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Josephine is only a day or two away from Ferelden when she starts receiving a flurry of ravens from Leliana.
She had passed Leliana’s test, which felt like both a compliment and an insult, but the job that Leliana had offered seemed like too good of an opportunity to pass up. The Divine had given authorization for Leliana and Lady Pentaghast to start a new Inquisition and Josephine was going to be part of it from the ground up. She would be able to help resolve the mage-templar war and bring peace, or at least stability, and it would be an invaluable chance to expand her own network of connections and use them for good. Besides, she’d been looking for an excuse to leave her position in Antiva anyway.
That had all been very well and good when she accepted the position, but now Justinia is dead along with everyone who had attended the conclave. There will be a major power vacuum within the chantry but that isn’t even as big of a problem as the demons that are coming out of the sky. Leliana’s most recent letter also contains several references to “The Qunari.” As far as Josephine can tell, this Qunari was the only survivor of the explosion at the conclave. Leliana had initially been worried that this person was a spy sent by the Qun to kill the Divine, but then it was confirmed that she was actually one of the Valo-Kas mercenaries from the Free Marches who had been hired to provide security.
Josephine thinks about how she’ll try to smooth this over. She’s just a taller-than-average Marcher, she imagines herself saying. This woman is a mercenary who came from a humble background and tried to make an honest living, only to be thrust into a difficult and scary situation that nobody could have predicted. She thinks that she can convince people. It sounds like the mercenary is just as confused as everyone else, and Leliana says that she has been cooperative. Assuming that she did not actually create the explosion, Josephine is confident that convince people to see this Qunari woman as a valued part of the Inquisition. Her job has become a lot more difficult than she one she originally agreed to do, but she doesn't have any regrets about taking it. Leliana did promise that this would be interesting, if nothing else.
She finds out the next day that Leliana forgot to mention an important detail. Apparently, the Qunari is also an apostate. Josephine tries to mentally rewrite her explanations and find a way to spin this as positive news, but it’s suddenly a lot more difficult. She knew that there were mages among the Qunari but she’d never really thought about them before. They weren’t in the Circles—not that anyone was in the Circles anymore—so she supposes that it would make sense for a Qunari mage to find work as a mercenary. It’s probably the most honest and ethical work that someone in that situation could find, actually. She wonders how Qunari mages feel about the mage rebellion.
Josephine shakes her her head. This is going to be difficult, no matter how careful and well-placed her words are, but this is her responsibility and she is going to fulfill it.
The day is almost over before she realizes that she is focusing on the issue of the Qunari who fell out of the sky because there’s nothing she can do about all of the people who died.
By the time Josephine gets to Haven, the Qunari has managed to seal one of the rifts in the sky and then almost died in the process. The people are calling her the Herald of Andraste and they see her as a hero now. It certainly makes Josephine’s job easier.
She learns that the Herald’s name is Herah Adaar and that she is still unconscious two days after sealing the rift. The physician says that Adaar is recovering but everyone in Haven seems tense, waiting to see if she will survive.
In between reporting to Leliana and making several different sets of plans for the possible next few steps for the Inquisition, Josephine finds out where Adaar is recovering. She is in a small house that is generally kept locked, but it’s not difficult to convince a servant to let Josephine in. She wants to see this woman who has been the focus of everyone’s attention since the explosion.
Adaar is curled up on a bed that is too small for her. She’s been dressed in odd-looking beige clothes and she’s lying on her side, facing the wall. Her hair is a tangled mess and her gray skin looks pallid. As Josephine watches, Adaar shivers and tries to curl into herself more. Her left hand is clenched in a tight fist against her chest. Josephine had heard that she was sweaty and feverish yesterday but she seems to be cold today, and Josephine doesn’t know enough about medicine to know whether this is a good or a bad sign. She finds a blanket in a chest near the bed and lays it over Adaar, who seems to relax under it.
“Forgive me,” Josephine says quietly. The woman on the bed doesn’t stir. “I was thinking of you as a public relations challenge and not a person. You deserve better than that.” She leaves, locking the door behind her.
The next morning, she hears the news that Adaar is awake.
Cassandra decides to go through with the plan to start the Inquisition again as soon as Adaar is conscious enough to agree to it. Josephine doesn’t really have a chance to talk to her, but she’s able to get a good look at her now that she’s healthy and awake and she is almost startled by how beautiful Adaar is. Josephine is busy with her own work but she is able to catch glances of Adaar being led around by Leliana and Cassandra and she can see why Leliana had described her as cooperative. She isn’t passive or mindlessly obedient- Adaar is constantly asking questions and she seems to want to look at everything in Haven, but she also seems to be worried about doing or saying the wrong things.
They are formally introduced after the Inquisition is officially reinstated. Adaar isn’t looking around at everything anymore, she is mostly just looking directly at Josephine. Josephine is aware that customs around eye contact vary between cultures and she wonders if intense eye contact is considered a sign of respect among the Tal-Vashoth.
Josephine has to will herself to not say “You are so beautiful” or worse, “I hope I didn’t disturb you while I was watching you sleep.” She ends up blurting out “You’re even taller than I’d heard” but somehow, blessedly, Adaar seems to take it as a compliment.
She finds herself wishing that they could talk more but neither of them have time to rest now. Josephine’s first task is to set up her new office. It’s nowhere near as large or fancy as her office back in Antiva and she has to share it with a young researcher named Minaeve, but she sees that a lot of people have set up tents or claimed hallway corners for themselves and she doesn’t complain. This is what she signed up for, after all.
Adaar is off trying to explore Haven and meet everyone, but Leliana comes to check on how Josephine is settling in.
“What do you think of the Herald?” Josephine asks.
“She’s certainly rough around the edges. She has obviously never been trained in the Game and her view of politics is naïve at best, even though she’s curiously well-read when it comes to history. But still, she is intelligent and a competent fighter and she seems to genuinely want to help.”
“Perhaps those are the traits that Andraste values?”
“Perhaps.” Leliana’s face is more guarded than usual.
“Do you think Andraste actually chose her?”
“Would you laugh at me if I said that I hope so?”
Josephine thinks that Leliana is being honest. She isn’t as sure about her own thoughts on the matter. If it’s true that Adaar was personally chosen by Andraste, that would certainly explain why she seems so important. It almost feels as though the world has realigned to revolve around one person and Josephine can’t put her finger on why.
Adaar comes by her office while Josephine is talking to Marquis DuRellion. She is embarrassed at being caught in what is almost a schoolyard argument, but she can’t let the Marquis see any weakness. Josephine is sincere whenever possible and vulnerable when it is advantageous, but she is never weak while she is working.
The conversation ends with about as satisfactory of an outcome as Josephine could have hoped for. The Marquis leaves and Adaar is openly staring at Josephine again.
“Mistress Adaar-“ she begins.
Adaar makes a surprised face. “You can call me Herah, it’s fine.”
“Herah,” Josephine corrects herself.
“Jose…phine?” She responds, seemingly losing her confidence on the last syllable.
“Of course, please call me Josephine.”
Minaeve is working on something at her research table and is polite enough to ignore them.
“Would you like to sit down?” Josephine asks.
Herah seems to realize that she is still standing in the middle of the room. She manages to sit without breaking eye contact.
They discuss the miserably cold weather in Haven and how they’ve been settling in so far. Josephine brings up the Qun and she expects Herah to give a diplomatically vague answer but she denounces it immediately. Overall, it’s a remarkably normal conversation. It’s actually a remarkably pleasant conversation- Josephine is accustomed to talking to dull people who have been trained to give the impression of being charming and witty, but Herah seems to manage it without even trying. The air of importance around her doesn’t make her act like she’s better than anyone else, and it helps that she also seems to be genuinely interested in everything that Josephine has to say.
It almost feels familiar, Josephine realizes later after Herah has left. It was as if she was talking to an old friend, except that she knows they've never met before because she would never forget someone like her.
Josephine can’t stop thinking about her to the point that she has trouble falling asleep but when she does, she dreams of Herah.