Remember me For Centuries

Although Cullen wasn’t glad for the circumstances that brought Rosalie to Amaranthine, it had felt good having her under the same roof so to speak. He didn’t have to worry about her as much, though he imagined with the blight over, she’d been back to Orlais eventually. Still, he’d enjoy the time he had with her for as much as he could.

The blight had kept him quite busy, so he hadn’t had as much time as he’d have liked and now even with the blights over there was all the rebuilding and getting displaced people back to their homes. He had a free afternoon though, and decided he’d go see what his sister was up to. There was so much talk about her research and what it could mean for the wardens, but to be honest he barely understood all that it meant to be a warden, the research had so far gone over his head, but then he hadn’t really had the time to sit down and think about it properly.

He decided he’d let Rosalie explain it to him, really dumb it down so he could finally make sense of what the hype was about. He grabbed a basket of fresh baked pastries from the kitchen and headed to the rooms where Rosalie did her research and knocked on the door.

Rosalie? You around?

Rosalie had been transcribing her notes to legible ones when she had heard her brother knock. Admittedly, this was an habit that she had gained after being in the front lines. This had made her very aware of how fragile life was and since she wanted to make sure of that someone could continue her research if something happened, he was keeping a diary which had written her progress.

She jumped from her chair to open his door and let him in “You brought me strawberry scones?? You know these are my favorite!” she said eyeing the basket and seeing if she spotted any scone. “How can I help you? There’s anything that you need? How are Lana and the kids???” asked Rosalie in a shower of questions as she grabbed a pastry from the basket, clearing a chair for her brother with her free hand. “Sit down!!”

Do I need an excuse to see my little sister? He said with a grin at her reaction to the pastries and the way she rushed around trying to clear room. Not that his office was that much neater, so he couldn’t really say anything about it without being the pot to her kettle. Once a spot was cleared he sat down and grabbed himself a scone as well.

Lana and the kids are fine! To be honest, I was sort of hoping you’d explain the whole taint research thing. I know you sorta talked about it once, but with the blight going on, I was stressed out, I didn’t really digest it all. Now though, I’m ready to give you a hundred percent of my attention, I am determined to finally understand what it is that you are working on! He said with a grin, he was sure there’d be things he wouldn’t understand, but he was determined.

“No but you are such a busy man that I don’t expect you to come to me for small talk” she said sweetly. She admired a lot her brother and understood that with both their schedules meeting was complicated.

“Uhm” she said grabbing another sweet, trying to summarize something as complicated as her research into something that her brother would understand. “For now I have found a plant that stops taint from spreading, that flower never tainted even in tainted wrecked lands” said the blonde. “And I managed to make a medicine that stops it from spreading further, not to cure it yet. The taint is like a disease and it’s too strong for me to cure it for now but I can stop it from advancing”. She concluded, trying to make it concise.

Cullen nodded a few times. A plant, well he could sort of wrap his brain around that, lots of plants did lots of things after all, so why not. He was rather impressed Rosalie had found it, but then he was impressed by a lot of things where his little sister was concerned.

A plant. Huh. Something as simple as a plant, though I guess I’m not that surprised. So it’s like whatever the disease has already hurt, you can’t undo? But maybe it won’t progress to the point of them hearing their calling or whatever it’s called? He didn’t understand a lot about grey wardens, even after having it explained. Well, he understood some, but the calling was confusing to him. It sounded like an end he sure as fuck didn’t envy and he imagined if that could be held off or stopped, it must certainly be of great interest to the wardens.

“Exactly, I am using the same principle to attempt to find a cure for a young antivan man who has a similar disease like this. I should contact him about the prototype now that I mention it” she said writing it down in the diary.

“But imagine how many people we can spare from dying if recently infected with the blight!” said the blonde with a optimistic tone “And how many wardens we can help! Imagine knowing that the calling won’t be a thing, that you will have a hard life but that at the least it won’t have such a terrible ending. No nightmares!” perhaps she shouldn’t have mentioned the calling but oh well, she assumed that Cullen likely knew from Lana anyways.

Cullen nodded a few more times, eyes wide, it sounded amazing. If it weren’t his sister saying it all he’d say it sounded too good to be true. At first he focused on her words about the blight stuff, taking it all in. He tried to imagine any downsides to it, but was coming up short. He probably knew more about wardens than some because of his wife. He knew they could sense the darkspawn which could come in handy, but the downside to that was the darkspawn could sense them in return. It never felt like that much of a benefit.

It would certainly be easier to recruit Grey Wardens if it wasn’t a death sentence. Though I do dearly hope that we don’t see another blight in our lifetime. Two is more than enough. He imagined it would help the dwarves even more, since they had to deal with the darkspawn long after a blight was but a memory. Then he suddenly soaked in the other words she’d said, about the Antivan man, and backed up a moment. “A disease similar to the blight?” he asked.

“Wardens have enough of a hard life to add the extra punishment of the taint” she said with determination. There was a bit of a selfish factor in her motivation, after all she wanted to cure eventually Vincent (if he desired the cure of course) but that didn’t make what she had said less true.

“Yep, it’s a rare condition first described in Tevinter scrolls. The origin has nothing to do with the blight, of course, but the mechanism of action is quite similar. The boy’s father was not delighted with my intervention but oh well…” she remembered the conversation with Jorah briefly, that had been one of her most challenging conversations in her life from an academic point of view.

Well, he is a father, it can’t be easy having a son suffer from an affliction that hasn’t had a solution. He’s probably just being over protective, I’m sure I would be too if one of my sons were afflicted with something like that. New was also a scary thing he thought, the prospects of a legitimate treatment could be just as scary as not having one, because one couldn’t be entirely sure what the effects would be or if it would even work, getting their hopes up for nothing. Cullen smiled reassuringly.

I’m sure he’ll come around, he just doesn’t know you like I do, and I don’t just mean as your brother. I know you, if you weren’t sure about this, you wouldn’t have even put it out there as a viable option. He wished he was half as smart as his sister was, though in general he was probably smarter than he gave himself credit for.

“Yes, you are right he will come around about it eventually. Hopefully” she said with a smile, and if he didn’t she could always return to her taint research at fullest.

“By the way, did I tell you that I bought a house in Orlais? For when I return. It’s big enough like for you and Lana to visit with the kids, if your busy hero schedules allow it of course” she said with a warm smile. It hurt a little to speak about leaving again, but they both knew that for now Rosalie’s future was in Orlais due to her research. Although she didn’t discard asking Vincent eventually along the years about returning back to Ferelden, since a part of her heart would always belong here.

Cullen smiled at the news about the house. There would always be a part of him that would feel the need to protect and shelter his sister, but he was damn proud of the woman she had become and all the good she was doing in the world, and if Orlais was where she wanted to be he wasn’t about to stand in the way.

When she mentioned Lana and the boys, he just kept smiling and nodding. He wasn’t ready yet to say out loud that him and Lana were having problems. It felt inconceivable, but it was to the point it was impossible to ignore. For now though, in this moment, he just didn’t want to think about it. He’d tell Rosalie when he was more sure about his plans to go to Denerim and help the king, Byron Wulff.

I’m sure Vincent will like having you close, and of course I’ll visit when I’m able. He paused and then stood up and stretched. It was probably time he get back to things. Well, I’ll get back to it. If you need anything you know where to find me sis. He said, and then headed out.