From a dark corner, Misery took inventory of the large room. After using the key to gain access to the cellar, she quickly slipped into the shadows and observed quietly. Barely a minute later, a door opened and an armed man came out of a side room roughly thirty feet ahead and to her right. He seemed to just be loitering about.
A number of loud voices were coming from the room he came out of, with periodic shouts. It sounded like a group involved in a card game. Misery also took notice of two short flights of stairs leading up to another floor that were straight ahead and to her left.
She spied a glint on the wall in front of the stairs ahead, the tell-tale sign of a trap, and as her eyes scanned the area she made out a slight depression in the floor maybe ten feet in front of the first step. It was indicative of a pressure plate trigger. She smirked in amusement at how easy the trap would be to disable.
Hearing the other voices in the room the first man came out of, Misery closed her eyes and tried to separate them out into distinct individuals. She couldn't be sure, but she thought she identified five in total counting the one she could see.
Getting a sense of her surroundings, she noted that the dimly lit room was two levels high, with wooden beams running horizontally where the ceiling would normally be between the first and second levels, and additional support beams running in a crisscross pattern up to the base of the third level – which was presumably the main floor of the estate. The room layout gave her an idea.
At the sound of particularly boisterous laughter coming from inside the room, the man went back into the room. Quickly testing the stability of a lantern holder and finding it to be adequate, Misery pulled herself up and then kicked off the wall. She used the momentum to reach up to grab a support beam overhead.
Please don't let there be any spiders, she silently prayed.
Inhaling a deep breath, she then pushed it out slowly through her nose while pulling herself up and climbing on to the beam, biting her bottom lip the whole time to keep any utterances from the exertion in check.
"I'll get you next game!" a different man proclaimed while exiting the side room. Misery, who had started to stand up on the beam, froze in place until it became apparent the man didn't notice her.
The rogue slowly traversed the room via the wooden beam, careful not to make any noise. She maneuvered her way until she was standing above the man. Just then the first man came back out of the side room, closing the door behind him.
"I swear that blighter Henri is cheating," he grumbled to the other man.
Misery concentrated on breathing slowly and quietly, standing very still as she waited to ensure he was equally unaware of her presence.
The two men chatted casually, and she scowled as the subject turned to the slave trade. Clearly the information was good about the estate being a front for slaving operations.
Misery's anger wasn't driven by a sense of shame like her mother and sister felt from the former Amell estate being reduced to this. Unlike Bethany, who commiserated with their mother about the loss of the family estate and would openly yearn for the noble life, Misery didn't give a damn about the Amells or the estate.
As she'd told Bethany more than once, nobility was as much a lifestyle and state of mind as it was titles and material wealth. While their mother could easily slip back into that lifestyle and Bethany was enough like their mother to easily adapt, Misery would never and could never be nobility.
Although the rogue now lived in a world of gray and legalities were largely irrelevant to her, slavery was one of her few exceptions. She had less than no use for slavers. She had no designs on going on a suicidal one woman rampage here, but she wouldn't think twice about killing anyone that stood in the way of reaching her goal.
To Misery's chagrin, the men weren't standing close enough together that she could drop down from above and take them both out simultaneously. However, it only took her a moment to come up with an alternative.
She quietly withdrew a single arrow from her quiver. Taking another deep breath to calm her anticipation, she tossed the arrow towards the other side of the room.
The sudden noise of the arrow clattering on the stone floor created just the distraction she needed. When the men both turned towards the source of the noise, Misery drew Song of Sorrows and dropped from the beam. She came down with all of her weight behind the blade, plunging it into the back of the first man's skull.
Quickly ripping it back out, she lunged forward and grabbed the second man from behind by the hair and forced his head forward while raking the razor sharp dagger across his throat. She didn't give him a chance to make a death rattle that might alert others, following up with a stab into his neck that ended his life immediately. She caught him as he fell and despite his much greater girth managed to slow his momentum enough to not hit the ground noisily.
The rogue dragged them each over to the dark corner she'd initially entered by before rifling through the men's pockets for valuables. The blood on the floor would be noticeable if anyone came by, but she hoped not having the dead bodies immediately obvious would buy her some extra time. She then retrieved her stray arrow and climbed the stairs that didn't have the trap in front of it.
Two down… no sense messing with the others if I do not have to…
At the top of the stairs she found a locked door that her mother's key wouldn't open. She briefly debated trying to pick the lock before deciding to try the way up the other stairs first.
Misery frowned as she looked at the trap. It would be dead simple to disable the trigger, but she knew the mechanism would make a fairly loud clank when she released the tension. After considering it for a moment, she opted to jump over the depression plate and bypass the trap rather than mess with disarming it.
-==0==-
Reaching the second level, Misery quietly approached the open doorway. She could see a pair of men facing each other at the far side of the room. While they were distracted by their conversation, the rogue slipped into the room and behind a stack of crates while planning her next move.
As her eyes took inventory of the room, she shifted on her feet and inadvertently bumped a crate with the bow on her back. She immediately ducked down out of sight.
"What was that?" she heard one of the men ask, their conversation stopping.
The other man laughed. "You spook too easily for this line of work. Probably just some more of those damned rats."
She could hear the sound of footsteps moving in her direction. "Maybe…" the first man replied skeptically.
She heard the other man laugh again. "You want to stay down here and kill rats, have at it. I'm going back upstairs."
Misery carefully unsheathed one of her knives. Her heartbeat started accelerating in anticipation all the while time seemed to slow. She could hear the man poking around with his sword on the other side of the crates. She liked her odds one-on-one, so even if the second man was still in the room, if she could get this first one down quickly she expected to be in good shape.
As soon as the slaver got next to her crate, Misery uncoiled. She grabbed him and in one motion planted the knife in his throat, twisting and ripping it back out while pulling the body back behind the crate. She'd been fast, but the man had still yelped in surprise before she was able to silence him. Scowling, she ducked down and relieved the body of its coin purse while keeping an acute ear open for any sign of his partner.
"You find something, Cole?" Misery could hear the mirth in the man's tone.
"Cole?" he asked again when he went unanswered, this time with a bit of concern. Misery heard his footsteps moving towards her location. She tensed once more.
Moments before she was intending to strike, she suddenly heard shouts coming from the room she'd previously been in. The approaching slaver took off running down the stairs, not noticing her or his dead companion behind the crates.
Guess someone discovered the mess.
Misery quickly left her hiding spot and forged ahead. Ignoring a side room that had nothing but junk and a few empty bookshelves, she quietly entered another large room that appeared to be the wine storage room judging by the barrels stacked and lined up throughout. She slipped behind a barrel that was taller than she was.
Maker's breath, the fucking wine cellar in this place is bigger than Uncle's entire house, she thought while shaking her head.
Peeking out, she noticed a mage and four guards milling about. This was another double height room with wooden support beams running overhead. She could see the stairwell at the end of the room and based on what Bethany had told her of the place, assumed it led to the vault. But it wasn't going to be a simple in and out like she'd hoped. Glancing around, a thought came to mind.
Only the mage can attack me at range. If I get up high I can take him out and then pick the others off before they could ever get to me.
She looked around at her options. There were large barrels stacked and lined in rows on the floor around the exterior of the room. Two-tier racks on the walls perpendicular to the two doorways held additional barrels. Misery guessed these racked wine barrels were being stored long-term for aging.
Eyeing the rack next to her, she felt like she could get up on top of the first tier from where she was without being seen, and from there could climb to the top of the second tier and move into a more aggressive position.
The nimble rogue carefully began climbing a wine rack, getting herself into a more advantageous position.
-==0==-
"Check it out, Sunshine." Varric gestured to the pair of dead bodies in the corner. "Didn't take her long, eh?"
"It never does," Bethany muttered while walking further into the room with Revas. "Looks like some blood on the floor over here too." She continued on towards the stairs.
Varric turned and started to follow. "Stop! Trap!" he nearly shouted at the mage.
"Wha-" Bethany began, only to be cutoff when Revas stepped on the pressure plate on the floor. It triggered a blast of flames from the wall, scorching the mabari.
Suddenly the door to the side room opened. "Hey! Who are you?" one of the men coming out of the room asked loudly. Spying the blood on the floor, another shouted, "Intruders!"
Varric pumped a triplet of bolts into the first guard, knocking him down. Another guard charged him, while a third one took off after the female mage.
Bethany winced at the sight of Revas rolling on the ground to extinguish the flames, howling in pain. She hurriedly cast her strongest healing spell at him. However, in doing so she left herself open to a hard slash from the longsword of her attacker. The blade caught her on the outside of her upper thigh, an area mostly not covered by the skirt portion of the chainmail smock she wore over her clothes. It tore through the cloth of the breeches she wore underneath and opened a gash.
The mage screamed from pain of the wound, falling as her leg gave out from under her. She didn't have the presence of mind to get her staff up to block the next strike either, though fortunately her chainmail held as her attacker's sword collided across her waist and upper abdomen. The slaver guard was pulling back to strike again when he was bowled over by Revas.
Varric danced around his attacker, dodging slower swings from the man's greatsword and countering with Bianca. The man wore heavier armor than the other guards, however, and while Bianca was consistently knocking him back, she was having a tough time taking him down despite the close range.
Revas was mauling the guard that had gone after Bethany, but he howled again when the guard managed to get his sword between them and raked it sideways to slash open the mabari's chest.
Bethany finally got her bearings and rolled to her knees, gasping and clutching her bloodied leg. Coughing painfully, she gritted her teeth and uttered a few words. Rather than healing herself though, she gestured and ice shot forth at the guard wrestling with Revas. The man immediately seized up, giving the wounded and very angry dog all the advantage he needed to overwhelm and finish him off.
The female mage grabbed her staff and channeled her willpower through it, tossing arcane bolts at the slaver engaged with Varric. Being attacked on two fronts and then three when Revas joined in, the man quickly went down. Bethany cast healing spells on herself and Revas and then tried to catch her breath.
Despite the healing, Revas still whimpered from the burns that were a result of tripping the trap.
"Do you have any poultices with you?" she asked Varric.
The dwarf shook his head. "Potions, but nothing for treating burns like that." He handed the mage a potion to augment her magical healing. She downed it quickly.
"This is bad," she whispered. "She will kill us for getting him hurt like this."
"I think you might be exaggerating a bit, Sunshine. It's-"
"Hey!" another guard shouted as he came charging down the stairs, interrupting them. Varric and Bethany both turned and fired simultaneously. The guard didn't even reach them. He was so weakened that he fell without much resistance when Revas jumped on him in the middle of the room.
"Idiot should have kept his mouth shut," Bethany sneered.
Varric laughed. "You know, I think that's the first time you've done or said anything the way your sister would. Maybe you two are related after all."
Bethany didn't answer, returning her attention to the mabari. She knelt down in front of him. "Let's get you back to Anders' clinic, I'll bet he can take care of you."
Revas barked to the negative, causing the mage to sigh.
"Are you sure?" she asked. He barked again.
Nodding in resignation, she stood back up. "Come on, we're going to keep going." At Varric's quizzical stare she explained, "Revas is imprinted on my sister. He's not going to leave when he's worried that she's in danger."
"Imprinted? What's that? And how can you even understand what that barking means?" Varric asked. He'd seen mabaris around the city, they weren't that uncommon given the influx of Fereldan refugees. But he had no actual experience being around one before the last couple of days.
"Ask me again in a more relaxed situation," she replied with a slight smirk before gesturing for the dwarf to follow.
-==0==-
Misery had managed to climb undetected to the top of the second tier of the wine rack, to a platform roughly a dozen feet off the floor. She slowly maneuvered her way along the back wall towards the other side of the room, squeezing behind and climbing over barrels as necessary.
About three-quarters of the way she froze when a man and a woman came out of another side room with bows slung across their backs. She swore silently at the change in the dynamics of the enemy group rendering her planned strategy inadequate.
Not worried about being detected in her current position up high and obscured by wine barrels, she gently took her bow off her back and kneeled down while thinking about what to do next. She noted another trap almost directly below her with a pressure plate trigger than ran almost the entire length of the floor. It would be nearly unavoidable to someone who didn't know it was there.
Misery smirked slightly. The only question is whether the trap was installed by the slavers or by the Amells to keep undesirables from breaking into the estate by coming up through Darktown.
Her eyes scanned the room looking for the payload that would be delivered when the trigger was tripped. Not seeing anything on the far wall and knowing the wine racks on her side wouldn't have anything, nor would the owners risk damaging the expensive goods, her eyes settled on the metal floor grates on either side of the pressure plate.
Ahhh… either flash pots or acid splash most likely. Clever…
She closed her eyes and sighed. The thought of purposely knocking a barrel over to fall on the pressure plate and trip the trap came to mind, but the rogue quickly dismissed the idea because it wouldn't give her enough of an advantage to offset the loss of her concealment.
A sudden shout by one of the slavers caused her to blink her eyes open in surprise. Her eyes opened wide in horror at seeing Revas, Bethany, and Varric entering the large room and getting ready to initiate combat against the seven on the other side.
Misery felt tightness in her throat and stomach, both from seeing that her dog's coat appeared scorched and from knowing that while her sister and the dwarven rogue would hang back and fight from range, Revas would charge the enemies without thinking twice about it. He was already moving forward in their direction.
"Revas, stay!" she blurted out loudly and urgently from her hiding spot.
Everyone looked around in confusion, not immediately able to identify the location of the voice reverberating throughout the room. The large mabari stopped his forward momentum, dropping into a low crouch and growling.
"Get them!" the slaver mage shouted. "And find the other one!"
Misery notched a pair of arrows and eased forward on the platform she was on. She could see the enemy mage waving his staff and gathering magical energies. Eyes narrowing in focus, the rogue drew back the bowstring of her recurve and let go at the apex of the draw. The launch trajectory sent one arrow into the shoulder and one into the side of the head of the mage, the latter cutting off his life immediately. Before the arrows even hit, Misery was moving back out of sight.
"Watch your step!" Varric shouted to his companions as he fired Bianca, "Trap ahead!"
The quartet of slaver guards charged, avoiding the trap trigger as they crossed the room and closed the gap. The pair of archers stood back and fired on the trio at the front of the room.
Misery counted to ten before slowly sliding forward again. She noted with smug satisfaction that the mage was dead before turning her attention to the rest of the battle. Revas moved to intercept, leaping and knocking one guard into another and causing them both to fall. He began mauling one of the men.
Bethany was engaged in a duel with a guard wielding a greatsword. She wasn't strong enough to outright parry the attacks, but using her staff and movement she deflected away the incoming blows she couldn't outright avoid while countering where she could.
Varric was trying to hold off a larger man coming at him with sword and shield while keeping the enemy between himself and the archers so they couldn't get a clean look at him.
The second guard that Revas had knocked over was back on his feet. He lunged forward and ran a dagger through the side of the mabari that had already mortally wounded his friend. He was too slow pulling back, however, and before he knew it the dog had grabbed hold of his wrist and clamped down ferociously. The wounded beast shook his head side to side while violently yanking backward, claiming the man's hand.
Misery saw red at the sight of her dog being stabbed and rained arrow after arrow down at his attacker.
"Up there!" she heard one of the others shout. However, she didn't allow her concentration to waver until the guard that attacked Revas was dead. That's when a pair of arrows bored into her side and hip, the force of impact knocking her sideways into a barrel.
Another arrow slammed into her side and caused her to gasp further in pain as she fell backwards on her rear. She scooted awkwardly back into her hiding spot, safe for the time being. Resting her head against the back wall, she closed her eyes and grunted as she ripped the three arrows out one by one. The last one especially hurt, and she guessed she'd caused herself additional damage in the process.
Dragging herself to her feet, Misery wheezed. She realized that breathing was difficult and suspected one of the arrows punctured something inside. Slinging her bow over her shoulder, she held her side with one hand while painstakingly making her way to another spot further down, further away from her companions. Reaching another opening between barrels maybe fifteen feet from where she previously was, the rogue carefully peeked out to make sure she wasn't spotted.
The battle had progressed to where Revas and Bethany finished off her foe before a couple of arrows wounding the mabari further forced him to seek cover, since he knew he wasn't supposed to charge across the room because of a trap he couldn't see. Varric's attacker had knocked him down and Bethany was now trying to help him while avoiding the incoming projectiles.
Not being able to see Revas bothered Misery, but she knew there wasn't anything she could do until the battle was over. And the archers were the key to that happening. The rogue started to retrieve her bow from her back before thinking better of it. She noted the archers were standing close together near where a support beam passed overhead.
Gritting her teeth at the sharp pain in her side, she nevertheless discretely climbed down the rack she was on until she could make the short hop over to one of the interconnecting support beams. She bit down hard enough on her bottom lip to draw blood as she fought to stifle any utterances of her discomfort as she made her way across.
Bethany turned towards the archers after helping Varric dispatch his attacker. Intending to throw a firestorm at the archers, she instead gasped at the sight of her older sister moving nimbly across the support beams overhead. She held back her spell and simply threw arcane bolts at them while waiting to see what Misery did.
Finally reaching her spot, a small grin crept over Misery's face despite the pain she was in. The setup was perfect for what she needed. Ten feet down and five feet ahead stood the pair of archers. The man and woman were no more than a foot and a half apart as they fired on Bethany and Varric. Misery drew both of her knives, waving off her companions to stop attacking.
She already anticipated that this stunt was going to hurt her further, but it didn't matter to her. The raven haired rogue bent her knees and bounded from the wooden beam. To her audience at the other end of the room she practically glided through the air. She was silent death from above.
Misery's knives each found a home in the back of an archer's neck, assassinating both of them simultaneously. She used them to brace her own impact with the stone floor, but still cringed at the hard jostling of her insides.
Misery pulled her blades back out while lurching forward, stumbling while trying hard to get her body under control. She did not want to show she was hurt under the circumstances. Not when she had fury to burn for her companions disregarding her orders.
-==0==-
"Maker's breath, Hawke," Varric muttered with a slight tinge of awe. "That was amazing. You know, I knew this guy Ezio that used to pull tricks like that back-"
"What the fuck are you doing here?" Misery hissed, cutting him off. She glared angrily at both him and Bethany before kneeling down and disabling the trap. After finishing that and standing back up, her glare only grew harder as Revas slowly came out from behind some crates.
"And what the fuck did you let happen to Revas?" she added as she stalked over to him. She was nearly trembling in rage. Misery knelt down and whispered some words of comfort while yanking the arrow out. She fought to keep her own breathing even. Her side felt like it was on fire at this point.
Bethany's expression had fallen at the sight of the wounded mabari that still had an arrow he couldn't reach sticking in his back. She hurriedly cast multiple healing spells at him, and even though his coat was still sporting the burn marks that would need additional treatment, his internal wounds were better and he could carry on.
"He triggered a trap. I didn't see it in time to warn him," Varric explained.
Misery turned away, closing her eyes and silently scolding herself. I should have disabled that trap!
Varric mistook her reaction for disgust with him and huffed. "It was an accident, Hawke."
Misery started to retort, but stopped herself. At this point she just wanted to finish their business and get out of here, ditch the two of them, and find an apothecary so she could get healed up along with buying some healing potions for next time. She knew all she had to do was tell Bethany she was hurt and the mage would take care of her, but anger at the current situation, her sister, and Varric wouldn't let her. So she just started walking toward the stairs she suspected led up to the vault.
Shaking his head, the dwarf made eye contact with Bethany, who shrugged and began walking. Her sister had actually not reacted as badly as she had expected her to.
-==0==-
"The Amell crest!" Bethany exclaimed in excitement once they were inside the vault room. "Can you imagine having this over our door?"
Misery rolled her eyes. Not only did she not care about being an Amell, she also didn't share her sister's naivety that regaining the family's noble standing would be an effective shield to keep the templars away.
"We are Hawkes, Bethany. Do not forget that."
"Oh, come on, Sister. It's not an either/or situation. It doesn't dishonor Father's memory to embrace who we are from Mother's side of the family."
The older girl didn't answer. She knew her sister had a point, but what she wasn't going to say in front of Varric was that she didn't exactly feel like part of Mother's family given their relationship. Instead she went over to the large ornate chest in the corner and opened the lid.
In the process of cleaning the chest out of valuables, Misery came across the object that they'd come here for – their grandfather's last will and testament. The rogue unrolled the scroll and began to read.
"Wh-what is it?" Bethany asked tentatively. She could see her sister's face turn red, and the rogue was beginning to tremble again in rage.
Misery handed the scroll to Bethany. "They left everything to Mother. All Uncle was supposed to get was a monthly stipend controlled by Mother. That bastard has been lying to her and us this entire time!"
"We have to confront him with this!"
"And then I am going to kill him," Misery added darkly, causing Bethany to gasp.
"Sister… no…" she pleaded.
"Let's go."
-==0==-
On the way out, Bethany convinced Misery to take Revas by Anders' clinic since it was so close to the Darktown passage they'd used to enter the estate cellar. While the Grey Warden healer worked on the mabari and talked to Bethany, Misery went and sat down gingerly on the ground, leaning her back and head against a wall and closing her eyes.
"You sister looks very pale, is she alright?" Anders asked.
Bethany looked over at Misery, frowning. "She doesn't look well, does she? I'd thought she was out of sorts because of something we found out about our family as well as being worried about Revas." She walked across the room and knelt down in front of the older girl.
"Hey…" she said softly, trying to keep the frustration she still felt over her sister's earlier behavior out of her tone. "Are you feeling alright?"
The rogue's eyes slowly opened, and Bethany couldn't miss the glassy quality of them. She began to get concerned. "Talk to me… Tell me what's wrong."
Misery glanced over her sister's right shoulder towards Anders working on Revas, and without moving her head her eyes flitted over to Varric standing maybe ten feet away and watching her without giving away that he was watching. Her eyes finally settled back on Bethany.
"I w-will be fine… j-just let me know when Revas is patched up and we are ready to go." She closed her eyes again.
"Why won't you tell me what is wrong?" Bethany hissed angrily. When the older girl didn't respond, she grabbed her shoulders and shook her.
Misery's eyes snapped open as she gasped from the pain. As soon as Bethany let go of her, she clutched her side and fell over, her breathing becoming louder and erratic.
The two men in the room came over quickly. Bethany was momentarily caught off guard and didn't think to cast a healing spell, but Anders gathered his willpower and began casting. Blinking in surprise, Bethany quickly followed suit, adding her healing energies to his.
The female rogue felt herself being lifted into the air and realized by the feel of the feathers adorning the upper part of his robes against her cheek that Anders had scooped her up. Her eyes fluttered half open and she smirked tiredly at him. "A mage with muscles? My hero…"
Anders shook his head. "You don't let up, do you?" He carried her over and laid her down on a table.
Misery looked up to see her sister staring at her with an expression mixed of worry, confusion, and anger. She sighed. Even though she felt much better than she did before the healing spells, she knew she wasn't getting off without an explanation.
"My side… I got hit a few times during the battle… I think… an arrow caught something inside."
"And just when, exactly, were you planning to tell us this?" Bethany asked incredulously.
"She wasn't," Varric remarked, frowning at the rogue. "Last night she tried to hide an injury with me too."
Anders turned and whispered to Bethany. "Under the circumstances, if she took piercing damage we probably should check out the wounds. But she'll have to take off her armor."
Bethany nodded in agreement. "Sister. Armor off, now."
"Beth-"
"Now!" the younger sister shouted.
The look in the mage's eyes made it clear she was going to out stubborn Misery on this one. Misery sighed bitterly before nodding curtly and beginning to unbuckle her cuirass. She removed it and tossed it aside, then took off her undershirt and sent it chasing the cuirass. Sitting back down on the table clothed in just her bra from the waist up, she glared in silence.
"Maker's breath, Hawke, you look like you were used as a pin cushion!" Varric noted. "How many times did you say you got hit?"
"A few… I was not counting though, so who knows."
Bethany's eyes took inventory of the red and purplish-black marks indicative of arrow wounds that hadn't completely faded from the healing. "Six!" she exclaimed, her anger catching its third or fourth wind.
"They weren't all from that last battle…" Misery started before trailing off.
After inspecting the wounds, Anders quietly retrieved a couple of healing poultices and applied them to her skin, casting another healing spell over the top of them. "Next time just let me know. Despite what you think of Justice and me, I do want to help."
"For that matter, this shit stops right here, Hawke," Varric began. "No more hiding injuries from us."
"Are we clear?" Bethany added.
"Fine…" Misery grumbled reluctantly.
"Why are you being so pissy about this?" Bethany asked in annoyance. "We are trying to help!"
Misery's own anger kicked back in. Her eyes danced back and forth between Bethany, Varric, and Revas. "I would not have even been hurt if you would have done what you were told! You are the ones that flushed me out! I had to reveal myself to stop you from tripping another trap! I got shot while keeping attackers off of you! If anyone has a right to be pissed off here, it is me!"
She hopped off the table and began dressing. "If we are done here, it's time for me to go. I have to squeeze in killing someone before my next scheduled appointment."
Not if I have anything to say about it, Bethany thought. She decided to save actually voicing her opinion on the matter, however, until the two of them were alone. Instead she turned to the Grey Warden.
"Thank you, Anders, for all of your help. My sister thanks you as well, especially considering how rude she was to you earlier. Don't you, Sister?"
Misery mumbled something that sounded somewhat like 'Thanks' in a rather contrite, embarrassed tone.
Revas trotted over and licked Anders' hand, causing the warden to chuckle and genuinely smile.
"Of course, it was no problem. And Misery?" When she made eye contact, he continued, "I meant what I said about wanting to help."
A thin smile crept across the rogue's lips. She nodded her thanks. "See you tomorrow."
.
AN: I realized about 3/4 of the way through writing the Birthright sidequest here that it had an 'Assassin's Creed' feel to it, so I threw in the Ezio reference to top it off. Kudos to anyone who figured it out, as well as to those who got the Baldur's Gate II reference in the last chapter. Yeah, Varric knows *everyone* and I'll probably have abused that theme before it's all said and done :-)
Thank you again to everyone who is following this story. I know as much as anyone how precious free time is, so I'm always appreciative when people choose to spend theirs on my stuff. I reply to every signed review in PM, but since I've gotten a couple unsigned ones I'll just say thanks to those people here. So, thanks!