Rose settled on his table watching the sky fall into darker oranges as sunset neared, a basket beside her. "Celebrating your strange ways, menace?"
She gave him a grin. "I have never missed a year; lacked the means but never the thought."
He leaned forward, a gleam in his eye as his chin settled against his knuckles. "You're not Andrastian, it shares the date with Flash's Dalish ritual. Can you even explain it?"
"Mm." She twirled a curl absently. "I can try? Papa ground it into my head, the Longest Night. The night we honor the darkness, our blood and ancestors, a time to seek hidden knowledge, celebrate the sky and its beauty." She smiled fondly. "A time to spread our wings and fly." She chuckled at the intensity of his gaze before she noted the sun's place in the sky. "But it is time for me to lurk at the mostly perfect place I found." She brushed a gentle kiss against his lips and settled the basket against her hip. "Tell Ellie? They've had her locked in the War Room all day."
"When I see her, I will." He watched her leave out the garden door, wondering how right Ellie was when she described Rose as a wildling.
Varric had caught her on her way to her own rites that evening but it was only now that Ellie noticed the lone figure on the battlements. There was no mistaking those haphazard curls blowing in the wind. It was the stillest she had ever seen the Champion, a strange shiver danced down her spine and she headed in. Some things were better left uninterrupted.
Skyhold was quiet but wakefulness still thrummed in her veins. She knew one other being would still be awake. She chuckled, Varric may be the only one who slept less then Rose at times. She knocked gently on his door. “Come in.” He was curled around a book by his fire, glasses low on his nose. A quiet mumbled curse left him. “She isn’t throwing goats off your tower, is she?”
Ellie snorted settling on the end of his bed. “No. She was standing still. No goats.”
“That might be weirder then goats.”
“I didn’t think Andrastians celebrated the Longest Night.”
“We don’t. Rose isn’t Andrastian, of any kind. It’s something her father taught her.” He let out a long breath setting aside his book and shaking his head. “You know, after Leandra was killed, she asked me to see if I could dig up anything on her father. I couldn’t find anything.” Ellie’s ears perked up with interest. “Malcolm Hawke didn’t exist before he turned himself into the Gallows the year before her parents fled from Kirkwall. Records in the Gallows claimed he was young man with a wisdom beyond his years, passed his Harrowing within three months of his arrival because his instructors always felt like he was laughing at them. The best I could find before that was descriptions of a man with a voice like magic who resembled the description she could give me, from every corner of Thedas.”
“What did Rose say?” She balanced her chin on her knees.
“Thanks, Varric, and kissed my cheek before taking off to beat some slaver into the ground with Broody. I think all I did was confirm her suspicions, but didn’t help her find answers.” He leaned back in the chair with a sigh. “He could have been from anywhere, been anyone. But why Kirkwall? Why Leandra? Was he looking for something and did he find it?”
Ellie smiled. “Maybe he did. Maybe it was love.”
Ellie woke to the sound of her balcony door opening. A lazy smile stretched across her face as she rolled on to her stomach. "Da'mi?"
Rose chuckled. "Sorry, love. I did try to be quiet."
She pulled open the curtain, Rose was staring out the window the barest hint of dawn creeping into the sky. "I usually don't hear you. The sudden cuddle of fire is only warning I have." A soft hum of happiness answered her. There was a slump of exhaustion in her form even with her hand braced against the glass, frost glittering in her ebony curls. "Did you stand vigil all night?"
A bounce of those curls in assent. "As is tradition. I've stood from dusk until dawn on the Longest Night since I was six years old. I wanted papa to be proud of me, to know I understood his lessons. That I believed."
"And what do you believe, Rose?" She asked softly.
"That the Lady watches over us. Every twinkle of the stars is her love to keep us going. That she helps us when she can, but that she gives us the strength to take care of ourselves. Magic is blessing, to do marvelous things to help those in need. A friend to keep us warm when we are alone." She turned and gave Ellie a soft, shy smile. "That there will always be a light in the darkness and wings for those seeking them."
Ellie slipped out of bed and padded over to her, nestling against her warm side. Even slightly frosted she radiated heat. "Like the Avvar's Lady of the Sky?"
"Maybe?" Rose mused her long fingers trailing along her skin. "I will admit I know little of the Avvar, and less of my father. I don't know what blood runs in my veins, what history. Although, Avvar blood would explain my love of tattoos." She pulled Ellie closer and brushed a kiss against her temple. "I do know that when I look at the stars, I feel at peace. Bigger and smaller, like the knowledge of the world is at my fingertips and like I know nothing at all."
Bandages brushed against Ellie's skin and she pulled Rose's arm between her hands. "Da'mi." She frowned, she smelled the metallic scent of blood and the astringent bite of medicinal herbs. She looked at her in confusion. "You could have healed this."
She began to call her own magic and Rose laid a hand on top of hers. "No. Thank you, but no. They will heal by day’s end." She sighed, her head tilting as she chewed the inside of her cheek before sticking out both of her bandage wrapped arms. "Sacrifice and oaths to the Lady. If it pleases her, they heal in the day with no scars. If they don't, then no magic will heal them either." She gave Ellie a grin. "You can also use your blood to divine the future but I prefer to not know."
Ellie leaned her forehead against her collarbone. "Everyone complains, mostly quietly, about my Dalish ways and here you are making blood sacrifices on the battlements at night."
"See they expect weird shit out of me." She wrapped her arms around Ellie. "Consistency is key." She yawned as Ellie laughed. "Can I sleep now?"
Bright aqua eyes sparkled mischievously at her. "You don't need sleep." Her fingers danced along bare skin and Rose's eyes widened.
"I'm supposed to be the rogue here." She peppered Ellie's laughing face with kisses. "And, void help me, I will lay on you, vhenan'ara."