"A dog might slink back to the hand it has bitten
And be forgiven, but a slave never.
If you would live, and live without fear, you must fight."
-Canticle of Shartan 9:7
Somehow the raven knew to find him specifically. Dark wings, dark words.
Rom didn't know when to expect it, but some feeling in his gut told him it would be soon. Chryseis didn't allow things to go unfinished forever, and had a way of making progress even where none was to be found. He couldn't say he expected it to be made quite like this, but then the Venatori were not a force to be trifled with, and Chryseis's resources in Tevinter had become somewhat limited of late.
The raven that carried the message had flown into his quarters through the mouth of the undercroft's cavern, flapping to a perch on his armor stand and waiting patiently. There was an unnatural light to its eyes, some spell that Chryseis had learned. He'd never seen her turn into an animal of any kind, as she had little interest in it, but dominating minds and thoughts was very much her strength. It was a simple enough task to get a raven to deliver a message for her. And a simple enough task for the Venatori to see its direction, predict its contents, and let it go.
He held eye contact with the dark bird for a few seconds, wondering if she could see him through it. If she could, she'd read the thoughts written on his face and know he was pondering just tearing up the message, scattering it to the winds and letting her die. She was formidable, but those she faced were too, and to fight them on her own would surely mean her death. Only with a strong reminder of her purpose and what it meant for his friends and his cause did he stay his hand. They needed this. For Vesryn, Estella, Cyrus, Ithilian, Amalia. For Zee to have a chance to resolve things with her family. For the Inquisition.
He folded the paper carefully in his hands and made his way out to the door. The sound of footsteps coming down the stairs drew his gaze up, where he found Khari on her way down. It was about time for them to train together, something they'd continued to do after the conversation they'd had on the walls. It was undoubtedly a little more awkward now, but neither of them made any mention of it.
"We're gonna have to call it off today," he said from his doorway, holding up the folded letter. "Chryseis is in Ferelden. I need you to get Estella and Rilien, bring them to the war room. I'll get Leon." It went without saying that he'd want her there as well.
Khari didn't waste time asking unnecessary questions—she nodded shortly and reversed direction, heading back down the hallway at a brisk clip. She hit the door just close enough to him that he could slide through the gap before it closed behind her, but then they peeled off in opposite directions, hers carrying her towards the Spymaster's tower.
Rom didn't have as far to go to get to Leon's tower, and the Commander didn't make himself difficult to find, nor did he question him any more than Khari had. Rom handed over the small letter to Leon on their way up to the war room so he could read for himself. The script was quite small, but Chryseis had always been precise with her letters, and there was no difficulty in making out any of the words.
They didn't have to wait long in the war room for Khari to return with Estella and Rilien, both dressed for the training they'd just had interrupted. As soon as the door was closed behind them, Rom stepped up to the map laid out on the table in front of them.
"Chryseis Viridius contacted me. She says she's in Ferelden. Venatori forced her from her home in Minrathous, and have pursued her the entire way." He paused. That information was a bit incredulous on its own, that the Venatori had neither captured her nor lost her trail. "They're using her as bait, well aware that she would contact the Inquisition for help. She recommends that we go anyway, and spring the trap."
Estella stepped up to the map table on the other side, her eyes falling to where Ferelden was laid out. Not a small country, by any means. "Where exactly in Ferelden is she?" She asked, reaching up to rub at the scar just beneath her jawline. A recent one; from Kirkwall, he understood. "And why not try to come here, I wonder? Jader would have made the most sense as a landing place, wouldn't it have?"
"I don't think she came by boat," he answered. He imagined several dead horses, to make it this far south in reasonable time. "And I expect any move she made was only because the Venatori allowed it. If she tried to make for Skyhold, they'd attack and kill her. If we go in force, they'll kill her. She might as well be their prisoner, but they allowed her to get this far because they know it'll tempt us to go after her." He pointed to a spot on the map, due east of Haven. "She's at an inn called the Bright Water, on the west banks of Lake Calenhad. No mention of the exact Venatori strength, but if they're avoiding notice from locals, it can't be much. A few elites."
Khari was frowning openly; it wasn't hard to figure out why. No doubt the idea of so directly aiding Chryseis didn't sit well with her. She crossed her arms over her chest, narrowing her eyes at the the blue spot that represented Lake Calenhad. “So... who're we taking then? If this is anything like the last time we sprang a trap, it's going to go badly, but that was a lot of Reds and the Lord Seeker. This should be cake by comparison." Though the words themselves were dismissive, her tone didn't convey the same, not with the wry edge it carried.
Rom appreciated them all the same. This didn't seem likely to be as hard as Kasos, but the location was less than ideal. There were a few reasons why Chryseis might pick a place populated with civilians to wait for the trap to spring, and none of them were pleasant to think about. Even if he could see the logic behind it. "The trap is for me," he said, tilting his head slightly in thought. "Or an Inquisitor, at the very least. We have to assume they're watching the road in. If they see they aren't getting a chance at what they want, we might arrive to find only corpses and a burned inn. So it needs to be me." He certainly wasn't going to ask Estella to meet Chryseis for him and spring a trap, not when it had been his idea to use her help in the first place. And he did need to meet her.
"I'd like Asala to be there. I'm not seeing any way we get out clean, and we need to make sure Chryseis survives." He looked up from the map, to Leon. "I'd prefer if Khari and Zee can be there as well. And if you're up for another ambush, seems like you'd be well suited for the quarters and the enemies." He figured that was as large a group as the Venatori were willing to entertain combating, given that they had the advantage of surprise almost guaranteed to be on their side.
Leon smiled a bit, his eyes narrowing at the corners. "I believe you just suggested I would make a good barroom brawler because I punch things," he said, shaking his head minutely before his expression sobered. It was a mostly quite serious matter, after all. "I admit, to configure ourselves this way is to trigger the trap with rather more fingers than necessary, so to speak, but we almost have to, to make it seem worth the risk from their perspective."
No doubt the events at Kasos weighed heavily on him still, but as Khari had pointed out, this situation was considerably different for many reasons. After a moment more, he dipped his chin slowly. "I'm recovered enough to do this much. You may consider me at your disposal."
"Thank you." It was something of a weight off, to know he'd have many of those closest to him at his back. "It might be best if some of the scouts shadow us, but it should be at a distance. To cover us if we need to make an escape, or to catch any Venatori that try the same." Risk or not, he didn't think it best to chance them falling into Venatori hands. That would likely be worse than losing their way into Tevinter, if indeed Chryseis had arranged it.
"I think that's everything," he said. Nervousness was not something he showed often, but he was sure it was showing up now. "We should leave as soon as we're able. Once we have Chryseis, we can begin preparations for the journey north, however she recommends we make it." His eyes met Estella's as he said it. He knew she had been waiting for this day to come for a while as well, for her own reasons.
She wore an expression of vague unease, likely from multiple sources, but he watched her rid herself of it in her habitual way. Her shoulders lifted as she took in a deep breath, then offered a tentative smile. "I'll get that started here while you're gone. Be careful, Rom." She filed out first, followed closely by Leon, no doubt off to make his own preparations for a trip into the field.
Rilien glided out quietly after them, leaving Khari and Rom as the sole occupants of the large war room. She pulled her eyes up from the maps on the table and settled them on him. “So." She paused, clearly reaching for words that were not immediately ready to her tongue. “This probably isn't the way you were planning on meeting her next." She blinked, grimacing like she might have said something else, but whatever it was, she swallowed it instead.
"Honestly, this might be better than what I'd thought." The Venatori pursuing her were a rather obvious downside to things, but taking them out of the equation... "I thought we'd meet her in Minrathous. Then I'd just be waiting for it for weeks while we sailed there or something. I'd end up feeling as sick as you." He smiled slightly, remembering how well she'd fared on their journey to Llomerryn. "This way I'll just meet her before I even have time to think about it. And I've got friends with me, and we'll have much better things to do than talk about anything that happened in the past."
Maybe they would need to get to that eventually, but they could cross that bridge when they came to it. Rom did have some plans regarding that particular bridge, but he honestly didn't know if he should give voice to them. "Listen, uh... when we meet her, I honestly don't know what I'll do, or what she'll do. It's been a long time, and for all I know she might've changed as much as I have. Not necessarily in a good way, either. Just..." he hesitated, trying to find the right words for what he wanted to say. "Just do that thing you do, where you help me be a different person than I was before all of this. Maybe don't focus on her, but just me. If that makes sense." He felt a bit of heat rising to his cheeks, but ignored it. It was important to say.
Khari expelled a breath from her nose, a bit harder than necessary; her mouth pulled to the side. Clearly, she didn't take the request to be an easy one, but she nodded readily enough. “Okay." She pursed her lips, then nodded again, but more firmly. “I'll... uh, do my best. To help you. That's the important thing anyway." She cleared her throat, then smiled a bit. “But I think you'd be okay even if I didn't. You are a different person. You'll see."
"Thanks. I hope so." He knew he'd changed, but he wasn't willing to discount the possibility that he could revert, even if only temporarily. He also had to acknowledge that Khari's personality was not always the best in delicate situations. She'd shown as much at Halamshiral, thankfully not in a way that had caused lasting harm. She didn't know Chryseis, not like he knew her, so it was almost certainly better for her to follow his lead. As long as his lead was worth following. It was all very complicated, and to be honest he was looking forward to getting it over with.
"We'll handle the Venatori, and then we'll handle Chryseis." One way or another, he'd find a way to be rid of her. To purge whatever shadow she still had hanging over him, intentionally or not. But first they needed her help. He could wait, and endure her a little longer.
"Come on, we should get ready. Don't have much time to lose."
Rom didn't know when to expect it, but some feeling in his gut told him it would be soon. Chryseis didn't allow things to go unfinished forever, and had a way of making progress even where none was to be found. He couldn't say he expected it to be made quite like this, but then the Venatori were not a force to be trifled with, and Chryseis's resources in Tevinter had become somewhat limited of late.
The raven that carried the message had flown into his quarters through the mouth of the undercroft's cavern, flapping to a perch on his armor stand and waiting patiently. There was an unnatural light to its eyes, some spell that Chryseis had learned. He'd never seen her turn into an animal of any kind, as she had little interest in it, but dominating minds and thoughts was very much her strength. It was a simple enough task to get a raven to deliver a message for her. And a simple enough task for the Venatori to see its direction, predict its contents, and let it go.
He held eye contact with the dark bird for a few seconds, wondering if she could see him through it. If she could, she'd read the thoughts written on his face and know he was pondering just tearing up the message, scattering it to the winds and letting her die. She was formidable, but those she faced were too, and to fight them on her own would surely mean her death. Only with a strong reminder of her purpose and what it meant for his friends and his cause did he stay his hand. They needed this. For Vesryn, Estella, Cyrus, Ithilian, Amalia. For Zee to have a chance to resolve things with her family. For the Inquisition.
He folded the paper carefully in his hands and made his way out to the door. The sound of footsteps coming down the stairs drew his gaze up, where he found Khari on her way down. It was about time for them to train together, something they'd continued to do after the conversation they'd had on the walls. It was undoubtedly a little more awkward now, but neither of them made any mention of it.
"We're gonna have to call it off today," he said from his doorway, holding up the folded letter. "Chryseis is in Ferelden. I need you to get Estella and Rilien, bring them to the war room. I'll get Leon." It went without saying that he'd want her there as well.
Khari didn't waste time asking unnecessary questions—she nodded shortly and reversed direction, heading back down the hallway at a brisk clip. She hit the door just close enough to him that he could slide through the gap before it closed behind her, but then they peeled off in opposite directions, hers carrying her towards the Spymaster's tower.
Rom didn't have as far to go to get to Leon's tower, and the Commander didn't make himself difficult to find, nor did he question him any more than Khari had. Rom handed over the small letter to Leon on their way up to the war room so he could read for himself. The script was quite small, but Chryseis had always been precise with her letters, and there was no difficulty in making out any of the words.
They didn't have to wait long in the war room for Khari to return with Estella and Rilien, both dressed for the training they'd just had interrupted. As soon as the door was closed behind them, Rom stepped up to the map laid out on the table in front of them.
"Chryseis Viridius contacted me. She says she's in Ferelden. Venatori forced her from her home in Minrathous, and have pursued her the entire way." He paused. That information was a bit incredulous on its own, that the Venatori had neither captured her nor lost her trail. "They're using her as bait, well aware that she would contact the Inquisition for help. She recommends that we go anyway, and spring the trap."
Estella stepped up to the map table on the other side, her eyes falling to where Ferelden was laid out. Not a small country, by any means. "Where exactly in Ferelden is she?" She asked, reaching up to rub at the scar just beneath her jawline. A recent one; from Kirkwall, he understood. "And why not try to come here, I wonder? Jader would have made the most sense as a landing place, wouldn't it have?"
"I don't think she came by boat," he answered. He imagined several dead horses, to make it this far south in reasonable time. "And I expect any move she made was only because the Venatori allowed it. If she tried to make for Skyhold, they'd attack and kill her. If we go in force, they'll kill her. She might as well be their prisoner, but they allowed her to get this far because they know it'll tempt us to go after her." He pointed to a spot on the map, due east of Haven. "She's at an inn called the Bright Water, on the west banks of Lake Calenhad. No mention of the exact Venatori strength, but if they're avoiding notice from locals, it can't be much. A few elites."
Khari was frowning openly; it wasn't hard to figure out why. No doubt the idea of so directly aiding Chryseis didn't sit well with her. She crossed her arms over her chest, narrowing her eyes at the the blue spot that represented Lake Calenhad. “So... who're we taking then? If this is anything like the last time we sprang a trap, it's going to go badly, but that was a lot of Reds and the Lord Seeker. This should be cake by comparison." Though the words themselves were dismissive, her tone didn't convey the same, not with the wry edge it carried.
Rom appreciated them all the same. This didn't seem likely to be as hard as Kasos, but the location was less than ideal. There were a few reasons why Chryseis might pick a place populated with civilians to wait for the trap to spring, and none of them were pleasant to think about. Even if he could see the logic behind it. "The trap is for me," he said, tilting his head slightly in thought. "Or an Inquisitor, at the very least. We have to assume they're watching the road in. If they see they aren't getting a chance at what they want, we might arrive to find only corpses and a burned inn. So it needs to be me." He certainly wasn't going to ask Estella to meet Chryseis for him and spring a trap, not when it had been his idea to use her help in the first place. And he did need to meet her.
"I'd like Asala to be there. I'm not seeing any way we get out clean, and we need to make sure Chryseis survives." He looked up from the map, to Leon. "I'd prefer if Khari and Zee can be there as well. And if you're up for another ambush, seems like you'd be well suited for the quarters and the enemies." He figured that was as large a group as the Venatori were willing to entertain combating, given that they had the advantage of surprise almost guaranteed to be on their side.
Leon smiled a bit, his eyes narrowing at the corners. "I believe you just suggested I would make a good barroom brawler because I punch things," he said, shaking his head minutely before his expression sobered. It was a mostly quite serious matter, after all. "I admit, to configure ourselves this way is to trigger the trap with rather more fingers than necessary, so to speak, but we almost have to, to make it seem worth the risk from their perspective."
No doubt the events at Kasos weighed heavily on him still, but as Khari had pointed out, this situation was considerably different for many reasons. After a moment more, he dipped his chin slowly. "I'm recovered enough to do this much. You may consider me at your disposal."
"Thank you." It was something of a weight off, to know he'd have many of those closest to him at his back. "It might be best if some of the scouts shadow us, but it should be at a distance. To cover us if we need to make an escape, or to catch any Venatori that try the same." Risk or not, he didn't think it best to chance them falling into Venatori hands. That would likely be worse than losing their way into Tevinter, if indeed Chryseis had arranged it.
"I think that's everything," he said. Nervousness was not something he showed often, but he was sure it was showing up now. "We should leave as soon as we're able. Once we have Chryseis, we can begin preparations for the journey north, however she recommends we make it." His eyes met Estella's as he said it. He knew she had been waiting for this day to come for a while as well, for her own reasons.
She wore an expression of vague unease, likely from multiple sources, but he watched her rid herself of it in her habitual way. Her shoulders lifted as she took in a deep breath, then offered a tentative smile. "I'll get that started here while you're gone. Be careful, Rom." She filed out first, followed closely by Leon, no doubt off to make his own preparations for a trip into the field.
Rilien glided out quietly after them, leaving Khari and Rom as the sole occupants of the large war room. She pulled her eyes up from the maps on the table and settled them on him. “So." She paused, clearly reaching for words that were not immediately ready to her tongue. “This probably isn't the way you were planning on meeting her next." She blinked, grimacing like she might have said something else, but whatever it was, she swallowed it instead.
"Honestly, this might be better than what I'd thought." The Venatori pursuing her were a rather obvious downside to things, but taking them out of the equation... "I thought we'd meet her in Minrathous. Then I'd just be waiting for it for weeks while we sailed there or something. I'd end up feeling as sick as you." He smiled slightly, remembering how well she'd fared on their journey to Llomerryn. "This way I'll just meet her before I even have time to think about it. And I've got friends with me, and we'll have much better things to do than talk about anything that happened in the past."
Maybe they would need to get to that eventually, but they could cross that bridge when they came to it. Rom did have some plans regarding that particular bridge, but he honestly didn't know if he should give voice to them. "Listen, uh... when we meet her, I honestly don't know what I'll do, or what she'll do. It's been a long time, and for all I know she might've changed as much as I have. Not necessarily in a good way, either. Just..." he hesitated, trying to find the right words for what he wanted to say. "Just do that thing you do, where you help me be a different person than I was before all of this. Maybe don't focus on her, but just me. If that makes sense." He felt a bit of heat rising to his cheeks, but ignored it. It was important to say.
Khari expelled a breath from her nose, a bit harder than necessary; her mouth pulled to the side. Clearly, she didn't take the request to be an easy one, but she nodded readily enough. “Okay." She pursed her lips, then nodded again, but more firmly. “I'll... uh, do my best. To help you. That's the important thing anyway." She cleared her throat, then smiled a bit. “But I think you'd be okay even if I didn't. You are a different person. You'll see."
"Thanks. I hope so." He knew he'd changed, but he wasn't willing to discount the possibility that he could revert, even if only temporarily. He also had to acknowledge that Khari's personality was not always the best in delicate situations. She'd shown as much at Halamshiral, thankfully not in a way that had caused lasting harm. She didn't know Chryseis, not like he knew her, so it was almost certainly better for her to follow his lead. As long as his lead was worth following. It was all very complicated, and to be honest he was looking forward to getting it over with.
"We'll handle the Venatori, and then we'll handle Chryseis." One way or another, he'd find a way to be rid of her. To purge whatever shadow she still had hanging over him, intentionally or not. But first they needed her help. He could wait, and endure her a little longer.
"Come on, we should get ready. Don't have much time to lose."