Varric kept up a polite but friendly chatter while I gathered my things and we trekked down to camp. On occasion he'd shoot a glance back to Solas and raise an eyebrow, but his Chuckles only wore the same enigmatic smile as always. I, however, took a few more moments to bury down the shame? Embarrassment from getting caught? Or was it from just letting myself be a person instead of a hero? Whatever it was, it wafted away with the fade energy as Varric explained the elf he was certain was Dalish.
"Popped up outta nowhere, like erupted from the leaves, gonna be needing a change of small clothes. Never seen anything like it. Sent three of the soldiers scurrying for swords before she dropped to a knee and splayed out her hands."
"How are you certain she's Dalish?" I asked, though the move sounded familiar. A bit overly dramatic, but we did enjoy the theatrics even as we claimed to be above such things. Why wander in the woods facing threats of poisoned oak and hypothermia without savoring the opportunity to startle a few shems now and then?
Varric gestured across his face with his finger, haphazardly drawing invisible tattoos, "Had the same doodlings as you."
"Exactly as mine?" I mused.
"Yup, least I think so. Didn't want to stare too long, she looked about to jump up and eat someone's throat just for kicks."
"Curious," I leaned towards the elf walking beside me then paused. How did I keep forgetting he wasn't Dalish, wasn't one of the people? He spoke elvhen better than most of the others in my clan - even the Keeper, seemed to breathe the fade itself spinning magic not seen since before the fall, and delved deeper into our history than I could ever dream. But Solas' eyes sparkled with a different burn than before from the mention of the Vallaslin, a reminder that he despised all things Dalish. He wasn't one of the people.
"Could you," I said, shifting the book to my other hand to grip onto a tree branch guiding down the path gutted from rain. "Could you describe this elf?"
"Elfy?" Varric said, getting a glower from both Solas and me. "Skin about the shade of Dorian's, notch paler maybe, with muddy brown hair and eyes that wanted to murder my soul through my throat. You'll forgive me if I didn't ask her for her leathers size and if she was a winter or autumn."
"Strange, there shouldn't be any clans passing through here. Most have moved on to avoid the war and Corypheus. Well, if it's from the one in the Exalted Plains, I suppose we'll know soon enough." Turning in the bend, the meager campsite came into view. Nothing like the ones we'd populated across southern Thedas, this was just a momentary stop before we continued the march to the hissing wastes. I was looking forward to the visit, it sounded as if the Venatori had found something possibly of elven origin. And if they or Corypheus cared, it had to be ancient, another piece in the endless puzzle of my people's history.
I tossed the grimoire onto my pallet, then bent to unearth my staff just in case. It seemed unlikely a Dalish elf would drop by only to attack, but better safe than sorry became my motto after Haven. Also, leave someone to turn the damn trebuchet around while you fight off the invading horde - don't do one then the other.
Varric followed my uneasy lead and unearthed Bianca off his shoulder. Only Solas remained passive, his hands hanging freely without a care. "Thought you'd be the one bringing the biggest fire, Chuckles?"
"I see no reason to engage in hostilities while the target is unknown," he said, pivoting his head so the sun glinted off his head.
Varric shielded his eyes from the glare, "You could always blind 'em with that dome. Do you polish it or something?"
Trying to not smile from Solas' exasperated sigh, I nodded to my men and turned to face down this mysterious guest. Still bent across the ground, all I saw were brown and grey leathers with braids splattered across them. She raised from her dramatic bow and I met eyes I vowed to never see again. Fire burst from fingertips, lancing towards her before I yanked it back.
"Inquisitor?" Blackwall shouted, jumping towards me as if he could halt my magic.
"You!" I screamed, the flames rising higher as I glared upon her. Oh, Varric was right, she had the same skin of Dorian and wore vallaslin, my vallaslin - the exact ones I tattooed on her forehead and down her chin. But she wasn't one of the people, not after what she did to us, to me.
"I came with urgent news to speak with the Inquisition," the traitor said, her eyes never breaking from the fire churning upon my tips. "I did not expect to find you here, Le-"
"Do not call me that!" I shouted, stampeding over her, "You have no right to use that, speak that. Not even my name, not now. Not anymore."
Her voice didn't tremble, she didn't scamper or bow from the power burning higher into the crackling treetops as my rage fueled it. I thought I'd gotten over it, over her betrayal of me, of all of us, but seeing that face still covered in a promise she made to us opened the wound and dumped in salt.
"Anyone else feel like we stepped into the play when it was already half over?" Dorian asked. I heard him but didn't turn to answer, everything inside of me wanting to burn the traitor to the ground.
"Le...the Inquisitor and I have a bit of a history," she said, still not turning away from me.
"Oh, a naughty history?" the Tevinter mage who was going to be walking back to Skyhold leered.
"The kind where she infiltrated my clan, stole a priceless artifact, and then vanished in the night," I spoke the words so coldly the flames in my hand dampened. Without any flare, my fist slammed shut, killing the fire. "Telyn is not to be trusted."
"It's good to see you, too," she said, stretching her shoulders, the ripped hems of her fur pauldrons snapping from the effort. If I wanted to be nice I'd say she looked like she'd climbed through a briar patch. If I wanted to be cruel I'd say she should return to it.
Instead, I took Varric's approach, "You look like shit."
Telyn's haunting brown eyes snapped at that, a whisper of a smile floating across her lips, "How kind of you to notice."
"I'm appreciating it," I sneered.
"Do you not even care why I'm here? Why I'd risk you unleashing a horde of demons upon me just to speak with you?" she asked, nodding her head towards my still closed fist.
I didn't rise to her blood mage bait, well aware of the rumors swirling about the elf savage mage always surrounded by demons. Instead, I folded my arms and told the truth, "Not in particular. Leeches have a way of worming into the most uncomfortable of places when you least expect it."
"Look," she sighed, stepping closer to me. Three weapons shot out towards her movement; Blackwall's sword dipping towards her right side, Dorian calling up his own special blend of death magic on her left, and I felt Bianca singing over my shoulder. Only Solas and I didn't flinch, a perturbing coldness we seemed to share. Telyn glanced at the three threats unimpressed from the display, as if she could stand a chance against us. "I didn't come to challenge you, it's...it's about the stone."
"The stone you stole, I assume to sell to some Tevinter magister."
"Not quite," Telyn's eyes bounced back from me to the weapons, before returning. She seemed to be preparing herself for her next words. "I wasn't working for the Vints, or even myself. It's not what you think, Le...Inquisitor."
"What are you driving at?"
"I'm a Qunari."
Varric groaned, "Ah shit, not again." Bianca staggered back from my shoulder, the dwarf re-sighting her through his complaining. I felt Solas tighten beside me, his eyes darting up and down Telyn as if he could dissect and draw every inch of her down to a weeping puddle.
"They keep popping up like bad coppers," Dorian said, folding up his hands but I felt the fade still twisting around him, ready to pull from it at a moment's notice.
Telyn blinked, shrinking from my companion's response, "You, you're not surprised by the fact I am an elf but Qunari."
"Been there, done that, got a dead duke's head as a souvenir," Varric quipped. "Though shivs was far more personable than you. Might want to work on that."
I kept an eye on Telyn, but tried to speak to Varric, "If the Qunari wanted to speak to me, you'd think they'd go through the ben-hassrath agent we already have."
That hit deep, panic flaring in Telyn's flint eyes. Her gaze darted around the camp, trying to look for an ox man hiding amongst the shemlan. Too bad Bull was back at Skyhold, most likely getting into trouble with the bar staff. "You, you have one here? With you?"
I knew I couldn't keep the lie up, so I cut her free, "Not here at present, but I'm sure we could drop a line to him, see what he knows about this Qunari and the arlathan stone."
That drew everyone's attention, even Solas broke from our interloping Qunari to stare a question to me. For a moment, I glanced to him, the sides of my eyes promising I'd explain later. But before anyone else could speak, Telyn continued, "I, please, do not alert the ben-hassrath to my being here. I was Qunari, but...Le- Inquisitor, I left them, and I took the stone with me."
A cruel chuckle churned down my throat as I watched her struggling to try and slip on the guise of someone I never really knew. "First you are Qunari, now Tal-Vashoth, oh, and at one point Dalish, and a Tevinter slave. You expect me to believe a single one of these lies, because..."
"Because they're true. I, couldn't manage it, even amongst the other Vidathari. I took back what I stole. I thought, hoped that if I returned it, maybe..." Telyn closed her eyes and twisted her head as if I could believe a single word she spoke, "It doesn't matter what I intended."
"For once we agree on something," I said, folding my arms. "If you have the stone, then show it to me."
Telyn snorted, licking her lips as she tried to think up a new lie. "That's the tricky bit. I had it, and then those Tevinter mages found me. I thought they intended to drag me back, back to...you know." Her head tilted up until she beamed her eyes straight through me, deep into my soul, but Telyn stopped plucking at that tender heart long ago. "But they didn't, they only wanted the stone."
"How did you survive a Venatori attack?" Blackwall asked, gesturing with his sword to the tiny elf.
"I am not without skill," she said, blushing from the modesty. It could be all lies, elaborate ones Telyn invented for more of her dastardly machinations, but she appeared as if she'd tussled through fire - singes along the cheaper gear she wore, the edges of a burn across the skin of her arm.
"Sounds like a trap," Blackwall threw back.
"Venatori sending an elf along to try and lure the Inquisitor out into an ambush," Dorian said, "That's exactly something they'd try."
"I am not lying, Lethallan," Telyn said, rushing towards me, trying to grab for my hands. I leaned back, preparing to stop her with a barrier, but it was Solas who whipped out his hand to grab her shoulder and pin her in place. Her eyes ripped into him, a sneer tilting up her lip, but she made no move to attack. "You know me."
"No, I never knew you," I said.
"Fine, keep to your beliefs. But tell me this, what elf would willingly work with Tevinter? Would stretch their necks for those Vint bastards?"
"Hey," Dorian shouted back, a tinge of pain in his lackadaisical words, "some of us actually know who our parents are."
"Basra Vashedan," Telyn hissed at Dorian.
"Well, at least she learned a few curse words from the ox-men before turning traitor," he wiped back at her. The two looked about to come to blows and I, frankly, didn't care. Let the Vint fight the possible Qunari, possible Tal-vashoth elf. He'd most likely kill her, she already looked in dire straights and there was more than enough backup in camp. Whatever I thought I knew, thought I befriended was a lie built upon a hollow rock.
I was about to turn, leaving her to her own problems with the Venetori and the Qunari, when Solas grabbed my arm. His fingers dug into my robes, only lightly grazing my actual flesh but I felt a sense of power surging through them. Turning to face him, I tilted my head in a question.
"If she speaks the truth, then Corypheus could have another ancient elven artifact at his disposal." His eyes tilted down, the lips pulled into a straight line as he begged me to see reason, but I felt my head slipping away, my body trying to lean free. "Vhenan," Solas whispered, "please."
Telyn's head whipped towards Solas, the only defender of her, and she bared her teeth. I ignored her, it was the only way I could make the right decision. He made a good point, even if it churned my stomach to contemplate agreeing with it. Nodding once at Solas, I turned back to Telyn. Her eyes rolled away from him to me. She danced on her feet, wanting to be as far away from me as I did from her.
"We should stop Corypheus from acquiring anything that can aid him," I said.
"That's true boss, but how can we trust Horns?" Varric asked, jerking the end of Bianca towards Telyn.
"Horns?" she asked, then got the jibe and scoffed. She even rolled her eyes at me, as if I couldn't believe the dwarf's joke.
Gritting my teeth, I answered, "We can't. But that hasn't stopped us before. All right, Telyn, the Venetori you lost the stone to, where were they traveling? How do we find them?"
"That's the problem," Telyn said bouncing on her heels, "if I knew the answer I'd have waited and stolen it back myself. But I don't, not entirely."
"Well, you've been a smashing help so far. Oh hello, let me drop this problem on your lap and offer no solutions. Thank you ever so much."
"Dorian, not now," I said, aware he was still smarting from the Qunlat but needing to get this over with so I could find something to set on fire.
"The groups broke apart," Telyn hissed, her eyes keeping on me as her voice darted back to Dorian, "one traveled further west towards that dead desert."
"And the second?" I asked, squaring my shoulders.
"South, into the wilds," Telyn answered, bobbing her head.
"I see." I bowed my head, aware of how easily this could be a trap, that somehow through his political dealings Corypheus had learned of my clan, learned of what we'd lost and used it to dig up the woman that betrayed me. But, it seemed just as likely that she was telling the truth. He wanted elven artifacts, was tearing up Southern Thedas to find something, we just didn't know what. If it was this stone all along...Creators, what if she hadn't taken it, if he'd sent a battalion of Venatori to destroy my clan? For the first time I almost felt glad of Telyn's betrayal.
"Blackwall, I want you to take Dorian and Varric on to the wastes."
"Yes, ma'am," he said, sheathing his sword.
"What about the other path?" Telyn said, jumping closer to me. Despite Solas' hold she managed to get nearer, her breath wafting across my nose. It was the same sickly sweet smell that turned my stomach, now in a painful way.
I smiled. She'd have to have been following us for awhile, sussing out not only our strengths and weaknesses, but the direction of our band. Perhaps the Venatori did divide up, or, most likely, the Wastes was a distraction from the real direction of the stone. The one she wanted to take me towards. "I will accompany you to the wilds, as well as Solas."
She sneered at him a second time, but was in no place to bargain. "As you say, Inquisitor," she held up her unarmed hands and stepped back, for once giving me breathing room.
"Inquisitor," Blackwall began, "is this wise? Just the two of you and her..."
I turned to Solas and he closed his eyes, softly dropping his head - he agreed to my orders. But his fingers drifted down off my arm and cupped my fingers. Squeezing tight, he also seemed to say I should tread carefully.
Baring down upon Telyn, I raised the voice I used to cut down Grey Wardens and Empresses alike, "If she makes one wrong move, I'll kill her myself."