her, well attended but alone, perhaps never to wake, was unconscionable. He was her soulmate, dammit! He should be there, at her side.

The staff didn't see it that way. The Seeker's guardsmen were equally unsympathetic; in the end, despite the physical evidence of his truthfulness, he'd been laughed at, denied access, and then denied all freedom entirely-- in that order. It seemed, to be fair, that he was not the only unreasonable stranger to have made the claim; far from it. Not that it helped him now.

He knew better than to ask for his pack.

He knew better than to demand to speak to Cassandra.

He knew much better than to demand... anything. Any news. They seemed to have decided that he was mad, or incompetent, or... well, he wasn't sure. But regardless, there was little else to do but sit, and wait, and offer fervent prayers to the Maker, that whatever had laid Cassandra low, she would see it through safely.

And that Obi-Wan himself could do the same.

Recovery is slow, and boring. Even after she's allowed to leave her bed, Cassandra is confined mainly to the halls of the Grand Cathedral and its various offices and apartments. Sister Leliana, the Left Hand and her closest companion, is even busier than normal, taking up the slack for Cassandra alongside performing her own duties, and so she spends her days alone, wandering the halls, and her evenings lost in books.

You can learn a lot from eavesdropping, she finds.

Mostly nonsense, of course. The guards are desperate for any gossip, anything to distract themselves from the drudgery of their work. She hears ridiculous (and borderline blasphemous) rumors about Divine Justinia, about Leliana - there is even some ridiculous story involving herself. A man pestering the outside guards, claiming to be Cassandra's own soulmate. She scoffs, shaking her head. Well, that one may be true. Her family's fame and her own have made her a not-infrequent target for such schemes, though it had been a while since anyone got close enough for her to hear about, even secondhand.

She slides her fingers along her sleeve, then lets her hand drop. She hasn't thought about her soulmate in years...

Probably dead. Or an enemy of the Chantry, his hatred for the Divine extending to her Right Hand. Perhaps he had been a mage, and been made tranquil? Would a tranquil still want to seek out their soulmate, or would they view it as a distraction from their work?

She moves on, her mind now thoroughly wandering, and the story of her supposed soulmate banging at the gates is utterly forgotten.

A week later, now nearly mad with boredom and fresh out of new reading material, she succumbs to the urge to reread an old favorite. Varric Tethras' literature is not strictly forbidden in the halls of the Grand Cathedral, but Most Holy would certainly frown in disapproval to see Cassandra reading his sole romance novel. So she keeps it hidden, tucked away in a secret compartment in her desk. The compartment sticks a bit when she goes to open it, as if overstuffed, and she mutters in annoyance and tugs harder. The drawer shoots out, revealing the old, well-loved book as expected, as well as -

A bundle of papers?

She hesitates, staring. And then reaches for them with the manner of one expecting a trap. No one knows about this compartment, and if they did, what could they possibly gain from sneaking papers inside and closing it up again? But she's never seen them before, of that she's certain. Forgetting the book, she picks up the bundle instead, undoing the silk ribbon holding it together and carefully opening the one on top of the pile.

An hour later, she's clenching the collar of last week's rumor-spreading guard in one hand, pressing him back against the wall and demanding in a tone that will not be denied that he tell her everything he knows about the man claiming to be her soulmate, right now, you will remember, what was his name -

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