The Realities of Power
Sera was in a bad mood. A really bad mood. Bad weather had hit the Frostback mountains and the roads were completely snowed in, which meant they could not leave nor get supplies, which meant that rationing had been implemented, which meant she could not get her drink on to alleviate the boredom.
There was so much snow she could not even go out in the courtyard to practice her archery. She was considering going to the stock room to get some paint and 'redecorate' some of the walls when she spotted the Inquisitor walking into the main hall. 'Perfect' she thought and jogged over. "Hey! Your Worship! Why don't you use your super special hand to send that snow to the other side?" she yelled, giving Trevelyan a big smack on the shoulder as she did so.
And got no reaction whatsoever. The Inquisitor just continued on her way like she hadn't heard or felt anything. 'Well, that was strange' Sera thought. Usually the Inquisitor would start shouting colourful threats when Sera acted out, or at least tell her to shut up. This time: nothing.
She tried her luck again, this time racing to place herself in the path of the Inquisitor. "Didn't you hear me, Trevelyan? I said…"she began, but Trevelyan cut her off. "I heard you" and she sidestepped the Elf to continue on her way. Sera was not willing to let the matter rest yet, however. She blocked the Inquisitor's path once again.
"What's gotten into you? Are you sick?" She received no reply beyond Trevelyan crossing her arms and giving her an odd look. She just stood there and kept staring until Sera grew tired of her game. It didn't take long. "Fine. Be like that. I don't care" the thief said and got out of the Inquisitor's way, watching the woman disappear down a side corridor.
The Elf remained in the great hall, utterly confused. What had just happened? She was thinking that maybe she should ask the Seeker about it when the spymaster walked in. She would do. "Oy! Red!" she called and motioned for the Orlesian to get closer as she made her way towards her. "Can I help you with something, Sera?" she asked with that lilting voice of hers.
"Yeah. Do you know what's gotten into the Inquisitor? She's acting weird." the Elf explained. Leliana paused for a moment to think about that one. The Inquisitor's behaviour was always a bit odd, she found, but for Sera to make such a remark… "What do you mean by 'weird', exactly?" she inquired. "Well, I called her 'your Worship', you know she hates that, and I smacked her on the shoulder and she didn't do anything!"
That caused two red eyebrows to shoot up. "Nothing?" she pressed. "Zero! Not a word, not a look; she didn't even slow down!" Sera exclaimed, glad to see that she wasn't the only one surprised. "And she just walked away?" Leliana asked again.
"Well, I tried again and blocked her path, but she just stared at me. Not even a glare or a frown. She looked bored more than anything, really" Sera explained as she thought back on the scene. "You're right. That is strange. The last time you called her 'your Worship' she threatened to throw you down the latrines" Leliana recalled, causing the Elf to pale a bit at the memory. That had been a nasty threat.
"Yeah, well, it's not like she really would. She also said she'd shave me bald and that she'd shove parsley up my nose. And she hasn't. She's all bark." Sera said dismissively, although there was a shade of doubt in her voice. The Inquisitor could be a nasty bitch when she was riled, but so far she had not acted on any of her threats. Yet.
"I don't know why you insist on provoking her. You know what she is capable of. This 'weird' behaviour you observed could well be the calm before the storm. I suggest you leave her alone." Leliana warned
"The calm before the storm, yeah right. I ain't scared of her." Sera said with a sneer. "Really? Then I suppose it was someone else I found hiding in the rookery the other day. After you put snow down the back of her shirt and she said she'd throw you naked in the snow bank?" the spymaster countered, watching the thief squirm uncomfortably at the memory.
"That was a strategic retreat! And I didn't want to risk it. I'm sensitive to cold" Sera said defensively, wrapping her arms around her as though she were feeling cold. The Orlesian laughed softly. "Of course. Well, I have matters to attend to. Good day." She said and left the thief to her own devices. She would have paid quite a bit of money to see the Inquisitor carry out that last threat. The Elf was a very pretty girl.
Sera stood in the great hall, confused as ever, but at least she wasn't bored anymore. She had a mystery to solve! In spite of the spymaster's warning, she headed off towards the corridor in which she had seen the Inquisitor disappear.
"Oh grand" she said aloud as she realized where it lead: the under croft. The under croft was creepy enough when it was empty, but with Trevelyan in there, no doubt working on one of those fiendish contraptions of hers, it got a whole lot creepier. She arrived at the top of the stairs and paused a moment to think.
On the one hand, it's not like Trevelyan had ever threatened to kill her. Or even hurt her, for that matter. On the other hand, the woman had a lot of imagination that tended towards the unpleasant end of things. She recalled the latrine threat with a shudder of disgust. What was the worst she could do in the under croft?
An icy gust of wind blew up from the depths and raised goose bumps on her skin. Even with the torches lining up the wall, the stairway was dark and narrow. She could see ice caking the walls where water had leaked and frozen in place. 'Right. She could strip me naked, burn my clothes and make me walk back to my room in the buff. And it was cold in the castle, even with the fires lit all over the place.' She hated the cold.
She slowly set a foot down on the first step, then the next one, and soon she was making her way, slower than she would have liked because of the ice on the steps, toward the under croft. A blast of chilled air would occasionally rise from the lower level, making her hesitate to continue. "Brr. How can she stand to spend so much time down there? It's freezing!" she groused as she kept going.
Finally, after what felt like hours, she reached the bottom of the stairs and found herself facing the door to the forge. She pressed her ear to the door and listened, but she couldn't hear anything. 'Huh, weird' she thought. She was sure she had seen Trevelyan go that way.
She cracked the door open to take a peek inside, and she spotted Trevelyan sitting in a chair with her feet propped up on a table, looking at plans or schematics. "I know you're there, Sera." the human called out, causing the thief to jump a bit in surprise. "How'd you know? You weren't even looking in that direction." she replied grouchily, entering the room and closing the door behind her.
"I could hear your teeth chattering from the last landing" Trevelyan replied, not even bothering to look up from her papers. Sera clamped her jaws together in annoyance. She hadn't realized she was doing that. Bloody cold. "What're you working on?" she asked with genuine curiosity. The Inquisitor was an annoying, self-important bitch, but there was no denying her traps had saved their collective bacons on more than one occasion.
"Something" was all the answer she got. Sera rolled her eyes. "Is that your new gig, then? Instead of 'Rawr! Fear my rage!' you're going for 'Oh, I won't waste my time explaining things to you! The very idea!' You've been spending too much time with Vivienne." Sera mocked, complete with hand gestures. She giggled, amused by her own antics.
"Actually I was going for 'maybe if I ignore her long enough she'll get bored and go away'. No such luck however. You're like a mosquito. Buzz buzz!" Trevelyan said, mimicking a mosquito flying around. "Hey!" Sera said indignantly, "I'm way better than a mosquito! I'm like a bee!"
The Inquisitor looked up from her plans and gave Sera an appraising look. "You are aware that bees can only sting once?" she remarked, and Sera paused for a moment. "They do?" she asked, once again actually curious. "Yep. They have a barbed stinger that gets embedded in the skin, it tears off their abdomen and they die shortly afterwards. Wasps can sting more than once though" Trevelyan explained, sounding every bit like one of those boring scholars.
"Ok, then I'm like a wasp!" Sera countered, nothing daunted. The human gave her an obvious once over. "Mosquito, bee, wasp, it makes little difference. They're all ugly." she said with a shrug and returned her attentions to her plans.
Sera was more than a little miffed at the implication. "Hey! I'm the hottest piece of ass in Orlais!" she shouted, earning a smirk from the Inquisitor. "A good smack will make them all quiet too." Trevelyan continued like she hadn't heard Sera's outburst.
There was something about the way she had said that bothered Sera, but she couldn't put her finger on it. She decided to change the subject. "Ah, there it is! That's your solution to everything, isn't it? People don't do what you like, you put them down. You're just like all those bastard nobles in Orlais!" she challenged, wondering if that might have done it.
It felt weird to have a normal conversation with the Inquisitor. Usually it went quip, shout and chase. The Inquisitor wasn't showing any sign of anger or even annoyance, however.
"And you're not? Your approach is not all that different, if I recall correctly." That got a rise out of Sera. "What? Of course it's different! I only go after people who deserve it!" she yelled back, walking over to the Inquisitor and snatching the plans away. She was sick of the woman not looking at her when she talked to her.
"And who determines whether they deserve it or not? Based on her values alone? With no thought for the friends, parents, siblings or children she might be depriving of a loved one?" Trevelyan challenged, this time looking Sera straight in the eye. "That doesn't count! They're not real people!" the Elf erupted, feeling a lump of ice jam into her throat as she realized what she had just said.
Trevelyan gave her a smirk that was both triumphant and contemptuous. Sera decided to push the lump aside and continue on her rant. "Don't act so smug! You think you're so great because you were born in high and mighty family, but that doesn't mean anything! You're just as ordinary as everyone else!" The Elf shouted.
"True", the Inquisitor conceded. That threw Sera for a loop. "Wait, what? You're agreeing with me?" she asked, utterly thunderstruck. That was a first. "Yes. I am as ordinary as everyone else. High born, low born, farmer, king, Elf, Dwarf, human; we're all people." the human said, and there was a definite steely edge to her voice.
Sera actually felt a little ashamed of herself. She had not meant to imply that. Still, her anger rose again as she thought of the people who were abused and trod on everyday in Orlais by the nobles. That justified what she did, didn't it? "The difference is nobles have power, and they use it to oppress people! They don't have to worry about going hungry, or getting kicked out of their home, or getting taken advantage of by bored guards!" she exclaimed.
"True. They only have to worry about arranged marriages, assassination attempts and power plays by other nobles. A charmed life, truly" the human said bitterly, as though speaking from experience. "It beats sleeping in the ditch" Sera countered, still refusing to back down. "The point is, Sera, that high or low born, we have few choices in life and we do what we must to stay alive. That is what most people worry about. How many do you know who actually place others above themselves? Even among commoners?"
Sera was still not willing to concede the point. "Commoners don't have power! Nobles do!"
Trevelyan scoffed. "Commoners think they don't, and nobles think they do. That's an important distinction" she said. Sera wasn't sure she understood. "What difference does it make?" she asked.
"Great power does not come from oneself. It comes from those around one," Trevelyan explained. "Nobles have guards to protect them. Servants to attend them. Peasants to work their fields. How much could they do if those people decided not to listen to them anymore?"
Sera paused for a moment to think about this. "Not much, I guess" she said at length. "Exactly. Why do those people obey when they are so poorly treated then? Because they think it is in their best interest. Because they have been fooled into thinking they are powerless when they're really not. Everyone has a measure of power, and they can entrust it to whoever they want. They can also revoke it if that person proves unworthy of it." Trevelyan spoke with such fervour that Sera actually felt impressed. That was a first for her.
Sera had gotten used to thinking of the Inquisitor as a spoiled rich kid who had gotten in way over her head, but now she wasn't too sure what to think anymore. Trevelyan was a lot smarter than she had thought, that was for sure. "I get where you're coming from but… why don't people just go it alone then? Why give their power to anyone?" she asked, all mockery gone from her voice.
"Do you go it alone? Don't you have a network of spies? Fences? Safe houses? People gather in groups because it makes life easier for everyone. It's when some idiot with delusions of grandeur starts thinking that he is owed trust and loyalty instead of having to deserve it that problems come. A real leader listens to his people's needs and does his best to fulfill them. A tyrant breaks their spirit to make sure they won't dare to abandon him." the human went on, her breath coming in short bursts as she grew more agitated. She had gotten up from her chair and begun to pace around the room, making wild gestures with her arms to punctuate her words.
Sera stood still as she watched and listened, unsure of what to say, but Trevelyan went on. "And now, everyone is laying their troubles at my door saying 'Hey, you got a weird green light coming from your hand! Go solve all our problems! Oh, you lost two of your brothers in that explosion? Well, no time to grieve! Go solve our problems! Oh, you're tired? Well, no time to rest! Go solve our problems! Oh, we don't like that decision you made! We guess we'll go help that guy instead!' Like I asked to be put in this position!" she kept ranting on and on, but Sera's mind had gotten stuck on one little tidbit.
"Your brothers died?" the question slipped out before she could stop it, and Trevelyan stopped mid rant to give her a look of such grief that she almost wanted to hug the human. "I'm just a person, Sera. I have loved ones, I have hopes, I have dreams, I have needs." she said, and there was that strange tone in her voice again that Sera couldn't pinpoint, but it caused another question to blurt out. "What kind of needs?" The answer gave her a chill.
Trevelyan looked at her with a sudden hunger in her eyes. "You know, there are times I'd really like nothing better than to take you over my knee and give you a good spanking, and stick my fingers inside you, and feel you squirm in my lap, and hear you whimper and beg for more. I'd really like that." she said this with such ferocity that Sera feared she might actually grab her and do it.
"You know what, I'll just… let myself out. I can see you're upset." Sera said quickly and bolted out of the room, taking the steps back up three at a time in her haste to get away. She jostled the guard standing near the stairs, shouted a quick 'sorry!' at him and kept running all the way up to the rookery.
Her arrival startled both the spymaster and the birds, but she paid them no mind and went to hide in a corner, feeling a little silly as she did so. She placed a hand over her heart and struggled to catch her breath. "What in the world did you do this time?" Leliana asked with a hint of reproach as she made soothing noises to calm her birds.
"I… don't really want to talk about it" The Elf gasped out, still trying to catch her breath. "Sera" Leliana began in a nagging tone, but the thief interrupted her. "I went down to see the Inquisitor in the under croft we talked for a bit she said something scary and I ran away" she explained quickly in a single breath.
"What did she say?" the spymaster inquired, wondering what the Inquisitor could have said that actually managed to frighten the Elf. Sera shook her head vehemently in refusal. "I ain't telling! I don't even want to think about it!" Truth be told, what bothered Sera was not that the Inquisitor's statement had induced fear. It had induced something quite different that she did not want to acknowledge, but the tingling between her legs and around her breasts was quite determined not to be ignored. 'Oh man, that was hot!' it seemed to whisper, and Sera yelled "Shut up!" and knocked the back of her head against the wall in the process. "Ow!"
The Orlesian looked at her with a mixture of confusion and concern. "I didn't say anything" she protested. "Not you!" Sera replied, not caring that it sounded stupid since there was no one else in the room. Except the birds that is. "I can see you're upset. I'll just let myself out" the spymaster said, causing the Elf to laugh suddenly. Leliana chose not to comment and left the rookery, deciding to go to the under croft to see if the Inquisitor could shed light on this mystery.
She arrived to find Trevelyan standing with her hands against the wall and banging her head against it. "Stupid. Stupid. Stupid." she repeated with each blow, and Leliana was starting to wonder if cabin fever was beginning to set in. She hastened to Trevelyan's side and placed a hand on her forehead to stop her hitting it again on the wall. "Inquisitor! What are you doing?"
The Inquisitor turned to look at her, looking slightly cross eyed. " I was banging my head on the wall and calling myself stupid. But you put a stop to that. Thank you" she said so matter-of-factly that Leliana almost laughed. "And what did you do to Sera? She just stormed into the rookery like she had a Blight on her heels!"
The inquisitor laughed at that and tried to hit her head on the wall again, but Leliana restrained her. "Did she? Poor dear. I assure you, Leliana, I did not touch her. We merely talked, and no, I did not threaten, shout or otherwise use abusive language. Well I did shout. But not at her. Not really." she explained, doing nothing to alleviate the spymaster's confusion.
"What did you say?" Leliana insisted. Trevelyan actually blushed a little at the question, further confusing her adviser. "I might have said I wanted to take her over my knee and… you know." she admitted after a while, closing her eyes and trying again to bang her head against the wall, but she was once more thwarted by the Orlesian.
This time Leliana did laugh. "Is that all? I did not think Sera would be so frightened by that. Unless… did you say something else?" she pressed as she saw the Inquisitor's face turn a deeper shade of red, beginning to suspect what else Trevelyan might have said. The Free Marcher glanced to the side for a moment, then replied "Maybe?" with a silly smile that failed spectacularly at being innocent.
Leliana smiled a little. Suddenly she knew exactly what it was that had so flustered Sera. "Don't harass her" she warned, turning serious. "I won't. I like games, but only if all the players enjoy it." she said earnestly, "and I get the feeling she's going to be avoiding me from now on" she finished. "I wouldn't be too sure of that", Leliana said, satisfied that the Inquisitor would not hurt Sera. At least not to the point that Sera would protest. She smirked to herself as she left the under croft. Sometimes she missed those games.
Later that day, Sera was finally persuaded to leave the rookery, although it took much cajoling and reassuring from both Josephine and Leliana that the Inquisitor had retired for the day and that she was in no danger of encountering her in the castle. The Elf returned to her room, still feeling a little jittery from the encounter in the under croft. 'I'd really like to feel you squirm in my lap and…' Sera shook her head to banish the voice. She'd spent enough time thinking about that up in the rookery. And ruined a perfectly good pair of pants in the process.
Still, that look Trevelyan had given her. Sera was so used to the perpetual frown on Trevelyan's face that she had never noticed that the human woman was quite pretty, beautiful even. She felt a shiver run down her spine as she recalled it. "Nng, focus! You're going to your room and into bed!" she chided herself, but a damnable little voice chimed 'wouldn't you rather go to her room and into her bed?'
Sera stomped the rest of the way to her room and jumped onto her bed, over estimating the distance and knocking her head into the head board. 'I wonder if she would have found that hot?' that stupid voice said. "No, she would have found it stupid and she would have laughed!" Sera said aloud, rubbing her head where she had hit it. 'Maybe she'd have punished you for being stupid then?' that voice said hopefully.
Sera buried her face into her pillow and screamed in frustration. 'Oh, I bet she'd have loved that!' the damn voice chimed again, refusing to let up. Sera tossed and turned in her bed, unable to fall asleep as her mind kept warring with itself. Maybe… maybe she should go talk to the Inquisitor again? 'Yes! Surprise her while she's asleep! Then you'll really be in for it!' the voice said excitedly and Sera groaned in exasperation. There was no going to sleep.
Sera tossed her blanket away and went for a walk. Maybe that would help her clear her mind. She wandered the corridors, looking at the guards patrolling, occasionally running into some of her cohorts. She distractedly waved to Blackwall as she passed him in the great hall, and she suddenly stopped in front of the Inquisitor's throne.
Inevitably, her eyes wandered beyond the throne and to the left, towards the door that led to the Inquisitor's chambers. 'Well you're here now. Seems a shame not to go. It's just a little bit further…' Sera clenched her teeth and blew air out through her nose. 'Good! You won't have any trouble breathing if she decides to gag you!' that damned voice kept egging her on, distracting her to the point that she didn't notice the spymaster walking up to her. Sera jumped about a foot in the air when Leliana's hand fell on her shoulder.
The red head had a teasing smile on her lips. "I know what you're thinking. Go on then. You don't want to keep her waiting too much." she said and walked away, leaving a very red Elf behind her. 'Oh grand. The gossip queen is on to me' she thought. Half the castle would know by sunrise. Sera walked to the door and yanked it open. If she was going to get laughed at tomorrow, she might as well make it worth it.
She walked silently up the stairs and reached the landing, taking a look around. She had never been in the Inquisitor's chambers before. The room was large, but it didn't look particularly fancy. The drapes had holes in them, there was no carpet and the desk in the corner had seen better days. She spotted a couch at the opposite end of the room. With the Inquisitor sitting on it, reading a book. She was wearing the same outfit from earlier: a black tunic with blue sleeves and black trousers. Sera wondered why it suddenly struck her that the Inquisitor looked good in black. Like really good. She felt a little thrill in the pit of her stomach.
"Sera? What are you doing here?" Trevelyan asked, setting her book aside. That annoyed her. "How did you know I was there? I'm pretty sure my teeth weren't chattering this time" she replied, coming further into the room. She saw that there was a small round table next to the couch with a bottle of… something and a small glass. The glass was empty.
"Would you care for a drink?" Trevelyan offered, gesturing to the bottle on the table. "No thanks", the Elf said, thinking that she'd better save that for later if she wanted to keep her head on straight. She noted with a smirk that the booze rationing didn't seem to apply to their exalted leader. "As you wish. So, what brings you here at this hour?" the Inquisitor sounded confused more than angry at the sudden intrusion. Sera could see that her forehead was bruised.
"What happened to you?" she asked, pointing at Trevelyan's head. The human coughed and muttered something that sounded like 'accident', but she did not elaborate. Sera shrugged and let it go. "You didn't answer my question. What brings you here?" Trevelyan repeated.
Sera started pacing up and down the room, wondering how to approach the subject before finally deciding to dive right in. "What you said earlier. That's what brings me here" she replied. "Which part?" the human seemed honestly confused.
"You're doing this on purpose, aren't you?" Sera said with annoyance. She closed her eyes for a moment, took a deep breath and sucked her lips in, hesitating to say that aloud. "The part about spanking me and sticking your fingers in me" she said quickly, heat rising in her cheeks and her eyes still closed, half expecting the human to start laughing. When all she got was silence she cracked an eye open, and what she saw sent a delightful little quiver shimmering down her limbs.
Trevelyan was smiling, but it was one of those predatory smiles. Like a cat who had just landed a paw on a mouse's tail and watched it trying to get away. "Oh? The little Elf wants to be my little toy?" she said, leaning her elbow against the arm rest and placing her fingers against her temple. The perfect tease. Sera shivered again.
"Hey! Don't you call me that!" Sera protested, but that only caused the grin to widen, showing bright, pearly teeth. 'Niiiice' that little voice drawled and she quickly looked away to hush it up.
Trevelyan switched poses again, this time leaning forward with her elbows on her knees, her hands clasped together in front of her. "But I'm so fond of toys!", she said teasingly. "Especially the small ones that you wind up". Sera smirked and gave a side glance at the human. She was good at this.
"Supposing I agree, and I'm not saying I am". "Of course not". Sera mock glared at the interruption but did not comment. "Supposing I agree to be your 'little toy', I expect proper maintenance. I need a regular supply of booze." she said, eyeing the bottle on the table.
The Inquisitor laughed. "Is that all?" she asked, leaning back into the couch, thoroughly enjoying herself. Sera thought for a moment. "No drawing blood, no insults and no pissing or shitting on me" she said, placing her hands on her hips and looking challengingly at the human.
Trevelyan made a disgusted face at the last two criteria. "You'll get no objection from me there. Ick." she said and repressed a shudder. "Well, I guess it's a deal then. Your Worship" Sera said, injecting actual deference into the title. She might as well play the part.
That predatory smile returned on Trevelyan's face and she crooked a finger to beckon Sera closer. "Then come here, my pretty little toy. I'm eager to play with you" she said seductively. Sera smirked again and moved forward, her arousal growing with each step. It looked like she had found a cure for her boredom.
She reached the couch and stood in front of the Inquisitor, waiting for her to make the first move. She was in charge, after all. She was just sitting there and looking at her, smirking as she let her eyes wander up and down. She took the bottle from the table and filled the glass with a bright red liquid. Sera could see traces of rouge on the glass where the Inquisitor had drunk from it.
"You are still my little toy?" she said seductively, looking at the Elf with hooded eyes. "Yes, your Worship" Sera replied, earning a satisfied smile in return. She found it quite alluring. "Have a drink then, my little toy" she said and held out the glass. Sera reached down, and she was surprised to find her hand trembling. Their little game was getting to her.
She took a tentative sniff of the liquid: sour cherries; some sort of brandy then. She turned the glass so that the spot the Inquisitor's lips had touched rested against hers, and she downed the glass in one gulp.
She met Megan's eyes and saw an expression of such pure lust that she thought she might faint. "Good girl", the human said hoarsely, her eyes hooded and alight with wicked promises. Sera dropped the glass as she felt the built up tension explode into relief all over her body.
"Oh, fuck me".