Chapter 10: arrival and lessons taught and learned
Chapter Text
Ch.9 Arrival
Sera had to finish some jenny business in the city first and Vivienne needed to pack and make sure everyone knew where she was going so the group had left before the pair, the moment the group arrived the males pealed off to attend to their own matters while the woman went to discuss the events in the city with the war council. Josephine was nearly bursting with glee at how the herald and the other had dealt with the crowds, Leliana was smiling as well but far calmer than Josie and Cullen looked sullen that the Templars had refused.
{Refusing to join the Qunari savage mage and her heretic cause to seal a hole in the sky that they blame me for? No that makes no sense at all, but given that most Templars probably can't tell which boot goes on which foot I am not surprised you think that Pussy cat!} Cullen glared when he received the translation, Simra just watched until she saw his right hand start to move towards his sword.
There was a sharp sound that all but Josephine knew to be a knife flying through the air before it embedded itself in the wall behind Cullen's head, the room turned to look at Simra who was glaring at Cullen with two more daggers in her hands.
[Do not reach for your blade again! Take it off and give it to Simra, Simra will keep it from now on when it this room. Sim does not trust you Shem you tried once to kill Asaaranda Sim will not let that happen again!] She snarled and when Cullen got the translation this time he roared out.
"Not a chance! Why should we trust you with it? You might decide to kill me anyways!" Cullen was about to rant more when Leliana spoke up if only to get them back on track.
"Commander if any of us besides Josie wanted you dead while in this room you would be dead, Simra is more than capable of killing you sword or no sword. They only want you unarmed because you reached for your weapon in their presence and you tried to Kill Adaar at one point." Cullen scowled but gave in and Simra Simply sat on a stack of boxes near the door watching the room the whole time. Once the meeting broke up the soul pairs left to have time to themselves while the commander and the bard left to take care of the tasks assigned to them.
Sera was in the process of sneaking into heaven that night, she was slowly moving along the wall surrounding the village. She was not sneaking for bad reasons she just wanted to get a look around before any of the herald's people could shut up the little people, and that was what she needed to prevent to make sure that she was not being tricked about what the herald and her crew were really like. Her plan had been working until suddenly a large weight dropped of the wall unseen by Sera and crushed her into the ground, before she could even begin fighting there was a knife pressed tight against her throat and the tingle of magic flowing over her to lock her in position, the weight shifted as the elf Sera knew this by the size of the hands as they forced her wrist together.
[Asaaranda says that those sneaking outside of camp need to be caught, but since Simra can't play with Josie because of Shem lords preening you will play the talking game with Simra!] Sera realized that the elf squatting on her was the elf that had wanted to play earlier in the city, at any other point she might be freaking over now understanding elven but as she freaking out about the razor sharp knife siting against her neck.
"Shite get off me! It was you who wanted me to join so no slashing my throat you head touched ditz!" as soon as the words left her mouth she began to regret them as you never yelled at the crazy chick holding a knife to your throat.
Simra hopped off the other elf and released her magic that held the young woman, Simra had bad memory for faces and names and even worse when she had only seen them once and it was night when she saw them again. After the elf stood up Sim remembered her and bow halfway while apologizing to the elf before asking her some that was confusing Simra. [Why did Sera not use the gate like people coming should? If you did not want to be jumped on by Simra then why sneak around the walls?]
Sera stared at the elf who even in her crazed mind was clearly a few logs short of a pyre. "I wanted to make sure that you people weren't hurting the little people before fully joining!"
[Why not walk in with a crowd? Sim does it all the time to kill the people Asaara tells Simra to kill, it is also the best way to steal when Simra is given permission to or told to!] Sera was still in some state of shock staring at the elf that had gone from planning to torturing her to talking about how best to sneak into places and killing or stealing from people, the worst part was she kept a child-like glee about it the whole time.
[do you want to go get some tarts? The tavern has good tarts and the barmaid is pretty to look at, if Simra did not have Josie Sim would be working on get the barmaid out of her dress!] Simra chattered while dragging along Sera who had just recovered from the threatening was now shocked over the talking about chasing barmaids, but the was something she knew about and quickly perked up at the thought of a pretty barmaid to play with. As Sera started to lay down by the hearth at the tavern for the night as she arrived too late in the day to get assigned a bed she had to admit that Simra was right about the barmaid and the tarts, before she could lay down though the barmaid stopped her and grabbed her hand before kissing her and dragging her off to the maid's tent.
Vienne arrived the following morning just as the soldiers finished their morning drills with Cullen, Cassandra had taken to getting out of bed long enough to do her daily prayers before Asaaranda dragged be back to bed for something that woke them both. Due to that Cullen was left to deal with the morning drills alone while Cassandra took the evening drills in exchange, Vienne watched the majority of the soldiers file away but a number of the younger men stayed behind.
'What are they waiting for?' She wondered as the younger men started find seats with a clear view of the main sparring ring, she received her answer in the form of the Herald and the seeker arriving holding hands quickly followed the dalish savage and a woman Vienne recognized as Josephine Montilyet.
When the savage kissed the ambassador deeply before skipping away to the center of the ring drawing a pair of practice daggers from her belt Vienne scowled at the sight, she understood having an affair with an elf they were pleasant looking after all but it should be kept hidden not flaunted. As the Herald kissed the seeker before moving to join the elf in the ring Vienne approached the pair of women watching from the side lines as the mages limbered up.
"Ambassador a word to the wise not all nobles that visit will be from the back country so you might want to keep that hidden." Vienne said as she joined the pair, she was not about to let the young ambassador make too many mistakes as it would look bad for her.
"Keep what hidden ma'am?" Josephine asked and Vienne bit back a sigh at how naïve the woman was being, really she had heard better things about her.
"My dear it is fine to have an elven lover but not in public, think of your image if you are seen acting like that in front of other nobles. One must keep their affairs with elves quiet." The mage's head snapped to the side as Josephine slapped her hard across the face, the sound captured the attention of Simra and Adaar who had been about to begin.
"How dare you insult me and my soul mate in such a fashion lady Vienne, and even if I was not bonded to Simra I would still have slapped you for suggesting that elves are lesser beings!" Josie snapped and Cassandra saw something that did not bode well, the mage pair were coming over and looked down right murderous especially Simra.
[Ma vhenan what is the matter?] Simra asked Josie when she came close and wrapped her arms around her from behind, Josie quickly explained and when she finished Simra stepped back before moving to stand in front of the human mage.
{Seeker please inform the bitch she is to get her combat gear on and met Simra in the ring so Simra can teach her respect, Simra is also going to beat her flat for insulting Ma Vhenan!} Simra snarled her normally musical voice becoming harsh before stalked away too ready her bow and real knives.
When Vienne was told she smirked coldly glad for the chance to show the herald what she could do and to vent her anger at being slapped for the sake of an elf, she was already in her combat out fit so she simply fetched her spirit hilt and staff from her horse before entering the ring. The crowd gather was of no concern for either mage both waiting for the start signal from the seeker.
Vienne was still smirking as she was one of the best knight enchanters of the circle, a simple dalish mage even trained by the qunari would not be able to beat her she was sure of that. The seeker rang a bell to signal the start of the fight, Vienne quickly spun snapping out a bolt of frost from her staff at the elf. But Simra was no longer there instead an arrow crashed into the bolt causing an explosion of fire and ice, Vienne spun trying to find the mage only to be thrown down towards the ground by a fire arrow exploding against her back. She rolled as she fell rising quickly and catching a glimpse of Simra Vienne fade steps after her, she reasoned getting in close would put the elf at a disadvantage as she used a bow while Vienne as a master of the spirit hilt. That idea was what Simra had been hoping for as while she preferred the bow for fighting in a group she was a true master of one on one close quarter/melee combat, as Vienne swung her spirit hilt Simra blocked it with a spectral blade that leapt from the hilt of her hunting knife.
Vienne was shocked to see a spectral blade emanating from the hilt of her opponent's knife, smirking Simra flung her bow to the side as she flowed like water around Vienne twisting the human mage's blade until the mage was force to drop it. the moment the enchanter's blade vanished Simra seized the wrist of the hand that had been holding it and spun the wrist up behind the human's back, she then kicks the back of the right knee on the mage driving her to the ground and forcing her to drop the staff on the way down before landing on her right arm trapping it. Simra placed the hunting knife against the throat of the mage before using magic to make her understand Simra's words.
[Next time you try and come between me and my soulmate I will kill you, or if I ever hear about you acting rudely, speaking rudely to or about elves ever again I will take your shem tongue from your head!] She snarled low enough that only the mage on the ground could hear, she then jumped off before collecting her bow and soulmate and heading off to spend time with each other.
Vienne rose to her feet and watched them leave, she had been too sure of her skills and place in the world it seemed while living in the circle. She left to find her quarters thinking she may have been letting others views cloud her thinking in regards to the other races, after all just because they did not play the game or have circle did not mean they could not have great players and mages. With those thoughts she left the remaining bonded pair to their training. The young men watched her go before returning their attention to the pair that had stripped off their coats to practice grappling before moving on to more sparing, the young men watched to well formed women fight until their captains yelled for them to get to work.