'Has he woken up yet?'
'Yes my lord, he had moved by the campfire but now he is sleeping, looks as though one of ours gave him some food too.'
Rhian sighed, 'That would've been Lucas.'
'Do you want me to dispose of Lucas?'
Rhian turned to his right-hand man, 'No, keep him. If I get rid of him I will no longer be able to enjoy the torment when he sees me with Emilie.' Rhian smirked a sadistic smile.
Berrick, Rhian's right hand man chuckled as he poured himself and his master a cup of wine. He passed it to Rhian and watched the man take a sip, as the warm glow of the tent illuminated his cold and hazy eyes.
'What do you intend my lord? For the Commander?''
Rhian placed the cup down and leant back in his large fur chair, 'He needs to learn a few lessons, that you can't go around harming mages and not suffer the consequences.' He stated bluntly.
Berrick leant forward in his chair, 'I can't wait to get my hands on that dirty templar.'
Rhian raised his hand, 'In time Berrick. We will allow him to get comfortable, lead him into a false sense of security.''
'My lord, we have done the unthinkable, we have captured the Commander of the Inquisition, the former Knight Commander of Kirkwall, let us begin the torment now!'
Rhian smiled, ' I have always loved your enthusiasm to our cause.'
'The Commander was not that hard to win over.' A female voice said coming into the large tent.
Rhian's eyes widened in delight, 'Emilie, my beautiful Emilie! Come here, sit.'
Emilie was wearing a plain light blue dress but still managed to look effortlessly beautiful. She walked to Rhian and sat down on his lap and kissed him gently.
Berrick cocked his head, 'You said the Commander was easy to capture?'
Emilie smiled. 'Yes, as you know I was living in Skyhold for some time observing the day to day work, how the military operated, people of importance and so on. I tried to find something that would cause the most disturbance and to enable us to capture the Commander with ease.'
'And? What did you come up with?' Berrick asked curiously.
Rhian smiled, 'She pretended to be pregnant.''
Berrick laughed, 'I'm sorry, I don't understand'
Emilie looked at Andric before turning to Berrick, 'I pretended that I was pregnant with the Commander's baby.'
'I don't follow' Berrick was now frowning.
'The Commander is fucking the Herald' Emilie she said laughing loudly.
Berrick looked at Rhian and burst into laughter.
'You are shitting me!?' Berrick said chuckling loudly.
Rhian laughed with the others, 'The templar is literally fucking the Herald of Andraste. He must think he is high and mighty now.'
'Is isn't only just fucking, they truly love each other. You should've seen the trouble I caused.' Emilie giggled, 'She dumped him in front of all of his men.'
Rhian leant in closer to Emilie, 'And that….is why I love you,'
Rhian and Emilie began to kiss, Berrick took that as his cue to leave. He walked out of the large tent and saw both Lucas and Cullen sleeping around the campfire, it would be dawn soon and Berrick knew that he should get some sleep himself but he couldn't go to sleep knowing that Cullen, the former templar was just lying there, completely vulnerable and defenceless. Berrick picked up some rope off one of the tables in the camp and stumbled over to Cullen, he had consumed a fair amount of alcohol throughout the evening but that wasn't going to stop him.
He silently walked past Lucas and made his way over to the Commander who was laying on his side fast asleep. Berrick rolled Cullen over, who in turn began to rise from his sleep.
'Wakey Wakey Commander'
Cullen's eyes opened and he immediately tensed as he realised his situation. Berrick was on top of him straddling his hips, he threw a hard punch onto Cullen's face. Cullen groaned in pain. Berrick went to throw another one but Cullen grabbed the man's hand. Berrick, though he was a strong man had clearly misjudged the strength of the Commander and he immediately began to struggle against Cullen's grip. Cullen managed to tussle Berrick off him as the pair began to role on the ground fighting for dominance. Lucas woke up and saw the pair fighting, he immediately got up and tried to break the pair up but Berrick somehow managed to land a punch onto the young man's face forcing him back to the ground. Berrick turned his gaze to Cullen and landed a hard punch into Cullen's ribs. Cullen suddenly felt the air leave his lungs but he wasn't going to stop, with undeniable speed he landed a left upper cut to Berrick's jaw and knocked him out.
Cullen breathed heavily as he tried to catch his breath back. He raised his hand to his nose and noticed that it was bleeding quite heavily but he was confident that it wasn't broken. He had been in a few scraps over his time and he knew that this was nothing to worry about. Lucas crawled closer to Cullen.
'You alright lad?' Cullen asked wiping the blood from his nose.
'I'm fine, are you ok?' he asked
'Yes, I'm ok. Who in the Maker's name is that?'' Cullen looked at the unconscious body beside him.
Lucas looked at the body, 'That is Berrick, Rhian's right hand man. It looks as though he wanted to tie you up.'
Cullen snorted a laugh, 'He could've just asked instead of attacking me.'
Lucas smiled, 'You are going to add more to that nice shiner of yours'
Cullen smiled to please the boy, 'Indeed I am.'
Lucas could tell by Cullen's reaction that he was in no mood for light-hearted banter. 'Well, what do we do now?'
Cullen look around the camp, he noticed that dawn was approaching and that it wouldn't be long until the camp rose. He saw the rope by Berrick and carefully put it back on the table from where he had got it from. He motioned to Lucas to help him drag Berrick's body to the other side of the camp, near some of the tents.
'Why are we dragging him?' Lucas asked quietly
'When he wakes up, he is going to be very angry with me. Unless, we make it look like it never happened in the first place.'
'Oh' Lucas replied in an understanding tone.
Suddenly sexual moans and groans began to be heard from Rhian's tent. Lucas hung his head low. Cullen looked to the tent and then looked at Lucas and gave him a sympathetic look.
'They make love every night. I swear they are deliberately loud just to make sure I can hear.'
Cullen cringed slightly but patted the boy on the shoulder. 'Come, we need to go back to where we were sleeping. We need to make it look like nothing happened tonight. And erm, try not to listen, you know…..to that.' Cullen awkwardly nodded his head towards the tent.
…..
Evelyn, Josephine and Leliana were already in the War Room when Rylen arrived. Evelyn had much respect for the Captain and he had been doing a mighty fine job of taking over Cullen's position on such short notice but there was one problem, it wasn't Cullen. Every day that went past where Rylen entered the war room was another day where Cullen was still missing.
'So the Western approach looks to be more stable…'
Evelyn's mind wandered and began to think of all those nasty things that she had said to him that day. She lowered her head in shame, she missed him so much.'
' But I will need you to sign these documents off to order the requisition Inquisitor…Inquisitor?'
Evelyn snapped out of her thoughts and looked to Rylen who had been giving her a detailed report, 'Yes of course Captain. Leave them on my desk and I will see to it.'
Rylen cleared his throat, 'Leliana and I are liaising later today with some townsfolk who spotted a large cart going through their village a few days ago. It's a small lead into finding the Commander but we will take everything we can get.'
Evelyn looked at Leliana and then Rylen and smiled, 'thank you. Please let me know if you hear anything of use.'
Josephine coughed quietly, 'I also need to ask if we need to address the Commander's absence to the court.'
'No, it is too early. If word spreads that the Commander of our Military has gone missing, it will wipe all credibility.' Interjected Leliana.
Rylen nodded in agreement. Evelyn turned to Josephine, 'Leave it for now Josie, thank you.'
Josephine nodded and the meeting ended.
