“Not that I don’t appreciate the thought, love, but… it’s good. Or if not good, then… it’s progress, at least?” He rolled his shoulders, trying to chase away some of the residual stiffness in them; Justice’s rigid, military bearing didn’t exactly come naturally, even after all this time, and it didn’t really feel like his own flesh while it lingered. “You know he’s not great with nuance. And this is better, really, than… You know, if you’re not around to talk us down, or… It’s better.”
Best to move on swiftly, rather than dwell too long on exactly what it was better than; he grinned - “Not a fan of him getting all the cuddling, though. That’s incredibly Unjust.” - .shifting in his seat so that, should she decide to redress this Hideous Injustice, she’d be able to.
The grin faded slightly as she continued her tale, wavering as she mentioned Corypheus’ Blight-fuelled body hopping trick. Staying behind had absolutely been the right call, but vindication left a surprisingly sour aftertaste. He took the proffered glass, quickly draining it before setting the empty vessel aside. “Maferath’s balls… what about the Wardens? What happens to them now?”
--- She sighed to the explanation and crossed her arms. “I disagree, to some extent.” His anger was like fire, not that she was much different so she didn’t have much place to judge there, and she could understand the logic they’d both used to solve the problem at hand whenever one of them was getting a bit Too Much. “But that’s only because I firmly believe he was overstepping. It’s just me. If it’s with others I could see it, but neither of you have to switch like that when it’s just me.”
She smiled to the hint and took it, going to settle herself on his lap again once he’d at least had some water. “Happy to address that. I have missed you.” The question about the Wardens made her sigh. She was just a bucket of bad news at this point. “They’ve been decimated. A lot of their warriors died, and their mages possessed. They were released from that eventually, but Corypheus is Tevinter born, apparently. And he found himself people who want the Magisterium to go back to the good old days of expansion. They talked the Wardens into blood magic.” She closed her eyes, still feeling so weary about finding all that out. “Weisshaupt wasn’t much better. I barely got any answers, and what answers I did get were ‘none of my business’. I did what I could but,” she gave a long sigh, “it’s never enough.”
---
“It was always going to blow up sooner or later.” He sighed. “If not this, then something else. I mean, filling yourselves full of Blight, clearly the best plan ever. No possible drawbacks there.” He pressed a kiss to her forehead, before resting his own against it. “You tried, love. It’s enough. Now we just need to hope there’s a good long time before the next Archdemon crawls out of their hole. That, and that the next Divine doesn’t turn out to be a raging lunatic.”
--- She made a soft sound at the feel of his skin on hers. “Shoulda tried harder, maybe.” She wasn’t too sure what she could have done, but the state of the Wardens in general hadn’t been conducive to it. Nor was she one of them, so they’d kept her at the edges.
She opened her eyes to look at him, glad he hadn’t been there for all of it. She could have used his help, but she wasn’t sure what the Wardens might have tried to keep him at Weisshaupt. “Hopefully. They need time to rebuild. Find a way to dislodge the stick up their collective ass.” The last made her straighten a bit though, “oh, Varric says there’s good news there. I had a letter, right before I got to Weisshaupt. He said one of the Inquisition people was going for it and ‘had ideas even Blondie would like’, his words.” she frowned, “but I didn’t get any in Weisshaupt. I wasn’t sure if they’d read it so I didn’t want him to write something that could point to you so I don’t know what came of it. Sorry. But it’s something, right?” ---