"You've earned that." He'd fight anyone who tried to say otherwise by this point. Some of his officers have wanted to question. He has seen it, and perhaps it's a conversation they all need to have at some point. He doesn't want to be another Meredith. For now, he doesn't have the time to allay his men's and women's concerns about someone useful. They've trusted him this far. They'll have to trust him further.

The next couple of weeks for him pass the same as the previous, an exhausting blur. By this time there are no more survivors to be dug from the rubble, but they're still forced to find the corpses. For every one that they don't, there are reports of walking dead wreaking all kinds of havoc.

News continues to arrive from beyond Kirkwall, Circle uprisings, brutal sanctions, chaos and madness spreading like wildfire. With his hands more than full with Kirkwall, Cullen can do little beyond pray for Thedas and tend to his own hearth fires. Unexpectedly, he and Aveline grow closer, finally able to set aside the intense rivalry and anger between guards and templars due to Meredith's political posturing. They function more as a team now, tried in the tribulations of the city since the destruction and made stronger for it.

Although he spares some thoughts in that time for the Tevinter and the other mages on their mission with three of his men, he has to believe that they're competent enough to come back in one piece and successful.