With their business in the city concluded, and all members of their party able to safely move without risk of injury, the Inquisition finally left Minrathous behind.
The smugglers would need to be paid extra for the length of time they were required to stay in the city, as the extra tasks that came up along with the severe injuries that had needed tending to kept them in the house of Magister Catus longer than they intended. Rom felt they were lucky to get out with their lives, given the way everything had gone. But as the city on the island shrank into the distance behind him, the idea became real. He was going home.
Not Minrathous, but Skyhold, where he'd found himself. Even if he had made great strides on that in the Imperium. His farewell to Chryseis had been as awkward as he expected, but it didn't need to be anything more. As long as it wasn't threatening, he was okay with it. She still had a great deal of thinking to do, she said, but he was confident she'd eventually come around to something different. He hoped he could one day return to Minrathous, and feel like it was a different place than the one he left. Different for the better.
"How is anyone supposed to walk when the floor's rising and falling beneath you?" His new slave asked the question, stumbling towards him with a hand anchored on the ship's railing. Rom sat at the bow, his back leaned up against it, relaxed and enjoying the calm weather and the breeze as their ship took them east.
"You'll get used to it," he answered. "Probably." Though Rom had freed Brand shortly after acquiring him in exchange for his services to Bastian Catus, the young elf insisted he'd serve the Lord Inquisitor anyway once they got back to Skyhold. Outside of the Inquisition he would almost certainly become a criminal somewhere, as his skills were mostly in dishonest areas to begin with, and he'd never really been taught to respect the law, if he could get away with it. It was probably for the best that he wanted to stay with Rom and his new friends.
"Must be all that Rivaini in you. The sea's pretty to look at, but I'd rather do that from afar." He wasn't puking yet, which was good. It remained to be seen how he'd do once they got farther from shore. For the moment, he sank down near Rom, leaning one arm over the ship's railing and letting the sea spray hit his hand.
From behind them came the sound of a creaking door as the hatch to the deck below opened and admitted Estella, who blinked a few times to adjust to the light before climbing the rest of the way out. She stretched her arms above her head and made her way to the rail not far from them, offering Rom a nod and a smile as she leaned forward against it. "Just think," she said, a hint of sardonic dryness inflecting the words, "by the time we get back to Skyhold, there's likely to be snow." She shuddered, though it seemed to be mostly put-on.
Turning herself so she was leaning sideways into the rail, she offered a hand out towards Brand. "I don't think we've properly met. I'm Estella."
He took the hand without much in the way of reservation, giving it a shake. "Nice to meet you. I'm Brand." Rom was quite certain he knew who Estella was already, and what her position in the Inquisition was as well. He probably knew a lot about everyone on board already. Eavesdropping was a hard habit to break. "How's your brother doing? Up and about yet?"
If Estella was surprised he knew about that, she kept her reaction rather minimal, only tilting her head slightly before she nodded. "Well... it was quite an injury, so I doubt he'll be back to normal for a bit yet, but the worst is long gone." She sighed rather deeply through her nose, letting her hand fall back to the rail. "Our lives are never uneventful, I suppose."
As if the thought had prompted it, her eyes shifted to Rom. "I never did hear much about what happened with Marcus. Beyond the obvious, I mean." No doubt she referred to Ithilian's rather obviously-missing arm, and the fact that they lacked either a chained Venatori leader or his corpse was both obvious and indicative.
"It, uh... didn't go as planned," he answered, stating the obvious. It rarely did in their operations, but normally they were able to work their way through it with improvisation and a whole lot of effort. Not this time, though. "I don't know what the history is between them and him, but I think you'd be hard pressed to find any people that hate each other more. He... predicted Decius's capture I think. And his willingness to turn against Marcus to save himself." A great deal of knowledge of the people involved was required for that plan to take shape. Knowledge that Chryseis was intelligent enough to want to secure the Venatori leader pursuing her alive. Knowledge that Decius would put his own life over his master's when pressured, and knowledge that Ithilian and Amalia would accept the risks anyway, if it meant another chance at his life.
"There was blood magic, a barrier that could recognize the two of them. Ithilian and Amalia. We were separated, forced to deal with Venatori while they were trapped in a fight with Marcus. The one that poisoned Cyrus, Leta, she was there too."
"Wasn't all bad, though, right?" Brand offered. "You were able to pilfer his place some. Might learn something from that."
"Might," Rom agreed. "I hope it's worth it, if we do. Hard to feel like it wasn't a failure right now." Rom wasn't blind, and could see that the pair he'd pledged to help had been through an incredible ordeal over their lives. How much of that stemmed from this one man he couldn't say, but he'd had a chance to help them end it, and it just slipped away.
"I don't know too much about it, either," Estella admitted, "but I know it goes all the way back to Kirkwall. Before, even. Something tells me they won't see the end of it until Marcus decides they will." He did seem to have the advantage in resources, and the freedom to go where he chose, which was not always open to the likes of the other two, one an elf and the other so obviously alien to most places that she might as well have been something other than human.
"Still... it seems like you parted with Chryseis on... all right terms?" Her mouth pulled a little at the characterization, marking her uncertainty that it was the right one, exactly. "And it seems like we're leaving with an ally we didn't have before." Estella flashed a brief smile at Brand.
"That... that went all right, yeah." It was hard to disagree with either of those things. As much as Brand could tire him, he always did appreciate having him around before, keeping him sane. And as for Chryseis... "I thought for a while... I thought I'd have to kill her someday to be free of her, like Ithilian and Amalia need to with Marcus. But I think we moved past that. I'm not sure I want to see her again, but... I think if I do, it'll be okay."
"There was the, uh, other part you haven't mentioned yet." Brand's hesitance was purely for show, Rom knew him well enough to see that. The only time he didn't come clean and say what he intended was when he found pleasure in drawing it out. "You know, with Khari?"
Rom exhaled, resolved to just endure it. He wanted a reaction, of course. Being teased wasn't exactly something he was most experienced with, except for where Brand was involved. The elf looked Estella's way. "Balcony. Sunset. Passionate kiss. Very romantic."
Estella's eyebrows lifted towards her hairline, but as usual, she wasn't the type to crow and mock, at least not anything other than very gently. But her smile was warm, genuine, and perhaps the faintest bit knowing, as though this news hardly surprised her much at all. "Congratulations," she said. "You deserve each other, and I do mean that as a compliment." There was a faint hint of mischief to the glint in her eyes, but perhaps she meant to save whatever intentions underlay it for Khari rather than Rom himself.
A snorting laugh crackled just behind their shoulders, accompanied by heavy, swaggering steps. Hardly one for subtlety or stealth, Zee appeared soon after, crossing along the deck with more confidence than she ever showed land-side. She stomached the tide with little more than a comfortable saunter, correcting herself easily. Though a grin had already tipped the corner’s of her lips up, she looked as exhausted as the others did. She only slowed her steps when she found herself at Rom and Brand’s side, sinking low enough to sit, scooting close enough to the railing to stick her legs through.
“Balcony. Sunset. Passionate kiss,” she repeated, in a much more lewd tone, eyebrows rising into her hairline, “looks like I missed the best bits.” Her smile tempered itself, as she leaned her cheek against the railing. She glanced up at Rom and puffed a breath out, “Finally, huh?” Despite teasing him so much, she, at least, seemed just as genuine, in her own way. The question seemed wholly rhetorical. Either way, she was clearly pleased by the new development.
"Yeah, uh..." He wasn't really sure how to talk about this. Maybe to one of them at a time he could have, in different ways for each one, but talking to a group right now just wasn't going to work. "Right, so." He looked Estella's way, confident that she'd be willing to rescue him. "Vesryn's looking better. I take it you found what you were after, in Arlathan?"
His confidence was not misplaced. She nodded, face softening for a moment. "Nothing permanent, but yes. Enough for now, thankfully. It was... an interesting place, but not one where I'd want to risk to overstaying my welcome."
"Hang on," Brand cut in, confused, "Arlathan? You were there?"
She nodded readily enough. "Yes. I have, ah... some family there, as it turns out." Her mouth pulled. "Which is something that really needs to stay between us, for several reasons. Though I suppose no one would believe it even if I shouted it from the rooftops, really." Her hand went to a spot at her sternum, a slight irregularity in her tunic suggesting some kind of object rested there. Hanging from the thin chain at her neck, no doubt.
"Though admittedly I didn't bring any of them on board with me," she continued, moving her eyes to Zee. "How's Maleus doing?"
Zee let the uncomfortable subject slide, in order to listen to Estella. Distracted as she always seemed to be, it was easy. She started when the conversation listed onto her and hm’d softly, seeming a little lost for words, though she recovered quickly enough. Her hands clasped to the railing so that she could lean backwards, locking her arms in place. “He’s doing better, I think. Not sure what he thinks of all this. It’s a lot to take in.” She let go of one of the railings and made a vague gesture. The Inquisition, their assembly of misfits, and being saved from damning existence was a lot to digest, after all. “I thought I’d forget his face. But he… he really looks happy. Keeps insisting that he meet the great, griffon-riding Lady Inquisitor. Pretty sure he thinks Skyhold is filled with statues of you and Rom.”
Brand let out a single, loud hah at that. "Sorry, I'm just imagining Rom in some inspiring pose." He paused, looking between the two Inquisitors. "It's not actually like that there, right? I like to think I know the difference between wild rumors and actual intelligence, but you never know."
"No," Rom answered definitively. "I'm pretty sure our leadership would be mortified if we started commissioning statues of ourselves."
"All right then," the elf scratched at a spot under his chin, narrowing his eyes at his new friends. No doubt wondering which would give him the best response. "Hypothetical question time: you have to commission a statue of yourself. What do you ask the sculptor to do?"
Estella held her hand up at the level of her shoulder, sizing the space between her thumb and forefinger at about four inches. "Can I ask for a statuette instead? Maybe something no one has to see?" Her eyes brightened a bit, and she grinned. "Actually, make me a chess piece. The rest of us, too. It'd be kind of cute, I think. An Inquisition chess set."
"I'm a little disappointed you haven't done this already," Brand said, though the disappointment was obviously feigned. "What about you, Rom?"
He wasn't escaping this, he knew. Not without actually disappointing his friend. "Well... assuming I can't give you the same answer, I'd say if I'm getting a statue, everyone's getting a statue. You'd have to do all of us." So many people had contributed to what they had, that glorifying the efforts of any one of them over the others, even the Inquisitors, simply wouldn't feel right.
"Sure. One on every section of the wall then. You and Khari can share one." He looked to Zee last, grinning a little, perhaps expecting something a little more upbeat from the pirate captain. "And what would you do?"
This time, Zee released her grip on the railing and plunked down onto her back. The telltale grin spoke volumes. She held out her hand, palm turned upward, and squinted her eye, as if she were imagining the hypothetical statues erected all around Skyhold. She certainly didn’t let Brand down with her response, “Disrobed. Ungarbed. Detuniced. Skyclad, if you will. There’s no other way to go about it, then that. It’d really make a statement. Might attract attention, bolster our allies, or serve as a warning to our enemies. Frighten the lot of them.”
A uncontrolled, tittering snort bubbled out, though she tried to smother it with her forearm.
"It's true," Brand said, taking the idea with a straight face, "The Venatori are much more fond of sharp, pointy shapes than nice, rounded ones. I'm not sure they'd know what to do with a sight like that."
"These are the kinds of productive discussions I freed you for," Rom said with dry sarcasm. He looked to Estella. "Think you could introduce Brand here to Rilien when we get back? He has a talent for overhearing things. Might help us avoid any more unfortunate security issues." When they led to attempted assassinations, as they had in the past, it seemed especially prudent to have someone watching over them. As the Inquisition grew larger, these things became more likely. "Might also give him something to do besides bother me."
"So eager to be rid of me," Brand rolled his eyes. "Who's this Rilien, then?"
Estella smiled a bit at the question. "Our Spymaster. He's... quite good at what he does; I think he'll be glad to have someone with those talents among his agents." She paused, then: "Well, glad in his way, at least."
The smugglers would need to be paid extra for the length of time they were required to stay in the city, as the extra tasks that came up along with the severe injuries that had needed tending to kept them in the house of Magister Catus longer than they intended. Rom felt they were lucky to get out with their lives, given the way everything had gone. But as the city on the island shrank into the distance behind him, the idea became real. He was going home.
Not Minrathous, but Skyhold, where he'd found himself. Even if he had made great strides on that in the Imperium. His farewell to Chryseis had been as awkward as he expected, but it didn't need to be anything more. As long as it wasn't threatening, he was okay with it. She still had a great deal of thinking to do, she said, but he was confident she'd eventually come around to something different. He hoped he could one day return to Minrathous, and feel like it was a different place than the one he left. Different for the better.
"How is anyone supposed to walk when the floor's rising and falling beneath you?" His new slave asked the question, stumbling towards him with a hand anchored on the ship's railing. Rom sat at the bow, his back leaned up against it, relaxed and enjoying the calm weather and the breeze as their ship took them east.
"You'll get used to it," he answered. "Probably." Though Rom had freed Brand shortly after acquiring him in exchange for his services to Bastian Catus, the young elf insisted he'd serve the Lord Inquisitor anyway once they got back to Skyhold. Outside of the Inquisition he would almost certainly become a criminal somewhere, as his skills were mostly in dishonest areas to begin with, and he'd never really been taught to respect the law, if he could get away with it. It was probably for the best that he wanted to stay with Rom and his new friends.
"Must be all that Rivaini in you. The sea's pretty to look at, but I'd rather do that from afar." He wasn't puking yet, which was good. It remained to be seen how he'd do once they got farther from shore. For the moment, he sank down near Rom, leaning one arm over the ship's railing and letting the sea spray hit his hand.
From behind them came the sound of a creaking door as the hatch to the deck below opened and admitted Estella, who blinked a few times to adjust to the light before climbing the rest of the way out. She stretched her arms above her head and made her way to the rail not far from them, offering Rom a nod and a smile as she leaned forward against it. "Just think," she said, a hint of sardonic dryness inflecting the words, "by the time we get back to Skyhold, there's likely to be snow." She shuddered, though it seemed to be mostly put-on.
Turning herself so she was leaning sideways into the rail, she offered a hand out towards Brand. "I don't think we've properly met. I'm Estella."
He took the hand without much in the way of reservation, giving it a shake. "Nice to meet you. I'm Brand." Rom was quite certain he knew who Estella was already, and what her position in the Inquisition was as well. He probably knew a lot about everyone on board already. Eavesdropping was a hard habit to break. "How's your brother doing? Up and about yet?"
If Estella was surprised he knew about that, she kept her reaction rather minimal, only tilting her head slightly before she nodded. "Well... it was quite an injury, so I doubt he'll be back to normal for a bit yet, but the worst is long gone." She sighed rather deeply through her nose, letting her hand fall back to the rail. "Our lives are never uneventful, I suppose."
As if the thought had prompted it, her eyes shifted to Rom. "I never did hear much about what happened with Marcus. Beyond the obvious, I mean." No doubt she referred to Ithilian's rather obviously-missing arm, and the fact that they lacked either a chained Venatori leader or his corpse was both obvious and indicative.
"It, uh... didn't go as planned," he answered, stating the obvious. It rarely did in their operations, but normally they were able to work their way through it with improvisation and a whole lot of effort. Not this time, though. "I don't know what the history is between them and him, but I think you'd be hard pressed to find any people that hate each other more. He... predicted Decius's capture I think. And his willingness to turn against Marcus to save himself." A great deal of knowledge of the people involved was required for that plan to take shape. Knowledge that Chryseis was intelligent enough to want to secure the Venatori leader pursuing her alive. Knowledge that Decius would put his own life over his master's when pressured, and knowledge that Ithilian and Amalia would accept the risks anyway, if it meant another chance at his life.
"There was blood magic, a barrier that could recognize the two of them. Ithilian and Amalia. We were separated, forced to deal with Venatori while they were trapped in a fight with Marcus. The one that poisoned Cyrus, Leta, she was there too."
"Wasn't all bad, though, right?" Brand offered. "You were able to pilfer his place some. Might learn something from that."
"Might," Rom agreed. "I hope it's worth it, if we do. Hard to feel like it wasn't a failure right now." Rom wasn't blind, and could see that the pair he'd pledged to help had been through an incredible ordeal over their lives. How much of that stemmed from this one man he couldn't say, but he'd had a chance to help them end it, and it just slipped away.
"I don't know too much about it, either," Estella admitted, "but I know it goes all the way back to Kirkwall. Before, even. Something tells me they won't see the end of it until Marcus decides they will." He did seem to have the advantage in resources, and the freedom to go where he chose, which was not always open to the likes of the other two, one an elf and the other so obviously alien to most places that she might as well have been something other than human.
"Still... it seems like you parted with Chryseis on... all right terms?" Her mouth pulled a little at the characterization, marking her uncertainty that it was the right one, exactly. "And it seems like we're leaving with an ally we didn't have before." Estella flashed a brief smile at Brand.
"That... that went all right, yeah." It was hard to disagree with either of those things. As much as Brand could tire him, he always did appreciate having him around before, keeping him sane. And as for Chryseis... "I thought for a while... I thought I'd have to kill her someday to be free of her, like Ithilian and Amalia need to with Marcus. But I think we moved past that. I'm not sure I want to see her again, but... I think if I do, it'll be okay."
"There was the, uh, other part you haven't mentioned yet." Brand's hesitance was purely for show, Rom knew him well enough to see that. The only time he didn't come clean and say what he intended was when he found pleasure in drawing it out. "You know, with Khari?"
Rom exhaled, resolved to just endure it. He wanted a reaction, of course. Being teased wasn't exactly something he was most experienced with, except for where Brand was involved. The elf looked Estella's way. "Balcony. Sunset. Passionate kiss. Very romantic."
Estella's eyebrows lifted towards her hairline, but as usual, she wasn't the type to crow and mock, at least not anything other than very gently. But her smile was warm, genuine, and perhaps the faintest bit knowing, as though this news hardly surprised her much at all. "Congratulations," she said. "You deserve each other, and I do mean that as a compliment." There was a faint hint of mischief to the glint in her eyes, but perhaps she meant to save whatever intentions underlay it for Khari rather than Rom himself.
A snorting laugh crackled just behind their shoulders, accompanied by heavy, swaggering steps. Hardly one for subtlety or stealth, Zee appeared soon after, crossing along the deck with more confidence than she ever showed land-side. She stomached the tide with little more than a comfortable saunter, correcting herself easily. Though a grin had already tipped the corner’s of her lips up, she looked as exhausted as the others did. She only slowed her steps when she found herself at Rom and Brand’s side, sinking low enough to sit, scooting close enough to the railing to stick her legs through.
“Balcony. Sunset. Passionate kiss,” she repeated, in a much more lewd tone, eyebrows rising into her hairline, “looks like I missed the best bits.” Her smile tempered itself, as she leaned her cheek against the railing. She glanced up at Rom and puffed a breath out, “Finally, huh?” Despite teasing him so much, she, at least, seemed just as genuine, in her own way. The question seemed wholly rhetorical. Either way, she was clearly pleased by the new development.
"Yeah, uh..." He wasn't really sure how to talk about this. Maybe to one of them at a time he could have, in different ways for each one, but talking to a group right now just wasn't going to work. "Right, so." He looked Estella's way, confident that she'd be willing to rescue him. "Vesryn's looking better. I take it you found what you were after, in Arlathan?"
His confidence was not misplaced. She nodded, face softening for a moment. "Nothing permanent, but yes. Enough for now, thankfully. It was... an interesting place, but not one where I'd want to risk to overstaying my welcome."
"Hang on," Brand cut in, confused, "Arlathan? You were there?"
She nodded readily enough. "Yes. I have, ah... some family there, as it turns out." Her mouth pulled. "Which is something that really needs to stay between us, for several reasons. Though I suppose no one would believe it even if I shouted it from the rooftops, really." Her hand went to a spot at her sternum, a slight irregularity in her tunic suggesting some kind of object rested there. Hanging from the thin chain at her neck, no doubt.
"Though admittedly I didn't bring any of them on board with me," she continued, moving her eyes to Zee. "How's Maleus doing?"
Zee let the uncomfortable subject slide, in order to listen to Estella. Distracted as she always seemed to be, it was easy. She started when the conversation listed onto her and hm’d softly, seeming a little lost for words, though she recovered quickly enough. Her hands clasped to the railing so that she could lean backwards, locking her arms in place. “He’s doing better, I think. Not sure what he thinks of all this. It’s a lot to take in.” She let go of one of the railings and made a vague gesture. The Inquisition, their assembly of misfits, and being saved from damning existence was a lot to digest, after all. “I thought I’d forget his face. But he… he really looks happy. Keeps insisting that he meet the great, griffon-riding Lady Inquisitor. Pretty sure he thinks Skyhold is filled with statues of you and Rom.”
Brand let out a single, loud hah at that. "Sorry, I'm just imagining Rom in some inspiring pose." He paused, looking between the two Inquisitors. "It's not actually like that there, right? I like to think I know the difference between wild rumors and actual intelligence, but you never know."
"No," Rom answered definitively. "I'm pretty sure our leadership would be mortified if we started commissioning statues of ourselves."
"All right then," the elf scratched at a spot under his chin, narrowing his eyes at his new friends. No doubt wondering which would give him the best response. "Hypothetical question time: you have to commission a statue of yourself. What do you ask the sculptor to do?"
Estella held her hand up at the level of her shoulder, sizing the space between her thumb and forefinger at about four inches. "Can I ask for a statuette instead? Maybe something no one has to see?" Her eyes brightened a bit, and she grinned. "Actually, make me a chess piece. The rest of us, too. It'd be kind of cute, I think. An Inquisition chess set."
"I'm a little disappointed you haven't done this already," Brand said, though the disappointment was obviously feigned. "What about you, Rom?"
He wasn't escaping this, he knew. Not without actually disappointing his friend. "Well... assuming I can't give you the same answer, I'd say if I'm getting a statue, everyone's getting a statue. You'd have to do all of us." So many people had contributed to what they had, that glorifying the efforts of any one of them over the others, even the Inquisitors, simply wouldn't feel right.
"Sure. One on every section of the wall then. You and Khari can share one." He looked to Zee last, grinning a little, perhaps expecting something a little more upbeat from the pirate captain. "And what would you do?"
This time, Zee released her grip on the railing and plunked down onto her back. The telltale grin spoke volumes. She held out her hand, palm turned upward, and squinted her eye, as if she were imagining the hypothetical statues erected all around Skyhold. She certainly didn’t let Brand down with her response, “Disrobed. Ungarbed. Detuniced. Skyclad, if you will. There’s no other way to go about it, then that. It’d really make a statement. Might attract attention, bolster our allies, or serve as a warning to our enemies. Frighten the lot of them.”
A uncontrolled, tittering snort bubbled out, though she tried to smother it with her forearm.
"It's true," Brand said, taking the idea with a straight face, "The Venatori are much more fond of sharp, pointy shapes than nice, rounded ones. I'm not sure they'd know what to do with a sight like that."
"These are the kinds of productive discussions I freed you for," Rom said with dry sarcasm. He looked to Estella. "Think you could introduce Brand here to Rilien when we get back? He has a talent for overhearing things. Might help us avoid any more unfortunate security issues." When they led to attempted assassinations, as they had in the past, it seemed especially prudent to have someone watching over them. As the Inquisition grew larger, these things became more likely. "Might also give him something to do besides bother me."
"So eager to be rid of me," Brand rolled his eyes. "Who's this Rilien, then?"
Estella smiled a bit at the question. "Our Spymaster. He's... quite good at what he does; I think he'll be glad to have someone with those talents among his agents." She paused, then: "Well, glad in his way, at least."