It was really sad that not even with Cassandra's begging, Varric wouldn't stay for one night *sigh*. Makes me wanna shout "10 years and you still love each other? abdicate now! elope now! you idiots, the world will keep spinning without you sticking to the rules!" Especially since the game hints at Varric bending the law although I haven't finished it yet and don't know if there is a character development in this regard.
It's also a tragedy that Varric is with Cass just as far as he was with Bianca. Waiting for years and no chance for happiness. Maybe even worse because you've hinted at that they have been happy in Skyhold, so he just got his heart broken all over again by another woman tied into duty.
I love how you've woven in Cassandra's traits, like the ugh and the glares
!
But you've made a point with the side story of the heresy. That was pretty clever. because so the reader knows if Cass just leaves her duties, people will be burned for basically nothing. Or what we consider nothing nowadays.
Good thing that you usually have some sort of open ending in your shorter fics, so, in my small headcanon to your fic, I allow Cass to abdicate a few months later and just vanish, all of it carefully concerted by Leliana. The rest of the world can speculate if she did it voluntarily or not, if she was killed or not. She just shows up at the Hanged Man one night and after a few days of passionate lovemaking (hehe), they will go to Ferelden where nobody will know them, get a small house, have cats, chicken and goats, and live there happily ever after
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