Romulus was sorry he missed the action in the Emerald Graves, and at the same time very, very glad.
He'd heard some of it firsthand from Khari and Zee already, and the rest was covered in the reports he glanced through. From the sounds of it, nothing that happened there was pleasant. A Venatori ambush with nothing gained save for two individuals added to their cause, an ambush of Red Templars that resulted only in death, not the knowledge that was originally sought after, and a manor haunted with a rare and elusive demon. Rare demons seemed to be just the kind of thing the Inquisition was running into more and more. He didn't need to think hard to know that Loneliness would've found a way to worm through him, if he'd been there to give it a chance.
But he hadn't, and apart from a few casualties among their templars the Inquisition forces made it back in one piece. It seemed clear that it would be the last of their important operations for the year, with the way the snow was coming down regularly now. The scouts and spies would continue ranging out of course, trying to keep tabs on their enemies and their movements. They were not likely to stop moving for the winter. Both sides would bide their time and make subtle movements, and when the time was right, they would make their plays. He had a feeling the coming year would be both long and bloody.
The first of the Inquisition's moves after returning to Skyhold was to call together their leadership along with their Inquisitors to discuss what was deemed the most approachable issue from the Emerald Graves: that of the Venatori General, Marcus Alesius. The two new arrivals apparently had a deep well of knowledge of him, and considering the Inquisition's recent run-ins with the magister, the knowledge was deemed of utmost importance.
Romulus didn't expect he would be saying much, just listening intently as the information was shared between parties. He found Lia waiting outside the doors to the war room; she offered him a smile and nod as he passed, apparently in a good mood. He returned the nod and headed inside, closing the door behind him.
The others were already assembled, though a few looked to have only just arrived, situated at various points around the war table. On his left were the two new arrivals, the Dalish elf Ithilian and the woman, Amalia. He suspected she was Rivaini, like himself, and he looked perhaps a fraction of a second longer than he was comfortable with at her oddly colored eye. The commander, spymaster, and ambassador stood across the table, and Romulus took up a position on the table's right, next to Estella.
Estella seemed rather relaxed; she was wearing a slight smile despite the nature of the upcoming discussion. It was also she that initiated it, once everyone was comfortably settled in place. The smile faded then, and she folded her hands together on the table in front of her. "I understand the two of you have been pursuing Marcus for quite some time," she offered, glancing between them. "Almost anything you can tell us about him would be more than we already know. We have a few general ideas about his temperament, and his reputation in the Imperium, but not much more than that."
Amalia inclined her head, acknowledging the statement quite neutrally, it seemed. She was layered heavily against the cold, the only visible skin on her person that of her face and the last couple digits of each finger. Even her palms were covered, wrapped in a pugilist's fashion. "He guards his secrets as jealously as any Magister. Much more than even some of his peers. He is also a very skilled liar." She spoke slowly, deliberately, with the manner of someone who had already decided what she was going to say. Probably after a great deal of consideration. Likely not a bad liar herself, though it was doubtful she was deceiving anyone now.
"I know much of his history, but those details are unlikely to be of interest. Of his present plans, we know less." She paused, glancing at Ithilian for a moment before turning her eyes back to the arrayed members of the Inquisition. "He has taken a recent, sudden, and obsessive interest in elven ruins. The oldest ones he can find, as far as we can tell. I don't know why, but I do know that he only gets like that when he has a personal stake in the outcome. He is not the kind to fervently bend knee to anyone else. Not even this Corypheus."
Rilien, standing to Estella's left, folded his arms into his sleeves. “It is your belief, then, that he does not feel any particular loyalty towards Corypheus or his cause?" The angle of the question was easy enough to see—the tranquil made no effort at all to conceal it.
"His loyalty is to himself," Ithilian clarified, every word he spoke pulling at the rather ugly scar that worked its way through his lip. "And his own power." Most of that side of his face was a ruin, honestly, the entire eye gone, the scarring running up partway along his skull, revealed more by his hairline, which looked like it was starting to recede. Perhaps it had some time ago. Romulus was surprised he didn't elect to cover the eye. Whatever had been done to him, there hadn't been a very skilled healer on hand to mend it.
"The ladder to the greatest personal power finds its base in Tevinter," he continued, "so I would say his allegiance is there, so long as that remains true. Still, to work with Corypheus and his followers... the Venatori are fanatics, but Marcus is not. He's just out of other options. We've ruined his other paths to power, one way or another. And this is his last, the one that ends with him dead."
Amalia nodded subtly. "He has an angle," she added. "Do not doubt that. His own ambition will not allow him to remain subordinate to someone else indefinitely, and would not have allowed him to enter into the arrangement without some plan for how he would exit it. Discovering exactly what that is will be difficult—has been difficult."
"Is it a resource problem?" Leon broke into the conversation there. It wasn't an unreasonable guess. The Venatori under Marcus's command now were many, and Amalia and Ithilian but two, however well-suited they were for what they were doing.
"An access problem." the fingers of Amalia's left hand tapped her right bicep where she gripped it. "We can't reach the base of the ladder. We would have difficulty going unnoticed in the Imperium, and even if we did, Marcus would have made sure it was impossible for us to access his home in particular. He has training in infiltration as well as magic, and he is equally skilled at defending against both."
Estella frowned slightly. "You think he's keeping something relevant there?"
"Almost certainly. He's in charge of an extensive network of subordinates even outside the Venatori, and too paranoid to keep any of that information where he believes Corypheus or those loyal to him could find it. So it remains in Minrathous."
"Wish I knew more about the trips to my people's ruins." Ithilian grimaced, just a subtle change from his resting facial expression. "But my skills have always been in hunting prey, not the mysteries of the past. Left the magic to the mages." Romulus almost spoke up at that. They certainly had a few experts on elven ruins and elven magic within Skyhold's walls. However, it stood to reason that if Marcus was failing to find what he wanted in these ruins, it would be extremely difficult to learn what exactly that was. If he was as careful as he expected of a deadly magister, then there was a good chance his subordinates didn't even know what he was after. Or at least very few of them, not the average ones they would be able to capture with the most ease.
"We might be able to get through some places in the Imperium," the elf said, staring at the representation of Tevinter on the map before them. "But Minrathous would be a death sentence. I can't navigate an urban forest, not when half of the trees would whisper to the Venatori." He glanced up at the advisors, the Inquisitors. "I suspect it would be the same for your Inquisition. Worse, even."
"Not necessarily." Romulus found he'd spoken before he even realized, but the thought had occurred to him as soon as Minrathous was mentioned. A certain letter he'd received, a long time ago, back when he was still trouble by false familial revelations and looming futures of Blood of Andraste. "We do have one ally in Minrathous. Someone capable of working discreetly against the Venatori, possibly arranging us an entrance. If we're willing to make use of her." His eyes shifted between the others when he said it.
“Interesting." Rilien pronounced his thought on the matter in the same flat way as ever, but his eyes narrowed slightly. “I do not know how close Magister Viridius could get us, given Marcus's abundant caution. Perhaps we should give her the opportunity to tell us herself what she could do." It was clear enough that he, at least, was not above or against making use of Chryseis's position, but given his obvious pragmatism, that wasn't surprising.
"This Magister Viridius is an ally of the Inquisition?" Ithilian asked, directing the question at Romulus. By his tone, he was skeptical of the idea.
Romulus hesitated for a moment. "... Of a sort. Her name is Chryseis Viridius. My former domina, until I came to the Inquisition. She has since declared herself an ally, but has yet to really prove it." Her way in recent years had been to show interest in doing good, for Tevinter and the world, but often in her attempts to secure her own power for a good cause, she ended up committing evils seen as necessary. Looking into Marcus and those he could call upon in Minrathous would be a personal risk the likes of which she normally placed on his shoulders. Honestly, Romulus wasn't fond of contacting her at all, but as of now he didn't know of a better way to get into the city, or to acquire knowledge of Marcus's defenses.
"We heard of you from the Venatori, and on the road," the elf said. "Lots of things. Gets a bit hard to keep straight at some point. But if you think this woman won't just lead us into a trap, I've got no issue with it."
"I don't think she would." Romulus shook his head. "She has no love for the Venatori, not after the things they've taken from her." Her father, much of her influence, her favored tool. The question was simply if she'd be willing to take the risk on the Inquisition's behalf, and what results it would actually produce. Romulus looked to Leon. "I'll write to her myself, see what she's willing to do for us."
"An inquiry couldn't hurt, I suppose." Leon scratched at the light stubble on his chin, glancing at Romulus for a moment before turning his attention to the two newcomers. "It would likely take a while for anything to come of it, though. Did you have plans for the meantime? You could remain here, if you liked."
Amalia moved her eyes to Ithilian. It was hard to say exactly what was being communicated there, but it was clear enough that something was.
The elf was thoughtful for a long moment. "We've probably been keeping to ourselves for too long. Had we known the Inquisition could be counted as friends, we probably would've come sooner. But your reputation is rather mixed on the road. Lots of stories about this place already."
Estella exhaled softly. "I've heard a few of them," she replied, a hint of wryness creeping in to her tone. "That doesn't surprise me. But you're here now, and welcome to stay."
"I just have one request, then." His eye sought out Leon. "Lia said she expects the scouts to be needed in the Emerald Graves still to track Red Templar movements. I'd like to ask if she can remain here for a short time. A few weeks, most. I haven't seen her in years, and she is family to me." He said the last part with no doubt at all, and then his scarred lips curled up in a hint of a smile. "I'll not let the time be wasted, either. Her people were noticed too easily in the Graves. Seems there are a few things we can still teach her."
Leon didn't seem to need a particularly long time to consider that before he nodded, smiling mildly. "Of course. I'll see to it that she's rotated back here for a while. There are others who can take care of the work in the Graves in the meantime." He paused, dropping his hand away from his face and holding it out for a shake to each of them in turn. "Amalia. Ithilian. Welcome to Skyhold."
He'd heard some of it firsthand from Khari and Zee already, and the rest was covered in the reports he glanced through. From the sounds of it, nothing that happened there was pleasant. A Venatori ambush with nothing gained save for two individuals added to their cause, an ambush of Red Templars that resulted only in death, not the knowledge that was originally sought after, and a manor haunted with a rare and elusive demon. Rare demons seemed to be just the kind of thing the Inquisition was running into more and more. He didn't need to think hard to know that Loneliness would've found a way to worm through him, if he'd been there to give it a chance.
But he hadn't, and apart from a few casualties among their templars the Inquisition forces made it back in one piece. It seemed clear that it would be the last of their important operations for the year, with the way the snow was coming down regularly now. The scouts and spies would continue ranging out of course, trying to keep tabs on their enemies and their movements. They were not likely to stop moving for the winter. Both sides would bide their time and make subtle movements, and when the time was right, they would make their plays. He had a feeling the coming year would be both long and bloody.
The first of the Inquisition's moves after returning to Skyhold was to call together their leadership along with their Inquisitors to discuss what was deemed the most approachable issue from the Emerald Graves: that of the Venatori General, Marcus Alesius. The two new arrivals apparently had a deep well of knowledge of him, and considering the Inquisition's recent run-ins with the magister, the knowledge was deemed of utmost importance.
Romulus didn't expect he would be saying much, just listening intently as the information was shared between parties. He found Lia waiting outside the doors to the war room; she offered him a smile and nod as he passed, apparently in a good mood. He returned the nod and headed inside, closing the door behind him.
The others were already assembled, though a few looked to have only just arrived, situated at various points around the war table. On his left were the two new arrivals, the Dalish elf Ithilian and the woman, Amalia. He suspected she was Rivaini, like himself, and he looked perhaps a fraction of a second longer than he was comfortable with at her oddly colored eye. The commander, spymaster, and ambassador stood across the table, and Romulus took up a position on the table's right, next to Estella.
Estella seemed rather relaxed; she was wearing a slight smile despite the nature of the upcoming discussion. It was also she that initiated it, once everyone was comfortably settled in place. The smile faded then, and she folded her hands together on the table in front of her. "I understand the two of you have been pursuing Marcus for quite some time," she offered, glancing between them. "Almost anything you can tell us about him would be more than we already know. We have a few general ideas about his temperament, and his reputation in the Imperium, but not much more than that."
Amalia inclined her head, acknowledging the statement quite neutrally, it seemed. She was layered heavily against the cold, the only visible skin on her person that of her face and the last couple digits of each finger. Even her palms were covered, wrapped in a pugilist's fashion. "He guards his secrets as jealously as any Magister. Much more than even some of his peers. He is also a very skilled liar." She spoke slowly, deliberately, with the manner of someone who had already decided what she was going to say. Probably after a great deal of consideration. Likely not a bad liar herself, though it was doubtful she was deceiving anyone now.
"I know much of his history, but those details are unlikely to be of interest. Of his present plans, we know less." She paused, glancing at Ithilian for a moment before turning her eyes back to the arrayed members of the Inquisition. "He has taken a recent, sudden, and obsessive interest in elven ruins. The oldest ones he can find, as far as we can tell. I don't know why, but I do know that he only gets like that when he has a personal stake in the outcome. He is not the kind to fervently bend knee to anyone else. Not even this Corypheus."
Rilien, standing to Estella's left, folded his arms into his sleeves. “It is your belief, then, that he does not feel any particular loyalty towards Corypheus or his cause?" The angle of the question was easy enough to see—the tranquil made no effort at all to conceal it.
"His loyalty is to himself," Ithilian clarified, every word he spoke pulling at the rather ugly scar that worked its way through his lip. "And his own power." Most of that side of his face was a ruin, honestly, the entire eye gone, the scarring running up partway along his skull, revealed more by his hairline, which looked like it was starting to recede. Perhaps it had some time ago. Romulus was surprised he didn't elect to cover the eye. Whatever had been done to him, there hadn't been a very skilled healer on hand to mend it.
"The ladder to the greatest personal power finds its base in Tevinter," he continued, "so I would say his allegiance is there, so long as that remains true. Still, to work with Corypheus and his followers... the Venatori are fanatics, but Marcus is not. He's just out of other options. We've ruined his other paths to power, one way or another. And this is his last, the one that ends with him dead."
Amalia nodded subtly. "He has an angle," she added. "Do not doubt that. His own ambition will not allow him to remain subordinate to someone else indefinitely, and would not have allowed him to enter into the arrangement without some plan for how he would exit it. Discovering exactly what that is will be difficult—has been difficult."
"Is it a resource problem?" Leon broke into the conversation there. It wasn't an unreasonable guess. The Venatori under Marcus's command now were many, and Amalia and Ithilian but two, however well-suited they were for what they were doing.
"An access problem." the fingers of Amalia's left hand tapped her right bicep where she gripped it. "We can't reach the base of the ladder. We would have difficulty going unnoticed in the Imperium, and even if we did, Marcus would have made sure it was impossible for us to access his home in particular. He has training in infiltration as well as magic, and he is equally skilled at defending against both."
Estella frowned slightly. "You think he's keeping something relevant there?"
"Almost certainly. He's in charge of an extensive network of subordinates even outside the Venatori, and too paranoid to keep any of that information where he believes Corypheus or those loyal to him could find it. So it remains in Minrathous."
"Wish I knew more about the trips to my people's ruins." Ithilian grimaced, just a subtle change from his resting facial expression. "But my skills have always been in hunting prey, not the mysteries of the past. Left the magic to the mages." Romulus almost spoke up at that. They certainly had a few experts on elven ruins and elven magic within Skyhold's walls. However, it stood to reason that if Marcus was failing to find what he wanted in these ruins, it would be extremely difficult to learn what exactly that was. If he was as careful as he expected of a deadly magister, then there was a good chance his subordinates didn't even know what he was after. Or at least very few of them, not the average ones they would be able to capture with the most ease.
"We might be able to get through some places in the Imperium," the elf said, staring at the representation of Tevinter on the map before them. "But Minrathous would be a death sentence. I can't navigate an urban forest, not when half of the trees would whisper to the Venatori." He glanced up at the advisors, the Inquisitors. "I suspect it would be the same for your Inquisition. Worse, even."
"Not necessarily." Romulus found he'd spoken before he even realized, but the thought had occurred to him as soon as Minrathous was mentioned. A certain letter he'd received, a long time ago, back when he was still trouble by false familial revelations and looming futures of Blood of Andraste. "We do have one ally in Minrathous. Someone capable of working discreetly against the Venatori, possibly arranging us an entrance. If we're willing to make use of her." His eyes shifted between the others when he said it.
“Interesting." Rilien pronounced his thought on the matter in the same flat way as ever, but his eyes narrowed slightly. “I do not know how close Magister Viridius could get us, given Marcus's abundant caution. Perhaps we should give her the opportunity to tell us herself what she could do." It was clear enough that he, at least, was not above or against making use of Chryseis's position, but given his obvious pragmatism, that wasn't surprising.
"This Magister Viridius is an ally of the Inquisition?" Ithilian asked, directing the question at Romulus. By his tone, he was skeptical of the idea.
Romulus hesitated for a moment. "... Of a sort. Her name is Chryseis Viridius. My former domina, until I came to the Inquisition. She has since declared herself an ally, but has yet to really prove it." Her way in recent years had been to show interest in doing good, for Tevinter and the world, but often in her attempts to secure her own power for a good cause, she ended up committing evils seen as necessary. Looking into Marcus and those he could call upon in Minrathous would be a personal risk the likes of which she normally placed on his shoulders. Honestly, Romulus wasn't fond of contacting her at all, but as of now he didn't know of a better way to get into the city, or to acquire knowledge of Marcus's defenses.
"We heard of you from the Venatori, and on the road," the elf said. "Lots of things. Gets a bit hard to keep straight at some point. But if you think this woman won't just lead us into a trap, I've got no issue with it."
"I don't think she would." Romulus shook his head. "She has no love for the Venatori, not after the things they've taken from her." Her father, much of her influence, her favored tool. The question was simply if she'd be willing to take the risk on the Inquisition's behalf, and what results it would actually produce. Romulus looked to Leon. "I'll write to her myself, see what she's willing to do for us."
"An inquiry couldn't hurt, I suppose." Leon scratched at the light stubble on his chin, glancing at Romulus for a moment before turning his attention to the two newcomers. "It would likely take a while for anything to come of it, though. Did you have plans for the meantime? You could remain here, if you liked."
Amalia moved her eyes to Ithilian. It was hard to say exactly what was being communicated there, but it was clear enough that something was.
The elf was thoughtful for a long moment. "We've probably been keeping to ourselves for too long. Had we known the Inquisition could be counted as friends, we probably would've come sooner. But your reputation is rather mixed on the road. Lots of stories about this place already."
Estella exhaled softly. "I've heard a few of them," she replied, a hint of wryness creeping in to her tone. "That doesn't surprise me. But you're here now, and welcome to stay."
"I just have one request, then." His eye sought out Leon. "Lia said she expects the scouts to be needed in the Emerald Graves still to track Red Templar movements. I'd like to ask if she can remain here for a short time. A few weeks, most. I haven't seen her in years, and she is family to me." He said the last part with no doubt at all, and then his scarred lips curled up in a hint of a smile. "I'll not let the time be wasted, either. Her people were noticed too easily in the Graves. Seems there are a few things we can still teach her."
Leon didn't seem to need a particularly long time to consider that before he nodded, smiling mildly. "Of course. I'll see to it that she's rotated back here for a while. There are others who can take care of the work in the Graves in the meantime." He paused, dropping his hand away from his face and holding it out for a shake to each of them in turn. "Amalia. Ithilian. Welcome to Skyhold."