With one fell swoop of her blade, the training dummy's head was dislodged from its shoulders. It sailed aside, briefly silhouetted against the pale sprawl of morning sky peaking over the castle parapets, and then crashed against a mound of straw. The head hit the ground and rolled twice before Cassandra's boot fell atop it. She retrieved the thing, dusted it off, and worked it back onto the square peg that was its 'neck'. When the black buttoned eyes were staring menacingly her way again, Cassandra stepped back, breathed deep of the cool dawn air, and prepared another series of strikes and lunges.

She'd gotten her sword halfway around before the elf's grating voice stilled her attack. "Hey! Seeker lady!"

Cassandra sighed. If there was one thing she detested, it was being interrupted during her morning training sessions; let alone being interrupted by the owner of that particular voice. Nonetheless, she sheathed her blade and turned to face her interruptor with as much amicability as she could muster being twenty-minutes out of bed.

"Sera," she greeted upon spotting the blond elf shouldering her way between the twin streams of soldiers filing out of Skyhold Castle for their own morning practice sessions. "What do you need?"

Sera bumped shoulders with a man in steel plating, made a funny face behind his back, and sauntered her way across the last bit of the gap between them shaking her head and muttering to herself. When she passed beneath the awning of the stables where Cassandra had set up her own private training quarters, the elf's olive green eyes found hers and brightened. "Hey, uh, Seeker Cassandra. Or is it just Seeker? Or just Cassandra? Or did you go and get yourself some new fancy name I don't even know yet? Or-"

"Cassandra is fine," she interjected before the elf's voice gave her a migraine. "Just tell me what you need from me. I was training."

"Oh, training?" Sera eyed up the practice dummy. "Not much of a fighter that one, is he? What's his name? Wait, let me guess. Is it Henry? No? Thomas?"

"Sera…"

"Right." The elf shuffled her feet and chewed her lip. "Well, the thing is Seeker, er, Cassandra, I sort of, kind of, need a favor."

Cassandra crossed her arms against her breast plate. "You aren't doing yourself any favors drawing this out, of that I can assure you. Ask what you came to ask."

"Yeah, right, well see the thing is, I didn't want no one else to find out about this little favor thingy, you know? Not the Inquisitor, or… well, not anyone but you, really."

"Not the Inquisitor?" Cassandra raised a brow as she sized the lanky elf up before her, from the woman's straw-colored mop of hair to her flimsy leather jerkin and mottled pants, to her salt-stained hunting boots and back. "Sera, if this is some covert mission you're requesting, I suggest you take your concerns to Leliana. I don't have time to-"

"No, see, only you can help me with this, Seeker." Sera offered a lopsided smile. "It's one of those 'special request' types."

If anything, the elf had at least piqued Cassandra's interest. "I'm listening."

"Well I know that. We've been having a conversation back and forth for, like, a minute now." Sera chuckled. When Cassandra didn't, she cleared her throat and plowed on. "Okay, here's the thing. You know the group I worked with before getting tangled up with you lot and your Inquisition?"

"The Friends of Red Jenny."

"Right. The Friends… well, they've been putting together a little operation for the past few months, and everything's about to fall into play. It's real good stuff too, all the makings of an epic revenge tale, you know? Corrupt Orlesian bureaucrats and their filthy guards getting their good and just comeuppance for all the little people they've used and abused along the way. Greedy bastards. The Friends have been playing them for a long time, and now they're ready to strike!" She pounded her fists against her palm. "Pow! Pretty neat, right?"

Cassandra drummed her fingers impatiently against her shoulder plate.

"Heh, yeah, well… you get the picture. Anyway, all we, er, they need now is to get the last player into his role, then they're going to dish out a healthy serving of revenge against the whole corrupt lot." The elf chewed her lip again. "The only thing is… well, see when I told some of my old 'Friends' I'd gotten mixed up with you Inquisition… ers, they had the bright idea of leveraging that against one of them rotten bureaucrats. They knew he had it out for the Chantry and, for whatever reason, the Chantry Seekers in particular, so they made up a little fib about having captured, well, you."

Cassandra frowned, but remained silent.

"Now this last little piglet of ours wants proof before he'll bring his people to the dance. Well, it's not a dance, really. It's a trap. Set by the Friends of Red Jenny. And they're not going to dance, they're going to kill everyone. Trust me, though, they baddies deserve it."

Cassandra sighed. "Setting aside the fact you just informed me you have ties with a band of outlaws and soon-to-be murders, Sera, you still haven't told me what, exactly, you want."

The elf swallowed, hesitated, then blurted out her request all together. "I want you to come with me to a cave near the Hinterlands so the Friends can show this corrupt bastard's steward that they do, in fact, have you held prisoner. Then the steward tells the bastard, the bastard shows up with the rest of his corrupt pals to the Friends' little trap, and Pow!" She punched her hand again. "A little blood, a big victory for the poor victims of the bastards, and everyone goes home happy." She grinned. "So, what do you think? Will you come? Can I, erm, sort of 'borrow you' for a day?"

"Absolutely not." And with that, Cassandra turned back to her training dummy and unsheathed her sword to continue her morning session.

She'd gotten three swipes in before Sera's voice whined over her shoulder, "That's it? 'Absolutely not' and you're just, like, done with it!?"

Cassandra faced her complainer and frowned. "It's dangerous, stupid, and illegal. If these men your 'Friends' are going after are as repugnant as you claim, they'll get theirs soon enough anyway. Perhaps this very Inquisition will bring justice upon them. Until then? Keep your focus where it's needed: here, and with us. Now I've got training to do. Goodbye, Sera."

Sera stared at her, her mouth hung agape incredulously a moment till she snapped it shut and frowned. "Well, you know, actually, I was supposed to tell you something else anyway, I just figured I'd get in that particular request first."

"What is it?"

"The Inquisitor. He's requested your presence down in the part of the castle under renovation. Didn't say what for. Hey, promise you won't tell him about all this stuff, okay?"

Cassandra thrust her blade back into its sheath and took a step towards the elf. "And you tell me this now? After all that rambling? Maker… you are something else." She shook her head and shoved her way around Sera. "Next time, if Maker forbid there is one, don't waste my time for five minutes with your nonsense before telling me something that matters."

She didn't bother hanging around to see what the elf's reply might be: honestly, she didn't care. Instead, Cassandra hurried down the dirt pathway that wound in and under Skyhold Castle's walkways with her scabbard banging against her greaves. The rest of the Inquisition was just waking up themselves, and twice she had to step around swinging doors or yawning men in arms strolling out of the barracks. The path curved a few meters down and then climbed a shallow hill to the back of the outer yards, where a crumbling tower in ruin had been built around a big oak tree; the thing's sparse branches poking out of broken stone and frosted with morning dew. Cassandra pulled another breath of fresh air as she passed beneath them, and that seemed to quell her anger a bit. Perhaps she had been a bit short with the elf. On a moment's consideration, she decided to apologize if their path's crossed again before dinner.

She reached the rounded doorway of the tower's entrance and stepped inside. The interior was darker, warmer, and… completely empty. Cassandra frowned as she stepped around the door jamb and eyed the vacant table and vacant chairs and vacant counters. It didn't look like anyone had been there at all that morning. In fact, the longer she stood pondering on the strangeness of the empty room, it dawned on her what a peculiar request it had been for the Inquisitor to summon her here of all places at all. Why would a meeting be called in a renovation site as opposed to in the war room?

Before she could piece together anymore of the puzzle, though, an arm wrapped her from behind and a soft cloth was clamped down and squeezed over her mouth and nose before she could struggle loose. Cassandra stiffened-

-but went limp almost immediately as a pungent fragrance filled her nose and a heavy darkness rose up all around her, shutting her eyes and clouding her mind. She staved it off for only a moment before the sensation grew too overwhelming, then she slipped into the bottomless void of a gentle unconsciousness, falling, falling, falling…

When she woke, it was with a sluggish stiffness and a queer taste on her tongue. Cassandra groaned and shook her head to loose whatever residue clung to her mind before prying her eyes apart and making them focus. She saw a room and a hearth with a fire burning in it. When she noticed the fire was sideways, it dawned on her she was laying on the floor against her side, atop a soft carpet or something. She made to stand-

-and couldn't budge. That sped the 'waking up' process considerably. Cassandra forced her eyes as wide as saucers and looked down at her body. What she found was ropes; ropes upon ropes upon ropes, some circling her chest, some down around her thighs and knees and ankles. She twisted at her hands, but they too, she assumed, had been bound together behind her at the small of her back. I've been captured? She thought, forcing herself to stay calm. When she tried to remember what had happened that led to her capture, though, she couldn't recall a thing. It was as if someone or something had draped an impenetrable curtain across her memory, concealing it from her, and…

…then the elf appeared and it all came flooding, furiously, back.

"You…" Cassandra croaked through a throat that'd turned to sandpaper when Sera came sauntering down a flight of wooden stairs at the room's far wall. When the elf, presumably, saw she'd awoken, she hurried to close and lock a hatch above the stairwell and hop down to the ground level. Cassandra glared incredulously up at her approaching captor. Through grit teeth, she growled, "How dare you! What is the meaning of this!? You will answer for this betrayal, elf. Do you hear me? You will answer for this! Why have you kidnapped me!?"

Sera twisted her lips as she crouched down before Cassandra and looked her over. "I didn't really 'kidnap' you, per se. I mean, not really. We're still at Skyhold, so don't go throwing them kind of accusations around all willy-nilly. I just, sort of… incapacitated you." She smiled. "Yeah. See how much more pleasant that sounds? 'Kidnapping' makes me sound like some sort of criminal or something."

Cassandra balled her hands to fists so tightly behind her, she felt her nails dig into her palm. "You drugged me. What did you knock me unconscious with?"

"Was just a sleep potion. Relax. Been used on plenty of people plenty of times. It's not like its going to make you grow a third eye on your cheek or something. Though, that would be sorta funny, wouldn't it?"

Cassandra glanced around the room. The stairs, the hatch, and the low-hung wood ceiling told her it was a basement of sorts. If she was still in Skyhold, that was a good thing. It meant allies were near, and if she escaped, she'd know her way around. Her eyes found her captor's and narrowed. "Why?"

Sera looked bemused. "Why what? Why'd I truss you all up good and tight like some mule? Or why, like, do the darkspawn have to be so mean all the time? You have to specify your questions, Seeker Cassandra."

It took a great deal of self-control to stop herself from shouting her answer. "Why am I tied up in some basement? What do you stand to gain by doing this?"

"You don't get it." Sera leaned a bit closer and shook a loose strand of hair from her face to clear a path for her eyes to bear down into Cassandra's own. "These people the Friends of Red Jenny are going after? They're very bad people. Very, very bad. They wronged not just the Friends, but lots others… and they've wronged me in the past, too. Vengeance is long overdue for these bastards." She ripped a dagger from a sheath at her hip and twisted the blade so the hearth's fire caught against its reflective surface. "Their blood is more important than anything in the world… and that includes this Inquisition."

"You fool!" Cassandra shouted. "If the Inquisition falls, Thedas itself falls! And that includes you, your friends, and anyone you ever cared about. Don't be so short-sighted. Now untie me so I can get back to aiding it, and I'll do what I can to convince the others to simply lock you up for the rest of your life instead of lopping off your head."

Sera pursed her lips and nodded. "That is a tempting offer, Seeker Cassandra, but I think I have to pass. See, you're all tied up. As such, your big bad threats don't quite carry the same weight as, say, someone who wasn't all tied up. So instead, I'm going to keep you right where you are until my contact sends me a letter. Then I'm going to throw you on the back of a horse, still trussed up mind you, ride you down to a meet-up location, and present you to anyone who wants you presented." Her eyes floated into a distant stare. "Then I'm going to have my revenge against them bastards who wronged me… then? I'll send you on your way back here to do… well, whatever it is you do for your precious Inquisition. Everyone wins, see?"

"Untie me, now!" Cassandra snapped, twisting at her bound wrists. "Let the Blight take your stupid plans, I can't be kidnapped right now!"

"You are kidnapped right now, though," Sera corrected with a raised finger.

"Untie me."

"I will not."

"Argh!" Cassandra lost her patience, throwing her head back and writhing against the ropes restraining her. Sera moved down a bit to give her room, and it was then Cassandra found an opening for attack, as futile as attack was. She swung her bound legs back and thrust them forward. The iron tips of her boots found the elf's thigh. Sera yelped and went tumbling aside grabbing at the spot she'd been kicked.

"Ow! What was that for!?"

Cassandra only glared, grinding her teeth against one another.

Sera frowned, chewed her lip, then circled around her with a wide berth to avoid kicking range. When she'd closed the gap on Cassandra's legs, she dove atop them, pinning them to the floor. "Stupid iron boots," the elf muttered as she fondled with the buckles of Cassandra's boots. "Kicked me for no good reason… geez, how big are your stinking feetanyway?"

"Get off me, you fool!" Cassandra growled, but by then Sera had already yanked her boots off, tossed them aside, and dismounted her anyway.

"There, now you won't be doing no kicking, will you? Not in your bare feet anyway… even if they are humongous bare feet."

Cassandra glowered up at the elf. "When I get out of here…"

"When you get out of here, it will be slung on the back of a horse saddle." Sera crouched beside her head again and offered that infuriating grin. "As my prisoner." She let the expression linger a moment before reaching to her belt and plucking a long bandanna loose she'd had tucked away.

Cassandra eyed it wearily. "What are you doing now?"

"The only thing bigger than your big feet is your big mouth," Sera answered, dangling the bandanna between thumb and forefinger. "Which means somebody needs a muzzle. Can you guess who? Three tries only. Her names starts with a 'C'. Or an 'S', I s'ppose. But that would be for 'Seeker', not 'Sera', heh."

"Gagging me isn't necessary. I won't shout or call for help."

"Necessary?" Sera gripped her chin and scrunched up her face. "Probably not. But is it preferable? Absolutely. You talk too much, and the things you say are so boring anyway." She chuckled and cocked her head to the side. "Let me ask you something, Seeker. If the roles were swapped, and it were me on that floor all trussed up… would you really let me keep flapping my gums if you could just shut me up?"

Cassandra leaned forward and sneered. "I'd cut your tongue out."

"Well then, looks like I'm the nicer of the two of us after all. See, I'm just going to stuff this here rag in your mouth."

But Cassandra wasn't finished. "I'd cut your lying tongue out, then I'd pin it up on a wall where everyone could see it and be reminded of what a treacherous little manipulative-" Sera jammed the bandanna between her teeth and pulled the ends tight around the back of her head, turning Cassandra's words into incomprehensible nonsense and mumbles. "Hrrnmrnmbr! Mrnrrmrph mrmn hnmm!"

"There you go, big mouth," Sera chirped as she leaned back. "You can chew on that gag to relieve some of that endless pool of anger you've got there."

Cassandra writhed and shook her head, but the gag stayed firmly wedged between her lips. "Hrrrrmnnmm frmnmn mrmmph!"

Sera clapped her hands. "Well that's certainly an improvement."

Cassandra growled and fumed, imagining what she might do to her captor if she could just break free of the ropes binding her.

The elf watched her awhile with a grin. "You know, the whole 'Big Bad Angry Seeker' thing you've got going on, thanks to that gag shoved in your big mouth to stop you from ruining it… you're kind of cute."

Cassandra stopped struggling. She stared at her captor, utterly nonplussed.

For a second, Sera herself seemed a bit uncertain of how to respond. The color rose in her cheeks, but then the elf just laughed and shrugged her shoulders. "But you've got those big smelly feet of yours anyway, so… kind of a deal-breaker for me. Sorry. Guess we just weren't meant to be."

Cassandra rolled her eyes and laid flat on her back to collect her thoughts and try to control her anger. She took a few deep breaths, unclenched her fists, brought the suppleness back to her posture. If there was a way to be found out of this mess, it certainly wouldn't be in a fit of rage; she'd need a level-headed approach.

"Well, looks like you're adjusting well," Sera said, standing. "Sooo, I'm going to be off for a bit then, yeah? I'm going to do my thing, and you're going to lie there nice and quiet and calm like you are now. If you start trouble…" Sera glanced around the room, chewed her lip, looked back to Cassandra. "Well, I'll just have to, like, wrap you up in a carpet and stuff you in a closet or something. I don't know. I'll figure it out. Just remember: if you behave yourself down here, we'll be done with this whole thing in no time."

Cassandra watched the elf head for the stairs, resolved to not writhe or make any sound… at least until she was certain her captor was long gone.

"I'll be back in a bit," Sera said as she started to climb the stairs. "I'll try and get you some soup or something. Whatever crap they're doling out in the kitchen these days. Promise to be good down here?" When Cassandra, obviously, didn't answer, Sera feigned understanding with an exaggerated roll of her head. "Oh, right." She tapped her mouth. "Well, I'm sure if you could talk, you'd say… 'Goodbye, oh beautiful Sera, Queen of the Elves, and thank you for helping me stop being so selfish and start taking others into consideration before I make rash decisions.'. To which I say, you're welcome!"

Cassandra closed her eyes and waited for the annoying elf and her annoying voice to retreat. When they had, the stairwell hatch slamming shut and an iron bolt clicking over to lock it in place, she opened her eyes again and sat up at once. She tugged at her ropes, subtly at first incase the elf was still near, listening, but gradually she added more and more strength to her attempts until she'd gone red in the face from the exertion of pulling and twisting and wiggling every bit of her she could. It did not the slightest bit of good; Sera's ropework was solid. Cassandra sunk her teeth into her gag and looked furiously around the room, desperate for some aid in her escape. The hearth fire still burned, but it was set back on hot coals and walled off and locked behind iron gating anyway. There'd be no burning herself free. Otherwise, the basement was too sparse to be hiding anything useful. There was a table and some chairs, the thick carpet she'd been laid out on in the corner, and that was it. No help to be found.

Cassandra muttered a muffled curse and swung her legs around to sit against the wall. She writhed a bit more, but the ropes were beginning to chafe her wrists and ankles with every twist, and, if anything, actually felt tighter than when she'd started. She laid her head back against the wall and closed her eyes. How did you let this happen, Cassandra? She thought. You were a Seeker of the Chantry, ranked higher even than Templar commanders, and at the right hand side of the Herald of Andraste. She looked down at her chest. Now what are you? Kidnapped… bound hand and foot… gagged… utterly useless. And the prisoner of an elf. She stomped her feet, but without her boots, even through the carpeting, it hurt. That only made her angrier. She used the anger, alongside the last bit of fight in her, to make one last attempt at breaking her ropes, twisting, writhing, and stomping all the while. When her frustrated attempt failed, though, she was only left with sore wrists, sore ankles, sore feet, and nothing to do but lie down and wait. So she did.

Sera came back sometime later, but how much later, Cassandra could not say. She must have dozed off at some point atop the carpet, for when she next opened her eyes, the elf had already entered the basement and set up a little dining area at the room's solitary table. Cassandra rolled onto her side and groaned; she was still sore in all the same places, only now her wounds had had time to get mad at her, too.

Sera glanced her way. "Oh, so you are still alive. I'd started to wonder." She waited for reply, as if Cassandra could give one, before going on. "I brought the soup like I said. See? I'm not all lies. Now we've got to get you over here. Will you cooperate, or should I fetch some mage to cast a levitation spell on you or something?"

"Hmmph," Cassandra grunted with a nod.

"I'll have to take your 'hmmph' as a yes, I s'ppose." Sera crossed the room to her. "Come on, then. Up you go."

Together, they managed to get her standing. Cassandra had to roll onto side before wiggling her way to her knees, then be guided upwards alongside the elf's body to fully erect before Sera pointed the way to the table. Cassandra looked at her and raised a brow.

"Well I'm not going to loose those long legs of yours, am I? I've already felt one kick from them things. They hurt! So… you'll have to hop."

How humiliating, Cassandra thought with a shake of her head.

"I know, I know. Seekers can't be hoppers or some ancient rule, I'm sure, but it's the only way, so get hopping. Hey, at least we know you should have good balance with those giant feet of yours propping you up, right?"

If the choice was stand there and have the elf's voice send insults right next to her ear or suffer the humiliation of a few hops, the decision was an easy one. Cassandra hopped, bouncing on the balls and heels of her feet as she worked her way over to the dining area. She reached the table and Sera scooted around her to pull out a chair. Together they got her seated, but the moment she was, the elf pulled out another length of rope and starting wrapping her up to the back of the chair. Cassandra watched, more annoyed that her captor found such a thing necessary than angry.

"Can never be too cautious with you Seekers of Truth," Sera explained as she finished binding Cassandra securely back against the chair with a half-dozen coils of heavy rope. "See? Now that you're all tied down, I can be nice and untie your legs." For what it was worth, the elf did as she said, removing the ropes around Cassandra's thighs and ankles. It was a welcome relief to be able to stretch a bit again. Then Sera pulled a second chair up and seated herself as well. "Soup's on the menu. Are you hungry?"

Cassandra gave her a dry look.

Sera slapped her brow. "Right! I keep forgetting about," she tapped her mouth, "you know. I guess I'll have to take that off you, huh? Promise not to shout if I do?"

Slowly, Cassandra nodded. Sera leaned over and loosened the gag enough to work it out from between her lips and let it drop to hang loosely around her neck. Cassandra moved her jaw around a bit before speaking. "You have a lot of nerve putting a gag in my mouth. You do know what I am, don't you?"

"I'll have even more nerve putting that gag back in your mouth if you're going to start talking like that."

Cassandra took a breath, maintaining her patience. "I am a Seeker of the Chantry, Sera. Can't you understand how dangerous it is doing this to me? If someone were to find out… a chancellor, a templar, an arl… almost anyone with power, and you'd be hunted for life. I know things only very few in Thedas know. It is my duty as a seeker of truth. If people find out you had me bound and at your mercy, they'll want to know what I told you." She leaned closer for emphasis. "They'll want to silence you, permanently."

Sera twirled a strand of hair around her finger as she listened. When Cassandra finished, she shrugged and reached for the soup. "I'm not afraid of being chased. I'm pretty quick anyhow."

"Quicker than an army if it were to come to that?"

"Much."

Cassandra pressed her lips together, looking for another line of dialogue to sway the elf to her reasoning. "I wouldn't tell anyone you did this if you let me go. That offer stands now… it won't stand forever, Sera. Be reasonable."

The elf dipped a wooden spoon into the soup, filled it, and jabbed it into her mouth. Her expression grew pensive as she chewed. "Mmmm… I don't think so."

Cassandra's patience was wearing thin again. "Look, you said you're going to let me go either way. Wouldn't you rather do it on my terms so that the consequences are much less… severe for you?"

"Well…" Sera spooned another bite, tapping her cheek thoughtfully as she chewed. "I could let you go… or I just might keep you. I haven't truly decided. What about that?"

"Keep me?"

"Right, like, as my prisoner? Then, no one knows I was the one who kidnapped you, but I still get what I want with the whole vengeance thing and whatnot. Open up."

"What?" But before Cassandra could say another word, her elf captor was slipping a spoonful of hot soup inside her mouth. She was only angry until the taste hit her tongue, and the soothing broth raced down her throat.

"Not bad, right?"

Cassandra swallowed, relishing the warmth of the meal as it reached her empty stomach. "…no. It's not bad."

"Another bite then?"

This is more humiliating than the hopping. Cassandra sighed, averted her gaze, and offered a slight nod of her head. Sera wasted no time feeding her another bite, and another, and another. By the sixth spoonful, Cassandra had forgotten her chagrin, and was only focused on eating. She hadn't had breakfast, and the soup was reinvigorating her; in body and spirit.

"You're not serious… right?" She asked after she'd had nearly half the bowl spoon fed to her. "About not letting me go?"

"Well I did capture you fair and square," Sera pointed out, taking a bite.

"You deceived me," Cassandra protested.

"Yes, fairly and squarely." The elf laughed. "Couldn't you just picture it though? I go off on a hard day's work of putting arrows in arrogant idiots' heads, you stay home, tied up to a chair? I'd walk in, 'Hello, darling, I'm back.'. You'd answer," she put her hand over her own mouth, "'mmmnmnmnmnmmmnmn'." Sera chortled, slapping her thigh. "It'd be… fun."

"Sera…"

"Of course I'm joking, geez! You think I'd keep a Seeker held prisoner for any longer than I had to? You're so serious all the time. I've never even see you laugh. That's just sad, innit?"

Cassandra stared at the soup, the steam rising from the rim of the bowl. "I'll laugh plenty when my duty is fulfilled."

"Oh?" The elf took a bite of soup and stared at her as she chewed. "When's that again?"

"Someday."

"Someday soon?"

"I… don't know."

Sera rolled her eyes. "You know, if I did kidnap you and steal you away from here… you're 'duty' would be over. You'd just be, like, my prisoner full-time."

Cassandra frowned. "Don't start in with that nonsense again."

"Well, I'm just saying-"

"Well don't," she snapped. Their conversation was making her increasingly uncomfortable. She stared at the table a moment until she saw Sera readying to start talking again and cut her off before she could, "Look, just put the gag back in my mouth. I'd rather be silenced than have to talk with you one minute longer."

Sera stared at her a moment, as if waiting for the punchline to some joke Cassandra never even told. Then the elf's brow scrunched up indignantly and she pushed herself back from the table. "Yeah, alright. Fine!" She marched around the back of the chair. "Open your big mouth then, dummy." When Cassandra did, Sera filled it with the bandanna, pulling hard on the ends and bringing them back around her head. As the elf knotted it, she said, "You can keep this thing in your stupid mouth for the rest of our time together, too. See if I care. All I did was bring you soup and try to make jokes and make you laugh. What do I care if you're just some cold, aloof, way-too-serious, big-footed, stinking… human. Muzzle tight enough? Here, let me help you." She pulled the gag even tighter against the corner's of Cassandra's lips. "There. Now you won't have to worry about saying a word to me. Or anyone. Happy?"

"Mmrph," Cassandra grunted as Sera came sauntering back around in front of her. She glowered up at her captor, grinding her teeth against the bandanna wedged between them while the elf glared right back.

"You know, just because you can't talk doesn't mean I can't neither," Sera pointed out with a smirk. "Didn't think of that, did you? I can sit here and talk and talk all day and night, and you'd just have to sit there and listen. What do you think of that?"

Cassandra shook her head slow and contemptuously.

"Psh, whatever." The elf threw her hands up and headed back for the stairs. "I don't like being around you anymore than you like being around me, anyways. Not like I care." She stomped up the stairs. At the hatch she said, "Hope you enjoyed the meal. I might just not bring you another," then promptly departed and locked Cassandra in from above.

Maker give me strength, Cassandra prayed when she was alone again. The elf had left her tied tightly to the chair, and it was there, unfortunately, she'd likely stay until the childish thing came back and let her loose. She relaxed her posture to maker herself as comfortable as possible, closed her eyes, and waited.

It was as she was waiting, idly tapping her foot, when it dawned on her that her legs were free. Ostensibly, that didn't matter anyway, since she was wrapped up tight to the back of the chair, but… wooden chairs weren't the most durable items in Skyhold. Not by far. Cassandra looked around the room, pausing only long enough to listen for footsteps or sound from the room above. When she heard none, she took a breath to ready herself and leaned forward as far as the ropes would allow. The chair lurched a bit but stayed put. When she tried a second time, she thrust her legs forward too to add momentum. That time, the back of the chair rocked forward just enough for her to shift her center of weight over her feet. When she had her balance composed, she stood; the chair rising up with her, attached with the ropes. It felt good to stand; good enough to spark a new rush of hope in her. She backpedaled a bit to the wall, balled her fists tight, and shoved the chair legs against the hard stone at her back. The basement filled with the slap of the wood against the stone, but not the liberating crack she'd been looking for. The chair had survived… the first strike, at least.

It was four more good hits, each louder and more violent than the last, before she'd managed to crack the wood. Two more after that, and the chair splintered apart in a shower of broken pieces. Cassandra spun wide-eyed on her work and found the ropes that had bound her simply sliding down her body and pooling at her feet. Better, she thought with a nod as she stepped out of the rope and away from the destruction she'd caused. Now, only my hands and arms are bound. Even in that state, however, she thought she might have a good chance at overwhelming one skinny elf, especially the unsuspecting skinny elf that had happened to capture and restrain her.

Knowing time could be against her, Cassandra hurried for the basement stairs. She hesitated at her boots, considering trying to awkwardly slip her feet back inside them without use of her hands, but decided if she had to sneak around, going barefoot was a better option anyway. She left them, opting instead to climb the wooden stairs in twos until her head was practically pressed to the floor hatch above. She weighed her options. Trying to break the thing would make a lot of noise, and Cassandra wasn't entirely sure that was a good thing. If the elf had her stashed somewhere secluded, and only Sera herself was near, it could go very bad for her. Deciding against that option, Cassandra quietly moved up the stairs instead, bending over to give herself room and gradually pressing her back up against the hatch. When she had strong footing, she slowly, carefully, applied pressure upwards, hoping to perhaps snap a hinge. The floor had no give for awhile, but when she bit down on her bandanna and grunted with exertion, she felt the hatch bow a bit in its center. Slowly, she added more pressure, more, more, more, then-

-a hinge snapped, and just like that the hatch was no longer locked.

Cassandra used her head and shoulders to slowly inch the broken door up and away from the floorboards. Her eyes breached the line of the floor itself, and she swept a long, vigilant, scan around for her soon-to-be-apprehended kidnapper. The elf was nowhere in sight, though, so Cassandra began inching her way out of the basement and into the abandoned section of Skyhold Castle that had not yet been renovated. She used her foot to carefully lower the hatch back into place without much noise before crouching and stalking off into an adjacent hall of curved stone.

The next room was as deserted as the first. It had cylindrical walls and windows cut high and narrow into the stone but little else. An abandoned watchtower, Cassandra noted, slowly padding her bare feet across the floorboards. An old wooden door stood at one end of the empty room, and from around its rim, she could see faint light and feel the cool breeze of the outside world seeping through. It housed no locks. She was free.

Finally! She hurried to the door, turned aside to work her fingers around the handle, and pulled. The door swung open, the cold air swept in, and Castle Skyhold in all its glory sprawled before her. It was nearly dusk by then, but she could still hear voices down in the courtyards and gardens below. It sent a stir of excitement into her belly as she stepped onto the curtain wall's walkway. To her right, the crenelated battlements stood in rows, to her left, the courtyard below a long drop. She peered over and saw a few people coming and going, but with the gag still wedged firmly in her mouth, Cassandra doubted she'd gather any attention by trying to shout. She had to keep moving.

She'd made it down around the fist turn in the wall, ignoring how damned cold the stone was against the soles of her feet as she ran, before spotting someone that could help her. At the next watch tower, a young woman with dark hair and a long dress was knelt outside, tending to a row of potted elfroot. Cassandra hurried to the woman, mumbling desperately into her gag the second she'd breached earshot. The woman looked up and gasped, putting a hand to her mouth and nearly tumbling to her ass before collecting herself.

"S-Seeker Cassandra!" The woman said. "Praise the Maker, are you alright?"

Cassandra gave the woman a curt nod before spinning around and tugging at her bound wrists. She tried telling the startled thing to untie her quickly, but the bandanna made a mess of her words.

"Oh, look at that!" The woman said as she stood. "Someone went and tied you all up, Seeker! You poor thing. Here, Lady Cassandra, let me help you."

Cassandra breathed a sigh of relief when she felt the woman's fingers start fondling around with the knots binding her wrists. She was finally going to be free and rid of this whole nightmare.

"Whoever bound you, they bound you well I'm afraid. I can't loose the knot. Come with me, I'll get something to cut you free." With that the woman hooked her arm beneath Cassandra's own and began leading her forward… back towards the derelict watchtower. Cassandra grunted and shook her head, trying to gesture back the other way, but the woman had a firm grip on her upper arm and was determinedly dragging her along anyway. "It's alright. I'm going to get you out of those ropes, m'lady. I saw a blade over there in that tower."

Something felt strange about the woman at once, and Cassandra, if anything, had learned to trust her instincts over her many years in servitude to the Chantry. She ripped her arm loose from the woman's grip, spun, and sprinted back in the other direction.

She'd gotten a few good strides in before being tackled from behind. Both Cassandra and her tackler went tumbling to the stone walkway, tangled in one another. Without her arms to break the fall, Cassandra had to twist aside at the last moment to avoid smashing her face, but the moment she hit the ground, the dark-haired woman was scrambling atop her and grabbing for her limbs. She writhed beneath the woman's grasping hands before the rush of approaching footsteps demanded her attention. She snapped her head up in hopes of finding the Inquisitor, or someone who might help her, but instead found only the elf.

"What the bloody shite are you doing!?" Sera shouted as quietly, apparently, as she could. "What's she doing out here!? I heard you're big mouth from down in the gardens, you idiot!"

"Me!?" The woman protested. "You're the one who left her feet untied! I asked if you tied the feet! You said you did!"

"I did!"

"Clearly, Sera, you didn't."

Sera looked from her 'friend' to Cassandra with a puzzled expression before rolling her eyes and punching her leg. "Oh, bugger that. I untied them when I fed her. You crafty little Seeker you!" She hurried up beside the two of them. "Hurry, 'Becca, grab her legs. We've got to get her back inside. I could see you two from the lower walkway when I was sprinting up here!"

"Oh, Maker!" The woman, ''Becca' apparently, cursed as she scrambled to dismount Cassandra and pin her kicking legs beneath her arm. "Well let's haul her back inside then! Come on!"

Together, the two managed to wrangle Cassandra up between them; Sera holding on to her thrashing upper body, her partner fighting desperately to keep a grip on her legs. Cassandra herself grunted and groaned and lashed and kicked, but the two of them working together against her, and without use of her arms, made the efforts nothing but futile. They hoisted her off the ground and quickly lugged her back down the walkway and beneath the curved arch of the abandoned tower.

"This is madness," 'Becca snapped once they'd gotten her back inside. "First you kidnap a bloody Seeker, and now she's running around half-free!? Sera…"

"I know, I know," Sera said with a dismissive flick of her hand. "Look, the important thing is we got the bull-of-a-woman back in here. Now we just need to tie her down a bit better, and that's that, innit?" She reached for a coil of rope hanging beside the doorway.

"And smuggle her out of here eventually, of course."

"Well, sure. That'll be the easy bit, though. Wrap her up in a carpet, sneak her out in the middle of the night… no problem."

"Sera, there's a search going on right now for this woman!"

"Is there? Well, it's a good thing we found her then, isn't it?"

Cassandra had tired of listening to the two bicker. She started writhing in their arms again.

"We should lock her in a cabinet," 'Becca said as she struggled to maintain her hold on Cassandra's legs. "Or stuff her in a wine cask or something. She's like some wild beast!"

"She's a beastie, alright," Sera agreed, "but I'm not stuffing her in no wine cask, B. Come on. We'll get her upstairs and strap her down to the bed."

"And if she breaks free of that…?"

Sera laughed. "If she breaks free after what I'm going to do to her, she deserves her bloody freedom. Now come on."

It took them the rest of the day's light to haul her upstairs, thanks in large part due to Cassandra's struggles. She had no intentions of making her capture any easier on her kidnappers. By the time they'd managed to breach the top of the circular stairwell that wrapped the inner wall of the tower, the two of them were red in the face and huffing and puffing. Cassandra did not relent, bucking her hips and pumping her legs to keep them on their toes each time they made to rest a moment. When they finally managed to get her through the short upper hall and into the master bed chamber, they were so fatigued they simply thrust her down on the mattress and collapsed beside it. Cassandra's legs were still unbound, though, and the moment she was rid of their hold, she clambered to a stand and made for the door.

Sera skirted around her and slammed it shut. The elf angled a slender finger in her direction with a shake of her head. "I don't think so, Cassandra. You've stirred up enough trouble today, haven't you? Go lie down and I won't-"

Cassandra charged. Sera yelped and hopped aside, and if she weren't so furious, Cassandra might have enjoyed that just a bit. Even bound, I can make them fear me.

"You coward," 'Becca teased her friend, but when Cassandra snapped her head around, the dark-haired woman flinched herself, as if struck. "Well, Maker, let's tie her down already then!"

They flanked her, grabbed her arms, and wrestled her back to the bed. They shoved her, and Cassandra flopped flat on her back, but before she could try to rise again, they were crowding her sides and holding her in place. Sera slipped her coil of rope off her arm and looped up one of Cassandra's ankles in it. Then she crawled for the corner of the mattress and wrapped the other end around the bed post. When she pulled the slack taught, Cassandra's leg stretched out and went with it. Sera hurried around to the other side and repeated the process. When she'd finished, Cassandra's legs were spread, stretched, and tied in place.

"Normally, I'd enjoy seeing a woman like this," said Sera as she cut the remaining rope free and grinned. "You know, all strapped down to a bed and what have you. But you… well, frankly, you just sort of scare me now."

Cassandra bit her gag and glared.

The elf used the rest of the rope tactfully. First, she bound one of Cassandra's arms against her body, then freed the other. Cassandra tried fighting them off, but one arm against four hands was anything but useful. They wrangled up her wrist and got it looped in rope and stretched to the upper corner of the bed. After they repeated the same trick on her other hand, Cassandra knew the fight was through; she'd been conquered. Each one of her limbs was stretched almost to its maximum then, her wrists and ankles bound and tethered to the four posts at the bed's corners. When she tugged at any one of them, the ropes' answer was one of obstinate denial: she wasn't going anywhere.

"See, she's not so scary when the only things she can move are her fingers and toes," Sera said with a light chuckle, dusting off her hands.

"Sera, we must ensure that doesn't happen again," her friend began. "If we're caught holding a Seeker against her will, we'd both lose our heads within the hour."

Sera twisted her lips. "I wouldn't like that. I've grown rather attached to my head over the years." She turned a goofy grin on her partner, but the dark-haired woman only frowned. "Oh, you're no fun."

"I'm going back to my post. I suggest you stay with her as much as you can until our letter arrives. Keep watch over her." The woman grimaced. "Use another potion on her and put her to sleep if you have to. Just don't let her get away."

Sera glanced down at Cassandra and her grin widened. "Hear that? We're roomies now, Seeker. Now we can talk lots. I know how much you enjoy that."

Cassandra shook her head in disgust.

"I'm going to go make sure no one saw or heard that little… mishap," 'Becca explained, heading for the door. "You know where to find me if you need me."

"Right."

The woman departed, and Sera closed and locked the door behind her. The elf turned back to Cassandra, shrugged, and traipsed over to the side of the bed. She slid a chair out from a desk, flipped it around, and slumped into it. She kicked her feet up on the bed beside Cassandra's stomach and crossed them at the ankles, lacing her fingers behind her head and staring absentmindedly up at the ceiling as she hummed a little melody. After a few infuriating moments of that, the elf's eyes turned on Cassandra, and that obnoxious smirk resurfaced. "Comfy?"

Cassandra looked away.

"Bet you were pretty surprised 'bout 'Becca, huh?" She laughed. "You didn't really think I was the only Friend of Red Jenny that got mixed up with you Inquisitors, did you? Nope. There's plenty of us. Wherever there's kings and queens and chancellors and arls stepping, there'll be plenty of us little people getting stepped on. We tend to not like that sort of thing. The Friends of Red Jenny is just a way for us to voice our… discontent." Cassandra felt a poke at her ribs. "Hey, Cassandra." Begrudgingly, she turned to face the elf. Sera had her foot suspended in the air, waggling it about. "See that? Normal-sized foot." She laughed. Cassandra didn't. "Oh, lighten up already, would you? I'm just teasing, you know."

How much longer must I endure this? Cassandra wondered, trying her best to mentally remove herself from the room and the company of her obnoxious kidnapper. Held captive at the mercy of some juvenile, crazy elf. Her eyes floated to the tower room's sole window. Night was nearly set to fall. Darkness was coming. No one had found her, and, now, no one would. At least not till morning. Sera was blabbering on about something, but Cassandra's mind was elsewhere, and before long, she actually managed to drift off to sleep.

She dreamed of being caught in a spider's web, wrapped up helplessly in webbing by a giant spider with blond hair and elf's ears and an annoying laugh.

Even in her dreams, she couldn't escape Sera.