She could tell that the mark was hurting her just by looking at the expression that was on the face of the girl who was standing on the opposite side of the war table. Every time she leaned her hand on something there was always a tiny grimace that followed before she would withdraw her hand to her side and from there she could clench it into a tight fist and that would be how she stayed until she was out of view. Leliana wondered just how she managed to hold onto a dagger without it slipping from her hand?
Skylar never said anything about the pain, no one knew. No one except for a certain redhead. Leliana's skilled eyes picked up on everything about everyone. But at the moment Skylar was her favorite little target, she couldn't explain why... Perhaps it was because this small, odd, girl that no one seemed to know stepped out of the rift just over a week ago and now was known as the Herald of Andraste. Truthfully Leliana thought that Skylar was going to die from the first moment she laid eyes on her. She was barely breathing and didn't look like she was going to survive the first night they had her. But here she was, stronger than ever.
Part of Leliana wanted to go over there and take a look at the marking to see if there was anything she could do about it. But the other part of her knew that there was absolutely nothing that could be done for the poor girl.
But it was not only the little grimaces of pain that Leliana was picking up on, she was also noticing how she was carrying herself these past few days. Her shoulders were drooped and she had dark circles under her eyes. She looked completely exhausted.
Was she getting any sleep at all?
Or was Skylar pushing herself so hard that she worked through out the night as well.
Leliana tiled her head to the side slightly and crossed her arms over her chest as Josephine continued to write down notes.
They had just finished a meeting and couldn't leave until their scribe had all the information she needed.
Cullen was murmuring to Cassandra about something that had to do with the Templars and it seemed that was what Josephine was taking notes on. They couldn't decide on where to move Cullen and his men. Leaving them smack dab in the middle of Haven did nothing but disturb the villagers so Cassandra was finally doing something about it.
Leliana tilted her head to the other side as she looked away from the three who were still heavily in their discussion to Skylar who had her own arms crossed over her chest. It looked as though she was having a very hard time keeping her eyes open. Leliana bit her bottom lip to stop herself from giggling when she caught their Herold nearly fall asleep were she was standing. Skylar's eyes drooped shut and her head hung low for barely a second before she shot back up to standing up straight.
"I think perhaps we should cut this meeting short. It seems our Herald might fall asleep where she is standing." Leliana's voice had a teasing edge to it.
There were a few murmurs that agreed to Leliana's suggestion. The truth was that everyone was exhausted, not just the Herold. No one was sleeping right knowing that there was a giant hole in the sky that threatened the survival of every living creature in the world.
But despite everyone agreeing with Leliana, Skylar was the first to leave the room. No one knew that she was actually gone until Leliana looked back towards where Skylar had been. She had left without making a single sound. The small girl had the skill of making herself disappear. It both fascinated and scared the redhead all at the same time. Someone with that skill only would have it for one of two reasons. One for their use in the field or two... Because she has had to make herself disappear in the past.
Leliana guessed it was the second. Skylar's battle skills were... Questionable...
With a shrug to Cassandra who looked like she was shocked with how their Herald had abandoned their meeting so suddenly Leliana left in hopes that she could somehow catch up with Skylar. But it didn't take her too long to realize that there was no way that she was going to find the smaller girl until she was needed.
And so with a heavy sigh Leliana placed her hands on her hips and shook her head.
"If I had known her before all of this I swear she would have made a great agent..." She muttered to herself before she made her way over to her tent where a nervous looking agent of her's was waiting for her.
After all of the bad luck she had been receiving during the past few weeks Leliana was not surprised to hear that one of her own agents had been betraying them right under her nose all this time. In fact that agent was responsible for the death of one of Leliana's favorite agents!
Leliana was beyond furious, if she could, Leliana would be spitting fire.
She didn't even know that she was yelling. "Find him, Deal with him, make it painless if you can, but if you can't it doesn't matter, kill him." She demanded as she jabbed her poor Agent's chest with a gloved finger.
"Kill who?" A confused sounding voice spoke up from behind Leliana, making both the Agent and the Redhead jump slightly.
Leliana turned around to find none other than Skylar leaning against a post with her arms crossed over her chest. She had a very curious look on her face. Once again Leliana was surprised with how Skylar was always able to sneak up on her.
Leliana should have known that it was too much to ask for when she hoped that no one would hear her discussion from her tent. Hell, the tent didn't even close. it was completely open to the world. Of course someone would hear, hell, anyone could see everything from anywhere within the village. Leliana mentally kicked herself. She should have known better than to discuss the fate of a traitor in a tent.
"None of your concern." Leliana waved a hand dismissively towards Skylar. Despite Skylar being the apparently Herald of Andraste Leliana was still level headed. Skylar was just a simple girl who somehow found herself smack dab in the middle of Chaos. Despite Skylar going out on missions and everything... The poor girl didn't have even so much as an ounce of skill in fighting under her belt at all. Leliana had seen the way she held a bow or how she held her daggers, even Skylar's stance.
Skylar was somewhere where she didn't belong and Leliana was not going to let this girl step on her toes. Skylar may have been interesting in many ways, but she was NOT going to interfere with Leliana's work. The Spymaster wouldn't allow it.
"None of my concern?" Skylar spoke up as she pushed herself away from the post and took a step closer to Leliana. The smaller girl was ready to challenge the redhead. "Have you forgotten? Apparently everything that happens here needs to go through me, so if you are planning on murdering someone I would really like to know." Skylar narrowed her eyes and crossed her arms over her chest as she waited to hear what Leliana had to say. Skylar may have been seen as a simple girl by her supposed new team mates... But Skylar was the one who was closing the rifts, and Skylar was the first face people thought about when they thought about the Inquisition, so she didn't have to guess that it would be her name that would be tarnished if Leliana made a bad choice.
"I am dealing with a traitor that has been working under my supervision for a while now, it is my responsibility to get rid of them before they do something that could really do us harm." Leliana's voice was raising as she spoke. The wind picked up and the snow whipped around them.
"Dealing with them?" Skylar scoffed. "You want to simply kill the man and be done with it! Does that make you any better than him?" Skylar spat as she dropped her arms to her sides and clenched her fists so tight that her knuckles went pale. "
Leliana took a step closer and towered over Skylar. "What I do is for the well being of the Inquisition. Do not stick your nose where it doesn't belong." Leliana hissed.
Skylar shook her head and stared Leliana straight in the eyes. "In case you haven't noticed... I am part of this Inquisition, Not by my choice... But so far it is my name that people think of when the inquisition is mentioned. So if they hear about the inquisition murdering people do you think that anyone would listen to me the next time you people send me out on a errand to recruit more people?" Skylar took another step forward, forcing the redhead to take one back. "I will not let you send anyone out there to murder a man, Traitor or not. No one else knows of the situation but if something happens and people find out about that man being murdered it will look like cold blooded murder by the inquisition."
Skylar paused for a moment to see if Leliana had anything to say. When she didn't hear another word from the Redhead Skylar huffed and tilted her head to the side. "What? Didn't think that far ahead? Are you not supposed to be some insanely smart spymaster?" She blinked. "Don't do anything that will tarnish the name of your 'Andraste's Herald'." Skylar waved her hands sarcastically. "So far... This person right here." She motioned to herself. "Has been the only thing that has been keeping the peace with everyone and closing those bloody rifts." Skylar hissed. She didn't even notice that she had Leliana backed right up so Leliana's back was against the edge of a wooden table. "You tarnish my name with a bad choice you make my job harder... And quite frankly this is a job that I really don't want to do, so you make it harder for me you increase my already very high urge of disappearing and not coming back, do I make myself clear?" Skylar blinked once before she finally stepped back enough to give the very shocked looking redhead room to breath.
After what seemed like a hour of silence Leliana turned her back to her Herald and placed her hands on top of the wooden table and shook her head. "Fine, bring me the traitor, but do not kill him." She hissed before she looked over her shoulder towards Skylar who was still glaring at her.
"Everything I do is for the good of the inquisition, Herald... Do not ever doubt that." Leliana's voice was very low and threatening.
"Oh both you and Cassandra made that clear when you guys locked me up and interrogated me for three days straight." Skylar snapped right back. "I am going to make something perfectly clear for you." Skylar pointed at Leliana with her marked hand. "I don't want to be here, I don't want to be a hero, I certainly am not your Herald and I am not guilty of anything and do not make this harder than it already is for me. You guys only have one person in this whole damn world who can close those rifts right now, and that person is me." Skylar stood up straight and turned on her heel to make her way out of that tent before Leliana could stop her. "I expected better from you, Leliana. From the stories I have heard about you... I expected someone completely different from the person I have seen so far." That was the last thing Skylar said before she vanished back into the keep.
Leliana was left standing in her tent.
She had a heavy feeling in the pit of her stomach.
Guilt.
What Skylar had said was nothing but the truth.
Everything they do will effect the Inquisition.
And the only one who was part of that Inquisition that actually had real power to bring people together was Skylar, the Herald of Andrastre, the closer of rifts, the hero. So it was true. If something did happen and Leliana did in fact have one of her agents kill that man and people heard how the Inquisition murdered someone it would be Skylar's name on the line. No one would listen to a girl who's inquisition murdered people.
She ran her hands over her face and sighed.
The pressure was too much for her. She was not thinking straight. And now Skylar thought that Leliana was nothing more than a thug who told a group of people what to do and who to beat down.
Leliana wanted to go after Skylar but there was a voice in the back of her mind telling her to let the girl go. The poor thing needed rest. Talking to Skylar in the state she was in at that moment was completely pointless, Leliana would possibly do more harm than good.
With a dull thud of Leliana's fist lightly slamming down onto the surface of the table she hung her head in shame. "Stupid..." She muttered to herself, shaking her head. "I need to make smarter decisions... I can't make this same mistake twice..." She turned her head towards the doors leading into the keep. It was only then that Leliana processed what Skylar had said.
Stories?
Skylar had heard Stories about her?
Thinking about that and then thinking about how Skylar expected someone completely different it made Leliana's already broken heart ache. What had she been expecting? And what stories had she heard.
"I need to fix this." She whispered to herself as she pushed some papers aside before she hung her head.