The Golden Halla and The Dread Wolf

Chapter 3

3.
"Mommy?" Lyra held her mothers hand as they walked to meet Cullen. His sister Mia was supposed to arrive today and Evangeline wanted to be there to meet her. "Will lose an arm too?"
"Huh?" Evangeline looked down at her daughter who was pointing at where her mothers left arm should be. "Oh no honey. I told you about that."
"Well what happened to yours?"
"I lost it in the war." Evangeline told her. "I was fighting demons." It was just after Lyra was born, but she is too young to remember her mother having both arms. One day Evangeline will explain to her daughter what really happen but now is not the time. Not only is she too young to understand but Evangeline isn't exactly ready to talk about it. "Are you excited to meet Cullen's sister?" Evangeline tried to change the subject. The child nodded her head.
Evangeline and Lyra walked down out of her quarters to the main hall. Nobles and others still lingered here, not as much as when the Inquisition was first born but it was still a fair few.
It was Lyra who spotted Cullen and Mia first. They stood at the end of the great hall by the door. "Noodle!" Lyra called out to Cullen.
"Pumpkin!" He turned and shouted. Lyra released her mothers hand to run to Cullen. He picked the child up and held her in his arms. "Pumpkin, this is my sister Mia." Cullen introduced his sister.
"Hello." Mia waved. She looked like the female version of Cullen. She had hair just like Cullen, curly and blonde but hers was long. Like Cullen she was extremely beautiful. Perfect heart shaped face, rosy cheeks and perfect plump pink lips. The one thing that stood out was her eyes. While Cullen had brown eyes Mia had ice blue eyes. When she smiled she had the cutest dimples in both of her cheeks.
"Mia this is Evangeline." Cullen looked over at Evangeline. "And Evangeline this is my sister Mia."
"Hi." Evangeline walked up next to Cullen. "It is nice to finally meet you."
"Likewise." Mia held out her hand for Evangeline to shake and of course she did. "I can't believe I'm finally meeting the famous Inquisitor Evangeline." Mia studied Evangeline face. "Cullen talks about you in all of his letters. But you are way more beautiful then he described."
"Cullen talks about me a lot?" Evangeline blushed.
"Of course! All the time. My favorite letter he sent was-"
"Okay!" Cullen interrupted. "Let's not talk about this."
"We can have this conversation later." Mia winked at Evangeline. Mia was as charming as she was beautiful. Evangeline had now become curious to what Cullen said about her. She knew it was only pleasant things because Cullen could never say anything bad about her.
"I was just telling Mia about the party tonight."
"Noodle!" Lyra squeaked.
"Wasn't that supposed to be a surprise?" Evangeline pointed out.
"Oh Makers breath." Cullen smacked his forehead. "It was, I'm so sorry."
"It's okay. I'll act surprised." Mia said
"Cassandra wants to work with me again today so I better be going. Cullen is it okay that Lyra stays with you?"
"I am more than happy to have her with me."
"Thank you." Evangeline retreated back to her quarters to grab her things. Cassandra had given Evangeline a few days off since Cole was visiting but she wasn't going to let Evangeline have off forever.
"Inquisitor." A guard stopped her. "I left your mail on your desk."
"Thank you." Evangeline gets letters from her clan and her old friends, mostly Bull. He writes a lot more than Evangeline would expect. He talks about Dorian a lot even if they don't see each other as much as they want.
On her desk she noticed a small stack of letters with a small package under them. It was just a plain brown box. She picked it up and lightly shook it in her hands. When she opened it she first saw a piece of rolled up paper. She unrolled the paper to reveal a painting and it was of her. It was beautifully detailed and painted with vibrant colors. She looked down into the package to see what else was there. "Guard!" She screamed but of course no one answered. She grabbed the package and ran back down to the great hall. She scanned the faces of everyone in there to look for the guard that left the mail. She saw him standing near the throne talking to nobles. "You!" She quickly crossed the room. "Who gave this package to you?"
"Um?" He was started.
"Who!" She shouted.
"It was a man in a hood."
"Where?"
"I was coming back from Val Royeaux and he just appeared."
"What did he look like?" She asked frantically. "Tell me!"
"I don't know, I didn't see his face."
Evangeline groaned.
"And you didn't think that was suspicious?"
"Well-"
"You work for him don't you? You're one of his spies."
"Who's?"
"Solas!" She looked down at the package and its contents. A black wolf jawbone necklace.
"No." He said fearfully.
"What is your name?"
"Cob." Evangeline took a deep breath to calm herself down. It was Solas who sent the package. It was his necklace and painting. Why? Evangeline questioned. Why now would he do this?
"Just leave please." He left her like he was scared she would kill him.
She clenched the box in her hand as she tried to hold in the tears, she didn't want the nobles to see her cry. Nor did she want to have to explain this to everyone.
She went back into her room and sat down on her bed with the package sitting in front of her. Is he doing it on purpose?

"Evangeline!" Cassandra shouted up the steps. Evangeline could hear her heavy footsteps coming up the wooden staircase. "You were supposed to meet me 30 minutes ago!" She said with fury. Evangeline had spent the last 30 minutes trying to figure why Solas sent this to her. "What are you doing sitting in bed?" Cassandra came around to Evangeline's side of the bed to yank her out of it but then she realized there was something really wrong. "What happened?" Evangeline said nothing, she just handed over the package. "Solas necklace." She sounded astounded.
"He sent me that painting too." Evangeline pointed toward her desk. Cassandra went and picked up the painting.
"This is beautiful." Cassandra admired the art. "Who brought the package in?"
"One of the guards, his name was Cob."
"Cob?" Cassandra questioned and Evangeline nodded. "It doesn't sound familiar but we can check with Cullen." Evangeline started to get up from her bed. "No practice today, enjoy the party."
"Really?" Evangeline seemed stunned.
"Yes really. You are going through much pain and you don't need me yelling at you, at least for today."
"Thank you."
"Rest now Inquisitor."