When the human went to hand him the sack, Tan grabbed him by the wrist. He tightened his grip enough to feel the bones move, and the other man let out a small hiss of pain. Tan yanked, causing the man to stumble and fall to his knees. Then he trailed the tip of the blade down the other man's face. "Can you give me a good reason why I shouldn't start carving pieces off you?"
The kneeling man swallowed. "I'm less useful to you with easily identified characteristics."
"Heh." Tan let out a low chuckle. "You might actually have a point there. Which means if you fuck this up, I'm going to have to bypass the discipline." He moved the tip to the blond man's throat. "And go straight to the finding a replacement." He raised an eyebrow. "Understood?"
"Understood."
He waited a beat. A bit of confusion, and more than a little fear entered the human's eyes when Tan failed to release him. Or to remove the blade from his throat. Tan smiled. He brought the blade back up, setting the flat of it against the man's cheek. "Why don't you earn your keep a while?" He smirked as he released the other man's wrist. His hand went to the front of his breeches. "And put that clever mouth of yours to better use?"
#
He turned over the report, and shook his head. "Should have killed them."
"I thought they might be useful later." Bridget couldn't quite meet his eyes.
His cousin was entirely too soft hearted. "Might be." Tan sighed. "In the meantime, they are loose ends." He picked up another piece of parchment. "How did the other matter go?"
"Matril got the key." Bridget nodded. "We slipped the evidence into her quarters, and he put the key back before it was missed." She folded her arms. "The guild's enforcers are uncovering it as we speak."
"Once she's in the cells, eliminate her." Best if the guild thought her supposed employers had killed her to shut her up. "And Bridget?"
"Yes Tan?"
"You and your pretty boy fuck this up, I'm going to skin him." Tan smiled. "Clever mouth or not." He stared at her. "I'll make you some new gloves."
She paled slightly before nodded and leaving.
#
The mage's corpse fit into the closet well enough. With luck, it would be discovered in the next day or so. Enough people had seen her arguing with the templar earlier that suspicion should fall easily. Tan shrugged. The longer this Conclave dragged out, the better. He'd done almost as much business in the past month as he had the past year. Between the lyrium and everyone scrambling to get their hands on artifacts long hidden away at the Circles, gold was practically falling into his hands.
He caught a glimpse of a familiar face, and saw it immediately head in the opposite direction. He wasn't going to kill the guy until after he'd retrieve the relic, but he had a bit of time to kill. And giving the human incentive was always satisfying. He headed in the direction he'd seen Matril go.
#
The manacles on his hands weren't really the problem. The problem was that none of the guards on him were familiar faces. And he had no clue what was going on or how he'd ended up here. He didn't like it. And what the fuck was wrong with his hand? It was glowing.
Tan looked up when the door opened. Now, those faces he recognized. And neither belonged to people he could buy. At least not cheaply. The Right and Left Hands of the Divine herself. The Right Hand walked behind him. "Tell me why we shouldn't kill you now." If she had to ask, then she already had a reason. Which meant she wasn't going to kill him. At least, not yet. And that probably meant she didn't know who he was. "The Conclave is destroyed. Everyone who attended is dead." She pointed at him. "Except for you."
That was going to be a problem. He'd had a lot vested in some of the people at that conclave. He didn't say anything. She narrowed her eyes, and then grabbed the hand that was glowing. "Explain this."
"I was hoping you could." He looked up at her.
"And what does that mean?" She narrowed her eyes.
"Don't know what it is." He shrugged. "Or how it got there."
"You're lying." She took a step towards him.
The other hand interceded. "We need him, Cassandra."
They needed him. Well, that changed things around a bit.
#
Tan looked down at the marked hand. "I do this, I live?"
"We have no way of knowing."
"And if I live, I go free." He rose.
"There will be a trial." She shook her head. "I can promise no more."
Wouldn't be the first time he'd attended his own trial. Judges were easy enough to bribe or threaten. "Alright then. Lead the way."
#
No sooner had the last demon fallen then Cassandra was pointing her sword at him. "Drop your weapon, now."
He smirked. "No." He put the knives into his waistband. "You need me alive, remember?" He shrugged. "So let's play nice, shall we?" He started walking again.
#
The rift closed. He wasn't sure if the elf did it, but the mark was definitely necessary. And it was on his hand. Tan kept his face calm. "How many more of those things are there?"
"We have no way of knowing." Cassandra shook her head.
Tan looked up at the sky. "There still is that big one though." He turned and looked at the other dwarven man. "I know you. You're Varric Tethras." Someone had once paid him to send some assassins after the man. Assassins that had ended up incinerated by the Champion of Kirkwall.
Varric put his crossbow back into a harness strapped to his back. "That's me. Rogue, storyteller, and occasionally unwelcome tagalong."
Frustration was evident in Cassandra's voice. "I brought you here to tell your story to the Divine. Clearly, that is no longer necessary."
"Yet, here I am. Lucky for you, considering current events."
Tan nodded, and turned to the elf. "And who are you?"
"My name is Solas, if there are to be introductions." He nodded. "I am pleased to see you still live."
"He means, 'I kept that mark from kill you while you slept." Varric shrugged.
So this was the guy he needed to make sure survived a while longer. Tan nodded. "Thanks." He gestured. "We should get moving."
#
Tan stared at the guy in the Chantry robes. It would be the guy he hadn't managed to bribe that would have lived, wouldn't it? Obstinate bastard. Fortunately, Cassandra was a rather obstinate bitch, and seemed dead set on getting him to the rift. Dead set enough to actually ask his advice on the best way to get there. Flanking an enemy was always the better option. "Let's check out this mountain path. Maybe we'll get lucky, find some of the folks responsible." Or find where Matril and Bridget were hiding. Those two should have known better than to let him wake up in Chantry custody.
#
They rescued soldiers. Tan smiled graciously, and bowed to them. "I'm pleased we could come to your aid." He mentally tallied the favors owed. "Though from the looks of things, you barely needed us." He winked at the woman. She actually blushed a little before Cassandra sent her on her way.
The path to the temple held no further demons. Tan shook his head at the sight of it. He'd five stashes in the temple, each one of which was worth a fortune. Two of which had already been sold, which meant he was going to have a problem. He'd have to send Matril to... Dammit. He'd spotted Matril in the temple shortly before whatever had happened. The pretty little assassin was most likely dead. Little bastard was going to be a pain in the ass to replace. He made a growling noise as he kept moving forward.
"That is where you walked out of the Fade..." Cassandra gestured. "And our soldiers found you. They say a woman was in the rift behind you. No one knows who she was."
#
"And how the hell do you expect me to reach that thing?" Tan glared up at Cassandra. Marched him all the way up here and wasted his bloody time. And threatened him. Not something he was inclined to forget. Or forgive.
#
Lot of lyrium just laying around. He made a mental note to send some of his people back to check it out. Could be profit in it.
#
He'd seen visions in the air before. Though that had involved some nice powdered mushroom from Rivain. This was something else entirely. The Divine, a prison. And him, interrupting something. Cassandra began demanding answers the moment the images faded. Tan gave her an annoyed look. "Seeker, if I knew who that was, I'd be off hunting him. I. Don't. Remember."
#
And a giant fucking demon. Great. At least his erstwhile companions were decent enough at combat. Tan slashed out with one of his long knives now and then, mostly to keep the other demons away from him. Nearly half the soldiers had fallen by the time the demon finally did, and the remaining ones were in rough shape. Unfortunately, the Left Hand of the Divine was both unharmed and still carrying arrows. Walking away now wasn't really an option.
He sighed, and lifted his hand to the rift. Pain, bordering the line between sweet and unbearable, flowed as he sent energy into the rift. His vision swam, making it difficult to watch the rift convulsing and contracting. Something seemed to snap, and then energy flowed from the rift into the breach. The rift collapsed. He started to shake the dizziness out of his head, and then the ground rushed up to meet him.
