Author's note: Sorry for the typos. This is un-betafied. Didn't want to leave you guys waiting anymore.

The next morning saw their departure for the Hinterlands, which was accompanied by a massive headache thanks to the exploits of the night before. It was only a two-day-trip, but those two days felt like the longest of her life. Their little company consisted of the usual suspects, Varric, Dorian and Bull. Bianca had already travelled ahead yesterday and wanted to meet them at the entrance of Valammar. Despite that the atmosphere was suddenly different. Varric was still telling his stories, whereas Eve had fallen almost completely silent. It was probably because hearing his voice whose sound she had adored, now felt like listening to nails scratching on a blackboard.

At the nightly campfire, whenever he would start one of his stories, she would simply get up with the excuse that she still had some parchments to study – Inquisitor duties, you see. And it was true. She had brought some of those parchments, only that she didn't really read them. She would unroll them and then stare down at the ink unblinkingly for a couple of moments, while her thoughts were elsewhere and she desperately tried to make sense of what she was feeling.

The second night, when they had almost reached their destination, she heard steps approaching her while she was fruitlessly staring at her parchments once again. She froze. The little hairs at the back of her neck rose. Without turning around she could tell who it was. It was almost like a curse.

"Yes? How may I help you?" she asked politely and turned towards him. From a couple of feet away she could hear the dulled sound of Bull and Dorian's voices conversing, doubtlessly they were squabbling again like they always did when left to their own devices. Standing before her there was a rather uncomfortable looking dwarf, sorely lacking his usual rather witty and confident attitude.

Varric paused briefly before he finally decided to answer her question with one of his own. "Anything up?"

"No? Why?" she forced her voice to remain neutral and surprisingly succeeded. Think of the Game. Try to act like those Orlesian idiots, she told herself. Don't let him see what you're feeling.

"What's this all about?" He nudged his head at the scrolls she was reading. "Oh, that!" she held up the parchment in her hand. "I've merely decided to take my role as Inquisitor more seriously. It should be priority before everything else. Maybe that's the change you're sensing in me."

He frowned and a crease formed between his eyebrows. "Eve -"

"It's Inquisitor," she corrected him in a gentle, but firm tone.

Whatever words he had wanted to say to her, died on his lips then. He closed his mouth. The hopeful expression in his eyes dulled. Maybe now was the moment he finally realized that he had unintentionally hurt her and that the hurt he had caused was not merely like a superficial flesh wound. It was a critical injury, a slowly bleeding wound close to the heart. "About that Bianca and that thaig…"

"Is there more I should know?" she asked, her voice neutral and her features devoid of any emotion, while internally she prayed that someone would come and make her Tranquil, so that she didn't have to deal with this situation anymore.

He nodded.

"More concerning our mission?" she clarified.

"No," he hesitated, "but it's something you should know…"

"So is this about the mission or not?" she asked impatiently.

Varric shook his head. "Forget about it," he answered with a bitter tone in his voice.

"Forget about it?" she repeated. "Let's be clear about this. I'm not doing this for Bianca's sake. I'm doing this for your sake. So you want me to care of this or not?" He hesitated. Several different emotions played over his features in only a couple of seconds and she wasn't good enough at reading him to identify any of them. And then it didn't matter anymore, because he finally nodded.

"And so we will," she told him, trying hard to keep her voice even. "We need to take care of this. But if you want that to happen… If you want it to work, don't come here offering to talk to me. I've no stomach for your stories right now. Just like Orlais this is neither the place nor the time for them. You wanted the Inquisitor's help? You'll get no less than what you asked for. You'll get the Inquisitor's help."

It was late in the afternoon; at least they thought it was, because down there, deep in the tunnels of Valammar nobody could really tell what time it was. He'd be damned if he knew. That probably made him a bad dwarf or something, but he didn't have that blighted Stone Sense or whatever his people liked to call being able to tell what time of the day it was regardless of sitting around in a fucking tunnel. At any rate, at some point they more or less decided univocally that it was time for a little breather in between fighting Darkspawn and Carta scum.

It was not like they were going to set up camp or anything. They just found themselves a nice corner on a terrace that was relatively safe. No one could attack them from behind, which was always a plus. And before they settled down, they cleared the area of potential enemies, at least as far as they could tell, what with Darkspawn popping out of the woodworks every other second. Now that everything was quiet, Bianca was trying to involve him in some friendly banter, because that's what they always did whenever they met. Picker like an old married couple that is, only that they weren't and would never be. It was impossible. Their families had taken care of that. And even though the idea to give in and go with that familiar and comforting routine of bantering with Bianca was tempting, his heart wasn't really in it.

Of course he would make the occasional quip. He didn't even have to think about those. How could he not? Especially when Bianca would ask in a rather derogatory tone whether this was what he did now: aiming his crossbow at enemies, traipsing around dark caves. Yeah, he was playing sidekick to a hero, that was what he did most of the time. A hero that wanted to save Thedas, no less. Anything wrong with that? He was slightly irritated by her words, but didn't let it show.

His retorts, most of them witty instead of just scathing, came naturally, almost like breathing, which gave him the chance to assess the situation. There was something fishy about this whole thing for sure. He could feel it in his bones. Even if he didn't have that famed Stone Senses of his ancestors, he certainly had at least a rather functional gut feeling when it came to fishy stuff.

And there was definitely something fishy about how Bianca acted. He couldn't lay his finger on what it was. Not yet. Maybe it was just that he hadn't seen her in too long. When had been the last time? Back in Kirkwall probably... She was still pretty and spunky and had her sharp tongue. As a matter of fact she still possessed all those qualities that had attracted him to her in the first place, in what seemed was an earlier life, but that feeling of understanding that unspoken, implicit synchrony that had been there before, was gone now. And it was tragic. Not beautifully tragic like in a story. No, it was that brand of tragedy he didn't appreciate - the real life variety. He drew his brows together.

As he thoughtfully chewed on a piece of dry meat and drank from the flask hanging from his belt, he looked over to his companions. He and Bianca were sitting a little away from the rest of the group. Someone must have decided they needed their privacy or at least a chance to catch up. He bet that someone had been Eve… her Inquisitorialness… the Inquisitor. No, somehow that title didn't feel right anymore, even though she had gently corrected him earlier.

He had found himself thinking about her as Eve more and more often ever since the Winter Palace. Most of the time at the end of those thought processes he concluded that he was confused. She confused him. Which was odd, because it wasn't like she was a particular confusing character.

On the surface she was rather uncomplicated, which had made her instantly likeable to him from the word go. She was a good person, though that wasn't that apparent at first glance. She always tried hard to hide it, but her good deeds spoke for themselves. She was clever, had a smart mouth and she disliked injustice. Yeah, good job. That description sounds like something a toddler could come up with. Ridiculous! And that from him too! Didn't he call himself a writer? Last time he checked he even had some books published to proof that particular claim. But unfortunately he had to admit when it came to characterizing Eve, he was at a loss. Finding out what drove her wasn't hard. It was much harder, however, figuring out what was going on in her head. No, actually it wasn't her head. If he was honest, it was her heart.

He would have to be a moron not to be able to tell that she felt something for him. He did feel something for her too. But he had no clue what it was. Seeing her so pensive and closed off made his thoughts constantly revolve around how he could make things better between them. It was almost obsessive, like picking at your nails or scratching a particularly itchy spot of skin. He couldn't stop. The fact that words couldn't repair this right now, or more precisely, that she didn't want to talk, was secretly eating away at him. Because all he had was words and those he had in abundance, only that they were useless right now.

Things between them were far from all right, not when she almost flinched each time their eyes met or schooled her features into a neutral masked depending on what time of the day it was. It was hard deciding which one of those two reactions ticked him off more. Hard, but not impossible, because if he really dug deep, he would have to admit that it was the latter, which was quite the show stopping epiphany, coming from an expert liar such as he was.

He felt someone nudge his boot and looked up in surprise, only to see Bianca's derisive glance boring into his face. "Hey! Anyone home?" She nudged her head in the direction of the other group, consisting of Tiny, Sparkler and Eve. "See, it's not just in my imagination," she told him and for a moment he was struggling to remember what she had been talking about.

"What?" he asked dumbly.

Bianca rolled her eyes. "Your Inquisitor is giving me the evil eye. Again! It's been what? The thousandth time since you got here? I lost count. At any rate I've had it with her. I'm going to go over there and ask her what her blighted problem is."

His hand quickly snapped forward and grabbed her wrist. She was already on her feet, determined to head over to Eve and confront her. "Really, Bianca? I thought you were smarter than this. Andraste's dimpled buttcheeks, I wonder what makes the Inquisitor cranky? Let's sit back and think for a second…" he frowned, feigning pensiveness. He finally shook his head. "Can't decide. Maybe it's being called the Herald of Andraste OR just being responsible for closing that big fat green sparkly hole in the sky that's threatening all of Thedas. What's your guess?"

Bianca slowly pulled her wrist from his grasp. "Oh, finally awake, huh? So you can do better than witty one-liners. Who would have thought? Still doesn't explain why she looks at me like I'm a two-headed Abomination…"

"How should I know?" He shrugged, feeling mildly irritated. Bianca was temperamental and upfront, she always would be. Getting under people's skin was part of her charm. He should have known better. She was always so damn stubborn. She wouldn't simply give it a rest. "Fine. Have it your way. But if she kicks your ass down one of those balconies, don't come crying to me. You wanted her help. Approaching her now that she's obviously in a bad mood doesn't really seem like the smartest move." Bianca glared at him and he raised his hands defensively. "Hey! Just saying! Don't shoot the messenger."

She frowned. "I'm not blaming you for her being a bitch. It's just odd. Don't you think it's odd?" He shook his head and she threw him a pointed and rather irritated glance. "Really, Varric? Funny how she's nothing like you described her to me. I don't see anything witty or easygoing about her. She just seems kinda morose, pouty and constantly pissed off. And she's really big on the glaring… Got that down to scratch. There. She's doing it again. I'm going over there right now!"

Varric sighed and watched her go, bracing himself for an inevitable disaster of Blight-like dimensions to break loose. Because that was what was going to happen and he didn't need some kind of sixth sense to tell as much.

"Well…" Bull growled under his breath. "This should be interesting. Incoming, Boss." Eve immediately looked around, already reaching for her daggers.

Dorian discretely leaned closer to her and laid his hand on her tensing shoulder. "Not that kind of trouble. That kind of trouble," he nudged his head at the approaching dwarf who looked like steam was going to shoot out of her hears any second.

Eve frowned. Her face settled into an expression that seemed to say something along the lines of a surprised and unnerved 'Really? You've got to be kidding me!' She looked between Bull and Dorian. The mage shrugged and shot her a lopsided grin, the Qunari threw her a little smirk and then actually possessed the audacity to chuckle. Those two really were the worst kind of moral support anyone could wish for.

"Inquisitor, a word," Bianca said in a demanding voice that gave away the impression that she wasn't asking, but rather demanding to talk with her in private. Eve got to her feet with a sigh.

"Of course," she replied with a curt nod.

The two women walked a couple of feet until they were out of earshot, but not out of sight of the rest of the group. With stray Darkspawn roaming the perimeter, it was much too dangerous breaking away from the others.

"What did you want to talk about?" Eve asked calmly, although she was dreading what this conversation could possibly be about. Actually she didn't want to talk to Bianca at all. Suppressing all the irrational dislike she felt towards her was extremely taxing and she was exhausted from fighting and exploring dark corridors as it was.

"Do you have a problem with me?"

Eve decided to act coy and surprised. "With you? A problem? Why should I? I barely know you…"

"Right," Bianca replied, with her arms akimbo, clearly not buying any of Eve's lies, "because you totally seem like you don't have a problem with me, what with the way you're always giving me the evil eye…"

Eve frowned, which momentarily caused a crease to form between her green eyes. "The evil eye? Erm… No. It's just…" She rubbed the back of her neck embarrassedly. "Well, you are aware Varric's crossbow is called Bianca and he talks to it like it's a real person?"

"So?"

"So, are you…"

"What?"

"The Bianca?"

"I wasn't aware there was a 'the' Bianca," the dwarf arched her eyebrows ironically.

"There's also the Inquisitor," Eve pointed out in an even voice and shrugged.

"Point taken." There was a brief pause. Bianca's eye narrowed suspiciously. "So this was only you… Help me out here," Bianca gestured at her with her right hand.

"Being curious?" Eve finished for her and nodded vigorously. She'd rather have her believe that than suspect the truth. Because the truth was something she wanted to keep a secret at any cost. The truth said too much about her feelings, because deep down underneath several layers of denial she had to admit she was insanely jealous of Bianca.

"Right," Bianca replied and there was a subtle note of sarcasm in her voice. "Hmmm… So if you're that curious, what do you want to know?"

"Sorry?" Eve's eyes widened.

"C'mon. Shoot," Bianca made a beckoning motion with her hands.

Eve opened her mouth, but stopped. No words passed her lips. There was a question in the forefront of her mind. It was calling out to her like a siren luring sailors to towards a rocky cliff. What kind of screwed up, terrible thing happened between the two of you that he decided to start talking to a crossbow and giving it your name? Of course she didn't say that. She only snapped her mouth shut.

"What? Cat's got your tongue?"

"No, actually I'm trying to be polite. I've been told it's this new big thing. So I thought, why not be like all those other cool kids and give it a try," she said with a casual shrug. The grin that followed was all her and the one thing that was not artificial about the situation. It was her last refuge, all teeth, arched eyebrows and a teasing glimmer in her eyes.

Something about it or perhaps even her choice of words had managed to tick Bianca even more off, because when she spoke next her voice sounded a little condescending. "Yeah. Well, seems like you're not cut out for this politeness stuff. Sorry to say, but if you're too chicken to ask what you want to say, stop staring. It is actually a little weird and extremely rude."

Eve's jaw tightened, her lips pressed together and turned into two thin lines. "I certainly didn't mean to be rude. I shall attempt to remedy that," she said in a clipped voice.

"Yeah, that would be great," Bianca replied and sauntered off.

Eve shook her head and went back to Dorian and Bull. During her talk with Bianca she had already caught them throwing curious glances in their direction, now that she came back, both were trying to act conspicuously nonchalant. Bull was whistling, obnoxiously off key of course and Dorian pretended to inspect his robes, which the Qunari mercenary ever so often jokingly called a dress to get a rise out of the mage.

"How'd it go, Boss?" Bull asked with a sly smirk.

She came to stand next to him and slightly craned her neck back to look at his face. "Oh, you know..." she replied hanging her shoulders.

"Ghastly?" Dorian supplied, ever so helpfully.

"Yeaaah," she answered rubbing the back of her neck and shifting from foot to foot. "Something like that... At least we've been able to establish that we don't like each other very much."

Bull scoffed. "Well, that wasn't impressive. The present lover and the past one together? Back where I come from there would have been bloodshed..."

"Bull! Shut up!" she implored him urgently. Her eyes nervously wandered over to Varric while she was trying to assess whether he had by some miracle not heard Bull's booming voice. Conveniently Bianca was letting off some steam about their encounter as well, so she exhaled a sigh of relief. "I'm not his present lover. We're not anything," Eve hiss at the Qunari and shoved his shoulder, which was about as effective as a fennec trying to shove a drufallo. So the massive merch didn't even budge an inch.

"Oh, but wouldn't you like to be?" Dorian cooed and laughed. He laughed even harder, when Bull gave the Inquisitor, who was practically bursting with indignation, a decidedly more demure and good-natured shove, which, even despite that, was enough sent her struggling for balance with her arms flailing about for a moment.

Having regained her balance but not her composure, Eve glared at her friends. "I hate you two," she muttered with the same level of maturity of a pouty, six-year-old girl. Her arms were crossed over her chest and she was just smart enough to fight down the impulse of stomping her foot. "I'm wondering why I even bother bringing you places."

"Awwww, little cousin," Dorian smirked. He stood up, sauntered over to her and tucked her under his arm, which she fruitlessly attempted to shrug off. "Why, because you would be sitting in some dark corner being all morose and glum. Isn't it better to be teased than being miserable on your own?"

She turned her head and looked at him sharply. Her features softened when she looked at his face, a face she had wanted to slap at every turn no less than a month ago, but now provided her with strange kind of comfort. He pretended to not take anything seriously; he pretended his concern was only artificial, when in reality it was sincere. He gave her exactly what she needed when she needed it.

"You're right. As always," she said and pressed a quick peck to his cheek just to annoy him a little.

Promptly Dorian made a show out of wiping at the spot she had kissed in disgust before he sneered and said: "There's no need for this. I know that I'm positively irresistible." Bull snorted and rolled his eyes, clearly not agreeing. "But would you please not accost me anymore with your excessive affection?" the mage continued without even dignifying the Qunari with a glance. Despite his acerbic words he was smiling at her and briefly squeezed her shoulder before he released her.

She cleared her throat and the smile slowly faded from her features as she looked around herself. Glum twilight and grey stones. "You know what? I've had enough of this place," she said finally, while her fingers nervously toyed with the grips of her daggers. "Let's get moving again. I've had it up to here. I need to get away from this Bianca person and Valammar..."

Having proclaimed these words, though in a lowered voice, she wasn't suicidal, she strutted over to Varric and Bianca to tell them they would move on. Very soon they were back to their routine of fighting their way through creepy underground halls and chambers.

She discretely sneered to herself when later Bianca opened a door and bragged about designing it. Instead of giving in the urge of making a sarcastic comment, Eve just followed them through aforementioned door.

More fighting ensued and after that events took an unexpected turn. To everyone's surprise it turned out that it had been Bianca who had unwittingly granted the Templars access to the red lyrium. Of course she had only wanted to help Varric figure out what that "glowy weird red stuff" was. So her stubbornness had driven her to ignore every single one of Varric's warnings and above all his explicit wish to not get involved with anything involving red lyrium. However stupid it was, it only showed that Bianca cared for him.

Somehow that made Eve feel a sudden kinship with the woman she had come to regard as her natural enemy. Of course her dislike on first sight had been irrational and as Inquisitor she didn't get to be irrational. So even though she saw the hurt and incomprehension in Varric's eyes, which was luckily directed towards Bianca and not her, something she should have rejoiced in, she didn't gloat. She couldn't. Not when she would have probably acted the same.

Her verbal reaction was impulsive. She didn't remember precisely what it was she had said to Varric and Bianca, but she assumed it must have been something like "Leave her alone. She only wanted to help." It earned her an incredulous stare from Varric, followed by some admonishing and unusually stern words about the dreary consequences this would have for Thedas because of Bianca's thoughtlessness. As Varric was rambling on, the aforementioned female dwarf was staring at her in incomprehension. Eve could relate. She had thought they had already figured out where they stood in regards to each other. It turned out that things were not as black and white as they had initially looked.

But Bianca took care to set things straight in the end. Eve's feeling of animosity was rekindled thanks to Bianca's ever so charming parting words that she would feed her own eyeballs if she got Varric killed. Those words were still ringing in her ears all the way back to Skyhold. He could die because of me. Die because of me. Die because of me. Die. Needless to say that the journey back was just as awkward as the way to Valammar, because, in addition to her, now Varric had also fallen curiously silent and Bull and Dorian had to deal with two rather morose rogues.

"Well, this was positively delightful," Dorian remarked as soon as they had stepped through the main gate of the Inquisition stronghold, shooting both Varric and Eve a pointed glance each. "Now will you excuse me? I need to wash that Valammar dirt out of my robes and spend some time away from dreary and morose individuals. I think I might even pay Blackwall a little visit. Compared to you two he's a ray of pure sunshine."

Eve looked to Bull for help. The Qunari raised his hands. "I can't believe I'm saying that, but for once I'm with the Vint."

That being said, he marched off in the direction of the tavern, leaving Eve standing there with her mouth agape.

"Can you believe them? We're not that-" Varric had finally decided to speak now that he was alone with Eve and found his words directed at a retreating back.

"Hey!" he called after her and she stopped, unsure why her own feet had decided to rather obey his command than hers.

"What?!" she spun around quickly. Her voice was loud and there was a terse expression on her face. She looked around and saw people staring at them. "What?" she repeated in a lowered voice that although not being quite as booming any more, hadn't lost any of its hostility.

He took a step closer to her and for a moment it looked like he was going to say something, but then his shoulders slumped and he shook his head in defeat. "Nothing."

She looked him up and down before she finally shook her head. "I thought so," she said quietly and walked away from him, up the stairs to the main building.

The next couple of days saw Eve busy with dealing with the problems of half of Thedas again, so she had a chance to postpone dealing with hers. Denying what she felt wasn't a wise course of action, but it was the only way she could function properly.

When Cole asked for her help, she wholeheartedly offered it to him. He wanted her to get him an amulet that would make it impossible for others to bind him and being the nice, friendly Inquisitor that she was, of course she carter to his wishes.

A couple of days later the amulet found its way to Skyhold and one more issue arose. It didn't work the way it was supposed to. Solas cast a spell on it, but there was a huge bang when the magic failed, which made Varric curious and resulted in the dwarf butting in. Solas and Varric started quarreling over whether Cole should become more like a spirit or a human and quite predictably she ended up in the middle of that little argument.

Despite her initial impulse to side with Solas out of spite, she was aware that she was deciding over another person's – being's fate, so ultimately she had to grudgingly agree with Varric. Apparently it wasn't such a bad decision. The dwarf seemed happy enough to take the Kid, as he so affectionately started calling Cole, under his wing.

As always these days being in close vicinity with Varric made her antsy. The fact that last week she had ventured outside of Skyhold without him for the first time ever was testament of that. She had chosen to bring Sera along in his place and upon returning she found him acting even stranger than he had been before she left. He was still talkative, but these days, talking to him was like making small talk with a stranger. Absolutely fruitless. Thinking back to walking past him in the grand hall and being at the receiving end of an almost accusing glare after her little mission with Sera, was enough to drive her to the tavern late at night where she found some eager drinking companions in Bull and the Chargers.

The tavern was nearly empty when she arrived there and it felt safe to give in and drink too much and stay up too long, because there was no one to judge her. Her frustration got the better of her and she overindulged a little too much in drinking. She ordered round after round and it seemed a good idea at the time, especially since it made her forget and took off the sharp sting of reality by coating everything in fluffy and soft inebriation. Finally she heard some funny stories again. Finally she was able to smile again after wearing a frown on her face for what felt like months.

When around midnight the front door swung open and Cole came in accompanied by Varric, she was already snoring softly with her head on the counter. Bull was sitting next to her sipping thoughtfully from his tankard. The dwarf stopped talking mid-sentence and stared at her slumbering form, while Cole, being ever so concerned, approached the strange couple sitting at the bar.

"Is she sick?" he asked in childlike wonder, bending forward and leaning closer so he could inspect the Inquisitor's sleeping face.

Bull thought for a second, but also used the time to throw Varric a knowing look. "Yeah, but there's nothing you can do anything about, Beanstalk," he shrugged.

His explanation seemed to be enough for Cole. He pulled back and nodded, standing there with a solemn face. "I don't think I could even if I tried. There is a light in her that's burning so brightly ever since it's been lit, but she's trying to quench it so much, she singes her fingers every time."

Varric arched his left eyebrow. "Looks more like she's quenching her thirst from where I'm standing..."

"Why would you say that when I can feel the same-"

"Listen, Kid," the dwarf trained his eyes on Cole, "no offense, but I'm kind of tired, all right?"

Cole snapped his mouth shut with a surprised expression on his face. The dwarf had never been so stern with him; still Cole couldn't suppress his compulsion to help. "But two flames burning so brightly-"

The rest of the sentence remained unsaid in the face of a vehement headshake from Varric.

Bull smirked. "Yeah, lessons in humanity, huh? How's that working out for you?" He slapped Varric's shoulder. "Once you work your way towards the topic of love, let me know. That's the one subject they don't really teach you anything about in Ben Hassrath training. Could come in handy. Especially since I've spent the better part of this evening listening to people whining about their pathetic love lives..."

"Who'd you hear whining, Tiny?" Varric asked, his eyes narrowing. He was somewhere between being keenly interested and suspicious.

The Qunari grinned, clearly savoring the moment. "Not sure anymore. The booze, you see," he raised the tankard to his lips again. His words were contradicted by the rather alert look in his one eye that was also filled with a mirthful sparkle despite his drinking. "Since we're already on that topic, make sure Boss gets back to her room okay. I could carry her, but I'd probably I bump her head into a lot of doorframe on the way up her place…"

"Yeaaaah," the dwarf shot the mercenary a suspicious glance, "we can't afford brain damage on our Inquisitor, can we?" he remarked as he suspiciously looked between the sleeping woman and the Qunari. "Look I'm flattered by your faith in my strength, but you can't seriously expect me to carry her…"

"And you won't have to. I think she can walk if someone supports her. Right, Boss?"

The woman snoring on the counter let out an agreeing hum.

"That sounds like a lot of fun what with all those stairs…" Varric mused.

Bull grinned. "Yeah, but Beanstalk over here," his thumb pointed at Cole, "couldn't do it. No offense, boy," he turned his head towards him, "but you're just not cut out for the job."

"I'm disappointed, Tiny. Thought you were a little more subtle than that," Varric growled and the Qunari just shrugged at him with a derisive grin on his face before he got up and decided to stagger a little, doubtlessly only for show. No one was fooled by that, not even Cole.

The dwarf sighed. "All right, Kid. You can leave. I'll take care of this," Varric told the former spirit and now young man in a low voice, but his eyes were firmly trained on Eve as he spoke.

Cole nodded. You could tell Cole was trying hard to suppress the urge to externalize the inner monologue he could feel radiating from Varric what with the way he was biting his thin, pale lips. Wordlessly he slipped up the stairs, his footfalls undetectable on the normally so creaky wooden steps.