A/N: Hello and and welcome to lockdown. If you're not dying of COVID, you'll want something to read, so here's the next chapter, in which news of the strike reaches Skyhold. Madanach hasn't even met the Elder Cicero yet and he's already getting a headache. XD
Summary: While Elisif's off handling things in the Western Approach, Madanach's at Skyhold, not anticipating any problems... until news arrives from Montsimmard revealing that things have escalated. The situation's not looking good for anyone... until Josephine recalls a loophole in Chantry law that might work in the favour. Meanwhile Leliana's getting reports too, and realising this situation requires her personal attention.
Cozina mia!
I have arrived at Montsimmard, identified the target and succeeded in making his acquaintance. My apologies for suborning your agents, but it was not hard to single them out and identify them given I trained about half of them. They have proved very reasonable and agreed to send my correspondence on to Skyhold with all due haste. Their Worships are of course receiving their own version of events but I thought you might appreciate an update.
I regret to inform you that the latest shipment of enchantments and potions to leave Skyhold will be the last for some time. We sent on everything already completed, and rushed completion of anything volatile or perishable, but the Formari of Montsimmard will, after that, be withdrawing their labour. Cher Oncle Cesaire had questions about the working conditions and contracts offered to Skyhold's Formari and on hearing of them, decided the time had come for a change. And so the Formari of Montsimmard have barricaded themselves in their quarters and will be producing nothing else until their demands have been met. A copy is enclosed.
Cozina, I beg you not to send assassins. I know most of these people, it would be a shame and a waste if I were forced to kill them. It would also be vastly preferable if Enchanter Vivienne did not return to Montsimmard with a force to break the strike. I would prefer not to have to kill her either.
No, it would be best all round if Their Worships, or one of them at any rate, I suppose they do not both need to come, came to handle the negotiations. Inquisitor is reasonable. Inquisitor is fair. Inquisitor would do the right thing. Deputy Inquisitor… is not any of those things, but Cicero knows him. Cicero knows a man who led an uprising and a jailbreak over precisely this sort of thing will know what to do. It is also worth bringing Ambassador Montilyet. She is known to be a skilled negotiator. I do not know if she has ever had to negotiate with Tranquil before, but I am sure she is up to the challenge! Tell her to just appeal to logic and reason rather than emotion but otherwise treat them as people.
Yours in dearest, dearest friendship!
Cicero
Dearest, sweetest Madanach and Elisif,
Cicero is going to need your help. Uncle has gone on strike. They all have! They are tired of working unpaid and working sixteen hours a day, with no days off, and dying young from exhaustion and exposure to dangerous chemicals.
Frankly, they are not wrong. This is a more luxurious jail than Cidhna Mine, but it is still prison.
Reach-King. High Queen. We are better than the Chantry, yes? We are taking a stand for freedom and justice, yes? We are not letting Enchanter Vivienne round up Loyalist mages and Templars and return here to break the strike?
Help my uncle. Please.
Cicero
To Their Worships, Lady Inquisitor Elisif, Herald of Andraste, and Enchanter-General Madanach, Deputy Inquisitor.
From Monsieur Cesaire LaRose, Master of the Formari of Montsimmard Circle, writing on behalf of the Formari of Montsimmard as their nominated representative.
In recognition of the fact that the Tranquil who followed the free mages and have since joined the Inquisition at Skyhold have been offered contracts of employment individually, like all other Inquisition members, and receive both payment for their services, and fixed working hours per week, with shifts exceeding not more than eight hours unless the work requires it, time off in lieu for longer shifts, and no more than forty hours worked per week.
In recognition that since Montsimmard Circle's First Enchanter aligned herself with the Inquisition, the majority of the goods produced by ourselves have been bound for Skyhold or other Inquisition holdings or allies.
In recognition of the Inquisition's great and noble cause that is of benefit to us all, and that we would wish to aid the Inquisition if we could, and that therefore a personal explanation of the situation is in order.
In recognition that we might better aid the Inquisition if we were working under contracts like those of our siblings at Skyhold, instead of the seven day work week and regular sixteen hour shifts we are accustomed to under Loyalist rule, and no financial recompense for our time and labour.
We regret to inform you that having considered our situation and the poverty of our working conditions compared to those Formari assisting your endeavours at Skyhold, we feel we have no option but to withdraw our labour until such time as we too have contracts of employment like those of Inquisition personnel.
We are aware that this will greatly inconvenience Inquisition operations, and send our condolences regarding this, and would like to reassure you of our loyalty to your cause. Indeed, we are happy to serve the Inquisition… but in return we believe recompense and recognition of our efforts would be in order. Hence us turning to you instead of lobbying the First Enchanter. Under the Circle system, we had nowhere else to go, but these days we have options.
Allow us to exercise them in your favour, Haut-Reine et Rhan-Brenin.
Va los Novio y Imperio.
(Signatures of the Tranquil of Montsimmard follow, Cesaire LaRose's at the top. Rhys and Evangeline's are among them.)
Leliana read Cicero's letter, and then read it again to make sure she'd not misread this, then again to fully absorb the impact… and then with trembling hands, she reached for the other one and saw her father's handwriting. A little shaky but still more than legible… and now she had Cicero's to compare, she realised the letters were formed similarly.
As if they'd both learnt to write in the same formal style, much as many Orlesian nobles had been, or Chantry priests for that matter… except it wasn't the Chantry's preferred style. It was one Leliana had never really seen before… or had she?
Memories of her mother's hope chest, hidden away in the Vasseur attic until she came of age, Lady Cecilie had given her the key, and then passed away before Leliana could ask her any more. There'd been many things in that chest. A few elven pieces of jewellery. A few Orlesian ones, including a wedding ring… and a Chantry marriage certificate that had given her her father's name.
There'd been a lute, which had gone with her into bardic life and even survived the Blight. There'd been a bow and matching daggers, made of a strange black metal sharper than anything Leliana had ever seen, and with enchantments that came from no lyrium rune.
Leliana had never touched those weapons. They'd felt very very wrong to her. They'd not been the only thing either. There'd been books and letters too, and not in any language she could read. A cipher maybe? But no cipher she knew had ever matched. Strangest of all were the children's pictures. Not ones drawn by her. They had the same alphabet as the books except a child's scrawly handwriting labelling everything, and they seemed focused on a little red-haired boy, with a red-haired man and woman looking after him. Parents? But they looked maybe too similar to each other. And Leliana had never known what to make of the city in the background with a gigantic tower in the middle, and the dragon banners. They weren't Tevinter banners.
She'd locked the chest and had it sealed away in a safe deposit box in Val Royeaux and tried to think on this mystery as little as possible. But recent events had brought all the memories back… as did the letter in front of her.
Specifically, she saw the letter to Their Worships, written mostly in fluent Thedosian trade tongue… but the last two sentences were something else.
They were in the same alphabet as her father's books and letters had been, and the same alphabet the little boy in the children's pictures had been trying to scrawl in. And Leliana knew the dragon banner now, knew what the small boy who'd drawn it had been trying to copy, knew now it must be the same Diamond Dragon that appeared on the gold coins Elisif had brought with her all those months ago. She'd not made the connection at the time. Now it was all too obvious, just as it was all too obvious who the boy who'd drawn them had been. Cicero the Younger drawing pictures for his uncle, and an uncle who'd been sentimental enough to hang on to them.
Cicero the Younger who'd obviously written in Tamrielic because what else would he write in? And Cicero the Elder would have books from home stashed away, not to mention letters from his sister.
Now here was Cicero the Elder writing to Madanach and Elisif, calmly and reasonably explaining he and the Tranquil were going on strike for better pay and conditions and were hoping for something like what the Skyhold Tranquil were on.
Except towards the end, he'd gone into his native language, knowing they'd know what he was writing. Leliana didn't think this was accidental, just as she didn't think the emphasis of Inquisition loyalty and an implied expectation they could all profit from this perhaps was unintentional either.
He's not an automaton. It's too clever for that. Too cunning. Too… bardic.
He had been a bard once and was one still. He'd spent all this time waiting for the right moment, and now his nephew had arrived to help facilitate matters, he'd taken his chance.
All this time, Leliana had believed him to be some mindless creature just churning out potions for the Chantry. But he wasn't, not at all. Years before, he'd been the legendary Black Rose of Val Royeaux, cheerfully leaving black leather roses at the scenes of his intrigues, and known to wield deadly black weapons that few had ever seen the like of before.
The Black Rose had clearly decided revenge on the Chantry was best served cold and was best served by not just decamping to Skyhold himself but by taking the Circle's remaining Formari with him.
As a devout Andrastian and a candidate for Divine, Leliana should be taking a stand against this sort of thing, but Maker forgive her, she couldn't do it. She should be suppressing her emotions and acting to protect Inquisition interests by putting down this rebellion and silencing the Black Rose once and for all… but Andraste help her, she couldn't do that either. Because despite the tears welling up in her eyes, there was one emotion predominating above all others, one the Chantry portrayed as the deadliest of all.
Pride. So much pride, pride like she'd never felt it before.
They'd made the Black Rose Tranquil and he could still intrigue with the best of them, and Leliana realised she wanted to meet him after all.
"Miller. A word. Did a package like this one just make its way to the Deputy Inquisitor?"
Miller, an elf from Jader who'd decided the Inquisition offered a better time than cleaning up after tavern drunks, stopped, blinking as she saw the tears still on Leliana's cheeks.
"Yes, just dropped it off there before coming here. Gave it to him personally because I saw Red Cicero's handwriting and thought it might be important. Er… Sister, are you all right?"
"Yes, yes I'm fine, I just… I need to take a short leave of absence. I have urgent business in Montsimmard. Madanach will understand why. Make sure Enchanter Vivienne's mail is monitored. Anything mentioning the Formari, make sure she doesn't receive it."
Not that Leliana expected Vivienne to be hearing anything from her Circle for the foreseeable future. If Cicero was using Inquisition channels to send his own mail, he was definitely interfering with outgoing deliveries as well.
Leliana felt rather proud of him too. All this time, all her life, she'd felt so alone in the world, nothing but books she couldn't read, pictures she didn't understand and weapons too dangerous for her adolescent self to take up to connect her with her past. Just a dead mother and a father lost to the Chantry. Yet now she had a father still very much capable of taking action, and a cousin who was extremely capable of abetting just about any intrigue going.
It turned out she wasn't just Leliana, Sister Nightingale with connections to no one, but part of a clan of spies, assassins and saboteurs who could flit from the salon to the streets and be at home in either. She had a family. And right now, it was very clear indeed her kin needed her.
Madanach for his part had barely broken his conversation with Borkul and Josephine, taking the letter off a nervous Inquisition scout without really thinking about it… and then seen a Circle symbol in the wax seal and handwriting that looked vaguely familiar.
It looked like Cicero's, in fact, but wasn't. It looked a bit like if someone used to writing in the formal style taught to Cyrodiilic schoolchildren was taking those flourishes and adapting them to the Thedosian alphabet, which Cicero did all the time.
But it wasn't the little jester's handwriting and Madanach sat up, attention caught as he opened it and saw two letters fall out. One was from Cicero, rather nervously informing him the Tranquil of Montsimmard had gone on strike for better – any, in fact – pay and better working conditions. And the other…
The other was a list of demands from the bloody Tranquil calmly requesting Inquisition contracts.
The cheeky fuckers. Who weren't supposed to have emotions any more, but that clearly hadn't stopped them taking their chances. Madanach almost felt proud, apart from the fact there was a goddamn siege in the works and they needed more healing potions. More poisons. More… everything!
Gods fucking damn it. Could the Inquisition even afford to pay all these additional Tranquil crafters?
Who were working for free at the moment, it turned out. Problem mages kept alive in dream-slain servitude because why waste a resource? All the rhetoric Madanach had once preached to his people came back to haunt him as he realised the Inquisition had been profiting off slave labour since Vivienne had joined.
"Hey, boss? Are you all right? You, er, you've gone pale."
"No!" Madanach cried, brandishing the letters. "I'm not all right! Cicero's chosen now to develop a sense of social justice, and his goddamn uncle has started a strike! Meaning we're getting no supplies off Montsimmard, and I've also got the unenviable task of telling my wife we've been using slave labour. Oh, and if we break the strike, we've got Cicero on the other side, and if we hurt or kill his uncle, he'll literally never forgive us. And if we don't reach an agreement with Cicero Senior, we can literally never make him unTranquil, because then we have a vengeful former assassin with a grudge. I just..."
Madanach stared helplessly at both Borkul, who was looking sympathetic but also not really in a position to offer any advice, and his ambassador who… was looking completely confused and Madanach realised he'd said all that in Tamrielic, of course she couldn't understand him.
"Here," he said wearily, holding the Tranquil manifesto out for Borkul to pass to Josephine. "Ambassador, didn't you negotiate a lot of our employment contracts? Tell me what the hell we do about this."
Josephine read it, eyebrows raising in surprise.
"The Tranquil of Montsimmard are on strike? Madre d'Andraste, I did not even know… they told us Tranquil don't have feelings. All the ones I have dealt with have confirmed this. They just do what they are told and carry out their duties. They do not… they do not go on strike for better pay!"
"Well, they are doing, and Cicero's helping them," Madanach sighed. "I don't think it was his idea either, he's just not that selfless. He was there to retrieve his uncle, not help the others. No, I think… I think his uncle has had thoughts about this for some time."
Josephine was scanning the document, noting the signatures.
"I see the names of Evangeline de Brassard and Rhys here. Did they instigate this? Did Briala put them up to it?"
A possibility, but Madanach couldn't quite see Briala suggesting it. It wasn't that she would disagree, but she had enough on her plate without antagonising Vivienne any more than she already had. She'd made it clear her interests were in returning Cicero Senior and nothing more.
"I don't think this was Briala's idea, she'd have no interest in undermining the Inquisition, she knows she needs us," Madanach said, wishing he'd asked Cole more about his friends. Elisif knew more about the story than he did but she wasn't here to ask. "It's possible Rhys might have done… but you said it yourself. No one thought Tranquil would get the idea into their heads. If all they have left is their work, and they have nowhere to spend their money, why would they go on strike? They're not supposed to have feelings!"
"Well, they clearly got opinions," Borkul said, reading the manifesto over Josephine's shoulder. "And this is definitely Cicero Senior's idea. He's gone into Tamrielic at the end. Asshole's calling you and Elisif High Queen and Reach-King. Invoking the gods and the Empire. Anyone told him you ain't got Nine any more?"
"Probably by now," Madanach said, head in his hands. "Sithis' sake. Apparently you don't need to have emotions any more to make a good show of manipulating other people's."
"It might actually make it easier if you are not troubled by guilt," Josephine whispered. "Andraste preserve us. Your Worship, if there is such a thing as a cure for Tranquillity, I urge you to offer it to this man. I think it has made him more, not less dangerous."
"We can't even kill him, can we," Borkul said, rubbing his forehead. "Daedra's balls."
He lapsed into Tamrielic for the swearing, but despite the look on his face, Borkul did look rather impressed.
"No, we can't," Madanach admitted. "He has us by the balls and he knows it. Ugh. How many Formari are we talking about here, and don't include Cicero Senior himself. Any offer I make him is going to involve his mandatory retirement here at Skyhold where I can keep a goddamn eye on him."
"A wise choice," Josephine said, approving. "My lord, this will be expensive. But… I think we can do it. I will need your permission to do some fundraising, but the recently discovered mines at Griffon Wing Keep have increased our income as has the cleansed lyrium. Are you suggesting we conscript the Montsimmard Tranquil to work for us directly rather than the Circle?"
"Don't see we have a lot of choice, do we," Madanach sighed. "Who wants to break the news to Vivienne we're taking her Tranquil – that's my job, isn't it."
Seriously, fuck this guy. Madanach hadn't even met the Elder Cicero yet and he already wanted to throttle him. That trait clearly ran in the family.
So it was that he was surprised to see Josephine looking very thoughtful indeed.
"My lord, would it surprise you to learn that they are not in fact her Tranquil?"
Yes it would.
"Whose are they then?" Madanach demanded, and Josephine responded with a smile that boded well for no one.
"Chantry law dictates that all mages must belong to a Circle or be declared apostate, and all Circle mages are the responsibility of the First Enchanter. But the Rite of Tranquillity took their magic. They are mages no more. The Circle has traditionally assumed responsibility for the Tranquil, due to it being felt they would suffer harm if allowed to live independently, and also perhaps out of fear the Circle might be questioned if the Tranquil were seen more widely than they already are. But it is a duty of care, not a legal requirement. The Tranquil are free to live elsewhere if they choose – but none ever do. Nevertheless, they do not have to remain at Montsimmard against their will. If they wish to work for the Inquisition directly, they are at liberty to do that. Cesaire clearly knows this too."
"And obviously if anyone wants the cure, we'd need to bring them to Skyhold for it, and once they're here, they're Inquisition mages," Madanach realised. "So, what you're saying here is Vivienne can't actually stop us."
"No, although there is an excellent chance she will want them out of her Circle tower," Josephine sighed. "However, she is an Inquisition ally. She may be reasonable. We may perhaps agree on a notice period. Or financial compensation. But do not worry. I can handle the details, my lord."
Madanach hoped so, but Vivienne might prove a problem yet. Still, he had his own ways of handling problems… and unlike many others Vivienne might encounter, he was a mage lord as powerful as she was, if not more so.
Madanach motioned to the agent, who was still waiting awkwardly for a dismissal.
"Find Enchanter Vivienne and ask her to come here. Sister Nightingale too if possible. We've got some discussions to have."
Vivienne was swift to arrive, but it turned out Leliana had left a message of apology, saying she had urgent business in Montsimmard.
"She knows," Josephine said softly.
"Course she does, it's what we pay her for, plus Cicero probably wrote to her separately," Madanach said, wondering what she was going there for. Hopefully not to silence her father for good, although with Cicero acting as bodyguard, this seemed unlikely. She'd told Elisif and Alistair both that she had little interest in meeting the father she'd never known, that seeing him as a mindless Tranquil wasn't something she wanted.
Madanach glanced down at the manifesto and ruefully reminded himself that this man, whatever he was, was not mindless.
Vivienne swept in as they were speaking, raising an eyebrow as she'd heard her Circle's home city mentioned.
"Is there trouble in Montsimmard? I thought you'd successfully pacified the Red Templar presence in the Dales. I'd heard nothing of trouble in the Heartlands. Of course, these last few days, I've heard nothing at all from my Circle. Most curious. There was supposed to be a shipment as well. The last one was a week ago, and smaller than expected. I sent word to ask but… my dear, I have to ask, is someone waylaying Inquisition couriers? Should I send some of my mages?"
Oh gods, that was all Madanach needed, Cicero intervening and ensuring a Loyalist mage never made it to Skyhold. Suborning the couriers and telling them not to deliver things, or taking their post, was one thing. Cicero stabbing one of Vivienne's mages was something else.
"No, don't bother, we found the problem," Madanach sighed. "Your Formari. It's come to our attention standard Circle practice for them is for them to work six days out of seven, and the seventh day they attend Chantry services before presumably working in the afternoon. And the average working day is twelve hours. And you don't pay them. And the breaks are minimal, and no one is enforcing any safety precautions."
Vivienne rolled her eyes.
"Darling, they're Tranquil. We provide for their needs and in return they provide valuable support to the Circle in both crafting and administrative capability. They're valued members, and they bring in much of our business. In return, we feed and house them. But they don't feel like we do, and what would they spend the money on if we paid them? We already allow them to requisition any books and materials they need. If they choose not to spend it on safety equipment, that's regrettable but hardly..."
Vivienne gasped and almost leapt back, wobbling on her high heels as a spiky pillar of ice suddenly shot up from the floor inches in front of her. Staring at it, she slowly turned eyes to Madanach, knowing whose magic had caused it.
"Madanach, my dear, you're old enough and experienced enough to avoid accidents like that, aren't you?" Vivienne said, just about composing herself. Madanach said nothing, just releasing the magic summoning it into existence and letting it fade back into Aetherius.
"It was no accident, and it didn't impale you," Madanach said coldly. "They work the hours they do because they want to get their quotas and contracts filled, contracts First Enchanters take on because they need the coin but also know the mages won't have to fill them. Instead they can rely on their army of people who don't have emotions any more, who don't complain but just keep working until they're physically unable to stay awake, who don't think to craft personal protective equipment because they don't have fear of death any more. Know who else is raising an army that doesn't complain? Corypheus with his goddamn demons!"
"You can hardly compare the Tranquil to a demon army!" Vivienne protested, and then Madanach shoved the manifesto at her.
"They've had enough and are going on strike," Madanach snapped. "That is why you've heard nothing from your Circle, and that is why no shipments have arrived. We're on the eve of a siege and suddenly the potions you promised aren't coming. Inquisition lives are at stake here, Enchanter! Because no one in the Circle ever thought that perhaps humane working conditions for the Tranquil might be a nice idea!"
Vivienne was scanning the page, brows knotting in confusion and growing horror, and then she saw the names at the bottom.
"Rhys and Evangeline, I knew it!" Vivienne snapped. "Those malcontents weren't content with bringing down the other Circles, now they have to strike at mine? I knew Briala was up to no good. Well, what will be the Inquisition response? One of your allies has made a targeted strike at another, and manipulated a vulnerable old man in the process. I hope you have a plan for this. Elisif was very firm that Messere LaRose needed additional protection and was a person of interest to the Inquisition but wouldn't say why. I can hardly believe she'll approve of him being used in this way."
Madanach said nothing, glancing at Josephine, then at Borkul, who was openly grinning, settling himself on Josephine's desk expectantly, and the Ambassador indicated for him to go ahead and say what he needed to.
"Actually, it's in hand," Madanach said, sitting back in his chair. "Cicero's already there, he was the one to notify us. Leliana has taken the step of making her way there directly. Josephine and I have been working on a plan to bring things to a halt and ensuring the Inquisition gets its supplies."
"Have you now?" Vivienne said, surprised and starting to approve. "A ruthless approach, but I approve. Deal with the ringleaders and the others will return to work soon enough. When the dust settles and communications are restored, let me know. I may need to return to organise everyone, but I don't anticipate any problems with Rhys and Evangeline eliminated. I hope dear Cesaire can be persuaded as well, it would be a shame if old age finally caught up with him."
Fucking hell. And he'd thought Maven Black-Briar was bad. Vivienne was going to be catching up with Elenwen at this rate.
Madanach leant forward, fingers interlocking on the desk, hands clasped together, smiling brightly at Vivienne, all emotional control at his disposal telling his magic to quiet down.
"Did I ever tell you that my father was a union organiser for the Markarth silverworks?" Madanach said cheerfully. "He negotiated with the bosses regarding working terms and conditions, and safety standards, as well as pay, and led industrial action when those negotiations failed. And eventually the Jarl and the mine owners tired of the constant hassle and had him killed. I learnt that day that when faced with those with violence as a tool in their arsenal, you need to have it waiting in yours. Years later I avenged him. And when I ruled as King myself, I ensured the workers of the Reach had fair contracts. When we set up Skyhold, I did the same here. And I am telling you this, Enchanter. The day I order a non-violent strike broken up by assassinating the ringleaders is the day you can assume the demons finally got me. Cicero isn't there to kill anyone in the Tranquil, he's helping. Not on my orders, we sent him to check on LaRose only. But when LaRose came up with this – and he did come up with it – Cicero felt obliged to help."
"Obliged… but he's your agent! Your son-in-law!" Vivienne protested, not sure she was hearing this correctly. "Order him back! Don't you want your potions?"
"The Inquisition stands for justice or it stands for nothing," Madanach said firmly. "We want our potions but we also don't believe in slavery. Yeah, I want them back to work… but I support the strike too. I didn't order Cicero to help but I'm glad he's there. And then Josephine enlightened me on the finer points of Chantry law."
Vivienne turned to Josephine, cold eyes staring at her, and for someone who eschewed violence, Josephine seemed impassive. Possible the seven foot tall Orc folding his arms and moving subtly to shield her had that effect.
"The Circle has traditionally protected Tranquil, most likely because it profits from their crafting abilities, but as they are no longer mages, they are no longer required to live there," Josephine said calmly. "The Deputy Inquisitor and I have been looking at Inquisition finances and we think we can bear the expense of taking on additional workers. So we have decided to honour their wishes and give them Inquisition contracts. They now work directly for us. His Worship will be travelling there in person to deliver the news."
"I will indeed," Madanach purred. "Shall I send them your regards?"
Vivienne turned to him, furious… but a distinct note of panic in her voice.
"You… you're taking my Tranquil?"
"Yes," Madanach growled, deciding he was really done arguing on this one. "We placed orders with your Circle which you said you could fulfil. It turns out you can only fulfil them by working your Tranquil to death, and they've reacted by going on strike. Seeing as you can no longer fulfil these orders, we're taking matters into our own hands. We will now take over the management of your crafting laboratories and employment of your personnel, and we'll discuss with them directly how much they can realistically produce on standard Inquisition terms. Anything they need to requisition will go through our quartermaster. And then we'll find out just how much you're marking your goods up by, because I am almost certain that when we're paying them as workers on fixed wages but getting the products at cost price, we'll probably be saving money."
Vivienne had gone quiet, very quiet, and when she finally met his eyes, Madanach briefly wondered if perhaps he'd gone too far.
"I have contracts with people outside the Inquisition, orders from all over Orlais. I am supposed to fill those with no Formari?"
Really not his problem, but then Josephine intervened, perhaps feeling someone should offer the First Enchanter something in return.
"We will be happy to take those orders on for you, as long as the recipients understand the Inquisition's day to day requirements come first. We will of course ensure the fee for the order is split with you, and that Circle expenses to date are covered."
"And if they're commercially sensitive?" Vivienne snapped.
"We promise to uphold client confidentiality," Josephine said. "Of course, if the client objects to the Inquisition crafting the goods… we will cover the refund if you cannot find an alternative supplier."
Vivienne narrowed her eyes, still clearly not happy.
"The Circle paid for their supplies. Their tools. Their equipment. The clothes on their back! I want recompense for those. And are you bringing them to Skyhold? That's quite the expense and I know you don't have room. Also some of their machines? Built in situ and immovable. Those remain Circle property."
Josephine frowned, acknowledging that at least.
"If you have profited from free labour all these years, you have more than made enough to cover the clothes and their personal items," Josephine said tersely. "Those are theirs now. As for the tools, if the Tranquil crafted anything themselves, the Circle only paid for the materials, and so we will only reimburse you for the cost of materials. For anything less than five years old. As I said, if it's older than that, it has likely paid for itself many times over by now. I take your point on the built-in facilities. Would a monthly rent payment to cover their use of your Circle's space suffice? It will also cover the cost of food, cleaning and laundry. Any medical expenses will be paid by the Inquisition, although we reserve the right to send one of our own healers."
"I..." Vivienne paused, looking thoughtful, most likely realising that perhaps she could still profit from this after all. "Fine. Subject to negotiation over the finer details, they're all yours. You can deal with the malcontents. There is one condition. I want Rhys and Evangeline out of my Circle. You can do what you wish with them – send them back to Briala, recruit them yourselves, I don't care, I want them gone. If that leaves LaRose unprotected – well, he's one of your people now. Bring him to Skyhold if he's that important."
"Oh, he is and he's definitely coming here," Madanach agreed. "I think he's served long enough. He's an old man. Time for him to have a well-earned retirement. Also when Eola's back, we need to test that Tranquil cure. He'll do."
That did get Vivienne's attention.
"You're… going to reverse the Rite? Madanach, you have to know that is a terrible idea, the Tranquil were made so for a reason! Reversing the rite just results in a useless, broken mess from what I've heard."
"So Cassandra told me, but we're going to test that for ourselves," Madanach growled. "I will bear the consequences if it goes wrong. Now, if you'll excuse me, I need to hit the road. I've got negotiations to engage in. Josephine, am I all right to take Borkul?"
"Of course, my lord, I don't anticipate any trouble here," Josephine said smoothly. "Do not worry, I am quite capable of handling these negotiations – after the Antivan merchant princes, this should be simple."
Madanach had every confidence in her. And so he prepared to follow the Nightingale out to Montsimmard. Time to give the Ciceros a much needed reprieve.
A/N: Next chapter may be coming sooner than this did. It'll have Madanach visiting a Circle, disliking the entire place, threatening the Templars, and then after all that he has to deal with not one but two Ciceros.
