When Khari had heard that someone in the Inquisition got in a fight with someone else, she'd been pretty excited. It was the promise of something to do, outside of sitting around and waiting for the field team to come back with Cy's sorry ass in tow. Unfortunately, it hadn't quite panned out like she wanted. Sure, exploding powder sneaked in by Qunari spies was plenty interesting, but she was still just about as useless as a fireplace in midsummer. All this creeping around trying to find the spy before someone else found out there was a spy was definitely more of the kind of thing Ril and Brandywine did than her.
So here she was again, feet kicked up on some of Lucien's furniture, basically waiting for marching orders or something to swing a sword at, which at the moment amounted to fiddling with Stel's fancy Tevinter crystal and trying not to fidget too much.
When the crystal flashed and warmed in her hand, she nearly fell out of her chair. Shit—how did this work again? Right.
Clearing her throat, she tapped it twice with her index finger, grinning almost despite herself when her friend's face resolved on the screen. “I hope this is good news, because we don't have any for you yet."
Stel looked rather grim in the crystal, dirt smudged across part of her face and her mouth pulled down into not-quite-a-scowl, though she made an effort to return Khari's smile. "The opposite, I'm afraid." She shook her head. "There are more Qunari here, and more barrels of that gaatlok. We just fought some of them, but the leader left the way we'd come. The eluvians here... Khari, we need to warn everyone. I think they were planning to get most of the centers of government in Thedas, nevermind us."
She paused, as though about to say more, but her face contorted, pain scrawled across her features for a moment before she suppressed it. "Also the Anchors are still getting worse. It's... a lot. Nothing new from you?"
Well, damn. That really was the opposite of good news. Khari swallowed, something in her guts going tight and uncomfortable, more for the part about the Anchors than anything. Threats to the world were sort of their business. Something that was hurting Rom and Stel this much, this close—that was rarer and honestly a lot scarier.
“Not yet. Ril, Zee, and Brandywine are still looking for that Orrin guy. Me and Marcy are basically just sitting on our hands. We're pretty sure we found all the barrels, though. There were six of 'em, all set around the palace. Some of them even had blast charges already set. Getting those disabled was a pain in the ass, but Widget's here, so we managed okay." Grimacing, she squinted at the crystal, as if that would make Stel's image any clearer.
“Anything else we can do to help you? You said the leader came back the way you went in, right? Should we be expecting a drop-in?"
Stel shook her head. "I don't think so. There was another mirror back that way—a locked one. If we plan to stop this at the source, we need the password to it. Something that spy probably has, if you can find him. We'll take care of getting warnings to the people on the other side of these mirrors in the meantime, but the faster you can get us the password, the better. The Anchors are... not stable. We think if we can get through that mirror, we can solve both problems at once."
Fuck, Khari wished she were with them. Gritting her teeth, she tried not to plaster that feeling all over her face. It wasn't the fact that they were probably going to end up charging into some huge group of Qunari by themselves, either—though that did sound pretty great. Less great was the fact that her best friend and the person she loved were suffering that much and she was sitting here completely useless to do anything about it, or even just be there for them.
Khari forced her jaw to relax so she could talk. “They're looking as fast as they can, Stel. Once they find him, I'll beat the password out of him myself if I have to." She knew that wasn't exactly the kind of thing Stel would be happy to hear, but Khari needed to say it. Needed to resolve it. Because damn if the thing that killed them was her hesitation to inflict a little well-deserved pain.
She licked her lips, voice dropping so that it was quiet, probably not quite quiet enough that Marcy couldn't hear, but as close to private as she was gonna get in here. “Rom's, uh—he's okay? For now?"
Stel's expression softened; she smiled a little and gave a small nod. "He's no worse off than me. And as you can see, I'm still okay. We've got to get going now, but I'll keep you updated if anything changes. Promise."
The door swung open rather abruptly. It struck the opposing wall and nearly bounced back into Zahra’s rouge-splotched face. She caught it with the flat of her boot and made a noise in the back of her throat. Her thick eyebrows were drawn together and her mouth was twisted into a scowl. Seemed as if her boots were dry at least. Whatever good spirit she’d been in hours before had all been smothered away. She didn’t seem to notice Khari talking to Stel at all, as she stomped into the middle of the room and tossed her hands into the air, gesturing in angry swipes.
“Those sonnuva… mongrel fuckers, the lot of ‘em!” she took a seething breath through her teeth and shook her head, curls swinging, “they found the bloody whelp before us, and they refuse to let us speak to him. None of our fucking business, they said.” She finally managed to calm herself down, letting out a heavier breath. She crossed her arms over her chest and swung her gaze to the ground, seeming to look somewhat apologetic. “Sorry. Ril’s trying to see what he can do, but right now, they’re not letting us get close to him.”
Oh hell no. “Not while our friends' lives depend on it, they aren't." Khari stood, pocketing the crystal and curling her hands into fists. Only a few of those calming breaths Leon had been trying to get her to use kept a lid on her temper, and she swung around to face Marcy.
“This is kinda your cue, right? Because I'll punch an Arl in the face if I have to, and I don't think we want that."
"I do believe that would cause... somewhat of a stir and officially, I cannot condone it," she said with a tight frown. In spite of the dry attempt at humor, she still looked serious, and even a little bit frustrated with the situation. It took only a moment for Marcy to push herself off of the desk she was sitting on and flatten out the wrinkles in her dress before making her way toward the door. "Not our business?" she repeated Zee's words with a glance at the woman. "We'll see about that," she added evenly, though a furrow was beginning to form in her brow.
The scene Zee led them to was hardly the brawl it probably would have been if less-cool heads had prevailed, but tension was obvious in the air nonetheless. Rilien's status was apparently enough to warrant the Arl's presence, and combined with five of his closest guard friends, he looked like nothing so much as the forbidding iron gate in a stone wall of resistance.
Rilien, of course, was as unfazed by this as he was by everything else, maintaining a polite but not excessively deferential distance from where Teagan and his men stood, no doubt blocking direct access to wherever they were holding Orrin. "As the elf was found in my guest quarters, I am sure the Inquisition will recognize my right to question him first. I should like to know what, if any, sensitive information he might have uncovered in the course of his unpermitted entry. Surely whatever you have to ask him can wait, can it not?" The suspicious tone of his voice suggested that he wasn't entirely sure that was true, and wanted to know what made their need to speak with the servant so great.
"I am afraid it cannot, at least, not for long," Marcy stated apologetically as she pulled up to the scene at hand. She stopped to stand beside Rilien, an arm crossed over her chest, resting the other which currently cupped her chin. She held the gaze with the Arl for a time, looking like she was thinking about something, and then glanced toward Rilien for an affirmation. "I believe we may already know the answer to the question you wish to ask him my lord," she said, turning her attention back onto the Arl.
She seemed to have steeled herself, like she decided on something internally. "We have already discovered that the rogue you have in your custody has smuggled in several barrels of Qunari explosive into the palace under the guise of our supplies. There is a chance that he was scouting for opportune locations to place more, to cause the most amount of damage as possible."
Even Khari could see the risk of Marcy being so forward with the information, but undoubtedly it would come to light sooner of later. Someone just doesn't sweep barrels of gaatlok under the rug and pretend like it didn't happen. Marcy must have figured it would have been better to hear it from their mouths rather than from someone unaffiliated with them. "We also have reason to suspect that the attack isn't solely localized here, but other places of import as well. I believe there are more pressing questions that need to be asked than what he was doing in your quarters my lord."
"If that is what he was doing, then my questions are all the more pressing," Teagan countered, managing to look and sound both alarmed and irritated at the same time. "And if these explosives truly came in with your supplies, you can grasp I hope why I do not trust much to your competence."
Khari crossed her arms, mostly so she could occupy her hands squeezing her biceps instead of something more productive but less nice. Brand was having difficulty holding still, but doing so on the edges of the group rather than in the thick of it. Rilien, on the other hand, just spoke as placidly as ever. “Your objections are noted, my lord. However, this spy claims to be Orlesian—a member of the Emperor's household. You can no doubt see why his remaining in your custody would be irregular at best."
"Not as irregular as remanding him to you."
"This affects more than Ferelden alone my lord, and the Inquisition already has proven experience in dealing with threats to Thedas as a whole," Marcy continued. She paused for a moment, letting her head subtly tilt toward one side. "I fear that this may be more of an Inquisition issue at the moment than a Ferelden one, unless you wish to take responsibility for your nation for something that could have been prevented," she asked with a single arched brow. The implication in Marcy's words were clear. Let us take the blame if something were to go wrong instead of Ferelden.
"I do not doubt you have your own questions, and you will have a chance you get your answers. All that we ask is that you allow us to get ours first," she continued, but softer this time.
"My agents will remain in the room." It was the Arl's turn to cross his arms. "If you ask a single question that they interpret as probing after information about Ferelden, you will be ushered out immediately." Scowling openly, he gestured to the men behind him, who parted to allow access to the door.
"Fix your mess, Inquisition. If you can."
So here she was again, feet kicked up on some of Lucien's furniture, basically waiting for marching orders or something to swing a sword at, which at the moment amounted to fiddling with Stel's fancy Tevinter crystal and trying not to fidget too much.
When the crystal flashed and warmed in her hand, she nearly fell out of her chair. Shit—how did this work again? Right.
Clearing her throat, she tapped it twice with her index finger, grinning almost despite herself when her friend's face resolved on the screen. “I hope this is good news, because we don't have any for you yet."
Stel looked rather grim in the crystal, dirt smudged across part of her face and her mouth pulled down into not-quite-a-scowl, though she made an effort to return Khari's smile. "The opposite, I'm afraid." She shook her head. "There are more Qunari here, and more barrels of that gaatlok. We just fought some of them, but the leader left the way we'd come. The eluvians here... Khari, we need to warn everyone. I think they were planning to get most of the centers of government in Thedas, nevermind us."
She paused, as though about to say more, but her face contorted, pain scrawled across her features for a moment before she suppressed it. "Also the Anchors are still getting worse. It's... a lot. Nothing new from you?"
Well, damn. That really was the opposite of good news. Khari swallowed, something in her guts going tight and uncomfortable, more for the part about the Anchors than anything. Threats to the world were sort of their business. Something that was hurting Rom and Stel this much, this close—that was rarer and honestly a lot scarier.
“Not yet. Ril, Zee, and Brandywine are still looking for that Orrin guy. Me and Marcy are basically just sitting on our hands. We're pretty sure we found all the barrels, though. There were six of 'em, all set around the palace. Some of them even had blast charges already set. Getting those disabled was a pain in the ass, but Widget's here, so we managed okay." Grimacing, she squinted at the crystal, as if that would make Stel's image any clearer.
“Anything else we can do to help you? You said the leader came back the way you went in, right? Should we be expecting a drop-in?"
Stel shook her head. "I don't think so. There was another mirror back that way—a locked one. If we plan to stop this at the source, we need the password to it. Something that spy probably has, if you can find him. We'll take care of getting warnings to the people on the other side of these mirrors in the meantime, but the faster you can get us the password, the better. The Anchors are... not stable. We think if we can get through that mirror, we can solve both problems at once."
Fuck, Khari wished she were with them. Gritting her teeth, she tried not to plaster that feeling all over her face. It wasn't the fact that they were probably going to end up charging into some huge group of Qunari by themselves, either—though that did sound pretty great. Less great was the fact that her best friend and the person she loved were suffering that much and she was sitting here completely useless to do anything about it, or even just be there for them.
Khari forced her jaw to relax so she could talk. “They're looking as fast as they can, Stel. Once they find him, I'll beat the password out of him myself if I have to." She knew that wasn't exactly the kind of thing Stel would be happy to hear, but Khari needed to say it. Needed to resolve it. Because damn if the thing that killed them was her hesitation to inflict a little well-deserved pain.
She licked her lips, voice dropping so that it was quiet, probably not quite quiet enough that Marcy couldn't hear, but as close to private as she was gonna get in here. “Rom's, uh—he's okay? For now?"
Stel's expression softened; she smiled a little and gave a small nod. "He's no worse off than me. And as you can see, I'm still okay. We've got to get going now, but I'll keep you updated if anything changes. Promise."
The door swung open rather abruptly. It struck the opposing wall and nearly bounced back into Zahra’s rouge-splotched face. She caught it with the flat of her boot and made a noise in the back of her throat. Her thick eyebrows were drawn together and her mouth was twisted into a scowl. Seemed as if her boots were dry at least. Whatever good spirit she’d been in hours before had all been smothered away. She didn’t seem to notice Khari talking to Stel at all, as she stomped into the middle of the room and tossed her hands into the air, gesturing in angry swipes.
“Those sonnuva… mongrel fuckers, the lot of ‘em!” she took a seething breath through her teeth and shook her head, curls swinging, “they found the bloody whelp before us, and they refuse to let us speak to him. None of our fucking business, they said.” She finally managed to calm herself down, letting out a heavier breath. She crossed her arms over her chest and swung her gaze to the ground, seeming to look somewhat apologetic. “Sorry. Ril’s trying to see what he can do, but right now, they’re not letting us get close to him.”
Oh hell no. “Not while our friends' lives depend on it, they aren't." Khari stood, pocketing the crystal and curling her hands into fists. Only a few of those calming breaths Leon had been trying to get her to use kept a lid on her temper, and she swung around to face Marcy.
“This is kinda your cue, right? Because I'll punch an Arl in the face if I have to, and I don't think we want that."
"I do believe that would cause... somewhat of a stir and officially, I cannot condone it," she said with a tight frown. In spite of the dry attempt at humor, she still looked serious, and even a little bit frustrated with the situation. It took only a moment for Marcy to push herself off of the desk she was sitting on and flatten out the wrinkles in her dress before making her way toward the door. "Not our business?" she repeated Zee's words with a glance at the woman. "We'll see about that," she added evenly, though a furrow was beginning to form in her brow.
The scene Zee led them to was hardly the brawl it probably would have been if less-cool heads had prevailed, but tension was obvious in the air nonetheless. Rilien's status was apparently enough to warrant the Arl's presence, and combined with five of his closest guard friends, he looked like nothing so much as the forbidding iron gate in a stone wall of resistance.
Rilien, of course, was as unfazed by this as he was by everything else, maintaining a polite but not excessively deferential distance from where Teagan and his men stood, no doubt blocking direct access to wherever they were holding Orrin. "As the elf was found in my guest quarters, I am sure the Inquisition will recognize my right to question him first. I should like to know what, if any, sensitive information he might have uncovered in the course of his unpermitted entry. Surely whatever you have to ask him can wait, can it not?" The suspicious tone of his voice suggested that he wasn't entirely sure that was true, and wanted to know what made their need to speak with the servant so great.
"I am afraid it cannot, at least, not for long," Marcy stated apologetically as she pulled up to the scene at hand. She stopped to stand beside Rilien, an arm crossed over her chest, resting the other which currently cupped her chin. She held the gaze with the Arl for a time, looking like she was thinking about something, and then glanced toward Rilien for an affirmation. "I believe we may already know the answer to the question you wish to ask him my lord," she said, turning her attention back onto the Arl.
She seemed to have steeled herself, like she decided on something internally. "We have already discovered that the rogue you have in your custody has smuggled in several barrels of Qunari explosive into the palace under the guise of our supplies. There is a chance that he was scouting for opportune locations to place more, to cause the most amount of damage as possible."
Even Khari could see the risk of Marcy being so forward with the information, but undoubtedly it would come to light sooner of later. Someone just doesn't sweep barrels of gaatlok under the rug and pretend like it didn't happen. Marcy must have figured it would have been better to hear it from their mouths rather than from someone unaffiliated with them. "We also have reason to suspect that the attack isn't solely localized here, but other places of import as well. I believe there are more pressing questions that need to be asked than what he was doing in your quarters my lord."
"If that is what he was doing, then my questions are all the more pressing," Teagan countered, managing to look and sound both alarmed and irritated at the same time. "And if these explosives truly came in with your supplies, you can grasp I hope why I do not trust much to your competence."
Khari crossed her arms, mostly so she could occupy her hands squeezing her biceps instead of something more productive but less nice. Brand was having difficulty holding still, but doing so on the edges of the group rather than in the thick of it. Rilien, on the other hand, just spoke as placidly as ever. “Your objections are noted, my lord. However, this spy claims to be Orlesian—a member of the Emperor's household. You can no doubt see why his remaining in your custody would be irregular at best."
"Not as irregular as remanding him to you."
"This affects more than Ferelden alone my lord, and the Inquisition already has proven experience in dealing with threats to Thedas as a whole," Marcy continued. She paused for a moment, letting her head subtly tilt toward one side. "I fear that this may be more of an Inquisition issue at the moment than a Ferelden one, unless you wish to take responsibility for your nation for something that could have been prevented," she asked with a single arched brow. The implication in Marcy's words were clear. Let us take the blame if something were to go wrong instead of Ferelden.
"I do not doubt you have your own questions, and you will have a chance you get your answers. All that we ask is that you allow us to get ours first," she continued, but softer this time.
"My agents will remain in the room." It was the Arl's turn to cross his arms. "If you ask a single question that they interpret as probing after information about Ferelden, you will be ushered out immediately." Scowling openly, he gestured to the men behind him, who parted to allow access to the door.
"Fix your mess, Inquisition. If you can."