Chapter 194 – Symbol of foreshadowing

Meredith huffed and looked between Makatza and Fenris, looking for the lie. 'Aha!' Makatza says as she finds what she was looking for. 'Here, the Guard Captain's arrest report. All will become clear,' she says handing it to the Knight Commander. 'I really need to figure out a better filing system, I just keep losing things,' Makatza says to Fenris who wore a good humoured smile.

'Focus, my Katza,' he says allowing himself to use her pet name.

'What? Oh, yes, Lord Crewe and his respective household,' she says waving her hand as she stood up and realised what was going on. 'You have to forgive me, I'm a little out of sorts,' she says as that headache she thought she was free of came trickling back. 'So, from the information that we received from the assassin he was implicated as the hiring party. So in precaution the Guard Captain arrested Lord Crewe and all those of his name as gender was not specified by the late assassin.'

'I see, whom was murdered?' Meredith said coldly as she handed the report to Cullen to read as she looked at the Viscountess. 'You seem unwell, my Lady,' she says narrowing her eyes.

'For your information it was one of the maids that was later found having been garrotted. Her family has been notified and arrangements made. And yes, that seems to be the common subject of conversation.' Makatza says without rising to the bait. 'I assure you that if I were unable to carry out my duties, you would be the first to know,' she says simply. Fenris tilts his head as he looks at Makatza, she was starting to show signs of illness once more, she was fine half an hour ago. So what had changed? He looks at Meredith and takes in her physique, she seemed healthy enough in body, mind was another matter. He could sense the lyrium that they dose themselves with, but Meredith did seem off.

'Knight Commander, if you wish to know more, Guard Captain Aveline has all the information,' Fenris states as he moves forward subtly asking them to leave. He needed to speak to Hawke as soon as he could, there was definitely something going on with the woman. First thing first, he needed to get this Templar to leave. Ser Cullen agrees with Fenris and reluctantly Meredith leaves the room. Katza sinks down into her chair and sighs heavily in annoyance.

'AH! One day that woman will walk in here with the entire story! Until then I had better just get used to her barging in accusing me of something,' Makatza said pissed off. 'I feel like shit,' she sighs once more.

Fenris looks at her skin, 'you're burning up again. What is causing this?' He says feeling that he already knew the answer.

'Anders made me a charcoaly drink thing, it really took the edge off, do you think there's any way we can redo that?' Makatza asks. 'I don't know why, stress maybe? I swear as soon as this city is in a better place I'm yeeting this tiara thing far away.'

'Yeeting?' Fenris says a little amused despite the situation.

'Yeah, yeeting. Like this,' she says simply as she takes it off her head and throws it out the window. He can only raise his brow at her impulsiveness. Makatza sits back in her chair with a happy sigh and then realises what she had done. 'Shit,' she mutters. 'I should probably go get that, I mean, fuck.' With a heavy moan she gets up.

'Maybe you should simply ask a guard to look for it,' Fenris said softly.

'The air will do me good, especially as shit as I feel,' Makatza points out. Fenris begrudgingly agrees and when she holds onto his arm for support he places his hand on the base of her back. They walk out of her office and are stopped by Seneschal Bran.

'Ah, my Lady, - Where is your crown?' He asks as he looks at her slightly scuffled hair and starts to worry.

Makatza paled, she didn't think that she would have to explain it. She was going to sound crazy. 'I... threw it out the window in a moment of impulse and now I'm going to go find it,' she said simply with a shrug of her shoulders.

'My Lady! You can't- The crown it's-!' Seneschal says with a face of panic. 'You're the Viscountess! That's... your crown!' He wrings his hands in worry and grabs the guard that stood at the door. 'You must find her-'

'Bran, Bran, please, it's okay. It doesn't matter if it goes missing. I'm going to look for it and if it's gone wandering I'll just have another made,' Makatza spoke calmly. 'Fenris is coming with me, I'm going to get some air at the same time. Do I have any appointments today?' She asks.

He had already sent the guard away with urgency. 'No, my Lady,' he says as he thinks about it. 'After everything that happened last night I cancelled any expecting visitors,' he reveals. Makatza pats his arm and gives him a weak grin as she continues to walk onwards. There was a bit of a rush outside, several guards were apparently looking for her thrown circlet and Makatza smiles at the chaos.

'You are enjoying this,' Fenris says with a half smile as he looks down at her.

'I can't help it. It's just a silly headdress and yet they're acting as if it's the most precious commodity in the city,' she giggles. Pausing on the steps she takes a deep breath, 'it's over there,' she says simply as she leads him onwards. He gives her a questioning look and she grins, 'I can smell it,' she points out. He nods in realisation and notices that colour has come back to her face though her skin still looked a bit sallow. She wasn't quite right yet. Being away from what he thought was the cause was working, he'd have to keep an eye on her.

After a few minutes Makatza swears and looks up a ridge, 'what is it?' Fenris asks as he looks around, he still wasn't sure that they weren't being watched by potential assassins. Makatza pointed to a bit of the Keep that was higher up.

'It's up there, somewhere, on that bit of roof,' she mutters. 'I could get up there if you boosted-'

'I do not think so,' Fenris states simply as he looks at the building. 'You are not good with heights and your hands have not regained their grip,' he puts bluntly earning himself a glare from her. 'We are not at the Château any more,' Fenris adds making her roll her eyes. 'Are you sure it is up there?' He asks.

'Yes, one hundred percent,' Makatza says. She raises a brow as Fenris sighs and takes off his sword and looks around. 'What are you going to do- Fenris! I'll just get another made!' She says clapping her hand over her mouth as he easily begins to scale the side. 'Oh Maker, be careful!' She squeaks. Guards run to her side as they see that she is alone and one of them takes Fenris' sword to hold as she could barely keep it upright. Well done, your stupid impulsiveness has now caused Fenris to climb a fricking building! You dozy cow! Makatza scolds herself. Within moments he was on the roof and had located the circlet, he leans over the side of the roof and gently throws it to Donnic who had appeared.

There was a voice from over the crowd of guards, 'hey, what's going on- Katza!' Garrett exclaims happily as he sees her and is let through. 'Oh Maker, I've not seen you in what seems forever,' he hugs her tightly and look up at the elf who was climbing back down. 'What the fuck is going on? Why is Fenris on a roof?'

'I'll explain later,' Makatza says as she squeezes him back. Donnic tactfully gives her back her crown and she thanks him gingerly and puts it back on her head. 'You don't look like you've slept,' she said to her cousin while keeping an eye on Fenris who was almost at the ground.

Garrett runs his hand over his beard and looks Katza over, 'I haven't, not really. I've been out getting information all night, trying to figure out why the Red Iron were hired to hurt you. Who etc, all that fun stuff. Isabela is on the trail now, Varric is nose deep in the underbelly. Are you alright? Are you sure? You've been off for days,' he asks softly as he makes her look at him.

Makatza smiles and nods, 'yeah, just more of that … reaction stuff,' she sighs rubbing her eyes. 'I had a mild bit this morning and quite a rough one yesterday. I'm feeling better though, you needn't worry.' Fenris had finally returned to the earth and she felt it was easier to breathe. Dusting himself down he takes his sword back and thanks the guard that has been holding it. Walking over to Hawke he greets him with a nod of his head.

'Hawke, I need to talk to you,' he says seriously making Makatza frown.

'Everything okay?' Makatza asks. He hadn't said anything to her.

He nods and asks Donnic to take her back inside, Makatza begins to argue and complain but he takes her hand and gives it a squeeze with a look of intent. 'I will explain later, please,' he said quietly. Makatza's brows furrow but she allows Donnic to escort her as she walks back to the entrance of the Keep.

Garrett tilts his head and looks at the elf, 'what's the matter? This seems serious.'

Fenris waves him aside from the walkway and into a small private area. He looks around for anyone who might be listening and then sighs. 'I have spoken to Anders and I feel that we have discovered the reason as to why Makatza keeps having these... reactions,' he reveals.

'Hold on, let me get this bit straight before we move on to the important stuff. You... you and Anders spoke... without bloodshed, to each other... with no mediators... about Katza... about her reactions. You spoke to each other, like a discussion. An actual conversation? Like-'

'Yes, Hawke. I get your point will your please arrive at it already,' Fenris snaps.

'I'm sorry but it's just not something I expected to hear this morning,' he says with a grin as he sticks his finger in his ear and waggles it around in humour. Fenris crosses his arms and Garrett could feel the tenseness and annoyance roll off him. It was fun to wind up the elf but the moment was done, he knew he could only push him so far. 'Alright, alright. What was the conclusion that you two came to?' He asks becoming serious and looking around and making sure they were truly alone.

Fenris sighs and rubs his eyes. 'Lyrium poisoning. Much like when a Templar reaches his limit,' he says quietly. 'It is... not to do with my lyrium,' he adds in case Garrett came to the same end of thought he did. 'Anders believes it's the same sickness that Bartrand was suffering from.'

Garrett raises a brow and shakes his head, 'I don't understand, Bartrand's madness was caused by red lyrium. Not... I mean, where would she be coming into contact with red lyrium? We can't find the damn thing,' he swears leaning against the wall. This was all becoming too complicated. 'It's happening more often isn't it?'

Fenris nods weakly and sighs, 'yes. We also have another problem. Anders believes she's siphoning the red lyrium from someone and he also believes that if she actually touches the idol... she'll destroy the entire city and herself. She is a cataclysmic event waiting to happen,' he mutters.

'Fuck my life,' Garrett winces. He groans and rubs his hands over his face. 'Why is nothing easy? He's sure that she'd hurt people?'

'Adamant. He says that the power would be too much for her to handle, the insanity and sickness would overwhelm her,' Fenris says begrudgingly.

'Do we have any leads as to whom it might be?' Hawke says as he thinks about ways that he could possibly track the red lyrium. It was bad enough that she'd just had an assassination attempt, let alone being made ill. 'I hate this city at times,' he admits.

Fenris makes sure there is literally no-one around before he next speaks. 'I think Meredith has contact with the idol,' he says in almost a whisper. 'Makatza's symptoms seem to worsen when she's around. I do not know in what way Meredith is implicated but I cannot ignore the possible connection.'

'Andraste's nipple tassels. WHY? Why does it have to all be so complicated?!' He complains. 'Look, even if it is Meredith you can't go... donkey punching the woman because Katza has a bad turn around her. We're gonna have to do this really tactfully. I'll send a message to Carver and see if I can get a chat with him. I'll have Isabela and Varric look into the Templar connection. You just make sure that she's happy and totally ignorant of all of this. She has enough on her plate,' he sighs. 'This whole assassination attempt isn't going to work out well, she's going to have to make hard decisions in regards to the woman.'

'Woman? What woman?' Fenris asks.

'Oh, some of the leads we dug up. It was Crewe. It was Lady Crewe that ordered the assassination. We're confirming it as we speak. So once Aveline has all the evidence she's gonna hand the matter over to Katza for a decision as to what happens,' Garrett explains.

Fenris nods. He had met the noble before, she was very vocal about Makatza's abilities to carry out the Viscountess' duties. It made sense. 'Very well, I will keep an eye out for any further attempts, though I believe the woman is already being contained.' Garrett nods and pats the elf on the shoulder, he didn't envy the weight that the man carried on his shoulders. Hawke was worrying enough and she was only his cousin. To have someone he loved in that way under threat all the time? He was a little concerned for his friend's well being.

He tried to voice his worry tactfully, 'are... you doing okay?' Garrett asks with implication but without accusation. 'This has all got to be... stressful.'

Fenris gives him a half smile and a small scoff, 'stressful? Yes, I suppose. It is reassuring almost. I am needed,' he says quietly, admitting to Hawke what he would never admit to Makatza. 'By her side I have a purpose.'

Garrett gives him a look, 'you don't need a purpose to by her side, y'know,' he states. 'She wouldn't mind if you didn't want to be her protector. Katza would be happy to just have the guards look after her safety if there were something else you wanted to do with your life.'

'My life is hers,' Fenris says simply and bluntly. 'I will go where she does until she desires otherwise.'


Stay safe, have a great weekend. See you Monday