Summer finds them again.

The promise of heat behind the rain-heavy clouds, a tickling dryness against the soles of their feet on the grass, their daily duties drowned in light instead of dusk. It might be odd, Elissa thinks, to greet the summer season when so much is happening that seems to belong to dark winter nights but nature has little patience for humans and darkspawn and their whereabouts.

Almost every day now they are notified of the development around them.

In Kirkwall, Stroud reports of unrest running deep. A thread of darkness, he writes and Stroud is not man who uses unnecessary exaggerations or dire truths that serve no purpose.

The situation is Orlais is varied – calm or highly unstable, depending on the letter-writer and their personal disposition and political mind. Elissa can make a qualified guess based on what she hears that the court and the palaces in Val Royaeux are boiling quietly, the way such places usually boils. A slow simmer, then one spark to light them all.

At the same time – this knowledge she treasures close to her heart – the Wardens are spreading out, growing strong.

Ferelden may have defeated a Blight on their own once, Warden-Constable Blackwall writes and she can almost hear the irritation in his voice, his letters fierce and strong, as though he had wanted to underline them as he wrote. But the purpose of our order is larger than one nation's border and this is the way it shall remain. He's worked unrelentingly, she knows. As they have.

And her Wardens here, Maker knows how they've soldiered on over the past year. Under Varel's watchful eye they've rebuilt, reconstructed and built - then when they've done the impossible someone has suggested yet another improvement or tweak.

Now they can afford to do something besides reclaiming what was lost. Finally, Elissa had thought the other day as the realisation ran through her. Years since she was dragged out of Highever and every moment of every day since that night she has been going backwards, methodically and systematically re-taking. It wears you out quickly, chasing the past.

The day before yesterday they had sent Leonie off with a group of Orlesian mages to begin their long journey to Weisshaupt. Tomorrow Nathaniel and Sigrun will escort another group of the Orlesian wardens to Soldier's Peak, then travel to the Free Marches to investigate the Deep Roads entrances there.

"Do you think Varel will miss them?" Elissa asks Loghain as they sit by the newly founded garden along the east gate.

It's a warm day, a beautiful spot of Amaranthine that almost makes her rethink her dislike for the place. The spaces of sky and water are broad and peaceful here where they sit. The stones and the trees deceptively unalterable, detached from the world and its endless wars.

"Hardly." Loghain gives her a sideways glance. "Will you?"

She grins. "No. I shall miss Sigrun, but not the rest."

"Fair enough."

Elissa studies his face, leaning back on her hands to look at it from a different angle.

There are very few illusions left between them at this point and there's a stark, honest relief in this. She will lose him too. Not yet; perhaps not for several years, perhaps tomorrow. They will never have enough time but grieving it serves no one so they don't. In their personal lives as well as in their battles they plan for the worst and hope for the best and they take nothing for granted; they have granted themselves the right to be happy, all the same, as best they can. The way of Wardens, an Orlesian brother reminds her in her memory.

Loghain clears his throat. "I cannot remain here in Ferelden," he says suddenly, though it's in the tone of someone who has been considering the words for a long time. She knows it's been on his mind since his return as it has been on her hers.

The land doesn't forget.

"I know."

They are both quiet again, listening to the noise of the keep around them, the sounds of feet moving and swords colliding on the training grounds.

In a way she had disrupted the natural cycle of things when she abandoned her duties and rushed to Orlais to bring him back home. In many other ways she had not, had merely saved an important person from a horrible fate. Even so, sending him away in the first place had been the right thing, she knows that now. Ferelden's independence might very well be his doing but the history books have precious little to do with the present. But I couldn't let them have you, see.

"There's a ship sailing for the Free Marches in a fortnight," she tells him eventually and reaches into the pocket of her trousers to hand him a letter from Senior Warden Stroud. "I have written to notify him that we are to be expected."

He had written about a new recruit, as well. A "young Fereldan mage I would advise you to mentor, Commander. She could use a little of your resolve." Elissa had refrained from replying that she is weary of mages, had in fact not expressed anything beyond a polite acceptance to meet with the recruit.

"The Free Marches." Loghain speaks slowly, as if tasting the words, trying out their shape in his mouth.

She smiles at him. "I believe we have carved our place into Ferelden's history to a much larger extent than any two people should, you and I."

Loghain laughs at that, a laugh that trickles upwards in his throat, oddly light and brittle. "I agree."

And there, then, for a few uninterrupted moments the future is clear enough.

.
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A/N:

So – this is the end of the Elissa/Loghain trilogy I've been writing for years now.

I always wanted to end Elissa and Loghain's story on a somewhat positive, open-ended note because we don't know yet what the upcoming canon has in store for them and I don't like writing deliberate AUs. With DA3 coming soon, I want to wrap up the dragging DA:O and DA2 bits of my writing and focus on the future. I have the intention of writing an ensemble story featuring Elissa, Hawke and Trevelyan set during the last game.

Meanwhile I intend to start posting a post-DAII collection of ficlets and stories of various length (fall cleaning of the writing computer revealed a bit of a stash) that will cover the time until the events of DA:I.

I will be back soon, count on it.

THANK YOU SO MUCH to everyone who's read, reviewed, recced, encouraged and discussed with me over the years. You are great!